Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c26: Chapter XIX: The Dravidian Style Under the Vijayanagar Dynasty (cir. A.D. 1350 to 1565)
Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c26
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Chapter XIX: The Dravidian Style Under the Vijayanagar Dynasty (cir. A.D. 1350 to 1565)
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BEGINNING in the middle of the fourteenth century, a change came over the spirit as well as the substance of architecture in Southern India, when, after the somewhat temperate productions of the Pandyas, the country gradually became enriched with buildings in a style showing that the people had been aroused to a life of greater fulness, and one which moved them to express with marked freedom and fluency their aesthetic aspirations. The power which gave impetus and direction to such a movement was the forceful dynasty which established the Vijayanagar empire and dominated the Dravida country for over two centuries, from 1350 to 1565. This Hindu empire came into being in response to a vital need, that of preventing the all-conquering Mahommedans, who had already overrun the rest of India, from crossing the dividing line of the Kistna river, and thus completing the subjugation of the country by bringing the final portion, that of the extreme south, under their rule. Something of the sacred importance of their trust, that of preserving intact the last remaining independent Hindu territory, may have stimulated and sustained them, and enabled them to build up a dominion of exceptional stability and strength. The capital of this great empire, extending from the Kistna to Cape Comorin, was the palatial city of Vijayanagar, for a time one of the foremost cities in Asia, which, occupying a strong strategic position on the banks of the Tungabadri river, stood like a bulwark against the ever-present menace from the north. That it was a period when princely encouragement was given to the arts is proved by the architectural remains in this now deserted city, which, although grievously ruined still contains much that is wonderfully rich and beautiful. Its religious buildings, and those in other parts of Vijayanagar territory, show that no longer was it the practice to produce large unified compositions as in the Chola period, but on the other hand to devise groups of structures of moderate proportions, distinguished however by the exquisite character of the architecture and their sumptuous plastic embellishment. Indian architecture, at all times remarkable for the profuseness of its applied decoration, at this stage of its development reached "the extreme limit of florid magnificence". It is a record in stone of a range of ideals, sensations, emotions, prodigalities, abnormalities, of forms and formlessness, and even eccentricities, that only a superimaginative mind could conceive, and only an inspired artist could reproduce. The sole parallel, but a relatively remote one, is the Baroque movement in Europe, as it is expressive in a degree of the same political and social conditions And just as the Baroque was the final issue of the Renaissance, so the almost contemporary movement in Southern India represents the supremely passionate flowering of the Dravidian style.
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Some of the changes in the character of the religious architecture at this time are due to changes that were taking place in the structure of the creed. The elaboration of the ceremonial observances, brought about partly by the more pronounced anthropomorphic attributions of the deity, produced a corresponding elaboration in the temple system by increasing the number of buildings within the temple enclosure, and also to a certain extent altering their intention. In addition to the main temple in the middle, there are separate shrines, pillared halls, pavilions and other annexes, each having its special purpose and each occupying its appointed position in the scheme. One of these is the Amman shrine, a subsidiary temple usually situated to the north west of the main building and slightly behind it; in it is enshrined an image of the consort of the deity to whom the temple is dedicated, he himself occupying the cella of the central structure. Another and even more important building, generally placed towards the left and front of the east entrance, is the Kalyan mandapa, not infrequently the most ornate structure of the entire group. This is an open pillared pavilion, with a raised platform for a throne in the centre for the reception of the deity and his consort on the annual celebration of their marriage ceremony.
