Hazara Rama Temple, , Karnataka

This temple was specifically built for the Vijayanagar royals and enshrines Hindu God Vishnu in the form of Lord Rama. The walls of the God’s sanctum have two rare depictions of Hindu God Vishnu as Buddha.

It was a private temple for the King and his family and is enclosed by high walls. This temple consists of four tall and elegant black-stone pillars. The temple’s walls provide detailed description of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The peripheral walls of this temple are carved both on the outside and inside. While the outside carvings depict horses, and elephants; the inner carvings depict the Ramayana. The temple also enshrines Devi and houses an Utsava Mantapa.

The first thing comes to mind on seeing this temple, or more precisely its walls, is the locally popular comic strips of Hindu mythology, Ramayana. But the difference is, the stories are carved, in long arrays, onto the walls of this temple.

This is not a huge temple by Hampi’s yardstick. But this temple at the heart of the royal area has some peculiarities. Firstly it had been functioning as a private temple for the king, or at the most, the royal family. The importance of this temple can be judged from its nodal location in the royal area. Your paths to various locations within the citadel concur at a corner of this temple.

Probably this is the only temple in the capital with its external walls decorated with bas-reliefs mentioned above. And the temple got its name Hazara Rama (a thousand Rama) Temple owing to this multitude of these Ramayana panels on its walls.