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NDIAN ARCHITECTURE, like Indian sculpture, is essentially of native origin, belonging to the Dravidian rather than the Aryan race. The Vedic ritual required neither images nor temples, but the non-Vedic cults, such as those of the dragons (Nagas), the tree-spirits (Yaksas) and the goddesses, may have had permanent shrines with images and wooden temples. Refer ences to images and temples begin to appear in the literature from about the 4th century B.C. onwards, and numerous types are represented in the reliefs from the 2nd century B.C. In Hindu worship (puja, the service of a personal deity with offerings of food, lights, incense, etc., as distinguished from yajna, the Vedic sacrificial ritual) the first essential is an altar, with or without a symbol or image, serving to receive offerings of flowers. Such an altar beneath a sacred tree, for example, constitutes a Yaksa caitya. The term caitya denotes a shrine of any kind, but has often been used (erroneously) to designate exclusively the stupa. The next step is a god’s house (devdlaya, devdgdra, dyatana, etc.), a simple roofed enclosure containing the altar and symbol or image.
Origins.—The fundamental elements of temple architecture are indigenous and of great antiquity. Early Indian architecture was almost entirely of wooden construction, and the forms thus established were later closely imitated in brick and stone. The various forms of domed and barrel-vaulted roofs, gabled windows and roof ends, pillars and cornices are developed from wooden prototypes; the Toda hut, for example, even at the present day presents a striking likeness to a barrel-vaulted gable-ended temple.
A part of Indian architecture, especially at an early period when the use of impermanent building material was otherwise still general, may be described as monolithic; that is to say, the shrine is excavated in solid rock, either by hollowing out the necessary chambers (so that only the internal architecture is brought into being), or by cutting away the exterior rock so as to leave an entire temple of solid rock. Very remarkable works of both kinds exist. The former, the cave temple type, is best illustrated by the early Buddhist caitya halls (Karli, Nasik, Ajanta, Bagh, etc.), in which the interior of an apsidal temple of wooden con struction is reproduced in stone in every detail, and by such great Hindu excavations as those of Elephanta, near Bombay; the latter by the famous Kailasanatha at Elura, near Aurangabad, the Masrur temple in Kangra, the “Seven Pagodas” at Mamalla puram south of Madras and the Vettuvankoyil at Kalugamalai in the far south.
As both the arch and dome were known to the Sumerian builder in the fourth millennium B.C. there is nothing surprising in the fact that both appear in India long before the Mohammedan period, and in fact from the Maurya period onwards. One of the earliest temple types is that of a square or circular domed structure, with a roll cornice below the dome. Structural stone buildings of this kind can be traced back at least to the second century.
Some special forms characteristic of Budd hist and Jaina usage should be briefly described. The most familiar of these is the stupa (tope, dagaba), an elaboration of the old Indian funeral mound, later carried out in solid masonry, provided with enclosing walls or railings, and decorated with sculptures. The essential parts of the stupa are the dome (anda or garbha), solid but for a small relic-chamber near the ground level in the centre, and inaccessible after completion; one or more platforms, supporting the dome, provided with stairways for access, and serving for circumambulation; a small pavilion (harmika) on the summit, and rising from this a mast (yasti) bearing one or more symbolic umbrellas (chatrdvali) ; one or more railings (vedika) surrounding the dome or the whole structure. In the earliest types of the Buddhist Stupa the dome is hemi spherical ; but a more aspiring type is gradually developed, until we reach such tall pointed forms as that of the beautiful Burmese Shwe Dagon. In some Burmese forms the basement is developed to a great height, and is provided with chapels within its mass, for which an Indian prototype can be cited at Mirpur Khas in Sind. At Borobudur in Java the basement platforms are seven in number, forming a massive pyramid; this plan in a somewhat simpler form occurs earlier in the Punjab, Kashmir, and Turkis tan. The stupa is almost exclusively of Buddhist or Jaina signifi cance, and as a symbol represents the death or final release of the great teacher, the Buddha of Mahavira, as the case may be.
Highly characteristic, also, are the aisled apsidal churches best known from the early Buddhist rock-cut “caitya halls,” but also represented by structural examples in brick or stone of Gupta and later date (Ter, Chezarla, Aihole ; and in Pallava and later Dravida architecture, where the number of storeys is increased, as the crowning member of a tower).
Another special form peculiar to India is that of the hypaethral tree temple, usually a pillared hall, square or circular, with a gallery and vaulted roof, but open in the centre, and surrounding a sacred tree; nearly a dozen examples are represented in Buddhist reliefs, where the tree is the Bodhi-tree, the symbol of the Buddha’s Great Enlightenment, but there is every reason to suppose that the type was a very ancient one, developed in connection with the worship of Yaksas (q.v.), or tree-spirits.
of early buildings are provided with decorated tympanums, reproducing wooden forms, and with a gable or ogee arch above. Entrances to sacred areas were provided with toranas (resembling Japanese torii, where there may be a genetic connec tion) ; these consist of upright pillars bearing one or more archi traves, of which the elaborate examples at Sanci afford the best instances, though many others are represented in reliefs. Applied, as it were, to a wall surface, the same form may be used in rock cut or structural shrines (e.g., Nasik, Cave iii.), the pillars becom ing jambs, the lower architrave the lintel, brackets being still repre sented, though no longer functional. In later southern architecture the gateway of the enclosing walls becomes an immense structural tower, called a go puram, often completely dwarfing the main shrine.
