Sunday 28 August 2016

Hampi - where the stones speak the unseen history of the Royal Empire

I am still excited to see that I am going to write about Hampi in my blog. It was 2013 when I first read about Hampi in Yahoo blogs and went crazy to visit it. I had no clue of making any plans in near future though. But then in the last year when channel Epic stated many untold facts about Hampi's Vittala Temple and its architecture in Sanranchna, I knew I had to visit Hampi in someday. The concept of the Musical Pillars that produces different sounds of Indian Classical Instruments was the most appealing phenomenon for me and this was the top reason I decided to visit Hampi. Finally, before two weeks my wish came true and I sipped the full essence of Vijayanagara.

Let me come to a bit of historical chapters. Vijayanagar was the capital of Vijayanagara Empire of South India. It is believed that during 1500, Vijayanagar had 500,000 inhabitants and it made it the second largest city in the world after Beijing. Another important and very promising fact is that Vijayanagara was known as Kishkindhya formerly. Yes, the same Kishkindhya we have read about in Ramayana. The day before my trip, I got to know this and I was thrilled to the utmost. 

If you are in Bangalore, you can catch a train from Bangalore to Hospet. It is 9 hrs overnight journey. From Hospet you can hire auto and can reach Hampi within 25-30  mins around. Vijayanagar is nowhere a city to be like. Somewhere all of a sudden some ancient, the then royal gates may welcome you and may remind you that you are visiting a ruined grand city. Kamalapur is the nearest village where you can stay and hire vehicle to explore Hampi and the temples. We stayed in KSTDC hotels and they were awesome. 

We had two days in our hands to cover up Hampi and I must say if you plan well, two days are enough to explore Hampi. First day, we checked in to the most famous places like Vitthala Temple, Virupaksha Temple, Queen's bath, Lotus Temple, Elephant's stable, Pushkarini, Sunset point (Hemakuta hill) and other must visited places.


Check the photos...


Vittala Temple Entrance 
The entrance welcomes Men, Women and Children

Vittala Temple Complex



Kalyanam Mandapam 




Narasimha, Hiranyakashipu and Prahlad

Matsya



Musical Pillars

Kannada Scripts imprinted on the stones..

The iconic Chariot

us ... ♥


Old Shopping Complex

Ruins ♥

Raja & Indrani 

Posing at Queen's Bath



Please don't miss having cuisines in these huts ;) Eat, Relax and sleep ♥

Virupaksha Temple

Refection .. 

Elephant's Blessings

Add caption



 
View from Hemakuta Hill


On the next day we headed towards the Anjaneya Hills, that comes under the other bank of Tungabhadra river i.e the opposite of Hampi. From top of the Anjaneya hill, you can spot the Vitthala Temple easily. It is to be said that Shri Hanuman was born in this hill and right at the place where Vitthala Temple is situated, Sugriva and Hanuman ji met for the first time and befriended each other. So if you are mythology fanatic, you are going to get excited enough. From Anjanaya Hill, you can spot the panoramic view of the entire Hampi. Just have goggles, sit, feel the wind and sooth your eyes with the rusty nature of Hampi.

While getting up at the Anjaneya Hill

View of Vittala Temple from Anjanaya Hill

Top of Anjanaya Hill


Kishkindhya RajNagari


After exploring Hampi, we headed towards Virupappuragaddi. Virupappuragaddi is hippieland of Hampi. You can spot hippies every now and then. There is nothing as such to see as a structure or history. But I must say if you are not going to Sanapur Lake, you are going to miss a major in Hampi. We were damn lucky to be there. I was willing to have raindrops falling over my face and luckily it started. The wind was chilled, the raindrops were big enough to make you smile. Falling drops over the lake made it look so lively and most importantly no one was there to disturb. It was complete silence except the whistles of wind. We spotted few guys to dive in lake one by one and then we played "Byangbaji" or Pebble skipping game for a long time. It was real fun. The sun was gone and we had to come back. 


Ready for the ride .. 




Loved the shot .. 

Then the weather changed... 

Calm, Serene & windy image 


P.S Ignore my typos if you found any... 

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Saturday 27 August 2016

It's 5th .. Happy Birthday my blog ♥♥

I still can't imagine that I crossed 5 successful years as a blogger. I never imagined that I would be continuing this blog when I first became a member of blogger.com. Because I just started writing. You can say it was an influence from somebody else. I just tried writing and now when I see that I have 471 published posts, 127525 page views and 1008 Facebook followers (OMG I noticed today) I feel privileged.  If I come to share my view on it, I will say yes !! blogging kept me inspired and motivated. Nah !! don't think I am gonna share some motivational speech over here. It just kept me running somehow. It helped me to grow when I was least to do something. It helped me overcome my depression at some point of time. So yes in that sense of course it motivated me a lot. I had no idea that I could write something that can actually please people's minds. My first joy came when I received first comment on my blog on 20th April, 2012 and then every now & then whenever I open blogger dashboard and see few comments are awaiting moderation, my heart feels up with joy.





I don't consider myself as a writer or a blogger still. Because I am so so irregular. But still whenever something comes to my mind, I just write and my blog has been my best listener ever because many a things which I could never utter or could share with anyone, I could write them down over here in terms of stories or poetry etc. Another one big reason to be thankful to my blog is that I have got some wonderful blogger buddies in past few years through this blog. My blog has been my intimate observer for past few years. It has my memories with it, my travel diaries with it and many such wonders that I will love to recollect after 10 years may be .. or 20.. 30 .. or if blogger exists before the time I leave. 


Posted By Debarati Datta Read about me here blogging since 2011 Copyright © Debarati Datta Privacy Policy

Wednesday 17 August 2016

Never knew .... ♥♥

Never knew I had this much of love to share,
never knew I could jump the height to care
for you anyway ..

Never knew my heart was waiting for you,
never knew my lips could be red and eyes to be blue
in any expected way..

Never knew my heart was weak enough to say you good bye,
never knew my tears were desperate to come out of eyes
for you anyway..

Never knew I would bloom each day with joy,
never knew I would treat you to a coy
in any expected way ..

Never knew love is nothing but friendship in the first,
never knew love is this much beautiful under the mythical crust
Never knew I would love you so deep in this way,
Hey you !! You have made me crazy .. 
I love you in every other possible way .. ♥♥




Posted By Debarati Datta Read about me here blogging since 2011 Copyright © Debarati Datta Privacy Policy