While metal tools were presumably widely used at Vijayanagara, we have discovered that tools made from siliceous rock were also employed. The use of stone tools in the Vijayanagara region dates back to Palaeolithic times, but it has been surprising to find that they were also produced and used in Vijayanagara times. The debris from making these tools and the tools themselves are most frequent where raw materials were at hand. Mark Lycett has determined that two types of manufacturing processes occurred: direct percussion, in which a stone hammer was used to remove a flake from a stone core; and bipolar reduction, in which a stone core was placed on a stone anvil and then struck with a hammer stone. Tool forms ranged from simple flakes and core tools to a variety of “scrapers” with modified edges. We have also observed a tool probably used for quarrying: a large basalt cobble with an artificial grove around its meridian, which was been battered at both ends.

The builders of Vijayanagara were dependant on granite -- the raw material for most types of monumental construction at the site – which was abundant in and around the city. Traditionally, granite blocks were split by first cutting rows of closely spaced cubical holes into which wooden wedges were pounded. When wetted, the wedges expanded, thereby propagating deep cracks through the stone. Such quarrying techniques as well as association constructional features have been observed by Ben Marsh in an unfinished temple on a hill slope above Achyutaraya bazaar. Here can be seen quarry sites with partly finished architectural elements, as well as associated ramps and cart tracks: all evidence for the different techniques of stone cutting and methods of transport and construction. It seems that the temple interior was filled with soil, which also served as buttressing and scaffolding for builders. An earthen ramp leading up to the roof from facilitated the placement of partly finished architectural elements. Interior and exterior walls were structurally separate, the gap in between being filled with crude brickwork or rubble. Heavy cornices tied the walls together. Several teams of labourers appear to have been employed.

Further Reading: Lycett, Chipped Stone Tools. In Vijayanagara: Progress of Research, 1987-1988, and Marsh, article in Vijayanagara: Exploration, 1900-2000. (See Project Publications)