Once the centre of the greatest empire of the south, Hampi today stands in ruins—over 1,600 of them. The austere beauty of the landscape, marked by unique boulder formations, has been a crowd-puller for years.
Text & Photos | SATARUPA PAUL
The road to the past is a bumpy one. Figuratively speaking, there are the potholes of memories, the craters of blames and accusations, the heaps of nostalgia that one must navigate around to reach the recesses of what once was. Sometimes though, that bumpy ride to the past can be quite literal too, or so we discovered on our drive from Bengaluru. Our Innova that was cruising smoothly down the highway up until now, took a right turn and for the next 100 km or so gingerly edged over potholes and craters and heaps, while throwing us helter-skelter in our seats, as we drove on towards the past—to Hampi. Or what once was part of the greatest ever kingdom of southern India—the Vijayanagara Empire, ruled for over 300 years by four different dynasties.
Rock of Ages
The landscape, as we neared Hampi, was unlike any we had encountered in our travels across India. Boulders of all sizes—some mammoth like little hillocks, some miniscule like skipping stones. Boulders of all shapes—some round and smooth as a newborn’s head, others flat as plates and saucers. And all of them precariously balancing on top of each other in what seemed to be a continual defiance of the laws of physics.
It isn’t just science though, that explains how this boulder-strewn landscape of Hampi came to be. One of the oldest exposed surfaces on earth, the geological origin dates these boulders back to 2,500 million years. Once part of gigantic granite monoliths, geologists ascertain that the present landscape was formed by volcanism, followed by erosion by the forces of nature over tens of millions of years.
Locals however, talk of another origin for these boulders—one more mythical in nature. According to the Ramayana, Hampi was the fabled monkey kingdom where the princely
brothers Sugreeva and Bali were engaged in a bitter power struggle. It ultimately led to a fierce battle between the two, during which they threw massive boulders at each other, which then piled up into these unique formations as they fell all around. Matanga Hill is today the tallest in Hampi, and it is here that Sugreeva is believed to have taken refuge following his defeat.
Yet another such story places Hampi as Kishkinda, where Lord Rama came to search for his abducted wife and sought the help of the monkey army to rescue her. The monkey army collected the boulders here for subsequently building the bridge to Lanka. This is also where Rama would meet his most devout follower, Hanuman at Rishimukh Hill—now a popular spot among bouldering enthusiasts. The place south of this hill and across the Tungabhadra river that runs by it is where Rama crowned Sugreeva after killing Bali—it is today the much sought-after paradise for backpackers and the free spirited and is called Hippie Island. Hanuman himself is believed to have been born at yet another hillock in the area—the Anjaneya Hill, which now features a whitewashed flight of zigzag stairs to the top where a temple dedicated to him stands today.
The boulder formations stretched on for miles on either side of the road, interspersed in some places with barren, rocky land, and in others, with groves and groves of swaying palms. As we neared the historic town, fields of banana and sugarcane crops took over the land between the mounds of boulders. The interplay of green on brown was stunning, and looking out of our car windows, we truly felt that that back-breaking journey was, after all, worth it.
Palace of Illusions
‘It’s very large, much larger than it looks. It’s a city in itself, with long roads and canals and gardens.’… That night, lying flat on his mat, Rajkumar looked through the gap between his feet and caught sight of the gilded hti that marked the palace: it glowed like a beacon in the moonlight.
These words that I had once read in Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace came back to me that night as I sat at my table at Tuluva, the multicuisine dining of the Evolve Back Luxury Resorts in Hampi. A shallow canal ran by our table, dividing the dining space from Deep Mahal, the bar and lounge. A dappled moon’s reflection played hide and seek in the clear, calm water of the infinity pool that the restaurant opened to on one side. On the other side, across the beautiful white dining room with marble flooring and dimly-lit electric mashaals on the walls, stood a grand courtyard, with manicured grass, designed pavements and another canal. Surrounding that courtyard stood the two-storeyed main palace of Evolve Back—the entire façade glowing like a beacon in the
moonlight.
