Does anyone know the tagline of Karnataka tourism tag line ? Its "One state Many worlds" , this state has a huge history and stories of thousand years that needs to be told and relieved of those, Karnataka is one of the states that houses two of the most beautiful places of UNESCO Heritage , One is Hampi and one more is Pattadakal. My itinerary was quite simple due to pandemic, as i stuck to few places within a main city, Visiting Badami was always on my mind as it offers a complete different experience of History and architecture , Badami is quite connected by Rail and Bus , its a overnight journey from Bangalore to Badami.
Badami belongs to Bagalkot district , Preferred time of visit is from Oct till Feb , as they are quite hot during summer and it becomes unbearable to even stay during summer.
After reaching Badami , we checked into KSTDC hotel which is associated with government and is affordable. My Plan was to spend the weekend in Badami and hence hired a auto for a day who agreed to take us to Pattadakal and Aihole
Aihole , Known as Aiyahole earlier . comprises of Hindu and Jain temples are a school of architecture for sculptors to practice , Its better to hire a government guide for all the details of the temple , the temple has so many unique sculptures that needs a proper information regarding each of them.
The temples of Aihole are within a close proximity hence it hardly takes time to cover , guides explains the minute details of the each temples and its importance and it would approx 2-3 hrs to complete the entire place.
Aihole is beautiful and they are so many untold stories of the temple its really needs to be preserved for all the generations to come
Post my visit to Aihole , we started to Pattadakal same like Aihole , i got myself a guide again as it would be much more informative as Pattadakal is regarded as the UNESCO Heritage site.
Pattadakal also has some beautiful temples of Hindu faith and Jain faith , the temples are different styles they include Orissa style of architecture.
Pattadakal can be covered 2-3 hours and the temples are breathtaking and each temples are unique and has lots of stories to offer so hiring a guide is a must.
After covering Pattadakal , we wrapped up our day and continue the rest next day.
Day 2 We have planned to cover Banashankari temple , which is quite famous religious place and it was quite near to Badami as well.
Banashankari Amma as fondly called by devotees is built by chalukyas and is the Kula devi (Main goddess) its quite old and are surrounded by interesting pieces of architecture , there was a beautiful Deepa stamba and Temple pond(Kalyani).
After this we went to one more beautiful temple Mahakuteshwara Temple which is called as Dakshina Kashi , which is surrounded by beautiful small temples and interestingly there are many movies which are shot in this place, Prominent ones are Mani Ratnam's Guru was also shot here.
Mahakuteshwara temple is a must visit , the temple has some unique beautiful temple, and images are proof to see. The pond is beautiful and its said that this pond are emptied every week and pond gets filled again and locals make it a daily affair to take a dip in this pond.
Once we finished the temple run , we started for Badami cave temples , i was told it would take a lot of time to complete the entire place, Unlike aihole and Pattadakal , badami is quite a large place to cover , everything can be covered by walk and bit of Hike.
Badami was earlier called as vatapi , its a capital of Chalukyas ,and was a prominent for its rock cut temples , There are 4 caves in badami , of which three are dedicated to Hinduism and last one is dedicated to Jainism. Each Caves are beautiful with carvings of gods , each of them are unique in nature , there were lot of carvings which explains the way of life of the people.
The carvings of Badami are something which i experienced for the first time , i could see a Narasimha with a smile called as VijayaNarasimha , i saw adisesha with unique hood and Shiva with unique avatars , one could make stark difference of Badami with Hampi or belur.
After completing our visit to the caves , we walked towards Northern Shivalaya , one could see the big rock cut paths towards the hill , need to walk a bit to the top to find a beautiful temple with a view of cave temples and Agasthya lake in between.
Few of the places are closed post covid , wanted to badly visit fort on top of the caves but unfortunately it was restricted.
Once Shivalaya was completed we continued to Bhoothanatha temple , the best way to see the temple is at sunset as the sunlight falls on the temple making it a beautiful sight. Though the temple was closed we had a good view of the lake and we can see the beautiful badami caves with sunset falling on those caves .
Badami doesn't have much cuisine or cafes to boast of unlike hampi , the cuisines are of North karnataka ,mostly Jolad Roti with rice
Important details
Day 1- Badami -Aihole -Pattadakal Day 2 - Banashankari Temple -Mahakuteshwara Temple-Badami Caves
Badami has its own charisma and unique culture especially in cuisines and way of living its quite different from other parts of Karnataka. Once the pandemic is over , without any second thoughts pack your bags and visit this beautiful city.
Hope i made your job easier in planning this itinerary.