Thursday, January 24, 2013

Aihole Temple Complex - Other Temples

This is a continuation of the series of posts on Hampi-Pattadakal-Aihole-Badami. The trip was undertaken in September 2013. For more details please see my earlier post on Durga Temple Aihole which is in the same temple complex.:   Durga Temple Aihole - Day 2
The Ladkhan temple Aihole - Above & Below
 The north face of the temple is shown here. The temple's sloping two-tiered roof, which imitates wood construction, is furnished with stone "logs" that cover the joints between the roofing slabs
Ladkhan temple Entrance
 The porch fronts a square mandapa. In the center of the mandapa, a Nandi faces the small interior shrine, which abuts the rear wall of the mandapa. Instead of the usual tower, a rooftop shrine (the structure on top of the roof in this photo) is positioned over the center of the mandapa.
A superbly ornamented & engraved window
Some very early temples - with small mantapa in the front and garbha griha



Suryanarayana Gudi temple
Assigned to the 7-8th century this temple has a Rekha Nagara (curvilinear) Shikara over the Garbhagriha & a 4 pillared front mantapa. The Garbhagriha door frame has Garuda at the lintelholding serpents and also figures of Ganga & Yamuna.The sanctum has a two feet tall Surya Idol.

Gaudaragudi Temple Aihole - Above & below
This is one of the oldest temples here and dates back to the 5th century AD>. It is either a Bhagawati or Mahalakshmi temple.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Blog of the Year 2012

 

Blogger Ashok has been kind & gracious to hand over a  Blog of the Year 2012 Award to me. I am pleased,honored & humbled. In turn I wish to pass on this Award  to the following Bloggers whose blogs I have been regularly following and found interesting, informative,thought provoking,adventurous,bold,beautiful &splendid:

Roll of Honor

Blog of the Year 2012 Awarded to :  

Saru Singhal for Words, Mridula for  Travel Tales From India , Divya for Tipsy from the trip

Kusum for Scrapbook -A Travel Blog, KP for random thoughts, Rahul for Rahul's Blog and collections , Arti for  My Yatra Diary...  

Congratulations !

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Pattadakkal Temple Complex - Amazing Architecture

This post is a continuation of the series on the visit to Hampi,Pattadakal,Aihole & Badami  during early September 2012.
The group of 8th century CE monuments in Pattadakal are the culmination of the earliest experiments in the Vesara style of Hindu temple architecture . The town displays both Dravidian (Southern) and the Nagara (Northern, Indo-Aryan) styles of temple architecture. UNESCO in 1987 included Pattadakal in its list of World Heritage sites. Pattadakal ( place for coronation of Chalukya kings), the capital of the Chalukya dynasty of Southern India, who built the temples in the seventh and eighth centuries. There are ten temples including a Jain sanctuary surrounded by numerous small shrines and plinths . Four temples were built in Dravidian style, four in Nagara style of Northern India and the Papanatha temple in mixed style. Tha Papanatha, Kasi Visweswara, Jambulinga and Galaganatha Temples are noted for their curvilinear shikara (Rekha Nagara style). The Mallikarjuna, Sangameswara & Virupaksha Temples having a square roof of receding tiers represent the Dravida Vimana style. The Lokeswara(Mallikarjuna) and Trailokeswara (Virupaksha)  temples were built respectively by Lokamahadevi and Trailokamahadevi - the Queens of Vikramaditya II to commemorate his victory over the Pallavas of Kanchi:745-750 AD.Chalukyan sculptural art is noted for its grace and vigor, rich imagination and delicate details. Here you can see besides figures of Gods, Goddesses & human figures - narratives from the Ramayana, Mahabharata & the Bhagavath Gita can be seen.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Home Depot Boise

On one of the Sundays before Halloween we went shopping to Home Depot.There are two Home Stores in Boise - N.Milwaukee Street and South Federal Way. Can't remember which one we visited. The store timings are common to both stores: Mon-Sat: 7.00 am-9.00 pm. Sun: 8.00 am-7.00 pm. All employees have to be paid minimum wages which is approx: US $.8/hour. Average monthly income of a store employee is approx.US $.1500-2000 depending on actual hours of work.
We visited on a cold wintry morning with light rain. While the rest of the family were busy buying I was busy shooting pictures. The pumpkin patch and the plants and flowers section were beautiful. When they finished shopping I was still clicking. And the results are here for all of you to see:

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

RAMAL RAMANATHAN'S 95th BIRTHDAY

Wedding Studio Photo Appa's 90th Birthday Ayushhomam at Coimbatore: 2006 Wedding Photo Photos clicked on Birthday at Coimbatore Special ...