Happy in Hampi

Today, we visit the ruins at Hampi. Maggie has a narrative about our exploration below, but first, here's a summary of why Hampi is an interesting place:

About Hampi

From the mid 1300's to the mid 1500's, all of South India, at various points, was controlled by the Vijayanagar empire. It was started by two brothers with ambitious plans -- they built a giant capital city at Hampi, partly because the boulder-strewn landscape made it easy to defend and build their defenses. Yet their architecture was not just military....they built beautiful temples, monuments and palaces. At the peak of the empire, in the early 1500's, the king named Krishnadevaraya was known throughout the trading world as a cosmopolitan lover of art, and he was famous for showering jewels on playwrights and poets, as well as being a writer himself. Like the high middle ages in Europe, people traveled from all over the world to Hampi, and often wrote about their experiences at court, leaving a very interesting trail of information about this "forgotten empire".

But, in the 1560's, the Deccan sultanate, from central India, was successful in destroying the Vijayanagar capital at Hampi and leaving it in ruins. Many of the buildings were made of sandalwood over stone foundations, and these are completely gone, but others were carved from giant boulders and were harder to destroy. These ruins are now a World Heritage site, though it looks like it needs a lot more protection, as vendors and graffiti compete with a stunning archeological resource.

Maggie writes:

With so many rocks Hampi is perfect for building things out of stone. And so it is the ancient capital of the great Vijayanagar empire, an empire which once stretched from Hampi to the southern tip of India. We went to the ancient ruins of the old capital, crossing the Tungabhadra River.


Here's how you get to Hampi. 10 rupees (25 cents) per person, and they laugh really hard if you fall while climbing in.


The first building we went to was a temple, the second largest tower (gopuram) in south India. The temple was dedicated to Pampa, an incarnation of the goddess Parvati, Shiva's wife and Pampapotti, her consort who is Shiva. Hampi is also the home of the great Hindu god Hanuman. Hanuman is the monkey god and supposedly Hampi was once part of the Monkey country, and true to its name is densely populated with monkeys. Hanuman is most famous for his part in the Ramayana as one of Rama's best friends and supporters. Also at the temple we were blessed by the resident holy elephant, this consists of being softly bonked on the head by the elephant after handing him a coin. This often leaves the blessed person smelling like elephant.


Kobi helps Jen get blessed. First you put a one-rupee coin in the elephant's trunk. Then you bow and the elephant bops you gently on the head.


In front of every temple is a giant yard lined with stone bays for the bazaar, and part of this area is filled with souvenir vendors...though they are soon to be relocated to a mall-like visitor center now under construction.


We visit a temple of Ganesh. Ganesh has the head of an elephant and the body of a man. He is much loved and is prayed to every time someone starts something because he is the remover of obstacles. This temple has one of the largest Ganesh statues in India. Ganesh is also a witty trickster.


Because it is damaged, this statue of Ganesh is not supposed to be used as an idol anymore.


Maggie pats Ganesh on his pot belly, which has to be so big because he has to swallow the whole world.


Next we went to a Vishnu temple that had a huge statue of him and his wife Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and beauty. Or rather, it would have been a statue of Lakshmi if the Deccan (from the center of India ) Sultanate hadn't, in 1565, defeated the Vijayanagar empire.(only with the help of the Portuguese rifles or so I'm told by Tenzin) Only Lackshmi's arm remains. An odd fact is that Lackshmi's symbol is the boar, an animal that is now considered revolting it is also the symbol of the Norse goddess Fraya who is also a goddess of weath and beauty. Its strange that two civilizations so far away could almost have the same goddess except with different names.


Here's a statue of Vishnu in his man-lion incarnation.

It's a really big statue.


We come to a complex of temples, where Tenzin is treated like a superstar by a group of schoolboys. They see him again later in the day and cheer!


