Built in 16^th century, the architecture features of the temple in the form of vijayanagara style. It is constructed by two brothers, viranna and virupanna during the region of king achutaraya. But according to puranic story, the temple was built by sage Agastya. A very large Nandi, mount of shiva about 660ft away from the temple is craved from single block stone.it is said to be one of the largest of its type in the world.

The temple built on southern side of lepakshi town and hillock of a large exposure of granite rock in the shape of tortoise and called as kurma saila.  According to skanda purana it is one of divyakshetras, which is an important pilgrimage site of lord shiva. the main temple is divided in three parts, the assembly hall called as the mukha mantapa and garbhagriha and arda mantapa. the outer most wall has three gates. temple has idols of ganesha, nandi, veerabhadra, shiva bhadrakali, Vishnu and Lakshmi. the unique of the temple is a foot print that is believe to be of maa sita. when ravana was abducting goddess sita, they stopped at this temple for rest.

The inscription on the prakara wall of the temple, the village is called as letakasha, lepakshi and lepakshipura the basvanna temple with big nandi statue is the main temple. a nice park is built around the temple. a 27 ft length and 15 feet height, India’s biggest monolithic nandi. the various deity of God and goddess have been carved on the wall and pillar a roof painting spread all over the roof of temple. the hanging pillar of lepakshi temple, which does not rest on the fully. there are about 70 pillars of stone in vijayanagara state. a thin piece of paper can be passed from below the pillar.

A unique huge Shivalinga is hooded under a seven headed snake and an incomplete structure called Kalyan mantapa. it is said that if this Kalyan mantapa had been complete, lord shiva and Parvati marriage would have happened here. this construction was started, while the king himself was on a trip. then within came back, he was a furious for spent the kingdom’s money on this construction without kings’ approval so that the Kalyan mantapa construction remains incomplete. a red mark in one of wall is strongly resembles an eye. the punishment for the king to stop a Kalyan mantapa was that his eyes be popped out and the eye mark of one of the walls.

Jatayu theme park is the place where jatayu saw ravana abducting sita, he tried to rescue sita from ravana.  Jatayu fought with ravana and he fell on the rocks in lepakshi and wings were chopped off by ravana.

The temple was built in the early 12th century by the Hoysala ruler, Vishnuvardhana, when the town of Belur was capital of the Hoysala kingdom. The Hoysalas ruled the region for more than three centuries. This temple, is a shining example of the Hoysala dynasty architecture and also, Indian architecture.

History of Chennakeshava Temple, Belur

Nine hundred years ago, the Chennakeshava Temple was a centre of the Hoysala kingdom. The main temple called the Vijaya Narayana was consecrated by the famous Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana to mark his victories in 1116 AD against the Cholas. The Hoysalas ruled this region between the 44th and 13th centuries. King Vishnuvardhana is believed to have dreamt about Lord Keshava during his night stay at the Baba Budan Forest and chose to build the Channakeshava temple at Belur. It took 103 years by the three generations of the royal family to complete this architectural masterpiece. It is said that over 1000 artists were involved in creating this wonder on stone. Each sculpture is a lifetime work of these artists.

Belur is Known as “modern Vaikuntha (heaven) of the earth” because of their incredible architecture and sculptures. In the middle of the temple lies a 42m high pillar standing on a star-shaped construction. The interesting thing about the pillar is that it stands on its own without any foundation and is called a gravity pillar. There are more than 80 Madanika sculptures in the temple, dancing, hunting, standing under canopies of trees, and so on. The 4 Madanika figures of Nava Ranga are special designs of Hoysala workmanship.

The temples of Kappe Chennigaraya, Soumyanayaki, Andal, and other Vaishnava manifestations surround this main temple. It is believed that Shantaladevi, the queen of King Vishnuvardhana is the design for among the sculptures in the Vavaranga– Darpana Sundari.

The mandapa on the west side leads to the Garbhagriha. Inside the garbhagriha a 6ft high idol of Lord Vishnu with four-armed mudra halo, standing on a 3 feet pedestal. The upper 2 hands hold the discus and the conch whereas the lower 2 hands hold the lotus and the mace. The halo has cyclical carvings of the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. There is a figure of Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi on the top of the entrance. On both sides of the door are the 2 Dwarapalas– Jay and Vijay.