To say that the palace resort, located in the village of Kamalapura, a short distance away from Hampi’s temple district and the Tungabhadra river, is an epitome of luxury and elegance, would be to state the obvious. Evolve Back draws from the magnificence of the Vijayanagara Empire; its buildings and landscape are inspired from the architectural
heritage of the great kingdom.
The feeling of having stepped into a royal past begins with the welcome—a shower of rose petals all over our car as it entered through the fort-like gateway and drove up a long driveway flanked by lily ponds on either side, and a grand central water canal leading up to the porch. The staff—who we will come to remember as forever smiling, polite without being overbearing, and always eager to help—greeted us with a tilak on our forehead, a jasmine mala around our neck and a much-needed chilled glass of a
wonderfully refreshing drink of coconut milk and jaggery.
Even as we were walked to our room on the first floor, the grandeur of it all took our breath away—long, arched corridors opened to the central courtyard on one side. Overlooking it were little alcoves that were set at intervals; you could sit here at sunset and watch the resident flautist play beautiful, old tunes by the canal’s edge. On the other side of the corridors stood a row of imposing wooden doors—to the suites beyond.
Ours opened to a majestic room with separate dining and living spaces, and a large bed occupying centre-stage with a regal awning hanging overhead. An alcove at the far end of the room, with arched windows, looked out to the resort’s infinity pool below and the shrub forest beyond the property. The adjoining verandah housed a grand hot tub, where you could soak your tiredness away.
Living like a king or queen came easy at Evolve Back. So did eating like one! Besides serving a great breakfast spread and a range of Continental and Indian dishes, Tuluva also does a resplendent Vijayanagara thali, which contains dishes unique to the region that have been carefully curated. From a starter of piping rasam served with spicy, dry chicken and prawn preparations, to a main course of three different kinds of whole grain rotis and flavoured rice accompanied by an assortment of veg and non-veg dishes, this one took the better part of an hour to savour and appreciate.
Tuluva derives its name from the most notable and cosmopolitan dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire, which attained the peak of its glory under its most famous emperor—Krishnadevaraya. Interestingly, the other restaurant at Evolve Back called Bahmani draws inspiration from the principal rival of the Vijayanagara Empire—the Bahmani Sultanate.
The first independent Muslim kingdom of South India, the Bahmani Sultans ruled a large part of the Deccan for 180 years, before the last of them were defeated by Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara. But not before the Bahmanis managed to leave their influence on the cuisine of the region and sowing the seeds for what is now known as Deccani or Hyderabadi cuisine. At the Bahmani restaurant, we devoured a sampling of their food—an amalgamation of Persian and indigenous flavours, and we came away feeling that no matter the rivalry of the two kingdoms, their distinct and very delicious cuisines had managed to unify connoisseurs, hundreds of years later.
Carnival of Rust
In Hampi, deciding on which trail to hit and which site to visit first is an incredibly tough row to hoe. Hampi became the centre of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century, and prospered as a grand, wealthy city by the Tungabhadra River, featuring numerous temples, farms and trading markets. By the 16th century, Hampi-Vijayanagara would become the world’s second-largest medieval-era city after Beijing. A coalition of Muslim sultanates would finally defeat the Vijayanagara Empire after a three-century rule, while conquering, pillaging and destroying its capital along the way and leaving most of Hampi razed to the ground—a haunting landscape of ruins.
A total of 1,600 such ruins now spreads over an area of 4,100 hectares, and includes forts, palaces, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, water structures, riverside features and a lot, lot more. It isn’t without reason that UNESCO declared Hampi a World Heritage Site and called it an “austere, grandiose site”.
The Virupaksha Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, is one of the handful structures of the long-gone past that escaped destruction and continues to be a living temple. It predates
the Vijayanagara Empire and was possibly built in the 7th century by the Chalukyas as a small shrine, which was later added on to by the Vijayanagara rulers—these additions were systematically destroyed by the Muslim invaders, who targeted primarily the Vijayanagara structures in Hampi. Of the massive complex that lies in partial ruin today, the most prominent structures are the main gopuram, several courts with arrays of
smaller shrines, the main sanctum sanctorum where pujas are held daily, a large water tank and a mandapa with beautiful frescoes on its ceiling.