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Much of the intricacy and rich beauty of the Vijayanagar type of temple was produced by the number and prominence of its pillars and piers, and the manner in which they were sculptured into the most complicated compositions, strange and manifold, so that each becomes a figurative drama in stone. Pavilions containing groups of columns form the principal part of the architectural scheme, and it is by the artistically ingenious character of many of these supports that the buildings of this style may be identified. A very striking type of pillar design and also the most frequent is that in which the shaft becomes merely a central core for the attachment of an involved group of statuary, often of heroic size and chiselled entirely in the round, having as its most conspicuous element a furiously rearing horse, rampant hippogryph or upraised animal of a supernatural kind. Another type, sometimes combined and also alternating with the foregoing, shows encircling the central column a cluster of miniature pillars, slender, mystical, and dreamy, like Gothic nook-shafts Of the less complicated form of column there is one which is often found in conjunction with others, where the shaft is composed of a series of small-scale shrines copied from original full size structures and arranged in zones one above the other on the same principle of the repeating "cells" on the sikhara and gopuram. Lastly there is a fairly common type which appears throughout the later phases of the Dravidian style consisting of a cubical motif alternating with wide bands and chamfered, so that portions of the shaft are eight or sixteen sided. Almost all these different kinds of pillars have ornamental brackets forming part of their capitals, as found in every stage of the Dravidian order, and usually below the bracket is a pendant or *bodegai*, the changes in the design of which throughout the style have already been traced. (Plate LXV). In response to the demand for more richness of detail during the Vijayanagar regime this pendant was elaborated into a volute terminating in an inverted lotus bud, its different shapes thus providing a minor but reliable index to the period.
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There are a number of buildings in the Vijayanagar style of architecture distributed throughout the Dravida country, but the finest and most characteristic group is in the deserted city of Vijayanagar itself. It is not improbable that the peculiar terrain on which this capital is situated may have had some indirect reaction on the style Strategic reasons account for its location, but it is not easy to understand why such a tossed and tumbled jungle of sun-blasted stones, with only limited open spaces intervening, should have been selected. In, and amongst, and even on these gigantic and often grotesquely shaped boulders, the monuments are erected, strewn over a turbulent landscape having the appearance of a planet long since dead So closely associated are the buildings with the rocks from which they were constructed, that it is difficult at times to tell where nature ends and art begins Some of these naturally fantastic shapes may have stirred the imagination and directed it towards the invention of strange creatures such as chimera and other fabulous forms with which the style abounds. One advantage of such a site was the ease with which the building material could be obtained. This may account for the immense and multiple piers of the temples being monolithic, each formed out of one large block of granite, levered the short distance from the quarry to its place in the pillared hall, and there carved into shape on the spot. In addition to the local granite a dark green chlorite stone, more amenable to the chisel, was readily available, so that the two kinds of masonry are seen side by side. Whether it was the result of these two differently textured stones, or perhaps more likely the presence of two separate schools of plastic art, the difference between the character of the granite sculpture and that of the chlorite is very marked. The former is graphically conceived but crudely and almost childishly fashioned, while the latter is sharply cut and skilfully modelled giving the appearance of being produced by workmen having long experience and age-old traditions.
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The principal temples in the city of Vijayanagar are the Vitthala and the Hazara Rama, but there are several others of no little interest. The Vitthala, although not the grand temple of the city which is traditionally ascribed to the Pampapati temple, is by far the most exquisitely ornate building on the site. Begun by Raja Krishna Deva in 1513, it was continued by his successor Achyuta Raja (1529-42) but owing to its elaborate character was never entirely finished. It stands within a rectangular courtyard 500 feet long by 310 feet wide, which is surrounded by cloisters formed of a triple row of pillars, entrance being obtained through three gopurams, those on the east and south being the more important. At least six separate structures, mostly in the form of pillared halls are within this stone-flagged enclosure, the largest, that of the main temple occupying the centre, while the others are disposed around in their prescribed position. The central building is dedicated to Vishnu in the form of Vitthala or Vithoba (*Panduranga*), one of the embodiments of the god Krishna, and is a long low structure of one story averaging 25 feet in height, and in length 230 feet, aligned from east to west Its lack of height is partly due to its being incomplete, for any superstructure that it ever possessed, being of brick and plaster, has fallen into decay. Although appearing externally as one long building, it consists of three distinct compartments, namely an *ardhamandapa* or open pillared portico in front, a *mandapa* or closed assembly hall in the middle, and the *garbha griha* or sanctuary in the rear. The part which first attracts attention on account of its supremely rich appearance is the *mahamandapa*, or portico, a columned pavilion, not square in plan as it has deeply recessed sides, but measuring 100 feet across its extreme length and width. Standing on a moulded plinth five feet in height with flights of steps, elephant guarded, on its three free sides, the whole composition is heavily shadowed by means of an immensely wide double-flexured eave, above the parapet of which rises an irregular outline of brickwork turrets, the remains of the original superstructure.
