DAYS TRIP TO RANGASTALA & LEPAKSHI

DESTINATION 1:-  CHIKBALLAPUR

• Anjaneya temple
• Rangastala temple

It was a long week-end, for Ugadi festival.  Our initial plans was,  2 days trip to  Mysore, but later coz of few commitments we had to limit ourselves to 1 day trip. As usual, while browsing for near by places to bangalore, found this amazing  place called Lepakshi. Lepakshi is small village in Anantapur district of Andra pradesh which is round 125 kms from Bangalore.

ANJANEYA TEMPLE :

We started from Bangalore @ 7:00 am. We took  NH 7 route, which  connects all the way to Lepakshi (our final Destination of the day).  The roads were unusually empty, and we  hit  Chikballapura around 8:00 am. We first visited Anjaneya temple which is on the main road (Since it was Ugadi festival we wanted to visit any temple, before having our breakfast ). The temple is really big, built by Balagangadhara nath swamiji, i should add,we got  handfull of tasty  sweet pongal prasadam  :).

RANGASTALA TEMPLE:

We then  stopped by Kamat  Restaurant, had breakfast and reached Rangastala ( for which one has to travel 5 kms on Gauribidanur road from Chikkballapura bus stand). We reached temple @  9:30 am.

 There was  power cut  in rangastala, we could see the lord only in  dim lights of our  cell phones and lamp lighted in front of god.. Purohit explained us that, temple was built during Vijayanagar period. But the outer compounds are recently renovated.

 Rangantha swamy idol, here is built of  single  Sali grama stone, which  is four and half feet in length with Bhoo devi and Neela Devi sitting near the leg.  Lord is in Yoga Nidra position, and his Shesha (Snake) is spreading his five hoods like a Umbrella.  Purohit also said idols's at Srirangam, Srirangapatana and Sri Rangastala all were installed on the same day and same time. We took some snaps & headed to our next destination. Temple Timings are 8.00 Am to 11.00 Pm & 5.30 Pm to 8.30 Pm. 

DESTINATION 2:- ANANTPUR, ANDHRA PRADESH

• Lepakshi temple
• Kalyana venkateshwara swamy temple
• Verrapuram bird Sanctuary
  

LEPAKSHI TEMPLE:

After an hours drive we reached Lepakshi. The temple is very big and calm with mind blowing architecture. The main god here is Veerbhadra swamy, & Durga devi.

After wandering few minutes around the temple, I fell in love with the place. I could just not stop clicking pictures.This temple is again an added credit to Vijayangara dynasty..Especially people like me; who are in love with history of places should visit this place once. One can find hanging Pillar, great scupltures on each pillars and roof.

                       

We can find best mural paintings here on the walls of temples, which include many Hindu gods,musicians, painters and some other famous personalities (kings) in the history.

And as per the Wiki, the story goes that the temple was built around 1500 A.D. by Virupanna Nayak, the chieftain under the Vijayanagar king Achyutharaya. The temple of Veerabhadra is claimed to have been constructed by Saint 'Agastya' himself, but it was developed into the present exquisite shrine by 'Virupanna', the treasurer of the Vijayanagar Kings.He conceived the idea as he found the image of Veerabhadra. He executed the plan in the absence of the king and used the treasure when he was away at Vijayanagar. When the construction was almost finished the king returned and found the treasure empty. The king ordered, as a punishment, that he should be blinded. The treasurer being a loyal person carried out the punishment spot with his own bands. Even today one can see two dark stains upon the wall near the 'Open air Kalyana Mandapa', which are said to be the marks made by his eyes, which he himself dashed against the wall. The builder did not survive for a long time and the village is called "Lepa-akshi Lepakshi", i.e., a village of the blinded eye.

                     

Priest  told us the story associated with the place.It is believed that, when Ravana kidnapped Sita, the brave bird Jatayu fought against the ravana,  it lay wounded, with its wings cut off by Ravana. Jatayu held his breath till Rama-Lakshmana’s arrival; informed about Ravana and died. Rama seeing its last breath, with greivance, exclaimed “ley pakshi (pakshi=bird)” and hence the name.  One can also find sita mata's paadukam(Foot prints) here...

Opposite to lepakshi temple, about less then half km, we can find Nandi statue facing towards Lepakshi temple. Nandi here, is made out of a single granite stone which is 15 feets tall and 27 feets high, it is the largest monolithic Nandi in the world. After taking some snaps, we started to next destination.

KALYANA VENKATESHWARA SWAMY TEMPLE :

 It was  2:30 pm, we decided to have lunch and then head to our next destination, Nandi hills. But the next two places we visited was totally unplanned and was not on our list..

On the way back from lepakshi temple,we stopped by, to ask route to Nandi hills. We  saw a venkateshwara temple, which was under construction. Attracted by the Pancha mukhi Anjaneya swamy idol @ entrance, we decided to go inside the temple and it turned out to be big temple with 3 Main gods Lord venkateshwara, Saibaba &  Durga ma.

                                      

Also had idols of  Ashta lakshmi and Jyotir Linga's, & huge hall where Anna-poorneshwari idol was placed. Priest througly gave details of each and every  idols there and gave us  some puliyogre as prasadam... It was already 3:30 by then, and we realised there were no restaurants around, & have to reach Chikkballapur main road  for restaurant.  We could manage with  Puliyogre prasadam n some snacks which we had packed from bangalore..

VERRAPURAM BIRD SANCTUARY:

While driving back to our next destination, i saw a  statue of  two painted storks and got down from car to take a snap, villagers told me  that there is a bird santuary in half a km. It was already 4:00  & we wanted to visit Nandi hills, so my parents &  ramesh wanted to skip this. I  was able to  convince them,  saying  we can just take some snaps n return soon.

And it turned out to be a good decision, we got to see rare, colourful Painted storks , Villagers told, this birds  migrate from siberia, and make this little village  their home during summer months (April -June) every year... Painted Stork is a massive bird with a yellow, long and heavy bill, slightly curved near the tip. We could find as many as 10-20 nests on a single tree. There is also a small lake near by, we could find some more birds there.We spent some time taking snaps and freshened up, by  washing face in the lake n then left to Nandi hills .

DESTINATION 3: NANDI HILLS 

I had great time watching this rare birds. We finally reached Nandi hills around 5:15. Nandi hills is in Chikballapur District of Karnatka and located in close proximity to bangalore International Airport. It is an ancient hill fortress, where Tipu Sultan stayed during his visits to bangalore.

We took the tickets, and drove over the hills (2 wheelers are not allowed over hills). We parked the Car and started walking. It was a pleasant walk, with cool breeze and good view points from the hill. I would suggest, one to walk from entrance.(If you have more time).

We first visited  Shiva-Parvathi temple, its not big one and not maintained well, but prayers is still being offered.  As we walked along, we saw a spot called "Tipu's Drop" where prisioners who were sentenced to death where pushed off this cliff.. (Sad to add, that these days it has become drop of  Suicides and accidental deaths). 

It was 6:20 by then, we walked to peak of the hill and waited for Sun-set,(Where lots of people were already waiting) around 6:40 we could see a spectacular sun-set, i felt like i am watching a  picture on a postcard. After sun-set we  took some snaps, and decided to move soon as its not safer to stay there in Late evening..We reached Blore in next 1 hour, and ended eventful day with dinner @ Nandini before going home :).


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