Sep 12, 2009

Lepaksi revisited

Dec 26 2008

This was my third visit to Lepaksi. The last one was in 2002 with Dad and Praveen. This time I was with Durga, Mom and Deepi. We left early but the journey was slow because of ongoing road work. Breakfast was on the go and Durga kept us busy with her games and riddles. One of her questions ask "what is green outside and yellow inside and has thorns" and I replied back jack-fruit. One of my question was "what is yellow outside and white inside" and she was struggling ...I gave her a hint as we passed by a shop with bunch banana hanging but that did not help her. Instead Deepi told her the answer.

The 22km drive from the NH7 to Lepaksi brought back lot of memories about Dad. During our visit -his last visit- he had given some money to a small Shiva temple. He was a staunch Shiva-bhakta.

We stopped to see the Nandi first...





At the temple, we paid respect to the Gods inside and then our guide showed us around starting with how the name 'Lepaksi' came into existence as a result of an incident from Ramayana. Then he told us many stories about around the temple ...I can't recall all the things he told.



This is the corridor from the temple entrance to the front-left corner



and this is the left side corridor. The temple is situated on rock and hence elevated from the ground level.



This is one of the five Shivalingas within this temple.



That's Deepi next to the natural spring shaped like a human foot. It's supposed to be a foot print from one of the mythological stories ...I think it's Hanuman's foot-print.



According to our guides, these circular shallow pits are supposed to be lunch plates used by the artists but the 've also heard that these were the palettes used to mix vegetable colors for paintings made on the ceiling.



Its evident that the temple construction was abandoned before the completion. In the background is the Kalyan Mantap which has 60+ pillars with unique designs which are used for Sari borders.



This is another view of the Kalyan Mantap.



Art-lovers could spend hours studying these lovely creations ...every pillar is unique with all types of creatures.



We spent lot of time taking pictures and studying the temple construction. By 1pm it was very warm and Durga was hungry and we decided to head back ...stopped at a dhaba for lunch near Devanahalli and stopped by to take a picture of Devanahalli Fort.



We were back home before sunset.

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2 comments:

Vidya said...

Nice pictures! Very well shot.

Chetan Harihar said...

That basavana is realy big sir & that foot print is very intreasting.