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Moving on from Pattadakal, I made a visit to the temple at Mahakuta. It was an impulsive decision – I had initially planned to spend a whole day in Pattadakal, but at some point changed my mind to go to Mahakuta. It turned out to be a good idea.
Unlike Pattadakal, Mahakoota’s temple is still alive with a deity(Lord Shiva in the name of Mahakooteshwara) and pooja happens everyday. That also means a fair happens here once a year which brings in people in large numbers. When I arrived there a little after 2pm, I met with usual bus loads of school children. I walked around the temple and was pleasantly surprised with the interiors.
Unlike its neighbours, this is not a temple that is restored to its original shape and maintained neatly by ASI. On the contrary, sections of the temple are dusty and unmaintained while the main courtyard is in good shape. A few modern additions and restorations have happened to suit the need of the temple, but it still retains the old world charm. The best and most beautiful part of the temple are the ficus trees that don the interior and have spread their tentacles all around to block the sun. Some of the temple gopuras are completely enveloped be the leafy trees and gives them a charming look.
The real temptation of the temple is a little fresh water pond in the main courtyard, with a appealing mantapa in a corner of it, and covered by trees all around it. The water in the pond is continuously replaced by a spring emerging from the ground, which keeps it fresh and clean. When I arrived, many of the children were swimming and bathing in the pond. After walking around the temple for a few minutes, I settled down comfortably, watching the kids at play in the water.
In some time, the cool of the shaded and leafy courtyard had made me close my eyes without my knowledge. When I woke up and saw the time, it was nearly 3.30pm. The group of children in the pond had gone, and there were no visitors left in the temple. There was complete silence around and only people in the temple were a couple of staff who sat idly in a corner. The absolute silence in the pleasant atmosphere filled me with peace and held me to the place. I took another slow walk along the inner walls of the temple, visiting each of its shrines.
Mahakoota’s temple has an attraction that I have not seen anywhere in its neighbouring counterparts. Roots hanging from ficus trees, leafy gopuras and the silence inside put me in a state of solitude and feeling of fulfillment I had always longed for. It is an experience I wish went on forever. Along with the all this, I spotted a Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher – an unlikely guest in these parts – who hopped around the gopuras with me for a few minutes and went away. I wonder if he was here just to complete my experience.
Sometime later, I jumped into the fresh water pool and had it all for myself for almost an hour. Needless to say, it was pleasure at its best form. Mahakoota was the highlight of my visit to the region, I had the time of my life in those waters. I left Mahakoota unwillingly as the sun was about to set and had to return to my temporary abode at Badami. It is an experience not to forget.
Continued at: The Cricket Hour at Aihole
Hampi >> Badmi >> Aihole >> Pattadakal
+Previous: Banasankari Temple
+Next: Mahakoota
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Buses from Badami to Pattadakal were not very frequent. Some one was standing at the edge of the bus stand and shouting ‘Pattadakalla.. Pattadakalla..’. I went with him to a waiting matador, which started off only after a good half hour. By the time I reached there, it was nearly 9.30am.
A section of the temple complex
Like Badami and Aihole, Pattadakal also received bus loads of children on school excursions. It is a pattern I have got used to in the last couple of days. A bus comes in honking loudly and stops near the temples. Children rush out of the bus, not heeding much to the shouts of their teachers and run towards the temple complex. They group together at the gate and unwillingly assemble in a queue when the teachers shout at them. Once the entry tickets are bought, they walk in through the narrow gate and quickly break from the line into a few huddles of friends. Suddenly temples will be full of shouts and noises within no time. Smaller children run around quickly along the temples amusing themselves, the bigger ones walk in ‘style’ and get their photographs taken along with their best buddies. In a few minutes it is all over, especially if the group decides not to hire a guide. It is like a storm coming in suddenly and moving on as suddenly without causing any damage. Silence claims back its place once again in the temples.
