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Recently I had been on a trip to Vijaynagar Ruins in Hampi, Karnataka an it was such an enjoyable trip that I want to share it with you.
We journeyed by train first to Guntakal from where we took a train to Bellary(Yes! Sonia Gandhi's Constituency). And guess what? at Bellary, there is only one platform on which there was already a train standing so we had to JUMP down from the train & climb on the platform as if we climbing Mt. Averest(No Joke since there were no steps to climb on the platform!). As we were climbing an engine moved on the track on which we were standing & we thought it is going to run us over as we were standing between the engine & the train. Luckily, it was moving away from the train rather than towards it.
Finally somehow we reached Hampi through Hospet. We took a taxi for sight seeing even though most foreigners living in the same hotel as ours were renting bicycles to go around(and I wonder how they manage cycling that hard).
In Hampi we saw Hazare Rama Temple which has walls carved with episodes from Ramayana. I discovered that we conviniently forget to remove our shoes once a temple becomes a tourist spot. No problem although as our guide told us that most of the statues in Hampi temples were broken & hence according to Hindu belief could not be worshipped. Then we saw the Queen's Bath build by Krishnadeva Raya for his beutiful queens. It had underground canal system to bring water from Tungabhadra river. Sadly it had neither water nor queens. I was lucky our guide told, because had I entered it in Krishnadeva Raya's time my head would have been cut immidiately. Later I saw the place opposite the Dashera Platform where crimials were publically punished by cutting off their hands or head.
Dashera Platform is the platform from which the King reviewed the festivities of the Dasera festival. It was a 7 storied stone & wood stucture of which only 2 soried stone platform is remaining. The Dasera festival consisted of important Generals making presents to the King, a marchpast by infantry, cavalry followed by beutiful dancing girls, then theatre performances. All this went on for Nine days.
Then there are various temples like Virupaksha Temple, Vitthala Temple, Small Ganesha Temple (for common people) & Large Ganesha(for Royal family), The Lakshmi-Narsimha Temple & the list is endless. Then I saw the elephant stables & the Lotus palace of the King. Beleive me, in 15th century, they had an entire air-cool palace, the pipes carrying water circled entire palace (both the floors) and kept it cool.
It makes me wonder that if ruins are so awe inspiring then the originals must have simply been like Utopia.
I also saw Cave temples at Badami which is near to Hampi, which had rock cut statues that leave you spellbound. Then I visited temples at Pattadkal which is a World Heritage Site as it has temples in both, Dravidian (South) & Nagari (North) style domes for temples.
And after all that I was back.
It is impossible to describe the joys of going through all the architecture, not finding a single blank wall, all being carved in statues, listening to melodious sound of flowing Tungabhadra river, seeing beutiful sunsets while lying on rock boulders surrounding the age old temples so I'll suggest you expeience it for yourself.
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-ENJOY-
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-Neel.
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