From my vantage point in the caves up in the hill, I could see the Bhoothanatha Temple at the edge of Agastya Lake. Unlike the caves that are full of people, the temple premises was empty, save for occasional drifting visitors. Sitting in the temple courtyard one evening, I watched the cool breeze ruffled the lake surface and the evening sun disappear behind the town.

The temple is the last place I visited in Badami. I have a strange apprehension about approaching places that are beautiful beyond description. I admire them from a distance for a long time and feel good about being in its vicinity. Sometimes I feel contented just to be able to see it from far than approaching it from close quarters and observing its cross sections. I spent many hours walking along the lake, keeping the temple in the view and postponing the visit till the last day. May be I was afraid that it would not live up to my expectation. Or may be I was afraid that the experience is complete on being there, leaving me with nothing further to look for.

The setup of Bhoothanatha Temple is grand. Surrounded by walls of red sandstone rocks on three sides and the waters of the lake lapping up the steps in the front, it seems like a magical land that could only be imagined in a painting. The temple itself is a simple structure with an array of round pillar enclosed by a parapet in the front and a small room forming the sanctum. The sandstones walls kissed by the gentle waves from the lake glow brightly in the evening sun.

During my wanderings along the lake shore, I drifted towards the hills and climbed a series of steps that took me up the table land above. The steps climb through narrow gaps in the rocks that are wide enough at places just to let in a few people at a time. Sunlight peering through the gap and flaring up small sections of the wall make a colourful play of light and shade in these fissures.

Up on the hill are a few temples, a few pillars and remains of a fort. Fortification of the hill must have been an easy task, as it mostly involved building walls to restrict entry through the cracks in the rock. I was hoping to see some bird life in the scrub vegetation that spread along the plateau, but the area seemed lifeless, save for the monkeys. Next day, I walked for a few hours along with a local guide who took me deeper into the hills, seeing no more than a handful of birds of common species.

To be continued…

Join travel writers Lakshmi and me on Vignettes of Coorg on November 21st weekend. Vignettes of Coorg is a guided tour involving a mix of Coorg’s nature, culture and heritage in it. Like our earlier Hoysala Trail, this is also a well researched tour with lot of stories and interesting information.

Lakshmi and Arun are two people who do not conform to norms. Lakshmi an ad professional and Arun a software engineer shed their corporate identities to do what they love doing. Travelling. They took this a step further to convert it into TravelWise…

…Lakshmi and Arun give a traveler more than just a travel experience. With Travel wise you get to see and explore places that the regular tourist map fails to show.

Today’s Hindu has a short feature on upcoming TravelWise trip to Coorg on the weekend of November 21st and 22nd.

Green hills, misty rivers, lost monuments and an endless fabric of coffee plantations. Add to this a distinct local culture and a history of conflicts and intrigue.

Meet the Kodavas, soak in their culture, follow the call of the birds, wet your feet in a creek, feel the rush of a waterfall, or visit an ancestral home. All, at ‘Vignettes of Coorg’. As you travel, listen to stories of passion and intrigue, myths and legends and blend with the rhythm of Nature. For details, call 99020-70689 or visit www.travelwise.in

Our upcoming tour to Coorg is scheduled on the weekend of November 21st. We are also launching a new tour in December. Join our facebook group or subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated.

Join travel writers Lakshmi and me on Vignettes of Coorg on November 21st weekend. Vignettes of Coorg is a guided tour involving a mix of Coorg’s nature, culture and heritage in it. Like our earlier Hoysala Trail, this is also a well researched tour with lot of stories and interesting information.

Join travel writers Lakshmi and me on Vignettes of Coorg on November 21st weekend. Vignettes of Coorg is a guided tour involving a mix of Coorg’s nature, culture and heritage in it. Like our earlier Hoysala Trail, this is also a well researched tour with lot of stories and interesting information.

Four cave temples carved halfway up a cliff are the hallmark of Badami. This is where most tourists are and hence this is where Badami’s monkeys also prefer to hangout. They snatch cameras from people, sneak behind them to look for stuff to eat and simply pull away anything that can be pulled away. That means being occasionally disturbed from your indulgence into the carvings when a woman screams or a man shouts at these mischievous creatures. ASI displays a prominent warning sign, but monkeys need more than a warning sign to deter them.

I watched the macaques climb down the cliff and carefully sneak behind people as I waited for a guide to be available. They were not always stealthy; when they found someone visibly vulnerable, they simply snarled and openly looted what they desired. In the thirty minutes of wait for the ASI guide, I had seen a footwear stolen, a bag nearly snatched and a bunch of crossanda flowers pulled out from a lady’s braids.

My guide Chandru was knowledgeable and articulative. He stood in dance positions and held his hands in mudras as he described how the 18-handed statue of nataraja can form 91 mudras by choosing any one of the left hands in combination with any one of the right hand.

There are four cave temples in Badami with three dedicated to Vedic gods. The fourth one is a Jain Temple. The first three temples have some elaborate sandstone carvings of Hindu Pantheon such as Vamana stepping over Bali, dancing Nataraja, Varaha carrying Bhudevi and Vishnu seated on Vasuki. The Jain temple, smallest of the four has a series of Tirthankaras carved along the walls.