The gable or dormer windows (Gavaksa, Kiidu) which are found to be most characteristic as constructional elements in the early architecture, and as ornament in the later, have been commonly designated “horseshoe arch,” from the form, and “caitya window,” from the large and conspicuous examples that pierce the façades of the early excavated churches. In many cases the two ends of the arch spring from a pair of makaras (croco diles), situated immediately over the capitals of the supporting pilasters, and constituting a makara torana. The summit of the arch is pointed, making it an ogee arch. This dormer arch is not confined to India, but reappears in the earlier architecture of Cambodia and Java. Cusped forms are early developed and sur vive in Muhammadan usage.
Indian columns are of two kinds according to use, either single pillars (stambha or lat) bearing a symbol appropriate to the deity of the temple beside which they are placed, or struc tural pillars (khambha) of temples or secular buildings. Both occur in a great variety of form, but as regards the shaft, cham fering and an octagonal section are highly characteristic. All types are monolithic. Capitals, too, are very varied. The typical early form has three members : below, an inverted lotus bell; in the middle, four addorsed animals (generally bulls or lions) ; and above, a trapezoidal cushion with small corner volutes (Assyrian rather than Greek in character). Typical of later northern mediaeval types is a ribbed cushion capital like an amalaka: this form is perhaps to be connected with that of Visnu’s mace. Another common form would be rectangular, but that the lower outer angle is rounded, and sometimes ribbed. A very usual form in mediaeval art is that of the “brimming vase,” or jar with over falling lotus foliage, often developed into arabesque. Brackets, often decorated with figures of Yaksis, are characteristic at all times.
A sacred structure is usually surrounded by a wall (prakdra) or railing (vedikd). Such a wall consisting of plain slabs mortised into pilasters has been found in connection with a Vais nava shrine of Sunga date at Besnagar; and others, similar, but sculptured, and of the same period are represented by fragments from Amaravati and Jagayyapeta. The railings of the early Budd hist and Jaina monuments are remarkable ; these consist of plinth, upright pillars, cross bars, and coping, evidently based on wooden forms; the best preserved are those of the topes at Sand and that at Bodhgaya, both about ioo B.C.; the most elaborate is that of Amaravati represented by remains now mostly in the British and Madras Museums.
The architecture of Farther India and Indonesia is largely of Indian origin, and this is particularly evident in the earlier phases (pre-Khmer, etc.) ; but the forms appear to be developed from older Indian types, rather than directly imitated from those of the Gupta and Pallava styles. Some Indian architectural forms are recognizable also in Gand hara, Central Asia, China and Japan. Some others are traceable in European architecture, having passed via Alexandria early in the Christian era to Rome and Spain ; these include possibly the loggia, galleries, horseshoe and mixtilinear arches, ogee arch and cyma reversa, decorated tympanums and jambs, all of which are to be seen in India, and perhaps also the circular and apsidal plans of domed buildings. For a discussion of these interesting prob lems see Rivoira, Moslem architecture, 1918 ; Beylie, L’Arc”hitec ture hindoue en Extreme-orient, 1907 ; Strzygowski, passim, and other sources cited in HIIA, pp. 20, 149; for China ib. p. 53, 152 and Taki, The Indian type in the temple building of North Wei, the Kokka, Nos. 356, 357; for Cambodia, Parmentier, L’Art khmer primiti f .
Before proceeding to a description of the architecture of successive periods and styles, it should be mentioned that there exists in India a vast technical literature (known as silpa-sastra) on the subject. The most important of such treatises has only recently been made accessible by Professor P. K. Acharya (see Bibliography). Such technical works date back in part to the Gupta period, perhaps much earlier; the mediaeval compilations are still in use by Indian architects, the sthapatis of modern buildings using either the Sanskrit originals or vernacular versions. No more valuable contribution to the study of architecture as a practical art could be made than a detailed description of building methods still in use in India. It has been shown that the Indian silpa-sastras must have been used by Indian architects in Java and Cambodia.
The oldest architectural remains in India are the remains of cities at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, dating from the fourth millennium B.C. onwards. Here the buildings are of well-burnt brick, laid in mud or gypsum mortar. They include temples; a sacred tank lined with bitumen, and provided with a drain over six feet high, with a corbel-vaulted roof ; and substan tially built and well-drained dwelling houses and shops.
The only surviving monuments that have been attributed to the Vedic period and culture are the burial mounds at Lauriya-Nan dangarh, the source of the gold plaque of the nude goddess; and certain very ancient rock-cut tombs in Malabar. The Cyclopean walls of old Rajagrha are certainly pre-Maurya, but there is no reason to connect them with the Vedas or the Aryans; their character is rather Polynesian than typically Indian.
As with design, so in the case of architecture, there is every reason to suppose that the same forms which are represented so admirably in the reliefs of Bharhut, Sanci, and Amaravati were already current during many centuries before the Maurya period. The special forms, indeed, are nearer to those of western Asia of the sixth or seventh century B.C., than they are to those of con temporary Persia, and it can hardly be doubted that they repre sent the Indian development of a widespread early Asiatic tradi tion. The forms include storied buildings supported on pillars with volute capitals resting on addorsed animals (bulls or lions), often with pot-shaped bases, and having barrel-vaulted roofs with gabled or arched ends and windows ; battlemented brick walls; circular shrines with double-domed roofs ; pillared barred-vaulted apsidal temples ; hypaethral tree-temples ; monasteries, of cells opening onto a central court ; burial or memorial mounds (stupas) on platforms ; monolithic pillars ; and walls and railings.
