445-466 Bloomsbury Architecture Library Platform - Indian Subcontinent, C. 500 BCE-600 CE PDF

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Hardy, Adam. "Indian Subcontinent, c. 500 BCE–600 CE." Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History
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Indian Subcontinent, c. 500 BCE–600 CE

by Adam Hardy
DOI: 10.5040/9781474207768.021
Page Range: 445–466
History and Geography

It used to be thought that the collapse of the great cities of the Indus Valley early in the second
millennium BCE, and of their Harappan Culture (see Chapter 12), was followed by a dark age
across the Indian subcontinent, during which pastoralist Aryans ‘invaded’ from the north, with
urbanization absent for centuries, only fully apparent again by the middle of the first
millennium. More recent excavations, while not denying the collapse, suggest much more a
picture of continuity and reconfiguration. There is evidence of large, proto-urban settlements
from the second millennium, not only in the northwest of the subcontinent and the Gangetic
planes, but also further south into peninsular India. The use of iron in the subcontinent has also
been traced back to that period. During the first half of the first millennium BCE, thoroughly
urban settlements, with subsidiary settlements and agricultural hinterlands, certainly appeared
in many regions, including southern India and Sri Lanka.
It is within this archaeological context that historians are trying to understand what are now
seen as the migrations of Aryan peoples into India, and the processes of state formation that
resulted. The general picture, in northern India at least, through much of the first millennium
BCE, is of a patchwork of petty states comprising tribal republics, ruled by councils of nobles,
and kingdoms. Several of these states rose to prominence towards the middle of the
millennium and began to subsume their neighbours.
From one of the more powerful Gangetic kingdoms, Magadha (southern Bihar), Chandragupta
Maurya founded an empire around 320 BCE. It took its place in what was now an age of large
empires throughout the entire stretch between Europe and China. The empires of the Mauryas
and some of their successors over the next few centuries were of a size not seen again in South
Asia until the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century CE. At its height, the Mauryan Empire
extended from present-day Afghanistan to the southern areas of the vast Deccan Plateau in
south-central India. The northwest of the subcontinent, including Gandhara (now in Pakistan),
had been under the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire for most of the previous century.
Their centralized administrative system influenced that of the Mauryas.
Shortly before Chandragupta took power, Alexander the Great annexed the northwest regions,
crossing the Indus in 326 BCE. His brief incursion began long-lasting connections between this
northwestern part of India and the Hellenistic world. Chandragupta wrested the northwest back
from Seleucus Nikator, Alexander’s successor in the eastern provinces. The great emperor,
Ashoka Maurya (r. c. 268–233 BCE), grandson of Chandragupta, created an ethical framework
for empire. He espoused Buddhism, which had been founded a century or two earlier, and his
edicts were inscribed on rocks and pillars along the far-flung fringes of his empire, extolling
peace, tolerance and respect for all living creatures. Ashoka even sent missionaries to the
Hellenistic West, and his son Mahinda is credited with bringing Buddhism to Sri Lanka.
Mauryan cities were fortified, with ramparts and gates, and were linked by trade routes
traversing the subcontinent, and extending northwards to join the ‘Silk Road’ linking China with
Persia and Europe. Ashoka’s imperial patronage of Buddhism engendered the first monumental
stone architecture of South Asia. Through the succeeding centuries, Buddhist sacred sites and
monastic establishments enjoyed royal patronage and support from the lay community. The
merchant classes, especially, were attracted to Buddhism, and endowed religious monuments
and institutions, which were often located close to trade routes. Together with trade, the
Buddhist monastic network fostered a pan-Indic culture discernible in the art and architecture
of widely dispersed sites.
This remained the pattern under the various successors the Mauryan Empire, beginning with
the Shungas, who replaced the Mauryas in 185 BCE, controlling most of central, northern and
eastern India into the first century BCE. Rulers were generally Hindus, but regularly also
supported Buddhist and Jainist institutions. Several important early Buddhist monuments date
from the Shunga era and that of the Satavahanas, who ruled much of the Deccan and central
India between the first century BCE and the early centuries CE. The multicultural northwestern
kingdoms, including Bactria (now in Afghanistan) and Gandhara (now in Pakistan), were
dominated successively by Indo-Greeks, Hellenized Shakhas (Scythians) and Iranian Parthians.
From the first century CE the Kushanas, originally nomadic people from northwest China and
already settled in Bactria, built an empire that, at its greatest extent under Emperor Kanishka I,
who ruled probably from around 78–142 CE, extended north of the Himalayas into Chinese
Turkestan, and down into central India. Kanishka was another great supporter of Buddhism, and
also of the Persian cult of Mithras.
Much of the wealth of Kanishka’s empire derived from control of the overland trade routes to
the Roman Empire, far to the west. Meanwhile, flourishing maritime trade in spices and
precious stones had developed between the Roman Empire and the coastal regions of
southern India, bringing in large quantities of Roman gold coins. The kingdoms of the far south
of the Indian subcontinent, with their Dravidian languages and culture, remained beyond the
reach of the empires further north, and Aryan culture penetrated them only gradually. Fertile
coastal areas had settled agriculture from an early date, but the hinterlands long remained
tribal. Sri Lanka was an independent and largely unified kingdom from as early as the fourth
century BCE.
The last great empire of ancient India was that of the Guptas (c. 320–550 CE), who ruled from
Pataliputra (modern-day Patna), the former Mauryan capital. Their zone of influence was similar
to that of the earlier dynasty, if account is taken of their allies, the Vakatakas, who ruled the
central and northern Deccan. But the Gupta Empire was not centralized in the way that the
Mauryan Empire is thought to have been. Beyond the core region, the local kings paid tribute
to the Guptas while ruling their own territories. Even as they revived the ancient Vedic rituals of
Hinduism, the Gupta rulers created new and enduring concepts of kingship, particularly the
direct relationship they set up with their chosen deity, Vishnu. This peaceful era saw a
blossoming of culture and is widely seen now as a golden age. Many lasting aspects of
Hinduism were consolidated, including the pantheon of deities still familiar today, and its
temples became the established focus of worship.
Map 21.1. The Indian Subcontinent c. 250 BCE‒500 CE LEANNE KELMAN / ENCOMPASS GRAPHICS / RIBA
COLLECTIONS.
Culture and Society

