Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Badami , Pattadakal and Aihole Trip plan

Badami was the capital of Chalukyas (~550-750 AD), founded by Pulakesin I. 

How to reach From Mumbai:

Tr noTrain nameDeparture timeOriginating stationDestination
14806Yesvantpur Express2242 KalyanBARMERBANGALORE
11139 Gadag Express2127DADARBADAMI

Catch the Siddheswar Express to Solapur and the Gol Gumbaz express to Badami or Bagalkot.

 Bagalkot is a better place to set up base if you want to visit Bijapur also and the Almatti dam .

Where to stay:

Badami is the best location if you are planning to stay overnight as Aihole and Pattadakal are just small villages with no worthwhile tourist infrastructure. 
But my personal experience is it is better to stay in Bagalkot this the district headquarters of Bagalkot district carved out of Bijapur and the general condition of the town is pretty good and the new town or Navnagar is coming up where all the Govt offices are located

What to See: 

Badami:

The main attractions of Badami are its caves. There are four main caves. The first one is dedicated to Shiva. It was excavated by the Chalukyas in 550 AD. The second one is dedicated to Vishnu. In this cave there are statues of Vishnu avatars like Varaha, the boar or Krishna. The third cave is also dedicated to Vishnu and the last one is a cave with Jain representations.. Climb to the caves is steep but the view from the top of the Agastaya lake and the Bhoothnatha temple is breathtaking. 
View Larger Map
Pattadakal:
The group of monuments in Pattadakal were nominated in 1987 by UNESCO for its world cultural heritage list. The best known monuments are 
The Virupaksha temple
The Sangamesvara temple
Mallikarjuna Temple
Jambulinga Temple
Lot of good restoration work is being done by Archaeological survey of India, though the pace may be slow as os with all restoration work, local materiel is used in all restoration, i saw a complete structure rebuilt from the scattered remains( mostly stone blocks) whatever was missing they substituted with new blocks to match the structure, fantastic work.

Aihole:

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