I thought I heard rain at 5 in the morning, seems it wasn’t a dream as at 7 when I woke up it was raining heavily. I slept some more, hoping for the weather to improve, but it didn’t so I went to the restaurant (roof top, no less) to get my breakfast. Had a nice English one (omelet, toasts, salad, beans in red sauce and coffee, ah I was full). The air had cooled down considerably, and I had only my jeans as the warmest piece of clothing. The hills looked beautiful under the grey skies, but I was still nursing my hurt knee I had injured last evening roaming on Hemkuta.
When I couldn’t take it any more, I started out at 11:30 in the drizzle (note to self : have to buy an umbrella in my lifetime). Decided against the bicycle, would be too much with the knee and rain, so took an auto to the royal center, paid 50 bucks (could’ve haggled for 35 for the 2-3 kms).
Got off at the underground Shiva temple, which was partly underwater too now, making it difficult to go completely in. the overcast sky made it dark as well, but still you have to appreciate the structure of the temple and the surrounding garden, maintained quite well by ASI. Met a cop there who had retired from the army, after serving somewhere in Delhi also for some time. He was telling me stories of how the sandalwood artifacts from most temples were pillaged, and what remained was mainly the stony foundations. I dried myself for 10 minutes before pushing off on foot, denying the auto chaps (should’ve taken it, as by the end of it I was completely drenched, thankfully I kept my cell and camera in a plastic bag).
About 200 meters on I got to the mosque and band tower. Took refuge in the mosque, nothing much to see there, its in ruins (!), took in a few landscape shots from the 1st floor. Next up, 300 metres on as the road curves to the right is the Hazararama temple, apparently the Ramayana’s events are carved out on the walls here, I admired the small carvings on the inside of the walls, as well as on the walls of the main temple. I decided to give the paan supari bazaar opposite the temple a pass, as it was out in the open and it was still raining too much. I carried on to the Mahanavmi Dibba, an ‘elevated square platform’ jet black and brown with layers of carvings on the side, also climbed up to the top of the around 20 feet high structure to take a view. Close to this is the stepped tank, another attraction, and this one was quickly filling with water as well. Its like an inverted pyramid, with steps going down to the bottom. A long aqueduct still in place probably used to provide the water in yesteryears. I walked down the narrow steps to the bottom to take in a full view which was quite something (though it must be not more than 15-20 feet to the water level).
There is another long rectangular pool-like structure further on.
From here on the next structure is the queen’s bath, apparently the queen used to take a bath here, wasn’t too impressed, maybe earlier it had some jewels encrusted to make it more appealing. I decided to head back as I was tired, so waded through the narrow mud path off the road towards zenana enclosure (just a shortcut, or you can walk all the way back to Hazararama temple and turn right to zenana). I wasn’t sure where I landed up , but met a guard who asked me if I had taken a ticket at the entrance. I asked him “at the gates, right?” He said “right” and walked off. Okay, I did not exactly lie, I just did not know that I was already inside Zenana enclosure from a rarely used side road, and that there was an entry fees (anyway it would be something like 10-15 rupees)! I had apparently come up at the ruins next to the Elephant stables, a long building with separate enclosures where elephants were kept. Also took some snaps of the statues and artifacts inside the small museum next to it (there’s another one next to Lotus mahal, photography is prohibited in both places :)). The lotus mahal next door is a beautiful structure to admire, along with the tall watch towers at the walls surrounding it.
Outside the gates of the Zenana enclosure I found the first water vendor in the entire area I had covered (though I was carrying water on my person as well).
There is some building here (some directorate official something) which has a lot of interesting statues of different deities which have been put on display and can be photographed. I took my time at this place to look at the different types of stones that the nandi was carved out in, the shades of black, grey, browns, and even a pale green. It was almost 4 by the time I reached the Shiva temple again, no autos in sight in the rain, so I walked back the 2 kms to the Hampi town. The rain had slowed down considerably and the nice green cover next to the roads was refreshing. I also managed to catch ‘akka tangi gundu’, 2 large boulders leaning against each other just next to the road past the royal center.
Just roamed near the Tungbhadra the rest of the day to relax a bit, and admire the red color that the river had taken on now with all the soil. Checked out the different apparels at the shops also, and picked up a dragon logo tee for myself!!
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