- Where
- Tungabhadra river
Vijayanagara district, Karnataka - Coordinates
- 15.3344° N
76.4622° E - Capital
- Vijayanagara Empire
1336–1565 - Sacked
- 1565
(after the Battle of Talikota) - UNESCO
- 1986
(on the danger list 1999–2006) - On the money
- ₹50 note, reverse
(Reserve Bank of India, 2017) - Advisory
- India Level 2
(Karnataka in no restricted area)
Hills of giant boulders piled up like loaves somebody forgot to bake, and between them green paddy, banana trees and broken stone halls in every direction. Monkeys ran along the temple walls. Round basket boats spun across the river. In one courtyard a stone temple sat on stone wheels, two stone elephants in front, ready to pull. Nobody was in any hurry, the elephants included, and soon neither was I.
The short answer
Hampi is the site of Vijayanagara, the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 until 1565, on the south bank of the Tungabhadra river in east-central Karnataka. The ruins lie in a landscape of granite boulder hills. UNESCO inscribed the Group of Monuments at Hampi as a World Heritage Site in 1986, describing it as testimony of the last capital of the great Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara, with more than 1,600 surviving remains: forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, memorial structures and water works. Wikipedia gives the protected site as about 41.5 square kilometres. The place is older than the empire, a pilgrimage centre called Pampa-kshetra, and its Virupaksha temple has remained a place of Hindu worship throughout.
Why it's worth knowing
Most Indians carry a picture of Hampi without having been there. In 2017 the Reserve Bank of India issued a new fifty-rupee note in its Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, fluorescent blue, whose reverse carries, in the bank’s words, a motif of “Hampi with Chariot”, depicting the country’s cultural heritage.
The chariot is not a vehicle. It is a shrine to Garuda, the bird that carries Vishnu, built in the form of a temple processional chariot in the courtyard of the Vitthala temple. Karnataka Tourism describes it as carved from granite, standing on large stone wheels that it says were designed to rotate, with two stone elephants in front as if pulling it. A tower once stood on top; Wikipedia records, on the authority of the historian S. Shettar, that it was removed in the 1940s. Who built the Vitthala temple is unclear: most scholars date it to the early-to-mid sixteenth century, and its inscriptions name several sponsors, men and women.
The city around it was, by one scholar’s estimate, among the largest on Earth. The scholar Nicholas Gier, cited by Wikipedia, puts Vijayanagara at its peak around 1500 at about 500,000 people over sixty square miles, second in the world only to Beijing; Portuguese and Persian traders who visited left accounts of a rich, crowded city. In 1565 a coalition of the Deccan sultanates defeated the empire at the Battle of Talikota and killed its regent, Aliya Rama Raya. The capital, Wikipedia records, was then pillaged, looted and burnt for six months, and abandoned.
The field notes
A hall of stone beams that ring
In front of the stone chariot stands the Vitthala temple’s great open hall, its sabha mandapa. Wikipedia describes its 56 carved stone beams, of different diameters, shapes, lengths and finishes, as producing musical sounds when struck, and records the local belief that the hall was used for public music and dance; Karnataka Tourism calls them musical pillars. They are old, carved and irreplaceable, and are best heard from someone entitled to strike them.
The temple that stayed open
The Virupaksha temple, by the river at the western end of the old bazaar, is the oldest shrine at Hampi and, by Wikipedia’s account citing the scholars John Fritz and George Michell, still a Hindu place of worship. Parts of it date from the eleventh century; it was enlarged under the empire, and its eastern gateway tower rises about 50 metres. Local tradition holds that it was the one temple that went on drawing pilgrims after 1565. Every spring a procession pulls a working wooden chariot through the streets to mark the marriage of Virupaksha and Pampa, and the temple keeps the festival of Maha Shivaratri.
Boulders, a river and an epic
Hampi’s hills are heaps of granite boulders, and most of the city was built from that local stone, by Karnataka Tourism’s account. Regional tradition identifies the landscape with Kishkindha, the monkey kingdom of the Ramayana, where Rama and Lakshmana meet Hanuman, and that tradition draws pilgrims in its own right. UNESCO placed the site on its list of World Heritage in Danger from 1999 to 2006, in part because of two bridges under construction, one of which, the Anegundi bridge, threatened the views and would have carried heavy traffic through the core of the site.
Granite boulder hills at sunset over the Tungabhadra, the landscape tradition identifies with Kishkindha, the monkey kingdom of the Ramayana.
Photograph: Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0 · cropped
Round basket boats on the Tungabhadra below the boulder hills.
Photograph: Dey.sandip · Two Coracles and Tungabhadra River · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
A stone pavilion on Hemakuta Hill, with the gateway tower of the Virupaksha temple, still in daily worship, rising behind.
Photograph: Ingo Mehling · CC BY-SA 4.0
Carved granite piers and rearing stone beasts in the Vitthala temple complex, the courtyard where the stone chariot stands.
