Hampi - a Heart Touching Experience

The oldest shrine still in active worship within the Vijayanagara site, the Virupaksha temple is consecrated to Shiva as the consort of Pampa. Local mythology identifies this local goddess with the Tungabhadra River; indeed Hampi is named in her honour. The Virupaksha-Pampa sanctuary existed well before the foundation of the Vijayanagara capital; inscriptions referring to the god date back to the 9th-10th centuries. At that time, his shrine faced onto a path that led from the Tungabhadra, past Manmatha tank with its pre-Vijayanagara period shrines consecrated to Shiva and the goddess Durga, to the summit of Hemakuta, a hill sacred to Shiva, immediately to the south. The Sangamas transformed the shrine into a major religious monument.

The Vijayanagar kings rebuilt the Virupaksha temple in the early 15th century at at an ancient site whose recorded history goes back a thousand years that had been venerated from ancient times. The main gateway, or gopura, rises to about 170 feet (51 metres). It is the largest gopura built at Vijayanagar and a fine example of late South Indian, or Dravidian, gateways. The temple has a broad chariot street running straight for 1 km in front of it was also known as a bazaar. On either side of the street were many twostoreyed structures with shops, which sold goods from many corners of the world and must have been one of the busiest in the world in its time.

Abdur Razzak, a 15th century Persian visitor, said about the Hampi marketplaces: “Roses are sold everywhere. These people could not live without roses, and they look upon them as quite as necessary as food…. Each class of men belonging to each profession has shops contiguous, the one to the other; jewellers sell publicly in the bazaars pearls, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds.”

If Lakshmi (the temple elephant) and her attendant are around, you can get a smooch (blessing) from her for a Rs 1 coin. The adorable Lakshmi gets her morning bath at 7.30am, just down the way by the river ghats.All of our group managed to get blessings from the temple Elephant.

To the south, overlooking Virupaksha Temple, Hemakuta Hill has a scattering of early ruins, including Jain temples and a monolithic sculpture of Narasimha (Vishnu in his man-lion incarnation). It’s worth the short walk up for the view over the bazaar. At the east end of Hampi Bazaar is a monolithic Nandi statue and shrine. This is the main location for Vijaya Utsav, the Hampi arts festival held in November .