Devunigutta Temple, Kothur

Devunigutta, 'God's hill' in Telugu, is a temple near Kothur village in Mulugu district, some 60 km east of Warangal, on a remote plateau in the forest. Its builders were probably the Vakatakas, working around the 6th century CE. The ASI recorded it, abandoned, in 2012, but it drew wider notice only after photographs appeared on social media in 2017.

What survives is a square sanctuary open to the inside of its shikhara tower, with a low wall around an entrance court. Unusually abundant relief sculpture, now very worn, covers it inside and out. The German art historian Corinna Wessels-Mevissen saw a blend of styles from Udayagiri in Odisha and Amaravati, and the British scholar Adam Hardy called it a unique temple full of imagery, while rejecting comparisons with Angkor Wat. Local volunteers have cleared vegetation from the structure, though by 2020 much had grown back, and conservation has been urged. A Narasimha image installed after 2012 receives informal worship.