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The Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India announced on 2 September 2026 that the Gollala Gudi temple at Palampet in Mulugu district, Telangana, is now a monument of national importance.
The declaration was made through gazette notification S.O. 4802(E) dated 31 August 2026, issued under sub-section (3) of Section 4 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
With this addition, the number of centrally protected monuments in Telangana rises to 10.
Gollala Gudi is a Trikutalaya - three garbhagrihas opening around an east-facing mandapa - attributed to the Kakatiya period of the 12th-13th centuries CE.
It stands on the south-western side of the UNESCO-listed Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple; the ASI Hyderabad Circle will take up conservation, drainage of waterlogging and a visitor pathway.
The parent statute. Section 4 empowers the Central Government to declare an ancient monument or archaeological site to be of national importance; the ASI then protects, conserves and regulates access to it.
Created the 100-metre prohibited area around every centrally protected monument, where construction is barred, and a further 200-metre regulated area where construction needs permission. It also set up the National Monuments Authority to grant those permissions.
Governs antiquities and art treasures rather than immovable monuments - it regulates their export, registration and trade, and is often confused with the AMASR Act in exam questions.
The colonial-era predecessor, enacted under Lord Curzon, which first created a legal framework for protecting monuments in India.
Nodal agency for archaeological research and for the protection and conservation of centrally protected monuments; it maintains more than 3,600 such monuments nationwide and works through regional Circles, of which the Hyderabad Circle covers Telangana
Statutory body created by the AMASR (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010 that grants or refuses permission for construction in the regulated area around protected monuments and grades and classifies them
Parent ministry of the ASI and the NMA; issues the gazette notifications declaring monuments of national importance
The neighbouring temple at Palampet, built in the 13th century during the reign of the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021. Gollala Gudi lies immediately to its south-west, which is why the cluster is now being treated as a single conservation landscape.
Ruled from Orugallu (present-day Warangal) between roughly the 12th and 14th centuries. Its rulers included Ganapati Deva, Rudrama Devi - one of the few reigning queens of medieval India - and Prataparudra. The Kakatiya Kala Thoranam of Warangal appears on Telangana's state emblem.
A temple plan with three sanctums sharing a common mandapa, found across the Deccan in Chalukya, Hoysala and Kakatiya architecture. Contrast it with the panchayatana plan of north Indian temples, where four subsidiary shrines surround a central one.
Also in the news in early September 2026 - the Kalyana-Chalukya temple town in Karnataka is being mapped by LiDAR to locate buried structures. Both stories show conservation widening from single monuments to whole heritage landscapes.
Palampet is a village in Mulugu district in northern Telangana, roughly 65 km from Warangal. Mulugu was carved out as a separate district in 2019, borders Chhattisgarh, and also contains the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary.
GS Paper I > Indian Culture: architecture and heritage; GS Paper II > Statutory bodies and conservation of heritage
General Awareness > Art and Culture; static GK on monuments and Acts
General Awareness > Indian Heritage
A temple with three garbhagrihas or sanctums opening onto a shared mandapa, a plan common in Deccan temple architecture
The innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple, housing the principal deity
A monument or site declared as such by the Central Government under Section 4 of the AMASR Act, 1958, after which the ASI takes over its protection
The 100-metre belt around a centrally protected monument in which construction is barred, extended by a 200-metre regulated area requiring NMA permission
A perforated stone screen, used decoratively in doorways and parapets