Hampi trip - A trip to lost kingdom day 2 -Part1

This blog is continuation of hampi trip about my second day. After I reached  viupaksha temple I had few options to go around unseen part of hampi like renting a two wheeler/cycle  or  Auto .I could also walk around hampi. I rented a auto for 500 rs  for 2.5 hours place which are  in and around 5 kms.Afternoon I had planned to go anegudi other side of thungabadra and also Kiskinta,

Krishna temple and bazar.

Krishna temple was built by krishnadevaraya most famous king of vijayanagar.

Krishna temple has  a Bazar and pushkarni in front. I took a look over damaged statues inside temple.

I walked across krishna bazar  to reach empty pushkarni.
I got my picture clicked by a foreigner.One strange thing about hampi  was I saw more foreigners in hampi than Indians.Auto drivers were speaking foreign accent of English .Ironically  vocabulary was still average.

Badavi Linga and Ugra Narshima

Both these structures were situated close to each other .A  water channel and fields were behind the sanctum,

Ugra Narashima is 22 feet majestic statue .Invaders have caused some extensive damages to this statue. Missing top structure exposes structure to adverse weather condition directly. Once Detached Legs are now  attached to main structure using a stone bandage like structure. Badavi linga has water around supplied by the passing  water channel.

badavi linga

Sister Stones

Sister stones are two huge stones attached to each other naturally.Though they lived close to each other for centuries, nature has now broken the relationship .One of it has broken off few years ago.

Hazare rama temple.

 This is most beautiful and elegant temples in Hampi. Sculptors from Kanchipuram have worked over 12 years to complete this temple work . Temple is built with special polished stones.Sculptures here still have rich shiny  look.

Ramayana stories are depicted around temple's one side of inner wall.Other side of temple wall had many statues like buddha, balakrishna , dancing krishna and vishnu statues. It had tall outer wall that has story of Lava,kusa (Sons of Lord Ram) .

                                                   Buddha in his mediation

Story of lava kusa in outer wall

balakrishna ,Krishna playing flute

Ram and his brothers traveling in elephant

 Pushkarni and missing palace.
Next I went to most important place of kingdom where once palace stood. It was elevated empty  space except few structures  like underground room , pushkarani, Pushkarani here is aesthetically built and has very long stone pipeline from outer wall of palace coming to pool .Under ground  path was dark.
 

Stone pipe for water

Lotus Mahal

This was two stored resting place used by royal ladies of palace during summer. Concentric and parallel arranged Lotus petals open in different areas like structure adds a lovely look  to this mahal  . It has Pipline going at top of mahal and surrounded the room to cool the place.

AC pipeline

Elephant stable and Queen Bath
Queen Bath is huge closed indoor swimming pool used by royal women of palace.This place is far away from river tungabhadra. So kingdom had good waterways and distribution inside city.

Elephant Stable.

This is series of tall rooms where elephants used to stay indoors comfortably.There is a art musuem near it which has common structures that were created during vijayanagar reign.

Watch towers.

This are towers where kings men will watch the area around for security.Due to some accidents that have happened over year  climbing into it is no more allowed.

Hampi trip- A visit to lost kingdom -Day1

       By August 2015 I had planned a trip to  Hampi .It was a  weekend trip for 3 days.I had booked Hampi Express  which starts from  Mysore by evening and reaches Hospet nearest station to hampi  on next morning.
Accomodation
I had booked room in Hampi International which was walk able distance from railway station.Room rent was around 1600 rs in makemytrip.com for a beautiful double bedroom.
Day1 
After having cold shower .I had visited their restaurant.  It was a bar cum restaurant with sugar cane fields backside of it. I had a good breakfast of masala dosa and coffee.

 I then boarded bus to Hampi. Since it was solo trip wanted to make sure I didn't  spend much on other things except accommodation. I took bus from Hospet to Hampi which is around 12 km.

Bus passes through town of busy town  hospet . Then were some some villages and green fields before bus reaches  Hampi.
Hampi -Virupakaha temple
My first destination was Virupaksha temple on banks on beautiful Tungabatra.
Virupaksha temple had hills around which had small temples and mandapas. Daily worship still happens here.This is closest to bus stand. I had to avoid more than 10 guides to go into temple.My guides were internet and common people.

Arrival of a skill and a tool
My new mobile  oneplus one provided me with super clear pics of hampi of 16 mpixels  and gave me a feel  that finally photographic sense and a magic tool had arrived to me.

Madanga Hills and Jain temples  Closer to virupaksha temple was there were hemakunda hills.
You could easily climb around to see beautiful small temples like  Mustard ganapathi, Kadekal ganapathi,Jain temples and numerous structures are around temple.It took me couple of hours in these hill go around.Few minutes I could feel  how things and time have their played parts in this place.

Stomach of ganapthis are like Mustard and kadekal.

Riverside ruins
I had lunch in a lane closer to virpaksha temple .There is riverside way that goes towards famous vittala temple.Way to this place is awesome walk on banks of Tungabhadra.

                                        A natural fortess

                                       
Purandara mantap 
One place not to miss out is purandra dasa mantap. Purandara dasa ,  a legend  of  music used sit in river banks of tunga and create numerous lot of music compositions  here.Going  through his lifetime and contributions to  Carnatic music in wikipedia made me to visit this place twice on subsequent days of trip.

                                              Musical vibes are subtle here..

Kings balance
Next place is Kings balance.There is where offerings to god are weighed equals  to one's weight and given .

Achutarya temple
Then there are remains of  beautiful Achutarya temple which has large pushakarni. The huge place was mostly empty except a security guard and a foreigner.Tower were broken.Once beautiful place of vijayanagar kingdom now looks like old king who has lost all his youth still has that grace of emperor.

                                                        broken towers of achutarya temple.

                                               Achutarya pushkarni

There is also Varaha temple, vishnu temple  on this riverside way to vittala .
Vittala temple and Musical pillars
Then I reached to Vittala temple. On the left corner of temple complex there is a  mantap that hosts musical pillars. They can create music from its hollow stones.There is famous stone chariot here inspired from Konark sun chariot.

                                  Musical pillars of vittala temple.

                                         Famous chariot of vittala temple.Symbol of Karnataka heritage.

I walked again back to virupaksha temple.Sat on banks of tungabhadra watching sunset.