Home Travel Backpacking to Hampi – The temple town of Karnataka

Backpacking to Hampi – The temple town of Karnataka

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Hampi is known as a temple town which is situated in Karnataka. The thousands of temples and beautiful cinematic views, Rocky areas and paddy fields call  tourists to visit Hampi. Hampi is also the World Heritage site declared by UNESCO.

What’s ahead?

Brief history

Hampi was known as Vijaynagar which was the capital city of Raja Krishna Dev Rai. Lot of stories of Tenali Rama and Raja Krishnadevrai happen in this city only.

The Empire of Raja Krishnadevrai was considered as one of the richest Empires in the world at that time. Visiting the city you can imagine the glory of Vijayanagara empire.

It is also has mythological importance. It is also known as kishkindha Nagari which was the capital of Bali’s Samrajya in Ramayana. The birthplace of Lord Hanuman is near to the Hampi called Anjanadri Hills.

To  visit  the beautiful City situated in the bank of river Tungabhadra and know about the rich heritage of India.

Tourist attractions in Hampi.

1. Virupaksha Temple

This is one of the ancient Temples in India. Raja Krishnadevrai constructed part of this Temple. It is considered as lord  Rama came here during his vanwas and established the Statue of Lord Shiva. Many pilgrims from different parts of India come here every year.

Area of this Temple is quite big. At entrance there is 163 meter height Shikhar. Once you enter the temple you will find some rooms at your right side for pilgrims built in Raja Krishnadevrai’s time.

There is also one hall for the wedding ceremonies. This temple is basically devoted to Lord Shiva but Krishnadevrai and his dynasty follow  Lord Vishnu. So, the architecture of the temple is Vaishnav style.

There are many small temples inside the main temple. There is also one small pond  in the area of the temple where you could see fishes and you could also feed them.

2.Queens bath

The Krishnadevrai constructed this building for the queens of to have baths. There is a small swimming pool inside the building and the swimming pool is surrounded by the room like structures. Now there is no water in the swimming pool but the structure of the swimming pool and system for lighting as well as steps to go inside the tank are available.

3.Krishna temple

Krishna temple constructed by Raja Krishnadevrai for the special statue from Odisha. Very worn the State of Odisha he got the Statue of Lord Krishna from there and he built a beautiful temple for the statue.

Area of this temple is big now there is no statue inside the temple. Statue shifted to the Museum at Mysore.

That we could get to see the best sample of architecture there.

4.Hampi Bazar

Therefore types of bazaars (market) in Vijayanagar. These are as below:

  1. Pan Supari market
  2. Gold market
  3. Horse market
  4. Spice Market

Out of that markets 1 market is outside Virupaksha temple which is Spice Market the second one is outside the Krishna temple which was for gold the third one is outside Vitthala Temple with which was for horses.

5.Vitthala Temple.

This temple is also constructed by Raja Krishnadevrai. During the Odisha visit Raja Krishna Dev Rai had visited Sun temple at Konark he saw the statue there and built a replica of that Surya Rath at Vitthal temple in Hampi.

Picture of this Surya Rath is now on 50 rupees note.

Architecture of Vitthal temple is amazing. There is one musical hall in this Temple. All pillars in the musical hall are constructed in such a way that different melodies could be formed from them. King created this hall for the queen who  was a great dancer.

6.Coracle ride

Coracle ride in Tungabhadra river is one of the attractions in Hampi. You could feel heavenly peace in between the water of this river. You could have 30 minutes as well as a 60 minutes ride in the coracle. One should never miss the coracle ride during the visit of Hampi.

7.Lotus palace

Lotus Palace is a building which looks like the lotus. The king built this for Queen Chinna Devi who was a dancer. The Queen Chinna Devi used to dance in this Lotus Palace on the night of full moon day.

8.Pushkarni

Pushkarani is a beautiful pool. It is said that the water from Tungabhadra river used to come to the pushkarini via Rocky pipes. From there royal family used to take water for Pooja.

9. Hajari Rama temple

Hajari Rama temple is in between the way of lotus palace to pushkarini. This Temple has beautiful architecture. And dresses one of the calmest places to sit in Hampi.

10.Narasimha Statue

Narsimha statue is one of the highest narasimha statues in India. Part of the statue is beyond but one could imagine the whole statue just the remainder of the Statue.

Hampi is a place that one should visit at least once. This place is full of nature, heritage, feeling of past and realisation of present. You could see there river, paddy farms, rocky hills, temples, beautiful sunset and sunrise and what not so please do visit Hampi.

Food in Hampi

You can get all types of South Indian food in this area. For breakfast you could have the appam, dosa, idli made in the South Indian style. You could also have lemon rice paratha and other kinds of rice .

There are few small hotels with different ambience imperia in Hampi area where you could have your lunch and dinner.

Vegetables made by the flower of Banana are famous in Hampi. which is a Hampi speciality.

On hippie island there are Mini food joints as well as there are many restaurants which serve new continental food, Indian food, vegetarian as well as non vegetarian food.

Our journey to Hampi

We had started a two days backpacking trip to Hampi from Vijapur. Bijapur to Hampi distance is 216 km which took approximately 6 to 7 hours to reach Hampi .

Hospet is the nearest bus stop to Hampi from where we could get a direct bus. Hospet is the main location Which is connected to other areas of India by bus  and by train.

We took the bus at 5 pm  from Bijapur to Hospet which took approximately 5 hours to reach Hospet.

Stay at Hospet for a night. In Hospet you will get good hotels at a very reasonable price to stay near the railway station as well as near to the bus stop.

Distance between  Hospet railway station and Hospet bus stop is not much in between at college road you will get good hotels to stay in.

Hospet to Hampi

On the 2nd day early morning we left for Hampi from Hospet . You will get a bus every 30 minutes from Hospet to Hampi. Distance from Hospet to Hampi is approximately 13 kilometre which is approximately 15 to 20 minutes to reach Hampi from Hospet.

FAQ

How to reach Hampi?

Nearest railway station is Hospet which is 13 kilometer away .
Nearest airport is in Bellary which is 60 km away and Hubli Airport is 143 km away from Hampi.

Bus stop of KSRTC at Hampi is near Virupaksha Temple which is the centre point. Kamlapur is another village located near Hampi which is good in accessibility.

Where to stay ?

In Hampi there are a lot of homestay, lodges and small hotels available to stay. There are also Few Good hotels in the Hospet area to stay.
Homestays available in Hampi have average facilities. And the prices of the homestays are not much. One could easily get a reasonable Homestay with basic facilities in the Hampi area.
Hippie Island is another area which is on the opposite side of the river where many people prefer to stay.
Non vegetarian food and alcohol is banned in Hampi area. But in hippie area you can get non vegetarian food as well as alcohol. This area is called as Island because this area is surrounded by river Tungabhadra from all sites.

Which are the places near to visit?

Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole are the nearby places to hampi to visit. There atre also many places in Karnataka which you could visit .

Press here to view those places.
Hampi is not far from Maharashtra so you could visit Mumbai, Solapur and Pune.

To know other nearby are in Maharashtra click here.

To know about Maharashtrian food culture click here.

Also check tips for backpacking.

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