A Trip to Hampi- Part 3 - Badami, Aihole, Patadakal

We spent a couple hours early in the morning driving away from Hampi to Aihole where we were met by a different guide arranged by Viru. The 3 sites we visited this day are much older than Hampi. The temples at Aihole date from about 250 AD to about 780AD. These towns were part of the Chalukya Empire. Our guide explained that Aihole was a sort of learning center for temple building and many unusual temples were built here that were never really copied elsewhere. One picture shows a sort of oval shaped temple that is very unusual. Our guide showed us each of the temples (in a few too many words), but we liked seeing them. We started with the 780AD temple and ended with one built around 250AD. The older ones show a great deal of wear from the centuries of rain and sun and human abuse.
We left Aihole for Patadakal. This is a World Heritage Site. Our guide explained that there were many coronation ceremonies performed here and the temples have been keept in reasonable condition. These temples were built between about 720 and 780AD and he said that the builders learned from the earlier ones to the later ones as they built. The style of them appears more typical of northern Indian temples, so we presume there was some communication with the north in the 8th century.
We next drove to Badami to see 4 cave temples here. Our guide said they were carved out of the sandstone mountain in the 7th century. There are 2 Vishnu temples, one Shiva Temple and one Jain temple. We know little about Jainism, but we know that they are very strictly vegetarians. The more rigorous believers wear masks to avoid even accidentally swallowing an insect. At the Chariot temple the previous day we saw 4 or 5 Jain women all dressed in white with masks. They asked Viru some questions which he answered. He asked them about some long handled white brooms they were carrying and they said that they were for sweeping insect out of their path if necessary to avoid stepping on them. They asked where they could get a book about the temples to read more and Viru told them of a shop, but they said they had no money, so he just shrugged his shoulders.
There is much more to Badami than just the cave temples, but it was late in the day so we only had time to see them before heading back to our hotel in Hospet. The guide gave directions to Joseph, but w ekept having the feeling we were going the wrong way, but we got back safely.
The cave temples were interesting because of all the work that went into carving them out so long ago. They each have some nice sculptures, but are rather dark and plain further inside. We saw some traces of paint and then our guide explained that there were once many colorful paintings inside but these are nearly all gone now. He showed us one spot where we could see parts of some figures painted.