Another year begins and all of our resolutions are probably in high gear. This year I have taken a couple of very reasonable and achievable resolutions (which shall remain a secret). I will report a scorecard in Dec 2013! My wife and I had a great time in India, visiting relatives and friends and making a trip to a couple of really great historical sites in Tamil Nadu & Karnataka.

The leftmost picture above is the Brihadeeswarar Temple (aka The Big Temple!) in a town called Tanjore (where I spent a considerable amount of time while going to College). This temple was built in the 11th century by a great Chola King called Raja Raja Chola and it is just a marvelous temple with so many sculptures in and around, that have been remarkably preserved – primarily because of granite construction and that the deep south was immune from invaders of other religions. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site called the Great Living Chola Temples.

We also visited the ruins of Vijayanagar empire (14th-16th century) in a place called Hampi in Karnataka. Though Hampi was a critical place in the empire’s history, the ruins there are primarily from the early 16th century. These were excavated beginning in the 70’s and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in the mid-80’s. Near Hampi are three other historical sites, called Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal. Badami has four cave temples that have been extremely well preserved (because they are inside caves) and the sculptures there are breathtaking. They are from the 5th-7th centuries. Aihole and Pattadakal also have temples and sculptures that are from the same period. I have attached a few pictures above from these places.

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