Bagal Kot weekend getaway

Laying on the sleeper seat of the bus my body kept jumping or shall i say occasionally floating as the bus swayed over rough and scared roads
.but i was in a deep slumber.It had been a very tiring but exciting day.My mind was filled with visions of caves and prehistoric men .I wondered what
great patience people used to have to carve their feeling and deities in the cave walls .....I had been to "Badami" the first capital of Chalukyas.


The BONE wreaking journey ..
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We had plan to visit Giri (badri's brother ) at Bagalkot and from there planned to hire a cab for sight seeing.Although i had heard about the notoriety of the roads to Bagalkot ,this was the first experience I ever had and needless to say it was close to a nightmare ;-)

the Road resembled the Surface of the Moon ,with Crater marks and uneven curvature .And worst we went in a NOT SO COMFORTABLE Rajhamsa bus .... the 8hr journey turned into 12 hour journey when in middle of night ,at around 3.00 AM .

I woke form the nightmare only to find that there was a puncture in one of the buses tires and the driver and his assistants were fixing the issue with light from a mobile phone ;-)

But the pain of the journey was greatly reduced by the scenic beauty the usually surrounded us during our journey.


I felt as if all my internal body parts(kidney,liver,lungs heart etc) had exchanged their places ;-)



After a quick wash we started for Badami caves .





the Journey through the village was quiet good break form the traffic jams and smoke filled air of the city also there were several Rocky Hill formations which captured my attention.




And then we reached the caves





These caves are considered an example of Indian rock-cut architecture, especially Badami Chalukya Architecture. Badami was the first capital of the Early Chalukyas, who ruled much of Karnataka in the 6th to 8th centuries




The cave temples are carved out of the soft Badami sandstone on a hill cliff in the late 6th to 7th centuries



The temple caves represent different religious sects. Among them, two are dedicated to god Vishnu, one to god Shiva and the fourth is a Jain temple.




The cave temples also bear exquisite carvings, sculptures and beautiful murals



Pattadakal
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Our next stop was a group of 8th century CE monuments in Pattadakal which were the culmination of the earliest experiments in the vesara style of Hindu temple architecture. They were designated a World Heritage Site in 1987







Having covered more than 180 km at Bagalkot my eyes were screaming for some respite ...
but the excitement of exploring these great Architectural wonders kept me from shutting my visions ;-)

Apart from the architectural beauty what stuck me the most was the laid-back village life.One could see absolute minimal traffic on the road and people standing right in the middle of the road for a chitchat ;-) Dogs, cows goats had absolute disregard for what ever traffic was there and one had to Horn at them for some time to get their attention for blocking the road ...... while on one had it was quiet relaxing to see such calm lifestyle still I wondered how people survived in such places ....

Once I boarded the sleeper bus to Bangalore , I blacked out ;-) and don't remember much except any rocky sleep .it was as if the bus was playing football with my body , but I was too tried to respond to that ;-) and was gladly back in Bangalore..

Overall an amazing trip and the caves be a Paradise for those who appreciate the Architectural prowess of Ancient India.