Northern Karnataka 2012 - Photographer eyes

I ended my travelogue to the group monuments of Hampi, Pattadakal, Badavi Caves Temple and Aihole Temples by sharing some of details from my photographic view and angle that would be memorable and meaningful. Such beauties are for sharing. Enjoy!

Lotus Mahal-Hampi

A meaing of joy - Hampi

Arts of beauty-Hampi

Hanuman-Hampi

Caving stone at unimportant area, Elephant Stable-Hampi

Queen's bath-Hampi

Kannada's ancient writing

Bangles design-Hampi

Vittala Temple-Hampi

Another beauty - Hampi

Pathway-Vittala Temple, Hampi

Hanuman & a girl next to Stone Chariot-Hampi

Mother & Daughter

Life in Badami Caves Temple

Flower pot-Badami Caves Temple

Temple Cave no. 1-Badami

Step to Cave Temple No. 3 - Badami

Arts on wall-Badami

Balcony-Durga Temple, Aihole

Art of beauty in ruin-Durga Temple, Aihole

Dancing life-Aihole column

North Karnataka - Hampi, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal

Tour date: 30th September & 1st October 2012

For the record of my travel in India, the last place of interest that I've been before my demobilisation back to the headquarters was in North Karnataka. It is located in arid plateau from 300 to 700 metres elevation in Karnataka State of Southwest India. It is drained by the Krishna River. The neighbouring states are Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. There are 13 districts altogether in North Karnataka and I have been to 2 states, Bellary where Hampi, a Groups of Monument is situated and Bagalkot district to visit Aihole, Badami Cave Temples and quick stop at a Group of Monuments Pattadakal, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ready, 1, 2, 3 ...smile

Hi there... I love your company :)

If English and Hindi (close to Urdhu) are the most widely spoken languages in Delhi, the official language of Karnataka is "Kannada". The language was the second factor why Phani, my driver made his excuses. He found difficulty when we were in Chennai as Chenai (formerly known as Madras) is a capital city of Indian State, Tamil Nadu, hence peoples in Tamil Nadu speaks their official and spoken language, "Tamil". Phani only speaks Telegu as he is from Andhra Pradesh. When I was in Pune @ in the Maharasthra state for 4 months, the common spoken language is "Marathi". So, India is a very unique country.

Badami Cave No. 2

Badami Cave No. 3

Historically, Karnataka was once under the Chalukyan Empire when Pulakesi I conquered the area in 550 CE. The Chalukyan had built the World Heritage monuments in Pattadakal in 7th and 9th centuries as the coronation place for Chalukyas as well as their capital city. Aihole, another important temple town with over 140 temples belonging to both early and later Chalukyas time. Both Pattadakal and Aihole continued to be an important centres under the Rashtrakutas and the Kalyani Chalukyas when the Chalukyan was overthrown by them.

Group of Monuments, Pattadakal - View 1

Group of Monuments, Pattadakal - View 2

I strongly encourage for those who had spent time in Hampi should make a point to visit Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal as I was. I put a night in a small hotel before proceeding with a tour to the 3 places on the 3rd day of my tour. We left early morning on 1st October 2012 to look for the Cave Temples Badami, which I have shared in my previous entry, "Karnataka State - Badami" on 29th October 2012. Of all the temples that I visited in Karnataka, Badami is most beautiful as it was crafted on the red cliff. It was an awesome arts and high technology to built a temple in the cliff rock.

Durga Temple, Aihole

Durga Temple, an angle from Lad Khan Temple

Some details inside Durga Temple, Aihole

However, I was a little bit disappointed with what I discovered in Aihole temple town. The temple compound is being taken by the villagers who may not appreciating the important of historic monuments. They occupied the old city and further ruin a bit of history, a pity to witness those sad events. Furthermore, the city is not being properly taken care of, so dirty beyond my imagination (3 photos below was an evidence that I snapped that day). Well yes, I know, I was sad for no reason.

The villagers encroaching towards the protected Aihole temple, adjacent to Lad Khan Temple

Becoming a local centres

The old monument being occupied by local residents

Despite what I wrote above, I would not had the opportunity of taking lots of photos of the sunflower farms, should I not insisted to visit Aihole at the first place. You may share my excitements over the discoveries in my previous entry, also written in the same month I returned from the Karnataka trip, "Sunflower, Sunflower".

The last photo surrounded with sunflowers to end the entry

Important note: Hampi was not under the Chalukyas empire as it was once a capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. The first historical settlements in Hampi is date back to the 1st century.

Hampi & Badami - the beautiful faces and arts of India

The swami selling herbs in Hampi

I could not sleep again tonight though it's already passed midnight as I was in the same state of mind last night. Due to insufficient rest, I was away from work a.k.a on emergency leave today. We went for cinema at 2045 show which ended around 2315. It was to watch Johny Depp latest movie"Lone Ranger". I love almost all Johny Depp's movie including this 1. See the trailer below, it was a hilarious show.

I actually loves writing as much as I love reading. Though there's a lot of spelling mistakes in my previous entry and some stupid choices of sentences that I chose, I still forsake myself for the error and will not quitting that easily. My blog is becoming my personal space where I can write anything that I like without bothering about if there's a grammar mistakes, whether people like my writing or not. There's nothing worries me, I'm free to write and post what I like. Anyway, to err is human!

