“At a small temple, dedicated to Hanumanta, I observed … the rock red granite ... It is a most elegant stone.”
“Near Muduru are the ruins of a stone fort, containing a temple of Vishnu … [The] fort … was burthensome, by being much stronger than was necessary …”
“The greater part of the island of Seringapatnam is covered with the ruinous mud walls of the suburb, called Shahar Ganjam; and nothing can have a look more dismal and desolate … In Shahar Ganjam a new town is fast rising up ….”
An old map of Srirangapatna showing the citadel on the east.
“The summits of all the ridges of hills are bare rocks … and often rise into high sharp peaks or immense masses of naked stone ….”
[The reservoir is] expected to be able to supply water … [to] all the fields under the level of its bank.”
“At Madura there is a very fine reservoir … said to be the work of Vishnu Verdana Raya [Vishnuvardhana] … about 700 years ago [c. 1100 A.D.] …”
“… travellers of all descriptions may take up their quarters in them. They have flat roofs, and consist of one apartment only, and by the natives are called Mandapam.”
Buchanan’s sketches of the smelting furnaces at Gattipura.
The stony hill at Gattipura, and the field where the furnaces were located in the foreground.
“The fort … occupies a large rocky hill … it is plentifully supplied with water from several large cavities, or chasms in the rock … called by the natives Donays.”
The typical Hoysala pillars at Ugra Naraishma Swamy temple built by the King Vishnuvardhana.
Published 23 March 2019, 19:24 IST