INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

One of the most enduring achievements of Indian civilization is undoubtedly its architecture, which extends to a great deal more than the Taj Mahal or the temple complexes of Khajuraho and Vijayanagara.

Though the Indus Valley sites of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and Lothal provide substantial evidence of extensive town planning, the beginnings of Indian architecture are more properly to be dated to the advent of Buddhism in India, in the reign of Ashoka (c. 270-232), and the construction of Buddhist monasteries and stupas.

Buddhist architecture was predominant for several centuries, and there are few remains of Hindu temples from even late antiquity.

Among the many highlights of Buddhist art and architecture are the Great Stupa at Sanchi and the rock-cut caves at Ajanta.

By the eighth century, with the consolidation of Hindu kingdoms, the southern Hindu school of architecture was beginning to flourish.

The most notable achievements of the Pallavas were the rock-cut temples of Mahabalipuram and the temples of Kanchipuram.

The subsequent history of South Indian temple architecture takes us, over the next eight centuries, to Thanjavur (Tanjore), to the brilliant achievements of the Hoysalas (as seen in the temples at Belur and Halebid), and the temple complexes, which represent the flowering of the Vijayanagara empire, of Kanchipuram, Thiruvannamalai, and Vellore.

The most stellar achievement of the later Vijayanagara period may well be the Meenakshi temple in Madurai.

In Kerala, however, a distinct style of architecture took shape.
In Ellora in western India, Hindus added a new series of temples and carvings at what had once been Buddhist caves, culminating in the majestic Kailasa temple, constructed in the reign of the Rashtrakuta monarch Krishna I (757-73), while the rock-cut caves in Elephanta and Jogeshvari, in the proximity of Bombay, were most likely executed in the sixth century.

In north India, meanwhile, architecture was to be a more contentious matter.
The fabled temple at Somnath, renowned for its purported riches, is said to have been destroyed by the Muslim invader Mahmud of Ghazni, and after the attainment of Indian independence, the restoration of this temple became a matter of national pride for more ardent defenders of the faith.

The story of Somnath points to the manner in which histories, whether political, cultural, or architectural, have become communalized. But the period from 1000-1300 was, in any case, a time when Hindu architecture flourished throughout India.

In central India, the Chandellas built a magnificent complex of temples at their capital, Khajuraho, between 950-1030 A.D. These temples, which show Vaishnavite, Shaivite, and Tantric influence, have acquired a renewed reputation today as indices of India's libertine past, allegedly indicative of India's relaxed sexual mores before puritanical Muslims made India a sexually repressed society.

The sexual postures depicted in many of the sculptures that adorn some of the temples appear equally on the posters of the Government of India's Tourist Office and the pages of gay and lesbian magazines. The cultural politics of Khajuraho, as indeed of Indian architecture, still remains to be written.

In the north-west, the Solanki kings spent lavishly on buildings, and the Surya or Sun temple in Modhera, some 3 hours from Ahmedabad, stills provides striking testimony to their achievements.

More stupendous still is the Surya temple at Konarak, built by Narasimha-deva Ganga (c. 1238-64), though masterpieces of Orissan architecture from the reign of the Gangas are to be found in Bhubaneshwar and Puri as well.

The weakness of Muslim dynasties in the north enabled Rajput kings to assert their independence; the results of this Hindu revival are to be seen in Chittor, and elsewhere in Rajasthan where massive forts dot the landscape.

The Mughal emperors of India, most particularly Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, were heavily invested in monumental architecture and spent lavishly on the construction of mosques, mausoleums, forts, palaces, and other buildings. The principal sites of Mughal architecture are Lahore, Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikri, though dazzling specimens of Mughal architecture are to be found elsewhere.

Shah Jahan constructed a new capital, then to be known as Shahjahanabad, and now a part of Old Delhi.
It’s most famous buildings include the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in the world, and the Red Fort (Lal Qila), which over the last four hundred years has become uniquely emblematic of state power. Akbar likewise built a new capital at Fatehpur Sikri, a few miles outside Agra, but it was abandoned on account of insuperable difficulties in obtaining a water supply.

Some have described the complex of buildings at Fatehpur Sikri, which include the majestic Buland Darwaza and Salim Chisti's tomb, as the most splendrous accomplishment of Mughal architecture.

Among the most exquisite of the Mughal works of architecture are various mausoleums, including Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, Akbar's Tomb in Sikander on the outskirts of Agra, and the Taj Mahal, an edifice of such ravishing beauty that it has now become iconic of India itself.

Mughal emperors also laid down elaborate gardens, the finest of which are to be found in Srinagar, and built elaborate forts, principally at Agra (1564- ), Ajmer (1570- ), Lahore (1580), and Allahabad.

Unlike the Mughals, the British contributed little to India's architectural history.
Their rule is associated mainly with monumental civic buildings, such as the Victoria Terminus in Bombay, or commemorative exercises typified by the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta.

There are some notable specimens of church architecture, such as St. James's Church in Delhi, but the principal regal contribution of the British appears to be the construction of a new capital in Delhi.

Meanwhile, indigenous styles of architecture did not entirely suffer demise, and step-wells continued to be built in Gujarat throughout the nineteenth century. In Rajasthan rich merchants’ constructed large havelis or residences in which the window work defies description.

The most striking of these havelis are to be found in Jaisalmer, also notable for Rajasthan's finest, certainly most romantic, fort. (See also fort architecture.)

Though few people associate India with modern architecture, the work of many Indian architects, such as Charles Correa and Balkrishna Doshi, is renowned internationally.

