British writer Rudyard Kipling, who visited the ruins of the South Indian capital in Hampi and was impressed by its grandeur, immortalized this place in his "Jungle Book". After a century and a half, temples and statues continue to amaze travelers with their splendor, and monkeys with their insolence.
“Mowgli had never before seen a Hindu city, and although ruins were piled up in front of him, they seemed to him amazing and magnificent. Once upon a time, a long time ago, a king built a city on a hill … Trees have grown into the walls with roots; fortifications loosened and collapsed; thick vines hung from the windows of the wall towers in shaggy strands … The monkeys called this place their city … And yet they did not know the purpose of the buildings and did not know how to use them. The monkeys often sat in circles in the council chamber of the king, scratching themselves, looking for fleas, and pretending to be human …”So at Kipling's ruins of Humpy boy Mowgli saw, and since then little has changed here. Is that the jungle, which once overgrown the ancient city, has long been cut down, temples and palaces have been freed from vines and are officially included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Now they are the main archaeological site of the Indian state of Karnataka.
Hampi is not only ancient monuments, but also a sacred place revered by Hindus. The very bizarre relief of the area seemed to initially predetermine its sacred purpose. The mountains surrounding the forgotten city are made of giant granite boulders, piled on top of each other, like pearls in a maharaja's casket. On one of these mountains, according to legend, the monkey god Hanuman was born, and the events of the ancient Indian epic "Ramayana" unfolded nearby.
Many thousands of years ago, when the god Vishnu incarnated on earth in the form of the hero Rama, there was the kingdom of the Vanaras - the monkey people. Rama came here looking for his wife Sita, who had been stolen by the demon Ravana. Here he met Hanuman, took part in the monkey feud and returned the throne to their rightful king. From here, at the head of an army of monkey-men and bears, Rama moved to Sri Lanka to free his abducted wife.
Several temples dedicated to Rama have survived in Hampi. Their walls are carved with bas-reliefs illustrating scenes from the Ramayana. Researchers discuss the origins of the myth of human friendship with great apes. Some even believe that it reflected the realities of primitive times, when Homo sapiens coexisted with Neanderthals. Be that as it may, but the monkeys still have not left Humpi. They hide in the shadows of temples, climb the dizzying heights of the pyramidal gopur gates, and stick to tourists. Monkeys take food straight from their hands, and if they are not given anything, they can easily snatch something edible themselves or steal the thing they like. So Humpi, in a sense, remains the "kingdom of the monkeys."
In Indian mythology, the universe is not eternal, and even the gods are mortal. Their life is measured in many thousands of years and in comparison with human existence may seem like immortality. But sooner or later the gods die. In immemorial antiquity, this happened to the wife of the formidable Shiva. Disconsolate, he went to Hampi and on one of the rocks plunged into deep meditation. Centuries passed, and Shiva did not interrupt his mourning austerity. His beloved had already found a new birth as the goddess Parvati and waited in vain for him to finally take her as his wife again.
Finally, the god of love Kama crept up to the meditating Shiva and shot him in the heart with his magic bow, hoping to kindle in him a passion for the beautiful Parvati. An angry Shiva emitted a fiery ray from his third eye and incinerated the impudent Kama. The celestials fell into despair and in one voice sang Vedic hymns, filling the cosmos with their piercing prayer. They painted Shiva the suffering of beings in all three worlds and the miserable fate of the universe, from which he renounced for so long. They prayed for him to be reunited with their other half. And then the god had mercy, interrupted the meditation and agreed to remarry.
The rock, on which, according to legend, the great god meditated, in subsequent centuries was built up with tiny chapels. On the site of the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, around the 9th century, a grandiose Virupaksha temple appeared, the largest in the area. The river flowing nearby is called Pampa, after one of the names of the charming goddess. Previously, this was the name of the whole area, but over time "Pampa" was transformed into "Humpi".
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Shiva was especially honored here. This is evidenced by the three-meter granite lingam, a symbol of the sacred masculine principle, the largest historical relic of this kind in all of India. It is said that it was made by the order of a poor woman who was very devoted to Shiva. All her life she collected healing herbs in the mountains, sold them in the market and every day set aside a coin to make this cherished dream come true. And she managed to build a giant Shiva Lingam, at which people are now also throwing coins in memory of this touching story and in the hope of fulfilling their desires.
The abundance of granite boulders in Hampi contributed to the flourishing of sculpture and architecture. There are two statues preserved, 2.4 and 4.5 meters high, depicting Ganesha - the god with the head of an elephant, the son of Shiva and Parvati, to whom the Hindus pray for good luck in business, for the removal of all obstacles. But the largest sculpture of the ancient city is the image of Narasimha - the avatar of the god Vishnu in the form of a lion-man - reaching 6.4 meters! All these huge statues in Hampi are carved from solid monoliths.
Ramadan Jigil