The most ancient excavated cave shrines, those of the Barabar Hills, which are finely polished, date from the time of Asoka. The entrance facade of the Lomas Rsi [Rishi] cave is the earliest example of a decorated tympanum, with ogee arch, finial, curved beams, and resting on sloping jambs, all in imitation of purely wooden forms.
The remains of Asoka’s capital at Pataliputra (Patna) have a rather special character, and perhaps reflect contemporary Per sian influences. There have been excavated here parts of a very massive wooden city wall; a timbered flooring extending for three hundred and fifty feet ; a series of wooden platforms apparently intended to support a stupendous superstructure; evidences of a pillared hall with eighty polished stone columns; a magnificent stone capital, a stone voussoir from an arch, a stone griffin bracket, and other fragments. It is thought that the plan of the palace was identical with that of the Achaemenid palaces at Per sepolis ; Arrian speaks of Asoka’s palace as no less magnificent than those of Susa and Ecbatana.
Numerous reliefs from Bhar hut, Mathura and Amaravati, foundations of ruined buildings, and excavated churches (caitya-halls) and monasteries (vihdras) prove the existence of an architecture now advanced in scale and magnificence. The most remarkable examples illustrated in reliefs are the Sudhamma Sabha and Vaijayanta palace from Bharhut (Plate I., figs. 4 and 5), the exquisite early shrine from Jagayyap eta, the tree temples from Bharhut, Sand, Mathura and Amaravati, and a little structural domed shrine from Amaravati. Of the “caves,” the caitya-hall and vihdra at Bhaja, the great caitya halls at Karli and Nasik and the Jaina monasteries of Udayagiri and Khandagiri in Orissa, are most noted. Of stupas, those of Bharhut, Saki, and Amaravati; while in Gandhara, both at Taxila and in Afghanistan and extending thence to Turkistan a little later, there are countless remains of stupas richly decorated with Graeco Buddhist sculpture, and many ruined monasteries. Connected with the stupas are their railings and gateways, of which those at Saki are perfectly preserved, and those of Amaravati are well known from the British Museum series. Most surprising is the evidence of a seal discovered at Patna, with a Kharosthi in scription of not later than the second century A.D. ; this seal represents a very tall straight-edged sikhara shrine, doubtless of brick construction; a true arch above the entrance doorway is clearly shown, and the cella contains a seated image of Buddha. The representation closely resembles the well-known Buddhist temple at Bodhgaya, and may be it. In any case it provides a strong corroboratory argument for a dating of the Bodhgaya temple, substantially in its present form, from the reign of Huviska in the second century A.D., as originally suggested by Alexander Cunningham.
A famous structure often referred to at a later date by the Chinese pilgrims was the “stfipa” of Kaniska near Peshawar. From the foundations of this great building has been recovered an inscribed silver reliquary made for Kaniska himself, and contain ing relics purporting to be those of the Buddha. According to the Chinese account the basement rose in five stages to a height of a hundred and fifty feet, the wooden superstructure to four hun dred more, and the iron mast with twenty-five copper umbrellas eighty-eight feet more.
Of this period both Buddhist and Hindu buildings in stone or brick and excavated shrines are characteristic. The most distinctive temple type is that consisting of a square cella, with plain walls and flat roof, and either sur rounded by a pillared hall, as at Bhumara, or preceded by a small and graceful pillared porch as at Saki. Tigowa, Pithaora and Nachna-Kuthara. The little temple at Sand well illustrates the fine proportions and appropriate use of ornament characteristic of the early Gupta period. The most important related groups of excavated shrines are those of Udayagiri in Gwalior State (Hindu), and Elura (Visvakarma caitya hall) and Bagh and Ajanta (Caves XVI., XVII., XIX., especially the last, with its well-known magnificent facade). Farther south, at Badami, Aihole and Pattadkal three of the earliest Calukyan buildings are of Gupta date or a little later. The Lad Khan, c. A.D. 450, is constructed of slabs and pilasters in archaic style; the Durga temple, about a hundred years later, is apsidal like a caitya-hall, combined with a northern Nagara sikhara. Very interesting apsidal brick temples survive at Ter in the Sholapur District, and Chezarla in the Kistna District.
The northern sikhara shrines, usually brick towers with stone doorways, are beginning to appear. For the most part the earliest examples are straight-edged, or nearly so, and with angle dmalakas at every course, or every second or third course. The example at Deogarh is entirely of stone ; not less important is the brick tower at Bhitargaon, with a recessed frieze of carved brick, and terra cotta panels of Brahmanical subjects. A little later than the Gupta period, but suitably mentioned here, is the brick tower at Sirpur, probably the most exquisite example of a richly decorated brick structure to be found in all India. The monastic university of Nalanda was found by Baladitya at the close of the fifth century. Hsuan Tsang saw there a great brick temple over three hundred feet in height ; and at Bodhgaya, the temple above referred to as of Kusana date. The great Hindu temple at Konch, very near Bodhgaya and similar in many details, though the spire is curvilinear, may well be of Gupta date.
From the Gupta period onwards it is convenient to describe the architecture in terms of the three great styles, Nagara (northern or “Indo-Aryan”), Vesara (later Calukya, Hoysala and Solanki, of the Dekkhan, Mysore and Gujarat), and Dravida (southern Dravidian) with separate mention of Kasmir, and of the civil architecture of Rajputana.
