Historian Seeks State’s Protection For 3,000-Year-Old Settlement

Hyderabad: The ruins of a major city, which existed about 3,000 years ago until 15th century CE, have recently been found on Krishna River’s left bank from Veerlapalem-Veerappa Gudem villages in Damarcherla mandal of Nalgonda district.

The site, identified by a historian Dr Dyavanapalli Satyanarayana, said it has hundreds of megalithic burials (cairns) belonging to the Iron Age. Local people believed them to be the graves of warriors, and the villages received names as Veerulapadu and Veerappa Gudem.

Past archaeological excavations, along the Krishna riverbank, revealed several aspects of Telangana’s cultural life from 3,000 years ago, said Dr Satyanarayana, adding that the Veerulapadu site appears to have eluded the scrutiny of the Archaeology department.

As per the findings, the burial structures were built using four large stones, each about two yards long and one yard high, arranged as four walls, with a flat capstone placed on top. The raw material stone used for these burials was locally available in abundance as Banjar Raallu, technically known as Palnadu stone.

Based on the availability of this stone, a cement company was established in this region nearly 50 years ago. In addition, local people removed stones from hundreds of burial sites for their own needs. As a result, only a small number of megalithic burials now remain intact.

Further, life in this ancient city flourished as the perennial Krishna river provided abundant water, fish, and other life-giving resources nearly 3,000 ago. This was evident from iron, which had been produced locally and was strong enough to work on massive stones that can be seen in the form of iron slag scattered at several places in the site.

Other findings were shrines and mutilated sculptures of Vanadurga, Pochammma, Potharaju, Veerabhadra / Bhairava, hero stones of a warrior couple, and a male warrior to the northeast of the fort wall.

Based on architectural and sculptural features, the fort walls and idols could be dated from the period of the local Kanduri Cholas to the Recherla Padmanayakas (between the 10th and 15th centuries CE), he explained.

Furthermore, local tradition holds that Kakatiya queen Rudramadevi (13th century CE) stored grain reserves in this fort. Supporting this belief in the site were several circular granary structures with a diameter of about six yards.

In addition, the site has a Lakshmi Narasimha temple belonging to the Recherla Padmanayaka period (14th–15th centuries CE). While the temple sanctum’s inner chamber survived fully, the garbhagriha is partially functional.

“There is an urgent need for the archaeology department to at least document whatever remains at the site immediately before they vanish completely. This will enable the department to preserve invaluable historical heritage and be made known to future generations,” he added.