Hampi in one day.:-)

      It was the time when one of my colleague who is also my good friend's more than a year long wish was about to come true. Yes, we 11 people were all set to visit the 5 centuries old monumental, the glorious art and an exceptional architectural place of the then one of the most flourishing dynasty Viyayanagara empire's capital city Hampi.

      It was a very exciting moment for all of us to visit the historical place. We took a trax vehicle from Hubli and with a fun filled singings and actings in the vehicle we reached Gadag for our tiffin at 8.15 a.m.Leaving there at 9 am we reached the 105 km far Hampi at  11 am. This is a place of stones which has a strength to mesmerize the travelers with its beauty and more importantly with its history. Many things are ruined by the Muslim invaders who stayed for six months at Hampi to destroy it..!! Destruction was the result of their frustration for not getting the wealth which the Hampi had hid within itself being the international trade center by then ..!

      The first place we visited is the main temple of Hampi,the  Virupaksha temple with a 160 ft  high gopuram. The gopuram has two blocks of hard  granite built  over with many layers of bricks and sand. It dates back to the first half of the 15th century and was renovated in the 16th century by Krishnadevaraya. The main attraction of this temple is a small dark room where there is just a 8 inchX10inch hole made in the wall, through which when the light passes makes an inverted shadow of that big gopuram on th eopposite wall. There are many other small temples to the right of Virupaksha temple. We also took pictures with the elephant which was tied outside in the corridors. This elephant looks so spiritual .! 

      The next visit was to the two temples Sasivekalu and Kadalekalu Ganesh temples. The kadalekalu ganesh is a 4.5 meters (15 feet) tall statue is one among the largest sculptures in Hampi. Its stretched stomach was chopped off by the invaders with the hope of finding the valuable jewels. The hampi ruins shoke my heart... 

      We pushed the visit to the most artistic temple sri Vijava Vitthala temple to the last and we visited the king's darbar hall at the mahanavami dibba. After roaming there, resting nad photographing, we appreciated the carvings and the perfection in bringing out the neat Goemetric parallel lines in that hard granite. We were awestruck when we understood that what is remaining is just the granite foundations of the tall and beautiful mahals that existed. Over the layers of granite carving foundation existed  marvelous buildings made of bricks and the beautiful wooden carvings and mesmarizing colorful paintings. When the granite foundation of the building was so good and artistic can you imagine how awesome would have been the carvings in the bricks and the wood.! When the invasion happened, the brick buildings were destroyed with the canon balls and the wooden mahals were burnt to ashes. Thanks to hard granite foundations which were very difficult to destroy and are standing still even today.. 

       Coming down the good tar road of the Ganesh temples we had our yummy South Indian thaali meals at a small local hotel. All were very happy with the  tasty healthy food we had and we headed to Kamal Mahal.  

      This architecture is in an indo-islamic style which might have been one reason for the muslim invaders not to ruin this. It is built such a way that it stays cool in summers and warm in winters. The wonderful Indian historic engineering. Isn't it ?

      From here, we moved on to the most awaited Vijaya Vitthala temple.The temple was  built in 15th century later which was expanded by many successive kings. The temple campus houses the musical pillar hall, the stone chariot, the Maha-Mantapa,the kalyana mantapa. Then best thing we did here is that we took a tourist guide and it changed the entire perspective of seeing the hampi. He started with explaining why the name hampi and went on explaining the story behind every monument. It was mesmerizing to hear that the every monument here had so many amazing stories hidden in their history. King Krishnadevaraaya was a great art appreciator and he had hired sculptors from the countries like China and Persia to do the carvings. The temples here reflect the influence of Chinese architecture as well. I just can't imagine how they would communicated thousands of kilometers without the petrol run vehicles and the mobile phones and they managed to export horses,elephants and the people from the far flung countries. Woww.!!

      The musical pillar Mahal had 42 musical pillar sets forming various musical instruments, where today few of them have fallen and only 12 of them gives out original notes. During the king's time the musicians played these stones with long sandal wood sticks fastened with the gold rolls at the end. The temple still has faint remains of green and brown color paints on them. It was believed that once the whole Vijayavitthala temple was painted with mineral and herbal paints. Imagining the colorful dressed musicians with sandal wood sticks in the hand and playing the music, the king sitting on a side watching beautiful women dancing at the center stage of such a colorful beautifully carved temples around ! This gives a very different wonderful feeling. I was dumbstruck there like a small child wondering at the greatness of the rich cultured artistic wealthy beautiful Vijayanagar empire..!

      Without the cranes and the lifters, the sculptors use to carve out a pillar, then fill the mud around the pill up to its top, take the next stone to the top with the help of elephants and sit there,carve it carefully and place it..Woww such a incredible sight.!! Beside the Vijayavitthala temple stands a champa flower tree which is about one and a half century old. Its trunk looks like a carved out stone in the lost city of stones. There is also a mandapa where there are stories carved of ramayana and mahabharat carved out.

      Taking a guide with you elevates the level of respect and the appreciation you have for hampi. When you see it without history you see only the top view of stones and the carvings. When you go by history, hampi creates an unforgettable respect for itself. This made me fall in love with the history and thirst to visit more and more historical places in my rich cultured India ...  

"High time for me to take a cameraaaa......."