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The chief feature of this columned hall, however, is its range of pillars, fifty-six in number, each twelve feet in height, forty of them regularly spaced as a kind of colonnade or aisle around its outer edge, while the remaining sixteen form an oblong court in the centre (Plate LXX). Each pier comprises an entire sculptured group in itself, being fashioned out of one large block of granite, and each is a variant of much the same type of design Clusters of delicately shaped columns form the central portion of these broad supports, some of which are four and five feet across, while interposed between them is the afore-mentioned rearing animal motif, half natural half mythical but wholly rhythmic, the said architectural character of the one acting as a foil to the free and animated sculpturesque treatment of the other. This scheme surrounds the central core of each pier, joining together above to form a single massive capital and below to unite in one moulded pedestal or base, while the colonnade as a whole is so closely spaced as to produce an effect of bewildering intricacy. Then over the piers are bracket supports of prodigious size combined with profusely carved entablatures and above all a flat ceiling ornamented with sunk lotus flowers. When it is understood that every stone is chiselled over with the most elaborate patterns, some merely finely engraved, others modelled in high relief, while not a few are so undercut as to be almost detached, the tropical exuberance of its composition will be realized.
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The remainder of this central temple building, the part which is attached to the preceding and formed by the *ardhamandapa* and the sanctuary combined, resolves itself into a unified rectangular structure 135 feet long and 67 feet wide, its exterior walls embellished with that conventional arrangement of pilaster, niche, and alcove combination, which, in one form or another, appears as surface decoration in almost every phase of the Dravidian style This mandapa or assembly room, which is entered from the east front through the ardha-mandapa described above, has in addition two-side-entrances, each having steps and a pillared porch of some size Its interior is a square hall of 55 feet side surrounded by an aisle of 12 pillars with four others in the centre, one at each corner of a square dais. At the far end of the assembly hall is the doorway to the cella, behind which is a corridor or vestibule leading to the chamber of the god, enclosed within the solid masonry of the vimana. This vimana, or last of the three compartments of the central building, is externally 75 feet long and 72 feet wide, and is a little unusual in its plan. Apparently a processional passage, not included in the original scheme, became necessary, and was evidently improvised while the temple was still under construction. The floor of this ambulatory for structural reasons had to be on the same level as the courtyard, so one descends into it by two flights of seven steps, as into a crypt, one flight on each side of the vestibule leading to the cella Such an expedient implies some unexpected change in the ceremonial at this date.
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The remaining buildings within the Vitthala temple enclosure are all in the same ornate style as the main structure, but one of these, the Kalyana or "marriage" *mandapa* is even more superbly wrought. Placed according to con- [Figure: RESTORATION OF MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN KONARAK, 1250 A.D. PLAN SCALE OF FEET 15 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 P.B.]
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The entrance to the Temple of the Sun Konarak, Orissa [Figure: Fig 1 Visvanath Temple, capital of pillar
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Fig 1
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Fig 2
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Fig 1. Torana from Mukhteswar Temple, Bhubaneswar, c. 900 A D
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Fig 2 Khajuraho - Ceiling Construction of Kandariya Mahadeo Temple : c 1050 A D.
