Hampi was our long awaited destination and this time we made it without proper plan. We initially thought of going somewhere and end up with visiting Hampi,but I swear the trip was worth. I never seen such an huge heritage empire. The place contains huge rocks everywhere. We spent two days in Hampi and within two days its difficult to cover whole Hampi but somehow we managed.
Origin of Hampi:
The name Hampi is evolved from Pampa, the ancient name of the river Tungabhadra. Also Pampa is the daughter of Bhramha, the Creator God. She was a devoted worshiper of Shiva, the God of Destruction. Impressed by her dedication Shiva offered her a boon and she opted to marry him! The place thus came to be known as Pampakshetra (land of Pampa) and Shiva as Pampapathi (consort of Pampa).
The Hemakuta Hill in Hampi is the place, according to the myth, Shiva did his penance before marrying Pampa. Kama , the God of Love, felt sympathy for Pampa for her love towards Shiva. He disturbed Shiva from his deep meditation. That attracted Shiva’s wrath. Known for his anger, Shiva burned Kama with his third (fiery) eye. Rathi, Goddess of Passion and also Kama’s consort pleaded for mercy with Shiva. Shiva grants Kama’s life back, but only as a character and not as a physical being.
On Shiva’s marriage with Pampa Gods from the heaven showered gold on the place. This hill in Hampi is called Heamakuta, literally means heap of gold.
The places mentioned here has a continuous religious history ever since known timeframe. It just happened that the Vijayanagara Empire came in-between and gone as an episode in Hampi’s long history. Even today the annual ceremonial marriage festival & the betrothal are important festivals in Hampi. With time, Shiva became more popular here as Virupaksha. Virupaksha, an incarnation of Shiva, literally means the one with oblique eye. This refers to the fact that Shiva has three eyes. The third fire eye on his forehead opens when he do the destruction.
Virupaksha temple
Mythology link:
Kishkinda:
Another set of folklores associate the landscape in Hampi with the Hindu epic Ramayana. The monkey kingdom, Kishkinda, is portrayed as the region around Hampi. Anjayaneya Hill, located across the river Tungabhadra, is believed to be the birth place of Hanuman.
Rama and Lakshmana , reaches Hampi in search of his lost wife Sita. On hearing their story Hanuman brings them to Sugreeva. He eventually takes them to a cave and shown them a set of jewels. Rama recognizes them as that of his wife Sita. Sugreeva explains them that Sita dropped them at this site when the demon king Ravana (of Lanka) abducted her on his flying chariot.
Later Rama kills Vali, the rebellious brother of Sugreeva, and installs Sugreeva as the undisputed king of the monkey kingdom. Hanuman offers for help to fly to Lanka. He returns with the news that Sita was indeed in the custody of Ravana. Hanuman offers Rama the help of his monkey army to make a bridge across and attack Lanka. Rain plays the spoil spot and the plan gets postponed till the rains are over. Rama and Lakshmana takes refuge during the rainy season at a nearby hill called Malyavanta. The epic goes on till saving Sita from Lanka and further. What signify are the locations narrated in the epic. The place is treated sacred since it born the footprint of Rama, one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Hanuman , who is a loyal follower of Rama is iconic of devotion and valor. Probably Hampi has much more icons of Hanuman than any other gods. Rishimukha Hills where Hanuman met Rama & Lakshmana is a hermitage. The cave where Sugreeva supposedly hide the fallen jewels is on the way to Vittala temple via the riverside ruins. Matunga Hill , name after the sage Matunga ( who cursed Vali with death on stepping to this spot) is the highest spot in Hampi. The hilltop temple dedicated to Rama on the Malyavanta hill is an important pilgrimage and tourist location. A heap of ash hill at a village near the Vittala temple is believed to be that of pyre of Vali.
Stone chariot
History:
The typical version Hampi’s history starts with a popular folklore. Two local chieftains, Hakka & Bukka , reports to their guru an unusual sight they saw during a hunting expedition. A hare chased by their hound suddenly turns courageous and start chasing back the hound.
Vidyaranya, the guru, tells them that the place is so special and asks them to establish theirs local capital at this place. The seed of an empire was sown.
Over the next 200 plus years (1336 AD – 1565 AD) four dynasties ruled Vijayanagar.
