Mandapa

Topic: Vijayanagara and the Deccan · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara"

Meaning

A mandapa is a pillared hall in a Hindu temple. People gathered there, and rituals, music, dance and festivals took place in front of the deity. Vijayanagara builders made many more mandapas, and made them grander. They built separate halls for separate jobs, such as divine weddings, festivals and performances. This shows how the temple became a centre of ritual, culture and royal display, not only a place of prayer.

Explanation

Background: why temples needed halls

• Temple building in this region was old. It went back to the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Cholas.
• In a south Indian temple, the garbhagriha (the small dark inner room where the main image is kept) is the heart of the temple. The mandapa is the open, pillared space in front of it or around it, where devotees and performers gather.
• A big temple did four jobs at once. Each job needed space:
• religious centre: daily worship and festivals;
• social centre: a place where people met;
• cultural centre: music, dance and drama;

• economic centre: it owned land, gave people work and lent money.

• Temples were also seats of learning. They ran on land grants from rulers.

Main types of mandapa under Vijayanagara

Halls for performance

• Vijayanagara temples got halls built just for music, dance and drama performed before the god.

Kalyana mandapa (wedding hall)

• Kalyana means wedding. Here the god and goddess were ritually married.
• At Hampi this fits a living local tradition. The goddess Pampadevi did penance in the hills to marry Virupaksha, and their wedding is still celebrated every year.

Swing pavilion

• A pavilion where the deity was placed on a swing and swung, as part of a festival ritual.
• Key detail: the wedding and the swing rituals used special images, not the main icon of the central shrine. The main image never left the garbhagriha.

Utsava mandapa (festival hall)

• Utsava means festival. UNESCO names an Utsava Mandapa at the Vitthala temple, next to its Kalyana Mandapa. [3]

Mahamandapa (great hall)

• The main large hall of a temple. At the Vitthala temple the mahamandapa has monolithic "musical pillars". Each pillar is cut from a single block of stone and gives out musical notes when struck.

Ranga-Mandapa

• At the Virupaksha temple, Krishnadeva Raya built a hall in front of the main shrine to mark his accession (his coming to the throne).
• UNESCO names it the Ranga-Mandapa and dates it to 1510, together with the large east gopuram. [3]

How the plan developed

• Long pillared corridors ran around the shrines inside the temple enclosure. The temple became a set of halls and courtyards, not one building.
• Old shrine, new halls. The earliest Virupaksha shrine dates to the 9th–10th century:
• under Vijayanagara rule, the temple was hugely enlarged with new halls and gateways;

• the old central shrine became only a small part of the huge new complex.

• Fully developed plan at Vitthala. UNESCO describes Vitthala as a fully developed temple with Kalyana Mandapa and Utsava Mandapa inside a cloistered enclosure (a walled courtyard lined with covered walkways), pierced by three entrance gopurams. [3]

• Mandapas spread into the street. A chariot street ran straight out from the gopuram:
• it was paved with stone slabs;
• both sides were lined with pillared pavilions where merchants kept their shops;
• ASI records temple bazaars with "storeyed mandapas", which means pillared pavilions with more than one floor. [2]

Results

• Ritual became public theatre. Weddings, swings and performances in special halls turned worship into festivals that big crowds could watch.
• The king's mark on the temple. Krishnadeva Raya built a hall to mark his accession. This shows that adding a mandapa was also a way to announce royal power.
• Temple and market joined. Mandapa-style pavilions on chariot streets put trade and worship on the same street.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Vijayanagara Empire, 1336–1646. ASI dates the surviving city to AD 1336–1570. [2]
• Place: the sacred centre of Vijayanagara. This is the rocky northern part of the city, along the Tungabhadra river. Modern Hampi is on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra, in Karnataka (Bellary district). [2][3]
• Key temples with mandapas:
• Virupaksha (a form of Shiva and the kingdom's guardian deity). Krishnadeva Raya's Ranga-Mandapa, 1510. [3]

• Vitthala (a form of Vishnu, usually worshipped in Maharashtra). It has a mahamandapa with musical pillars, plus a Kalyana Mandapa and Utsava Mandapa. [3]

• Key person: Krishnadeva Raya. He built the hall before the Virupaksha main shrine and the eastern gopuram.

• Evidence:
• NCERT Class 12, Ch 3 "An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara". It describes the halls for music, dance and drama, the kalyana mandapas, the swing pavilions and the pillared corridors.
• ASI records the temple bazaars with storeyed mandapas and calls Vitthala "an excellent example of Vijayanagara style." [2]
• UNESCO describes the Vitthala plan and dates the Ranga-Mandapa. [3]

• Surviving buildings at Hampi.

• Heritage status: the "Group of Monuments at Hampi" was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The property covers 4,187.24 hectares. [2][3]

Don't confuse with

• Gopuram: the tall tower over a temple gateway. A mandapa is a pillared hall inside the temple. Under Vijayanagara, the raya gopurams grew taller than the tower over the central shrine.
• Garbhagriha: the inner sanctum that holds the main icon. Mandapa rituals like the wedding and the swing used special images, not the main icon.
• Kalyana mandapa vs swing pavilion: the kalyana mandapa is for the god's wedding. The swing pavilion is where the deity is swung. Both used special images.
• Ranga-Mandapa vs mahamandapa with musical pillars: the Ranga-Mandapa is at the Virupaksha temple (Krishnadeva Raya, 1510). [3] The musical-pillar mahamandapa is at the Vitthala temple.

Prelims Hooks

• Kalyana mandapa = hall for the ritual wedding of the god and goddess. Swing pavilion = where the deity was swung. Both used special images, not the main icon.
• Krishnadeva Raya built the Ranga-Mandapa and the east gopuram of the Virupaksha temple in 1510. [3]
• The Vitthala temple's mahamandapa has monolithic musical pillars. The temple also has a stone chariot shrine, a Kalyana Mandapa and an Utsava Mandapa inside a cloistered enclosure with three gopurams. [3]
• ASI records "storeyed mandapas" in Hampi's temple bazaars. [2]
• Trap: the Ranga-Mandapa is at Virupaksha (Shiva), not Vitthala. The musical pillars are at Vitthala (Vishnu), not Virupaksha.
• Hampi (Karnataka, Bellary district) was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986. [2][3]

Mains Points

• From prayer hall to festival stage. Vijayanagara gave mandapas fixed jobs: halls for performance, kalyana mandapas and swing pavilions. This turned temple ritual into public festivals. The temple worked as a religious, social, cultural and economic centre together. It is a strong example for questions on temple culture in medieval south India.
• Mandapas as royal statements. Krishnadeva Raya's Ranga-Mandapa (1510) marked his accession. [3] Like the raya gopurams, it was built to show off royal power:
• adding halls to an old 9th–10th century shrine made the king's building work the most visible part of the temple;

• this supported the idea that the king ruled on behalf of Virupaksha.

• Temple urbanism. The pillared hall moved out into the city. Chariot streets were lined with merchant pavilions, and ASI records storeyed mandapas in the bazaars. [2] This shows the temple shaped town planning and trade. Religion and the economy grew together at Hampi.

Related concepts

• Sacred centre of Vijayanagara
• Pampadevi
• Virupaksha temple
• Hindu Suratrana
• Gopuram
• Vitthala temple
• Lepakshi temple

Read more

• The sacred centre and temple architecture