ONE DAY DELIGHTFUL TRIP TO LAPAKSHI, VIDURASHWATH AND GHATI SUBRAMANYA

I  was  very  delighted   as  my  grandparents   were  coming  home . So, my  mother  decided  to go  to  one day  trip  with  them. 

       

It  had  been  a couple of weeks  since  we  went  to  Ramanagar, (trekking trip) so  we  thought  of  going  to  Lapakshi  which  is in  Andra Pradesh but on the borders of Karnataka.

So  we  started  packing  our  things  such  as  biscuits  and  chocolate and snack which I love.  We thought we leave early to avoid Banglaore traffic  and reach early.

On  Sunday morning, I  woke  up  at  5:00 am  and  while   the  time I got  ready, and  had   breakfast  it  was  6:30 am.  We started at 6:30 am by  the  time  we  crossed  Bangalore limit, i e hebbal flyover  it  was around  7:00 am.  It was beautiful morning drive, I really enjoyed the mist and dew on less crowded Ballari road.

 After driving for a while my grand father wanted to have a cup of coffee on the way. We stopped for quick coffee at Kamat Upachar for 15 minutes and started our journey to Lepakshi.

After a while we crossed Karnataka, all written signs where on Telagu, so I understood we are in Andra Pradesh now. Around 9:00 am we reached Lepakshi Cross (Visible sign and huge Arch was welcoming us to Lepakshi) we reached our destination around 9:30 am.

About Lepakshi:

My  mother told me  Lepakshi  is  an ancient place with mythological and archaeological importance. Le-Pakshi means "Rise Bird". It is said that, this is the place where Jatayu fell from the sky while saving Seetadevi from clutches of demon Ravana. Later here Lord Rama met Jatayu and blessed him for moksha.  

The next is Big Bull and Veerabhadra temple which has a archaeological importance, and built during Vijayanagara's Samrajya (1336-1646) .
  

We  ware  going  to  Veerbhadra Temple, on  the  way we  saw  the  carrier  of  lord  Shiva, yes! the  biggest  Nandi I ever seen !!!

We  parked our car and entered the garden, Nandi is surronded with green grass lawn and  had  three  partitions. It  looked  like  a  garden! 

On the left side of the Nandi we saw a small  lake  which  had  many  pink  lotuses  in  it. The  Nandi  was  very  large  and it was  completely  carved  by  stone it was beautiful. However, I felt  such a great important monument of history could have been maintained little better.

We spent couple of minutes there took good number of pictures and selfies.After taking blessings  by Lord Nandi, we  went  to Lord Veerabhadra  temple which is little further on the left side of the road, there is enough parking space. 

When we entered the main temple, fully carved beautiful pillars welcomed us. The main deities of this place is Lord Veerabhadra , Shiva and Kodandarama and goddess Parvati which is inside the main Gharbagudi. We took blessings of all the deities and heard the stories about the place from the priest who was explaining in fluent Kannada as well as in Telagu.

The temple architecture is a marvelous one, we  saw  many  beautiful  carvings  on  each  pillar, they were telling some stories which I was not aware. Even on the  roof  of  the  temple  we  could see  many  magnificent  paintings  which  tells you  the  life  story  of  Gods. 

Between  so  many  pillars, the  hanging  pillar is the WONDER of this place. This pillar is hanging and even  we can pass  a  paper  from  one  side  to  another  at  the  bottom.

Hanging pillar

        

 I  wanted  to  try  so  we  put  my  mother’s  duppatta  into  it  and  it  worked! It  cleanly  went  inside  the  space  and  came  out  without  getting  stuck!! What an amazing technology they had!!

Later,  we  saw  a  huge   carving  of  a  snake  and  a  Shivaling in the backside of the temple. It  was  amazing!! Near  that  we  saw  Lord Ganapati ’s  carving as well. 

Soon  after  this,  we  saw  stone carved mantap on the back side and Lord Hanuman carving. On the right side of the Lord Hanuman there is a large foot print of Goddess Seetadevi filled with water.  

 The foot print was filled with water, I was told the  specialty   of this foot print is  that  water  was  always  present. I wonder!! in between the stone where the water originate? It was another wonder for me!

I was wondering how these things could be achieved without any help of technology. Temple is carved in stone and all pillars are decorated with many beautiful sculptures. 

This tells us, our ancestors are more smarter then what we are today. I am sure we cannot build such a beautiful temple in-spite of having great technology.  

Carved Pillars and Matap

There were a lot of monkeys at our surroundings. I  saw  a  monkey  and  its  child, so  my  father  gave a  piece  of  coconut. The  monkey  took  it  and  started  eating.

It was a nice feeling .. Sun was heating up so soon, Its good that we carried hats and water. We left to our next destination that is Vidhurashwatha.

Vidhurashwatha:

 This place is in Karnataka It took us  half an  hour  to  reach  there. On  the  way, we  drank  coconut  water  as  we  were  thirsty. When  we  entered, we  saw  a  whole  lot  of  nagalingas  surrounding  the  place. 

