The CHARM of

INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
INVITATION to INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

STONE in INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

HINDU ARCHITECTURE

PLAY in INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

ACROMEGALIC ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE of MODERN INDIA

ENCOUNTERS with MODERNISM (NEW)


When we hear the name 'India,' even though it is a distant land, there is a feeling of
nostalgia in our hearts. This was the land that gave birth to one of the four major
civilizations in the ancient world. It is the land where, along with China, an advanced
civilization prospered. It is a great Asian nation that had an impact on all the
countries surrounding it. India was also the leader of the Non-aligned Nations which
was formed after the Second World War.
However for us the Japanese, India is the land which introduced Buddhism to us.
Before writing the name India as 'Indo' in Japanese with the kanji character
phonetically, it was written as 'Tenjiku' a translation for Sindhu, an ancient name for
India and was looked upon as the Paradise of the West where Sanzo Hoshi (Monk of
Tripitaka) headed for in the great Chinese novel "Saiyu-ki (Record of a journey to the
West)."

Stupa 1 and West Torana of Buddhism, Sanchi
When European imperialists invaded India and other Asian countries, Japan was a
closed country. India became a colony of the British Empire, was exploited and
reduced to poverty. For a nation that was once so rich in wealth and spirituality, the
image we now have of India is very confused. Moreover after the Meiji era, Japan
turned its back on Asian countries including India to improve ties with Europe. We
turned to West and concentrated on catching up with and overtaking them.
This distorted leaning has continued up to the present age, which has further
developed the erroneous image of India as being a mystical, mysterious country. Our
media projects India as a mystical, magical country, but any civilization will look at
people different from themselves as being mystical. Moreover European civilization
and Christianity also has its own claims to mysticism as does India.
We need to recognize the true image and true value of the third world starting with
India, without the tinted glass of discrimination based on economy, especially now,
when Japan is at last freeing itself from being a devotee of the West. And if the
culture and art of India is closely observed, one will find that, as with its music and
dancing, Indian architecture too has reached stupendous heights.
This book i"Indo no Kenchiku") intends to introduce this true image of Indian
architecture, aided with a large number of colour photographs.

Mukteshwara Temple of Hinduism, Bhubaneshwar
Any person who has visited India even once and seen some examples of Indian
architecture has come away in awe. This is because the architecture as we know in
Japan or the West differs greatly from the architecture of India. The great temples
brimming over with sculptures of gods, cave temples created by digging a rocky
mountain and mosques that look like they have been built only on infinitely repeated
geometrical shapes, may indeed make a person feel that Indian architecture is very
mystical.
However, unlike pictures or literature, a building cannot exist if it is not built
rationally. Any architectural culture that knows this principle, can understand that
Indian architecture too has been built along rational lines. Any original expression or
original thought that has been added to this rationality is the artistic form of
construction. An inexhaustible supply of this architectural expression and work of art
can be seen scattered all over the Indian subcontinent.
Well, India is a vast country. It is a zone of civilization that is equal to the whole of
Europe geographically and historically, in its vastness and depth of culture. although
it is a great nation with an unaccounted number of architectural inheritances, there is
no colossal architectural plan of India. Enormous structures equivalent to the Great
Wall of China, pyramids of Egypt, or the city planning of Rome, cannot be found
here. Cambodia and Indonesia, which came under the influence of the Indian
civilization, rather has enormous constructions in the form of Ankor and Borobudor.
As in Japan and Europe, India liked rich and dense constructions of a moderate scale.
Even the rich world that prefers the intimate scale, has an attraction for Indian
architecture.


