Badami-Aihole-Pattadakkal Trip

It had been three months since the Gokarna-Murdeshwar trip and I was badly looking for a trip of some sort. As I was reading “PONNIYIN SELVAN” during that time, I wanted to visit some place  with a historical significance. It was SriLanka with which our brainstorming sessions started . But, as usual, we did not reach a consensus with the island destination and finally we had to narrow down our choices to places within India. When the equation finally depended on time constraints as well, the place had to be within a night’s reach from Bangalore. A surf through the Karnataka Tourism website presented us with the places mentioned in the title of this post.

We were indeed lucky enough to have direct train services between Bangalore and Badami and had the tickets booked one month in advance. The second weekend of July arrived at last and we were off from the office pretty early that day as we had to catch the train at 1945 from a station which is around 20-30 kms from our office. We were able to reach the station an hour before the train’s departure. Once we boarded the train, the usual conversations which happen in our office cafeteria  resumed here as well. The biggest advantage of train journey is that it provides ample space for conversing comfortably with friends/family members which is usually not possible in a bus journey. As the train departed, it started raining heavily, but it failed to interrupt our conversation and it continued its work outside the train.

Badami, known as Vatapi in the ancient past, is the erstwhile capital of the Chalukya kingdom ruled by Pulikesi for over three decades. It was his sons who constructed the cave temples (according to the data in wikipedia). It was later conquered by the Pallavas and was ruled by them for a short period. They were again driven back by Vikramaditya. The historical town lost its importance once it went out of  Chalukya’s control.

The train dropped us in Badami railway station at around 8 am the next day. The station looked dilapidated, but the caves did not. A number of auto-rickshaws waited eagerly to receive us and get us into the town. We hired an auto-rickshaw to reach the town which was about 5 kms from the station. We spotted a KSTDC approved hotel right at the middle of the town and went inside to have a look at the suites. It took about half an hour for us to get convinced with a room which suited all our requirements.

After refreshing ourselves, we were ready for the expedition. We got a cab through the hotel and he agreed to take us through all the three heritage sites.It was drizzling all the way – a perfect setting for exploring the country side. We headed straight towards Aihole, a place about 40 kms from Badami. Aihole boasts of housing about 50 and odd temples all of which are perfect evidences of Chalukyan experiments with the sandstone.

Aihole consists of a collection of temples which are very near to each other. The most important temple in Aihole is the Durga temple which is rectangular at one end and semicircular at the other end. The temple tower happens to rest on the semicircular base and it presents a spectacular sight when viewed from any side.

The next prominent temple seems to be the Lad Khan temple which has a sloping roof unlike the normal flat roofs seen on most of the typical Dravidian style temples. It also has a small tower over the roof which is also a unique experimentation which I have never seen before.

Apart from these two temples, there are a number of other temples with both pyramidal and curvilinear towers which are a treat to the human eyes. Apart from the temples, one could see the experiments performed with our dear Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha appears in a number of never-before seen odd shapes in Aihole.

After spending about 2-3 hours in Aihole, we decided to move ahead to Pattadakkal which is about 20kms from Aihole. Pattadakkal is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pattadakal also houses an array of temples in a single complex which have the power to mesmerize anyone who pays a visit there. Most of the temples in Pattadakkal have curvilinear towers which are a blend of both Dravidian and Aryan style architectures. If it was Ganesha who was experimented with in Aihole, it is Nandi in Pattadakkal. Apart from the towers and Nandis, the artwork on the temples is too intricate to be described by words. They are examples of very fine and precise craftsmanship which cannot be obtained today at any cost.

