Anantapur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Veerabhadra Swamy temple located at Lepakshi in Sri Satyasai district on Tuesday, the location in the Ramayana where the eagle Jatayu fell while fighting Ravana to save Goddess Sita from being kidnapped.
Modi’s visit to the town came six days prior to the Pran Pratishtha (consecration) ceremony of the grand Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya, where he will perform the ceremony.
At the temple, Modi immersed himself in Thyagaraja’s keerthanas performed by artists from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for about 20 minutes during his hour-long visit to the five-century-old historic Lepakshi in Anantapur district on Tuesday.
Modi offered puja at the temple after arriving in a special aircraft at Satya Sai Airport in Puttaparthi at around 12,30 pm. He reached Lepakshi by helicopter and travelled to the temple by car.
Temple priests offered Modi a traditional welcome. He performed aarti and puja at the Lord Veerabhadra Swamy temple, followed by puja to Goddess Durga Devi and Lord Shiva in the temple premises. After the pujas, a TTD team of Carnatic music artists rendered Rama bhajans in which Modi participated, swaying to the music, singing the words and keeping rhythm.
Later, the tourism department organised a puppet show on the Ramayana by artists from Nimmalakunta in Dharmavaram mandal of Satya Sai district. The Prime Minister watched with interest the puppet show which featured several important instances from the Ramayana.
A team of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) briefed him how the place got the Lepakshi (get up, bird, according to one version) when Lord Rama commanded the injured Jatayu to rise. Lord Rama the grants the dying Jatayu Moksha (salvation).
The PM visited the Hanging Pillar on the Veerabhadra Swamy temple mandapam, an exclusive sculpture and example of civil engineering technology used five centuries ago. Modi checked out the mural paintings on the ceiling of the temple premises. He also visited the world’s biggest Nandi a few metres away from the temple.
The Prime Minister felicitated temple priests Narasimha Sharma and Srinivasulu Sharma as well as TTD and puppetry artists from Nimmalakunta. Thereafter, Modi left for Palasamudram.
Before his visit, Modi posted on X: “I will have the opportunity to pray at the Veerabhadra Temple, Lepakshi. I will also listen to verses from the Ranganatha Ramayan, which is in Telugu,” said Modi. On Wednesday, Modi will pray at the Guruvayur Temple and Thriprayar Shree Ramaswami Temple in Kerala.