RELIGIONS and ARCHITECTURE
in INDIA

Golden Temple of Sikhism, Amritsar
In this book, I want to introduce as much as is possible the various facets of Indian
architecture. I want to show this variety and receptiveness of Indian architecture
through its history, geography and religions classification. Browsing through the
photographs in this book, one can see the great variety. One might also be led to think
that compared with European architecture, Indian architecture lacks consistency.
One of the causes for this architectural diversity is the religious diversity of this vast
land. Europe has believed in Christianity as a principle from medieval times and it
continues to believe in it even in the present age. The difference between the Catholic
and Protestant is not so glaring, and thus did not necessarily induce distinction of
style in architecture. The difference is similar in degree to the differences in the
Shaivite and Vaishnavite groups of Hinduism or the Shia and Sunni groups of Islam.
However, in India, apart from Hinduism, Buddhism was dominant in ancient age,
and from the medieval age Islam has been. Added to this were Jainism, Sikkism and
in recent centuries, Christianity. All these religions have greatly contributed to
significant buildings in every urban landscape of the country.
Hence, adding an easy explanation of these religions here may be useful, to see its
relation with architecture and may lead to a better understanding while reading
through the following chapters of this book.
Hinduism as everyone knows is the most prominent religion in India. However, this
religion differs from the Western-concept of religions. There is no founder for this
religion as there is in Christianity and Buddhism. As Jesus preached Christianity and
Buddha preached Buddhism , Hinduism was not preached by any one individual. It
is supposed that the fundamentals were handed down from the heavens. Hinduism is
a set of codes of conduct written in the "Vedas," in the epics "Ramayana" and
"Mahabharata," and in the "Manu Smriti."
If Hinduism has to be summarized in one sentence it can be called an aggregated
Indian way of thinking and lifestyle. It is old styled Brahminism when the system was
not highly organized, and is a ceremonial religion in which only a person born in the
Brahmin upper caste could interact between man and God.
As in ancient Greece, during the 5th, 6th century BC, in Indian too many philosophers
and free thinkers appeared against the religion hardened to a caste regime of birth
and sacrifice. The typical monks of that revolt were Buddha who founded Buddhism
and Mahavira who founded Jainism.

Mahabodhi Temple of Buddhism, Bodhgaya
Both Buddha and Mahavira were born in similar circumstances. Both were born in
Bihar, in eastern India as Kshatriyas (warrior caste). After getting married and
begetting children both the princes renounced their family and wealth and became
shramanas or monks and after a long period of penance and meditation attained
nirvana.
There is no established date of the birth and death of both these persons. There are
various views, but Mahavira is considered to be senior. While Buddha took the
middle path of pain and pleasure, Mahavira took the hard path of the asceticism
whose fundamental doctrine was Ahimsa or nonviolence.
Jainas did not create a centralized church system, and since it was not keen on
propagation, Jainism did not collect a large following.
On the other hand, Buddhism spread on account of its moderate nature and was well
received by the governing classes, and thus it was able to overshadow Brahmanism
and turn into a dominant religion in India. Above all, the person who propagated
Buddhism was Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who conquered a great
portion of India during the 3rd century.
As an ancient architectural inheritance, Buddhism has left many ruins all over the
country; the relics of Jainism are scarce. What is more amazing is that there is not a
single relic left of Brahmanism. Hence stating that, the ancient architecture of India is
Buddhist architecture is not a fallacy.
However, Brahmanism gained over Buddhism gradually in the 5-6th century in
developing highly its religious theory. This mature phase of revived Brahmanism is
called Hinduism. Originally Hindu meant people living on the banks of Sindhu river
(Indus river) as viewed from the west. Their religion is called Hinduism and their
language is called Hindi.

Tikse Gompa (monastery) of Tibetan Buddhism, Ladakh
While it had achieved an advanced stage of philosophical development, Hinduism
also assimilated the native faith, gods and traditions and mores of various parts of
India, captured people's hearts and became a huge system consisting of myths and
codes that cannot be contained in one book of scriptures.
Buddhism that enjoyed the support of the ruling classes gradually lost its foothold
after entering the age of Tantric Buddhism, heavily influenced by Hinduism and
disappeared from India completely by the 13th century. Instead, it spread far and
wide in the Asian countries and became a world religion and as such it is still being
practiced in the northern most part of India in Ladakh and Sikkim. They follow Tibet
Buddhism, which is also called Lamaism.
Many of the Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Indian mainland were
destroyed as there was nobody to maintain them. Most of them are ruins or
excavated sites now.
On the other hand, early Hindu architecture followed the lines of Buddhist
architecture, or converted Buddhist temples to Hindu temples. In the 7th century two
unique temple styles developed for the two major gods Shiva and Vishnu, that
played a major role in the stone architecture that developed 1000 years later.

