Hampi- Simoga, Heritage marvel of South India

I had never imagined a tour to Hampi in Karnataka until I read about the place and decided to travel to this UNESCO recognised World Heritage site. A large empire, in the south of India, occupies almost half of the present State, Karnataka, the Vijayanagar dynasty and it's empire. More excavation can reveal wider areas of the empire. The archeology department presently preserve the place with the ruins and is a site not to be missed for history lovers, architecture explorers and those with interest in academics related to traditional, cultural, artistic evolution and their transitions over time.

We reached Bangalore from Kasargode, after visiting the kumble temple. A taxi was arranged for our tour place,  which was around 7 hours from Bangalore. The stay and travel was arranged and pre-booked. The stay at Hampi was at a farm like area with huts and open, floor seating arrangement for food. After a heavy lunch we started our tour to the nearby places such as sunset point and Pampa sarovar lake.

On our way, we had a glimpse of Anjanadri hills with the Hanuman temple and also visited ruins of the empire such as water canal, and chariot left out, made of stone. Either side on the road is rice cultivation with farm animals gracing on the stranded spaces. In the midst of these, are parts of lake, hills on all sides and ruins of the  magnificent structures spread across the place.

Virupaksha temple

We finished our site visit by 6:30 pm, reached back, had dinner and slept tightly, ready at mind for the long day ahead.

Paay vallom

We packed our bags, had breakfast and checked out of the stay place. First, we reached Virupaksha temple by crossing the river by the round contoured boat ' paya vallam' in Malayalam. We clicked few photos,inside the boat, reached the opposite side to reach the temple premises. We toured inside quickly, took some snaps of the temple pond and the monkeys jumping around. The special seva at the temple is to feed the monkeys with groundnuts. Many sellers of packed ground nuts are seated on either side of the temple. After the inside tour, we came out to buy few accessories with design of old dynasty. There was renovation work going on, around the temple and lot of dust was present at the place. So, we moved on, waited for the boat, boarded it and crossed the river to reach the side where our vehicle was waiting. 

The next destination, Vijaya vittala temple, is a massive temple, structured more like a palace temple with halls for dance, music, prayer, food along with kitchens and other areas outside the structure such as trading place of horses and food materials. We reached the place in a battery car and entered the exotic, antique structure, our eyes to first view the famous stone chariot printed on our blue colour 50 Rupee note. 

Other than that, there were spaces for deities, carvings, pillars which narrated stories, three and multidimensional stone carvings, detailed structural modifications for rainwater draining and large - preserved trees. Outside this temple are double storied structures to ornate the horses for sale. This structure was part of the Hampi bazaar of the dynasty. There was a guide detailing the stories and the importance of the structures and we left the place in two hours imprinting the memories of the stories narrated and relating it to the structures.

Our next destination was nearby, called the "group of monuments",  which are collection of ruined structures and other remains preserved by the archaeological department. We visited, the watch towers, lotus mahal, elephant stable,  Hazara Rama temple, the base of the remains of queens bath, queens palace, underground siva temple and two other temples attached to the monuments. We had to walk, understand the structures and simultaneously click snaps of the place for our memories of the visit to the place.

 

Anyone would never forget the structural remains on the way and the stone carved entrance to the once beautiful and proud empire, retaining it's glory and beauty even through its ruins.

We moved quickly from the place to hit the main road before evening and stopped for a late lunch and tea to move to our next destination, Simoga which is 7 hours from Hampi. We reached Simoga also called Sivamoga at 9:30 pm, but reached the stay place late due to traffic congestion. There was a temple festival going on in the temple nearby the stay place. Finally, we reached the place we had booked online, had a quick and light dinner, planned the activities of the next day and slept.

We started at 8:00 am, ate breakfast and as decided by the kids, skipped all the places of visit nearby and reached Simoga zoo in thirty minutes. It was an open zoo with optional and paid Safari. After a long time, we saw bears hyenas, tigers, black tigers, gorillas, chimpanzees, yemu, ostrich and many birds which were not in any zoo we visited in the recent past. We walked for one hour, clicked photos, observed the place with animals in detail. The zoo is part of the forest with just an enclosure to avoid them entering into the human inhabitation. I loved the place as much as my kids.

My mother sat at the entrance as she did not want to walk through the place.

     

Our next, destination was Aghoreshwara temple, which was located in Ikkeri, a place in Vijayanagar district. We were dubious about choosing this place to visit as it was  a newly mentioned place but with good reviews. Anyway, it was my interest to visit the place, as it was also part of the Vijayanagar dynasty. 

We reached the place and found that there are rituals going on actively in the place. So, it was a regular temple and had to follow the rules written outside the temple in the premises and few implied etiquettes of temple visits. We went inside, saw the massive sized ' Nandi', the bull vehicle of Lord Siva. Next, we took a tour inside and outside the temple, imbibed the space around us which was filled with breeze, spiritual richness and serenity. The structures were similar to that of Hampi and similar trial on renovating the temple, it had turned pink. The original texture and colour are retained the in rest of the structures for which renovation was not attempted. After prayers to the three deities at the temple, we moved to our vehicle to continue our journey. We could meet another group of travellers from and around Kerala, shared some conversations with them and continued to our next destination Mysore.

Mysore was 7 hours from Ikkeri and we started by 12 pm. We rode through the National Highway to Mysore. On the way, there were wind mills - alternate source of energy, the vastness of Thungabadra dam, old forts with stories of civil wars and warriors associated with them; and homogenous farms of fruit, vegetable, cereal or lentils cultivation. We listened to music, conversed among ourselves, had snacks and continued our journey without stopping anywhere. 

We reached Mysore by 7:30 pm at the outer ring road, at the home stay prebooked by us. It was a cozy, comfortable place for a 14 hour stay, majorly spend for sleeping. We ordered for a breakfast which was complimentary and slept early to rest ourselves for a long, tiring time on the next day....

To be continued .....

See you all at Mysore...Bye for now !