Badami a place, holding memories of 5th centuries

Badami formally known as Vatapi was the capital of Chalukyas in 5^th and 7^th century.

A very old historical place where one can visit and understand what history says and imagine how it was during those days as a capital city of one of the great ruler’s kingdom.

There are around four caves temples which are sculptured in red rock. Different religion rulers have made their foot prints and presence in the locality.

1^st cave temple has sculptures of Shiva and parvati.

2^nd and 3^rd temples are dedicated to Vishnu and his incarnations

4^rd one has Jainism carvings

There is a pond attached to these caves temples located red rock hill. At the corner of the pond, there are some temples in which one called group of Bhutanath temples locatged they look beautiful from the other corner of the pond where in temple appears like standing in midst of the water.

Though these monuments are thousands of years old, they still look like fresh.

Good that some authorities have taken care to preserve and protect the place now.

Sri Banasankari devi is one of the famous and very old Temple located near Badami.

A big fare will be conducted during January month where thousands of devotees gather to mark the celebration.

Sheep guard's nomadic life

They are sheep guards’, who move from one place to another place along with all their material with the help of horses. They dwell in an open space most of the time in farmer’s fields along with their all sheeps which would be put in a closed net.

Physically they are very strong people who manage all things on a move everyday.

Always ready to deal with nature’s threats like heavy rain, floods and scorching heat.

Even their kids also grow as tuff as nature threats. They negotiate with farmers for their sheeps grazing in farmer’s field and intern they dwell in with sheeps in farmers field, which helps field to get better fertilize.

An Idol procession in village

Above are the pics from an Idol procession where village people carry God Nandi idol in a pallakki (palanquin) going round the village. They also carry Nandi kol (long holy stick) on their head along with procession. A long holy stick to lift on their head, one needs to have enough strength to balance as well as carry on their head.

Each village person contributes their share for the function which would be celebrated as a mark of respect to God Nandi. The procession ends at temple premises with distributing of food/Prasad to everyone.

A trip to Melukote & adi chunchanagiri

Melukote is a historic place. The great guru Ramanujacharya stayed in this place for 14 yrs and has built famous temple called Sri Cheluv Narayanaswamy. Beautiful sculptures of columns and temple structure are really attractive.

There is one more Temple in the top of the hill called Yoga Narashinha swamy. It is said to be constructed in the period of Hoysala. The panorama of surrounding from the top of this temple is really breathtaking.

There are several water ponds in melukote in which one pond called Kalyani is really big and nice one to see to it.

The other two ponds are Akkan Kola (Elder Sister pond) and Thangiy Kola (Younger sister pond). It is very strange to know that the water residing in these two ponds is unlike although both ponds are located very next to each other as Akkan kola water is a salty one and thangiy kola water is sweet one.
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After noon we headed towards Aadhi chunchangiri. Temple Kalabairaveshwara in aadhi chunchanagiri is really a nice temple to visit. This Temple has been built with modern touch and is located on the steep hill. A well maintained place where all kind of facility is made available to devotees including arrangement of Prasad (meal).

Apart from main temple (Kalabairaveshwara) there are other small temples too on the hill going further. One has to be ready to climb steep steps to have a glimpse of panorama from the height. It was really a rare experience of reaching the peek and having a sight of nature's scene.
I suggest those who visit these two places (Melukote and Aadhi chunchangiri) prepare to spend more time.
Though there are more steps to climb as temples are in high hill, going up such a height, believe me one may not feel it difficult and tired. May be the magic of fresh air and the divine power of the place itself would not make you much tired.

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It was in the evening we travelled towards Yedeyuru, another famous holy place on the way.
We still had time in the evening after Yediyuru visit. It was on kid’s insistence we proceeded to Markonahalli Dam.
A small reservoir located few kilometers from the main road. Indeed it was good to experience a real village environment where people were returning home after their cattle feed. A greenery land along the road to reservoir was pleasure to watch.

North Karnataka side Marriage function rituals

It's called "Halagamba" (tying a small thorn tree to wooden pole)

One has to bind tiny thorn tree to "Halgamba" on whom in-laws pour color

We had a good marriage season this time attending 3 marriages, which were of close relatives. It was nice to attend this kind of marriages, where in all marriages traditional rituals were the highlights. Truly it was an occasion to meet elders and distance relatives and get to know new people. All it was like a get together occasion.

Pleasure being part of those functions held before marriage day and on marriage day. There is a belief to follow and perform traditional rituals as they are auspicious. Also these traditional practices are regarded and followed because of their significance with respect to marriages. It’s good that these practices are kept alive at least through village side marriage functions.

After long time it was an opportunity to taste again North Karnataka marriage party’s foodstuff, where all favorite items were being served in all 3 marriage places.

Village Fair

It’s been a good vacation to native this time, as there was a village fair.
Summer vacation wouldn’t have been better without village fair and family get together.
Samuhik vivah (Mass marriages in one roof) had been organized on this fair occasion to help those who cannot afford marriage cost individually.
They have been conducting group marriage ceremony from fast 5 years.

Really it is an appreciable effort by village leaders. It helps those who cannot afford marriage expenses. All village people and surrounding people voluntarily contribute for this event and make it successful.

This time there were 24 couples entered into marriage knot. This is not an easy task to handle, requires prepared plan to execute and control the crowd. Enough food was prepared but the serving of food was not managed properly.

Yamanuru - shrine: Symbol of Secularism

Yamanuru, a village located near Navalagund in Dharwad District. There is a temple which is indeed a symbol of secularism, where all religious people worship. Distant located devotees visit this place on every Thursday.
The temple attracts all kind of devotees, irrespective of caste and creed. Though temple looks like Muslim dargha externally, it has Hindu god idol (Ganesh) on front door. God name also resembles combination of Hindu and Muslim name. The tradition is that, most of the devotees take a dip in a small stream of water. Devotees don’t bother to take a dip in highly contaminated water. They call it as a tradition and belief to take bath before visiting temple. I feel it’s a height of belief to take bath and drink such impure water in the name of devotion.

Here I have uploaded some pics of this holy place.