On the morning of the 1st, I walked around Raichur a bit. There wasn't much to see, though I did see an old city gate and a school with hundreds of uniformed school kids arriving, most in jam packed auto rickshaws, with perhaps ten or more kids inside, their packs hanging on the rear view mirrors on each side. Shortly before 11 I left on an uncrowded bus headed about 100 miles southwest to Kamalapuram, arriving about 3:30, and then another bus the final two and a half miles to Hampi. The countryside from Raichur was flat at first, with a few rocky hills. Raichur's rocky citadel was visible for a while. As we traveled south, there was much more agriculture than further north, with cotton, corn and especially rice, newly sown. Coconut palms appeared again. Just before arriving at Kamalapuram we passed through a beautiful area of rocky hills covered with giant boulders, rice paddies and banana groves.
Hampi is the site of the capital of the Hindu Vijayanagar Empire and we passed ruins coming into Kamalapuran and even more between Kamalapuram and Hampi. The Vijayanagar Empire was founded in 1336, seemingly in response to the Muslim attempts to conquer the south. It was powerful and wealthy, extending north to the Krishna River and covering all of the area to the south from sea to sea, with forays into what is now Odisha. A Persian visitor in the 15th century and a Portuguese one (Domingo Paes) in 1520-1522 have left awed accounts of its wealth. Most of its energy, though, it seems was spent fending off the Muslim sultanates to the north. In 1565 the sultanates finally united to defeat Vijayanagar and sacked the city, which never recovered.
Hampi is a little village alongside the ruins and next to the Tungabhadra River, which eventually flows into the Krishna east of Raichur. It is completely devoted to tourism, with maybe fifty guesthouses catering mostly to foreigners. Across the river is another village, reachable by ferry, with maybe another 20 or 30 guesthouses. So there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of western tourists here, mostly backpackers but some higher budget ones, too, who probably stay elsewhere. Lots of Indians come, too, but few seem to stay overnight. The area was packed with Indian tourists on New Year's Day, though. The government plans to remove the village eventually, resettling the people and moving tourist accommodation elsewhere, and has already destroyed some of the buildings near the largest temple right in the village. I found a hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon in its rooftop restaurant, where I met Nick, who has worked on and is now again working on the Rough Guide to India, and his wife Maria. Both were quite interesting, though only in Hampi briefly to recheck guesthouses and restaurants. Nick also gets to do the Rough Guides to Greece and California.
That evening about 7:30 I went into the 15th century Virupaksha Temple, at the edge of the village, with an entry gopura (tower) about 165 feet high, covered with figures and illuminated with spot lights. I didn't look around much, but did see a Brahmin priest blessing a motorcycle right outside the temple gate. Among other things, he placed a little ball, perhaps of some sort of dough, right in front of the front wheel and had the driver crush it with the wheel. My room at the friendly hotel was okay, though below me just out the window (I was on the second floor) about 15 water buffalo spent each night. They were quiet enough, though did emit a certain odor.
The next morning I was up about 7, soon after sunrise, and walked over to the Virupaksha Temple. I walked through the gopura and the first courtyard, and then, after removing my sandals as required, into the second courtyard. Inside this second courtyard is a mandapa (a pillared hall), with an inner sanctum at the back with a colorful image of Vishnu. The mandapa has very interesting carvings on its pillars and a very fine painted ceiling, including all ten avatars of Vishnu. I looked all around. Pilgrims were streaming in and out to do darshan to the deity. At the entrance to the inner sanctum a Brahmin priest would crack their small coconuts, for which they would pay him, and they offered the coconuts to Vishnu inside.
I headed back to the first courtyard about 9:30, ready to go to breakfast, but first stopped into another hall off to the side with carved pillars. I noticed that at the back two chairs, thrones really, were set up and it looked like people were preparing for a wedding. It soon began and I took a few photos. The wedding guests noticed me and invited me forward, up onto the platform, to take more photos. They had me take a photo of the group of women on one side and the group of men on the other, along with the wedding couple. They had their own photographer, too, and eventually I ended up in a group photo behind the bride and groom.
