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Virabhadra(Lepakshi)
The temple of Virabhadra is Lepakshi, in
Anantapur district, is a storehouse of painting and scupture. Its murals claim an honoured
place in the annals of Hindu aesthetics.
According to tradition, the temple was built by Virupanna, helped by his brother, Viranna,
in the reign of the Vijayanagar emperor, Achyutha,. One day he happened to notice a small
temple of Lord Papanasa on a hillock called the Kurmasaila, or the Hill of the
tortoise, from its resemblance to a resting tortoise. This stands near the village of
Lepakshi. He decided to build a temple complex there.
 The huge boulders in the second prakara carry striking sculptures. One is
of Lord Ganesa. It is 2.30 in high, and it stands on a pedestal 1.40 m high. Nearby is a
huge Linga under a seven hooded cobra, a monolithic sculpture 5.5. in high. There is a
split in the centre of the base. According to local legend, one of the sculptors at work
in the temple made the figure during his rest hours. When his mother brought him his meal
and saw the sculpture, she was surprised. She expressed her surprised praise. Thereupon
the base split of its own accord. A mother’s praise of her son was considered
inauspicious. The third sculpture is a low relief of the Kannappa story, as related above.
(Sri Kalahasta temple).
 About 200 m, north-east of the
temple stands India’s second largest monolith, the celebrated Lepakshi Nandi, which
is smaller only the image of Gomatesvars, the Jain saint, on the hill of Sravanbelgola (
Karnataka). It is 8.25 m long and 4.60 m high, though massive, it is a real work of art,
of sound proportions and absolutely realistic. On one of the chains round the neck, there
is the insignia of the "Gandabheruda", a double-headed eagle. This originated in
Takshasila, the ancient university city, now in Pakistan, a place which Alexander the
Great and emperor Ashoka knew. The Vijayanagar Rayas used it, and from them the Wodeyars
of Mysore. So in a historical accident, did the Kaisers of Imperial Germany. Three other
large Nandis in the country are in the Thanjavur Barhadisvara temple ( Tamil Nadu, see
below), on the Chamundi Hill, overlooking Mysore (Karnataka, see below,) and in the Bull
Temple, in Basavangudi, a suburb of Bangalore (Karnataka).
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