Exploring India: Virupaksha Temple, Hampi

Hi dear Hive community,

After a long break and enjoying sunny Goa, we decided it's time to explore also some other parts and places of India. We got many recommendations to visit Hampi, which is around 8 hour drive from Goa. We booked the sleeper bus and travelled in the night. This is a common way people travel around, so you don't lose the whole day just for driving. And sleeping on the bus is actually very comfortable!

Hampi is a small town in Karnataka, which is known for it's historical importance and interesting landscape that looks very unusual with many gigantic granit rock fields surrounded by jungle forests and nowadays banana plantages.
The small town lies next to Tungabhadra river, which divides the area into many smaller towns.

When we reached we were astonished by the big temple and the surrounding. The size of the place was unimaginable. With a riksha we went from the bus parking to the small town, where we found a room for just 700 rupees. After the long bus journey we felt super hungry and asked the friendly local people where to find a good breakfast location. The breakfast place was in the open and almost infront of the main temple. After gaining energy from the food and some chai we couldn't wait any longer to visit the amazing Virupaksha Temple.

The main temple is located just next to the Hampi town, it's called Virupaksha temple. It is dedicated to Virupaksha, a form of Shiva. The importance of this place recognised also UNESCO and marked it as a world heritage site. Throughout time many temples and Hindu monuments were destroyed and demolished, but Virupaksha temple remained intact. Due to today it's still used for worshipping. Big temple area is nice and full of carvings and decorated pillars.

The temple was built in the times of Vijayanagara Empire. It dates back to 7th century. Different parts of temple were made throught the time, for example the ceiling paintings and carvings were supposedly made later, in fourteenth to sixteenth century. The latest additions were strengthening the temple in 19th century to prevent the potential collapse of it.

The most interesting thing we found was an incredible shadow of the main big temple which is turned upside down and in the afternoon it's seen in golden colours. It's a true replica on the wall, which is a consequence of so called keyhole effect. It's really impressive how ancient civilizations had so much knowledge about physics, materials, architecture and art.

Another example of that would be big, granit pillars which were made using ancient lating technology. The details are insane!

Like every active Hindu temple, they have an open temple kitchen where they prepare food for everyone. Every visitor is welcomed no matter the background or religion. The food is free, but it's always nice to give some donations as a good gesture.

Next to the temple there are many other smaller temples, buildings, pillars, stone doors and many more. From the top of the hill you have a beautiful view on the whole main area. Especially it's mesmerising during the sunset time.

We were visiting Hampi in the time when Indians have short holidays, which meant Hampi and main temples were packed with people. Many schools were having excursions and children from all parts of India filled the place.

On 28th of December there is a very special event in the temple which big crowds will attend. In the evening they will light many dias (small oil lamps) and together with singing it will be a very magical evening. We are sad that we will miss this, but nonetheless happy that we manage to visit Hampi.

Thank you for reading. Wish you a nice day!