Northern Karnatka tour: Badami

Finally! A post!
So, all last week, the 18th through the 26th, our group traveled to three different cities in northern Karnataka (the state we live in) to see some sites. Our program director, Dr. Rao, is the former director of the Archaelogical Survey of India, and I think he likes to show off the work he and his officers put in to preserving ancient sites as well as their museums.
As there is so much to tell, I'm going to write three separate posts for each place, to save myself a little time.

Our first destination was Badami, just a night-train ride away. The train we rode had compartments (designated by a curtain) with either four bunks or two bunks; two below, two above, etc. On the train ride there, I was assigned a top bunk, which you have to be pretty limber to get to. You have to literally climb your way up. After awkwardly heaving my way up onto the bunk, it was pretty comfortable, and I slept well. In the class we rode, there is AC and they give you sheets, a blanket, and a pillow. Feeling pretty luxurious, I allowed the train's rocking to lull me to sleep.
It was still dark out when someone stuck their head in our curtain and yelled "HUBLI!" which was our stop. Half asleep, we all lumbered out of bed, until somehow we were told we only had five minutes to get off the train. That woke us up. Everyone clambered onto the platform, still sleepy-eyed and slightly confused, but all in one-piece.

At Hubli, we met our driver for a three hour drive to Badami, where we would see some ancient rock-cut caves, used as temples. Badami is a small, dusty town, but our hotel was nice and had a pool. After unloading our luggage, we made our way to the caves. They were so much more than I expected. Dating to around 7th century AD, the "caves" are carved in the sides of red sandstone cliffs, with beautiful, incredibly detailed sculptures inside. There are four caves at Badami, the first dedicated to Shiva. Its specialty is the sculpture of Shiva with nine hands, the most out of any known sculpture of Shiva. Each of his hands is in a Bharathnatyam position, and the different combinations of hands represent different dance steps.
The second cave was dedicated to Vishnu, which had my favorite carving: Vishnu with one leg and one arm pointed into the sky. It represents a story about Vishnu about to destroy the earth...something...not totally sure...I just liked it because because it looked like a ballet position.

The third cave was another Shiva cave, and the fourth, with the best view of the lake below, was a Jain temple. Now, Jain monks are always naked, so all the carvings of people in the temple are naked. There used to be different steps and a wall separating the Jain temple from the Hindu temples so that the Hindu worshippers (especially the women) would not have to be exposed to the naked Jain monks.

The view from the caves was beautiful; they overlooked a lake, surrounded by weathered sandstone cliffs, dotted with other temples. There were women down on the ghats (stairs) along the lake doing laundry, their blue pink green orange yellow saris spread out to dry, creating one, huge patchwork blanket. Children were screaming as they jumped off rocks into the water; lime-washed huts, blinding white in the sun, lined an edge of the lake. It was a beautiful day.

The next day, we woke up early to hike to a prehistoric cave at Shidaphadi. Actually, it is more of a natural bridge than cave. It is an archway, hollowed out by wind and rain, I guess. The ground is littered with arrowheads and there are cave paintings on the wall. We climbed around the rocks for a while, enjoying the cool morning before the sun got hot, then continued on to a Shivite temple complex, Mahakuta. The hike there was surprisingly strenuous, with some serious rock climbing. A few people, including me, took a few spills on the way there, but no harm done. Once we finally arrived at Mahakuta, we were greeted by Sindhu (our wonderful program coordinator aka Mom), who fed us a much needed breakfast in some much needed shade.
Afterwards, we toured the small temple complex, which has been my favorite so far, set around a sacred pool and courtyard with huge, shady trees with impossibly long limbs. All the deities and little temples along the periphery seemed well-loved, their black surfaces dotted with tilaks (the red, or other colored, dots, symbolizing blessing).

The BEST part was our swim in the spring-fed sacred pool. The water was the perfect temperature, and some of the clearest I've ever swum in. It didn't even seem like the sediment on the bottom could cloud it completely. A Shivite priest showed us a "secret" temple in the corner of the pool, that you have to swim under the wall to get to. It is a tiny tiny little space, and the hold in the wall has a shiva lingam and two other deities you are supposed to bless with water. When I leaned in the hole to give blessing, however, I was pretty sure I saw a snake, so I quietly got out of there as quickly as possible.
After the pool at Mahakuta, we took a short ride to Pattadakal, kind of an "experiment," I guess, in temple architecture, as it combines both Northern and Southern temple architectural styles of the time (7th century AD). Pattadakal is considered to be some of the finest examples of temple architenture in India, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987. Poor Pattadakal, though; after the wonderful, shady bliss of the sacred pool, nothing they could have shown us stood any chance of holding our attention, save, perhaps, a cheeseburger (I speak for myself). Alas, there were only statues of cows; but the heat really did get to everyone, and our attention spans waned. We were all happy to get back to the hotel and have the rest of the afternoon off before traveling to Aihole and Bijapur the next day. The night before we left, however, I got a pretty serious electric shock from touching a wall in the shower, which freaked me out, needless to say: I brushed it with my finger and my hand contorted involuntarily. I wasn't sure if it was just a bizarre muscle twitch, so (stupidly) I touched the wall again, and felt an electric current shoot up my arm and twinge the base of my neck. I came out of the bathroom, in shock, and warned my roommate not to take a shower. I was glad to leave the next day, hoping for no more accidents (DUN DUN DUUUN...more to come later...)

PICTURES WILL BE UP (HOPEFULLY) VERY SOON! COMPUTERS HATE ME AND REFUSE TO POST MY PHOTOS.
Update: I dropped off my laptop in Bangalore (a journey which deserves a post to itself) at an iStore. It is completely fixable, my computer is under warranty, and all should be well in 4 or 5 days, so they tell me. AHH! So close!

On tomorrow's menu: temples of Aihole, and Ibrahim Rouza and Gol Gumbaz of Bijapur. Plus, another hotel saga. Stay tuned!