Beautiful India - Hampi it is. PART - 2 (of 4)

Day 2 - 5th Feb 2008

Wooo!!! Hoo!!! What a day?? Let me write the one thing that I have been dying to write the entire day - "Every stone in Hampi has a story to tell". Wow!!! Hampi is truly fabulous. Well I guess you need to be a history enthusiast to appreciate Hampi as much as I did. Dad liked it quite a bit but all the walking got to him and he felt Hampi was just a little bit more than ok.

We started off at 8 in the morning, a little late but again not bad by appa's standards, he took only 1 hour to get ready. We had some egg and bread for breakfast, nothing great about it. I felt awful coming to my country and then having an all American breakfast but there aren't many options here. Yes that's right, idli and vada are harder to get here when compared to egg, bread, falafel, pasta etc. Strange you would say but I guess it makes sense as there are definitely more foreigners here when compared to Indians. This definitely is not good business by the Tourism Department. They are sitting on a gold mine here, doing nothing.

Anyways let me get on with it. We started the morning at Virupaksha temple, the only temple in Hampi where they actually do pooja even till today. Frankly speaking keeping the religious aspect aside, I feel it was not very impressive. I would go as far as saying that it was the most over-hyped places around. The best thing about the place was a beautiful and rare three headed Nandi (bull), vehicle of Shiva. The only other things of note here is the wall carving of Krishna Deva Raya, the pool and the inverted pin hole image of the gopura.

Next we went to the Rama Deva temple. It was not out of this world but it had some key interesting points. The entire garbagudi or inner sanctum is enclosed within a huge boulder. I had never seen anything like that. More importantly this is supposed to be the only place where Rama is depicted as sitting rather than standing and so there are a lot of Rama Bhaktha's doing penance here. Also the view from top of the hillock behind the temple was most impressive. With ruins visible in all the 4 directions. This is also the place of another mythology concerned with Ramayana. This is the place where Lakshmana, Rama's brother is supposed to have shot an arrow into the rock to get water. The highlight of this temple though is the musical pillars which are similar to the ones in Vittala temple. The musical pillars in Vittala temple can no longer be touched let alone be played so this is a nice substitute. Our ancestors truly had an immense grasp on science.

After this we went to the highlight of Hampi, the Vittala temple. The path leading up to the temple itself was amazing and it was a very good precursor for things to come. The first thing I noticed as soon as I entered the temple is the most impressive stone chariot. It was so realistic that a few villagers who came just after we came were speculating whether it was an actual moving chariot. Just for the record, the chariot was always stationary and has been the temple of Garuda (eagle), the vehicle of Vittala or Vishnu. The wheels of the chariot were moving earlier but they have since been cemented into place to avoid damaging the stone axle. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier, we were not allowed to listen to the musical pillars as it has been damaged by numerous people banging on them with hands, keys, stones etc. When will our people learn to protect our heritage? But nevertheless this temple is absolutely amazing. The temple architecture is beautiful and the sculptures unique. There was a 2 in 1 monkey sculpture, 5 in 1 Lion/panther sculpture, a miniaturized plan of the temple etc embedded on the exterior of the temple. You could thing of this as the Colosseum of Hampi.



Driving around the place we saw the Raja Tulabara or the King's balance. The kings used them to weigh their weight in gold, silver, silk etc and distributed them to the brahmins (castism at its peak). Other impressive places around we saw were purandara peeta, the broken bridge which people say was never completed and other small attraction. Definitely made a perfect day for some photography.

We then went to a museum on Hampi which was badly maintained and badly archived. Very shoddy work by the tourism department. This was followed by a lunch at the KSTDC hotel, Mayura Bhuvaneshwari. Appa was hugely impressed by the lunch. He wants to stay there the next time he comes here. We finished up soon and continued our sight seeing.

Next stop was the palace complex. Phew!!! I wish Bangalore planners had studied Vijaynagar's layout. The layout of the city is so well designed that it has surprised many foreign visitors over the centuries. We started off by seeing the Queen's bath, definitely a place fit for a queen. It is a small building with a large bath at the center with changing rooms on the side. What was very funny is that it had a moat around it. I guess even the queens had to be protected from peeping toms (;-)). (let me state here that it is disputed that this place was ever used by the queens :P)

Next we went to the main Palace area where the first thing that we noticed was the magnificent Mahanavami dibba, it is about 30-40 feet high with a platform on top of it. This is where the King is supposed to have presided over the great nine (Mahanavami) days of Dussera, one of the most important festivals for Hindus. The Dibba or platform is exquisitely designed with the exterior telling the tale of the Dussera and also depicting the different aspects of the celebration during that time. Human as well as animal sacrifices were common during those days I believe. What was even more amazing was the view from the top of the Dibba, with all the diffent pools and platforms visible. What is striking here is that most of the structures in Vijaynagar were made of sandalwood and these were burnt down by the Bahamani rulers when they defeated and destroyed the Vijaynagar empire. As a result of this, what is left now is just the platforms of once great buildings and also the beautiful stone pools. The most brilliant part of this complex is the amazing canal system that you can see here. Believe it or not, water from the Tunga Badra was harvested using this canal system and this water was supplied to the fields as well as to the the plenitude of pools found here.



After this we drove to the Queen's chambers a little distance away. The most beautiful place here is the Lotus Mahal, the place where probably the most pictures is taken at hampi. Indo-islamic architecture at its best, goes to prove that the Vijaynagar rulers might have been tolerant. Close-by places which are watchable are the guards tower, horse stable, elephant table, Ranga temple and a small museum.

We passed by the Hazara Ramana devalaya but could not see any of it as our by-now-impatient guide would not allow us to. We tried to be stingy and had agreed for a fee of Rs.500 for which he was not willing to spend more time. We also passed by the underground Shiva temple without seeing it and thats when I realized that Hampi could not be seen in a day. I am sure to come back here one day and I hope that Hampi remains as it is today even then.

We wound up the tour by seeing the Ugra Narasimha and Badavilinga. Ugra Narasimha called so because the lower part of the Lion god's face had broken down giving it a very angry(Ugra) look and the Badavi Linga is called so as legend goes that a poor brahmin lady(badavi) had got the Linga(form of Shiva) installed here. This was followed by a visit to the Krishna Temple and the Kadale Kayi (peanut) Ganesha. At this point we bid goodbye to our guide.

But my appetite for Hampi was still not whetted. So just to whet my curiosity we took a walk down the Hampi bazaar in front of the Virupaksha temple and this took me to a picture museum. This was a very interesting experience as they have pictures of the different Hampi monuments from 1856, 1983 and 2004. It was interesting to see the changes in these monuments . Few of the things that were striking (a) Gopura of the stone chariot has fallen now. (b) Deepa Kamba at Vittala temple has fallen. (c) Entrance of the Vittala temple has fallen. (d) Non-existent entrance to Kadalekayi Ganesha has been assembled together again by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India). (e) Ugra Narasimhan totally transformed. This was remarkable, it was a whole new statue altogether.

Along with this, I also saw the monolithic, Nandi and also the path to Acyuthraya Temple. Being too tired already, I din't have the energy to carry on and see Achyutharaya temple and Mathanga hill. Truly every rock in Hampi has a story. We then headed to the guest house and then slept for couple of hours. Blissful sleep, both being extremely tired. We got up to have our dinner at around 8pm. I had veggie sizzler, yes believe it or not at this place recommended by anna. Though it was not the "best sizzler in the world" as described by him, it was quite good.

We wound up the day at around 10:30pm, looking forward to Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal and Kodala Sangama Deva tomorrow. Having lots of fun, but missing both Dummis.