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Khajuraho Temples, c AD 1000
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Fig 2 Kandariya Mahadeo Temple construction of ceiling]
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vention slightly to the side and front of the principal entrance to the temple, it consists of an open pavilion resembling in some respects the ardha-mandapa, as it is designed in much the same manner, but is little more than half its size. Standing as they do within a few paces of one another, these two pillared halls present an architectural combination of astonishing richness. The Kalyana has the same kind of high plinth, with deeply recessed sides and flights of steps in the centre of three of them, its plan measuring 62 feet either way at the widest part. Again there is the voluptuous double flexured cornice with a turned up outer edge reminiscent of the pagodas of China, and below is a grouping of piers, each with its girdle of detached shafts of most graceful and elegant proportions. There are as many as forty-eight in all, of these piers, of which twelve are placed around the square throne in the centre of the pavilion, the remainder forming a double arcade around its sides. Aligned with the main axis of the temple, and facing the east or principal entrance to the ardha-mandapa is another monument of no little beauty and significance This is the ratha or chariot of the god, a reproduction in masonry, with realistically revolving stone wheels and to a fairly ample scale, of a temple car, with every feature imitated in granite, even to the elephant forms which guard the steps. As with all the structures of the period its upper part, in the form of a sikhara, was of brick and cement, but this has been dismantled. The position of such an artistic piece of symbolism in the foreground is well thought out, as it leads up to the fine effect of the main building beyond.
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In view of the irregularity of the ground on which the capital seat of the Vijayanagar kings was built, there could be little attempt at symmetry in its town-planning, and the disposition of the different quarters of the city is therefore not readily determined. One portion however has been identified as the citadel, and within this walled area the imperial buildings were grouped. Among these is a comparatively small but highly ornamental temple known as the Hazara Rama, in which the royal family and members of the court worshipped, and may therefore be referred to as the Chapel Royal. Its private character is emphasized by the twenty-four feet high wall with which the courtyard is surrounded. According to inscriptions it was begun by Krishna Deva Raya in 1513, and in spite of being of very moderate dimensions, is perhaps the most completely finished example of its kind, as not only is the superstructure intact, but included within the enclosure is an Amman shrine, a Kalyana mandapa, and all the other subsidiary structures found in the larger type It is entered on the east through a finely proportioned but flat-roofed porch, which leads to an assembly hall having as its main feature a group of four massive black-stone pillars, one at each corner of a central square. These four columns are of unusual design as their shafts are built up of contrasting geometrical shapes, a cube alternating with a fluted cylinder all copiously carved, while each capital is a very substantial four-branched foliated volute, each volute terminating in the characteristic knop.
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There are two other entrances to the assembly hall of this temple, one on each side and each provided with a porch ; these however communicate with the courtyard, but at the far end of the hall is the doorway to the sanctuary in the cella of which was originally enshrined an image of Vishnu in the embodiment of Ramachandra Passing down the steps of one of the side entrances and crossing the small and high walled enclosure the temple scheme is revealed The main building which is towards the centre of the courtyard is remarkable for its vimana, with its lower story of stone and its pyramidal sikhara of brick rising above. This sikhara, although considerably worn, consists of a regular grouping of replicas of itself in three tiers surmounted by a cupola, the whole rather under fifty feet in height. Slightly to the side and rear of the vimana is the Amman shrine, in style a smaller reproduction of the main structure, with the exception of the crowning member of its sikhara, where, in place of a cupola, a keel roof has been adopted, derived from the Buddhist chaitya hall. In both buildings these brick and plaster superstructures were originally finished off with paint in bright colours a treatment which must have contrasted somewhat strongly with the sober natural tone of the stone masonry of the lower story. Yet this stonework itself has a singularly colourful appearance as each wall is elaborately carved in that architectural pattern of niche and pilaster, which by this time had become characteristic of the Dravidian style. There are not many buildings, however, of the period in which this very appropriate scheme of mural relief decoration has been more skilfully designed and disposed than on the temple of Hazara Rama.
