File:Sivanandisvara temples complex, Kadamala kalava, Andhra Pradesh India - 50.jpg

English: The Sivanandisvara temple – also referred to as Sivanandiswara, Siva Nandesvara, or Sivanandi Gudi – is a temples complex that is located in the remote village of Kadamala Kalva in Andhra Pradesh.

• The village is also referred to as Kadmala kalava or Kadamara Kalava, located in Bandi Atmakur mandal, Kurnool district Andhra Pradesh. It is about 10 kilometers southeast from the small town of Bandi Atmakur, 15 kilometers northeast of the large town of Nandyala, and about 95 kilometers southeast from Kurnool city, Andhra Pradesh.
• Now a village, it was together with the Ernapadu village nearby, the site of a major Hindu-monastery (Brahmamgari) and 7th-century temples complex (Sivanandisvara). The valleys, river banks and plains in and around the Nandayal region is home to many 6th to 12th-century historic temples of significance to religious and architectural history of the Deccan region.
• The Sivanandisvara (Sivanandiswara) temples complex consist of a large Nagara-style North Indian Shiva temple surrounded by a galaxy of six smaller temples and twenty two miniature temples in many distinctive North Indian (Nagara) and South Indian (Dravida) styles. These illustrate some of the temple architecture, plans along with religious iconography that Indian architects and artisans had developed by the 7th-century.
• The main Sivanandisvara temple faces east, has a pillared mandapa and an antechamber. The sanctum has a square plan, and a shikara tower (spire) above it in the Nagara Latina style.
• Of the six smaller temples here, one is also Nagara-style located to the southeast of the main temple and faces north, while others are Phamsana-style located to the northeast of the main temple and face south.
• The twenty two miniature temples are in different styles, all just few feet tall. They show signs of natural erosion, but with enough details preserved to highlight the distinctive styles and innovations in design and architecture. The neat row-like arrangement of these miniature temples around the main temple is a modern era artifact, where local officials moved the original temples for the convenience of tourist, pilgrim and monument management. Similarly, some of the restored structure in front of the main temple and whitewashing is all modern era attempts to spruce up this neglected historic site in a remote village.
• One of the smaller temples has an inscription of Chalukya ruler Pulakesin II. This is dated to the 7th century (the Andhra Pradesh archeological department states that this inscription is from the 6th-century, attributing it to Pulakesin I; but see Shrinivas V. Padigar (2010), Inscriptions of the Calukyas of Bādāmi , Indian Council of Historical Research).
• The site also has important inscriptions such as those of Chalukya ruler Pulakesin II which help date the history and archaeological importance of this region around mid 1st-millennium CE. The area was likely a significant pilgrimage and education center in the Deccan area by about 500 to 650 CE.

For further details about this site, please see the following scholarly publications:

• B.Rajendra Prasad (1976), “Sivanandisvara Temple at Kadamara Kalava,” Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Vol. 7.
• Subhashini Kaligotla (2015), "Shiva’s Waterfront Temples: Reimagining the Sacred Architecture of India’s Deccan Region", Columbia University. (for historical significance, see Beyond Borderland: Claiming a Conceptual Space for Early Deccan Buildings).