A dais as big as earth, a canopy as wide as sky
The mantapa, in front of the same vedi, contains many pillars with numerous panels showing various themes from Indian epics, mythologies and even a few genre ones.
Share Via Email
| A+A A-
(L) The dais in the Kalyana Mantapa of the Jalakhanteswara Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore; (M) a ceiling panel of the Jalakhanteswara Kalyana Mantapa showing Asta Dikpalakas in a procession and a circ
If a person’s life is flourishing, say, like a flower perpetually in full bloom, others would say about the person, “Nitya Kalyanam, Pacha Toranam”, which in English may not sound great; but the idiom means ‘eternal wedding, green streamers’. These days, most weddings occur in marriage halls where wedding planners take care of the dais, its decoration, etc. But in earlier times, a family would set a modest dais (arugu in Telugu) for the bride, bridegroom and a few others, and also a spacious canopy (pandiri in Telugu) in front o
Sri Krishna Deva Raya (b. 17 January 1471) became king (r. 1509-1529) of the Vijayanagara Empire when its power was dwindling; for, decades ago, the Kalinga Gagapatis had occupied two important hill-forts at Kondaveedu and Udayagiri in Andhra Pradesh. By 1510, the Raya had built the Ranga Mantapa in Sri Virupaksha temple at Hampi, and then in 1513, he had marched against the Gajapatis, and captured Udayagiri.
As Pratapa Rudra Gajapati had fled to Kondaveedu, the Vijayanagara king attacked that hill-fort and captured it on 23 June 1515, and erected the Jaya sthambha (victory pillar) there. In the same year, the emperor is said to have built a palace named Bhuvana Vijayamu (WorldVictory) at Vijayanagara to commemorate his victory.