Hampi - History beckons

History always fascinated me and Hampi was one place high on my must-see list. So when we decided on a short weekend trip from Bangalore, Hampi was quickly chosen as the destination.

Hampi the erstwhile capital of the Vijayanagara Empire is situated in the Bellary district of Karnataka. About 380 km from Bangalore, it can be reached roughly in about 7 hours drive from Bangalore.

As the dates were quickly decided, we decide to book the stay in one of the hotels in Hampi. Accommodation can be done both at Hampi proper [lesser options] or at Hospet the nearest town, half an hour's drive from Hampi.

We decided to go the economy option and settled for the KSTDC Mayura Bhuvaneshwari at Kamalapur near Hampi. With a little bit of prodding and pushing we could book the rooms in advance without making an advance payment. Standard 4-bed room was priced at Rs 900 per night.

With accommodation taken care of we decided to go for the more comfortable 12 seater Tempo Traveler to ferry our 10-member tourist gang to the location.

We started for Hampi, Friday night at around 10 pm from Bangalore. Being a night's drive, we asked the driver to take it easy, so that we could reach after dawn in Hampi. The highlight of the night was that we could actually find some fuel to take us to Hampi in the first place, when the driver had conveniently forgotten to fill his tank during a fuel strike.

After a rather sleepless night of changing positions to catch a wink, we finally arrived at our destination of choice. We could find the hotel without much of a problem. The rooms were very basic to put it straight. To be fair to the hotel itself, it was exactly what was promised, a 4-bed room; nothing more, nothing less. Anyways we were too tired and too lazy to go check any other place out.

After a quick bath and breakfast at the hotel, we set out to see what Hampi was all about. Our first destination was the Virupaksha temple, the only major temple left in Hampi which wasn't vandalized. This temple is where the daily rituals continue to this day.

As with other places of great historical importance, its highly imperative to have a good guide, to truly understand the place. We found ours just outside the Virupaksha temple. With some bargaining we were able to settle at Rs 700 for a guided tour of the city which lasts about 6 hours.

Virupaksha temple, has Lord Shiva as the main deity and is worshipped in a svayambu [where the lingam is natural and not artificially made] form. The main temple is lined on the outside with rows of granite pandals which served as the market place. Legends have it that these markets, in their prime sold gold and other precious stones in the open, like any other goods sold today. Such was the grandeur of hampi in its glory days.

Virupaksha temple has 2 major gopuras [towers] built in different eras by Devaraya and Krishnadevaraya. Another attraction of the temple is the unique system where the shadow of the main gopuram is projected on the wall behind the sanctum sanctorum. The shadow is formed inverted and remains the same through out the day irrespective of the position of the Sun. This shows the advancements in engineering achieved at that time. The phenomenon is now explained with the pin-hole effect.

The next stop after a brief uphill climb onto the rocks was the unique caves formed by huge boulders over lapping each other. These caves supposedly served as meditation spots for sages of that era. A 22 foot idol of Lord Ganesha which is quite intimidating with its sheer size stands nearby. Its also sadly the first place in Hampi where a sad truth strikes you. The cold hearted destruction that is evident. The idol has its limbs and stomach broken, an act which prevents any kind of rituals being carried out on it.

Here on every monument we encounter, has been vandalized by people who can only be termed heartless. I truly shudder to think of people who could actually be so brutal on things of such high beauty and magnificence. The precision and totality of their destruction leaves you numb. Hatred truly is a bad thing.

The hill top does also offer a magnificent view all round of the ruins that lie in wait and of the rock formations that are truly spectacular.

Hampi was also the setting for the ancient mythical kingdom of Kishkinda. A place, where many tales involving Vali, Sugreeva and Lord Rama from the Ramayana is supposed to have transpired.

A brief ride away is the complex having the Krishna temple, most of which is severely damaged. Some attempts at reconstructing the gopuram made of bricks and lime stone is on at this place.

