Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5.27

v1.c9.s5.27

The capital which dazzled the eyes of foreigners was surrounded by admirable lines of defence. According to the Hindu belief everything that has some economic, religious, political or social significance is under the influence of a deity. Thus the points of the compass are presided over by different deities.¹ Every grāma has its own grāma-dēvatā.² The capital, therefore, could not exist without its guardian deity. And over Vijayanagara there was Raṇamaṇḍala Bhairava, to whom a temple and a maṇḍapa were erected by Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya.³ But it must not be imagined that that great ruler or his predecessors or his subjects left the care of the city to the caprice of a god. Raṇamaṇḍala Bhairava was perhaps the name by which the people expressed the sense of security which they felt behind the great line of defence around the capital.