File:16th century Chintala Venkataramana Swamy temple, Tadipatri, reliefs of Hindu epics and structural artwork - 60.jpg

English: Tadipatri – also referred to as Tadpatri, Tatipatri, Tativanam, Tamalapalle or Bhaskarakshetra in historic Indian literature – is a town in Anantapur district of southwestern Andhra Pradesh. The earliest inscription found here is related to Jainism, and it suggests an active trading and religious activity here by at least by early 12th-century. It grew and before the 17th-century, it was a major city of the Vijayanagara Empire and regional capital for regional governors such as Pemmasani Ramalinga Naidu. It had many Hindu and Jain temples, most of which were destroyed after the fall of the Vijayanagara era to Deccan Sultanates. Two of its largest temples survived as ruins and in mutilated form: the 15th-century Bugga Ramalingeswara temple and the 16th-century Chintala Venkataramana Swamy temple.

• The temple is in the town, about a kilometer south of the river-side Bugga Ramalingesvara temple.
• The main shrine is dedicated to Vishnu.
• It is attributed to Timma and was completed in the first half of the 16th-century. Timma was the son of Ramalinga who built the Bugga Ramalingesvara temple. Timma is also credited with building major irrigation infrastructure and water reservoirs around Tadipatri to support and sustain the farmers.
• The eastern gopura has an imposing and landmark presence. The temple also has a small northern entrance and gopura, likely added much later than the original temple.
• After the eastern gopura is the balipitha, the dhvajastambha, the Garuda chariot, a large mukhamandapa, an ardhamandapa and then the garbhagriya. The sanctum opens to the east.
• A stone chariot in the temple faces the Vishnu sanctum, and it serves as a shrine for Garuda. This is similar to the one found in Hampi, though smaller.
• The temple's vimana is dvitala (two storeyed), both levels have the karnakuta-sala-panjara architectural elements. The vimana shows evidence of attempts to damage and tear it down.
• The mandapa has 56 pillars, intricately carved.
• The Chintala Venkataramana temple has one of the most extensive set of reliefs pictorially describing the Ramayana in southern Andhra Pradesh. Additionally, there are a series of panels depicting the Narasimha avatar legend, the Vamana avatar legend, the scenes of Bhagavata lila, and the Kaliyamardana legend.
• The temple is also notable for its citrakala (murals, paintings) in the main mandapa.
• Many cultural and historic information about men and women is also embedded in the artwork. For example, confident, happy looking women with their exquisite jewelry, dress style and their heavy coiffeur. Some of these are partly defaced or mutilated, however.
• The temple has additional mandapas and halls, but their history is unclear.
• The temple walls and some pillars have inscriptions. One of these state that the temple is dedicated to Chintala Tiruvenkatnatha, and this is basis for its historic name.
• The temple was badly damaged by Sultanate armies after the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire. During the regional reign of Zulfikar Khan under Aurangzeb, and then Mir Mohammed, this temple along with others in Tadipatri came under sustained desecration. The nearby Rangaswami temple was demolished and a mosque built on the site. The mandapa of Chintala Venkataramana temple was blasted for masonry and the temple sealed with walls. The temple ruins were repaired and restored by Tondra Mallu and Thammaji Timmappa when Daud Khan became the local Dewan. The Hindu Marathas gained control of Tadipatri from regional Islamic Sultanates and under Murari Rao, they further reconstructed the Chintala Venkataramana temple. Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan gained control of Tadipatri, which again brought turmoil to this temple and town. During the colonial era, British archaeologists helped re-restore and repair this temple. Many parts of the gopura and the mandapa are therefore post-Vijayanagara reconstructions. The original artwork made on very hard stone has largely survived the 17th and early 18th-century attempts to destroy them.
• Many statues in this temple are mutilated or defaced, have chopped limbs, chopped breasts and similar damage. Some are intact and show the mastery of the shilpins (artisans).

For more details and the history of this temple along with that of Tadipatri, please see: N.S. Ramaswami (1976), Temples of Tadpatri, Archaeological Series No. 45.