Bhojana Shala, Hampi

During my earlier visits I'd seen Bhojana Shala from afar. Back then there was no information board planted at the spot. That's one of the reason tourists ignoring it.

December 10, 2024. The day started early with ascending Anjanadri Betta for a darshan of Anajanadevi, mother of Hanuman. Then we visited Anegundi, spent almost an hour at Chintamani, the place where Rama observes penance after slaying Vali the lord of Kishkinda. Then we saw the hill top temple complex Malayavantana Raghunatha Devastana. With that the first half of the day was gone. We lunched and rested and then started the tour of Hampi. We arrived at Bhojana Shala around 4-30.

Now the spot has a fence, a information board and a caretaker. These are appreciable because they are sustainable. This gives employment to local people, the artifact is guarded and kept tidy. Turning our attention to the artifact. Bhojana Shala means dining hall. Perhaps a thatched shelter existed back then.

The board planted describes Bhojana Shala as below:

ಭೋಜನ ಶಾಲೆ ಎಂದು ಕರೆಯಲ್ಪಡುವ ಈ ರಚನೆಯು ಕ್ರಿ.ಶ. ೧೬ನೆಯ ಶತಮಾನದ ಕಾಲದ್ದಾಗಿದ್ದು, ರಾಜಪ್ರಾಂಗಣದ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಮತ್ತು ಅಷ್ಟಕೋನ ನೀರಿನ ಮಂಟಪದ ಪೂರ್ವ ದಿಕ್ಕಿನಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಇದು ೭೫ ಸೆಂಟಿ ಮೀಟರ್ ಅಗಲ ಹಾಗೂ ೭೫ ಸೆಚಿಟಿ ಮೀಟರ್ ಆಳವಿರುವ ನೀರಿನ ಕಾಲುವೆಯ ಇಕ್ಕೆಲಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹತ್ತು ಮೀಟರ್ ಉದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣಗೊಂಡಿದೆ. ಒಂದು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಕಾಲುವೆಯ ಎರಡೂ ದಂಡೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹಸಿರು ಬಣ್ಣದ ಕಲ್ಲಿನಿಂದ ನಿರ್ಮಿಸಿದ ಊಟದ ಫಲಕಗಳಿಂದ ಜೋಡಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಈ ಕಲ್ಲುಗಳ ಮಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ತಟ್ಟೆ ಮತ್ತು ಬಾಳೆ ಎಲೆಯ ಆಕಾರದ ತಗ್ಗು ಇದ್ದು ಸುತ್ತಲೂ ಬಟ್ಟಲಿನಾಕಾರದ ತಗ್ಗುಗಳಿವೆ. ಅವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವು ವಿವಿಧ ರೀತಿಯ ಆಕಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಮತ್ತು ಕುಳಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿವೆ. de ಕಲ್ಲಿನ ತಟ್ಟೆಗಳನ್ನು ವಿಶೇಷ ಸಂದರ್ಭಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾವಲುಗಾರರು/ಸೈನಿಕರಿಗೆ ಊಟ ಬಡಿಸಲು ಬಳಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೆಂದು ಊಹಿಸಬಹುದು. ಕೃಷ್ಣದೇವರಾಯ ಅರಮನೆಯ ಪಶ್ಚಿಮಕ್ಕೆ ಸೈನ್ಯದ ಶಿಬಿರವಿದ್ದು, ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ರಸ್ತೆಯು ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ ರಚನೆಗಳನ್ನು ವಿಂಗಡಿಸಿದೆ. ಭೋಜನ ಶಾಲೆಯ ಉಲ್ಲೇಖ ಪೆನುಗೊಂಡ ಬಾಗಿಲ ಹತ್ತಿರವಿರುವ ಶಾಸನದಲ್ಲಿದೆ: ಕ್ರಿ.ಶ.೧೫೪೦ರ ಈ ಶಾಸನವು ರಘುನಾಥ ದೇವರಿಗೆ ದಾನವಾಗಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಭೂಮಿಯ ವಿವರವನ್ನು ಕೊಡುವಾಗ “ಮುದಲಾಪುರ ಗ್ರಾಮದ ಕೆರೆಮೊಳಗೆ ಊಟದ ಕಾಲುವೆ ಸ್ಥಳದಲ್ಲೂ ಲಕುಮಯ್ಯ ಹೊಂನ್ನಯ್ಯ ಮಲ್ಲಯ್ಯಗಳ ಗದ್ದೆ" ಎಂದು ಉಲ್ಲೇಖಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಮೇಲೆ ವಿವರಿಸಿದ ಊಟದ ಕಾಲುವೆಯೇ ಶಾಸನದಲ್ಲಿ ಉಲ್ಲೇಖಗೊಂಡಿರುವ ಊಟದ ಕಾಲುವೆಯಾಗಿರಬಹುದು. ಇದರ ಸಮೀಪದಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಜಪ್ರಾಂಗಣ ಮತ್ತು ಅಷ್ಟಭುಜ ನೀರಿನ ಮಂಟಪಗಳಿರುವುದು ಇದರ ಮಹತ್ವವನ್ನು ಸೂಚಿಸುತ್ತವೆ.

