Hampi, with all its temples, palaces and fortresses in balletic ruins, exemplifies the rich cultural, architectural, cosmopolitan, and historical legacy of the Vijayanagara Empire, which once thrived on these very banks of the Tungabhadra river. Most of the people do not associate the ancient ruins of Hampi, detritus of the civilisation along the banks of the Tungabhadra river, with the same reverence and grandeur as the ruins along the Indus or other timeworn vestiges. Hampi was the former capital of the Karnataka Empire, established around 1336 A.D, having collapsed some time in the seventeenth century, and has a rich history representing the formulation, glory and finally, the demise of the Vijayanagara Empire. It is a place that, in its own way, has a presence – a personality, a charisma, as one might say, put together in form of rubble, remnants and records! Just ten kilometre from the town of Hospet, which is well connected by rail and road ways, Hampi ...