Badami

         Badami is one of the oldest historic place in Bagalkot District of Karnataka. It was the capital of Badami Chalukyas between 6^th to 8^th century AD. They have ruled here for around 200+ years.

This place is famous for its rock cut structural temples and the color of rock is quite different. Unlike other historic places, here rock is little red in colour. Different places at Badami surrounds Agastya lake.

Good thing is here, all the places are nearby, so if you are a group of friends around 12-15 people, then you can plan for one full day to cover these places.

Here we can divide the places into 2 sections. As the places are on two sides of Agasthya lake (4 caves one side & Other places on the other side of lake), in the morning you can start with 4 caves.

It will open by morning 6:30 AM, however we can start by around 8-8:30 AM after having breakfast.

These caves are not long caves, however they are the carved rocks with pillars, paintings and sculptures.

Cave temple 1 is the oldest one in Badami.

Cave temple 2 is dedicated to Vishnu. Vishnu is also portrayed as Varaha  here.

In Cave temple 3 there are carvings of  Vishnu as Narasimha.

Cave temple 4 relates to 6th century Jainism There is a carving of the Tirthankara Parshavnatha (with a serpent at his feet). Mahavira is depicted in a sitting posture.

View of other side of the Agasthya Lake:

Few More clicks:

Also Beware of Monkeys :)

After this we can visit Datthathreya Temple.

Next place we can visit is Ranganatha Temple. It comes behind Cave rocks. There is an entrance near main road itself, from where we need to start walking.

It will be a very small trekking, might take some 10-15 Mins.

You can spend some good time here with nice clicks.

So it’s lunchtime now. Try to finish lunch be 1:30 as there are more places to see and the places will be closed by 5:30 PM.

Now we will start with the places at the other side of the Agasthya Lake.

Once you enter, you can see Lake in the right side and you can see the caves on the other side of it.

First you will get the Museum with the historic writings, sculptures.

Then you can move forward and take left to see Kappe Arabhatta’s inscription which is one of the oldest inscription available in Kannada.

Below is the translated version (to modern Kannada):

ಸಾಧು0ಗೆ ಸಾಧು ಮಾಧುರ್ಯಂಗೆ ಮಾಧುರ್ಯಂ
ಬಾಧಿಪ್ಪ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕಲಿಯುಗ ವಿಪರೀತನ್
ಮಾಧವನೀತಂ ಪೆರನಲ್ಲ!

Then if you move further you can see upper Bhoothanatha temple.

Next is the Lower Bhoothanatha temple. Here you can take some good snaps.

Try to cover these places by 4PM so that you can enjoy beautiful sunset view at Shivalaya temple.

Now you need to come back till the Museum and there you can get an entrance to Shivalaya Temple.

Once you enter the entrance just immediately you can see the steps in left side, which will take you to lower Shivalaya Temple. It’s quite difficult to go in congested way. If you feel difficulty, you can skip this place, however the place is nice after that.

Then you can move towards upper Shivalaya temple. The way is very nice here and scenic place. 

It might take some 10 Mins to reach upper Shivalaya temple from here. Security guards will be there and get confirmed with them about the timings. You can plan like some 30-40 Mins before closing time you can start back from upper Shivalaya temple. Below are some snaps at Upper Shivalaya Temple.

You can start back at around 5 PM. On the way there is a place where you can enjoy sunset for 30 Mins.

So, here we are done with places at Badami!!!

Thank You :)

Shivagange

            Shivagange is a mountain peak located near Dabaspet, Tumkur and 54 km from Bangalore with a height of 1368 meters. This mountain is shaped as a shivalinga. This hill has various spots to visit within such as Gangadhareshwara temple, Sri Honnadevi Temple, Olakal Theertha, Pathalagange etc. 

A historical rock statue of Nandi carved on top of a steep rock is considered as a spell binding sculpture because of its narrow location.

Also this is one of the best trekking place around Bangalore. Total trekking will take around 2 hours (depend on members). As its quite big trek, I would suggest to start in morning at least by around 7:30 - 8 AM so that trekking will be bit easy. We went in month of September and we started trekking by morning 7:30AM. If you are starting from Bangalore, better have breakfast at Bangalore and then start towards Shivagange hills. And have one bottle of water per person. If required, you can buy it on the way while trekking. There will be small shops on the way selling few snacks items/water bottles. For time being you can have those, however they are not much hygienic.

Once you start trekking within few mins you can see temple.. 

And there itself is a way in right side just before temple entrance which will take you to Pathalagange

If you walk in that path for 2-3 Mins you can see Pathalagange. There is a pond kind of water source. You can’t watch it clearly, but you can come to know about existence of water there. Some people will get this water in bottles as theertha. Come back to same point where you took right deviation and continue you trekking. 

 You can see some architectures in between.

This is the initial stage and trekking will be easy. 

From here to some distance it will be simple pathway. If you turn back you can get below view.

After that you will get Olakal theertha. This is also temple, and there is a rock carved, which is of about diameter 1 foot and it's litle deep, People will try their luck there. There is a believe that only good people/having luck will get theertha in it(Not sure to what extent it’s true. However, I got theertha when I tried :P ). After that you can take rest for some time and continue your trekking. 

Within few mins you will get another small pond like water source which has clean water and you can drink it as well. 

Now you have finished nearly 50% of trekking.After this actual trekking starts. I won’t explain much here, hope below pictures can describe better.

You can see some small shops in between.

Real thrill is at last 5% of the trekking. Awesome experience.

Lot of monkeys are there at hilltop. So be very careful for your belongings.

Nandi at the top:

 Here are some views from hill top.

If you go to other side, you can see Shakunthala drop where Natyarani Shakunthala committed suicide.

You can spend some time with cold breeze and start trekking down. 

If you started trekking before 8 in the morning some of the places mentioned above could be closed, then you can visit those while trekking down.

Thank You.