Wherever we where we could hear the sound of sweeping. We didn't have to look far to see a women bent double in the street with broom made out of a bundle of twigs, folded in half and bound at one end. The result of this labour was always the same, a pile of rubbish a foot away from the front door, (but slightly nearer to the neighbour), that would later be trampled back across the lane, before the whole process started again.
Men emerged later wearing the dhoti (or lungi), a piece of usually white fabric that could be worn at ankle length, or gathered up to above the knee and tucked into the waist. This, I noticed, was a very bad time to be eating breakfast on the street. The sound of hacking coughing, then grunting and spitting out of massive globules of thick phlegm onto the freshly swept lanes, marked the men's general morning ritual. Nose blowing (no tissue required), also marked the start of the day, along with a good old scratch of the whole groin area through the flimsy fabric. A bit of double whammy really. If you were trying to avoid seeing one activity, you certainly couldn't avoid hearing the other. Aaaah the joys of cultural differences.
Cow's, bull's, herds of goats, water buffalo and oxen slept and roamed the lanes. We often saw them eating out of the dusty rubbish plies, (tasty cardboard), and of course redistributing the rubbish by shitting it back onto the lanes. Sometimes the shit was collected and smeared across the threshold, I had to admit, it made a nice smooth base for the rangoli.
What a beautiful beast, the colouration, the hump and throat waddle combo. The heavy set eye and the wrinkles of flesh that really made me think MEAT! I wish I had touched it and grabbed a handful of that loose wrinkly flesh. I even talked Wiji into trying to find the ox later in the day. It was probs just as well that we could find it. Topside!
We set off on foot to see the Vittala Temple at the eastern end of the bazaar. It was here that we could clearly see the eroded rendering of the figures and the brickwork below. The structure underneath was made entirely of granite.
The Gopuram.
Inside the walls the 16th century temple was in a good state of preservation, despite the fact that there was really nothing to stop people touching and walking over most of it.
The guide book even refers to the thin, fine exterior pillars as 'musical pillars' because they reverberate when tapped (count to 10).
Yes, I still couldn't get over the combination of the landscape and architecture.
Three men who did a lot of tapping of the musical pillars.
The temple is believed to have been constructed during the reign of Krishnadevaraya (1509-29), but was never completed or consecrated because of the invasion of the Deccan Sultanates.
The carving here is the pinnacle of Vijayanagar art.
Fine, delicate, perforated stone masonry.
The ornate stone chariot in the centre of the courtyard.
The overhanging roof was carved so that the horizontal lines were perforated underneath.
A magnificent and very gnarly old frangipani tree and me, in suitable temple attire.
We ventured into the darkness of the main temple. This was designed as a mausoleum. Inside was a raised temple nearly reaching the ceiling, with a granite moat round it, that was below floor level and would have contained water. Beams of sunlight shot through the roof with angular precision.
Water was featured in several motifs. We saw the fountain carving below at the Virupaksha temple too.
An elephant and water design.
Inside the temple with the musical pillars several men were asleep on the raised stone platform. The roof detail here was stunning.
Our visit was well timed and the temple was very quiet.
A peacock motif on the exterior.
Making our way back to the main bazaar we tried out the steps carved into the rock face.
Along Hampi Bazaar...a shop cart up on bricks with its wheels. Some of the sachets where shampoo and soaps, (we recognised the wrappers from our coracle ride) the others were manufactured betel nut products. And some chickens waiting for a phone call.
One of Wiji's fave open sewers, partially covered with granite slabs.
We opted to chillax at the room and stay out of the midday sun on this day. The sun really beat down on our heads and was very tiring. We got back on the case at 4pm and caught a rickshaw 6km to the Royal Centre. This was perfect timing as the sun was lower in the sky and the early evening pinkiness of the light really set off the Lotus Mahal, pavilion below.
An exquisite mixture of Hindu and Islamic styles.
Fantastic domed and vaulted ceilings that culminated in a central lotus flower on the centre of the interior roof.
Most of the round boulders were absent from the landscape here because they had been used to create the walls. These walls reminded us of the stone masonry in Peru.
We were both really looking forward to seeing the Elephant stables, below. What an incredible building!
Each of the 11 stables had a different ceiling...
We admired them one at a time...they were all connected in the interior walls by tiny mahout sized arched doorways.
The central feature of the roof was a tower that could be accessed from the ground by a spiral staircase. We got a glimpse of this through a metal gate down a dark alleyway.
In one of the other temples was this intriguing carving that looked like a spermatozoa...
Outside, and over many of the ruins in Hampi, these tiny chipmunk / squirrels ran everywhere.
Part of the Royal Centre, the Hazara Ramachandra Temple with its huge wall freeze.
The central temple inside the Gopuram.
Inside was another recessed ceiling and black granite pillars...
The water fountain on the left of the temple had a carved channel in the top of the elephant's trunk, similar to the fountain in the mausoleum.
Later in the evening, I had my eye on some handmade camel leather (chewy) slippers. To round off a perfect day Sweet William struck a bargain for me. Thanks.xxx
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