South India under Vijayanagara: Art and Archaeology
Ed Anila Verghese and Anna Dallapiccola
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011
In 1900, when Robert Sewell the ICS officer and historian published the Forgotten Empire Vijayangara had faded into oblivion with Lethe hanging heavy on the memoria of the last imperial power of Peninsular India. Since then Vijayanagara has emerged as a promising field of inquiry partly due to the onset of "identity politics" of the early twentieth century with its twin avatars in the form of caste and lanuage. Were the early founders of Vijayanagara from the Kannada region or the Telugu region. This question animated a great deal of the early historiography of Vijayanagara with scholars like Srikantaiya advocation the Hoysala origin of the Sangamas and Venkataramanyya advocating the Kakatiya origin. Shedon Pollock has quite rightly stated in his Language of the Gods in the World of Men that vernacularization of the Peninsualr polities began as early as the days of the Rashtrakutas and continued apace during the Vijayanagara period. In fact the titles bornes of the ealy Sangama rulers recognise the desh bhasha when they proudly accord the primary status to regions like Karnat and Telnengu in their inscriptions. Historians have virtually fragmented the Vijayanagara Empire into linguistic zones, a trend that has distorted the study and research on Vijaynagara. Fortunately the volume which is being reviewed herein eschews this trend and looks at Vijayanagara in a more comprehensive manner.
Anila Verghese and Anna Dallapiccola are both well established scholars on Vijaynagara who have worked on the Vijyanagara Reseach Project constituted by Gerrge Michell and John Fritz. The past three decades have seen large sclae exploration and ecxavation in and around the Royal Center at Hampi which has led to a total reapprisal of historical knowledge regarding the urban form and morphology of Vijayaanagara. Unlike other capital cities of Peninsular India, Vijayanagara has had a large number of visitors who have left eyewitness accounts of their experience in Vijyanagara. The discovery and publication of the manuscripts of the Portuguese horse dealer Paes and Nuniz in the archives at Lisbon in the late nineteenth century opened up a vey interesting chapter in Vijayanagara research in that textual evidence could be tested against archeological material. One consequence of this method, though untended, was to view the many landscapes of Vijayangara through the "lens" of foreign visitors. Every building or piece of monumental architectre was identified using literary accounts. Thus the account of the nine day Mahanavami Festival formed the basis for identifying the Throne Platforms found in the royal core of Vijyanagara.
This book contains 24 articles each one of them exploring an interesting aspect of Vijaynagara material culture. Philip Wagoner's article on the "Stepped Well" found in the capital is a remarkable piece of historical scholarship. He demonstrates that the architectural marvel was brought from Kalyan, and it was moved to Vijayanagara during the 16th century when effort was made to link Vijaynagara with the past of the Chalukyas of Kalyan.AnilaVerghese in her contribution looks at the "sacred topography" of Vijaynagara on the basis of inscriptions and the associated myhs of temples. The thene of the Ramayana looms large in the political imagination of Vijayangara and one sees a tendency to expoit mythic associations and popular memory in order to sacralise the landscape of Vijayanagara. This trend toward scaralizing the landscape was further reinforced by the dasakuta tradition represented by the haridasa singers of whom Purandaradasa was the most preeminent. A recent Ph D thesis submitted by a student of mine explores this theme is a substantial manner.
This volume is a excellent attempt at systhesising the state of the art in so far as Vijaynagara studies is concerend and will be useful to students and researchers alike.
Ed Anila Verghese and Anna Dallapiccola
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011
In 1900, when Robert Sewell the ICS officer and historian published the Forgotten Empire Vijayangara had faded into oblivion with Lethe hanging heavy on the memoria of the last imperial power of Peninsular India. Since then Vijayanagara has emerged as a promising field of inquiry partly due to the onset of "identity politics" of the early twentieth century with its twin avatars in the form of caste and lanuage. Were the early founders of Vijayanagara from the Kannada region or the Telugu region. This question animated a great deal of the early historiography of Vijayanagara with scholars like Srikantaiya advocation the Hoysala origin of the Sangamas and Venkataramanyya advocating the Kakatiya origin. Shedon Pollock has quite rightly stated in his Language of the Gods in the World of Men that vernacularization of the Peninsualr polities began as early as the days of the Rashtrakutas and continued apace during the Vijayanagara period. In fact the titles bornes of the ealy Sangama rulers recognise the desh bhasha when they proudly accord the primary status to regions like Karnat and Telnengu in their inscriptions. Historians have virtually fragmented the Vijayanagara Empire into linguistic zones, a trend that has distorted the study and research on Vijaynagara. Fortunately the volume which is being reviewed herein eschews this trend and looks at Vijayanagara in a more comprehensive manner.
Anila Verghese and Anna Dallapiccola are both well established scholars on Vijaynagara who have worked on the Vijyanagara Reseach Project constituted by Gerrge Michell and John Fritz. The past three decades have seen large sclae exploration and ecxavation in and around the Royal Center at Hampi which has led to a total reapprisal of historical knowledge regarding the urban form and morphology of Vijayaanagara. Unlike other capital cities of Peninsular India, Vijayanagara has had a large number of visitors who have left eyewitness accounts of their experience in Vijyanagara. The discovery and publication of the manuscripts of the Portuguese horse dealer Paes and Nuniz in the archives at Lisbon in the late nineteenth century opened up a vey interesting chapter in Vijayanagara research in that textual evidence could be tested against archeological material. One consequence of this method, though untended, was to view the many landscapes of Vijayangara through the "lens" of foreign visitors. Every building or piece of monumental architectre was identified using literary accounts. Thus the account of the nine day Mahanavami Festival formed the basis for identifying the Throne Platforms found in the royal core of Vijyanagara.
This book contains 24 articles each one of them exploring an interesting aspect of Vijaynagara material culture. Philip Wagoner's article on the "Stepped Well" found in the capital is a remarkable piece of historical scholarship. He demonstrates that the architectural marvel was brought from Kalyan, and it was moved to Vijayanagara during the 16th century when effort was made to link Vijaynagara with the past of the Chalukyas of Kalyan.AnilaVerghese in her contribution looks at the "sacred topography" of Vijaynagara on the basis of inscriptions and the associated myhs of temples. The thene of the Ramayana looms large in the political imagination of Vijayangara and one sees a tendency to expoit mythic associations and popular memory in order to sacralise the landscape of Vijayanagara. This trend toward scaralizing the landscape was further reinforced by the dasakuta tradition represented by the haridasa singers of whom Purandaradasa was the most preeminent. A recent Ph D thesis submitted by a student of mine explores this theme is a substantial manner.
This volume is a excellent attempt at systhesising the state of the art in so far as Vijaynagara studies is concerend and will be useful to students and researchers alike.
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