Part 1: Hampi – The Land of Gods.

As much as I love traveling, One place that eluded me for so long was Hampi. Always on the wish list but never visited, until very early this year. One of the most popular tourist destinations in India with thousands of years of rich history. Hampi is on the top of the wish list for not just History and Architecture buffs but also for Landscape photographers and backpackers. To my huge surprise, I found out that it’s on the Top 10 list of hippie destinations in India!! Can you imagine? I was totally unaware that there is a Hippie island in Hampi until I landed there.

As I sat down to write about Hampi, I wondered what is it that I can write differently that no one has until now. Hampi mesmerized me to no end. Trust me Hampi is one of the most written-about places in India by both International and Indian travelers. A search on Google for “Blogs on Hampi” threw a staggering 1,86,000 results!! You will find blogs by young, and old, Hippies, Sophisticated travelers, Indians, International travelers, writers, and photographers. Blogs cover everything from its rich history to the sites you must visit, local travel, cuisine, restaurants, stay, and hotels. Experiences big and small. I wish to attempt to put into words my out-of-this-world experience. For the rest, you can Google!!

I thought I knew what to expect. I had seen pictures and visited similar places like Badami or Rayalseema with boulder-strewn landscapes. But nothing, I repeat NOTHING, prepared me for Hampi. To say I was blown away and swept off my feet would be a gigantic understatement. I have never been so Gobsmacked ever in my life. Never have I ever been so enamored to this extent by a place I have ever visited, until now. I never imagined the extent of ruins in Hampi nor did I expect it to be so enchanting with its stark simplicity. The strength with which it still stood tall, thousands of years later was breathtaking. The intricate carvings and architecture are reminiscent of the era it was built adding mystery to this place. The rocks a few as big as a hill or as small as a pebble all provide a balance to this place in unimaginable ways. It makes you wonder how do they not roll off or budge from their positions despite hundreds of years of battles it has faced in form of invaders and the many storms it has silently weathered. Scars are visible but the character is intact. Standing tall sending out a message for you to decipher the mysteries of life.  The Boulder-strewn landscape of Hampi is to be seen to be believed. Beyond one’s imagination. Grandiose and Majestic. It feels almost unearthly; every nook and corner screams history, rich heritage, courage, valor, and divinity.

Diversity in its landscape will take your breath away. One side if you have those magically balanced huge boulder strewn rolling hills then the other side you have tall green palms, Banana plantations and paddy fields as if to balance it out. You have the mighty Tungabhadra river cutting through the granite rocks and as well the serene Hampi lake. Temple complexes some preserved and some in ruins with mighty pillars supporting them and intricately carved Gopuras and columns lining the Mantapas and Courtyard. The Pillars – huge and small holding it all together. Open mantapas atop the Grey, Ochre, Pink colored Granite boulders precariously balanced one over the other forming huge rolling hills. The imposing huge Monolith idols of Yoga Narasimha, The Badavi Shiv Linga, Sasivekalu Ganesha and Kadlekalu Ganesha adorn the entrance and slopes of Hemkunta Temple. There are huge tanks – Pushkarni, ponds and rock pools around the temples and a step well as well. A setting straight out of heaven if you reckon. No wonder that this was the richest kingdom in India where gemstones were sold by hawkers using balance scales in the markets. :-). Hampi, a thriving empire of Vijayanagara Kingdom, sustained by the Tungabhadra river, as you would see all the greatest civilizations of world around the rivers which sustain them. With references of Hampi not just in India’s history but dating back in time to the Ramayana era. This place as old as it can be. I couldn’t visit the Anjanadri hills, Yantrodharaka Hanuman and Virupaksha temple nor could I visit the 1008 Shiv lingas or Hampi Lake. However, I had my fill with this visit. Left a few sites for next time. I’ll skip the history which you’ll find elaborately explained in innumerable articles that you’ll find on Google. If you still haven’t got the drift of this place, let me share that bloggers describe Hampi as a cross between Jurassic Park and Flintstones ! (Really??) Its certainly more than that and guess what.. it’s for real.

Part 2 : Hampi – Of Sunsets and Sunrises and My Misadventures with Photography.

