With 3 b’days within a span of 4 days (6th Dec- Chandak,
7th Dec- me and 9th Dec- Neelu), we all wanted to celebrate it
somewhere else, do somewhat special, experience something new. On 6th
night, everyone arrived at my home to “celebrate” my birthday. With everyone
having a prop in their hand – slippers, shoes, bat and, guess what, even chain (Atishay,
you will pay for it J),
trust me the show was PAINFUL. Seeing me battered in this way, Neelu started
proposing his clemency plea for the crime he was about to do (yeah dude,
getting a year older is indeed a crime,
welcome to club J) .It was hilarious to see the way he was coming up with
fictional diseases and imploring everyone to grant him mercy.
Any way after, all the b’day celebration, we packed our bags
and left for Hampi at around 2 AM on 7th Dec. I was lost in the reveries of good old days of Bangalore-
tempo traveler and gana-bajana with a bunch of morons and late night gossips.
We reached our resort, Vijayshree Heritage, by noon. The place was awesome, we had
a royal reception, girls standing at the gate with all the garlands, tilak and
welcome drink J. We were taken to our “heritage kutiya” on a battery-run
vehicles where we all got freshened up and kicked off our Hampi-darshan.
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| lawn of the resort |
Hampi, as they say, was the capital of Vijayanagar kingdom
which was ruined to ashes by adjoining kingdoms. It is said that the
kingdom was so prosperous that diamonds were sold in open market and,
ironically, the market was called Paan-supaari market.
We started off with the excavation sites. All of these
places were buried in mud, everything was destroyed to its core with jungles
all around, before being excavated. The absolute amazement to see such a huge
kingdom being decimated to ruins, with concomitant mesmerism thinking of the
effort put to bring it back from oblivion is inexplicable.
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| this used to be market place during Vijayanagar empire |
As the folklore says that Krishnadev Raya built Vitthala
temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Virupaksh temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, each one of them decorated beautifully with stone sculptures depicting various avatars of these gods. We went to Vitthala temple first where the famous stone chariot is
kept.
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| Vitthala Temple |
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| The famous stone chariot |
This stone chariot has wheels, brakes and used to move
during festivals at those time. The guide was apprising us of all the intricate
details in carvings and sculptures. Vitthala temple had musical stone pillars; if you tap on
different pillars, each produced different sounds. British government, during
our colonial rule, got a pillar smashed to learn its secret, but it was simple
solid stone pillar. The secret lied in the architecture – with a proper
location, precise height & width, each stone pillar was different and
produced different music. Absolute classic J
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| One of the stone pillars which supposedly produced sound of drum |
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| Guide apprising the details of pillar |
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| Posing against the backdrop of musical pillars |
It was such a humbling experience to know about the
architectural prowess of people who lived some 600 years before us with no
access to modern technologies and ultra-sophisticated tools. It took them
around 15-20 days just to break a stone boulder, think of the patience with
which they created stone sculptures.
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| Pushkarini Tank - The place from where queens used to take water for worshiping |
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| Aqua-duct made of stone to replenish Pushkarini tank |
And, that’s the place from where originated all the famous
satirical anecdotes and quick-witted poems from the mind of one of the
greatest court-jester in Indian history, Tenaliram.
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| Seat of one of the greatest court-poets, Tenaliram
Elephant stable - This stable was for 11 special elephants which were used during processions in festivals like Dussehra.
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Don't know why, but it's called "Behen ka patthar" J
Virupaksh Temple, the seat of Lord Shiva in Vijayanagar
kingdom.
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| Virupaksh Temple |
By the time, we completed all of these, it was 7 PM in the evening, so we headed back to the resort. The resort had something unexpected in its scuttle - camel ride, horse ride, funambulist show, puppet show, some amusement rides, bioscope , and yeah all of them complimentary. But, for me the best part of resort was Rajasthani food.
Just one word- lipsmacking. Dal, baati, churma, gatte ki sabzi, baajre ki
khichdi mein dher saara shakkar aur ghee, halwa, lehsoon ki chatni …… awesome.
And, the way of serving dessert was heart-warming.
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| bioscope - it still makes you a kid |
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| that's the way they serve dessert |
We all lost ourselves in verdant settings, far far away from the humdrums of city life, work, and worldly attractions.
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| Fresh as mint, cucumber cool |
And we had plenty of such moments also.
After having breakfast, we checked out from the resort in the early morning and left for Kishkindha.
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And, we got a royal send-off. J
In Kishkindha, our destination was Anjani parvat. We climbed some 562 stairs to reach the top of the hill, which is supposed to be the birthplace of Lord Hanuman.
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| At the birthplace of Lord Hanuman |
....and Anshu never misses a single opportunity to give this pose
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| Hampi, as it looks from Anjani parvat |
At famous Mango tree restaurant : Momos, with Sambhar & chatni - Mother of God !!!
Hampi, you are real beauty. Hooligans disgraced your
dignity, besmirched your beauty, time kept you aloof from rest of the world for
centuries; but as the maxim goes, every cloud has a silver lining, you pulled
yourself back from the brink and made world bow in front of you.
And then, we signed off with an amazing experience and
plenty of memories. Road trips aren't measured by mile markers, but by moments and we had plenty of those. J