The ceremony was very interesting. Several women smeared a yellow paste all over the faces, arms, legs and feet of the bride and groom, and even parts of their torsos. That done, and some offerings made, the party moved outside into the first courtyard, and I was invited along. In a corner near water spigots, the bride and groom got down on their haunches and the yellow paste was washed away with pitchers of water poured on them. At one point, a guy poured water on each of their heads while placing his foot on their heads. Later water was poured on one head while trickling down onto the other one's head just below. Finally, they used shampoo to wash their hair. All this was done with them in their clothes, the woman in a sari and the man is traditional clothing. After this, they were led away to a somewhat more private area and dressed, she in a purple sari and he in while clothes. They came out again and got down on their haunches and had marks put on their foreheads by women in the wedding party. The bride had the married woman's mark of red powder placed at the start of the part of her hair and had a silver ornament and a thick garland of white flowers placed on her head. All along people were encouraging me to take photos. At one point they had me take photos of three old women, two in old fashioned round eyeglasses. I showed the women the photos and they seemed quite pleased. The woman who seemed the main celebrant of the wedding was particularly friendly and I took a couple of photos of her and of several of the families. About 11 they all headed into the second courtyard and I headed back to my hotel for a late breakfast.
I spent most of the early and mid afternoon up in the rooftop restaurant, talking to Maria and later Nick when he joined us after making a round of guesthouses and restaurants. It is very pleasant up there, with a good breeze and a view of the river through the trees. About 4 I walked back to the entrance to the Virupaksha Temple and saw some of the wedding party, but not the bride and groom, loaded onto a trailer pulled by a tractor, getting ready to go home. I stopped by to say hello. I then walked to the tank just north of the temple walls and a little further north to the ghats along the river. I watched the ferry, the bathers, the washerwomen, all in front of rocky hills on the other side of the river. The river, flowing to the east, winds scenically past boulders, with the rocky hills in the near distance.
Then I walked up Hemakuta Hill, just to the north of the Virupaksha Temple. It is composed of massive boulders and sloping massive rocky ledges, with great views, especially of the temple and its towers below but also the rocky countryside all around, as you ascend. Near the summit are several temples and rock carvings of linga and figures. A lot of people gathered up there for sunset, just after 6. After the sunset, I slowly walked down in the twilight. About 7:30 Nick, Maria and I headed to the temple in hopes of seeing Lakshmi, the temple elephant, but she wasn't there. Reportedly, she does special events elsewhere at times. We proceeded in the dark to a restaurant maybe a ten minute walk upriver and had a good dinner there, penne with eggplant and cheese for me. I am enjoying a break from Indian food. A chorus of frogs chirped along the river and I think we were the last to leave the restaurant sometime before 11.
I slept till almost 8 the next morning and then walked up the rise north of Hampi alongside Hemakuta Hill to where there is a 16 foot high single stone carving of Ganesh in a sanctuary, with carved pillars. Nearby is another stone Ganesh, maybe eight feet high. A little further on is the large Krishna Temple, built in 1513 after a victory in Odisha during the height of Vijayanagar's power. To the east of the temple entrance stand the ruins of a great colonnaded bazaar, with a big empty, weed filled space now between the two rows of columned arcades. Inside the temple are many very interesting carvings, including some great figures on the inside of the eastern entry gate. Here there are battle scenes from Odisha, with horses, elephants, and men with spears and shields. The main mandapa's pillars are covered with carvings. A woman temple sweeper with a flashlight pulled into a dark passage, barely pausing to show me the carvings she very briefly illuminated. She was in such a hurry to get me through and get her tip that she ended up getting nothing. I walked further south. The crowds were getting larger, with lots of schoolchildren in big groups who are much more interested in the foreigners than the ruins. I walked to a twenty foot high statue of Narasimha, an avatar of Vishnu, with bulging eyes. A seven headed naga, or snake, covers his head. Nearby is a very large lingam set in a very small temple, with water covering the floor. By now it was 11:30 and I headed back to the hotel rooftop to have a late breakfast and read the newspaper.
About 2 I took the bus from Hampi the two and a half miles to Kamalapuram, passing city walls, banana groves, ruined temples and lots of huge boulders. I wanted to visit the museum, but they would only let me in if I bought an almost five dollar combined ticket to the museum and two other places, good for only one day. So I skipped it and walked to the nearby old city walls This area between Hampi and Kamalapuram is called the Royal Enclosure, the area of the former palace. The sacred area is the area close to the river, near the village of Hampi. The whole area containing the Vijayanagar ruins is quite large, 26 square kilometers, which is more than 10 square miles. There are two sets of walls, something like 20 miles in circumference and I walked to a deserted gate (Bhima's Gate, after a hero of the Mahabharata) and a nearby Jain temple. Retracing my steps and then going again into the Royal Enclosure I found another large, empty and dilapidated temple, with crumbling statues above its gateway. Nobody was there but a sleeping old man, who when he heard me woke up and asked for money.