History of Vijayanagar’s had been a saga of resistance against the northern Sultanates as well as building of its spectacular capital in Hampi.
The capital was one major trading center. Anything from horses to gems was traded in Hampi. Art and architecture found its special place in Hampi. The rulers were great patrons of art and religion. Most of the kings associated names of their favorite gods with their names.
Some of the kings were renowned for their ambitious projects.
King Krishnadeva Raya (1509-1529 AD) of the Tuluva Dynasty stands tall among the rest. During his regime the empire saw its peak.
By this time Vijayanagara Empire covered the whole of south India and beyond.
The Krishna Temple that you can visit in Hampi was commissioned by him to commemorate the victory over the Gajapathi kings of Utkala (in present day Orissa state)
.The warring Deccan Sultanates could finally join together to defeat the Vijayanagara army at Talarikota, a place north of Hampi.
Vijayanagar army suffered heavy losses. The capital city was plundered, its population massacred. Treasure hunters ransacked its palaces and temples for months. Kings lost, capital fallen, population fled, Hampi turned into a ghost city. For centuries Hampi remained as a neglected place. This erstwhile metropolitan with more than half a million population slowly turned into a jungle where wild animals roamed freely.
The area came under many kings from time to time with the flow of history. But it was no more considered strategic and hence neglected.
UNESCO’s World Heritage Site was conferred to Hampi in 1986.
Pond
Lotus Mahal,Elephant stable
Vijayanagara EmpireSangama DynastyHarihara Raya I 1336-1356
Bukka Raya I 1356-1377
Harihara Raya II 1377-1404
Virupaksha Raya 1404-1405
Bukka Raya II 1405-1406
Deva Raya I 1406-1422
Ramachandra Raya 1422
Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya 1422-1424
Deva Raya II 1424-1446
Mallikarjuna Raya 1446-1465
Virupaksha Raya II 1465-1485
Praudha Raya 1485
Saluva DynastySaluva Narasimha Deva Raya 1485-1491
Thimma Bhupala 1491
Narasimha Raya II 1491-1505
Tuluva DynastyTuluva Narasa Nayaka 1491-1503
Viranarasimha Raya 1503-1509
Krishna Deva Raya 1509-1529
Achyuta Deva Raya 1529-1542
Sadashiva Raya 1542-1570
Aravidu DynastyAliya Rama Raya 1542-1565
Tirumala Deva Raya 1565-1572
Sriranga I 1572-1586
Venkata II 1586-1614
Sriranga II 1614-1614
Ramadeva 1617-1632
Venkata III 1632-1642
Sriranga III 1642-1646
Vijayanagara Architecture:Nature is at its bizarre best in Hampi. The manmade things not far behind either. Somehow lunatic landscape of Hampi offered a brilliant background for the Hampi’s architects.
Over the years Vijayanagara (what is now popularly called as Hampi) developed a unique style of architecture, later came to be known aas Vijayanagara Architecture. It borrowed boldly from various schools of architecture prevailed at the time and blended them superbly to make its own style of architecture. For example the ornate temples look more of the Tamil country style. Making their palaces in using the Islamic style architecture was no taboo to the otherwise Hindu kingdom. Some of the beautiful monuments in Hampi are made out of a brilliant mix of the Hindu and Islamic style of architecture, popularly called as the Indo- Sarasanic architecture.
Hampi had one this in abundance, rock. Millions upon millions of boulders shaped the geography of Hampi. And even its history.
By and large Hampi’s architecture falls in three categories: Civil, Military and Religious.
Each of them applied different codes. But there is a common factor among the whole of Hampi’s architecture that projects out as the Vijayanagara School of architecture. While the earlier Vijayanagara style was bold, coarse and plane the later ones were ornate, sophisticated and ambitious in scale.
Architecture of Aquatic Structures :Known for its peculiarities, Vijayanagara architecture stands out even in its aquatic/irrigation structures. The remains of a giant aqueduct (Bukka’s aqueduct) located in Anegondi (Virupapur Gadde area) can offer you the scale and ambition of such projects.
You can reach here by taking a coracle ferry from near Virupaksha Temple followed by a short trek. Also the main road that goes towards Koppal from Anegondi (via the popular hill top Hanuman temple) passes adjacent to this.