Society and culture in the Indian subcontinent can only be understood in relation to the great
religions that evolved in this period. Hinduism is the later term given to a wide variety of beliefs
and practices originating in India. Vedic wisdom (as derived from the earliest Hindu texts, the
Vedas) was passed down orally by Brahmin priests, and hence early Hinduism is often called
Brahmanism. Vedic authority continued to underpin the four theoretical social categories, the
varnas (literally ‘colours’): Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (princes, warriors), Vaishyas (traders,
farmers) and Shudras (servants) – with Brahmins notionally the highest. In reality, the situation
became complex and fluid, with numerous jatis (sub-castes) based on clan, occupation and
belief.
Vedic ritual, the preserve of Brahmins, centred not on temples but on sacrificial rituals
performed at fire altars made of brick. Kings continued to be consecrated on the basis of such
rituals. Theistic cults were flourishing by the first century BCE, moving from the Vedic pantheon
towards those Hindu gods who later became fully established during the Gupta Empire from
the early fourth century CE onwards. However, while worship focused on enshrined images may
have a very ancient history in the subcontinent, there is little material evidence before
monumental temple architecture emerged in the Gupta period.
Counter-currents to Brahmanical Hindu orthodoxy, already manifest in the profound mysticism
of the Upanishads – a collection of rival theological and philosophical texts – had already begun
to emerge by the middle of the first millennium BCE. The foundation of the Jain religion, with
its belief in liberation through non-violence and self-control and non-attachment, is ascribed to
its key figure, Mahavira (599–527 BCE). Siddhartha Gautama, the future Buddha, renounced his
princely comforts around the middle of the first millennium BCE, just slightly later than
Mahavira, and similarly sought the path to enlightenment. Central to both Jainism and
Buddhism is the institution of monasticism, with nuns as well as monks leading ascetic lives.
Both religions evolved different branches. Buddhism developed various schools, generally
categorized under two broad divisions: the Hinayana (‘Lesser Vehicle’), of which the main
branch is the Theravada (‘School of the Elders’) which continued to predominate in Sri Lanka,
Burma and Thailand; and the later Mahayana (‘Greater Vehicle’) which travelled to China, Korea
and Japan (see Chapters 22, 23 and 37–39). The latter emphasizes the role of bodhisattvas,
enlightened beings who however choose to remain earthbound to help others towards
Buddhahood, and reveres a pantheon of past and future incarnations of the Buddha.
The earliest recorded script in South Asia is that of Ashoka’s edicts, either in Brahmi or (in the
northwest) Karoshti script, produced during his reign in the mid-third century BCE. Many
seminal Indian texts date from the period covered by this chapter, often difficult to date
precisely because some were originally transmitted orally and most have grown through
accretion. They include the Arthashastra, on statecraft; Panini’s Sanskrit grammar; the Laws of
Manu, on Hindu social norms; and the Natyashastra on stagecraft, music and dance. The great
epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, along with the Jataka tales of the Buddha’s lives,
and the Hindu myths incorporated in the Puranas, provided a wealth of stories for relief
carvings. In Sri Lanka, the Mahavamsa (‘Great Chronicle’) appeared around 500 CE. Written in
Pali, this is both an epic history of the island and a key text of Theravada Buddhism.
The Gupta period is often considered classical in terms of Indian culture, because of its
standards in literature and the arts, and the establishment of classical Sanskrit as the language
of high culture and lingua franca of the elite. The great dramatist Kalidasa is representative of
this period. Gupta architecture is superb, distils that of the previous ages, and is germinal for
what follows. Whether that makes it classical is a matter for debate.
Architecture
Ancient Indian literature abounds with accounts of heavenly cities and palaces made of
precious metals and gems, but the terrestrial record reveals the more banal palette of timber,
brick and stone. Most of the subcontinent was forest, providing an ample supply of excellent
hardwoods. These, along with mud, stones, mud brick, bamboo and thatch, must have served,
as even today, for making vernacular buildings suited to a wide variety of climatic and
topological conditions. There was also a magnificent tradition of monumental wooden
architecture, often in combination with brick, but only traces survive. Kiln-fired bricks were
produced again during the Mauryan Empire (c. 320–185 BCE), perhaps for the first time since
the decline of the Indus Valley civilization in the early second millennium BCE, which had
caused a loss of knowledge and skills of brick architecture. Archaeology has revealed many
foundations and brick heaps from this period onwards. Relatively intact brick monuments
survive from around the fifth century CE in certain regions of the Indian subcontinent. Stone,
the material that has lasted best, was, however, largely confined to religious buildings.
The first monumental stone architecture of South Asia belongs to the centuries covered by this
chapter, and most of it was Buddhist prior to the Hindu temple architecture of the Gupta
period. The earliest free-standing stone structures (if we discount earlier megaliths) are the
Mauryan pillars, most famously those on which Ashoka’s edicts are inscribed, such as the well-
preserved example at Lauriya Nandangarh in Bihar (third century BCE). Such pillars evoke the
archetypal symbolism of the axis mundi (world axis), and probably reflect a tradition of erecting
wooden pillars. They had monolithic, circular shafts, tapering slightly, and a highly polished
capital consisting of a ribbed bell- or tassel-like element and a square or circular abacus topped
by a single animal (such as lion, bull or elephant) or several addorsed (back-to-back) animals.
One such capital from Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, with four addorsed lions (held in Sarnath
Museum though the associated pillar remains in its original outdoor position), is now the
emblem of the Republic of India. There are around nineteen known examples of these stone
pillars, measuring up to 15 metres (49 feet) in height, though most are now in fragments. All are
made of sandstone from either Chunar, near Varanasi, or Mathura: the material was transported
across huge distances. The pillar type – sometimes called ‘Persepolitan’ because of the
connections with the structural columns at the Achaemenid capital, Persepolis (Iran), with their
double-bull capitals (see Chapter 15) – came to be used up until the Gupta period in structural
architecture, as well as in the great tradition of monolithic, rock-cut cave sanctuaries that also
emerged in the Mauryan period. This tradition has left us the earliest architectural interiors,
carved out from granite in the Barabar Hills in what is today Bihar state. Of these, the Lomas
Rishi cave (Key Buildings, fig. 21.15), with its gabled façade, is the most important.
Figure 21.1. Buildings from relief carvings of the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. This
compilation shows the variety of timber and thatched building forms depicted in stone relief
carvings. Horseshoe arch gables are conspicuous. © ADAM HARDY.
Fortunately, the stone architecture of the Indian subcontinent also tells us much about the
tradition of wooden architecture. It does this in two ways. Firstly, timber structures were
depicted in stone, in narrative relief carvings, and wherever carved images of wooden buildings
were used to ornament stone buildings (figs 21.1, 21.2). Such depictions should not be taken as
literal, as the representations have been shaped by convention, idealization and imagination,
yet the character of the architecture is vividly conveyed. Secondly, stone architecture itself
imitates the forms originally conceived in timber. Here, again, care must be taken not to see
things too literally. Yet, compared with, say, Greek Doric temples, where the earliest examples
seem to have transformed away from their timber prototypes considerably, the early Indian
examples are remarkably like petrified carpentry. This is particularly striking in rock-cut cave
architecture from the Lomas Rishi cave onwards. The notion that this is because the Indian
architects were conservative and had not yet learnt the proper way to build in stone is a
hangover from nineteenth-century Structural Rationalism. This view ignores both the powerful
symbolism that the revered form of a sacred building type could exert, and how this
architecture is fundamentally representational – and through transformations of its original
imagery develops uniquely expressive architectural languages.
Settlement and Sacred Landscape

Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleukos Nikator, Alexander’s Greek successor in the east,
recorded his visit to Chandragupta Maurya’s capital of Pataliputra at the very end of the fourth
century BCE. It was 34 kilometres (21 miles) in circumference, with 570 towers and 64 gates,
and evidence suggests that this is no exaggeration. Early Buddhist narrative reliefs portray a
seductive image of city life, set among towers, lofty gateways and multi-storey mansions with
thatched barrel (or tunnel) roofs, turrets and rooftop pavilions. Lower floors are shown as solid
brick, while the upper ones are in timber, with wide balconies, railings and pillars with brackets
to support the beams, and the rounded thatched eaves that shade the inhabitants. Horseshoe-
arch gables are conspicuous. Unfortunately, most archaeological evidence of ancient Indian
cities now consists merely of mounds and potsherds. However, excavations of a portion of
Sirkap, an early (roughly second-century BCE) zone of the Gandharan capital, Taxila, have
revealed a plan reminiscent of Greek cities, with a grid of streets, a major one running east–
west and secondary streets at right angles to it. There are also foundations of substantial brick
houses and an apsidal temple from around the first century CE.
Figure 21.2. Relief from the east torana (gateway) of the Great Stupa, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh
(1st century BCE). Maya (top left) dreams of a white elephant and knows that she will give birth
to the Buddha. A city gate is shown lower left. Constructional details that are later transformed
into elements of masonry architecture include joist ends, posts with brackets, and rounded
thatched canopies. © ADAM HARDY.
Cities, towns and villages with different kinds of grid plan, typically within a square, were a
theoretical ideal throughout India according to the canonical texts on vastushastra, the science
of architecture. No examples of such texts survive from before the sixth century CE, but the
basic concepts are probably older. Districts inhabited by a particular caste have been a
perennial feature of South Asian settlements, and these texts allocate the respective castes, as
well as a pantheon of deities, to specific parts of the grid, and specify locations for temples and
markets. To what extent such concepts were applied literally is difficult to know, but a square
fortified city from the centuries BCE has been excavated at Nandour (Uttar Pradesh), and the
general scheme of a main east–west street crossing a main north–south one is typical in later
periods.
While religious buildings were erected in towns, a typical process, continuing well into the
medieval period, was for sacred sites in the countryside to become the focus for a settlement.
Places considered sacred by a local, often tribal, population, were adopted by more
mainstream religion. A local god or goddess would be assimilated to a member of the
orthodox Hindu pantheon. Buddhist sites often followed this pattern, too: several central Indian
sites are known to have previously been associated with naga (snake spirit) cults. The earliest
Buddhist holy places, however, were the locations of key events in the Buddha’s life: his birth in
Lumbini, death (parinirvana) at Kapalivastu (both now in Nepal), his enlightenment at
Bodhgaya, and his first sermon, at Sarnath. Later, Emperor Ashoka distributed the Buddha’s
relics throughout his realm, erecting numerous stupas to contain them. Such sites became
thriving places of pilgrimage, and monasteries were founded at them. Stupas and monasteries
were rarely isolated structures, but parts of evolving complexes. Although monasteries were
places for an ascetic life, often in secluded locations, these complexes were never completely
isolated. They were connected with neighbouring religious sites, often near trade routes, and
accessible from cities, whose inhabitants would be patrons. Some, such as the stupa complex at
Amaravati, were immediately beyond the city walls, symbolically outside, but functioning as an
integral part of the city. At the Sri Lankan capital, Anuradhapura, numerous monastic
complexes sit within the city itself (Key Buildings). The city is centred on the royal citadel, and
has an impressive system of irrigation, but the stupas and their surrounding monasteries must
always have dominated, even before the rest of the city fell into ruins.
Stupas and Buddhist Religious Complexes

The stupa is the most characteristic building form of Buddhism, if indeed a solid dome is
considered a building. Its shape goes back to burial mounds. The first stupas contained relics of
the Buddha himself, then relics of his disciples or other holy figures were buried in them,
encased in precious reliquaries. Relics were believed to radiate miraculous power. With its
funereal associations, a stupa symbolized the Buddha’s nirvana on leaving this earth, while
evoking his presence. On top of the dome (anda, ‘egg’) is a railed platform (harmika), later
transformed into a block crowned by an inverted stepped pyramid, and sometimes treated as a
formalized mansion (harmya). From the harmika rises a pivotal mast (yashti) terminating in a
parasol (chattravali). All of this suggests cosmic symbolism, centred around a world axis. The
chattravali, like the honorific parasol held over a royal personage, reflects the Buddha’s
legendary princely origins: the element becomes multiple, suggesting cosmic planes and
stages of attainment on the path to enlightenment.
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Figure 21.3. Great Stupa (Stupa 1), Sanchi (2nd–1st centuries BCE). An earlier brick stupa,
perhaps erected by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, was encased within this larger structure. This
was the centrepiece of a thriving monastic complex. Citizens from nearby Vidisha were among
the donors of the relief carvings on the toranas. © ADAM HARDY.
The great stone stupas of peninsular India are those of Bharhut, Sanchi (Key Buildings, fig. 21.3)
and Kanganahalli, all from between the second century BCE and the first century CE, and
Amaravati (c. late second–early third century CE). As still seen in the Great Stupa at Sanchi,
which alone remains intact, these monuments stood on circular, railed platforms, with an outer
ring of railings defining a path for ritual circumambulation, and gateways (toranas) on the
cardinal axes (towards the four main compass points). Both railings and gateways were massive,
stone interpretations of timber detailing, ornamented with superlative relief carvings. There
were many stupas, in both brick and stone, in the greater Gandharan region, including those of
Butkara (Swat, Pakistan), Guldara (eastern Afghanistan), Kanishka’s huge stupa (now ruined) at
Peshawar and the Dharmarajika stupa at Taxila – all dating entirely or mainly to around the
second century CE. Butkara and the Dharmarajika, like the Sanchi Great Stupa, may have been
among Ashokha’s foundations, though with subsequent layers. Gandharan stupas do not have
railings and gateways, but stand on circular platforms, sometimes two or more superimposed,
and with a square platform at the base. Colossal brick stupas are found in Sri Lanka, including
the Ruwanveliseya and Jetavana stupas at Anuradhapura, both of ancient foundation but much
restored.
For every monumental stupa, there are innumerable smaller ones without relics inside, in stone,
sometimes monolithic, or stuccoed brick. These include the myriad votive stupas donated by
devotees at sacred sites, as well as those made for veneration inside monasteries or shrines. A
great stupa would engender further stupas and monasteries around it, while other sites began
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as monastic foundations, creating a need for stupas within them or close by, either as separate
structures or enshrined objects. There emerged three typical components of a Buddhist
monastic complex: the stupa; the vihara or monastic courtyard; and the chaitya-griha or stupa
shrine. Each should be understood as a building type, though rarely found unconnected to at
least one of the other kinds of structure.
Vihara may originally have denoted a single hermit’s hut, but came to mean a courtyard
surrounded by monks’ cells. A chaitya-griha is a shrine for the worship of a sacred object,
usually a stupa, for which chaitya is another term. These structures can take various forms,
including circular, but typically follow a rectangular plan with an apse (semicircular end) at the
rear, containing the stupa and a circumambulatory passage. This is the form commonly called
the ‘chaitya hall’. In its original timber versions it had a thatched barrel-roof with curved
wooden ribs supported on posts and beams, often with side aisles running around the apse,
with half-barrel roofs.
Monastic complexes with these three kinds of component could grow piecemeal, or could be
planned. The south Indian site of Nagarjunakonda (c. third century CE) contained several
formally planned monastic units built of brick, consisting of a vihara cloister fronted by a pair of
apsidal shrines facing one another, and a stupa in front of these. One apsidal shrine contained a
stupa, the other a Buddha image. The Gandharan monastery of Takht-i-Bahi, of a similar date,
included a residential vihara and, down the hillside, a courtyard containing a central stupa,
surrounded by interlinked shrines of two alternating types (fig. 21.11), housing small stupas and
Buddha images respectively. The great Buddhist university at Nalanda (Bihar) continued the
tradition of juxtaposing stupas, viharas and shrines, with its row of massive, brick vihara
courtyards lined up side by side.
By far the biggest stupas and monastic complexes of South Asia are to be found in Sri Lanka,
especially at Anuradhapura, where the earliest remains date back to the third century BCE. The
typical Sri Lankan stupa (called dagaba in Pali) is of brick and essentially like the Indian
hemispherical type, without railings or gateways, but standing on a square platform with steps
on the cardinal axes. The function of housing a stupa, like an Indian chaitya hall, is fulfilled by a
type of structure called a vatadage (‘circular relic house’). Concentric circles of pillars surround
the stupa, originally supporting a cascade of timber roofs. In surviving examples the
superstructures have long since disappeared, leaving the stone pillars, set in brick platforms
with moulded stone facings.
In fact, most ancient and medieval monastic structures in Sri Lanka are either entirely of brick or
have this kind of composite construction, and have invariably lost their roofs, the forms of which
cannot be known with certainty. Nonetheless, several other typical building forms stand out,
including the square, residential structure (kuti), generally about 9 metres (30 feet) square, and
the rectangular pillared hall (pasada). While monasteries tended to grow gradually and
organically, there are certain highly formal types of monastic cluster, unique to Sri Lanka. One is
a square formed by four kutis with a pasada at the centre, possibly for use as a refectory, all
within a rectangular compound. Larger monasteries could contain many such units. Another
characteristic form, which could constitute an entire monastery, is centred on a raised platform
supporting four separate structures: a stupa, a shrine for the bhodi tree (associated with
Buddha’s enlightenment), a pasada-like building used as a kind of chapter house, and a shrine
for a Buddha image. Residential kutis surround the platform, all enclosed by a moat and/or a
wall. Despite the Theravada basis of Sri Lankan Buddhism, elements of Mahayana practices
account for in increasing presence of Buddha and bodhisattva images.
The Rock-Cut Tradition