I then walked on to the Queen's Bath, where there were lots of tourists. This large building is nondescript outside, with stucco decoration inside. It is about 65 feet square, with an eight foot pool inside that is about 50 feet square. There are 24 domes over the corridor surrounding the pool, with eight balconies looking out over the pool from the corridor. There are four shaft holes in the floor of the pool, thought to have held up umbrellas so the ladies could escape the sun. A moat, fed by a water channel, surrounds the building and fed the pool inside.
From there I walked a little northwest and entered a large walled enclosure with an almost 30 foot high platform in one corner, the Mahanavima Dibba ("House of Victory"), built in commemoration of another Odishan campaign. Its sides are covered with rows and rows of figures: elephants, horses, camels, men hunting deer, soldiers fighting, dancing girls, musicians, and much else. It is thought the king observed ceremonies and performances from its top. All around the huge area inside the walls are the ruins of buildings, aqueducts and pools. To the west, also within the walls, is another large platform, with a hundred holes for posts that have long since disappeared. By now it was almost sunset, so I made my way back towards the village passing many other ruins of the Royal Enclosure and then along the old city walls on the paved road back to the village. I got back just at dark, about 6:30.
The next morning I was out and about around 8 and encountered a line of about ten auto rickshaws filled with westerners with backpacks waiting to enter the narrow lanes of the village. I walked east along the ruins of the bazaar east of the Virupaksha Temple. These bazaar ruins of Vijayanagar had been occupied by modern shops, with modern concrete block additions and painting in places, but they are all now deserted except for a police station at the far end, about a thousand feet from the temple. A huge, but damaged statue of the bull Nandi, the vehicle of Shiva, stands at the western end of the bazaar. Beyond that you can continue further west over a rocky hill to the Achyutharaya Temple, or climb a steeper hill, Matanga Hill, to the north with a temple on top of it. I did neither, but rather retraced my steps a bit and then walked east along the river on a stone paved path that led through a rocky tunnel to a temple on a rise above the river. From there I sat for a while and watched the activity below: women bathing, boys piloting coracles (round basket like boats) down the river, three brahmins praying along the rocky riverside, the latter sitting cross legged and facing the east. Boulder covered hills line the other side of the river.
I passed a few other temples along the river and then turned inland, away from the river through another wide, columned bazaar to the large Achyutharaya Temple. It was already hot in the sun, but cool when in the shade. Generally, the mornings here are pretty good, but it gets hot in the afternoon, the day's heat ampified by all the rocks. This temple was deserted and very interesting, with a high carved gate covered with figures and several mandapas inside the compound. Among the many figures on the mandapa pillars were men in yoga poses and a woman engaged in sex with a horse. The horse appeared to be grinning. I spent a lot of time wandering around inside that temple and then walked back through the empty bazaar, stopping to see a stepped pool off to one side. I noticed a man walk down to the greenish water, where to my surprise he dropped his pants. I wondered whether he really was going to crap into the water, but apparently he had already crapped and was now using the water to clean his butt. I did notice that he did in fact use his left, and not his right (used for eating) hand.
Back near the river, I went a further to the east, passing a few more temples and reaching the Narasimha Temple on a flat rock inclined slope. I climb to the top of the temple for a good view, but by then it was 11:30 and I decided to retreat the way I had come to a restaurant I had passed earlier in the morning. I had an omelette and tea, plus a lot of water, and later a banana pancake. The little restaurant was on the river, with a pleasant breeze and an opportunity to watch passersby. I talked to an interesting Canadian doctor at the next table for a while.
About 2:30 I started off again downriver, retracing my steps and passing a whitewashed temple up the hillside where women were using sickles and even stones to chip off the whitewash from the pillars, which all had carvings on them. A man was washing one of the already cleared pillars. One of the women was quite inquisitive. Another was boiling tea on a little fire and, when they all took a tea break, they handed me a little cup.
