Bad Timing in Badami (Karnataka, January 7-8, 2009)

I arrive in Badami very late and am dropped off near the bus stand, not much more than an open parking lot off the village's sole main road, near the area's only hotels. I knock on the doors of several of the hotels until finally someone answers. As I have no choice of where to stay, I have no leverage to use in bargaining. Nonetheless, I still try to hint that the price is a little high. The night hotel boy makes a strange deal with me, that if I pay him bakshish (a bribe), he will say I came in that morning so that I don't have to check out so early the next day. So I basically pay the written price (which is always too high), but he gets a cut and I can stay later the next day, before I catch the night bus to Bangalore en route to Mamallapuram.

The next day, after little sleep, I am up and out touring the rock-cut caves temples surrounding the village of Badami. According to my Lonely Planet Guidebook, "Badami was once the capital of the Chalukya empire, which covered much of the central Deccan between the 4th and 8th centuries AD" (926). This explains why there are so many magnificent sculpted rock cave temples scattering Badami and the surrounding areas, which are today only small villages. These cave temples, according to the Lonely Planet, are "some of the earliest and finest examples of Dravidian temples and rock-cut caves, as well as the earliest free-standing temple in India...The forms and sculptural work at these sites inspired the later South Indian Hindu empires that rose and fell before the arrival of the Muslims" (927).

On the way from my hotel to the cave temples, I come across a large group of boys and men. They tell me they are preparing for a Muslim holiday celebrating something having to do with the prophet Muhammad. It seems that not all of the participants are Muslim, but I am informed that everyone celebrates this festival. It is a great photo opportunity:

Finally, I reach the cave temples. The first and oldest is dedicated to Shiva, the second is dedicated to Vishnu, the the third contains carvings or images of several deities, and the fourth and smallest cave is dedicated to Jainism and has an image of Suparshvanatha (the seventh Jain tirthankar) surrounded by 24 Jain tirthankars, and a sanctum containing an image of adinath, the first Jain tirthankar. At one point while I am at the caves, the night hotel boy finds me and asks for a photo. He is very short compared to the carvings:

Here are some other images from the cave temples:

After visiting the caves, I explore the 5th-century Agastyatirtha Tank and the waterside Bhutanatha temples, discovering more great photo opportunities:

I am not surprised to find some men sleeping next to the temple, an historical landmark. People sleep everywhere in India-it is so hot, the culture is relaxed, and unemployment is common.

On the other side of the tank is an archaeological museum, which houses examples of local sculpture. The stairway just behind the museum climbs through a dramatic sandstone chasm and fortified gateways to reach the various temples and ruins of the north fort, with expansive views overlooking the rooftops of Badami. On my walk from place to place, I encounter village children playing and doing chores:

I walk back to my hotel, have a snack from a street food wala, and see that the Muslim holiday festival is still happening:

Temples, Ruins and the Hospital (Hampi, Karnataka, January 3-7, 2009)

After the day visiting Anegundi and the Hanuman Temple, I am sure to see the other major attractions Hampi has to offer. These require that I take the small boat from Virupapur Gaddi, where I'm staying in a hut, to Hampi.

I visit the Virupaksha Temple, its meticulously engraved tower gazing high over Hampi Bazaar, lined with touristy stores and small restaurants. The main gopuram, almost 50m high, was built in 1442, with a smaller one added in 1510. Its main shrine is dedicated to Virupaksha, a form of Shiva.

Inside the temple I find Lakshmi, the temple elephant, and her attendant. I look on in horror as a tourist stretches out his hand, offering her a coin. My horror turns to amazement when I realize this is an elephant trained to take the offering and give it to her attendant, rather than snuff it down her trunk. After giving it to her attendant, Lakshmi raises her trunk to the donor's head for a blessing.

In the evening, I go once again to the cheap restaurant in Virupapur Gaddi and order a thali and ginger-lemon tea with unlimited honey. The same group of French and Israeli tourists are having dinner, and it is comforting to see them again. I meet another tourist, Yishai, an Israeli who asks to borrow my Lonely Planet. I give it to him, and then realize that I have torn out the pages he needs, so I find these for him. I ask him if it's worth it to go to Badami, and he asks me if it's worth it to walk to Anegundi. I tell him it's a nice day trip, and the Hanuman Temple is a must-see. He was very impressed by the cave sculptures in Badami, as he himself builds stone houses, so I put that on my destination list.

After thalis we leave the restaurant and walk to a more inviting cafe nearer to my hut. We talk and have tea. It seems he is really searching for something here in India. He was supposed to be married to an English woman, but that fell apart a while ago, and he still seems to be recovering. Back in Israel, he was being stalked by a woman from whom he could not get away, and so left to visit his sister in Ireland. From there, he decided he didn't want to go back to Israel, and so continued on to India, without so much as a guidebook! The attraction of India was an investigation into his father. Yishai's father was very interested in yoga and Indian philosophy and religion before he died when Yishai was younger. He was much older than his second wife (Yishai's mother) when he died, and he might have been getting dementia, but his exact cause of death is not known. Apparently he just walked off one day, and was found dead away from Yishai's village.

In the next days (I cannot recall the chronology) I visit Hampi's ruins. I cannot recall those exact ones I saw, but according to my Lonely Planet, the ruins include the Vittala Temple; Sule Bazaar and Achyutaraya Temple; the Royal Centre, which contains the walled compound known as the Zenana Enclosure, the Elephant Stables; the Underground Virupaksha Temple and the Queen's bath (922).

I also decide I should pay a visit to a doctor for my cough, which was not solved in Gokarna. I cannot recall how I get the recommendation for the hospital, but I go into town on a bus and take an auto-rickshaw to a hospital. I am a bit nervous, but I see other foreigners there and figure this must be the doctor that foreigners visit. Finally, I am able to see him. He orders an x-ray, seems unnecessary and again makes me nervous, but I go along, figuring he knows better than I. It seems I have fluid in my lungs, and he needs to inject a saline solution into the vein on my hand to get rid of the fluid. He gives me antibiotics for the infection. At one point he talks about terrorism in India and blames Muslims for India's problems. I do not agree, but I do not argue with my doctor. I pay my bill and leave, taking an auto-rickshaw to the pharmacy I saw near the bus stand. Here I get my prescription is filled.

Back in Hampi for the night, I go to my usual restaurant and take rest. I have inspected my guidebook and realized that there might be an annual dance festival happening in Mamallapuram. It is not certain, as the book only reports what happened in the past, but it gives me some motivation to move on from Hampi. I decide it will be my next destination after Badami.

At some point in the next day, I walk through bright green rice paddies to a restaurant I have been told has a book exchange. I exchange a book I have already read for "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard. It is a slow read, and not something I am able to appreciate until I finish it back home.

I am a bit indecisive about how and when to move on, so by the time I get my things together for Badami, I am leaving inappropriately late. I cross on the boat and get to the bus station. The schedules are inconvenient, and I should have planned for an earlier bus ride. I will arrive in the middle of the night and worry about finding a hotel.