Buddhist Architecture

Another excavated cave about a hundred years later is the magnificent prayer hall or Chaitya, at Karle in the Poona district. This too has been excavated from the living rock and is unparalleled for its lofty and elevated impression. The size is truly stupendous, 124'x46-1/2'x45'. With well proportioned great and bulky pillars, carrying capitals of great originality holding up a vaulted roof that has real rafters of timber inserted into it, a ribbing inherited and copied from wooden structure. The columns are strong and bulky, surmounted by sculptured capitals. In the far distance there is a stupa with a wooden umbrella on top and astonishingly the

original wood has survived unharmed to this date.

Chaitya Hall, Bhaja, Maharashtra


Sanchi Stupa No.1, Full View,
Madhya Pradesh



The Buddhist Stupa is another form of architecture, comprising a hemispherical dome, a solid structure into which one cannot enter. The stupa is a glorified, beautified, enlarged funerary mound: what was once the resting place of the bones and ashes of a holy man. Tradition has it that after the great demise of Lord Buddha, Emperor Ashoka decided to construct a large number of stupas throughout his dominion in memory of the Master and enshrine in them relics such as pieces of bones, teeth, hair etc., over which the Stupas were constructed. Originally the stupa was made of bricks and surrounded by a wooden railing. The existing stupa at Sanchi encloses the original stupa and has been enlarged and enclosed within the stone railing or balustrade, when stone was adopted in the place of wood. To the stupa which consisted of a domical structure, a base, sometimes circular, sometimes square, was added in the 1st century B.C., a circumambulatory path as well as the stone railing with four elegantly carved gateways in the four cardinal directions. In place of the original wooden umbrella, which was put up to signify the stupa represented and was built over the ashes of the Lord or his immediate disciples, a sign of royalty and dignity, developed in the course of time an interesting composition on top of the dome, the Harmika; a square Buddhist railing from which rises the shaft that holds the imperial umbrella, sometimes single and later on multiplied to three or even more, diminishing in size as they go upwards.The railing and gateways at Bharhut, Sanchi and Bodh Gaya are the most famous in the north and at Amravati and Nagarjunakonda in the South. Upright pillars and cross bars, based on wooden construction, were made and provided the occasion for dome of the finest low relief carvings to be found anywhere in Indian art. On these surfaces are carved the favourite symbols of Buddhism, the lotus, elephant, bull, lion and horse and some of the Jataka stories of the previous births of Buddha, depicted in low relief with such exuberant details that they are considered a land-mark in the story of Indian art. The Sanchi Stupa has a diameter of 120' and a height of 54'. About these gateways one thing stands that most of early Indian architecture was of wood and timber and that these are true imitations in stone of early wooden construction.

Sanchi Stupa No.1, Detail of Sculpture on Torana, Madhya Pradesh

Indus Civilization

The earliest remains of Indian architecture are to be found in Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Ropar, Kalibangan, Lothal and Rangpur, belonging to a civilization known as the Indus valley culture or the Harappan culture. About 5000 years ago, in the third millennium B.C. a lot of building activity went on in these areas. Town planning was excellent. Burnt brick was widely used, roads were wide and at right angles to one another, city drains were laid out with great skill and forethought, the corbelled arch and baths were constructed with knowledge and skill. But with the fragmentary remains of the buildings constructed by these people it is not yet possible to know enough about the architectural skill and tastes of the people. However, one thing is clear, the extant buildings do not give us any clue as to aesthetic considerations and there is a certain dull plainness about the architecture which may be due to their fragmentary and ruined condition. There does not appear to be any connection between the cities built in the 3rd millennium B.C., with an astonishing civic sense, of first rate well-fired brick structures, and the architecture of subsequent thousand years or so, of Indian art history, after the decline and decay of the Harappan civilization and the beginning of the historic period of Indian history, mainly the time of the great Mauryas of Magadha. These thousands years or so were a period of tremendous, intellectual and sociological activity and could not be barren of any artistic creations. However, due to the fact that during this time sculpture and architecture was utilising organic and perishable materials such as mud, mud­brick, bamboo, timber, leaves, straw and thatch, these have not survived the ravages of time.   General view of House, Lothal Gujarat