After tea with that friendly bunch, I walked on to a rocky area along a northern bend of the river, into an area with caves, one of which is supposed to be where Sita hid her jewels from Ravanna. There is a small temple right along the river among the boulders, that a local woman later told me was dedicated to Lakshmi. There was a sculpture of a woman in the place of honor inside, along with other figures. They all had colored chalk on them. Arriving at and leaving this temple I had to clamber over some huge rocks. On some flat rocks nearby I found carved lingas, individual ones and groups of small ones. One group had 108 (an auspicious number) and another nearby had about 1000. (I didn't count, but estimated.) On a higher rock face were carved figures. Two British tourists led by two local women showed up, having arrived from across the river by coracle and departing by the same. I made my way back to the main path east by hopping along the huge boulders until I reached the end of the boulder field and could climb down into the grass and make my way to the path. I continued past even more ruined temples and walls and reached what is called the King's Balance, a simple beam supported by two posts from which it is said the king was weighed and his weight in gold given to either brahmins or the poor. Just further on is the large Vitthala Temple. This temple is Hampi's finest and there were big crowds there at the end of the day. It, too, has a long columned bazaar, stretching to the east. I looked around the exterior a bit, but it was after 5:30 by now, so I headed back. A bunch of school girls were peeing along the north wall of the temple compound and were understandably discomforted by my appearance. I beat a hasty retreat. I headed back along the almost deserted route back to the village, arriving about 6:30.
The next morning I decided to head to the Vitthala Temple first thing. On my way, at the far end of the bazaar east of the Virupaksha Temple, in front of the Nandi statue and the police station, were two big buses with "Jesus" emblazoned on their rears. A short distance away perhaps thirty or more autorickshaws were waiting for backpackers who had come overnight from Goa on the buses, with the auto rickshaw drivers flapping Hampi maps to attract attention. It was quite a scene. I watched for a few minutes and then continued along the river the way I had gone the day before and reached the Vitthala Temple at 8:30.
Thiis temple, honoring Vishnu, was a lot less crowded than it had been the previous afternoon. I spent more than two and a half hours inside looking around. It was built in the 15th century and improved in the early 16th century. There are three mandapas inside the compound, with the main one, in the center, partially closed. This main temple has pillars that if struck make musical tones. Apparently, the temple is closed to prevent tourists from striking them. A guard offered to do so for me for 200 rupees, but I heard another guard do so for a school group. In front of the main mandapa is a stone chariot with stone wheels that once rotated and now are cemented to the ground. There is a garuda inside. All three mandapas had many beautifully carved pillars, similar to the other temples I have seen in Hampi. I did notice something new: a lion with the head of an elephant. There were also friezes of elephants and horses near the bases of the temples. The crowds were much increased by the time I left. I took a photo of two young women posing next to column at their request with their camera, and when I asked if I could take one with my camera, they agreed and actually smiled while posing. That was nice. Indians usually adopt a fairly grim face when posing for photos. In one of the mandapas, a little boy in a blue school uniform was curled up and sleeping next to a pillar. I think he was probably sick and sleeping their while his school mates were touring the temple.
Leaving the temple, I walked back the way I had come, with a couple of minor detours to see the ruins of a Vijayanagar era bridge over the river and another cave. I passed a big tree I hadn't noticed earlier with rocks tied up in bundles hanging from its branches and other rocks in piles on the ground under its branches. I was later told they represent prayers for children, jobs and the like. The hanging rocks were in little sacks made of cloth and sometimes plastic (an old plastic bag). About noon I got to the restaurant along the river where I'd eaten the day before and had a very late breakfast. I had eaten several coconut cookies that I bought in a bakery in the village just before I set off that morning. I got back to my hotel about 1 and had a banana pancake for desert.
About 2 or 2:30 I took the bus to Kamalapuram and went to the museum, which had some good sculpture, interesting quotations from the 15th century Persian and the 16th century Portuguese who visited Vijayanagar, and two fantastic large models, one of the whole area of the ruins and one of the Royal Enclosure. I then walked through the Royal Enclosure, passing ruins I had seen previously, and making my way to the Zenana, the walled compound for women, with an interesting multi-domed, open arcaded building, called the Lotus Mahal, inside and two watchtowers on the walls. Just outside is a large building with about nine domed sections that is thought to have been elephant stables, and behind that are other temples and a gateway, all pretty much deserted at the end of the afternoon. Beyond were rocky hills with boulders perched precariously along parts of the ridge. I walked back towards Hampi for about half an hour through the ruins, banana groves and boulders and got a lift from another tourist on a motorcycle for the last half mile or so. I went into the Virupaksha Temple when I got back to the village in hopes of seeing the Lakshmi, the temple elephant, but she wasn't there.
