HAMPI -THE WORLD OF GRANITE.

Hampi , is UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE  , located in karnataka  state. Hampi ,  looks remarkably  unperturbed  by the ill effect of ever encroaching  human habitation in modern times. It was the erstwhile capital  of Vijayanagara  Empire, which flourished on the bank of Tungabhadra  river, around 15th century.

History :
Within few years after arrival of Allaudin khilji  in the kingdom of Yadavagiri  in the year 1296,  the entire  South India  was ravaged by invaders. Indian culture and religion was endangered  by foreign invasion. At this juncture, people united to protect themselves, their culture and religion. It is in this backdrop that Vijayanagara  was founded. It flourished for more than 200 yrs.The Kingdom of Vijayanagara  was ruled by 4 dynasties. ....

Hampi is about 12km from HOSPET.

MY EXPERIENCE :

Due to modern infrastructure developments , the roads and flyovers added a modern look to this place..... We were driving from Bijapur  towards Hampi...Though the road journey was very very comfortable but it looks every 5/10kms there's toll booth..... the surrounding  landscape is full of huge bolders of granite rocks as far as eye could see  unless we reached HOSPET  city...on one side lies the Tungabhadra Dam , which we planned to visit on our return journey  from Hampi......it was almost evening time as we entered the city limit ....but our night stay was booked at Kstdc Mayura Bhubaneswari  at Hampi ....which was another few kms away ....I wanted to clicked  few pics of Virupaksha temple, with the last rays of sun , so kept on hurrying our driver to reach the location .....in the process  , our driver made a mistake and took a wrong lane and so we had to walk another 1 and half kms stretch to the Virupaksha temple site .....the Tungabhadra  river looked almost dried up ....I stood a second to view the location where lots of Hindi movies have been picturised on the laps of Tungabhadra. .....Virupaksha 's architecture just made me awestruck and the camera shutter kept clicking away for the best shot...
Saw a beautiful step well there too .....what a creative mind that made such beautiful structure in Granite , I wonder.
   It was almost dark and so we headed for our hotel ....we had  Presidential suit booked for us two there ;  Just a dreamy stay offcourse....we were damme tired and so had to go off to bed early ....Next morning woke up to chilling weather ,after breakfast we drove off to VITTHALA TEMPLE SITE OF HAMPI....
We wanted to walk down to that site instead of those motorised  vehicles ....Didn't have had the idea that it would be that long walk  but that walk was worth it as we would have missed lot of other locations , which came on the way .....very well preserved  and maintained. ..Inside the Vitthala temple complex , the stone Chariot is located .....what to say at that moment ....words will fall short to explain those marvellous works on granite. ....so long I had seen people framing this iconic structure as per their own imagination and now it was my turn to do so .....The musical pillar too made me speachless. ....
We spend quite sometimes  there before we could head out for Tungabhadra dam ....
Though there were lots of other locations to see in Hampi , which might take another 2/3 days time to finish ....but we were time bound so had to skip The Temple of kodanda rama,  vijaya  Vitthala temple, ugra  narasima, kamal  mahal, Elephant stable etc .....anyways,  it's alway next time ....
But surely , today I can say it's a Wonderful world of granite which each one should come and enjoy .

LIVING RUINS OF THE CHALUKYAN EMPIRE...

...North karnataka had been the flourishing region  during the CHALUKYAN PERIOD. The prominent towns of AIHOLE,  PATTADUKAL, BADAMI  AND HAMPI are all UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES. ..

Aihole  was a prominent city and temple complex serving as training site for the would be sculptors  during that era.....those sculptors  then would exhibit their genius at PATTADUKAL. ...The Durga temple of Aihole  in red sandstone is a must visit ...the sculptures  inside the temple complex can make any visitor awestruck. ...it also houses a small museum of sculptures on red sandstone  of that era....
After visiting Aihole,  the drive of one and half hours to Pattadukal, thru the remote villages and forests bordered by Red sandstone  hills is quite refreshing...