Mahavira Temple of Jainism, Kumbharia
Jainism did not spread much outside India. Instead it continued to thrive in west
India and has left a large amount of architectural heritage. As it was a small minority
group it followed Buddhism and Hinduism in its architectural style, but in the 11 -
15th century it developed remarkably in west India.
As Jainism was a religion opposing Brahmanism, it was originally atheistic religion. It
is not Gods but 24 Saviours called Tirthankaras that are worshiped in the temples. It
is said that the 24th and the last Tirthankara was Mahavira.
Islam that came from outside India originated in Arabia in the 7th century. Prophet
Muhammad brought the words of God to the people and this was written down as
the sacred book Koran. One of its most important teachings is that there is only one
God and all men are equal in front of Him. With this equality concept Islam spread
quickly from Spain in the west to central Asia in the east.
They build Mosques as the places of worship and other buildings in every place they
conquered. As there was a preceding civilization in each area; the Islamic principles
were mixed with the native architecture and thus a unique Islamic architecture for
each area originated.

Tomb of Salim Chishti, Islam, Fatehpur Sikri
The Islamic invasion upon India started in the 11th century, and the Islamic
architecture of Persia from the west was brought in. Indo-Islamic architecture reached
its pinnacle during the rule of the Mughal dynasty since the 16th century, which
fused the Islamic and native architecture.
In the process however, the monotheism of Islam and polytheism of Hinduism
collided with each other. According to Islamic faith, God (Allah) is the Absolute and
his existence cannot be seen with the eyes, and so expressing or representing him
with an image is absolutely forbidden. Not only that, it was prohibited to make the
image form of man or animal, not to mention Prophet Muhammad. Hence not a
single idol carving or mural painting can be found in the mosques. Thus the Hindu
temple filled to the brim with images was blasphemy for a believer of Islam (Muslim).
It would be rash to think that it is because of this belief that Muslims completely
destroyed the buildings and culture of infidels. Islam was rather tolerant to the
pagans.
Islam became the religion of the rulers in India. However, the public was still free to
believe in Hinduism if they paid excess tax. Even Rajput countries in west India
served as vassals in the Mughal Empire and maintained half-independent Hindu
kingdoms. For this reason Hinduism and Jainism was also able to survive up to the
present age and many structures of great temple architecture have remained intact.

Afgan Memorial Church of St. John, Mumbai
Christianity was introduce to India very early. Tradition says that the apostle Thomas
came here for the mission work, but this has not been ascertained. The Roman
Catholic Church was brought to India by the Portuguese in the 16th century and
many churches and monasteries of the times still stand in Goa and Cochin. When
Britain started governing India, the Church of England was introduced, and
cathedrals and parish churches were built in various places including the four big
cities.
Christianity as a foreign culture, as compared with Islam, strictly adhered to the
European style in colonial buildings as its architectural style and fusion with native
architecture was not considered. Perhaps this might show that Christianity is more
the religion of non-tolerance rather than Islam.
According to the national census taken in 1981, the rate of religious population in
present day India is as follows. Hindu 82.6 per cent, Muslim 11.4 per cent, Christian
2.4 per cent, Sikh 2.0 per cent, Buddhist 0.7 per cent, Jain 0.5 per cent, Others (Parsi,
Jew etc.) 0.4 per cent.
In present day architecture, religion does not play a main role in its development.
When a new temple is built, it would be in old style on the whole. Probably the
impact of religion in changing India's architecture has replaced by European and
American culture and the development of science and technology.
This personification of modern architecture can be seen clashing with traditional
architecture. It is slowly but steadily changing the townscape of India and this is a
common enough sight in any third world country.