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Within the walls of the citadel at Vijayanagar there are the remains of certain buildings, obviously of a secular order, in which only the lower portions have escaped the destruction wrought by the conquerors of the city after the fateful battle of Talikota in 1565. Yet so beautiful are these coursed and moulded terraces that if their superstructures now overthrown and broken were in any way their equal, they fully justify the eulogies of those who, visiting the city in its prime, described it in such glowing terms. Two of these substantial masonry basements stand out above all others, the larger, known as the King's Audience Hall, and another rather smaller called the "Throne Platform", or by some the "House of Victory", as it is recorded that it was erected in commemoration of Deva Raja's return from his conquest of Orissa in 1513. Both terraces seem to have been surmounted by pillared pavilions above which rose pyramidal roofs, the whole structure, according to the contemporary accounts, being several stories in height. It is also not unlikely that these royal pavilions when in use were the Dravidian equivalent to the two large halls which invariably found a place in the design of the imperial palaces in India and Persia, later to be known as the Diwan-i-Am and the Diwan-i-Khas, or halls of Public and Private Audience respectively. The platform of the King's Audience Hall, which may have been the Diwan-i-Am, still retains the sockets of its pillars, and there appear to have been ten rows of these, each row containing ten pillars, so that it was a "Hall of a Hundred Pillars". Fragments of these lie around from which it seems that they had cylindrical shafts, bracket capitals, and square bases Three spacious stages, one above the other, diminishing as they rise, make up the solid foundation of this terrace, up which mount fine flights of steps, with the retaining walls decorated by means of mouldings and string-courses, broad, bold and precise, to conform with the monumental character of the building of which they formed such a substantial part.
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The basement of the other building, the Throne Platform, presumably intended for private audiences, as in the previous example, is in three diminishing stages, each square in plan, the side of the lowest being 132 feet and the uppermost 78 feet, access to the latter being obtained by stairways with the usual elephant decorated side-walls. There is even less evidence as to the type of pavilion which surmounted this broad expanse of masonry, but if it was as distinctive in style as the upper of the three stages, the one on which it took its stand, it must indeed have been a work of surpassing elegance. This highest stage of the platform is in marked contrast to the two below, as these are merely plain masonry plinths, their part in the scheme being to raise the entire composition to a considerable height, the value of such a procedure in giving additional dignity to the whole being well understood by the builders. It is interesting to note however that for the edification of those lowly ones who were not admitted into the special audiences, the vertical retaining walls of both these lower platforms were converted into picture galleries by means of bands of figures and animals carved in bas-relief and of a most entertaining description. As a foil to this broad effect the uppermost stage was subjected to an entirely different treatment to prepare the eye for the noble superstructure it supported. Its horizontality is emphasised by a series of boldly moulded courses, sharply projected, and fashioned out of lengths of stone like huge beams, carved and placed in position with a skill and precision showing long practice. As an effort at decoration of a purely architectural order this platform is a singularly effective production, in its handling not unlike some of the later workmanship of the Gothic style in Europe.
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No remains of this city recall more vividly the story of the forgotten empire of Vijayanagar than these massive terraces, still impressive examples of architecture in spite of their mutilated superstructures. For here the ruler of this rich region sat in state on his golden throne to view the pomp and pageantry symbolising the greatness and wealth of his possessions, an Indian replica of the "Field of the Cloth of Gold", a spectacle which at that very time was taking place in the West. Even in their dismantled condition these elevated and orderly piles of masonry with their finely moulded revetments retain some of the glamour and romance of that brilliant period when Vijayanagar, the "City of Victory" was one of the most famous capitals of the East.