The next morning I wanted to go back to see those parts of the Royal Enclosure that I hadn't yet seen, but got on the wrong bus, not heading past the Royal Enclosure. I hopped off once once I realized that, and had a pleasant walk past more banana groves, rice fields, and a few ox carts full of banana leaves, for animal feed perhaps. I stopped in to see a few ruined temples on the way and passed under the remains of the walls, often built right on large boulders. Eventually I got to the Royal Enclosure again and spent the morning looking around, visiting the extensive palace ruins and then the beautiful Hazara Rama Temple, with many interesting carvings on its walls and pillars. Some walls are covered with rows and rows of figures, in part depicting the Ramayana. This is the only temple in the Royal Enclosure and is therefore thought to be a temple for royalty. In the center of the mandapa are four black basalt pillars, very intricately carved. The area hadn't been crowded in the morning, but was getting very crowded about noon. It was getting hotter, too, though it doesn't bet really hot here until the early afternoon. About 12:30 I started walking back and got a lift from two boys, the oldest a teenager, on a motorcycle.
Back at the hotel, I ate up in the rooftop restaurant and spent most of the afternoon up there. Langur monkeys were up in the trees between the restaurant and river, eating seeds from long pods hanging from the branches. These graceful monkeys are always fun to watch. About 4:30 I left for a walk, pausing just outside my hotel to watch the water buffaloes who spend the night under my window returning from the fields. They drank from a stone basin of water and I noticed that the one with the longest horns (maybe three feet long) muscled out the other ones to drink first. I walked to the ghats near the ferry landing and watched the activity on the river until about 6, when I went to the restaurant up the river where I had gone with Nick and Maria. I had dinner there, with a view of the river before dark. You approach this restaurant through a banana grove. When I left, the stars were out and I saw Orion and very bright Jupiter right next to Taurus' horns. I've seen Jupiter the past three winters here in India as it makes its way across the sky for several months.
I had an early breakfast up in my hotel's rooftop restaurant the next morning and then headed to the ferry crossing with plans to spend the day exploring the other side of the river. Along the top of the ghats, I noticed a pile of elephant dung (quite recognizable, though in India I'm sorry to say you get fairly expert at recognizing all sorts of dung, human and animal) and then saw an elephant approaching. I had finally spotted Lakshmi. She had had her morning bath in the river and was headed back to the temple. I followed and ended up spending an hour or so in the temple. Lakshmi made the rounds of the various altars and bent down on her knees and then rose up on her hind legs in front of them. Also, if you offer her a coin or a bill, she will take it with her trunk, give it to her mahout (rider), and then place her trunk briefly on the giver's head as a blessing. After making her rounds in the temple, she walked to her corner where she spends most of her time.
I spent some more time in the temple watching some particularly rambunctious monkeys, including several very small ones, all macaques. By the time I crossed the river by the small ferry it was after 10. The village on the other side, Virupapura Gadda, is filled with guesthouses, restaurants and shops catering to western tourists. It is a thriving spot, with beautiful rice paddies right next to the main lane and palm trees and rocky hills just beyond. It's quite a pretty place, and filled with western tourists. I looked around a bit and walked out of town past rice paddies to a rocky hill, which I climbed in part. I had a good view and it was cool in the shade of the big boulders, but in the sun it was hot, with all the rock radiating heat. About 11 I decided it was too hot and I had gotten too late a start to explore more of this side of the river, so I walked back to the ferry landing and got back to Hampi about noon. I spent the afternoon at an internet cafe and on my hotel's rooftop restaurant reading the newspaper before heading to the Mango Tree, the restaurant upriver from the village, about 5 for an early dinner to enjoy the views over the river.