PATTADUKAL, a tiny village on the bank of Mala prabha  river, was the coronation  site of the CHALUKYAN  Rulers and is located right in the middle  of wilderness  in Bagalkot  district.  Dravidian  and Nagara  are the prevalent  style of architecture  here. The most prominent  of the buildings  within the complex are Virupaksha, Sangameshwara , kashi  Viswanath and mallikarjuna  temples.....
Very well preserved  complex to cherish the architectural  marvels of the by gone era.....
BADAMI CAVES are 22kms from Pattadukal ......Badami is named after the Red Sandstone that covers the terrain and earlier known as Vatapi. The Badami  chalukyas  ruled here from 540 to 757AD. .
Badami Caves  are really very beautiful  but the steps to the top is very steep. The Agastya  tirtha  named after sage Agastya  with red sandstone out cropped surrounding it on 3 sides.The lake is flanked by wonderfully  sculptured cave temples on one side and Bhutnath  temple on the other.
At Badami Caves  , there r 4 caves....Cave 1 is dedicated to lord Shiva,Cave 2 &3 for lord Vishnu  and Cave 4 is dedicated to Jain tirthankas. ..

HAMPI ,  though is bit far away from the above  places but it's truely a must visit location .....it has grown prominence  in recent times due to foreign tourists frequenting this World of Granite....It's located on the  bank of Tungabhadra river..it houses the famous Virupaksha temple ,  Vitthala temple with the musical pillars, pushkarani  are prominent  landmarks of works on granite rocks...
The stone Chariot of Vitthala temple captures the splendors of architecture of that period....
       It's truely  a world heritage to be visited ....I just loved  it all ......minimum 3/4 days are required to enjoy all these places at a go but surely worth spending time here.

Our visit to Almatti Dam.

ALMATTI DAM , is a hydroelectric project on River Krishna in North Karnataka, 65kms from Bijapur city. It is an irrigation  project across the krishna river , to provide water to the drought prone area of Bijapur  district,  Bagalkot  district,  Gulbarga,  Yadgir , Raichur  districts of karnataka  state.
MUSICAL FOUNTAIN,  MUGHAL GARDEN  are the main attraction...Friday is closed. The musical fountain show take place at by 7.30pm is the star attraction for all visitors, though I loved the huge sprawling Mughal Garden ......I felt that each person might need a complete day to enjoy each corner of the garden ...Just too beautiful. ...
Though we could not enjoy the musical fountain show at Almatti Dam site  as we had to drive almost 200 + kms to Hampi  but tried to enjoy the Mughal Garden and the Rock Garden at the site.

Bijapur.

BIJAPUR, is located in the northern part of karnataka state in India , though very dry and arid region and mainly Muslim dominated region , it  is home to  the famous GOL GUMBUZ  monument, which is the mausoleum of Md. Adil Shah  ,once sultan of  bijapur.
   We were on our road trip from Mumbai to Northern karnataka region and Bijapur  was likely our first stopover....we had prior booking at Kstdc  hotel  Adil Shahi, which is well located on the main road in the city ...it was 31st Dec 2016 evening when we checked in there.....should have been a buzzing night but that city was too sleepy and lazy to party the night away....On to our way to bijapur  we had short stop at Wineyard at Sholapur. ..just so so impressive  to touch and feel the tempting grapes at the farms and offcourse to mention the Pomegranate fields...small bushes , holding almost 100 fruits...loved to see it all .
We had plans to drive off another 65 kms from bijapur city to Almatti Dam site to enjoy the musical fountain on R . Krishna  but we were bit late ....the show ends at 7.30pm....though the road is good from bijapur  to Almatti but we were too tired to take on the idea , instead go off to sleep early ......
Next morning, we woke up to wish each other a very Happy New Year ....beautiful sunshine and simple breakfast, we wished to do the local  sightseeing before heading out off to Almatti Dam and then to HAMPI.....
1st on our list for sightseeing was GOL GUMBUZ. ....it was hardly some 7/10kms from the hotel we stayed last night but the people were so non cooperative that they tried to miss guide us ...some said that it's just walking distance, other showed a wrong route to reach the place ....Just crazy!!!old city and no traffic norms  and we went round and round to finally reach the location. ....it was just splendid monument well kept ....sprawling gardens inside, but need to walk a lot and if wished , can climb the stairs to the top of Gol Gumbaz but shoes r not allowed inside the monument. ....
After that we visited the BARA KAMAN ...awesome architecture. ..the arches still stands perfect  till this day but it stand amidst busy market place and so difficult to park once private vehicle....Next it was beautiful  SHIVGIRI  darshan ....awesomely huge Shiva statue adorning the city of Bijapur by the highway....after our darshan ....we now took onto our drive off to Almatti Dam and Hampi for the night stopover.
Soon after we left Bijapur city  the sunflower fields and bajra fields by the highway just made me mesmerised and I had to make a stop to enjoy few minutes amidst those Sunflower fields. Lovely experience  indeed.....So we continued our journey to the World of granite  ie HAMPI.