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Description: | This is plate 23 from James Fergusson's 'Ancient Architecture in Hindoostan'. Srirangam near Tiruchirapally is the site of one of the largest temple complexes in India. The gateway sketched by Fergusson is incomplete: the tower had not yet been added. It belongs to the Ranganatha Temple, a pilgrimage site famed for its annual Vaikuntha Ekadasi festival, dedicated to Vishnu. The scale of the gateway impressed Fergusson as nearly unrivalled in India.
The present temple has seven concentric walls and 21 towers or gopurams. Although worship at the site goes back earlier, the temple itself was founded in the 11th century. It was continually augmented between the 13th and the 17th centuries. The mostly 16th and 17th century gateways are brick and plaster pyramidal towers increasing in size from the innermost enclosure. The gateway of the seventh enclosure is one of the tallest in India (72 metres, or 236 feet). | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Publisher: | Hogarth, J | Rights holder: | British Library | Subjects: | Hindu Temples | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | Dibdin, Thomas Colman (1810-1893) | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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