Vijayanagara: Authority and Meaning of a South Indian Imperial Capital

Author(s): John M. Fritz

Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 44-55
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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JOHN M. FRITZ
Universityof New Mexico

Vijayanagara: Authority and Meaning of a

South Indian Imperial Capital

Themeaningof theimperialcapitalcanbeunderstood as a necessarycomponentof thesystemthat

constitutestheauthorityof its rulers.Urbanform relatesrulers'behaviortoprinciplesof order
andto theforcesthatcreatethisorder.Architectural andurbanmorphology at Vijayanagara,the
capitalof themostimportant Hindu empireof medieval south India, embodiedseveralmeaningful
aspectsof royalbehavior.Hereareconsidered materialelementsthatexpressed thekings'activ-
itiesas warriorandhunter,as promoter ofprosperityandredistributor of wealth,andas main-
tainerof cosmicorder.Threeaspectsof thecity-the structure of theurbanplan, theorganization
of movement, andthemythological of thesite-asserted thatthekingembodied
associations the
powerofRamachandra, thedivinehero-king.

HAT THE MATERIALFORM OF THE IMPERIALCAPITALIS INTIMATELYBOUND up

with the power of its rulers is virtually axiomatic. However, the relationship between
power and urban form is open to debate: Is the capital only a "stage" or "setting" for the
interplay of economic, social and political forces; is it merely an "extrusion" or "precip-
itate" of state institutions; may it simply be a folly (often ruinous to the general good) of
a powerful and wealthy elite? Or, rather, is the imperial capital a necessary component
of a system that constitutes the authority of the rulers?It is the latter position that I take
in my investigation of the south Indian city of Vijayanagara. I understand this imperial
capital to be a monumental exposition of the principles and relationships that make
meaningful and empower the actions of the ruling elite (Wheatley 1971).
This perspective has permitted me to develop a number of propositions that relate ar-
chitectural and urban morphology at Vijayanagara to certain meaningful aspects of royal
behavior. Following the work of a number of historians and ethnographersof south India
(Appadurai 1978; Breckenridge 1978; Dirks 1976; Stein 1980), I suggest that kings were
empowered by the symbolic context in which royal behavior was embedded; this context
motivated the actors in the Vijayanagara state. I believe that the form of the capital con-
tributed to the perception of the king as a forceful, skillful, and wealthy leader, one whose
actions created harmony and well-being throughout the empire, and who possessed spe-
cial power due to his close relation to the divine.

Vijayanagara
As the largest and most completely preserved Hindu capital, Vijayanagara offers a
unique opportunity for a study that contributes to a body of theory for imperial cities
and, in a wider context, for complex societies in general. Founded in the early 14th cen-
tury, and sacked by Muslims in the middle of the 16th century (1565), Vijayanagara was
the capital of the wealthiest and most powerful Hindu empire of south India (Saletore
1934). Its rulers resisted Islamic expansion for more than two centuries, while maintain-
ing Hindu religion and cultural practices and developing uniquely effective social and
political systems. Contemporary Muslim historians and European visitors to the capital

JOHNM. FRITZis AssociateProfessor,Department of New Mexico,Albuquerque,

University
ofAnthropology, NM 87131.

44
Fritz] VIJAYANAGARA 45

attest to the vast size and sumptuous appointment of Vijayanagara-unrivaled as a

"theater" of Hindu imperial display (Sewell 1900).
The ruins of metropolitan Vijayanagara occupy a basin approximately 125 k2in area
within which several distinct zones may be distinguished (Figure 1): (1) extensive irri-
gated fields and several suburban "satellite" settlements separated by arcs of fortification
walls to the south and west; (2) a "sacred center" to the north, on the south bank of the
Tungabhadra river, where four great temple complexes are located; and, between the first
two zones, (3) a fortified "urban core" incorporating residential areas as well as a com-
plex of enclosure and structures that I term the "royal center." Throughout, the granite
outcrops of the site are used in an extensive fortification system; canals, almost certainly
constructed while the city flourished, transport water from larger tanks and the river to
different parts of the site. (Guide books to Vijayanagara have been written by Longhurst
1917, and Devakunjari 1970; see also Michell and Filliozat 1981 and Fritz, Michell, and
Nagaraja Rao 1985. Naipaul [1977:4-9] portrays contrastive impressions of the site.)

