Namaste friends.
You’re not going to believe
what you are going to see today.
This was once one of the
richest places on earth, babe.
This empire covered all of South India.
It was that big.
This is the great Vijaya Nagar empire.
And this is Humpi in Karnataka.
And I've been waiting
to bring you here.
Yeah, I've only seen the pictures
in textbooks.
Yeah, like people
don't know to come to Hampi.
That's the problem.
So after this video,
I hope that you'll see
that Humpi
should definitely be
on your list of places
to visit in India.
Because according to me,
it's like one of the wonders
of the world, this place.
And it's so busy today babe
because it's a festival day today.
This would usually be like desolate.
The last time I came here,
there was no one around.
But yet today it's bustling,
just like we were in the Vijaya
Nagar empire, right?
And, babe, tell us what this is.
This is a chariot.
And it's it's a jatra/yatra festival
where they decorate this chariot of god
and they carry it around the town,
praying to it and
dancing in front of it.
Yeah, look at those big wheels.
It's a real celebration
here in the afternoon
when they're pulling
this chariot down this road.
And this is the Hampi main bazaar road.
You can see here
they're doing some kind of puja
in front of this beautiful chariot.
When you start something new in India,
you break a coconut
and it's considered auspicious.
Oh, he's drinking the water from it, too.
Behind us, you can see the Virupaksha
mandir or temple.
And this is one of the oldest
living Hindu temples
in the world
from the seventh century, babe.
And it's a Lord Shiva temple.
And as you climb up
the side of this rock face,
you can kind of see all across Hampi
and you can see all of the different,
like palaces
and all the different structures
and ruins that there are here.
There's like 1600 of them
scattered around this incredible place
called Humpi.
And we're going to explore them
all today right?
What do you know about the Vijaya
Nagar empire babe.
I remember studying about it.
It was a strong empire in South India.
It was a great Hindu empire,
like one of the great Hindu
empires right? Yeah, it was a big one.
And it's known for its architecture
and sculpture.
What else?
That much we could tell
and look at; Like,
look how incredible
that temple is, right?
You can see all the sculptures
going all the way up to the top
and you can see
the flag flying,
which indicates
that it's a working temple.
And of course, the fortification
right, the fortification
and the water system.
The water supply system, was also popular
And you can see that
we’re in a valley here,
this is the main road.
It starts like all the way over here
and it comes all the way along
in between these valleys of boulders
and ends at the temple here.
You just kind of imagine
how much there is to explore.
And you can climb
all of these hills as well, babe. - Yeah.
Just like I find it really magical.
And there's one negative thing
that you might have noticed
all over the ground here
today. It’s the rubbish
that is scattered
all over the UNESCO site.
And people have even used
this piece of heritage as a bathroom.
Yeah,
so some people might think
it's a good time to come
when there's a gathering here.
But honestly,
I would try and avoid it
and come at a quieter time.
You have a better experience
and a more peaceful experience.
So there's like negatives
and positives to coming here
when there's a gathering.
On the positive side,
you can feel the energy,
you can feel the vibe.
And yeah, it's a lot of fun
and it's great
to see so many people here
because you feel like
you feel like
this is what it might have been like.
The vibe might have been like
during the Vijaya Nagar Empire, na?
But on the downside,
yeah,
people don't respect the environment, unfortunately.
There’s just boulders
as far as the eye can see.
It kind of reminds you
of the Grand Canyon on the back there,
don't you think?
It's just incredible
walking up these granite
hills, na? - Yes, like,
how did they even cut these rocks
and put them together?
It's just amazing, honestly,
like look where we're walking.
There’s langurs, these big monkeys up there,
I just find it absolutely incredible.
There's no cement, na?
No it’s granite, apparently.
No, as in they're not cemented together.
No, you can see they’re cemented,
but this is because
they've renovated it, na?,
to keep it intact.
But that, top part.
Yeah, that top part is
just like boulders, no?
Yeah, it's just rock on top of rock.
You can see on the corner here
that yeah, yeah these rocks
have been interlocked together.
Manu, what are they going
to use the colours for here?
I don't know.
Probably during the procession
they'll throw them at the rath (chariot),
I'm guessing. I'm not sure. - Yeah.
This is a side of the
Humpi Bazar babe.
I mean, I'm guessing
these would have been the shops.
I don't know if we’re exactly.
Hi.
The kids are very cute here, babe.
They're all saying hello to us.
Every single little kid around here.
Hi, guys.
How are you? Good?
And this is the end
of the Humpi Bazaar.
But honestly, it just keeps going.
So now you can climb up these boulders
and go all the way up to there
and get an incredible view
all across the Bazar Road and back to
the temple there.
Hi. Hello?
Oh, he doesn’t like selfie.
Awwww.
This right here is the monolithic bull.
You can hear these little kids
saying hello to us here.
Look at this.
It’s just incredible, man.
You see this?
Yeah,
that's like a bigger one.
And they’ve stuffed the smaller ones
in between these two big slabs.
Yeah, they've got these massive stairs,
and the stairs, go all the way
up to the top point there.
You can climb all the way up there.
We won't be climbing all that way
because it's already 30 degrees.
It's very hot.
Yeah, it's really hot.
Come here, winter.
And you can do bouldering and
explore to your heart's content, honestly.
The gate.
Yeah.
