While browsing the deeply-discounted “remaindered” aisles at my local Barnes & Noble, I came across Satish Grover’s Masterpieces of Traditional Architecture. It’s a coffee-table book with beautiful photographs and appreciative descriptions of fourteen of India’s ancient and medieval architectural masterpieces.
In his introduction, Grover points out that the ancient sites in India are all religious (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim), not because India was traditionally especially devout. In fact, only the religious structures were carved in stone, so they are the only edifices to survive. The secular architecture of ancient India might have been pretty wonderful too, but those brick and timber buildings have all vanished.
Since I can’t do any real traveling this summer because of work, I thought I would link to images on the web of the various monuments in Grover’s book as a kind of vicarious travelogue. A lot of people have tagged these sites in their Flickr photos, though for slightly more obscure places like the Karle Caves you have to search on the open internet to see what comes up.First, one of the oldest of the structures described is the Buddhist temple that has been carved out of a cave at Karle, close to Lonavla in Maharashtra. Building was started at 100 BC, during the height of the earlier, “Hinayana” school of Buddhism (i.e., when the Buddha was not considered a God). The cave is designed to mimic the design features of a wooden temple, and contains flourishes and columns that aren’t actually structurally necessary in a cave (they would be if the building were freestanding). In some ways the stone carving is similar to the caves at Ajanta, though Ajanta has wall paintings that Karle lacks.
This reporter from the Tribune went to Karle, and was underwhelmed at the gaudy tourism trade that’s opened up outside this truly ancient temple. There’s also a Hindu temple to Ekveera Devi that’s been built outside of the cave, which is now for most visitors the main attraction. Visitors throw coins and picnic by the Buddhist stupa in the main prayer hall, also called chaitya. Perhaps to avoid all this, one could go at an awkward hour (i.e., early in the morning).
The second ancient monument is also Buddhist, the Sanchi Stupa and temple complex, which is near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Here, Wikipedia has a pretty good description as well as high resolution images. The Stupa was built by Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE to house relics of the Buddha, though additional structures were built over the course of many centuries. This site also has some helpful summaries of the Jataka stories that are represented in the many stone carvings that surround the main Stupa.
One of the earlier temples near the Stupa, oddly, resembles a classical Greek structure because of the design of the pillars. This description of Sanchi, written in 1918, suggests that it might have been the handiwork of foreign stone carvers in India.
My favorite discovery from Grover’s book is the Kailashnath Temple (sometimes spelled “Kailashnatha”). This is a beautiful site, carved out of a huge slab of basalt rock. This temple is the heart of the Ellora caves (which also have Buddhist and Jain caves/carvings), and it was built starting in the 7th century C.E.
Here Professor Fran Pritchett’s site at Columbia University has the best images. I would especially recommend this page, which has early British engravings of the temple. In the various close-ups one finds, the carvings look truly stupendous; check out this image, depicting the story of the Ramayana carved on a large slab of rock. Wow; this site is high up there on my “must visit” list.
Then of course, there’s Khajuraho, which everyone knows about — but how many people actually visit the site? (I won’t link to specific images for obvious reasons, but if you do a search in Flickr or Google Images there is a lot to choose from.) In addition to being “ancient porn,” as one Flickr commentor bluntly put it, the sixteen temples at Khajuraho really are beautiful structures. The question of what inspired these erotic carvings, and how they fit into the local Hindu religious rituals, is one that is seriously worth pondering. (One of Grover’s speculations is that the carvers might have been from a local tribe or cult, bringing in ideas from outside of Hinduism.)
The Konark Sun Temple in Orissa, built in the 13th century, appears to be a glorious architctural experiment that didn’t quite come off as planned. The shikharas, or spires on the top of this temple collapsed some time after it was built, and the temple was on the verge of collapse when the British took charge of its restoration in the mid-19th century. Their efforts, and subsequent efforts by the government of India, have kept it standing, but you can’t actually go inside. See Wikipedia, as well as this Indian history site
There aren’t a lot of good shots on the internet of the Dilwara Jain Temples in Rajasthan. You get good exterior shots, but I haven’t been able to find the beautiful interior carvings reproduced in Grover’s book on the internet. These temples were built in the 11th-13th centuries, and were carved entirely out of white marble. Grover doesn’t claim that there is a special, Jain architectural style, but he does suggest that these temples are demonstrations of the Jain community’s wealth and influence.
One group that did obviously bring a distinctive architectural style were the successive waves of Muslim rulers. Besides the Taj Mahal, the Qutub Minar, and Fatehpur Sikri (all of which have entries in Grover’s book) there are places like Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Adil Shah. It was built in the mid 1600s in Bijapur, and it is one of the largest one-piece domes ever constructed. (See this Flick image). Unfortunately, the inside of the building is dark and effectively unadorned. (This is where you wonder if religious devotion impeded the imagination of the builders.)
(If you read the Wikipedia entry on Gol Gumbaz, you’ll find a link to an entry on the architecture of Domes in general, which is pretty informative. I now know what “squinches” and “pendentives” are!)
There are several other sites mentioned in Grover’s book, but I think I’ll end with the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai. This is one of the most widely photographed temple sites in India, and you can see why: it’s a huge temple (built in the 1500s), surrounded by nine massive, beautifully decorated Gopurams (gates). Here is a beautiful image taken at night. And here is one taken at dusk. (Seriously, click on those; you won’t regret it.) Another must-visit site for me at least.
Great post Amardeep.
Kailashnath temple at Ellora is the largest monolith in the world ever. The artisans who were involved must have spent their lifetime making it. The most amazing thing for me is that it is carved below ground level almost like scooping icecream (obviosly with a million times more effort)
Amardeep, Terrific post. I loved the sketches of Kailashnath on Fran Pritchett’s website. Would it be a violation of copyright if I download and print some of them? The Brits sure were thorough when they wanted to understand something. Wish I understood something more about the technology of these–aquatint, lithograph, steel engraving etc. BTW, Konarak is pretty amazing. I visited as a child.