Here the most conspicuous feature is the curved outline of the sikhara, which is composed as in the south of many storeys representing reduplicated cornices and roofs; but owing to the great compression of each storey, the vertical lines of the whole form are far more conspicuous, at least in the later types, than are the horizontal lines of the successive cornices. The tower, usually square, rarely circular in plan, is corbelled inwards until the sides nearly meet, the whole is crowned by a huge ribbed lenti cular stone, the dmalaka which supports the usual vase finial; at successive stages along the edges of the tower will be found quarter- or angle-amalakas, one at each stage in early types, more widely separated later. These angle amalakas are clear evidence of the roof-like character of each stage; and indeed, nothing is more characteristic of Indian architecture, nor more valuable for the elucidation of its history, than that the ornamentation consists essentially of reduced, simplified, or archaic forms closely related to those of the whole building. The porch or mandapa is usually open and pillared, sometimes roofed with a dome, more often with a pyramidal roof composed of repeated cornices. In the Nagara style, a barrel-vaulted roof is very rare, but examples are to be seen at Gwalior (Teli-ka-Mandir), and in Orissa (Vaital Deul at Puri). The early capital with addorsed animals disappears after the Gupta period, to be replaced by square cushion capitals of various kinds or by a development of the pot-shaped capital into a brimming vase (purna kalasa) with lotus flowers, and foliage fall ing from the mouth onto the four corners; in cave temples, e.g. the great 8aiva shrines at Elephanta, near Bombay, a globular amalaka capital is highly characteristic ; there may be a derivative connection between this form and that of Visnu’s mace.
The most southerly extension of the style is found at Badami, where the apsidal Durga temple, perhaps of Gupta date, has al ready a northern siklzara. Here, and in several other places, the two styles can be seen side by side. It is however in Orissa, Bun delkhand and Rajputana that the finest and most continuous series is to be found. In Orissa the series shows a continuous develop ment from the 8th to the 13th century ; the Parasuramesvara and Lingaraja temples at Bhuvanesvara, the Sun temple at Konarak, and the Jagannatha at Puri are most remarkable, and the beauty and grandeur of most of these it would be difficult to exaggerate. At Khajuraho in Bundelkhand there is another magnificent series, dating between 95o and 1050, e.g., the Kandarya Mahadeva tem ple is the finest ; the effect of height, actually 116 feet over all, is increased by the great depth of the basement, and by the vertical lines of the reduplications of the main form upon itself. Here, as well as in Orissa, and elsewhere, the temples are covered with figure sculpture.
From Bengal and Bundelkhand the style extends through Raj putana (where the Siddhesvara at Nemawar, Indore State, is of prime importance and one of the best preserved mediaeval monu ments extant) to the Panjab (Amb and Kafir Kot), Kangra and Kula (Baijnath, Masrur, and Bajaura). Modern temples in the Nagara\ style include the at Benares, the funeral chapels at Gwalior, the Jugal Kisor and Madan Mohan at Brinda ban, and amongst the many alms-halls, ghats, wells and temples built by Queen Ahalya Bai (1765-95), the Grstanesvara temple at Elura.
After the recovery of the old Calukyan territory by a later branch of Calukyas or Solankis in 973, a new style of architecture came into being in the Dekkhan and flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries. Another branch of the Solanki family held Gujarat from the nth to the end of the 13th century. During the 12th and 13th centuries the Hoysala dynasty ruled Mysore. The Vesara style of architecture is found throughout the area referred to. Conspicuous features are low elevations (contrasting with those of the high Nagara and Dravida sikharas) and wide exten sion, the star-shaped plan of the cella, the grouping of three shrines about a central hall, low pyramidal towers, elaborated pierced windows, elevated basements with very richly decorated courses, and in general an excess of ornament. In the Dharwar district, the Dodda Vasavanna is perhaps the most elaborate build ing in western India. In Mysore the most celebrated shrines are those of Dodda Gadavalli, Somnathpur, Belur, Balagami, and Halebid, and the Jaina bastis at 8ravana Belgola.
In Gujarat the most famous temple was that of Somnath (Kathiawar), wrecked by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1024. At Anahilpattana the greatest royal builder was Siddha-raj 1143). Here as at Vadnagar and Mudhera are the ruins of impor tant shrines. A special characteristic of the local style is the erection of kirttistambhas, or “Towers of Glory”; the finest of these, in the Chitor Fort, was built in 1440-48, to commemorate the erection of the Kumbhasvami temple.
More famous are the Jaina temples at Mt. Abu in Rajputana, particularly those of Vimala Shhah and Tejahpala respectively, A.D. 1032 and 1232. These are domed shrines with pillared halls, built entirely of white marble, carried up the mountain with infinite labour from the plains below. The most remarkable features are the domed ceilings, with deeply undercut, fretted marble which has been compared to “frozen lace,” with a central pendant.
Deservedly famous too are the Jaina temple cities of Girnar and 8atrunjaya, with buildings ranging from the 13th to the 19th century. These cities of temples built on hill-tops were exclusively places of pilgrimage, never otherwise inhabited. Of ordinary cities there are well preserved remains at Dabhoi and Jhinjuvad. At the somewhat later capital of Ahmadabad the architecture is almost entirely Mohammedan; but it was executed in the same style and by the local craftsmen, adapted only to Muslim necessities by omission of figure work from the niches.
