Lepakshi is a small village situated in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.  This place is close to 110 Km from Bangalore and makes a good one day break. We need to take the outer ring road and take the highway towards Hyderabad (Bangalore–Devanahalli–Chikballapur–Bagepally-Andhra border–take left towards Kodikonda soon after crossing Andhra border).After taking left, the road is very narrow and passes thru few villages. One can see beautiful sunflower fields if traveling in season.

Lepakshi is a place of historical importance and has rich heritage. The primary place to visit here is the Veerabhadra temple and the monolithic Bull statue. The monolithic Bull is the largest such Bull in India and it is also said that it is the second largest monolith strcuure after Gometeswara in Sravanabelagola. The temple is said to built by Viruppanna, a treasurer of Achyutaraya, during 1530 AD timeframe. The Archealogical Survey of India division is doing a good job maintaining the temple and bull.

It is said that during days of Ramayana, Lord Rama found the Jatayu bird lying wounded here, its wings were cut off by Ravan when he abducted Sita. After seeing the bird, Lord Rama said “le pakshi” (rise bird), and the bird rose. Hence, this place was named as Lepakshi.

One has to first visit the temple - it is said that there were actually 7 compound walls (7 prakaras) - but there are only 3 or 4 now.  Inside the temple compund, one can find astonishing carvings out of one single huge rock. One can find statue of Ganesha (called as ‘Bala Ganapati’) on one side of the rock and as you walk around the rock, you find an astonishing carving of a Shivlinga under a seven hooded Serpant (called as ‘Naga Linga’).

Away from this rock, there is an incomplete but very beautiful ‘Kalyanamatapa’ structure which tells the story of Shiva & Parvathi’s marraige from Sivapurana. The pillars of this construction are all completed but the roof apparently was never constructed.

There are some 4 sided pillars containing one design each side. These designs are very poular and are used as saree border designs. There are unusual and best preservered mural paintings on the roof of the temple indicating the richness of that era.

There are quite a few legends surrounding this temple (like eyes of Virupanna thrown on the wall, crack on Nagalinga etc) and it is best if one hires a guide available in the temple who will tell all those stories. Irrespective of you believe the legends or not, it is interesting to learn them.

You can get some excellent shots of the statues and the open roof kalayana mantapa.
After visiting the temple, one can visit the monolithic bull. This is around 200 meters from the temple. It was said that the Bull was originally placed on the outer most prakara. The serpant hood of the Nagalinga can be seen from the Bull statue if one makes an effort.

The temple and bull visit will take around 2 hours.

Places near by:
As you drive towards Lepakshi off the highway, you can find a place where there is statue of a large painted stork. If you go inside that village, you will find hunderds of painted storks on all trees of the village. I was told by the villagers that these birds migrate this village every year flying some thousands of kilometers as far as Siberia. You can ask any villager and go into roof of thier house to get a much closer look of these birds.

If you go forward on the highway beyond the Lepakshi’s turn, after some 30-40 odd kilometers towards Penulonda, there is a small park hosting a huge statue of Kumbhakarna in sleeping posture. It is fun to show to the kids - other than that there is nothing much that can be done there. Its just some more driving.

Tips:
Beat the outer ring road traffic and get on to Hyderabd highway before traffic hits peak. Else, one will have to spend more time in Bangalore traffic than driving to Lepakshi. One can comfortably visit Lepakshi and come back with in 12 hour period.

There are no decent hotels any way on the way to have food and nothing in Lepakshi. So it is best to pack and carry food.

Summers can be very hot. Best time to travel will be Nov to March.

Overall, its a little offbeat place - will not be too crowded, offers the visitor to learn more about the beauty of our glorious past. Definitely worth visiting.

Filed under: India, Travel