A guide to a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole – the epitome of temple art in India

Today, we take you with us to Karnataka’s heritage tour epitome – a trip to Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole !!

 

The triplet of Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole lie at the center of the heritage tour of Karnataka. Located in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka and lying in the valley of the Malaprabha river, this trio of towns hold great historical and cultural significance for the entire India. As, one, this is one of the first places in India where the human civilisation flourished. As indicated from inscriptions as old as the iron age discovered in this region. And second, this is the place where the well known temple architecture forms of India developed.

We had been wanting to do a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole for the longest time. While we visited many other naturally beautiful places in Karnataka and some of the cultural towns as well. Somehow, we could never visit here. Until the year 2023. When our plan to visit Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole finally materialised. And it was such an impromptu plan! Because while we were planning to visit Bekal, Udupi and Murudeshwara, on a trip to coastal Karnataka. But it started raining there. And then we had to cancel that trip. Nevertheless, finally our trip to Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole materialised.

I was mesmerised by the beauty of the historical places in all these three places. So, I will highly recommend you to visit each one of these at least once. And you can use this post as your guide to visiting the trio of Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. Let me provide you all the information here needed to plan a trip here. But before that, lets dive just a little bit into the history of these three places.

History of Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

The region of Badami Pattadakal and Aihole lies in the valley of Mahaprabha River, surrounded by sandstone hills from all sides. As a result, it provided for a perfect strategic location for the human civilisation to flourish. As a result, signs of flourishing human life have been found here since the iron age itself. And during the rule of the Chalukya Dynasty, the region really started to flourish. It is around this time that the Chalukya kings commissioned development of a lot of temples in this region. The area of Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole each got a specific role to play –

• Badami became the administrative capital of the kingdom
• Pattadakal was the cultural capital of the kingdom
• Aihole emerged as the business center of the region

It was in Aihole that the cradle of Indian Temple architecture took shape. Artists were encouraged to try different type of temple architecture styles here. As a result, you get to see many incomplete temples, small temples and even prototypes in the form of stone carings and sculptures. When they got little skilled they moved to Badami. That is where the cave temples and other Badami temples were developed. Finally, they moved to the University of temple architecture in Pattadakal. Where the complete temples with detailed intricacies were developed.

Even after the Chalukya dynasty slowly declined from power, the dynasties that developed continued to support the temple architecture development in the region. The two distinct forms of temple architecture that one can see across India were developed here –

• The Nagara Style of North Indian temple architecture seen in many temples in North India including the temples of Khajuraho, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Puri and Konark Temples in Orissa, the Modhera Sun Temple of Gujarat and several others.
• The Dravidian Style of South Indian temple architecture that is prominent in most of the famous temples in South India. Including Brihadeeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, Virupaksha Temple in Hampi, Hoysaleshwara Temple in Halebidu, Meenakshi Ammana Temple in Madurai and several temples of South India.

The Vijayanagara Empire further flourised in the region. Although their capital was located in Hampi, they performed their coronation ceremonies in Pattadakal. And also visited Badami and Aihole. After the Delhi sultunate started raiding the South Indian regions, some of these temples were destroyed. Others were half destroyed. Only a few that the locals somehow concealed by burying below the soil still remained intact. Afterwards, Tipu Sultan ruled the region.

How to plan a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

There are several ways you can plan a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. Following are some of them –

A 2 days weekend trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

You can reach Badami on a Saturday morning by taking an overnight train. Then explore around Badami on Saturday. Stay overnight in Badami. On Sunday, visit Pattadakal and Aihole. And sunday evening, take a night train back from Badami. This is the shortest way to explore Badami Pattadakal and Aihole over a weekend trip from nearby areas including Bangalore.

A 3 days trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

You can also do a 3 days trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. Reach Badami the first day by afternoon. And then explore around some of the places in Badami. Next day, do a day trip from Badami to Pattadakal and Aihole. On the third day, in the morning, visit rest of the places in Badami. And then start back by noon. This will be a compact trip.

One day trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

Yes, it is possible to even do a one day trip to Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole from some nearby places. Some of the popular day trips to this circuit include –

• A day trip from Hampi to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole
• From Hubli to Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole on a day trip
• A day trip from Goa to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

However, I highly discourage you doing a day trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. Unless you are just interested in snapping some quick pictures at each of the site, without getting into any details. We only did Pattadakal and Aihole in one day. And that itself felt so overwhelming as there were so many things to cover and so many details to absorb.

