In Gokak, we noticed
another strange thing. Let the pictures talk for themselves.
The next day we started
early as we wanted to cover all the Bijapur tourist spots, so for first time
everybody was ready by five thirty. We reached my uncles home for breakfast and
hot aaloo paranthas were waiting (very unusual if you think about it in the
context of North Karnataka!). After a superb breakfast we first went to Jamma
Masjid. Of course, it was built by Adilshahi, but which one I forgot and we
were surprised to learn that among the old mosques, it was second largest in
the country. It was designed by some
Persian architect and the central place is engraved.
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| Jamma Masjid, Bijapur |
Second spot in Bijapur
was world famous Golgumbaz. It’s basically a tomb for the king, Mohammed Adil Shah. Two things to
do there - one museum and of course the actual Golgumbaz dome. We spent more
time in the museum as it was extensive collection of all types of sculptures
and war armoury and historical coins, so on and so forth. The worst part is
climbing the gumbaz. Once you are in, you will marvell at its features of
multiple echoes and diagonal sound transmission (in that large dome, if you sit
diagonally and speak to the wall, it’s clearly communicated to the opposite
side). We were tired by the time we came down and slept on lawn grass for some
time.
Next we had time for
only one another thing. We went to Ibrahim roja. This is the tomb of Ibrahim
Adil Shah II. Its beautiful structure captured us temporarily. Frankly we were
getting bored of empty domes and minarets by now. That was end of bijapursightseeing
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| Ibrahim Roja |
We had heavy
“joladarotti” dinner at my uncle’s place and left for Hungund. We stayed at our
friends place there.
Next morning, first destination
was “Kudalasangam”. That’s the place where Vachanaguru Basavanna is said to be
resting in peace (I have my own doubts). We bathed in Triveni Sangam and
visited the serene resting abode of Basavanna. Next followed Aihole, Pattadkal
and Badami in that order. The guide in Aihole said that all three places are
like different grades – Aihole is primary schooling where it was amateur
sculpting, followed by Pattadkal which was like high school and Badami is like
college. And that the universities or higher education centres are Belur and
Halebidu. Most of them were shiva temples.
In Pattadakal I had a
chance meeting with an amateur artist. He was comfortably sitting in a
relatively dark corner, I stole a glance at what he was doing. All the work was
being done by left hand on note pad on his folded right knee. As I like
sketching myself, I was attracted to what he was drawing and was also wondering
at his skills. After I chatted him up regarding his fine arts course. Him being
from that place, he volunteered to give us a guided tour of that temple. It was
then I understood my misunderstanding about his posture. He was disabled in the
right extremities due to polio. He seemed to be poor and some conditioned
feelings made me offer him money. He wouldn’t take it unless for one of his
portrait. So I bought one.
Next it was Badami
caves. We notice that they were more into Vishnu forms like vijayanarasimha,
vamana and varaha. As the afternoon gave way to evening it was time to pack.
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| Pattadakallu |
We left to Bangalore at
around five. Most of us had had very less sleep in the last two days. After
lots of cyclic driving, we reached Bangalore around 6.00am the next morning.
Later that day after adequate rest, me and rohith rode to Pondicherry.
Somewhere in background of my mind I was sad and knew we would have to plan
next trip soon.
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