Facade of Naulakha Palace, Gondal

The 18th century Naulakha Palace at Gondal is one of the oldest palace in this town.  It has a beautiful sculpted facade. 

The palace has magnificent stone carvings with balconies, a pillared courtyard, delicately carved arches. 

The facade of the palace is carved with sculptures of real and mythical animals. 

Veera Narayana Temple, Belavadi

Veera Narayana Temple located in Belavadi is an ancient 12th century temple carved in soapstone. This temple comprising of three shrines was built during the rule of the Hoysala King Veera Ballala II.

In this temple with unique architecture each  of the three shrines has a complete by itself with tower on top of the shrine. Among the three shrines, two of the shrines face each other and are located on either side of a wide and spacious open hall with thirty seven bays.

The central shrine is much older and its inner walls are plain with well decorated roof. In all, the temple complex has fifty nine bays that is exhibited by many pillars. While most of these pillars are lathe-turned and bell shaped, some have decorative carvings on them. 

The outer wall of the temple has many eaves running around the temple. Below this are miniature decorative towers on pilasters. A panel of Hindu deities and their attendants are below this eves followed by a set of five moldings that form the base of the wall.

All shrines have sculptured decoration on the towers, and the sculptures on the walls are bold and are visible from a distance. These beautiful sculptures represent various forms of deity of the temple.

Brick Monastery, Udayagiri

At Udayagiri, the Buddhist site in Orissa, ASI have excavated many interesting structures that were created any time between 7th and 12th century. One such excavation has brought to light the remains of a huge monastic complex comprising a Mahastupa and an east facing square monastery.

This monastery has the mountains as its backdrop giving it a majestic look. The monastery measures about 35 M sq. and had 21 cells.

At the back-end of the courtyard, in the sanctum there is a huge 12 feet statue of Buddha in Bhumisparsha Mudra. On his either side are Vajrapani and Padmapani.

The door frame to the sanctum is beautifully carved. The detailing with flying apsaras, pupil climbing vines, elephants are simply beautiful. The eyes, nose and lips of a miniature human forms are crafted with at most care.

Archaeological Museum, Lothal

The Archaeological Museum at Lothal was setup in 1976. In the museum it displays artifacts recovered from the excavation conducted from 1952 to 1961. 

It showcases beads, terracotta ornaments, shell and ivory objects, copper and bronze objects, tools and potteries yielded from excavations. There are about 800 objects are on display in the museum.

Sadly photography is not allowed inside the museum. Outside the museum there is a tree and there I spotted a new bird that I had not seen before.

Great Masjid - Qutub Shahi Complex Hyderabad

Great Mosque in Hyderabad is one of the grandest masjid in the city. It is popularly known as the great masjid of the Golkonda tombs.

This beautiful masjid is next to the tomb of Hayat Bakshi Beguminside inside the Qutub Shahi Tomb Complex. It was built in 1666 A.D. by Hayat Bakshi Begum's son, the 7th Sultan Abdullah. 

The architecture has a distinctive style that blends Persian, Pashtun and Hindu forms. The Prayer Hall is 76 feet wide and has three bays which are 51 feet deep. The front has a five arched facade. 

Fifteen cupolas decorate the roof and the prayer-hall is flanked by two lofty minarets. The inscriptions in the masjid are in calligraphic art. 

Rani Sipri's Tomb, Ahmedabad

Rani Sipri's Tomb is located in the old area of Ahmadabad within the same complex as Rani Sipri Mosque. It is one of the ancient monuments that has a combination of Indo-Islamic architecture.

Constructed some time in 16th century the tomb has a large dome in the central part surrounded by 4 small domes in the 4 corners. The tomb has screens made of stones have been carved beautifully.

Kadari Manjunatheshwara Temple, Mangalore

The Manjunatheshwara Temple at Mangalore on the hills of Kadri is a popular temple. It is very old temple, but the present structure built in complete stone dates to 14th century.

The temple has various statues of Gorakanatha, Machendranath, Shringinath, Manjushri, Lokshewara and even Buddha apart from Lord Manjunatha. 

In front of the temple, at an height there are a number of water ponds and there is also a huge light pole. 

There is a natural spring at an elevated location at the back of the temple. The water from this spring is let into nine ponds of different sizes adjacent to it. 

One visiting this simple temple can have a good time in the serene and calm surroundings.

Veerabhadra Temple, Lepakshi

The Veerabhadra Temple in Lepakshi has been built on a low altitude hillock of a large exposure of granite rock. This 16th century temple built by Virupanna Nayaka and Viranna, both Governors under the Vijayanagar Empire.

