The Ghosts of Hampi

Thoughts were racing fast through my mind. I could smell the fresh countryside air mixed with the fragrance of the ruins that have stood the test of time for nearly five hundred years. I was entering Hampi. A majestic temple-ruin town, It's a myriad of forms and shapes which is indebted to the societies that gave way for its existence as we  know.

The imposing boulders straddle together and tower over every living creature within its sight and creates a majestic foreground to the vast horizon. The question i have, why do some places end up becoming a ruin whereas in other places a few structures stand alone whispering the name of its creator. What really leads to a town to suffer invasion after invasion, plunder after plunder and yet emerge from the ashes.

There maybe a multitude of factors for this.

• Hampi is a fortress in itself. Situated on the banks of the mighty Tungabhadra and surrounded by massive rock hillocks all around it is very well entrenched. 

• One may wonder how that is a factor. Well unless the invaders i.e the deccan sultanate had very strong reasons it would probably be a colossal waste of time and resources to battle the above reasons to enter Hampi. The motive of their plunder is a major reason for the way Hampi is today. And how is that?
•  One prominent feature of Indian temples is even the floor of the temples are intricately carved.I was surprised to see in Hampi that a lot of temples had no floorwork to speak of. Infact no floors to speak of. Which explains this

• According to {1} ,the invaders had dug up the floors of many temples to search for hidden treasures and valuables which perhaps explains the floorless complexes. The empire was known throughout the world to be one of the most prosperous cities at its time so it isn't crazy to assume that the sultans were more interested to get the valuables than they wanted to destroy the sculptures and artwork.

Although ethnic cleansing as a consequence of war existed even in those times it might not have been the main motive in this case, partly owing to the multi-ethnic society that existed in Vijayanagar empire. Perhaps because of the existence of people belonging to different faiths there was no single structure or symbol which alone represented the entire populace.

• Another possible reason could be that in various cities which had a central prominent structure and the rest were non-descript. Hampi is not one of those. Spending two days in Hampi made me realise that the whole of the town was dotted with structures and temples each having a story of survival despite the immense and widespread destruction it suffered when the empire fell at the battle of talikota {1}. What we see today in Hampi are actually the remains of a city which had a population of more than 500,000 subjects.

 Watchful guardian of the temple 

An open sculpture on a rock face

If they had to remove all traces of the entire culture that existed it would require them to not just raze the entire place to dust(which was also done and didn't quite achieve the objective) but manually move each and every rock away from its home. Destruction of an entire city, at its peak which was the largest in the world is easier said than done. It takes more than just numbers and armies to bring something to its knees which has its soul pervading through each and every stone in the land. Like a creeper the soul crawls through the hardest of rocks and mightiest of opponents to somehow find a way to grow..

Is it just luck or chance by which Hampi or any other town survive as ruins?
As we saw above a multitude of factors which is why some places exist as ruins.



We have witnessed and are witnessing crucial moments since the onset of the millenium. The Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria was captured and utterly ransacked by ISIS in 2014-15 leading to a loss which can't be quantified in any sense whatsoever. It shows the depravity of these groups which attempt to destroy in these monuments not only the structures themselves but the very idea of humanity. Palmyra itself has seen its fair share of invasions and survived as a magnificient ruin(figure out what reasons led to Palmyra to survive) and I believe it will rise again against all odds. And we of this generation will be witness to it. 
Just as the silent boulders of Hampi were witness to its revival. Again again and yet again.
     



References:
{1}http://www.eng.utah.edu/~banerjee/Ebooks/Vijayanagar.pdf