History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s16.13

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.