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The favoured material of early Indian architecture appears to have been wood, but little has survived the rigours of the climate. Wooden forms, however, affected work in other mediums and were sometimes quite literally copied, as, for example, in early cave temples of western India. The principles of wooden construction also played an important part in determining the shape of Indian architecture and its various elements and components.
Baked or sun-dried brick has a history as ancient as that of wood; among the earliest remains are buildings excavated at sites of the Indus Valley civilization. The use of brick is once again evident from about the 6th century bc, and its popularity was undiminished in subsequent centuries. Many brick monuments have been discovered, particularly in areas in which good clay was easily available, such as the Gangetic Basin. Although more durable than wood, few brick buildings from before the 5th century ad have survived in a good state of preservation.
Traditions of stone architecture appear to be more recent than wood or brick, the earliest examples of the use of dressed stone for building purposes not predating the 6th century bc. The Indian architect, however, soon gained great proficiency in its use, and, by the 7th century ad, the use of stone for monumental buildings of considerable size had become quite popular. The preference for stone can also be seen in Islāmic monuments of India, which contrast markedly with the brick and tile structures popular in neighbouring West Asia.
Most surviving examples of Indian architecture before the Islāmic period are of a religious nature, consisting mainly of Buddhist shrines, or stūpas, and temples. Monastic residences give some idea of civil architecture, but, surprisingly, very few examples of palaces and secular dwellings have been found.
Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500–1800 bc)
From excavated remains, it is clear that the Indus Valley civilization possessed a flourishing urban architecture. The major cities associated with the civilization, notably Mohenjo-daro, Harappā, and Kalibangan, were laid out on a grid pattern and had provisions for an advanced drainage system. The residential buildings, which were serviceable enough, were mainly brick and consisted of an open patio flanked by rooms. For monumental architecture, the evidence is slight, the most important being a “sacred” tank (thought to be for ritual ablution) and associated structures. Corbel vaulting (arches supported by brackets projecting from the wall) was known, and, to a limited extent, timber was used together with brick; whatever architectural ornamentation existed must have been of brick or plaster.
The Maurya period (c. 321–185 bc)
The state of Indian architecture in the period between the Indus Valley civilization and the rise of the Maurya Empire is largely unknown since most work was done in such perishable material as wood or brick. Excavations at Rājgīr, Kauśāmbī, and other sites, however, testify to the existence of fortified cities with stūpas, monasteries, and temples of the type found at the later Maurya sites of Nagarī and Vidiśā; and there is evidence of the use of dressed stone in a palace excavated at Kauśāmbī. Considering the power of the Maurya Empire and the extensive territory it controlled, the architectural remains are remarkably few. The most important are stūpas (later enlarged) such as a famous example of Sānchi; the ruins of a hall excavated at the site of Kumrāhar in Patna (ancient Pāṭaliputra), the capital city; and a series of rock-cut caves in the Barābar and Nāgārjunī Ḥills near Gayā, which are interesting because they preserve in the more permanent rock some types of wooden buildings popular at that time.
The stūpa, the most typical monument of the Buddhist faith, consists essentially of a domical mound in which sacred relics are enshrined. Its origins are traced to mounds, or tumuli, raised over the buried remains of the dead that were found in India even before the rise of Buddhism: Stūpas appear to have had a regular architectural form in the Maurya period: the mound was sometimes provided with a parasol surrounded by a miniature railing on the top, raised on a terrace, and the whole surrounded by a large railing consisting of posts, crossbars, and a coping (the capping on the top course), all secured by tenons and mortices in a technique appropriate to craftsmanship in wood. The essential feature of the stūpa, however, always remained the domical mound, the other elements being optional.
Along with stūpas were erected roofless, or hypaethral, shrines enclosing a sacred object such as a tree or an altar. Temples of brick and timber with vaulted or domical roofs were also constructed, on plans that were generally elliptical, circular, quadrilateral, or apsidal (i.e., having an apse, or semicircular plan, at the sanctum end). These structures have not survived, but some idea of their shape has been obtained from the excavated foundations and the few examples imitating wooden originals that were cut into the rock, notably the Sudāmā and the Lomas Ṛṣi caves in the Nāgārjunī and Barābar hills near Gayā. The latter has an intersesting entrance showing an edged barrel-vault roof (an arch shaped like a half cylinder) in profile supported on raked pillars, the ogee arch (an arch with curving sides, concave above and convex toward the top) so formed filled with a trellis to let in light and air. The interiors of most caves are highly polished and consist of two chambers: a shrine, elliptical or circular in plan with a domed roof (Sudāmā cave); and an adjacent antechamber, roughly rectangular and provided with a barrel vault. Remains of structural buildings have been excavated at Bairāt and Vidiśā, where wood and brick shrines with timber domes and vaults once existed. A temple (No. 40) at Sānchi was apsidal in plan and perhaps had a barrel-vault roof of timber.
