Story of Establishments - In the 13th century (1336) two Brothers Harihara and Bukka established their empire of Vijayanagara Dynasty.
Harihara became the first king of Vijaynagar and Vidyaranya Swami became the chief of ministers and laid a strong foundation for growing empire. After Harihara, Bukka became the king and after Bukka his son Harihara II They had trading with Persia (IRAN), Europe and China, also an embassy sent to China and a successful expedition to Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
While Vijaynagar was flourishing, on the other side new Muslim empire was growing. When Muhammad-bin-Tughluq left the Deccan, he kept his minister Hasan Gangu behind; he gave him a command of Deccan and south India region. But in 1346 Hasan Gangu founded his own dynasty, called Bahmani dynasty in Gulbarga which was on the north side boundary of Vijaynagar and clashes were started between these two Hindu and Muslim empires.
(Hasan Gangu was an Afghan Muslim and in his early days of Delhi he had a Hindu patron Gangu Brahmin, in gratitude to him he took his name and his dynasty called Bahmani which comes from word Brahmin)
By the time passes Bahmani Sultanat partitioned in to five pieces, which was Adil Shahi of Bijapur, Imad Shahi of Waradh, Kutub Shahi of Goval Konda(Hyderbad), Nizam Shahi of Ahmadnagar and Bidar Shahi of Bidar they are also known as Deccan Sultans.
Here in Vijaynagar royal families were changed but the Empire was remained undivided and victorious over the Deccan Sultans.
In 1565 as result of Vijaynagar’s King Ram Raya’s policies of interfering in Deccan sultan’s affairs and play against each other, the Muslim rulers formed a confederacy against Vijaynagar. A huage army gathered from both the sides. Hundreds of thousands of army, horse men, and war came elephants and artillery face to face on the ground of Talikota. One of the biggest wars in the Indian history has begun on the 26 Jan 1565. The army of Ram Raya was bigger than Deccan Sultans, the old age king had fought bravely like young man but that was not enough, he got captured by enemy and the tragedy was Nizam who has a blood origin from Vijaynagar has cut Ram Raya’s head. After seeing his king’s head on the enemy’s spear the leaderless army of Vijaynagar had left the ground and that was the beginning of more than two hundred years of Glories Empire’s end. After that Vijaynagar was ruthlessly destroyed by the Deccan sultans’ armies, the city was burned continuously for six months and more than one lakh people were killed. Vjaynagar was never get up from this destruction and became a ruin.
Today what we see in Hampi are the remaining parts of this destruction and without knowing the history they are just mute and broken structures.
Virupaksha Temple- Situated on the bank of Tungbhadra River, one of the biggest and well mentioned fabrication in Hampi. This is the big citation in Indian Architecture, Temple was built by Krishna Deva Ray in 1510, and temple have 12 musical pillars.
Virupaksha Market-Facing Virupaksha Temple, about 12 meter wide and 730 meter long double-storied impressive structure is Virupaksha Bazar which gives an idea about the prosperity of Vijaynagar.
Lakshmi-Narshimha-- It is a huge monolithic, about 6.7m high four armed Narshimha (one of the Vishnu’s Dashavtar). but all the arms are broken know. Large seven-hooded naga curls above its head and originally there was a figure of Lakshmi (wife of Vishnu) seated on Narshimha’s left thigh, but know only a part of her arm is remain which was placed around Narshimha’s waist. There was big temple in the Vijaynagar period where this statue was placed. It was made by Vijaynagar’s king Krishnadeva Raya in 1528 AD, but now only this statue is remained.
The massive 12 m high three tier granite plat form is Mahanavami-dibba. This platform was used religious ceremonies like Durga Puja, Navaratri, Dipawali etc. which were publically celebrated by the Vijaynagar kings. There are three different phases of this platform. On the first phase well-dressed big granite blocks are decorated with the scenes of Vijaynagar people’s life style like festivals, hunting, horses etc. Second phase is decorated with elephants, dancers, musicians and medallions, and on the third phase there are beautifully carved schist blocks. Royal Citadel is a large area that includes Royal enclosure; it is the largest extent enclosure. Occupying an area of 59000 square meters and a wall which protects 45 buildings including King’s audience hall, which was a loftiest building in palace at its time with hundred pillars. Now we can see the base of those pillars.
One more beautiful structure of Royal enclosure is stepped tank. Made of well-dressed schist blocks, square on plan, this tank has five landings, each connected by ornamental steps and a stone channel has used to provide water in this tank.
Lotus Mahal:This two storied building is fine example for combination of Indian and Islamic architectural styles. It is built in an adhisthana style where arches supported by twenty-four pillars. The ceiling consists of number of vaults and symmetrically arranged domes. The central bay has a plain flat-coffered ceiling decorated with a lotus bud at the center. The upper storey has a number of balconies with windows having recessed and foliated arches. In its original state this building was fully decorated, painted and covered with polished lime-plaster.
Viththal Temple: This temple has no comparison; it represents the culmination of the Vijaynagar style of art and architecture. It stands in a large rectangular enclosure of 164X94.5m, dedicated to lord Vishnu as VItthala. The mandapas of temple contain beautifully and detailed crafted pillars which are a composite sculptural unit, sometimes measuring as much as 1.5 m across and may be termed as a monolithic sculptural group. Also there is big market structure outside the Vitthal temple; this is bigger than the Virupaksha market and looks like it was the main market place in Vijaynagar. There are many more monuments in Vijaynagar which takes at least two days to see in details.