Vijayanagara Paintings [Photo gallery]
This book [“Vijayanagara Paintings”] by C. Sivaramamurti is a valuable aid to the understanding of Indian iconography and contains 36 colour illustrations, 30 black and white illustrations and 17 line drawings.
South India has been a great repository of art in various forms, music, dance, architecture, sculpture, painting, metal casting, ivory work, wood carving, the finest silk weaving and a host of other decorative arts, too numerous to enumerate. [...] Painting has been considered in the Citrasūtra of the Viṣṇudharmottara, the early standard text on painting, as the premier art, as the art that takes rank with the highest and noblest in different spheres. Just as Sumeru is the best of mountains, as Garuḍa is the foremost of the birds, as the king is the chief among men, similarly the best of citra is the most praiseworthy among the fine arts.
The Vijayanagara empire will ever remain in South Indian history a great chapter, a glorious one of which the Persian envoy Abdul Razaak, so impressed, has left a glowing account. This was during the time of Kṛṣṇadevarāya in the first half of the fifteenth century. The empire was established in 1335 by Harihara, Kaṃpa and Bukka, sons of Saṅgama. It grew to be a dominant power in the South. The empire was established for the propagation of dharma and for the support of Hindu ethical ideals.
Gallery: 37 images
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