A tour of Vatapi Chalukyan realm - part1

One can never see enough of Aihole, the cradle of temple architecture, the laboratory of Chalukyan temple architecture. Anyone who hasn't seen Aihole at all must make an effort to visit it. I had visited Aihole seven times between 1996 and 2013, yet I wanted see it again. Pushpa hadn't seen it at all - something unacceptable for a resident of Dharwad. We found a reason to plan a trip to Aihole. A plan was formed, we would be seeing Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole, Mahakoota, Shivayogi Mandir and a few other places in this area between July 17th and 19th.

We left Dharwad early morning. Monsoon had set in fully, weather was really wet, our journey began in a rain. The rains lasted until Navalgund and then on it was partly cloudy but no rains. A few kilometers before Nargund town, Nargund hill comes. It was a sight to behold... the upper half was shrouded in clouds..

At Kulgeri we turned right towards Badami. I was traveling on Kulgeri-Badami road after almost a decade. The road had been widened, traveling now was much better than earlier. Our plan was to see the caves, temples, forts and hills of Badami first which would require a few hours which means it was better to have breakfast and then start the tour. We found a peaceful stretch, parked, stretched and then unpacked our home-made food. Jolada rotti, madkikaal, putani chatni and cucumber was our breakfast.

After a 20 minute stop, we resumed our journey. The road entering Badami had also been widened, a new flyover with an arch welcoming tourists has been built. Being familiar with roads here, I drove straight to the caves, the vehicle parking area wasn't crowded yet. Pushpa got the tickets while I took out the camera bag and locked the car. One thing tourists must remember here is not to carry any food items because of monkeys. Better not to carry anything extra, avoid taking handbags too.

On this rock-hill are five caves; four are manmade and one is natural. These cave-temples were made between mid of VI and early VIII Century. All the cave-temples are north facing and connected to each other externally by steps.

The cave interiors can feel stuffy since there's hardly any air movement. The moment we stepped out it felt better. However, if you remain motionless inside a cave, it feels okay.

Right besides Cave-2 is the natural cave. This is the view from the natural cave... Agstya Honda, Yellamma Devastana on the embankment, oldest part of Badami town and in the background is the north hill & fort. One could imagine this cave being used in the prehistoric times... tens of thousands of years ago, probably this cave was inhabited by a group. Back then, the space between south and north hills would be a jungle with a stream flowing in the middle. Maybe a natural pond existed which was developed to store more water around the Chalukyan times.

Between the natural cave and Cave-3 is a cleft through which runs a flight of steps to the hill top. Atop the hill are ruins of fort walls which is called the South fort. This is where I told Pushpa about my first visit to this place which was early 80s during summer holidays with a group of relatives from Dharwad. Back then a few of us had climbed up. The steps were high, foot-hold was narrow, which means it got really steep as we went higher. I don't think we climbed all the way up because of the gradient. A few years later, tourists fell down leaving one or two dead. Ever since the accident, a gate was installed barring access to the steps.

In 2011 I had come here again with two of my uncles. While they saw the caves, I engaged a local boy as a guide to show me North fort. Another cleft runs on the western side of this rock hill. My guide, Avanesh led me through a rather risky path to the hill top. After seeing the ruins of the walls and a lone canon, I was ready to descend. However my guide wanted me to see another spot, an ancient shrine. We walked almost a kilometer along the edge of the hill. The shrine was on the side of the hill... a rock-cut shrine with a small water-tank inside. The shrine is called Arali Tirtha. I was lucky to have seen Arali Tirtha. In fact this is one of the least visited spots of Badami. Thanks to Avanesh for being a thoughtful guide.

Cave-3 elevation is twice elevation of Cave-1 however the view of the water-tank is blocked by a massive rock formation. Of the four manmade cave shrines, Cave-3 is the largest. We spent more time here than the previous ones.

This is the view from Cave-4, the still surface of Agastya Honda. After an hour we should be exploring the northern fort which has more varieties to see... fort gateways, rampart walls, turrets, temples, mantapas, walk through a path flanked by towering vertical rock-faces, and a unhindered view of Badami town.