The next morning, after an early breakfast at my hotel, I got to the ferry crossing soon after 8 in hope that I would arrive before Lakshmi arrived for her daily bath in the river. On top of the steep ghats lining the river, I did find a pile of fresh elephant dung, but could see no elephant anywhere. I scanned the river, filled with morning bathers and washerwomen, and saw some guys apparently scrubbing a large rock in the river. When I got down to the little temple at the river's edge next to the ferry terminus I noticed that what they were washing was Lakshmi. She was lying in shallow water with her back to the riverbank and didn't look like an elephant from that view. She was being scrubbed with thick brushes by two guys and seemed quite content to lie there. Nearby a colorful group of clothed girls were busy bathing, shampooing, brushing teeth, and splashing each other, and a couple of other groups of girls came down to do the same while I watched them and Lakshmi. Lakshmi got quite a scrub, maybe almost an hour. I watched for more than half an hour, maybe forty minutes. After being scrubbed on one side, she rose and lay down on her other side, with her head now towards the riverbank, one eye in the water and one eye out. She seemed very content, occasionally moving her trunk but otherwise quiet. The two guys took quite a while scrubbing that side and then had her stand up again. With her standing, they proceeding to scrub each leg and foot, having Lakshmi raise them one at a time, and then thoroughly scrubbed her trunk. Finally, they stood away as she filled her trunk with river water several times and sprayed it all over her back, quite a performance. The mahout then mounted her, having her lift her left front leg, which he climbed upon on his way to her back, and led her up the steep ghat steps back towards the temple. It was pretty interesting watching her sway up those steps.
I took the ferry across to Virupapura Gadda and rented a bike, a good one, and headed through the tourist-congested little village past guesthouses, hotels and shops on one side and rice paddies, coconut trees and boulders on the other side to the paved road, passing the ruins of an old aqueduct. On the paved road I biked east, past more rice paddies, coconut trees and boulders. Men with bullock pulled plows or perhaps levelers were at work in some of the watery paddies. It is a very scenic area. I parked my bike at the base of Anjanandri Hill, a steep 400 foot climb, and climbed up the whitewashed steps to the top. The view from the top was great, even through the ever present Indian haze, and in fact, because I had spent so much time watching Lakshmi bathe, I had got there later in the morning than planned, when the views are hazier. Still, it was great to see all the rice paddies, banana groves and boulder-covered rocky hills from above. The 165 foot high gopura from the Virupaksha Temple across the river was just visible beyond an intervening rocky ridge. The temple on top isn't much, though there was a guy playing a drum and chanting inside. More interesting was to walk along the boulders and flat rock faces on top for the views. There were a few langur monkeys up there. From the top I could watch plowing and planting of rice far below. I could see the river and the walls of the ancient village of Anegundi to the east. This hill is supposed to be the birthplace of Hanuman, the monkey king, or perhaps ambassador from the monkey kings who reigned here, who assisted Rama in his fight against Ravanna.
It was getting hot as I came down about noon. Macaques were playing in the canal near the bottom of the stairs, splashing as they jumped into the water and even wrestling while in the water. Before bicycling onward I stopped to watch men and women pulling out newly sprouted rice plants from a watery paddy. Rice is apparently initially sown very thickly in a few paddies, and then when the sprouts get to a little less than a foot in height they are pulled out, tied in little clumps, and transported to other paddies where the clumps are untied and the individual rice sprouts replanted, much more spaced out than before. It is an arduous task, with all the pickers bent over at the waist in ankle deep water. The clumps of tied rice sprouts were placed on a piece of canvas or plastic and pulled through the muddy paddy to a trailer pulled by a tractor and then tossed into the trailer. It was all very interesting to watch and the group seemed amused that I was watching.
I was getting a little hungry and so biked on to Anegundi in hope of stopping at a restaurant, but it was closed. I biked down to the ferry crossing, next to a collapsed bridge, and stopped at a little shack where I drank a couple of liters of water, and later a coconut, and ate some bananas and cookies. Anegundi, which predates Vijayanagar, still has portions of its walls and I spent some time exploring the southern gateway, on the river, and a nearby temple bordered by beautiful rice paddies, coconut trees and boulders on one side and a dry and mostly harvested corn field on the other side. I spent a while at the temple in the shade, enjoying the views, before biking again back through the village to see a few of its old buildings and walls. There is also a wooden ceremonial chariot in the center of the village.
I biked back to Virupapura Gadda the way I had come, with several detours and stops along the way. I watched women replanting rice in watery paddies. Near a very little village on the way I watched a small, old tractor pulling a disc churning up a watery field. Men with teams of bullocks were watching, and when the tractor finished, they led their teams over the field, apparently pulling flat boards to smooth the surface of what had just been churned up. Lots of egrets were watching the proceedings and flying to wherever they spotted something to eat in the water and mud. I got back to Virupapura Gadda a little after 4 after a lovely afternoon bike ride. I probably would have biked around some more if I weren't hungry. I took the ferry back to Hampi and made my way to a restaurant right on the river near my hotel, with very good views over the river and down the river. I ordered a pizza for an early dinner. I stayed and enjoyed the views (and the pizza) until it got dark, about 6:30. I have been taking advantage of eating non-Indian food here in Hampi. In the late afternoon a few tourists swam in the swift moving river below the restaurant.