It is slightly different when they hire guides. The ASI guide addresses a large gathering of various type of kids. The ones close to the guide listen to him with a clear expression of awe in their eyes. The backsiders are always trying to escape and looking for distraction, but are helplessly held by the glare of the teachers. The most studious once are easy to identify – they walk around with a note book in hand.
It gets as noisy as it can as long as the kids are around. But it is good to make them see these places – it definitely gives a good visual of our history and heritage; much better than just having to learn about them in the text books.
Pattadakal is a UNESCO world heritage site, and has a temple complex dating back to 8th century. It is said that a considerable amount of architecture in Southern India is borrowed from here, with Hoysalas and other dynasties taking cues from here and evolving further. I wonder if they had learning students coming into the temples in large loads those days too and make all sorts of noises, I don’t know! The complex, restored by ASI has temples in various architectural forms, which sometime seem to be experimental. There are a few tiny temple like structures that are only a few feet high, and my guide explained them to be ‘model temples’ built before the big ones were made. It is also one of the few places where both southern(dravidian) and northern(nagar or rekhanagar) style of architectures are found in the same place.
Jambulingeshwara temple. In the background is Kadasiddheswara temple
Galaganatha temple with nagar style goupra is one of the prime attractions of Pattadakal
On the walls of Kadasiddheswara temple, which is built in rekhanagar style. Walls of Rekhanagar style temple are usually plane and you see very few or no carvings.
The temples are made of sandstone. The carvings have been fading and softening over the years on the external walls due to effect of sunlight. Besides, until ASI took over the area a few decades ago, people had occupied and lived in this temple and had imparted considerable damages over the years. But ASI’s restoration work has been excellent.
Viroopaksha temple is built in Dravidian style and has many fine carvings on its walls and gopura
Carvings on a pillar of Viroopaksha temple
My guide took me around, showing me through Galaganatha, Mallikarjauna, Virupaksha temple among others. The temples with nagar architecture, like the Galaganatha temple are visibly distinct from the Dravidian architecture in the style of the Gopuras ans absence of intricate carvings along the temple walls. The Dravidian style temples consisted plenty of stories carved along its walls, primarily from Ramayana and Mahabharata, and some more on the lifestyles of those days and some erotica.
Malaprabha river with temples in the background
It took me a few hours of wandering along the temple complex, which is located right next to Malaprabha river. The location of the temples is said to be holy, since the river flows as Uttarabhimukhi(flowing from south to north), unlike most rivers that tend to flow east to west or west to east. Infact the same theory applies to Ganga in Varanasi. I walked crossed a bridge to get views of the temple from other side and spent some time there. I was planning to stay on till evening, but changed my mind sometime in the afternoon and headed to explore Mahakoota, another temple half-an-hour away from here.
Continued at: Mahakoota
Hampi >> Badmi >> Aihole >> Pattadakal
+Previous: At Hampi, One evening
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I took a bus from Hampi(see previous post on Hampi) to Badami via Ilkal. I stayed there for next four days, using Badami as a base to go around Pattadakal and Aihole. While I was there, I also visited tiny temple villages – Banashankari and Mahakoota.
I arrived at Badami around 4.30 in the evening and immediately headed towards the caves. I was up for a surprise when I reached there. Thought I had seen many pictures of the caves, I was not ready for the size of the rocks and its deep colors. The giant rock in which the caves were carved are probably a good hundred meter tall from the ground. And the sandstone has a deep reddish color that looks very charming with the evening light. Agastyamuni or Agastya Lake was yet another surprise. It is a huge lake with rocky hills surrounding it on three sides and sandstone temples at the feet of these hills. It is worth being there in the mornings and evenings of winter.
Agastyamuni Lake
One of the cave temples
Inside the temple
Next morning, I woke up early and walked up to the top of the hill opposite to the cave temple, on the other side of the lake. I was on the top a few minutes before sunrise and sat down at a strategic point to witness sun coming up from the top.