On the rock faces near Cave-3 and Cave-4 there are names etched which I assume to be the master sculptors' names. Also there are sets of small vertical lines which could be sculptors' work logs. May be they indicate the number of weeks worked.

Here's a collage and summarized info of the caves.

Cave	Period of making	Devoted to	Dimensions width x depth	Relief works
Cave-1	550 CE	Shiva	65' x 48'	Ardhanarishwara Nataraja Harihara Dwarapala
Cave-2	Late VI or Early VII	Vishnu	33' x 24'	Vamanavatar Varahavatar
Cave-3	578 CE	Mahavishnu	70' x 65'	AshtabujaVishnu Mahavishnu Narasimhavatar Vamanavatar Varahatavar
Cave-4	Late VII or Early VIII	Jaina	31' x 16'	Adinatha Bahubali Mahavira Mahavira & Jakkave Parshvanatha

Done with the caves for this tour, we decided to move on. This is the passage leading to Agastya Honda. These walls are part of Badami fort. A gateway at the end of this passage regulated access to the waterbody. Also, when the tank was full, excess water escaped through in passage and flowed towards Badami-Banashankari road.

Ancient gateway with platforms. Beyond the door, on the right hand side wall is a series of small shrines, none of them have deities. These shrines most likely had Shivalinga in them. At that period there was a practice of carrying out pooje immediately after bath i.e. the person would finish bathing in the tank, walk straight to the shrine dripping wet. Several water tanks or wells of Chalukyan times had this arrangement. One purpose built well is at Dambal, just outside the fort, locally it called Japada Bavi.

Badami hill and Agastya Honda. This very view after a heavy rain would be sight to see... a great waterfall covers half the perimeter of the arc. This flat-topped sandstone hill is approximately 8.3 km long and 3.6 km wide. On and around this hill are several historical monuments and of course the entire hill is a prehistoric site.

As we pan to the left the stepped embankment comes into view. On the ship-shaped mass of rock sits Badami's northern fort; and within the fortification are ruins of three temples and a royal meeting place. From here we find our way to Yellamma temple. These steps are around a foot high, twice the height of present day steps.

Yellamma Devastana is a fine example of Chalukyan architecture. In plan this east-facing temple has a pillared hall (Sabha Mantapa), a vestibule (Antharala) and a sanctum(Garbhagudi). Over the Garbhagudi is the Vesara type Shikhara. This temple has survived the ravages of history.

Done with Yellamma Gudi, we walk towards the northern fort. The path ran parallel to the embankment. Town municipality and tourism department together had refurbished this path a few years ago so that tourists could move around comfortably. The lanes were okay but the last part of the route was filthy. Somehow our people have aversion towards cleanliness.

At the fort entrance is the archaeological museum. We decided to see the hill & fort, come back and go to the museum. That way we could rest a while inside the museum. That's Pushpa posing in front of gate #1. 

After the third gateway.. those two Mantapa are said to be the kings' meeting place. To reach those pillared structures one has to squeeze through a narrow gap between two rocks. A part of the path is so narrow that only one person can pass at a time. With both ends well guarded, the meeting place is totally secure. 

We skip the kings' meeting place for now and climb up further towards the fourth gateway. The rocks flanking this path are at least 50' high, almost vertical. These rocks are home to several groups of monkeys. It's scary to see them clambering over the rocks. The small monkeys too are also confident but there are challenging spots where even they are extremely cautious.

This is the fourth gateway. Flanking the door is a pair of Dwarapala sculpted during the Chalukyan times. The path beyond the door forks out; to the left is the temple known as the Lower Shivalaya; the path to the right goes to the hill top.

That's Lower Shivalaya. It's a two storey structure and a partially remaining portico. The temple's Shikhara is an octagonal shaped dome. This temple was found in a badly damaged state, it was restored to the present condition by the ASI.

As seen from the Lower Shivalaya... houses crowd the space between the two rock masses. Four of five cave mouths are visible from here. At the top are ruins of the fortification. Also visible from here, to the left hand side is the King's meeting place, which is at a lower level.

After spending about 15 minutes at the ancient Shiva temple, we resume our trek. The fifth gateway was a minute's walk away and another couple of minutes we reach the sixth gateway, the last one.

This article will continue in A tour of Vatapi Chalukyan realm - part2.

.........