Ladakh: On the Snow Leopard Trail

Ladakh: On the Snow Leopard Trail

Text and Images: Devayani Khare (except where stated otherwise)
I flew into Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the last week of November when winter’s chill had set in.  The Indus river snaked its way across the sleepy town, and the Zanskar range created a jagged horizon against picture perfect skies.
After a couple of days’ acclimatization to Leh’s altitude of 13,500 ft above mean sea level, we set off northwestwards for Ulley – our destination to track the elusive snow leopard.
On our three hour drive through the Leh valley towards the ridges, we came across many small towns, military encampments, hilltop monasteries – like the Stakna (just visible to the right where the river disappears into the distance)…
…and beautiful snow-melt stream beds – sometimes frozen, sometimes a trickle, growing wild with heather and shrubs. We stopped off several times along the way for some birdwatching and to admire the spectacular panoramas.
By mid-afternoon, we reached Ulley – a village with a handful of wood-and-stone cottages, overlooking a valley carved by a glacier, fringed by the ice-capped Zanskar range.

Image credits: Kaafila Camps

Over a hot cup of tea in the colourful lounge, we were introduced to the concept of the Snow Leopard Lodge – run by the Kaafila Camps group and marketed by RARE destinations & experiences. Thanks to these partners, we were here on this snow leopard tracking adventure!

Image credits: Kaafila Camps

Over the next few days, we scoured the low ranges and high, the neighbouring valleys and villages – for a glimpse of the snow leopard. We stalked groups of its prey, like the bharal or blue sheep…
Watched groups of female urial – a species of wild sheep grazing placidly before heading to higher ridges to be serenaded…
…by the impressive males in mating regalia – black ruff and big horns! The ritual involves a series of head-butting matches on scree slopes between males to decide on who gets to mate with all the females.
We also saw other wildlife like the timid Ladak pika…
The Chukar partridge – an upland gamebird from the pheasant family…
Flocks of choughs…alpine and red-billed, that looked like shadows in the valley…
The lammergeier or the bearded vulture soaring high above the ridges to scavenge on the marrow from animal bones…
And the majestic golden eagle…
On the last day of our stay, we found fresh snow leopard pugmarks – our expert trackers told us that it was a female with two cubs that would have passed by in the early morning hours. As snow leopards are mostly active during dawn and twilight hours, the family would have sought refuge in the crags and we scanned the valley in vain…Yet the ‘ghost of the Himalayas’ eluded us. However, we were far from disappointed.With a geology sculpted by the birth of the Himalayas, rivers fed by glaciers,the subtle shades of winter vegetation like willow and heather, the incredible biodiversity, and the warmth and hospitality of its humble folk, Ladakh’s stark beauty was so much more than we could have expected.

After a couple of days’ acclimatization to Leh’s altitude of 13,500 ft above mean sea level, we set off northwestwards for Ulley – our destination to track the elusive snow leopard.
On our three hour drive through the Leh valley towards the ridges, we came across many small towns, military encampments, hilltop monasteries – like the Stakna (just visible to the right where the river disappears into the distance)…

Of Reigns, Religions & Ruins: Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal

We drove through Hubli in Karnataka, a dusty, decrepit town with faded shop signs and half-forgotten civic works – the ruins of the industrial age. Hubli’s bleak residential complexes gave way to some spectacular geology and we found ourselves in a ravine fringed by red sandstone crags. We had reached our destination, Badami, known for its ruins of the Chalukya dynasty that ruled parts of south India from the 6th – 12th CE. Badami with the nearby towns of Aihole and Pattadakal are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, showcasing a blend of architecture from the north and south of India.

The history and the allure of over 150 temples strewn across a stark landscape, had drawn my mother here over ten years ago when she was working on her doctorate in Indian Art and Architecture. The caves and temples of Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal weren’t just witnessed to a dynasty, she told me, as the different faiths of Shaivism, Vaishnavite, Buddhism and Jainism swept across the landscape, each carved their own gods and symbols. Today, I was travelling with her to unravel the archaic symbology and to learn about the syncretization of faiths in south India.

Making our way through a busy, narrow road through the town’s market, we reached a brick-coloured rocky outcrop. The Badami cave temples are carved into this crumbling rock face and represent a series of architectural styles. The first cave bears friezes from Shiva’s life; his Tandava-dancing Nataraja form, his half-male, half-female form, Ardhanarishvara, a family portrait with his wife Parvati, and his sons Ganesha and Kartikeya, among other iconic deities like Durga and Vishnu. Beyond the gods represented, there other characters and symbols – animals, birds, lotuses and amorous couples adorn the walls, dwarfish ganas or cherubs are carved into the floor, indicating a world of gods, demi-gods and other creatures.