This trip to Hampi was a photography tour with a renowned photographer leading the tour. After having tried my first attempt at wildlife photography I was visibly excited to try my hand at landscape photography. However, I was in for a rude reality check. Apparently loving nature & beautiful landscapes AND “Photographing” them are two different things. Being passionate about former doesn’t guarantee you will find the latter easy. I realized this, albeit to my utter shock and dismay. In the initial hour or so after arriving at the Hemkunta temple complex I was totally lost. I hovered in between being enraptured by the raw beauty of the place that I saw in front of me and aghast at the pictures that had I captured on my camera. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or tear my hair or plonk my camera (That feeling I controlled, along with the others obviously, it’s expensive you see). Clearly, I was doing something very wrong. The feedback I received was either that my pics were overexposed and blown out OR they were pretty much flat and no perspective. Understanding the limitations of my camera and handling a fish eye lens for the first was a huge learning experience. It took me some to unlearn and relearn the basics of Landscape photography, with help of course. It’s one thing to see and appreciate nature and completely another to capture as closely as you can that could do justice to the scene in front of you. Another important thing is the art of visualization or composing the frames to capture the beauty of nature. For people who are artistically challenged (like me) it takes a bit of hard work, observing others and lots of practice to get the hang. It helps to understand the source of light, Ability to visualize and capture sunrise and sunsets in unique ways and in different perspectives of the foreground and background. That’ll determine how bring to life the gorgeous landscapes that you see in front of you in your pictures centred around a subject. A journey I started at Hampi in the real sense. While I had taken a few seascapes and landscape pictures before, I learnt to be mindful of the nuances that go into creating great images. You can’t make great images by standing ramrod straight and just go click, click, click. I had to sit, kneel, crouch, crawl and lie down flat to capture the vistas in ways I had not known before. I knew we need to go eye level when photographing Wild animals from a safari jeep, but going ground level for landscape shots was new to me. You focused on a Wild Animal in Wild Photography or a Model in Portrait shoots with wide aperture to blur everything in front and behind the subject, however you need to narrow it down to capture the landscapes to ensure everything is in focus. Another learning. After that initial shock, a slight panic, many retries, a couple of jackpot shots(finally) and a pep talk later that day by my mentor – I was raring to go again.

I have been immensely lucky to experience innumerable sunrises and sunsets in my life on travels, near my home, at sea sides, atop mountains and in forests. There hasn’t been a single sunrise or sunset that hasn’t left me overwhelmed and joyous at the same time. Every single one of them a unique experience worth describing in no less than a thousand words. But still, the first sunset I experienced at Hampi was different. Was it the ruins, the cloudless blue sky interspersed with kaleidoscopic colors of magenta, pink and fiery orange and red as the sun went down or the sheer unadorned yet consummate surroundings that evoked a thousand emotions in you. I probably don’t know. I had never known the joy of capturing the beauty of the sun in starbursts as the sun rays pierced through the pillars of the temples nor had I seen the imposing structure of a small temple and a barren tree from perspective of the rocky foreground in the front and the painted sky in shades of Blue, Magenta, Pink and Orange in the background. The evening sun lit up the intricately carved granite structures to a blazing orange and the reflections of the past so clearly visible in the small ponds around the temple ruins. At sun down the ruins and barren tree looked even more beautiful as mesmerizing silhouettes around the fading light. I never knew how to see beauty of sunset amidst vestiges of the past strewn around me. It was like a feeling of finding warmth on a cold winter evening.

As the evening came to an end and a prospect of experiencing an equally astounding sunrise excited me, it came with a caveat. The plan to usher in the sunrise from atop the Matanga hill brought in a slight roadblock or should I say Boulder block!! You had to trek up the uneven rocky hill where you need to climb up on uneven rocks/boulders which are curvy, slippery, steep and have nothing to hold on. At some stretches its hardly a foot wide with a dangerous drop on the rocks far below, with the last 100-200 metres being the toughest climb. The path wide at some places and just about a squeeze between thorny bushes at others. You will need to go on all fours sometimes (more often for me) to get a grip to haul yourself up those rocks. I huffed and puffed and wheezed my way up in about 30 odd mins. Just in time to see the sky break into a deep pink and mauve from black and gray. At the top of hill is the Veerabhadra Temple. Its Gopura acting as the peak of the Matanga hill. The terrace of this Gopura is where we finally reached as our destination that morning. This is an open terrace with no compound walls. I gathered my breath, took a sip of water and found a vantage point or so I thought and sat down to wait for the sun to rise.

What unfolded in front of me was beyond remotest, wildest and craziest imagination. As the sky lit up, it revealed layers and layers of rolling rocky hills far into the horizon covered with a blanket of mist in that cold winter morning. What I saw around me was a never before seen scene unfold in the grandest way possible. On my right mist covered landscape of Palms, plantations and paddy fields which a friend observed that it had a Balinese feel to it, on the other sides the Hampi lake, Virupaksha Temple looking like miniature structures from atop, the Tungabhadra River snaking across and many other ruins and temple complexes. A stunning 360-degree view of Hampi. Where do I look? The sun breaking into the sky piercing its way from between the clouds or the rising sun lifting the mist cover revealing the mystical landscape beneath. The adjoining hills with mantapas on top with their boulders shining and lit up golden. The Lakes and River shining Blue & Golden in wake of the sunlight. The lovely dragon flies hovering around you and the yoga enthusiasts bowing before the Sun God performing various Asanas. The mood was palpable and crowd waiting in anticipation with witness this euphoria called Sunrise. What struck as a moment of epiphany in that setting was the meaning of Co-Existence. Of  the Paradox and Contrariness of life. Of the Binaries and everything in between. Of a coexistence of Fire and Ice so sublimely shown by nature when one side of the Gopura lit up in Orange rays of rising sun and other side still unlit in shades of Blue with sky above it complimenting it perfectly. Had I seen nature this way ever? Not in my wildest dreams. I have to thank my stars for this bug of photography that bit me and made this possible. Even though I had to suffer the pricks of thorns on my backside as I sat, crawled and sprawled on the ground which had dried grass and thorny bushes to capture the Sunrise against the rocky structures, it was worth the pain. I hardly realized the treacherous climb down from the hill in between feeling euphoric and removing the prickly thorns from my backside one by one.

