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Boni Village
According to Census 2011 information the location code or village code of Boni village is 586078. Boni village is located in Anandapuram mandal of Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is situated 10km away from sub-district headquarter Anandapuram (tehsildar office) and 32km away from district headquarter Visakhapatnam. As per 2009 stats, Boni village is also a gram panchayat.

The total geographical area of village is 520 hectares. Boni has a total population of 1,423 peoples, out of which male population is 695 while female population is 728. Literacy rate of boni village is 46.52% out of which 54.68% males and 38.74% females are literate. There are about 376 houses in boni village. Pincode of boni village locality is 531218.

Boni Village History
Boni (Anandapuram): The unique Sri Amaresvara Temple at Boni Village of Anandapuram mandal has a deceptively modern exterior that belies the fact that it's at least 800-years-old and existed in the medieval era. Situated around 45 kilometres from the city, even the locals are unaware that the Sri Amaresvara Temple is an amalgamation of various dynastic cultures that once thrived in the district.

According to Boni villagers, the Shiva temple was spotted after the Goshtani river water receded around 100 years ago. While the interior of the temple is intricately carved with sculptures and icons, the exterior is a plain square whitewashed structure which was renovated in 1946 after the river had damaged it.

From the five Telugu and Sanskrit language inscriptions that were found inside the temple, the earliest legible one dating back to the Saka era of 1168 (1246 AD), it appears that the temple existed in the era of the Eastern Ganga King Narasimhadeva I and the Dravidian architecture and sculptural style dates it during the reign of Ananga Bhima III (1211-38 AD).

The temple also abounds in medieval era sculptures. These include cult icons of Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva and a female deity on the walls of the garbagriha. Figures of other deities like Lakshmi Narayana, Bhairava, Venugopala, Ganesha, human figures of dancers, drummers, devotees, royalty, floral motif of lotus, animal and bird motifs such as nagas, goose, lion, elephant, deer as seen in the Buddhist art of Nagarjunakonda, bulls with strings of bells in early Chalukyan tradition can be found. The presiding deity is a small broken Shiva lingam of kondalite stone with a Nandi bull facing it.

Nearly a decade ago, Andhra University's history department had attempted to study the temple. Research scholar Malla Ram Kumar and research director Prof S Nageswara Rao were involved in the study.

"Boni was part of the South Kalingas in ancient and medieval period and was ruled by different dynasties such as the Satavanas, Matharas, Vishnukundins, Eastern Gangas, and Gajapatis of Odisha. Cultural migrations was noticed in the architecture and sculpture of the temple. For instance, the ground plan shows Eastern Chalukyan influence similar to those found in Appikonda and Bikkavolu Temples. The granite square pillars are akin to those of Srikurmam Temple while some pillars resemble the Bhimeswara Temple of Srimukhalingam. The two dwarapalakas or sentries to the entrance of the temple are similar to Odisha style sculptures. The various animal motifs and idols and their carving style point to Odisha influence besides some features of the Srikurmam Temple," said researcher Ram Kumar.

The dimension of the temple is around 50 metres by 24 metres by 6 metres. The temple is square from the base with a pyramidal tower. There are 16 pillars in the mandapa and ardhamandapa, most of which are ornamented. The inscriptions denote gifts of perpetual lamps, land and cattle to the temple by various devotees in the early medieval era.

This treasure trove of history is however not maintained by the archaeology or the endowments department but is looked after by a village committee. Surala Satyavaraprasad Rao, the sarpanch of Boni Village said, "A village committee maintains the temple but the annual revenue of around Rs 20,000 is highly inadequate. Entry to the temple is free throughout the year except during karthik masam when devotees throng the temple and tickets are issued. Mahasivaratri is also celebrated. With the meagre revenue, we have to manage the priest's salary, annadanam and special pujas besides maintaining and renovating the temple when required."

The inspiring tale of Boni village(Swachh Bharat):
Boni (Anandapuram): The success story of Boni village in Anandapuram mandal, around 50 km away from the Port City, is something to take inspiration from. Till January this year, the village had nothing special, but in the course of just three months, Boni transformed itself into a smart village with 100% implementation of Swachh Bharat. It is the only village in coastal AP to have toilets in every household, clean streets and lanes, clear drains, dustbins, greenery, 24/7 water supply, electricity.

Here, the villagers have adopted the slogan 'I am the change’.

With a population of around 1,600 people in 304 houses, Boni was recently given the Smart Village Award and Ugadi Puraskar. The man making this transformation possible with the help of the villagers is Boni sarpanch Surala Satyavaraprasad Rao, who did not wait for the government to sanction funds and sold his own land to gather money for the makeover. Quite aptly, he got the Best Sarpanch Award from the government. Rao has also been made the brand ambassador to promote Swachh Bharat in Paderu. Speaking about what motivated him, Rao said, "A few months ago, I had attended a programme in Andhra University where all the sarpanches spoke about keeping their villages clean. Examples were given of the Indian villages hat received the Nirmal Gram Puraskar. It is then that I decided to make my village an example of cleanliness. The first step towards this was stopping open defecation by constructing toilets in every household. We found that out of 304 houses, 112 of them did not have toilets and of these, 28 houses did not even have the space to build toilets. So, some of the bigger households gave space to build toilets and we also constructed a few along the roads. Within 45 days, we finished building all the required toilets at a cost of around Rs 4.5 lakh that we gathered by selling my land. Now, I'm awaiting reimbursement from the government, who is supposed to give Rs 15,000 for each constructed toilet."