At Badami, architecture begins with a subtraction. The four principal cave temples were cut into sandstone, turning the hillside itself into halls, columns and sanctuaries. Across the setting of Agastya Lake, other temples stand above ground. Moving between these two ways of building is the most rewarding introduction to this former Chalukya capital in northern Karnataka: rock becomes a place of worship, and a royal town becomes a workshop for architectural ideas.
The town was known as Vatapi. The district administration associates its establishment with Pulakeshi I in the sixth century and its development with his successors, including Kirtivarman and Mangalesha. These names place the monuments within a changing dynasty rather than the achievement of a single ruler on a single date. The caves belong to a wider landscape of early medieval experimentation that also includes Aihole and Pattadakal.