One of the important pilgrimage centers (tīrtha) in South India, dedicated to the incarnation (avatāra) of Viṣṇu as Narasiṃha, the man-lion, is located at Ahobila, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This site was important for the Vijayanagara kings as attested by numerous Telugu inscriptions dated to the 16th century. While their textual content provides valuable information on the social, political and economic cultures of sixteenth century South India, this paper investigates their meaning as visual signs within the contexts that comprise a pilgrimage site rather than as texts read by pilgrims. Additionally, given the paucity of scholarship on Telugu inscriptions, it also contributes to this understudied field.

中文翻译：

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在阿霍比拉观看泰卢固语铭文

印度南部重要的朝圣中心 (tīrtha) 之一，致力于将 Viṣṇu 的化身 (avatāra) 作为人狮 Narasiṃha，位于安得拉邦的阿霍比拉。这个地点对 Vijayanagara 国王来说很重要，这可以追溯到 16 世纪的众多泰卢固语铭文证明。虽然它们的文本内容提供了关于 16 世纪南印度社会、政治和经济文化的宝贵信息，但本文将它们作为构成朝圣地点的背景中的视觉标志而不是朝圣者阅读的文本进行研究。此外，鉴于泰卢固语铭文方面的学术研究匮乏，这也有助于这一研究不足的领域。