Overview

The courtly monuments at Vijayanagara and at the later capitals of the Vijayanagara kings at Penukonda and Chandragiri are unique. Their architecture is a distinctive blend of indigenous Southern Indian features and imported Islamic styled elements derived from the Bahmani traditions of the Deccan. This royal style appears to have been invented for the Vijayanagara kings, and examples of courtly monuments in this style still stand at all of the Vijayanagara capitals. That this idiom was the inspiration for later royal architecture in Southern India may be seen in the palaces of the Nayakas and their successors. The volume sets out to provide the Vijayanagara period courtly monuments with a complete description, and a full set of measured drawings and photographs accompanies the text. The architecture is analysed in terms of its component elements, the different sources of these elements, and the phases of development by which this style was created. The influence on later traditions is estimated by a comparison with Nayaka period palaces. There is a discussion of the functional aspects of the Vijayanagara buildings, and their possible symbolic meaning is also considered. The volume concludes with a description of the Muslim monuments at the Vijayanagara site, thereby demonstrating the presence of Bahmani architectural traditions at the Hindu capital.

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Dr. George Michell was trained as an architect at the University of Melbourne and then studied Indian Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has conducted extensive field work in Karnataka, Bengal and Gujarat. Since 1980 he was co-director of an international team of archaeologists, architects and students that documented the monuments at Vijayanagara. He is currently involved in a survey of the architecture and art of Southern India during the Vijayanagara and Nayaka periods.

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