Travelling in Vayuvya (North West) Karnataka
According to live journal, I have not posted for 64 weeks :-)
Couple of weeks back, we travelled to North west Karnataka ( which direction according to Vaastu, the Indian architectural science, is dominated by Vayu or (the)wind (God). And I am proud to say, we discovered Vayuvya Karnataka, its name by the logo on the local buses and its beauty by our travels.
Now I have a question to myself (and ofcourse to Karnataka state) here. Why are we so well informed about places that are in other places of India, for example, Konark in Orissa or the world, for example, Rome in Italy or Angkor vat in Cambodia and visit those places as part of the 1000 places to visit before we die, and yet we don't even plan on going to these beautiful, beautiful places that are within 12 hours of the city that we have lived in all our lives? Is it like the Kannada proverb 'hittala gida maddalla'( the plants in your back yard are not medicine) or is it indifference on the part of Karnataka tourism?
Well, our 'tour' to these beautiful places inspired me to make a post about them, so in case anybody reads my blogs, I would have contributed my mite to tourism in my state :-)
The route was Bangalore to Hospet by, literally and metaphorically, a really cool train , the Hampi Express. I am not sure whether it is thanks to the new business guru, Lalu prasad Yadav. Clean curtains in A/C second class, crisp white sheets and pillow cases packed in brown paper bags. Toilets cleaner than in trains that I have been in earlier. I was told that this was because all these services are 'outsourced' these days.
A nice, clean hotel at Hospet. Called Malligi. So far so good.
A day trip to Hampi.
Hampi was mind blowing in its beauty. The monuments are a part of the history of Southern India, the Vijayanagar empire at the height of its glory around 500 to 700 years back. It has now been declared as a world heritage monument by UNESCO and the improved funding is visible. Extensive landscaping and hardly any litter.
And it has hundreds of monuments, carved in granite, scattered over a large area, several kilometers long and wide. Intricately carved temples, large statues, mantapas, strewn between natural boulders and rock formations of incredible beauty. Truly an intense collaboration between man and nature. Surrounded by green hills. Our history. From the 14th to the 16th Century.
Boulders at Hampi
The famous Vijaya Vithala Temple with the musical pillars..when tapped they give out different musical notes
Most of the temples are not 'live' because they have been damaged. Damaged by the conquerors? which is how all Indian histories end. Damaged by nature? damaged by the people of the intervening 500 years? Whatever the reason, damaged statues are not worshippable by Hindus. But the Virupaksha temple (below) is live. It is still worshipped in an unbroken string of 6 or 7 hundred years. There was a wedding in the temple the day we went. And the mandatory temple elephant.
Some pilgrims at the Virupaksha temple
There are local guides available, ours spoke excellent poetic Kannada and also said he could speak English. Charged us 400 rupees for about 5 hours because it was off season. Not sure what the peak season rates are. Very very conscientious guide who insisited that he show us everything though we were flagging down with the heat. October to February is a better season to visit here. Temperatures were touching 40 C when we were there.
Lunch at a place strongly recommended by the guide. Called Mango Tree. On the sloping bank of the Tunga Bhadra river. Under the mango tree. Beautiful locale. Disappointing food. Menus in Hampi have everything from pasta to curd rice (the staple for the locals). Catering to the foreign tourist. Consequently nothing authentic. But amusing nevertheless. Young tourist guide sharing the table with us is chatting up French tourists in French. All I can understand is oui. Two young French backpackers writing their travel notes.
View from the Mango Tree restaurant
A sample menu from a restaurant on market road. Egg SandWitch! Pasta Pamodor! All Indian Curry's!all kind's fried rice, isrel salad and shek-suka (obviously for Israeli tourists!)
I cannot fit the descriptions and pictures in one blog. A few more samples follow.
A picture of the two storied stone structure, the Hampi Market where pearls and precious gems were sold by the kilogram during the reign of the Vijayanagar kings with the modern traffic market in front :-)
One of the most famous structures..the stone chariot similar to the one at Konarak, except that I think this was for Garuda (Vishnu's charioteeer) and the chariot at Konarak is for Surya, the sun God.
an incredible carved stone pool recently excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India
And I sign off with my favourite..the Yali, a mythological figure which according to our guide has the head of a lion, the body of a tiger, the eyes of a bull, the mouth of a crocodile, the tusks of an elephant, the ears of a rabbit and the tail of? (I am getting mixed up, but suggestions welcome)
Besides these, there were lovely 'chatura shilpa' (trick sculptures) which would change form from bulls to elephants, from girls to monkeys when parts were covered and uncovered. And I am not even covering ten percent of what we saw..the beautiful river, the most famous Ugra Narasimha statue, and the many many abandoned temples, the queens' swimming pool, the elephant stables, the Ramayana carvings on the temple walls..
We needed five days. Not five hours. Which was all we had.
And as we realized over the next few days, this was only an appetizer. Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole, from the 5th and 6th centuries were yet to come! Incredible India indeed, as the blurb of our tourism ministry says.
