Hampi – Of Royalty and Piety

I’ve always been fascinated by Rajasthani culture. The stories of their kingdoms and wars, formidable forts and royal palaces. We’ve seen a lot of those along with a healthy dose of “Nawabi” lifestyle in Bollywood movies. Like a typical Indian girl, I’d dream of getting married in a royal palace, a whole “big fat Indian wedding.” During my last visit to India, I’d planned to visit Udaipur and Jaipur and explore Rajasthani culture on a more personal level. Unfortunately, these places are in high demand around December and I couldn’t get my bookings through on time, special thanks to unreasonably overpriced travel sites. Around the time this plan failed, my best friend @vishakha told me about a plan to go to Hampi and I agreed in a flash. I’d only heard the name in passing, and I was having second thoughts of carrying my camera. Little did I know that this place would be such a dream! (P.S. Taking the camera, I successfully dodged the #DisappointmentMAX scenario)

After a meandering, back-breaking bus journey, we reached Hospet, a taluka in North Karnataka. As we approached the outskirts of the town, I began to see interesting things. The topography changed suddenly, a different landscape and an entirely different feel overall. The fatigue and jet lag was taking a backseat, and I had my own Harry Potter platform 9 ¾ moment. A granite rock formation that extended as far as the eye could see, a gentle tone in the air and a vibrant feel to the day! Right then, I knew something special was in the offing.

We explored this UNESCO World Heritage Site on bikes, zig-zagging through human traffic. It’s an ancient town, piling on years of culture and tradition carefully preserved by the locals. Every rock has a story to tell and there’s a noteworthy monument at every other turn. It’s broadly divided into two parts, one comprising of all forms of royalty, and the other with a host of Indian deities. I leaned towards the former, but we visited a few temples because…well, I’d personally prefer not to get struck by lightning for angering a God.

I hadn’t been much of a temple-goer at all (except for the ganesh temple near my house), but the Kadalakelu Ganesha temple made me have some serious second thoughts. A magnificent Ganesha carved entirely out of monolithic rock, a sublime aura around it. The Ganesha we welcome during the annual Ganpati festival and the Ganesha sitting in front of me had different stories to tell. One is worshipped with great rigor, the other is seemingly left to his own devices. This rock-carved Ganesha turned to gold at the first ray of sunshine. I’d entered a state of peaceful meditation before it was broken abruptly by someone’s yelling. It was time for food.

The food at ‘ancient’ Hampi was on the other side of the timeline. A place of worship which largely served vegetarian food, the place had slowly begun accepting meat to an extent, calling chicken “pollo” to make it more secretive (pollo is the Spanish word for chicken). After traveling through a time portal (Barry Allen, notice me!), we reached a place that served English and Russian breakfasts…in Hampi! My friends ordered some chocolate-peanut-butter-add-random-stuff-here pancakes and I simply went for every Indian dish on the menu (I’d just arrived from Los angeles after a year). The restaurants here were different, as the seating was a thick soft mattress on the floor, and low tables for us to keep our dishes. One could even rest or sleep after eating their fill. Leisure in its purest form.

Tip: Chill Out and Mango Tree are great restaurants.  

If you’re into Indian mythology, you’d know that Hampi was mentioned in the Ramayana, as the place Lord Rama visited while looking for Sita. The Hazarrama Temple has over a thousand carvings and inscriptions depicting instances from the epic. We visited Narsimha, Pushkarni (#InstaGoThere), Vitthala Temple, Pan Bazaar as well as some Islamic monuments built by the Deccan Sultanate. I made a friend here, an Indian accent, Ross Geller types (if you don’t know who Ross is…just…#SuperDisappointed). He’d go on and on about history and monuments and all things youngsters are usually dense about. He told us about the musical pillars of the Vitthala Temple. 7 pillars which when struck, emanate the 7 notes  from the representative instrument, varying in sound quality based on whether it represents a wind, string or percussion instrument. In 15th Century, pan bazar had a different charm. There used to be the crowds selling diamonds, rubies, silk saris, ivory articles and many more. I gradually discovered while listening to Sagar’s stories that he was planning this trip since childhood when he first read the story of the fourth incarnation of Lord Vishnu that is Shri Narishmdev, an Avtar who had Lion’s Head and Human Body incarnated to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu. I was glad that he could finally make it to this place after a decade. If you are reading this one, thanks for the handwritten messages on vintage postcards that you gave to all of us. It is safe in my so-called treasure box.

