Images of India - 21

A glimpse of heritage monument of India in black and white. Check other posts that will give you more details about this monument.

Padavali Fortress with temple in Madhya Pradesh

Cave No. 20, Ajanta

Cave No. 20 at Ajanta is monastery with a small portico in front of verandah, and verandah flanked by cell at each end. It is found to be carved out of the hillock in 5th century  A.D. 

A unique feature in the plan of this cave is that antechamber advancing into the hall. The doorway is elegant and in good taste and as pleasing specimens of doorway decoration.

Buddha is seated in preaching position inside the the sanctum.

The sculpture of seven Buddha’s accompanied by attendants is another important sculptural panel in this cave.

Birds in Neighbourhood - 8

I get to see variety of birds around my parents house in Udupi. I have captured few of them in my camera and here they are. One such beautiful bird is Asain Paradise Flycatcher. 

It is a medium-sized bird found mostly in Asia usually dense forest areas.  

Males have elongated central tail feathers, while the females and young ones are short-tailed. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest. They have black bill and black eyes.

As the name suggests they feed on insects.

Bagha Gumpha, Udaygiri

Bagha Gumpha is located on Udayagiri hill in Orissa. This is of the period Mahameghavahana Chedi dynasty during 1st century B.C.

This is on upper right side of the Hatigumpha. A single cell hewn out of a large natural sandstoneboulder with open veranda in the front. Its facade resembles the face of tiger. Hence the name "Bagha".

The exterior of the cell is decorated with sculptural motif on the lintel.

A two line of Brahmi Inscription is noticed in the facade of the cell.  

Images of India - 20

A glimpse of heritage monument of India in black and white. Other posts will give you more details about this monument.

Inside City Palace, Udaipur

Panchlingeshwar Temple, Barkur

The rulers from Alupas kingdom in Barkur built many temples in this place between 7th and 16th century.

One such temple is Panchlingeshwar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva at the southern part of this village.  The temple has beautiful double storey gateway with pillared veranda on the either side.

This temple is one of the oldest temple, built during 7th century CE. The architecture is unique and originated in the 7th century. On the back side temple has Elephant-back type curvilinear structure. 

The unique noteworthy feature of the architecture of the temple is their roof.  The temple has typical sloping terracotta-tiled roofs. Being in a landscape of high rainfall, the temple roofs evolved from grass, clay tiles and eventually with the copper-plates.

The temple was renovated by the later local dynasties such as Heggades. The pillars on the corridor surrounding the temple has several carvings.

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Since long I have been planning a day’s trip to Kolar and the nearby places like  Kurudumale and Avani along with my family. So with this delightful vision, we started early in the morning at 8 am to Kolar by our car. We knew that the roads are good and expected to cover the distance comfortably in a reasonable time. But we had not accounted for the rain that would have interrupted our pleasant drive and disrupted our travel a bit.  Hence, we can say it was like “Sunshine on a cloudy day”. 

After a drive of around 2 hours, we reached Kurudumale where there are a few ancient temples of great craftsmanship. We first visited Shree Ganesha Temple built by one of the rulers of Vijayanagara kingdom. Then we visited another temple dedicated to Lord Shiva called the Someshwara Temple. Both these temples are architectural marvels in their own right.

After spending about an hour devouring the architectural splendour of these ancient temples, we proceeded to Kolar. On the way, it occurred to us that the temples in the Kolar city may not be open at this time of the day and we decided to first visit Avani.  By this time, our two little ones started to complain about being hungry and from my experience; I knew that I’ll not be able to drive an inch further without appeasing their hunger. My wife had already packed some snacks and fruits and she was ready to meet their needs. We spent a little time by the roadside and as usual I clicked one or two snaps of the nearby hills. Along with the kids we also had little food and we were ready to proceed further. 

Hence we drove down for another hour and reached Avani. Here we drowned ourselves in the beauty of Ramalingeshwara group of temples. These groups of ancient temples are also adorned with rich intricate carvings.

After seeing this temple, we decided to visit the abode of Goddess Sita on the hilltop. But we had no idea on how to proceed as plenty of unfamiliar and alien to us monuments were scattered all over the hill on our way up. We took the help of a local villager to reach the top. But when we began to climb, we had no idea that the trek is nearly 3 to 4kms.

So 4 of us started our upward journey. It is a simple temple with a small idol of Goddess Sita. After visiting the temple, we came down and we had company of various creatures on the hill on our downward journey. There were lizards of various sizes and colours. Our kids were enchanted by these colourful creatures and we could feel their excitement. They were not ready to leave the place. But as it was getting late and the climate was windy, I prompted them to get back to the car fast. 

By the time we reached down, all of us were very hungry and thought of going to a restaurant on the highway. At this juncture, we had company of heavy downpour and we all got little bit drenched in rain. Even though we were worried that the kids may catch cold by wetting in the rain, they were really enjoying the same. It was really hard to pull them back in the car.

