Le temple de Tirumankaiyal_var à Hampi

by Vasundhara Filliozat

The Tamil saint, Tiruman?kaiyal?var (2nd half of the 8th century A.D.) has a place in all Visnu temples in Tamil Nadu, either with the other al?vars or in a special sanctuary located next to the principal deity. In Karnataka, he has an independent temple at Hampi, built during the reign of Sadasivaraya, which is very representative of the principal style of architecture and sculpture of Vijayanagar in the 16th century A.D. The present study in French describes the architecture of the temple, its iconography (based on Kannada sources such as the narratives and descriptions of Puramdaradasa, a Vaisnava saint who lived at Hampi during this period) and the two inscriptions engraved on its eastern facade.