Great post !!! What a treasure of information and pictures of old architecture.
And yeah, I have been to Dilwara Temple and its absolutely breath-taking from inside. Very detailed carvings. Its just awesome.
My pet peeve is that Karnataka does not advertise the history and beauty of our “Heritage Sites” enough. We have such a glorius history and rich culture. No tourism promo has done justice to it. Speaking of Flickr peep this http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/sets/72057594066114801/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/sets/72057594065660859/ Amazing architecture – I have always admired and been very proud of it since I have been a kid. It was facination to me that the queen was a model as a http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/100703949/in/set-72057594065660859/ literally- sculpture girl. It is very cool to see that a bangle could be made to rotate on a sculpted hand and stone bells could be made to ring on a statue. The most fascinating thing that also helped develop an early love and respect for engineering was this tall pillar with a rounded base (like an earthern pot) , which could be rocked and the guide could pass a ruler underneath it. WOW!! Also did http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whispering_gallery copy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Gumbaz ??
Excellent post Amardeep!!
wonderful post, amardeep. definitely going to add this book to my wish list. another great guide to india’s diverse architecture is “Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent” by Takeo Kamiya. rediff had details on it a couple of years ago: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/10spec.htm
a slide show of images showing images from the books is here: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/10arc1.htm
more info on the book and the author here: http://www.indoarch.org/
Chandi, those images are over 100 years old, so they’re definitely not copyrighted. It’s interesting to see that they’re for sale on Ebay… It would be
Su, for some reason your links aren’t coded correctly — though I should be able to edit them so they click through correctly… we’ll see.
Incidentally, Whose God, I forget where you live, but if you’re in the U.S. you’ll be able to find that book at Barnes & Noble for $10. (That’s the beauty of the “remainders” bin)
The images themselves are not, of course, but what about downloading them from someone’s website? I was referring to Fran Pritchett’s website. And secondly, don’t you have to seek permission from museums/libraries to copy or use them? So would Pritchett have asked for permission? Would I have to if I used them in a book etc?
I’m really not sure about any use beyond simply printing them out for personal use. You could just email her directly — I’m pretty sure she’s good with email & will reply.
For most uses above a 5 X 7 print, you’ll probably want a higher resolution version. You may be able to arrange with her for that.
amardeep, thanks. i’ll check B&N.
No mention of the superb Chola temples in Tamil Nadu? The Brihadeewarar Temple in Thanjavur built by Raja Raja Cholan, the Brihadeeswarar temple (a replica) built by his son Rajendra Cholan at Gangaikondacholapuram and the Airawateeswarar temple built at Dharasuram by Rajendra II are master-pieces of Dravidian architecture.
All three are on the UN’s World Heritage Site list. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/250.
On my last trip home, I visited the last two and couldn’t fathom how they could have built these almost a thousand years ago. Stunning architecture and unbelievable feats of engineering.
Thanks Amardeep. I’ll check it out.
” it’s a huge temple (built in the 1500s),”
I am sure the Meenakshi temple must have been atleast 2000 years old. Maybe you meant renovation…
Amardeep: How do you fix the links?
A few words about Khajuraho: the temple wouldn’t have been possible without an incredibly huge amount of money pumped in by some moneybag bursting at the seams with irrepressible libido. The so-called ‘temple’, as such, reflects an unmistakably money-driven take on Hinduism. The consequent voyeurism it invites is the result of economic hubris. The same more or less holds true for Konark. These are no religious temples. These are quite visibly the products of economically privileged cosmologies. Take a look around and you would come to staggering conclusions about the Birla Mandirs and modern day Akshardams mushrooming in contemporary India. Architecture of the kind discussed here is not religious as so erroneously pointed out by Prof Amardeep. They do not represent people’s spaces – the so-called public sphere. It is not a surprise therefore that the peoples spaces such as Mohanjodaro, Harappa, Sanghol, Takshila and Nalanda do not figure anywhere in this discussion.
Su, I fixed your links for you. (Only we are allowed to edit comments)
A little HTML lesson (from your local tech-geek English professor!):
Next time, reverse where you put the URL and the reference. The URL goes in the quotes and the reference (the word you want readers to see) goes between the brackets. Otherwise the links were ok.
I finally finished reading it. Very nice post. I found this link where you can find pictures of some monuments. http://www.indiamonuments.org/
Nice post. It seems to me that all we have left by way of the ancient Indian architecture is the religious architecture. What about ancient houses? What kind of architectural forms did they use? Did they have a coherent architectural pattern language? I see some of this clearly in Rajasthan (Jaisalmer and other places) but what about the rest of India? Does anyone know where more information on this subject might be available?
thanks for the post; i’ve always been interested in temple architecture and more specifically the concept of underlying fractal principles of repeating self-similarity, notably in temples in Khajurao and Thanjavoor. THe more you read up on it, especially the specific measurements and geometry of the garbha-griha, the more fascinating it is…i would write more but i’m at work and govt peons do not indulge in fractal talk! keep posting good stuff..
Kundan Shilp For Temple Temple Designs & Interior Items In All Type Of Stones With Various Type Of Stone Carving In Indian Style With Use Of Vastu & Shilp Shashra
BHAVESH B,SOMPURA SHREE GANESH SOCIETY JOGASHAR ROAD DHRANGADHRA 363310 GUJARAT INDIA MOB – 91 98254 52903 / 91 98793 42553 / 91 92286 13225 Email – kundan_shilp@yahoo.com url:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/kundanshilp/