With due apologies to Cary Grant / Hitchcock.
A trip to the south was long overdue so I recently found myself in Bangalore on a reasonably warm December morning. The next day, in the evening, I joined a KSTDC (Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation) tour to North Karnataka. Most of my travels over the last year have been ‘independent’ so I decided to take the easy way out for once and let others do the planning for me.
The first night (the tour started at 10pm) was spent on the bus as we drove to Hospet. The bus would not have even covered a kilometre when one of the tour participants started complaining. You know on a tour you always have a whiner who will complain about anything and everything ranging from the temperature of the water served to the towels at the hotel (more on that later!). And, of course, the other kind is the Mr. Know-it-all who will interrupt the tour guide after every sentence and give us a nugget of totally irrelevant information followed by a see-I-am-so-smart look to his/her spouse. Unfortunately, we had one of the former and fortunately none of the latter on this tour. And thankfully, my fellow-tourists, all of whom were from south of the Vindhyas, were extremely friendly and likeable. The only thing amiss was that there were no indefatigable tourists from Bengal.
After a rather smooth seven hour journey, we reached Hospet to check into the local KSTDC hotel. The going rate for a single room at that hotel is Rs. 400/- per night so, as you can imagine, it was not exactly the Waldorf or George V. After a quick nap and shower (I will refrain from boring you with the struggling-to-get-hot-water incident), we set out to explore Hampi for the day.
Hampi (a world heritage site! As one of my friends in the travel industry would say with goosebumps) was the seat of the Vijaynagar Empire (1336-1565). The countryside here is lovely and green – with banana/coconut trees and paddy fields. Bullock carts jostle for space giving you that transported-back-in-time feel. Though we ‘saw’ Hampi in one day, that is certainly not enough to do justice to the place. The Vijaynagar kings (the most famous of whom was Krishnadeva Raya – ‘king of kings’) certainly knew how to do things in style. Most of the sights are a few miles apart so it was handy to see the place with a guided tour rather than roughing it out. Hampi is divided into a ‘Religous area’ (where all the temples are) and the ‘Royal area’ (where the palace and living quarters were).
Our first stop was near the Virupaksha temple / Hampi bazaar where we went to a vantage point (Hemakuta hill) to take in views of the entire site. Hampi is strewn with huge boulders that make it very surreal. According to history (er...Mythology), our friend Hanuman was from this area. And he collected these boulders when he was helping Rama to build that bridge across the Palk Strait.
From Hemakuta hill we walked over to the Virupaksha temple, one of the better-known structures of Hampi. The gopuram (entrance tower) of this Shaivite temple can be seen from miles around. There is a beautiful central pillared-hall that was buzzing with school children when I was there. Some of these kids were interested in seeing the temple, but most were just being disinterested children who were raising the decibel level in the temple as only children can do – giggles, taunts, shouts, teases, and innocent laughter all of which changed the sombre atmosphere of the temple. For the better, I am guessing. For the geek in me the most interesting part of the temple was in a dark recess where sunrays coming in through a tiny slit in the wall cast a beautiful inverted shadow of the main gate.
The most famous structure of Hampi is the stone chariot in front of the Vijaya Vittala Temple. To get to the temple one has to take battery operated buses (all of which are run by women!). This beautifully carved chariot is said to be inspired by the Sun Temple at Konark. The temple also has a number of ‘fantasy’ sculptures (which look like one thing from one angle, and like another from another angle. Not to be confused with ‘The Dirty Picture’ song). However, the musical’ pillars are what the temple is well-known for. Apparently, these pillars emit musical notes when tapped. I say apparently because now the tourists are prohibited from touching the pillars (too much tapping by enthusiastic tourists in the past is said to have damaged the pillars).
The ‘royal area’ comprised of remains of the palace, a zenana area, and a beautiful lotus-shaped ‘kamal mahal’ (apparently the Queens frolicked here). The most interesting building in this area was the elephants stables where the ceremonial pachyderms were housed. It was a long beautiful pavillion and that for me was the point when I could suddenly imagine the grandeur of the Vijaynagar empire. The epiphany moment, as they say.
After the day-long tour of Hampi, we were taken to Tunghabhadra Dam (near Hospet). I think I have seen Hirakud Dam when I was far too young so, in effect, this was my first dam and I was totally taken aback by its sheer scale. The reservoir looked like an ocean and one couldn’t see the other end....