Our driver said that he would take us to a temple called Mahakuta en route to Badami. Unlike the temples in Aihole and Pattadakkal, Mahakuta temple is a working temple like the ones in our vicinity. It is a typical South-Indian style Shiva temple. There are two ponds in the temple. In one of the ponds, there is a small Ganesha statue right at the middle. A person sits at one end of the pond holding a small cradle like thing in his hand. He asks the people who come to him to convey their prayer to Ganesha by placing any amount of money on the cradle and swing it towards the statue. The other pond in the Mahakuta temple is a natural spring in itself. A few people were swimming when we went there.One of the persons explained to us the unique nature of the pond. There seems to be a Shiva statue inside the waters which is not visible from outside. In order to get a glimpse of the God, one has to swim across the pond and get inside , which was the practice followed during the kings’ regimes.

Our next stop was the most awaited cave temples of Badami. The cave temples  in Badami are perfect examples of the secular nature of the Chalukyan emperors.  The cave temples are constructed in such a way that there are four layers on top of each other.There are two caves on either side of the lake which is known as the Agastya Theertha. One cave consists of four layers of temples. Not knowing much about the other cave, we started exploring the first cave.

There are four levels in the caves. The temple at the first level is dedicated to Lord Shiva with statues of Lord Shiva and Parvathi and a statue of Lord Nataraja.The second level is dedicated to Lord Vishnu consisting of a statue of Lord Vishnu on one side and Athisesha on the ceiling.The third level is also dedicated to Lord Vishnu depicting the various awatars of Vishnu. The fourth level is dedicated to Jainism which displays reliefs of Jain Thirthankaras. There is also one more cave located on the other side of the Agastya Theertha which we decided to explore the next day.

We woke up to a slight drizzle on Sunday morning and refreshed ourselves. We took an auto to the other cave and alighted at the foothills of the cave. We spotted the steps that led to the top of the cave. A group of small boys were playing near the steps. When we approached the steps, two of the boys offered to accompany us to the top of the rock. They were indeed courteous enough to explain whatever was known to them about the historical town. They also took us to an isolated part of the cave which we would have definitely missed had we ascended the cave on our own. One has to literally bend down to pass through the tiny entrance and get through the steps which led to an open space from which one could get a beautiful view of the historical town.

After spending a few minutes there, we proceeded further to the top of the cave. Our unofficial guides did not follow us anymore and we went up on our own. Since the weather was amicable, we could climb easily.After about half an hour, we reached the top of the rock. There is a huge open space at the top from which breathtaking views of the town are available. There are a few small temples as well at the top of the cave. After spending an hour at the top of the cave, we descended down to venture into the other parts surrounding the lake.

Once we reached the foothills of the cave, we started walking along the circumference of the lake. There is a temple at one corner of the cave and is known as the Bhoothanatha temple. The temple remained closed and we moved ahead with the drizzle following us all the way. We spotted one more cave temple at another corner of the lake. We had to bend down through the tiny opening and get inside. It was pretty dark inside the cave and it had statues of Mahavira and the sage Agastya.

We moved ahead from the cave temple and went a little deep into the small bushes surrounding the lake. A large number of statues are kept amidst the bushes depicting the theory of evolution. The first among them are the statues of primeval apes and human beings.Then there are statues of other common people, kings and other government officials during the kings’ regimes. The last of the statues was the one depicting the last stage in life – Sanyasa. The statues seem to be deployed recently during some festival and they are not carved out of sandstone like the other statues in Badami. After glimpsing at the statues for some time, we headed to the hotel room for vacating it. It was almost two in the afternoon when we reached the hotel room.

We were supposed to board our return train from a place called Gadag, about 70 kms from Badami. So we took a local bus from Badami to Gadag. We reached Gadag by 4 pm. Since we had enough time to kill there , we had decided to visit a temple called Trikuteshwara temple. We enquired the localites for directions to the temple. We were once again lucky enough to get a group of small boys who had offered to accompany us to the temple.

The Trikuteshwara temple is a small working Shiva  temple. The temple is actually embedded within a colony with a number of houses surrounding it on all sides. This temple also contains artwork which is very intricate and will be appreciated by anyone who visits it.

After spending about half an hour at the temple, we took an auto and left for the station to catch the train. We were back in Bangalore the next day.

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