The new defeat at Vijayanagar

The new defeat at Vijayanagar
Francois Gautier

It was once called the ‘Royal Avenue’, running from the great Virupaksha temple complex, to the majestic Nandi at the bottom of Matanga Hill at Hampi, Karnataka. The avenue was of such exquisite and mighty proportions and such pomp and festivity took place here during King Krishna Devaraya’s reign, that Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes had remarked, ‘‘Vijayanagar is the best provided city in the world.’’

But today the royal avenue presents a sad sight to the many Western tourists who throng there: numerous ramshackle shacks, dubbing themselves ‘restorents’, have been erected in clear violation of UNESCO guidelines. Trash can be seen everywhere, as well as large patches of brackish water, a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes. Every second person is a beggar and you are constantly hassled by vendors and touts. Welcome to Hampi the most beautiful archaeological site of India!

Take the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The first unpleasant surprise is that if you are a foreigner you have to cough up Rs 450 a day to enter some of these monuments, while Indians have to pay only Rs 10. At a time when tourism has registered a 25 per cent drop in India, because of poor infrastructure and high costs, it is truly undiplomatic to make the Westerner feel that he is a cow to be milked.

If the money thus earned by the ASI which, for 50 years, was busy covering up the fact that most mosques in India, including the erstwhile Babri Masjid, were built on ancient Hindu temples is used to better the place, it may be justified. But ASI’s idea of improvement seems to be to put barbed wire fencing here and there and propping up a few temples with stone walls. Many of the exquisite temples are unattended, their statues half broken or scattered around. Indeed, the Japanese, who had given crores of rupees for the preservation of Hampi have withdrawn in disgust and the UNESCO has threatened to do the same, unless the very ugly bridge being built on the Anegondi side is stopped (it has been, for the moment) and illegal construction near the sites halted (it has not).Yet, the Hampi ruins are without doubt the most extensive and best preserved pieces of temple architecture in India. Very few here know that Vijayanagar, the greatest Hindu empire ever, was in the words of French historian Alain Danielou, ‘‘like an island of civilization, chivalry, and beauty, in the midst of a shattered and bleeding India after nearly seven centuries of Muslim invasions’’. Numerous travellers, from Italian Nicolo di Conti to Persian Abdul Razzak, have marvelled at Vijayanagar’s incredible richness and refinement. Nearly five centuries later, you stumble in the middle of nowhere upon an extraordinary Ganesh sculpted in rock, or a reclining Vishnu abandoned in a lonely temple. What a stupendous culture which poured so much love and devotion on to hard rock, whose motto of beauty and respect to gods and nature, can still be witnessed today.

For when Ramaraya was betrayed (by the Lingayats?) on January 26, 1565, it was a holocaust. ‘‘For nearly five months,’’ writes Danielou, the soldiers of Husain Nizam Shah set themselves to the task of destroying everything and the scenes of terror and massacre were unparalleled and mightier than the imagination can ever fathom. The victors grabbed so much riches, that there was not a single ordinary soldier who did not depart a rich man and the most beautiful and prosperous city of that time lay in smoking ruins.’’ Today, at every corner of Hampi, you can witness the mark of the Muslim deep hatred for anything Hindu: most of the noses, breasts, arms, legs, elephants trunks of the statues, have been broken by the soldiers of Nizam Shah, as well as the houses and the royal palace and it is only because the temples had been built in such a solid (definitely quake-proof) fashion, that they have survived to this day.

Yet one finds that Indians themselves seem to have little regard for this extraordinary inheritance. The guides talk loudly, know little and are just interested in fleecing the Westerners. The local people, even though many of them are making a good living out of these very ruins, show no respect for their own patrimony. Consequently, Hampi is a vast excremental dump. There is dung from the thousands of famished cattle everywhere and, as there are no public toilets, people relieve themselves near, and even inside, temples.

Europeans are taught right from school to revere their ancient culture and a pilgrimage to Athens or Rome is a must for everybody. As long as Indian children are not to be told of the greatness of Vijayanagar and the holocaust perpetrated by the Muslims which took place there, we cannot expect an improvement in the situation. As for the Indian government, it should relocate all the people who are not farmers elsewhere, make the whole Vijayanagar area a national park and allow shops and restaurants only on the outer boundaries. Only then will the wonder that is ‘the City of Victory’ be preserved for future generations.