Figure 1
Principal zones of Vijayanagara with modern villages hatched.
46 AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST [88, 1986

Kingship in South India

My analysis and interpretation ofVijayanagara have been influenced by recent studies
of several scholars on the nature and development of medieval kingship in south India.
This work provides a significant context for understanding Vijayanagara-both city and
state. The historian Stein (1980:23) suggests that the Vijayanagara empire may best be
viewed as a "segmentary state," consisting of relatively autonomous polities "structurally
as well as morally coherent units in themselves." According to the anthropologist Ap-
padurai (1978:51), "there was no single, centralized, permanent bureaucratic organiza-
tion, but a temporary affiliation of local groups, authoritatively constituted by, or in the
name of, the king, and empowered to make public decisions on specific matters." The
Vijayanagara state was constituted by the recognition of these groups of a "sacred ruler
whose overlordship is of a moral sort, and is expressed in an essentially ritual idiom"
(Stein 1980:23).
The significance of ritual in Indian kingship is generally acknowledged; this is con-
veyed in both literary and epigraphical sources. As to the nature of this ritual kingship,
there is, however, some disagreement. One interpretation-derived from Hocart
(1970[1936]) and propounded by Dumont (1970a, 1970b)-suggests that "the function
of the brahmin ... was to conduct sacrifices in the name of the ritually disqualified,
blood-shedding, meat-eating king" (Geertz 1980:125, 138-139). Another view-also
traced to Hocart, and taken up by Inden (1978), Stein (1980), and others-suggests that
the king himself played a significant ritual role in the state. Inden, analyzing an early
north Indian Sanskrit text, concludes that kingship took two forms that were repeated at
regular intervals: in his transcendent form, "the divine Hindu king acted primarily as a
ceremonialist exercising ritual sovereignty, while in his immanent form, the ruler func-
tioned as an administrator and warrior exercising his political sovereignty" (Richards
1978).
While kings were not necessarily considered divine, the institution of kingship was.
Royal authority was intimately bound up with divine power. But, as Inden (1978) sug-
gests, it was also tied to material prosperity, moral well-being, and cosmic regulation. In
south India these were achieved by conquest and plunder, redistribution of booty and
surplus, arbitration of disputes, and celebration of particular rites (Breckenridge
1978:78). Conquests required a large army, horses, elephants, carts and tents; the greater
part of the army was maintained by subordinate rulers, governors, and generals. Booty
was distributed among these leaders and their troops, and gifts were made to temple de-
ities by kings and other powerful individuals. Kings also sponsored the construction of
extensive hydraulic works-tanks, dams, canals, etc.-which permitted extensive agri-
cultural development and the population of new regions.
Gifts of honors and privileges to members of the king's household and court and the
entertainment of subordinates conveyed the prosperity of the king, as did the display of
royal wealth. The construction of civic and religious monuments also communicated the
king's power (B. Stein, personal communication, 1982). Arbitration of disputes was a
particularly significant means for kings to maintain moral order and customary law
(dharma);however, there were no bureaucraticinstitutions that created or carried out this
law. The king was also subsidizer, participant, and celebrant of rites that reaffirmedand
reestablished cosmic order. Most important of these rites during the Vijayanagara period
was the annual mahanavami festival that took place in the capital.

