Inside Story - Onake Kindi - rock art from a prehistoric site

We passed through lush fields as we drove down from Anegundi.    There were neither huts nor shops in sight. All that we could see were columns of boulders randomly stacked on top of each other.  Our auto stopped in front of some paddy fields as my guide Virupaksha announced our destination. “ Onake Kindi - This is a prehistoric site madam .”

The sun’s rays beat down rather mercilessly as we crossed the fields and climbed our way through a steep narrow pathway in a rocky terrain. The path led us to a wide plateau of tall grass , where we found ourselves ringed in by hillocks. There was no one in sight. “Keep a watch for snakes,“ came a word of caution,  as we wondered where we had landed.

The idea of heading to Onake Kindi  came up when I asked Virupaksha about  megalithic dolmens in a site  called Mourya Mane . I learnt that it was much further and high up in the hills and Virupaksha convinced me that he would instead take me to a prehistoric site closer to Anegundi, which had some rock paintings.

As we walked through the grass and looked around the boulders, we found a rock with some red and white markings, which had some stick figures of humans and some animals like the bull. In another boulder was a circular diagram which looked like drawings of sun and moon, but we could not figure out the symbolism behind it.

On my return to Bangalore, I started researching on the prehistoric sites near Anegundi and learnt from Professor  Ravi Korisettar , an authority on the subject that the rock painting  belonged to the Iron Age,  somewhere around the period of about 1500 BC .

(PIC : Aarti K)

 “The faded circular painting is a very rare depiction of a megalithic style of burial. If you look closely, you can see a human body in the middle and a lot of burial goods, surrounded by a  stone circle“ said Professor Korisettar , from  the  Department of  History and Archaeology from   Karnatak University in Dharwad.

The sun and moon like symbols , the ladder and the water depicted on the rock probably referred to their various beliefs .” We can only interpret these images; the sun and moon for instance can be seen in some hero stones as well which probably suggests immortality,”  added Prof Srikumar Menon, a Faculty of Architecture from the Manipal Institute of Technology.

You will find the bull in almost all paintings . It is a reference to the bull cult, which was a male fertility symbol, “ explained Professor Korisettar , talking about the symbolism in rock art.

I had not understood the significance  of the paintings when I had seen those crude red sketches on the rocks. However as I delved deeper into it, I realized that we were probably looking at some of the most ancient forms of beliefs that are rather deep rooted within us  today.

This story was published in the Metro Plus today in my column, Inside Story . I thank Professors Ravi KoriSettar and Srikumar Menon for sharing a lot of insights with me and Santosh Martin for putting me on to them. Its amazing to see how every corner of our country is so rich and it makes travel a wonderful experience for a simple vagabond like me . 

More birds from Hampi

There are several birds in and around Hampi and Daroji - we used to wake up to the call of the Grey Francolin or see the red spur fowl disappearing amongst the rocks . Sometimes we used to see quails running away like balls of cotton and  disappearing into the undergrowth.  I was unable to get some good pictures of these birds , but here is a photo-feature on some of the others that posed for me .

Laughing dove and ashy crowned sparrow lark above, while a pair of Eurasian collared dove below.

A white browed wagtail and a wire tailed swallow

Scaly breasted munia followed by rufous tailed lark

A sandpiper followed by a long tailed shrike

A red wattled lapwing

And finally we saw a row of blue tailed bee- eaters in Anegundi..a pair was on the wire and then a trio and within minutes there were close to half a dozen of them...

Anegundi - relics from the past

A couple of langurs greet us as I listen to my guide Virupaksha gush about his hometown. “ Anegundi is older than Hampi – in fact this is the mother kingdom .” Indeed, Anegundi  is ancient,with cave paintings of prehistoric man, it is the mythical Kishkinta of Ramayana , it is holy as the Pampa Sarovar flows here and it is historic with ruins of forts, palaces , temples and gateways hidden around  the boulders. But the most important aspect of Anegundi is that it is a lively settlement, with a charming village that opens its doors to most tourists who visit Hampi

A fisherman and his wife are busy making nets  near the Tallarighata gate, as we sip tea in a small shack, talking to some old women who are lost in the passage of time. “You will find another gate in Hampi as well, “ says Virupaksha  and explains that these gates were used to collect tolls or taxes during the Vijaynagar dynasty from people entering from other kingdoms.

