OUR TRIP TO BADAMI IN KARNATAKA
Neha Kadre - 7th Standard, Bangalore
12th April 2015
On the 9th of April 2015, at 4:45 p.m., my father,
mother, brother, grandmother, both my grandfathers and I left for Badami. We
were heading towards the Bangalore City Railway Station. Our train, Golgumbaz
Express, was scheduled to depart at around 7:10 p.m. We reached the station at
6 p.m. My brother and I were very eager to get on the train. This coach was not
an A/C coach, because we could get reservation in second sleeper coach only.
The train arrived from Mysore at 6:30 p.m. and we got inside. Our coach number
was S7. The train was going from Mysore in Karnataka to Solapur in Maharashtra.
Our stop Badami was somewhere in between these two places. We took our seats
and locked our luggage under the lower births. After sometime the train began
to move and we all got settled.
Some of the passengers spent time looking out of the window
while others were simply busy talking to each other. The train picked up speed
only after a few stations passed. Many vendors started coming to sell various
things - water bottles, butter milk, tea, coffee, cold drinks etc. Few people
came to take orders for the night meals as well. Around 8 p.m. we had our
dinner. My mother had packed us some pooris
with vegetable potato, curd rice and pickle. We also had some snacks, juice and
chips before the dinner.
After the dinner we all went asleep. I had a real sound sleep
on the top most birth. I woke up early the next morning and when I found that
everybody else was still asleep, I lied down again to take a nap. When I woke
up again, everybody was awake. I got down and sat with them and we had morning tea.
We reached the station at 7:30 a.m. The train left as soon as we all got down.
We walked out of the station and took a 7 seated auto to our hotel- Mookambika
Deluxe. Later we took the same auto for sightseeing as well. In the hotel, we had
booked 3 rooms as we all were seven in number. The rooms were large and
comfortable. By nine thirty, we all freshened up and went to have our breakfast.
Immediately after breakfast we all left for the local sightseeing.
We first decided to take up two places around Badami-
Pattadkal and Aihole. Badami, Pattadkal, and Aihole are places that were built
during the rule of the Chalukyan kings. We first went to Pattadkal – some 30
kms from our hotel. There were nine temples at that place, of which in only one
temple people still go to worship. That temple is known as Virupaksha Temple. The Chalukyan
architecture was a mix of northern (nagara) and Southern (dravida) styles of
architecture. Idols of Lord Shiva, Nandi and other god deities were commonly
present on walls. There were many pillars on which inscriptions were written.
These inscriptions were written in Sanskrit and old script of Kannada. Many
parts of these temples were ruined by the early Muslim emperors.
There is a lot of history behind this place. All the temples
were really beautifully carved. After Pattadkal, we went to visit nearby Aihole.
This place was also known as the school of architecture as the Chalukyans developed
their architecture techniques here. They started with base or the Primary
School level. Then they got an idea of how to go about doing architecture
through which they progressed to the second level or high school. Next, they
advanced into the third rung or college level and finally excelled in the final
stage or the degree level. They showcased all these stages on pillars and
walls. We reached Aihole in about half an hour. In Pattadkal there are only
nine temples, but here in Aihole, there
are over a 100 temples. We first saw the Durga Temple. This temple isn’t of
Goddess Durga, but it means that it is surrounded by a fort (or ‘Durg’ in
Hindi). This temple looks like the Parliament House of Delhi from the front and
like a passenger ship from the side. Here also, there are many pillars with
inscriptions on them. The Chalukyans had also built the structure of a house –
just to showcase how the houses in their periods looked like. Each window has
different kind of architecture. On walls and pillars there are images of Lord
Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and other gods. Images of women were carved on walls with
various dresses and hairstyles each. The same hairstyles and dresses are worn
by women even today! The incarnations of lord Vishnu were carved on many walls.
There was also an old library present there. In one temple there were many
pillars on which there were hundreds of carvings. On one pillar the story of
Ramayana was carved whereas on another pillar the Mahabharata found its place.
Many of the carvings were incomplete and we do not know the reson behind it.
This place was really brilliant! We saw a few more temples in Aihole and finally
returned back to our hotel. We had finished our sight- seeing for the day. We
ate lunch and took some rest. In the evening it rained very heavily and so it
was cool the next day.
We set out early in the morning the next day to go for a
pooja in the Banshankari Temple. My grandfather and my grandmother went inside
the pooja hall in the temple offered the pooja to our goddess kuldevi. We sat outside the hall and
waited. Soon after, the goddess was fully covered with saris, jewels and
flowers that were offered to her. After the pooja we went to have our
breakfast. Next, we went to visit some cave temples. There were many monkeys in
and around the caves so we left our bags in the auto. I enjoyed climbing up and
down the stairs that lead to different caves. The caves had been made out of
one huge rock. There were carvings here too. They were all so outstanding! The
view was fabulous from the top. After seeing the caves we went downwards to the
Bhoothnath Temple. Around the temple there was a huge lake. The temple was
beautiful.
By late in the afternoon, we had finished our tour in and
around Badami. We went back to our hotel and slept for a while. In the evening
we went to the railway station to return back to Bangalore. Our train arrived
at 7:55 p.m. and we got in. We had dinner and slept. We reached Bangalore on 12th
April morning, which was fortunately a Sunday. This trip of ours was very
amazing! Everyone must visit these temples. It is indeed a very beautiful place
to visit....
Thank You,
Neha Kadre