Material Embodiment of Royal Power

The material culture of Vijayanagara may have been largely produced by activities in
which kings, members of the royal household and court, and governors from elsewhere
in the empire displayed "symptoms" (Breckenridge 1978) of authority. In fact, if the seg-
mentary nature of the Vijayanagara empire is accepted, it was only within the capital
Fritz] VIJAYANAGARA 47

and its environs that the king held sufficient authority to display his power on a grand
scale. Nowhere is the record of royal display more evident than in the remains of the
urban core of the city, particularly in the royal center. Here, sacred and secular buildings
take on a monumental expression in stone, accompanied by a richly carved iconography:
architecture and sculpture seem to have no purpose other than the display of royal power.
The spatial organization of these structures provides the setting for rites that also directly
invoke the roles of the king. Specific features of the site plausibly suggest the enactment
of these various roles.
Thus the king acted as a warrior. While the Vijayanagara rulers were almost contin-
uously at war with the Muslim sultans to the north, war was not exclusively sectarian.
The expansion and maintenance of the empire also required military expeditions against
lesser Hindu rulers to effect their subordination. According to Portuguese observers, the
king maintained an army in the city that partly consisted of Muslim mercenaries (Sewell
1900). These mercenaries were probably housed in separate quarters of the city. As well
as stables for elephants, horses, and other animals used in war, and barracks for the
troops, there were stores for weapons, food, and loot. Particularly imposing is a monu-
mental elephant stables, consisting of ten domed chambers symmetrically arranged in a
row, with a central tower. The architects of the stables have combined Islamic and Hindu
forms to create a unique Vijayanagara courtly style.
Several carved panels in the royal center depict foreign supplicants in front of seated
royal figures; troops bearing arms sometimes parade behind. Particularlyinformative are
panels carved on the outer walls of the Ramachandra Temple compound in the middle
of the royal center. Here, elephants, cavalry, foot soldiers, dancing women, and musicians
process toward royal figures seated in templelike pavilions. On the basements of other
civic and religious monuments, panels of elephants and horses-both symbols of royal
power-are carved.
As a hunter the king also expressed his capacities as a warrior: hunting expeditions
often involved martial elements. (On one occasion, a hunting foray turned into a military
attack [Watson 1965].) Beside conveying the might of the assembled elephants, horses,
beaters, and warrior-hunters, these expeditions also displayed the organizational capa-
bilities of royal leadership. At the capital, scenes of royal hunting are prominently dis-
played on the sides of a platform associated with the mahanavami festival. Here, panels
showing military and hunting episodes occur in successive registers. Royal figures with
bows, accompanied by dogs, beaters, and other hunters, are surrounded by deer; men
standing with daggers, or mounted on elephants and accompanied by lancers, attack
lions.
It is probable that athletic displays also conveyed royal power. Figures of grappling
wrestlers are carved on the most important gates of the city, the court in front of the
elephant stables, the mahanavami platform, and the compound walls of the Ramachandra
Temple. Panels on the last two monuments also include scenes of stick dancers and ac-
robats. One large building near the elephant stables may have served as an arena for
athletic contests. Such contests communicated the strength, skill, and combativeness of
those who served the king.
Vijayanagara was frequently attacked by Muslims and was beseiged several times, al-
though never successfully. Vast fortifications protecting the city, particularly its urban
core, convey the military strength of the ruler. Here is found an extensive series of defen-
sive features-bastions, elaborate gateways, lookouts.
The king also redistributed wealth and promoted prosperity. The king's wealth, ac-
quired from plunder, tribute and taxes, was used to enhance royal power. To begin with,
the king and his household displayed wealth through sumptuous possessions (jewels, pre-
cious metals, silks, and so on), monumental buildings, and richly furnished quarters,
where the king enacted his public and private roles (Sewell 1900). The sheer size of the
household suggested regal wealth. While valuables have now disappeared, the remains
of many palaces are now being discovered in the royal center of the city (Nagaraja Rao
48 AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST [88, 1986

