Overview of the journey

Our journey for the course ‘Temple Town Tales’ started the day we were given our Interim course subject and destination. Though the actual Interim started almost a month after that, mentally I was in the process already.

The first week of the Interim was the research week. We did several activities. First we were asked to find out about our own family history. This activity helped us in deciding the approach towards the history. We also visited two temples, and did a small research about it. We talked to the priests in the temple, the devotees who were there and also to the people who lived around the temple. This activity was helpful to prepare our mind-set and to set methodology before going to Hampi for research. We thought about the questions to be asked to the people, segment wise and had pilot experience of the interactions.

We had a small session about photography by Eduardo. He was our facilitator for the Interim course, and a skilled photographer from Boston. What I took from his lectures was, How to find the ‘story’ in frames. He taught us the importance of sequence in photography.

For the first two days we were guided by our facilitators, Narendra, Sonal and Eddy. They took us to the important places in and around Hampi. On the first day, we visited the Virupaksha Temple (the main and only functional temple in Hampi), the Hemakuta Hills, Monolithic Bull, Vithala Temple and the Monolithic Ganesha.

Hemakuta Hills

On the second day, we were taken to Anegundi, a nearby village, which is becoming a tourist attraction now a days. Recently developed by Shama Pawar, the village is famous for Banana Fibre.

From the third day onwards we worked on our own. Every day we used to have a discussion session in the evening. From the experience of the first two days, I had got some idea of what the course was going to be. So on the second day, after discussing with our facilitators, we decided our rough area for research. I decided to work in Hampi. And focus on stories related to Hampi. And from there our actual journey began.

I decided to visit all the remaining places in Hampi, and amongst them I found the Harihara palace and the Hajararama temple most fascinating. I found out that these places have a lot of stories, some related to the history, some to religion and some to politics. I decided to focus on these two places. I visited these places again and again for 8 days, till I became familiar to it. I sat there for hours, observed every carving on the wall, and gathered information from various sources.

I talked with a few guides, an official from the Department of Archaeology and the maintenance staff and gathered a lot of information. From this process, I overcame the fear of talking with strangers. I talked with every person I found interesting.

I learnt the importance of stories. A story doesn’t just talk about history or mythology, but it reveals the inter-relation between history, culture, language, beliefs, religion, people, social life…… about everything.

What I found was the ‘approach’ matters. If you are open, the carvings tell you about everything, and if you visit it with only a specific perception, you may get a lot related to your focus, but you may miss a lot, the comprehension.

I chose this concept as my project theme. After coming back from Hampi, I made a small documentary on Hampi for my project. There I talked about the stories about Harihara Palace and the Hajararama Temple.

This course taught me how to look at things. I had been to Hampi Before. I had seen all these places. But this time I observed it, and I could understand it. And this is the biggest takeaway from this course.

Final Project

During these 8 days which I spent in Hampi, one thing I understood, that it is impossible to explore and understand this place entirely in just a few days. People stayed for years in Hampi to get a thorough understanding of this place. Every stone in Hampi has plenty of stories hidden inside, and every carving talks to you.

I chose to make a small documentary on Hampi. I chose two places, Hajararama temple and Harihara palace. These two places also have a lot of stories, and these stories are interlinked. I made the video in which I talked about, how a story, or a historical fact can tell you about culture, history, social situations… everything.

Seeking Solace

Seeking for the stories, I went again to Virupaksha temple. It was 5^th day of the course. More than mythology or history, I was seeking for the stories of the people. People, who lived in the temple, people who worked in the temple, in 15^th century as well as today. I wanted to explore the untold history, the stories that none of the guides knew, neither the history books.

I met one elderly person. He came to Hampi a few years back. He assured that he will talk with me after 6 pm, when the rush is less. So I did.

He used to work in some factory in a nearby city. On day he met with an accident and lost his toe. He also lost his job due to the accident. He got mentally disturbed and left his home. In search for solace, he reached Hampi. He found his Peace there, and decided to settle in the temple. Now, he lives in the temple, manages the shoe stand outside the Virupaksha temple, and earns his living.

He told one story about the Gopura, the entrance structure of the Virupaksha Temple. When the structure was getting built, the second floor was not standing despite several efforts. It fell 3 times. After consulting with some saint, he said that a pregnant woman has to sacrifice herself so that the tower will stand. According to the need, one pregnant woman did sacrifice herself and even today the 165 ft high Gopura is standing proudly.