An auto driver decides to take us on a whirlwind tour of Anegundi . We see the village,  palace , the main entry gates and then climb up the old Durga fort listening to more stories . “ The Vijaynagar kings used to come here and pray before every battle, “says Virupaksha , and then they go to the holy Pampa sarovar lake and the lakshmi temple there. “  We climb further to see  an ancient entrance to the fort, ruins of a palace and tombs .

But Anegundi is ageless  -  be it the settlements of prehistoric man or the myths around the Ramayana, there is a mysticism around it. “ Kishkinta means a bush, a forest where monkeys lived, “ explains Virupaksha, telling me about the Hanuman temple atop the Anjanadri Hill where tourists climb more than 400 steps to reach there.

As we lose ourselves in the green fields below bordered by the boulders, Virupaksha warns us that the last coracle would leave for Hampi soon. A few minutes later, sitting precariously on the rim of the coracle , carrying  two bikes and a dozen people , I cross the river Tungabhadra .  My thoughts get carried away to a passage in Robert Sewell's book , " A Forgotten Empire , which narrates the observations of a 16^th century Portuguese traveler , Dominoes Paes who had visited the empire.

 He mentions that the coracle was used even then to carry ““ fifteen to twenty persons and even horses and oxen can cross in them if necessary . “Paes adds ,” People cross to this place by boats which are like baskets, inside they are made of cane and outside of leather…and the boats are always turning round, as they cannot go straight like others; in all the kingdoms where there are streams there are no other boats than these.”   It is interesting, I thought as we reached Hampi that a relic like the coracle lives along with the monuments from the Vijaynagar days.

This story was published today in Metro Plus in my column, The Inside Story 

A day in Anegundi , Hampi

Anegundi lies across Hampi on the other side of the Tungabhadra. This village is older than Hampi and is said to be the other of the Vijaynagar empire and is believed to be the mythical Kishkinta or the monkey kingdom of the Ramayana

For more beautiful skies across the world, click here

Im going to be travelling for a week to Hong Kong with my family and may not be able to visit all your posts this week. I look forward to catching up with all of you when Im back...

Anegundi - Hop on Hop off on an autorickshaw - The Prologue

I know this is a cliche in the travellers circle  - that the journey is far more exciting than the destination itself . However, Ive found this rather true in many cases - especially during my journeys in rural India when  I often dont know what Im looking for or what I will find.

Almost two decades ago, when I was still a college student, I was introduced to Hampi and Badami . And what I do remember about these destinations is the journey . I hardly remember the monuments, but I remember going through the streets, looking for one of those bells that are tied around the cows which I had wanted to  buy. Today , when I visit Hampi , the monuments form a part of my itinerary, but I hardly have the time to enjoy the journey . However what I couldnt do in Hampi, I was able to explore in Anegundi.

I didnt have an agenda when I reached Anegundi. We hired an auto rickshaw and Virupaksha, my guide  took me under his wing. This was his hometown and he seemed to know where to go. This was the first time that I explored a town on an autorickshaw and boy was it a whirlwind tour.. I had a couple of hours before a luncheon meeting with Shama Pawar, a conservationist .

Virupaksha took it upon himself to show me the old gates of the empire, ruins of fort and the village with restored monuments. But the journey on an autorickshaw is what I remember - stopping by to admire the green fields against the boulders, craning my neck to take a picture of a mahal inside the village, sighting half a dozen blue tailed bee eaters on a wire .

We stopped by a small shop to have kitchen , where the woman was cooking on firewood and charcoal. Making conversation with some old women there, we continued to see the saffron side of Anegundi. My story appeared in the Deccan Herald today and although, it was an abridged version, I will be posting the original in the next post.

Life in the Tungabhadra

 

The Tungabhadra river separates the two ancient heritage towns - Hampi and Anegundi. The river serves as to bridge the people who want to commute betweem the two towns, ever since the man made structure collapsed a while ago.