Badami cave temples, Cave temples complex in Karnataka, India

Badami cave temples is a complex of four rock-cut shrines in a reddish-brown sandstone escarpment southeast of Badami town, Karnataka. Each cave has a columned verandah leading to a hall and a small square shrine cut deep into the rock. Cave 3, the largest, sits highest on the northern face; Cave 4 lies a few steps further east. A stepped path with terraces links the entrances.

The Chalukya dynasty commissioned the temples between the sixth and eighth centuries when Badami served as their capital under the name Vatapi. The third cave carries an inscription from the year 578 marking the reign of King Mangalesha.

The first cave belongs to Shiva and shows the god as Nataraja dancing with eighteen arms. The fourth cave follows Jain traditions and displays the twenty-four Tirthankaras carved along its walls, including Mahavira holding lotus flowers.

Stone steps lead from below up the cliff wall to the entrances of each cave, with paths becoming narrow and steep in places. Visit early in the morning or late afternoon to avoid heat and to catch better light on the reliefs.

A fifth cave temple was found in 2015 roughly five hundred meters (1,600 feet) from the main complex and holds twenty-seven Hindu depictions. The second cave shows Vishnu as Varaha rescuing the earth goddess Bhudevi on his tusk, a rare carving of this legend in rock.