Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/453

 CHAP. IV. VIJAYANAGAR. 401 The city was finally destroyed by the Muhammadans in 1565, but during the two previous centuries it maintained a gallant struggle against the Bahmani and Adil Shahi dynasties of Kulbarga and Bijapur, and was in fact the barrier that prevented the Moslims from taking possession of the whole country as far as Cape Comorin. Its time of greatest prosperity was between the accession of Krishna Deva, 1508, and the death of Achyuta Raya, 1542, and it is to their reigns that the finest monuments in the city must be ascribed. There is, perhaps, no other city in all India in which ruins exist in such profusion or in such variety as in Vijayanagar, and as they are all certainly comprised within the century and a half, or at the utmost the two centuries that preceded the destruction of the city, their analogies afford us dates that hardly admit of dispute. Among those in the city the most remarkable is that dedicated to Vithoba, or Vitthalaswamin, a local manifestation of Vishnu. It was apparently begun by Krishna Deva, at least as early as A.D. 1513, and continued by Achyuta Raya, 1529-1542, and never was finished ; and as inscriptions in it are dated in 1561 and 1564, recording grants of Sada^iva, we might fairly infer that the works were stopped by the fall of the kingdom in 1565. The temple stands in a rectangular enclosure 538 ft. by 310, with gopurams on the east, north, and south sides. Outside the east entrance stands a lofty Dipdan pillar, and there are two pavilions of architectural merit in the court, besides other buildings. Round nearly the whole court ran a deep verandah or corridor with three rows of piers ; but most of it is now ruined. The principal part of the temple consists of a porch or mantapam, represented in the woodcut, No. 236, page 403. It is wholly in granite, and carved with a boldness and expression of power nowhere surpassed in the buildings of its class. As will be observed, it has all the characteristic peculiarities of the Dravidian style : the bold cornice of double flexure, the detached shafts, the Vyalis, the richly - carved stylobate, etc. But what interests us most here is that it forms an exact half-way house in style between such porches as those at Vellor and Chidambaram, and that of Tirumalai Nayyak at Madura. The bracket shafts are detached here, it is true, but they are mere ornaments, and have lost their meaning. The cornice is as bold as any, but has lost its characteristic supports, and other changes have been made which would inevitably have led in a short time to the new style of the Nayyak dynasty. The little building on the right is the car of the god, the base and principal storey being formed of a single block of granite, with movable wheels, but they are the only parts that VOL. I. 2 C