Life of a Nomad : Karnataka Darshana -Day 01

Day 01 - Feb 20/21 -2020

As agreed , Thursday I logged out at 4:25 in the evening and I was working from home. Roommate Ranga had returned early as he was not feeling well and he was about to leave to Mysore . We decided we will get a Bounce and will go till Swami Vivekananda Metro unfortunately couldnt get any till 4:45 so I booked Uber and got the cab at 5:05. Friday - Shiva Ratri and as result it was long weekend which enhanced traffic which took around 1 hour to reach metro station😑. Next I took Metro and reached Sandal Soap Factory station where I joined Reddy and Monty and Ranga went towards Mysore road. By the time I left home Nithin and Chandra left Maddur and we would be joining them at Tumkur as per our plan. It was now 7:00 and they were already reached Tumkur and now we boarded bus for Tumkur . Nandan had left to Tumkur an hour before from Sandal Soap factory and he too joined the team at Tumkur.

KSRTC Bus was crowded and I manged to get a seat near gear box 😌as driver agreed which myself and Reddy shared for around 30 mins each. Team was waiting us at KyataSandra few kms before Tumkur which is junction to famous SiddaGanga Mutt. Though they were there an hour before just before we reached KyaatSandra they went to have some snacks and now they made us to wait for another 20 mins in that junction. Reddy and Monty had puff and I was happy with cup of milk and bough 1kg of bananas . Finally at 8:30 we all joined together and was like " HERE WE MEET ONCE AGAIN "all 6 of us. They had a Gobi and were kind enough to pack one for us.
Finally we started at around 8:30 from Tumkur in Nithin's Nissan Terrano . Here we begin our journey towards Karnataka Darshana.

From Tumkur it was about 250 Km journey to Hospete which is the gateway to Mighty HAMPI. Prithvik our SJCE college mate Nithin s first year roommate invited us for a dinner that night at Challekere which was on the half way to Hospete. As we all were hungry we decided to get dinner at earliest in nearest highway Daaba and then later in the mid night decided to meet and greet Prithvi. By 9:30 we stopped at pure veg Purohit Daaba which was suggested by Prithvik. Chandra , Reddy Nandan and myself had varieties of coloured rice - Tomato/Flavoured/curd rice with cup of butter milk where as Monty and Nithin who got seated in next table had roti Dal with a coloured rice. It was 10:30 by now and we started towards Challekere and decided to have a tea stop there. Nithin driving the car we started playing singing Kannada songs we made to Challekere at around 12:00 in the mid night and Prithvik was already waiting for us .

Tea which was served was really refreshing and this made us to go for another round of Chaai. After 30mins Prithvik took us to his new shop at Challekere. It was hard to say goodbye to Prithvik and had to continue but promising him that we will visit him again while returning we started from Challekere at 12:40. Nithin already drove for about 250kms from Maddur to Challekere - also total of around 8 hours since he left Maddur. It was now Reddy who was behind the wheels and to take us to Hospete which was another 130 km drive. This stretch was very crucial for all of us as it was also mid night drive and importantly not to feel sleepy. For next 150mins we had some wonderful discussion about current Indian politics state politics and various economic policies pro and cons of it . Myself anchoring the debate raised several topics asking questions and Reddy, Nithin Monty shared their valuable knowledge opinions regarding various topics from financial policy - privatisation of many sectors by Namo gov to local state leaders and it's future and it turned out to be a very fruitfull session to beat the sleep. Finally at 3:00 in the Friday morning we reached Hospete. Not to forget Chandra was asleep as soon we left Challekere and was awake only when we reached Hospete. We started searching rooms but with no success initially where we were said rooms were not available at least in 4-5 lodges. Finally we got 2 rooms with 3 beds each costing us 1250 per room for 24 hours at 4floor.that means we can use it till Saturday 22-Feb morning 4:00 . Chandra , Reddy and Monty shared one room and rest 3 us ous Nandan Nithin and myself stayed in adjacent room.With quick fresh up we fell into quick deep sleep.

Morning 7:30 my alarm sound was good enough for me to wake up. Forced everyone to get up with yielding no success I got freshed up first somehow by 9 I was able to get Chandra and Monty ready for the complementary breakfast which was served at first floor. With Unlimited food offered we had stomach full of Dosa, Idli, Vada Upma, Kesaribath, banana , bread Jam with a cup of coffee. Finally by 10:00 we all were ready and started for Hampi which was 12km drive

HAMPI - A forgotten road to El-Dorado

As once wise man Nithin famously said " Some things hurt you more, after you know more about it "

It may be long straight roads which leads to mighty Vijaya Vittalla or The Garuda shrine in the form of stone chariot at Vitthala temple or Virupaskha Temple with pinhole camera effect or Musical pillars of temple or the lengthy lengthy shopping streets where diamonds golds were sold out in open market horse used to get traded or the entire Hampi situated next to Tungabadra river.Yes it hurts seeing the ruins of this mighty Hampi.

