Lepakshi,Andhra Pradesh,India

The Nandi

The 15 ft tall beautiful Nandi statue is carved out of a single rock and is one of the largest Nandi in India. The sculpture has been positioned so that it faces the Shivalinga which is shielded by a large serpent inside the temple.

Lepakshi Temple: You can see a lot of devotees at this place, unlike most of the busy places this one is a quite and peaceful. The history of this place dates back to the Ramayana, it has many interesting stories most significant is about the mythological bird Jatayu, who helped Rama in his battle with Ravana. When Ravana was taking away Sita in his flying chariot, the bird Jatayu stood in his way. Ravana had to injure the bird which fell on the ground. Rama while looking for Sita found Jatayu at this place. He healed Jatayu with his divine powers and as he said "Le Pakshi" (rise bird), Jatayu rose again. Since then this place is called Lepakshi.

The temple dates back to 16th century built by the brothers Viranna and Virupanna, is dedicated to Veerabhadreshwara. .This is one of the very few temples dedicated to both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu

The temple area itself is a very interesting place to explore, there are guides available at lesser cost make sure you hire one but we didn't :( let me split it into three parts.

Pillars and wall paintings: As soon as you enter the temple you can see a lot of pillars with each pillar having a unique carving on it and going through each of them itself can reveal a lot of stories embedded within them. As you look up you can notice the paintings on the ceiling depicting several stories like wedding of Siva and Parvathi, wars, folks praying.

The presiding deity deified in the sanctum sanctorum is a near life-size image of Veerabhadra, fully armed and decorated with skulls. There is a cave chamber in the sanctum where sage Agasthya is said to have lived when he installed the image of the Linga here. No photography is allowed here, so didn't take any photos.

The most interesting part is the Hanging pillar. The temple is supported by 80 pillars, out of which one hanging pillar balances the weight of rest of the 79 pillars. Attempts were made to move this hanging pillar but resulted in cracks and crevices into rest of the structure. I bent down to see the gap with the ground, I could see little part of the the pillar was touching the ground.

Foot Place of Sita Maa