A hall excavated at Kumrāhar in Patna had a high wooden platform of most excellent workmanship, on which stood eight rows of 10 columns each, which once supported a second story. Only one stone pillar has been recovered, and it is circular in shape and made of sandstone that has been polished to a high lustre. The capitals that topped them must have been similar to others found in neighbouring Lohanipur and almost certainly consisted of one or two pairs of addorsed (set back to back) animals, recalling Persepolitan examples. Indeed, there is much about Maurya architecture and sculpture to suggest Iranian influence, however substantially transformed in the Indian environment.
Early Indian architecture (2nd century bc–3rd century ad)
Except for stūpas, architectural remains from the 2nd century bc (downfall of the Maurya dynasty) to the 4th century ad (rise of the Gupta dynasty) continue to be rare, indicating that most of the work was done in brick and timber. Once again, examples cut into the rock and closely imitating wooden forms give a fairly accurate idea of at least some types of buildings in this period.
The stūpas become progressively larger and more elaborate. The railings continue to imitate wooden construction and are often profusely carved, as at Bhārhut, Sānchi II, and Amarāvatī. These were also provided with elaborate gateways, consisting of posts supporting from one to three architraves, again imitating wooden forms and covered with sculpture (Bhārahut, Sānchi I, III). In the course of time an attempt was made to give height to the stūpas by multiplying the terraces that supported the dome and by increasing the number of parasols on top. In Gandhāra and southeastern India, particularly, sculptured decoration was extended to the stūpa proper, so that terraces, drums, and domes—as well as railing—were decorated with figural and ornamental sculpture in bas-relief. Stūpas in Gandhāra were not provided with railings but, instead, had rows of small temples arranged on a rectangular plan.
Cave temples of western India, cut into the scarp of the Western Ghāts and stretching from Gujarāt to southern Mahāİāshtra, constitute the most extensive architectural remains of the period. Two main types of buildings can be distinguished, the temple proper (caitya) and the monastery (vihāra, saṅghārāma). The former is generally an apsidal hall with a central nave flanked by aisles. The apse is covered by a half dome; and two rows of pillars, which demarcate the nave, support a barrel-vault roof that covers the rest of the building. In the apsidal end is placed the object to be worshipped, generally a stūpa, the hall being meant for the gathered congregation. In front of the hall is a porch, separated from it by a screen wall provided with a door of considerable size, together with an arched opening on top clearly derived from wooden buildings of the Lomas Ṛṣi type and permitting air and dim light to filter into the interior. Other influences of wooden construction are equally striking, particularly in the vaulting ribs that cover the entire ceiling and that are sometimes actually of wood, as at Bhājā, where the pillars are also raked in imitation of the exigencies of wooden construction. The pillars are generally octagonal with a pot-shaped base and a capital of addorsed animals placed on a bell-shaped, or campaniform, lotus in the Maurya tradition. The most significent example is at Kārli, dating approximately to the closing years of the 1st century bc. The Bhājā caitya is certainly the earliest, and important examples are to be found at Beḍsā, Kondane, Pītalkhorā, Ajantā, and Nāsik. Toward the end of the period, a quadrilateral plan appears more and more frequently, as, for example, at Kuda and Sailarwāḍī.
In addition to the caitya, or temple proper, numerous monasteries (vihāras) are also cut into the rock. These are generally provided with a pillared porch and a screen wall pierced with doorways leading into the interior, which consists of a “courtyard” or congregation hall in the three walls of which are the monks’ cells. The surviving rock-cut examples are all of one story, though the facade of the great monastery at Pitalkhorā simulates a building of several stories.
Monasteries carved into the rock are also known from Orissa (Udayagiri-Khandagiri), in eastern India. These are much humbler than their counterparts in western India, and consist of a row of cells that open out into a porch, the hall being absent. At Uparkot in Junāgadh, Gujarāt, is a remarkable series of rock-cut structures dating from the 3rd–4th century ad, which appear to be secular in character and in all probability served as royal pleasure houses.
The large number of representations of buildings found on relief sculpture from sites such as Bhārhut, Sānchi, Mathurā, and Amarāvatī are a rich source of information about early Indian architecture. They depict walled and moated cities with massive gates, elaborate multi-storied residences, pavilions with a variety of domes, together with the simple, thatched-roofed huts that remained the basis of most Indian architectural forms. A striking feature of this early Indian architecture is the consistent and profuse use of arched windows and doors, which are extremely important elements of the architectural decor.
