Come out.” Vatapi would emerge tearing the stomach of the sages. The rakshasa brothers killed thousands of holy men using ...

Agastya smiled and agreed to go with him. As the sage was washing off the dust of his journey, Ilvala told Vatapi, “Now quickly change your form and let me cook you.” When the sage appeared ...

And so Badami - where the Puranas say the wicked asura Vatapi was killed by Sage Agastya - could well be the seat of the CM with the Kuruba majority in the constituency sure to plump for him.

The town faces the Agastya lake which is surrounded by two hills, Vatapi and Ilvala named after the two demon siblings who wreaked havoc in the region till the sage Agastya outsmarted them.

Ilvala summons his brother with 'Vatapi atragacha' and Vatapi comes tearing out of the victim's tummy, killing the hapless but greedy soul. In the Mahabharata, it was sage Agastya who saw through ...

Photos by Srikumar M Menon Lower Sivalaya, Badami. Photos by Srikumar M Menon A view of the Agastya Tirtha at ground level. Photos by Srikumar M Menon The Hire Makuteshwara Temple ...