Badami: The Famous City of Caves and Rock Cut Temples in Karnataka.

Badami situated at the Bagalkot district of Karnataka state. Vatapi is the other name of this city. It is famous for its Caves and rock cut temples. These structures are carved during the Chalukya dynasty.

Have you ever been to Badami ? if not then let’s go now…..

What is ahead?

• History of Badami
• Badami caves
• Bhoothnath Temple
• Badami fort
• FAQ

History of Badami

The town of Badami formerly known as Vatapi what’s the capital of Badami chalukyas during the year of 540 -757 AD . It is mainly famous for its rock-cut structural temples and beautiful location around the Agastha temple.

Pulkeshanulkeshan first  founded the city and made this city as the capital of his state. The Chalukya Kings ruled Badami for 200 year.

Pallava King Narasimha Varma attacked Badami and defeated Chalukya and ended the Chalukya Empire.

The Badami cave temple was carved out of red sandstone hill in the 6^th and 7^th  centuries in a stunning natural setting. UNESCO declare this cave as world heritage site.

Places to visit in Badami are Badami caves,Bbhootnath Temple, Sivalayam Temple and Agastya Tirth Sarovar. So let’s start from Caves.

Badami caves

Cave no. 1.

Cave number one is the oldest cave in the group of 4 caves. This cave was built in the fifth century.

There are carvings of Lord Shiva’s Ardhanarinateshwar depicting the union of Shiva and Parvati as well as Harihar incarnation and there is also the carving of Nataraja Avatar while dancing the Lord Shiva  orchestra.

There is also a sculpture of Lord Ganesha and Nandi. The cave also has a carved sculpture of Goddess Lakshmi and Parvati to the left of Lord Shiva.

Beside this there are sculptures of Lord Ganesha, Lord Kartikeya, Lord Vishnu and dharmadev. Ceiling of a cave consists of a sculpture of Nagaraja which is a snake in coiled form.

Cave no. 2

Cave Temple 2 is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu in the cave is in the Varah and Trivikram Avatar. You can see views of the Puranas on the roof of this temple in which you can see Lord Vishnu’s incarnations.

This cave has an interesting sculpture of Vamana with his foot on earth. . You can see Varaha avtara of Vishnu where he is rescuing Bhudevi from the depth of the ocean.

Beautiful carvings of story of Lord Krishna’s birth and youth is present here.

The ceiling of the cave consists of 16 fish spokes which is amazing to watch.

Sculptures of cave 2 are just like cave 1 or of the northern style in the 6^th century. Same which found in Ellora caves in Maharashtra.

Cave no.3

This is the largest cave among the all four caves in Badami. Cave temple 3 dedicated to Lord Vishnu. You can see Trivikram and Narasimha Avatar there. Apart from this,tourists can also see the description of the wedding ceremony of Lord shiva and Goddess Parvati in the mural painting with other Gods attending the wedding.

Statue of Vishnu seated on Serpent is a masterpiece in this cave.There are beautiful Paintings on ceiling and pillar. Painting and carving are broken, faded and unclear. These are one of earliest evidences of Frisco  painting in Indian art.

At one end of the ceiling we can see the struck culture of Vamana having various hands and holding different weapons.

Cave no.4

The cave temple 4 is dedicated to Jainism. Picture of Lord Mahavir in the sitting position as well as the picture of the Tirthankar Parshavanath is in the cave.

There is carvings of different sizes of culture of Mahavira on the pillar and wall ceiling of this cave as well as Idol of Bahubali , yakshas, yakshis and Padmavati are in the cave.

After Badami caves, let’s head towards the beautiful location in Badami which is Bhootnath Temple.

Bhootnath Temple.

The temple complex is believed to be built in the 5th century. These temples are dedicated to Lord Shiva.

It is on the bank of lake Agastya and it’s on the opposite side of the Badami cave.

Water covers three sides of the temple which makes it priceless. This is one of the best places to see in Badami after the Badami caves.

Behind the main temple there are two more temples with excellent carving. There are carvings of Hindu gods on the wall of this Temple. These carvings are in single rock and have images of Lord Vishnu, Lord Ganesha , Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu, Narasimha Avatar of Lord Vishnu, Shivling and Nandi.

One of the temples contained sculpture of Lord Ranganatha in a resting form like Lord Vishnu.

The other Temple at the end has huge rocks and one has to crawl to go inside the temple. It is an amazing experience.

Badami fort

Badami Fort lies towards the left of Bhootnath Temple Android opposite to the Badami caves Temple. Entrance to this port is right through the Badami museum. It is a stiff climb with many viewpoints.

This fort was the residence of Chalukya rulers. The fort was destroyed by the Pallavas 642 AD. Tipu Sultan rebuilt the walls of the fort and added several structures.

You can see the Chalukyan style of architecture in the fort. The fort is surrounded by a double fortification wall. There is a statue of Nandi at the entrance of the Fort.

 There are two shivalaya temples in the fort viz. upper and lower shivalaya. The lower shivalaya is of Lord Ganesha’s. This Shiva layer is relatively small yet very beautiful. From here you can see the beautiful view of Badami village.

There is a 16th century cannon which looks down to the village.

The Shivalaya on top of the hill is much bigger than the lower shivalya. There is rectangular wall of temple with a passageway on three sides.

After knowing all these things about Badami let’s see what exactly to see there.

FAQ

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Trupti Dhokane