Vikas M: Hampi - The Royal Center.

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HAMPI - INDEX

Chapter 1 : The Beginnings

Chapter 2: The Plan and First glimpse of Hampi

Chapter 3: The Virupaksha Temple

Chapter 4: The Hemakunta Hill

Chapter 5: The Sacred Centre

Chapter 6: The Royal Centre

Chapter 7: The Splendid VITTHALA temple

Chapter 8: The MYTHOLOGICAL ANEGUNDI

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<< Back - Sacred Centre

>> Next - The Splendid Vitthala Temple

With our pants wet, we took a brief stop over and continued to the royal center.

Purchased the ASI tickets of rs 10.

The royal center is a fortified structure with walls up to 45 meters in height and every corner there is a huge watchtower called as Zanana watch tower.
The first stop is the splendid Hampi museum.

Photography is not allowed inside the museum. Nevertheless, it has a very good information regarding mythological and historical aspects of Hampi.

Meanwhile i figured out that my camera's battery was low so i requested the watchman and he allowed me to charge it. I thank him.

Now we explored those Zanana towers, which are next to the museum. This watch tower was always manned by sixers. The reason being, there were queens residing and the king feared that they will be attracted to men. And it was not possible to hire women because they were deemed to be less masculine to defend in a wake of attack. Hence the king hired some one who is not attractive but masculine!
The Zanana enclosure is of indo-islamic structure, the manifestation of Vijayanagar secular architecture

The one that needs a special mention inside the Zenana Enclosure is the Lotus Mahal.

The style of it is a pleasant deviation from the trademark Hampi. This was dedicated for the women folks in the royal family for their day to day activities.

It does not fall under religious structure and hence was spared during the 1565 siege.

The shape of the structure is what brought it the name. Lotus bud shape carved on to the center dome.

The decorations and architecture is a curious mix of Hindu and Islamic styles.

Few meters to the south, is the Elephants stable. Built in Indo-Islamic style architecture, This stable was used to park Elephants. It offers a good chance for taking panorama's.

Further south, is renovation work in progress. ASI is doing a splendid job here!

Up next: HazariRama temple.

This is not a huge temple as per Hampi’s standard. It was a private temple for the king, or at the most, the royal family. The importance of this temple can be judged from its nodal location in the royal area. Your paths to various locations within the citadel concur at a corner of this temple.

Probably this is the only temple in the capital with its external walls decorated with bas-reliefs mentioned above. And the temple got its name Hazara Rama (a thousand Rama) Temple owing to this multitude of these Ramayana panels on its walls.