Badami ,Aihole, Pattadakal were in my Travel priorities for this year. But I never imagined, I will get a reason to plan the trip so soon. Giri was getting married on 22nd June 2014. He was one of my best friend in college. All these schedules were small in front of our friendship. So I decided to attend his marriage and planned for the trip. I convinced Manji, Vinay for the trip and choti was already ready for the trip. With my brother's help we booked a cab for our trip. I took my colleague Manoj's help to get the information about Banshankari temple. We planned to leave Bangalore on 20th Friday and reach Bangalore on early morning of 23rd June or by night of 22nd June.
We were supposed to leave by 7:30 PM. But reluctant and workaholic Vinay was always late. when we left Hebbal, which was our pickup point, watch was pointing to 9:30 PM. We had dinner in a Daba near Tumkur at 11:10 PM. In between we stopped for tea. Other than that Driver was non stop. We can't call him driver also since he was the owner of the car and he came on my brother's insistence. Gowdru as we called him is a nice person. Manji who sat in front slept after few hours. But I was awake and was talking to Gowdru.
Till Hubli we used NH4 highway. And then vi NH218 reached Badami Road. Before Badami we took right turn. This road was pathetic. Somehow we managed to reach Banashankari. Our first visit was Banashankari.
Morning when we reached Banashankari it was 6:45 AM. We took a room for 500 Rs and freshened up.
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| Infront of temple |
Original temple was built by Chalukyas. But the new structure is built
by Maratha chiefs. That's why it attracts pilgrims from both Karnataka
and Maharashtra. From 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM we did pooja in the
temple.Then we had breakfast near the temple.
Badami
We reached Badami caves at 10:45 AM. Once the capital of Chalukyas, Badami is one of the most attractive places found in India because of the cave temples. Blended with Indo-Aryan Nagara and Dravidian style, Chalukya style has evolved as one of the best architecture found in India.
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| Cave Temple Badami |
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| Count the hands |
You can find above sculpture while entering Cave 1.You will also find guides who will explain the significance of these statues. Above statue is having 64 hands.
Cave 1 :
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| Cave 1 |
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| Inside Cave 1 |
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| Shiva's sculpture in Cave 1 |
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| Lord Shiva Temple in Cave 1 |
There are 4 caves in Badami and each cave has a temple within. Cave 1 is dedicated to lord shiva. You can see the nandi and shiva linga in the picture.
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| In between Cave 2 and Cave 3 |
Cave 3:
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| Inside Cave 3 |
Cave 3 has one of the biggest statue of Lord Vishnu. I forgot to take the photo of that statue since my friends were in hurry.
Cave 4 :
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| Inside Cave 4 |
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| Jain temple |
Cave 4 is Jain temple which belongs to 8th century. There is image of thirthankars in the walls of the temple.
After seeing all the 4 cave temples, we moved towards museum.Our Tyre was punctured because of the bad road we passed through to reach Banashankari. He dropped us to Museum and went to garage for filling the puncture.
There are many other good temples in Badami and some of them are little bit having Dravidian style.
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| On the way to Fort. |
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| Fort entrance |
Before going to the museum we went to a fort. We climbed steps and crossed big cave rocks. Penetrating through 2 big rocks we came near a view point.
Agasthya lake in the background is a treat to watch. We took some photos there and went back some steps to the diversion which lead to the Malegatti Shivalaya.
Malegatti Shivalaya is one of the oldest temple in Badami which is having Dravidian tomb..
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| On Badami fort |
While climbing on the way, we saw many temples. Then we went to Museum. Cave entrance and Museum fee were only 5 Rs. It had archaeology and sculptures of Chalukya regime. It seemed like a historical tour going back to Chalukya's time. People were tired and they wanted to take rest. So I alone moved to take the glimpse of Bhuthnatha group of temples.
Buthanatha group of temples
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| Buthanatha group of temples |
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| Closer look |
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| closer look |
These temples along with Agasthya lake was a treat to watch. Their architecture looked similar to the one in halebedu. I think the government is not doing enough to encourage the tourism in this area.
After seeing Bhuthnatha temple, we moved to Pattadakal. We were hungry and decided to have lunch in Pattadkal. We had jowar roti with thick curd sitting near Pattadakal heritage entrance. You find many locals trying to sell their home made rotis, curd and buttermilk outside the heritage. It was delicious and we enjoyed it.
Pattadakal
22 km from Badami, this heritage centre is having a spectacular range of temples belonging to 7th and 9th century.Like Badami, this was also capital of Chalukyas.
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| Lord Vishnu |
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| Range of temples |
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| Virupaksha temple |
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| Sangameshwara temple. |
After seeing these range of temples monuments we moved to Aihole at 2:55 PM. Really felt bad for some of the sculptures destroyed by outsiders.
Aihole
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| Durga temple |
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| Damaged sculpture |
At 3:20 We were in Aihole. Aihole temples date back to 510 AD. Every one was tired and it was drizzling outside. I alone decided to go out and completely watch the Aihole temples. I paid 10 Rs as entrance and museum fee and started watching each and every temple's architecture. Some of them were damaged and I felt bad seeing the situation of those sculptures. Then I went to museum where I found the different style of sculptures shown. Nagara style, Darvidian style , kadamba style, mantapa style and gaja prishta style. I would like to explore much into this style but with my less knowledge I don't want to write more about those style.
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| Public pond |
Here are some of the sculptures photo I have taken out side the museum.
Camera was not allowed inside museum and I observed those information and noted down. There were many temples including Jain temples. More you explore into the architecture more you will be thrilled to know such art. After watching most of the temples keenly I rushed to my friends who were waiting for me outside. We left Aihole at 3:55 PM to Koodala Sangama, a place which is famous for aikya mantapa of Basavanna.
KudalaSangama
KudalaSagama is the main pilgrimage center of North India. I always regard Basavanna with utmost respect in my life. His life is an inspiration to all of us, who fought against rigid caste system. It was well constructed town with wide and clean roads. Here Krishna and Malaprabha river merges and move towards Andhra pradesh.
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| Board showing merger of river |
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| Aikya Samadhi Basavanna |
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| Sangamanatha temple |
If other places were architectural beauty , this place gives you calmness and peace. I enjoyed the spirituality when we got down to see the Aikya Samadhi. We prayed for 15 minutes and then climbed the steps to see the sangama. Cold air was pushing us to back. I sat there for 10 minutes and then moved to take Darshana of Sangamanatha God. Even after we went outside the temple premises we took rest under the Banyan tree. Then we moved to Banahatii for Giri's marriage. Our lust for food continued there also. We had authentic north Karnataka food in one kanavali.
Next day we joined our other friends for Giri's marriage. It looked like whole village was there in the marriage. We enjoyed the hospitality and after lunch we decided to go back to Bangalore. On the way we went to SDMCET and met many people we know. At 11 PM we were all dispersed to our huts. It was indeed one of the memorable trip with my best buddies.
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| With Giri ,his brother and friends |
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