Anegundi (Hampi!)

Anegundi – Where the rocks tell many tales…

It is a bewitchingly beautiful zone reminiscent of a fairy tale kingdom. And if you feel that you have seen everything in your bucketlist, you should probably add this one high up on the top.

The whole region is covered with hills and mountain all laden from top to bottom with rocks and boulders of all sizes, many perched precariously as if ready to topple, many other balanced neatly betwixt more boulders. The rocks, brown and smooth are laden on the land as if playfully placed by a giant. And believe it or not, they seem to be singing – muted but visually captivating and many or wont to stare and wonder at the masterful rending by mother nature.

Here is place that has every bit of everything possible for a roving eye. The rocky terrain has a history of millions of years by being born when the volcanoes submerged in sea spewed forth lava and dust in the form of rocks that were heaved into the heavens and fell back in poetry. The water played along and placed them appropriately and then gave way to land. Many millions of years later the first of the many Neanderthal tribes appeared here and seemed to have found the rocks made good frescoes and they etched their colourful paintings. Yes, Anegundi has the prehistoric cave paintings and remains of dwellings that lends credibility to it being a cradle of civilization.

Thus it is not strange to accept another legend that speaks of it as being the Kishkinda of Ramayana fame. If indeed the land had its fill of the Neandarthals, it must truly also have been the land of Vanars – the monkey tribes – of Hanuman and Sugriva and the rest who played a pivotal role in the Ramayana. Anjanadri hill, the birth place of monkey-god Hanuman, and the mountain Rishimuka are the other places near Anegundi associated with Ramayana.

Anegundi, a few kilometres away Hampi, older in history of about 5000 years has however been overshadowed by Hampi because of the remains of the Vijayanagar empire.

Shama Pawar, (also niece Sharad Pawar) founder of the Kishkinda Trust believes that Anegundi has much more to offer than Hampi and has proven it by being one of the first to initiate many programs that benefit the locals and promotes the region actively. Anegundi is in many ways, a perfect epitome for rural tourism in India.

We stayed in a cosy cottage in the middle of of the village which merged with the landscape and had in the back ground – and every where else – rocks, boulders and rocky mountains. The cottage was village style with modern comforts, minus of course, a TV or the air conditioner. It abounds in monkeys and snakes and I was fortunate enough to spot one harmless snake around two foot long slither away from a pond into the rocks. As a first for me, I did not panic or yell in alarm. Perhaps the place had made me stronger🙂

The first day we reach Anegundi in the afternoon after a six drive from Bangalore which seemed shorter in comparison to the 90 minute drive it took us from Hospet to Anegundi. One of the things that stands as a barrier for tourists is the road ways. It is crowded with trucks and it is a dreary route till you turn of the Sholapur highway into a diversion that leads you to Anegundi. That is when your eyes spot the rocky terrain and are wont to feel that somebody is writing poetry with the rocks.

Anegundi has the honour of having one of the three sarovars mentioned in the Bhagvad Gita – the Pampa Sarovar. (The other two are Manas and Bindu). Here again, mythology and fact come together as this is the place where Ram meets Shabari and it is she who advises him to take the assistance of the monkey king Sugriva and Hanuman.

Anegundi has many more interesting things to see and there was only so much we could fill our afternoon with. We also did some bit of rock climbing and clambering on the stony hills and had much enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Virupaksha, a local guide who finds a mention even in the Lonely Planet proved to be an able person who gave us our full of history. Apart from being a mine of information on the region, he was also a trained rock climber, photographer and a whole lot of other things. It was amazing to see him climb the rocks with ease and panache!

The next day saw us take a coracle across the Tungabhadra river to Hampi. And it was interesting to see that an effort had been made to build a bridge across the rive to connect Anegundi and Hampi. But it had been abandoned after one half of the bridge collapsed killing seven people. The lack of a bridge makes it difficult to reach Hampi from Anegundi or vice versa and this has ensured that Anegundi continues to be ignored. We took the coracle ride and sent across our car by road. While we reach the other end in ten minutes, the car took two hours and a drive of sixty kilometres to make it to Hampi.

Ten minutes of a coracle and another fifteen on foot and we traversed five thousand years. While Anegundi’s history dates back a million years or more, Hampi, the world heritage site is just over 800 years old and is much more famous because of the ruins of the once magnificent capital of Vijayanagar.