Gods on the Move: Architecture and Ritual in the South Indian Temple

The Nayakas, the erstwhile provincial governors or feudatories of the Vijayanagara sovereigns who had ruled over a large part of southern India from the mid-fourteenth century to the mid-sixteenth century, gradually asserted their independence from central control in the troubled times following the military debacle suffered by the Vijayanagara forces in the Battle of Talikota in 1565 and especially after the major civil war between 1614 and 1629. A theme running throughout the book is that of movement: the circulation not just of kings, peoples and ideas in South India during the Vijayanagara-Nayaka periods, but also the movement of pilgrims towards and through the temple-complexes as well as the ritual processions of the deities in, around and outside the temple.