From my recent trip...

One can only get awed by the beauty of these almond coloured rocks.
Yes, am talking about the by gone Chalukyan capital city- Badami.
The magnificent cave temples, museum, fort and temples are all, of course, over shadowed by dirt and encroachment.
But the original beauty is still untouched.

Here are a few images...

The dancing Shiva (with nine arms on each side showing the poses of Bharatanatyam) in the first cave temple.

A unique God Vishnu carving who is seated instead of lying (which is the usual way of depicting Vishnu).

The carving depicting the story of Narakasura.

The Bhootanatha temples next to the lake.

Temples at Pattadakal.

Entrance of one of the temples at Pattadakal.

The famous Durgadevi temple at Aihole. The guides here compare these pillars to our present parliament house!

P.S. The photographs are from personal collection, using without permission is prohibited.

Golconda fort

From my recent visit to my favourite fort...

Ruins of the Warangal Fort

Fort Warangal















Beautifully carved Ramappa temple at Palampet

Sprawling Mirjan fort

A 15th century fort near Kumta, Karnataka, was a major trading centre of spices especially pepper. It was then ruled by the local chiefs of Vijayanagar kings, but later it was occupied by the Marathas, Hyder Ali and in the end by the British.

Spread across an area of 11.5 acres one can nothing but admire its magnificence with awe and inspiration.

Here are a few pictures:

Revisiting

Revisiting the Qutub Shahi tombs and Golkonda fort gave me another chance to take few more beautiful pictures of these relics of the past...Here are a few of them...

Magnanimous Golconda Fort

One thing I must admit about visiting this place is that, me and S (he carrying my daughter too) had to climb up 365 steps to view the complete fort and we were completely exhausted at the end. And we were worrying about our condition for the next day as our muscles would remind us of our previous day adventure (which usually happens), but both of us were as perfect and painless as we would be everyday!
Call it the miracle of the fort and its structure.
Here is a picture of the beautiful fort...