Vastu-shastra (5): Temple Architecture

by D. N. Shukla | 1960 | 69,139 words | ISBN-10: 8121506115 | ISBN-13: 9788121506113

This page describes Vijayanagara Style (1350—1565 A.D.) of the study on Vastu-Shastra (Indian architecture) fifth part (Temple architecture). This part deals with This book deals with an outline history of Hindu Temple (the place of worship). It furtherr details on various religious buildings in India such as: shrines, temples, chapels, monasteries, pavilions, mandapas, jagatis, prakaras etc. etc.

The Dravidian style under the Vijayanagar dynasty is characterised by its greater fullness, in which there is marked freedom and fluency towards the expression of aesthetic aspirations of the builders and thus the building art no more remains a mechanical art, it becomes as fine as sculpture and painting. The forceful power which dominated the Dravida country at that crucial time of Indian history when the Mohammedans were overrunning the rest of India, was not only responsible for building up a dominion of exceptional stability and strength but also was instrumental in introducing some very rich elements of Dravidian art of architecture and sculpture both.

Percy Brown says:

Indian architecture, at all times remarkable for the profuseness of its applied decoration, at this stage of its development reached “the extreme limit of florid magnificence”. It is a record in stone of a range of ideals, sensations, emotions, prodigalities, abnormalities, of forms and formlessness and even eccentricities, that only a super-imaginative mind could conceive, and only an inspired artist could reproduce. The sole parallel, but a relatively remote one, is the Baroque movement in Europe, as it is expressive in a degree of the same political and social conditions. And just as the baroque was the final issue of the Renaissance, so the almost contemporary movement in Southern India represent the supremely passionate flowering of the Dravidian style.”

Rise and development in the temple-ceremonials brought about new establishments in the temple scheme. This rise of ceremonials was primarily due to the more pronounced anthropomorphic attributions of the deity. In addition to the main-temple, manifold shrines, pillared halls or maṇḍapams and other annexes may be attributed to this side-development. Amman shrine and Kalyāṇa Maṇḍapa [Maṇḍapam] are additions to the temple-scheme of the time. (For details see Brown,)

Temples of the time are distributed throughout the Dravida country, but the finest and most characteristic group is the city of Vijayanagar itself, which was the capital of this great empire and for a time one of the foremost cities of Asia, which occupying a strong strategic position on the banks of the Tungabhadrā river, stood like a bulwark against the ever-present menace from the North. The principal temples in the city of Vijayanagar are the Vitthal and Hazara Ram. There are also several others of no mean interest. The former is by far the most exquisitely ornate building. Begun by Raja Krishna Deva in 1513, it was continued by his successor, Acyuta Raja (1529-42) but owing to its elaborate character was never entirely firnished [furnished?]. There are at least six main structures mostly in the form of pillared halls. The central building is dedicated to Viṣṇu Panduranga Vithova. Its lack of height is perhaps due to its unfinished character. It is a long low structure of one storey averaging 25 ft. in height and 230 ft. in length, alighted from east to west.

The Hazra Ram may be referred to be the Chapel Royal. It is highly ornamental a temple. Other notable buildings of the city are secular, in character such a ‘Throne Platform’ or ‘House of Victory’. Percy Brown makes a very brilliant picture of these (sec his work.) Other notable examples are distributed at Vellore, Kumbhakonam, Conjeevaram, Tadpatri, Virinjipura [Virinjipuram] and Srirangam As regards the monument at Viringipura [Viringipuram] in the N. Arcor. district, it is Margha sakeśvara temple. At conjeevaram there are two temples, the one Varadarajaswami famous for its Śatamaṇḍapa [Śatamaṇḍapam] and the other Ekāmbara-nāth famous for its Sahasramaṇḍapa [Sahasramaṇḍapam] Tadpatri is famous for its two gopurams [gopurams] belonging to the temple of Rameśvara and finally Śrīrangam [Srirangam] for its Horse Court or Śeṣagiri-maṇḍapa [maṇḍapam] with its colonnade of furiously fighting steeds each rearing up to a height of nearly nine feet, the whole executed in a technique so emphatic as to be not like stone but hardened steel which shows that the repetition of the ‘horse’ motif in the pillars, of this period had attained a sort of finality of extravagance, nevertheless betokening some implied spirit of the time, something of the temper of the time, a feeling of exultant invincibility translated into the cavaliers nonchalantly astride gigantic rearing chargers, and engaged in furious combat with fabulous creatures.

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