A little over a 100 kilometers away from Bengaluru (earlier Bangalore) is a small temple town called Lepakshi. Geographically in Andhra Pradesh’s Ananthapura District, Lepakshi has now become famous for its Veerabhadra Temple. And this temple is quite an exhibition of sculptured pillars and ancient Indian murals.
Veerabhadra Temple’s murals are on its ceilings. The paintings narrate stories from Indian epics and ancient Indian mythological tales. Some of the murals at this temple in Lepakshi have lost their colour and so don’t really depict the stories they are meant to tell. However some of them seem to have gotten some touch-ups.
The home of these ancient murals — the Veerabhadra temple dates back to the age of the Vijayanagara dynasty that ruled these parts of India between the 1330s and the 1640s. Built in the Vijayanagara style of temple architecture, the Veerabhara temple is swaddled in age-old legends. You can read more about the temple and see more sights from there in this post on the temple — ‘Of Pillars of chiseled art, murals and legends.’.
Those are some very impressive pillars but look up and you will see some ancient paintings on the ceilings of this temple in Lepakshi.
Some discoloured murals from the ceilings of the Veerabhadra temple in Lepakshi in South India.
More murals on the ceiling, Veerabhadra temple, Lepakshi.
Here’s more ancient art relating stories from ancient Indian legends.
The paintings in some parts of the temple are very clear and offer so much to look at.
More posts on art and sculpture from Indian temples:
‘Of Pillars of chiseled art, murals and legends.’
Hoysaleshwara temple – A signature of the Hoysala dynasty
A sculptural banquet in Belur
Belur’s beautiful bracket belles
600-odd steps and a colossal monolith
Linking to the meme — Monday Mural
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Impressive temples and art. The artists that lived centuries ago had loads of patience to paint on the ceilings.
I swear — it must have been a lot of work to do art on ceilings and these pieces seem to have a lot of details on them, too.
Thank you for coming this way, Sami. 🙂
I like that paintings. What history must have gone along those stories.
There are so many stories hidden in those paintings. I wish I’d taken more pictures to peruse later.
Thank you for visiting this post, SC.
…a lot of history here!
You bet!:)
Have a great week, Tom.
Amazing place.
It really is.
Welcome here, Klara. 🙂
Amazing art. On my must visit list.
Light seems to have troubled you while taking these photographs.
It is.
I actually liked the light at the end of the corridor. I wanted to keep the light. 🙂
While I was working on the images for this post, I was wishing I’d taken more pictures of the artwork on the ceilings.
You have to go see this temple. You’ll love the work on the ceilings and the pillars.
I am so happy to see these murals, so different from normal posts about Lepakshi, but also sad at the sorry state of affairs….We need to do a better job in their conservation.
Oh yeah, we should be doing better in conservation. But I wonder if they’ll be able to do justice to the paintings. It would be nice if we could actually see all the figures from our epics up on the ceilings of this temple.
Thank you for stopping by, Prasad.
Fabulous. India’s ancient culture is so incredible. Thanks for contributing to this week’s Monday Mural.
🙂 It sure is. 🙂
Thank you so much for coming this way and thank you so, so much for hosting this meme. 🙂
Good to know about the place, beautiful works captured nicely. Thanks for sharing.
You are so welcome, Jyotirmoy. 🙂
Lepakshi is very popular and fav among bloggers 🙂 loved the post Dee 🙂
I guess it’s because it’s one of the newer destinations. And it’s not very far from ‘namma Bengaluru’ 😉
Thank you, Shweta.
Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Rupam. And Thank you. 🙂
This is the real treasure our great ancestors leave for us . Great visit
Indeed.
Thank you, Yogi. 🙂
Among all the pictures in this post, the one with murals caught our attention! Such beautiful colors, details on them looks so stunning!
This post is dedicated to the murals of Lepakshi. When I was going through the Lepakshi album, I was wishing I’d taken more pictures of those ceilings.
Thanks guys. 🙂
Splendid art! Spellbinding in fact!
Thank you Divya for showing this:)
I have to agree with you.
You are welcome, Amit. And thank YOU.
Even inspite of the discoloration, some look so pretty (the one in the end especially).
India is lucky to have a rich history…I have always been amazed with our forts and their detailed works!
Oh yeah, that was what I thought too. Although some parts of those ceilings did seem to have had some restoration, I was amazed that that much colour was still there after all these years.
Our ancient art and architecture are truly amazing.
Thank you, Alok.
Beautiful murals between the amazing carvedpillars.
They really, are
Thank you for the visit, Rajesh.
Well captured. Nice post and different perspective of Lepakshi.
Thank you, Sapna. 🙂
The Veerabhadra temple in Lepakshi has a lot of these. We just have to look up at the ceilings to see them.
Majestic and rich in culture! Fascinating art! I so want to go there now!
Isn’t it?
A lot of the murals on those ceilings have lost colour so you really don’t know what they are talking about. Some however seem to have been re-done.
But it’s nice to see some originals there. More than anything, it’s nice to see some painting up on the ceiling. I hope you get to see them sometime, Raj. 🙂
How beautiful are these! Can’t we include more art and love in our every day lives today?
Beautiful indeed.
We definitely can. I guess the street art is an answer to that. 🙂