INDIA- Part Two: HAMPI- More Rocks, More Temples & Soul...

INDIA- Part Two: HAMPI- More Rocks, More Temples & Soul...

We spent three days in our deep encounter with the stone of Hampi. This was a gate of the same material as the walls it used to shutter, showing the extent of an obsession close to my own appreciation.

We mostly relished Madhulika’s rather thorough introduction to those seeming impossibly complicated Hindu stories as we visited numerous temples and witnessed endless deities. Many of those temples I would identify as “of the landscape”… being the deliciously open structures I love for their visual aesthetic. Others, with more “active” interior sanctums including priests performing rituals honoring fire or using loud bells, had much livelier qualities & character, in which I often felt more of an interloper. Some were quite small, old & unpretentious , with little decoration… feeling intense with some inscrutable soul. Others were more like showcases… from the predictable elaborate to a few simply “over the top”!

Each of these complexions presented more of what we were learning exponentially… my eyes were wide & full!… as well as by listening to the densely evolving stories of myriad deities holding equally myriad lifetimes of history… the so/too many stories of so/too many gods. Those Greeks seem not to have had quite enough time!

As I enlarged myself I felt “invited” on numerous times by these experiences to again attempt deepening my education by reading the Mahabharata & the Ramayana… the texts of this culture. There is always the possibility of some gift of so/too many lifetimes for myself! Thank you, Madhulika… I can only be an imperfect student. My eyes wander & wonder so that they prove being too wide for your best classrooms, even as we all are learning so much! Namaste!

The remaining ruins are not numerous & are scattered enough to only barely hint & suggest any scheme capable of being home to the estimated five hundred thousand inhabitants. Now, even in the remains of the city, there is much open space, some of which is farmed with rice & bananas. Scattered villages with cows roaming & goats being herded… as no doubt was also true in the 8th & 9th centuries. Perhaps there were even some variety of stone fences like the one above… but certainly the majority were fortifications or major definitions within the palace.

I can only inadequately explain my appreciation of the aesthetics of the evolved elegance of simple post & lintel design of the ancient structures which remain (or have been reconstructed).

These basic architectural glyphs seem to become resonant as “words” to my visually oriented mind…

The word was… The word was again… The word was again & again…

Which logically might then seem to develop as “sentences” when one observes the many long rows of those basic units of building which were identified as market spaces…

The subtle poetry of one long precise sentence…

The strength of such logical building evolves like a good paragraph…

While the elaboration of temples which developed in later centuries might then be perceived as “novels”

& OPERAS!

There still exist many miles of these galleries which obviously functioned as walkways which in India means they become market spaces. In a royal capitol city populated with half a million people shopping mainly on foot, one might imagine long avenues of colorful bazaars…

Some columns take on more evolved forms, often like “notches” but evolving into versions becoming quite handsomely decorative while retaining a respectful memory of that early glyph.

Elaborate folk stories get dressed-up!

One temple was approached by an impressively wide boulevard flanked by once-roofed walkways, one on either side, all along some half-mile of theatre to the temple entrance.

This temple has the resonating columns, which were used as percussive musical instruments.

I have a major thing for stone… sandstone to gemstones! I have an equal thing for resonance…Stephen made a video of me exploring that resonance in the example accessible in the museum, albeit inside the ambient sound of barking dogs…

The grounds also held an ancient tree… an incredible tree… holy survival!

There were other isolated survivors thriving along our walking these sacral grounds…

Arizona is so often referenced… evidence of botanic history at this latitude.

While I have memories of too many too-long slideshows replicating all the predictable places shown in the guide books, I must admit having that disease. It somehow proves one’s life… akin to “Kilroy was here” graffiti. I too own the need to attempt capturing my personal appreciation of the beauty of place, light & the life of moments in camera & words. Of course I want to share that!

I offer again my peculiar proclivity to study the mechanique of of the culture I’m visiting. Where else will you find someone extolling the virtues of hinges & cooking pots?!?

This aqueduct is an example… a direct application of gravity on the flow of water informs much of the plumbing we experienced in India, where one listens to learn that the chrome of modern faucets & drainpipe plumbing is depositing wastewater into the ancient technology of a channel, a trench, just beneath the slabs of the polished marble floors in most of the bathrooms of our lodging… Looking not unlike this carved stone trough exposed plumbing…

Feeding water into this beautiful step-well cistern…

The Elephant Barns are another of the iconic images I retained from John & George’s book…

Close by was an exhibition hall for the elephants…

a building which veranda was used for viewing the “parade grounds”…

With an interior space with more veranda built to provide a view at a safe level… note the single large gate at ground level…

Evidence of building on the rocks of the river… no doubt washed away in some flood.There came a time when I chose not to be so involved in the aspects of these temples as was Stephen in his deeper curiosity & appreciation of that form of spirituality… finding my own temple in the open sanctuary of the river.

I have a major thing for stone… sandstone to gemstones! I have an equal thing for resonance…

I’ve been intrigued.

The famous stone chariot, a sculpture which has stone wheels which used to turn on stone axles, although they are now stopped by concrete to preserve that rather astounding mechanique–understandable, but sad.

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.