Sri Bhadrakali Temple, Warangal.

Today we visited Sri Bhadrakali Temple at Warangal. This is our third visit to this ancient Temple. Once in Warangal; there is always a desire to have darshan of Sri Bhadrakali and seek blessings of the Goddess. The attached photographs are of our visit today and of an earlier visit with my younger son, Srinath.

Goddess Bhadrakali is being worshipped here by saints and commoners since very ancient times. It is said that King Pulakesin-II of the Chalukya Dynasty worshipped Goddess Bhadrakali here after defeating the Vengi Kings and constructed a proper Temple in the year 625 A.D. Later when King Rudra Deva of the Kakatiya dynasty made Warangal (then Orugallu) the capital of his kingdom, he worshipped Goddess Bhadrakali as Kula Devatha that is as ‘Family Deity’ and developed the Temple. And during the rule of Emperor Ganapathi Deva, a minister of his by name Hari got the beautiful Lake made at the Temple, which you can see in the above photographs. The Lake is called Bhadrakali Lake.

The Temple was very popular for over 900 years and with the defeat of the Vijayanagara Kings in 1565, the Temple lost its prominence and remained neglected under non-Hindu rulers. After the end of such rule, the Goddess appeared in the dream of a devotee named Sri Maganlal Sameja and ordained him to enliven the past glory of the Temple. He along with the help of the local people revived the Temple and in the presence of Alaya Muthavalli Sri B.S. Ganesh Rao the Temple was re-consecrated on 29th July 1950. And since then all rituals as practiced in ancient times are being carried out with great devotion and the Temple has once again become very popular.

This history of the Temple is as narrated in a poster at the Temple. The poster is in Telugu and here it is for you: 

P.S. You may read my articles on other ancient Temples in and around Warangal by clicking on the following links:

Thousand Pillar Temple

Ramappa Temple