Badami

Time: Dec 25-28 2008
Places: Harihar, Haveri, Kaginele, Savanur, Gadag, Banashankari, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole, Kudala Sangama, Almatti Dam, TB Dam, Navabrindavan
Company: Parents & wife
Album: Click here
Highlights:

Day 1:

Left Bangalore at 5 am in Indica cab to Haveri.
Idly for breakfast at Tumkur at 7 am.
Suddenly thought of going via Harihar.
Went to dad’s ex-colleague’s house in Harihar. Coffee. Nice and cute in the laid back city.
Went to a nearby Ram temple but it was closed.
Visited Harihara temple. Hari is Lord Vishnu and Hara is Lord Shiva. Idol comprises of both Vishnu and Shiva. Idol was found in the Tungabhadra river which flows beside this city. Amazing carvings in the temple especially the pillars. Pillars are all full of rings and apparently each of them is subtly different.
Went to Raghavendra Swamy Mutt on the banks of the river. This is one of my favorite Mutts. Day being Thursday, RS Mutt visit was almost a necessity and it happened at the nth moment because door was being closed! Also went to the river bank and sprinkled the Tungabhadra river on each of us. TB river was supposedly interspersed with Pushkar and had become extremely sacred for 12 days till 24th dec. Such interspersion(!) happens only once in 12 years.
Left Harihar to Haveri.
Reached Haveri at 2.30 pm.
Attended Gouri’s cousin’s engagement + lunch.
Left Haveri at 4.30 pm to Kaginele.
Reached Kaginele at 5 pm. (15 kms from Haveri)
Kaginele is the place where Kanakadasa saint took birth. Kanakadasa was a very rich man who left all his riches and became a devoted saint.
Nice and small Vishnu temple at Kaginele. Conch shell used by Kanakadasa is still in this temple.
Left Kaginele at 5.15 pm and reached Haveri at 6 pm.
Left Haveri after tea and reached Savanur at 7.15 pm. (Haveri to Savanur is 35 odd kms)
The great scholarly saint Shri Satyabodha Teertha's Brindavana is present at Savanur.
Reached Gadag at 9.30 pm. (Savanur to Gadag is about 60 odd kms). Stayed overnight at Vishwa lodge.

Day 2:

Went to Dad’s ex-neighbour’s (when he was in Davanagere) Kagadagar’s house. They spent close to an hour reminiscing good ole days. I don’t remember much of those times though. Everybody happy about the reunion after so many years. Although Muslims, they were devout Brahmin supporters as well as loyal to the core Muslim beliefs.
Went to Gadag’s famous Veera Narayan temple. “The legend goes to say that Naranappa better known as Kumaravyasa narrated the great epic before the lord by invoking the blessings of the Lord. The legend says that Naranappa got the inspiration to narrate the epic only during the time he sat before the Lord in a holy posture in a wet cloth dried up.” (From wiki)
Breakfast and checked out of the hotel at 10.30 am.
Reached Shakambari temple of Banashankari at 1 pm. (Gadag to Banashankari is about 70 odd kms). Darshan and offered saree to Goddess. Day being Friday, visit to Banashankari Goddess is supposed to be sacred.
Reached Badami city at 2 pm. (Banashankari to Badami is about 4 miles). Lunch.
Reached Badami cave site at 3 pm.
Badami is not the original name of the city. Its named so because of its almond colored stones everywhere. Badami is almond in Kannada.
Badami has 4 set of caves. 1st set is devoted to Lord Shiva. 2nd and 3rd are for Lord Vishnu and 4th is for Jain.
An amazing set of sculptures, esp the first Shiva idol which has about 18 hands – 9 on the right and 9 on the left. Together, 81 bhangs (dance positions) are depicted in just one idol. Then there are sculptures like the rotating fish atop roof which Arjuna had to hit using ground mirror, Lord Vishnu’s Vaaman avatar, Ardhanaresh (Shiva-Vishnu as one), the very first Gomateshwar (this one is 6th century AD, the one in Shravanabelagola is of 10th century AD), the 2 heads but 4 children sculpture, the sculpture which looks like a kid from one angle but like Lord Hanuman from another angle, color paintings and their palette, smiling Narasimha after being victorious, etc.
Also a lake borders the caves whose water is said to flow down from the river, carrying with it medicinal value and this lake’s water is said to cure any disease. But now due to people washing clothes, it no longer has medicinal value.
Reached Pattadakal at 5 pm. Badami to Pattadakal is less than 20 kms.
Nothing much here except more sculptures and temple-like structures. River Malaprabha flows beside this site. Its supposed to be the only river which flows from south to north. Because of this uniqueness, its considered to be sacred. Because of this sacredness, kings of this palace had to first undergo coronation in this river, sitting on a stone. Stone is kallu and coronation is Pattabhishek in kannada. Hence the name Pattadakallu.
Reached Aihole at 6 pm. Aihole is less than 15 kms from Pattadakallu.
Originally called Aryapura. Arya means scholar and pura means place. This place had about 5000 scholars at one point. But when Parashuram (Vishnu’s 6th avatar) wants to cleanse himself off all the sin he has committed, he releases the blood of all those whom he had killed in the only river which travels from South to North as it is sacred. This river happened to be River Malaprabha and the place happened to be Aryapura. When blood was released to this river, river turns red. Seeing this red river, a village gal exclaimed ‘Ai! HoLe.’ "Ai" is a sign of exclamation and "HoLe" is river. Hence the name AihoLe.
Similar sculptures in Aihole as in Badami but in shorter form. Here we see some interesting sculptures like stone ladder, origin of current-day door patterns and girls’ fashion designs, etc.
Aihole is considered as primary school, Badami is considered as High school, Pattadakal is considered as college and Belur-Halebid is considered as university in terms of sculpture-learning of the then era.
Had tea and left Aihole at 7 pm to Kudala Sangama. Aihole to Kudala Sangama is about 40 odd kms.
Thanks to losing our way and huge number of school children everywhere, had a tough time getting a room and waited almost 1 hour for dinner.
Found a room at last in Inspection Bungalow and slept at 11 pm.

