Day 2: Thoughts in and of Hampi

Hampi was the seat of the Vijayanagara dynasty that grew to prominence and flourished some 500-600 years ago and suddenly vanished around 1565 AD. It's the seat of the golden period of a Telugu empire and I recalled I studied about Hampi in my Telugu language books in school. The story goes that a group of priests saw a rabbit chasing a mongrel after being chased by the latter and felt that this land breeds fearlessness and a kingdom must be built here. They advised the brothers Akka, Bukka who founded the Vijayanagara dynasty. The empire's golden period was during the reign of Krishnadevaraya who expanded the kingdom and enhanced/ built some 2,000 temples. The power started weakening after Krishnadevaraya's time and finally Bahamani Sultans from the south planned, defeated and destroyed the empire and brought it to ruins, Hampi's current state.

When you walk around Hampi...you catch a whiff of this magical time in history. You feel transported somewhere else. It's all stone everywhere. All ruins. Several beautiful, unbelievable temples...all in ruins. Bats flying round and round in dark interiors of old temple walls. Lines and lines of markets made of stone of a forgotten past - that sold spices, precious stones and the like...Not so long ago in earth's history or even India's history, this place was alive, bustling with activity. The scale of the number of ruins is a lot...2,000 is a lot.

Hampi with its rocks had the power to bring one to the present moment, commanding one's full attention. It takes you away from wherever you are in your mind and makes you grounded. The Vittaleshwara temple with its pillars that make different musical sounds when you strike them, the stone chariot, the huge balance, the flowing Tungabhadra river, the elephant, the belly-less Ganesha, the 22 foot Narasimha swamy idol, the huge athletic playground, the queen's mahal, the plans for security....It all hits you when you are standing amidst them. You feel a sense of loss and emptiness. A feeling like whatever you may do does it matter because this is the end of the end. You can stand there and imagine a king walking around, climbing steps, you can imagine merchants selling, people buying, you can imagine queens and her maids sitting amidst guarding soldiers and enjoying a dance, you can imagine Krishnadevaraya planning improvements on temples, deciding on the architecture of several structures...you can imagine all this and then suddenly, it's all just gone. A speck of dust in the sands of time.