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A
system of roads connected the capital to the Vijayanagara Empire and interlinked
the different zones within the city. These arteries permitted commercial,
military and ceremonial movement throughout the city. Major roads tend
to run through the middle of valleys and around rocky ridges and would
have supported vehicular traffic and the movement of large animals. Smaller
roads, pathways and trails channelled pedestrian traffic and small animals.
We identify these routes by gateways and smaller openings in the fortification
walls, by fragments of stone pavements, ramps, steps or worn sheet rock.
Alignments of temples, colonnades, monolithic columns and other structures,
and even carvings on boulders also indicate past roadways. Finally, literary
evidence, especially inscriptions helps us to identify and name some of
the roads.
Three
types of roads can be observed in the city: radial, ring, and linear.
Significantly, the radial road system is focused on the Royal Centre.
The roads here pass through two or more gateways in the walls that define
and encircle the Royal Centre, and most converge on the enclosure in
front of the Ramachandra Temple. For example, one of the most important
roads running through the Urban Core, and certainly the longest, is
the Northeast road (NE). From the Ramachandra Temple, it passes by a
number of shrines located on either side of a gateway, through a colonnade,
by temples (one of which states that it is located on the bazaar of
the pansupari sellers), through the eastern gateway (according to an
early inscription), and up the Northeast Valley, where it eventually
divides into two branches; one (NE1) leading through a gateway in the
northeast walls to Talarighat, the river crossing to Anegondi, the other
(NE2) though a gateway in the east wall to an unknown location to the
east. Other radial roads lead to the north, east, and southeast. Roads
entering the Urban Core from the southwest and northwest do not extend
to the Ramachandra Temple.
A
second, or ring, series of roads encircle the Royal Centre. The south
and east ring roads (SR, ER) and one of the two north ring roads (NR2),
pass outside the walls of the Royal Centre. The south ring road continues
northward to the village of Hampi.
The
third type, linear roads, include a major route linking Hampi to the
town now known as Hospet (HH). It also includes a road running along
the top of the Turuttu canal (TC) and bazaar streets that extend outward
from major temple complexes, such as the Virupaksha (TP) and Vitthala
(VT) roads. Several of these roads link to a route along the south bank
of the river (SB). One branch of this route leads to a stone bridge
(TB), more than 400 m long, which once connected the south and north
bank of the river.
Further Reading: Fritz, The roads of Vijayanagara.
(See
Project Publications)
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| Talarighat
Roadway on NE1 Road
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| Excavated
Road Pavement |
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