In southern India, as the Mandagapattu inscription of the great Pallava king Mahendravarman I. (600-625) informs us, temples had been built of brick or timber, reinforced by metal and mortar; only from the seventh century onwards do we meet with excavated monolithic and structural temples in stone. It is difficult to characterise the style in detail, on account of the continuous development, of which the best account has been given by Jouveau-Dubreuil (see Bibliography). Markedly con trasting with the Nagara style of the north, are the conspicuous horizontal lines of the towers or spires, produced by a repetition of heavy roll cornices, dividing one storey from the next; each storey is decorated with little pavilions (pancaram) or dormer windows (kudu). The walls are often plain, with narrow pilasters, gradually elaborated as the style develops. The pillars are at first supported by lions, and polygonal in section, with a thin flat abacus and roll brackets, later a pendent lotus. The summit of the roof is always a square, circular or polygonal dome (stupi), or barrel vaulted and apsidal, in the latter case appropriately designated as gajaprsthd (“elephant’s back”). The temple is always enclosed by a high wall or walls (prakara), pierced by four gateways (gopura) ; in some cases, as at Madura, the enclosure becomes a veritable sacred temple city wherein all the activities of life are carried on.
The early Dravidian style (Pallava and early Calukya) is admirably illustrated in the Pallava temples of Mamallapuram (the “Seven Pagodas”) and Conjeevaram in the east and early Calukya shrines at Badami, Aihole and Pattadkal in the west. The visitor should make every effort to visit the “Seven Pagodas” at Mamallapuram, which are easily accessible from Madras. The earliest monuments are cave temples at Undavalli ; then come the Seven Pagodas and cave temples in the seventh century, and in the eighth, the structural temples of Conjeevaram, and the “Shore temple” at Mamallapuram, after which the style passes gradually into that of the Cola period. In the west, at Badami and Aihole, there are six cave temples, two Jaina and four Brahmanical, one dated 578. The structural Malegitti c. 625, magnifi cently situated on the summit of a hill, is perhaps the purest and best example of the style; it is small and massive, but finely pro portioned. Much larger, and magnificent both in design and exe cution are the two great temples due to the queens of Vikrama ditya II., datable about 740. Of these the Virupaksa, still very massive, was probably built by workmen brought from Con jeevaram, where the Rajasimhesvara (or Kailasanatha) temple had been built not long before the city fell to the Calukyan invaders; we know from an inscription that Vikramaditya was so much impressed by that great shrine (which still stands, un used, but in almost perfect preservation) that he not only refrained from destruction, but himself made offerings and over laid the images with gold. In A.D. 753 the Rastrakutas invaded and occupied the Calukya territory. No doubt as a result of this invasion workmen were carried off, and this probably explains the form of the great Kailasanatha rock-cut shrine at Elura which is evidently modelled closely on that of the Virupaksa at Badami. This wonderful temple, cut out of the side of a hill, is a com plete model of a structural building, and together with the some what later and very similar Jaina Indrasabha also at Elura, marks the farthest limit of the northward extension of the Dravida style. The Bhoganandiivara temple at Nandi, c. A.D. 800, affords another important example of a Rastrakuta building in Dravida style.
In the Cola period the tower of the central shrine is typically developed to a great height, by a reduplication of the corniced storeys, as in the great vimdnas at Tanjore, the centre of Cola power, and at Gangaikondapuram, both of early eleventh century date. The former is 190 feet in height. There are also good examples of the style at Polonnaruva in Ceylon, built during the Cola domination. The Pandya period is characterised by the development of the great gateways, with a lower storey of stone and super-structure of brick, covered with brick and stucco images plastered and painted. They have the aspect of veritable sky-scrapers, and completely dwarf the main shrines.
These later phases of the southern style are characterized by the development of the great pillared halls (mandapam). The monolithic pillars are cut into groups of slender columns, or are provided with elaborate brackets, nearly the full size of the pillar itself, and representing leogriffs (yalis), or horsemen on rearing horses attacking leopards, or con sisting of dancers, deities or effigies of founders. Of the earlier series, the great shrines at Vijayanagar, Avadaiyar Koyil and Tadpatri are the most remarkable ; of the later, the great build ings of the Nayyaks of Madura, dating from the seventeenth cen tury are well-known to all travellers in India. It is perhaps rather unfortunate that the Dravida style is best known by one of the latest examples, the Minaksi shrine at Madura ; the whole com plex is indeed impressive, but it gives little idea of the earlier purity of Dravida design. Temple building and restoration con tinue in southern India, and in Ceylon, today.
Kasmir.—In which had been a dependency of the Kusana empire, and later an independent kingdom, the prolific building period extended from the 8th to the i3th century. The style has local peculiarities; the double pointed pyramidal roof, pediments enclosing a trefoil niche, lantern ceilings, fluted columns with Doric or Ionian capitals, and large peristyles are very characteristic. The architecture here preserves a certain quasi-classical character derived from Gandhara, and not seen in the rest of India, though often recognizable in Central Asia. At Parihasapura a large Buddhist stupa with a double platform, and stairways on each side is contemporary with the Javanese Boro budur; and there are temples of extraordinarily massive con struction, one flooring stone consisting of a single block 14X 12X 6 feet. Two great temples at Avantipur are due to Avantivarman. The court of the Martanda Sun temple is about 220 x 142 feet ; that of the Pandu-kund in Jammu about 191X 121 feet. Related architectural forms are found at Malot in the Punjab, and at Gop and some other places in Kathiawar. But the trefoil arch, derived from the section of a caitya-hall, while con fined to Kasmir as an important architectural form, occurs also at Sarnath, Sirpur and elsewhere.
Twenty or thirty royal resi dences, a number of cities, and ghats, preserve from the i 5th cen tury to the present day a civil architecture of extraordinary grandeur and beauty; the architecture of Fathpur Sikri, too, is almost purely Hindu in character, and essentially Rajput adapted to Mohammedan requirements (see MOHAMMEDAN ART). The Rajput style is less intricately ornamented, but of more monu mental dignity than the better known Mohammedan palaces of the i 7th century.
