History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s16: Vijayanagar.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s16

Language: English

Vijayanagar.

v1.c19.s16.1

The dates above quoted will no doubt sound strange and prosaic to those who are accustomed to listen to the childish exaggerations of the Brâhmans in speaking of the age of their temples. There is, however, luckily a test besides the evidence above quoted, which, if it could be perfectly applied, would settle the question at once.

v1.c19.s16.2

When in the beginning of the 14th century the Muhammadans from Delhi first made their power seriously felt in the south, they struck down the kingdom of the Hoysala Ballâlas in 1310, and destroyed their capital of Halebîd; and in 1322 Orangal or Worangal, which had been previously attacked, was finally destroyed, and it is said they then carried their victorious arms as far as Râmnâd. The Muhammadans did not, however, at that time make any permanent settlement in the south, and the consequence was, that as soon as the Hindûs were able to recover from the panic, Bukka and Harihara princes it is said of the deposed house of Orangal, gathered around them the remnants of the destroyed states, and founded a new state in the town of Vijayanagar on the Tungabhadrâ. An earlier city it is said had been founded there about the beginning of the 12th century, but only as a dependency of the Mysore Râj, and there is consequently no reason for supposing that any of the buildings in the city (unless it be some of the small Jaina temples), belong to that period, nor indeed till the new dynasty founded by Bukka had consolidated its power, which was certainly not before the middle of the 14th century.

v1.c19.s16.3

The city was finally destroyed by the Muhammadans in 1565, but during the two previous centuries it maintained a gallant struggle against the Bahmanî and Âdil Shâhi dynasties of Kulbargâ and Bijâpûr, and was in fact the barrier that prevented the Moslims from taking possession of the whole country as far as Cape Comorin.

v1.c19.s16.4

Its time of greatest prosperity was between the accession of Krishna Deva, 1508, and the death of Achyuta Râya, 1542, and it is to their reigns that the finest monuments in the city must be ascribed. There is, perhaps, no other city in all India in which ruins exist in such profusion or in such variety as in Vijayanagar, and as they are all certainly comprised within the century and a half, or—at the utmost—the two centuries that preceded the destruction of the city, their analogies afford us dates that hardly admit of dispute.

v1.c19.s16.5

Among those in the city the most remarkable is that dedicated to Vithobâ, or Vitthalaswâmin, a local manifestation of Vishnu. It was apparently begun by Krishna Deva, at least as early as A.D. 1513, and continued by Achyuta Râya, 1529-1542, and never was finished; and as inscriptions in it are dated in 1561 and 1564, recording grants of Sadâsiva, we might fairly infer that the works were stopped by the fall of the kingdom in 1565. The temple stands in a rectangular enclosure 538 ft. by 310, with gopurams on the east, north, and south sides. Outside the east entrance stands a lofty Dîpdân pillar, and there are two pavilions of architectural merit in the court, besides other buildings. Round nearly the whole court ran a deep verandah or corridor with three rows of piers; but most of it is now ruined. The principal part of the temple consists of a porch or mantapam, represented in the woodcut, No. 236, page 403. It is wholly in granite, and carved with a boldness and expression of power nowhere surpassed in the buildings of its class. As will be observed, it has all the characteristic peculiarities of the Dravidian style: the bold cornice of double flexure, the detached shafts, the Vyâlîs, the richly-carved stylobate, etc. But what interests us most here is that it forms an exact half-way house in style between such porches as those at Vellor and Chidambaram, and that of Tirumalai Nâyyak at Madurâ. (The bracket shafts are detached here, it is true, but they are mere ornaments, and have lost their meaning.) The cornice is as bold as any, but has lost its characteristic supports, and other changes have been made which would inevitably have led in a short time to the new style of the Nâyyak dynasty.

v1.c19.s16.6

The little building on the right is the car of the god, the base and principal storey being formed of a single block of granite, with movable wheels, but they are the only parts that [Figure: 235. Plan of Vitthalaswâmin Temple at Vijayanagar. (From a plan by Mr A. Rea.)

v1.c19.s16.8

move.¹ It is shown in Plate XI. as it appeared before its brick tower was taken down. There are, besides, either

v1.c19.s16.9

¹ The upper portion was of brick, but about twenty years ago, after an elaborate repair under the direction of Major H. Cole, the collector had it pulled down, lest it should crush the base, which had been cracked by fire. Similar stone cars exist at Tâdpatri and other temples in southern India.

