Author: Aarabhi
Pics: Vasistha
“5 am on a Sunday morning? You’ve go to be kidding me!” I said.
“Yup. Sleep tight. It’s already 11.30 pm and you’ve to be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow!” replied Vasistha.
I huffed and puffed and rolled over hoping I fell asleep soon or I would be all droopy on our trip to the ancient temple at Lepakshi in AP, 125km from Bangalore.
Expecting a steaming sun and a mild morning, Vashu and I set off on our bike in only our T-shirts and jeans and a backpack with plenty of water.
Crossing the signal at Jakkur on the airport road, we could not see even two feet ahead of us. The mist was so dense! Figuring it would all clear in a few minutes as the sun came up, we didn’t think of pulling on any kind of protection.
An hour later, we were paying dearly for our mistake. Vashu’s helmet and his T-shirt were soaking wet. Both of our extremities were numb and Vashu’s hands were frozen stiff to the bike’s handlebars. All my makeup was running down my face and onto Vashu’s pristine white T-shirt.
Don’t get me wrong! It wasn’t raining! All this was due to the mist liquefying on all our belongings and on our bodies.
We were forced to stop at a roadside petty shop for some desperately needed warmth from some hot tea and spicy botis.
Braving the elements, we soldiered on till we neared Thirnahalli where within minutes the mists cleared and we were treated to an amazing vista of a long road stretching ahead like the coils of a snake ahead of us.
We stopped at Chikkaballapur for breakfast and drove on the wonderfully smooth NH7 till Bagepalli. Turning left at the check post at Bagepalli we drove for 16km and came upon an awe inspiring Monolithic Nandi.
This Nandi is more than twice a man’s height and is said to be the second largest monolithic Nandi in India. The grounds around the Nandi are well maintained and clean. A small pond with gorgeous pink lilies is a welcome sight among the lawns.
A little further into the village we found the Lepakshi temple built on a rise.
Legend has it that Rama, during the course of his search for his consort Sita, found the dying eagle Jatayu at this place. Jatayu who had sustained injuries in his confrontation with Ravana was breathing his last. Rama asked Jatayu to rise (Le-pakshi) so that he could free his soul. The first word addressed to the bird in Telugu is what the place is known by- ‘Lepakshi’{book ref : Temples of South India by Sunil Vaidyanathan}.
There are three levels of the temple. The main entrance leads to a large outer yard with enclosing walls like a fortress. The next level is a pillared hall and then comes the inner hall which has the garbhagriha with a statue of Veerabhadraswamy.
One of the strange things about this temple is that the pillars of the outer hall have a queer shape. Roughly triangular, these pillars have a curved concave base. The carvings on each face of the pillar continue around the edges to the next face. These statues are larger than life and seem almost alive.
I was so engrossed in the walls that I had forgotten the roof! Vasistha pointed out the 500 year old frescoes on the ceiling. It is said that the patterns and designs in the carvings and frescoes inspire the famous Lepakshi borders of silk sarees. Made from natural colors, the paintings are vivid and fantastic.
The main deity of this temple, Veerabhadraswamy was called upon to kill King Daksha, the father of Goddess Dakshayini and thus his moorthy is very ugra (angry). The main entrance of the temple is set a little to the left of the garbhagriha. Also, the wall opposite the garbhagriha is very high. All this has been designed to protect the village from the angry gaze of the deity.
The main hall which houses Veerabhadraswamy is again very unusual. The statue of Goddess Dakshayini is carved onto a slanting rock face at an odd angle to the rough hewn granite walls of the inner hall. We can clearly see her only as a reflection in the mirror hung on the wall. She also does not have a separate garbhagriha. There are numerous small garbhagrihas around the main deity. They house many shivalingas and many incarnations of the holy mother.
The largest of these garbhagrihas is strangely unsymmetrical with no deity or even a ledge in it. Another weird feature is a magnificent Ganapathy carved into a rock which is at an angle of around 40° with the wall. So, you have to turn into a corner to see the Ganesha!
Stepping out into the outer courtyard we could see a huge linga carved out of a single granite boulder resting on a beautifully detailed seven headed serpent.
One more special feature here is a giant footmark sunk in stone whose big toe is always full of water. It is said to be Lord Rama’s. Wondering about the physique of the owner of this large footprint, we wandered around to the front hoping to catch a few more shots on our cam. Snapping away on our camera, we did not realize we were running low on our battery and it soon died on us. Thankfully we had covered most of the temple by then.
Disappointed that we couldn’t stay longer, we trudged back home with fond memories and vowed to come again better prepared.