1983). The large number of animals (some with foreign attendants), soldiers, and enter-
tainers depicted in carvings on monuments in the royal center also convey the ruler's
wealth. Artifacts (recently discovered Chinese procelain, for instance) provide further
evidence of royal display.
Entertainment was another means by which the king displayed and distributed wealth.
Elaborate rituals of reception and gift giving communicated the largesse of the king, and
also the status of those hosted. Recently identified entries leading into enclosures con-
taining royal apartments can be interpreted as a sequence of boundaries at which the king
or his agents could formally receive and bid farewell to visitors. These entries also created
a labyrinthine protection for the royal household. It may be that some of the courts, plat-
forms, and colonnades in other enclosures were connected with more public acts of en-
tertainment, such as those occurring during the mahanavami festival. The display of wealth
in entertainment is also indicated by the numerous panels depicting dancing women, mu-
sicians, and acrobats, sometimes performing in front of seated royal figures (on the ma-
hanavamiplatform, Ramachandra Temple, and stone basements of several palace struc-
tures).
Honors were significant indicators of status. These consisted of ritual items, such as fly
whisks, which could be displayed under special circumstances. The giving of gifts, such
as shawls, emphasized the king's role as earthly fountainhead of status and prosperity.
(In south India during the British period, competition to receive and display honors was
so intense as to lead to complicated lawsuits [C. Breckenridge,personal communication,
1982].) Portuguese accounts of the Vijayanagara court suggest that honors were given
during public assemblies. At various temples in the capital inscriptions as well as sculp-
tures record honors given by the king to his courtiers.
Another way in which regal wealth was displayed was by making donations to a temple
deity. Gifts of money, land, or income from land were invested by the temple to provide
a continuous source of income. (A proportion of this income was sometimes returned to
donors.) Probably the most enduring evidence of such gift giving is seen in the construc-
tion of temples throughout the empire. These monuments often recorded their royal do-
nors in stone inscriptions. Particularly impressive were the towered gateways (gopurams)
and associated high enclosure walls erected by the Vijayanagara kings throughout the
empire (at Chidambaram, Srirangam, Kanchipuram, for example, as well as at the cap-
ital). Known as royal gateways (rayagopurams), these towers sometimes rose more than 50
m high. Inden (personal communication, 1983) suggests that by constructing such fea-
tures, kings, in essence, reconstituted entire temple complexes as the product of their gifts.
Equally important were the royal donations to temples to support various religious rituals
and festivals, some of which involved thousands of brahmins who had to be fed and shel-
tered. Stone pavilions and colonnades along the chariot steets in front of temples at Vi-
jayanagara and elsewhere in the empire were also royal foundations.
Temples were the largest managers of agricultural land during the Vijayanagara pe-
riod (Appadurai 1978). Kings contributed to the wealth of temples and land by financing
hydraulic works. (Such contributions are recorded in various inscriptions.) Large tanks
with sluices, wells, aqueducts, and canals are found throughout the capital and its envi-
rons; many of these facilities are still in use. Such hydraulic systems were crucial in main-
taining the large population of the city.
In broader terms, the Vijayanagara kings contributed to the prosperity of the realm
through investment in ambitious programs of civic works. At the capital, fortifications
protected the urban population, gateways regulated traffic (taxes were collected here),
major roads and bridges facilitated the movement of people, animals, goods, troops and
ritual processions, and troughs, wells, canals, and tanks provided water.
The Vijayanagara ruler was also an adjudicatorof disputes and an upholder of dharma.
Portuguese accounts suggest that the king and his officials conciliated disputes in one of
the columned halls in the palace. Within the royal center, the remains of a large structure
with 100 columns (sometimes known as the "king's audience hall") is the most likely
Fritz] VIJAYANAGARA 49

