Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c26.5

c26.5

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.