The hunger to explore our beautiful Karnataka took us to Badami this Dussera
holidays. Usually in KSTDC or any other travels, the places we covered are
covered in 1 day. But we being lazy covered it in 5 days. 2 families – Mine and
Gautham’s went by train overnight to Badami from Bangalore. Stayed in one Good
resort in Badami all days and covered all places by locally hired taxi.
The entire album with detailed comments is here. Do open each photo with
info to read detail of the photo and place:
The places we covered are:
Day 1: Banashankari Temple, Kannada Hampi University Traditional
Sculpture Centre, Museum, Prasanna Venkata Dasara Katte, Badami Caves
Day 2: Almatti Dam & Park, Krishna River, Yalagooreshwara temple,
Koodala Sangama, Ilakal;
Day 3: Aihole, Pattadakal, Mahakoota; On the way maize fields
Day 4: Thoravi Narasimha, Bijapura Gol Gumbaz (The family returned back
to Bengaluru from Bijapur)
Day 5: (Explored alone due to a function I was attending in Dharwar
next day) Gadag Veeranarayana temple, Thrikuteshwara temple; Lakkundi temples
and basadi;
Observe the photos of Thrikuteshwara temple and Lakkundi to appreciate
the finesse in sculpture & art on each pillar, wall, and door frame. It is
almost equivalent to the Hoysala style architecture.
Chalukyan History
Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole are the triple heritage centres
showing the zenith of Chalukyan contribution to the posterity. While Aihole is
called the Primary school, Badami as High school, Pattadakal is called the college
of the Chalukyan sculptural extravaganza. Aihole is small dusty town but boasts
of hundreds of temples. It was a school for artesans & architects. So you
see many northern and Deccan style temples. Similar experiment with higher
degree of precision is there in Pattadakal. Badami takes the cake in exquisite
Cave temples.
The Chalukyan temple architecture is dotted around many
towns across the length and breadth of Karnataka. It also shows decline of
Jainism in Karnataka during their period or may be soon after. The kings &
edicts sure show harmony and equality to all faiths. In Badami, the 4th
cave is dedicated to Jainism although at that time, their population was less
than 5%. It seems like the majority political power appeasing the minority is
eternal in India. However in Lakkundi I could very easily spot the Jain Basadi
converted to Shiva temples. May be during their times or after. The changing
faiths, local chieftains changing priorities, the local political pressures
might have conceded these changes.
Chalukyans ruled our Karnataka from 6th to 11th
century. Their empire at the zenith of Pulikeshi II extended from Narmada River
in the north till Kaveri in the South. He defeated Harshavardhana at the
Narmada banks and raided Kanchi in south defeating the Pallavas of Tamil.
Karnataka being host of great sculptural heritage, Chalukyan temple
architecture is second in sequence of chronology & also maturity. The first
being Kadambas and Rashtrakutas developed initial temple architectures.
Chalukyans took it to a greater height. The Zenith of finesse in sculpture
comes in Hoysala period of 10 to 13th cent, testimony of which you
can find in Belur, Halebid and numerous towns spread across Karanataka. After
the barbaric raids from Mallik Kaffar a general from Mohammad of Ghazni, the
Kannadigas were crest fallen. Almost a century went by in some kind of a stoic
silence. There were many smaller kings, provinces trying to maintain some
sensible living. Then Vijayanagara empire came about establishment around 14th
century consolidating and reviving the Hindu Culture. Post Islamic barbarism,
in no shy manner, Vijayanagara kings called themselves Hindu Surathrana, the
saviors of Hinduism and called for unification of Hindu kings. And
through their meticulous harmonious ruling, they created a free and fair
environment for all faiths to co-exist and construct great towns, temples &
architecture.
Clockwise from top down:
Near Badami Boothanatha Temple; Gadag Thrikuteshwara temple
Garbagriha; Lakkundi temple;
Notice the actual door is small; The load bearing pillar and
then the frame each side and atop are very wide; The carvings are intricate.
Badami is Red sandstone, so less intricate; Gadag and Lakkundi are black fine
stone; The carvings are exquisite;
In one temple, the door frame has 1 inch sculpture
series depicting Krishna leela; You can move your fingers in the air gap; It is
like Thorana of Krishna leela
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This peacock loving pair is taken by Indian Medical Associates as
their emblem
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Ganda Bherunda – The 2 headed Eagle with 1 body is a royal symbol
chosen by Mysore Wodeyars. In the modern world the KSRTC our state transport
corporation chose this as its emblem.
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You will notice many such beautiful window designs in each and every
temple.
There many other motifs on temple walls used for saree making, block
printing.
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Ancient water management: It is small, beautiful &
sustainable. It serves the city even today after a dozen “centuries”!!
Photo of Agasthya Thirtha serving city of Badami.
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Modern day Water Management: It is just stupid, & barbaric. It is very very large.
Serves very few for few days in an year for few years. Submerges a whole lot.
High maintenance, needs modern cement, power, fuel daily. Lives for 50-100
years max.
Photo of Almatti dam across the mighty Krishna.
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What is Heritage?
After visiting these places you will be convinced what real heritage is.
Heritage is art, architecture, man made beauty blending with god made nature. In
the ancient past people built heritage which serves humanity even today.
In the modern day, are we building heritage which will serve posterity?
Will Manyata tech park stand tall after petrol & coal gets over in a couple
of century? Or will it become like Bombay ghost mills? Will we continue to lift
& pump Kaveri water from 200kms and pump to a million houses in Bangalore
for a century more? When Bangalore
retires to the history of great culture, what will it retain with it? May be
Lalbagh, because it has water in it! And may be few temples because Bhakti is
eternal & economical!
Hope these glimpses entice you to pay a visit to understand our heritage
better. These places are very friendly. Kannadigas are very warm and welcome. Whatever
your language, caste, creed, religion, people make you their own.
