Temple Construction During the Vijayanagara Period

This book entitled, ‘Texts and Traditions: Technical aspects of Temple construction during the Vijayanagara period in Andhradesa’consists of five chapters. Chapter I – Introduction, Chapter II –Architectural features of Vijayangara temples, Chapter III – Texts and Traditions : techniques of temple construction during the Vijayanagara Period, Chapter IV – Techniques of Temple construction: A Case Study of Madana Gopala Swamy Temple, Jetprole, and Chapter V- Conclusions. In Chapter –II, the discussion on the Architectural features of Vijayangara temples began with plan a brief description on the, elevation, Individual shrines, mandapas, gopuras, prakaras and rathas (stone Cars) of the Vijayanagara period. Chapter III, portrays information on Texts and Traditions: Techniques of temple constructions during the Vijayanagara Period is mentioned in the classical literature such as the Epics, Puranas, Agamas and Silpa Sastras. The Agamas, incidentally deal with architectural subjects; their contributions to the silpa- sastra are, however, more extensive and valuable. Some of the Agamas deal with very technical matters, which are not met with in the Puranas. Moreover some Agamas to all intents and purposes are but architectural treatises. In Chapter IV, entitled Techniques of Temple Construction: A case study of Madana Gopala Swamy Temple, Jetprolu, it is detailed on the location of the village, historical background, Architecture, on plan and elevation of the temple, techniques of the temple construction right from selection of site till its completion. The last and penultimate Chapter IV is termed as Conclusions. This chapter draws conclusions of the research scholar and recapitulates the entire study right from setting the agenda for research till fulfilling the objectives of study through substantial data culled from the field survey, corroborating it with the texts and traditions. The chapter also highlights the major achievements of the study and it is for the first time that such a rare attempt is made on enquiring into the Silpa and Agama texts and testing with the actual traditions and techniques that the silpins followed.