location of this royal activity. Significantly, this monument faces onto a large public entry
court; behind are platforms and courts associated with more guarded courtly activities.
In addition, the king was the maintainer of cosmic order. The capital itself may be
interpreted as an argument for the cosmic role of the king, since it was a setting for priestly
rituals and for rites in which the king was the principal celebrant. The numerous stone
temples of the sacred center, urban core, and suburbs of Vijayanagara attest to the royal
and courtly investment in brahminical and other (particularlyJain) rituals. Sponsored
by members of the royal family and other influential individuals, these rituals continu-
ously reestablished an order in which prosperity, health, and other benefits were ensured.
Rituals patronized by the king extended such benefits throughout the realm. (The history
of this regal sponsorship, as indicated by donative inscriptions and the temples them-
selves, has yet to be studied at the site.)
The most important of these rituals preserving cosmic order was, without doubt, the
annual mahanavami festival. This event occurred between the summer rains and winter
drought. Inden (1978:59-60) discusses the significance of this moment in the year when,
following on the "night" of the monsoon, "the gods slept and the king, along with the
entire state apparatus, suspended nominal administrative and warriorfunctions." At Vi-
jayanagara, the mahanavami rites reconstituted the "centralized and hierarchic" phase of
the state during which "territorial chiefs, subordinate kings, revenue officials, and com-
panies assemble[d] at the royal city" (Stein 1980, 1983).
In his analysis of this festival, Stein demonstrates that these diverse social and political
elements were reincorporated into the king's realm and, even more significantly, into the
partnership of king and god. The mahanavami rites were performedby brahmins, and also
by the king himself in the royal palace before the image of a diety. Breckenridge (personal
communication, 1982) argues that by their presence, subordinate leaders-who, on this
occasion, were at the capital together with their retainers and armies-indicated their
willingness to support the king in his active phase. In the giving of honors and entertain-
ment, the king affirmed the hierarchies of status; those who accepted these honors ac-
knowledged the legitimacy of the king's authority. After these rites, during the "day" of
the dry season, the king resumed his activities as warrior by attacking his enemies; as
leader and protector he proceeded through the kingdom establishing the support of his
subordinates, distributing wealth, participating in religious rites at temple centers, and
adjudicating disputes.

Vijayanagara as a Cosmic City

Following Wheatley (1969), Meyer (1976:4, 175-180), defines the cosmic city as sacred
because it reproduces in material form a pattern that exists in the cosmic realm; this pat-
tern of celestial authority is repeated in the terrestrial realm. Cosmic cities are charac-
terized by three features: clear orientation (in alignment with the cosmos), the symbolism
of centrality, and the throne of the sacred king.
In principle, Hindu cities were to be laid out in cosmic patterns or diagrams (mandalas),
according to the prescriptions of certain theoretical texts (shastras).Even so, it is debat-
able whether any Hindu cities in India were actually built on such precise lines (there
are some exceptions, such as 18th-centuryJaipur [Michell 1977]). Certainly, the overall
plan of Vijayanagara does not appear to conform to a shastric urban mandala(Fritz 1985).
On the other hand, certain aspects of the layout of this capital may be in concordance
with theoretical prescriptions. According to one of these texts, the Krityakalpataru (see In-
den 1978:53), the fortified capital was to consist of a grid of nine by nine squares in the
middle of which was the temple housing the king's diety. The residence of the king was
to be located west of this temple, while the king's audience hall with his throne was to be
east. At Vijayanagara, the Ramachandra Temple and areas that I designate as zones of
"royal residence" and "royal performance" (see below), are in a spatial relationship
broadly conforming to this model (Fritz, Michell, and Nagaraja Rao 1984/85).
50 AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST [88, 1986

Within the royal center, I identify a zone of royal residence (Figure 2) with complex
entries leading up to large palaces, surrounded by open courtyards with subsidiary struc-
tures. Entries require many changes of direction through courts and gates of decreasing
size and increasing elaboration. Palaces are formal in layout and were richly ornamented
(Nagaraja Rao 1983:9-29). They have raised stone basements with U-shaped plans. A
sequence of levels ascends from an open verandah beneath to a central chamber or court
above. A passageway, and sometimes other rooms, surround the uppermost chamber or

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0 Ix
II

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4 .7. 14
O...

