Architecture of India

Pre-historic and Proto-historic Architecture

The earliest remains of construction in India are found in Baluchistan and Sind (now in Pakistan), Bhimbetaka (Madhya Pradesh), Kashmir and other parts of the subcontinent. These were simple cave dwellings with paintings on the walls and decorations on implements.

A major change happened with the urbanization of the plains of the Indus and its tributaries. The Indus Valley Civilization or Harappan Culture had its mature phase between 2500 and 2000 BC. While there is evidence of town planning and knowledge of construction techniques, there are no large structures, barring the Great Bath at Mohenjodaro, a few store houses and some palatial buildings. The buildings were utilitarian in nature and of little aesthetic merit unlike their contemporary civilizations. The Harappan sites are found in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

A lull then set in till the dawn of the 'second urbanization' around 600 BC after which one can trace the history of Indian architecture in an almost unbroken sequence. Still very few buildings were made of stone as the main building materials were wood and bricks in the Gangetic plains, the centre of the civilization at the time. Ashoka, the great Mauryan king, was however already leaving large stone columns with finely carved capitals for all times to come. The transition from wood and bricks to stone was round the corner....

From Early India to Medieval Times

The Mauryans extended their empire outside the Gangetic plains to as far as the Tamil country in peninsular India. The new fervour in architecture manifested itself in religious structures like stupas and cave temples; later free standing temples came to be 'the norm' for artistic expression; secular structures were few and far between.

Stupas: The stupa began as a hemispherical earthen burial mound built over the remains of a holy man. Ashoka Maurya raised a large number of stupas over the relics of the Buddha. During the period between the Mauryas and the Guptas as Buddhism grew the older mud mounds were greatly enlarged and sheathed with stone. The original wooden fencing was replaced with elaborate stone railings and ornate gateways or torans. Noteworthy among these were the stupas at Bharhut and Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh. Of the later stupas the ones at Sarnath and Nalanda are the most famous.

Cave Temples (Chaityas & Viharas): In the pre-Gupta period we also find remains of artificial caves. These were excavated for preaching monks to rest. These had two main parts: chaityas or prayer halls, and attached with them were caves for lodging, called viharas or monasteries. The earliest of these cave temples are found in Bihar. Gradually this form spread to the Deccan where it flourished.

The oldest of Deccan caves is at Bhaja near Pune, the form matured with the great chaitya hall at Karle, excavated around the beginning of the Christian era. The most famous of the cave groups are those of Ajanta (2nd century BC to 7th century AD) and Ellora (5th to 8th century AD). Besides, there are caves found at Kondane, Pitalkhora, Bedsa, Nasik, and Kanheri. The latest of these are at Elephanta near Mumbai. After these no important caves were excavated...but the great period of medieval temple building had begun.

Free Standing Temples: Perhaps the highest achievement of Indian architecture is manifested in the free standing temples. There is literary evidence that deva-grahas (houses of gods) existed as early as 2nd century BC, built of perishable materials. It was from the Gupta period that the practice of building with lasting materials began. The Gupta temples were small with flat roofs and the masonry was held together without mortar. The finest Gupta temple, at Deogarh near Jhansi, probably of the 6th century, marks a great advance. Here iron dowels were used to hold the masonry together, and a small tower rose above the sanctum. The Gupta temple style had a tremendous bearing upon later development of free standing temples.

With the breakdown of the Gupta Empire, the smaller kingdoms learnt the basics of temple construction and made their own additions with variations. Thus developed the great Indian temple architecture and new temples sprang up everywhere and kings and chiefs vied with each other for more beautiful temples. The architecture is remarkably uniform but scholars distinguish two chief styles, Northern or Nagara style and Southern or Dravidian style.

The Nagara style is best illustrated by three schools, Orissa, Bundelkhand and Rajasthan-Gujarat.

Orissa or Odisha temple building flourished from the 8th to the 13th centuries, the finest being Lingaraja in Bubaneshwar, built as a series of four halls, a hall of offerings, a dancing hall, an assembly hall and a sanctuary. The sanctuary is crowned by the great tower. Also important are the temples of Jagannath in Puri and of Black Pagoda in Konark. Interestingly architects in Orissa were lavish with their exterior decoration but the interiors of their temples were left unadorned.

Under the Chandelas of Bundelkhand architecture flourished in the 10th and 11th centuries, the chief work of which is a beautiful group of temples at Khajuraho. The standard temple here contains a shrine-room, an assembly hall and an entrance portico. Unlike in Orissa the temples at Khajuraho are adorned with sculpture both outside and inside.

