Hampi – One of the most glorious historical city of India located in the banks of Tungabhadra River. This city was part of the capital of Vijayanagara Empire. Though the city was destroyed after the fall of Vijayanagara Empire on 15th Century, it remain ruins till date. It was nice to see some temples hold the name board in Tamil also till date. The most successful king of Vijayanagara Empire, Shree Krishna Devaraya honored Tamil, Kannada, Telugu poets during his rule.
Hampi located about 350kms from Bangalore. It takes 7 hours from Bangalore to reach here. The 7th century temple ‘Virupaksha Temple’ is the center point of attraction here. The entry was free. There was a elephant in the temple and they allowed people to take picture with it without asking any money. Within the temple complex there were plenty of home stays and can see plenty of foreigners around there. In morning they apply cow dung water and clean the street.
There are plenty of restaurants serves Indian, Italian, Isreli, American, Tibetin food menus. No non-veg in the complete area. Around this temple there were many ruins spread for about 4 – 5 kms distance. One of the other main temple is Vijaya Vittala Temple. They charged INR 40 to enter the temple. For other nationals the entry ticket cost is INR 600. Its worth. They did amazing maintenance inside. I brought a book about Hampi history which comes with several pictures of this place and one of it shows how did it looked when sultans occupied this place in war and destroyed it. It was a amazing recovery & maintenance work done by government to restore this place.
This temple located little away from parking place and they have a battery operated vehicle for transporting around. The ticket was INR 20 for a round trip. We took one way walk and return in vehicle. After reading the history book i realized the way we walked (sounded like a desert now) was a historical bazaar where plenty of merchant come and sell items. I thought why these broken pillars located for these for this long length and it was good to know that they are shops at once in history.
