We decided to have a quick trip to Hampi after a gap of nearly 3 years. This was incidentally my fourth trip from 1977. We took the beautiful NH4 highway with our fuel tank filled the previous evening. The entire route upto Chitradurga is tolled. We ended up paying toll in the following sequence Rs 12, 15, 15, 45 & 45 upto Chitradurga Fort.
In between Kyatsandra is renowned place for Tate Idli, we stopped over for breakfast, the famous joint Ramesh restaurant was closed. We had no choice but to go for the second best one besides. Breakfast was steaming hot with limited options since we were the first customer. After breakfast we reached Chitradurga's Kallina kote, and we were blessed with slight drizzle.
Since we were travelling for the third time to Hampi, we had to discover something new apart from what we experienced last two times around. First pit stop was at Kallina Kote at Chitradurga. The first bad news both the memory cards of my camera seemed corrupt. It was constantly drizzling and the fear of batter discharging too was looming ahead. I took out the memory card and shot some pictures onto my internal memory. The first thing after reaching Hospet was to hunt for a genuine seller of memory cards. I enquired and found that R K Studio near Shanbaug Towers Hotel was the right place to buy an original SONY 4 GB memory card. But for the purchase of memory card i could not have clicked any good photos on my cell phone. Thank god.
The route which we took from bangalore is NH4 with a deviation to NH 13 from Chitradurga to Hospet. The road was bad in patches and dangerous pot holes and railway crossing we encountered enroute to Hospet.
There is a treacherous pit on the railway crossing which does not have a speedbreaker too, it is just after Kudiligi, 20 kms before hospet. I nearly had a major accident, but managed to apply brakes on time. Thank god
When Robert Sewell published his treatise A Forgotton Empire in 1900, little did he realise that Hampi would be considered as a world Heritage site in 1986 ( first reprint of his edition was published ). The revival of the heritage destination has been slow and calibrated under Hampi Heritage area management authority act 2002 ( 16/4/2003 ). The biggest boost for the conservation efforts came from the Supreme court banning mining in this area. We notice the rejuvenation of the terrain and return of greenary around the hillocks at Hospet. I hope the ban on mines continue to maintain the ecology in the region and exports are banned and whatever mines are operated only for domestic consumption by NMDC only. Who knows that we may end up discovering another diamond mine in future ?
On december 11th 2010 around 26 battery operated vehicles have been introduced to visit Vijaya Vittala temple. The unique feature of this facility is that young girls are trained to drive the battery operated vehicle ferrying 14 persons at a cost of Rs 20 per pax for a return journey of 4 Kms. We were pleasantly surprised by this move, aimed at empowering women obviously. The reasoning given to general public that this world heritage should be protected from vehicular pollution, vibration and over crowding. Maybe a co-ordination is required to generate huge employment for the populace without crass commercialisation. India has never so far benefited from employment generation facility through tourism. This would be ideal pitch for the authorities concerned to extend touring of circuits vide battery operated vehicles.
Another big step the government had initiated demolition drive of shopping centres, guest houses, residence and eateries around Virupaksha temple. The construction of a new cable bridge across the Tungabhadra river was halted by the intervention of UNESCO, who had conferred the world heritage status to Hampi. The work started by Veerapa Moily govt in 1997 was almost completed when Junko Tanaguchi visited Hampi in 1999 and strongly recommended for removal of world heritage tag if the bridge is completed. Ironically the bridge collapsed on Jan 22nd 2009, wherein 8 workers lost their life. It would have marred the beauty of heritage site permanently. Instead a strong navigation on Tungabhadra river through ferries and launches would be ideal means of transportation from Anegudi to Hampi. It would boost further employment
Yet another big move contemplated by the hampi heritage authority is to undertake sound and light show, it would mean that the general public would be able to visit Hampi heritage structures during night too during summer vacations, otherwise the temperature is unbearable to visit during day time. We enquired with the organiser staff, who happens to be related kannada film actress Jayanti. They mentioned that work will be completed before Jan 2012.
A slow and steady reconstruction of the fortress is the biggest feature of revamp of Hampi, even though the entire 40 square Kms of the empire which lay in ruins after the battle of Talikota in 1565. This place would have been converted to Islamic domain but for the strong resistance by the local populace. The invaders migrated with wealth beyond imagination leaving behind destruction. Some of the photographs are displayed in the Kamalapur musuem prior to salvage operations speaks volume on reconstruction effort too.
The icing on the cake of this trip was that i was able to locate Krishnadevaraya's palace and purchase a book by Robert Sewell
A Forgotton Empire Robert Sewell wrote in his treatise A forgotton Empire
" I have little doubt that before very long the whole history of southern india will be compiled by some writer gifted with the power making the dry bones live, but meanwhile the bones themselves must be collected and pieced together, and my duty has been to try and construct at least the main portions of the skeleton "