ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Student Name: Teresa Cristina Cowley

Student ID No.: 22091853

Unit Name: Writing Place: Landscapes, Memory, History

Unit Code: HIS10018

Tutor’s name: Nicholas Mattingly

Assignment No.: 3

Assignment Title: Essay

Due date: 27th May 2016

Date submitted: 27th May 2016

Declaration:

I have read and understand the Rules relating to Awards (Rule 3.17) as contained in the University Handbook. I understand the penalties that apply for plagiarism and agree to be bound by these rules. The work I am submitting electronically is entirely my own work.

Signed:(please type your name)

Teresa Cristina Cowley

Date: 27th May 2016

A Place on Earth.

To view landscape as cultural, one might explore the art, mythology and religious history

of place. This paper introduces the reader to Hampi, India – the place where the ancient

Hindu civilisation of the Vijayanagara Empire once flourished between the fourteenth and

sixteenth centuries.1  The location is now recognised as a World Heritage site, and it is here

the author recollects travel experiences on the backpacker trail of southern India.2 Visiting

Hampi in the early part of two thousand left behind ‘special’ memories of this vast

landscape. The essay examines and compares travel literature past and present

including the differing perspectives of Hampi as place. There is indeed a common romantic

view reflected in the evidenced travel literature, and here an analysis of the historiography

is made. Traveller tales and writers’ self-reflexivity of place bare common words such as

‘spiritual’ and ‘magical’. In order to understand this sense of ‘spiritual’ and its link to place,

the historical and religious background of Hampi is examined through the work of

archaeologist and consulting scientist John M. Fritz. For a historical traveller’s perspective

of Hampi, the chronicles of Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes written between fifteen

twenty and fifteen twenty two CE, are explored.3 Paes includes colourful and intimate

detailed descriptions of the Vijayanagara Kingdom’s ceremonies, religious practices and

landscape. For a modern day perspective, excerpts from publications such as Lonely

Planet’s travel guide and archaeological society articles are drawn upon to reflect

perceptions of place entwined in this unique landscape called Hampi.  

1 Class Teacher Learning Systems (2012), accessed 29th March 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyCle3bRRkY2 "Group Of Monuments At Hampi - UNESCO World Heritage Centre", last modified May 21, 2016, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/241.

3 Domingos Paes. 1924. A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar). London: Allen and Unwin.

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Modern Day Travel Literature

A collection of travel literature written by the modern day author is examined, including

a variety of detailed and expressive accounts illustrating the ancient kingdom’s

landscape. These accounts will serve as a comparison to the author’s own travel

literature that explored Hampi as place. Views that resonate in the following accounts

embrace ideas of the ‘beautiful’ and the ‘magical’. An excerpt from the online Lonely

Planet travel guide reads “unreal and bewitching, the forlorn ruins of Hampi dot an

unearthly landscape that will leave you spellbound the moment you cast your eyes on

it.” 4 The writer uses both descriptive and alluring language to captivate the most

independent traveller. The account continues to describe the landscape, “giant boulders

perch precariously over miles of undulating terrain, their rusty hues offset by jade-green

palm groves, banana plantations and paddy fields.”5 In its 2001 publication, Lonely

Planet’s perspective on Hampi contains a similar thread, “the ruins of Vijayanagara, near

the village of Hampi, are some of the most fascinating in India. They’re set in a strange

and sublime boulder-strewn landscape that resonates with a magical air”.6 Global

traveller writer Vince Robbins exclaims "the view from small Veerabhadra Temple at the

top is quite possibly the most beautiful view I've seen in my life".7 Facebook travel

blogger, ‘Rickshaw Roadies’ wrote "Hampi is surreal, like a film set, it’s an unearthly

landscape that left us spellbound"8. High school student ‘Madeline S.’ was captivated by

her first visit to Hampi, “I felt as if I came alive for the first time”9. Madeline S. continued

to state that “it was still possible to feel the mystical atmosphere that once enveloped

the temples due to the sweet smell of burning incense and the detailed carvings”.