Next stop was the UgraNarasimha statue, which actually as our guide corrected is supposed to be the Lakshmi-Narasimha statue. The statue which depicts Lord Vishnu in his half man-half lion avatar is heavily damaged. A part of the statue showcasing Goddess Lakshmi has been totally broken off. Immediately next to the idol is a monolithic Shiva Lingam which according to our guide is the second largest monolithic lingam in the country [a fact heavily disputed by our touring party].

After this point we broke of for a brief lunch at Kamalapur.

The afternoon session started of with a visit to the underground Siva temple which was used by the rulers for meditation.

Next stop was the Queens Palace complex, which included the Lotus Mahal - or the air-conditioned Mahal. Considering the temperatures at Hampi, this was more of a necessity than a luxury.

The "air-conditioning" was done by the series of pipes running through palace walls which would keep the structure cool. To add to the "comfort", the Mahal was kept cool by laborers who had the enviable task of drawing up water and pouring it all over the structure to keep it cool. The structure in itself is quite beautiful, built in a symmetric way, very obviously inspired by a lotus in bloom.

Beside the Lotus Mahal stands the Queens palace now razed to its foundation. Apparently the palace was a three storied structure built of wood, and was burnt down into ashes. One could nly imagine what spledour the artisans of Hampi could create in wood, considering the beauty they managed to chisel into stone.

Behind the Queens palace is the Elephant stables, quite distinct from the other structures with an Islamic style of construction. The huge structure was built to house 11 elephants. The houses for their caretakers [mahouts] stand nearby.

Our final stop for the day at Hampi was at the famous Vittala temple. This temple complex is the most intriguing of all. It houses the two most famous exhibits in Hampi. The musical pillars and the stone chariot.

The stone chariot in the courtyard of the temple, is an engineering marvel in itself. The chariot has wheels made of stone which can be easily turned.

The main attraction and the showcase of the marvels the people of Vijayanagara could conjure is the musical pillars. Built into the mandap, each set of 12 pillars is supposed to represent an instrument. Each pillar made of solid stone makes the sound of a specific instrument when stroked. The instruments ranged from mrudangams to even the veena.

But the sad part was that we could not experience the marvel for ourselves as it is not allowed to "play" these pillars anymore for the fear of damage to them. All we could satisfy ourselves with, was the poor man's version in the nearby mandap. Even that sounded incredible.

A brief visit to nearby Tungabhadra Dam and a heavy dinner followed. That concluded a very tiring and incredible day of Hampi watching.

Day 2 started of with quite an incredible breakfast, each of us surprising ourselves with our appetites. Magic a tiring days workout can have on one's appetite is incredible.

We set off with plans to cross the Tungabhadra River and to have look at some more monuments on the other side of the river. But it was not to be, the day was chosen by the local performers as a day of protest, to highlight the negligence of the government towards them.

The protest in itself was incredibly fun, with people turning out in their colorful best. We had people dressed up as various mythical characters accompanied by music and dance. And they were more than happy to oblige to the camera. What more can a tourist ask, protest or no protest. Most of our morning was spent looking at the colorful procession. And the shutter bugs were happy to click away.

This made us rethink our plan. We decided to finish our lunch and start back home as soon as possible, so that we could reach back to Bangalore at some sane hour. For lunch we chose to go to the "mango Tree" restaurant which we had heard a lot about before and during the journey. The place turned out be not upto the expectation. The place is built onto the banks of Tungabhadra and probably would be a sightful when the river runs high.

On our journey back, when everyone was just reminiscing about how perfectly things have fallen onto place on this trip, God intervened. He decided we need to have a tad more fun on the trip. Promptly our vehicle broke down and we had to spend five hours on the highway in a dingy dhaba. No one complained as we had more fun there than what we could after reaching back home early.

Thus a truly inspiring and memorable journey came to an end, which every one of us would remember for a truly long time. Personally for me the place was a enriching experience and gave me a glimpse into the incredible lives of our ancestors.

And on popular demand... the touring party