Forgottent Road to ElDorado

Nithin driving the car it took us around 20mins to reach Hampi. Parked out vehicle and Started walking towards Virupaksha Temple. In between I bought a book which narrates about Hampi for 70Rs.

We wanted a guide who can be with us for entire day showing us the Mighty HAMPI and explaining it's historical significance. At the entrance of temple we got a guide who had attended official training conducted by Karnataka Gov Specially realated to Hampi -Tippesha. Young dynamic Tippesh agreed to be with us thorough out the day and help us in knowing Hampi and it charged us 1500 Bucks.

As it was Shivaratri and as result it took us about an hour to get Lord Virupaksha Darshana with special ticket costing Rs 25 for each. This is the only temple is Hampi which is being worshipped as rest of them were partially/ completely vandalized by Mughal invaders. ViruPaksha Temple details can be found here . After getting blessings of Lord ViruPaksha also had Darshan of Pampa Devi. Tippesh guided us to the historical inverted shadow of Gopuram and explained the phenomena. Further we saw Gudis of Maa Pampavathi and Kannadambe along with Lord Subramanya all these are close to main sanctum. By the time we came out it was already 01:00 in the noon where sun started shining brilliantly , luckily we had cool breeze throughout the day. To beat the heat we had cucumber(Southekai) and Tender coconut drink.

HAMPI : Virupaskha Temple
(Left to right : Nithin Bhai , Reddy , Koole Nandan , Myself Delampady , Section Chandra , Secular Monty )

Inverted Shadow of Gopuram

Tippesh guided us now to Kadale kai ( Bengal gram ) ganapathi and explaining its significance . The name Bengal Gram because belly resembles the shape of bengal gram. Few meters to it we can find Sasivekalu Ganapthi(Mustard ) . Next stop was at Laxmi Narasimha swami Temple. This is the largest statue in Hampi. NaraSimha sitting on the coil of gaint seven headed snaked called Shesha .The heads of the snake act as the hood above.The God sits in cross legged-Yoga position with a belt supporting the knees.Adjacent to this BadaviLinga which is the largest monolithic Linga in Hampi. The Shiva Linga has a 3 eye mark drawn on it in line carving which resembles the 3 eyes of Lord Shiva. The beautiful Linga is made of black stone. It has a height of 3 meters. It is believed that the temple has been in existence since the period of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Kadale Kai Ganapathi

Laxhmi Narasimha Swami Temple

Badavi Linga

By now it was 2:30 in the noon and our tummy started to growl and again our super man Tippesh took us Pink Mango Resturant. Its a unique in its own way where we were seated on floor with cushions and pillows as the base . We had stomach full of food and it was 3:30 in the evning by the time we left Pink mango.

Pink Mango Restaurant - Floor seated

Next destination was Vijaya Vittala Temple all the way to the temple Tippesh showed us small small ruins of stone structure and informed those were belonged to soldiers and their houses and so. Vittala temple is around 3 km from Virupaksha temple if we walk. From parking slot to the temple it was 1.5 km and there were electric vehicle services available charging Rs 10 per person. After waiting for 10 mins we boarded the vehicle and it was 5 mins drive and finally we were at the magestic mighty Vijaya Vittalla Temple.

The most ornate grandest among all is VVijaya Vittalla (link) for more details Temple is regarded as the most ornate of the Vijayanagara temples.Created in 15 th Century and enhanced till 16 th century.

We were physically tired but this particular site made us sick, tired mentally a lot . Ruins of Hampi a lost kingdom.

Electric vehicle drive to Vijaya Vittala Temple

Tippesh taking us through this temple explaining very minute details started visualising the glory tale of Vijaya Nagar era.

Maha Mantapa: The Maha Mantapa or main hall of the Vittala Temple is situated in the inner courtyard of the temple complex. Each small sculpture which may be about 10 cms
can be viewed in many ways when we partially hide the rest of the part. Tippesh demostrated one such to us where we could see cow elephant in a single tiny sculpture

Stone Chariot:
The Stone Chariot or Ratha stands in the courtyard of temple. Interestingly the wheel rotates here. India has three famous stone chariots .
The other two chariots are situated in Konark and Mahabalipuram -Tamil Nadu( visted on 2018 ).

Stone Chariot

Time was running out as we had cover rest of the Hampi to the maximum possible extent and we took out 5-10 mins for pics selfies and we walked back to the parking lot as it was quite lengthy queue for electric vehicle. Path leading to the parking was none other than lengthy market area of the good old time where they used to trade horses and we could see many premises specified to that.

It was around 5:10 in the evening we started to Queens summer palace where there was big private pool for queen . Also close it we saw mammoth Gaja Shaala for Elephants. As out last place for the day in Hampi we reached open auditorium which had well connected water lines made of stones and a beautiful stepped tank . For the evening sunset time we were at Rajangana-Royal enclosure with mammoth stage . To our anxiety there was well designed back stage for the artist to get prepared. We climbed this to get the view of Sunset. With sun-setting down hearts were getting heavier seeing ruins of one of the finest kingdom human kind ever witnessed.