Every Stone tells a story.

Feb 14-17 2010

Collection of Pictures : http://amitkulkarni.info/pics/hampi/

A 4 day vacation and a sudden plan to drive to Hampi to rediscover the Vijayanagri ruins, which is
deemed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site.

Two friends, 1 car and a spirit to turn back time.

Some history.

Hampi is a village in northern Karnataka state, India. It is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the
former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Predating the city of Vijayanagara, it continues to be an
important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple, as well as several other monuments
belonging to the old city.

As the village is at the original centre of Vijayanagara, it is sometimes confused with the ruined city
itself. The ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as the Group of Monuments at Hampi.

The name is derived from Pampa, which is the old name of the Tungabhadra River on whose banks the
city is built. The name "Hampi" is an anglicized version of the Kannada Hampe (derived from Pampa).
Over the years, it has also been referred to as Vijayanagara and Virupakshapura (from Virupaksha, the
patron deity of the Vijayanagara rulers).

Our Travel to this place was quite exciting, as we started late evening and since we were doing this on
our own and travelling a far for the first time, it was very natural to lose way and land up in some village
of Maharashtra from where we needed to trace our steps back.

It may have been easier if we would have started in the day time since its easy to toggle on roads and
seek directions. John Grey has rightly said, women and directions are generally not the best friends.

However with two women on a determined spirit to excavate some Indian beauty, small changes to
route couldn’t really dampen the sprit.

We are still in Maharashtra after a drive for 10 hours, and enter a zone during dark where sleep tends to
take a grip and we are forced to stop on a road side motel area where we park our car and catch a nap.
it was impossible to drive any longer with droopy eyes and truck headlights glaring at us.

It was 3am then and we thought of pausing the rewind button to unwind on roads.

At 5am, the zest of reaching our destination awakened us and we hit the roads in absolute rejuvenation.

We drove faster and better with renewed energy and managed to cover more kilometers than the
earlier time.
We finally reached our destination, after a long drive and huge wait in a line for 2 hours as there was a
traffic jam caused by the trucks. There are 23000 trucks that pass daily on that route carrying heavy
vehicles and other goods.

We reached Hampi and now it was time to find some accommodation.

Hampi is situated at the banks of Tungabhadra River, therefore each side of the bank has human
dwelling and accommodation for tourists. Both the sides of the bank have historic eminence.

The travel between the either side of the banks is via a boat which runs between 9am to 7pm.

We accommodate our selves and time to get talking to the stones begins.

The journey starts next day when we start realize that Hampi was once a great city full of fortresses,
temples, and other signs of an advanced urban civilization, circa 15th century. The Mughals sacked it in
the 17th century and now it is ruins. Oh, but what fabulous ruins they are. 26 square kilomteres of ruins,
all free to explore.

We drove all around the ancient city, which is interspersed with banana trees and palm trees. The
landscape here is spectacular. We are in the middle of the Indian subcontinent, halfway from either
coast. Great landforms, boulders, mountains of red and orange. And in the middle of it all is the town,
Hampi Bazaar, where the tourist infrastructure lies. It's really quite small, but it's got plenty of guest
houses, restaurants, and shops selling everything you'd need. The nicest thing is that things really do
feel relaxed here. There are no crazy drivers, motorcycles hoking their horns, and only a few rickshaws.
Cows mingle with humans, goats, chickens and monkeys. There are monkeys all over the place. You
actually have to be careful because some monkeys are aggressive and dangerous. But some of them are
really entertaining to watch.

Many of the buildings have solar water heaters on the roof. I wandered along the river trail and veered
inland through an ancient promenade with shaded columned arcades running along either side. The
Indian Archaeological Survey was conducting a dig, and the laborers carting the excavated dirt away
were women, in saris of course, and they were carrying the dirt in small bowls on their heads. At the
end of the promenad is a grand 14th century temple, mostly still intact

The temples with exotic and forbidding images of gods and demons. The spectacular desert scenery and
otherworldy rock formations. The jungle. And the risks and dangers around every turn (violent monkeys,
snakes, bandits, and, unfortunately, rapists). Rising just to the south of the temple is a steep mountain
with a temple on top. With all the hidden caves and hidden curves in the path. We could see for miles in
every direction, desert and mountain punctuated by jungle and river and ruins, and very few of India's
1,000,000,000 people.

Another mile or so down the river trail I arrived at the Vittala Temple.
Vittala Temple is famous for its "musical pillars". The pillars of the temple each produce a different tone
when tapped, supposedly emulating 56 different Indian instruments. I don't know about the emulating
the instruments part, but there definitely were several dozen different sounds. Since everyone there is
busy tapping the pillars, it all adds up into a sort of spontaneous cacophony of sound. A great tree with
twisted branches and white bark stands solitarily in the middle of the temple courtyard, reminding me
of the white tree of Gondor from Lord of the Rings. There is a woman whose sole job it seems is to
sweep the fallen petals from under the tree. There is also a sunken chamber surrounding an
underground temple. Tiny holes in the ceiling allow sunlight to stream into the chamber in narrow,
focused rays.

