Having explored most of Karnataka I found myself frantically searching for other travel options when I spotted it, on the far northeast corner…a land most people had labeled as a cliché-"nobody really goes there!"…left with depressingly few options(non-availability of tickets as well!), we planned our next holiday rather optimistically and that was how it all began!
It brought about the desired result…our attempt at practicing Kannada made him drive like a maniac! We got off the cab five minutes before the reporting time to find out our bus hadn’t arrived yet. We settled with steaming hot cups of local chai and browsed over print outs of info about Bijapur that I’d picked off the internet. Twenty minutes later, still the only people waiting for a Bijapur bus we decide to venture out and find fellow companions only to discover to our dismay…that we’d missed our bus!
What followed was a wild auto chase to Rajajinagar and frantic calls to the travel agency en route pleading them to wait for us at the next stop. In record timing, ten minutes later four pairs of feet climbed onto a Volvo to Bijapur on a Friday night. The next few minutes found us fighting for ladies seats and glaring at sinister looking moustached men before we settled down. The bus was packed to its brim that night and we were actually joking a few hours back about who’d actually be on the bus to Bijapur but the four of us!
I fell asleep almost as soon as we saw the last of the maddening Friday traffic in Banglore. The next morning I couldn’t hear the end of the joy ride! Apparently one of my friends had a gentleman sneezing into her head all night, the other had a neighbor who snored louder than a bulldozer in action and the last one had the funniest man behind her…he kept tapping(more like slapping) his chest all night and rocking himself to sleep. Well, my friends also witnessed my supine slumber posture with my mouth wide open (a consistently achieved feat!) while I was clearly impervious to the fantastic acoustics on the bus that night. After an eventful ten hour bus ride from Bangalore, we had finally arrived!
Tucked away in the north-eastern part of Karnataka is the extant and charming city of Bijapur. Established in the 10th century by the Chalukyas, it was referred to as Vijayapura (City of victory).The city came under the rule of the Khilji Sultanate in Delhi, was later conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate and by this time the city was being referred to as Vijapur or Bijapur. Finally, the Adil Shahs broke away from the Muslim Bahamanis to establish their own kingdom in Karnataka. Bijapur’s charm lies largely in the architectural legacy from its earliest days. It is a land of Islamic influence with marvelous structures combining the Indo-Saracenic style.
We checked into a decent place, dofferd our travel clothes and had a mouthful at Kamat’s before we set off for the day. As we stepped out, we were hit by a wave of cozen city guides who I’m sure had alternate professions. That weekend it seemed like we were the only tourists who had been there since the last invaders! We embarked on the sight seeing trip on a tonga led by a tractable horse called Raja and his owner, who was not allowed to whip him, thanks to Anu!
Bijapur is truly an underrated historical destination despite the fact that the place has been maintained badly by the Government and a lot of the construction today is dilapidated and in ruins.
Bijapur’s is most known for the Gol Gumbaz. This gigantic mausoleum of Mohammed Adil Shah is second largest dome in the world after that of St. Peter’s in Vatican City. The interior of the dome is mysteriously unsupported and has a whispering gallery under it where a message carries through 38 meters repeating 11 times! We spent sometime mouthing names of dear ones and enemies(Arun Thomas!!) before we stepped out and admired the aerial view of Bijapur from the roof of the this gigantic dome. Experiencing the sunset from the Gol Gumbaz was an experience in itself!
We didn’t have too much luck with food though I’d read before the trip that Bijapur had some slavering mughalai cuisine but ended up masticating brackish morsels of flavored rice dripping in oil! Another thing we’d read about was the famous Ilkal sarees of Bijapur that nobody there had ever heard about! After asking twenty people from various strata’s of life an auto driver came to our rescue and rushed us to a store that sold these so called hand woven sarees. I dreamt of adding these exquisite sarees to my mothers existing collection and maybe save one for my trousseau too but what did I find? Checked sarees that could be draped on oneself incase you wanted to be paired with a mallu checked lungi clad man to come sort of a costume party! I’m not sure if there were more varieties of these varicolored sarees as the people at the store couldn’t care less about most of their customers!
That was how good the gastronomic and shopping experience got in Bijapur!
Among the other monuments that we marveled at I particularly liked the Bara Kaman, the unfinished masoleum of Ali Adil Shah. Inhabiting the other end of the town is the Ibrahim Roza, the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah and his family. Supposedly the design for the Ibrahim Rauza served as an inspiration for the Taj Mahal! The Jami Masjid is known to be one of the most beautiful mosques in the South.
The Malik-e-Maidan is the largest medieval cannon in the world! Legend has it that if you touch this colossal metal gun and make a wish, it will come true. So we did just that! I made a silent wish for many more such trips and hoped that these monuments would withstand the ravages of time and weather to tell the future generations tales of the glorious past of our country!
