Badami

Badami, in today’s Bagalkot district of Karnataka, is the ancient Vatapi, famous as the early capital of the Badami Chalukyas. The area has striking red sandstone cliffs around an artificial lake (Agastya Tirtha), which made it a natural defensive site and a sacred landscape. In the 6th century CE, Pulakeshin I chose Vatapi as his capital, and under his successors—especially Pulakeshin II—the Chalukyas became one of the most powerful Deccan dynasties, ruling large parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra.

To express this power, the Chalukyas created the celebrated Badami Cave Temples, carved into the cliff face between the 6th and 8th centuries. These rock-cut shrines, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Jain tirthankaras, show some of the earliest and finest examples of Deccan temple art, with dynamic sculptures of Nataraja, Trivikrama and others. Structural temples like the Bhutanatha shrines around the lake and nearby sites at Aihole and Pattadakal formed an experimental ground for early South Indian temple architecture.

After the 8th century, Badami gradually lost its status as capital as power shifted to later Chalukyas and then to Rashtrakutas and other dynasties. It remained a regional town under Vijayanagara, Adil Shahis, Marathas and the British. In modern times, its archaeological remains have made Badami a key stop on Karnataka’s heritage tourism circuit, preserving the memory of its Chalukyan golden age.