Two important remains of the oldest times are fortifications of the old Rajagriha town, in Bihar and the fortified capital of Sisupalgarh, perhaps the ancient Kalinganagar, near Bhubaneswar. The Rajagriha fortification wall is made in the roughest possible manner, unhewn stones being piled one on top of the other. This belongs to the 6th-5th century, B.C. However at Sisupalgarh in the 2nd-1st century B.C. stone masons were at work using large blocks of stones to make a very well-made fort entrance that could be closed with huge doors turning on hinges. We know it for a fact that stone masonry and stone carving were imported in Ashoka's times from Persia. There is abundant evidence of stone masons marks similar to those at Persepolis. However, wood was still the dominant material and in architectural remains of Ashokan times, the gradual transition from wood to stone is apparent. At Pataliputra, remains have been found of a great timber wall that once surrounded the imperial capital, a fact clearly mentioned by Megasthanes who states that everything in his day was built of timber in India.

However, there is one important exception to this and that is the rock-cut architecture of India. We are including a study of cave architecture for the simple reason that the early Indian cave temples and monasteries are masterpieces of "organising space" with beauty and utility in view. A typical example of early cave architecture is the most datable cave of all, the so-called Lomas Rishi cave in the Barabar Hills of Bihar. An inscription proves that this was excavated for the Ajivika sect in the time of Ashoka himself. The cave carved out of the living rock, measures 55'x22'x20'. The entrance is a representation in stone of a hut entrance, with the end of the roof constructed of bent timber supported by cross beams, the ends of which are shown protruding. A carved frieze of elephants is a stone imitation of similar work in wood along with a stone imitation of trellis work made of small stick of bamboo. This is an excellent example showing the development from earlier shapes in timber translated into stone. The period is the 3rd century B.C.

Lomas Rishi cave, Bihar

Visual Art

India is a land of veritable treasures, at once interesting to the tourist as well as to an enquiring student of Indian architecture. India has been the birth place of three major religions of the world-Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism; these have inspired most of her art. India's artistic traditions are ancient and deeply rooted in religion. While at various times in her long history, foreign races and cultures exercised some influence on Indian art forms, the main aesthetic currents remained predominantly Indian.


Lion capital from Ashoka Stambha, Stone, Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh

The character of Indian art is best described as plastic, organic and sculptural. This is well symbolized by the nature of Indian architecture-primarily a sculptural mass rather than a space enclosure. Though sculpture is the Indian art par excellence, it is in architecture that the national genius has shown it’s most unquestionable originality and much of the greatest Indian sculpture was produced in connection with, indeed as an art of, architecture. Broadly speaking, architecture has been described as an art of organizing space, functionally and beautifully.


Sculptured Panels : Female figures and mythical Animals, Adhinatha Temple, Khajuraho,
Madhya Pradesh

A great architect clothes his well spatial structure with a form of beauty, not an extraneous superimposed beauty but inherent in all the structure, in every part, making the whole. The “dominance” of the sculptural mode in India is due to the Indian propensity, stronger than that of any other culture, for carving sculptural caves and temples out of the living rock, of mountain escarpment or outcropping. Also in ancient India, the arts were not separated as they unfortunately are today the architect; the sculptor and the painter were often one man. Sculptures were invariably painted in colour and the sculpture generally was not free-standing, but formed part of the temple structure. In this way architecture, sculpture and painting were in fact, much more intimately connected than they are today and much of this was a happy combination.

