Lepakshi Temple

- The Dancing Hall

By Tharangini

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Thank you for joining me from Part I here.

Climbing up a few steps from the entrance, we reached the dancing hall.  Interesting carvings beckoned us, but after we learnt the story behind each carving we were more than enamored.   

The center hall is beautifully spacious with a tall ceiling. The ceiling is designed like a lotus with around 100 petals distributed in 4 whorls.

The Ceiling In The Dancing Hall

The dancing hall depicted the marriage of Lord Shiva and Parvathi. Rambha, one of the chief apsaras in the devaloka or the abode of the gods, is performing a dance on this occasion. All the other gods including the sun and moon god are seen playing various musical accompaniments to support her dance.
         

Rambha - The Apsara Of Devaloka

Nandi On The Percussion

Dattatraya - On The Tala

And the others

   

Tucked away in one corner is a carving of sage Bhringi. Sage Bhringi has 3 legs. It is said that sage Bhringi lost all his strength or 'Shakti' after he enraged Goddess Parvathi - the source of shakti, by refusing to worship her and only worshipping Shiva. Seeing his emancipated condition, Lord Shiva gave him the third leg as a support to stand upright. Here he is seen in a dancing pose with his three legs. 

Our guide told us that he is the dance master to the gods. Though the only reference I found to corroborate this was with respect to Lepakshi temple. It is seen that Rambha was mimicking sage Bhringi's dance movements as both carvings have the same pose.

Sage Bhringi 

Our guide also added that sage Bhringi  is placed in such a way that he is in the line of view only to Rambha  because he was invisible to everyone. He  is also supposed to be dancing at all times and hence the third leg was really useful while wanting to rest one of the legs. I would however take both these information with a big pinch of salt.  

There was an interesting way to look at sage Bhringi's statue here. If any one of the legs is covered at any time, the other two legs will show a different dance pose. 

The other story about sage Bhringi's third leg is available here. 

Behind sage Bhringi's sculpture is the story of Annapoorneshwari, the goddess of food.  When Shiva and Parvathi have a fight with respect to materialism and asceticism, Parvathi went into hiding for a while to teach Shiva the importance of materialism too.

The Story Of Annapoorneshwari

When the entire world including the devotees of Shiva started starving, the maternal instinct of Parvathi took over and she took the form of Annapoorneshwari and set up a kitchen in Varanasi to serve food for the children of the world.  When Shiva heard of this, he went to Varanasi, dressed as a beggar to get alms from her. She served him food while helping him understand the importance of materialism in the world too.  

Lord Shiva As A Beggar

Parvathi As Annapoorneshwari

In the temple, Parvathi is shown in a half clad state. Our guide told us that Shiva was testing her, but that story is found no where else.  So the real reason behind that is still hidden somewhere. Shiva shows his original form after Annapoorneshwari feeds him. The original form of Shiva is a marvelous piece of carving with his patent damru, trident, moon and ganga flowing from his head. With one hand he is feeding a deer. Also intriguing is his footwear, a stylish pair of heels.  

All over the ceilings of the dancing hall are colorful and interesting murals. Join me in part III for more about them.

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