We moved through caves as Chandru described the iconography and architecture, but my questions to him were mostly related to history. The inscriptions in Badami and surrounding areas are a key to rediscovering most of the Chalukyan history. An inscription carved somewhere high up the rocks on the cliff opposite to the caves describes the times of the first Chalukyan Kings. Another inscription by Pallava King Narasimhavarman I informs of the brief occupation of Badami by Pallavas, while one in faraway Kanchi’s Kailasanath temple inscribed by Chalukya Vikramaditya II indicates the reversal of fortune for Pallavas. A detailed inscription on a pillar in nearby Mahakoota Village, carved in the time of king Mangalesha, provides much needed information about the lineage of Chalukyas and the spread of their kingdom. An inscriptions in Aihole Village describe the victory of Pulikeshi II over Harshavardhana and another one gives vague clues about the time period of poet Kalidasa.

The early Chalukyas ruled Badami from 6th to 8th century before the region was annexed by Rashtrakutas. In 12th century, Rashtrakutas were overpowered by later Chalukyas, whose lineage from the earlier Chalukya Kings is still debated. Badami was later ruled by Hoysala Kings, Vijayanagar Dynasty, Adil Shahis from Bijapur, Tipu Sultan and the British.

To be continued..

Join travel writers Lakshmi and me on Vignettes of Coorg on November 21st weekend. Vignettes of Coorg is a guided tour involving a mix of Coorg’s nature, culture and heritage in it. Like our earlier Hoysala Trail, this is also a well researched tour with lot of stories and interesting information.

Who would think of the small town of Badami to be an ideal place to establish a kingdom and rule most of the peninsula? Chalukya Kings did, and they thought so more than 1,500 years ago. They constructed a large tank in a depression surrounded by sandstone cliffs in three sides, carved a few temples in those cliffs, built some more temples on the top and established the center of a dynasty that ruled for 600 years to control most of the land between Narmada and Kaveri.

If recorded history of Badami is interesting, the associated legend is fascinating. On his journey south of Vindhyas, Sage Agastya was invited by demon Ilvala for a meal. Ilvala and his brother Vatapi called guests home and killed them in the most innovative possible way. Vatapi would turn into a ram while Ilvala would cook the ram’s meat and offer it to the guests. Once eaten, Vatapi would come out splitting the stomach of the guest, thus killing him.

But when it comes to legends, sages are always smarter than demons. Agastya knew the whole plan and digested Vatapi before he could come out, putting an end to the evils of the pair. The two cliffs around the lake in Badami are believed to be the two dead demons who were defeated by Sage Agastya.

The legend would have brought some aura to the town, but it is the remains of history that brings in bus loads of tourists today. My bus took me here on a relatively dry monsoon day, taking me through the vast plains of North Karnataka. Later half of my journey was largely sleepless, thanks to roadhumps that defied the logic of having a road at all. Beyond the stout hills past Hospet where river Tungabhadra overflowed and glittered in the moonlight, it was a perfectly flat terrain hosting groundnut fields, free of even slightest aberration anywhere in my field of vision. Arrival of Badami was marked by a change in landscape as the moonlight over the plains gave way to sun shining on vertical cliffs of red sandstone.

This was my second visit to Badami. I was here two years ago in a winter when the sky was blue and air was dry. But having seen tourist brochures of foaming water rushing down the red cliffs, I wanted to be here when it rained, when the vertical rock faces were wet and dripping. This time I had arrived in in the middle of the monsoon season and the sky stayed overcast through the four days I spent in the town. But rain gods remained unwilling to let down even a drop of water from those heavy clouds. Save for a gentle drizzle or two that gave me some hope, the weather remained dry and dusty. A few months after my visit, the clouds would descend with such a fury in and around the town that thousands of people were rendered homeless and that year’s effort in the groundnut fields were washed away by the raging floods.

How much ever I would have preferred to see it raining, it did not disappoint me to an extent that I would get out soon. I spent next four days walking around the tank, exploring the cliffs and the table land above them, visiting the villages nearby and a few curious rock structures near the town.

Vignettes of Coorg

Green hills, misty rivers, lost monuments and an endless fabric of coffee plantations. Add to this a distinct local culture and a history of conflicts and intrigue.

Welcome to Vignettes of Coorg. You see a different slice of life at every corner of this coffee country. Meet the Kodavas, soak in their culture, follow the call of the birds, wet your feet in a creek, feel the rush of a waterfall, visit an ancestral home.

As you travel, listen to stories of passion and intrigue, myths and legends and blend with the rhythm of nature.

Join us on the Coorg trail. Its time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Tour Highlights

• Guided walk in a coffee plantation
• A closer look at the birdlife
• Know Cauvery saga at Talacauvery
• A tinge of heritage at Nalknad Palace
• Kodava culture at an ancestral home
• Stay with a Kodava family

Itinerary

• Pickup from MG Road on Saturday at 6.30am
• Return to Bangalore by Sunday night (Drop off at home)

Tariff

Rs.3,950 per person on twin sharing basis.  Tariff includes all meals, transportation from Bangalore in AC vehicle, stay at the homestay inside a coffee estate and guided tour at all destinations.

To book:

Email: travel -at- travelwise -dot- in
Call: Arun – 9880006460 or Lakshmi – 9902070689