In India a sophisticated knowledge of the cosmos embodied in astronomical texts specifies that building sites are to be aligned with heavily bodies. John McKim Malville has pioneered archaeastronomical investigation at the Vijayanagara site, seeking the relationships between particular religious and secular monuments and the heavenly bodies. He has measured precisely the alignments of particular structures at the site, as well as the spatial relationships between these structures and prominent features features in the surrounding landscape, particularly the summits of prominent hills.

Apart from certain instances where temples and courtly structures are aligned to the cardinal directions, Malville discovered a considerable variation in orientation and direction. Even so, he determined that a significant number of smaller temples at Vijayanagara are aligned to the point on the horizon where the sun rises on the day that it crosses the zenith. However, we have been unable to satsifactorily explain the remarkably similar orientations of the bazaar streets of the Virupaksha, Vitthala and Krishna temple complexes, all of which are set between 13 and 15 degrees south of east. (This is in contrast to the approximately correct cardinal orientation of the actual temples themselves.) However, Malville speculates that there may be some link between these orientations and the rising point of the star Sirius.

An important finding by Malville was that palace structures are as approximately aligned to the cardinal directions as are the larger temples. However, certain civic structures, most notably the Audience Hall and Great Platform, are quite accurately oriented. He also investigated the precision of the north-south orientation of the axis passing through the sanctuary of the Hazara Rama temple, the summit of Matanga hill, and the Kodandarama temple on the northern flank of this hill beside the Tungabhadra.

Further Reading: Malville, Cosmic Geometries of Vijayanagara. In Ancient Cities, Sacred Skies. (See Project Publications)