Story: Hampi - Reclaiming the lost Empire

The City of Ruins

The Hampi city also had outskirts that extended quite some distance from the central city. Just after you leave Hospet, you can see a few structures whose creation is credited to the same race of people who built Hampi. As you drive along the quite narrow road that leads to Hampi, you can also see a huge reservoir filled with the bright red Tungabhadra water. Once you reach Hampi, your excitement will know no bounds. The climate is hot, but not unbearable if you are an Indian. The roads within the city are good, nice and clean. When you are just entering the heart of the city, which is the Virupaksha temple, you will be asked to pay an entrance fee of Rs 20 on non Sundays, and Rs. 10 on Sundays. (Car parking costs 10 bucks extra on Sundays only). This is where the guides start soliciting. It is essential to hire a guide if you want to know the history behind every structure that was built in the city. The rated range from as less as Rs 250 for two people, to as much as Rs 700 for a group of 15-17 people. But as everywhere in India, the rates are negotiable.

Make sure you hire a licensed guide. There are also guides who are well versed in French and a couple of other languages (or at least they claim so!), if you are interested. And as always with the whole world, the better your personal rapport is with your guide, the more information you can get out of him. If you don’t have your own vehicle, you can hire auto rickshaws (the guide will tell you how much it would cost to make a round trip of the places he will be showing you) or even motorcycles and bicycles are available for rent.

The embryo of your tour must be the Virupaksha temple, which was the embryo of the Empire itself. The entry costs peanuts; shooting with a still camera is affordable (Rs 50), and a video camera will cost you ten times as much. The Virupaksha temple is a magnificent work of art, showcasing a range of amazing things starting from beautifully sculpted stones, pieces of Indian mythology in sculptures and paintings to a larger than life pin-hole camera mechanism.

Long before Michelangelo painted the Ceiling of the Sistine chapel, the people of Hampi had already dedicated the hard-to-reach ceiling of the Virupaksha temple to print odes to the gods. The paints which were made of dyes extracted from vegetables and plants are still stunningly bright till date.

The temple was not built all at once. Every major structure of the temple was contributed by different kings, starting from Harihara and Bukka, the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire. The facts are really interesting, and the reality of how the city was ruined is probably one of the biggest ironies in pre-British empire history. This temple still stands today, undestroyed and un-looted because when the Islam kings reached the temple, they saw a pig which repelled them away. The most interesting part is that the Hindus consider the pig to be the third avatara of lord Vishnu.

The city practically lacked nothing. All temples in the city were equipped to provide shelter to weary travelers and pilgrims, every temple had halls to discuss and deliberate the festivities of the temple/city. Every temple also had a Kalyana mantapa (a place for any function such as a marriage), a court of law where the king handed out justice to the people of the city.

Every temple had a water reservoir, which was constantly fed and the water refreshed by the mighty Tungabhadra river. The devotees, pilgrims and travelers could use this water for drinking or for bathing. There were huge markets (Kirshna Bazaar) near the temples, where gold and precious stones were heaped up like vegetables, cloths and other items. Apparently, the Chinese traded silk for the gold and diamonds with the Vijayanagara Empire!

The planning of the vast city was impeccable, but the remains of houses and settlements are not to be found. What remains today are only the ruins of temples worth a lifetime of envy and agony. Anything that closely resembled a Hindu god was disfigured and mutilated without any second thoughts. Any structure, albeit a representation of a Hindu god that did not have a face, hands and legs were untouched.

There was also a large Jain population, which built Jain temples without any deities in them or any carvings on the temples. Needless to say, these are untouched. The destroyers took great pains to scale tall Gopuras and demolish them. They looted the temples of its gold and riches, and left behind a very painful trail of destruction.

Hampi has this amazing effect on you where you feel a part of the city, and the ruins leave a pain in your heart and mind which is not easy to get rid of.

Refurbished ruins?

Not the whole city of Hampi was excavated by the Archeologists. Structures such as the Virupaksha temple were undestroyed. Parts of the ruins such as the market places were excavated. Other non-excavated ruins, which still stood their ground against layers of sand are cleaned up and maintained by the archeological department. Parts of some structures are even rebuilt and repainted! But this was probably not the work of the archeological department, but may as well be the care rendered by the localities. Many other structures have been cleaned up by the authorities.

Not that the cleaning up and maintaining the ruins is wrong, but personally, I would rather have the weathering of the old city by natural factors be evident. What kind of care the monument city needs is the care-taking of factors such as clean surroundings, essential services such as medical care and good hotels and lodges.