In any case this less frequented by visitors stands in contrast among a cluster of tiny hamlets as a giant monument. Many meters above the ground level, it's not known how water was fed to the top of this aqueduct. Probably water from the river below was manually fed to it during its operational days.
Many pillars support the top portion that carried the water duct. Thanks to its style of construction, from a distance the aqueduct would look like a ruined bridge. Huge blocks of dressed rectangular granite was used the make the pillars and the top structure. Larger blocks were used at the lower levels and the block size gradually reduces as it goes up, a typical of Vijayanagara style architecture. This was advantages both for structural stability & constructional efficiency.
It's possible that the top duct (now missing) portion was made of brick and plastered with lime mortar, or installed with rows of ducts chiseled out of long granite boulders.
The next place to see a plethora of waterworks is the Royal Center Area. The Octagonal Water Pavilion, protruding to the main road, probably contained some sort of a water fountain. One of the best-preserved aqueducts can be seen inside the Royal Enclosure. Chiseled out of long slender boulders and supported by granite pillars, they were used to feed the many tanks in side the enclosure.
The chain of aqueducts was used to bring water from the Kamalapura Tank and feed the tanks and wells in the enclosure.One of the main branches of this aqueduct supplied water to the geometrically thrilling Stepped Tank within this area. In fact the very discovery of the Stepped Tank was due to this branch of aqueduct leading to particularly nowhere. The archeologists dug the ground at its end point and the tank emerged.
Radically different from the rest of tank constructions in Hampi, the Stepped Tank is made of made of finely finished black schist stone blocks. It seems the tank was made elsewhere and later brought and assembled at its current location. Practically every stone is earmarked for this purpose and some bears even 'sketches' by its architects. The purpose of this tank is not very sure, mostly it was used during the religious ceremonies by the royals.
Two bathing pavilions of the Royal Center - the Queen's Bath & the Octagonal Bath - are popular for its architectural merits.
The Queens bath is a plain looking building from outside. But the interior is elaborate with a giant tank at the center and overlooking balconies projecting to the tank. The corridor around with its arches, domes and the protruding balconies makes it look more like to a palatial structure than a bath. A water channel encircling the building acts as the means to feed water as well as a barrier from intrusion.The Octagonal Bath is located near a cluster of palace bases. A large open verandah made of cubical pillars supporting the beams runs around this octagonal tank. A giant octagonal platform with fluted decorations on its vertical faces it is located at the middle.
Another interesting structure is the Stepped Tank (also known as the Courtesan's Well or Soolai Well) of Malapannanagudi, a village on the way to Hampi. The well is constructed with series of steps and arches in the typical Islamic style architecture.
Tanks are an integral part of temple architecture. They served both ceremonial and functional purposes. Most of the temple of Hampi has tanks constructed in its near vicinity. The Manmatha Tank near Virupaksha temple is by and large still functional. Temple tanks of the Krishna Temple and the Vittala Temple have elaborate pavilions attached to it. The central podiums of these tanks were used to place the images of the God & Goddess during the boat festival part of the annual temple celebration.
The temple tank part of the Achyutraya’s temple is a place to observe the tank architecture in its close proximity. The tank is empty and also in a much ruined stage. Nevertheless the Archeological Survey of India is repositioning the scrambled pavilion structures around the tank. On the steps around the tank one can see the chains of carvings, especially that of elephants one following the other. The entrance to the tank is decorated with the typical Vijayanagara style pillars. Friezes of rampant mythical beats and other mythological themes decorate the pillars. This tank also known as Lokapavani tank is located at the end of the Courtesan’s Street, close to the Varaha Temple.
Temple Architecture:
A typical Hindu temple has a cluster of structures with sanctorum as its nucleus. A smaller temple could be a single chambered shrine with the image of the God or Goddess is installed in its sanctum. A large temple can be an elaborate campus with many auxiliary structures within it.
Large Vijayanagara temples are typically enclosed within giant compound walls. Tall pyramidal towers make the gateways to the temple campus. The principle shrine at the center of the campus and the main towered gateway are in the sale axis. Usually this axis is along the East-West direction with the temple facing the east. Immediately around the principle shrines are the auxiliary shrines of the Goddess (typically the consort of the God) and gods of the Hindu pantheon.
For example a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu would have an image of Vishnu in its main sanctum. Somewhere nearby would be a shrine dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu. It is not unusual to find the shrines of a number of other gods associated with Vishnu.
