From its inception, the Vijayanagara Research Project has been committed to non-intrusive documentation work at the site, with an emphasis on mapping, measuring, photographing and describing all visible records of the past. Documentary products include databases and inventories.

Mapping has proceeded in several phases, beginning with a rudimentary overall sketch map of the site (scale 1:4,000) drawn from aerial photographs and checked on the ground. This permitted the creation of a nested map series (scale 1:5,000) that was arranged in such a way that all features could be precisely located by means of a three-letter code. (This map series appears in many of our publications.)

By the beginning of 1983, we felt the need for a more precise survey. Engineering & Topographic Survey, Bangalore under the direction of R. S. Ramamoorthy, was recruited to work at the site. Over the next dozen years, they produced 265 topographic map sheets (scale 1: 400) covering some 1,100 hectares (11 square kilometres). The surveyors worked closely with our archaeology team members to record all visible archaeological features on the maps. At the same time, information about their location and type together with brief descriptions were entered into a database. Eventually we recorded more than 32,000 features. The features vary from standing, to collapsing and almost totally buried structures, to excavations on sheet rock and boulders. These data indicate the presence of vanished structures, such as retaining walls, buildings, water channels, wells, gateways, and even roads and steps. We were also able to record evidence for such activities as food processing (mortars) and game playing (game boards). Archaeos is currently undertaking more precise mapping of a limited area of the site. (See Associated Projects)

The measuring of standing and ruined structures and of archaeological remains also formed an important part of the documentation work. Here, young architects and archaeologists have made an invaluable contribution to the Project. (See Project Participants) More than 1,100 features have now been measured and drawn. Architectural and archaeological drawings differ in the types of features portrayed and in the degree of detail. The subjects of architectural drawings vary from elaborate temple complexes to the simplest shrines and from complete buildings to the basements of excavated structures. The scale employed ranges from 1:200 for site plans, to 1:100 for plans, elevations and sections of structure and to 1:50 or even 1:20 for architectural details. Drawings show buildings “as they are;” there is no attempt to reconstruct missing elements. Details of the decoration are shown but not coursing or other aspects of construction. Archaeological drawings have been made of complexes of ruined structures and of a variety of rock-cut features. Scale ranges from 1:100 to 1:50 for plans. Details of construction and decoration, as well as evidence of decomposition, are shown. Many of these drawings are published in our architectural inventories of the Urban core and Sacred Centre.

Detailed measured drawings of temples often depict sculpture, which is an integral part of their decorative programs. Using photographs, Tim Martin made several dozen drawings of sculpted icons at the site to illustrate a general work on iconography and style, Sculpture at Vijayanagara. Other associates have drawn sculptures of courtly scenes on the Great Platform and of divinities carved on isolated boulders. We note that Carla Sinopoli also produced hundreds of measured drawings of earthenware ceramics as part of her study of this industry, published in Pots and Palaces: The Earthenware Ceramics of the Noblemen's Quarter of Vijayanagara.

From the very first season, photography has been a crucial part of the Project, thanks mainly to the participation of John Gollings, who came to the site for six seasons, working in both black and white, and colour. Currently some 10,000 of Gollings’ images have been classified in a database, together with appropriate map references. This archive is housed in the Gollings studio in Melbourne <john.gollings@gollingspidgeon.com>

Colour images by Gollings and other visiting photographers, such as Antonio Martinelli and Clare Arni, have captivated lecture audiences and readers of our publications. Here we note the black and white images of Gollings in Vijayanagara, City of Victory, and Clare Arni’s colour images in New Light on Hampi.

Photography has of course been an important part of our overall documentation, especially to illustrate features recorded during our mapping and architectural inventory. Photography has also been essential in recording carved details, as on the walls and pillars of the Hazara Rama temple, or the basements of the Great Platform. Only with such data has it been possible for Anna L. Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese to create sculptural inventories for all of the large-scale temples, and bring out a general work on iconography and style, Sculpture at Vijayanagara.

One unexpected dimension of our Project was the discovery in 1981 of some 60 waxed-paper negatives of Alexander Greenlaw, a British officer who seems to have been the first photographer at Vijayanagara. Inspired by these masterpieces of early photography, Gollings embarked upon a repro-photo project, in which he took duplicate images precisely matching those of Greenlaw. A more graphic demonstration of the history of the site over almost 150 years can hardly be imagined. A complete set of newly made Greenlaw prints and Gollings’ matching images are now in the collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal (contact www.cca.qe.ca) As for the Greenlaw original negatives, these have been purchased by the Alkazi Foundation for Photography in London (contact sgordon@ealkazi.demon.co.uk), (www.sepia.org). Together with Sophie Gordon, the curator of this collection, George Michell is working on a book about Greenlaw and the other early photographers at the site.

The creation of written descriptions has been essential both for recording details of the archaeological record of the site and for the preparation of publications. Descriptions occur in field notes and journals, in brief database entries and in longer texts preliminary to the preparation of publications. Examples include texts prepared by Michell for his architectural inventory of the Urban Core, by Michell and Phillip Wagoner for their architectural inventory of the Sacred Centre, and by John Fritz and assistants for an inventory of archaeological features of the Royal Centre.

Statistical description was introduced to our Project by Carla Sinopoli who recorded more ten categorical and eleven metrical attributes on fragments of earthenware ceramics, obtained from both excavations and surface collections. (See Ceramics) Fritz has measured a number of structural components at the site in order to characterize patterns of construction. These components include anchor holes and pillar footings of rock-cut foundations, wall widths and room sizes of palaces, the dimensions within and between different components of the sixteenth century bridge on the Tungabhadra river, and block size and numbers per course in the Great Platform. He has also measured inter-columnar distances in the same building.

As the amount of information accumulated by our Project increased, it was necessary to find ways to manage it. We have created a number of text-based databases that record things found at the site as well as the procedures and products of documentation. The largest database records architectural and archaeological features indicated on our 1:400 maps. Others provide information on the products of our work -- photographs taken at the site, architectural and archaeological drawings, and 1:400 map sheets. The first software we used was NoteBuilder, but as programs that were more powerful and “user friendly” became available, we shifted to FileMaker. An associate has used the later program to interrelate databases for map features, photographs and drawings. Other scholars have used more traditional means to keep records of sculpture, earthenware ceramics and Chinese porcelains.