Day 3:

Morning bath at Sangama. Sangama (coming together) of the rivers Malaprabha, Ghataprabha and Krishna.
Lord Shiva temple and Basavanna’s Samadhi. Panaromic view of the Sangama.
Also visited some strategic places like the huge auditorium and the tower building from where it is believed that 23 villages can be seen.
Left Kudalasangama after breakfast and check out at 10.00 am.
Traffic jam on NH 13 because of an accident caused an hour’s delay.
Reached Almatti dam at 11.30 am. Kudala Sangama to Almatti is about 40 odd kms.
An amazing dam and the best part was the rear side of the dam where one can play with the stored dam water. The artificial lake is a beautiful place to enjoy the serene beauty. Reminded me very much of Lake Tahoe.
Tyre puncture. So more snaps of the dam. This time from front view!
Reached Yelaguru at 1 pm. Almatti to Yelaguru is about 5 miles.
Yelaguru Hanuman temple is a very famous shrine in these parts. Day being Saturday, visit to Lord hanuma temple is supposed to be sacred.
Lunch at Almatti and left to Hospet at 3 pm.
Reached TB Dam at 6 pm but missed the sunset. Almatti to TB Dam, Hospet is about 130 odd kms and beautiful road.
TB Dam is another awesome engineering marvel. Great gardens and great view.
Halted at Hotel Shanbhag in Hospet overnight.

Day 4:

Left early to Navabrindavan which is about 20 odd kms. One way is through Anegundi (lots of teppas (small round boat) available + good road all the way + long teppa ride) and another is through Kamalapura (few teppas + mud road for about 4 kms + 2 min teppa ride). We went through the Kamalapura road but car got struck midway on the mud road and hence walked the rest of the distance. Teppa person came after a long time. Kept waiting at a nearby house. It was a small village house but in reality they owned 80 acres of farm land and their total value was 3.5 crores of rupees!
Reached Navabrindavan at 9.30 am. Wonderful bath in the fast flowing Tungabhadra river. Nice darshan of the 9 (nava) saints. My second time but dad’s and Gouri’s first time.
Saints include Madhwacharya’s disciples like Vyasaraja, Padmanabha, Sudheendra, etc.
Return to car after teppa and long walk.
Return to Hospet.
Lunch and check out.
Left to Bangalore at 2 pm and reached home at 10 pm.

Overall, traveled 1312 kms and it costed about Rs 1000 per day. Taxi charges almost came upto Rs 9000. A long pending trip at last came about, thanks to the Christmas long weekend!