Gopura

Truthfulness of these stories is always questionable. And to believe them or not is one’s own choice. But what I wonder is, this story was true for him. He believed in, and yet he could find his peace in that place. I think, for him, sacrifice for the holy cause, was a great thing. So he could find his solace in that place. Again, it’s the approach that matters. He got his life back together in that place, and for me, it was a horrifying story.

Glorifying Our Culture ??

On the 7^th day, I was visiting the remaining places in Hampi and was taking the phorographs I had forgotten to take. I and my friend were near the Ugra Narsimha also known as the Lakshmi Narsimha, when we met a tourist. He was from a foreign country, and knew very little about India. He was a school teacher and was on a vacation tour to India. Before coming to Hampi he had never heard about it before, and had no idea what it was.

He said, he loved this place and had enjoyed his time in India so far, but he did not like what we have done to our tourist places. I thought he was talking about the markets, cleanliness, the crowd, mismanagement etc. but it was not about that. He said, “The way you represent your culture in your tourist places in very poor.” A little shocked by his statement, I was curious to know his reasons, as we have always thought of our historical monuments as the symbols of our culture.

According to him, our country has a very rich culture. But the way we show it to others, is the problem. To glorify our culture, we try to show too many things, which probably don’t go together. This makes our tourist places look artificial and lose the soul. This happens everywhere, may it be a temple, a fort, a cave, anything.

I got a little angry after listening his opinion, however, after thinking about it, I somewhat found it true. What is that we want to show our tourists? Are we really promoting our culture?

HIS-STORY

On the third day I decided to explore all the other unseen places in Hampi. I with my 4 friends rented bicycles and started off from Virupaksha temple. After visiting a few sites, we reached to the ruins of HariHara Palace. The only reason we could know that there once a palace existed was just a sign board indicating towards the ruins. As a history lover, I entered the huge campus of the palace. To our surprise we could not see a single soul in that area. Roaming around, trying to figure out what the structures were, we tried to locate some information boards but our attempts were in vain.

After waiting for 15 to 20 minutes, we saw two tourists accompanied with a guide, coming towards the ruins. I followed them and tried to listen to the stories about the place, but I could not understand properly. Finally in front of the mosque I stopped the guide and requested him to tell me about the place.

Mosque - Harihara Palace

 The guide told me the history of the place. He said that the palace once belonged to king Harihara who founded the empire of Hampi. He told a few things about the dynasty. One thing I found very interesting that next to the palace was the temple like structure. He said, the king had hidden his treasure in that chamber. He made it look like a temple so that nobody would touch it.

Hajararama Temple

After talking to the guide, we were sitting on the foundation of the palace and noting down the information we had gathered, when a person from archaeological department came to us. He thought we were sketching, which was not allowed. We took the advantage of this and asked the person about this place. He told us detailed information about the place. But one thing was not matching with the information we got from the guide. The treasure hiding chamber. The archaeological department officer completely denied this information. He said the temple like structure was actually a temple known as HajaraRama temple, which was built for the royal family. According to him, there was only one secret chamber which was full of weapons built at the backside of the palace.

In an half an hour, we found two entirely different stories about the same place, and both from authorised sources. There I realised, why history is explained as HIS-Story. Though history has evidences of the past, the facts are always unknowingly manipulated by one’s interpretations. And thus every place has thousands of legends.

Temporary guide

I was sitting alone in the ruins of the main chamber of king Krishnadev raya’s palace. It was my 6^th day in

Hampi and I had gathered most of the information I could have gathered about the place. I knew everything the guides in Hampi knew. I had clicked all the required photographs. Now I was just sitting there, hoping some spirit from the royal family to come to me, so that I could understand the complete history of the place. But nothing like that happened.

Foundation Of The Palace

A little disappointed, I was about to leave the place, when some tourist came to the ruins. As there was no one else around, he came to me, pointed at the foundation of the hariHara Palace and asked me if it was the queen’s basement. Correcting him, I said it was not the place he was looking for, and showed him where the queen’s basement was. He asked me if I was sure, as the board was pointing somewhere else. I smiled, and explained all about the place. I took him in every corner of the palace and told everything I knew, history, mythology, architecture, structure, religion, everything. I even told him the things people will tell him, but which are not true. After the 20 minute tour, the person thanked me, and left the place.

Ruins Of The Palace

Now I feel, I had explained him much more that any guide could have. I feel good that the knowledge I had gathered was useful for somebody. But now I think I should have charged him for that. I could have been a temporary guide in my free time; at least I could have earned my travelling expenses. But I’ll definitely do this next time.