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r4<510 , !
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Figure 2
Zone of royal residence: A series of courts and gates (IXc-e, V 2) leads to enclosures con-
taining palaces (V 1, 6-8).
Fritz] VIJAYANAGARA 51

court on three sides. While these palaces probably were used for formal reception and
entertainment, other domestic purposes cannot be ruled out. Subsidiary structures in-
clude large colonnades, tanks, wells, and, possibly, gardens. This zone of royal residence
also contains the important Virupaksha Temple, which housed the tutelary deity of the
royal family.
By contrast, the zone of royal performance (Figure 3), also within the royal center, has
larger and more direct entries leading to large courts onto which face large "public"
buildings, such as the 100-columned audience hall and a monumental stone basement
associated with the mahanavami festival. The latter monument consists of a multitiered
stone basement on which a decorated wooden superstructureof several stories may have
been erected. This platform is located on the highest point in the royal center, dominating
its surroundings. South of the audience hall is a dense array of small courts and alleys
leading to the remains of square and rectangular pillared halls and chambers. Also found
here are numerous wells, small tanks, and aqueducts and drains. Though the original
functions of these various structures are by no means certain, the buildings in this zone
seem to be associated with the public life of the king rather than with his household. Other
enclosures in this zone appear to be linked with military display and with the control of
communication within the city.

0 - 50m

Figure 3
Zone of royal performance: Densely clustered structures (IVa) are dominated by the 100-
columned hall (IVa 1) and the multitiered platform (IVb 1).
52 AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST [88, 1986

The spatial organization of the royal center at Vijayanagara manifests the relation of
terrestrial and celestial authority at deeper structural levels. The zones of royal residence
and royal performance are separated in part by a north-south wall. The shrine containing
the terrestrial manifestation of the hero-king-god Ramachandra lies on the northern ex-
tension of an axis defined by this wall. Thus, the seat of this divinity is located at the
boundary between distinctions embodied in these two zones. These distinctions include
symbolic contrasts between the "inner" world of women and the "outer" world of men;
between private and public behavior, rest and activity, taking in and giving out, as well
as between east and west, and, perhaps, left and right.
All routes of movement in the capital are directed toward or circulate around the royal
center (Fritz 1983); movement within the royal center circulates through the open space
in which the Ramachandra Temple is located. Thus, movement inward is directed to the
seat of the king's activities (the royal center), and, within this, to the temple of the god
Ramachandra. As they lead through the walls of the royal center and approach the tem-
ple, the principal roads of the city (from the northeast and east) become sacred ways,
lined with the shrines of a number of sects. At the same time, the Ramachandra Temple
and the royal center are the origin of roads that lead outward into the rest of the city, and
into the empire beyond.
Like the king, the attention of the god Ramachandra is directed outward into the sur-
rounding landscape. This temple is visually aligned with two significant natural features,
Matanga Hill (on axis to the north), and Malyavanta Hill (slightly to the north of east).
Both hills are associated with the mythical events of the Ramayanaepic, especially those
episodes in which Rama enlisted the aid of the local monkey tribes to regain his abducted
wife.
Movement within the capital also circumambulates the royal center in a clockwise di-
rection (clockwise movement in India constitutes an act ofpradakshina or worship) paying
homage to the king and god, and linking them. Thus, narrative reliefs depicting the
events of the Ramayanacirculate around the walls of the Ramachandra Temple. Proces-
sions on the outer walls of the temple compound also move in this direction. Circumam-
bulatory movement through the enclosure containing the Ramachandra Temple leads
from the zone of residence to the zone of performance. On a larger scale, a sequence of
ring roads passes around the royal center, linking residential areas of the urban core
(east) to temples in the western half of the sacred center. Even Ramachandra pivots
around the seat of the king. According to local legend (Longhurst 1917:7, 9), the god,
coming from the north, arrived at a site north of Matanga Hill and then proceeded to
Malyavanta Hill before traveling south to rescue his wife (Figure 4). A passageway also
connects king and god: a sequence of small courts and alleys links the mahanavami plat-
form to the south door of the Ramachandra Temple compound. Movement from platform
to temple would cirumambulate and honor the site of the king's public life, thus convey-
ing its homology with the shrine of the deity. Stein (1980:132) suggests that the entrance
towers that the Portuguese visitors describe as leading to the ceremonies of the mahanavami
festival (within the zone of royal performance) may be compared to the towers leading
into a temple complex.
All these urban elements assert the congruence of the terrestrialrealm of the king with
the manifest mythical and celestial realm of the god. This congruence is suggested in
other media as well: inscriptions liken Vijayanagara to Rama's capital, Ayodhya (Sale-
tore 1934:221; see also Ramanujan 1970:232-235), and contemporary literary texts en-
join kings to emulate the heroic activities of the Rama (Sridhara Babu 1975, see also
Shulman 1985). The site of the king's activities is also that of Ramachandra-the royal
power that radiates outward is empowered by the divine authority of the deity. Thus, the
plan of the royal center, together with the roads of the city, its walls and gates, its tanks
and aqueducts, its numerous and monumental temples, and its rituals all embody the
cosmic order.
Fritz] GARA
VIJAYANA 53

