Re: Indian Art And Architecture Pdf 18
Beatris Ninh
From ancient South Indian temples to the finest Mughal ruins, Indian architecture is as old as civilization itself. The earliest traces of recognizable building activity in India can be traced back to the settlements of the Indus Valley. India is home to a myriad of temples, Baroque, and modernistic structures that tell the stories of their era. UNESCO lists 830 World Heritage Sites, 26 of which are on Indian soil.
India has seen a variety of architectural styles emerge over the course of its history. Some examples include temple architecture, Mughal architecture, Dravidian architecture, Sikh architecture, and cave architecture. Many early Indian buildings were made of wood, which was often decayed, burned, or brick that has been removed for reuse. Over millennia, it has progressed from small rock-cut cave shrines to huge temples that have extended across the Indian subcontinent and beyond, forming a style that is now seen in contemporary Hindu temples across the world.
Sikh architecture is another popular architectural style in India. Sikh architecture is a world-renowned architectural style that is distinguished by qualities such as progressiveness, elegance, intricacy, austere simplicity, and flowing lines. It is increasingly expanding into new branches of new contemporary styles as a result of its modern progressive approach. While Sikh architecture was built within Sikhism 300 years ago, its beauty has led to its use in many non-religious buildings today. The gurdwara is a religious structure in Sikh architecture that houses the Guru of the Sikhs. Sikh temples are massive commemorative structures associated with the ten Sikh Gurus or with historical sites and events. Gurudwaras have entrances on all sides, indicating that they are accessible to all people without any distinction. This attribute represents the fundamental tenet of Sikh religion, which hails God as omnipresent.
Indian architecture is rooted in the history, culture, and religion of India. Among several architectural styles and traditions, the best-known include the many varieties of Hindu temple architecture and Indo-Islamic architecture, especially Rajput architecture, Mughal architecture, South Indian architecture, and Indo-Saracenic architecture. Early Indian architecture was made from wood, which did not survive due to rotting and instability in the structures. Instead, the earliest existing architecture are made with Indian rock-cut architecture, including many Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples.
The Hindu temple architecture is divided into the Dravidian style of southern India and the Nagara style of northern India, with other regional styles. Housing styles also vary between regions, depending on climate.
The first major Islamic kingdom in India was the Delhi Sultanate, which led to the development of Indo-Islamic architecture, combining Indian and Islamic features. The rule of the Mughal Empire, when Mughal architecture evolved, is regarded as the zenith of Indo-Islamic architecture, with the Taj Mahal being the high point of their contribution. Indo-Islamic architecture influenced the Rajput and Sikh styles as well.
During the British colonial period, European styles including Neoclassical, Gothic Revival, and Baroque became prevalent across India. The amalgamation of Indo-Islamic and European styles led to a new style, known as the Indo-Saracenic style. After India's independence, modernist ideas spread among Indian architects as a way of progressing from the colonial culture. Le Corbusier - who designed the city of Chandigarh - influenced a generation of architects towards modernism in the 20th century. The economic reforms of 1991 further bolstered the urban architecture of India as the country became more integrated with the world's economy. Traditional Vastu Shastra remains influential in India's architecture in the contemporary era.[1]
The unearthed local and foreign antiquities (of art, architecture, customs, and rituals) depicted by the engravings on pottery and other artifacts, indicate that the prehistoric people of the Burzahom established contact with Central Asia and South West Asia, and had links to the Gangetic plains and peninsular India.
Indian architecture after the Indus Valley Civilization around the Maurya Empire, from 322 to 185 BCE, most likely used wood or recycled brick. Much of the remains discovered from this period onwards are of Indian rock-cut architecture, predominantly Buddhist.
