This blog is about our travel to Lepakshi Temple in Lepakshi, a place which offers both spiritual as well as some touristic experience. This is in continuation to our previous blogs on Gandikota Camping and Belum Caves Exploration. On our way back to Bangalore from our Gandikota trip, we decided to visit this age-old Lepakshi temple which is situated in the Anatapur District of Andhra Pradesh.
Lepakshi temple is around 120 kms from Bangalore and it has become one of the popular and the most visited one-day weekend gateways for people residing in Bangalore. But since Lepakshi comes in the same route connecting Belum caves and Bangalore, we decided to cover this on our way back from Belum caves. It was a 200 kms drive from Belum caves to Lepakshi. It took us around 4-5 hours to reach the temple. The road was really nice and the weather too. Altogether, it was a beautiful long drive which had made our trip more interesting. Finally, we reached there at around three in the afternoon.
Lepakshi can surprise you in several ways. This ancient temple is known to have immense spiritual and touristic importance. It has something magical to offer you besides its religious value.
The famous Lepakhsi temple is also called Verrabhadra Swami temple which was built in the 16th century by Virupanna Nayaka and Viranna, the two brothers who were Governors under the Vijayanagar Empire during the reign of King Achutaraya, at Penukonda. Architectural features of this temple are fully influenced by the Vijayanagara style.
The Lepakshi is a Telegu phrase, which means “Rise Bird”. As the epic story goes by the Ramayana episode, Ravana had chopped off its wings and Lord Rama found the bird fallen right here in this village. Lord Rama accompanied with Hanuman tried to help Jatayu attain moksha by uttering the word “Le Pakshi”. That’s how this place got its name Lepakshi. This is very rich both culturally and archaeologically.
We got amazed while walking around the temple. It was adorned with some aesthetically pleasing wall paintings and sculptures displaying intrinsic value of the classic Indian art and culture. Further, we got amazed by witnessing the Shivalinga with seven headed snake which seems to be protecting the Shivalinga from all angles.
If this does not excite you, hold on! Something unbelievable was in store to surprise us even more! The “Hanging Pillar”! Yes, you have read it right. A carved pillar made of ancient stone was just mysteriously hanging from the ceiling of the temple without its base touching the floor though from a distance it would not look like this is actually hanging. Just to check if this was really hanging, we tried passing a thin cloth through the narrow space underneath the pillar and it surprisingly passed. What a miracle!
We also visited the Nandi (the sculpture of a bull), 200 meters away from the main temple which is carved from a single block of a granite stone. It is around 27 feet in length and 15 feet in height. Huge, isn’t it?
The reason for calling this place spiritual and touristic is that it has attractions which are not just limited to religious minds. A fun-filled adventurous experience was waiting for us just a two-minute walking distance from here, the Jatayu Earth Centre, aka Jatayu Nature Park. Just next to the main entrance of the park, there is an information center and we bought a ticket of INR 10/per person from the center. The main attraction of this park is a huge bird statue on the top of a small hill which symbolizes the Jatayu bird (from the Ramayana) in a ready-to-fly posture.
A well-maintained and nicely crafted garden amazed us in all aspects. There were stairs to reach to the top of the small hill and we experienced a mesmerizing 360-degree view of the surrounding locality. There was a heavy wind blowing. We spent an hour at the top watching the distant rain as the sky got all covered with dark smoky clouds.
Well, that was pretty much of our story from Lepakshi. It was time to go back. But we were all too happy! We visited three amazing spots (Gandikota, Belum Caves and Lepakshi) in just two days to make our weekend a very special one!
Hope you enjoyed our travel story on the spiritual and the touristic Lepakshi Temple and its nearby attractions. If you have already traveled to Lepakshi, share your experience in the comment section below. If you haven’t, please visit this amazing place before it gets too much crowded. For more travel adventure stories, click here. THANK YOU!
