Virupaksha temple in Hampi
- August 25, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Virupaksha temple in Hampi
Sub: History
Sec: Medieval India
Context:
Earlier this year, when the saalu mantapa, a pavilion at the Virupaksha temple in Hampi, collapsed in torrential rainfall, questions were raised about the alleged neglect of the World Heritage Site.
More on News:
- Monuments are everywhere in Hampi.
- Some stand tall and elegant against the backdrop of giant granite boulders, others lie low and truncated.
- There are sculptures of elephants with missing trunks, court musicians with an amputated limb or nose – reminding the visitor of the devastation caused by a 16th century war to this once thriving metropolis that was at the centre of the Vijayanagara Empire.
- A variegated list of around 1,600 monuments, spread across an area of 250 square kilometres, makes Hampi one of the largest such sites in India to receive a UNESCO World Heritage tag.
- The World Heritage tag given to Hampi in 1986 these 30 villages are spread across two separate districts, Vijayanagara and Koppal, and are governed by their respective administrations too.
- But it is the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Karnataka government’s Department of Archaeology that has the painstaking task of keeping the monuments alive through a rigorous conservation process.
Vijaynagar Empire
- Vijayanagara or “city of victory” was the name of both a city and an empire.
- The empire was founded in the fourteenth century (1336 AD) by Harihara and Bukka of Sangama dynasty. They made Hampi as the capital city.
- It stretched from the river Krishna in the north to the extreme south of the peninsula.
- Vijayanagar Empire was ruled by four important dynasties and they are:
- Sangama
- Saluva
- Tuluva
- Aravidu
- Krishnadevaraya (ruled 1509-29) of the Tuluva dynasty was the most famous ruler of Vijayanagar.
- He is credited with building some fine temples and adding impressive gopurams to many important south Indian temples.
- He composed a work on statecraft in Telugu known as the Amuktamalyada.
The story of Hampi
- Known to be the last great Hindu medieval kingdom, the Vijayanagara empire was established in 1336 by brothers Harihara-I and Bukka Raya-I of the Sangama dynasty.
- The spectacular city of Vijayanagara – Hampi was the empire’s capital.
- Its magnificence was noted by several foreign travellers visiting the region, among them Portuguese Domingo Paes, who visited Vijayanagara in 1520 and wrote about the city that was “as large and beautiful as Rome”.
- The city, on the banks of the Tungabhadra, has also been the subject of numerous books, including Salman Rushdie’s latest Victory City, a fictionalised reinterpretation of the rise and fall of the Vijayanagara empire.
- The site was practically untouched and largely forgotten till the end of the 18th century when the British first began exploring it. The British antiquarian Colin Mackenzie, who went on to become the first surveyor-general of India, made the first map of Hampi in 1799.
- For instance, in the Virupaksha temple’s gopuram, one can see a steel rod from 1856 with the mark ‘Made in England’ on it.
- The white granite pavilions on either side of the street, stretching out from the Vitthala temple, for instance, were submerged under approximately 3 metres of debris, before they were excavated in the 1970s.
- Inscriptional evidence suggested that this was a flourishing marketplace for horse and elephant traders.
A fight to keep the ruins alive
- An immediate impact of the 1986 World Heritage tag was that both the ASI and the State Department of Archaeology intensified their conservation efforts.
- A part of the conservation was directed at repairing the destruction caused by the war centuries ago.
- The chariot at the centre of the Vitthala temple, for instance, shows remnants of a pair of horse sculptures that was in all probability destroyed.
- But the conservationists had another, bigger, challenge on their hands — how to deal with Hampi’s living heritage, its people whose lives were tied to the land.
- With Hampi’s UNESCO tag bringing in tourists, the inhabitants of the 30 villages that constitute the heritage site saw opportunities for themselves.
- But in 1999, Hampi had a scare when UNESCO put the site on the ‘World Heritage in Danger List’. The whip had followed the Karnataka government’s attempt to construct a bridge across the Tungabhadra, a violation of UNESCO’s policies for a protected archaeological area.
- Consequently, the government halted work on the bridge and set up an overarching body, the Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority (HWHAMA), tasked with providing an integrated solution to the protection of Hampi.
- In 2007, HWHAMA established a masterplan for Hampi as part of which the entire area was divided into three parts — a 40-sqkm core zone that has all the major monuments, a 90-sqkm buffer zone, and the remaining peripheral zone.
- Each of these zones were brought under specific regulations and laws regarding construction activities and use of commercial and residential properties.
- Nongjai Mohd Ali Akram Shah, commissioner of HWHAMA, however, says that those who were moved out of the heritage site were eventually rehabilitated in villages away from the site. “People had occupied the pavilions and pillars at the temple site. They have now been given concrete homes and amenities as well as a separate site for commercial activities.”
- The bigger concerns are environmental degradation and the lack of consideration of community engagement in planning.
- Hampi needs better sanitation, green mobility plans and architectural guidelines. The pillars of Hampi are, after all, its people and this ancient and rich landscape they inhabit.
Protecting Our Heritage and Fostering Creativity:
- It is becoming a fact that no development can be sustainable without a strong culture component.
UNESCO has adopted a three-pronged approach to make culture takes it rightful place in development strategies and processes:
- Spearheads worldwide advocacy for culture and development.
- Engages with the international community to set clear policies and legal frameworks
- Works on the ground to support governments and local stakeholders to safeguard heritage, strengthen creative industries and encourage cultural pluralism.
Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority (HWHAMA):
- Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority basically deals with providing design solutions and guidelines for local development.
- The technical wing of authority comprising of architects, engineers and surveyors, study the drawings submitted for building construction permission within the LPA (local planning area) as well as check on site and in accordance with the norms laid down in the master plan, comment on feasibility of the building.
- Apart from these, various projects falling under tourism sector and development of tourism is also being taken care of.
- The Master plan was prepared by the Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority (HWHAMA) as part of its mandate to protect cultural, natural heritage and regulate development in the Local Planning Area. The plan was prepared under Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act – 1961 with the assistance of the Department of Town and Country Planning, Government of Karnataka.