goUnesco 2 : Group of Monuments at Pattadakal
May 7, 2012
Pattadakal is an enchanting name in the history of Indian temple architecture. With Badami & Aihole, both equally great centres of art & culture, provide significant cultural relics and an unbroken cultural sequence dating from the early paleolithic period have been traced to this region! The Badami-Pattadakal-Aihole area was such a busy place during its hey-day that it is even mentioned in Ptolemy's "A guide to geography".
Surrounded by hill ranges of soft pinkish red sandstones with sparse scattered forests, the original settlement here was called "Kisuvolal" (red valley city). As per kannada inscriptions from 1162, the most important kings of Puranic lore (Nriga, Nahusa, Nala, Vasu etc) came down to the red valley city to celebrate their coronation known as "Pattada bandha mahotsava". Thus the celebration & the place name merged to give the existing name of the site "Pattadakal". Vatapi & Ilvala were two evil wealthy brothers who were subjugated and refined by Agastya Mahamuni, allegedly in this region. The elder brother gave his name to Aihole (Illavala, Ayyavole etc) and the younger one gave his name to Badami which was the capital of the 1st major south central kingdom of India, Badami Chalukyas.
We stayed in the still-renovating KSTDC guest house in Badami (which is the nearest big town) and hired a nice comfy auto-rickshaw to get around the three sites (which took us 2 days, 3 if you are slow, 1 if you just want the highlights). Our first stop was the Banashankari Amman temple which is quite popular in Karnataka. The picture above shows the deepa stambha of the temple! We then proceeded towards Mahkoota, a shiva temple! But what managed to keep us there were the large banyan trees and a nice little water tank that thankfully helped us beat the heat.
Next stop was Pattadakal, the highlight itself. The chalukyas started their temple experiments in Aihole, later in Badami and then perfected the style in Pattadakal. The temples of two distinct styles (the Indo-Aryan & the Dravidian) styles found in their earliest stages of development in a single place in Pattadakal. Thus, this site then forms the basis of temple architecture development, both in the south & north of the country. Considering the vast temple heritage that we in India have, it is only deserving that this site is declared as UNESCO world heritage.
After a good 4-5 hours in Pattadakal we moved towards Aihole, a wierd yet lovely ride in an auto along a route completely devoid of any traffic but strewn on both sides with temples, caves and other historical mini sites. When we reached Aihole, that's when we realised why this was the first experimental site for chalukyan temple architecture. After visting about 20 temples, each different from the other, we really got an idea how determined the Chalukyan kings were in getting their style perfected.
In the Durga Temple at Aihole I came across this local family. The man brought his wife, son, mother-in-law and a bunch of children fron his village ~40kms away to show them around the temples of Aihole. The old lady was patiently explaining mythical stories to the kids all the while pointing them to various sculptures in the temple. If we have such kind of families passing on stories across generations, we can be rest assured that our heritage is well & intact! Needless to say, they were thrilled to get a family picture :-)
The last site to visit was ofcourse our base city of Badami. The historical city of Badami is almost mythical, built completely into the huge rocks that now sit in the centre of the existing city. Huge, Tall, Imposing!
And into these rocks are cut some of the most delicate cave temples, and the delicacy of the work almost makes you think the rocks could be woven like a fabric back in the days of the Chalukyas. To satisfy the telugu film fan, these huge rocks form the location where Vikram Rathore hunts down the goons in the movie Vikramarkudu!
I could go on and on writing about how wonderful the site is, how delicate the carving is and how the stories are briliantly portrayed in rock. But that wouldn't be doing any justice to the legacy of the Chalukyas. The only worthy tribute to them would be to visit the Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal circuit. Do it atleast once in your life!
Surrounded by hill ranges of soft pinkish red sandstones with sparse scattered forests, the original settlement here was called "Kisuvolal" (red valley city). As per kannada inscriptions from 1162, the most important kings of Puranic lore (Nriga, Nahusa, Nala, Vasu etc) came down to the red valley city to celebrate their coronation known as "Pattada bandha mahotsava". Thus the celebration & the place name merged to give the existing name of the site "Pattadakal". Vatapi & Ilvala were two evil wealthy brothers who were subjugated and refined by Agastya Mahamuni, allegedly in this region. The elder brother gave his name to Aihole (Illavala, Ayyavole etc) and the younger one gave his name to Badami which was the capital of the 1st major south central kingdom of India, Badami Chalukyas.
After a good 4-5 hours in Pattadakal we moved towards Aihole, a wierd yet lovely ride in an auto along a route completely devoid of any traffic but strewn on both sides with temples, caves and other historical mini sites. When we reached Aihole, that's when we realised why this was the first experimental site for chalukyan temple architecture. After visting about 20 temples, each different from the other, we really got an idea how determined the Chalukyan kings were in getting their style perfected.
In the Durga Temple at Aihole I came across this local family. The man brought his wife, son, mother-in-law and a bunch of children fron his village ~40kms away to show them around the temples of Aihole. The old lady was patiently explaining mythical stories to the kids all the while pointing them to various sculptures in the temple. If we have such kind of families passing on stories across generations, we can be rest assured that our heritage is well & intact! Needless to say, they were thrilled to get a family picture :-)
The last site to visit was ofcourse our base city of Badami. The historical city of Badami is almost mythical, built completely into the huge rocks that now sit in the centre of the existing city. Huge, Tall, Imposing!
And into these rocks are cut some of the most delicate cave temples, and the delicacy of the work almost makes you think the rocks could be woven like a fabric back in the days of the Chalukyas. To satisfy the telugu film fan, these huge rocks form the location where Vikram Rathore hunts down the goons in the movie Vikramarkudu!
I could go on and on writing about how wonderful the site is, how delicate the carving is and how the stories are briliantly portrayed in rock. But that wouldn't be doing any justice to the legacy of the Chalukyas. The only worthy tribute to them would be to visit the Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal circuit. Do it atleast once in your life!
Posted bySandeep Sekharamantri at 7:04 PM
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