Animals Seen In Hampi

Two monkeys enjoying a banana 

A langoor

A statue of Nandi the bull, the transportation of Lord Shiva

The elephant from the Virupaksha Temple having a bath

The Vijaynagara Empire is also known as the ‘Land of Monkeys’, so it was not at all surprising when I went there and saw the many monkeys and langoors in the many temples that we visited. The monkeys who sat on the roofs of structures inside the temples, were very smart and knew that whenever a person would enter the temple, they would have their offering to the gods which included bananas along with flowers etc, so they would wait patiently till someone vulnerable would walk in so they could quickly snatch it from their hands and devour whatever was inside. The monkeys were often seen fighting with each other and trying to scare the people, but on the other hand, the langoors which are supposed to be much less smarter than the monkeys, were calm and collected and never responded to the jeers of the monkeys, who often tried to provoke them.

I also noticed many, many cows and bulls being touched affectionately and taken blessings from the temple. Cows are considered holy according to Hinduism, so that was not a surprise.

Another animal, which was kept inside the temple was the elephant. That was one of the major attractions to the temple other than its history and beautiful architecture. The elephant looked well trained and well behaved, as it listened to its trainer and never went out of line. There were people always crowding around the elephant whenever I passed that area of the temple. The elephant too is considered a holy animal, one of the reasons being it being the animal that lord Indra rode.