Aihole - Cradle of Temple Architecture

055/366 Aihole, is famously known as "Cradle of Indian Temple Architecture". This historic town, which was also known as "Ayya-vole" & "Aryapura" has over 125 temples. It appears that, Aihole was used as place to experiment in rock cut architecture. Temples have been built in unique style and experiments have been done with cave architecture as well. These temples dates from 5th century AD to 12th century AD built by Chalukya Dynasty.

Aihole was prominent city during Chalukya Dynasty & it was also early capital for Chalukyas. Over the period when Chalukyas grew in power, Badami became their new capital.

Durga temple depicted in the pic is one of the prominent temple. This temple was probably built around 7th-8th century AD. One can find famous inscription by court poet Ravikeerthi, which depicts Immadi Pulakeshi's win over famous emperor of Kanauj, Harshavardhana. This inscription is in Sanskrit and Old Kannada.
In one of the temples, one can also observe famous Chalukya's Royal Emblem depicting Varaha(Wild boar). Chalukyas were Vaishnavas(devotees of Lord Vishnu).

More details on Aihole:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aihole

More details on Chalukyas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalukya

Kote Varadaraja Swamy Temple, Satyagala

052/366 Kote Varadaraja Swamy Temple at Satyagala

Satyagala (also known as 'Sattegala') is in Kollegala taluk, Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka. Located 6km away from Madhya Ranga, is considered to be holy place for Sri Vaishnavas.
Main deities in the temple are 'Varadaraja Swamy' and 'Perundevi'(Lakshmi). Along with main deities, revered saint Vedanta Desika(1269–1370)'s sannidhi is in the temple.
Sri Vedanta Desika is also known as re-incarnation of the divine bell of Lord Vishnu. He is often referred as "Ghantaavataara".

When Muslims attacked Srirangam Temple, Vedanta Desika travelled along the banks of River Kaveri, Sri Vedanta Desika stayed in Satyagala for 12 years and wrote many books during his stay.

Read more about Vedanta Desika here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Desika

Saaketh - Birthplace of Lord

041/366 Saaketh - Birthplace of Lord

This Hindu religios city, which is very famous for Lord Rama's birth looks very ancient even now. City located in the banks of River Sarayu chants Rama all the time. Even in current modern times, citizens of here of all ages watch Ramayana, which was televised by Ramanand Sagar!
It was surprising to see small kids glued to TVs running Ramayana.
Most people seem to earn bread in the name of Lord Rama here till date.

This heritage city, which was capital of Raghu Vamsa, unfortunately has not caught up in development(true for many UP towns). Most buildings still look very old. Apart from Rama Janmbhoomi, other heritage places to visit are Dasharath Mandir & Kanak Mandir.

PS: Saaketh is ancient name for Ayodhya. Lord Rama is known as "Saaketha Raja".

108 Streams, Salvation at Muktinath

028/366 Muktinath, Nepal

This place is highly revered for Hindu Vaishnavas(devotees of Lord Vishnu). As name of this place suggests, it is believed that one attains Salvation if this holy abode is visited.
It is said that, famous Indian philosopher, saint Sri Ramanujacharya(1017AD - 1137 AD), who spread the devotion to Lord Vishnu, installed main deity here.
Main deity is made of Saligrama Shila. There is beautiful statue of Ramanujacharya in this temple.

Temple is surrounded with 108 water springs & water falls through Cow shaped structures(seen in pic). There are two ponds in front of temple.

Muktinath is also called as 'Chumig Gyatsa', which means 'hundred waters' in Tibetean language. This place is considered to be sacred even for Buddhists and is one of 24 Buddhist Tantric Places.


This temple is situated at an elevation of around 12200ft & gets covered with snow during winters.

More info: http://www.muktinath.org/

Shesha Shayana Maha Vishnu, Budhanilkantha

023/366 Ok! This was one of my "dream come true" moments...
I first saw this beautiful Shesha Shayana Maha Vishnu's lovely statue in a travel show 'musafir hoon yaron' in Star Plus hosted by Deepti Bhatnagar many years back. Ever since I saw this huge 18 feet statue of Lord Vishnu on TV, I wanted to visit this place...

And what I saw in reality was more mesmerizing than what I saw in TV...
Beautiful calm face of Vishnu is seriously infectious!

Lord Vishnu is known as "Budhanilkantha" is also located in place called Budhanilkantha, which is situated 10km north of Kathmandu.
Though exact date of this statue is unknown, it is believed to be at least 1300 year old as inscription dated 641 AD by Vishnu Gupta is found in this area.
This beautiful statue is set in the middle of pond and Lord Vishnu appears to float on water.

Since main deity is in horizontal position & is surrounded by water, preist has to walk over the statue to decorate, which probably is unique in the world!

Legend
Legend has that King Suryaketu had it constructed during his reign but it lay buried for many centuries after an earthquake. Later, King Dharmagat saw the image and the location of the Budhanikantha in a dream and he excavated the ground. The people believe that the excavation caused the unparalleled image small damage on its nose. Others believe it was an old farmer(buddha in hindi) who discovered the image while working on his field.

For beautiful pics & more info:
http://sacredsites.com/asia/nepal/budhanilkantha_statue.html
http://www.trailblazertrekking.com/budhanilkantha.htm