Important features of the period's architecture include, walled and moated cities with large gates and multi-storied buildings, wooden chaitya arches for roofs, and further structures above solid storeys. The reliefs of Sanchi, dated to the 1st centuries BCE-CE, denote places such as Kushinagar or Rajagriha as splendid walled cities, as in the Royal cortege leaving Rajagriha or War over the Buddha's relics. These views of ancient Indian cities are relied on for the understanding of ancient Indian urban architecture.[8]
Such a tradition is extremely clear in the case of the earliest-known examples of rock-cut architecture, the state-sponsored Barabar caves in Bihar, personally dedicated by Ashoka circa 250 BCE. The entrance of the Lomas Rishi Cave there has a sculpted doorway that clearly copies a wooden style in stone, which is a recurrent feature of rock-cut caves for some time. These artificial caves exhibit an amazing level of technical proficiency, the extremely hard granite rock being cut in geometrical fashion and given the Mauryan polish, also found on sculpture.[13][14] Later rock-cut viharas, occupied by monastic communities, survive, mostly in Western India, and in Bengal the floor-plans of brick-built equivalents survive. The elaborately decorated facades and "chaitya halls" of many rock-cut sites are believed to reflect vanished free-standing buildings elsewhere.
The Gupta period chiefly represented a hiatus in Indian rock-cut architecture; the first wave of construction was completed before the empire was assembled, and the second wave began in the late 5th century, after its end. For example, an early group of the Ajanta Caves was crafted by 220 CE and a later group was made around 460 CE.[21] Nonetheless, most of the first surviving free-standing structures in India are accredited to the Gupta period, in particular, the beginnings of Hindu temple architecture. As Milo Beach writes, "Under the Guptas, India was quick to join the rest of the medieval world in a passion for housing precious objects in stylized architectural frameworks",[22] the "precious objects" primarily suggesting the icons of gods.
By the 7th century CE, most key features of the Hindu temple were established in theoretical texts on temple architecture and building methods.[37] Three styles of temple were identified: nagara, dravida and vesara. The styles were sometimes mixed, and not yet associated with specific regions in India. [34] For example, in Karnataka, the group of 7th and 8th-century temples at Pattadakal famously mixes forms later associated with both north and south,[38] as does that at Aihole, which still includes apsidal chaitya hall-type plans.[39]
Nagara commonly refers to North Indian temple styles, most easily recognised by a high and curving shikhara over the sanctuary. Dravida or Dravidian architecture is the broad South Indian style, possessing a lower superstructure over the sanctuary. Instead, the structure has a straight profile, rising in a series of terraces to form a decorated pyramid. Today, this is often dwarfed in larger temples by the far larger gopuram outer gateways, a much later development.[40] The ancient term vesara is also used to describe a temple style with characteristics of both the northern and southern traditions. These attributes come from the Deccan and other fairly central parts of India. Although disagreement stands on the exact period and styles that vesara represents, the term is mainly assigned to the northern tradition, but are regarded as a kind of northern dravida by others.[41]
Excluding earlier structures in timber-based architecture, hardly any remains of Nagara Hindu temples exist from before the Gupta dynasty in the 4th century CE. The rock-cut Udayagiri Caves are among the most important early sites.[42] The earliest preserved Hindu temples are simple cell-like stone temples, some rock-cut and others structural, as at Sanchi.[43] By the 6th or 7th century, these evolved into high shikhara stone superstructures. However, there is inscriptional evidence, such as the ancient Gangadhara inscription from around 424, that towering temples predated the 6th or 7th century, and they were made from more perishable material. These temples have not survived.[43][27]
Styles called vesara include the early Badami Chalukya Architecture, Western Chalukya architecture, and finally Hoysala architecture. Other regional styles include those of Bengal, Kashmir and other Himalayan areas, Karnataka, Kalinga architecture, and Māru-Gurjara architecture.
Hoysala architecture is the distinctive building style developed under the rule of the Hoysala Empire in the region historically known as Karnata, today's Karnataka, India, between the 11th and the 14th centuries.[49] Large and small temples built during this era remain as examples of the Hoysala architectural style, including the Chennakesava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara temple at Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura. Other examples of fine Hoysala craftmanship are the temples at Belavadi, Amrithapura, and Nuggehalli. Study of the Hoysala architectural style has revealed a negligible Indo-Aryan influence while the impact of Southern Indian style is more distinct.[50] A feature of Hoysala temple architecture is its attention to detail and skilled craftsmanship. The temples of Belur and Halebidu are proposed UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[51] Approximately 100 Hoysala temples survive today.[52]
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