So, I thought of sharing tonight some of the faces and the sculpture that I snapped which I found interesting, maybe similar to Johny Depp's face in the lone ranger movie from the group monuments of Hampi in Karnataka state. The picture tells a thousand story which I found very interesting to study them in person or as by looking at the arts of faces expression.

A family devotee at a school temple

The obedient son with a nice hair cut

I'm also sharing here some of the humbles and generous southern Indian people who pose willingly for me. I indeed greatly indebted to their kindness.

Streching her legs at Hampi Bazaar

This girl is too young to be a mother, but she was :(

Last but not least is my photo with the grandmother who I met in Badami cave temple paying a visit with her family. Her son took her there and her son was too kind to help me snapped below photo of his mother and I.

Hampi, a Groups of Monuments-Karnataka State

Tour date: 30th September 2012

Why do I willing to drove all the way to Hampi? For those who have not read my earlier entry may click, "World Heritage Site of India" in October 2012 to understand my sensible reasons. And yes, I am quite a unique person, adamant that I could achieve so many thing in life in a very short given time. It was a huge ambition when I was working and staying in India in 2011-2012 to visit all the heritage sites, but looking back I should be satisfying with achieving 8 out of 15 places. 

Stone Chariot in Vittala Temple promotes my desire to visit Hampi

The Ornate Stone Chariot at the courtyard of incomplete Vittala Temple has an image of Garuda.

I used 1 of the weekend attached with a public holiday so that I can still attending office matters on mobile. It was about 1,300km to and from Group of Monuments in Hampi to the project site. It was a right decision and I was and am still very happy with those planned itinerary.

Overview the Virupaksha Temple

I shall touch a little bit information of the monuments in this entry just to gives an idea of the background history of the ruins monuments, mainly due to a battle of powers between the Hindu Kings and the Muslim Kings which ended the ruin temple been left abandon. I was told by our Tour Guide that the Hindu's will not worship the damaged God image, while explaining about a huge 3 metres high Ganesh god statue being chopped down the nose, the arms, the stomach etc by the Muslim conqueror in an attempt to discover the treasure thought of hidden beneath. It was an amazing sculptured works of a Ganesh monolith as shared below.

Virupaksha Temple, is located at the western end of  Bazaar is the Virupaksha temple, built in 1442 with a 50 m high gopuram, and a smaller one added in 1510. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva his form as Pampapati or Virupaksha. This is the only temple that is still in use till present day.

Virupaksha Temple

The Elephant Stables, is a grand building, with 11 domed chambers that once housed the state’s elephants. Only local tradition maintains that the architects adapted the domes used in the desert to cool palaces to keep their pachyderms cool and fighting fit. Now scholars believe it may have been living quarters and the rings in the wall were probably used to string up the punkahs. The central tower is in ruins but it was probably a stepped tower in the Hindu tradition. As it stands, the building is entirely Islamic in character: it faces west and the arches mark it as Western.

The Lotus Mahal in below photo is one of the prettiest buildings in the complex. It’s an amazing synthesis of Hindu and Islamic styles in the great Indo-Saracenic tradition. The pillars and arches are Islamic in nature, the base, the roof and the beautiful stucco ornamentation on this charming little pavilion are Hindu. The building is on a raised platform but the corners are doubly recessed which may account for its name. It had an early form of air conditioning from the modern world, i.e a water-cooled air was driven through tubes to cool Krishnadevaraya’s queen in the summer.

Lovely couple with the Lotus Mahal

The Queens Bath, is a simple structure with a  plain facade and glorious interior. A narrow moat surrounds this building. Inside is a small tank or swimming bath. Around it is an arched corridor with many projecting balconies overlooking the tank. There’s some pretty stucco work on the walls.  It is open to the sky and surrounded by corridors with 24 different domes.

The queen's bath

Water tank adjacent to Queen's bath

The remains of royal palaces

Vittala Temple is a main attraction of Hampi where it seated on a footpath from the eastern end of Hampi Bazaar. The 16th century temple is a World Heritage monument. The temple was constructed in the reign of Vijayanagar’s  greatest king, Krishnadevaraya, but was never finished. The outer pillars are called the musical pillars because they reverberate when tapped. There are several sets of these pillars, and each set of pillars produces sound of a different instrument.  There are 8 pillars in each set, one for each of the sapta swaras.  

Our group in the courtyard of incomplete temple

The temple was never finished. King and queens added to it but it was never consecrated because,  Vithala, the earthy god of villages and peasants took one look at it during construction and decided that it was far too elegant for him. He stayed put in his temple at Pandharpur and the temple was left incomplete. I hope you take note of the important matter in the story, the Hindu God is a human being like any of us. That was the reason why in India, there are more than 30 crores God in presents and being worshipped because the god (human) are continuously born. The God is not monolithic in their ideology. I hope I did not write any sensitive opinions in the sentence, if I do, please forgive me.

Musical pillars

The Statue of Narasimha, is the statues arms which have been lopped off and his legs cut off. Narasimha, 4th avataar of Lord Vishnu dominates the village road, a monument to righteous justice. Originally, Narasimha’s consort Shri Lakshmi must have been portrayed sitting on his thigh but the only remnant of her is the arm she had around his waist. An inscription on a stone slab in front of the enclosure records that Krishnadevaraya ordered it hewed out of a single boulder. Although it is 22 feet high, and has been desecrated, it is still possible to see how detailed it is. On the base of the pedestal is a representation of the sun and the moon, an indication that the sculptor believed that it would last forever.

To be continued....