6 august 2018 http://www.openthemagazine.com 21
teacher’. according to the art historian Mark Zebrowski, ‘it is
hard to label him either a Muslim or a hindu; rather he had an
aesthete’s admiration for the beauty of both cultures.’
the same syncretistic spirit also animates Bijapuri art
whose miniature portraits of princes show, according to
Zebrowski a ‘noble gravitas which upholds the humanism of
the Indian figural tradition especially apparent in the Gupta
sculpture of one thousand years before’. More remarkably still,
for a nominally Islamic art, one finds ‘girls as voluptuous as the
nudes of South Indian stone sculpture’ and, as in so much of the
art of Vijayanagara, ‘we sense the warm breezes, luxuries and
languid pace of a tropical world’.
this picture of hindu- Muslim hybridity, of Indo-Islamic
intellectual and artistic fecundity is important, for it comes in
such stark contrast to the received wisdom—articulated most
elegantly by naipaul—that for India the medieval period was
a long tale of defeat and destruction. today most historians of
Vijayanagara tend to emphasise the perhaps surprising degree
to which hinduism and Islam creatively intermingled and
‘chutnified’ (to use Salman Rushdie’s nice term).
We read, for example, of mediaeval hindu texts from
Vijayanagara where the Sultan of Delhi is talked about as
an incarnation of Vishnu and the holder of one of the three
dharmic ‘lion thrones’.
It is significant that all this surprises us quite as much as it
does: we are so used to the idea of heavily fortified frontiers
between different religions—especially hinduism and
Islam—that a pre-modern attitude that sees a porous interac-
tion across these frontiers takes us aback. Certainly, the history
of Vijayanagara raises huge and important questions about
faith and personal identity in pre- modern India, about how far
these were fixed and immutable—or how far they were in fact
flexible, tractable, negotiable. the evidence presented by the
new work of scholars studying Vijayanagara through many
prisms—archaeology and art history as well as documen-
tary and inscriptional evidence—suggests that the borders
between Islam and hinduism in this period are far less clearly
defined than we have been conditioned to expect.
It also shows that in many ways Vijayanagara was surpris-
ingly like modern India: a melting pot of many cultures which
came together to form something far richer and far more
remarkable than its component parts—and that its multi-faith,
multi-ethnic, multi-cultured whole is the actually the source of
its richness, and its strength. nWilliam Dalrymple is an essayist and a historian. This is the foreword
he has written for hampi:
Of Gods and Kings
by George Michell and
John Fritz, with
photographs by Bharath
Ramamrutham (left)
(JSW/Graf Media, 310 pages)With its prestigious historical setting and auspicious atmosphere, Hampi is one of the most notably luminary villages in Karnataka. The ruins of Vijayanagara surrounding Hampi are today all that remains of the urban extent of what was once the “City of Victory”, the capital of southern India’s greatest empire. Twice the size of Paris at its peak, Vijayanagara
covered a vast area of approximately 650 square kilometres. But today this area presents only a ghost of the city’s former glory, formidable power and immense population. Not only is the Vijayanagara site strewn with buildings of all kinds, the entire landscape is dense with sacred and reli-gious buildings. Whether still standing or crumbling in heaps of mason-
ry, they survive as sacred and evocative constructions. Vijayanagara flourished for over two hundred years before the city was fatally sacked in 1565 by invading Muslim armies, and then abandoned. Even so, its present-day ruins testify to the city’s legendary status. Once a showpiece of urban splendour and opulence, Vijayanagara’s dilapidated
structures still expresses boundless purpose and fortitude. The majesty of these remains are today the only witnesses to the grand dynastic lineages of a once extensive empire, as well as to the city’s fraught battles and sieges, and to the lavish royal entertainments and sacrosanct religious ceremonies that once took place here.
