Hanging Pillars

Lepakshi is a small town in Ananthpur district of Andhra Pradesh state. The most interesting thing about Lepakshi is its hanging pillar. A pillar which is attached with the ceiling but not to the floor. The pillar is at Veerabhadra temple. It is famous as Aakasha Sthambha (floating pillar), though it is a hanging pillar and not a floating pillar. One can easily pass a cloth between the underside of the pillar and the floor.

Hearsay is that the British were fascinated by this pillar as to how it can be in a ‘suspended’ state. They probably tried to see whether it was really suspended & whether the pillar moved when pushed. As a result of these ‘experiments’, as the story goes, all other pillars of the temple became tilted one way or the other.There is a similar pillar in Kotai Siva temple in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu also