...continued from a trip with brother, Hampi-1.
Our tour of Hampae started at Chakrathirta the place where the east-flowing Tungabhadra takes a sharp turn towards north. In the Hindu traditions such a place is considered holy and one can find at least one temple. At Chakrathirta, there are countless shrines, mostly on the right bank. I had seen amazing pictures and eager to see them for real. This trip was the second in two months. First was with my friend Sridhar in Dec 2024, and today I was here with Deepak my brother. Sridhar and I had reached some of the spots and seen some thro lens only. This time I wanted to reach the missing ones. We spent almost an hour exploring & discovering the open and structural shrines hidden amongst the boulders. If one looks carefully one can find so sculptures of Shiva Linga, Avatars of Vishnu and Devis. Many of them meant to be open, some were intended to be structural temples but they were never completed. I felt this kind of adventure can be experienced only at Hampae.
It was time to move on. We still had to see couple of mantapas situated away from the waters. From where we stood, we could see two. One on the left and..
..another on the right. There's a ruined temple as well. See the steps carved into the boulders. That would be convenient to climb in slightly wet conditions. Further to the right on this rock hill is a series of panels depicting Dasahavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu.
We took the steps and reached the ruined temple & mantapa. These outlying monuments are seldom visited and hence peaceful most times. This was a good spot to rest and refresh. We had carried apples, pears, fritters and water. We attacked the fruits and energized ourselves. Deepak launched his DJI Mini 2 and took a few ariel shots while I put my 12YO Canon 600D to work. Next to the ruined temple is a sculpture of Narasimha (see inset). The sculpture is in the open embossed into the rock.
In this picture, only a patch of the river is seen. In the foreground there's an open to air sculpture of Anatashayana, the form of Vishnu reclining on Adisesa the cosmic serpent symbolizing eternity. Looking at the umber of semifinished blocks lying about indicates that there was a plan of erecting a structure here. However the project was abandoned, probably when Vijayanagara collapsed.
A closer look at Anantashayana. Vishnu is in company with his consorts Lakshmi, Bhudevi, and Niladevi ...I presume. Notice that one of the consorts is emanating from Vishnu's navel. On either sides of Vishnu is Hanuman and Garuda. The sculptor's signature is engraved next to Garuda.
On the left bank is another incomplete project. One has to admire the engineers who erected that structures on such an uneven surface. It seems like a temple or maybe it was just a mantapa. Opposite the pillared structure is another platform. Panning to the right, there are slabs placed horizontally which are meant to be steps, a path for people to reach the mantapa conveniently. Over the steps are broken boulders.. builders had sourced raw material for their project from this hill itself.
Further on the left bank are the ruins of Sri Chandramouleshwara Devastana and also the ruins of the ancient bridge. When the river water level is high, it may not be able to cross the river. However one can reach the temple from Anegundi side. Perhaps in the dry months i.e. Jan onwards, it should be possible to make a way through the rocks in the riverbed. Moving further with the river one will see Purandaradasa Mantapa, Talarighatta and eventually reach Anegundi.
Lying amongst the rocks was this weathered wooden piece resembling a bicycle handle. I was tempted to pick it up and bring it home but then dropped the idea.
Deepak ended his flight session and I packed up my DSLR for the moment. It was time to move on again. We descended and made our way to the other mantapa which is slightly bigger than the earlier one. Being at a lower elevation, this was visited often by people. We didn't spend much time here and continued our trek.. next on my mind was the twin rock-shelters with a wide open space between them.
We had to trek around the base of the hill, reached the caves. The caves are aligned in such a way that one of them faces east and the other west, like two houses on a street. This is the east-facing cave. If you step out and turn right, you'll be looking in the direction of Kodandarama Devastana.
That's me standing close to the mouth. On the flat-face of that prism-shaped rock is an ancient artwork - the signature of prehistoric people. This cave is quite spacious with an 'inner chamber'. Surely this cave was inhabited for a long time hence the presence of artwork.
Here's the painting. I'm clueless as to what the figures depict. There are a couple of figures out of frame. On the right hand side there's one figure which seems like fish. On the left hand side is a geometric figure made of a triangle, a line and arc. Absolutely no idea what this collage represents.
After checking out the cave and painting, we went across to the west-facing cave. This much smaller than the other cave but the floor was free of dirt and breezy too. This was a good spot to rest. While we sat there Deepak captured a Purple sunbird and a Peninsular rock agma with the fixed lens Nikon P900. In the background the east-facing cave can be seen. Hunger prompted me to attacked the 'kadlebele vadae' which I got from the eatery at Kamalapur. It was good break from the blazing sunlight, we decided to move on.
We went eastwards towards the complex of temples and mantapa called Vyasaraja Matha. People going from Chakrathirta to Vittala Devastana have to pass by this complex. We didn't take this handsome looking steps, instead we climbed up the rock along the complex perimeter and went straight to the two-storied mantapa at the top.
We settled down again.. which was a good way to see the surroundings without tiring too much. Apparently this is one of the sentry points of the caretaker of monuments on this hill. We had a nice long chat. Presently there are a lot of caretakers at Hampi. Each has been assigned a monument or a group of monuments to watch over. In some cases the caretaker is responsible for maintaining tidiness. All caretakers are local folks employed by the archaeological department. I was happy to note this aspect.
Reluctantly we moved away from Vyasaraya Matha. Back into the sunlight, I raised the umbrella to prevent sunburn. We headed back towards Chakrathirta. On the way we stopped to check out Anantashayana idol (see inset) inside this simple looking structure called Vishnu Gudi. Check out the monolithic stone trough. This is a tiny one compared to the 12m long monolithic trough near Mahanavami Dibba.
At the beginning of Courtesans street is another temple called Vishnu Gudi. This one is a combination of natural rocks and structural temple. The sanctum are barren but the catch of this temple is the sculpture of Anantashayana on a rock which forms a wall (see inset).
Next we headed towards Yantrodharaka Hanuman Gudi. I wanted Deepak to see the unique deity which shows Hanuman trapped inside a hexagram. After a quick darshan we headed back to the parking lot. Our plan was to head back to our lodge at Kamalapur, have lunch, rest for a while and then go to Malyavanta Ragunatha Devastana. However, on the way we saw the open-air lunch place. I liked the look of the place.. having homemade food in the shade of Neem trees was appealing. Deepak too was for it. While Deepak parked his Brio I inquired the rate and checked out the items. Perfect lunch for tourists on the move.
We relished every bit of the meal. This was a new experience at Hampi.
Our plan for the second half of the day was to spend time at Malyavanta Raghunatha Devastana complex.
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