Hampi - Sacred 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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Achutraya Temple:

The next stop was Krishna temple which is the splendid display of krishna devaraya's architecture skills.After subduing the kings of udayagiri (orissa) krishna devaraya brought a Bala-krishna idol from udaygiri as a symbol of his victory. And once you have bought an idol you have to build a splendid temple!
So in the quest, Krishna devaraya embarked on his mission to build Krishna temple. He built it in style and with supreme grace. No space was left un-carved. This was eventually destroyed in the siege of sultans and a conservation work is still going on.

Consecrated in AD 1534, this temple most advanced form than any other temples in Hampi. This was one of the last grandiose temple projects executed in the capital, before the fall of the empire in 1565.

The temple dedicated to Lord Tiruvengalanatha, a form of Vishnu , was constructed by a high officer in Achyuta Raya’s court and hence the name.

To the west of the main shrine is the twin chambered shrine of the goddess. A close look at the carvings on the pillars in the halls can reveal many themes like lord Krishna playing flute and the calves watching it with interest, lord Vishnu blesses an elephant, the infant Krishna dances holding the snake by its tail. At the northwest corner of the outer compound, a Kalayana Mandapa (marriage hall for the annual wedding ceremony of the God and the Goddess). A water channel is seen running along the second compound. In front of the temple is the wide Courtesan’s street . A tiny exit at the northwest of the outer compound wall can take you to a boulder where a 10 handed fierce goddesses’ image is carved on the rock surface. The narrow path further winds southward and joins the path to Matanga Hill top.

Opposite to the Krishna temple is the Krishna bazaar. This is the place where traders from Arab to Indonesia, and from far away land like Rome and Persia could linger at a same place to sell their goods and services. The seeds of globalization had already been sown here!

The amazing thing about this is that after the siege of Vijayanagar, this was abandoned and then reclaimed by local farmers for Banana plantation. Later it was reclaimed by ASI for excavation and they excavated this splendid bazaar!

After checking out this bazaar, we head to our next stop, Badveling statue.

This is a 3 meter high structure carved out of a monolithic stone. This is the third largest Shiva lingam in India after the one in Tamil Nadu and it is very beautiful.

The Linga is housed inside a chamber with an opening in the front. The sanctum in which the Linga is installed is always filled with water as a water channel is made to flow through it.

According to Hindu mythology the River Ganga (Ganges) was brought from heaven to earth to quench the drought. But the river was so forceful that it could split the earth into two pieces if allowed to fall on earth. Lord Shiva consented to take the impact by allowing the torrent of Ganga to fall on his matted hair. Thus helping to release a smooth flowing river on to earth from his hair. As an iconic representation of this, in Siva temples you can spot a dripping pot hanged over the Linga. Here, the upper area above the Linga has no roof.

Adjacent to Badve lingam, is the iconic Laxmi Narshimha temple.

Also referred as "Ugra Narshima" (Angry Narsimha) temple, this magnificent monolithic idol was executed in 1528 AD under Krishnadevaraya. Narshimha was is the fourth incarnation of lord Vishnu and it is a has a height of 6.7 metre. The idol looks like Narsimha in his angry form but it is not! The original idol had a laxmi resting over the arms of  Narsimha and his eyes turning into big glaze. The lakshmi idol was destroyed and Narsimha's hand were cut-off by morons. Now the statue looks like an angry narsimha.

This was about the sacred center. We proceeded to the royal center where the kings and their queen's palace had been located. 3 kilometer from the secret center.

En route is the "Underground Shiva temple". The name is  such because it is below ground level and it has been excavated by ASI recently. Also called as prasanna virupaksha temple because the roof of the temple is with the present ground level. Since it is low-lying area, the temple is filled with water up to knee height and are you have to cross over and to access the shivlingam.

Further, most interesting part is that you have to walk over slippery granite flooe and to add more woes, there is no light inside plus there are bats flying all over!
I had my camera with me so i turned on the red light and we reached the submerged shivlingam. Only the upper half it was visible above.

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