As the night settled in, the stars twinkled in the clear sky, devoid of any city pollution. I was fortunate enough to witness one of the oldest temples in India, Virupaksha Temple. Virupaksha means ‘the one with oblique eye’ which refers to Lord Shiva. At the entrance, a four-storey imposing gate replete with carved images of gods and goddess, with a bright incandescent bulb at its head. One of the coolest things about this place can be found on entering the second tower (gopura) on the left side in the Virupaksha Temple. There’s a little elephant who gives you kiss on the head as a blessing in exchange for a one-rupee coin. In Hampi, every structure is a balance of art and science. Behind the main temple, there’s a secret way leading to the dark chamber with a slit on the wall. In a daytime, sun rays emerge through this slit and fall on the western wall, that’s the moment when you can see the inverted image of the main tower as a shadow in the image.

After fulfilling my religious duties for 2 million years, the hiker in me finally woke up. The plan was to watch the sunrise atop the famous Matanga Hills. Given the light traffic and wide roads, we got bicycles all the way to the foot of the hill and a quick hour-hike later, we were up there. The hill offered a substantial view of all of Hampi. We were flanked by vast banana plantations on one side and the formidable Virupaksha on the other side. As the sun rose, the stones around us glittered like gold, reminiscent of the ice caps on the Kanchenjunga at the first rays of the sun.

As the sun set, I found myself foot-deep in the cold water of a lake, enjoying the chirping of school kids around me. They looked like they were on a school picnic, tagging along behind their school teacher like a bunch of ducklings behind their mother. I took a moment to admire their activities. Climbing trees, eating fruit, jumping around in the water, carrying the world upon their tiny shoulders. It receded me far into my childhood when I craved for such adventurous life. I used to wait eagerly for 5 PM, so that I would go downstairs to play Lock and key, hide-and-seek, badminton etc. with my building friends. Once we are bored with our so-called-big-playground we would take over the building terrace to play monopoly and card games. (Mr. Watchman uncle used to be our biggest enemy back then). This day-to-day playtime routine used to end with watching critically acclaimed, award-winning legendary series such as Noddy and Bob the Builder at one of our friend’s home till the time our mothers shout our names at least five times from the window. We were not-so-satisfied-but-happy with whatever little adventure we had in the city of Mumbai.

Keeping my rantings aside, coming back to this post, we spent next day exploring the royal part of Hampi. The Royal centre comprises of the Royal Enclosures of Vijayanagara Empire, Queen’s Bath, Lotus Mahal, Zanana Enclosure, Elephant Stables, Mahanavmi Dibba, all worth including in your itinerary. The history behind each of these structures is captivating but I’m not gonna delve into that for now. These places are the best to share the stories of your lives with strangers and fellow travelers, catch a glimpse of magnificent royal heritage, click tons of pictures while posing pretentiously or simply jump of in the splashing water of Kamalapur lake or queens bath – the possibilities are endless! I had spared some time to visit Archaeological museum which has a collection of sculptures and artifacts which beautifully captures the history of Hampi. From the moment I saw the map, the hippie soul of mine got more excited. Taking a boat ride to the other side of the Tungabhadra River take you to quieter yet amusing side of this town, hippie village. This is the best place to meet other bohemian souls and backpackers.

We met local people in every place who couldn’t really speak English or Hindi but were very excited to talk to us, and ended up taking loads of pictures with us. After each picture the little kids would scurry around me and demand to see the picture immediately, followed by giggles. Without any second thoughts I spent a lot of money shopping local clothes, jewellery, souvenirs and collectibles . In the bazar, I saw some foreign crowd come a long way from Middle East and some even from Rome to buy spices.

India’s past was glorious but due to pride and self-indulgence of kings it lost its glory and ruled by foreigners thereafter. Everything was in ruins and no temple was functional. But the deities still had their charm and glory. Hard work is such that it metamorphosed rock into GOD.  I learned one thing from Hampi that at whatever peak of glory an empire or a city reaches, if it’s proud of itself and doesn’t envisage its future, it’s headed for doom today or tomorrow.