India occupies an exalted position in the realm of art of the ancient world. If the Greeks excelled in the portrayal of the physical charm of the human body, the Egyptians in the grandeur of their pyramids and the Chinese in the beauty of their landscapes, the Indians were unsurpassed in transmitting the spiritual contents into their plastic forms embodying the high ideals and the common beliefs of the people. The Indian artists visualized the qualities of various gods and goddesses as mentioned in their scriptures and infused these qualities into their images whose proportions they based on the idealised figures of man and woman. Indian art is deeply rooted in religion and it conduces to fulfilling the ultimate aim of life, moksha or release from the cycle of birth and death. There were two qualities about which the Indian artists cared more than about anything else, namely, a feeling for volume and vivid representation, even at the risk of sacrificing, at times, anatomical truth or perspective. A sense of narrative a taste for decoration, keenness of observations are clearly brought out in each sculpture. Indian art is a wholesome, youthful and delicate art, a blend of symbolism and reality, spirituality and sensuality. Indian art may well be said to bear in itself the greatest lesson an exemplary continuity from pre-historic times to the present age, together with an exceptional coherence. We said earlier that Indian art was inspired by religion, for India is the birth place of three of the world's great religions Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and these three faiths have inspired most of our Indian art. We use the word 'most' purposely for the simple reason that not all Indian art is religious. The Indian artist was a man of this universe, he lived here, looked around himself, saw the joys and sorrows of the life and reproduced them in whatever medium he happened to be working in at a given time; clay, wood, paper, metal or stone. The creation of art by the Indian artists are not "realistic" representations in the sense we understand the term on Greek or Roman Art (but they are imagined and are idealised).


Surya, Vaital Deul Temple,
Bhubaneswar, Orissa


Cave No.1, Badami, Karnataka


None had actually seen the major gods like Rama, Krishna, Vishnu and Shiva, etc., but according to their description in the scriptures the Indian artists visualised them as shown generally standing erect, signifying mental, physical and spiritual equilibrium. In form, the males are virile beings broad shouldered, deep chested and narrow hipped. The females are precisely contrary to the males narrow shouldered, having full and fir breasts, and attenuated waist and' broad hips. The females according to the Indian artists represent Matri or the mother. In the course of this guide book we proposed to keep the hum form as the peg on which to hang our story and will venture to see the hum body treated by different periods according to the changing styles - the like and dislike of a particular age. Indian art is a treasure house of ancient contemporary life, its faiths and beliefs, customs and manners. It is considered by some to be the function or purpose of art of any age to mirror contemporary society, its customs, manners, habits, modes of dress and ornamentation etc.

Painting is one of the most delicate forms of art giving expression to human thoughts and feelings through the media of line and colour. Many thousands of years before the dawn of history, when man was only a cave dweller, he painted his rock shelters to satisfy his aesthetic sensitivity and creative urge.
Among Indians, the love of colour and design is so deeply ingrained that from the earliest times they created paintings and drawings even during the periods of history for which we have no direct evidence.
The earliest examples of miniature painting in India exist in the form of illustrations to the religious texts on Buddhism executed under the Palas of the eastern India and the Jain texts executed in western India during the 11th-12th centuries A.D.During the 15th century the Persian style of painting started influencing the Western Indian style of painting as is evident from the Persian facial types and hunting scenes appearing on the border's of some of the illustrated manuscripts of the Kalpasutra.The origin of the Mughal School of Painting is considered to be a landmark in the history of painting in India. With the establishment of the Mughal empire, the Mughal School of painting originated in the reign of Akbar in 1560 A.D.


Hamza - Nama, Miniature Mughal School of Painting 

Basohli, Miniature Painting, Pahari School of Painting

Though no pre-Mughal painting from the Deccan are so far known to exist, yet it can safely be presumed that sophisticated schools of painting flourished there, making a significant contribution to the development of the Mughal style in North India. Early centres of painting in the Deccan, during the 16th and 17th centuries were Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Golconda. In the Deccan, painting continued to develop independently of the Mughal style in the beginning. However, later in the 17th and 18th centuries it was increasingly influenced by the Mughal style.
Unlike Mughal painting which is primarily secular, the art of painting in Central India, Rajasthani and the Pahari region etc. is deeply rooted in the Indian traditions, taking inspiration from Indian epics, religious texts like the Puranas, love poems in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, Indian folk-lore and works on musical themes. The cults of Vaishnavism, Saivism and Sakti exercised tremendous influence on the pictorial art of these places.
The Pahari region comprises the present State of Himachal Pradesh, some adjoining areas of the Punjab, the area of Jammu in the Jammu and Kashmir State and Garhwal in Uttar Pradesh. The whole of this area was divided into small States ruled by the Rajput princes and were often engaged in welfare. These States were centres of great artistic activity from the latter half of the 17th to nearly the middle of the 19th century.