In front of the chariot two elephants are positioned as if they are pulling the chariot. In fact these stone elephants were brought from elsewhere and positioned here at a later stage. Originally two horses were carved in that position.
The tails and the rear legs of the horses can be still seen just behind these elephant sculptures. A broken stone ladder once gave access to the sanctum is kept between the elephants.
There was even a dome like superstructure over the chariot. That too is missing now. However you can see them on the first ever photographs of Hampi taken in 1856 by Alexander Greenlaw.
The great Vijayanagara Empire was established in the year 1336 by the two brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama Dynasty. The empire came to be regarded as a culmination of all the struggles of the southern powers for averting the Islamic invasions in late 13th century. Its power started declining after the great defeat in 1356 at the hands of the Deccan sultanates
It is clear that India at the time when Muslim invaders turned towards it (10th to 12th century) was the earth's richest region for its wealth in precious and semi-precious stones, gold and silver, religion and culture, and its fine arts and letters.
Tenth century Hindustan was also far more advanced than its contemporaries in the East and the West for its achievements in the realms of speculative philosophy and scientific theorizing, mathematics and knowledge of nature's workings. ( Europe was suffering through the "dark ages" and Islamic cultural advancement was permanently reversed by some idiot that decided math was against muhammad's plan)
Hindus of the early medieval period were equal to or superior in more things than the Chinese, the Persians (including the Sassanians), the Romans and the Byzantines of the immediate proceeding centuries. Vijayanagar city was bigger than Rome city and one of the richest kingdoms.
The followers of Siva and Vishnu on this subcontinent had created for themselves a society more mentally evolved-joyous and prosperous too-than had been realized by the Jews, Christians, and Muslim monotheists of the time.
Medieval India, until the Islamic invaders destroyed it, was history's most richly imaginative culture and one of the five most advanced civilizations of all times. Hindu culture was at its imaginative best and vigorously creative when the severely-allergic-to-images Muslims entered Hindustan.
Giving proof of the resentment that men belonging to an inferior civilization feel upon encountering a superior civilization of individuals with a more refined culture, Islamic invaders from Arabia and western Asia broke and burned everything beautiful they came across in Hindustan.
After the Muslims destroyed the Hindustan civilization, the Christians created massive poverty in it.
http://www.thehistoryhub.com/hampi-facts-pictures.htm and https://www.facebook.com/ancientoriginsweb/photos/a.595116573862624.1073741825.530869733620642/979775105396767/?type=1&fref=nf
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