Moments

If Dali existed in the 14th century and decided to build a city, perhaps this is what the result would be. Hampi - the capital of the Vijayanagar empire in South India. Founded in a Romanesque fashion by two legendary brothers, Harihar and Bukka in the 14th century based on some lucky omen, the city survived as a unique bastion of Hindu culture in the south before succumbing in the mid-16th century to Islamic invasions.

Hampi today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and not just that. Due to recent bridges and road construction plus tourist influx, is labeled as a "threatened" World Heritage Site. Unfortunately, unlike the tourist spots in Kerala (Periyar Sanctuary, for example), I was less than pleased with the conservation efforts here on part of the local population.


Hampi is located over an area of about 27 sq km on the southern banks of the Tungabhadra river. The central portion consists of the towering Virupaksha temple, and the Hampi marketplace. The construction is all stone, and the central marketplace is actually now being reoccupied to create the modern little Hampi town. The temple is a live temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, with regular worship, and weddings happening all the time in there.

What strikes the first-time visitor to Hampi are not the gorgeous intricately carved temples, or the vast marketplaces, or the abandoned sprawling covered bazaars, or any man-made construct. It's the location. The rocks. Boulders. That's what you see all around. Boulders naturally piled upon each other for miles and miles around the the most exquisite, maddening, mesmerizing formations defying gravity for ages and ages. The mind revolts against the idea that something can just exist naturally like this, and has been not piled by some giant child with tons of pebbles at his disposal. These rock formations hide little stone houses, temples, watch-towers, and numerous places to just spend hours in peace, looking around at nature. I went to Hampi intending to spend a few hours, but the rocks trapped me for a couple of days there :)




Other than the main Virupaksha temple, there are several other beautiful architectural wonders there. The Vitala temple dedicated to an avatar of Krishna, with its famous Sun chariot made of stone, and 'Musical Pillars', which resonate with different musical notes when tapped, the Royal Enclosure and the Queen's (Zenana) enclosure are impressive and imposing, though mostly in ruins. The rocky environs lend an air of impregnability and serene calmness which is simply impossible to describe in mere words.

On top of one of the hillocks which look like piles of giant pebbles, stands the Matanga temple. There are two stairways leading to the top, one broad and easy to negotiate, the other a mere formality carved into rocks. Naturally, I ended up finding he more adventurous one first and got some gorgeous pictures from up there. The local priest was leaving for the nearby village of Hospet as I arrived and I befriended the guy into taking me for a walk to his village through some local non-tourist trails. He turned out to be one spark of hope in a very touristy town where locals seemed a lot more focused on making money from tourists than preserving the unique world-famous cultural heritage they had inherited.