Lepakshi

The Anantapur gazetteer of 1905 describes Lepakshi as “a small agricultural village with a population of 2,376, lying nine miles east of Hindupur”.¹ It says that the village “is well-known for its temple to Virabhadra and the colossal stone bull which stands near this”.¹ The temple “is built on a low rocky hill”, and the gazetteer calls it a notable building in the style of the best Vijayanagar architecture.¹

The bull stands about two hundred yards to the east of the temple.² The gazetteer says that it “is a remarkable piece of work”, about fifteen feet high and some twenty-seven feet long.² It is “finished with great care”.²

V. Rangacharya wrote in 1919 about the Vishnu temple of the village.³ He said that a Telugu bard had honoured it in his Telugu dramatic poem Lepakshi-Ramayanamu.³ He understood that the poem “is largely sung on occasions of puppet shows”.³ See the Lepakshi temple.

Lepakshi in the inscriptions

The temple’s inscriptions were copied in 1912.³⁴ They date from 1533 to 1538, in the reign of Achyuta Raya.³⁴ They call the god “Viresvara on the Kurmasaila hill at Lepakshipura”.³⁴ They describe Lepakshi as “a village in Sadali-vente which belonged to Rodda-nadu, a subdivision of Penugonde-rajya” (the Penukonda kingdom).³⁴

The records name the temple’s builder as Virupanna or Virappannayya “of Penugonde”.³⁴ They call him the son of Nandi-Lakiseti of Lepakshi.³⁴ Viresvaradevarapura, a hamlet belonging to Lepakshi, held a market every Sunday.⁴ Its tolls were granted to the temple.⁴ See the Lepakshi inscriptions, Achyuta Raya and Penukonda.

Later records

Later records at old Lepakshi, near the village, include Telugu grants of 1680 and 1681 to the temple of Santa-Nanjundesvara.⁵ One of them was made for the merit of the Golconda king Abul Hasan.⁵ Another was made by merchants “of all countries” in the time of the Karvetinagar chief Saluva Makaraja Tirumalaraja.⁵

The gazetteer records that in 1786 Tipu Sultan camped at Lepakshi on his way to Adoni.¹

Footnotes

1. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 172 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Francis, Anantapur Gazetteer (1905), p. 174 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 12, Anantapur district, Lepakshi (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 13, Anantapur Nos. 76–78 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 15, Anantapur Nos. 88–89 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³