The roots of the tradition go back to the Barabar Hills caves. Viharas and chaitya halls are best
known from rock-cut versions, mainly in the Western Ghats (Maharashtra). Groups of viharas
and chaitya halls are cut back from cliff faces, high up on hillsides, as at Bhaja (Key Buildings),
Bedsa (Key Buildings, fig. 21.16), Nasik and Karli (Key Buildings, figs 21.5, 21.17) or, in the cases
of Pitalkhora and Ajanta (Key Buildings, figs 21.8, 21.9, 21.18), sequestered in spectacular
ravines. A first phase of activity fell between the first century BCE and the second century CE,
with a second wave between the fifth and seventh centuries CE. These are often referred to,
respectively, as the Hinayana and Mahayana phases, terms that should be used with caution,
but useful to distinguish between a stage with no Buddha images and a later one replete with
them (see Sculpture and Architecture).
Figure 21.4. Chaitya hall Cave 18 and vihara (monastery) Cave 17, Nasik, Maharashtra (c. 2nd
century CE). Like their structural counterparts, rock-cut chaitya halls (left) and viharas (right)
were not isolated monuments, but part of monastic complexes. At Nasik and other rock-cut
sites the sculpted caves are strung along the hillside. © ADAM HARDY.
Figure 21.5. Karli, interior of chaitya hall. While the space and stupa are carved out of the rock,
wooden hooped beams have been inserted here, like those that would have supported the
covering of thatch in a freestanding structure. The parasol over the stupa is also made of wood.
© ADAM HARDY.
Sculpture and Architecture

It is debatable whether or not there was an ‘aniconic’ phase when images of Buddha were
prohibited. They are, nevertheless, virtually absent before the Kushana period, around the
second century CE, when sculptural representations of Buddha developed simultaneously in
Indo-Greek Gandhara, and at Mathura. Fifth-century architecture frames thousands of
Buddha images. But early Buddhist monuments, even the most ascetic-seeming, also throb
with lively sculpture: tales of Buddha’s lives, rapturous scenes of veneration, abundantly
endowed yakshis (female nature spirits), contented loving couples.
Kushana-era Mathura was a cradle of Hindu and Jain sculpture, too, but many of the ways of
representing the Hindu gods originated in Gupta times. A sculpted image was needed to
contain the divine presence in the dark inner sanctum of a temple, cave like, whether carved
from living rock or encased in thick walls at the heart of a constructed temple-mountain.
Some of South Asia’s most powerful sculpture is in great panels bringing mythological
moments to life in the sombre depths of cave temples. The Gupta structural stone temple at
Deogarh (Key Buildings, figs 21.13, 21.20) has such panels on the sanctum exterior, a
position later dominated by individual icons of gods. It is easy to forget that most temples
were limewashed and painted, adding the dimension of colour.
Sculpture is clearly integral to the conception of these monuments. People focusing on the
sculpture alone may perceive the architecture merely as a glorified frame. Others will say
that these structures, carved and intrinsically representational, are themselves sculpture, not
architecture. But that betrays a dogmatic definition of architecture.
Figure 21.6. Cave 21, Ellora, Maharashtra (6th century CE). The main hall is effectively a
spacious veranda, preceding the sanctum and its ambulatory passage. There are two lateral
chambers, and this view is from inside the right-hand one, showing the mighty Shiva Nataraja
(Lord of the Dance) pacing out the cosmic cycles. © ADAM HARDY.
Figure 21.7. Plans of rock-cut caves in Maharashtra (c. 120 to 6th century CE). These four plans
show a typical chaitya hall (1); two viharas (2, 3), the second more temple-like, with inner
sanctum for a Buddha image; and a Hindu cave temple (4), for Shiva. © ADAM HARDY.
The typical vihara plan is a square chamber surrounded by cells, fronted by a pillared veranda
(fig. 21.7). It became increasingly usual for a square of pillars to define an inner ‘courtyard’ and
a passageway around it. This ‘courtyard’ has no sky, of course, but defines an inner universe,
cool, dark, reverberant and meditative. Viharas became increasingly shrine-like. A stupa is
carved in relief on the back wall of the second-century Gautamiputra cave, Nasik. In the fifth
century, Vakataka-period caves at Ajanta, and their successors at Aurangabad (Key Buildings,
fig. 21.19), Buddha images are enshrined in a sanctum, placed axially at the rear. At Ajanta, the
trance-like atmosphere is enhanced by the incomparable wall paintings.
Rock-cut chaitya halls are typically of the apsidal, ‘nave-and-aisles’ form, with the wooden
ribcage inserted or reproduced in stone, and with the great horseshoe-arch gabled window
carved on the façade, illuminating the stupa in the dim depths. Façades of earlier chaitya halls
present a rather abstract imagery of storeyed buildings, combining horseshoe-arch gables,
pillar forms and strips of railing motif (figs 21.4, 21.16). The fifth-century Caves 19 and 26 at
Ajanta typify the later phase. Their façades, together with the carved galleries over their
interior colonnades, create an opulent and sensuous vision of heavenly palaces, providing a
framework of niches for multiple images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Here Buddha even
appears on the front of the stupa.
Figure 21.8. Interior of chaitya hall Cave 26, Ajanta, Maharashtra (5th century CE). A Buddha
image now appears on the stupa front, seated in an aedicular frame. Buddhas line the stupa
drum and gallery frieze, and the 6.4-metre (21-foot) Buddha reclines along the north aisle wall,
about to enter Nirvana. © ADAM HARDY.
Figure 21.9. Façade of chaitya hall Cave 19, Ajanta, Maharashtra (5th century CE). The luscious
heavenly palace architecture of the façade, becoming abstracted from its timber origins, now
needs to provide a framework of niches for Buddha and bodhisattva images. A band of barrel-
roofed pavilions (shalas) runs along the top. © ADAM HARDY.
This increasing need for enshrinement of Buddha images corresponded to the new prominence
accorded by the Gupta and Vakataka rulers for worshipping enshrined deities. Rock-cut
Brahamanical (Hindu) cave temples emerged at this time, alongside the rise of structural ones.
They built on the tradition of the vihara, with many variations in plan. As in the shrine-like
viharas, the main sanctum (garbhagriha, ‘womb chamber’), containing the principal image of
the deity, was typically placed axially at the rear. The earliest important examples are of the
fourth century, at Udayagiri in Madhya Pradesh. These are individually relatively simple, but
form part of Chandragupta II’s unprecedented hillside complex of mythological relief sculpture,
caves, and structural elements now lost, dedicated to Vishnu and all coordinated with
significant solar events. Again, present-day Maharashtra has the greatest concentration,
notably at Ellora (Key Buildings, fig. 21.6). Freestanding garbhagrihas are also found, allowing
circumambulation, as at Elephanta (early sixth century), where the sanctum radiates power from
a Shiva linga (phallic emblem of Shiva) visible through a doorway on all four sides. Influence
from this region is sensed in the lower Deccan, in the magnificent cave temples of the early
Chalukyas at Aihole and Badami (fig. 21.10).
Figure 21.10. Cave 1, Badami, Karnataka (6th century CE). This cave temple is dedicated to
Shiva, whose bull Nandi (head missing) faces the sanctum from the hall’s centre. However, the
figure facing the viewer is Harihara, half-Shiva, half-Vishnu. The pillared hall recalls a rock-cut
vihara, but continuous transverse beams emphasize the devotee’s progression though
increasingly sacred layers. © ADAM HARDY.
The rock-cut architecture of this period illustrates the emergence of enduring types of pillar
(see Pillars). Much of the richness of this architecture lies in the inventiveness lavished on pillar
designs, and the ways in which spaces are subtly articulated by arrangements of different
varieties of pillar.
Pillars
Column types in Indian architecture are sometimes defined by the shape of the horizontal
cross-section – square, stepped square, circular, polygonal etc. This is unsatisfactory, as a
single shaft is often wonderfully varied in cross-section; it is the vertical profile that is more
telling. Pillars typically comprise a vertical sequence of different types of element. This was
already true of the so-called Persepolitan type seen in the freestanding pillars of Ashoka and
lasting until Gupta times, with its bud-like bell capital, elaborated abacus, and animal crown.
The animals are still there when such pillars support a beam (figs 21.4, 21.5, 21.16);
alternatively, brackets are substituted. Brackets, originating in timber construction, remain an
option for the topmost part of any pillar. Mirroring the bell, pot forms are placed at the base,
the start of a long association between pots and pillars (fig. 21.19).
Another long-lasting pillar type derives from early stupa railings with their lotus roundels,
which gradually transmuted and cross-fertilized with other members of the growing family of
pillar parts, including pots. A brimming vase-of-plenty (purnaghata) became the capital of a
type characteristic of Gupta temples, and thereafter later of north Indian (Nagara) temple
architecture (figs 21.8, 21.18, 21.19). Another type has a rounded cushion (ghata, again
‘pot’) as capital, sometimes ribbed, and thus an amalaka. If this is the head, the
accompanying elements are the neck, shoulders, chest and, on top, the bearing plate for
brackets, or beam directly. This type emerged in the western Deccan, becoming standard for
southern (Dravida) temples. But, while Nagara and Dravida favoured particular types, they
have no monopoly over them. There are no ‘orders’ as such, and the boundaries between
identifiable types are fluid, allowing fertile interchange and hybridization.
Early Shrine Forms: Their Monumentalization and