There we saw the God Ashwath Narayana and many other small temples. At  the  back of the temple, we  saw  a  dead  tree  and  that  was  the  Vidurashwatha  tree! it  was  fantastic! I was told that People Tree was planted by Vidura (from Mahabharata time) 5000 years back in the history. 

Ashwathanarayan Temple

The Pujari told us the people tree which was planted by Vidhur has fell down in 2001 and and we could see the dried branches there this place is full of Ashwatha tree. 

Tree which was planted by Vidhura 

This place is known to solve many issues of Naga doshas, we could see thosands of naga linga planted all over the place. Main diaty of this Vidhurashwatha is Lord Ashawthanarayan. 

Thousands of Naga Pratistapana

We were lucky to witness the procession which was also going on at that time. They were carrying lord around the temple. We prayed lord and came out with a prashadam which was very hot and tasty.

Vidhurashwata Firing (Also known as Jallianwala bagh of South)

 This place is famous for two things one is for Naga dosha and the temple, other one is for remembrance of cruelty of British people.It  is  famous  as  large number of freedom  fighters  were  killed  here  by  the  British  during  independence struggle, just like in Jallianwala bagh  in  Punjab. What a tragedy it was!! 

Monument for Freedom fighters 

As per wikipedia On April 25, 1938, as a part of the freedom struggle of India, a group of villagers had congregated to organise a Satyagraha. Similar to what happened at Jallianwala Bagh, police fired indiscriminately at the group, resulting in the death of around 35 people. A memorial has been erected in this location bearing the names of those who lost their lives in this incident.^[5]  

I can't imagine how cruel they must be, our text book only glorifies invaders but never tell us the true story of such innumerable sacrifice by our ancestors. 

There is monument built for the remembrance of the sacrifice of freedom fighters. We took the tickets to enter it was Rs.10 for adults and Rs.5 for kids. First, we  saw  a  memorial which  was  been  built  showing  that  how  many  people  had  lost  their  lives. A  few  minutes  later, we  noticed  that  there  were  many  huge  bats  roaming  around.

 Very  near  that, we  saw  a  large  building (Veerasoudha) and  people  were  allowed  to  enter  the  place. 

Veerasoudha

So  we  went  in  and  saw  that  this  place  has  the  story  of  our  independence. At  first, it  looked  small  and  easy, but  later  we  noticed  that  it  was  a  long  process. Though  it  was  tiring,  we  completed  all  the  pictures. It  took  us  two  hours  to  complete  it. It was very informative and worth the time spent. 

I learnt a lot about our independence which our school books never told us. I realized there were many real heroes other than Gandhi and Nehru.

After  that,  we  saw  a  very  big  library  filled  with  historical  books. Then  we  went  to  see  the  same  thing  in  a  movie   theater.  

We spent some good time in Vidhurashwatha and it was worth the time spent especially on Veerasoudha

Later, we  started  to  our  home. We  were hungry as it was already 2 pm, on the way stopped  to  have lunch. Mom was ready with  Pulao which she prepared and brought as she knew there is no good hotels near by to have food its better to take from home, though I like to venture out :)

We started our return journey around 2:30 pm it was bright sunny day, On  our  way back we  saw a board which  leading  to  Ghati Subramanya temple this place need no introduction, it is very famous temple of  Lord Subramanya or Karthikeya.

My mamma requested my father to cover that place as well as we have enough time on our hand. Luckily my father agreed, so we were all happy and more over  my grandparents have not visited this famous place yet.

When we reached the temple it was just 4pm and very few people, We had nice Lord Subramanya's darshan without much waiting, After  we  finished  praying  we started from there to Bangalore. 

 On the way we took some vegetable and fruits which was very fresh, again we stopped over for a quick official break and Tea.  We reached back home  8 pm safely. We thanked God for all safe journey! 

Though we were all bit tired we were happy to cover so many places in a day, and it was  indeed a wonderful one day delight we all enjoyed. 

Hmmm did I miss anything !!? I think I cover pretty much everything!!. I am sure you too can plan a day delight like this and share your trip experience here in my comment box ! 

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed my post .. will come up with my next adventure till than please do take care! 

Useful info:

Places covered – Bangalroe -Lepakshi, Vidurashwath and Ghati Subramanya-Bangalore a day trip

Started -6:30 Am from Banashankari 2nd Stage

Bangalore to Lepakshi -9:30 am

Lepakshi to Vidhurashwatha -11: 30 am 

Temple: 30 minutes

Freedom fighters Monument: 1:30 pm (there is lot of info on  our freedom journey, must visit Veerasoudha)

Film on Vidhurashwatha freedom struggle :20 minutes

On the way to Ghati Subramanya :4:00 Pm

Temple : 30 Minutes 

By Home  : 8:00 pm 

Places to Cover 

1)Lepakshi

2)Vidhurashwatha 

3)Ghati Subramanya

Things to Carry

Water bottle

Cap for every head(must as Andra is too hot)

Food (No eatery nearby)

Camera 

Distance Traveled Over all Km -251

Google Map

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