The ruining continues

Until UNESCO stepped in, declared Hampi as one of the world heritage centers and took control of things, we were blissfully ignorant of the continuing ruining of the city. You will see names of people who wanted to make their love as time less as the empire itself engraved in some of the most shocking places – for example the gopura of the Virupaksha temple.

The Vitthala temple has pillars of stone, which were struck gently with Sandalwood drumsticks to produce sounds of the Tabala, Veena and other traditional Indian musical instruments. Temple dancers performed in the temple to the music produced by doing so! I still don’t understand why this is not a wonder of the world. Today, no one can witness this wonder because previously the guides have used stones and other such hard substances to show the visitors how beautifully the pillars produced sounds, and now the pillars are so worn out and damaged that they face the threat of being the latest ruins of Hampi. I was lucky enough to witness this wonder as a child, but little did I know that would be one of the last times those pillars would produce enchanting sounds. There is a huge stone chariot installed in the temple. It has been carved out of a single stone and the wheel can be still rotated!

There is litter everywhere outside the guarded structures. Once you are on the road after seeing a ruin, you can see a lot of litter. The least we can do is place litter bins every 20-30 meters. This place is one of the world heritage centers, and nothing would be considered and over-doing, when it comes to taking care of it.

Must see/Must do at Hampi

If you are photography-crazy like Raghuram is, then you can’t get enough of shooting this timeless marvel. You will end up spending lots and lots of time in each place. The best thing to do is to hire a guide for a whole day (guides don’t define the time limit when the rates are fixed. But they try to finish off your sight seeing soon and try and do some more business during the rest of the day. The trick is to extract information out of the guide), and then spend the desired amount of time in shooting pictures during the next one or two days.

Another good idea would be to visit Hampi during the Hampi Utsava (the Hampi festival). Most of the city is beautifully decorated, and cultural programmes by bigwigs and artists are arranged for 3 days – 3rd, 4th and 5th of November every year. Getting to know the history of the city during the utsava might be a challenge, and you could well end up burning a hole in your pocket. A personal recommendation is visit the city once when the festival is not happening, and later the city will drag you back for the festival.

There is almost nothing in the whole of Hampi that can be skipped. But make sure that you spend at least a couple of hours (preferably after 5:45 in the evening) on one of the hillocks. The winds will almost knock you off your feet, and the beauty of the 360 degree view will sweep of your feet, if you are still standing. It is an excellent place to spend some time alone. You will soon start thinking about so many things that you never had time for in the busy normal routine. Lie down on the rocks, and stare as the Sun relinquishes the sky to the innumerable stars. You will find yourself in heaven.

The facts stated in this article would measure up to less than 20% of what a guide could tell you. You have to visit the place to know more…like I mentioned, the facts are amazing, and the experience of listening to 1300s to 1500s stories when you are standing there in the 21st century is out of the world!

Tips for Photographers

Just as the great Ansel Adams fell in love with Yosemite, you shall too fall in love with Hampi. It’s a simple and rustic place with lots of opportunity for photography. Make sure you have a wide angle lens in your kit because at times you might have to fit in the entire empire in one shot! Drive away to a near by hill and enjoy the panoramic view of the entire place. Tripods and filters are very much needed. Be careful when you use the tripod. Most temples have forbidden the use of the tripod inside the temples. Please enquire before you start using. You can also obtain a special permission from the Archeological Survey of India office at Hospet. People are not camera shy and the kids love to be photographed.

We spent most of our time making panoramas and HDR photographs. The cloudy weather of September made the pictures very dramatic.

Distance: From Bangalore South (JP Nagar): 360 Kms

Travel Route: Bangalore – Tumkur – Chitradurga – Hospet - Hampi

Number of driving hours: Approx. 8 hours – 4 hours to Chitradurga (240 Kms), and 4 hours beyond (the road can give you nightmares)

Essentials: Car with AC (you cant drive with open windows unless you want to breathe mud), Music system, chips and sips, Anti-tan lotion (optional)

About the authors:

Mahendra is a 24 year old professional working for an MNC in Bangalore. He has varied passions and claims he would like to try his hand at everything. Interests ranging from theater to heavy metal, he is always ready to hit the road! He can be contacted at mahendra.23@gmail.com

Raghuram is a 24 year old Post Graduate student at International Institute of Information Technology – Bangalore. His passions include photography and travelling. He also plays the Carnatic Flute. He has exhibited photographs in India and abroad. His photographs can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/redbull. Raghuram can be contacted at raghuram.ashok@gmail.com