A very typical example of Vijayanagara (Vijayanagar) style temple architecture is the Virupaksha Temple at the Hampi village. The temple is dedicated to Lord Siva, the god of destruction. Next to the main shrine are the two shrines of Goddesses Pampa and Bhuvaneswari. For majority of their grand temples, Vijayanagara borrowed the Tamil country’s architecture (The Chola’s Architecture) for making its towers. The lower portion is usually made of giant granite blocks with a huge wooden door installed at the centre of it. Either side of the doors is carvings of the doorkeeper deities wielding clubs or other similar weapons. Either sides of the passageway are carved with life-sized nymph figures or images of gods.
The top portion of the pyramidal tower is made of brick & mortar. The exteriors of which is packed with terracotta images of gods, demigods, people, animals and host of other mythological themes. The pinnacle is usually an inverted barrel shaped with two hones projecting on either side. The hones resemble that of cows, a sacred animal in Hinduism, and the tower is thus called Gopuram (the home of cow).
Usually a large elevated hall with porches stands in between the entrance tower mentioned above and the main shrine. These open halls are one of the architectural pieces that best demonstrate the Vijayanagara architectural skills.The hall structure stands on a platform with porches. The platform is typically a few feet tall with fluted sides. Chains of intricate carvings go around the platform. The porches, typically located on all sides, give access to the top of the platform. Granite pillars support the usually flat roof structure. These pillars are carved with rampant Yalis (giant mythical creatures). Generally the Yali pillars seems facing the porch or the central hall portions. The other pillars are carved with images of gods and other mythical themes. Vijayanagara architects succeeded in using these monolithic giant pillars as an integral artistic feature of the architecture than merely as a structural inevitability. Though many large temples in Hampi have them in plenty, the halls of Vittala Temple are the best place to see them in close proximity.
A semi closed small hall called Antarala connects the hall to the sanctum.
Usually large temples would have a large standalone hall, typically like the hall above explained, used for the annual ceremonial wedding of the god and goddess.The long pillared cloisters along the inner side of the compound wall are another typical feature of the Vijayanagara architecture. This was used us a community dining hall and for prayer.
Apart from the above one can find many structures and artifacts like the lamppost, the flag post etc that are of ceremonial and functional significance.
The wide street leading to the temple was used as the chariot street for the annual chariot festival.
TB dam
Places to visit:
Virupaksha Temple
Hampi Bazaar
Matanga Tank & Shrines
Monolithic Bull
Achyuta Raya’s Temple
Courtesan’s Street
Varaha Temple
Chakratirtha
Yantrodhara Anjaneya Temple
Sugreeva’s Cave
Saraswathi Temple 1
Chandikesvara Temple
Uddana Veerabhadra Temple
Krishna Temple
Badavilinga Temple
Lakshmi Narasimha
Hemakuta Temples
Sasivekalu Ganesha
Kadalekalu Ganesha
Vishnupada Shrine
Veerabhadra Temple
Hemakuta Hill
Matunga Hill
Akka Tangi Gundu
Archeological Museum
Band Tower
Basement of Palaces
Bhima’s Gate
Domed Gateway
Elephant Stables
Fortified Walls
Ganagitti Temple
Granaries
Guards' Quarters
Hazara Rama Temple
Horse Stable
Jaina Temple
King's Audience Hall
Large Stone Trough
Lotus Mahal
Mahanavami Dibba
Malayavanta Raghunatha Temple
Malyavanta Hill
Mohammadan Watch Tower
Mosque
Noblemen's Quarters
Octagonal Bath
Octagonal Water Pavilion
Palace of Krishna Devaraya
Palace of Vira Harihara
Pan Supari Bazaar
Parshwanatha Temple
Pattabhi Rama Temple
Pattanada Yellamma Temple
Public Bath
Queen's Bath
Ranga Temple
Royal Enclosure
Srinagarada Hebbagilu
Stepped Tank
Stone Door
Tenali Rama Pavilion
Treasury Building
Underground Chamber
Underground Siva Temple
Watch Towers
Water Pavilion
Water Tank
How to reach:
By bus/train/vehicle via Tumkur-->Chitrdurga-->Hospet
Distance
350kms from B'lore