A WAY of INTRODUCING
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

Great Kunda (stepped cistern) at Abaneri
Be it India or be it Europe, there are various methods in introducing the architectural
culture. Probably, since there are various religions in India, introducing architecture
according to religion can also be a method. However, all buildings are not necessarily
religion based. James Ferguson who had discussed the Indian architecture based on
religion was strongly accused for this by E.B. Havell.
According to Havell all buildings are a continuation of Indian architecture and
classification according to religion is but marginal. His opinion is that if Buddhism
had survived much longer it would have built temples in almost same style as that of
Hindu temples, and that Islamic architecture in India was none other than the Indian
architecture, is correct to a certain extent.
A more commonly used method is that of taking up style and technology of
architecture historically. There is also another method of looking at the buildings of
every place in geographical order.
This book is different from others in the sense that it has not classified buildings
according to age, nor is it classified in the geographical order, transcending even
religious differences. As such it is just an attempt to understand from the point of
view of the various characteristics of Indian architecture.
Geographically India has a great disparity in climate with the cold Himalayas in the
north, desert area in the west, and tropical rain forest in the south and accordingly the
disparity in the architectural designs are also many.
In the case of European architecture there is the tendency of limiting our image to
Britain, Germany, France, and Italy. In Northern Europe, there is the wooden culture
and those churches have a considerably pagan appearance. In Southern Spain, Islamic
architecture can be seen in the Alhambra palace and so on.
Take the ancient Celtic forms, the Byzantine East European church and the
synagogue of the Jews; they will all show a wide variety of architectural forms. And
since they are in the European continent they have to be classified as "European
architecture."

High Court in Chandigarh by Le Corbusier
What I attempted with this book was also to show the total image of Indian
architecture by evenly picking up architecture forms from the Tibetian Buddhism in
Ladakh in the extreme north to the wooden architecture in Kerala in the extreme
south, and by not limiting to the typical style of Indian architecture in the narrow
range. For this purpose, even Pakistan and Bangladesh are included in the range of
Indian architecture for this book.
Apart from the classical architecture, I have also introduced colonial architecture
designed by the British architects during the British rule, and the modern architecture
designed after India got its independence from the British. This was because; it is
thought that the colonial architecture that was built with Indian involvement is
Indian architecture, as is the fact that Muslim architecture introduced to India and
built in India is Indian architecture.
The totality of all the buildings that were built for the various dynasties, religions,
races etc, with the Indian subcontinent as the stage, through the ages till today has to
be called the "Indian Architecture."


CONCLUSION

Bhimakali Temple of Hinduism, Sarahan
The journey of 26 chapters in search of the characteristics of Indian architecture
begins with the ancient pastoral earthen mounds and caves and ends with the high-
rise modern architecture of concrete and glass.
Considering the large amount of architectural inheritance that is scattered in the
subcontinent, buildings from only 160 places may seem too inadequate. However, I
feel that I have clearly shown in great detail the typical style or characteristics of the
buildings of various different ages and areas. Hence going through this whole book
will be like looking with fresh wonder at the diversity of Indian architecture.
The existence of wooden structures might be most unexpected. Even after traveling
two or three times to India the structures mostly seen are made of stone. There must
not be many who have travelled to Himachal Pradesh or Kerala and seen the wooden
buildings thoroughly.
The villages in the Himalayas surrounded by the deodar forest are a nostalgic sight
for the Japanese traveller, but the wooden temple there is richly different sight.
although very interesting as compared with the wooden structures of Japan or
Southeast Asia, the mountains and its hinterland are very difficult areas to travel in
and information is not very easily available either.
On the other hand, the trip to the southern State of Kerala is easy, but the Hindu
temples here are unwelcoming to the non-believer. Here one has to bare the upper
part of the body and has to tie a white wrap called the lungi around the lower half
and have to walk bare foot. Even if you are allowed to enter, cameras are not allowed.
Visiting the Jain temples on the mountain is also a very difficult trip. One has to climb
up the mountain for many hours to Mt. Shatrunjaya and Mt. Girnar and then climb
down again. One feels so tired that one just wants to die. However, when you reach
the summit at last, the spectacle that unfolds makes one forget all the tiredness.
Thus, although travelling in India is not easy, every time there are new surprises and
you discover something new. It is not difficult to pick up 26 keywords to explain the
character of Indian architecture. However, if I am asked whether those
"characteristics" have been fully explained I feel a little uneasy. There might have
been other classification of characteristics of Indian architecture. Hopefully I want to
make this book a stepping stone and want more young people to come up with fresh
Indian architectural theory.