Aedicularization
Early narrative reliefs illustrate different kinds of shrine made of timber and thatch. Several
show a hypaethral form (with roofless central space) around Buddha’s Bodhi tree, beneath
which he attained enlightenment. Others, multi-storey shrines or monastic structures with
layered, thatched eaves and domes or barrel-roofs (fig. 21.1), prefigure later masonry temples,
especially those of south India. Certain simpler forms are seen not only in reliefs, but as
aedicules adorning more complex structures. A Gandharan stupa base at Taxila (fig. 21.11) from
around the first century BCE is articulated with Corinthian-like pilasters with different kinds of
aedicule in between: one with a Greek pediment; another a torana like the gateways at the
stupas at Sanchi; the third an aisle-less chaitya hall like the façade of the Lomas Rishi cave.
Figure 21.11. Shrine forms in ancient Gandhara (late 1st century BCE to 2nd century CE). The
variety of India’s early shrines can be seen in the four examples shown here. © ADAM HARDY.
Figure 21.12. Seminal early shrine forms (c. 2nd century BCE onwards). These forms, originally
of timber, were monumentalized in stone and brick. They are the roots of the main traditions of
Indian temple architecture. © ADAM HARDY.
The chaitya hall type, with or without aisles, is one of five seminal forms that, in due course,
were directly monumentalized in brick or stone, forming the roots of long-lasting traditions of
temple architecture (figs 21.1, 21.12). It is the one that we know in most detail, because of the
full-size, rock-cut examples. A particular version of an aedicule of this form (fig. 21.11) was
ubiquitous in Gandhara around the second century CE, with or without aisles, fronting stupas
and girdling their bases. It is in this context that we find the first freestanding
monumentalization of this form, as one of the two types cloistered around the stupa at Takht-i-
Bahi (fig. 21.11). Whereas early rock-cut chaitya halls were relatively direct translations of the
wooden forms into stone, this monumentalizes the idea of the type rather than imitating it
literally. Thus, in a way typical of subsequent temple architecture, the superstructure is built as
an exterior image, with no accessible interior space. This type, made square at both ends and
entered from one side, became the temple form called Valabhi (see Chapter 36).
Another of the seminal types has a roll cornice and is crowned by a domed pavilion (figs 21.1,
21.12). This is the other shrine form in the Takht-i-Bahi cloister (fig. 21.11). With a circular dome,
it was widespread as an aedicule throughout Kushana period Gandhara, where it had
Corinthianesque pillars, and often sheltered a Buddha, as if in his hermit’s hut. The term ‘dome
and cornice’ shrine, sometimes applied to this type, may be appropriate here, as suggested by
the unique, full-size stone example at Gumbat-Balo Kale in Swat (Pakistan), where a central
chamber runs full-height up to the dome (originally a double dome). However, some reliefs
from peninsular India show the upper pavilion with its own floor and railing, thus prefiguring the
kuta on top of a simple Dravida (south Indian) shrine form (see Chapter 36). An alternative type
is rectangular, with the kuta replaced by a barrel-roofed pavilion, a shala. In early reliefs, this is
more familiar as a gateway than a shrine. A variant of this type is apsidal in plan, as in the early
brick renditions at Ter (Maharashtra) and Chezarla (Andhra Pradesh).
Two other seminal types first appeared in the Gupta period. One is simply a cella (inner
chamber) with a roof slab crowned by a ribbed member called an amalaka (fig. 21.1). The roof
slab may have masonry origins, but is treated as a formalized thatched eave. The other has a
pyramidal superstructure of superimposed eave mouldings, often crowned by an amalaka. This
is a stylization of a multi-tiered wooden building and is known as the Phamsana temple form.
From around the fifth century, representations of these various shrine forms were strung
together rhythmically over doorways, above beams (fig. 21.19), and along the top of cave
temple façades. At the same time, shrine-images of these kinds were being combined to create
new temple forms.
The Beginnings of Monumental Temple Architecture

Several very large, ruined, brick structures from around the fifth century CE consist of a stepped
series of platforms, originally crowned by some kind of chamber or shrine. The platforms are
reminiscent of those more familiar as bases for stupas, as seen in Gandhara, but with more
ample room. Terraced structures of this kind are found in the Gupta domains at Pawaya and
Ahicchatra, and another at the Vakataka capital, Mansar (Key Buildings). A comparable
structure of similar date, in a Buddhist context, is at the top of the rock fortress of Sigiriya, for a
while the capital of Sri Lanka, under the usurper Kassapa (r. c. 477–95). Although known as a
palace, the pyramidal structure appears to have been a palace for ritual rather than living in.
This prompts speculation that these may all have been ritual palaces, rather than temples. In
any case, the connection is close, a temple being a palace (prasada) for gods.
One Gupta brick temple survives relatively intact, at Bhitargaon (from around the mid-fifth
century) not on the scale of the terraced structures, but bigger than any stone temples of the
period: about 9.5 metres (31 feet) between exterior corners of the shrine. Its tower is tiered,
loosely of the Phamsana kind. As were the terraced buildings, it is ornamented with beautiful
terracotta panels. Larger still is the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya (Key Buildings), a brick
temple of a century or so later and outside the mainstream of Gupta architecture. Both of these
temples contain vaulted ceilings, while corbelling was later ubiquitous.
The earliest surviving Gupta structural stone shrines, at Sanchi and Tigawa, are early fifth
century, consisting of a small, simple cell, preceded by a porch with four pillars along the front.
They are usually called ‘flat-roofed’, but conceivably supported a tower, as quickly became the
norm. In more elaborate stone temples from the latter part of that century, such as those at
Nachna, Bhumara and Deogarh, the cella is raised on a single-tier platform. These temples had
superstructures, partly surviving at Deogarh. From fragments here, including miniature shrines
depicted on the door jambs (fig. 21.13), and at other Gupta sites we can understand the nature
of proto-Nagara towers and how they appear to have developed (fig. 21.14). The starting point
was the simple amalaka shrine (fig. 21.12). This became the superstructure of a more elaborate
version, and so on in a process of piling up (resulting in a blurring of boundaries with multi-eave
Phamsana). At the same time Valabhi aedicules, single or with vestigial aisles, were projected
along the cardinal axes in the successive tiers, creating a vertical chain of horseshoe arches.
Amalaka aedicules, simple or proliferated (i.e. resembling the Phamsana type), sat on the
corners of each stage. All that remained was to give a curved profile to the tower, and to make
the central band of arch forms continuous, and the Latina mode of Nagara temple had been
created (see Chapter 36).
Figure 21.13. Door jamb, Vishnu temple, Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh (c. 500 CE). On either side of
the doorway is a representation of a small temple, with a simpler version of the (now-ruined)
superstructure that would have crowned the Vishnu temple itself. It combines amalaka shrines
at the corners and on top, with a proto-Valabhi shrine in the middle. © ADAM HARDY.
Figure 21.14. Development of proto-Nagara temple forms (6th century CE). A temple form is

