Greetings From the Future: Mr. Cliff's last trip

Mr. Cliff will be leaving us soon, so this past weekend Andi and I joined him for one last, quick trip to Hampi.

Hampi dates from sometime in the 1^st century ce, but really came into its own in the 14^th century when the Vijayangara Empire moved its capital there. The Vijayanagara Empire lasted from the early 14^th to the mid-17^th century and at its peak controlled all of southern India. By the early 16^th century Hampi and the surrounding capital metro area had grown to become the second largest city in the world: with a population of over 500,000 people only Peking was larger (at the time Hampi was twice the size of Paris). It was an incredibly cosmopolitan city, with a well supported arts culture, trading connections extending throughout Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe, and a collection of temples and religious sites that drew pilgrims from all of India. Today Hampi has become a small religious city, catering to tourists and pilgrims, while the surrounding villages of what used to be the capital metro area have become small agricultural villages.

Sharing the road near Hampi

Hampi is supposed to be a 6 or 7 hour drive from Bangalore. After a few false starts - Andi got stuck at work, I forgot to pack the bottle opener, and Cliff forgot, well, he forgot some things - we got on the road at 4pm, and, with a well-stocked cooler, HayDay, and charged up Kindle’s, we settled in for the ride. Everything was going smoothly until we got within about 30 minutes of Hampi and hit some traffic. Now I grew up in Southern California, so it really means something when I say that we ran into the worst traffic ev-er. 9:30 at night, about 30 miles from the hotel (or so we thought), and we really didn’t think we would make it in that night; we were all getting ourselves ready to curl up in the Innova for a night’s sleep on the road with all the truckers. But then, by a miracle and some crazy adventurous driving by Ramesh, we made it to the turn-off for Hampi. The only problem was that we weren’t supposed to get off the freeway at the Hampi turn-off. After a few phone calls to the hotel, we were back on the freeway sitting in traffic heading in the right direct.

The hotel itself turned out to be a bit difficult to find, a problem that was solved by the manager meeting us on the freeway. And yes, I mean that literally. After two more hours of ‘driving’ three men suddenly appeared walking down the freeway: the manager, the hotel’s driver, and one hotel employee were just strolling among the nearly parked cars on the freeway. Apparently they had been waiting for us for two hours, looking for a car full of white people. Well, that would be us. Picking up the employee who knew how to navigate us through the dirt roads and back alleys, we finally pulled in to the hotel at about 2:00 am. After an overly generous and amazing dinner that the staff had held for us, we hiked down to our room and were a sleep by 3:00.

We woke up not quite knowing what to expect. Even if we had, we certainly would have underestimated the beauty of where we were.

The view from our 'room'

The path up to our 'room,' with Cliff and I taking in the view

The hotel restaurant and lobby

Once again we were the only guests at the hotel, and so had breakfast to ourselves until we were joined by some locals.

Our hotel was “on the other side of the river” so we had to take a ferry boat into Hampi proper. In all of India Andi and I know the people on her team, five Target ex-pats and families, one other American couple, and a Frenchman named Baptiste. We met Baptiste at the FRRO when we first arrived, and saw him a few more times at the Oakwood before we all moved into our permanent housing. We hadn't seem him since. So of course, Baptiste was haggling with the rickshaw drivers at the ferry crossing when we arrived. Even in India it is a small small world.

The ferry crossing, with the main gopuram of Virupaksha on the left

Baptiste and the Frenchmen waiting for the ferry driver

There are three main areas to Hampi: the Sacred Center/Hampi Bazaar, the Royal Center, and the Vitthala Temple. We started off in the Sacred Center/Hampi Bazaar area, which is dominated by the Virupaksha Temple. Virupaksha dates to about the 7th century, and today is the principal temple in Hampi. The temple complex has grown over the years, and so contains a courtyard and a main temple area, and the main temple area itself contains a main temple dedicated to Shiva and two smaller temples for Bhuvaneshwari (the most powerful goddess in Hinduism) and Pampa (a local goddess and the daughter of Brahma). The temple complex is overwhelmed by an awesome gopuram at the outer entrance, and contains two smaller gopuram that mark earlier entrances.

This is still a 'working' temple, so no shoes allowed

The main entrance gopuram

Mr. Cliff and friends in front of the main entrance

The main courtyard

Inner entrance gopuram

Main temple with third inner gopuram in background

The main temple

Details of the secondary temples

Behind the Virupaksha Temple is the Hemakuta Hill. Spread out across this hill are a number of smaller temples, statues, shrines and structures that were used by holy men and ascetics. The highlight of the Hemakuta Hill is a giant monolithic statue of Ganesh.

Leading away from the main entrance to the temple is the Hampi Bazaar, or rather the remnants of the two Hampi Bazaars. First, there is the modern Hampi Bazaar, which, for reasons that we didn’t figure out, is now abandoned. Then there is the ancient Hampi Bazaar which is, obviously, also now empty.

Hampi bazaar today

Hampi bazaar of yesterday

At the end of the Hampi Bazaar is a giant monolithic statue of Nandi, Shiva’s bull.

After spending some time at the Nandi statue we were ready for lunch, so we headed back to the car and drove over to the Mango Tree, the only recommended restaurant in Hampi. The highlight for Andi was to see where her favorite little bananas come from.

Little bananas being born!!

Mr. Cliff and his quickly-getting-sunburned friends enjoying lunch

After lunch we made our way over to the Vitthala Temple, which is beyond description. The temple was built in the 15^th century and is dedicated to Vitthala who is an aspect of Vishnu. There is a major boulevard leading up to the temple that must have been, at its peak, an amazing site.

The temple complex itself contains a number of shrines and temples. The main temple is currently being repaired, but we were able to get a sneak peek inside. This main temple is filled with musical columns, each one sounding a different tone when struck. Through means that we will not discuss Ramesh got the guards to ‘play’ the columns for us (a performance that, unfortunately, we weren't comfortable recording).

Shrine within temple complex

Interior of another shrine in temple complex

Main temple with musical pillars

Main temple

The Southern Hall in the complex is decorated with carvings of yalis, mythical creatures who have the bodies of cats, the heads of lions, and elephant tusks and trunks.

Although it is long from being in use, the courtyard itself was eerily impressive. It was easy to imagine the space filled with celebrations and worshipers, and so the space itself felt alive, or at least haunted with celebration.

The entrance to the temple is dominated again by a gopuram, but also by a massive stone chariot, which is one of three such chariots in India. This one used to contain a statue of Garuda, an eagle god who is the vehicle of Vishnu. The underside of the chariot is protected from the elements and so is still painted as the entire complex once was.

Main entrance gopuram

Detail of gopuram

Detail of chariot

Detail of underside of chariot

After the Vitthala Temple we headed for our last ‘site’ of Hampi: the Matanga Hill. This is the highest point in Hampi and so we decided we had to climb it for the view. All the guidebooks say there is a ‘stepped path’ leading to the top, and so we started up the first set of steps that we found. We quickly realized that if these were the steps, all the guidebooks were working with a very different definition of steps than we were. After a thirty minute hike, with lots of stops (most of which included Ramesh swearing at us under his breath, announcing “I always take the lift to the flat, sir”) Cliff, Andi and I made it to the top. And it was worth the effort. 360˚ views of Hampi, a landscape dotted by hills, boulders, fields and ruins. And on top of the hill there was another temple, the Veerabhadra Temple dedicated to a local deity who is an appearance of Shiva. And to our dismay, we also found the actual stepped path, which did look much easier.