Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s1.75

c16.s1.75

Equally impressive is the architecture of Vijāyanagar and Rajputana. The kings of Vijāyanagar built palaces, temples, public offices, aqueducts and irrigation works with great enthusiasm. And what they built, they decorated. Nuniz speaks of their "wonderful" system of irrigation, and Portuguese chroniclers and Abdur Razzāq speak highly of the beauty of Vijāyanagar painting and sculpture. Most of the buildings of this great kingdom are now in ruins, and yet they exhibit a grandeur which forces itself upon one's eyes. The famous Hazāra temple built during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya is "one of the most perfect specimens of Hindu temple architecture in existence".⁴⁶ Vitthalswāmī temple too "shows the extreme limit in florid magnificence to which the (South Indian) style advanced".⁴⁷