One should give three full days
for Hampi main sight visits whereas the badami; patadakkal and Aihole will require
at least two full days to cover all the main sights. And… we tried covering all
these in three days. Which we managed to achieve to a fare extend. Still it is
advisable to keep five/six days for covering these places. There is so much to
see and to understand from these places that if you are really interested in it
then even 10 days will not be enough for you. Understanding the history,
mythology, architecture is not my cup of tea (just like many other subjectsJ). I will probably be
the last person who can give any reference or suggestions when it comes to any
of these topics. But, I was surprised to know that I was actually interested in
visiting Archeological site Hampi – one of the World heritage Site in North
Karnataka. The monuments here have both historical and mythological
connections. My interest in this could be because in earlier days people used
to understand the importance of nature and accordingly the designed their life
style. The structure of buildings was in line with the local weather and
nature. This understanding is getting lesser day by day. Now days we are trying to control
the surroundings as per our needs without even thinking about how it is going
to impact on nature and ultimately on us.
Few things are shared here about our visit. Since I am not a right a person to give
details on these monuments if you are interested in getting more knowledge
on history of hampi then please visit -
http://hampi.in/history-of-vijayanagara.
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| Hampi calling clicked at Bangalore Cant |
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| painting @ bengalore station |
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| painting @ bengalore station |
It was last week of February,
2015 - a morning of a very first day after I left my job and I was packing for
my trip to Hampi. Our journey plan - catch the flight for Bangalore then the train from
Bangalore cant to Hospet (overnight journey) and then reach Hampi by road which is
about 45 minutes driving distance from Hospet. And we (me and my 2 friends)
managed to reach Hospet station by 9am next day. State transport bus facility is available from Hospet station. There are buses that take you from
station to hospet bus stand; from there you can get another bus for Hampi. We
spent Rs. 78/- for Hospet station to Hampi for three of us. Our homestay in
Hampi was at walking distance from the bus stand. If you are interested in
staying hotels then there are options available in Kamalapur and Hospet itself.
Since, our next concern along with time was ‘save money’ we decided to opt for home
stays that give you affordable, nice, safe, friendly and clean accommodation. Owner of ‘homestay – Mayuram’ Mr.
Ravi was very helpful throughout the visit. Only thing was rooms were not
provided with drinking water. But, one can get it filled from nearby
restaurants. Mineral water is available in nearby shops but we prefer local water whenever out on camps/journey. Mr. Ravi suggested some good breakfast
joints which indeed turned out to be very good. We were looking for local cuisine
of Hampi and got ‘appams’ and coffee for breakfast. Locals here serve foreign
cuisine more because there are lots of foreign visitors. It was quite unfortunate that the options for local cuisine were very few.
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| underground shiva temple |
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| underground shiva temple |
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| underground shiva temple |
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| underground shiva temple |
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| Agama |
Day 1 - We started our sightseeing on
foot at around 10am. The sun was marking
its presence more generously. We decided to go straight till the sister’s stone
and cover the monuments that are located after it so, first we landed into ‘The
Underground shiva temple’ also called as ‘Prasanna Virupaksha’. My attention
was captured by an agama probably a Peninsular rock agama. I managed to click
some photographs. But, then one gentleman approached to us with curiosity of
what we were looking at and then he tried getting closer to the agama to have a
better look and as expected it ran away for its life. (this gentleman for no reason, informed us that he is from US; can go near 'that creature'; and there wont be any problem for agama. But, it seems agama didn't care about both Indian and Americans). So, we shifted focus to
main aim – the temple. Earlier, the temple was half buried due some calamities
and now it has been excavated. It holds water in area surrounding the shrine.
There was huge
Nandi statue kept at
the corner of the outer
mandapa. This temple like many other temples is not in worship. As many of them, are either
ruined naturally or by the other emperors who did not believe in the religion
existing that time. The ‘water walk’ turned out to be a pleasant surprise after
roaming under harsh sun. This water had some fishes and tadpoles. I tried to
capture the picture of
shivling for
which I used flash and few insectivorous bats flew out of the main shrine which
was in dark. I didn't disturb them afterwards. (Please note: I cannot stop
myself from looking for biodiversity of the area doesn’t matter where I am standing).
A friend of mine who is a history post graduate gave information
on stone carvings, sculptures and paintings etc of all the monuments we
visited. It was indeed a very hard work those people did in earlier days when
there was lack of modern technology. The use of local stone with correct use of
direction sense kept the interior of structures cooler than outer side, use of
window pannels in such way that enough sunlight enters the outer area of the
shrine, storing rain water, making water channels in such a way that water
reaches all parts of the town and gets stored properly are few examples of how
well learned they were about the use of natural resources. Their observation
power was fantastic too. One can see the sculptures of various biological forms carved neatly along with the historical and mythological characters. These can
be seen all over the place. They knew that documentation was important too. The
inscriptions on many walls of various temples were proof of the same. We found
these on Hazara Rama temple first and later at many places.
