Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c16.t5: 3. Military Architecture
Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c16.t5
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3. Military Architecture
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The city of Vijayanagar was surrounded by seven lines of fortifications. Abdur Razāk observed that the city was so built that it had seven fortified walls one within the other. He says: “Beyond the circuit of the outer wall there is an esplanade extending for about fifty yards in which stones are fixed within one another to the height of a man; one half is buried firmly in the earth and the other half rises above it, so that neither foot nor horse, however bold can advance with facility near the outer wall.”³⁷ There were six fortresses within this outer one, and within the last fortress was the palace of the king. Paes also confirms the account of the Persian Ambassador and states that the city was fortified by strong walls “made of very strong masonry such as would be found in few other parts.”³⁸ The form of the city was a circle.
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³⁷ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 106.
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³⁸ Sewell, Op. cit., p. 244.
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Abdur Razāk speaks of the city as having been a circle and being situated on a hill.³⁹ Caesar Frederick confirms this statement.⁴⁰
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³⁹ Elliot, Op. cit., IV, p. 106. The Vidyāraṇya Kalājñāna states that the city was built like a Śrī Cakra.
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⁴⁰ Purchas, His Pilgrims, X, p. 97.
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The size of the city has been variously estimated. Nicolo dei Conti remarks that the walls of the city of Vijayanagar were carried up to the mountains and enclosed the valleys at their foot and that by that reason the extent of the city was increased, and its circumference was sixty miles.⁴¹ Abdur Razāk says that the distance between the northern and southern gates of the outer fortress was two statute parasangs and the same was also the distance between the eastern and western outer gates.⁴² Paes thinks that the circumference of the city was twenty-four leagues⁴³ and says that the first serra was two leagues away from the capital. According to Caesar Frederick it was twenty-four miles. From these widely contradictory statements of the different writers it is difficult to estimate the exact size of the capital. However it appears that the accounts of Nicolo dei Conti and Paes are highly exaggerated with regard to the size of the city. It is highly improbable that the size was so big, for, if it had really been so, the distance between the centre of the capital and the first line of fortifications must have been about eighteen to twenty miles. It is probable that both the chroniclers wrongly took into account the mountain fortresses and the fortifications outside the main fortifications of the capital and calculated the circumference to be more than sixty miles. Abdur Razāk’s statement that the diameter of the city was fourteen miles can be well compared with the modest estimate of the circumference of the city by Caesar Frederick. Sewell says: "From the last fortification in the south beyond the present town of Hospet, to the extreme point of the defences of Anegundi on the north the distance is about twelve miles. From the extreme western line of walls in the plain to the last of eastern works amongst the hills lying in the direction of Daroji and Kampili the interval measures about ten miles. Within this area we find the remains of the structures of which I have spoken."⁴⁴ Thus the area occupied by the present ruined site of the capital of Vijayanagar also shows that the estimates of Abdur Razāk and Caesar Frederick are nearer the truth than the estimates of Nicolo dei Conti and Paes.
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⁴¹ Major, India, p. 6.
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⁴² Elliot, op. cit., IV, p. 107 ; Parasang=3 miles.
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⁴³ Sewell, op. cit., pp. 242-43. League=3 miles.
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⁴⁴ Op. cit., p. 83.
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The massive walls of the fortifications at the capital were pierced by openings which served as gateways. They were generally constructed in the Hindu style but in a few of them the influence of Muhammadan architecture is visible. One of the most important of the gateways of Vijayanagar was what is known as Bhīma's gateway. It got this name because there is in it a large well carved bas-relief image of Bhīma. This gateway has a sallyport and is supported by massive walls on either side. Half a mile to the north-east of the Paṭṭābhirāma temple is another gate which seems to have served as a main entrance on the northern side of the city of Vijayanagar. In the inner side of the gateway there is a large image of Hanumān. Another gateway that deserves a passing mention is the one that is on the road that leads to the Paṭṭābhirāma temple from the south. While the lower portion of the gateway is built in the Hindu style, the upper portion is built in the Muhammadan style of architecture.
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Jain Monuments
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The prevalence of religious tolerance in the empire expressed itself in the construction of Jain temples also within the empire of Vijayanagar. At the capital itself there is a Jain temple called the Gāṇigitti temple. Gāṇigitti means "an oil woman"; but it is difficult to say how the temple came to be so named. The main tower above the shrine is built in the series of steps which is the most noticeable feature of this style. There is a beautiful monolithic stambha in front of the shrine and it contains an inscription of A.D. 1385⁴⁵ which states that it was built by Irugappa Daṇḍanātha, the Jain minister of Harihara II. The figure of a Jain Tīrthaṅkara with three superimposed umbrellas above his head and a flywhisk on either side is engraved upon the stone lintel over the main doorway. Further on the plaster parapet over the front porch there are three small niches each of which contains the remains of three seated Jaina images of the same saint carved on the door lintel.
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⁴⁵ S.I.I., I, p. 156.
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The Vardhamāna temple at Jina Kāñcī or Tirupparuttikkunram in the Chingleput district received special attention at the hands of Irugappa. He built the saṅgītamaṇṭapa before the Vardhamāna ardhamanṭapa in front of the shrine at the instance of his preceptor Puṣpasēna. It is so named because musical concerts were held in it. It measures 61 feet 9 inches by 26 feet 4 inches. The style of the pillars is early Vijayanagar. On the base of the pillars are carved lions, plants, creepers, twisting snakes, knots, dancing girls, dwarfish Yakṣas playing on musical instruments, etc. The capital looks like a lotus and a motif hangs from it representing the seed vessel. In one of the pillars in the maṇṭapa is carved the figure of Irugappa Daṇḍanātha in high relief. "A spirit of extreme devotion, humility, asceticism, self-sacrifice and eagerness to be at the service of humanity is visible in the figure." The hair of the head is tied up in a knot and thrown on the left side of the figure.
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The base of the gōpura is built of granite while the pyramidal part of it is constructed with stucco and brick. On the sides of the gōpura are pilasters with corbels of the Cōḷa type. In each of the window ornaments (kūḍus) of the tower is placed a Jain Tīrthaṅkara in a meditating pose.⁴⁶
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⁴⁶ See for other particulars, T. N. Ramachandran, Tirupparuttikkunram and its Temples, Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum, 1934, pp. 27-32.