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It has been already mentioned that buildings in the Vijayanagar style also arose in other parts of the southern empire, as for instance at Vellore, Kumbakonam, Conjeeveram, Tadpatri, Virinjipuram, and Srirangam. Among them the temple in the fort at Vellore is prominent, its Kalyana mandapa even excelling in the luxuriant character of its carving the buildings of the capital, being considered the richest and most beautiful structure of its kind. Nothing could exceed the spirit or vigour of the hippogryphs and dragons of its pillars, or the fineness and prodigality of the ornament. In the centre pillars of the pavilion there is a reversion to the sedent lion motif, as seen at least six centuries earlier in the rock-cut Yamapuri mandapa at Mamallapuram, but with every part of this archaistic element elaborated to accord with its more florid environment. The gopuram to this temple is characteristic of the style during the sixteenth century, as shown by the execution and disposal of its various traditional forms such as the foliation of the predestal (*padmam*), the pavilion-canopied niches, the voluted chaitya "antefixes" (*kudu*), and the flamboyant pilasters (*kumbhapanjara*) in the alcoves. (Plate LXXII)
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There is much the same unrestrained exuberance in the architectural treatment of the large Kalyana mandapa of the Margahasakesvara temple at Virinjipuram, in the North Arcot district, the verve and abandon of the rearing chimeras and the exquisite refinement of the detached pillars around the corner piers, appearing to be the spontaneous expression of a people of great spirit. At Conjeeveram there are two temples with pavilions in the Vijayanagar style, that in the Varadarajaswami, a "hundred pillared mandapa" being composed of a maze of closely set pillars each consisting of a bizarre grouping of imaginative statuary with stone-cutting of a high order, while the other, the Ekambaranatha contains a "thousand pillared mandapa" decorated with the same fantastic form of sculpture. To gopurams at Tadpatri belonging to the temple of Rameswara are patterned in a close filigree of convoluted carving, and finally, there is the famous so-called "Horse Court", or Seshagiri mandapam at Srirangam near Trichinopoly, with its colonnade of furiously fighting steeds each rearing up to a height of nearly nine feet, the whole executed in a technique so emphatic as to be not like stone but hardened steel. (Plate LXXI, Fig 2)
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The repetition of the "horse" motif in the pillars of this period which seems to attain the finality of extravagance in the Horse Court at Srirangam, is remarkable. A rampant animal was a notable decorative element in the architecture of the Pallavas, the earliest phase of the Dravidian style, a feature which became a permanent gift to the building art of the South. During the Vijayanagar regime this motif, in a much more developed form, appears so frequently that it dominates every conception, until it becomes an obsession Such conspicuous creations, when they persist in this manner, usually imply some vivid experience ever-present in the sub-consciousness of the people, a mass psychosis which they are unable to suppress. Several mysterious subjects of a like nature figure in Indian decorative schemes, one of the most constant depicting a dwarf-like creature, downtrodden and compelled to support buildings, or carry enormous weights, a conventional representation reminiscent of some conquest in the twilight of their history of an aboriginal race and since condemned to everlasting slavery. There are others equally graphic which either tradition or instinct ordains should be reproduced in the country's art. The rampant horseman in the later Dravidian buildings is an illustration of this mental phenomenon, and also reveals the spirit of the times, as the Vijayanagar era corresponded in some respects to that age of chivalry and romance which prevailed in mediaeval Europe. Save that they were on a lesser scale, the conditions in the Tamil country were not very different from those which produced the Crusades, except that in India the movement was mainly defensive, while in Europe it was more aggressive. Both people were faced with much the same peril, that of an impending Islamic subversion, to oppose which called for the highest valour and personal heroism. That the armed forces of the Vijayanagar empire were of the finest calibre, inspired and led by rulers of great audacity and daring, is proved by the long period of two centuries during which they kept their hereditary foes at bay, whereas almost every other part of the country succumbed at once. Something of this temper, a feeling of exultant invincibility translated into the power of good over evil, seems embodied in the art of this period and to account for these colonnades of splendid cavaliers nonchalantly astride gigantic rearing chargers and engaged in furious combat with fabulous creatures, an episode singularly analogous to that of St. George and the Dragon in the West.
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REFERENCES
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Longhurst, A. H., *Hampi Ruins*. Madras, 1917. Sewell, R., *A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar)*. London, 1900.