The ruined capital of the Vijayanagara Empire spreads across a landscape of granite boulders beside the Tungabhadra River, its temples, palaces and market streets abandoned since a six-month sacking in 1565 left the city empty for good.
At a glance
Hampi, also known as Vijayanagara, was the capital of the largest Hindu kingdom in medieval South India, ruling from 1336 to 1565. At its height in the early sixteenth century it was among the largest cities in the world, and the Portuguese trader Domingo Paes, who visited in 1520, described it as the equal of Rome and the best-provided city he had seen. European visitors reported diamonds and rubies sold openly in its markets.
The site today covers some 26 square kilometres of boulder-strewn terrain and rice paddies, with more than 1,600 surviving structures. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Group of Monuments at Hampi, in 1986.
Key facts
- Location: Hampi, Bellary District, Karnataka, on the Tungabhadra River, which flows around three sides of the site.
- Period: Capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, 1336 to 1565.
- Destruction: Sacked and burned for six months by a coalition of Deccan Sultanates after the Battle of Talikota in 1565, and never re-inhabited.
- Scale: Over 1,600 surviving monuments across a 26-square-kilometre landscape.
- Principal monuments: Virupaksha Temple, Vittala Temple with its stone chariot and musical pillars, Lotus Mahal, Elephant Stables and the Zanana Enclosure.
- Status: Group of Monuments at Hampi, UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed 1986.
History
The Vijayanagara Empire was founded in 1336 by two brothers, Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, who had been captured and converted to Islam under the Delhi Sultanate before reverting to Hinduism. They chose the site at Hampi for its natural defences, the granite boulders and the Tungabhadra River. The name Vijayanagara means Victory City in Kannada and Sanskrit.
The reign of Krishnadevaraya, from 1509 to 1529, is regarded as the empire’s golden age, a period of patronage for literature, music and the arts that included eight Telugu court poets known as the Ashtadiggajas.
On 23 January 1565 the Vijayanagara army was defeated at the Battle of Talikota by a coalition of four Deccan Sultanates: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar and Bidar. The victorious armies sacked and burned the city over the following six months, reducing it to ruins. Because the site was never rebuilt upon, its ruins survive in unusually intact and extensive form.
What you see
The Virupaksha Temple remains in active worship and has been so for over a thousand years; its main gopura tower rises to around 49 metres. A temple elephant named Lakshmi is blessed each morning and afterwards roams the riverbank, where she blesses visitors who offer her coins.
The Vittala Temple contains the Stone Chariot, a shrine to Garuda carved to resemble a wooden processional chariot drawn by stone elephants, with wheels that can still be turned. The temple’s main hall has fifty-six pillars known as musical pillars, which produce distinct notes when tapped; the British once removed two of them to investigate, finding each hollow and containing smaller pillars that produce the resonance.
The Lotus Mahal, a two-storey pavilion in the Zanana enclosure, combines Hindu and Islamic architectural elements, with arched windows and a roof shaped like a lotus bud. The Tungabhadra is crossed at Hampi by traditional round basket boats called coracles, a design thousands of years old, which spin in circles as the paddler rows.
Practical information
- Getting around: Bicycles and motorbikes can be hired locally and cover the main monuments, which lie within a range of roughly 10 to 15 kilometres.
- Where to stay: Many visitors base themselves on Virupapur Gadde, known locally as Hippy Island, across the river from the main ruins, reached by coracle; coracles stop running at sunset. Hospet, a short distance away, offers a wider choice of accommodation and food.
- Sunrise viewpoint: Matanga Hill, said to be the birthplace of Hanuman, offers views over the site and is reached by a climb of around thirty minutes before dawn.
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Hospet Junction, about 13 kilometres from Hampi, with connections from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Goa; a rickshaw or taxi covers the final stretch. Overnight government buses run from Bengaluru. The nearest airports are at Hubli and Bengaluru, both with onward road or bus journeys of several hours; travellers should check current routes and services with the relevant transport operators.
Nearby
- Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal โ around 100 to 120 kilometres south, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1987, with Chalukya-dynasty cave and stone temples dating from the sixth to eighth centuries; Badami’s cave temples are carved directly into sandstone cliffs, Pattadakal contains eight Chalukya temples and one Jain temple, and Aihole has more than seventy-five temples.
- Bijapur (Vijayapura) โ about 130 kilometres northwest, home to the Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Muhammad Adil Shah completed in 1656, whose dome is said to be the second largest in the world after St Peter’s in Rome, and which has a whispering gallery running around its inner drum. Nearby stands the Ibrahim Rauza, another Adil Shah mausoleum considered a model for the Taj Mahal.
- Hospet and the Tungabhadra Dam โ about 13 kilometres south, a dam completed in 1953 that supplies irrigation and hydroelectric power and sustains the green paddy fields around Hampi; the town offers budget accommodation and is a common base for exploring the ruins.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- UNESCO, Group of Monuments at Hampi, WHS reference 241
- Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar), Swan Sonnenschein, 1900
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