Badami group of temples – Karnataka , India

Badami’s cave temples are 14 miles (23 km) from the UNESCO world heritage site of Pattadakal and 22 miles (35 km) from Aihole– another site with over a hundred ancient and early medieval era Hindu, Jain and Buddhist monuments.

Badami, also referred to as Vatapi, in historical texts, was the capital of Chalukya dynasty in the 6th century, is at the exit point of a ravine between two steep mountain cliffs. Four cave temples in the escarpment of the hill to the south-east of the town were carved into the cliff’s monolithic stone face. The exact dating is known from the which is a temple dedicated to Vishnu. An inscription found here records the dedication of the shrine in 578/579 CE. The inscription, written in the old Kannada has enabled the dating of these rock cave temples to the 6th century. This makes the cave the oldest firmly-dated Hindu cave temple in India .