Hyderabad by Walk - Chilkur Excursion

Deccan Archives posted a walk to Chilkur today and I decided to join up. I went early and the maps took me to the middle of a small town, past the road that goes to the famous Chilkur Balaji temple or the US Visa Balaji temple. The roads split left and right and I stopped in the middle and headed to the little hotel and ordered an idli. Never do that normally but I did. Steaming hot and four in one plate which I did not expect.

Oldest temple in the region - Chenna Keshava temple perhaps

Chilkur I gathered is a village established 1500 years ago. It was ruled by Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Kakatiyas, QutbShahis, Nizams. The Archeological Department began excavations in 1948 and many inscriptions of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain temples have been found and shifted to the Golconda Archeological museum.

8th century Rashtrakuta time pillar

By the time i was done with my four idlis Sahwan called and asked me to join them at the lake bund. I headed back and met them at the bund. 

Kakatiya time lake - one of the oldest in the region

Kakatiya time weir

The lake they say is one of the oldest. To prove that there is a small weir at one end built by the Kakatiyas. A couple of small half done pillars there which Dheeraj said had Rashtrakuta influences. The concept they said was of TTT - temple, tank and town. Then a lovely stone sculpture of a woman.

Katta Maisamma temple with pillars

Rock sculpture - just lying there

Across the road was a Katta Maisamma temple and there were these pillars again. Further up we walked into the village and saw another old temple which they said could be one of the oldest, maybe even 8th century. It was built over and made bigger. Right next to it was a Qutb Shah mosque, again, built over and modernized. 

Old dargah with deep sthamb

Old temple - Mallikarjuna temple I think

Hero stone

Another temple which had stone plaques with hero stones just placed there. Quite interesting. 

Lovely old house

Old tomb

Qutb Shahi era mosque

We found the fortifications in the village, a couple of bastions, one well preserved. Lovely little houses, old tiled roofs. Can't escape the creeping concrete though. 

Bastion - rammed mud

Statue of Sardar Paparayudu

We walked back after a couple of hours. One big realisation I had was that I would have missed every single one of these historical pieces if I had just driven through (I did many times before and never saw anything). In fact a couple of times I could not see what was right in front of my eyes. Made me aware of a whole new way to look at things around.

Loved the experience. Thanks Deccan Archives.