Amid the boulder-strewn ruins of Hampi in Karnataka — the magnificent capital of the Vijayanagara empire, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site — stands the Virupaksha temple, the spiritual heart of the city and among the oldest continuously worshipped shrines in India. Here Shiva is worshipped as Virupaksha (Pampapati), the consort of the local goddess Pampa, who is identified with the sacred Tungabhadra river flowing beside the temple.
With origins reaching back well over a thousand years and a towering gopuram raised in the grandeur of the Vijayanagara age, the temple is famed for a marvel of its architecture: a chamber that casts an inverted image of the great tower through a pinhole of light. While the splendid city around it fell to ruin, Virupaksha has never ceased to be worshipped, and remains the living soul of Hampi.
At Virupaksha in Hampi, light through a small opening throws an inverted image of the temple's own gopuram onto an inner wall — a pinhole camera built in stone.
Source: Archaeological Survey of India; Hampi, UNESCO World Heritage Site
