Copyright remains with Goutham Ramesh. Please do not reuse this photograph without permission.
“Sometimes a small carving can reveal how far an empire once reached.”
At the Vijaya Vittala Temple, I wanted to place this horseman against the gopura and the rising sun. What caught my attention was his appearance. The dress and styling felt different from the other figures around him and immediately made me think about Vijayanagara’s connections with traders from West Asia.
Horses were enormously important to the Vijayanagara military, and historical accounts record horses being brought through trade routes connected to Arabia, Persia and Hormuz. Arab merchants were important participants in this trade, with the Portuguese becoming increasingly influential later.
So for me, the horseman became more than a decorative sculpture. With the gopura behind him and the rising sun completing the frame, I wanted the photograph to suggest a time when Hampi was not just an imperial capital, but also a city connected to a much larger world through trade, horses and people.
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