The sanctity of the Vijayanagara site, in particular Hampi village, far predates the establishment of Vijayanagara, which was only founded as a capital only in the middle of the fourteenth century. In earlier times, the site was closely associated with Pampa, a local goddess, and her consort Virupaksha, an aspect of Shiva. The Tungabhadra River that flows to the
north of Hampi and the surrounding rugged, granite ridges are with rich mythological narratives. Here, events from the Ramayana epic are believed to have occurred, especially those that took place in Kishkindha, the Monkey Kingdom, that figures so prominently in the story of Rama’s quest for his abducted wife Sitea.
Bharath Ramamrutham’s splendid photographs highlight both the archi-tectural and the landscape elements that embody the power of place of Hampi Vijayanagara. They illuminate the geographical characteristics and raw visual allure of its various sacred spots. The images also draw atten-tion to the sacred geometry of the urban layout together with its diversity
of buildings, military, courtly and religious. It is important to acknowledge that Hampi is not merely a significant archaeological site, nor only a significant UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hampi is a sacred location, with deeply embedded cosmological, spiritual
and religious significance. Its hallowed past resonates from deep within the crevices of its rocks and along the banks of the Tungabhadra, the natural beauty of which is accented strikingly by crumbling structures. Its shrines, embellished lavishly by visual scriptures, testify to the spiritual energy accumulated by centuries of sacred ceremonies. This energy is seamlessly integrated with the light, colour, sound and music that contin-
ue to make Hampi the “City of Victory”.___________________Bharath RamamruthamPhotographer & Publisher, Graf Media
email: [email protected]: http://www.bharathram.comWith a background in architecture and design, and a passion for India, BHARATH RAMAMRUTHAM has created a body of work which has come to exemplify the definitive pictorial statement on the architecture, design and the landscapes of India. With an archi-tect’s eye and discipline, he has set about to capture the structure and spirit, body and soul of the icons of traditional and modern architecture. His photographs are featured in several important books on architecture and design including Indian Design, Inside of gods and kingsHAMPI
India-Quintessential Indian Style, Jewels of the Nizams, Temple Towns of Tamil Nadu, Chidambaram, Elephanta, Falaknuma and The Mansions of Chettinad to name just a small selection. His im-ages form part of the Incredible India campaign of the Department of Tourism, Government of India and campaigns of the Tourism
Authority of Seychelles and Mauritius.JOHN M. FRITZ is a Consulting Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. He received his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. He carried out research on Native American
archaeology while on the staffs of the University of California, the State University of New York and the University of New Mexico. Be-tween 1981 and 2002 he co-directed the Vijayanagara Research Pro-ject at Hampi with George Michell, with whom he has co-authored City of Victory, Vijayanagara, the Medieval Capital of Southern India (New York, 1991), Hampi, A Story in Stone (Mumbai, 2009),and Hampi Vijayanagara (Mumbai, 2015). (^) GEORGE MICHELL trained as an architect and obtained a PhD in Indian archaeology and art at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has carried out research at many
historical sites in India, most extensively at Hampi Vijayanagara, where he co-directed fieldwork with John M. Fritz for more than twenty years. Among his recent publications is Mughal Architec-ture and Gardens (Mumbai, 2011), Late Temple Architecture of India, 15th to 19th Centuries (New Delhi, 2015), and Mansions of
Chettinad (Karaikudi, 2016).Graf Publishing / Graf MediaEstablished in 2005 ‘graf’ is a visual communication, design and
publishing company. Apart from a diverse range of content for print and the Web, Graf publishes fine books on different aspects of Indian art, culture and lifestyle with a focus on architecture and design, photography and travel. Maintaining impeccable produc-tion and design standards and scholarly excellence, Graf publishes
across all media creating content of the highest quality.
Photography HAMPI OF GODS AND KINGS
Bharath Ramamrutham
Authors
George Michell and John M Fritz
Foreword
William Dalrymple George Michell and John M FritzBharath RamamruthamPhotography Authors
William DalrympleForeword
Today Hampi remains much as it was
left: almost deserted, a strange, haunting
and otherworldly landscape of massive
boulders, dusty red-earth fields and
sudden lush green banana plantations