Vijayanagara architecture is the building idiom of the Vijayanagara Empire, a Hindu state that ruled much of South India from 1336 to 1565 from its capital at Vijayanagara on the Tungabhadra River in what is now Karnataka. The style synthesized the temple traditions of earlier South Indian dynasties, including the Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Rashtrakutas, Pandyas and Cholas, while introducing its own innovations, chief among them expansive pillared halls called mandapas and tall gateway towers known as rayagopurams. The ruined capital, now the village of Hampi, preserves the tradition's densest concentration of monuments, with 56 structures under UNESCO World Heritage protection, 654 protected by the government of Karnataka, and roughly 300 more still awaiting formal protection. Some structures at the site predate the empire, including Western Chalukya temples on Mahakuta hill and a worship site dated to 689 AD, but the great majority of construction belongs to the Vijayanagara period itself.
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