Today myself and Cathy are 4 years together! i woke up at 7am so excited and looked accross at Cathy deep in sleep and looking like a Buddhist in her orange liner covering her whole body and head, she looked beatuiful. checked the room - all crawlies and fliers still resting :) and looked out the window. there i saw lots of people strolling past our window and my curiousity was awakened. we went for a lovely breaky in Shanti - funky restuarant close to our accommodation, which was on the edge of a very colourful and buzzy bizaar.
Hampi is a magical place in a sublime boulder-strewn landscape. once the capital of one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history and a centre for the spice trade and precious stones. there was a fascinating and popular ruller called Krishnadevaraya who graced his court with Brahmin,Shaiva and Jain Poets who renovated old temples and built new ones. when his people were upset he went amongst them and instead of fixing things (not to mention that he went among them!!!) he helped them explore their options and left them to decide the solution themselves. he had judicial courts and judges, governers, ministers and police. women were versed in archery, wrestling, astrology, music and dance and worked... wait for it...as body guards, judges and watch-women! it seems all castes and communities lived in harmony.
the magic of Hampi lies in many tings from the landscape to the Temples to the people. There are easily 30+ temples, all majestic and honouring different deities, the scale of each of them is magnificant. the land and river is speckled by incredibly massive boulders which i found like clouds where i could see images in the rock - massive elephants, human faces etc., which i tried to capture on camera; and the people, well! once you leave the merchants of the bazaar you step back in time and get a very real sense of community, an ancient community which in my imagination operates out of the times of Krishnadevaraya. the children are like little starlings, the little girls are incredibly pretty - so sad to think they are perceived as such a burden. the women are mending and cooking and cleaning, rally i'm amazed, India is full of dust yet everywhere you go people are sweeping and keeping things tidy. old people sitting and talking with the young or laughing and joking with them. men and women stooped together chatting or just sitting in each other's presence - beautiful, just beautiful.
after breaky we ventured down to see where everyone was heading earlier this morning. to our delight we were situated right next to the ghats - the area of the river where people went to ritualistically clean themselves. here we met Suresh! he was another lovely shiney person. our initial conversation was the usual sales pitch but gently moved into discussion and interest on all sides. both myself and Cathy loved what he had carved into stone but in the context of prices what he was asking seemed over the top so we just sat with him and watched all that unfolded down the many steps that led to the river and the people gathered there.
we headed then to Virupaksha Temple (built 1442) - spectacular, just spectacular! here we met a very different Lakshmi. she was a real live female elephant who accepted coins for her trainer and rewarded you with a blessing on the top of your head !! we were lucky to have visited as traditional musicians paid homage to a particular deities. here we got our first blessing from a Brahmin priest. a mixture was put into our cupped hands and i foolishly drank it rather than offend (just hoped i wouldn't get sick and didn't).
at the back of the temple and in the shadows two very old men held out their hands to us for rupies, i had none on me so i gave him my nibbles for the day - nuts and he looked at them and me as if i had sneezed into his hand. here at the back was a spectacle where by a hole in the temple wall reflected an upside down shadow image of the temple spire. we spent some time here as it kept us out of the mid-day sun. we were surrounded by people who lived here and people who travelled long distances to be here and pay tribute to their god at their particular sacred site. all around Virupaksha were other temples some Jain and a massive sculpture of Vishnu in his man-lion incarnation.
me Darling was feeling very tired and decided to go back and rest. i was full of beans so i hired a bike and went exploring. found the best routes to temples, researched different restaurants for a nice meal together later and chatted with Suresh again. Wile with Suresh i bought Cathy the yoga stone Suresh had carved as a pressent to mark the occasion. got caught in a scam with a group of men and didn't feel too safe so headed back to Cathy.
we took another stroll down to the ghats, honestly every which way you turned there was a magnificant temple and each one felt fresh and offered something very satisfying to the eye and extremely gratifying for the soul.
i'm nackered...continue tomorrow!
Nameste xxDee&Cathy