After visiting the Vishnu Statue we went to a different area which seemed to be the main non religious site. It consisted of a music hall a meditation hall, a huge chariot sculpture, and several other buildings. The music hall is amazing. Not only is it a beautiful building and extremely ornate it is incredibly amazing in terms of what it does. On some of the pillars there are sculpted people who are holding drums if you tap the drums while putting your ear to one of the pillars that adorn the larger pillar you can hear the noise of a drum. This experience is mind boggling because the pillar is about a foot away and the sound has to travel through a tunnel to get to the pillar yet it sounds very clear and loud. Also this tunnel would have been extremely hard to make. Other pillars make the sounds of string instruments and different bells as you tap each one. One set of pillars makes the sound of the Indian music scales (ragas), sa, re, ga, ma, pa, da, ni, sa. (You can see bit of our video of this by going to this link, Musical Pillars at Hampi)


This whole temple is a giant musical instrument -- each narrow column is tuned to a different pitch and there are clever and fascinating ways to play it...we thought of Scott Kessel when we were here!


Within the temple was this carving of Vishnu, representing the myth where he grants the wish of a man who doesn't want to be killed in the night or day, by man or by beast. So Vishnu does him in at dusk in a part-beast/part-man incarnation.



The Chariot is huge and ornately carved the wheels are my favorite part as there design is beautiful. Inside the Chariot resides a deity and the Chariot itself is pulled by two stone elephants.





After that we went to a Ramayana temple. This was a really amazing temple because it illustrated the entire story of the Ramayana, not just in one scene which is what usually happens, but in hundreds of little scenes on the inside and the outside of the temple. The story of the Ramayana goes something like this. There is a prince named Rama and he has four brothers. Rama is kind and courageous and a reincarnation of Vishnu. He is exiled into the forest for 14 years by his evil stepmother, because she wanted her son to inherit the throne instead of Rama, who was the rightful heir. His wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana come with him. One day, an evil ten headed demon named Ravana comes and steals Sita and brings her back to his kingdom, Sri Lanka. Rama is heart broken and he and Lakshmana try to find Sita, but they can't. They meet the monkey god, named Hanuman, who joins them. After many adventures, they finally beat Ravana and rescue Sita, and Rama is returned to his throne.


Described by our guide as a stone comic book, it begins in the bottom right here, before Rama's birth, with his father, the King, longing to have an heir, and next, shown with his three wives.


For lunch we went to a restaurant called to the Mango Tree which was in a banana tree forest. The view from there was beautiful.


We stop at a shady outdoor restaurant under a giant mango tree (where, to Karma's delight, we find a copy of the third Harry Potter...just what she's been looking for). Kobi swings while Tenzin pushes.


Walking back from the restaurant, we get a lesson in how bananas are grown. First off, they need a lot of water, and trenches run through the rows. Here's Karma under the banana trees.


Here's what baby bananas look like....it takes about 8 months for one bunch of bananas to grow on one tree, and a tree can last for several years.


After lunch we leave the sacred site for the royal area...this is the Queen's summer palace.


The Queen's Summer Palace has beautiful carvings in mortar. See the ducks?


Krishnadevaraya had these Elephant Stables for his 11 royal elephants...and there is a tiny version of this building to one side, with 11 chambers for the mahouts (elephant attendants).


The last thing we went to was the Queen's Bath, which was more like an ornate swimming pool, surrounded by balconies. Something I’ve noticed after visiting the Roman Baths in England and after reading about Eastern cultures, is that the public bath was an important part of their society. The Queen's Bath at Hampi was very beautiful, but sadly covered in graffiti.

Finally, we come to the Queen's Bath. Karma and Maggie are standing in the bottom of the empty pool.


While waiting for the return boat home, Tenzin communes with nature. He's reading a book on Tenali Raman, a comic poet and wit in the court of Krishnadevaraya.


Considering all the important historical artifacts and landmarks, I'm surprised that Hampi is not better kept and more visited. Then again, it is not so easy to access.

Hampi shows great examples of Vijayanagar architecture and really portrays an interesting portrait of what life was like back in that age.


End of the day, we drive through the rice paddies near our hotel.