Madeline’s connection to place at Hampi is clear, “I couldn’t remember ever being as

4 Lonely Planet. 2016. "Hampi - Lonely Planet". Lonely Planet. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/karnataka/hampi.

5 Lonely Planet. 2016. "Hampi - Lonely Planet". Lonely Planet. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/karnataka/hampi.

6 Sarina Singh. 2003. India. Melbourne, Vic.: Lonely Planet. p.873

7 Vince Robbins. "Visiting Hampi India | Urban Travel Blog". 2016. Urbantravelblog.Com. http://www.urbantravelblog.com/trip/hampi-india.

8 "Rickshaw Roadies". 2016. Facebook.Com. http://www.facebook.com/rickshawroadies.

9 "36 Hours In Hampi". 2016. THINK Global School. http://thinkglobalschool.org/36-hours-in-hampi.

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happy as I was then”. 10 The travel literature collated here reflects a certain connection

to Hampi as place, as experienced by the authors of these accounts.

Figure 2: Hampi, India (2004). Photography by Teresa Cowley

Personal Reflections of Place

I kept a small travel journal detailing my trip to India set in the year two thousand. An

excerpt reads “riding through the mountains of the tea tree plantations that morning

was an amazing experience. I was at my highest of highs at that moment. I wanted to

lock that day in a bottle and throw away the key.”11 From such recollections, memories

become the impetus to many a travel literature where writers describe the observed

intensity of emotion, spiritual and physical experiences linked to place. A personal

reflection and self-reflexivity highlighting my connection to Hampi as place is below.

As the road’s terracotta dust settles around us, my heart is pounding with impending

thoughts of arriving at Hampi. I wipe away the sweat from my forehead. It has been a long

yet forgotten journey – as early dawn welcomed the day. Our reserves are close to empty

and the roaring Enfields have come to a sudden halt. The group takes in the strange and

captivating horizon before us. I feel my soul returning to an ancient time, and yet I feel a

sense of calm as somehow I am automatically connected to my surroundings.

10 "36 Hours In Hampi". 2016. THINK Global School. http://thinkglobalschool.org/36-hours-in-hampi.

11 Teresa Cowley, Personal Journal: Travels in India (Hampi, India, 2000).

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It is a bizarre and comical site as we await the round floats to take us and our bikes to our

accommodation across the Tungabhadra River. Looking around I notice one is free to

roam and explore the ancient ruins - there are no visible barricades to the six hundred year

old architecture. Here ‘place’ is but a stolen picture ripped from the pages of a fairy tale

book depicting a ‘sacred’ time only truly vivid in a fantasy or dream. The local women, men

and children casually go on with their daily lives dressed to reflect a scene certain to be

from fifteenth century India. My gaze then centres on a used glass bottle of Coca-Cola

glistening in the sun, littering the gutter beneath my feet. The air is unceasingly heavy and

dry contributed by the sun’s abundant and merciless heat. There is a stillness and yet I do

not know the calendar day, nor do I care. Fondly, time has all but fallen away from my

senses.

Memoirs of a Lost City

Author Deborah. B Rose discusses the intricacies of human connection to place and here

the idea is explored in relation to Hampi as place. Rose states “country is sentient” and

“place is one kind of embodiment of being.”12 Hampi is described as a place full of

wonder and mystic as stated by several accounts. The stillness in the air lends itself to

giving the visitor an opportunity to tap into a ‘Spirit’ that breathes through the temple

stones and rock formations. Here a chance to resonate with the ancient empire’s

civilisation is given by simply placing a hand on a single carving and feeling the texture

of the cold hard stone. Rose seeks to highlight the vulnerabilities of relationships and

writes about the passion with which living things encounter each other in place, “love is

so central to place that it shimmers on the horizons of much of our writing”. 13 ‘Love’ as

described by Rose may be interpreted as the ingredient to foster the possibility of

capturing one’s personal connection to Hampi and decipher it into careful words of the

English language.

