Lepakshi temple in Andhra Pradesh is about 120km/ 3 hours away from Bengaluru in Karnataka. We did a day tour from Bengaluru to cover this temple along with the Jatayu Theme park nearby. KSTDC organizes day tours from Bengaluru on select days
We had breakfast at a South Indian Highway joint near Devanahalli airport, Nandi Upachara. Even simple idlis with sambar were delicious here. The closest town to temples is Hindupur in case you want to buy some snacks
The Veerabhadra temple complex at Lepakshi were built by Vijayanagara kings. The temple is build on tortoise shaped rock called Kurma Sailam. You can see very good carvings, some paintings on ceilings, pillared room like structures all around the temple and huge statues of Nandi, Shiva Linga protected by a serpent with seven heads- one of the best in South India. The Naga Linga statue is the one that features on most photos of this region
The pillars have amazing art work. In one of them called hanging pillar, you can slide a paper beneath, which is a marvel on how the pillar stand and support the ceiling
There is a huge footprint, believed to be of Sita. It has some wetness throughout which is another wonder of this temple
The large Ganesha idol is another icon of this temple- it has a reddish tinge in the rock. Just outside the temple, you can see a 20 meter huge statue of Nandi carved in black stone, one of the largest in the world
About a km away is the huge statue of Jatayu, the bird on a large rock. You can climb the steps on iron ladder to reach the bottom of statue. The view from top is quite nice, you can see the entire region along with the temple complex
Many places in India claim to be the final place where Jatayu’s wings were chopped when he tried to stop the Pushpaka Vimana of King Ravana of Lanka, while abducting Sita in the epic of Ramayana
If you have the time, you can visit the Penukonda fort which is another hour away from here
We spent about 4 hours visiting the Temples of Lepakshi. We were back by about 7 PM in Bengaluru