The Traveller: Hampi, beauty admist ruins ~ Part VI

Today is our last day at Hampi. We have planned that we will cover as much we can in the first half of the day and then head back to Bangalore.

So with that plan in mind, we started early. Last day we could not see the Hazara Rama temple as it was already dark. So we reached the temple premise at 6 am, but since the temple opens at 6:30 am, instead of waiting for the temple gates to open we went around to see the ones that are open all the time.

Mohammadan Watch Tower

Mosque and the Band Tower

Mosque and the Band tower

    We first went to the Mohammadan watch tower. This is situated in the Danaik's enclosure. There is actually no proper path to reach the watch tower and also I don't think one can get inside the watch tower. We saw it from a distance.

   In that same enclosure is the Band Tower. It is a two floor hexagonal structure. Just by the side of the band Tower is a mosque. The Danaik Enclosure is sort of not much maintained, though there is no proper way to reach the towers but we saw them pretty well from a distance.

   From there we went back to the Underground Shiva Temple. Strictly speaking the temple is not underground but at a much lower elevation compared to the ground. The inside of the temple is dark and further deep inside is filled with water. There is a Nandi statue inside the temple. Nandi is the holy bull and also the escort of Lord Shiva.

Underground Shiva Temple

Nandi

Squirrel

Next we went back to the Hazara Rama Temple. The temple opens at 6:30 am. This is one of the most beautiful temples of Hampi. The whole temple has the various scenes of Ramayana carved on it. There are more than a thousand carvings of the various scenes of Ramayana and hence the temple gets its name. In Sanskrit "Hazara" means thousand and "Rama" is Lord Rama on whom the Holy epic Ramayana is based on. Its really good if anyone visiting the temple of Hazara Rama gets himself acquainted to the Ramayana, that way it will help that person to appreciate the amazing craftsmanship even better.

Hazararama Temple

Me, taking photograph of the carving on the wall

Hazararama Temple

Alter behind the temple

From behind the Temple

Alter behind the temple

Pillars and carvings

Pillars and sculptures

Documenting the wall art

Hazararama Temple from nearby Royal Enclosure

Drainage system at the temple

Devi Durga Mahisasur Mardini Sculpture

Wall Art

Wall Art Depicting Tales from Ramayana

Sculpture

Pillar Sculpture

Front Pillar Sculpture

Entrance to the temple

Alter at the back of the temple

Ankur Taking Photographs

Sculpture

Ancient scripts embedded on the foundation stone of the temple

Tales from the Ramayana

Granite Pillars with Carving

Brahmha Sculpture

Vishnu Sculpture

Sculpture

Door to the inner sanctrum

War scene

Just opposite to the temple of Hazara Rama is the Paan Supari Bazaar and that spreads on a big area. There is nothing much left to this day, but maybe once upon a time a baazar used to be here.