I happened to visit the ruins of Hampi yesterday. The visit prompted me to write about the erstwhile city, the kingdom which flourished there and its downfall. First a brief account of the visit and then the flashback, filmi style :).
We reached Hampi yesterday at around 8 am in the morning. ( Previous night stayed in Hospet, a nearby town ). Assisted by a guide and started going around the place. First we visited the Virupaksha temple. This is the only temple where people worship the Lord. In all the other temples, the idols are desecrated and I believe, according to hinduism a desecrated idol is not supposed to be worshipped and it cannot be re-made into it's original form also. So its as good as a museum piece. Then we visited Kadalekalu Ganesha - an 18 ft stone idol of Lord Ganesha, Lord Narasimha, Jalakantheshawara, Lotus Mahal, the queen's palace, Elephant's stable and the Mahanami Dibba ( A stage for dancers ) ( all of these are in ruins , only the foundations can be seen and no buildings ) and finally the archeological museum. It took us nearly 4 hours to complete the visit. Came back to Hospet, had lunch and left for Bangalore at 2 pm. As I sat in the car, my mind was flooded with numerous thoughts about the ruins. I had picked up a book and as I sat reading that book, found answers to most of the questions I had. As I write, the first thought that came up to my mind was to write the fall, or the rise of the empire first. In history I always remember reading the rise of an empire first and then its fall. Its quite methodical and boring for many. So I begin in the reverse chronological order:
1565 A.D , The Battle Of Talikota :
On the banks of the mighty Tunga-Bhadra, on January 6th the combined forces of Bahamani rulers led by Ibrahim Adil Shah, attack the might of the Vijaynagar empire led by Rama Raja, the son-in-law of Krishna Deva Raya(He was 90 years old then). Rama Raja's army ( as given in the book Hampi Ruins by A.W. LongHurst ) consisted of 300,000 men and 10,000 horses. Ibrahim Adil Shah did not have such a big force but he was aided by guns and canons which wrecked havoc in the vijaynagar army. Rama Raja was slain in the battle and the Bahamani forces advanced towards Hampi, the capital. Some men from the battlefield, came to Hampi with the news. People had no option but to vacate the city. They gathered whatever they could, gold, diamonds, utensils etc and fled with 500 elephants to the city of Penukonda in Andhra Pradesh before Adil Shah could reach Hampi. Longhurst says, the items they took along were valued at 100 million sterling in those days. Later Adil Shah and his forces stormed the city of Hampi and thus began the plundering. For weeks they ransacked the temples and the city. All the idols were broken. palaces were burnt. Gold and diamonds were looted. It is said that one of the palaces took 15 days to burn down completely. The whole city was in left in a rubble. Later Adil Shah marched onto Andhra pradesh and by the early 1600s Andhra also fell into the Bahamani hands. The vijaynagar kings later sought asylum with the kings of Srirangapatnam. In 1700s Srirangapatnam fell into the hands of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and thus ended the regime of Vijaynagar. The Battle Of TaliKota stands as one of the fiercest battles ever fought in the history of India. One Italian author says, 'so fierce was the battle that the river Thunga-Bhadra flowed red with the blood of the slain soldiers'. The might of Vijaynagar thus fell to the hands of the Bahamani Supremacy.
What was the reason for such a fierce battle, such hatred that the whole city of Hampi was plundered and its richness looted. Was it hatred for religion ? culture ? animosity for the hindus ?
... to be contd
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