The Western school of Gujarat and Rajasthan reached its zenith under the patronage of the Solankis (11th to 13th centuries). The most famous buildings of this school are the Jain shrines of Dilwara at Mount Abu. These were built on high platforms and usually consisted of a shrine and hall, without an entrance portico. The shikhara, over the shrine, like those of Khajuraho, was adorned with a large number of miniature towers, and the ceilings were in the form of corbelled domes, perhaps to give the impression of a true dome which was gradually being introduced by the Muslims in India. Another noteworthy example is the Sun temple at Modhera.

In South India, temple building had the patronage of the Pallava and Chalukya kings from the 6th to 8th centuries. Pallava temples are to be found at Mamallapuram and Kanchipuram, while the Chalukyas left temple remains at their capital Badami and at the nearby site of Aihole. The Pallava style was developed further under the Chola dynasty (10-12th centuries); their finest products are the temples at Tanjore and Gangaikondacholapuram. The former was probably the largest temple built in India up to that time; the comparatively modest tower of the Pallava style was replaced by a great pyramid, rising from a tall upright base and crowned with a domed filial. This set the style of the Dravidian sikhara, which has continued with some variation down to the present day. Both these temples contain elaborate pillared halls and beautiful decorations.

The emphasis later shifted from the tower above the chief shrine to the entrance gateway of the surrounding wall — perhaps done in imitation of the palaces of kings, with which the temples had much in common. From the 12th century onwards it became usual to fortify the temples with gates on the four sides. The gates were surmounted by watch towers, and these developed into soaring towers or gopurams, generally much taller than the modest shikhara over the central shrine. The new style is often called Pandyan, after the dynasty which supplanted the Cholas. The culmination of this style is seen in the mighty temples of Madurai, Srirangam and other places.

Simultaneously other styles developed in the Deccan, under the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Hoyasalas. The earliest Chalukyan temples closely resemble the Guptan. The later Chalukyas and Hoyasalas (11-14th centuries) developed a more elaborate style. Their temples were no longer constructed on a rectangular plan, but were polygonal, built on tall solid platforms of the same shape as the buildings. The largest and most famous temples of this style are at Belur and Halebid. A more complete example is the outstanding Kesava Temple at Somnathpur near Mysore.

The school which flourished under the Vijayanagara Empire and reached its peak in the 16th century shows both Pandyan and Hoyasala features. The florid carving of the Hoyasalas was developed with even greater exuberance, and new elements appeared in the temple complex. As well as the main shrine, in every important temple in South India the amman, the god's main consort, was provided with a shrine which was nearly as large as the main shrine itself, and a marriage hall (kalyanamandapam), wherein the icons of god and goddess were ceremonially united on festive days. Another feature of the Vijayanagar style is the profusion of carvings which adorns the pillared halls. The finest product of the Vijayanagara style is the Vitthala Temple of Hampi.

The Sultanate and Mughal Period

A rich variety of buildings and monuments came to be constructed through the patronage of Turkish, Mughal and other Muslim rulers between the 12th and 18th century. These cannot strictly be described as Muslim architecture as they are as much the work of India's hereditary craftsmen as of the foreign artisans who arrived. It is thus appropriate to regard this phase as a development of Indian architecture under Muslim influence.

The Turko-Afghan rulers and generals had set up the Sultanate by the beginning of the 13th century. These kings who followed one another in quick succession erected splendid victory towers, impregnable forts, luxurious palaces, mosques and mausoleums, both in Delhi and in the provincial capitals.

While in the process of consolidating their power they converted the existing religious structures into improvised mosques. The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi and the Arhai-din-ka-Jhonpra at Ajmer were built mainly out of old Jain and Hindu temples. The next monument in this hierarchy is the Qutab Minar, a giant minaret of over 73 metres. The tomb of Iltutmish is a fine example of Indian work under Islamic patronage. In the same vicinity Alauddin Khilji had a structure built which shows that by this time Indian craftsmen had mastered the alien styles of decoration. The 'true arch' form was also introduced here.

The rugged simplicity of the Turks reasserted itself later in the Tughlaqabad Fort, built by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq in 1321. There was great building activity under Firuz Tughlaq; but in the Firuz Shah Kotla and the mausoleum at Hauz Khas there is simplicity more due to a none too rich treasury than any other reason. The Lodi tombs are barer. The kingdom was quite unstable from 1414 to 1526 and money was scarce. Sher Shah's tomb is the last in the series of Turkish burial places. It is more elaborate than the Tughlaq or Lodi memorials but still quite plain.

