Subramanyan

Splendour amidst the rocks

Posted by Guhan | Filed under travel

I had a great 2009 and I was happy it ended with my trip to Badami, North Karnataka. Badami is a taluk in the Bagalkot district of North Karnataka. This is the place where the Chalukya kingdom flourished 1500 years ago. My mother has been itching to go to Badami for a while now. I had been here about 15 years back and I remember calling this place the grand canyon of India, because I remember the red rock and the rocky canyons.
South India is famous for its temples, intricate stone work and extravagant structures in honor to various deities. Temples in south India follow the Dravidian architectural style. Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram, ( 60 km south of Chennai ) is a representation of the earliest surviving Dravidian style temples (around A.D. 500). This style flourished for centuries and reached its zenith when the massive structures in Madurai and Rameswaram were built.
Grand view inside the 3rd cave in Badami The Chalukyan style originated in Aihole around A.D. 450 and was perfected in the neighboring villages of Badami and Pattadakal (all in Bagalkot district of Karnataka). Chalukyan artists are known to have experimented with different styles, blended the Indo-Aryan Nagara and Dravidian styles, and evolved their own distinctive style. We went to Badami, Pattadakal, Lakkundi and Aihole and were completely awed by the temples. Each site represents very vividly the experimentation by the artists and we could clearly make out the evolution of this unique architectural style.
The Bagalkot district is about 480 kms from Bangalore, which is a over night journey by bus or train. The Yeshwanthpur Bijapur express has a 3 min stop in Badami ( by popular demand I am sure ). Hampi Express is another train which reaches Gadag which is about 70 kms from Badami. Going to Gadag might be a good options because its closer to Lakkundi and is a much bigger city than Badami. These trains are popular and one must book at-least 2 weeks in advance. The trains follow Indian Stretchable Time which is +- 1 hour :-)
The best hotel in Badami is Badami Court. But this hotel is about 3 kms away from the town. We stayed at Hotel Raj Sangam which is about 1 km from the Badami temple. The rooms are big and all basic necessities are available. One of the better food joints is in the same compound. After check in, we were all really eager to swing into action. The first day we choose to go to Aihole and Pattadakal. Aihole is about 35 kms from Badami and Pattadakal is about 10 kms from Aihole. Aihole has its own historical significance and is often the Cradle of Hindu rock architecture.
Aihole was the first capital of the early Chalukyas. There are close to 100 temples around this region and its easy to see why this place was considered to be a test bed for rock cut architecture. Each temple site is different and grand in its own right. Aihole was the first capital of this region before Pulakesi I, one of the greatest rulers of this dynasty, moved the capital to Vatapi, also known as Badami. The main temple site is really well maintained by the Archeological survey of India (ASI). The Durg temple is a stunning sight. Crowds flock here because its the most prominent and any tourist brochure or word of mouth will suggest this being the only place to see. But if you are interested, going around some of the smaller roads will take you to some of the other stone temples. Galaganatha group temples is one of nearly thirty temples on the bank of the Malaprabha River. It is sad to see how badly such beautiful temples are maintained. The sites around the temples served as grazing grounds for cattle and shelter for the tired farmer. One of my favorite temples here was the Ravana Phadi cave, one of the oldest rock cut temples in Aihole. I think this temple is similar to the rock cut temples in Badami. This temple dates back to the 6th century, with a rectangular shrine, with two mantapas. There is a Shivalinga in the inner room or sanctum. The Sculpture of Nataraja or Dancing Shiva is a stunning sight. The carving is intricately decorated and various avatars of Lord Vishnu is all around the cave temple. The sculpture to look out for is that of Bhringi, who was considered to be a saint who vowed not to eat anything. The statue shows a malnourished saint in prayer to the lord shiva.
With the experience gained by working on the soft rock in Aihole, the Chalukyas went on to build the great temples of Pattadakal. Again, the main temple site is well maintained by the ASI. There are ten temples including a Jain sanctuary surrounded by numerous small shrines and plinths. Four temples were built in Dravidian style, four in RekhaNagara style of Northern India and the Papanatha temple in mixed style. The best temple here is the Virupaksha temple, built by Queen Lokamahadevi (Trilokyamahadevi)in 745 to commemorate her husband’s victory (Vikramaditya II) over the Pallavas of Kanchi. The temple closely resembles the Kailashnatha temple in Kanchi which served as a model for this temple. The architects of the kailasanatha temple in kanchi was assigned to built the virupaksha temple as well. The pillars in the temple’s mukha mantapa contains scenes from mahabarath, ramanyana, bhagavatham and kiratarjuneey. There are 8 pillars in the temple with the sculptures of amorous couples and the fascinating this is the hair-do of the men and women in the sculptures, Each hair do is unique and dare i say fancy. The temple walls are embellished with scultpures of lingotbhavar, pikshandavar, Rathi-Mamatha, Harihara, Ugranarashimar. In a pillar near the main entrance you will see a scultpure of a ten headed ravana lifting mount kailasa. The sangameshwara temple in pattadkal is the oldest temple in pattadkal. King Vijayadithya commenced the work of this temple but this temple was never completed. The walls of temple and the pillars are decorated with mythical animals like Yali. The sculptures and designs found in this temple has a striking similarity to those found in the Ankor region of Cambodia.