It brought about the desired result…our attempt at practicing Kannada made him drive like a maniac! We got off the cab five minutes before the reporting time to find out our bus hadn’t arrived yet. We settled with steaming hot cups of local chai and browsed over print outs of info about Bijapur that I’d picked off the internet. Twenty minutes later, still the only people waiting for a Bijapur bus we decide to venture out and find fellow companions only to discover to our dismay…that we’d missed our bus!
What followed was a wild auto chase to Rajajinagar and frantic calls to the travel agency en route pleading them to wait for us at the next stop. In record timing, ten minutes later four pairs of feet climbed onto a Volvo to Bijapur on a Friday night. The next few minutes found us fighting for ladies seats and glaring at sinister looking moustached men before we settled down. The bus was packed to its brim that night and we were actually joking a few hours back about who’d actually be on the bus to Bijapur but the four of us!
I fell asleep almost as soon as we saw the last of the maddening Friday traffic in Banglore. The next morning I couldn’t hear the end of the joy ride! Apparently one of my friends had a gentleman sneezing into her head all night, the other had a neighbor who snored louder than a bulldozer in action and the last one had the funniest man behind her…he kept tapping(more like slapping) his chest all night and rocking himself to sleep. Well, my friends also witnessed my supine slumber posture with my mouth wide open (a consistently achieved feat!) while I was clearly impervious to the fantastic acoustics on the bus that night. After an eventful ten hour bus ride from Bangalore, we had finally arrived!
Tucked away in the north-eastern part of Karnataka is the extant and charming city of Bijapur. Established in the 10th century by the Chalukyas, it was referred to as Vijayapura (City of victory).The city came under the rule of the Khilji Sultanate in Delhi, was later conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate and by this time the city was being referred to as Vijapur or Bijapur. Finally, the Adil Shahs broke away from the Muslim Bahamanis to establish their own kingdom in Karnataka. Bijapur’s charm lies largely in the architectural legacy from its earliest days. It is a land of Islamic influence with marvelous structures combining the Indo-Saracenic style.
We checked into a decent place, dofferd our travel clothes and had a mouthful at Kamat’s before we set off for the day. As we stepped out, we were hit by a wave of cozen city guides who I’m sure had alternate professions. That weekend it seemed like we were the only tourists who had been there since the last invaders! We embarked on the sight seeing trip on a tonga led by a tractable horse called Raja and his owner, who was not allowed to whip him, thanks to Anu!
Bijapur is truly an underrated historical destination despite the fact that the place has been maintained badly by the Government and a lot of the construction today is dilapidated and in ruins.
Bijapur’s is most known for the Gol Gumbaz. This gigantic mausoleum of Mohammed Adil Shah is second largest dome in the world after that of St. Peter’s in Vatican City. The interior of the dome is mysteriously unsupported and has a whispering gallery under it where a message carries through 38 meters repeating 11 times! We spent sometime mouthing names of dear ones and enemies(Arun Thomas!!) before we stepped out and admired the aerial view of Bijapur from the roof of the this gigantic dome. Experiencing the sunset from the Gol Gumbaz was an experience in itself!
We didn’t have too much luck with food though I’d read before the trip that Bijapur had some slavering mughalai cuisine but ended up masticating brackish morsels of flavored rice dripping in oil! Another thing we’d read about was the famous Ilkal sarees of Bijapur that nobody there had ever heard about! After asking twenty people from various strata’s of life an auto driver came to our rescue and rushed us to a store that sold these so called hand woven sarees. I dreamt of adding these exquisite sarees to my mothers existing collection and maybe save one for my trousseau too but what did I find? Checked sarees that could be draped on oneself incase you wanted to be paired with a mallu checked lungi clad man to come sort of a costume party! I’m not sure if there were more varieties of these varicolored sarees as the people at the store couldn’t care less about most of their customers!
That was how good the gastronomic and shopping experience got in Bijapur!
Among the other monuments that we marveled at I particularly liked the Bara Kaman, the unfinished masoleum of Ali Adil Shah. Inhabiting the other end of the town is the Ibrahim Roza, the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah and his family. Supposedly the design for the Ibrahim Rauza served as an inspiration for the Taj Mahal! The Jami Masjid is known to be one of the most beautiful mosques in the South.
The Malik-e-Maidan is the largest medieval cannon in the world! Legend has it that if you touch this colossal metal gun and make a wish, it will come true. So we did just that! I made a silent wish for many more such trips and hoped that these monuments would withstand the ravages of time and weather to tell the future generations tales of the glorious past of our country!