placed at the top of a new composition. Aedicules are projected from the centre, and placed
on the corners. The process continues, until only a curved profile and a continuous spine are
needed to arrive at the Latina form of Nagara temple (see Chapter 49). © ADAM HARDY.
The Vakataka rock-cut architecture at Ajanta displays both proto-Dravida and more northerly
details. This is also true of the contemporary, now somewhat rebuilt, Vakataka stone structural
temples at Ramtek. Other than in the proto-Dravida shrines at Ter and Chezarla, we must wait
until the seventh century to witness the formative stages of the southern tradition of Indian
stone architecture.
Key Buildings
Lomas Rishi cave, Barabar Hills, Bihar, India (mid-third century

BCE)
In the granite Barabar and Nagarjuni Hills near Gaya (Bihar) are the oldest surviving rock-cut
caves in India. Several date from the time of Emperor Ashoka (r. c. 268–233 BCE), the most
significant being the small, unfinished cave known as the Lomas Rishi in the Barabar Hills, made
for the Ajivikas, an ascetic Jain sect. It consists of a rectangular chamber leading to a circular
one, possibly for housing a stupa. The longitudinal axis runs parallel to the rock face, the
rectangular space entered through a doorway on its left side. Surrounding the door on the rock
face is carved a hut-like aedicule representing a wooden, barrel- or keel-roofed structure.
Details include inward-sloping posts, longitudinal beams and joists, struts holding the joists
away from the posts on the flanks, and a screen within the gable comprising curved beams and
a woven lattice. This represents the kind of structure that, often with aisles, was used for chaitya
halls to enshrine stupas, as we know from the rock-cut versions. Similar details are long lasting
in early Buddhist rock-cut architecture. It is also one of the archetypal shrine forms at the root
of later monumental temple architecture.
Figure 21.15. Façade of Lomas Rishi cave, Barabar Hills, Bihar (3rd century BCE). The façade of
this rock-cut cave sanctuary replicates the gable end of a barrel-roofed structure made of wood
and roofed in thatch. Inward-sloping posts, purlins and hooped transverse beams are among
the details represented. © ADAM HARDY.
Stupas and monasteries, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh (third century

BCE and later)
On its flat-topped hill, the Buddhist complex at Sanchi flourished and developed for over a
thousand years. Its stone and brick monuments must be imagined alongside numerous wooden
structures. They also need to be understood in relation to the nearby city of Vidisha, to
irrigation schemes devised by the monks, and to a wider sacred landscape including several
other important stupa clusters in the vicinity, and probably incorporating pre-Buddhist cult
sites. Even on its own, the Great Stupa, called Stupa 1 (fig. 21.3), is important as the only great
ancient stupa still complete without later modifications. While the mound and railings were
extensively restored in the colonial period, the early form is preserved and the original carvings
remain fresh and beautiful. The mound, of around the second century BCE, is nearly 40 metres
(131 feet) in diameter at its base. It encases a brick stupa of a century earlier, thought to have
been erected by Emperor Ashoka. The outer railings and gateways (fig. 21.2) were added in the
first century BCE. Stupa 3 is a smaller version, with a single gateway. Stupa 2, of the second
century BCE, has railings with vigorous carvings comparable to those from the stupa at
Bharhut, but no gateway.
Apart from numerous other stupa remains, many of them small votive works (erected as
offerings by individuals), vestiges survive from several viharas or monasteries, some as late as
the tenth century. Temples include a flat-roofed, fifth-century Gupta shrine (Temple 17) and
ruins of a seventh-century apsidal temple (Temple 18) built on the foundations of an earlier,
freestanding chaitya hall. Temple 45, from around the late ninth century, centrepiece of the
later monasteries, was just like a northern Indian Hindu temple of its period.
Stupas and ruins of Anuradhapura, North Central Province, Sri

Lanka (third century BCE and later)
According to tradition, the city of Anuradhapura was first established as Sri Lanka’s political and
religious capital in 377 BCE by one King Pandukabhaya. It remained so in this role, with
occasional interregnums, until the invasion of the Cholas from south India in the eleventh
century. Maurya emperor Ashokha’s son Mahinda brought Buddhism to the island, received by
the Sri Lankan king, Devanampiya Tissa (r. c. 250–210 BCE), whose reign saw the foundation of
the Mahavihara monastic complex. Two other vast monasteries followed within a century, the
Jetavana (third century) and Abhayagiri (second century), the three corresponding to three
principal Buddhist sects and becoming international institutions attracting scholar monks from
far and wide. Each is centred on a colossal stupa, of ancient foundation but many times
restored. The great stupa of the Mahavihara is known as the Ruwanveliseya. Largest of all is the
Jetavana stupa, measuring some 115 metres (377 feet) in diameter, and 120 metres (393 feet)
high. Earlier than these is a smaller, circular structure called the Thuparama, within the
Mahavihara complex, supposedly erected over the ashes of the great missionary Mahinder. A
restored stupa sits at the centre of concentric rings of pillars, originally with a wooden roof
structure, thus prefiguring the vatadage (‘circular relic house’) type. Ruins of numerous other
monastic establishments cover the area. The city has large tanks and irrigation channels and is
centred on a walled citadel, now ruined.
Rock-cut monastic complex, Bhaja, Maharashtra, India (early

second century BCE)
A series of twenty or more Buddhist rock-cut caves runs for some 200 metres (650 feet) along a
hillside in the Western Ghats. Residential viharas, supplied with water by rock-cut cisterns,
extend either side of a large chaitya hall (Cave 12). This is of typical apsidal, nave-and-aisles
form, with plain, octagonal pillars sloping slightly inwards. In the nave ceiling are hooped
beams and longitudinal joists, made of teak. A wooden screen was probably inserted in the
arched opening. The façade, which may originally have been fronted by a pillared veranda, is
conceived, together with that of the adjoining two-storey vihara, as a multi-storey mansion with
railed and horseshoe-gabled balconies. Richly bedecked figures are depicted in one of these.
While timber detailing is faithfully rendered, the composition is not a copy of a wooden
building: railings are stacked above railings and pierced by gables.
Fourteen monolithic stupas of varied design have been carved in one part of the site, inscribed
with the names of religious teachers. The vihara designated as Cave 19 has an interesting
veranda. Within the cliff face, behind a colonnade of part-octagonal pillars, is a half-barrel vault
with chunky, carved, curved ribs, its imaginary brow of thatch hidden in the hillside. On the
right-hand wall of the veranda are gods and their entourages in shallow relief.
Rock-cut monastic complex, Bedsa, Maharashtra (first century

