The Jogulamba Temple Archaeology Museum is located at the entrance of the Bala Brahma temple complex. There is a wonderful collection of sculptures and inscriptions captured from the Nava Brahma temples and surroundings of Alampur.
Alampur Archaeology Museum was started by the vice president of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in the year 1953 and the museum consists of 188 sculptures and 2 inscriptions. These artifacts are dated to the 6th and 16th centuries. There is a large hall in the museum with open-air section at the center and there is a small enclosure towards the eastern side. All the artifacts are spread across the hall.
There are some important sculptures in the museum including 7th century Surya, Nataraja, Lord Vishnu, Subrahmanya with Valli, Siva & Parvathi riding on Nandi, Saptamatrukas, Nagabandhas, Mahishasura Mardini, Nagnanaka Bandha, Ashtadik palakas, Nagas and some others sculptures.
The Mahishasura Mardini along with the Nataraj and Surya sculpture is the highlight of the museum. The Surya sculpture won several awards in an international Art exhibition in Germany in 1984. In the 11th century, there is a beautiful carved Nataraja sculpture with 8 hands.
From 7th-century Mahishasura Mardini is wonderfully carved with different facial expressions from different angles. There is a rare sculpture of Nandi carrying Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi. Ashtadikpalakas statues are similar to Papanasi temples. Nagnanaka Bandha represents Renuka Devi in the nude and women seeking children performing poojas to Renuka Devi. These sculptures similarly exist in Bala Bhrama temples and perform poojas by women every Tuesday. There are several warriors’ figures in the museum. Some of these figures showcase warriors being taken to heaven after their heroic death in the war.
The stones explain the rich history of the region by their inscriptions. The inscriptions are ruled by Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Kakatiyas and Vijayanagara rulers. The inscription scripts are the mixer of Kannada and Telugu languages. In the inscriptions, there are some drawings of Surya, Chandra, Shiva linga, Cow and a knife, which means all the donations should only go to Shiva as long as Surya and Chandra exist and stealing these donations is equal to the sin of killing a cow.
Alampur Archaeology Museum Timings:
Morning: 10:30 AM to 1.00 PM
Evening: 1:30 PM to 5 PM.
Note: Alampur Archaeology Museum is Closed on Fridays.