In my middle school history book, a line appeared in a chapter on Harshavardhana (the last great north Indian king)'s Chakravarti ambitions.
He was met by a name that stepped out of the shadows &, after defeating him roundly, stepped right back.
That was my intro to Pulakeshin II.
The everlasting renown of the Chalukyas mainly rests on the broad shoulders of their most famous son, The Great Lion & his vicissitudes.
One advantage of ancient history being taught so mind-numbingly in our schools is the thrill of self-discovery & sorting its tangled threads
Thus a project to draw temples of India led me to The Great Lion's stunning capital & an itch to see it for myself, unfulfilled til this Aug
The day was juicy & cold & the car sang over unbelievable countryside - the beauty of Karnataka in the rains has to be experienced firsthand
Along the road to Dandeli, lay sectacular vistas, painted temples, & gaily dressed folk anticipating Ganapati's earthly visit.
Every JLR regular waits for the safari & I live for them.
The driver dropped a guava in my palm & swallows danced in a cloud covered valley
In the middle of the jungle, where armies of the Three Kingdoms would have once marched through, we ran into a rejuvenated Ganapati temple
It was Janmashtami & here was lil Krishna!
I was deep in Shivaji Maharaj country & moving from his & Hanuman's to Basava's iconography.
The landscape changed from lush to dark, bare earth; pairs of decorated bullocks were everywhere & the face on the flag was Sangolli Rayanna
One of the most striking things to come by on a hot, rainless afternoon, is this Shiva temple; chatting families reclined under the banyan.
And soon I was on my way in an auto, up narrow winding gullies, to lay my thirsty eyes on the pride of Karnataka, the magnificence of Vatapi
At their peak, the Chalukyas ruled over a vast empire. It stretched from the Narmada to the Kaveri & was beset by ambitious young dynasts.
If you thought fighting fiercely & gallantly was the only duty, no sir! Aspiring kings had to be patrons, if not practitioners, of the arts!
Nothing prepares you for what nature & ambitious, artistic royalty laid out in Vatapi, or Badami.
Here, Bhoothnath temple & Agastya teerth.
I got off by the river & walked to the temples by the ghat. Folk sat idly by, or walked about. The pujari spoke to me but I was in a daze.
A newly-wed woman emerged & over her shoulder told her husband it was all the same.
I went in, fellows. And I cried. I cried. And I cried.
I was glum & moody when I alighted at the rock caves but the sight of my friends @a_muglikar & @Flyfiddlesticks, cheered me up at once!
If you have a vivid imagination, ancient places in India are a feast.
Vatapi's oldest monuments go back to 6th-7th CE, staggeringly ancient!
As your foot touches the first step, you can see The Great Lion, in soft white clothes, damp from a dip, bounding up vigorously for pooja.
Maybe his gorgeous queens sat like these silken butterflies!
Maybe little prince Vikramaditya descended like this proper young man!
Everywhere you look, every vista, every detail is lovingly & carefully planned. In its prime, this must have been a place fit for kings only
No one ever tells you how things are NOW.
No book, blog, tweet.
You've to see it, in all its arrogance & disfiguring, triumphant presence.
I won't waste your time on a caves tour; far better photographers have captured their gob-smacking, lyrical exquisiteness, but take you back
For in the morning is India's Independence Day..
..and my experience of Chalukyan majesty is blown apart by the absolute glory of Pattadakal
The Malaprabha river (meaning full of mud) bears the weight of 3 Chalukya cities & enough grain to feed a hungry young dynasty on its banks.
The Great Lion, who had come into his inheritance after a civil war, fell to impatient young scions of dynasties arising all around him.
When Vikramaditya reclaimed Vatapi from renowned Pallava king Narasimhavarman Vatapikonda after protracted war, its best days were behind it
His heirs began to plan a city from where they would govern, pray & host the countless festivals of the Hindu calendar, for their subjects.
Paṭṭadakal, known at times as Raktapura, Pattashilapura, Paṭṭada Kisuvolalu (& Petrigal to Ptolemy), unfurls before your eyes like a flag.
Chalukyas had seen upheavals in their fortunes in 4 generations that many took ages to see. When they built to stay, they built to impress.
This glowy, painterly quality of the complex against that azure sky must've been exploited by the architects to get the kings to invest more
Here's the RajaMata, O Vijayaditya, walking in!
O Vikramaditya, the princess, wanting her pet monkey included!
Your wives in their silks..
I caressed the Hale Gannada inscription on the cold stone of Vijayaditya's 12th CE grant, gazed at the cocky 8th CE victory pillar & paused
Intricate details on this vast a scale, inform one of the wealth, leisure & sophistication of Chalukyan kings & queens.
