The Audience Hall and the Tanks and Baths of the Royal Quarters, Hampi

Heritage Hampi

This article is about the Audience Hall, tanks and baths that are present in the royal quarters of Hampi. Hampi being a populous city in its heydays, has several water bodies in the form of tanks and baths. Let us take a dip in these one by one.

The Step Tank in the Royal Quarters of Hampi

In the ruins of the royal quarters of Hampi, raised channels of aqueducts feeding ornate tanks are conspicuous. Just South of the Dibba, one of the channels feeds an eye-catching unique square-step tank. This step-tank of remarkable workmanship is constructed of well-dressed schist blocks with five landings, connected by flight of five symmetrical ornamental stairs at regular intervals.

The number of these five steps at every row varies from 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 – probably it represented the inverted Lakshmi Shri-Chakra. Lakshmi Shri-Chakra is believed to pull power from universe and probably the inverted Lakshmi Shri-Chakra was supposed to pull power from beneath the earth.

Raised channels feeding the tanks in royal quarters, Hampi

Every stone-block of this tank is marked with either a number or a mason mark indicating the block’s position in the overall structure, raising an opinion that this tank was constructed or was present somewhere else. It was dismantled there, transported to Hampi and reassembled here.

Such kind of step tank architecture was once popular in Southern Maharashtra and this tank was probably brought from there; signifying the symbolic extended reach of the Vijayanagar kingdom.

Interestingly, when Hampi was forgotten, this tank was also lost and got covered under the earth and was re-discovered only in 1980. And the very discovery of the step-tank happened due to the above aqueduct which at that time was leading to no-where in particular.

The archaeologist dug the ground at this endpoint to investigate further and emerged this geometrically thrilling tank.

Step-Tank, Royal Quarters Hampi — The square Tank, Hampi

Sun-light in late morning creates complex patterns with the symmetric architecture of the tank, enhancing the pleasure of viewing and photographing it.

The Public Bath in the Royal Quarters of Hampi

From here, we move further south towards the Public Bath. It is a huge tank, suitable for all kind of water-sports and the King used to watch these water sports from an open Mandap towards the west side of the tank. During Vasantotsava, the royal families also participated in water battles from their boats, splashing water over one another from their water-guns.

Public Bath, Royal Quarters Hampi — The big public bath, Hampi

The public bath is designed in an ingenious manner to avoid wasting water. There is a hole in one of the side that was closed with wooden log when water remained to be filled in the pool and when the pool was to be cleaned, the log-plug was removed and the water flowed down in the agriculture farms.

Other Tanks in the Royal Quarters of Hampi

From the public bath, we move towards the Dibba, just east of the Dibba lies a T-shaped tank that was exclusively used by the royals. Along with the tanks mentioned here, there were several others tank in the area used for religious and other royal ceremonies. These tanks also ensured that the need of water of the huge population of the Hampi were always met.

T-shaped Tank, Royal Quarters Hampi — T-Shape royal tank, Hampi

While walking in the ruins of royal quarters we come across a slightly raised platform with elephants at the entrance. Among these ruins also lies King’s residence with nine chambers including a Puja room.

Also unearthed are inscriptions that suggests that one of these buildings is “Hiriyara Aramone”, a palace of elders or an old Palace. The building mentioned in these inscriptions might be the Palace of Hukka or Harihara I, the first palace to be constructed by The Vijayanagar kings.

A raised platform structure with elephants at the door, Hampi

There is rubble of buildings constructed over earlier foundations making experts suspect that even after the massive destruction of the Vijayanagar empire there were attempts to settle here; it is not known who tried to settle here but anyway these attempts failed and the place was left to its own, leading to vandalism by treasure seekers and by those looking for free bricks and other building materials.

Another look at the platform with elephants at the platform, Hampi

The Audience Hall in the Royal Quarters of Hampi

Further east of the Mahanavami Dibba lies an unadorned double platform that has twice the floor area of the Dibba, measuring around 17,000 sq fts over which once stood the loftiest building of the royal quarters. This building is mentioned as Hundred Pillar Audience Hall, by Abdur Razzak when he visited Hampi in 1442-43.

On its only existent ground floor, hundred stone sockets are visible arranged in 10×10 formation; these sockets once held massive wooden columns supporting a wooden floor above it. Neither the wooden column nor the first floor exists today.

Audience Hall, Royal Quarters Hampi — In top left corner can be seen the stairs going to the first floor of the audience hall, Hampi

The stone brackets are placed so close to each other that it seems that the purpose of the ground floor was only to support the first floor. Towards the south of this platform, stairs can be seen even today that takes one to nowhere; these stairs must have been the access stairs to the non-existent first floor.

The public addressing took place from here. There are open courts in front of the audience hall where public gathered to hear important announcements and also to participate in public discussions.

When the Vijayanagara finally fell to the Sultanate, the city was sacked, looted and burnt. Today there are no traces of its sumptuous wooden palaces and houses; the ruins of the city present a picture of a ghost city and most of the buildings have only the ground floor, basement or foundation left.

The Mint or the Secret Chamber in the Royal Quarters of Hampi

While coming out of the royal quarters, we see a queue of people outside an underground chamber made of green chlorite. It is believed to be a mint, a subterranean treasury or a secret meeting chamber. Inside the chamber it is deep-dark, nothing is visible. Here, technology comes to our help, and immediately comes out mobile torches guiding us out.

Secret Chambers, Royal Quarters Hampi — Mint, Treasury or Underground Secret Chamber, Hampi

There is no minting material found around this structure and so the experts discard the idea of it being a mint.

It is possible that either it was a treasury or a secret chamber where the Rajas met the spies of the kingdom or met with the trusted commanders for secret discussions. This secret chamber might be an underground temple as well and the king met his commanders in front of the deity with an oath from all involved that they will not lie in front of the deity.

The dark passage of this secret chamber led to the open chamber shown in the pix above. This open chamber was covered with a roof at that time. Probably in the center of this chamber was the idol of the deity and the king and his trusted folks discussed confidential matters in front of the idol.

We exit the royal quarters from its Western side and find ourselves in front of a compact, beautiful Hazara Rama temple about which I will write in the next article.