Aihole was the first capital of Badami Chalukyas who ruled between the 6th & the 9th CE in this part of the country. During the 5th and 6th CE, while Hinduism was going through a renaissance started by the Guptas of North India, the Hindus restarted Temple construction but now with stones rather than other material. Not knowing how to built temples in stones, they experimented with the plan of the temple, its exterior shape, its towers & toranas, its sanctum-sanctorum, its circumabulatory path, etc. Therefore, this site has come to be known as the the Cradle of Temple Architecture. No student of Architecture can miss visiting Badami, Aihole & Pattadakal unless they want to miss understanding the evolution of Hindu temple architecture which started in the 5th CE.

Just a short distance from the Aihole temple complex but totally ignored by many visitors to Aihole is this cave temple. It looks very ordinary and inocuous from the outside but see the wealth of sculptures on the inner walls of this cave! Be it Harihara, Saptamatrikas, Varaha, Bhringi, dancing Shiva, Ganesha, Mahishasura mardhini, etc., they are all mesmerizing in their presentations and the stories that accompany them. And don't forget to look at the ceiling of the cave temple where there is rich work seen.

Pattadakal is a World Heritage monument aptly listed due to its stunning array of abandoned & living Shiva temples elaborating the history of evolution of temple architecture in its advanced stage. Here, we clearly distinguish the Rekahnagara and the Dravida styles of temple towers which were evolved here and subsequently adopted by all successive architects. Kadasiddeshwara, Jambulinga, Galaganatha, Sangameshwara, Kashi Vishweshwara and the Virupatksha temples, stand testimony to the artists of the 7th and 8th CE during when these temples were built. Do not miss watching the inner walls of the Mallikarjuna temple where you see futuristic designs of headgear and hair locks imagined 1200 years ago!

The Badami Cave temples, carved out of 200 million year old sandstone, showcase extraordinary artistic & engineering skills of Indians some 1300 years ago. Ajanta, Ellora, Elephanta, Mahabalipuram are some equivalent comparisons of the stellar Badami caves. There are four caves among which the first 3 are Hindu in character while the last one is Jain. While the first three were carved in the 6th CE the last one was created during the 9th CE. A flight of 200 steps needs to be climbed in order to see all the cave temples. From the 2nd and the 4th caves, one can see the stunning view of the Vatapi lake & the various temples that dot the edge of the lake. The rock-cut statues of various Hindu Gods such as Narasimha, Mahavishnu, Trivikrama, Varaha, etc, are awe-inspiring, to say the least. While visiting the cave temples, one should understand the fact that the artists did not have the luxury of committing mistakes in making these statues since once damaged they were irreplaceable.