BADAMI
Badami (bAdAmi, ¨ΑzΑ«Δ)
is one of the most celebrated sculptural and architectural sites of the
country. It is located in the Badami talluk of Bagalakote district in
Badami has a long history stretching back to
the beginnings of the Christian era. Ptolemy the well known Greek geographer
refers to this place as early as 150 A.D.(Badiamaioi)
Some pieces of pottery and some evidences of foundations of ancient buildings
found towards the northern direction of the lake indicate the existence of pre
historic civilizations dating back to pre Christian era. Four caves located in
a vast field towards the north of the hills contain colored wall paintings
which are speculated as belonging to the pre Christian period. Another cave
contains paintings in black and white as well as pure black possibly belonging
to the stone ages. Earthen utensils, stone instruments and weapons belonging to
the Old Stone Age and the new Stone Age were excavated from the banks of the
The fame of Badami now rests on four caves towards the west of the
lake. They are located at four different levels connected by a series of steps.
Each one of these caves contain a rectangular
verandah, a spacious meeting hall and a sanctum sanctorum. They are dedicated
to Shiva, Vishnu, Vishnu and Jainism in that order. The first cave dedicated to
Shiva contains an extra room. There is a natural cave between the second and
the third caves which contains a bas relief of Padmapani
Buddha surrounded by pictures of benediction.
One reaches the
first cave after climbing about forty steps from the ground level. It contains
a Shivalinga. The sculpture of Nataraja
with eighteen arms immersed in his cosmic dance is well known. Nataraja is shown in eighty one different postures. The
cave houses the statues of Ardhanareeshvara and Harihareshvara also. These are symbolic of the oneness of
Shiva and Vishnu as also the principles of man and woman. Bass relifs of Mahishasuramardini, Ganapathi and Shanmukha seated on
a peacock are etched on the walls of this cave. The sculptures depicting the
wedding of Shiva and Parvathi on the beams and the
sculpture of Gajalakshmi on the roof are charming.
The pillars are decorated with small carvings of Narasimha,
Garuda, Prahlada, a sage
and an amorous couple.
The second cave
dedicated to Vishnu does not have any statue in the sanctum sanctorum. After a
couple of door keepers (dwarapalaka) we come across
huge statues of Bhuvaraha and Vamana
both incarnations of Vishnu. One finds all along the lintel miniature carvings
of episodes from the different incarnations of Vishnu and various Gods such as
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Gajalakashmi.
Still going higher up one
comes across the third cave.(578 A.D.) This is the most spacious cave among the four and it is
devoted to various avatars of Vishnu. Sculptures depicting mythological events
and characters are found along with scenes taken out of every day life. The
facade of the cave is nearly 70 feet wide; on the plinth one can see the
carvings of ganas. The sheer artistry and sculptural
genius makes it this cave the highlight of Deccani
art. It gives a virtual insight into the art and culture of the 6th century
like costumes, jewelry hairstyle lifestyle etc. The other attractions to be
looked carefully in this cave are the high relief of Vishnu with a serpent,
Vishnu as Narasimha (Vishnu as Man-Lion) Varaha, Harihara (Shiva Vishnu)
and Vishnu as Trivikrama. This cave contains a few coloured paintings making use of organic dyes. Many of them
exquisite but are in a dilapadated condition. This
cave contains a Sanskrit inscription situated in side the cave and another in
Kannada out side the cave. Both of them are concerned with the donations made
by Mangaleesha a brother of the emperor Keerthivarma.
The fourth cave is dedicated
to sculptures related to Jainism. It contains a relief of a dwarf (Kubera?) a Gandharva couple on
the ceiling and a Teerthankara with his disciple
towards the left. All these artefacts are found at
the verandah in the entrance. In the main hall one finds sculpted forms of Bahubali and Suparshvanatha Teerthankara on opposing walls. The relifs
of Mahaveera Teerthankara, Matanga Yaksha, Siddhayini Yakshi, and Padmavathi Yakshi are aslo found in different parts of this cave. A huge icon of Mahaveera Teerthankara adorns the
back wall of the sanctum sanctorum.
All these caves have certain
things in common. Early Chalukya sculpture tends to
be "classical" in its realism,
fullness of modeling, and chasteness of ornamentation; in these respects it has
more in common with its predecessors (the Guptas)
than with its contemporaries (the Pallavas) and
successors. Architecturally, both northern and southern features can be seen,
sometimes on the same temple. Huntington,
p.337, identifies a set of common features which include: mortarless
assembly; temple dimensions that are relatively low, long, and narrow; the use
of flat roofs over many-columned halls; richly-carved ceiling panels; and
sculptural combinations that consist of just a few major images rather than
many smaller ones.
In addition to these caves Badami is renowned also for the temples that were built
during different facets of its history. The hill at the north has three temples
all dedicated to Shiva called Malegitti Shiva temple,
upper Shiva temple and lower Shiva temple. Melegitti
temple was built in the later part of the seventh century and the other two
were built later perhaps during the early part of the sixth century. All of
them are noteworthy for catholic attitude depicted by equal consideration given
to Shaiva and Vaishnava
motifs. The stories from Ramayana and Bhagavata are
sculpted alongside the icons of Nataraja and Shiva.
The Jambulinga
temple within the town was originally a Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva temple. This is the
first Trikutachala (trikUTAcala)
temple found in Karnataka. This was built in the seventh century. It contains
three inscriptions. One finds a number of small temples on all sides of the Agastyateertha lake. These were built during the rule of
different dynasties from the seventh century right up to the seventeenth
century.
Many inscriptions are found
in different parts of Badami. A Sanskrit inscription
found on a rock on the way to the fort installed by Pallava
Narasimhavarma-1 in 642 A.D. and Kappe Arabhattana Shasana containing the first use of the Tripadi meter in Kannada, (Seventh century) are among the more important ones among them.
There is an archaeological
museum established by the Archaeological Survey of India in Badami.
It contains a model of a natural cave with pre historic relics and a copy of a colour painting picked from the third cave. A collection of
statues scattered around in Pattadakallu is preserved
here.
This brief introduction to Badami one of the most important tourist sites in the
country needs to be supplemented by the wealth of material available in the web
as also in the print media.
1.
Bass reliefs of Badami
RD Banerji - 1928 - Govt. of
3.
Badami Caves In Karnataka, Famous Rockcut Badami Caves,
Historical ...
4. PR Srinivasan - Archaeology of Karnataka, 1978 - Prasaranga,
5. A History of Karnataka:
From Pre-history to Unification PB Desai - 1970 Kannada
Research Institute,