In 17th century back.
Wow.
Maybe more.
It's beautiful.
Humpi never ends.
There's just so much here.
It's a huge empire.
Humpi happy, happy Humpi.
Humpi makes you happy.
Makes you very happy.
Wow.
Babe, just tell us, where are we now?
We are on the other side of it
now where the temple
and the stone chariot is.
Another temple.
There's lots of temples here.
Manu something very funny
is happening to you here
in South India.
I knew it.
That's why I was standing in the queue with you.
Nobody thinks she's an Indian citizen.
And every single time
she has to show I.D.
to prove she's an Indian
Imagine
just people in your own country
don't think you're an Indian.
Oh my God. I hate it.
Oh my God.
And he's, like, show me your OCI.
But I don't have an OCI.
This is my Aadhar card
I’m showing it to you. - She's a citizen only.
She's got no other citizenship
but Indian.
And does this chariot look familiar to you guys?
You might have seen it on the 50 rupee note.
This is here it is here in Humpy.
This is what I wanted to see.
The stone chariot.
Let's see. Let's see.
Because I remember
reading about it in school and later
and what I remember is that,
you know, a lot of monuments
in South India are monolithic,
like the one we saw in Aurangabad
in central India as well.
This one, however;
very interesting
it looks like a monolithic structure,
but it's not.
They've hidden the
linkages very smartly,
so it looks like it's
carved out of a single rock,
but it's actually not like
all these wheels are separate
and they're like all individual pieces.
Yeah. They've interlocked
them together. Yeah.
What else do you know about it?
That the elephants were added later
and they were not a part
of the original structure.
The original chariot
was pulled by horses instead.
In the original one.
They were pulled by horses,
the chariot, and it broke.
So someone later
I don't know who made the elephants,
but someone added the elephants later.
So it was originally horses?
Yeah, horses were a part of the army
and it was important for them.
So you'll see a lot of horses
in the sculptures, in the architecture.
Yeah.
So this chariot was dedicated
to the vehicle of Lord Vishnu.
So this was Lord Vishnu’s vehicle?
This chariot.
Yeah, but he's called
Lord Vitthal here.
Because,
but he was an avatar of Vishnu.
You know, this,
this incarnation theory
right from Hinduism?
Yeah. Lord Vishnu had ten Avatars.
And just say that word again. Avatar?
So we've taken that in English.
Avatar! Made it Avatar,
and that's where those
James Cameron movies come from avatar.
Ma’am one selfie please.
Namaste, no not now.
No, thank you,
but why do they want a selfie with me.
Yeah,
a lot of guys will ask for selfies
just with Manisha because
they think she's a foreigner
Again.
Again they think she's a foreigner.
How do you feel about like, all this
like this is,
this is part of incredible India
I think. It is.
I feel like
it reminds me of Aurangabad
Ellora caves.
Yeah, like how it transported us
to, like, back in time.
And we were feeling
as if we are in that time
going around this kingdom.
You can see there.
It's amazing in here, right?
What are you thinking?
There's a lot of lion motifs
also on that char-, on that chariot,
and here
there's a lot of lion motifs
and a lot of horses.
Look at the details na.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Where does this go?
I don't know.
Oh, around the side.
Look at this, some kind of cabin
like
a room inside a room.
Tell us about Mala- Something puram.
Mahabalipuram? Yes.
How do you say that?
Maha-Bali-Puram. Mahabalipuram, yeah.
That was also UNESCO
protected site in Tamil Nadu.
Yeah. You've been to that, right? Yeah.
So you think if
people are interested in this,
they would be interested in
Mahabalipuram as well? Yes.
Yes.
Mahabalipuram
and Ellora caves in Aurangabad.
I think the Ellora caves
will be on number one, don't you think?
Yeah. Yeah. It is incredible.
But it's a lot smaller.
The scale you have in Humpi is. - True.
I don't know.
It's like you're in an ancient city,
and when I say ancient,
it's medieval, right?
That's the correct time. - It's medieval.
But I mean, to me, this looks ancient,
but Ellora caves are,
like, over a long time period.
Yeah, Like, if I had to tell you, if.
If you like history
and you love to see past
civilizations,
then you got to go to,
like, Ellora caves.
You got to come here to Humpi
you got to go to Mahabalipuram.
Yeah, those would be my top three
and more than the Taj Mahal.
This,
You can see and do a lot more here.
That's the point.
And the step wells in Rajasthan also na.
Yeah, they are also quite incredible.
Guys, please come here
in
winters, it's 36 degrees today,
and Manisha’s just hung back there
because her skin doesn't
have any pigmentation left, so
she burns so quickly so she can't walk
so far in the open sun like I can.
She's got sunblock on. But,
you know, that was like three or four hours ago
when we applied it.
So come in winter,
because there's a lot of walking
and there's so much to explore here.
You can't
just you just can't
imagine how much there is here.
It is literally like walking
through an old civilization
and like an old medieval,
ancient city,
there's just so many ruins around here.
And look at where we've ended up.
The temperature has just dropped
ten degrees right here.
Look at this.
This place is just stunning.
And,
this is where I fell in love with it
the first time I came here.
Just, I don't know, it’s paradise.
The rocks, the greenery, the water.
And there's a temple right on
the river's edge here.
It's just stunning.
And you can see the old pavement
from the old days is here.