The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A glimpse into the Hampi of yore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 12, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A glimpse into the Hampi of yore

Staff Reporter

‘Vijayanagara: Splendour in Ruins’ is on till January 22

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Admiration: A visitor at the exhibition, ‘Vijayanagara: Splendour in Ruins’, in Bangalore on Sunday.

Bangalore: The ruins in Hampi have been photographed several times. What is special about the photographs displayed at the exhibition “Vijayanagara: Splendour in Ruins”, currently on at Chitrakala Parishat, is that they are perhaps the oldest images of the Vijayanagara empire, from 1855 onwards.

About 70 images are on display at the exhibition which is presented by The Alkazi Collection of Photography from the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts and supported by the National Institute of Advances Studies.

Alexander Greenlaw, known to be one of the first people to photograph Hampi, had produced 100 waxed-paper negatives of the region. Some of his images bring to life the Virupaksha and Vitthala temple in their most pristine form. Now deteriorating due to inadequate maintenance, these ruins in black and white and sepia tones seem to be part of another time.

Photos by Nicholas and Company, Andrew Neil and others capture the Talarighat gateway and the much-photographed Kamalapura temples and Malyavanta Hill.

The colour photographs include Madhu Gopal Rao’s images, which are part of the series “Vijayanagara through the eyes of Alexander Greenlaw” and digital reprints of older photographs.

Elephant stables

On display are also images of the famous, sprawling elephant stables, with their long structures and eerie emptiness, rich carvings on the endless rocks of the old city, the uneven banks of the Tungabhadra and the scenery of a very different Hampi.

A compilation of these photographs edited by George Mitchell, with contributions by Anila Verghese, Sophie Gordon and Mike Ware titled “Vijayanagara: Splendour in Ruins” has been brought out. The book, priced at Rs. 2,850, has over 100 illustrations supplemented by maps, architectural plans and text. It is available at the exhibition, which is on till January 22.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka