Hampi Disappearing

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, the last great medieval-era Hindu kingdom in the South. In its days, a European traveller called it the most splendid city on Earth. The defeat of the imperial army in the Battle of Talikota, 1565, led to the city being sacked.

Hampi8217;s heritage value is unique in that it is not just one monument or set of monuments. It is an exposition of town planning at a particular juncture in the Deccan8217;s past, the last city of a lost India.

Just outside Hospet, and seven hours from Bangalore on the road to Pune, Hampi covers 125 sq km, broken into 8216;8216;core8217;8217;, 8216;8216;buffer8217;8217;, and 8216;8216;periphery8217;8217; zones. 8216;8216;Fifty-six monuments in the core zone,8217;8217; said S V P Hallakatty, superintending archeologist at the ASI8217;s Karnataka circle office in Bangalore, 8216;8216;are protected by World Heritage status. Another 654 monuments, also in the core zone, are not listed by UNESCO, but protected by the Karnataka government.8217;8217; A further 300 odd monuments are not protected by anyone.

The core zone extends to 41 sq km. To protect the World Heritage segment, the ASI has all of 60 private security guards and 50-odd general staff. For the 654 monuments in its care, Karnataka has deputed 8216;8216;three archaelogists, seven or eight field staff and no guards8217;8217;, said a local ASI official.

Two years ago, J. Ranganath, the ASI8217;s senior conservation assistant in Hampi, asked for a car to help his men keep an eye on the expansive area. The proposal was shot down because of an 8216;8216;austerity drive8217;8217;. Finally, a Bolero was sanctioned.

Hampi8217;s top challenge is human encroachment. Seven villages and thousands of residents live in the protected area. Barely 2 km from Hospet is the Anantasena temple 8212; apparently, it had just been constructed and was waiting for the central deity, the reclining Vishnu, to be installed when the invaders came.

Today Noidal village is the invader. Temple walls are used to dry clothes, collect garbage; the complex has been eaten into. The government hasn8217;t helped by building a train line just behind the temple.

The step tank in Malapanguddi village is one of the 56 UNESCO monuments. Till some 18 months ago, this was the village toilet, a grotty, smelly wasteland. Finally, the ASI rescued it, against much local pressure.

The tragedy is brought into sharp focus when viewed against Hampi8217;s legacy. 8216;8216;The old drainage system in Hampi,8217;8217; pointed out T M Keshava, superintending archeologist at Hampi, 8216;8216;still works. The irrigation system was foolproof. There was a construction boom here between, roughly, 1420-1530. Temples could be built without deep foundations, maximum 2 mts, because skilled engineers chose rocky sites.8217;8217;

An inscription is revealing. 8216;8216;It tells us,8217;8217; said Keshava, 8216;8216;that in the lifespan of Krishnadeva Raya, Vijayanagara8217;s most famous king, a nobleman built 15 freshwater lakes as water sources, before the city was developed.8217;8217;

Prior to becoming a political capital, Hampi was a religious site. The Virupaksha temple here dates back to the sixth or seventh century, but was expanded by Krishnadeva Raya. It is a living temple, worship of Lord Shiva still takes place.

The walk to the temple is depressing. Historically, the structures flanking the avenue were shops selling temple offerings, providing rest-rooms and food for pilgrims.

Some are still shops, even if they sell soft drinks and potato chips. Most have been illegally taken over. The pillars of a 500-year-old ruin are randomly used to build houses, plastered with cheap cement and cheaper paint.

In the temple itself, the ceiling is black. Dirt and dust hides the detailed iconography, the only extant sample of the Vijayanagara school of art. 8216;8216;We are planning to remove the damaging floodlights and tubelights and use softer optic fibre lighting,8217;8217; said Ranganath.

The ASI spends Rs 1 crore a year on conservation and maintenance in Hampi. In 2003, the Union Culture Ministry budgeted Rs 7 crore for a conservation project, including Rs 54 lakh for the Vithala temple complex. This paid for the excavation of the stately 40-metre wide pathway leading to the main temple. On the side are rows and rows of granite columns, indicating the thriving market that must have stood.

8216;8216;We will soon ban cars from coming in, and allow only battery-operated vehicles on the old road,8217;8217; said Keshava, who used part of the 2003 outlay to put together the small but impressive Hampi Museum, designed as a microcosm of the city.

It was near the Vithala temple that Hampi faced its biggest threat. In the late 1990s, the state government decided to build a bridge across the Tungabhadra that would have had traffic zooming right into the core zone. UNESCO wanted no bridge at all. Finally, it reluctantly allowed a bridge that bypassed the monuments, but was still perilously close.

The tension between past and present is an everyday one. 8216;8216;There are numerous stakeholders,8217;8217; said Hallakatty, 8216;8216;the village panchayats, telephone authorities that want to instal towers 8230;8217;8217; Each one could be stepping upon history, but each one needs to make a living.

In January 2005, the state government brought into effect the Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority Act. It provides for an Authority under the DM of Bellary that will 8216;8216;coordinate among all the agencies and protect the heritage city8217;8217;.

Ranganath has the last word on this: 8216;8216;We have to involve the local people. Conservation doesn8217;t work without them. The lesson we have learnt is never give a blanket 8216;no8217; to a proposal. Always provide an alternative. People have to survive.8217;8217; So does Hampi.