Human attachment to the landscape is nurtured by memories to place. Australian

National University Professor Ken Taylor’s definition of the meaning of place and

landscape as a field of study is “one of our deepest needs is for a sense of identity and

belonging. A common denominator in this is human attachment to landscape and how

we find identity in landscape and place”. 14 As the years pass since my last visit to Hampi,

12 Deborah Bird Rose. 2009. "Writing Place". In Writing Histories: Imagination And Narration, 1st ed. Clayton Victoria: Monash University ePress.13 Rose. Writing Place, 3.14 MySCU Discussion Board, Unit HIS10018. ANU Professor Ken Taylor.

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I note all that is left is a lone scrap book with a few old photographs and some crumpled

temple entry tickets. Memories of youth, freedom and self discovery. Sunny days amidst

green rice fields and balmy nights spent in musical cafes laced with the scent of burning

incense and pungent curries. Those days are gone and can never be replaced. To linger

too long upon those memories of place cause a lump in the throat and warm tears to

well - signs of the everlasting human link to one’s environment.

Landscape can be seen as a product of culture as humans see place in a multitude of

ways. Writer Angela Domingues explores the historiography of European travel

literature of the eighteenth century. Domingues points out that colonial and imperial

studies tend to analyse regions only from a European point of view. 15 This is

exemplified in Hibbert (1986)’s work ‘Cities and Civilizations’ 16. The author’s purpose

was “to give impressions of the appearance and social life of twenty-one of the world’s

greatest cities”. Here Hibbert (1986) included the cities of Thebes, Jerusalem and Rome.

He discusses Cuzco and Hangzhou and brings light to Tokyo, Berlin and Constantinople,

yet interestingly nowhere in the publication is mention of Hampi or any Indian city.17

15 Ângela Domingues. 2012. "<I>In A World Without Faith And Dominated By Ambition</I>: Representations Of Brazil And The Portuguese In The First Half Of The Eighteen Century European Travel Literature". Cult. Hist. Digit. J. 1 (2): m104. doi:10.3989/chdj.2012.m104.

16 Christopher Hibbert ‘Cities and Civilizations’. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. 1986.

17 Hibbert, Cities and Civilizations, 2.

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Figure 2: Ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire in Hampi, India (2004).

Photography by Teresa Cowley.

History of Hampi

Hampi has a definite History. In the year eighteen hundred, explorer Colonel Colin

McKenzie stumbled upon Hampi’s many ruins. The processes of mapping and surveys

soon followed which led to the recovery of the dynasty temples and structures. It was

uncovered that in thirteen thirty six two brothers named Harihara and Bukka founded

the Vijayanagara Empire and for over two hundred years the kingdom flourished. 18

Krishna Belur described the formation of the kingdom as a result of the state being

under threat from ‘Mohammedan rule’.19 After the empire’s destruction by Islamic

invaders in fifteen sixty five, the city became deserted. According to Belur, it is believed

Hampi was home to Shri Vidyaranaya, the religious teacher of the Sangama dynasty and

had a strong influence on the establishment of the Vijayanagara Kingdom and it’s

‘cosmic order’.20

European Travel Literature from the 16th Century

After the Portuguese conquest of Goa in fifteen ten, a number of Portuguese travellers

and traders visited the kingdom of Vijayanagara located in Hampi.21 A few detailed

reports exist highlighting the glory of the Vijayanagara Empire. The most valuable

account is that of Domingoes Paes written approximately between 1520 and 1522 “of

the things which I saw and contrived to learn concerning the kingdom of Narsimha”.22

18 Class Teacher Learning Systems (2012), accessed 29th March 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyCle3bRRkY19 Krishna Murthy Belur. Hampi: A Tourists Guide (Hampi: R. Vengatramani Dass, 2000), 2. 20 Belur, Hampi: A Tourist’s Guide, 4.

21 Robert Sewell, Fernão Nunes, and Domingos Paes. 1924. A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar). London: Allen and Unwin.

22 Domingos Paes. 1924. A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar). London: Allen and Unwin.

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The Portuguese traveller is quoted stating that Vijayanagara, was "the best provided

city of the world".23 Paes accounts are based primarily on careful observation as the

writer describes in detail the ‘feudal’ system of Vijayanagara's military organisation. He

details the annual royal Durga festival and expresses his fascination with the greatness

of Vijayanagara's fortified urban landscape, its markets, temples and the royal centre.

Paes’ detailed descriptions of the kingdom serve to identify and interpret the still

impressive ruins of Vijayanagara. The account leaves room for a theological study of the

Vijayanagara Empire and how it flourished over two hundred years, particularly under

the rule of the Tulu Dynasty where the empire reached the height of its power.24

Paes wrote about the landscape in terms of agriculture and abundance “behind cities,

towns and villages they have plantations of mangoes, and jack-fruit trees, and

tamarinds”. 25 He notes the land has plenty of rice, corn, grain and beans; an abundance

of cotton as well as other crops unfamiliar to the Portuguese. Writer John Gascoigne also

discusses agriculture and its links to prosperity in ‘The Earth and its Fruits’. Gascoigne

writes “the most durable and potent bequest of the Enlightenment was the idea of

progress – a view of the world that prospered in the nineteenth century but was to falter

somewhat in the blood-stained twentieth century”.26 Both authors centuries apart,

highlight the connection between the workings of the land and human prosperity.

The values and customs of the king and his kingdom are highlighted in Paes’ account.

Paes gains close proximity to royalty as he is able to discuss the king in great detail, “the

king is of medium height, and of fair complexion”.27 Paes states the king has a cheerful

disposition and seeks to honour foreigners and “receives them kindly”. 28 Paes states

that the country has cities, towns and villages, and notes that the king “allows them to be

surrounded only with earthen walls for fear of them becoming too strong”.29 The

religious customs of the empire become evident in Paes account “for you must know in

23 Paes, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar), 2.

24 Sewell. 1924. A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar).

25 Domingos Paes. 1520-22CE. A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar).

26 John Gascoigne. 2002. "The Earth And Its Fruits". In The Enlightenment And The Origins Of European Australia, 1st ed. London: Cambridge University Press.

27 Paes, A Forgotten Empire, 2.28 Paes, A Forgotten Empire, 3.29 Paes, A Forgotten Empire, 4.

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this land they do not slaughter oxen or cows”, advising the reader that the cows are

worshipped and housed in ‘pagodas’ made of stone. Paes highlights the pagodas are

buildings where the people of the kingdom “pray and have their idols”. Paes describes

one particular idol “the face is that of an elephant with trunk and tusks and with three

arms on each side.” Paes maintains a close connection to the people of Hampi as

evidenced by what the writer learns about the holy men of the city, “these Brahmans are

like friars with us” and “those who have charge of the temples are learned men, and eat

nothing which suffers death”. Paes tells the reader the Brahmans are all married and

have beautiful wives who seldom leave their homes, stating that the king holds these

men in great honour. Paes also describes Hampi’s unique landscape as the modern day

traveller has described it, “for these hills are the strangest ever seen, they are of a white

stone piled one block over another in manner most singular, so that it seems as if they

stood in the air and were not connected one with another”. 30

An Archaeologist’s Perspective

John M. Fritz, an archaeologist and consulting scientist at the University of Pennsylvania

Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology studied the medieval city of Vijayanagara for

more than 20 years and sheds light on this ancient civilisation. 31 Fritz worked in the

Vijayanagara Research Project and undertook a study of Hampi’s religious and royal

monuments as well as examining the common daily life. Fritz documented the ‘spiritual’

and ‘sacred’ themes of the place, “when we first arrived at Hampi, in the state of

Karnataka in southern India, in 1980, we encountered a landscape strewn with huge

30 Paes, A Forgotten Empire, 5 .

31 John M Fritz. 1986. "Vijayanagara: Authority And Meaning Of A South Indian Imperial Capital". American Anthropologist 88 (1): 44-55. doi:10.1525/aa.1986.88.1.02a00030.

