ABSTRACT
Many of the forms found in south Indian palace architecture have their precedents in the courtly architecture of Vijayanagara, the ‘City of Victory’. [Plate 16]. During the sixteenth century, Vijayanagara was the ceremonial centre of an empire bearing the same name. The archaeological site which we find today still contains the remains of buildings which were part of the city’s palace. These fragmentary structures are the earliest extant courtly monuments in the south of India. When they are viewed alongside the seventeenth-century courtly monuments at Madurai, stylistic links between the courtly architecture of the two places can be discerned.
