Illustrated lecture by Dr. George Michell, architectural historian who has worked extensively in the Deccan region, beginning some 50 years ago with a doctoral thesis on early Chalukya temples. His collaborative publications with Dr. Fritz includes Hampi Vijayanagara, the popular guidebook issued by the Deccan Heritage Foundation. Michell’s most recent publication is the profusely illustrated Temple of Deccan India

Chair: Shri Ratish Nanda, CEO, Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC)

The late Dr John M. Fritz was the first American archaeologist to survey the ruins of Hampi Vijayanagara. Trained at the University of Chicago as an anthropologist with a special interest in prehistoric, Native American sites in New Mexico and Arizona, Fritz brought an entirely new perspective to South Asian urban studies. Together with Dr. George Michell, Fritz directed a team of volunteer architects and archaeologists to investigate the meaning of Hampi’s city plan. Building on more than twenty years
of fieldwork during the 1980s and 1990s, he concluded that the Hindu god Rama dominated the layout of the Vijayanagara’s Royal Centre by acting as a mediator in the everyday activities and ceremonial life of the Vijayanagara rulers. It is this innovative interpretation that Michell will discuss in his illustrated lecture.

(Collaboration: American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon)