One of the most remarkable Hindu cities of medieval India is Warangal, once the capital of Kakatiya kings and now a thriving provincial town in the modern state of Andhra Pradesh. While some of Warangal's ruined monuments are familiar to archaeologists, art historians and engineers,1 the circular form of the city itself appears to have been hardly recognized, let alone studied.2 This is somewhat surprising considering that the fortifications defining Warangal's plan are clearly evident on the ground as well as on maps and aerial photographs.3

At the outset, this article aims at describing the essential characteristics of Warangal's unique layout and providing a basic map for the city. However, the possible sources for Warangal's urban form are also considered, including the cosmograms and meditational diagrams in widespread use in India. Such diagrams share many formal components with Warangal's plan, suggesting that the city may have been imbued with cosmic significance. While the precise ideological or symbolic meaning that this urban layout may have had for its royal founders cannot be recovered from known historical documents, it is argued here that the plan of the city was intended to situate Warangal's rulers and their kingdom within a broadly conceived cosmological framework.

• 1. For example; G. Yazdani, 1916, "The Antiquities of Warangal," The Journal of Hyderabad Archaeological Society, pp. 34-47; G. Yazdani, ed., 1928, Report of the Archaeological Department of H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions, 1925-26, pp. 11-12, pls. xiv-xvii; M. Rama Rao, 19666, Select Kakatiya Temples, Tirupati; M.R. Sarma, 1972, Temples of Telangana, Hyderabad; V.P. Parabhahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal, Hyderabad: A.P. Government Archaeological Series, 52, pp;. 172-174; and M. Pandu Ranga Rao, et. al., 1987, Geotechnical Apprisal and Evaluation fo Kakatiya Monuments, Warangal (AP), unpublished research report, Department of Civil Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Warangal.
• 2. Most scholars who have written about Warangal seem to be aware that the town is circular but they do not analyze the plan or discuss its meaning. K.V. Soundara Rajan, 1982, Islam Builds in India (Cultured Study of Islamic Architecture), Delhi, fig. 53, p. 113, is the only scholar to publish a map of the city. This is based on a site survey carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India, Hyderabad circle, in the 1970s.  
• 3. Sets of French and Indian aerial photographs of Warangal and its surroundings are in the possession of the Regional College of Engineering at Warangal where they are available for inspection. Warangal is also covered in the Survey of India 1:50,000 map series, nos. 56 N/12 and 56 O/9, dated 1982 and 1969, respectively.