The earliest well preserved palaces are those of Chitor and Gwalior, the latter magnificently situated on the edge of a great flat-topped hill, with several great gateways guarding the approach, and a small palace, the Gujari Mahall at the foot of the hill. Begun under Man Singh in the i 5th century it was completed during the Mughal occupation in the i 7th. Bir Singh Deva’s I7th century palaces at Datia and Orcha are almost equally splen did. The palace at Amber, 17th century, is more nearly like Mughal work, and so too the lovely marble pavilions by the lake at Ajmere. The whole city, palaces and island palaces of Udaipur (c. 1600-174o) are of romantic beauty. The Jodhpur palace, 17th century, is situated on the top of a rock dominating the city below, and guarded by bastions of tremendous size. The modern city of Jaipur, the Benares ghats (with buildings mainly of the 18th century), the ghats at Mahesvar and Ujjain, the mod ern work at Bulandshahr, Mathura, etc. (see Growse, and Sander son, in Bibliography) and the cenotaphs of Rajput princes in many capitals, are all evidences of an architecture by no means lost, but still practised. The little modern railway station at Alwar shows how this tradition can be adapted to present day requirements ; the new city at Delhi is a monument of the neglect of indigenous resources. (See DELHI; NEW DELHI.) The earliest buildings in Ceylon are dagabas or stupas, those of Tissamaharama dating from the 3d or 2d century B.C., the Yatthala Dagaba being the most important of the series. At Anuradhapura, the capital from the middle of the 3d century B.C. to the end of the 8th A.D., the Thuparama was the first dagaba to be erected, and like the Maha Seya at Mihintale it was built by the great Devanampiyatissa, the contemporary of Asoka, and recipient from him of the branch of the Bodhi-tree which was planted with great ceremony at Anuradhapura, and may now be called the oldest living historical tree in the world. To Duttha Gamani, early in the 1st century B.C. are due the Ruanweli and Miriswetiya Dagabas, and to Watta Gamani in the same century the Abhayagiri Dagaba, later confused with the Jetavana built by Mahasena at the end of the third century A.D. All these dagabas can be seen at the present day, but they have suffered both from ruin and from restoration. The famous Lohapasada, the Brazen Mansion, built by Duttha Gamani as a monastery is now represented only by the monolithic pillars of the basement, twelve feet high and covering an area 250 feet square; the pyra midal superstructure was of wood with a brazen roof ; originally of nine storeys, it was later burnt and rebuilt with only five.
The natural fortress of Sigiriya was occupied in the 5th century by a parricide king who built a palace on the summit, and a remarkable walled gallery, still usable, as a means of access. As a result of the Tamil invasions the capital was removed to Polonnaruva which became the capital from 781 to 129o, which period includes a short interlude of Cola occupation. The most remarkable and important buildings are due to Parakrama Bahu in the 12th century (1153-86). The Thuparama is a rectangular brick temple in Dravidian style, but with vaulted arches and narrow triangular windows like the early towers in northern India. The Northern Temple (so-called Demala Maha Seya) contained frescoes (Jdtaka subjects). In the Jetavana group at the other end of the city, the Lankatilaka is the largest Buddhist temple in Ceylon. The Potgul Vihara is a circular building in which Para krama Bahu used to sit and listen to the reading of the Jatakas by his chaplain. The Sat Mahal Pasada is a solid pyramidal seven storeyed brick structure like the traditional representations of Mt. Meru; on each storey are niches with brick and stucco images. To the next king, Nissanka Malla (1198-120 7) are at tributed the Nissanka Malla Mandapaya, a railed enclosure con taining eight graceful curvilinear lotus pillars which originally sup ported a roof, forming a pavilion; and the Wata-da-ge, a terraced circular shrine which is perhaps the most beautiful example of Buddhist stone architecture in Ceylon. The Hindu temples (devales) were built in the time of Cola occupation, and so too the Gedige at Nalanda, c. in gajapystha style, and of mixed Hindu-Buddhist dedication.
Later, the capital had to be moved again, and finally to the last site, Kandy, where an independent Sinhalese kingdom survived till 1815. The beautiful buildings there still in use are due to the last kings, especially Kirtti Sri Raja Sithha. The style is mainly a wooden one, but some use is made of stone. The Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Tooth Relic, is familiar to all visi tors. Near Kandy there are fine temples at Lankatilaka (stone foundations, brick structure and a very handsome roof), and Gadaladeniya (a porch with old stone pillars, and a stupa with a roof supported by four pillars, making a veritable cetiya-ghara).