9

granite boulders and the scattered remnants of a once great city, known during its

heyday from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries as Vijayanagara, the City of Victory.” 32

Fritz explores the king’s responsibility to nurture prosperity and ‘cosmic order’ in the

kingdom. Fritz places emphasis on “several meaningful aspects of royal behaviour”

while researching the king’s actions and role as warrior, hunter and master of

ceremonies.33 The archaeologist also looks at the urban plan and describes it as

“unrivalled as a theatre of Hindu imperial display”.34 Included in this analysis of

landscape are the extensive irrigated fields, the arcos of fortification walls, the sacred

centre, the Tungabhadra River, the Royal Centre and the canals. Here the ruins of

metropolitan Vijayanagara are the focus for a sense of ‘place’.

The ‘spirit’ and ‘scared’ nature of Hampi as place is reflected in the findings of Fritz.

Fritz focuses on the role of the king and aspects of the kingship, it here it comes to light

the kingship was ordered by a ‘sacred’ ruler who was to be of a moral and ethical nature.

Fritz discusses the carvings on the architecture and how they depict stories of the king

as protector, athlete, wealth distributer and responsible for ‘cosmic order’. Fritz

discusses Vijayanagara as a cosmic city and draws on commentary by Wheatley and

Meyer introducing the city as sacred due to its featuring a pattern of material form that

replicates the cosmic realm and cosmic patterns (mandalas). Fritz includes maps and

diagrams in his literature to include the zone of the royal residence showing a series of

courts as well as gates leading to palaces, “The urban elements assert the congruence of

the terrestrial realm of the king with the manifest mythical and celestial realm of the

god”.35 Fritz summarises the urban elements to include the royal centre, the roads, walls,

gates and temples and rituals of the city to emulate a ‘cosmic realm’. Fritz argues that

king and god were the primary focus of the empire, whereby their energies radiated

harmony and abundance to the city and beyond. Domingo Paes also highlights Hampi’s

focus on the ‘spiritual’ by commenting that the king relied upon the Brahman priest for

constant guidance in relation to ‘cosmic order’.36

*

32 Fritz. Vijayanagara, 44.33 Fritz. Vijayanagara, 51.34 Fritz. Vijayanagara, 45.35 Fritz. Vijayanagara, 54.36 Fritz. Vijayanagara, 44.

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When an independent traveller begins a journey, often there is a purpose. This purpose

can sometimes be the softest dream to witness and experience a place of wonder and

beauty on planet Earth. Hampi for many travellers has been that place as evidenced

through the sourced travel literature ranging from the works of Paes to Fritz. The

variety of this literature spanning from the sixteenth century to present day forms a

collection containing differences in author perspectives and circumstance. This

demonstrates the hint to significant differences in the historiography of each account.

The analysis extends to my own reflections and analysis of Hampi as a traveller’s haven

and exploration of an ancient Hindu civilisation. The common thread of the collection of

travel literature however, is each author’s resonance and connection to the Hampi

landscape. Romantic words such as ‘magical’, ‘spiritual’ and ‘beautiful’ are present in the

chronicles, publications and articles alike. Writers such as Paes and Fritz took the time

to carefully pen detailed accounts of their visits to the old Vijayanagara Kingdom with

enthusiasm and energy, which could only stem from a deep human connection to place,

a place called Hampi.

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Cowley, Teresa. Personal Journal: Travels in India (Hampi, India, 2000).

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