Capital carving of Mallikarjuna Temple, Kuruvatti
Up till now, we saw the characteristic of each keyword and its various aspects in this
trip of 26 Chapters. What is the biggest characteristic of Indian architecture with all of
them put together? Two things can be said about this. The first one is that since the
people of India liked sculpture most among figurative arts, they wanted to make their
construction also look like a sculpture.
When you visit an Indian temple you will be amazed at the carvings decorating the
structure from end to end regardless of whether they are freestanding temples, cave
temples, stone constructions or wooden. You begin to wonder whether the building
was constructed just so that one could sculpt on them.
Compared with this, mural paintings are few and they have not played as important
a role as sculpture. This is in contrast with the Japanese who love paintings. This
tendency has continued till the present day. In his autobiography, Antonin Raymond,
an architect, has written his impression of his stay in India as follows. "It was a
wonder to me that there were not many painters in India. In Japan even our servant
was a painter, and his works were of good quality too."
The Indians not only decorated the inside and outside of a building with sculpture,
but considered that the whole building to be a huge sculpture. It is contrary to the
thought that architecture is an art and technology to enclose 'the space' inside.
When visiting various temples and admiring the wonders of sculptural expression,
often there is disappointment about the poor quality of interior space of the temple.
The inside is dark, small and 'cave like,' so the whole structure is exterior oriented
architecture. As time passed, the sculpture decorating the walls got more and more
complicated. If it had gone on this line only, the Indian architecture must have got
biased toward an architectural deviation.

Gopura of Nageshwara Temple, Kumbakonam
The advent of Islamic architecture reversed this trend. In Islam idol worship is
completely banned. Islam forbids image-expression of sculpture, pictures, etc. and
has developed the architecture of just a plain wall enclosing space.
On the other hand, compared with the architecture in other Islamic areas, the Islamic
architecture of India took to the outward expression of sculpting in response to the
influence of native architecture. Even Taj Mahal, a mausoleum of Persian style has as
brilliant sculpture-expression that was obtained owing to the construction by Indians.
The second characteristic is that although main Indian monuments were constructed
of stone, they had held principles of wooden architecture.
In ancient India, since wood was more abundant than is available now, Indian
architecture started with wooden origins, and even though stone construction became
more popular during medieval period, it still stuck to the principles of wooden
construction in its frame and expression. Even after Islamic architecture brought with
it the arch and dome, the framework construction with posts and beams were still
adhered to and stone continued to be used like wood.
___
Mausoleum of Akbar and a large chhatri
Probably, an ingrained feeling of beauty was more important than structural
superiority or inferiority. The Islamic architecture transplanted to India was also
influenced by this concept and the framework-based Islamic construction that cannot
be seen in any other Islamic area, was developed. "Chhatri," a heavy domed roof
supported only with thin posts and beams, without using an arch is one such type.
It was clear that, unlike wood, the framework construction method where stone weak
in tension is used for beam or lintel is theoretically inferior compared with the arch
and dome structure where stone and brick is stacked in a radial pattern and built over
a large span. Nevertheless, people from India persisted in it and completed
magnificent buildings.
It resembles monophonic Indian music. Compared with Occidental polyphony (many
voices) monophony is theoretically inferior. However, achievement of art cannot be
compared as superior or inferior based only on principle. Even if the music of India is
monophonic, with exhaustive research it has acquired an extremely advanced theory
and musical expression.
So also, the stone architecture of India has given rise to an extremely advanced
architecture rival to Islamic or European architecture, by experiments with wooden-
like post-and-beam and corbelled dome structures. The zenith of this architecture can
be seen in the Adinatha Temple at Ranakpur.

STONE in INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

TAKEO KAMIYA


A colossal rock on Barabar Hill
BACK____NEXT


AREA OF STONE CULTURE
There are three prominent areas of stone culture in the world: Europe, the Middle East and
India. The historical source of stone architecture in the Middle East and Europe was in Egypt
and Syria, which developed masonry architecture using brick or stone as a result of the lack
of timber in the arid climate of desert areas. Rome and Persia, the succeeding masonry
cultures, brought the skill of stone architecture to the Middle East and Europe.
As opposed to that, India had long belonged to the area of wooden culture and it was as late
as after the 5th century C.E. that Indians came to use stone for their edifices, in the wake of
increasing scarcity of wood due to the aridification of their land. As a consequence, they
continued to use stone as if it were timber even after coming into the age of stone culture.
This would define the character of Indian architecture.

