Imagine you have a time machine and you want to go back to 500- 700 years back. You got down in Hampi, Karnataka. You will see the city full of beautiful temples and in front of temples, you will see the street full of gold and foreigners visiting the market for the business activity. You will see the prosperous state full of rich architecture and beautiful monuments. After coming out of time machine, now you want to visit the same place. That is how I can relate my journey to Hampi.
Then we moved to HemaKoota Hills. You find many jain temples here but not even one is functioning. If you observe closely the precious graphite stone is carved and we started discussing about illegal mafia which is destroying the heritage city.
Hemakoota hills is one of the most peaceful place I have seen in my nomadic life. We took shelter in a jain temple. This was the same experience I used to have when I used to sit in front of Alvekodi beach alone. For hours I used to sit and have composed some of my favorite poems. An hour sleep at this place made me to forget all the reluctance we had to reach here. I want to visit this place more often than any other place. This is a paradise for all.
We didn't hurry to cover the places as planned. We observed, we relaxed, we closed our eyes, we experienced. We knew that we are in a historical destination in India. This city deserves more love. No other destination in Karnataka has touched this much. Every monument can take you back in time machine.
Having studied lot of stories about Hakka Bukka's Vijayanagara empire, I tried to relate everything I witnessed to what I studied. Before visiting Hampi, I have read a few articles about famous dasara celebration during Vijayanagar empire which was the foundation for Mysore Dasara. But Hampi is much more than that. Hampi is a heaven. It is a treasure of education. It is a book of history. It is more divine because of the feel you get. It is a time machine which can take you back to the Vijayanagara period. Even some places can take you back to Ramayana days. It has the medicine to heal your pain and it definitely makes you fall in love again and again.
Dasara holiday was the perfect time for us to visit Hampi. 2 days holiday for Dasara made me to finally plan a visit to Hampi. Route map and plan of Hampi.in is for those who want to cover most of the places. But Hampi is one place, you need to visit slowly. Otherwise you will miss the soul of the place.
Due to heavy traffic, when we (I and Vineeth) landed in Hospet it was already 9:30 AM. We had not booked the rooms. We searched for room near bus stand. Finally we got the room at reasonable price in Brindavan lodge. Hampi is little costlier when comes to accommodation. Most of the people book rooms at the hotels to the other side of Tungabhadra river (Anegundi side). Hampi is totally vegetarian place. But if you cross Tungabhadra river you might get non veg food.
Hampi is only 12-13 km from taluk head quarter Hospet. There are frequent buses from Hospet from 6 AM to night 8:30 PM. So you don't find any problem in commuting. There are autos available which might take more money. We knew that bicycle and two wheeler is available for rent in Hampi. Autos might take 700 Rs for a day trip from Hospet to Hampi and back to Hospet. The same charges apply to autos in Hampi. But if you take autos you end up visiting places without enjoying. My suggestion is to go by walk to places near by Virupaksha temple (i.e route 1 and 2 in hampi.in). And to far away places, you can take two wheeler. Luna will not cost more than 250 Rs.
I thought that 3 days is sufficient to cover Hampi. But in 4 days we could cover only some places. You can priorities the places you can visit. I suggest you to visit the above link and get some information before planning for Hampi.
By the time we reached Hampi, it was already 12. We had a breakfast in Hospet. We started with Virupaksha temple. You have to pay the entry fees and there is no receipt for camera fees. On the left side, you find huge elephant. Its name is Gajaraja. For 15- 20 minutes, I and Vineeth sat in front of elephant and observing its each and every moment. People went and gave money. Gajaraja blessed them with his trunk. I have seen elephant many times. But I don't know when I reached hotel in the evening, I searched a lot about elephant trunk.
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/10/the-most-amazing-appendage-in-the-world.html
Look at this link. These are the beautiful facts which even I was not knowing. That is why elephant is one of the most beautiful creature on this earth, unless you encounter with wild elephants. hahaha. This elephant was like every elephants of temple, was well trained and was very calm. Why I am giving lot of focus here on elephant is, it is one of the animals found in Vijayanagara empire's royal symbol.
Virupaksha temple, which is one of the less affected monument of the Vijaynagara empire by the invasion, is surrounded by the most beautiful places. If you walk to the right of the temple , you get Tungabhadra river. If you are coming from the right side entrance, you get to see Manmatha pond also. To the left, you can find Hemakoota hills.
The architecture is mix of Vijayanagara, Chalukya and Hoysala's contribution. But most of the work is done during Devaraya 2 of Vijayanagara empire. The temples do not have too much sculptures as seen in the Belur and Halebidu. But what stands out is the strong pillars and the simple sculptures.
Sitting inside the mantapa can give you that peaceful touch, which you miss in busy Bangalore traffic life. The troop of monkeys can add to your fun factor. Vineeth tried to sleep in the Mantapa for 15 minutes. But monkeys were trying to take his bag. Temple will be closed during lunch time and there will be food for all the devotees in the small dining hall behind the temple.After having lunch we had darshan of lord Shiva.
Then we went to Manmatha tank, which was very peaceful but was not maintained properly. There is a history behind this pond. In2015, Manmatha tank was supplied water from Tunga Bhadra river. It was renovated but still I found many water bottles dropped into the pond. You might see some of the different kinds of birds here.
Then we moved to HemaKoota Hills. You find many jain temples here but not even one is functioning. If you observe closely the precious graphite stone is carved and we started discussing about illegal mafia which is destroying the heritage city.
Hemakoota hills is one of the most peaceful place I have seen in my nomadic life. We took shelter in a jain temple. This was the same experience I used to have when I used to sit in front of Alvekodi beach alone. For hours I used to sit and have composed some of my favorite poems. An hour sleep at this place made me to forget all the reluctance we had to reach here. I want to visit this place more often than any other place. This is a paradise for all.
We didn't hurry to cover the places as planned. We observed, we relaxed, we closed our eyes, we experienced. We knew that we are in a historical destination in India. This city deserves more love. No other destination in Karnataka has touched this much. Every monument can take you back in time machine.
The sunset from Hemakoota hills is one of the highlight of Hampi visit. We did go down to visit to Kadlekalu Ganapati. We didn't spend too much time there. For nearly an hour we witnessed the sun coming down, meeting the clouds and in the fight getting anger and suddenly cooling his anger once he knew that this fight will be delaying his presence somewhere. The cycle is going to repeat, but only few places capture it beautifully. Hemakoota hills is one of them. We were surrounded by beautiful people who were capturing this beautiful moment. The security guard came and spoiled the party. Otherwise no one was ready to leave the place.
For the first day only, we got the glimpse of beautiful Hampi. We realized we need time to explore more to capture the glory of Hampi. In the next post, I am going to take you to the different route, which tells a different story.
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1 comments:
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