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| rain water harvesting@hazara rama |
On day one we
managed to visit on foot - underground shiva temple, masjid like structure near
watch tower, nobleman’s quarter, hazarama temple, zenana enclosure, royal
enclosure. Then at around 4 O’clock in the evening we reached Queen’s bath. We
were about to enter the premises and we saw an empty auto coming in our
direction. We asked him if he could take us to the vittala temple, malyavanta
hills, pattabhirama temple and drop us at Hampi? He agreed. He took Rs. 350/- for all this. We went to ‘Pattabhirama‘ temple first and it
was simply beautiful. There was no one else in the premises. So, we took a lot
of time in exploring every inch and corner of it. By the time we reached ‘Vittala’
temple complex they closed the entry for the same. It was 5.45pm. So we went to
‘malyavanta’ hills. It is a sunset point. Here too we reached after sunset.
Since, our aim was not to see the sunset we were fine with it. This place has
lots of
shivalings carved one after
the other in two rows on a huge stone on top of the hill. These rows were
separated by a deep notch bearing water. The evening wind was soothing.
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| Inscription @ hazararama |
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| near masjid |
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| lotus mahal |
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| rock gecko |
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| Hathi shala band stand |
We wanted to see
Krishnadevaraya’s Palace. But, it is closed for visitors. One can't go inside. Some renovation was
going on. The palace / house was so simple (no beautiful carvings on it) that a
thought came to mind – ‘He must be very humble and simple human being and
probably down to earth as well’. (please note it is just my feeling. I don't know the reality). Then we visited sugriva cave. Here I
tried to explain to my friend about the mythological story of rama, hanumana,
bali, sugriva etc. but, then I realized that my knowledge was little more than zero.
Hence stopped from going further with the story and advised her to Google it. We returned to Hampi in
motor boat. It was 9.15am when we reached back to the home stay.
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| Achyutaraya temple |
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| achyutraya temple |
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| Ugra narasimha |
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| Monolith shivling |
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| cavings of climber @ krishna temple |
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| View from matanga hill hampi bazar |
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| Achyutraya temple from Matanga hill |
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| Virupaksha temple |
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| 200 years old paintings |
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| Dhol hanged in Virupaksha temple |
Random pics
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| Bhima's gate |
window panes
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| Goa beach |
Before leaving Hampi we made a plan to re-visit this place again with at least 8 days in hand.
Our bus to Goa was at 6.30pm. It dropped us at panjim bus stand by 5.30am. We visited nearby places in Goa since, we had some time in hand before we catch the train (2pm) for Mumbai. This train was supposed to reach Mumbai at 11pm but, there was some problem with railway lines due to off-season rain. Hence we reached Mumbai on 5am next day.
That's all about our Hopping :)
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| Us |
Next day we kept for Aihole,
Patadakkal and Badami visit. We started at 6.30 in the morning in a hired
vehicle. After having breakfast at Hospet we went to Aihole. Maximum journey
was on highway with nothing much interesting to look around. Aihole has a
temple complex. The structures and carvings of temples were somewhat similar to
that of Hampi. After finishing the regular sight we saw one board of ‘Stone
carved Shiva temple’. While we were on our way our driver- Pampapati mentioned
that he has never been to this temple.
The last day was kept for
remaining Hampi monument visit. We decided to cover other side of the
Tungabhadra river first. We started our day at 6am with ‘Korakkal’ ride. It was
too short (about 5 minutes) but memorable and expensive too (Rs. 200/- since we
booked it for early morning. Otherwise it starts from 8 am and the charge is
Rs.20/- per person). After crossing we walked for a while and then found one auto he charged a
lot (Rs.600/-) to show all the places. Since we had no other option we went
ahead with it. First we went to Anjaneya hill - a birth place of Hanuman. It is a sunrise point too. However, we saw the
sunrise while climbing the hill. There are more than 500 steps to climb and
once you are on top of it, it gives nice views of North Karnataka’s topography
(boulders).
After taking rest for few minutes, we started exploring this
side of the river where we stayed. There were many things that we did not see on
day one. The Vittala temple premise is worth visiting. The best sculptures can
be seen here. Then we went to hemkuta hill, sasivekalu ganesha, ugra narasimha, matanga hill, virupaksha temple etc. We saw bhima’s
gate and
A memorable trip.
ReplyDeleteWill visit again with more days to spare and in cooler climate.