Tag Archives: Bijapur

Bijapur – Land of my roots

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This was from my revisit to the beautiful place, my birthplace Bijapur. As a kid I remember going there a lot of times during my vacations and staying From vacations to some functions most of the times there was always someone or the other who was new to the place and that is when we used to always take tours to the city and it was always fun to go to the same places again and again for they were so wonderful! I was particularly fond of the Gol Gumbaz. Recently I got the opportunity to go to the place that I was born in and that’s when I took a tour again… Some pictures from that trip.

 

 

View from Gol Gumbaz

View from Gol Gumbaz

Lord Shiva Statue

Lord Shiva Statue

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Land of my origin! Back to my roots…

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Wondering as always where I came from…

A place of the unknown, a land of the unconquered…

The beauty of this town always echoes in my face…

With my true roots I belong to this place…

 

 

Gol Gumbaz

Gol Gumbaz

On this day, something about my life changed… Well, a significant change, in fact more so, in my parents lives… I finally arrived in this world, this universe… Right at this place.. A place that has been in my memories and always will be… They say when you are about to die, your entire life flashes in front of you and the best memories really hit you as visuals that you always cherished… If that is true and if it were to happen to me when I do eventually go back to nothingness, then there would certainly be a lot of images from this town…

There is always beauty and joy to talk about a place where you have come to life at… Most of the times, people live in places long enough to make it their own. Some enjoy going back to their roots to find out who they truly are… and some after being to places like this, still don’t know the true beauty of what your birthplace really has to give you… I think I’m one of them… But I’m going to change that soon.

The irony of it, I’ve traveled across so many places and as a matter of fact, I’ve been here many times, yet I’ve not written a single travelogue about a place that is so important to my life… Strange isn’t it?? Well, that ends here, right now… A couple of months down the line I am going to get an opportunity to visit that place… My birth place a small town in Karnataka called Bijapur!

So I’m probably going to do a short #SriniOnTour of this beautiful and enchanting place…sometime soon… But before I do that, I thought of introducing the majestic place to all you folks and give you some insights on what is really amazing for me about this place…

One interesting fact I need to tell you about this place and my family… While I’m the only son, I do have a lot of relatives and close family members from my mom’s side… who all have been born here, but are living across different parts of the country… My two uncles, one aunt, at least my 10 cousins… all of them have been born in the same town… My mom’s aunt (My grandmom) owns really amazing place here and that is where I remember spending a lot of my vacations as a child.. Fighting with most of my cousins over small things such as what we are to eat, what game to play and who gets to sleep on the terrace and a lot of ther silly issues. When I look back at all the pranks we played, the fights we have had, the wrestling matches we indulged in… it truly brings back memories… Memories that I will cherish forever in my life…

I still remember some times being alone during my vacation, of the most recent trips having gone there, enjoying listening to Guns & Roses tracks sitting on a cannon across a fort that is right across our house at Sunset… Enjoying the wide horizon and the rock music sinking into my head… Wandering sometimes on bicycles in the city… Yes, this is the place  where I actually learnt riding a bicycle during summer vacations as a kid.. This is the same place where I fell, I rose and I fell again… This is the place where I learnt to fight, this is the place where I learnt to use a catapult and pelt down some really delicious mangoes, thankfully in our own backyard and not someone else’s. This is the place where we used to spend hours and hours on the terrace playing board games, winning, losing fighting, playing ‘Rummy’ and other card games… This incidentally is also a place where I had my first crush on a girl who was my neighbor’s cousin and just like us, visiting them during summer vacations… These are strong memories that will refuse to fade away of course…

But apart from that, I also cherish the beauty of this amazing small town also very famous for its monument ‘Gol Gumbaz’ built by one of the Mughal Emperrors Adil Shah… I always remember telling my school friends that this is my birthplace… when we used to learn about it in History… Feeling proud and having a sense of heightened achievement for a simple fact that I’m born here and have been to the monument like a million times… What’s so special about this monument?? Well it’s really beautiful for one, secondly the unique element to this is that architectural significance it holds in Mughal history… A place so magnificently built, it has a unique feature about it… Once you go inside and climb up to the dome… You can go inside and shout at the top of your voice… You’ll hear the echo seven times!!!  And another interesting thing about this place is, if you even tear a piece of paper on the wall at one end of the dome, you can hear it in the wall exactly parallel to it… Talk about telephony back then 😛

Besides this one superb attraction Bijapur has a lot of other Mughal forts and historical places of interest that you would enjoy visiting. One thing we always enjoyed was going in the ‘Tonga’ (horsecart) yes, that was a routine or a ritual I must say as soon as we arrive at the bus stop… In fact, there have been so many tours of the city our parents and I took in the tonga itself. As a kid I also remember my eagerness to sit next to the horse cart driver and get my hands on the reigns sometimes to just feel the power of driving the cart… Well, men will be men 😛

 

The Infamous Tonga of Bijapur :)

The Infamous Tonga of Bijapur 🙂

Image Courtesy: Jorge Reveter

Be it the Upali Burz… A huge tower fort with bunch of heavy Canons to protect the town from invaders, or the amazing Jama Masjid… This town still has a great aura for its beauty and historic significance is still retained. The museums in the Gol Gumbaz still retains heavy armours that the Mughals used to fight in battles and the sharp swords they used to slay their enemies…

 

Uppali Burz

Uppali Burz

Another beautiful place in this is the Barakaman.. It has a legend to it… A mausoleum of Ali Roza built in 1672. It was previously named as Ali Roza, but Shah Nawab Khan changed its name to Bara Kaman as this was the 12th monument during his reign. It has now seven arches and the tomb containing the graves of Ali, his queens and eleven other ladies possibly belonging to the Zenana of the queens.

