A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.120

c21.120

The art of casting bronzes which began to be practised on an extensive scale under the Cholas continued to flourish under the rulers of Vijayanagar and their feudatories. The subjects of sculpture and the mode of treatment continued to be the same as before, but this period is remarkable for some actual life-size portraits which have survived, like those of Krishnadeva Rāya and his two wives, of Venkata I, and others of doubtful identity, all in the Tirupati temple. Mention may also be made of a small stone statue in the round of Krishnadeva Rāya in a niche in the doorway below the northern gōpura of the temple at Chidambaram which he built in 1520.