Next day we drove to Badami which was the second capital of the Chalukyan Empire (6th-8th C), the first being Aihole. Badami (the name derives from the almond ‘badam’ coloured rocks and hills found in the region) is known for its beautiful rock-cut caves. There are four caves in all – one Shaivite, two Vaishnavite, and one Jain. Each of these caves has stunning sculptures, ceilings, and pillared halls. From the top-most cave one gets a beautiful view of a nearby lake and the other hills with temples. The green of the lake and the almond-colour of the hills made for a nice surreal contrast. The guide was, rather proudly, naming all the films that had been shot near the lake.
However, the most interesting part about Badami was that the place is infested with our simian friends. And they’re no cute benign monkeys – they’re outright aggressive! Thankfully for me, our guide informed us that they’re partial towards women. I thought he was joking – but sure I saw atleast three different attacks on women (pulling their purses, tugging at their saris). From the safety of my gender, I tried, but could not, suppress a giggle.
I forgot to tell you something. In between sites we were taking to many temples. Even though I am not a very religious person (understatement of the year?), I don’t mind visiting temples. In fact, I have been accused of putting up far too many photographs of temples. But on this tour we saw far too many than I could handle. I enjoy the architecture and atmosphere of a temple, but what I don’t like is having to take off one’s shoes and walk about barefoot (my feet are pretty sensitive that way). So by the second day of the tour I started giving the temples a miss and would loiter about watching and photographing the hustle-bustle.
Ironically, I really enjoyed the next site we visited – Pattadakal. This is a group of ten extremely beautiful temples in both the Dravidian and North-Indian style. This is the second set of temples which the Chalukyans built after Aihole (more on that later). I won’t bore you with the names and details of these temples except that the Virupaksha temple here was very stunning. The meticulously carved sculptures were incredible, to say the least (and they were accentuated in the glow of the gentle evening Sun).
Before calling it a day, we also visited Aihole which was the first capital of the Chalukyas. There is not much to see in this small town except that it is known as the cradle of Hindu temple architecture. This is where the Chalukyans ‘experimented’ and built a number of temples (which are considered to be the first in India). Here one finds Meguti temple, which is the earliest dated structural temple in the country (634AD). To use a cliché – a slice of history.
The highlight at Aihole for me was when I went to a roadside shack and had one of the best filter coffees I’ve had in my life (and that too for a princely sum of 6). That is the fun of travelling in the South. I love my idli / dosa / sambar / vada (i know that is not strictly what is eaten all the time in the South. But I don’t do anything to disabuse myself of that misunderstanding) and filter coffee. A culinary feast it is!
In the evening we drove to Bijapur and stayed in what was possibly one of the worst hotels I’ve stayed in in my life. Thankfully I got a room to myself but the plaster / paint was falling off, the sheets were disgustingly dirty, and there was a weird smell. I will refrain from telling you about the state of the bathroom except that I felt dirtier after the bath than before it. And to compound matters, the hotel had refused to give a towel (even after a slanging match). I leave it to your imagination to guess how I dried myself (no I didn’t use the bedsheet – it was far too dirty!).
Next morning we set out to explore Bijapur (I have never been more pleased to check out of a hotel). Bijapur was the capital of the Adil Shah dynasty (1490 – 1686). The most famous monument of the city is the Gol Gumbaz (1656), the tomb of Mohd. Adil Shah. This structure has one of the largest domes in the world. However, there are a couple of interesting acoustic features of the large hall. Firstly, the echo. In this hall, any large sound is echoed atleast 5-6 times. And everyone who is in the hall wants to try this. So it is quite funny (and annoying) to hear people shouting in this hall to test the echo theory. Secondly, the hall is known for its ‘whispering gallery’ – where anything said even in a very soft voice in one corner of the hall is ‘transported’ to someone who is standing diagonally opposite (a distance of about 40 metres). Pretty cool.
The other interesting monument in Bijapur is the Ibrahim Rouza, the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah II. This structure is supposedly an inspiration for the design of the Taj Mahal. The last place we visited in Bijapur was the ‘Malik e Maidan’ which is supposedly the largest medieval cannon in the world - it apparently weighs 55 tonnes. No I didn’t try to move it but did get my obligatory photo in front of it.
That was the end of the sightseeing of the tour and we headed back for our overnight drive to Bangalore. I wanted to sleep in the bus but they showed two Rajnikanth movies (in Tamil) back to back. Mind it!