Other times, I walked around the ruins alone, for a different feeling, stopping at the goddess temple
next to the Tungabhadra River, where fishermen cast their nets and the energy of the land was strong.

Virupaksha Temple, Hampi

This was a good place to contemplate the way the temples blended with nature. A line of mud showed
where floods deposited silt in one riverine temple. Still another temple gopura, the Virupaksha Temple,
seemed to jut from the granite itself.

Chinese-style Roof, Vittala Temple

Aside from the vastness of the city ruins and attempting to picture what the city was like five hundred
years ago, before it fell into decay like all empires eventually do, I was interested in the prolific bas-relief
carvings adorning
Column Bas-relief: Hexagram

the columns. Hexagrams, pentagrams, decagrams, avatars of Vishnu, people in various forms and
personalities, flowers, trees, and more graced almost every column, carved from slabs pried from
granite boulders. Islamic and Chinese motifs also graced temples and mahals, and some carvings
reminded me of Egyptian or Christian motifs ("is that Horus?"). These carvings told of the people in the
past, their myths, and their relationship to nature, to other lands, and the spirit.

Yali, part I: Vitthala Temple Complex

The carvings of Yali also caught my attention. These mythical beasts guard most of the temples of
Vijayanagar. It seemed as though these beasts as well as the lion and Vishnu's avatar as the Man-lion
Narasimha dominated the theme of many temples. The Yali reminded me of Mr. Potato Head, in a way,
a mythical toy. "I think the rhino nose and its horn is best," said one priest. "No way...definitely the
elephant trunk."

Vishnu's Cosmic Dream Creates Brahma

Still, I was most intrigued at the temples that blended with the landscape and the carvings on boulders,
sometimes hidden, sometimes more obvious. The architects and stone carvers of Hampi definitely
wanted people to observe in many different ways.

We had dinner on Day 1 at mango tree a restaurant not to be missed and famous for its location right on
the bank of river Tungabadra.

We not only heard stories that each stone said, but we also visited the modern infrastructure: the
Tungabadra Dam.

Tungabhadra Dam, which is the largest dam in Karnataka, is located approximately five km from Hospet
town. The town is to the north of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. Nature has poured all her natural
assets on this beautiful land. Thousands of tourists visit this site round the year.

The Tungabhadra dam is constructed across the river Tungabhadra. Tourists can have a wonderful view
of the waterpower of the dam, while standing at any part of the dam. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
are the two states that share the stored water among them. To reach the dam, tourists have to take a
drive through a narrow road and some surrounding hills, which are bound with coffee coloured soil and
green plants. There are some small and multicolored houses beside the road. If we discount the
telephone and electric lines which moves in a zigzag way, the scenery of the road is beautiful. An entry
to the each end of the dam is limited due to the security reasons. The dam has 33 spillway gates to
release water.

A small house that serves as a lighthouse is located at the top of a mount, beside the Tungabhadra dam.
This lighthouse is one of the best places to have an eye-catching view of the environment. The
government of Karnataka has designed a beautiful garden at the foot of the dam, which is one of the
ideal places to spend some leisure moments. On the arrival of monsoon in the months of May and June,
all the gates of the dam are closed to store water in it.

What helped us connect with my school history books was a visit to this dam versus the museum that
showcased life before.

A magical bridge was formed, which could help you relive olden times.

Archaeological Museum, Hampi

(District Bellary, Karnataka)

The collection of sculptures architectural members from various locations of the ruins were made by
British officers and housed earlier at elephant stables. Archaeological Survey of India established it’s first
museum here. In 1972 the antiquities were shifted to a present modern building at Kamalapur. Presently
this museum has four galleries enclosing a model of Hampi valley with a corridor all around.

The exhibits in this museum are manifold consisting of the elegant replicas of Krishnadevaraya most
famed ruler of the Vijayanagara dynasty and his queens greeting the visitors at the entrance.
The first gallery has in its display sculptures of the saiva faith consisting of Virabhadra, Bhairava,
Bhikshatanamurti, Mahishasuramardini, Shakti, Ganesha, Kartikeya with his consorts and Durga. The
central hall has the composition of a look alike a temple with the display of Shivalinga, Nandi,
Dwaramantapa with a royal couple at front.

The second gallery has in its display assorted antiquities like arms and armoury, copper plate grants,
metal objects of religious utility and brass plates. In the display are the coins of Vijayanagara dynasty in
various denominations of both gold and copper.

The fourth gallery has antiquities pertaining to prehistoric and protohistoric period, medieval hero
stones and sati stones. Stucco figurines, iron objects, sherds of porcelain, retrieved from excavations are
also on display. This gallery prominently has in its display selected dia-positive of archaeological
excavations conducted in the citadel by the Survey from 1976 to 1998. To familiarize the visitors to the
World Heritage site an information kiosk is also set up in the same gallery.

The museum, dams and the ruins, took us to a time of kings and queens and their luxurious lifestyle.

The array of food available from South Indian to English Breakfast provided quite an interesting choice.

The other side of the bank was not really explored in detail as we lacked time, however the over view
gave a feeling of heaven on earth, as it was calm peaceful and serene.

However, all good things must come to an end and so did this journey but it helped us see India in its
golden days.