I have been to Hampi quite a few times and it never ceases to surprise, bewilders and overwhelm me. However, this post is NOT going to be about the lost grandeur of Hampi. Many people have written about it extensively and I am sure I cannot add anything new to it. But my recent visit made me feel something unique and this post is about it.
A bunch of us visited Hampi last week. We had hired a guide to take us through all the monuments along with the stories behind those. Nobody can miss the famous Vittala temple which has the musical pillars in it. While I was lost imagining how it would have been in those times, our guide showed a picture (below) which was taken in the 19th century, more than 200 years after the fall of the vijay nagar empire. The picture depicted how a couple of villagers had made the great Vittala temple as their house. Yes, their house!!!
This was one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had. Imagining people washing clothes and cooking food amidst those musical pillars was something I couldn't fathom easily. While people were busy capturing moments with their cameras, I was captured by this surreal moment for a long time.
P S - After few hours, far from any of the monuments, while having lunch, I was explaining what I felt to a friend of mine. Then it occurred to me, for all you know, we might have been having food amidst a place which could have been grand like the Vittala temple itself but just that it's too old or too torn to have been discovered. We are just matter constantly being recirculated!!
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