Hampi – A Tour of the Historical Site (Cont’d)

My family and I were on a 4 day trip to Hampi, one of Karnataka’s most well known historical sites. In case you have missed to read the first part of this trip blog you can read it at Hampi – A Tour of the Historical Site.

The plan for the third day of the trip was to explore the sites on our own. First we wanted to catch the sunrise from the top of Matanga Hill. We woke up well before sunrise as we had to drive to Matanga Hill and then climb over the rocks to the top of the hill. It was just going to be my wife and I for this adventure. We left the kids asleep in the hotel room and headed off.

Sunrise at Matanga Hill

We parked the car at the base of  Matanga Hill and looked around. It was dark up the hill and all around except for a few street lights on the path that we had parked at. Damn! How were we going to go up without knowing the route and not having a torchlight? As we both stood besides the car wondering what to do we see a couple walking towards us shining their torch. They looked like South Asian tourists. Now what would a couple of South Asian tourists be doing at this time of the night with a torchlight? Going to climb Matanga Hill of course! We enquired with them; our hunch turned out correct. They allowed us to tag along with them. They were God sent as far as we were concerned 🙂 .

The climb was not very difficult. There were places where we had to climb over some mid-sized boulders; easy for a reasonably fit person. The important thing was they knew the route up and had a torch light as without this it would have been dangerous to attempt. There were several others already at the top when we reached there, all come to catch the sunrise. It was windy and chilly; we were glad we had brought our jackets.

We were in for a treat with the visuals. The climb was well worth it. One could get a 360 degree view from the hill. In one part we got the aerial view of the Achyutarya Temple and it surroundings

and the other part had the mighty Tungabhadra

and the Sri Virupaksha Temple.

Here is a panorama of the view towards Sri Virupaksha Temple.

The hill top itself had some structures. There one that almost looked like a mantapa where one could just sit and get lost in the serenity and beauty of the view.

Very soon we saw the sun slowly making its way “up”.

We of course had to take some pictures with us in them 🙂 .

Satisfied and invigorated we headed down below to our car. Before we headed off from Matanga Hill we decided to explore the structures at the base. At the base is the large and steep steps that greeted us earlier in the morning. This is the path that we had climbed and headed towards to the top of the hill earlier.

Towards the west of these steps was the monolithic Nandi statue

and a few other structures.

In between the Nandi shrine and the Sri Virupaksha Temple was a pathway with structures on both sides. This was a long market street in the past.

Krishna Temple

The light was golden, soothing and the weather nice and pleasant. We decided to explore a couple of more structures before we headed back to the kids at the hotel. The first of these was the Krishna Temple. When we reached there we saw that we were the only ones except for the lone security guard at the entrance. What luck!

Here is the view of the entrance from within the temple.

The temple was a large and complex set of structures.

Oh, What a beautiful temple this was especially with the golden morning sunlight accentuating its beauty! Here are some of the other parts of the temple.

Revisit to Hazara Rama Temple and Royal Enclosure

We had wanted to visit the Hazara Rama Temple and the Royal Enclosure area again in warmer sunlight. The sunlight had been harsh when we had visited them yesterday. Well this was our chance. We headed there. And as expected the structures were golden in their appearance.

By the time we completed visiting the stepped tank both our tummies and the sunlight were telling us that it was time to head back to the hotel; both for breakfast and the kids. And as expected we found the kids lazing in their beds waiting for us to come and tell them it was time to get up 🙂 .

Achyutaraya Temple

After a sumptuous breakfast we headed out as a family to explore the Achyutaraya Temple. We had got a view of it earlier in the morning from atop the Matanga Hill. It had looked magnificent and we knew we just had to explore it. So of we went to it.

As with Vitthala Temple it has a long pathway that served as its approach. This too had served as a market street.

As with the other temples we were greeted by a large gopuram at the entrance. However it had partly been destroyed.

 

We could get a glance of the internal gopuram when looking through the main entrance.

Here is a view of the gopuram from inside.

Again this was a very large temple structure. The first gopuram lead to  another gopuram.

This gopuram lead to a courtyard which held a 100-column hall. These pillars had carvings of the avatars of Lord Vishnu.

Here is a panoramic view of the internal courtyard with the main hall and its surrounding.

As with other places we of course had to sign it off with a few family pictures 🙂 .

We headed back to the hotel for lunch followed by a short rest.

Catching the Sunset

The plan for the rest of the day was to catch the sunset at the Sunset Point. This is  actually atop Hemakuta Hill. So off we went by late afternoon. We parked our vehicle at the car park and climbed up to the top of the hill. As we had seen at the other places earlier in the morning the structures here too got a hue of gold with the evening golden sunlight. So beautiful to behold it!

We then just sat on one structure and simply enjoyed the sun setting over the horizon and etching the evening in our memories.

Extremely content with what we had witnessed we returned back to the hotel. Over dinner we reminisced the moments from our 3 days. We were ready to head back home to Bangalore the next morning.

Visiting a place like Hampi re-enforced my admiration for the rich culture and incredible skill that our ancestors had and country still has. It is so important for us to educate our children and ourselves about them and if possible visit them; seeing them in person brings in an  admiration that one cannot get while just reading about them. If only one had a time-machine in which one could travel back in time to experience these wonders in their full glory!

Recommendations and Tips

If you plan to hike Matanga Hills to catch the sunrise make sure you bring along a good torchlight. It will also a good idea to have explored the route up in the day prior so as to get familiar with the route. Go in a group if possible. Get some warm clothes. It gets pretty chilly atop the hill during winter.

I cannot but repeat; visit the monuments in the early morning and evening. They look exquisite in the warm golden sunlight; something not to be missed. At times that sky also offers interesting cloud patterns in these golden light hours thus enhancing the beauty.

Young children may however find the sites too monotonous if they are not old enough to understand the history and appreciate historical sites. Having more than one child helps as they can keep each other company in their “misery” 🙂 . But I believe the image of the structures stays somewhere in their mind. I have my daughter wanting to revisit Hampi now as she studied so much more in her history at school.