Hampi, in Karnataka is the graveyard of one of India's greatest medieval cities, Vijayanagar. In 1336, the Sangama brothers decided to build their capital, Vijayanagar or City of Victory, along the southern banks of the Tungabhadra River. They allied themselves to the local cult based on “Pampa” which also gave rise to the modern name of Hampi. Pampa was identified with Devi, the consort of Shiva. The local deity Virupaksha, the husband of Devi, became identified with Shiva. Hampi and its surroundings are also closely linked with the Ramayana, for it is believed to be the location of the mythical kingdom of Hanuman, the Monkey God allied with Rama.

Vijayanagar became the greatest medieval city in the Deccan and lent its name to the empire governed by its rulers. In 1565, at Talikota, about 150 kilometres from Hampi, Ramaraya, the son-in-law of Krishadevaraya, gave battle to the combined forces of the five Muslim kingdoms that were the successor states of the Bahmani Sultanate. During a critical movement in the battle, he was betrayed and killed. The resulting rout of the Vijayanagar army left the capital unprotected. The city was destroyed by the invading army and its existence faded into memory as the wilderness reclaimed the area. The memory of the city is now being restored through the preservation of the ruins as a heritage site.

The remnants of the city walls enclose an area of about 26 square kilometres, which is dotted with the ruins of temples and monuments, and the rubble of destroyed buildings. Archaeologists have identified within the city two centres, the sacred and the royal, separated by a canal. The zone along the river bank, the most ancient part of the city, is called the sacred centre because of the large number of temples in the area. Within this area, the Virupaksha temple is the oldest temple with a 120-foot tall tower over its eastern entrance. The nearby monolithic twenty-feet tall statue of Narasimha was commissioned much later in the sixteenth century. The temple was important to the Sangama family who attributed their right to rule to this particular incarnation of Shiva. The Vijayanagar kingdom was a military state born during the general uprising against the Tughluks and identified itself with the Shaivite form of Hinduism.