Vitthala temple

Topic: Vijayanagara and the Deccan · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"; Class 12, Ch 3 "An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara"

Meaning

The Vitthala temple is one of the four great temple complexes in the sacred centre of Vijayanagara (modern Hampi, Karnataka). It is dedicated to Vitthala, a form of Vishnu who is generally worshipped in Maharashtra. [3]

• It matters because UNESCO calls it the culmination of Vijayanagara temple architecture, meaning the most developed form of the style. [3]
• It also shows how the rulers built an imperial culture from many regional traditions. Its stone chariot shrine and musical pillars are frequently tested.

Explanation

Background: why a Maharashtra god in Karnataka

• Vitthala is a form of Vishnu. He is mainly worshipped in Maharashtra, not in Karnataka.
• The kings chose to bring his cult to their capital.
• They were building an imperial culture (one meant for a whole empire), not only a local Kannada one.

• Taking a god from another region was one way of drawing on many traditions at once.

• It fits a wider pattern. The same kings took the title Hindu Suratrana ("Hindu Sultan"). Suratrana is the Sanskrit form of the Arabic word Sultan. So they borrowed freely from their Deccan neighbours, in religion and in politics.

• The site was already holy. The rocky land along the Tungabhadra was sacred before the empire. It was linked to the Ramayana's monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva, to the goddess Pampadevi, and to older Jaina temples.

Main features

• Stone chariot shrine. This is the temple's unique feature: a small shrine built in the shape of a chariot. It stands in front of the main shrine. UNESCO sees it as proof of the temple's rich ritual life. [3]
• Mahamandapa with musical pillars.
• Mahamandapa = the great pillared hall in front of the sanctum.
• Its pillars are monolithic, meaning each is cut from a single block of stone.

• They give out musical notes when struck, so they are called "musical pillars".

• A fully developed plan. UNESCO describes it as a fully developed temple with: [3]

• a Kalyana Mandapa (a hall for the ritual wedding of the god and goddess);
• an Utsava Mandapa (a festival hall);
• a cloistered enclosure, meaning a walled courtyard with covered pillared corridors;

• three entrance gopurams (tall towers over the gateways).

• Ornament. UNESCO calls it the most exquisitely ornate structure on the site. [3]

How it fits the Vijayanagara temple idiom

• Raya gopurams. Vijayanagara gateway towers were made taller than the tower over the central shrine. They could be seen from far away and showed the king's wealth and power.
• Halls for every ritual. Halls were built for music, dance and drama, for divine weddings, and as swing pavilions where the god was swung. These rituals used special images, not the main idol.
• Chariot street and bazaar.
• A stone-paved chariot street ran straight out from the gopuram.
• It was lined with pillared pavilions where merchants kept their shops.

• So the temple was also a centre of trade. ASI records "storeyed mandapas" (multi-floor pillared pavilions) in Hampi's temple bazaars. [2]

• Temple as institution. Like other big temples of the region, it was a religious, social, cultural and economic centre. It was supported by land grants from rulers, and these grants also raised the ruler's status.

Results and later history

• ASI calls the temple "an excellent example of Vijayanagara style." [2]
• The city was conquered by the Deccan Sultanate confederacy in 1565. It was plundered for six months and then abandoned. [3]
• The style lived on. The nayakas (chiefs who rose after the empire weakened) later built even grander gopurams, for example at Madurai.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646). ASI dates the surviving city to AD 1336–1570. [2]
• Place: the sacred centre, the rocky northern part of the city along the Tungabhadra river. Modern Hampi lies on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra in Bellary district, Karnataka. [2][3]
• Neighbouring complexes: the sacred centre is dominated by four temple complexes: Virupaksha, Krishna, Tiruvengalanatha (Achyutaraya) and Vitthala. [3]
• City: about 26 sq km, ringed by seven lines of fortifications. [2]
• Heritage status: part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Group of Monuments at Hampi", inscribed in 1986 (first proposed in 1982). The site covers 4,187.24 hectares. [2][3]
• How we know:
• the surviving structures at Hampi, recorded by the ASI [2];
• UNESCO's World Heritage description [3];
• NCERT Class 12, Ch 3 and Class 8, Ch 2.

Don't confuse with

• Virupaksha temple (Hampi): it is dedicated to Shiva (Virupaksha), the guardian deity of the kingdom, and is still in worship. Its earliest shrine dates to the 9th–10th century, and Krishnadeva Raya added the east gopuram and Ranga-Mandapa in 1510 [3]. Vitthala is a Vishnu temple, known for its chariot shrine and musical pillars.
• Vitthala (Vithoba) temple at Pandharpur: this is the main home of Vitthala worship in Maharashtra. The Hampi temple is in Karnataka and shows the cult being brought in to the imperial capital.
• Konark Sun Temple (Odisha): there, the whole temple is designed as the Sun god's chariot. At Hampi, the chariot is a small separate shrine in front of the main shrine.
• Raya gopuram vs shrine tower: at Vijayanagara temples, the gateway tower (gopuram) is taller than the tower over the sanctum. Do not assume the sanctum tower is the tallest, as in many earlier temples.

Prelims Hooks

• Vitthala is a form of Vishnu, generally worshipped in Maharashtra. His temple stands at Hampi, Karnataka.
• The Vitthala temple's unique feature is a shrine shaped like a chariot, standing in front of the main shrine. [3]
• Its mahamandapa has monolithic "musical pillars" that give out notes when struck.
• UNESCO: a fully developed temple with Kalyana Mandapa and Utsava Mandapa inside a cloistered enclosure with three entrance gopurams. [3]
• The four temple complexes of Hampi's sacred centre are Virupaksha, Krishna, Tiruvengalanatha (Achyutaraya) and Vitthala. [3]
• Hampi was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The city was sacked in 1565 and abandoned after six months of plunder. [2][3]

Mains Points

• An imperial, not regional, culture.
• Bringing Vitthala, a Maharashtra deity, into Karnataka shows the state deliberately joined different regional traditions.

• Read with the title Hindu Suratrana, it questions the simple picture of Vijayanagara as only a "Hindu bulwark" against the Sultanates. The empire borrowed across regional and political boundaries.

• The peak of an architectural tradition.

• The temple brings together all the features of the Vijayanagara style: raya gopurams, Kalyana and Utsava mandapas, cloisters, a chariot shrine, and monolithic musical pillars.
• UNESCO therefore calls it the culmination of Vijayanagara temple architecture. [3]

• The tradition did not end with the empire. Nayaka gopurams at Madurai carried it into the Tamil country.

• Temple as an urban and economic centre.

• The stone-paved chariot street lined with merchants' pavilions joined worship and trade in one space.
• So the temple was a centre of town planning, festivals and commerce. This is useful for GS-I questions on temple towns in medieval south India.

Related concepts

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

Read more

• The sacred centre and temple architecture