From a casual wanderer to a serious explorer. This is the trip that made this transition in me. The planning phase for such a trip had tarted a long back when me and my BTech mates wanted to go somewhere after 3 long years since the completion of our course. And one fine day everything fell into place and the decision was made. Lets go Hampi!
Well why Hampi! India is known for its great riches and cultures during the ancient times. Hampi, as a place has a very big significance from ancient Indian mythologies to the rich history. It is believed to be ‘Kishkindha’ – the vanara(monkey) kingdom in the epic Ramayana. Fast forward to 1300ADs periods and Hampi is the capital city of the Vijayanagara(City of Victory) Empire. The city now remains to show the world, how the battle for power pushed the city that once was the richest and the center point of power into a disaster. The ruins of Hampi is now a UNESCO world heritage site. All these facts are more than enough to add the boulder filled Hampi into bucket list, though research for adding it to the bucket list happened only after watching the movie AANANDHAM (Enjoyment). Whew…I wonder how much movies affect your decisions and life. 📷
“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” -Gustav Flaubert
So the exploration started from Kerala on a Friday. Me including, 3 people took a train to the rocking city of Bangalore, where two more will join to complete the group. The travel from Bangalore to Hampi is by Karnataka Road Transport Corporation. The nearest town to Hampi is Hospete, which is about 12 km from Hampi. Hospete is connected to the world by road and rail networks. However act promptly and you might end up getting a ticket in the bus that takes you directly to Hampi. The bus starts at 9.30 and takes you to Hampi by around 7 next morning. You get to watch the morning sunshine from the bus on the plateaus.
For reasons unknown, our bus ended its trip at Hospete, and we were taken to Hampi in a local bus that plies between Hospete and Hampi. The entry to Hampi is so dramatic that you’d distinctively get the feeling of reaching your destination. From farmlands and villages, suddenly your surrounding are filled with boulders and neatly paved and remains of the great Vijayanagara. After going through a lot of reviews and suggestions, the accommodations were already arranged. Lucky that we got some nice deal from booking.com that was at walk-able distance from the Hampi bus stand.
The room we got, was right in-front of the Virupaksha temple, and right next to Hemakunta Hills and Hemakunta group of temples. After breakfast and a quick fresh up, we started our tour with a visit to the Virupaksha temple. Virupaksha, the adobe of lord Shiva is the most sacred living temple in Hampi. On entering the large rectangular temple complex, you’ll be greeted with carvings on the walls and pillars, and ceiling paintings which depicts the mythological events. The place was crowded with kids from schools on that day. Looked like the place is a common field trip destination for the schools around. A noteworthy sight that will make you go ‘wow’ is a particular room with a small opening that faces one of the huge towered gateway (gopura), where the architecture of the opening causes a inverted reflection of the gopura on the wall.
Hampi is a place that should be explored on your own and at your own pace. There are several ways to get around Hampi. Hire a rickshaw and pay the guy some amount to take you places the whole day. This is the most recommended one if you are here on a tight schedule. Next, get a tourist guide book and a map and start walking. Though this involves a lot of physical exercise, if you are a trekker or someone who likes to strain your muscles, go for it. Well, in our case, we were not in for the walking under the hot sun (Yep, when you are not near any of the ruins, you are right under the sun) and the rickshaw option too was not pretty impressive. So we opted the next and the most recommended option; hire a bicycle. In Hampi, you can hire a bicycle or a moped. Better go for a bicycle because, you’ll have to carry your ride for some distance if you are to cover several places.
Once you exit Virupaksha temple, the small town of Hampi is on your left. Go search for some good bicycles which will cost you 100-150 rupees for a day. And try not to settle with the first hiring place you may find because you might be missing some better option somewhere else. Thus we got our rides and set a rough plan using the map we had. As we started pedaling, within a few kilometers, the road ahead was over and it was only a paved rocky walkway towards the Achyutaraya temple. You’ll thank yourselves for hiring a cycle instead of a moped here. The winding pathway, took us to the banks of river Thungabhadra where we rested for some time on the rocks in-front of two temples.
One of them is the kothandarama temple, dedicated to Rama. Sculptures of Kothandarama, Lakshmana, Sita and the monkey king Sugreeva are carved onto the natural boulders. The second temple is YantroDharaka Anjaneya, where you can find lord Anjaneya, seated in padmasana. On these banks, you can enjoy some coracle ride here if you are in the mood. Well we were really not in a mood as we got only two days in our hand and had to cover a lot of places. So with enough energy regained, we continued towards the Achyutaraya temple.
As we proceed further we were welcomed by a long train of pillars that of the Achyutaraya Bazaar or Courtesan’s street as referred to by some medieval period foreign travelers. The bazaar measures around 360 meters in length and around 40 meters in width. The street stretches between the Achyutaraya temple on one end and the Varaha temple on the other end. On seeing the setting, reminded me of several movie scenes. I was wondering how the place would have looked during the peak of their glorious days! As we traversed our way towards the Achyutaraya temple through the street, on our right was a Holy stepped Tank (Pushkarani) that was used during float festivals and forms a part of the Achyutaraya temple.
The magnificent Achyutaraya temple, situated under the foothill of the Matanga hillock, is known for its large dimensions and the spacious courtyard. Like any other monument in Hampi, this one was also mostly intact except for a few cracks here and there. In the end, the ancient architecture and technology can’t go as simple as that and is still something that makes people in the modern era think how people did that during olden days! Roaming around Hampi and visiting monuments are not encouraged post 6 pm due to lack of lighting at many places and the places’ deserted nature. From here one could imagine how it’d be to roam around after darkness has spread. one would require enough guts to do that alone given the looks of the place. It could look like a horror movie setting once the sun sets.
We continued towards the next monument leaving the Achyutaraya temple behind. Next up is the river side monuments. Follow the river banks and at one place, you could just follow the usual trail. But we chose not to. The cycles were given their much needed rest and we went on to the ruins that’s spread along the banks of the Thungabhadra. May be because one has to climb over the boulders, we could see no one but ourselves around us. We were jumping and climbing from one boulder to another towards the river. To our surprise, we saw one more human on those boulders, jumping from behind a huge boulder, all excited. Who would inspire us to travel more and live life to its fullest with his experiences…!
You can take a break now because that’s too much stuff for a single post 😅. Story will be continued in Part 2.
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