Hampi (Vijayanagara) - The forgotton empire(Day 1)

The place where diamonds and other precious stones were sold on streets, the place which had an organised market are when the western world was starting to walk, the place which is fortified by nature, with a river and hills surrounding it...that is the present day Hampi, the village, which was once in the middle of the flourishing Vijayanagara empire.

My husband and I love travelling and are always on the lookout for a chance to explore new places. We had three days in hand and wanted to use it effectively. Hampi had been on top of our ''places to visit'' list for quite sometime.So after our visit to Hyderabad, we headed to Hospet - the town near Hampi connected by Indian railways. We reached Hospet around 10.00 a.m. We had come to know from internet that the autofare from Hospet to Hampi is around one hundred and fifty rupees. When an auto fellow offered to take us to Hampi for the same amount, instead of quoting an exorbitant price and also looked sincere, we hired him to show around Hampi for three days. The auto took us from Hospet to our Hotel in Kamalapuram - the KTDC hotel Mayura Bhuvaneswari. 


Kamalapuram is a village adjacent to Hampi. We had read good reviews of the Hotel in the internet. Hence, we had booked it. May be, once upon a time it was a great Hotel. But now..neither the rooms are good, nor the service. The food is also not that good. Our auto guy - Ganesh(that is his name), informed us that, all the people who come on daily tours( as arranged by KTDC) have food there, and it is one of the decent places in Hampi to sit and have food. The other being - ''Mango Tree''. I will explain about mango tree in my next post. May be because of the huge and exuberant crowd, the quality of food has deteriorated. The amount they charge for the food is high though.

Our Auto driver - Ganesh

We reached around 12 noon, and checked in. Upon enquiry, we were told that food would be ready in half an hours time. We did not eat since morning and were hungry. We took bath and came to the restaurent around 1.30, to find it crowded. We had to stand in a long queue to have the not-so-good food. After lunch, we were so tired, we decided to take a short nap and then explore Hampi. But we woke up only at 6.00 p.m. When we called Ganesh, he said, its best, if we see one temple today. So he took us to the Virupaksha temple.

Before I start describing the Virupaksha temple, let me tell you how I felt at a ceratin point on the way. Imagine taking small round pepples and making a heap of them, to form a miniature hill. Now imagine how that would look ten thousand times bigger, and that there are tens of hills of such kind surrounding you. Wherever you look, its hills of heaps of stone and rock. It was mesmerizing. Intimidating.Astonishing.I dont have words to describe.

The official entrance to the Vijayanagara city - Hampi

By the time we reached Virupaksha temple, it had started to become dark. We walked through the Hampi Bazaar, which was right opposite to the temple, to reach the temple. Virupaksha temple, is one of the oldest temples,where Pooja is still done - since it is still intact. 

Virupaksha Temple

We saw an elephant in the temple and giving a rupee coin, got its blessings :-). Virupaksha is a form of Shiva, whose consort was Devi Pampa - an avatar of Parvathi Devi. It seems she did penance to get married to Shiva. They got married at the place where this temple stands now. The serenity and silence of the temple was disturbed by a big crowd of school children, who raced to enter the temple, took a round, around it, and raced back outside. I feel, if students are being taken to some historical places, they should be educated of the historical importance of the place, the history behind it, so that they can better appreciate it. Better still, wait for some years, when they can really understand the beauty in the sculptures and not just look at them as rocks. No point taking them to a place, where they can neither understand and appreciate, nor enjoy.

You might be wondering why I have not posted any photographs of inside the temple. Photography is not allowed there. After the darshan, we walked out and climbed up the nearby hill to look at sunset. But being a cloudy day, we could not see the sunset. There were some rock mandapas on the hill and the view of Virupaksha temple from there was beautiful.

Virupaksha Temple at the background

Two storeyed structure at the background

Mantapas at background

One more mantapa

Small Temple like structure

Virupaksha temple

There were many more mantapas and temple like structures on the hill, which we could not see as it had become dark and also because we were shooed away by the security. We were surprised to see more foreigners as compared to locals in Hampi. If not for the huge mob of school children, they would have outnumbered us. We roamed in the Hampi bazaar for some more time, had idli and tea at a roadside hotel there and returned back to the auto.

The way back was very eerie. There are no street lights on the road connecting Hampi and Kamalapuram, and the huge structures, boulders and hills are intimidating. The only light to show the way was the auto's head lights. On the way for a minute, those also went off and we were enveloped in complete darkness. Anything could have happened. All panicking stories, which I read in newspapers passed through my mind in that minute. I felt safe only after we reached the hotel. So, we decided, we will not venture out of the hotel after 6.00p.m and, we will reach the hotel back before 6.00 p.m.

We had dinner at the hotel (no other option). But the dinner was not so bad. May be only buffet was bad, Ala carte was ok. Off to sleep. Look out for ''Day 2 shortly''.


P.S. - we had tried to book an auto before we started to Hampi, but could not find any in internet. People who wish to do so may contact Ganesh at his number 7829642384