May be tomorrow.
Couple of weeks back, we travelled to North west Karnataka ( which direction according to Vaastu, the Indian architectural science, is dominated by Vayu or (the)wind (God). And I am proud to say, we discovered Vayuvya Karnataka, its name by the logo on the local buses and its beauty by our travels.
Now I have a question to myself (and ofcourse to Karnataka state) here. Why are we so well informed about places that are in other places of India, for example, Konark in Orissa or the world, for example, Rome in Italy or Angkor vat in Cambodia and visit those places as part of the 1000 places to visit before we die, and yet we don't even plan on going to these beautiful, beautiful places that are within 12 hours of the city that we have lived in all our lives? Is it like the Kannada proverb 'hittala gida maddalla'( the plants in your back yard are not medicine) or is it indifference on the part of Karnataka tourism?
Well, our 'tour' to these beautiful places inspired me to make a post about them, so in case anybody reads my blogs, I would have contributed my mite to tourism in my state :-)
The route was Bangalore to Hospet by, literally and metaphorically, a really cool train , the Hampi Express. I am not sure whether it is thanks to the new business guru, Lalu prasad Yadav. Clean curtains in A/C second class, crisp white sheets and pillow cases packed in brown paper bags. Toilets cleaner than in trains that I have been in earlier. I was told that this was because all these services are 'outsourced' these days.
A nice, clean hotel at Hospet. Called Malligi. So far so good.
A day trip to Hampi.
Hampi was mind blowing in its beauty. The monuments are a part of the history of Southern India, the Vijayanagar empire at the height of its glory around 500 to 700 years back. It has now been declared as a world heritage monument by UNESCO and the improved funding is visible. Extensive landscaping and hardly any litter.
And it has hundreds of monuments, carved in granite, scattered over a large area, several kilometers long and wide. Intricately carved temples, large statues, mantapas, strewn between natural boulders and rock formations of incredible beauty. Truly an intense collaboration between man and nature. Surrounded by green hills. Our history. From the 14th to the 16th Century.
Boulders at Hampi
The famous Vijaya Vithala Temple with the musical pillars..when tapped they give out different musical notes
Most of the temples are not 'live' because they have been damaged. Damaged by the conquerors? which is how all Indian histories end. Damaged by nature? damaged by the people of the intervening 500 years? Whatever the reason, damaged statues are not worshippable by Hindus. But the Virupaksha temple (below) is live. It is still worshipped in an unbroken string of 6 or 7 hundred years. There was a wedding in the temple the day we went. And the mandatory temple elephant.
Some pilgrims at the Virupaksha temple
There are local guides available, ours spoke excellent poetic Kannada and also said he could speak English. Charged us 400 rupees for about 5 hours because it was off season. Not sure what the peak season rates are. Very very conscientious guide who insisited that he show us everything though we were flagging down with the heat. October to February is a better season to visit here. Temperatures were touching 40 C when we were there.
Lunch at a place strongly recommended by the guide. Called Mango Tree. On the sloping bank of the Tunga Bhadra river. Under the mango tree. Beautiful locale. Disappointing food. Menus in Hampi have everything from pasta to curd rice (the staple for the locals). Catering to the foreign tourist. Consequently nothing authentic. But amusing nevertheless. Young tourist guide sharing the table with us is chatting up French tourists in French. All I can understand is oui. Two young French backpackers writing their travel notes.
View from the Mango Tree restaurant
A sample menu from a restaurant on market road. Egg SandWitch! Pasta Pamodor! All Indian Curry's!all kind's fried rice, isrel salad and shek-suka (obviously for Israeli tourists!)
I cannot fit the descriptions and pictures in one blog. A few more samples follow.
A picture of the two storied stone structure, the Hampi Market where pearls and precious gems were sold by the kilogram during the reign of the Vijayanagar kings with the modern traffic market in front :-)
One of the most famous structures..the stone chariot similar to the one at Konarak, except that I think this was for Garuda (Vishnu's charioteeer) and the chariot at Konarak is for Surya, the sun God.
an incredible carved stone pool recently excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India
And I sign off with my favourite..the Yali, a mythological figure which according to our guide has the head of a lion, the body of a tiger, the eyes of a bull, the mouth of a crocodile, the tusks of an elephant, the ears of a rabbit and the tail of? (I am getting mixed up, but suggestions welcome)
Besides these, there were lovely 'chatura shilpa' (trick sculptures) which would change form from bulls to elephants, from girls to monkeys when parts were covered and uncovered. And I am not even covering ten percent of what we saw..the beautiful river, the most famous Ugra Narasimha statue, and the many many abandoned temples, the queens' swimming pool, the elephant stables, the Ramayana carvings on the temple walls..
We needed five days. Not five hours. Which was all we had.
And as we realized over the next few days, this was only an appetizer. Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole, from the 5th and 6th centuries were yet to come! Incredible India indeed, as the blurb of our tourism ministry says.
May be tomorrow.