I walked to the ghats the next morning before 8, but Lakshmi was already lying on her side in the river getting bathed. I had hoped to get there early enough to see her lumber down the ghat steps. Instead, I walked east along the bazaar in front of the entry to the Virupaksha Temple to near the huge Nandi statue at the far end, where I began the ascent of Matanga Hill, just to the north and a little over 300 feet high. The climb up, along wrecked stairs and over boulders with rock cut steps was very interesting and, in the shade for the most part, quite cool this early in the morning. There were lots of boulders and caves on the way up, and I spotted a big group of langur monkeys, maybe 20 or 30 of them, clambering over some boulders. Higher up, I came across ten or so macaque monkeys huddled together in two groups in the morning chill. They didn't seem to get too disturbed as I walked by. As I climbed, there were great views below through the boulders of the ruins, rocky hills, canals, banana groves, and coconut trees.
The views were even better once I neared and finally reached the top. You could see almost the whole area. The Virupaksha Temple and its bazaar are to the west. Just below, to the east, is the Achyutharaya Temple and its bazaar. Also to the east I could see the Vishnu Temple and its bazaar. I could also see the Vitthala Temple to the northwest. The views were great in every direction, and especially towards the river and rocky hills to the north. I could pick out many of the routes I had taken during the previous days. The Royal Enclosure, however, was mostly out of sight, blocked by hills and the glare of the morning sun in the southeastern sky.
The temple on top of Matanga Hill was quite large, though deserted. I am a bit surprised at that, as it is such a beautiful place. I spent most of my time, and I was up there over an hour, on the extensive temple roof, looking in all directions. Nobody was up there until the very end, when three Indians showed up. There was a cool breeze and it was comfortable in the morning sun. I watched a very few visitors tramp through the Achyutharaya Temple just below. A falcon, perhaps, glided right over that temple and I watched it climb in gyres, barely moving its wings, as it used updrafts to get higher and higher. First, it was far below me, just over the temple, then eye level, then above me before it flew off and I lost sight of it.
As I walked down, only two others were walking up. I came across the rock where the macaques had been huddled on my way up and they were gone, leaving behind a mess of monkey poop and piss. I came across them a little bit lower and watched as the small ones very carefully and slowly, but skillfully, climbed down some of the almost vertical slopes of boulders. I got back to the hotel about 11 for breakfast and reading the newspaper. It has been quite cold in the north, with lows near freezing in Delhi, Rajasthan an Uttar Pradesh. I'm glad I'm in the south. Here the highs are about 90 (though in the afternoon it can feel hotter if you are in the sun surrounded by heat radiating rock), with lows in the 60's, I think. Hampi is between 15 and 16 degrees north of the Equator and at about 1500 feet elevation.
After a lazy afternoon, I had dinner before dark again at the restaurant overlooking the river near my hotel and went to the Virupaksha Temple just after dark, but not much was going on.
The next morning I got up early enough to see Lakshmi as she was making her way to her bath. She was on top of the ghats, being fed bananas and even large green banana stalks, which she chewed up and swallowed. The bananas went down whole and unpeeled. A small crowd had gathered and various people were receiving blessings, her trunk placed briefly on the head, for ten rupees. The crowd scattered a bit when she suddenly dropped several balls of dung, about the size of small coconuts. They landed with a thud.
I followed her down the steps to the river, where she received a little shorter bath this morning, maybe 30 to 40 minutes long. She took her bath with the same docility as before. At the end of her bath, she stood in the water near the little temple on the river bank and for a fee sprayed several Indians and western tourists one after the other with water from her trunk. I sat on the ghat steps and watched both her and a big group of pre-teenage Indian girls who had just bathed in the river. They were dressed very nicely in dry clothes, mostly shalwar kameezes, but one or two in western clothes, including one in jeans. They combed their hair, applied powder to their faces, making them only slightly lighter, and applied tilaks (the little dot-like designs Indian women wear just above their eyes) on their foreheads. They seemed to have little packs of tilaks with some sort of sticky substance on them. Finally, they pinned strands of white flowers to the back of the hair of each other. When they left, I watched the bathers and washerwomen along the river for a while and then retreated about 10 to my hotel's rooftop restaurant for breakfast.