The Virupaksha Trail culminates about a kilometre off the main temple complex in two famous landmarks of Hampi—both monolithic masterpieces and both the largest of their kind in Hampi. One is the Badavilinga Temple, a cubical chamber that features a 9.8 feet tall Shiva lingam standing in a pool of water. And the other, located right next door, is a 22 feet sculpture of Narasimha—the half-man, half-lion avatar of Vishnu, seated in the coil of a giant seven-headed snake.
While the above are the biggest crowd-pullers in Hampi, the Raya ruins that we chose to visit next lie off the trodden path, tucked away behind hillocks of boulders. The ruins
here include rectangular walls enclosing the Hazara Rama Temple, which had once served as the ceremonial temple for the royal family.
Much of the ruins are still being excavated, but of what is already above the surface is a large stone outer wall with handcrafted motifs of elephants, horses, soldiers, dancers and musicians running along its entire length. The inner walls feature one of the most extensive narrations of the Ramayana, while the main mandapa has four intricately carved black pillars in the style of the Hoysala rulers who preceded Vijayanagara.
A kilometre or so away from the Raya ruins, lies the Zenana enclosure—a segregated area that was used by the queens and her royal ladies in days of yore. Many believe a tour to Hampi is incomplete if you haven’t visited this site and marvelled at the monuments here. Especially, the remarkable architectural masterpiece of the Lotus Mahal, named so for its dome that looks like an open lotus bud, held upside down. The pillars and roofs feature a fascinating network of pipelines through which it is believed water would run down in drizzles and collect in the pool surrounding the mahal. This was to keep the enclosure cool, so that the ladies could enjoy their time of peace and pleasure. A little way off from here lies another interesting structure—a grand stable fit for the best of the best, the royal elephants.
By the time we made it to yet another famous and the most photographed site in Hampi, the sun was already beginning its descent on the horizon. The ornate Vittala Temple complex lay at the end of a kilometre-long dusty path, that we chose to walk on instead of opting for the battery-operated carts that ferry people here from the parking lot. A row of tall columns in various stages of ruin ran along either side of the path—some high and intact, supporting arches and mandapas between them, others that had collapsed from halfway down.
These structures, a familiar sight outside many other temple complexes all over Hampi, were arguably the first attempt in Indian building history to provide organised retail spaces. In other words, they served as marketplaces where foreign traders came from far and near to sell everything from gems, pearls and precious metals to horses and elephants. The bazaar led up to the ruined gopuram of the Vittala complex. Inside stood a structure that you must have seen several times, on the new Rs 50 notes—the iconic stone chariot of Hampi.
One of the three famous stone chariots of India—the other two being in Konark, Odisha and in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu—this was originally built as a shrine to Garuda, Lord Vishnu’s escort. The Vittala temple itself is an ancient monument and a Dravidian architectural marvel with artistic carvings. One of the mandapas, the Ranga Mantapa features 56 musical pillars—fascinating structures which when tapped gently emit different musical notes of percussion, string and wind instruments. Our historian and guide gave us an expert demo on one of the pillars, revealing his percussion talents to a
much-deserved applause from onlookers.
The retreating sun beat down on us in a last-ditch attempt to leave its searing impressions on our skin for the day. As we trudged back down the dusty path, we were greeted by a site that we had overlooked before. Little stones and pebbles, chip-offs from the boulders all around, were placed in columns of three or four all along the clearing on either side of the trail.
“Wishing stones,” our guide told us. “They’ve been placed such by people who come to visit, just like how threads are tied around trees in some places. Why don’t you try too?” And so, we wished upon a little pile of stones and placed them gingerly on top of each other. We looked back once to see if our wishes were still holding up, like the ancient boulders and heritage of Hampi.
First published as the cover story in July 2018 issue of Discover India (www.magzter.com/IN/Burda-Media-India-Pvt.-Ltd./Discover-India/Travel/)
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