CE)
Close to Bhaja (Key Buildings), but a century or so later, is the Buddhist complex at Bedsa,
dominated by a chaitya hall (Cave 7) and a spacious, barrel-roofed vihara (Cave 11), unusually
apsidal in plan. The chaitya hall façade is set back within the hillside, reached via a narrow
passage through the rocks. A majestic, full-height antechamber (fig. 21.16) is fronted by four
powerful, octagonal Mauryan-type columns, each crowned by paired animals ridden by sturdy
and rounded couples. The rear façade and flank walls within the antechamber are articulated by
a rhythmic collage of gables, false floors, railings and woven lattices – all creating a formalized
palace. This is pierced through at the centre by the giant horseshoe ‘sun window’ that
illuminates the sober stupa inside. As at Bhaja, the interior has sloped octagonal pillars. The
ribs, and the screen at the rear of the main gable, were of timber and have disappeared. The
stupa has a two-tier circular base with railing friezes.
Doorways from the antechamber into the main hall and lateral cells are treated as gabled
aedicules of the type descended from the Lomas Rishi façade (Key Buildings, fig. 21.15), in
effect an aisle-less version of the building as a whole. The same aedicule form also surrounds
the doors to the monks’ cells around the perimeter of the apsidal vihara, cloistered together by
strips of railing motif.
Figure 21.16. Veranda to rock-cut chaitya hall, Bedsa, Maharashtra (1st century CE). While the
interior space with its enshrined stupa closely replicates its timber prototype, the storeyed
architecture represented around the veranda walls is a fantasy collage of overlapping elements.
© ADAM HARDY.
Chaitya hall, Karli, Maharashtra (c. 120 CE)

Dominating another series of hillside excavations, only a short distance from Bhaja (Key
Buildings), and Bedsa (Key Buildings, fig. 21.16), the monumental rock-cut chaitya hall at Karli
(also Karla) is the largest and best-preserved early Buddhist example (figs 21.5, 21.7). As at
Bedsa, the hall is preceded by a lofty antechamber (fig. 21.17). A freestanding, monolithic
Mauryan-type pillar stands in front, perhaps originally one of a pair. The damaged, two-storey
front screen to the antechamber is plain, and rectangular holes indicate that it had an attached
wooden balcony. Interior palace-like façades have caryatid elephants to right and left, and are
peopled by contented, fleshy and quite homely couples. Buddha images are additions from
around the fifth century. The hall itself (fig. 21.5) is 13 metres (43 feet) wide, about the same in
height, and nearly 40 metres (130 feet) long. Its wooden ribcage is intact through the nave,
while the aisles, unusually, have flat ceilings. The columns, all of them octagonal, are now
upright rather than sloping. Except around the apse, where they are plain, they are of the
Mauryan type, on inverted pot bases echoing the bell capitals. Capping them are paired
elephants ridden by turbaned men and busty women, ultra-alert. They form a bulging frieze
cutting through the rhythm of abstract volumes. The stupa, as at Bedsa, has a two-tier base,
and its original, wooden parasol survives.
Figure 21.17. Veranda to rock-cut chaitya hall, Karli, Maharashtra (c. 120 CE). The heavenly
mansions of the antechamber walls are populated here with happy celestial couples. © ADAM
HARDY.
Cave temples, Ajanta, Maharashtra (second to first centuries

BCE and fifth century CE)
The incomparable Ajanta caves, carved from Deccan trap (basalt), form a necklace around the
outer scarp of a hairpin-shaped ravine, visited successively by the sun on its daily course. Both
the early (Hinayana-phase) excavations and the later (Mahayana) ones comprise viharas and
chaitya halls. The earlier caves are grouped together towards the centre of the series. The later
ones are more extensive, yet they were created within a remarkably short period in the late fifth
century CE, largely under Vakataka emperor Harishena (r. c. 475–500). It seems that the site was
abandoned soon afterwards, to be rediscovered only at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. The long period of oblivion preserved the now celebrated murals from the humidity of
human breath and the soot of oil lamps.
The earlier caves relate stylistically to sites such as Bhaja (Key Buildings) and Bedsa (Key
Buildings, fig. 21.16), and the difference between these and the later works is instantly
apparent. This is not only because of the new abundance of Buddha and bodhisattva figures,
together with all manner of sculpted creatures and mythical beings. While the basic building
types are the same, the surface treatment has abandoned boldness for refined luxuriance.
Architectural vocabulary has extended vastly, with a diversity of pillar types, miniature pavilion
types, doorway designs and decorative patterns. Surfaces were plastered and coloured,
creating a mesmerizing unity of architecture, sculpture and painting (fig. 21.18). The bejewelled
sensuousness is exemplified by the new linearity of the ubiquitous horseshoe gable arch, now
with curvaceous ears and a topknot, most conspicuous in the giant chaitya windows of Caves
19 and 26 (figs 21.8, 21.9). In the fifth-century works at Ajanta can be discerned the roots of
much Central Asian and Far Eastern Buddhist art.
Figure 21.18. Vihara Cave 2, Ajanta, Maharashtra (5th century CE). With the development of
Mahayana Buddhism, viharas become more like temples. Here a central Buddha shrine, with
antechamber, is flanked by shrines to yakshas (nature-spirits) who became followers of the
Buddha. Painted stories of the Buddha’s life cover the walls, and the painted ceiling is divided
up by notional beams. © ADAM HARDY.
Vakataka capital, Mansar, Maharashtra (fifth century CE)

While Buddhism flourished under the eastern Vakatakas at Ajanta, the capital of the western
branch of that dynasty, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) eastwards at Mansar, testifies to the
rulers’ devotion to Shiva. They also encouraged the development of a Vaishnava cult centre on
nearby Ramtek hill. The extensive brick remains at Mansar have been largely unexcavated until
recently. They are disposed on and around a hill with a huge artificial tank (reservoir) known as
the Masarova Lake. Fragments of exquisite sculptures have been found at the site, hauntingly
reminiscent of the Ajanta paintings (Key Buildings, fig. 21.18).
Crowning the hill are the remains of a massive, sculpted brick construction supporting the base
of a temple, now lost. The moulded mass was clearly a man-made representation of a rocky
mountain, complete with grottoes: a recreation of Mount Kailasa, Shiva’s Himalayan abode.
Remains of a stucco effigy of a man were found in the temple foundations, probably the
remnant of a symbolic sacrifice. At the foot of the hill are the larger remains of an even larger
structure, consisting of a Vakataka-period stepped pyramid with pilasters, much obscured by
later accretions. It is almost certainly not a Buddhist stupa, as sometimes thought, but its nature
is still unresolved: temple base, residential palace, or ritual palace? Also at the site are the
foundations of a rectangular building with rooms, and the bases of two temples with stellate
plans, forerunners of those from the seventh to eighth centuries in the region of ancient
Dakshina Kosala (Chhattisgarh).
Buddhist caves, Aurangabad, Maharashtra (late fifth to sixth

centuries CE)
In the hills outside the city of Aurangabad is a series of rock-cut monuments comprising an
early chaitya hall and eight later caves which develop the Vakataka architecture of Ajanta (Key
Buildings, figs 21.8, 21.9, 21.18). A preponderance of female deities in the powerful sculpture
suggests the emergence of Tantric strands of Buddhism (see Chapter 36). High-relief sculpting
extends to the walls and floors of the sanctuaries, including moving depictions of male and
female devotees kneeling fervently before the Buddha. The plan of the lush Cave 3 is
essentially that of the fifth-century viharas at Ajanta, with veranda, pillared hall, and sanctuary at
the rear (fig. 21.19); yet this is unmistakably a temple, with shrines behind pillared screens at
the sides, not a monastery with monks’ cells. Caves 6 and 7 depart still further from the usual
vihara concept. Entering the veranda, with its lateral shrines, one is confronted immediately
with a wide wall of bold and dynamic figures centring on the sanctum doorway, opening at
either end into a dark circumambulatory passage. Yet, around the passage there are cells, as if
for monks.
Figure 21.19. Vihara Cave 3, Aurangabad, Maharashtra (6th century CE). View across the hall,
with veranda to the right, and sanctum containing Buddha image to the left. The miniature
cloister of pavilions with layered eaves running around the beams of the central space probably
depicts wooden, thatched structures, although this form, called Phamsana, was already being
transformed into masonry. © ADAM HARDY.
Vishnu Temple, Deogarh, Madhya Pradesh (c. 500 CE)