v1.c19.s16.10

236. View of Porch of Temple of Vitthalasvâmin at Vijayanagar. (From a Photograph by Mr Neill.)

v1.c19.s16.11

one or two pavilions, smaller, but similar in design to that represented in the woodcut, a gopuram, and other adjuncts, which would be interesting, if we had the means of comparing and describing them.²

v1.c19.s16.12

² As Dr G. le Bon remarks, Vijayanagar is well worthy of a complete monograph on its architecture, as the culmination of the style. 'Les Monuments de l'Inde,' pp. 161-162.

v1.c19.s16.13

Although the temple of Vitthala is certainly one of the most remarkable ruins in India, and there are other temples of great beauty and extent in the capital, it is not quite clear that it is there the *chefs-d'œuvre* of this dynasty are to be found, but rather at a place called Tâdpatri about one hundred miles a little south of east from the capital. There are two temples there: the one now in use—the Chintala Tiruvenkataswâmin temple—dedicated to Vishnu, is slightly the later of the two, having been built in the time of Timma Nâyudu, the local governor, and son (or grandson) of Râmalinga Nâyudu, governor in the early part of Krishna Deva's reign, who began the Râmesvara temple here.³ The wonders of the place are two gopurams belonging to the second, which is now a deserted temple on the banks of the river, about a quarter of a mile from the other. One of these was apparently quite finished, the other on the north never carried higher than the perpendicular part. In almost all the gopurams of India this part is comparatively plain, all the figure-sculpture and ornament being reserved for the upper or pyramidal part. In this instance, however, the whole of the perpendicular part is covered with the most elaborate sculpture, cut with exquisite sharpness and precision, in a fine close-grained hornblende (?) stone, and produces an effect richer, and on the whole perhaps in better taste, than anything else in this style (Woodcuts Nos. 237, 238). It is difficult, of course, to institute a comparison between these gopurams and such works as Tirumalai Nâyyak's chaultri, or the corridors at Râmesvaram; they are so different that there is no common basis of comparison but the vulgar one of cost; but if compared with Halebîd or Belûr, these Tâdpatri gopurams stand that test better than any other works of the Vijayanagar Râjas. They are inferior, but not so much so as one would expect from the two centuries of decadence that elapsed between them, and they certainly show a marked superiority over the great unfinished gopuram of Tirumalai Nâyyak, which was commenced, as nearly as may be, one century afterwards.

v1.c19.s16.14

³ Inscriptions belonging to this Râmesvara temple are dated from 1507 to 1531.

v1.c19.s16.15

About fifty miles still further east, at a place called Diguva Ahobalam, in Karnal district, there is a large unfinished mantapam in plan and design very like that of the temple of Vithobâ at Vijayanagar, but its style and details are much more like those of the Nâyyaks, though local tradition assigns it to Pratâpa Rudra about 1300. Traditions, however, usually refer to the original shrine, and if we are guided by style, it could hardly have been erected before the destruction of that capital in A.D. 1565. The dynasty, however, continued to exist for one or two centuries after that time, till the country was finally conquered by Tipu Sultân. The inscriptions have not yet been examined, but seem mostly to belong to the latter part of the 16th century.¹ Whoever may have built it, it is a fine bold specimen of architecture, and if the history of the art in the south of India is ever seriously taken up, it will worthily take a place in the series as one of the best specimens of its age, wanting the delicacy and elegance of the earlier examples, but full of character and merit.²

v1.c19.s16.16

¹ Among the Mackenzie MSS. at Madras there are copies of the inscriptions and other notices of the Ahobalam temples.

v1.c19.s16.17

² For long the temple of Vishnu on the hill of Tripetty or Tirupati, in North Arkat district, was reputed to be the richest, the most magnificent, as it was certainly the most sacred of all those in the Presidency. So sacred, indeed, was it declared, that no unbelieving foreigner had ever been allowed to climb the holy hill (2,500 ft. high) or profane its sacred precincts. In 1870, a party of police forced their way in, in pursuit of a murderer who had taken refuge there, and Mr J. D. B. Gribble, who accompanied them, published an account of what they saw in the ‘Calcutta Review’ in 1875 (vol. lxi. pp. 142-156). As he exclaims, “Another of the illusions of my youth destroyed.” The temple is neither remarkable for its size nor its magnificence. In these respects it is inferior to Conjivaram, Srîrangam, and many others; and whatever may be done with its immense revenues, they certainly are not applied to its adornment. It is a fair specimen of a Dravidian temple of the second class, but in a sad state of dilapidation and disrepair. It was originally a Saiva temple, but was converted to the worship of Vishnu, by Râmanujâchârya, in the 12th century. For views of the Tirupati temples in the village below, see Dr G. Le Bon’s ‘Les Monuments de l’Inde,’ figs. 199-204.