Almost every monument from history and every piece of natural beauty in India is a miracle to discuss about. One such spectacle of Indian history to wonder over is the hanging pillar at the Veerabhadra Temple in Lepakshi which is a small village in Andhra Pradesh, miraculously hidden from the searching but ignorant eyes of travellers. The temple stands on a hillock known as Kurmasila, meaning ’hill of the Tortoise’.
This small village of Lepakshi in the southern Andhra District of the Anantapur is a paragon of excellent art and architecture. . The shrines and temples in the village celebrating the might of Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Veerabhadra, are an exhibition of timeless art, with illustrious frescoes and murals. Although the village was founded as late as 1538 AD by Maharaja Aliya Rama Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire, it has an interesting association with the Ramayana.
The Lepakshi Temple lies on a minor detour from the Hyderabad- Bangalore road and can be easily accessed from both sides. This temple is collocated with the Veerabhadra Temple making it a glorious example of the Vijayanagar style of temple architecture. This temple was created in 1583 by two brothers Virupanna and Veeranna who were allies of the Vijayanagar empire.
There are some legends associatd with this temple one of which says that Virupanna one of the financiers of the temple was the royal treasurer of the King and he was accused by the court nobles for drawing funds from the state treasure to build the temple without the King’s permission. Outraged, the King ordered for Virupanna to be blinded. But disturbed by the false accusation against him, Virupanna determined to prove his honesty forestalled the punishment by dashing his eyes out and throwing them at the temple wall! And the strange part is that the marks left by his bleeding eyes are still present on the walls of the temple.
Other legend says that this temple was blessed by the presence of Lord Rama himself. The lore goes that when Lord Rama, met the dying bird Jatayu here, he helped him attain Moksha by saying the words “Le Pakshi”, which in Telugu means “rise bird”. Hence, the village got its name Lepakshi!
The most astonishing architectural marvel of Lepakshi is the Hanging Pillar of Veerabhadra Temple. This hanging pillar is one of the 70 pillars present in the ‘Dance Hall’ of this temple. The total weight of the temple is kept on these 70 pillars. This pillar is named as the ‘Antarikshastambham’, as it is a pillar hanging from the roof. The pillar does not touch the floor of the temple and hangs just few centimeters above the ground.
One of the British engineer tried his best to reveal the mystery behind the pillar but could not do so as moving that pillar disturbed the alignment of all other pillars in the temple. This also proves that the pillar, though hanging, is the main pillar of the temple. The brilliance of the architecture of those times are in such a way, that even today’s technologically sound engineers cannot design such a spectacle.
The other architectural marvel of Lepakshi temple is the colossal statue of Nandi, Lord Shiva’s bull which is about a mile before the main temple. This statue is India’s second largest monolith after Gomateshwara, standing tall at 27 feet by 15 feet and carved out of a single stone. The structure is famous for its mammoth size and flawlessly proportioned body, and the finely carved ornaments around its neck and in its ears.
This temple is visited by thousands of pilgrims and tourists everyday to witness the phenomenon of passing thin sheet of paper or garment under the hanging pillar. The glow of surprise in their eyes and the shocking expression on the face when they do it themselves itself prove that this is the masterpiece of Indian Architecture.
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