The Hampi Diaries : #5 Paatis and Temples.

Creepy, isn't she? At least slightly. 

I left off the last post at lunch on Day 1. So, as I mentioned, our itinerary seemed to be full of temples and we didn't seem to have much of a choice. After lunch, we headed to a temple - the name of which or the name of the principal deity of which, we have no idea about. [I just pinged Archita on chat and she thinks its perhaps Chintamani - in my experience, she's usually right in remembering names of even the weirdest and most obscure places] In any case, if you spot the woman in the photo above, you're there.

 Before we entered, we had a warning.              Upon rationalizing later, I wondered if that was the reason no one came there. Because what fun is a temple where activities already illegal are prohibited!

Anyway, the Chintamani Temple reminded me of those sinister Hindi movies centered on re-incarnation, where characters named Ravi Verma would be killed as part of evil plans and then take birth again, romance a girl, do the sing-and-dance routine, and then realize the greater purpose, the larger picture and avenge their death. Of course, Karz is the only movie with such a theme that I've seen or remember having seen. But I'm sure there're more. Anyway, getting back to the point - in such movies, there are bound to be scary looking temples. And this particular temple can definitely fit the part. 

There was no one inside - except old Paati (that is Tamil for grandmother). She was talking to us in what seemed to be Kannada mixed with Tamil and asking us to go inside the temple and pray to the deity. Weirdly, it felt like if we defied her, she'd probably take us by our hands and make sure we went anyway. So we climbed up to the first floor - the sanctum sanctorum was locked with a lock so rusty, I doubt it had been opened in the last ... couple of years. And I remember the name of the brand of the lock was 'Lord'. Apt apt. Anyway, it was a little scary to be there and we decided to go down again and try avoid the Paati. But she really had no where else to go. She asked us or rather pointed toward another smaller building (on the ground ... floor :/) with another locked up deity. We obeyed her. Then I wanted to explore the boulders around. But not wearing footwear doesn't help! And so we decided to chill there for a little bit and see people washing up clothes in the river and hope to god that more people turned up. Btw, Paati demanded to be paid in return for posing for a photo. We offered her Rs 5. She settled for Rs 10. 

 

Next stop was driving by the summer Palace area of Anegondi. Of course, ASI was conducting some restoration work and so it was close and we couldn't check it out. We did go to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple where the Vishnu idol was in Anantha Sayanam (um, simply put - a sleeping/resting posture) - seemed like a miniature version of the Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivadrum.


This was the Chariot in front of the Palace.

Anyway, from there on, we left for the Durga Temple. Which too, was closed - like every temple we went to after the Hanuman Temple. TIMING! But it was pretty, on top of a hill - not like the Anjaneyadri Hill. Hardly any climbing required.

 

Auto-Wale Bhaiya and his son GSurendraReddy (he said it in one go, his name that is).

Side par is a view from the Durga Temple. 

Anyway, our final stop for the day was Sanapur Lake - which was about a kilometer (or less) long walk from our Guest House. It was beautiful! For photos, click here. 

End of Chapter 5.