It started drizzling a bit in the evening when we left the resort for the Virupaksha temple tour.
Our tour guide suggested that we cover the monolith Nrsimha and Shiva Linga on the way to the Virupaksha Temple..
When we reached the Nrsimha statue, it was still drizzling which added additional majesty to the already majestic monolithic Nrsimha statue. Worship is not happening at the temple as a limb along with the statue of Lakshmi is broken. This was built by Krishna Deva Raya in the 16th Century. It stands 22 feet tall. Has intricate carvings, with the Adisesha becoming the umbrella in the rain for Nrsimha.
We took a few pictures and moved on to the Badvalinga, a 10-12 feet Shivalinga which was just a few meters from the Nrsimha. The shivalinga is partially submerged in the water. The legend has it that this was built by a poor woman (badava). Unlike the Nrsimha temple, Pooja happens in this temple on a daily basis.
We went to the Krishna temple next. Again an imposing and intricately carved rock structure. The snake structure in the entrance is a kind of a calendar which will identify the solar and lunar eclipse accurately. There was a huge bazaar. The size of the bazaar clearly shows the amount of trade that would have happened in the hey days in Hampi. A huge tax collection box is present showing how trading and tax were colocated.
A short walk we enter the Virupaksha temple complex. Inside the complex, we were first greeted by a large Ganesha statue. It looked similar to most of the other Ganesha’s we have seen in other temples, till our guide wanted us to have a close look at the 4 hands in the statue asking us if we found anything different. We did not find anything different, until he took us to the back of the statue. We were amazed to find Ganesha sitting on Parvati’s lap. Given the size of Ganesha, in the front, we cannot see Parvati at all, except for her two hands, which we misunderstood as the 3rd and 4th hands of Ganesha. Such a beautiful carving.
While the evening was about visiting the Virupaksha temple, we were fully treated to excellent architecture, a bit of history and religion even before entering the temple. And finally we entered the temple. The imposing gopuram with nine levels of structure welcomed us. There is a lot written about the background of the Virupaksha temple, the story of manmadha and rathi for us to read and hence, I am skipping the same.
What attracted my attention is the pin hole which reflected the gopuram on a wall (in the reverse). The accuracy of the architecture enabling the same is something which one needs to acknowledge.
When we exited the temple after an excellent darshan, we did a short walk to the Tungabadhra River. The river was flowing majestically. We spent some time at the river bed with a bit of rain around. We also witnessed a large group of monkeys being fed by the locals at the temple.
We returned back to our resort after a lovely evening at Hampi. I am sure, this experience will bring me back to Hampi again.
