Cycling amidst the ruins - My trip to Hampi (Part 2 of 2)

- September 05, 2021

... Continued from Part 1

On the second day, we started off visiting Ganeshas of the Hemakuta hill, Kadalekalu Ganesha and Sasivekalu Ganesha, carved out of single rock each. These idols are named so as the bellies of the Ganeshas resemble Bengal gram & mustard seed respectively. Legend has it that Sasivekalu Ganesha had a lot of food and when his stomach was about to burst, he tied a snake around his belly. Kadalekalu Ganesha on the other hand is a huge idol and one can still see the veshti and the sacred thread carved from the behind as well.

Kadalekalu Ganesha

Sasivekalu Ganesha

We then proceeded to the famous Virupaksha Temple. This is probably the oldest and most significant of all the monuments amidst the ruins. It comprises 3 gateways or gopurams with patterns that seem to repeat endlessly & demonstrates the concept of fractals. The 9 storeyed eastern gateway is the biggest of all and measures about 50 metres. The northern gateway is adjacent to the bank of River Tungabhadra with a pushkarni nearby. The mandapas are adorned with slender and delicately carved pillars & house a lot of monkeys and langurs. If you are breaking a coconut, be assured that a monkey will snatch it before you even realize. The temple also has inscriptions that date back to the 9th century which is way before the Vijayanagara empire. The shadow of the eastern gateway can be seen on one of the walls in inverted form, due to the presence of a pin hole. The temple elephant Lakshmi is one special attraction in the complex & blesses you with its trunk only upon offering a 10 rupee note :P

Lakshmi - The temple elephant

Eastern Gopuram of the Virupaksha Temple

Inner eastern & Northern Gopurams

The coconut snatchers

After spending some time clicking pictures of the temple, we left for the Hippie Island or Virupapura Gadde on the opposite bank of the river. A ferry transports people and vehicles every 15-20 minutes & charges 50 bucks (person + cycle) each. This place is called an island because it lies in between two streams of the Tungabhadra river that join again after a short distance. I heard a lot about the Hippie Island being a backpacker's paradise and is well known for the chill & laid back vibe apart from some lip smacking food. But sadly, all the establishments on the island have been demolished due to a Supreme Court order calling them illegal and being located on a reserved forest area. So all we saw on our way was the debris of the establishments.

River Tungabhadra

Upon crossing the island, we decided to trek to the Anjanadri Hill which is known to be the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. It was around Hanuman Jayanti and a huge crowd thronged the hill. The 575 steps that take you to the top give a run for your lungs. We kept taking breaks every 50 steps and finally managed to reach the top. The view from the top however makes the effort worthwhile with lush green fields demarcated by coconut palms, the river in full flow on one side & hills scattered here and there on the other. We returned through a different route munching on astringent star gooseberries seasoned generously.

View from Anjanadri Hill

Hanuman Temple

After a quick lunch, we proceeded to visit the Sanapur Lake. Sanapur has been gaining a decent footfall after Hippie Island's demolition. You find quite a few guesthouses overlooking paddy fields with people relaxing on hammocks & the in-house restaurants. After cycling around the lake which was full to the brim, we decided to take a coracle ride. It is a mandatory rule to bargain as hard as you can, given the bomb dropping prices they initially quote. These round boats are a special attraction & can be found all around Hampi. Also, never forget to ask the boatman for a coracle spin, for this is an experience not to be missed. There is a sign board that read Cliff Jumping but there was nobody at the cliff & I believe even safety goes for a toss given the uneven depth of the lake.

Coracle Ride at Sanapur Lake

From Sanapur, we cycled back to our hotel, returned our bicycles and retired for the night post dinner.

The next day was our last day in Hampi. We had a bus to catch at night, back to Hyderabad. Hence, we planned to finish visiting other places which were missed. We checked out of the hotel and the hotel owner suggested us to use his artefact store near the Virupaksha Temple to keep our luggage till evening.

We decided to pay a visit to the Hazara Rama Temple after having missed it due to time crunch on Day 1. Having returned our hired cycles, we took a shared auto to the temple. I had read about the Hazara Rama Temple on the previous night that the walls of the temple depicted important scenes from the Ramayana. We reached the temple & decided to narrate the story of Ramayana by identifying the scenes on the walls. The temple had scenes from Ramayana on different tiers and narrating the epic from the scenes was easier than we had imagined. True to its name, there were a lot of Rama sculptures and hence calling it Hazara Rama Temple sounded apt. After a long photography session with my brothers trying different stunts, we left the temple complex to have lunch near Virupaksha Temple.

Hazara Rama Temple

The lunch that day was significant where we opened up a lot about ourselves. With few more hours to spare, we slowly walked towards the Matanga Hill. The climb was difficult given our bodies that are seldom used to physical activity and also the boulders which made us crawl on all our limbs at various places. On reaching the top, the view was splendid and to die for. We could see the Anjanadri Hill and the river Tungabhadra.