Views from the top of the hill
A little later, I noticed a darga on the top of the hill, where a small bunch of people had already gathered early in the morning and cleaning up the premise, supervised by an old man. I walked across the Darga looking for a good place to sit and spend sometime. A few monkeys who inhabited the ficus tree next to the Darga seemed to be unhappy to see me approaching them, but nevertheless put up with me after grunting a bit. I sat far from the Darga, but at a distance where I could see them and occasionally when someone talked loudly, hear them. Prayers started sometime after eight and a priest started chanting. To my surprise, there was a mix of pooja to Hindu and Muslim gods and prayers switched between Sanskrit and Persian! The priest went on to the sound of a bell saying ‘Om Namahshivaya’ followed up with ‘Om Ali Bhai Namah'(I hope I remember the name right), and after sometime, would switch to Persian. I was later to learn that a Hindu and Muslim saint stayed together in the premise, which explained the whole thing.
Terraces of Badami’s houses, seen from the hill
One of the temples on the top of the hill
I spent a few more hours walking around the hill exploring the ancient temples on the hill and looking at the lake, cave temples in the opposite direction and getting a bird’s eye view of Badami town. The way back to the town took me throw narrow gaps in the deep red sandstones, which is incredibly pretty.
Way to the hill from the town
Way to the hill from the town
That evening, I walked along the lake, along the Bhoothanatha(lord of demons – Shiva) temple complex and the ASI museum. I did not go into the museum, but the museum’s structure is built nicely to complement the premise and the ancient structures of Badami, instead of the usual pale yellow government buildings. Bhoothanatha temple is on a majestic setup with a hill rising behind it and the grand Agastyamuni lake in front of it. I sat on the steps of the lake watching the U shaped hill, ancient Bhoothanatha temple and the cave temples till the sun went down.
The grand setup of Bhoothanatha temple
While I sat there, two brash young kids came into me and started a conversation. They lost interest in me in a few minutes and looked around for something to amuse themselves. A few goats were passing by, and one of them chased a goat with another one running right behind him. They caught the goat, pulled it to a side, laughing all the time and started milking it! A few seconds later, I think they did not find that exercise worthy either, and let off the goat and walked away laughing out loudly.
Of the four days I was there, I spent another morning visiting the caves, and the Malegitthi Shivalaya temple on the hill opposite to the caves. Bhoothanatha temple was easily the most impressive of the temples I have seen in Badami, and the steep sandstone rocks are very beautiful to look at. Walking among these sandstone paths is a nice feeling.
Malegitthi Shivalaya
About Badami’s Temples
The templats of Badami are set on a U shaped hill with Agastyamuni Lake in the center of it. At the mouth of the U(west) is a mound that was built to create the lake and this separates the lake and Badami town. To one arm of the U(south), carved to the walls of the hill are the cave temples. Bhoothanatha temple is located at the bottom of the U(east). Malegitthi Shivalaya temple and a few unnamed temples without idols are on the northers arm of the hill.
Of the four cave temples, third one is the largest and has some fine carvings
There are two major set of temples in Badami – the cave temples and Bhoothanatha temples. Interestingly, of the four cave temples, three are dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu while the fourth one is a Jain temple. Temple 3 is the largest and has some fine carvings.
Inside the fourth temple, which is a Jain temple
The temples were built by the kings of Chalukya dynasty who ruled a large part of South India from 6th to 8th century. Badami was the capital of Chalukyas.
Badami’s Monkeys
Badami has a huge population of monkeys, and I had heard a lot about monkey menace. I did not get to see much of this in the first three days. At the darga where there were many monkeys, they seemed harmless and did not bother me. However, on the last day when I went back to the cave temples again, they were creating a few problems. Someone told me about a monkey flicking an expensive digicam, and warned me about it. I saw a monkey pulling off a long bunch of Kanakambara flowers that a lady was wearing. One of them even tried to see if it can open my bag. They can create problems if you are not careful, but fortunately are not aggressive enough to scare you.
Conti
nued at: Banashankari Temple