 

Barakaman

Barakaman

Besides the Mughal attractions, one of my favorites and something which is really close to my home here is the  Lord Shiva Statue.  The 85-foot tall statue of Lord Shiva installed by the T.K. Patil Banakatti Charitable Trust in Bijapur at Shivapur on Sindagi Road is gradually developing as a pilgrimage place.1,500 tonnes statue considered as the second biggest statue of Lord Shiva in the country was prepared by sculptors from Shimoga for more than 13 months and the civilian design was provided by Bangalore-based architects. The statue weighs around 1,500 tonnes.

Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva

Well there are many more places that I would want to talk about… but I’d do that when I do another short blogumentary a #SriniOnTour to the land of my origin… Pretty soon… That is when I would love to give you the dough on this mysterious yet enchanting and beautiful place… Till then, you guys do stay tuned to my blog 🙂 Happy Reading!!

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Hampi – The Empire of Vijaynagar – On My Way there!

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Hampi - Vijaynagar

Now that is a place that I wanted to visit all this time. One of my very good friends… A friend with vested interests in ‘Archaeology’ would kill me for going alone here. But hey, the travel spree that I’m on. No one can blame me. This spot was the spot I chose for this weekend’s travel on the spur of the moment low budget trip.

Why? For all these reasons… But before that a bit about Hampi.

Hampi is a village in northern Karnataka state, India. Located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, Hampi is the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Predating the city of Vijayanagara, it continues to be an important religious centre, housing theVirupaksha Temple, as well as several other monuments belonging to the old city.

As the village is at the original centre of Vijayanagara, it is sometimes confused with the ruined city itself. The ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as the Group of Monuments at Hampi.

So anyways why is this place famous? It’s because of the famous ruins of the old Vijaynagar believed to be a very religious place and one of the best archealogical escapades that our country has to offer. If you study Arts and want to do Archeaology, a place must see.

Places that are really worth Visiting and I’m gonna visit:

Vittala Temple: As the epicenter of Hampi’s attractions, Vittala Temple is the most extravagant architectural showpiece of Hampi. No amount of words can explain this spectacle. The temple is built in the form of a sprawling campus with compound wall and gateway towers. There are many halls, pavilions and temples located inside this campus. Vittala, after whom the temple is known, is a form of lord Vishnu. This aspect of Vishnu was worshiped in this part of the country as their cult deity by the cattle herds.

The temple was originally built in the 15th century AD. Many successive kings have enhanced the temple campus during their regimes to the present form. Yon can even see the remains of a township called Vittalapura that existed around this temple complex. The highlight of Vittala temple is its impressive pillared halls and the stone chariot. The halls are carved with an overwhelming array of sculptures on the giant granite pillars. The stone chariot located inside the campus is almost an iconic structure of Hampi.

One typically accesses the campus through the eastern entrance tower, next to which the ticket counter is located. On entering through this massive tower, the first thing draws your attention would be a series of compact platforms along the central axis of the campus. At the end of these platforms stands the Stone Chariot. This is in fact a shrine built in the form of a temple chariot. An image of Garuda (the eagle god) was originally enshrined within its sanctum. Garuda, according to the Hindu mythology, is the vehicle of lord Vishnu. Thus the Garuda shrine facing the temple’s sanctum is symbolic.

Virupaksha Temple: Virupaksha temple is the oldest and the principal temple in Hampi.  This temple is located on the south bank of the river Tungabadra, just next to where the local bus drops you. This area in general has been an important pilgrimage centre for the worshipers of lord Shiva. Virupaksha temple is equally sort after by the tourists and pilgrims. The annual festivals attract huge crowds of both the types.

The very origin of Hampi’s history as a sacred place revolves around the myths associated with this temple.  It believed that this temple has been functioning uninterruptedly ever since its inception in the 7th century AD. That makes this one of the oldest functioning temples in India.

Main entrance tower of Virupaksha Temple, view from inside the temple campus

The original worship place was only a few separate humble shrines (believed to be as old as 7th century) housing the image of the god and the goddesses. Over the centuries the temple gradually expanded into a sprawling complex with many sub shrines, pillared halls, flag posts, lamp posts, towered gateways and even a large temple kitchen. You access the temple’s main entrance tower through the chariot street in front now popularly called the Hampi Bazaar.

Bouldering In Hampi: Whether you are amateur boulderer or a veteran looking for new problems off the beaten routes, Hampi will not fail to satisfy your hunch. In Hampi you can spend a lifetime do bouldering and still left with many problems yet to be attempted. I’m no bouldering expert, but I could see at Hampi enthusiastic folks attempting problems like there is no tomorrow.

For long Hampi has been in the list of those places secretly shared among the old hand boulderers. Not anymore, especially after the 2003 sensational climbing movie “Pilgrimage” featuring Chris Sharma with his friends Katie Brown and Nate Gold.

This movie shot by the renowned climbing movie maker Josh Lowell generated special interest among the bouldering fans across the world.

Along with some serious bouldering actions, the movie succeeded in capturing the very essence of the holy nature of Hampi. Therefore the name Pilgrimage! A beeline of climbers lugging their crash pad to the boulder-strewn Hampi was the result.

The purists among the boulderers may not to like to see it, but Hampi has a large number of giant boulders that is split apart vertically. As a boulderer sometimes these create campus board like problems for you. Overall these are the places of Interest!

  1. Vittala Temple
  2. Virupaksha
  3. Anegondi
  4. Anjenyadri Hill
  5. Hemakunta Complex
  6. Lotus Mahal at Zenana Enclosure
  7. Stone Chariot at Vitalla
  8. Underground temple – Dharani Prakash
  9. Virupaksha Temple Tower

Courtesey: www.hampi.in

For Mobile while you are on the go : m.hampi.in

Srini

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