Badami Chalukya Monuments

Along the Malaprabha river in northern Karnataka, the early Chalukyas of Badami raised the monuments where South Indian temple architecture was invented, tested, and perfected between the sixth and eighth centuries. At Aihole, the cradle, builders experimented with plan after plan; at their capital Badami they cut Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Jain temples into a red sandstone cliff; and at Pattadakal, inscribed by UNESCO, they brought northern and southern styles together in a royal ensemble of finished temples. Seen as one circuit, the three towns trace the whole birth of a tradition, an easy drive apart in the same valley.

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