The architecture of the temple is that of Vijaynagar Style of that period. The main temple is laid out in three parts: the assembly hall, ante chamber and the sanctum. The assembly hall is a large sized open hall with a large space in its central part.

On the pillars and walls there are carvings of saints, guardians, musicians, dancers and 14 avatars of Shiva. Every pillar is of different style and shape. The open space in the middle part of the hall has large columns which have carvings of triple figures.

The temple also has a hanging pillar which is a medieval architectural wonder to witness. Out of the seventy pillars, this one pillar does not rest on the ground completely but hangs in the air, with enough space between its base and the ground to pass a sheet of paper through it.

On every corner of the temple one can find either carvings or paintings.

Poetry in Stone - 33

This is thirty-third  in the series on the rich cultural heritage of temples in India. The ancient monuments of India are richly carved and they behold ones attention for their craftsmanship. 

Beautiful craftsmanship on 10th century Varahi Temple at Chaurasi. One of the windows of the 14th century Rudbai Step-well at Adalaj which has been carved intricately on all corners with different motifs and animals.

The sanctum doorway of Harishchandra ni Chori at Shamalaji is adorned with bands comprising a creeper, lotus leaves and the vine. The two female figures at the base represent Ganga and Yamuna.

Cheena Vala, Fort Kochi

Cheena Vala in Fort Kochi are commonly known as "Chinese fishing nets". It is believed that these nets are set up between 13th and 14th century.

They are fixed land installations for fishing which are 10 m high structure and comprises a cantilever with an outstretched horizontal net spread of size 20 m or more suspended over the sea. Large stones of 30 cm suspended from ropes of different lengths as counterweights at the other end.

Each installation is operated by a team of up to five or seven fishermen. The net is left immersed for a short time within the water, before it is raised by pulling on ropes. The net will when comes out will have a few fishes in them.

All the installation are not operated at the same time. Each of the nets are independent based on the state of the water tide.

Buddhist Caves, Junagadh

Buddhist Caves in Junagadh, close to the mosque inside the Uppekot Fort is fine example of Buddhist rock cut architecture of 2nd century A.D. These caves are on the eastward slope leading to the Adi-chadi Vav. 

These caves are scooped out in three tiers from surface downwards, with all members of each gallery shown in semi-relief. There are three rock-hewn chambers, each open to the skies. The caves feature many monastic meditation cells.

Only two of the stories have regular floors. The main hall of the lowest storey is partly open to the skies and contains exquisitely carved pillars, whose base, shaft and the capital contains unique decorative designs. 

The pillars, having spiral ridges on their shaft, octagonal plinth bases and floral ornamented capitals with animal figures etc, represent the main Satvahana art traditions on one hand, and in the exotic, Grecco-synthian trends on the other hand.

There are still some traces of beautiful carvings in the cave that is built across several floors.

Bellibagilu,Shravanbelgola

While one climbs up the Indragiri Hill at Shravanbelgola there is a fort enclosure. From the structure it looks like this fort might have been built during the 18th century or it  might have been renovated around this time.

The fort enclosure has a gate known as the ‘Bellibagilu’ meaning Silver Gate. In one of the literary works of 1780 A.D.  the gate has been referred by this name.

Pandava Caves, Aravelam

The ancient Caves in Aravelam is must visit place for history buffs. These 6th century caves are small that have 5 compartments. The Buddhist monks have carved these caves out of a single hard laterite rock. 

These caves are also known as the Pandava caves as it is believed that Pandavas have stayed here at some point during their 12 year exile as described in the Mahabharata.

At a later period these caves have been converted to shaivite caves. 

Shivlings carved out of granite of different shapes and sizes have been placed in each of these caves. These Shivlings are placed on raised platforms.

Rang Mahal, Ellora

We have already seen details of Kailasa Temple of Ellora in the earlier post. This 8th century temple has strong architectural influences  of Pallava and Chalukya styles.

Within the enclosed courtyard, there is a flat-roofed main shrine dedicated to Shiva, and an image of his mount Nandi. The rectangular main shrine is called Rang-Mahal because after its completion, the temple was plastered and painted. 

The temple has niches, plasters, windows as well as images of deities and other figures. The 7 meter high plinth is decorated with life size elephants and mythical animals.

The two storey main shrine has Vadys Mandapa, Nandi Mandapa, a pillared hall, an antechamber and a small sanctum surrounded by five subsidiary shrines.

The pillared hall is supported by 16 pillars each with different set of carvings on them.