Loaded up with Imodium, I’m armed and ready for today’s full day exploration of the Vijayanagar ruins, formerly the capital of the largest Hindu empire in India; which are classified as a World Heritage Site. We hired a guide for 500rs for the day, and it worth every rupee. He had a masters degree in archaeology and tourism, and as a practicing Hindu, shared a ton of great information, history and context with us that really made the experience come alive.
The landscape of the area of ruins is surreal. Surrounded by banana plantations and rice paddies, large boulders are strewn throughout the 63 sq kilometers of the site, and there’s still a ton of excavation going on, new ruins being uncovered daily. We’ll make mention of several of the key sites, so you can make sense out of our photos. We started out at the Monolithic Ganesha where our guide shared with us the Hindu stories behind the monument. We moved onward to Hemakuta Hill where there were a heap of ruins from the 1400-1500’s with both Hindu and Jain temples, overlooking the towering, and stunning Virupaksha temple. We paid a whopping two rupees to get into the temple and 1 rupee to receive a blessing (kiss) from the holy elephant inside the temple; and another 50 rupees to bring our camera in to take pictures. There are monkeys all over, and you need to be extra careful, as they jump around you and try to steal your sunglasses and anything else you’re holding onto. In the temple, we received a blessing that apparently was for fertility. Taking to the streets, we strolled through the Hampi bazaar, and learned of the great festivals and saw large chariots that were used in the procession. We visited the Krishna Temple and the Royal Center where ancient trades of rare gems, spices and jewels were all the rave in the 1400’s. There were majestic elephant stables where the royal elephants were housed – the interesting part about the stable architecture was that it was built to reflect all of the prominent religions in the region at that time, co-existing peacefully together. A highlight, amongst the ruins, was the lunch place we stopped at (despite my not being able to eat)- it was called the Mango Tree, and was a little local restaurant perched atop a terraced hill, under a huge mango tree, overlooking a river, rice paddies and mountains. It was a serene and peaceful spot where we kicked it in the ‘relatively’ cool breeze for a couple of hours. I watched Darrin chow down on fine curry served on a banana leaf, while I sipped down a mango lassi to coat my stomach. Our tour ended with tours of the all-impressive Vittala Temple, which holds the 16th century world heritage distinction, and is considered to be the pinnacle of Vijayanagar art. The temple retold the story of Ram and Sita, in thousands of stone carvings. There was one building within the temple that consisted of stone musical columns. Each one, when tapped, would resonate with a different note/tone, and represented the sound of a different instrument. It was a magical sight, and certainly a magnificent architecturally engineering accomplishment.