In February 1996, I visited Hampi for the first time, drawn in part by published promises of Vijayanagar murals in the Virupakshs Temple. Although I approached these paintings burdened with considerable ignorance of South Indian Styles my immediate reaction was that this was all mid-19th century work.

The most obvious feature which, to me, precluded a Vijayanagar (pre-1565) date as the division of the murals into cusped-arch panels. Although the cusped arch long predates the mughals (there are even fine mediaeval examples in English churches) in India its classic form came into vogue during Shah Jahan's reigh (1627/9-1658). In the 18th and 19th centuries it was a popular framing device for North and Central Indian murals, used much as it is in the Verupaksha Temple. I sought without success for similar cusped arches in the Vijayanagar architecture of Hampi.