I first visited Hampi 7 years back, when I had just started experimenting with my small but new digital camera, with a friend over a weekend from Bangalore. In my memory it was one of the best trips I had. Hampi with its majestic ruins stood out in my mental map of India. It had vast serene environment with farms interspersed with royal palaces, beautiful temples, long bazaars had an aura of perfect calmness amidst past glory. Stories of Tenali Ram played in my mind as I wandered through the place. Last week on our way to Western Ghats from Hyderabad, we stopped at Hampi and I again walked through this ruined city, which is now a world heritage site. I wanted to spend some time in that calmness that I had experienced then and admire the rock structures as the sun goes down and when it comes up early morning. This time again I wanted to capture some of the city in my camera, for memories and for sharing.
Alas! The place has changed so much. Last time I had gone on a weekend and this time on a weekday, but the crowd was so much that I could see but not feel the place. People were jostling everywhere. There were long queues of school children who were being moved in queues through the monuments and then made to stand for a group picture by the teachers. Open spaces were their playgrounds and I wonder if they were even told what the place is and what its significance is. I wonder if the teachers themselves knew anything about the importance of the place. They were all young women more worried about getting the right pose for their pictures. Then there were buses full of tourists that came in the morning and as soon as they landed, drivers and conductors took out the huge cooking equipment and started cooking for the tourists, making the whole place look like a huge picnic spot.
So many monuments had barricades erected around them. Last time there were no fences and no barricades, you could walk across any place. After all everything there is stone and what can people do to stones. But looking at the crowd on a weekday, I am sure the barricades were indeed required. Vithala temple that has the signature stone chariot of Hampi can now be approached only on foot or you have to take a km long ride on the battery operated golf carts. The ceiling of the Rang mandapa has fallen or is being restored, so you cannot enter it. The musical pillars have been acid washed making them look freshly sculptured but devoid of the music that they emanate. I was told that no one is allowed to touch them now, while last time our guide actually played them for us and even we with our untrained fingers tried to make some music out of them. Similarly, you have to stop way before the Virupaksha temple then go on foot. Number of food stalls and push cart vendors have also increased in proportion to the visitors. The surroundings of Virupaksha temple were filthy and you wonder why all this drama of not taking shoes inside the temple, when right outside the temple there is so much filth. The guide fees has increased manifold and literally every monument had guide sellers, trying to tell you that visiting Hampi is useless without the guide.
We visited the step well and the festival platform early morning, when the city was still waking up and I really enjoyed roaming around here, finding various camera angles to capture the place and trying to imagine how this place would have looked on a festival day. There are lots of ruins around this area, where only the foundations of buildings remain. It made me think is that why they say the foundation of the building must be strong, for the building may falls, but the foundations remain to tell the stories. The sheer symmetry of the step well makes it enchanting. You can look at it for a long time and not be bored because there is a design that holds your attention. I do not remember seeing the fine paintings on the ceiling of Virupaksha temple, which I admired this time. I also learnt that Pampa Devi, an Avatar of Parvati is the local deity after whom the city was named, and it got distorted to its present name Hampi.
This time also I could not visit Anegundi but we drove through the road leading to it and it was a beautiful drive. There are stone hills on both sides of the road with finely balanced boulders, which give an impression that the stones could fall any moment but apparently they have been hanging there forever. Small farms spread between these hills have big and small rocks scattered over them. The place gives a very artistic impression, as if the creator was playing with green and grey colors. On top of the hillocks here and there you see small white temples and then from somewhere the steps leading to the temple. This place still had the serenity that I saw in Hampi in my last trip, the unadulterated nature with no over the top modern buildings and billboards vying for your attention.
I wonder if one should re-visit the most cherished places or not….