This structure known as the Bhojana shala was probably built in the 16th century CE. It is located to the south the Royal Enclosure and southeast of the Octagon Water Pavilion. The Bhojana Shala has a 10 metres long water channel on either side; each of which is 75 cm wide and 65 cm deep Dark green coloured stone slabs are arranged on the banks of a small canal. Between these slabs there are small pits in the form of circular eating plates, banana leaves and bowls. This Bhojana shala was used on special occasions to serve food to the guard/soldiers. The present road has divided the associated structures it with the army barrock to the west of the royal residence of Krishnadevaraya. The reference to the Bhojana shala is in the inscription near the Penukonda Gate. The inscription of 1540 CE mentions the land donation to the Raghunatha Temple and details Lakumayya's, Homnayya's, and Mallayya's fields near the dining canal towards the lake of the village of Mudalapur village The Bhojana Shala described above may be the dining canal referred to in the inscription. The nearby Royal Enclosure and the Octagonal Water Pavilion make this Bhojane Shala significant.

Now I have to mention that it's an ancient practice to eat out of stone surface. Even to this day, on certain festivals, village people pack food and other offerings, trek to an ancient shrine on a rock hill where they perform rituals including offering food to the deity (deities) and then partake that food. No plates would be used. A flat smooth surface would be chosen, washed with water, food would be served and the group would eat from it. Probably some for some ancient people that was a daily practice. May be they even used slabs as plates. 

I wonder how food was served.. probably the servers walked in the canal and served both sides. There are a few of questions; 1. Did fresh water flow all the time; 2. Was waste water discharged into the canal; 3. When Vijayanagara was so prosperous why wasn't brass plates or baked mud plates used; 4. Did all soldiers eat here or only a certain regiment used this arrangement.

While most of the plates were circular, there were a handful banana leaf shapes plates.

Here we have a banana leaf and circular plate side by side. Notice the details like the center line across the banana leaf plate. Its narrow side pointing to the left which is the norm while placing a leaf. The little groove to drain out water is a nice touch. The circular plate sides are not vertical, it's angled ergonomically. 

A hundred steps away from Bhojana Shala is an ancient water tank which according to the caretaker was excavated recently. Probably soldiers bathed here and then went to Bhojana Shala.

From here we went in search of the granaries and panorama platform.

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Huvina Bagilu, Hampi

The largest city of it's time Hampi was fortified with several entrances. In the present day the major gateways have survived however they are in ruins. There are at least six such gateways- 1. Sringarada Hebbagilu, 2. Bhimana Hebbagilu, 3. Huvina Bagilu, 4. Talarighatta Hebbagilu, 5. Penukonda Hebbagilu, and 6. the domed gateway. There could be many more gateways on the outer walls like the Kadae Bagilu which is close to Anegundi village. And there could be more to be discovered.

Huvina Bagilu is about 200 meters from Bhojana Shala, on the left hand side while going towards Virupaksha Devastana.

The gateway seems to be a work-in-progress project when Vijayanagara fell.

The vertical block on the right hand side has a series of pits along the edge. I think a few inches was to be trimmed off the side face but it never happened. If you see the similar block on the opposite side, it's face is even. The former also should've been finished like that.

Those are the inner side of the gateway, I think. Right under the arch of the gateway is a shrine dedicated to Hanuman. Besides it is a small doorway to a chamber. Probably that was the guard's chamber. A makeshift fence barricaded the way further which goes into a private farm land.

Like I mentioned earlier, the column was meant to be sculpted with decorative murals. The work  had ceases abruptly.. probably when Hampi fell to the invading armies.

On the platforms flanking the passage, mantapa were supposed to be erected. Had this gateway been complete, it would've been a grand structure and called Hebbagilu instead of Bagilu.

Nothing more to see here, we move on towards the underground Shiva temple.

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Sringarada Hebbagilu, Hampi

The sprawling city Hampae was a fortified habitation. One can see strong fort walls around the ruins, and also within to keep royal premises secure. With so many walls present there will be gateways so that movement is not restricted completely. As I know there are at least six gateways namely the Domed gateway, Bhimana Hebbagilu, Talarighatta Hebbagilu, Huvina Bagilu, Penukonda Hebbagilu, and of course Sringarada Hebbagilu. There could be many more gateways on the outer walls yet to be discovered.

I'd seen Bhimana Hebbagilu during the Aug 2017 trip with Pushpa. And later I discovered the domed gateway which is close to Bhima's gateway, and Sringarada Hebbagilu which is close to the elephant stables.

December 9, 2024. Our tour of Hampi started around 9-30 am. We covered the monuments beyond Kamalapaur town until lunch time, then checked into KSTDC lodge at Kamalapur and then resumed the tour around 3-30 pm. First we saw Zenana enclosure followed by elephant stables. Generally tourists do no bother to explore beyond the stables, even I'd done in my previous five trips here. This time I was determined to check out the ruins beyond the stables. The security person tried to dissuade us by telling there are bears and leopards in the jungle. I ignored his remark and pulled Sridhar along. We took the foot path going into deserted.. first we saw two ruined temples, one Vaishnava and the other Jaina. Then we continued with the path which went to Sringarada Hebbagilu which translates to decorated gateway.

After a seven or eight minute trek, we arrive at the ruins of Sringarada Hebbagilu. Looks like this complex of walls and platforms took a lot of battering from the invading armies after the final battle when Hampi fell. At the other gateways arches have survived but here the damage is much greater.

A tourism board planted at the entrance descibes the monument as follows:

This main gateway is at the end of Pansupari Bazaar This is also called Singhara Hebbagilu. This gateway led to the suburbs from the core of the citadel. There are inscriptions mentioning this gate on a hill to the north of this gate. The massive gate has strong walls on either side creating a wider court in its centre. On the southeast of this space there is a Vaishnava Temple. On both sides of the entrance there are carvings of Vaishnava Dwarapalakas. The four pillars in the Sabhamandapa have bas-relief sculptures such as those of Yali and Anjaneya. On the western wall of the fort there are bas-relief sculptures of Ganesha, a lady grooming herself, Nandi, an elephant, and other warriors. There are also bas-relief sculptures of Dwarapalakas on either side of the door frame. The many decorative and beautiful carvings on the gate give it its name Srungarada (decorative) Hebbagilu (main gateway). On the hill to the north of the Srungarada Hebbagilu, south-facing Vishnu Dashavatara bas-relief sculptures are found in mandapas. This mandapa is called as Dashavatara Mandapa. one of the detutient sculplture of a Dwarapala of lorge size at present is placed at the archaeological museum Kamalapur. known for its at fine in Persian style.

The gateway complex is about 65 meters long and within it are three temples, simple looking but elegant and inactive since none of them have deities. The smaller one is the within the passage. I'm not sure if this structure has been restored by ASI in the recent times since it looks so neat.

The steps ascending into the temple has only one balustrade left, the other one is missing.

There's also a much smaller temple sitting in the space between the larger temple and the fortified wall.

The walls are about 18 feet high, at places shorter since blocks have gone missing. At some point between Hampi's fall and early XX Century, looks like people carted away blocks from the ruins to be used elsewhere.

At the end of the gateway is the fence of a private mango orchard. We couldn't venture any further. Looking back at the way we came.

While standing near the fence I noticed this granite slab arrangement which looks like prehistoric cist burial chamber. I'm not sure if it's one... can't tell unless I get to see it closer.

On the way back, I noticed images of Ganesha and people worshipping.