The Gupta period (4th–6th centuries ad)
Dating toward the close of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century ad is a series of temples that marks the opening phase of an architecture that is no longer content with merely imitating wooden building but initiates a new movement, ultimately leading to the great and elaborate temples of the 8th century onward.
Two main temple types have been distinguished in the Gupta period. The first consists of a square, dark sanctum with a small, pillared porch in front, both covered with flat roofs. This type of temple answers the simplest needs of worship, a chamber to house the deity and a roof to shelter the devotee. Temple No. 17 at Sānchi is a classic example of this flat-roofed type. The plain walls are of ashlar masonry (made up of squared stone blocks), composed of sizable blocks, which are spanned by large slabs that constitute the ceiling. The pillars of the porch have a campaniform lotus capital, one of the last times this form appears in Indian architecture. Another temple of this type is the Kaṅkālī Devī shrine at Tigowā, which has more elaborate pillars, provided with the overflowing vase, or the vase-and-foliage (ghaṭa-pallava), capital that became the basic north Indian order.
It is the second type of temple that points the way to future developments. It also has a square sanctum, or cella, but instead of a flat roof there is a pyramidal superstructure (śikhara). Among the most interesting examples are a brick temple at Bhītargaon and the Vishnu temple at Deogarh, built entirely of stone. The pyramidal superstructure of each consists essentially of piled-up cornice moldings of diminishing size, which are decorated primarily with candraśālā (ogee arch) ornament derived from the arched windows and doors so frequently found in the centuries immediately before and after Christ. The sanctums of both temples are square in plan, with three sides provided with central offsets (vertical buttress-like projections) that extend from the base of the walls right up to the top of the śikhara (spire); the section of the central offset that extends across the wall is conceived in the form of a niche, in which is placed an image. The Deogarh temple is also noteworthy for the large terrace with four corner shrines (now ruined) on which it is placed, prefiguring the quincunx, or pañcāyatana, grouping (one structure in each corner and one in the middle) popular in the later period. The doorway surround, too, is very elaborate, carved with several bands carrying floral and figural motifs. At the base of the surround are rows of worshippers, and in the crossette (projection at the corner) on top are images of graceful river goddesses.
The Pārvatī Devī temple at Nācnā Kuṭthārā, also of this period, is interesting for the covered circumambulatory provided around the sanctum and the large hall in front. When first discovered, the temple had an entire chamber above the sanctum (which subsequently collapsed). Though provided with a door, there seems to have been no access to it; thus, for all practical purposes it constituted a false story and, aside from a symbolic meaning, served no other purpose than to emphasize the importance of the sanctum. The principle of gaining height not by the superimposition of ornamental cornice moldings with candraśālā decoration but by the multiplication of stories, each imitating the story below, also distinguished the later architectural style of southern India.
The great Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya, commemorating the spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment, though burdened with later restorations, is essentially a temple of this period. It has a particularly majestic śikhara, decorated with ornamental niches and candraśālās, rising over a square sanctum to a great height.
Along with temples, stūpas continued to be built. These also aspired to height, which was achieved by multiplication and heightening of the supporting terraces and elongating the drum and dome. A good example of this new form is the Dhamekh stūpa at Sārnāth. Along more conventional lines, but quite elaborate, are the brick stūpas in Sind, notably a fine example at Mīrpur Khās.
The rock-cut temple and monastery tradition also continued in this period, notably in western India, where the excavations—especially at Ajantāțacquire extreme richness and magnificence. The monasteries are characterized by the introduction of images into some of the cells, so that they partake of the nature of temples instead of being simple residences. Temples with an apsidal plan and barrel-vault roofs, however, soon went out of fashion, and are found very rarely in the subsequent period. The early 5th-century cave temples at Udayagiri, Madhya Pradesh, are similar to the simple flat-roofed temples with a hall and are not descended from ancient traditions as preserved in western India.
Medieval temple architecture
Architectural styles initiated during the 5th and 6th centuries found their fullest expression in the medieval period (particularly from the 9th to the 11th centuries), when great stone temples were built. Two main types can be broadly distinguished, one found generally in northern India, the other in southern India. To these can be added a third type, sharing features of both and found in Karnataka and the Deccan. These three types have been identified by some scholars with the nāgara, drāviḍa, and vesara classes referred to in some Sanskrit texts, though the actual meaning of these terms is far from clear. In spite of the havoc wrought by the destructive Islāmic invasions, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, an extremely large number of monuments have survived in almost every other part of India, particularly in the south, and these continue to be discovered and recorded to the present day.
