ust a couple hundred kilometers north-west of Bangalore, Karnataka, India lie the magnificent bones of one of the most important Empires of South India: Vijayanagaram. At the peak of it's 300 year history, it stretched from present day Cuttack in Orissa all the way across the entire Southern India peninsula. The flesh and living tissue of the Vijayanagaram empire are also indicated by the numerous inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and Sanskrit scattered all over the empire. The Vijayanagaram empire and the astonishing city that bears the same name shimmers into view as a living, thrumming gigantic city state, as the vibrantly throbbing heart of a massively successful empire that had diplomatic links across the globe in Europe, the Near and Middle East and across the Bay of Bengal with the kingdoms of South-east Asia. Stories, wraithlike, float into view from every granite column, from every temple and every broken and vandalized statue.
