Market Day at Penukonda

Sunday began gently, and after getting up I did my laundry. Here, that involves using buckets and washing by hand, so a different experience for me than for pretty much all of the rest of my life where I have been able to either use machines at home, or take my stuff to a laundrette when I didn’t have my own machines. Then I went for breakfast, and we all sat around reading and talking for a while.

A lot of the time here you seem to have to wait for things to happen, but then when they do happen they happen very quickly – one minute everything was relaxed, the next minute we had been invited to ride in the jeep out to Penukonda again, and Alex and I had to hustle to get cameras, money, and water so we could jump into the waiting jeep for a trip to the town. Sunday in Penukonda is market day, and people come from many surrounding villages to sell or buy wares and produce, or to persistently and slightly aggressively beg.

Shri Krishna Devarayulu statue

Ronnie wanted to show us the market, which was full of fruits and vegetables, spices, some meat, cows, and some other household items as well.

Colours for puja

After the market, he took us briefly to look at an ancient gate to the town. Penukonda was a summer capital for the Vijayanagara empire, whose main capital was at Hampi in Karnataka, and this is why it has fortified walls and entrance gates.

The main Hindu God that is worshipped in this area is Hanuman, and the gate also contains a Hanuman shrine, though it was closed today.

There is some desire here to protect and restore the fort and other sites of historical Penukonda and to market these for historical and cultural tourism, but unfortunately for the locals the government and archaeological associations do not share the enthusiasm and are not interested in investing. When we asked Ronny why he thought this was, he answered that there are so many sites of historical interest that they just don’t want another one to maintain. This seemed very sad to me, coming originally from a country where historical buildings and artefacts are valued and preserved, but I guess that in many ways that is a bit of a luxury available to countries that already have good enough education, healthcare, sanitation, clean drinking water etc. Another way of looking at it is that done well, tourism could become a sustainable source of revenue and economic investment and improved services such as roads, sanitation, flowing water and electricity could follow. Even these kinds of developments can have their negative aspects however. I wrote an essay on this topic for my Graduate Certificate in Human Services, and so I’ll post that separately rather than repeat myself here.