This sandstone temple at Deogarh is the grandest and most complex structural stone temple
surviving from the Gupta realms. Two further reasons make it important. Its walls display superb
sculpted panels showing mythological events, of a scale more typical of rock-cut architecture
(fig. 21.20). And the small portion of the superstructure still in place (recently complemented by
a restored band running all around), together with reliefs on the door jambs (fig. 21.13) and
fragments lying at the site and in storage nearby, provide insight into the nature of the
precursor of the Nagara (northern Indian) shikhara spire (fig. 21.14). The sanctum stands at the
centre of a square platform, which originally had subsidiary shrines at the corners and sculpted
friezes around it. Steps lead to an elaborate doorway on the east face of the square sanctum. A
mythological panel is the centrepiece on the other three sides, once sheltered by a veranda
surrounding the sanctum.
Figure 21.20. South wall of Vishnu Temple, Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh (c. 500 CE). The walls of this
early structural temple, of the Gupta period, display large mythological scenes more typical of
cave temples. This one is of Vishnu Anantashayin – Vishnu lying inert on the serpent Ananta
(‘endless’, ‘infinite’). From his navel springs a lotus, from which emerges four-faced Brahma,
who creates the Universe. © ADAM HARDY.
Mahabodhi Temple complex, Bodhgaya, Bihar (sixth century

CE)
Bodhgaya had great significance from early times as the site of Buddha’s enlightenment under
the Bodhi tree, a descendant of which is still revered there. A Mauryan-period slab,
ornamented with geese and palmettes, is preserved near the tree, and carved railing posts
survive from the Shunga period (first century BCE to first century CE). The present Mahabodhi
Temple, however, is of around the sixth century. Built of brick, its central chamber stands on a
large platform, with a tapering tower, rising up to 55 metres (180 feet) including platform.
Although much restored in the nineteenth century, when corner shrines were added to the
platform, the original composition is visible. It combines two kinds of prototypical aedicule: the
proto-Valabhi type and the type crowned by an amalaka (fig. 21.12). In this way it parallels the
developments in the mainstream Gupta tradition that led later to the Nagara temple
architecture of northern India.
Cave temples, Ellora, Maharashtra (sixth century CE and later)

The famous rock-cut series at Ellora extends for over 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) along a west-
facing escarpment. The Buddhist caves (Caves 1 to 12), at the southern end, are mainly from
the seventh century. They include a two-storey excavation (Cave 11, ‘Do Thal’), a three-storey
one (Cave 12, ‘Tin Thal’), and the last of the rock-cut chaitya halls (Cave 10), where the sun
window on the façade is no a longer a single horseshoe arch, but an overlapping configuration
of one whole and two halves. The Jain series (Caves 30 to 33) to the north of the site is of the
late eighth century, the period of the Rashtrakutas (see Chapter 36). Seventeen Hindu
monuments in the central area include further Rashtrakuta-period works, including the great
Kailasa Temple (Chapter 36, Key Buildings, fig. 36.13) from the late eighth century, as well as
important caves from the period covered by this chapter.
The powerfully sculpted Cave 21, ‘Rameshvara’ (late sixth century; figs. 21.6, 21.7), dedicated
to Shiva, is representative. A pavilion for Shiva’s mount, the bull Nandi, stands in a forecourt.
The veranda façade, with a river goddess on either side, has a balcony wall with amorous
couples in relief, and vase-and-foliate pillars with female bracket figures. The veranda, on a
grand scale, has a pillared shrine at either end with fully modelled, more-than-life-size
mythological scenes. On the rear wall, mythological panels flank a tripartite, pillared screen
leading to the sanctum, enshrining the linga of Shiva. The sanctum is freestanding, surrounded
by an ambulatory space, and its doorway is flanked by giant guardian figures. The muscular,
fluted, cushion-capped pillars are similar to those in the roughly contemporary Cave 29,
‘Dhumar Lena’, a deep, multi-pillared Shiva cave closely related to the famous cave at
Elephanta.
Further Reading
Behrend, A. The Buddhist Architecture of Gandhara. Leiden: Brill, 2004. Berkson, Carmel.
Elephanta: The Cave of Shiva. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983. Berkson, Carmel.
The Caves at Aurangabad: Early Buddhist Tantric Art in India. Ahmedabad: Mapin, 1986.
Berkson, Carmel. Ellora: Concept and Style. Delhi: IGNCA, 1992. Brown, Percy. Indian
Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods). 3rd edn Bombay: Taraporevala, 1956.
Coomaraswamy, K. Essays in Architectural Theory. Edited by Michael W. Meister. New Delhi:
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts with Oxford University Press, 1995. Coomaraswamy,
K. Early Indian Architecture: Cities and City Gates etc. New Delhi: Munshiram Maonoharlal,
2002; 1st edn 1930. Deheja, Vidya. Early Buddhist Rock Temples: A Chronological Study.
London: Thames & Hudson, 1972. Deheja, Vidya. Indian Art. London: Phaidon, 1997.
Fergusson, James. History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. Revised edition with additions by
James Burgess. London: John Murray, 1910 and reprints. Fergusson, James, and James
Burgess. The Cave Temples of India. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1988; 1st edn 1880. Harle,
James. The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
Hawkes, Jason, and Akira Shimada (eds). Buddhist Stupas in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2009. Huntington, L. The Art of Indian Asia. New York, NY: Weatherhill, 1985.
Knox, Robert. Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa. London: British Museum,
1992. Kulke, Hermann, and Dietmar Rothermund. A History of India. Abingdon: Routledge,
2004; 1st edn 1986. Mitter, Partha. Indian Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Snodgrass, Adrian. The Symbolism of the Stupa. Delhi: Motilal Banarassidass, 1992. Tadgell,
Christopher. The History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of
the Raj. London: ADT Press, 1990. Volwahsen, Andreas. Living Architecture: India. London:
Macdonald, 1970.

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6/17/2020 Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture

Accessed from: www.bloomsburyarchitecturelibrary.com

Accessed on: Wed Jun 17 2020 15:22:37 Philippine Standard Time

Access provided by: University of San Carlos

Indian Subcontinent, c. 500 BCE–600 CE

History and Geography

Culture and Society

Settlement and Sacred Landscape

Stupas and Buddhist Religious Complexes

The Rock-Cut Tradition

Sculpture and Architecture

Early Shrine Forms: Their Monumentalization and

The Beginnings of Monumental Temple Architecture

Figure 21.14. Development of proto-Nagara temple forms (6th century CE). A temple form is

Lomas Rishi cave, Barabar Hills, Bihar, India (mid-third century

Stupas and monasteries, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh (third century

Stupas and ruins of Anuradhapura, North Central Province, Sri

Rock-cut monastic complex, Bhaja, Maharashtra, India (early

Rock-cut monastic complex, Bedsa, Maharashtra (first century

Chaitya hall, Karli, Maharashtra (c. 120 CE)

Cave temples, Ajanta, Maharashtra (second to first centuries

Vakataka capital, Mansar, Maharashtra (fifth century CE)

Buddhist caves, Aurangabad, Maharashtra (late fifth to sixth

Vishnu Temple, Deogarh, Madhya Pradesh (c. 500 CE)

Mahabodhi Temple complex, Bodhgaya, Bihar (sixth century

Cave temples, Ellora, Maharashtra (sixth century CE and later)

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