Ancient Ramanuja shrine, rock inscription found near Muddanur of Andhra Pradesh

An ancient rock inscription dating back to April 16, 1545 CE has been unearthed at Velpucherla village in Muddanur mandal of Kadapa district recently. Also, a shrine for saint Sri Ramanuja, the exponent of Visishtadwaitha philosophy, exists in the same village.

The stone, having letters engraved in Telugu mentioning the date as ‘Saka 1468, Visvavasu, Vaisakha su 5’, was found lying on the outskirts of the village. The stone records the gift in the form of rice, betel leaves and nuts etc. collected from three villages, namely Velpucherla in Chagalamarri seema, Patlavari Uppaluru and Varadarajula Dudyala in Gandikota seema.

The gift was presented to Goddess Ankalaparameswari of Velpucherla towards burning a perpetual lamp and conducting Paruveta Mahotsavams (mock hunting festival), and was made in the presence of villagers assembled in the Mukha Mandapa of Durgadevi temple at Pushpagiri.

The Ramanuja statue is called by the locals as ‘Emberu Swamy’, roughly sounding similar to the saint’s Tamil name ‘Emberumaanaar’. Though the statue also belongs to the 15^th century C.E., the temple structure was built much later and looked after by some devotees from Proddatur town.

Mackenzie Kaifiyat, the historical record of the Deccan region, mentions Velpucherla as having two Vaishnavite shrines , viz., Sri Chennakesava and Sri Venugopala temples. “The broken idol of Chennakesava is found discarded in the local Sivalayam, but the temple of Venugopala Swamy is nowhere to be found,” says Purushotham Chowdam, a Hyderabad-based software engineer and YouTuber who visited the village recently for a video story.

A view of the rock inscription belonging to 1545 C.E. found at Velpucherla village of Muddanur mandal in Kadapa district. An ancient statue of Saint Sri Ramanuja, dating back to the 15th century CE, is also found consecrated in this village.

A sub-shrine (Sannidhi) dedicated to Ramanuja is normally part of a Sri Vaishnavite temple ecosystem. The statue, hence, is believed to be part of one of the two temples. “It is not clear yet why the temple was built in this particular village,” says K. Muniratnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy) at Archaeological Survey of India, Mysuru.

The rock inscription got extensively damaged, understandably due to lack of public awareness. “It is our duty to safeguard and protect such inscriptions to know about our glorious past,” Dr. Reddy said, appealing to the public to inform their nearest office about such inscriptions.