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,