Photograph: Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0
- Start at first light, while the boulders are still cool, and carry water enough for a day twice as long.
- At the temple that is still in use, leave your shoes at the gate, dress as you would for a grandmother's house, and step aside for anyone who is there to worship.
- Keep your knuckles off the pillars in the singing hall, however hard they ask.
- Climb a boulder hill for the sunset, and take a torch for the way down.
- Leave one afternoon with nothing in it but the boulders. They were arranged with great care by nobody, and they repay the attention.
A small monkey walked across the open list while I was writing it and signed the page. The footprint stays.
The stone chariot. A shrine to Garuda in the courtyard of the Vitthala temple, built of granite in the form of the wooden chariots that temples pull through the streets at festivals: a carved body on great stone wheels, with two stone elephants in front, leaning into the traces. Its tower was taken down in the 1940s, and it has not moved since it was made. It is on the back of India’s fluorescent-blue fifty-rupee note.
Tally, in the marginNot a chock, not a rope, nothing holding it back at all: I went right round it to make sure. It stays because it wants to, which is the best reason I know.
Getting there
How to get there. Karnataka Tourism gives the nearest railway station as Hosapete Junction, about 13 km from Hampi, with taxis, buses and rented bikes onward; the nearest airport as Vidyanagar (VDY), about 40 km away, with daily flights from Bengaluru and Hyderabad; and the road from Bengaluru as about 340 km, six to seven hours.
Tickets. The Archaeological Survey of India sells tickets for the Vitthala temple complex, where the stone chariot stands, and the Zanana Enclosure, with a lower rate for Indian and neighbouring-country citizens and a higher one for other visitors, and free entry for children up to 15. The ASI gives the monuments’ hours as sunrise to sunset. The Virupaksha temple is a working temple: remove your shoes and dress modestly.
When to go. October to February, which Karnataka Tourism recommends for its cooler weather. The site is large and spread out; allow at least two days.
Safety. The State Department has India at Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime and terrorism. Its Do Not Travel and Reconsider areas are Jammu and Kashmir, the India–Pakistan border, parts of central and east India from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana, Manipur and the north-eastern states; Karnataka is in none of them, and the nearest is more than 400 km from Hampi by this entry’s measurement. The advisory warns that violent crimes, including sexual assault, happen at tourist sites, and advises not travelling alone, especially as a woman. It also notes that possessing a satellite phone or GPS device is illegal in India.
Mark this place
Common questions
Why is Hampi on the 50-rupee note?
The Reserve Bank of India’s fifty-rupee note in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, issued in 2017, carries a motif of “Hampi with Chariot” on its reverse, which the bank says depicts the country’s cultural heritage. The image is the stone chariot in the courtyard of Hampi’s Vitthala temple.
What is the stone chariot at Hampi?
The stone chariot at Hampi, in Karnataka, is a shrine to Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, built in the form of a temple chariot in the courtyard of the Vitthala temple. Karnataka Tourism describes it as carved from granite, on stone wheels, with two stone elephants in front. Wikipedia records that a tower on top was removed in the 1940s.
Was Hampi one of the largest cities in the world?
The scholar Nicholas Gier estimates that Vijayanagara, the city at Hampi, had about 500,000 people around 1500, making it the second-largest city in the world after Beijing. Wikipedia cites his estimate, and Portuguese and Persian traders of the time described the city as large and rich.
What happened to Hampi in 1565?
In 1565 a coalition of Deccan sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota and killed its regent, Aliya Rama Raya. The capital at Hampi was then pillaged, looted and burnt for six months and abandoned, according to Wikipedia, which cites the historians Richard Eaton, John Fritz and George Michell.
Is the Virupaksha temple at Hampi still in use?
Yes. The Virupaksha temple is the oldest shrine at Hampi and remains a Hindu place of worship, with parts dating from the eleventh century. It holds an annual chariot festival in spring for the marriage of Virupaksha and Pampa, and Maha Shivaratri. Visitors remove their shoes and dress modestly.
When did Hampi become a World Heritage Site?
UNESCO inscribed the Group of Monuments at Hampi on the World Heritage List in 1986. It was on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 1999 to 2006, in part because of two bridges under construction, one of them the Anegundi bridge, which UNESCO said threatened the site’s integrity.
How do you get to Hampi?
Karnataka Tourism gives the nearest railway station to Hampi as Hosapete Junction, about 13 km away, and the nearest airport as Vidyanagar (VDY), about 40 km away, with daily flights from Bengaluru and Hyderabad. By road, Hampi is about 340 km from Bengaluru, six to seven hours.
Is Hampi safe to visit?
The U.S. State Department has India at Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime and terrorism (advisory dated 16 June 2025). Karnataka, the state Hampi is in, lies outside all of the advisory’s Do Not Travel and Reconsider areas. The advisory warns of violent crime at tourist sites and advises against travelling alone, especially as a woman.