But of course, you can always include Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole on an onwards trip from Bangalore to Hampi. Doing a 5 days trip to Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole. After exploring Hampi, start for Badami. But take the route via Pattadakal and Aihole. After exploring these two sites, reach Badami towards the evening. Stay overnight. The next day explore Badami. And either depart in the evening using a bus or a train. Or the next day morning post breakfast. Thus spending 2 nights in Badami.

Many people also stop at Badami overnight when doing a trip of Goa. And even tour groups operate from Goa to Badami. Hubli is also very nearby. And it has an international airport also. So, you can also plan a trip to Badami from Hubli or Goa. But do plan for a minimum of one night stay in Badami. Below is the detail of our own 4 days trip exploring Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole from Bangalore :

Our 4 days trip itinerary to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

We did a 4 days trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. Below is the details of our trip to the region :

Day 1: We started around 5:30am in the morning from our home in Bangalore. And reached Badami by around 4:00pm in the evening. In between we took ample breaks on the way. Enjoying the sceneries, the rivers and hills that we crossed. We also took 2 long breaks for breakfast and lunch, apart from the several short breaks. After reaching our hotel – Heritage Resort Badami – we just relaxed for the day

Day 2: Today we took a day trip to Pattadakal and Aihole from Badami. Post breakfast, around 10:00am, we started for Pattadakal. We explored the Pattadakal Temple Complex in around 2 hours. And then proceeded to Aihole. In Aihole, it took us close to 1.5 hours to explore the main Durga temple complex. And then another 1 hour to explore the surroundings. We also had lunch in between at KSTDC Hotel Mayura in Aihole. On our way back from there, we visited the Banashankari Temple in Badami. And were back to our hotel around 5:30pm in the evening.

PS: Exploring the cradle of Indian temple architecture at Aihole 

Day 3: Today, we explored the local sites of Badami in one day. Including the Badami Cave Temples, Bhootnatha Temple of Badami, Agastya Lake, Upper and Lower Shaivalika and other important sites of Badami. And were back to our hotel by 5:00pm in the evening.

Day 4: Today, post breakfast, we headed back to our home in Bangalore.

Overall, it was a very relaxing trip. We had ample time to explore all the places thoroughly. The kids took their own sweet time to get ready, have breakfast and lunch. And also we didn’t have to wake them up early in the morning in the wake of rushing to sightseeing. We really enjoyed our pace of slow travel during this trip. And we highly recommend you to follow this itinerary if you are also traveling with kids and family.

How many days are enough to plan a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

A minimum of 2 days and maximum of 4 days will be good to explore around the trio of the cultural center of Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. It really depends on how much details you want to absorb about the history and architecture of the place. For us, we took 2 days in transit on our road trip from Bangalore to Badami. And another 2 days to completely explore around the region. Single day trips from Goa and Hampi will be too overwhelming or hectic to explore the region.

How to reach Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

Badami is the biggest town out of the three. Pattadakal and Aihole are mostly villages. Badami is well connected with the rest of the country through rail and road network. There are many different ways to reach Badami. Some of these include –

• Self driving to Badami
• Taking a train to Badami, there are many overnight trains from nearby places including Bangalore
• Taking a bus to Badami
• Hiring a taxi and taking a road trip to Badami

For those pressed by time, I will suggest taking a train as it saves time. For instance, when traveling from Bangalore to Badami in a train, you can take an overnight train. And early morning reach Badami. Similarly, when returning back from Badami to Bangalore, you can again take an overnight train. This will save your day time traveling to Badami.

Our trip from Bangalore to Badami

But if you are a road trip enthusiast like us, we will recommend you take a road trip to Badami. The highways to Badami are in excellent condition. And driving through them is a pleasant experience. We ourselves drove from Bangalore to Badami. The road that we took was :-

Bangalore City -> Neelamangala -> Tumkur -> Chitradurga -> Hospete -> Badami

We took this drive at the onset of monsoons. And it was such a beautiful day. With overcast skies, cold wind blowing, the red Gulmohars and colorful bougainvilleas in full bloom on the side of the highway!! On the way we stopped at the banks of the Tungabhadra River as well.

Once you reach Badami, you can take road trip to Pattadakal and Aihole. Both these places are on the same route. And the road condition from Badami to Pattadakal and Pattadakal to Aihole is excellent. It takes around 20-25 minutes to reach the Pattadakal Group of Monuments from Badami. And then another half an hour to reach Aihole from Pattadakal.

Where to stay in Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

There are many stay options in Badami. We stayed at Heritage Resort Badami which was decent small size resort with a pure veg restaurant. And then there are other popular hotels in Badami like Hotel Clarks Inn and the Badami Court Hotel. Most of the hotels are located on the main road itself. You can browse the complete list of hotels in Badami here.

You can easily visit Pattadakal and Aihole from Badami on a day trip. But if you want to thoroughly explore the region by staying there overnight then you can stay at KSTDC Hotel Mayura in Aihole. I couldn’t find any other stay options in Aihole. And none in the village of Pattadakal. There are also small guest houses and people renting their rooms to guests for overnight stay. But those are not listed online. You can go there and check with locals for availability. While this is an adventurous way to find an accommodation, it is more suited to backpackers and solo travellers than to families with kids and elderly.

What is the best time to visit Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

Everyone says that the best time to visit Badami Pattadakal and Aihole is the winter season. When the temperature in the region is relatively lower than rest of the year. And the sun is bearable. But, while visiting Hampi nearby in December, I had still found the sun to be very hard. So, I will like to differ a bit here. And rather suggest the onset of monsoons as the best time to visit Badami Pattadakal and Aihole. As the skies are overcast with clouds at this time. But the rain-showers are short lived and intermittent. Like how we visited Chitradurga Fort in August last year.

We visited Badami Pattadakal and Aihole in July first week. Monsoons were late this year. So, while it was cloudy and the winds were cool. It was not raining yet. Which made the weather very pleasant. However, do keep your reservations flexible when doing a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole in the monsoon season. And keep an eye on the weather forecast as it can change any moment. If there are chances of heavy rain or flooding then you can safely cancel your trip or postpone it.

Shopping in Badami

There are hardly any shops in Pattadakal and Aihole. And the small ones that are there, I didn’t see them selling anything unique. Overall the places are not too much commercialised. Which I loved. There are just a few food stalls around and very small hotels providing local cuisines to the tourists. In Badami, one can shop for stone made kitchen items and iron kitchen utensils, silk fabrics, sarees and rugs. We didn’t have time to explore the markets of Badami. So, we skipped shopping in Badami on this trip.

Which other places can I visit with Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole

 

You can combine a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole with the following places –

• Goa – Goa is located just 3 hours drive from Badami. So, if you have time at hand, you can extend your journey to Goa from Badami. Or, you can visit Badami after Goa. We have several posts on our multiple trips to Goa. Read our Goa content here.
• Hubli – Hubli is like the business hub of North Karnataka. You can visit Badami from Hubli as well. They are hardly 2 hours apart.
• Hampi – People often visit the UNESCO World Heritage site – the architectural ruins of Vijayanagara Empire in Hampi along with Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole. Even we were initially planning such a trip. But that couldn’t materialise for various reasons. So, finally we planned a trip to Badami Pattadakal and Aihole alone.

 

General tips on visiting Badami Pattadakal and Aihole

• Wear comfortable cotton cloths when visiting places here, preferably full sleeves if you want to avoid tanning.
• Carry water bottles with you at the sites that you visit, although drinking water facility is also available at all the sites across Badami Pattadakal and Aihole
• You can carry some food with you when visiting Pattadakal and Aihole as there are not many decent food options around these places. We found a KSTDC operated hotel Mayura in Aihole which was decent for lunch as well as stay.
• Carry an umbrella with you no matter in which month you visit. As it will be either sunny or there will be high chances of rain
• You should also carry your general medication with you, particularly if traveling with kids as these are small towns. So you might not get if you are looking for a particular brand.
• Refer to my travel tips to pack well for the trip.
• Many of the temples you visit in Badami Pattadakal and Aihole are not active places of worship anymore. However, it still makes sense to pay your respect like leaving the shoes behind when entering inside.
• There are some hidden gems of places like waterfalls, caves and other natural places to explore around Badami Pattadakal and Aihole, you can plan for the same if you have time,

 

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