3 day trip to Bijapur, Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami. This was a trip through the ages covering various rock temples, rock-cut cave temples, tombs, palaces and mosques ranging from 4th century to 17th century. This post covers the places visited in Aihole on Day 2.

Trip in detail –

Trip through the ages – Aihole

Day 2 – 19/09/2018

Location –

Previous day we had visiting places in Bijapur and had stayed over at Hotel Basava residency in Bijapur. We started from Bijapur early in the morning at around 5:15am. Took us around 2 hours to reach Aihole by 7:15am. Then we decided to skip breakfast and visit places early in the morning.

Durga temple complex

We first visited the Durga temple complex. It houses the ruins of several temples and a museum. Also there are couple of stone wells or ponds inside the complex. Museum was closed early in the morning, so we decided to skip it. Each temple has a information board explaining the architecture and its significance. Most of the intricate designs and idols were destroyed through the ages and very less of it stands to be seen today.

The temples in Durga temple complex are – Suryanarayana Gudi, The Ladkhan temple, Gaudaragudi, Chakragudi, Badiger Gudi, Durga temple.

Huchchimalli temple complex and Ravanaphadi

Next we went to Huchchimalli temple complex. It has a stone step well/pond and a temple in it. We spent some time here and then went to Ravanapdhadi. This is a rock-cut cave temple cut out of a monolithic rock. It is smaller than the ones in Badami, but it had been preserved well with lot of sculptures over the walls and the roof of the cave. Here we met a guide from the tourist department who explained all the structures in this cave temple in detail.

Meguti Jain temple and Buddhist temple

The guide had suggested to visit the Buddhist temple and Meguti Jain temple next. These are situated on a small hill close by. We climbed up the stairs of the hill and first visited the Buddhist temple. There was nothing much to see here. Only one statue of Buddha on the roof. We met a kid here who gave us an elocution on the history of Aihole and accompanied us to the Buddhist temple and Meguti Jain temple.

Above the Buddhist temple is the Meguti Jain temple. It has inscriptions in hale Kannada (old Kannada) on its wall which has been preserved and highlighted for the tourists to see. Then there is the temple structure with few deities inside. We got a good view of Aihole and all the ruins that it contains from the hill top. Here we met Philip from France who accompanied us to the Ancient Digambar Jain temple and later to Pattadakal as well.

Ancient Digambar temple

From the Meguti temple we drove down to the Digambar temple which on route to Pattadakal. It is a cave temple with beautiful sculptures and inscriptions on the walls and the roof. The ambience was amazing in this cave temple. Philip being an architect was totally awestruck with the ambiance here. After clicking few pics here, we headed towards Pattadakal.

Places visited – Durga temple complex, Huchchimalli temple complex, Ravanapdhadi rock-cut temple, Buddhist temple, Meguti Jain temple and Digambar cave temple.