Badami Village
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Badami Village
Village in the taluka of the same name, in Bija- pur District, Bombay, situated in 15 55' N. and 75 41' E., on the Southern Mahratta Railway. Population (1901), 4,482. It is inter- esting for a Jain excavation and cave-temple ascribed to a. d. 650, together with three caves of Brahmanical construction, one of which has an inscription bearing the date a.d. 579. The Jain cave is only 31 feet across by about 19 feet deep. These caves mark the period when Hinduism was reasserting itself, previous to its final triumph over Buddhism in the next century or two. The Narsingha incarnation of Vishnu, seated on the five-headed serpent Anant, and a variety of sculptures, still survive. In one cave-temple the front pillars have three brackets of a wooden-like design, ornamented by male or female figures and dwarfs, of considerable beauty of execution. Some of the pillars are more arehitectural in their forms, and in the best style of Hindu art. There are two forts, one to the north called Bavanbande (or ' fifty-two rocks '), and one to the south called Ran-mandal (or ' battle- field'). Both were dismantled about 1845. Its strength and neigh- bourhood to the sacred Aivalli, Banshankari, Mahakut, and Pattadkal combine to make Badami a likely site for an early capital.
It was probably a Pallava stronghold in the sixth century, and then fell to the Chalukyas. Hiuen Tsiang visited it early in the seventh century. Badami continued for several years in possession of the Vijayanagar kings during the sixteenth century ; it then fell to the Marathas. In 181 8 General Munro took it after considerable resistance. In 1840 a band of 125 Arabs from the Nizam's territory, headed by a blind Brahman, Narsingh, took possession of the village, plundered the Government treasury and market, and carried the booty into the Nizam's territory. Returning, Narsingh commenced administration, but in seven days he was caught, tried, and sentenced with his followers to transportation. Badami contains a boys' school with 163 pupils and a girls' school with 53.