Part 3 – Hampi – River Festival and the Feeling of Gratitude.

Indians have since ancient time and across civilizations always prayed and worshiped nature. The Forests, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains and everything in nature around us including flora and fauna which sustained and fed the civilizations that lived there.  The culture of expressing gratitude through worship and prayers dates back to eons. Worshiping rivers is not new to us. Rivers are considered holy in our culture and why not they keep us, our animals, livestock, farms and farmlands, forests and everything around alive. Least we can do is bow to them and say thank you. For the families and tribes living amidst nature no occasion is complete without offering gratitude to it. The harvest festivals, the kumbh mela, festivals like Hampi and scores of others celebrated across the length of breadth of India are a testament to that. I had visited rivers and pilgrimages around rivers since a kid and had seen my parents perform elaborate Pujas and rituals at the river side. Having participated in it I knew what it meant. Though as a kid it was just fun to take a dip, splash around in the river with siblings and devour the Prasad after that. That evening when I visited the Tungabhadra river for an evening session of capturing the sunset at the river, these memories of childhood came rushing in.

It was a week before the annual Hampi festival. The place had come alive with pomp and splendour. Music, Dance, Traditional Instruments, Songs, basically arts and culture came alive there. As per tradition a week before the festival begins, there is an initiation ritual performed by the descendants of the Royal family. Of invoking and worshiping and thanking the very river that sustains the life around it and the Presiding guardian deity Lord Virupaksha. Next two hours that followed that evening were absolutely divine. It started with the devotional songs followed by the Puja finally. Chants of Vedic mantras boomed from the speakers which at once made me feel at peace. With the priest explaining the significance of every Sanskrit verse in detail of the Shodashopachar ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upachara) or the 16 step ritual of the puja. It Started with Invocation of the Deity (Tungabhadra river in this case), followed by offering a seat, washing the feet and hands and then to drink, Bathing and offering Clothes. Post that the sacred thread, Perfume, flowers and burning the incense is offered. Then they performed the Arti, Offered food- Naivedya and finally Salutation. To seek both forgiveness for sins if any (So many considering the way we pollute our nature) and blessings. That’s how simple the Puja is, the act of reverence and gratitude. To thank the river which provided the water to drink, nourish the fields and nurture the forests around and for the air we breathe and life we live. It ended finally, with a request to the river to continue taking care us as always before taking leave of the Deity. Lamps were lit as the sun went down. The culmination was an absolutely divine and surreal scene that unfolded. Little girls attired in traditional Bharatnatyam costumes offered their reverence through their dance and enthralled us with their performance against the backdrop of the Huge rocks and beside the River. Ladies held the lighted lamp in their hands and let the lamps float on the river. The traditional instruments of the Dhols, Pipes, Drums came alive with air vibrating in past grandeur. Hundreds of devotees and folk musicians, folk dancers lined the “Raja Marga” or the Royal streets along with a huge contingent of Sadhus. It was a true celebration of nature. Seeing hundreds of these lamps floating on the river side is quite something else. The entire two hours that I sat there on the banks of the river listening this, there was an overwhelming sense of gratitude for nature. It was so serene and peaceful with the chants and music reverberating on my mind long after. The emotions making their presence felt in my eyes and as a smile on my lips. An experience I cannot forget. I didn’t take any pictures that evening of the festival because I was so immersed in it. We owe our very being to Nature and we exist because nature showers its bounty in its many ways unconditionally for us. No wonder with the increasing abuse of nature we are facing its wrath as well in form of natural disasters.

Nature also makes us realize that it is unpredictable, in many ways. When we made our way next morning to the other side of the Hemkunta Temple Complex to capture the Sunrise amidst mammoth rocks, the Sun God didn’t oblige. Hiding behind the clouds and for a teeny weeny second, he made a peek-a-boo entry and went back in his hiding. You can just sit there for hours gazing out at the horizon without realizing the time elapsed. It’s like everything comes to a standstill, like the Gray-Ochre and Emerald countryside around me which seemed to be frozen in time. I spent some time that morning at the river banks, the gushing river flow between the rocks has a calming effect. It was not just a photography trip for me. It was beyond that. I could see nature in ways I had never imagined, captured its beauty in perspectives I never had thought of, Experienced the meaning of life and the paradoxes that exist therein unravel in front of me. I left with a feeling of gratefulness from every speck of my being running through my veins. The feeling of oneness with nature is something you need to experience. I never imagined travelling solo (albeit with fellow photographers) could be so fulfilling. I could experience that solitude and connect with oneself even when surrounded by hordes of people. That’s what Hampi did to me.

Regards

Vibhavari

P.S. If you liked my blog don’t forget to hit a like and leave a comment.