The Land of Caves
By Aishwarya Iyengar
Badami was known as Vatapi and was the capital of the Badami Chalukyas, which was mainly famous for its rock cut structural temples and beautiful location around the Agastya Temple.
We reached Gadag closest city to the site at 6 am by an overnight bus from Bangalore, and had booked a decent hotel to freshen up and keep our luggage.
We were a bunch of 8 people and tried to get ready hurriedly as we had booked a Private Tata Sumo to take us around the historical places.
On reaching Badami, we entered from the museum side and started to walk towards the caves.
vIt was a 2/3km walk inside the neatly paved road and it’s a heaven for photographers and history lovers!
The beautiful Bhadra River lures you to sit by its side forever offering a breathtaking view of the Badami Village and Northern Hills.
Take a walk behind the temple and you will find two more temples with intricate carvings and within a few meters, there is a small Chalukyan structure under a huge Rock, forming the cave temple.
vIt’s worth climbing all the levels of caves. The first three caves are dedicated to the Hindu gods whereas the fourth cave to Jain gods.
Each cave has an extensive elaborate historic symbolism, any history buff would need to take a learned guide and spend more than a day here.
Aihole was earlier known as Ayyavole or Aryapura, the first capital of the Chalukyas before Badami.
The main attraction here is the Durga temple which looks like the Indian Parliament House. The masterpiece is a fusion of the South Indian Dravidian style and the North Indian Nagara style.
We had an early bus to Hospet the next day and decided to call it a night, stay tuned for what was ahead.