History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s16.15

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