I spent most of the afternoon doing errands, in an internet cafe and having a late lunch in my hotel's rooftop restaurant. About half a dozen squirrels, with stripes on their backs, were particularly active in the tree between the hotel and the river, running back and forth all over the branches, chasing each other, and even fighting at times. They were fun to watch.
About 4 I walked to the east end of the bazaar, near the huge Nandi statue, and visited a photo exhibition in a large building that is part of the bazaar. It had very interesting photos of Hampi's ruins taken in 1865 by a British army officer alongside photos of the same places taken in 1983 and 2004. From there I walked up the steps to the gateway and further stairs that lead over a rocky rise just north of Matanga Hill to the Achyutharaya Temple. Huge boulders line the way. I again walked through the temple, almost deserted in the late afternoon. The long bazaar leading to the river was almost all in shade and I walked up and down it, pausing at the pool near the end. A beautiful blue bird, a roller I think it is called, was perched above the pool, occasionally diving for fish or insects.
I came back to the temple, where the squirrels were running all over, up and down the ruins and through the courtyards. I took the path back over the rise towards the village and sat for a while, almost till dark, on a rock with a great view of Achyutharaya Temple below. A herd of about 50 goats came up the path from the temple, led by a dog and followed by two boys. As I walked back along the bazaar in the dusk to the village I noticed several big fruit bats in the sky. I could hear them occasionally hitting the branches of the tree above me. I wonder if they were eating its fruit. I got back to the village at dark, just as a monkey stole about five packs of some sort of snack from a stall. They packs were all attached in a long row and you could see the monkey high in a tree with the line of packs dangling. The shop owner got a very long stick and eventually the monkey, a macaque, dropped them, after breaking into two or three of them.
I had planned to leave Hampi at last the next morning, but couldn't quite make myself go. Instead, about 8 I walked again towards the Achyutharaya Temple. Crossing the rocky rise on the way, I spotted about 20 langurs together on and near the top of a huge boulder. I paused at a little Hanuman Temple, where a woman was making offerings inside to the large, chalk colored image of the monkey ally of Rama. I walked around through an area of huge boulders and came back to the little temple. Three men in yellow, perhaps brahmin priests, were inside, chanting while dressing the image with flowers and lighting little lamps below. Two women came up but did not go inside. Instead, they handed their offerings to one of the men and stood outside with their hands folded.
I walked down to the Achyutharaya Temple, but instead of going in, I went around to its rear, where I had heard voices, and found several people worshiping a colorfully painted image in the ruins. Several monkeys, both macaques and the larger langurs, were watching, poised to grab any edible offering they could get to safely. Eventually, one guy chased them away with a stick, and one langur seemed to take exception to that. He made quite a clamor, bouncing from the rocks and trees several times onto the metal roof, hung with bells, just before the image. The roof bent and shook with much noise. I think he made his point.
I walked through the Achyutharaya Temple and sat there for a while. Leaving, I climbed up the rocky slope east of the temple and explored among the big boulders. I sat for a while in the shade of a boulder enjoying the view of the temple, the colonnaded bazaar in front, banana trees off to one side, and Matanga Hill above it all. The temperature was rising and I was getting hungry about 11, so I walked down and then through the empty bazaar to the river and followed it back to the village for breakfast and the newspaper.
I set off on another hike about 4, heading towards Matanga Hill, and then skirting it to the west and walking through boulder fields and then a banana grove to the north. In the banana grove I crossed over two canals (Hampi's canals are said to date from the Vijayanagar era), one by a small stone bridge and the other by crossing a couple of banana tree trunks placed side by side and then hopping over rocks. This led me to a dirt road and then another canal crossed by a stone bridge and then up another rocky hill strewn with boulders. I was trying to get to some small temples on the ridge, but never found the way up. It was a beautiful hike, though. I retraced my steps and climbed up Matanga Hill, getting to the top about 5:30. The sunset was somewhat anticlimatic, as the sun disappeared into the haze above the hills to the west just after 6. The view from the top was great, though, and I could see the ruins of the Royal Enclosure better than I had the previous morning. There were about 20 of us up there for the sunset, about half Korean. (There were surprisingly large numbers of Koreans and Russians in Hampi.) I walked down and found a small step well with several chirping frogs in the water. Unlike the night before, there were no bats in the trees on the way back to the village. I guess they must have eaten all the fruit the night before.
