Art Diary in Your Travel Bag
Now the travelling scenario has changed all around the world. People are very enthusiastic to travel, ready to spend, eager to see and explore the diverse cultures of distant lands. So, naturally, tourism has developed and offering attractive facilities like anything to tourists these days. Tourism industry all over the world has come out with various packages; these packages are quite affordable and enjoyable. As these packages are designed and planned to cater to all sorts of travelers taking into account of their age, gender, and food habits, these seem reasonable and very comfortable to travel with. The travel packages, to some extent, look a little bit restrictive due time and place restriction as these are planned by the travel agencies. Whether one likes it or not, one has to fit oneself in these slots if travel packages are preferred. But if one likes to travel on own, it becomes pretty difficult as one has to shoulder all the responsibilities. But in this self planned traveling, one can visit and explore the desired destinations and spend as much time as one wants at those places. One has to choose a traveling plan which suits to one's needs and enjoyment. The first leg of work done, the second leg of work begins. After deciding to travel to a destination, one is required to make some preparations for the tour before setting out. During these tours, people always visit the important historical places, monuments, museums, galleries, theaters - all important places to acquaint with the cultures of those places which are seen and visited on the maps. Here at this point, an art diary comes very handy and is of great help to those who love to travel and enjoy everything in detail. It is always ideal to keep an art diary in your travel bag while viewing the monuments, museums and galleries and so on, as this small pocket size art diary with details and insights about the places enlightens, and as a result, the whole process of journeying becomes enjoyable and memorable. This series of articles will cover famous Indian historical places, monuments, museums and galleries. Hope these articles will help those who want to visit India and explore its diverse culture.
Karnataka is one of the states in the south India, which is known for world famous historical places. The people of Karnataka mainly speak Kannada language but they are also comfortably conversant in English and Hindi languages. There are many beautiful worth seeing places in Karnataka and to see all these places leisurely one requires at least one month or more. To start with, the caves of Badami are very famous and attractive.These are rock cut caves belonging to Chalukya period, that was from 6th to 8th century, have been attracting tourists from all over the world. These are sand stone cave temples, five cave temples in total, and each one of these cave temple is dedicated to Hinduism, Buddism and Jainism respectively. The first cave is dedicated to Hinduism, particularly to Shaivism, the second and third ones to Hinduism, and that too particularly to vaishnavism , the fourth one to Jainism , the last one to Buddism. These caves show that the ruler of that period loved all religions equally and was very tolerant. There are magnificent sculptures and mural paintings on the walls of these caves.
First Cave: The first cave belongs to Hinduism , so naturally the main god is Shiva. God Shiva is the creator, preserver, and destructor of the universe. He is also called as Bhairava. At the entrance, on the wall, there is relief sculpture of dancing Shiva with eighteen hands. On the opposite wall there is the relief sculpture of Ardhnarishwara - it means half man and half woman, the blending of Lord shiva and his consort Parvati . On one side of the body - there are bangles in the hands and the folds of the sari representing Parvati . On another side, there are the features of male representing Lord Shiva. The dancing Ganapati and goddess Durga's relief works are also in the line. Goddess Durga is the destroyer of all evils and God Ganapati is revered before every start of the event and relieves one from every obstacle. Below these sculptures, there are friezes filled with dwarfish figures, which are beautiful to look at.
Second Cave : This cave belongs to Hinduism and particularly to Vaishnavism. There is beautiful statue of God Vishnu sitting on the coiled and hooded serpent. This is the only sitting relief sculpture of lord Vishnu. As this cave temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu there are beautiful sculptures of Vishnu as Trivikrama, varaha and Vishnu sleeping on the serpent, Vishnu on Garuda and so on. Trivikrama: a relief sculpture of Trivikrama , a huge gigantic figure, one foot on the earth and another one stretched towards the north. This relief sculpture relates the story of the king Bali and vamana, the Vishnu himself. Varaha: this is another representation of Vishnu, the relief sculpture is a blend of human and boar. Lord Vishnu comes in this form to rescue the goddess of Earth, Bhoomi.
Third Cave: This cave, one of the larges, is also dedicated vaishnavism. Here in this cave, one can see the beautiful relief sculptures of Trivikrama, Anantsayana, paravasudeva, Bhuvaraha, Harihara and Narsimha, all the forms of God Vishnu. One can see the trails of faded fresco paintings on the walls. Many other interesting relief sculptures adorn the walls of the cave.
Fourth Cave : It is situated at the top. One has to climb many steps to reach this cave. This cave represents Jainism. In the sanctum, Mahavira is represented sitting on a lion throne. This main figure is surrounded with the attendants with fans in their hands, which are shown in bas relief. Along with this, the Relief works of Parshvanath, Goutama, and Bahubali are also seen. The Thirthankaras', the spiritual teachers, relief sculptures adorn the walls.
Fifth Cave: This is a natural cave dedicated to Buddism. Regarding the sculpture of Buddha there are controversies as to whether that image belongs to Buddhism or Jainism. Along with this image tree, elephant and lion images are also seen here.
This is a brief introduction to Badami Rock cut cave temples. If one wants to more information about these caves and relief sculptures one has to go through the Hindu Mythology, which will help to have insights about these beautiful caves. Near to this site, there are two more interesting historical places to visit- they are Aihole and Pattadkallu, which also belong to Chalukya period. This is a very brief introduction to Badami Caves
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