A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.113

c21.113

The Hazāra Rāma temple, most probably the work of Virūpāksha II, is a more modest but perfectly finished example of this style. Besides the main temple there are a shrine for the goddess, a *kalyāṇamaṇḍapa* and other subsidiary temples all enclosed in a courtyard by a wall 24 feet high. The enclosure is entered by means of a well-proportioned flat-roofed porch on the east, which leads to the assembly-hall with a group of four huge blackstone pillars, one at each corner of a central square. These pillars are of unusual design, cubes alternating with fluted cylinders in their shafts, all richly carved. There are two other entrances with porches to the hall—one on each side—leading to the courtyard. The *vimāna* with its lower storey of stone and the pyramidal superstructure of brick, now much decayed, is impressive though it is less than 50 feet in height. The inner walls of the temple are decorated in relief with scenes from the *Rāmāyaṇa*.