The Cave Temples

The Badami cave temples are composed of four caves all carved out of the soft Badami sandstone on a hill ledge in the late 6th to 7th centuries. The planning of four the entrance is called mukha mandapam with stone pillars having a special quality of attraction. These caves are leading to a pillared corridors to take towards a main huge hall and it leads to a small squarely shaped a sanctum, which  is located in deep into the cave. The Cave temples are connected by stepped path with midway terraces that offer awesome views across the town and lake. This is a very suitable place to panoramic shots.

The cave temples are dated it is said that back to 600 and 700 CE. The architecture structures built in Nagara style, and constructed pallava Dravidian Elegance. However it is developed in northern India in 5th-6th Centuries. It is said this cave temples are one of the wonders of India.

Entrance to Cave 1portrays Lord Nataraja.  Nataraja  has 18 arms holding trident, axe serpent drum fire etc. as a beautiful dance postures. Lord Siva has Vinayagar and Nandi by his side. They are in beautiful carvings. Lord Siva, Vinayaka, and Muruga are riding on a peacock is a best sculpture on the walls of the adjoining to Nataraja; devi Mahishasura Mardhini too  carved close to Siva.

The entrance corridor is with four pillars are very beautifully sculpted with incredible images of Lord Siva in different dancing positions with goddesses Parvati.   Also one can see carved sculptures of Harihara holding an axe and a serpent in his hand and Ardhanarishvara sculpted on the end of the walls. All the carved sculptures have beautifully ornamented, apart from deities’ animals, birds also can be seen. There is also an image of the Vidyadhara couple on the ceiling, is a beautiful. Swords and the coiling serpent are also carved on the walls. There are sections in the cave which are orthogonally designed and decorated with jewelry and garlands.  There is a division in the back side of the cave and it leads to a formation of a sanctuary carvings.  

Cave 2 is formed in late 6th century AD its layout and dimensions are consecrated to Vishnu who is shown here as Trivikrama. Varaha and Krishna sculptures also can be seen.  .

This cave flights 64 steps from the first cave. The entrance of the cave has dwarapalakas holding flowers. The outer verandah walls the both the sides till end engaged completely sculpted panels. The pilasters hold the deva-asura battle scenes, the churning of milky ocean, Gajalakshmi, Brahma, Vishnu’s reclining on AdiShesha, and also explains about Krishna’s birth, his youth with gopis,  and cows. The ceiling shows a wheel with sixteen fish rods in a square frame along with swastikas and Gandarvas. The end inlets have a flying couple and Vishnu on Garuda. This cave is dedicated for Lord Vishnu. Trivikrama, Shankaranarayana, Anantasayana, Paravasudeva, Bhuvaraha, Harihara and Narasimha are the best and gigantic figures are making a splendid appearance, and all these statues are engraved in a robust style. Another record full creation is the Chalukya King Mangalesha in 578 CE was on throne from 597 to 609 AD. This ancient cave temple is projected to give assurance with the inscriptions on the rock in this cave.

Cave 3 is 60 steps away from the cave 2. The temple with its gigantic frontage of 21 m wide is bejeweled of six heavy pillars row is installed. Below the columns there is a decoration of smaller batches about thirty numbers is placed. This cave has awesome accompaniments are covered in the entire cave, including paintings on ceiling. Brahma is the focal point of the murals. This is an art lovers point.

Cave 4 is for Jain, which was the last construction among all the other caves. It occupies only jain monument of early chalukya period in Badami town in late 6th-7th century. It is a beautiful and rich ornamented.  It is located higher than other caves. It has five entrances with square pilasters which is giving more attractive at the base. The end of walls have Bhadavan Parshvanath embodied metal covered head  with  cobra hoods with his lower legs surrounded by snakes. His two sisters Brahmi and sundari are also with him.

A steep steps climb up one can see some a cleft between Cave 2 and 3 leads to the southern part of Badami Fort which was Tippu sultan’s   warehouse.

This cave complex of temples located at Badami, a town in the Bagalkot District in the north part of Karnataka. They are considered an example of Indian rock-cut architecture, especially Badami  Chalukya Architecture. This was capital of the Early Chalukyas, who ruled  Karnataka from middle of 6th till the middle of 8th centuries is situated on the west bank of artificial lake filed with greenish water, dammed by an earthen wall facing with stone steps. Badami is surrounded in the north and south by forts built in later times. Badami caves are located on hill top flight about 2000 steps. This is right opposite of Badami fort.  Visit and have a pleasant time. 

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