Before we speak of a thousand temples, there is the first one. Kshetra Connect is beginning its restoration work in the village of Zafargadh, at the foot of the Velpugonda hill in Telangana, where a cluster of forgotten shrines still waits for the care they were once given.
Zafargadh · Station Ghanpur · Jangaon District, TelanganaThe village we now call Zafargadh was known in older times as Velpugonda, which in Telugu means the hill of the gods. It sits close to Station Ghanpur, a short journey from Warangal, on land that has passed through the hands of the Rashtrakutas, the Chalukyas of Kalyani and, most memorably, the Kakatiyas of Warangal.
A Rashtrakuta inscription cut into the rock beside the tank on the Lakshmi Narasimha hillock records that a chief named Sankaraganda built that tank many centuries ago. Around the hill stand a Trikuta shrine, a Garuda pillar and a Vishnu temple of the Kakatiya period. After the fall of Warangal in 1323, the region passed to later rulers, and in the eighteenth century a Golconda subedar named Zaffar-ud-Daula raised a fort here and gave the village the name it carries today.
The fort still crowns the hill, weathered and cracked. And scattered below and above it are the temples that gave Velpugonda its old name. Some are worshipped quietly to this day. Others have slipped into ruin. These are the shrines Kshetra Connect has chosen to begin with.
Our plan for Zafargadh unfolds in phases, temple by temple, so that every rupee and every hand can be accounted for. Here is the work ahead.
At the base of the Velpugonda hill stands the temple of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. It is still worshipped, but time has not been kind to it. The paintwork has faded, the surroundings have grown wild, and much of the old charm that once drew pilgrims has slipped away.
Devotees here hold that Sage Agastya performed penance at this very spot and received the darshan of the Lord. A temple carrying such a memory deserves to be cared for as a jewel, not left to weather quietly by the roadside.
A place where a rishi once sat in tapas should never be a place a pilgrim hesitates to enter.
This is where we begin, and the work is the most complete of the four phases: to make the temple beautiful again, to keep it spotless, and to give the devotee everything needed for a dignified visit.
High on the hill, close to the old fort, is a second temple of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. The deity here is swayambhu, a naturally formed vigraha, and reaching it is a genuine trek. There is no proper path. Earlier attempts to cut a roadway and lay steps were left unfinished, and the climb remains steep and exposed.
The danger is real. There have been reports of bear attacks on this hill. Even the priests who go up to perform the daily pujas make the climb at risk to themselves. Before beauty, this temple needs safety.
No devotee, and no priest, should have to risk their life to stand before the Lord.
Our work here is about access and protection first, so that worship can continue freely and the shrine can once again welcome the pilgrims who wish to climb to it.
Not far from the others is a small temple of Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy. It is modest in size but full of quiet grace, with the Lord reclining above and the old colours still clinging to the wall behind the sanctum.
Its trouble lies underfoot. The floor is broken and badly damaged. Cement flooring laid here in an earlier attempt was of very poor quality and has since crumbled away, leaving the ground uneven and the sanctum hard to keep clean.
Our work here is focused but essential, so that devotees can once again stand and sit before the Lord on a floor worthy of the shrine.
Of all the shrines at Velpugonda, none carries a heavier history than Gantala Gudi, a Shiva temple of the Kakatiya era. Once it stood in full glory. Today it lies in ruin, its mandapa overgrown and its stones scattered.
The ruin was not the work of time alone. Treasure hunters, believing the temple hid buried wealth, dug into it and tore it apart. Beside it once stood a remarkable dwaja sthambha, a single stone pillar nearly thirty feet tall, crowned with an umbrella-shaped stone and a tiny shrine at its very top. It survived for centuries. Only a few years ago, it is said that a group of drunkards brought it down and broke it, and the pillar that had watched over the temple for generations now lies shattered in the grass.
What the treasure hunters could not find, they destroyed. The only treasure that was ever here is the temple itself, and that is what we will restore.
This is the most demanding of the four phases. We will carry it out together with a professional temple-restoration firm we are associated with, to rebuild the sanctum, re-raise and protect the sthambha, and guard the temple against any further harm. A proper Shiva linga is to be brought from Kashi and reconsecrated in the sanctum, so that Gantala Gudi may live and breathe once more.
Then & Now — the Dwaja Sthambha
The four temples above are our declared phases, but they are not the whole of the need. Around the Velpugonda hill lie several smaller shrines, tended by no one, that also deserve to be cleaned, repaired and cared for.
One such shrine, shown here, holds a Shiva linga in a simple stone chamber that has suffered the same neglect as the rest. As the mission grows, these quieter temples will be brought into the fold as well, so that no shrine on this sacred hill is left behind.
Every temple you see on this page can be brought back to life, but not by one pair of hands alone. This is a shared undertaking, offered to every devotee who feels the pull of Velpugonda and wishes to see its shrines shining once more.
You can take part in this divine work by contributing generously toward these development efforts. Whatever you give goes to the ground, into the stone and the sanctum of these very temples, and every rupee will be accounted for, inspected and shown back to you.
Be part of this divine project. Your share in the work of the gods becomes a blessing that stays with your family for generations.
Whether you want to know more about the Velpugonda temples, volunteer your time, or offer your skills to the mission, we would love to hear from you.
