The tragedy of Hampi is matched by little else in history.
The largest and richest city in India during its time wiped out of history in a flash. #ShortThread https://twitter.com/AhmasmiVayuh/status/1264424187503849472

Cities grow, boom, decay and die. But Vijayanagar falls from the Top-3, not to 4 or 8, but simply off the chart.

Not gradually or step by step, just one violent drop.

That fateful 1565. So much changed in 1 day. https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1107552367795412992

23 January 1565. The day fortunes changed for a great and mighty city, and its once proud people.

After Vijayanagar lost the Battle of Talikota against the Deccani Sultanates, Hampi was plundered.

I do not have to tell you what happened to its inhabitants. The population chart of @jburnmurdoch quoted in the 2nd tweet shows you that.

I'll quote Robert Sewell here. His work 'A Forgotten Empire Vijayanagar: A Contribution to the History of India', has arguably one of the best accounts of the Vijayanagar empire.

"With fire and sword, with crowbars and axes, they carried on day after day their work of destruction. Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrought, and wrought so suddenly, on so splendid a city; [contd]

[contd] teeming with a wealthy and industrious population in the full plenitude of prosperity one day, and on the next seized, pillaged, and reduced to ruins, amid scenes of savage massacre and horrors beggaring description."

The destruction of Hampi, its temples, its markets was systematic. Not much was spared. If anything was left behind, it was left unusable.

A city that had merchants from Persia&Portugal crowding its shops, which displayed gold and gems as though they were common wares, a city whose sceptre was the law of the land till the point where land met sea... such a city became "ruins" for 19th century archaeologists to study

Let's look at what Babur says in his Baburnama. The 1st Battle of Panipat was in 1526, at the time of which, he says, Hindustan was ruled by 5 Muslim rulers and 2 Kafir rulers.

He elaborates on them.

Let's skip to the Kafir rulers. Of the 2, the greater both in territory and army, is the Raja of Bijanagar.

Who at this time ruled from Hampi.

Fast forward 40 years to 1566.. the great city of Hampi had died a sudden, painful death.

Is there any parallel of a city being among the largest of its time and decimated in one stroke?

Credit to @AhmasmiVayuh for sharing that reimagination of Hampi.

Wouldn't it be awesome if someone with the skills could do a 3-d reimagination of the entire city the way it would have looked in its heyday?

Soldiers walking their horses on packed roads, shops bargaining prices in 5 different languages from three continents, the royal herald broadcasting a new decree, all of it coming to a momentary pause as the Kalasandhi pooja is completed with a ringing of the temple bell.

To watch and bear witness to the greatness of Hampi would be a wish come true. #End

Thank you for reading.

Postscript: Thank you @ravsriram for this imagination of Hampi markets. https://twitter.com/ravsriram/status/1264457831790579712