Defence Architecture in Early North Karnataka c18.s2.t3.13

c18.s2.t3.13

The Vijayanagara fort at Hampi is a combination of the Sthaladurga (Fig.78) and Giridurga (Kharvaṭa) (Fig.88). The plan of the fort in view of the local configuration is therefore irregularly polygonal in plan. Its extent and many enclosures one within the other and the roads (Fig.86) and the location of the important buildings such as temples, (N.S.: 5 km. and E.W.: 10.2 km and next enclosure, N.S.: 11.2 km. E.W.: 14.3 km) readily remind the Rājadhānīya (Fig.91) layout of Mānasāra. The fort walls (Fig.85) of Vijayanagara encompass an area of about 280 square kilometres and measure about 800 km., if all put together. And therefore in the whole of Asia let alone India, excepting the great China wall we hardly come across with such a magnificent work of forti-fying the capital as attempted in Vijayanagara.