VIJAYANAGARA FORTS IN RAYALASEEMA : A STUDY

The study of fort and fortification is a desideratum in order to understand the system of defence and military architecture of India. Yet this aspect is most neglected one, and it received quite scanty attention at the hands of scholars in historical studies. The only accounts of forts that are available today, are the volumes of Gazetteers and districts manuals. These are mostly general in nature, giving a brief historical account of the forts, rather than any study of its architecture and military aspects. The same is the case with several archeological reports of archeological survey of India. However, pioneering studies in this direction in Andhra were first made by G. Yazdani, Henry Cousens and Syed Mehdi Ali available in their accounts published in the volumes of Hyderabad Archaeological reports, Antiquarian remains in the Nizam dominions. In the case of Andhra Pradesh the works deals mostly large number of forts situated in Telangana region. So, far no single work has appeared describing the forts of coastal Ahdhra and Rayalaseema region.N.S. Ramachandramurthi's work is the first attempt to study the forts of Andhra Pradesh.