The next day, we drove down to Lakkundi which is about 70 Kms from Badami in Gadag district. Lakkundi is famous for its intricately carved stone pillars and shrines. A old villager in that area told us there were around 100 small shrines and most of them are destroyed by the locals and some of them have become walls of a village house. There are around 11 temples in this area and only 6 of them have been selected by the ASI to be preserved. Among the well preserved the Brahma Jainalaya and Kasi visvanatha are the most beutiful temples. There are few temples for Lord Brahma in India (even though he is a creator of all living beings), This temple has a beautiful scultpure of a four faced Brahma in mukha mantapa and Mahivira in the main sanctum. My favorite temple here was the Kasivisvesvara temple. The stone carvings are brilliant, some of them stand out, literally. The carvings are so beautifully done that some of the elephants and figures are in not fully part of the stone panel, they are intricately carved. The Kasivisvesvara temple epitomizes the shift in Chalukyan artistic achievements, the carvings are much more detailed and complex. Lakkundi is also famous for its many stepped wells. One of the main kalyani can be found in the nanneshwara temple. The structure is impressive, but the area around and the approach is really bad. Compared to the main temple site, the other temples are not too attractive, and the town growing around the heritage site does no justice the splendor of the stone work.
On our way back to Badami we stopped in Gadag to visit the famous Triambakeshwar temple, which has a shrine for Sarawathi and if I am correct the only temple shrine saraswathi. According to indian mythology Saraswathi and Brahma are not to have shrines dedicated to them. The pillars in the Saraswathi temple are exquistely carved. The ceiling of the temple contains sculptures of all navagrahas. The pillars are made of green stones and the carvings in the pillars contain sila balikas and mini rekha nagaras. The entrance to the main grabha griha is exquisitely carved. The panels had sculptures of kinaras and gandharvas playing music instruments. These sculptures were carved out of a single and rock and the insides were scoopped out and made into a hollow structure.
We drove back to Badami by 4:30 pm in the evening. Badami was earlier called Vatapi. The name Vatapi has origin in the Vatapi legend of Ramayana relating to Sage Agastya. There were two demon siblings Vatapi and Ilvala. They used to kill all mendicants by tricking them in a peculiar way. The elder Ilvala would turn Vatapi into a ram and would offer its meat to the guest. As soon as the person ate the meat, Ilvala would call out the name of Vatapi. As he had a boon that whomsoever Ilvala calls would return from even if dead, Vatapi would emerge ripping through the body of the person, thus killing him/her. Their trick worked until Sage Agastya countered them by digesting Vatapi before Ilvala could call for him, thus ending the life of Vatapi at the hands of Ilvala. Two of the red rock hills in Badami represent the demons Vatapi and Ilvala.
The urge to see the grand cave temples of Badami was too much to resist. The beautiful red rock canyon houses many spectacular sculptures a sign of Chalukyan art work. A Rs 10 ticket seems modest for maintaining such a great site. The Badami Cave Temples are composed of four caves, all carved out of the soft Badami sandstone on a hill cliff in the late 6th century. The four caves are simple in style. The entrance is a verandah with stone columns and brackets, a distinctive feature of these caves, leading to a columned mandapa and then to the small square shrine (sanctum sanctorum) cut deep into the cave. The temple caves represent different religious sects. Among them, two are dedicated to god Vishnu, one to god Shiva and the fourth is a Jain temple. The first three are devoted to the Vedic faith and the fourth cave is the only Jain temple at Badami. Their architecture is a blend of North Indian Nagara Style and South Indian Dravidian style. As described above each cave has a sanctum sanctorum, a mandapa, a verandah and pillars. The cave temples also bear exquisite carvings, sculptures and beautiful murals. The best sculpture is in the 3rd cave entrance of Dancing Shiva or Nataraja. The carving represents nataraja with 8 arms in various dance poses. The statue is said to represent the 64 dance poses of Bharathanatyam in great detail. All the statues in the cave temples are stunning in their own way.The view of vishnu sitting on a serpent seat amidst the sand stone pillars in cave 3 is breath taking. Apparently all the caves were decorated with colorful paintings. Today there are only traces of this art work. These paintings were all seen even till 1975, but since then most of them have been erased. Only a photograph of this art work can be seen in the museum on the other side of the Agasthya lake.
Pillars in Badami Caves The last day, we had to go back to the cave temples, and decided to get there early in the morning to beat the crowds. The play of the early morning sun light over the red and brown sand stone rock with the back drop of the Agasthya Lake and the Boothnath temple at the far side of the lake is truly one of the best sights I have seen in all my travels. This is feast for people interested in photography. A leisurely climb up to the 4 caves was the perfect early morning exercise.
We visited the Bhoothnath temple next which is really scenic when seen from the steps to the lake. I did not find the architecture of this temple particularly beautiful compared to some of the temples we saw in the last couple of days, but there is something really divine about a old temple on the banks of an ancient lake with the red rock canyon all around. Next we visited the Kappe Arabhatta rock which is the the first Sanskrit inscription in old Kannada script. This rock is part of Kannada history and has a lot of significance in Kannada literature. They have cordoned off the approach to the rock and for good reason. Tourists touching and rubbing the script might destroy it like the paintings in the caves in badami. From here, we visited the museum and climbed up the other hill to the left of the Agasthya lake to reach the fort and shiva temples. The Boothnath temple on the banks of Aghasthya lake Its a bit of an adventure to reach the temple, walking through a natural gorge.
It was a tiring day, but a fitting end to the trip to this beautiful and historical part of Karnataka. Our yeshwanthpur express train back to Bangalore was late by about 1 hour :-)