Recently i visited a group of Vijayanagara and Chalukya period monuments in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. And in my posts I'll be sharing about what i enjoyed the most and what i learnt in each of these places. Some of these are stories shared by the Guide there, some are my observations.
This post is about Lepakshi in Andhra Pradesh which is a 2.5hrs ride from Bengaluru airport. This place has an active Veerabhadra Swamy temple built during the Vijayanagara period and also has some architecturally interesting aspects.
I found the sculptors multifaceted in their artistic expression. They have depicted puranas, produced optical illusion, utilized vaasthu, experimented with angles, directions and architectural engineering. In addition there is a blend of mythology and Indian belief systems offering varied stories dating back to trethaa yuga, times of agathiya muni, chola kings of 12th century and ofcourse the Vijayanagara kings of 16th century.
We first went around the Lepakshi Veerabhadra Swamy temple looking at the deities and the sculptures and i must say that i did not understand much. Later we hired a Guide who explained every aspect of the temple in detail and it helped me appreciate the art and history better.
The ranga mantapa of the temple has pillars with beautiful, life sized carvings and the roof with paintings in natural colour. Some of these paintings are still intact helping us understand the puranas (understand this as mythology) from the eyes of a 16th century artist and the lifestyle of people in this region 400 years ago.
Below are some of my observations:

None of the women depicted in the paintings have plaited their hair nor are they wearing a blouse. Did i mention that they are in different shades of brown :)

Check this thing out. The famous hanging pillar of lepakshi. Apparently there are 70 pillars in this ranga mandapa and one of them "was" hanging. It's intriguing that all 70 pillars and the ceiling were interconnected in some manner and the hanging pillar was key for rest of the pillars and the ceiling to be in place. It is an architectural marvel. I wonder how someone could have conceived such an idea that is an artistic experimentation of architectural engineering. The guide explained, that in 1902 during the British rule, two English men curious and wanting to understand how this whole thing worked, took an iron bar and moved the pillar a bit. The pillar comfortably sat on of its ends disturbing the setting of the entire ceiling and rest of the pillars. It reminds me of what my dad said about his first engineering lesson at school. "Never touch anything if you do not know how that works." I've wondered how would anyone learn if they don't experiment. Now i know where it applies.
This is a mural painting on the roof of this temple. From the right, there's is Virupanna, Viranna the governors who commissioned the construction of this temple, their sons and then followed by the chief sculptors in the temple. Notice their posture. While the seniors have their hands joined together like they are praying, the juniors have their hands folded. This maybe because folded hands were traditionally accepted as a gesture of showing reverence and respect to elders in this part of the country.
Do you notice anything different about Brahma's face? A moustache less bearded face.
All the stories about the temple and the kingdom that sponsored the construction of the temple are written in halegannada (old kannada) within the temple complex.
The temple structure does not have a foundation but are built by interlocking blocks of granite stones.
Below are some of the mythological stories related to this temple, as shared by the Guide.
Legend goes that...
Here's a naga lingam (lingam under the snake hood). The Guide tells us that there's a kitchen here in the temple in which the food for the sculptors is made. Once when the sculptors were hungry and when the food was not ready yet, the sculptors utilized the time (apparently 1 hour) to sculpt this nagalinga. When their mother who was cooking in the kitchen came out and found this beautiful, magnificent nagalinga, was amazed at her sons' skill. the legend goes that the mother's dhristi led to the Linga get a few cracks. But these cracks are now filled by the ASI with cement.
The main temple construction was initiated by Virupanna and Viranna, who were governors in the Vijayanagara kingdom and was sponsored by Krishnadevaraya, the emperor of Vijayanagara empire. Veerabhadra Swamy who is their house deity was found as a swayambu rock (naturally appeared) in Lepakshi and they built this temple around the swayambu in the 16th century. But this is not the first time this became a worshipping place.
A chola King built a lingam here in the 12th century and has worshipped and conducted yagnas. But even before that, it is told that Agathiya muni worshipped another lingam here 5000 years ago. And the lingam is still available here for worship. But that's not all. This place was of importance even before that. Lepakshi is the place where the wounded Jadayu (the mythical eagle from Ramayana) fell, while trying to stop Ravana from kidnapping Sita devi. Jadayu was thirsty as a wounded bird and Sita Devi while being kidnapped in pushkavimaha (the aircraft) pressed her feet on the ground, that happened to be near the temple, that formed a relief that had continuous source of water from which the thirsty jadayu could drink.
Till date there's water in this relief and no one's able to ascertain the source of water in this relief. Now wait. This Sita padham is so huge that it cannot be a human's feet. But the Guide says that people in thretha yuga, the time when Ramayana happened, were 20-25 feet tall. I don't have a way to verify this, though. But it's an interesting story.
There's a stage like structure behind the main temple and this stage with pillars is incomplete. The stage was supposed to depict shuva-parvati wedding and therefore ecah pillar has an important God or demi-gods in it and each of them is placed according to Vaastu.
As mentioned earlier, this temple construction was being sponsored by the Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya and overseen by Virupanna and Viranna his governors. While this was being constructed, Krishnadevaraya fell sick (small pox) and passed away. He had a son and a daughter. The son was poisoned and killed, so the daughter was the only surviving heir. The daughter Thirumalaamba was married to Ramaraya who became the Emperor after Krishnadevaraya's death. Remember, Lepakshi is far from Hampi where the Emperor lived. And Ramaraya was fed with negative details about Virupanna's initiative of building this temple and how the emperor's money was being exploited to build this temple. The emperor ordered his men to bring Virupanna and to remove his eyes. Virupanna who got to know about this decision of the emperor, felt that he should remove his eyes even before anybody else does that. This he plucked his eyes and threw it on the wall of a shrine opposite to the Kalyana mandapa. Legend goes that the blood from his eyes are still in the stone wall.
Here's a large plate like structure near the kalyana mandapa. The Guide tells that this was the food plate used by the sculptors. The plate looks really big for a normal person to eat. But i suppose for someone who does such hard, physical work it should have been ok to eat in such a large plate.
One's devotion is often tested by the Gods apparently, even if the one who is tested is his own spouse. I fail to understand the logic behind the concept of this test. But here goes the story. Shiva disguises himself as a beggar and Annapoorani(Parvati) was serving him food. She is not even aware that her clothes are moving away from her body but she continues to serve him. Such is the devotion that is depicted on this sculpture from 16th century.
There's so much more in this place that one could learn and explore. It's a treasure trove of history, mythology, art and architecture.
Note: If you are using a rented vehicle, while going to lepakshi from Bangalore, you need to go further down another 45 min to penukonda where you have a check post to get state permit before you go to lepakshi. Interestingly this penukonda is different from penugonda near beemavaram where Vasavi kanyakaparameswari temple is located. And state permit costs ₹1600.
