Lepakshi 2

Hi....

After a long description from prasad about reaching the place let me describe the main attraction there the lepakshi veerabhadra temple....

He explained about the prakaras,now i will explain the story and the inner sculptural beauty of the temple......

the temple was constructed by virupanna the then minister who served the vijayanagara empire...the temple was built for veerabhadra and godess durga(one form of lord shiva) the diety of the vijayanagara kings. The main architects of the temple were humpanna and jakkanna..

We can see the godess durga instead of being proper place will be present in a pillar of the temple..as said by the priest there when the temple was under construction goddess durga came in to the dreams of the sculptor and said that she is present in the pillar..and asked him to pray her from there,so we could find the goddess in a pillar unlike in all other temples.

We took a guide there who showed us and narrated all the stories there.I strongly recommend a guide to know the real beauty of the temple and the then stories there.it will cost you around 30 bucks but it is really worthy.As we have less crowded here the guide ill take extra care to tell you all the things..

There are total 5 lingas in the temple.The first linga will be opposite to lord vishnu by maharshi agathsya meaning that there is no difference between siva and vishnu.(the only temple which has both siva and vishnu int he opposite directions..as said by the guide there...but i remember one more place called rali in west godavari district which has siva and vishnu(in mohini rupam) opposite to each other) the other linga is called ramalinga by rama in rememberance of jhatayuvu (the name of the city lepakshi came from him le-pakshi(bird) ) who was killed by ravana in the process of saving seethafrom him.it is also said that seetha has left her foot print there (we can see it even now where water ill be continuously oozing out) to make a mark for rama. the next linga is hanumath linga by hanuman.the fourth linga is called naga linga. this linga has a story...

There is a place for cooking in the temple where the mothe of jakkanna and humpanna prepares food for these people one day it has become late to cook food.these people thought insted of siting idle they can do some work started making this linga..and made a beautiful siva linga in the shade of serpant with seven hoods.when the mother saw it with astonishment(due to the bad effect of her eye sight on the linga it got a crack in one edge).this linga is exactly opposite to the big nandi(bull) which is around half KM from here...we can also see this linga from that nandi.

Coming to the mandapas of the temple we have a natya mandapa in which rambha will be dancing accompanied by brahma,tumbura,narada...etc. and it also dipicts the stories so siva and parvathi.and one more intresting thing is a pillar present there will not have a support at the bottom hanging insted of supporting on the ground.Once a british engineer came here to know how such heavy pillar is hanging with out support from the bottom when he tried to move the temple he found that the mandapa has moved a bit and the pillers one one side came coser...and by this he understood taht the whole natya mandapa is in support on this pilalr.but it is sad to know taht during this course the piller came down and one part of the piller slightly touches the ground now....This natya mandapa also have the painting (on the roof)of the then stores of siva and parvathi.The main temple has a painting of veerabhadhra which is 24 feet long on the roof...the main mandapa also has sculptures of padminijathi stri and vasthu purusha(showing haw a perfect male and female should be according to the build of the body).