A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.116

c21.116

The last stages of Vijayanagar architecture are rightly known as the Madura style as they found most encouragement from the Nāyaks of Madura. To some extent it was a revival and continuation of the building methods of the Pāṇdyas, which often took the shape of enlarging older temples by adding new parts to them. We may note in particular the provision of additional prākāras by means of concentric outer enclosure walls, each prākāra wall having generally four gōpuras at the cardinal points, and enclosing important adjuncts to the temple like a hall of a thousand pillars or a sacred tank. Śrīrangam, for instance, has seven such concentric rectangular enclosures. There is a tendency to multiply the pillars wherever possible, and some of them begin to bear on their shafts more than life-size statues of deities or donors.