Other prominent architects include Satish Gujral, also known as a painter, and Laurie Baker, an Englishman settled in India who first became known for designing low-cost housing and using only local materials.

It is also noteworthy that the city of Chandigarh was designed by Le Corbusier.
This is a granite temple panel - one of many that show the splendor of Indian temple architecture.
The Science of Architecture and Civil Construction was known in Ancient India as Sthapatya-Shastra. The word Sthapatya is derived from the root word Sthapana i.e. 'to establish'.

The technique of architecture was both a science and an art, hence it is also known as Sthapatya-kala, the word Kala means an art.

From very early times the construction of temples, palaces, rest houses and other civil construction were undertaken by professional architects known as Sthapati.

Even during the Vedic times, there existed professionals who specialized in the technique of constructing chariots and other heavy instruments of war.

These professionals have been referred to in the Rig Veda as Rathakara which literally means 'chariot maker'.

The excavations of the ruins at Mohenjodaro and Harrappa (today in Pakistan) proved the existence of a developed urban civilization in India.

The Indus valley civilization is dated around 3000 B.C. Since the last 5000 years. India has had an urban civilization.

The existence of an urban civilization presumes the existence of well developed techniques of architecture and construction.

These techniques would no doubt have had been systematically stated in record books for transmitting them to the later generations as well for being used as reference media for actual construction.

Unfortunately, as far as the Indus Valley civilization goes no such records have been preserved either as rock edicts, manuscripts, etc., or in folk tales and legends.

But the fact that cities on the scale of Mohenjodaro had been constructed bear testimony to the existence of a systematized and highly developed technique of architecture 5000 years ago.

But in the later ages, from about the 7th century B.C., we have both literature references as well as archeological evidences to prove the existence of large urban civilizations in the Ganges Valley.

Like in most other sciences, even remotely connected with religion, in architecture also the scientific ideas and techniques have been integrated with philosophy and theology.
This was so as the majority of the large constructions were temples.

As the construction of Hindu temples rarely used mortar but used a technique where the stones could be affixed to one another with the force of gravity.

The technique followed in doing this was similar to the one used in the Roman Aqueducts.
The exquisite carvings were engraved after the stones had been fixed in their places.
Thus the carving of figurines right up to the top of a temples roof must have been a demanding task.

Indian techniques of art and architecture spread both westwards and eastwards. During the reign of Ashoka; Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Seistan were parts of the Mauryan Empire.

Buddhist Stupas were constructed in these Mauryan provinces.
Unfortunately, very few of them have survived till today.
However the huge Boddhisattvas (statues of Buddha) that were cut out of rock faces covering entire mountain faces and cliffs, have survived human and natural ravages and can even today is seen at Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

During Kushana times, Central Asia was a part of the Kushana Empire.
Indian art blended with Greek and Kushana styles, and spread into central Asia.
Thus India's cultural frontiers at one time extended up to Balkh (referred to as Vahalika in Vedic texts) on the river Oxus (Akshu) and beyond, and played an important role in shaping the art traditions which flourished between the 1st and the 8th centuries in Central Asia.

The Gandhara School of art of Afghanistan and Central Asia was actually derived from Indian art styles.
In fact even the portrait art of the Oxus region claimed by some scholars to have been an independent school is actually an extension of Indian art forms.

Besides Central Asia, the whole of Southeast Asia received most its art and architectural traditions from India.
Along with Buddhism, Indian art and architecture also traveled to countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma as also to China, Korea and Japan.
Sri Lanka being on our back door was heavily influenced by Indian art and architecture.
The Mandala was a blueprint for any Vastu (edifice) Vastu-Shastra was an amalgam of architecture and theology.

The Stupas in Sri Lanka which belong to the period “between” the 3rd Century B.C. to 4th century A.D.” follow the Indian pattern of a hemispherical Stupa shaped like an egg and called Anda.

The inter-locking dome of the Stupa was to be the prototype for the domes (over Mosques and churches) that were built later by Romans and Arabs.

The Dome of the Mosques in Islamic Architecture is derived from the Stupa the hemispherical construction of the Stupas also seems to have influenced Byzantine architecture perhaps through Pre-Islamic, Sassanian Persia.

The famous Sophia mosque at Istanbul overlooking the Bosphorous Straits has domes which closely resemble the Buddhist Stupa.

In fact that minarets in the mosque were erected late when the Ottoman Turks captured Istanbul (then called Constantinople) from the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.

The dome over this Mosque at Istanbul has borrowed the technique from the Indian Stupa The mosque, incidentally was built as a Church but was later converted into a mosque by the conquering Ottoman Turks.

One can imagine that without the minarets, the mosque, which was originally a Christian Cathedral, must have looked very much like a Stupa.

In fact this style of architecture also influenced Islamic architecture.
The dome mosques in all Muslim countries perhaps have borrowed the style of having dome from the Anda of the Buddhist Stupa.

Indian influences have also felt in Europe Christian Basilicas have similarities with the Buddhist Stupas. Their mosaics seem have borrowed ideas from, the Buddhist chaityas.
Indian motifs can also be traced in Gothic sculpture in the carvings in the cathedrals of Bayeux, Achen and Trier.

Though this influence has been indirect and slight, its existence cannot be denied. But the more pervading influence of Indian art and architecture through Buddhism was in countries of south-east Asia.

Bernard Groslier the author of the section on 'Indochina' in the 'Art of the World Series' has made the following observations about the influence of Indian Art.