(See CEYLON.) (See also ARCHITECTURE; INDIAN AND SINHALESE ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-P. K. Acharya, Indian architecture according to Bibliography.-P. K. Acharya, Indian architecture according to the Manasara (1927) ; A Dictionary of Hindu architecture (1927) ; Architecture of Manasara (1928) ; (these are the most valuable books yet published on Indian architectural science, but they are not illus trated, and embody some errors, see review in I.A.O.S., vol. xlviii.) . J. Burgess, The Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series (1874-1883), 9 vols. ; The Buddhist stupas of Amaravati and Jagayyapeta (1887) ; The Ancient monuments, temples and sculp tures of India (1897) ; A. K. Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, with a good bibliography (1927) ; H. Cousens, Archi tectural Antiquities of Western India (1926) ; A. Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut (1879) , Mahabodhi (1892) , “Archaeological Survey of India, Reports 1862-85” (1871-86) ; B. B. Dutt, Town Planning in Ancient India (1925) ; J. Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (2nd ed., 191o), the only book covering the whole ground, but quite out of date, and the sectarian classification is unsatisfactory; J. Burgess, Cave Temples of India (188o) ; A. Foucher, L’Art grecobouddhique du Gandhara (1900-23) ; H. V. Glasenapp, Heilige Stiitten Indiens (1925) ; F. S. Growse, Indian Architecture of To-day (1885, 1886) ; E. B. Havell, Indian Architecture, Its Psy chology, Structure and History; Ancient and Mediaeval Architecture of India (1915) ; India Society, The Bagh Caves (1927) ; Jouveau Dubreuil, Archeologie du Sod de l’Inde (1914), Pallava antiquites (1916-18) ; Dravidian Architecture (1917) ; S. S. Jacob, Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details (London, 1890-98) ; R. C. Kak, “Ancient and Mediaeval Architecture of Kashmir,” Rupam No. 24 (Oct. 1925) ; O. Reuther, Indische Paldste and Wohnhduser (1924) ; A. H. Longhurst, “Pallava Architecture,” Mem. A.S.1., No. 24 (1914) , Hampi Ruins (1917) ; E. La Roche, Indische Baukunst (1921-22) ; F. C. Maisey, Sanchi and its Remains (1842) ; Sir J. H. Marshall, Guide to Sanchi (1918), Guide to Taxila (1918) and many articles in the Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey; R. Mitra, Buddha Gaya (1878) ; Pulle, “Riflessi Indiani nell’arte Romaica,” Congr. Int. Scienze Storiche; A. Rea, Chalukyan Architecture (1896) ; R. Rivoira, Musulman Architecture (1918) ; Ram Raz, Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus (1834) ; D. R. Sahni, Guide to the Buddhist Ruins of Sarnath (2nd ed., 1926) ; G. Sanderson and T. Begg, Types of Modern Indian Building ) A. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900) ; J. G. Smither, Architectural Remains, Anuradhapura (Ceylon, 1894) ; S. Taki, “The Indian Type in the Building of North Wei,” Kokka Magazine, No. 356, 357. See also Marshall, Vogel, Spooner, Longhurst, Rea, Strzygowski, etc., as listed in Coomaraswamy, History (ut supra), bibliography ; and Reports and Memoirs of the Archaeological Surveys of India, Hyderabad, Mysore and Ceylon.
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![[]मर चुकी कुख्यात देशद्रोही पार्टी AMIM
(ओवैसी) को जिवित किया था इंदिरा गाँधी ने []
=======================
देश के अंखडता को ताक पर कुर्सी का खेल
खेलना ऐसे भी नेहरू परिवार का पुराना आदत
रहा है।वह AMIM(ओवैसी की पार्टी) जो अपने
राष्ट्रद्रोही गतिविधियो के कारण पुरी तरह
समाप्त हो चुका था,उसे फिर से जिवीत कर दी नेहरू
की बेटी इंदिरा गाँधी ने।और यह सब हुआ मात्र
आन्ध्र में सत्ता हथिंयाने के लक्ष्य को लेकर।
AIMIM के तत्कालीन अध्यक्ष सलाहुद्दीन
ओबैसी (अकबरउद्दीन के बाप) और इंदिरा गाँधी में
बहुत ही ज्यादा निकटता थी,आप FBपर
UPLOADतस्वीर में देख सकते है इंदिरा इस
पार्टी के जलसे में है।और दुसरी तस्वीर
COMMENT BOXमें है जिसमें ओवैसी के बाप
"सलाउद्दीन ओवैसी के साथ है।खैर इस
निकटता के पीछे भी बहुत रोचक कहानी है –
इंदिरा गाँधी ने सलाहुद्दीन ओबैसी को हर तरह से
मदद दिया उसे खूब पैसा भी दिया गया मकसद एक
