Tour de Hampi Part 1

Continuing our Quest of the Holy Grail we "The Fab Four" decided to visit the ruins of the greatest Hindu Empire of South India as inked by the European travellers and Historians in 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries after Christ. Divya Alok, Saugata, Ravi Bhushan and yours truly started for Hampi on the last friday.
In order to reach Hampi one can go either by taking a train(Hampi Express that starts at 10:30 PM from Bangalore and reaches at 7:20 AM at Hospet) to Hospet (a town around 14 km from Hampi and around 458 km from Bangalore if you go by train and 350 km if you take BUS) or by Bus. We took the train and reached Hospet at around 7:40 AM. We took an auto for around 120 INR and in 40 minutes we reached our destination "Hampi". Its very easy to get a guest house or so called hotel in hampi if you have money, nevertheless in 400-500 INR you can get a decent(Some people may doubt this word) room for a night stay.

So after having regular mundane work we started for the ruins. The HAMPI ruins are located between mountains one one side and Tungabhadra river(This was known as Pampa in ancient India). Hampi was also known as Pampa in ancient India. We took cycles for rent (40 INR per cycle for the entire day) as they are very handy there. One can take bikes and scooters too if he has got enough money. We travelled and travelled for almost 6 hours on the tight seat bicyle and that effort culminated in a huge pain in our as***. The ruins are spectacular and one can only curse the victorious Muslims armies of the surrounding kingdoms of the great Vijaynagar empire for these ruins. Just to brush up historical facts the Vijayanagar empire was founded by Harihara and Bukka in 1336 AD and it had reached to its pinnacle under the reign of a great king Krishnadeva Raya(1509-1529). This great empire was famous in whole world for its grandeur, richness, temples and its architecture and this capital was claimed as the most grandest city of the world in those times. But as they say after the prosperity comes
the adversity so in this case also that came. In the water shed year of 1565 this great empire was pillaged to dust by the Muslims confederacy of Deccan sultanates. Vijayanagar army had a portion of Muslims as well but this portion joined the ranks with the invaders and thus that resulted in that great pillage.
Nearly every temple and building is destroyed even in the ruins no one can deny the grandeur of "Hazar Ram Temple", Krishna Temple, The Pushpkarini and the carvings on the rocks and mind it this is one of the finest carvings one can ever see. The only temple that is still in function (as far as we have learned) is the Virupaksha temple and this temple is situated in the Hampi main bazar itself. It has sanctum sanctorum dedicated to lord Shiva and it possess one of the finest stone carved pillars and a typical south Indian architecture. We finished
the day by taking our dinner and after cycling for almost 20-25 kms and i guess even Lance Armstrong had never cycled in such a place.

Next part will include our journey to the other side of the river, the Kingdom of the Bali and Sugriva and the birth place of our beloved God Hanuman.