Antiquity of the Virupaksha temple dates back to the early part of Vijayanagara Dynasty, and possibly got renovated several times.
Published Sep 10, 2024 | 10:17 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 10, 2024 | 6:47 PM
A mural of Girija Kalyana in the Virupaksha temple. (Supplied)
Hampi Virupaksha temple ceiling paintings are the only surviving examples of paintings at Hampi, dating from early 16th Century CE. These paintings are found on the ceiling of Maharangamantapa, an open assembly hall attached to the main temple, facing eastern direction. It is a pillared hall with high raised ceiling, covered with paintings.
Antiquity of the Virupaksha temple dates back to the early part of Vijayanagara Dynasty. It was possibly renovated several times. However, a small rayagopura in inner enclosure of temple and Maharangamantapa was built in 1509 to commemorate the coronation of the king Krishnadevaraya. The Maharangamantapa has foundation inscription which mentions this date.
The Maharangamantapa also works like an open mukhamantapa facing towards the east. It is built on a raised adishthana of about three feet from ground level. It is pillared hall with flat roof and also has balustrades with arched shrines all around.
These shrines have some very interesting stucco figurines. The hall is quite large, measures about 40×60 feet in dimension. The ceiling is raised about 15-17 feet. The paintings have been painted in the central space of the ceiling spread like rectangular carpet.
The painting space is divided into square and rectangular decorative frames. There are various narrations and iconic images. The iconic images such as Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu with respective consorts are depicted in the initial compositions painted within beautifully framed temple forms.
Mural of Rama Sita Kalyanam. (Supplied)
The trinity are shown as seated on pedestal and consorts seated on the left laps of the trinity. There are also some narratives exhibiting the very interesting acts of Shiva. The Tripura Samhara and Manmatha Vijaya are painted in large rectangular spaces immediately after trinities covering side spaces in square frames in the center of ceiling.
Then follows a band of composition that has depictions of Dashavatara figures of Vishnu. Further on lower space, has the beautiful narration of Shiva’s marriage scene Girijakalyana. There are also two more marriage scenes on the ceilings: Rama’s wedding with Sita and testing of Arjuna’s archery talents where he marries Draupati.
Apart from these, the events like Bhagavata stories such as Krishna’s Gopika Vastrapaharana scene also find space on the ceiling. The last but one theme has chariots drawn by the horses and the last one is the scene of the procession of pontiff.
The lintels of the Maharangamantapa has a series of small compositions depicting contemporary subjects, such as pontiffs-students, chariots, themes from Mahabharata etc.
The ceiling paintings appear to have been executed between 1509 and 1525 CE. The foundation dedicatory epigraph confirms that these paintings have been done only after the construction of the structure by Krishnadevaraya.
A mural of Manmatha Vijaya. (Supplied)
Interestingly the themes that are dealt with in the ceiling paintings have strong references to literature. A brief discussion on the compositions of the themes and their sources of inspiration has been given in the following paragraphs.
The themes painted in the ceiling are very much influenced by the literary works. The paintings also represent the transformations from the contemporary stuccos figurines and precursors like Hoysala sculptures.
The paintings compositionally looking excepting the last one depicting Pontiff’s procession, all other subjects have been painted in rectangular or square box like frame. Each painting has box like frames consisting of shrines. The figures of shrines replicate the mahagopura as seen at Hampi and elsewhere.
The details like arched entrances, pillars, capitals and even a short landscape is also added in this boxed compositions.
A mural of Arjuna Matsya Yantra episode. (Supplied)
Each frame is an individual composition depicting its own subject. Even though, the subjects are interlinked or dependent, they serve as individuals. Vijayanagara artists had used contemporary references and even they enjoyed freedom of transforming three-dimensional examples into two-dimensional subjects with certain compositional modifications. The artists have chosen to paint only popular themes of the period.
Interestingly, they also have literary references. When it comes to literary influence, at least three names may be associated with Hampi. Harihara, Lakshmidhara Kavi and Kumaravyasa. Harihara lived in Hampi even before the establishment of the Vijayanagara dynasty. Lakshmidhara was court poet and had association with Sri Vidyaranya lineage. Kumaravyasa though lived in Gadag (Kolivada), under the Vijayanagara rule, was directly connected to Vijayanagara.
Harihara’s Girijakalyana, Lakshmidhara’s verses on Kamadahana episodes, and Kumarvysa’s Karnataka Bharata Kathamanjari’s verses have significant role in the references to some of the episodes of the paintings. Interestingly, a majority of the themes have affiliation with the local myths connected with Virupaksha and Pampambika.
The ceiling paintings dominate the episodes connected to Shiva and Shiva’s myths. The first line of the depictions has trinity figure with their consorts seated on asana, framed within the arched shrine. Interestingly, the shrines are further supported by the pilasters-like section where the personified vehicles are depicted.
Looking at the history of mural paintings in Karnataka, though there are a few examples found during the Badami Chalukya period at Badami, most of the paintings have now vanished. Only a few fragments are found.
In post Chalukya era, Rashtrakutas developed paintings at Ellora. While Hoysala and Kalyan Chalukya periods have no examples of mural paintings. But interestingly, ample reference to the existence of paintings are found in Manasollasa.
A mural of Tripura Samhara. (Supplied)
Interestingly, Manasollasa has dedicated over eight hundred verses to describe all technical and iconographic details of the painting. Thus Manasollasa becomes a very important work of reference on art and architecture in medieval Karnataka.
The Vijayanagara paintings were developed in such a period when there was appreciation and liking for art, fine arts and culture. There are a good number of the references about the existence of painting in the Vijayanagara metropolis.
Arguably, the paintings on ceilings of Maharangamantapa might have been done during the time of Krishnadevaraya, as the structure was built by him. The date of construction of the structure rules out the dates of any painting on the ceiling of Maharangamantapa prior to the structure as was opined by Shivaramamurthy.
Though, there are no strong evidences to say or fix accurate date of the execution of ceiling paintings, the corroborative evidences may be taken into consideration to establish the probable dates of these paintings.
A comparison may be done with paintings at Lepakshi Virabhadreshwara temple, which belonged to mid half of the 16th century CE, also belonged to Vijayanagara School. Lapakshi paintings fairly survived in better condition even today, provide scope for stylistic and thematic studies. However, Hampi paintings serve as source for paintings in later periods.
(Views expressed here are personal. Edited by N Venugopal)