ही था की किसी भी कीमत पर आंध्रप्रदेश में
तेजी से लोकप्रिय नेता के तौर पर उभर रहे फिल्म
अभिनेता एनटी रामाराव को रोका जाये। एन
टी रामा राव को रोकने के लिए इंदिरा गाँधी ने देश
को ताक पर रखकर बहुत ही गंदा खेल
खेला जिसकी कीमत देश आज
भी चूका रहा है।इंदिरा गाँधी ने MIM से गठबन्धन
करके उसे तीन लोकसभा और आठ विधानसभा सीट
पर जीत दिलाकर एक बड़ी राजनितिक ताकत दे
दी और साथ ही आजाद भारत में सांप्रदायिक
विद्वेष के लिये मशहूर
अलगाववादी हत्यारा ताकतों को केंद्र तक
का सीधा रास्ता प्रदान कर भारत में मुस्लिम
अलगाववाद को फिर से हवा दी।
अब आइये जरा इस AIMIM का बहुत ही संक्षेप में
काला इतिहास जान लें-:AIMIM (आल
इंडिया मजलिसें इत्तेहादुल
मुसलमीन) पार्टी हैदराबाद रियासत के दिनों की है।
इसकी स्थापना हैदराबाद के गद्दार निजाम नवाब
मीर उस्मान अली खान की सलाह से निजाम
समर्थक पार्टी के रूप मे 1927 में ULMA -E-
Mashaeqeen की उपस्थिति में हैदराबाद राज्य
के महमूद नवाज खान किलेदार द्वारा हुई थी और
तब यह केवल मजलिस ए इत्तेहादुल मुस्लिमीन
(एमआईएम) थी। इसकी पहली बैठक 12 नवंबर
1927 को नवाब महमूद नवाज खान के घर में
आयोजित की गयी थी ।
MIM भारत के साथ एकीकरण
की विरोधी थी इसका उद्देश्य स्वतंत्र मुस्लिम
राज्य स्थापित करना था।1938 मे बहादूर यार जंग
इसके अध्यक्ष चुने गये।बाद मे ब्रिटीश भारत मे
इसका मुस्लिम लीग (जो शुरू से धार्मिक आधार पर
अलग पाकिस्तान की माँग कर रही थी ) के साथ
इसका गठबंधन
हो गया ।भारत के साथ विलय का विरोध करने के
उद्देश्य
से एक मुस्लिम अलगाववादी संगठन (The
Razakars ) को MIM के साथ जोड़ा गया ।
तक़रीबन 150000-200000 सशस्त्र मुस्लिम
अलगाववादीयो को भारतीय सेना के साथ लड़ाई
और स्वतंत्र हैदराबाद बनाने के लिये तैयार
किया गया था।
लेकिन सरदार पटेल की सुझबूझ और त्वरित
निर्णय से गद्दारो के मंसुबो पर पानी फिर गया।
पटेल जी बदौलत भारत हैदराबाद का विलय करने में
सफल रहे । हैदराबाद के भारत मे विलय के साथ
ही 1948 मे इस नापाक संगठन पर प्रतिबंध
लगा दिया गया ।इसके तत्कालीन नेता कासिम
रिजवी को जेल मे डाल दिया गया ।1957 मे कासिम
रिजवी भारत सरकार के सामने रिहाई के लिये
गिड़गिड़ाया लेकिन पटेल जी ने उसे तुरंत भारत
छोड़कर पाकिस्तान जाने की शर्त रख दी।और वह
मान भी गया।कासीम रिजवी जो बहादुर यार जंग के
बाद अध्यक्ष बना था उसने यह शर्त मान ली।तब
1957 मे इसे रिहा किया गया
लेकिन जाते-जाते वह अपनी AIMIM
पार्टी को जिवित रखना चाहता था इसलिये उसने
इसके लिये कुख्यात भारत विरोधी और हिंदू
विरोधी नेता को ढ़ुँढ़ने लगा।क्योंकी उसका मुस्लिम
राष्ट्र का सपना अधुरा था और उसकी खोज
अब्दुल वाहिद ओवैसी के रूप में पुरी हुई।
उसको अध्यक्ष बनाकर वह पाक चला गया।इस
अब्दुल वाहिद ओवैसी को देशद्रोह के अपराध में
14 मार्च 1958 को जेल में डाल दिया गया।
जो 11माह तक जेल में रहा।इसे 5अक्टुबर,12,23,
24 अक्टुबर 1957 ,15नव, 9जनवरी 1958के
देशद्रोही भाषण देने के आरोप में गिरफ्तार
किया गया था।यहाँ एक बात मै भुल गया की जिस
MIM को पटेल जी ने प्रतिबंधीत कर
दिया था उसी MIM पर से नेहरू ने प्रतिबंध
हटा लिया।और बाद में 1976में इस MIM के नाम
बदलकर ओवैसी ने AIMIM कर दिया।इसके बाद
उसने अपने बेटा सलाउद्दीन ओवैसी को अध्यक्ष
बना दिया जो अपने बाप की तरह कुख्यात हिंदू
विरोधी था।सलाउद्दीन ओवैसी के तीन बेटे
-1.असुद्दीन ओवैसी,2.अकबरउद्दीन
ओवैसी 3.बुराहुद्दीन ओवैसी।2008 में सलाउद्दीन
ओवैसी ने अपने बड़े बेटे असुद्दीन
ओवैसी को अध्यक्ष बनाया।एक अकबरउद्दीन
ओवैसी है जो 15 मिनट में भारत को बर्बाद करने
की खुलेआम धमको दे चूका है।एक बात और
NOTEकर ले जो MIM पुरी तरह समाप्त
हो चुका था।तमाम प्रयास करने के बाद अब्दुल
वाहिद ओवैसी अपनी पार्टी को विस्तार नही कर
पाया उसे इंदिरा गाँधी ने बेटे सलाउद्दीन ओवैसी के
साथ मिलकर केवल कुर्सी के लिये फिर से जिवित
कर दिया।नेहरू ने जहाँ MIMपर से प्रतिबंध
हटाया उसके बेटी इंदिरा ने विस्तार किया।और यह
सब खेल हुआ सिर्फ कुर्सी के लिये।
मित्रो,जिस पार्टी के लिये देश की अखंडता से
बढ़कर कुर्सी रही है,क्या उस पार्टी को वजुद में
रहना देशहित में हो सकता है? कदापि नही!
अतः आपको देश के अखंडता के लिये काँग्रेस
को भारत-भूमि से पुरी तरह समाप्त
करना ही होगा,क्योंकी काँग्रेस को रहते हुए देश के
उपर विभाजन का बादल सदा मंडराता ही रहेगा।
इसलिये भारत से जबतक काँग्रेस का नामोनिशान
न मिट जाये तबतक हम भारतभक्तो को चुप
नही बैठना चाहिए!!](https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10429300_584461531700389_8294197798190204082_n.jpg?oh=d8f4f5acbb0d593f73e18d8f9ecbb6d4&oe=551F9EEA&__gda__=1427287516_f54d26fdaec4280b98b9aac9c9af09a4)
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