On the opposite side was an image of two musicians. Though the images are damaged, one can make out that both are bearded, the one of the right is playing a drum. While I was checking out the images Sridhar was getting little impatient. The security guard's remark about wild animals had got on, and he wanted to get out of this place. I told him a quick way to scare any wild beasts but I can't give the details here.

The other larger temple. This one had a Shikhara. I'm sure this was one fine structure back then.

Sridhar was relieved that we are finally leaving but I happened to noticed a narrower path going towards the rocky hillock to our right hand side. Also there was a board with a title Dasavatara Mandapa. I couldn't see any mantapa at ground level but there were couple of mantapa on the slopes of the hillock. To reach them it might've taken at least ten minutes which meant another 30 minutes to get back to safe place. Dropped the idea, I'll climb that hillock some other day and spend a couple of hours to check out several monuments up there. Sridhar was relieved, again. We headed back to the stables and then to the vehicle parking lot near the museum. We called it a day and headed back to our lodge.

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prehistoric painting near Chakrathirta, Hampi

The existence of at least one rock painting somewhere in Hampi however I had no clue about its location. On the morning of 11th December 2024, the third day of Sridhar's & my tour of Hampi, Anegundi and Anjanadri, we arrived at Chakrathirta, the spot where Tungabhadra takes a sharp turn towards the north. As per Hindu culture such a spot is considered holy and there would be a shrine for sure. On the left bank is religious complex consisting of Kodanda Rama Devastana, Yantrodharaka Hanuman Gudi, ancient bathing ghat and stone shelter. The deities of Kodanda Rama Devastana are rock sculptures of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. A stone's throw away is Yantrodharaka Hanuman Gudi where the deity is again a rock sculpture of Hanuman inside a hexagram. This is a rare shrine. After visiting both shrines, we proceeded along the bank in search of Linga groups sculpted on rocks. We located the Linga groups, took a few shots and left the spot.

Next on our itinerary was Vijaya Vittala Devastana which is a good ten minute walk away. We had two routes to take. I decided to take the path passing between two massive rock formations. As we entered the passage, I noticed a monument protection notice which meant there's something of importance there. There was a natural cave.. possibly there was some sculpture inside, or rock-paintings?

As I climbed the rock leading into the mouth, a large painting on the rock face welcomed me. Wow, what a discovery. I called out at Sridhar to come and take a look at the painting. Oh by the way, I'd noticed a small oval shaped, large palm sized pit in the vicinity of the cave which was used to prepare the ochre colored paint. I've seen such pits at other prehistoric painting sites like Onake Kindi and Aihole.

Let's take a closer look at the ancient art. There are crisscrossing lines, a vague shaped figure and a fish-shaped figures. All figures are fit into the flat surface.

On the extreme left is one small figure. I have no clue as to what this represents.

I looked the painting for several minutes but remained clueless about it's meaning. The humanoid  outline is filled with diagonal lines forming little triangles which seems like hyena pattern. Perhaps I need to check with a few people as what they feel. 

The cave has an 'inner chamber' as well. The presence of this painting is a clear indication that this was inhabited for a long time, probably even in the historic times.

Bang opposite this cave is another cave. That's Sridhar. We did check out the other cave. We couldn't find any paintings there. Both caves are more less same size. While this one is east-facing the opposite one is west-facing.

At the east-facing cave entrance is an inscription as well. The script seems Tamil. I'm not an expert but it doesn't look like Kannada. Probably this inscription is under ASI protection.

At the cave's mouth on the floor was a patch of sandy dirt covered with conical pits. The pits are basically traps created by some insect to trap smaller insects. The pit walls are smooth and slippery, when an insect falls in it, it wouldn't be able to climb out and it would we caught by the pit's owner.

The west facing cave's sit-out. Here I must add that this cave is a part of a large rock formation. On the other side of the formation i.e. behind is this cave is another natural cave which is called Sugreeva's cave. Sugreeva was the brother of Vali the king of Kishkinda kingdom. That's where we'll head next.

This discovery of the rock-painting made my morning. We went exploring for a way around the rock formation towards Sugreeva's cave.

The next nearest prehistoric rock-paintings I'm aware of is at Onake Kindi. And a little further away near Mallapur village is large painting inside a cavern. Then further on many small paintings can be found on on Hire Benakal hill.

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Welcoming 2025

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