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VIJAYANAGARA   RESEARCH   PROJECT
Computer Modelling
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Themes of Interpretation

Computer models of various structures at the site have added a new dimension to our project. Created by VR Real Technologies, Bangalore in consultation with the Project Directors, these models aid our perception of Vijayanagara’s architecture. Some reproduce buildings as seen today and others show the buildings as they might have once appeared. We have recreated the wooden columns, brackets and beams and the tile-covered roofs with metallic finials that may have existed before the conflagration of 1565. We have also added the masonry towers and brackets that we could observe in the early photographs, but which subsequently disappeared. Inevitably, our reconstructions are partly hypothetical, especially those that show columned structures on top of the hundred columned audience hall and Great Platform. As for the restored palaces with flat roofs and pyramidal towers over the innermost chambers, these must be considered interpretations of an incomplete architectural record. We can only hope that more scientific excavation in the future will yield reliable data on which such reconstructions may be corrected and refined. For examples of computer reconstructed structures, see Fritz and Michell 2014, Hampi Vijayanagara.


Last updated February 9, 2014 - ©2014 Vijayanagara Research Project