This trip of ours was literally
on a road less travelled..less touristy and a rickety rustic ride into the
ruins of Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal…As we alighted at the little railway
station of Badami..there were no touristy faces around…no guides..no
taxiwallahs nudging each other for business…we just boarded the little auto
parked in the stand and headed to the resort that sort of sits strangely facing
the main road of Badami. And the resort was a pleasant surprise for the little area
that it owned..it had done full justice to the space with greenery, a nice
swing, garden and topped it with pretty cottages and we started unwinding into
the slow pace of Badami..
The first day we visited the famed
Badami cave temple and Agasthya lake and it is a gigantic structure beyond our
urban ‘technical expertise’ horizon…a massive empire of sandstone structures
that tower over the entire city….and within the structures are engraved
intricately crafted sculptures and temples that will astound you! And the
entire campus of structures overlook a massive lake body and to think that this
entire masterpiece was created centuries back! It’s a magnificent palate of
colours…the green water, the brown sandstone structures that engulf the lake
and the clear sky that completes the trio with its bright blue borders! And to
your surprise, there are no obscene throngs of humanity visiting this place…and
you are at leisure to explore the carvings, climb atop the cave temples and
enjoy the massive sight of the lake and the ruins that is probably the
signature of Badami heritage! And if we
weren’t relaxed enough with that , the walk through the town further enhanced
the unwinding experience..tiny tots playing gleefully in the portico of the
little white and green/blue Badami houses, the pig and piglet families
strolling through the market ..the locals in their ‘Nehru caps’ and the ladies
in their colourful attire selling their produce in the local bazaar..! A lovely
luncheon with a view of Badami life and we headed to the Agasthya lake and
strolled through the embankment ..aimless and agendaless…some more marvelous
sandstone structures and the evening melted into the waters and the sky
migrated from its bright blue to its browny pallor and we retired into the
comfort of our resort..
The next day was our exploration
of the archaeological structures at Aihole and Pattadakal and the route to
these two locations was an enjoyable one through fields and farmlands…the real
‘cattle’ led farming that we so rarely see these days …real farmers and farmer
houses ..each house boasting of its own goat or cow or both or more (depending
on their prosperity I presume)..almost a funny replacement of the bike and
car/(s) that dot every urban household (of course depending on their prosperity)…the
‘monsoony’ greenery and grey skies just adding to the scenic portrait.. and
when we did reach our destination, we were surprised that few of the monuments
were right in the middle of the village house…goats straying into the
campus..kids playing on the floor of the heritage sites…an odd mix of village
life and historic monumenhts at play at Aihole! A quick visit to the beautiful complex of
monuments at Pattadakal and it was time to board our train back to Bangalore.
As the sun set into the solitary
railway station, the skies turned a golden brown and the village life muted
into a beautiful silence and we boarded the train – a happier trio…grateful for
the heritage and rural soul that still lives through at Badami…unalloyed and
unpolluted…and the ‘hope’ that the urban monsters of Bangalore do not knock at
the doors of Badami soon!
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