In the provincial kingdoms there was more intimate contact with local traditions. The earliest mosque at Jaunpur is distinguished by a number of carved pillars, which were evidently taken from a temple. The Lal Darwaza mosque and the Atala Masjid owe more to the local styles. In Gujarat Sultan Ahmad adorned Ahmedabad with most splendid buildings which in style and detail are counterparts of the temples of nearby regions. In the city of Mandu a great mosque was built by Hoshang. The techniques of Hindu, Jain and Muslim styles are fused in the structure, superimposed on the whole by a reflection of the power of the Sultans. Similarly, in the architecture of Gaur, the old Muslim capital of Bengal, the cue came from local styles.

In the South the large mosque of Gulbarga, erected in the 14th century, is a unique piece of architecture. This is the only mosque in India which is wholly covered over, sunlight being admitted through the side walls which are pierced with great arches. During the reign of the Adil Shahi Sultans of Bijapur building activity received a major boost.

Notable among the constructions in Bijapur is the Jami Masjid, created out of the remains of Hindu structures, but never completed. Ibrahim Adil Shah took care that his tomb was finished in his lifetime; the entire Quran was engraved on its walls and the skill of South Indian craftsmen was ably used in its construction and ornamentation.

There is very little difference between the styles which matured under the Turko-Afghan kings and the Sultans who ruled in various parts of India and the later styles perfected in Mughal times, except that the Mughal architecture is more elaborate and the synthesis of Hindu and Muslim elements in it is complete. The tomb of Humayun, for instance, is almost a final development of the style which had begun with the Qutab group of buildings and passed through the rough Lodi monuments and Sher Shah’s mausoleum. Persian artisans, brought to India by Humayun, contributed frescoes of their own, bringing in finesse in construction. The material also became finer between 1540 and 1685.

If Humayun's tomb is slightly eclectic, the genius of Akbar, the Great Mughal, combined the foreign and indigenous elements completely. This is evident in Fatehpur Sikri and Akbar's own mausoleum at Sikandara. Akbar's son Jehangir carried on his father's tradition, building two mosques in Lahore apart from his own mausoleum. The most glorious building of his reign is the tomb of Itamud-ud-Daulah at Agra. Built entirely of white marble and covered throughout with mosaic, it marks the beginning of what has been called the Indo-Islamic 'baroque' style.

Shah Jahan, as governor of Gujarat, probably acquired his love of fine buildings from the architecture created by Sultan Ahmad. Those early impressions mingled with his own delicate and sensuous imagination. He brought the same delicacy and love of marble to the Taj Mahal which was built in the memory of his consort, Mumtaz Mahal. The Moti Masjid at Agra is another elegant construction typifying Shah Jahan's concept. The Jami Masjid in Delhi outshines all other buildings of its kind. The Red Fort at Delhi, a replica of the fort at Agra, is further testimony to Shah Jahan's sensibility.

After Shah Jahan the creations of Mughals lost their magnificence and the Indo-Muslim architectural traditions declined.

Modern Times (The contribution of the British)

Though by early 19th century the British had occupied a great part of the country, their architectural contribution began after the rebellion of 1857, when their political power was firmly established. It took the form of country houses, dak bungalows, churches and office buildings. The architectural styles of these include the Greco-Roman, Scottish, and Gothic combined with Indian styles.

In December 1911 King George V proclaimed the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi. In 1912 Lord Harding deputed Sir Edwin Lutyens to select a site for the central buildings. The team recommended the Raisina Hill, a slight elevation south of Delhi, as the ideal site. In 1913 Sir Herbert Baker joined Lutyens as a collaborator and was made responsible for the Legislative Council building and the Secretariat while Lutyens concentrated on the Viceroy's House.

The founding of New Delhi was a measure of the imperial policy of establishing a monumental architectural expression of British imperial might. There was much extravagance and some sacrifice of comfort for visible grandeur, with borrowings of Islamic pavilions, Buddhist railings, and imitations of Hindu ornaments and brackets.

The Central Secretariat complex, extending from the Viceregal Lodge, now Rashtrapati Bhawan, is even today a fine example of large scale urban design for boldness of conception as well as execution. The architectural integrity of the entire complex, besides its harmony in scale and composition, is a tribute to its architect, Edwin Lutyens. The Viceregal Lodge represents, perhaps for the last time, the "spirit of aristocracy in the language of a dwelling".

The outstanding examples of late baroque style churches in Goa deserve a special mention besides the cathedral in Shimla, the old churches in Madras and St Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta. The magnificent Victoria Memorial, a landmark of the city, is built of white Jodhpur marble.

Then there is a sprinkling of the Dutch influence in Fort Cochin, the Danish in Trankebar and the French in Pondicherry.