ARCHITECTURE AND ART OF SOUTHERN INDIA

sweeping curves; diminishing storeys and shifting sequences of levels create

perspective-like effects by which towers are made to appear taller. This
illusionistic quality is a unique characteristic of gopura designs in this era.
Mandapas progress from hundred-columned halls to, literally, thousand-
columned halls. Multiple aisles define axial corridors and wrap around spaces
intended to accommodate large numbers of worshippers. Raised platforms at
the ends of aisles and corridors are for ceremonial displays of religious images.
As has been observed for temples in the Kannada and Telugu zones, the
popularity of marriage halls, or kalyana mandapas, is a typical feature of
religious architecture in this era. These and other such mandapas served as
settings for elaborate sculptural programmes, with exuberant figures and
animals carved on to columns and piers. The kalyana mandapa in the outer
enclosure of the Varadaraja temple at Kanchipuram may be taken as one of the
finest examples of the era (Fig. 44, see also Fig. 47).
Long pillared corridors linking the different parts of the temple, creating
architectural frames to unify earlier ensembles of structures are a significant
architectural invention. Galleries in many temples surround sanctuaries and
subshrines on four sides, serving as ambulatory passageways crowded with
worshippers; they also create transverse axes within temple interiors, with
spacious crossings that act as ritual focal points. Colonnades also define open
spaces within the complex, surrounding open courts with tanks,flag-polesand
altars.

TEMPLES OF THE SANGAMAS AND TULUVAS

There is no lack of historical evidence for structural activity under the Rayas
and their representatives in the Tamil zone. Kumara Kampana, son of Bukka I,
was the first Vijayanagara commander to conquer this region. An important
part of his policy was the repair of temples that had been damaged by the
armies of the Sultans. In 1371, for example, Gopana, one of Kampana's
officers, had the image of Ranganatha reinstalled in the Srirangam shrine. This
act, which signified the resumption of worship within the temple, was
followed by a succession of additions by later officers. The pillared
antechamber that precedes the main sanctuary is assigned to the last decade of
the fourteenth century, when Virupana Udaiyar, son of Harihara II, was
governor of the Tamil country. The same officer was responsible for coating
its apsidal-ended roof in solid gold sheets. The fifteenth century witnessed an
uninterrupted sequence of extensions at Srirangam, with the construction of
new shrines, mandapas and gopuras.
All of these structural additions at Srirangam were in the revived Chola
style, which under the Sangamas was given a new lease of life. The same is true
of other projects elsewhere in the region during this period. A typical example

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Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008