Garuda Temple, Maha Mandapa and Eastern Gopura, Vitthala Temple Complex 1856 photo

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Garuda Temple, Maha Mandapa and Eastern Gopura, Vitthala Temple Complex 1856 photo

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According to V&A Museum source details standard for the Greenlaw 1856 collection of Hampi photographs:
Vijayanagara, meaning city of victory was the imperial capital of the last great Hindu empire to rule south India. Established in 1336 and named after its capital, the Vijayanagara empire expanded and prospered throughout the next century. In 1565, this impressive city was sacked by armies from the Deccan sultanates and never rebuilt. Now known as the ‘Group of Monuments at Hampi’, the site represents the empire’s finest and highest concentration of architecture.
The Vijayanagara empire ruled southern India from 1336 -1565. As India’s last large state system prior to the British colonial takeover, it has been perceived as the final great era of 'traditional' Hindu India and also as a transitional phase which transformed Indian society from its medieval past towards its modern, colonial era. The empire built its imperial capital, Vijayanagara ('city of victory'), around the ancient religious centre of the Virupaksha temple on the south bank of the Tungabhadra River at Hampi, Bellary District, Northern Karnataka. Three dynasties ruled from Vijayanagara: the Sangama (1336-1485), the Saluva (1485-1505) and the Tuluva (1505-1565). By the year 1500,Vijayanagara was the second most populous city (after Beijing) in the late medieval world. The Vijayanagara rulers fostered developments in intellectual pursuits and the arts, warfare, engineeering and agriculture, and were also great patrons of religion.
The ruins at Hampi represent the largest concentration of Vijayanagara architecture and are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known as 'the Group of Monuments at Hampi'. Vijayanagara architecture consists of religious, courtly and civic buildings and sculpture and is characterised by a return to a more serene art of the past, taking elements from the Chalukya, Hoysala, Pandya and Chola periods. Granite, the local and durable stone, was used with plaster applied to many sculptures to produce a smooth finish which was then gilded or colourfully painted.
Amateur British colonial photographer, Alexander Greenlaw was the first to extensively photograph the site in 1855-56. The resulting series of waxed paper negatives were made available to the V&A and printed in 1910. These are the earliest known prints.
The V&A holds 61 prints of Vijayanagar and 5 miscellaneous prints (Anglo-Indian architecture in Bellary and Indian tree studies) by Greenlaw. These prints were specially made in 1910 for the V&A collection from the original 1856 negatives which were lent to the museum by Mrs Armitage of East Sheen. Of these 66 prints, 45 are currently held in the Asian Dept and 21 in the Word and Image Dept.
The negatives along with another set of prints, also made in 1910, were 'rediscovered' in a private collection in 1980. In 1983, the collector, Edgar Gibbons, a retired Army officer from Cornwall, having recently purchased the negatives and prints from a relative of Greenlaw, made the negatives available to the Vijayanagara Research Project photographer, John Gollings. Gollings made two new sets of prints, one of which he sent to the collector and one of which he kept. The collector's original negatives and 1910 prints were subsequently purchased by the Alkazi Foundation.
The Alkazi Foundation currently holds a duplicate set with the exception that the Alkazi does not hold No’s 3795-1910 (Alkazi holds the negative for this image) and 3784-1910.

Gollings donated his 1983 set to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) along with a series of his own photographs. Fascinated by Greenlaw’s images, Gollings painstakingly rephotographed, in 1983, sixty of the exact sites visited by Greenlaw. This was to enable the Vijayanagara Research Project to measure the change in the condition of the monuments over time.

Public domain photograph of historic landmark building, Chinese temple, Asian architecture, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

The Chola dynasty was a Tamil dynasty that ruled parts of southern India from the 9th to the 13th century AD. The dynasty was one of the longest ruling dynasties in Indian history and is known for its achievements in art, architecture, literature and maritime trade. The Chola dynasty was founded by Vijayalaya Chola in the 9th century and reached its peak under the reign of Rajendra Chola I in the 11th century. The Cholas were known for their military conquests and patronage of the arts, particularly temple architecture and sculpture. During their reign, the Cholas built a vast empire that included parts of present-day Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. They also had extensive trade relations with Southeast Asia and China, and their navy was one of the most powerful in the world at the time. Some of the notable achievements of the Cholas include the construction of the Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur, considered a masterpiece of Dravidian architecture, and the compilation of the Tamil literary work, the Thirukkural. The Chola dynasty declined in the 13th century due to internal conflicts and invasions by other kingdoms. However, their legacy continues to influence Tamil culture and history to this day.

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1856
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Canadian Centre for Architecture
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greenlaw 1856 hampi vijayanagara photographs
greenlaw 1856 hampi vijayanagara photographs