Thread by @VAdkri

NĀRÂYANAPURAM:
A TENTH CENTURY SITE IN KALINGA
Four temples facing east remain standing in differing stages of completion and preservation in the small and remote village of Näräyanapuram. These temples are situated near the west bank of the Suvarnamukhi River
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about three miles east of Balijipeta on the border of Bobbli and Pälakondā taluk in Śrikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh .This area was included in the ancient and medieval principality of Kalinga which, from the fifth through tenth centuries
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was centered between the Bansadhara and Nägāvali Rivers , extended north to rushikulya (ganja,odisha)and south to Godavari, Andhra Pradesh.Although Prabhañjanavarman of the Mathara-kula (family),who ruled in the 5thcentury,
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called himself "Sakalakalingādhipati," ruler of all Kalinga, and stated in one of his grants that Kalinga extended from the Mahänadi to the Krisņa Rivers, Mathara copper-plate grants of land have been found only in the limited area deseribed above.
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The same area, from Ganjam in modern Odisha to Vizianagaram in Visakhapatnam District in Andhra Pradesh, was ruled and further settled by the Early -Eastern Ganga dynasty from the sixth century through at least the tenth century.
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Nāräyanapuram seems to have been located on the farthest southwest, or interior, border of this principality. Other temples within the medieval territory of Kalinga remain at Säripalli and Jayati in Visakhapatnam area, at Mukhalingam in Srikakulam
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and on Mahendragri Mountain in Ganjam of odisha. This site is significant for several reasons. First, the temples at Närăyanapuram, and the Somesvara temple , are the latest extant temples constructed in the early medieval architectural tradition developed in Kalinga.
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This tradition began in stone in the mid-6 CE and,although some characteristics were shared with traditions prevalent at the time in the medieval kingdoms of Odisha, it continued with limited influence from those traditions to the Kalinga for a period of at least 300 years.
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Secondly, except for one image missing on the hall, all images remain on the temple and hall of the largest temple at Näräyanapuram, the Nilakanthesvara. This temple in Kalinga, maintained related traditions to the day Odia shilashastra
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Ganga and Nataraja in pic

possesses a sculptural program this complete.The set of images which was carved on the Nilakanthesvara temple appears like the most odishan temple at the same site, on the contemporary Someśvara temple, on the temple at Sarapalli and on the two extant temples at Jayati.
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'Unfortunately, other than foundation stones, the halls of these other ninth and tenth century temples in Kalinga have completely disappeared, making it impossible at this point to determine if a similar sculptural program was originally present on halls at these sites.
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The final point of importance is that even though there are only four temples at Näräyapapuram, three temple types are represented (pl. 1). The Rekha deula has a curvilinear tower (gandi) of straight horizontal courses (pidha deula) of
Kalinga architecture...
To be continued