More than India being famous for its architecture, Indians are famous for their incredible architectural talent. The southern part of India has witnessed numerous such talents and their compelling outcomes. Among them, Hampi, which the UNESCO declared as a ‘World Heritage Site’ holds a remarkable and a significant position.
This city was the capital of Vijayanagara Empire. It was once ruled by powerful dynasties such as the Chalukyas of Badami, the Hoysalas, the Yadavas, and much more. In the present day, Hampi is located in the state of Karnataka. To be precise, it lies on the banks of River Tungabhadra. India has been the most desired tourist location since ages. Obviously, travellers happened to visit this place in the ancient times. Their chronicles stated that Hampi was the most beautiful, breathtaking and the wealthiest city. But unfortunately, after the defeat of Vijayanagara Empire by the sultanate armies, Hampi was left in ruins. These ruins are spread over an area of 4100 hectares, giving tourists a large spectacular site to admire.
It has 1600 monuments, most of them built during Vijayanagara Empire. It includes Ashoka’s rock edicts, Brahmi inscriptions, Terracota seals (2nd century). Hampi was well developed in the ancient time itself with markets, complexes, roads, spacious mandapas, gateways, water tanks, etc.
This development attracted traders all over the world to trade in this wealthy city. People from different countries believing in different religions came here for trade. This type of trade resulted in the rise of religious buildings. It has 6 Jain Temples, mosques, tombs, etc.
Monuments in HAMPI follow Dravidian style of architecture. Others such as the Queen’s bath, Elephant stables, etc follow Indo-Islamic style.
VITTHALA TEMPLE(Vitthala-a form of Lord Vishnu): This temple was built in the 15th century during the rule of Devaraya 2nd. Some people say that it is a monolithic structure. While the others say that it looks exactly like a monolithic structure, but is actually built using numerous granite blocks and the constructors of this sheer epic grandeur were smart enough to cleverly hide all the joints of the building to give it a monolithic look.
A grand, scrupulously carved stone chariot is placed in front of the temple, which catches the attention of tourists. This chariot was dedicated to the escort of Lord VISHNU – GARUDA (the king of birds). A Garuda shrine is also carved out in the inner part of the chariot. Once there was a sculpture of Garuda, on top of the chariot, but it is seen empty now. Images of battle scenes are meticulously carved out at the base of the chariot. Since it follows Dravidian style of architecture, we can see petite detailed sculptural carvings all over the temple and chariot. These carvings are so detailed that the hair styles of people, limbs of animals, nails, etc are clearly carved out. This chariot is one among the three famous chariots of India. It truly gives an iconic pride to our nation.
The temple consists of 56 musical pillars, also known as sa, re, ga, ma pillars (4 of the 7 notes) in the Rangamandapa. These pillars give a bell-ringing sound when they are hit. Tourists tap these pillars out of curiosity which has already caused damage to those existing wonders. During the British rule, 2 pillars were cut out to discover the mystery of these normal-looking pillars. Their efforts were in vein when they found that the pillars were hollow inside. The constructors of these pillars used certain combination of mixtures which finally resulted in these musical pillars.
LAND OF MONKEYS: One of the claims to fame for HAMPI is that it has witnessed the Epic Ramayana. In the quest of searching SITA DEVI, Lord Ram and Laxman happened to reach the ANJANEYADRI HILLS, where they got help from Hanuman and his monkey kingdom. This was the place where the Monkey king, Hanuman was born. This hill has a white coloured temple for Hanuman on top of it with shrines of Devi Anjana (mother of Hanuman, from whom he got the name ‘Anjaneya’), Lord Ram and Sita devi. One has to climb more than 500 steps to reach this temple. A wide spectacular view of Hampi, plantations, temples, and Tungabhadra River can be enjoyed from the temple on top of the hill.
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: It is truly a wonder that the brilliance of water infrastructure has made more than 250,000 people to survive in that city. Numerous aqueducts carrying water can be found all over the city. There are enough channels to carry the excess water to be stored in water tanks
There are small tank like structures in the open to store fresh rain water directly into them. There are channels connecting these tanks to the temples so that rituals can be performed using clean, fresh and unused water. ‘Abhishekhas’ for the deities are done using this water.
In the surroundings of the temple, large pond-like storage facilities can be found, where all the excess water is brought through channels. Multiple steps are constructed till the bottom of the storage tank to ease the reach of water for people. These steps are semi pyramid in shape and are found all over the tank. This wonder is named as ‘Pushkarnis’ or ‘Step well water system.’
Another landmark structure at Hampi is the mind blowing ‘Queen’s bath.’ This building follows the Indo-Islamic style of architecture. This served as a royal bath area for queens, which once contained fragrant water and flowers. But it is empty at present. The building is surrounded by balconies and decorated using Islamic style windows. The bath area, where the water is continuously filled through channels, is surrounded by multiple verandas.
Several inscriptions can be found even on the floors of some buildings. There are other architectural masterpieces such as the Achyutaraya temple, Shree Krishna temple, the gem on the crown – Virupaksha temple, Elephant stable, Kondarama temple, Pattabhirama temple (intelligent water management), Manmotha tank, etc.
By Archana Uday
