Symphony in Stone: Hampi- Part 1

You don't see monuments in Hampi. Hampi itself is one giant monument. You feel a little like Gulliver at Brobdingnag- bewildered by the enormous scale and proportions of nature as it chooses to unleash itself with a careless ease which defies description. Boulders of gigantic proportions are littered with abandon- they spring up in isolation, or appear in clumps- precariously balancing atop one-another in a delicate acrobatic act, so that at any moment, they might tumble down; an entire hillock- one single, granite slab...smooth as a bald pate, with not a blade of grass.. the rock-concert is numbing in its sheer variety!

Hampi- It rocks!

This has to be Kishkinda of the Ramayana. Only the mighty Hanuman, Sugriva, Vali and the hordes of vanaras could have run on these hills and slopes and rearranged the rocks with intent... or simply stacked them up, in a mindless, mischievous exercise. References to the Ramayana abound at Hampi. There is Pampa sarovara- Kabandha, the rakshasa, directed Rama and Lakshmana to this lake so that they could find Sugriva...and through him, succeed in finding the whereabouts of Sita. Then, there is Anjanaadri, the stony hillock, where Hanuman was born. There is Matanga Hill in the distance- Matanga was Shabari's guru. Shabari's meeting with Rama is of course a well known episode in the epic. Next to the Matanga hill is Rishyamuka parvata- the hill where Sugriva and Hanuman hid from Vali's clutches because a curse made this hill out of bounds for Vali. There is  even a Maalyavanta Parvata- another hill where Rama and Lakshmana spent the entire rainy season waiting, waiting for Sugriva to keep his promise and send his monkeys to trace Sita. We do not know when Hampi was identified with Kishkinda of yore, but the mapping is indeed apt.

This has to be Kishkinda!

Every stone has a story...an epic story

The river Tungabhadra flows through Hampi. The natural flow of the river is restricted now, but the Tungabhadra Dam is a huge reservoir, with water stretching as far as the eye can see. There are a couple of canals which criss-cross Hospet township (next to Hampi) and despite the stony backdrop, the fertile sugarcane fields and plentiful vegetation are entirely the river's handiwork.

Hampi gets its name from "pampa" another name for Parvati- It was known as "pampa kshetra" in the past and appears to have been well known even prior to the Vijayanagar kingdom which was established here, about 500 years ago.

Vijayanagar empire:

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagar empire which flourished for 229 years- from 1336 to 1565. What was India like at this time? 1336 was the time when Mohammad Bin Tughlaq ruled Delhi. Where does Tughlaq fit in the list of Delhi kings? When we talk about muslim rule, we need to remember the following chronology- Mohammad of Ghazni, Ghori, the "slave" dynasty beginning with Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the Khiljis, the Tughlaqs, the Sayyids, the Lodis, Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb...in that order. It is roughly the timeline..starting from the 10th century right up to 1707, when Aurangzeb died.

Of these, Alauddin Khilji is an important character in the rule of the Khiljis as far as South India is concerned. Alauddin Khilji's army general was Malik Kafur- who went as far as Madurai and Srirangam and supposedly, plundered the temples. Swami Vidyaranya, Shankaracharya of the Shringeri matha was a witness to these events. A great Vedantic scholar and a visionary, his role was pivotal in bringing together Hukka and Bukka as the first Vijayanagar kings and selecting Hampi as the capital city of this empire.

After Alauddin Khilji, the next important Delhi sultan in our Vijayanagar story is Mohammad Bin Tughlaq. Hukka (Harihara Raya) and Bukka Raya were captured by Tughlaq's men. Later, they were sent by Tughlaq's men to quell the revolts in the Deccan. But they ended up being the founders of the Vijayanagar empire.

Krishnadeva Raya was of course the greatest king of the Vijayanagar empire who ruled for 20 years (1509 to 1529). The Vijayanagar empire did not last even 40 years after his death. In 1565, in the battle of Talikota (near Bijapur), the Vijayanagar empire lost to the Bahmani kings of the Deccan. The kingdom and Hampi was totally wiped out and never built again. When the Vijayanagar empire went down, Akbar was the ruler at Delhi.

Thus, the Vijayanagar empire flourished during those 200 years when the Delhi throne was occupied by the Tughlaqs and was decimated around Akbar's time. It is this time frame that we want to focus on...when we are at Hampi.

Who were these Bahmani kings who brought about the abrupt end to the Vijayanagar empire? Well, Mohammad Bin Tughlaq had the bright idea of shifting the capital city from Delhi to Daulatabad in Maharashtra. This led to a revolt of the "nobles" in Daulatabad and led to the formation of the Bahmani empire. Later, the Bahmani empire broke into 5 kingdoms- which ruled from Bijapur, Bidar, Golconda, Berar and Aurangabad. Thus, the Bahmani kingdom and Vijayangar kingdom were formed and grew around the same time. The two kingdoms were constantly at war with each other  and the history of Vijayanagar is essentially a record of these clashes. In 1565, all the 5 Bahmani kingdoms combined and attacked Vijayanagar. That was the end of Vijayanagar empire.
As far as the Bahmani kings themselves were concerned, they were all systematically attacked by the mughals and their territory annexed to the Delhi Sultanate. How Aurangazeb laid siege to Golconda for 8 months and eventually captured the city through devious means is the topic of an entire light-and-sound show at the Golconda  Fort, Hyderabad.

Eventually, the Bahmani kings...the hunters, as far as Vijayangar and Hampi are concerned, became the hunted. Such is history.... a sad chronicle of perennial strife and conflict.

But between two conflicts was a lull, a momentary lull.... and in that suspended state, people rejoiced, there was gurgling laughter and merriment once more- painting and poetry, music and sculpture... flowed and flourished!

Such is life!