LEPAKSHI

UNIQUENESS

Lepakshi! A dignified name. Sounds auspicious and emits a splendour rare. And like a dazzling diamond pendant adorning Andhra mata, it delights by its two bright sides, connoisseurs and pilgrims alike. There is embossed on its obverse an epic episode, and a historic one on the reverse. Both are thrilling, despite flashing despairing tales. It is a temple with difference. This hallowed name 'LEPAKSHI', embodying thus two stories admits, strangely enough two meanings. The word, if splits up into two, like LE and PAKSHI - it means 'UP BIRD UP', signifying thereby a form of address made to a bird down below by one interested in it. If the same word is divided into LEPA and AKSHI-it means blinded eye. It is fascinating to study that both are meaningful and justify the contexts used; and the objects referred to. The former-Lepakshi, accent on the first is applicable to the story of Rama and his mild, kind appeal to the Jatayu, he saw by accident in his quest for ,Mother Sita after abduction. This is epic. In the second, lepa and akshi, the characters involved are historical personages. Arid they are men-one an imperial monarch-Krishna Devaraya of Vijayanagara Empire, and the other-Virupanna, his treasurer an equally renowned and the builder of a famous temple that age cannot rob its glory, nor taste diminishes its sculptural flavour. It is history. Its sanctity anointed by the epic sublimity, and the regality daubed by the historicity are luring the pilgrims for over four centuries now.

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