BADAMI, PATTADAKALL AND AIHOLE OF KARNATAKA
(Cave temples and Sculptures)

On 06 04 22, we left Belgavi and reached Badami in the afternoon.  After settling down in the Hotel and taking rest, we proceeded in the evening to Badami caves.   The sculptural works in the 3 regions of Badami/Pattadakall/Aihole were all during Chalukya regime and Badami and Aihole had been capital for some time for Chalukyas.  While Badami temples were carved out of the mountains and thus cave temples, Pattadakall was stone built temples and majority of the stone structures in Aihole too are stone built structures.

The Badami Chalukya era (7th and 8th century) was an important period in the development of South Indian architecture. Their style of architecture is called “Chalukyan architecture” or “Karnata Dravida architecture”. Nearly a hundred monuments built by them, rock cut (cave) as well as structural, and are found in the Malaprabha river basin in modern Bagalkot district of northern Karnataka. The building material they used was reddish-golden Sandstone found locally. Though they ruled a vast empire, The Chalukyans concentrated most of their temple building activity in a relatively small area within the Chalukyan heartland – Aihole, Badami, Pattadakal and Mahakuta in modern Karnataka state.

The red sandstone cliffs of Badami offered a spectacular setting for the excavation of four caves, three pertaining to the Hindu Pantheons and one Jaina (Parshwavanath).   Frist cave concentrates on the aspects of Lord Shiva and the second and the third Vishnu and his avatars.
The largest  is Cave 3, dedicated to Vishnu. An inscription next to a Varaha depiction states that Mangalesa, a brother of King Kirtivarman, dedicated the cave in A.D. 578. Members of the royal family of Chalukyas patronized many Chalukyan monuments. All of them were created in 6th and 7th century. The architecture is a mixture of the Nagara style and Dravida style. Apart from the above four, there is a fifth natural Buddhist cave in Badami.

There is an entry ticket for Badami caves controlled by Archeological Survey of India.  In the first cave, in a stone enclosure as we approach to our right, in the inner walls Lord Ganapathy on one side and Lord Subramanya on the other side are depicted.    Around 25 steps are to be covered to reach the sculptures in the first cave and it is a small cave.
Nataraja with 18 hands is the main attraction here.

Further steps have to be covered to see the other caves.  A few of the sculptural works in these areas have been shown here.   Apart from that, one can also see the Boothnath temple by the side of the lake on the eastern side, once when we ascend to the 2nd cave.  

In the same evening, we also had darshan of Sree Bhanshankari devi, the temple which is at a distance of 4 Kms from Badami.   The place is also called as Shakambari Sakthi Peetham and the area is called Cholachagudda -  A very powerful and popular deity in the area.

After darshan at this temple, we left for our hotel.   The next morning on 07 04 22, we continued after breakfast and first went to Pattadakall at a distance of 19 kms.  The entire distance between Badami and Pattadakall, on either side of the road, millets of all types and Maize were being cultivated.  Harvest of the crops were under progress.

There is an entry ticket for Pattadakall sculptures controlled by Archeological Survey of India. 

The main attraction here is the Lord Virupaksha temple inside the compound and some family has taken pain to offer minimum required pooja here.   The Virupaksha structure is at the last of the enclosure and opposite to the Linga, there is a Nandhi too.   Besides that, there are other structures some dilapidated and some in full form.  A few of the structures and Sree Virupaksha with nandi are shown here.   These structures are on the banks of Malaprabha river.

We continued our tour and left Pattadakall and proceeded to Aihole, again the monuments protected and Archeological Survey of India have made an enclosure, who are as group at one place, it is said that Aihole has many of old structures spread across the village.  There is entry ticket for the protected monuments site of Aihole and there is a museum too adjoining this place.  We engaged a guide here to explain the importance of the place.  Though he explained in detail on the various structures, he stressed that Aihole and Badami had been capital of Chalukya regimes and lot of the structures had been occupied by many people and when the archeological survey of India took the place from them. Some of sites have been named after them and some of the idols have been replaced from one structure to the other and some could be seen not matching the pedastal meant for and  as the height of some of figures cannot be accommodated in the space provided.  However they have been named and one such has been named as Suryanarayana Gudi.  A few of the photographs are given here.

We completed the major part of the tour with the visit to the Aihole monuments.  We returned to Bangalore via Davangere and staying for a night at Davangere duly enjoying the famous Davangere "Benne Dose".   On the evening of 07 04 22, we went Harihareshwara temple, Harihar.  Women were carrying the Tungabhadra river water in Khalasas and a festival was going on.  There were celebration with gaiety and fanfare.

The next day on 08 04 22, we started after breakfast and reached Bangalore by afternoon.