Hanuman Temple

After an all you can eat traditional Karnatik lunch (costing less than a dollar), we made our way to the banks of the Tungabhadra River, lined with ruined columns and temples. Bus loads of local school children on a field trip gathered around the few white tourists... "Hallo! What is your name? Where are you coming from? Take my picture!" they yelled, while dancing (to no music) and laughing (with no apparent reason). They were a funny reminder that kids everywhere are pretty much the same. Although we had limited time, we decided to take one of the side trips away from the ruins (thanks to the persistence of mom). Across the river, perched on Anajanadri Hill, a pile of boulders, a white-washed temple sits marking the spot the great Hanumanji was supposedly born. The first time I read about the temple in the "Hampi" book we picked up at a local bookstore in Jewtown (Cochin), I knew I would fill very unfulfilled with the day in Hampi without going there. So we jumped in a "Coracle" raft, which was pretty much a giant bamboo basket, and began our mini-trek to the Hanuman Temple. I couldn't tell you how long it took us to get there, as the recurrent theme of a skewed sense of time was still present, due partly to the amazing surroundings and also to not having a cell phone or a watch to check the time on (which feels great).

So the raftman steered us down the flowing river with a long pole, spinning us around protruding rocks, and helping a few Sadhu-men (wandering priests) across the river. We stopped down river on the opposite bank and walked through a small field where herders stopped to let their buffalos and goats graze and drink water. It was now a little past mid-day on a cloudless day,15 degrees above the equator (at about the same latitude as Honduras or the southern tip of the Saudi Peninsula), even in January... the sun stung. We walked through a coconut grove unto a two foot wide path that snaked through sprouting, flooded rice patties. We finally came to a dirt road with few big buses full of pilgrims and a couple of rickshaw drivers on the lookout for some business. The pilgrims (mostly Senior citizens) had no qualms of openly bathing in the near by creek or taking care of other bodily functions in the broad daylight. We came to a large, stepped water tank that was covered in emerald green Lilly pads. Women lined the edge singing and chanting, mimicking the act of the goddess Parvati, who is said to have performed her tapas ( a form of meditation) at this spot, in hopes of provinger intense, pure desire to marry Lord Shiva (the "destroyer" part of the holy trifecta of Brahma). They are one of the most famous and beloved couples in Hindu tradition and parents of the revered Lord Ganesh. Up some stairs rests a Shiva temple with an entrance to a cave where Shiva is said to have meditated himself. This spot is one of the four holy spots for worshipers of Shiva. The cave must have been at least 20 degrees cooler than its surroundings, and an eerie breeze continuously blew through the entrance.

The travel book says "there are plenty of cheeky monkeys around, so don't go making the climb to the the top with a bag of bananas." We get to a roadside fruit stand, and our guide turns to me and asks "do you want to get some bananas for the monkeys?", so we picked up a big bushel of bananas, haha. Mom is still feeling lunch, so we start climbing the stairs at different paces. The stairs zigzag up and down the hill and through small creases where two or three boulders meet (the monkeys were mainly hanging out in these shady overhangs). Half-way up, I took a slight detour from the stairs and climbed across some boulders to visit a semi-hidden, small Rama mandir with a great view. It takes about 30-45 minutes to walk up the stairs with no stops, so it was not a bad hike, but the older pilgrims began to literally crawl up the last quarter of stairs in the heat, a testament to their determination to pay their respects. A group of school children on their way down met us with the typical high fives and questions, and of course the "take my picture!" At the top, I was greeted with a strong cool breeze and amazing panoramic views. A small white temple, a barren tree covered in multi-colored prayer flags, and a group of women reciting the Ramayana was an incredible sight amidst the backdrop of an ancient landscape. I didn't see any monkeys until I pulled out my bag of bananas. Only one was kind of naughty, the rest sat patiently as I handed each a banana; one held its hand out like a small child and another, a mother, perked up and showed me her baby after I had only handed her one banana, so I handed her another.

I could have sat and heard them recite the entire Ramayana (which takes more than a day). It was an amazing feeling to be at a spot where people from far and wide come to pay their respects to the humble yet mischievous hero of Hindu tradition. For those of you don't know who Hanumanji is, he is the famed character in the Hindu epic of the Ramayan, depicted as part monkey, and considered an ideal example of a true devotee of God and righteousness. His depiction as a monkey and leading the "monkey army" to fight alongside a reincarnation of Vishnu (Rama), is often considered to mean that he was from a very early form of man, in a kingdom where the population was ignorant to much of the Dharma (righteous truth and virtue, which distinguishes man from animal) that the Rama was fighting for. From a humble background, he is God's "right hand man" in the story and the success of good over evil would have been impossible without him. I am not one that takes religious stories (of any faith) literally and didn't come to worship the rocks Hanuman supposedly walked on, but there is something special about this temple where thousands upon thousands have come in the name of such an amazing character, one that I was raised hearing epic stories about. Likewise, there are thousands upon thousands of different stories and myths about Hanuman, so the above is no just explanation of him. But next time you look at a painting that depicts the monkey city of "Kishkindha", see if it doesn't look a little something like this: