“The pupil of the eye has never seen a place like it, and the ear of intelligence has never been informed that there existed anything equal to it in the world,” wrote Abdul Razzaq in 1443. In its heyday the Vijayanagara Empire stretched from Orissa to Karnataka. The capital Hampi, covering more than 20 sq.km., was built on the banks of the Tungabhadra river, on a hilly site strewn with huge boulders thrown up by volcanic eruptions lost in eons of geological time. Architecturally and scenically it was, and is, spectacular… more »