BadamiCaves_Trivikrama
Vishnu in his ‘Trivikrama’ avatar teaching humility to King Mahabali (positioned below the uplifted leg)

The second and third caves carved in the late 6th or early 7th CE depict stories about Vishnu in different avatars. The boar-headed Varaha avatar brings to mind the story of the birth of south India’s mighty river, Tungabhadra. His Trivikrama reincarnates appeared before the haughty, wealthy king, Mahabali to teach him humility. A Vishnu reclining on a snake’s back indicates his role in primal creation and sustenance of the universe. Other stories like the churning of the ocean for the famed ambrosia and the fallout between the gods and demons are carved along pillars. The marriage of Shiva and Parvati is painted on the ceiling, one of India’s oldest examples of fresco art. While the statues are damaged by natural factors or by subsequent rulers, and the frescoes have faded and chipped, the rich mythology has lived on. The legends that inspired kings to carve these temples, were passed on through stories told by my mother and grandmother, so that I could stand here centuries later, and vividly reimagine the lives and loves of the gods.

BadamiCaves_MarriageofShiva
The marriage of Shiva and Parvati

The fourth cave is starkly different in its iconography, as it represents Jain Tirthankaras or prophets. Scholars say it was carved in the 8th CE, my mom explained as she pointed out the motif-rich columns and window-like panels peopled with standing figures. Bahubali, Parshvanatha and Mahavira are detailed carvings, whereas other Tirthankaras are symbolically displayed. Interestingly, this cave bears an icon associated with Hinduism, the Makara – a composite, mythical sea creature with the body of a fish, a trunk of an elephant, feet of a lion, eyes of a monkey, ears of a pig, and the tail of a peacock. I remembered this creature from the black-and-white photos in my mother’s dissertation, and it was more beautiful to see it etched in stone, almost like the pages coming to life. Like the curious sculpture of half-Vishnu and half-Shiva in cave 2, such symbols show the classic syncretization of faiths – where subsequent religions merge or borrow iconography to gain acceptance.

Badami_MakaraToran
A ‘toran’ or carved archway, depicting the ‘Makara’ – a composite, mythical sea creature with the body of a fish, trunk of an elephant, feet of a lion, eyes of a monkey, ears of a pig, and the tail of a peacock.

On the other side of the Badami caves, across the greenish Agasthya lake, lay another crag with two temples and a ruined fort wall, now ruled by monkeys. After a quick visit of the rather dull Badami museum that lay at the base, we climbed up to the lower and upper shivalayas – less-elaborately carved temples that overlooked the town. The lower shivalaya retains only its inner sanctum, and upper shivalaya bears some stories from Ramayana, Krishna’s life and Narasimha, Vishnu’s lion-headed avatar. As the sunset painted the skies in hues to rival the burnished rocks, we climbed down amidst the clamour of monkeys staking out their night-time territory.

Badami_Shivalayas01
The Upper Shivalaya perched on the crags above the Agasthya Tirtha

In the fading light, we walked around the Agasthya lake to reach the temples at the far side – the Bhoothnath complex. The temples also bore a mix of Hindu and Jain icons with the elaborate inner structures juxtaposed against the more geometric outer structures, indicating that they had been completed over a period of time. Historical records concur, the temples date from the 7th – 11th CE.

Pattadakal_TempleComplex2
The Pattadakal complex of temples

The following day, we drove to the Pattadakal group of temples, located along the Malaprabha river. The present-day entrance leads you to the newer temples first but to retrace the history, one should start at the Virupaksha temple dating back to 740 CE. An elaborate structure depicting the Shiva – Vishnu folklore, it is said to have inspired the famous Kailash temple in Ellora, near Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The other structures around, the Mallikarjun temple, Sangameshwara temple, Kashi Vishwanath temple, Chandrasekhar temple, Galganath temple, among others were constructed between the 7th – 9th CE. Unusual icons like ducks, numerous Kannada inscriptions that can help trace the evolution of ancient scripts, and the monolithic stone pillar are of particular interest to the historian. Mom and I lamented the state of the Pattadakal museum and the number of sculptures it displayed that couldn’t be restored to their former glory.

Aihole_DurgaTemple
Aihole’s best-preserved monument, the Durga Temple

A short drive from Pattadakal led us to Aihole. Unlike the compound built around Pattadakal’s many temples, Aihole’s temples are scattered around a little village and one must walk around from temple to tank, from hillside to cave to explore them. Legend has it that Sage Parashurama killed a band of soldiers who were abusing their power, and upon washing his axe in the river Malaprabha near Aihole,  the region’s rocks turned red. Aihole’s legacy from prehistoric cave paintings to 12th CE temples has earned it the epithet, ‘cradle of Hindu rock architecture’. Hindu temples, one Buddhist structure and a few Jain monuments in varying stages of ruin, and varied influences indicate that Aihole was a place for creative experimentation. The styles practised here went on to define north and south architecture, for Hindu and Jain faiths. An inscription mentions a civil war against the Pallavas, a dynasty history chronicles as following the Chalukya. It seems ironic that like their architectural legacy, the decline of the Chalukya dynasty is also etched in stone.