The Dhangar Dynasties Of The Deccan

But a stronger proof of the dhangar origin of the Vijayānagara kings come from the gods they worshipped. Hampi has two majestic temples, one for Virūpākṣa and the other for Viṭhṭhala. Virūpākṣa is none other than Bīrāppa, from the pastoralists’ paired gods Viṭhṭhala-Bīrāppa. Though the Saṅgama brothers claimed descent from Yādu, and Hakka changed his name to Harihara (Hari = Shiva + Hara = Vishnu), they did not abandon their ancestral gods; they simply raised them to the Vedic pantheon : Bīrāppa as Shiva (Virūpākṣa) and Viṭhṭhala as Vishnu (Kṛṣṇa). But they could not do without reminding themselves and the world of their origins : the Viṭhṭhala temple at Hampi has bas-reliefs of dhangar – the only human images among the divine; the dhangar in these images stands with blanket draped over his head, arms resting on a staff and the chin resting on the arm.