Vijayanagara Overview

John Fritz

This grant will support the preparation of maps, a database, text, photographs, and drawings for a publication entitled "Archaeological Atlas of Vijayanagara." Fieldwork to create this Atlas took place from 1983-1998 under the direction of John M Fritz.

The World Heritage Site of Vijayanagara, known locally as "Hampi," is located in central Karnataka State, in southern India. Founded in the middle of the 14th century by local Hindu chiefs, the city grew in wealth and size as the Vijayanagara Empire extended its sway over peninsular India. At its height in the early 16th century, the outer fortifications of the city enclosed 650 sq km., while the core of the city comprised 24 km sq. The city was sacked and abandoned in 1565, after its rulers were defeated by a consortium of Deccani Sultanates.

Bellary District, in which the Vijayanagara site is located, formed part of the Madras Presidency from 1800 until Indian independence in 1947; it is now located in Karnataka State. British and European scholars, photographers and officials began documentation and clearance of the ruins in the mid 19th century. Important monuments and limited areas of the site come are today under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India and the Karnataka Department of Archaeology.

In 1980 George Michell began the Vijayanagara Research Project (VRP); John M Fritz joined the team in 1981. Together they undertook a program of "surface archaeology", recording the extraordinary range and richness of archaeological detail in the core of the city through architectural and archaeological drawings, photographs, descriptions and maps. With the aid of local surveyors, the VRP prepared 274 maps of topographic and cultural features in an area of more than 11 hectares. Concurrently, the team entered more than 33,000 descriptions of archaeological features into a database. Representative features were measured, drawn and photographed.

The Vijayanagara site has proved important for understanding the organization of different urban activities in space and their relation to the evolution of royal power, to mythological associations of the landscape, and to underlying concepts of spatial order. The proposed Atlas will provide a fine grained understanding of activities across the site. It will also be useful to local agencies managing the heritage of the site, so that they can protect areas rich in archaeological resources.

Members of the VRP have published monographs, collections of articles, scholarly and popular articles, illustrated books and guides. Previous gifts and grants have enabled us to scan maps and edit most for publication. We want to complete this editing work, edit the associated data base, prepare scanned images from black and white negatives, scan drawings, and revise introductions to our methods and techniques and to each mapped area. In addition, we will summarize our understanding of spatial order gleaned from the maps.

As with our previous monographs, the Atlas will be issued by the American Institute of Indian Studies and Manohar Publishers, New Delhi.