Archaeology Magazine - March/April 1986 - 29

and tiles suggest materials used in the columns and
roofs. Almost all of the artifacts recovered here
are earthenware fragments of vessels used for cooking and storing. Stone mortars, like those used
today to process rice and other grains, are other
common finds.
The important Ramachandra temple in the
middle of the royal center, dating back to the early
fifteenth century, probably served as a chapel
for a king. The temple is contained within a rectangular enclosure with high walls, the outer surfaces
carved with reliefs portraying the activities of the
Mahanavami. While the courtly character of these
scenes is unmistakable, within the temple compound the iconography is more religious in character
and illustrates episodes from the Ramayana epic.
This mythical account of the god Rama (also known
as Ramachandra) connects the temple with the
surrounding landscape. The gateways and doorways
of the complex are aligned with two hills- Matanga
(to the north) and Malyavanta (to the east). These
holy sites are associated with Rama's adventures
in the region as he journeyed southward in search of
his abducted wife, Sita. In this way, the mythological world, the landscape through which Rama
moved, is linked to the world of the king, the royal
center in which the temple is located. As the divine
hero-king, Rama served as a paradigm for Hindu
rulers. At Vijayanagara, this relation was given concrete expression through the placement of the
principal buildings within the different zones of
the city.
-Alfter its sack, Vijayanagara lay abandoned and
forgotten for more than two centuries. In 1800,
Colonel Colin Mackenzie, an energetic antiquarian,
visited the site and sketched some of its ruins.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the site
attracted enthusiasts of Indian history and architecture, including several early photographers.
Recently, more than 50 waxed-paper negatives dating from 1856 were discovered in an attic in Cornwall.
Although a few guide books to Vijayanagara
have been available since early in this century, the
ruined city received surprisingly little systematic
attention from scholars. The relatively recent date
and the overwhelming scale of Vijayanagara seem
to have been discouraging factors; perhaps also, the
rich contemporary literature describing the city
and its inhabitants suggested that studies of the
ruins were unnecessary. In 1976, Vijayanagara was
declared as a site of national importance by the
Government of India and an excavation project was
initiated. This has brought to light many features
that add substantially to our knowledge of the city
and has raised many questions that have yet to
be answered. For example, was the large and finely
finished tank with stone stepped sides, discovered virtually intact in 1985, possibly used in
ceremonies of royal coronation? Most recently,
under the direction of M.S. Nagaraja Rao and
A. Sundara, two teams of excavators have focused
their clearing work within the enclosures of the
royal center.
Such excavation programs are accompanied
by extensive conservation work that aims at rebuild-

ing collapsing walls and basements, replacing
cracked beams, repairing damaged sculptures, and
consolidating excavated remains. This work goes
hand-in-hand with analyses of construction history.
Overgrown buildings on the periphery of the site
are being cleared of vegetation, while other partly
buried structures and even roads are being revealed.
It is worth pointing out that such conservation
has been carried out at Vijayanagara, though with
interruptions, since the turn of the century.
From 1980 onward, an international team of
scholars and students under the direction of authors
John Fritz and George Micheli, has contributed
to research at Vijayanagara. This team has developed a program of "surface archaeology" in which
architects, surveyors and photographers document
all remains visible at the surface of the site. Beginning in the royal center, this project has expanded
to encompass much of the urban core. Inventories
of archaeological and architectural data are currently
being compiled, and an elaborate mapping system
has been devised to designate features. The project
has also been concerned with "socio-ceramics;"
analyses by Carla Sinopoli of the University of
Michigan of the forms and spatial distributions of
pottery vessels are helping us to understand the
economic and social life of the capital.
This site work is accompanied by research on
the written record of the city. More than 200 inscriptions are incised onto monuments and natural
boulders at Vijayanagara. These epigraphs mostly
record donations of money or land to temple
deities, but also provide information on dynastic
history, military expeditions, and legal and property
matters. Indian archaeologists periodically discover new inscriptions which are gradually being
translated into English and published. Also of great
importance is the rich literary heritage of the
period, much of it in south Indian languages such as
Kannada and Telugu.
For those of us involved with fieldwork at
Vijayanagara, an increased understanding of the
form and function of this city depends on both archaeological and historical data. The use of these
sources- each incomplete without the othercharacterizes Mediaeval archaeological projects,
whether in Europe, the Islamic Middle East or
Hindu India. Correlating archaeological and historical material vastly expands our understanding
of the development of Vijayanagara and its relation
to the evolving state. In fact, no other non-Muslim
capital in India provides such rich opportunities
for research; here we may investigate important
social and economic problems, cultural and artistic
matters as well as broader questions about ritual
and symbolism.
While our investigation is still in its early
stages, we believe it has already established the
outstanding importance of Vijayanagara as an archaeological site. One measure of estimating the
success of our various projects is the increasing
number of scholars and students, from both India
and abroad, who are attracted to Vijayanagara.
Meanwhile the site itself exercises its undeniable
magic on all visitors, whether they be travelers
or devout pilgrims.
March/
April1986 29

Archaeology Magazine - March/April 1986

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - March/April 1986