Karnataka on my own - something like that !

Life for me in the last 3 years has been a very long journey, can't stay in one place for more than a fortnight. But the last couple of months have taken me to Karnataka quite often and mostly alone, so decided to go sight-seeing to kill some time. I was surprised to find out that Karnataka has such beautiful places to visit over and above the famous ones like Mysore, Banglore and Hampi. Our country never fails to surprise me, when I least expect it and in the most amazing ways.

Firstly I would like to inform everyone about my current location, i.e. Toranagallu (hope you can pronounce it correctly), Bellary District, Karnataka, if you are still lost, then I am in the southern central part of India. As the weekend was approaching I decided to surf the internet and look for the places I could visit near Toranagallu. As I has already been to Hampi, which is around 50 kms from here, I decided to visit Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal, these places are around 150kms from Toranagallu. These 3 places were under the Chalukya Dynasty from the 4th Century AD uptil the 8th Century AD.

I had to start my day at 4a.m., for those who know me very well, will know that how difficult it would have been for me ? I had booked a private cab to take me there, and he told me that it will take 4 hours just to reach the place, as the roads are very bad coupled with heavy tipper movement. The roads weren't that bad for most parts but the air was filled with iron ore dust which made visibility very low. In this part of India the hills are rich in iron-ore reserves, hence, it is a mining hotbed for both legal and illegal miners ( Illegal mining is much more prevalent and lucrative as environmental clearances are hard to come by and vigilance is very low ).

We reached Aihole at 8.30a.m. which is good to time to visit these places as the tempretures are very high during the afternoon. Aihole was the first capital of the Chalukya Dynasty from the 4th to the 6th Century AD, and is home to around 125 temples both small and large of Hindu and Jain deities. Out of these only 15-20 have been taken over by the Archaeological Survey of India, the most prominent among those is the Durga Temple (sorry couldn't upload the pictures as I am not aware how to). As this was their first capital the architecture is very basic and primarily in the Nagara Style (North Indian Aryan Style) and Dravidian Style architecture. Aihole is considered as the school of Chalukya Architecture where they learnt the basics and experimented with different styles inherited from the Northern and Southern parts of India.

Next stop Badami, it was the 2nd capital of the Chalukya's from the 5th to the 6th Century AD, here the rock-cut cave temples are the most prominent and beautiful, along with the cave temples the Chalukya's have built a fort which also is home to some more temples. There is also a pond between the fort and the cave temples, on the banks of the pond, one finds the picturesque Bhoothnath (one of the incarnations of Lord Shiva) Group of Temples. Badami has four sandstone rock-cut cave temples, cave 1 belongs to Lord Shiva, caves 2 & 3 to Lord Vishnu and cave 4 to Jain Tirthankars, these caves took 28 years to build and out of those, 12 years were devoted to cave 3 which is the grandest of them all. If Aihole was the school then Badami can be considered as the Degree College of Chalukyan Architecture.

From the rock-cut temples of Badami to the astonishing temple complex to Pattadakal, the University of Chalukyan Architecture, the temple complex consists of 10 temples and Virupaksha Temple is the most prominent among them. The Chalukya's built these temples in the 7th and the 8th century AD, Pattadakal in Kannada means the place where the kings are coronated, it has been home to 94 coronation ceremonies. The place was considered holy as it is situated on the banks of Malaprabha River which flows from the south to the north. As one enters the premises of the temple complex, it is home to 4 main temples and 6 small temples which were basically built as blue-prints for the larger ones. The first 3 temples are built in the Nagara Style, the pecularity of this style is the shikhar which is built in curvilinear form. Then we move on to temples built in the Dravidian Style i.e. the shikhar is built in step form. Form these we move on to the Virupaksha and Mallikarjuna Temple which are built in the Chalukyan Style i.e. a blend of the Nagara and Dravidian Style of achitecture.

The Virupaksha and Mallikarjuna temples have excuisite carvings and their pillars are carved with stories of Krishan, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Panchatantra (classical Indian Stories). The outer walls have carved windows, each with a different patters and with intricate carvings of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Rightfully the place has been bestowed the World Heritage Site status by the United Nations.

Was done with seeing all the places by 2.30 pm and had a very spicy Kannada meal, it was just too spicy but it was a nice experience having the local cuisine. And when on the way back to Torannagallu made a stop over at the Tungabhadra Dam, just in time to see the sunset. It was a fitting end to an absolutely amazing day.