Hampi

The story of Hampi

Hampi is the name now used for the ruined capital of Vijayanagara, a fortified city that was once the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. What makes it most striking is the scale: UNESCO describes the site as an austere, grandiose place with more than 1,600 surviving remains, and the ruins spread over 4,187.24 hectare.

The empire built its capital around this place, and the city was known as Vijayanagara. Britannica says the city and its first dynasty were founded in 1336 by five sons of Sangama, with Harihara and Bukka becoming the first kings. Hampi itself continued as a religious centre even after the capital was abandoned, with the Virupaksha Temple, an active Adi Shankara-linked monastery and other old monuments still part of the landscape.

Long before the imperial capital, this region was already significant. Hampi predates the Vijayanagara Empire, and it is mentioned in the Ramayana and the Puranas as Pampa Devi Tirtha Kshetra. The name Hampi comes from the old name of the Tungabhadra River, Pampa, through the Kannada name Hampe.

The older layers of the site go back very far. A Brahmi inscription and a terracotta seal dating to about the 2nd century CE have been found here during excavations. The town appears in Badami Chalukya inscriptions as Pampapura between the 6th and 8th centuries. By the 10th century it had become a centre of religious and educational activities under the Kalyana Chalukyas, and their inscriptions say they made land grants to the Virupaksha temple. Several inscriptions from the 11th to 13th centuries mention gifts to goddess Hampa-devi. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, the Hoysala kings built temples to Durga, Hampadevi and Shiva here.

The rise of the Vijayanagara capital followed the upheavals of the early 14th century, when the Delhi Sultanate armies invaded and pillaged South India, the Hoysala capital Dvarasamudra was plundered and destroyed, and the Kampili kingdom near here fell to Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s forces. In that setting, Vijayanagara emerged in 1336 CE from the ruins of Kampili and grew into one of the famed Hindu empires of South India.

What remains now is a city of ruins and sacred places. UNESCO says the site comprises the remnants of the capital city, including forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, memorial structures and water structures. The ruins also preserve evidence of a sophisticated urban world: excavations have uncovered inscriptions, coins, pottery and trade goods from China and Persia, and archaeological work has identified stepped tanks and aqueducts.

Travel writers of the past left vivid impressions of the city in its prime. Niccolò de’ Conti described a circumference of 60 miles (97 km) with agriculture and settlements inside the fortifications. Abdul Razzaq called it a city with seven layers of forts, with the outer layers for agriculture, crafts and residence and the inner layers crowded with shops and bazaars. In 1520, Domingo Paes wrote that Vijayanagara was “as large as Rome, and very beautiful to the sight ... the best provided city in the world.”

That prosperity ended in violence. The Deccan Muslim confederacy conquered the city in 1565, and it was pillaged for six months before being abandoned. The empire’s capital remained in ruins after that. Later, in 1799, Tipu Sultan was defeated and killed when British forces and the Wadiyar dynasty aligned, and the region came under British influence. Colonel Colin Mackenzie surveyed the ruins in 1800, and Alexander Greenlaw photographed the site in 1856.

Today this is a World Heritage Site since 1986 and a State Protected Monument. UNESCO also says most of the monuments are in good state of preservation and conservation. As you stand here, look for the mix of sacred and royal remains around you: the active temple life, the inscriptions that push the story back centuries, and the water structures that show how this city was made to work in a dry landscape. The site is open 24 hours every day.