Heritage

A rare sculpture of dancing deities

It is common to see sculptures of deities of the Hindu pantheon like Siva, Ganesa, Krishna and others dancing or holding or playing musical instruments. Two of the three are not usually known to be dancers.

A sculptural panel displayed at the National Museum, New Delhi, is a rare example of three such images three such images of dancing deities carved on a single panel.

 It is dated to the era of the Kakatiyas, a dynasty which ruled from the mid-11th to 1325 AD over a vast area in south India, especially the Andhra region. Their capital was originally Hanamkonda or Hanamakonda and was later shifted to nearby Warangal (originally called Oragallu and Ekasilanagari) about 148 kilometres from Hyderabad.

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