I mean..LOOK at this
Just as leaves wrapped unevenly around the pillar above, make it life-like, the play of light & dark in these spaces, leaves you breathless
Throughout the route to Paṭṭadakal, India flags were flying on autos, on street corners, and Sangolli Rayanna & Basava lent gravitas to them
I fell behind & came to the complex's edge. A handsome man steadying his voluptuous companion met my eye, having seen me at Vatapi before!
I'd also just stumbled upon a graveyard & with mounting horror, looked around the entire complex..at reconstructed shikhars & headless Gods
Several shrines had the stench of urine, bat droppings, seepage, & a deliberate, ruinous emptiness within. It was exhausting.
2 trudging steps down, I took in an eerily familiar vista! If I noticed & connected them, surely 'twas intended!
Paṭṭadakal || Naimisharanya
I ran up to the first temple under the tree & literally caught my breath!
If you've seen this thread, you know why!
https://twitter.com/TheSignOfFive/status/765459990433771520
It's actually a source of eternal wonder to me how, even as heritage seems to be falling apart for neglect, intangibles keep us together.
There's unspoken but visible symbolic homogeneity, whether it's commissioned by royalty or hidden by priests adamant to carry on tradition.
Leftward from the Malaprabha, a path (made for women in fluttering silky garments to sway on), led to exquisite views from Papanatha temple.
Entering it however, is another story.
Like this bull rendered in black stone, with lovingly detailed accoutrements & glossy hide..BUT
HACKED.
Another temple was open for pooja, which gently recreated an atmosphere conducive for a living god, & drew in weary worshippers like me.
Finally, as if to reward heartsick voyagers passing through this deceptively small-looking city, a live, frantically adored Nandi appeared!!
Is it because of Vikramaditya II's Kalachuri/ Haihaya wives (whose emblem was Suvarna Vrishabha or Golden Bull) that bulls were everywhere?
Leaving Paṭṭadakal empty-handed, I wished folk/the Govt. had shops selling replicas of sculpture/temples (like outside Belur/ Mahabalipuram)
En route, I spotted small Nandi shrines everywhere! Many would have Chalukya figurines but all brought the Golden Bull back to the people!
The Chalukyas said they were born of a chaluk (hand folded to hold water); others said of a chalki (iron rod to till land), possibly Ayodhya
Whatever their origin, their fame, wealth, prestige & power of their famed Karnata Bala army sat lightest when they were in touch with land.
It's not surprising that in an area prone to less rainfall, the association of prosperity, nay divinity, with vegetal growth will be made.
The pre-eminent goddess residing near Vatapi, is called Vanashankari or śākaṃbharī devi, an intriguing deity of mists & legend.
I'd heard of Her even before I met Her, since out of Her four main temples in India, an ancient, hugely revered Shaktipeeth is in Saharanpur
In Rajasthan, śākaṃbharī devi is the mother goddess of Rajput kings & so it was for the Chalukyas, who gave Her preeminence over all else.
Having seen the sources of Chalukyan power & prestige, next was the source of their spiritual strength, located in the Tilakaranya forest.
My auto driver said in broken Hindi that the temple was remade by Marathas but was v old & indeed, it's part of a 7th CE Chalukyan complex
Walking towards the temple, you take in what is surely one of the prettiest sights in all Bagalkot : sellers of pooja material.
Negotiating for my own pooja thali, I could see monuments that probably had similar haats about them then, but could do with some protection
The gorgeous temple Rath stood forlornly in the middle of nowhere & a wheel leaned against what I was dismayed to find, was a Pushkarani
For now, it stood parched & lonely & attracted trash from unconcerned temple goers
This was the actual temple, folk told me, but was *damaged* & so, the Marathas spruced up another one next to it & restarted worship.
Thus began my #WalkToTemple, bedecked with relics of what would've once been a stunning complex by a vast shimmering tank & dense forest.
Painted over sloppily with yellow & white, giving shelter to picnicking or resting families, enmeshed in modern life
The Deepastambha of the temple are an astonishing work of art & complicated at the same
Devotees rushed to take roli-akshat off the lotus feet, & I followed suit, twisting this way & that before realising the gate was open
One isn't allowed to photograph śākaṃbharī devi's sanctum but the insides are painted over, & laid over with marble & granite in some areas
Among the smaller shrines near the goddess who's said to be one of Parvati or Durga's forms, was of this #Hanuman!!
https://twitter.com/thesignoffive/status/765459990433771520
For me this Sir Yantra is symbolic of how H make the best of things - abandon, rejuvenate, relocate, move on..
Which is a good thing, & bad.
There was one year a massive drought & the king was beyond despair.
In a fevered dream, he saw a glowing green goddess of plenty step up
And offer parts of herself to the starving populace. Soon there was enough grains & fruit & vegetables for all. That was śākaṃbharī Devi
And She's kept up Her end of the bargain with the mighty Chalukyan empire to this day.

I now close this thread on Dussehra, Durga's day ॐ
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