Belur also has a samadhi considered to be of Raghavanka, the celebrated Kannada poet of the 13th century. Travellers on a trip to Talakadu can also visit Somanathapuram Village, which is located on the banks of River Cauvery. The village is famous for its Shree Venugopala Swamy Temple and Sri Chennakeshava Temple. The carved temple takes us back to the days of glory when each and every carving shows the effort of the artisan and the royalty.

The temple is approximately 900 years old. This temple is believed to be built by Jakanachari during the Hoysala times. A beautiful Hoysala style Sri Yoga Narasimha Swamy is about 7 feet tall. The deity is in the yogasana position hence called as Yoga Narasimha. The temple is built about 10 feet above the ground. There are stairs to the temple and on climbing the stairs one can see the main mantapa of the temple and Infront of the main mantapa, there is a garbha griha which houses Sri Lakshmi Varaha Swamy.

Lord Vishnu is in the form of Yoga Narashima. The Saaligrama idol was emitting energy that burns the whole village with fire so people used to lock the door of the temple. The village suffered with drought, diseases, and much more. The villagers planned to reopen the door and they built a Garddasthamba in front of the statue but it was also blasted through that radiating energy. Some people left the village after seeing this. To control the fierceness of the god, villagers used a bunch of straw grass and opened the temple. When the doors of the temple were opened before, it used to burn the grass. So fierce was the power. But when Sri Ramanuja Acharya visited, he came to know about the ferociousness of Lord Narasimha. so, the deity of Sri Lakshmi Varaha Swamy was installed to stop ferocious Lord Narasimha.

Even today before opening the door of Sri Yoga Narasimha Swamy mantapa, the door of Sri Lakshmi Varaha Swamy is opened first. The first sight of Sri Yoga Narasimha Swamy always falls on Sri Lakshmi Varaha Swamy and only after that the devotees enter the temple.

The main festival at these temples are Sri Chandramana Narasimha Jayanti and Sri Souramana Narasimha Jayanti. The turmeric alankaram and panchamrita abhishekam for Lord Yoga Narasimha are widely famous.

“When I was born, my family was overjoyed at the birth of their son. But I never thought myself as a boy. As a child, I loved playing with girls at home instead of playing outside with boys’ group. As I grew older, I wore Maa’s saree and acted like woman in front of the mirror. Like most girls, I loved to put mehendi, rangoli and loved to grow long hair. Once my parents caught me in girl’s dress and said “you’re a boy, behave like one!” I never understood how exactly I should behave.
As I grew up, I realized I was a girl inside a boy’s body. When I couldn’t live up to expectations of my parents, they started hitting me. At family functions my relatives called me “abnormal” and mocked at me. Every person I met, asked me to behave normally, but I never knew what was normal. Thinking something was wrong with me, I ended up crying almost every single day.
One day, my parents threw me out of the house saying that brought shame to the family and called me “black dot”. No amount of crying and begging could change their minds. They closed the door on my face.
I lost my family and everything just because of my gender. What was my fault in this? What did I do to deserve this? Is it really a sin to be born a Tritiyaprakruthi? Can’t we lead a normal life? There are so many unanswered questions

“My name is Smitha, I’m Tritiyaprakruthi”

“Growing up in middle-class family, every child has an ambition. Even I did too. Since childhood, I dreamt of becoming an IAS officer. I always wanted to help the poor and provide them a better lifestyle. I was doing well at school too. But at the age of 11, I started noticing changes in my body. I loved dressing up as a girl and copying their behavior and style. Soon the changes were more evident. Due to this, I was subjected to bullying at school. My teachers and friends started making fun of me. Nobody wanted to be associated with me. These resulted in poor grades at school. I thought at home I’d find comfort, but unfortunately, as soon as my parents found out about me transforming into mangalmuki, they started assaulting me.
When I was in 12th grade, I decided to leave home. With no plan ahead I left. It was difficult to find shelter and food. However with few help, I could get, I managed to complete my degree. Like they say problems are never-ending. The next step was to find a job. But wherever I applied I was rejected because of my gender. They gave me the reason that I wouldn’t be able to mingle with other staff.
My gender is a work of nature too, just like male and female! What was my mistake there? But this is the sad reality of the world we live in.
The continuous rejection put me into depression. There are many instances where I had decided to end my life. But never had the courage to do. With no job, leading life was difficult. With no option, I started begging at a traffic signals.

My name is Bindu, and I’m a Trithiyaprakruthi”

Help Bindu to live the life that she deserves.