Tag Archives: B/W Photography

Vijayanagara sculpture & architecture – Lepakshi (3)

In the village Lepakshi, the place where Sri Virabhadra Temple was built was known as ‘kurma sailam’.  This is a Sanskrit word which means ‘tortoise (shaped) hill’.  Though it was called a hill, the naturally formed granite rocky formation is not a hill in the strict meaning of the word. It is, in fact, a formation which looked like a small hill, an elevation about twenty five to thirty feet above the ground level.

One noticeable thing in the construction of Sri Virabhadra Temple on this rocky formation is that the tortoise shape of the rock was neither damaged nor de-shaped.  The temple was constructed duly taking care of the rocky elevations, obstructions it created and maintaining the natural formation mostly in tact at all stages and levels.

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (11)

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (12)

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (13)

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (14)

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (15)

Vijayanagara sculpture & architecture – Lepakshi (2)

The great Satavahanas exited from the scene of history of South India during the first half of 3rd Century AD, Thereafter, Pallava, Chalukya, Chola, Kakatiya and Vijayanagara dynasties ruled parts and occassionally most part of South India.  They partonised all arts and amongst them most importantly temple building. Temple was imagined in a very grand scale and constructed accordingly. Great temple complexes in Kanchi, Tanjore and Gangikonda Cholapuram stand as testimony to temple building in grand scale. Sculptors of Vijayanagara period inherited and borrowed all the fine qualities of their predecessor styles.

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (BW)-6

The space between the outer wall (about 25ft in height) and the inner wall (appxly of the same height) and the space within the confines of the pillared verandah attached to the inner-side of the outerwall of Sri Virabhadra temple, Lepakshi, may appear to have been there without any meaning to the present day visitor to this temple.  Most of the time they look silent and empty! The temple, however, when conceived was done in a grand scale and the planning, as I understand it, was done in such a way that the visitor shoulg get sufficient time and space to prepare himself and tune himself quite leasurely to face the God in the main temple, with the mindset that is required for praying before God!

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (BW)-7

The long strech of space between the outer and inner walls of this temple, which now looks empty, was infact intended to be the purifier and a silent preparer of men and women who would, from there, go on to face God in the main temple, which is only a step away!

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (BW)-8

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (BW)-9

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra temple (BW)-10

Vijayanagara sculpture & architecture – Lepakshi (1)

Ever since my first visit to Lepakshi a few months ago, I have been thinking of visiting this place again, not once but several times.  The reason for this, of course,  is a predictable one, the famous Sri Virabhadra swamy vari temple, located here in this small village (now may be called a small town) with the name Lepakshi… a very fine name indeed…since very few villages or places have been bestowed with such a fine name!

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhara Temple front view

The word ‘lepakshi’ is a combination of two words ‘lepa’ and ‘akshi’ and as I understand them… ‘lepa’ means ‘painted’ or ‘decorated with colorful paint’ and ‘akshi’ means ‘a woman with (such) eyes’… and the word ‘lepakshi’ in its entirety means ‘a woman with beautifully painted and decorated eyes’! This, of course, is one version.  Another version, which is more relevant and meaningful to Sri Virabhadra swamy vari temple located here is ‘a (place or a structure) which has the eyes as its paint’!  This second version has its roots in the popular belief that an officer named ‘Virupanna’ who was in the employ of the king Achyutaraya of Vijayanagara dysasty (16th century AD) had (due to some unfortunate turn of events into such a painful ending) pluckked his eyes with his own hands and threw them onto the wall of this temple…the marks of which, you may like to believe or not, are still there, on one of the walls of this temple!!

This is my second visit to Lepakshi. Sri Virabharda Swamy temple situated here being one of the most precious things our ancestors have given  us and it being a sort of museum like thing, a model to a ‘period art’ in the history of this part of the land known as South India, I wanted to explore and present the greatness of this temple, theme wise.  For this visit I have thought of the theme as SPACES… and more importantly I wanted to capture the images only in Black and White, the medium which I somehow thought suitable to picturise ancient structures, especially temples, and the sacred spaces they covered.

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra Temple (1)

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra Temple : ‘Dhvaja stambham’

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra Temple (3)

Lepakshi – Sri Virabhadra Temple (4)

Chiselled voices – Belur (6)

chiselled voices - belur (6)

Hoysalas hailed from Malnad (hilly region) of present day Karnataka state. It is estimated that about 100 temples built during the Hoysala period have survived till present day. The style of architecture in which the temples were built is generally known as Dravidian, which began in the 7th century AD during the period of the Chalukyas of Badami. The Western Chalukyas (11th century AD) further developed this style and passed it on as a legacy. The Hoysalas adopted it and transformed into an independent style of their own.  The two important qualities that underline the style of architecture Hoysalas developed are beauty and detail to the minutest level possible.

Hoysala style of architecture introduced the concept of Jagati, which is unique to this period temple architecture.  Jagati is a raised surface, a platform upon which the whole temple is built. Jagati gives a raised look, the required elevation to the whole temple and at the same time it provides for the path and room for pradakshina (circumambulation) without performing of which a devotee shall not enter the sanctum and take darshan (to have a look and pray) of the deity inside.

Chiselled voices – Belur (5)

chiselled voices - belur (5)

Epigraphical evidence suggests that the Chennakesava temple at Beluru was commissioned in the year 1117 AD by the king Vishnuvardhana of Hoysala dynasty in commemoration of their victory over Western Chalukyas, under whom they were once feudatories.  People say that it took 103 years to complete the temple under the patronage of the kings of three consecutive generations of Hoysala dynasty. In case it is true it would suggest that the original visualization and the plan conceived had been held, kept alive unchanged and carried forward for three consecutive generations by the personalities, the kings and the sculptors, involved in bringing this temple into reality. This is a long period and holding an idea, a plan for such a long period is indeed not a mean task.

Chiselled voices – Belur (4)

chiselled voices – belur (4)

The temple inside and the entire ambiance around would have been brimmed with activity all through the day and most part of the night once upon a time; now, the mandapas remain silent spectators to all the little that happens inside the temple during day. Standing empty and desolate, this little structure, which should have been a swing on which the replicas of deities are placed and swung during annual ceremonies and festivities, might have been a mute witness, for all the little activity that has been happening inside the temple complex now in comparison, for the last so many years. It still does the same even today.

Chiselled voices – Belur (3)

chiselled voices – belur (3)

The chisels in the hands of the sculptors who worked on these two temples might have been enormously imbued with compassion and kindness towards the stones they worked on for years together; otherwise, this kind of sculpturing would not have been possible. Not an inch of space on the stone was left unchiselled and unbeautified by them.

Chiselled voices – Belur (2)

chiselled voices -belur (2)

Temple architecture attained its highest point, the pinnacle of glory in the hands of the sculptors employed by the Hoysala kings. The visualization, the planning and the execution were so perfect that the surroundings and the temple as a whole appears a well-designed work, a drawing on paper to the naked eye.