We moved back to Bangalore after lunch. This trip had everything in it; peak into the history, fun, adventure over the hills, rain. I am not sure if this is a perfect trip, but we will remember it forever. The combination of the ancient monuments in their silent ambience and the family enjoyment etched an everlasting memory in our minds and eggs us on to undertake such trips now and then whenever the time permits.  

Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar

Lingaraj Temple is the most visit temple in Bhubaneswar. It is Built in 10th century by the Somavamsi Kings and  it is the largest temple in the Kalinga school of architecture. This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The temple faces east and is built of sandstone and laterite. Laid out on the Deula style with four divisions to the temple. The temple is well known for its ornamental carvings and exceptional craftsmanship. The central tower of the temple is 55 m tall. 

The Hall of offering has a pyramidal roof made of up several horizontal layers. At the top is inverted bell and a kalasa.

While the temple in its present form is more than 1100 years old, there is evidence that part of the temple was built during the sixth century CE as the temple has been emphasized in some of the seventh century Sanskrit texts. The Assembly hall, sanctum and temple tower wer built during the 11th century.

Images of India - 19

A glimpse of heritage monument of India in black and white. This is an unknown old monument looking like a tomb near the Grishneshwar Temple in Verul close to Ellora.

Cave No. 9, Ajanta

Cave No. 9 at Ajanta is a very grand chaityagriha  datable to of 2nd century B.C. belonging to Hinayana cult of Buddhism. The chaityagriha consists of arched facade and a doorway giving appearance of a double storyed building. 

The exquisitely decorated facade and beautiful painted interior, form a grand combination of richness of detail and graceful proposition.  There are  sculptures of the Buddha on the  side walls facing the facade.

Inside the chaitya is in rectangular layout with twenty-three pillars apsidal dividing it into a nave, an apse and aisles. The ceiling of the nave is vaulted while ceiling of aisles is flat. At the center of the apse stands a globular stupa on high cylindrical base.

The painting in this cave consist, principally figures of Buddha variously engaged, disciples, worshipers of a stupa etc. On the external facade there are traces of painting still visible in the ceiling. Above the main door a row of five small false arches is carved having imitation of wooden lattice.

Some of the paintings are in two layers; earlier dating back to the second half of 1st century B. C. and the later in the 5th –6th century A.D. This can be seen in the above image.

Birds in Neighbourhood - 7

I am the few of the fortunate who occasionally get to see few birds of different variety around my house in Bangalore. I have captured few of them in my camera and here they are. One such beautiful bird is Spotted Dove. 

This bird is a small and somewhat long-tailed pigeon.It is buff brown in color with a white-spotted black collar patch on the back and sides of the neck. The tail tips are white and the wings have light buff spots. 

They are found in light forests and gardens as well as in urban areas. They move around in pairs and they feed on seeds, grains, fallen fruits and seeds of other plants.

More Views from Sinhagad

Sinhagad is an important fortress located at a distance of 30 kms from Pune. The fort is perched on an isolated cliff of the Bhuleswar range of the Sahyadri Mountains.

The view of the surrounding mountain range and lake from top of the hill fort is beautiful. The landscape is worth of all the effort going the distance.

Images of India - 18

A glimpse of India in black and white. Here we see a field of cabbage and other vegetables at Dodda Mallur village in Karnataka. 

Mysore Zoo - Deer

Deers are mostly found in the forests or in open grasslands. In India we can see a wide variety of deer species. These species found in India varies in size depending on the area they live in.

Mysore Zoo is the most popular zoo at Mysore in India. There are various wild animals and birds at the zoo. Even in this zoo there are various species of the deer. 

They are:

• Swamp Deer
• Black Buck
• Hog Deer
• Indian Gazelle
• Brow-antlered Deer
• Four-horned Antelope
• Sambar
• Spotted Deer

Lalbagh Flower Show - Pink Rose

At flower show in Lalbagh Gardens at Bangalore on August 2011 there were lot of colorful roses. The colors were bright and amazing.

Pink rose is one of the color on display.

Banesvara Siva Temple, Bhubaneswar

Banesvara Siva Temple  in  Bhubaneswar is located in the old part of the town.. It is built in the later part of  9th century. This temple was built using sandstone. 

The temple is facing towards east. The tower of the temple is square on plan and fronted by a shallow porch.

While the interiors and exteriors of the temple are plain, there are some gems of craftsmanship on the tower like lion, motifs which is seen on most of the temples in this area.

The door jamb is plain while the lintel architrave is decorated with graha panel and Gajalaxmi.  Other interesting sculptures are dwarapalas on the entrance door jambs.

Images of India - 17

A glimpse of India in black and white. On our way from Bikaner to Jodhpur closer to the latter we noticed this sand hill  the road side. We could not resist the temptation to climb it.