The architectural inventory documents all the structures of theSacred Centre of
Vijayanagara, the great ruined Hindu capital onthe Tungabhadra River in central
Karnataka. The Sacred Centre is ofoutstanding interest from the historical and
religious point ofview, since it is the oldest part of the Vijayanagara site,
withshrines dating back to the ninth century AD. With the establishmentof the
capital by the Sangamas in the fourteenth century, it wasthe Sacred Centre that
was first developed, with much buildingactivity occurring around the Virupaksha
sanctuary in Hampi. As thecapital expanded under the Sangamas and Tuluvas in the
course ofthe fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth centuries,
othersignificant religious monuments were