When we began our fieldwork in January 1980, two projects were already underway at the site, one run by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the other by the Karnataka Department of Archaeology and Museums (KDAM), both part of a recently inaugurated National Project. In addition to its usual work of safeguarding and conserving the 58 “protected monuments” at the Vijayanagara site under its control, the ASI had initiated a new phase of clearing and reconstruction in the Royal Centre and Sacred Centre. This work continued through the 1980s and 1990s, and it still ongoing, though little idea of this activity may be had from publications. This is unfortunate, since the archaeologists originally involved in exposing these ancient structures and their associated artefacts are no longer working at the site; some indeed have already retired. Probably the most spectacular discovery by the ASI during this period was the stepped tank immediately south of the Great Platform. ASI conservation work at the site, especially the repairs of the larger temple complexes, is ongoing.

Parallel to the ASI work is that of the KDAM, which also embarked upon intensive clearance of ancient structures, especially in a palace zone in the western part of the Royal Centre labelled somewhat fancifully as the Noblemen's Quarter. Elsewhere at the Vijayanagara site, the KDAM was actively engaged in setting up collapsed structures and even rebuilding new colonnades to match those that had vanished, as in the bazaar street at Hampi. For a time the KDAM vigorously pursued a policy of publications, as may be judged from their Vijayanagara: Progress of Research series, now temporarily discontinued. Another significant contribution by the KDAM involved the exploration of the site in search of inscriptions, which were then translated. (See inventory of inscriptions edited by Patil and Patil in Bibliography).

Two associated projects run by international teams have also been surveying the Vijayanagara site. The Vijayanagara Metropolitan Survey (VMS), under the co-direction of Drs Kathleen Morrison (U of Chicago) and Carla Sinopoli (U of Michigan) and have spent more than 10 years intensively documenting more than 160 square kilometres of the central city’s hinterland. Based on systematic random surveys and surface collections, the VMS has established the existence of more than 800 settlements, tanks, agricultural facilities, roads and other indicators of occupation in the past. Their surveys have also identified the outermost fortifications and hydraulic features of the capital. The data-collecting phase of the VMS has now come to an end and Morrison and Sinopoli are currently completing a series of reports. In 2002 they began to excavate a site some 10 kilometres northeast of Anegondi in a bid to extend the chronology of occupation of the Tungabhadra River basin back to the earliest historical periods.
(For more information about the VMS contact Profs. Morrison and Sinopoli and See Project Publications).

As if to complement the extensive approach of the VMS, another project under the direction of Dr David Gimbel of Archaeos, NY, is concentrating a comparatively small area of the Vijayanagara site. Archaeos is currently engaged in preparing accurate maps of features and objects found on a ridge north of the zenana in the Royal Centre, using the most up to date, sophisticated mapping equipment and software, the first time that such techniques have been used at Vijayanagara. Their techniques are permit 3-dimensional modelling of ancient structures.
(For more information about Archaeos see www.archaeos.org)