Figure 4
North-south axis separates the zone of residence (west) from the zone of performance
(east). Ramachandra Temple is axially and visually aligned with hills to north and north-
east. Route of Ramachandra and sculptural panels circumambulate the temple.

Conclusion
At Vijayanagara, urban form, together with the activities and meanings that this em-
bodied, established the homology of the king and the divine hero-king Rama. The capital
was not merely a setting for ritual or a precipitate of social action; rather, urban form at
Vijayanagara embodied the principles and relationships that constituted the authority of
the king. King and god were the focus of the city: they paid homage to each other, and
by radiating their energies outward they gave form, harmony, and plenty to the empire.
Just as the god sat on the boundary between distinct aspects of the king's life (and the
structural relations that they implied), the king sat at the center of his realm. His actions
maintained the appropriate relations between the distinct and often conflicting elements
of his world-Hindu and Muslim, the powerful and the weak, the castes, and so on. The
54 AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST [88, 1986

urban morphology of Vijayanagara argues that the king was the most powerful terrestial
partner of the god. To deny royal authority was to invite the dissolution of the order
essential to survival and happiness.
So, in 1565, when royal authority failed, after the disastrous battle of Talikota, destruc-
tion descended upon the city and chaos entered into the relations of the people of the
region. While new kings reestablished the authority of the empire in a series of capitals
further south, Vijayanagara itself ceased to function. Today, the ruins of the city endure
where pomp and statecraft have vanished.

Acknowledgments. Generous support for fieldwork at Vijayanagara has been provided by the Spe-
cial Foreign Currency Program of the Smithsonian Institution. The National Science Foundation
and the National Endowment for the Humanities have both supported analysis and preparation of
data. Dr. M. S. Nagaraja Rao, formerly Director of the Department of Archaeology and Museums,
Government of Karnataka, together with his staff, have provided a warm institutional home in
India. Permission to work at the site has been graciously given by the Archaeological Survey of
India and the Ministry of Education and Culture. Dr. Charles Redman suggested the preparation
of this article. Drs. Carol Breckenridge, Nicholas Dirks, Burton Stein, and several anonymous re-
viewers have made helpful suggestions for revision. My colleague, Dr. George Michell, prepared
the maps and has made important editorial contributions. I am grateful to these institutions and
individuals for their assistance. Of course, the ideas expressed here are my own, and do not nec-
essarily reflect those who have encouraged this research.

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