Facade of the Lomas Rishi Cave, Barabar Hill
What throws a bridge from the lost ancient wooden architecture to the medieval stone one
are ecave temples f carved on the rock, which is not estone architecture f in the
method of piling ashlars but erock-cut f or excavated facades and interior spaces.
In order to comprehend the role of stone in Indian architecture, I will take up in this article
two topics at both ends of the spectrum: the oldest cave temple in India and a masterpiece of
early modern stone architecture.
The cave temple is not a form that was invented by Indians but a form of cave tombs brought
from Egypt through Anatolia or Persia and, when arriving at India, came to take its most
architectural composition.
In China where that form was brought from India accompanied with Buddhism, cave
temples were excavated in a larger quantity than in India, though with a different aspect.
India has numerous rocky mountains, especially in Deccan in central India, exposing sturdy
rock hills everywhere, providing stages for cave temples. In contrast to that, China has fewer
erocky f mountains and their geological features are softer, ill-suited to firmly and
precisely carve out columns and beams, to coin a phrase, they are rather egraveled f
mountains looking as if they could crumble at any moment. Their cave temples often have
wall paintings, but seldom make up highly architectural features as in India; it is almost a
contradiction to call them by the name of erock-cut f architecture. B
____
Facade of the Sudama Cave and an inscription at the Gopi Cave

CAVE TEMPLES OF INDIA
The oldest cave temples in India are on Barabar Hill in eastern India. There lies a huge rock
of about 30m x 150m, on which four caves were excavated. According to an inscription
carved on a wall, these caves were executed between 250 and 257 B.C.E. by the Mauryan
king Ashoka for Ajivika monks to serve as their abode during rainy seasons. The king
Ashoka, famous as a patron of Buddhism, seemed to back the sect of Ajivikas in those days.

Composite plan of the Romas Rishi and Sudama Caves, Barabar Hill
This plan is composed with the entrance part of the Romas Rishi Cave and the rooms of the
neighboring Sudama Cave on Barabar Hill. One would have dug the entrance part-A at the
beginning, excavated the room-B (about 6 x 10m) next, then the round shaped room-C in
which a Stupa would probably have been set in the center. It must have been quite hard
work to excavate such large inner spaces from stiff granite rock by means of chisels only.
Thus the form of western cave tombs was transfigured into cave temples in India. Their
cool interior spaces matched Indian climate of intense heat, so the cave temples would be
excavated extensively at many places from the 1st century B.C.E. onward.

Interior of the Sudama Cave, Barabar Hill
Then, why did the first cave temple in India come suddenly upon the scene in the 3rd
century B.C.E.?
The Mauryan Empire, which first unified most parts of India, would have needed
monuments worthy of that great achievement. Artisans of the Persian Empire, which had
been destroyed by Alexander the Great, came there to seek new workplaces and were hired
by king Ashoka, transmitting their western skills of excavating cave tombs; this is the most
convincing theory for the moment. The fact that the surface of most interior walls and
ceilings in Barabar caves were polished to a high degree like mirrors with Persian
techniques, which had not been known in India until then, could be an example of that.
Among those simple caves without any decoration, the sole cave of Lomas Rishi has a
facade with meticulous carving at the entrance part-D. Although it is the prototype of the
facades of later Buddhist Chaitya caves such as at Baja and Ajanta, there are deep riddles
regarding this design.
As it looks like a faithful copy of a typical wooden building of the period at first sight,
every art historian assumed it was so without exception. However, from the eye of an
architect, such a wooden edifice could not be possible to exist: the two pillars on both sides
are too thick as real wooden ones to support only a light wooden roof, the figure of beams,
which is not horizontal but sharply curved like arches, is impossible as timber, and the roof
takes the shape of a pointed arch and its bottom parts look like they are being pulled toward
the walls which would make rain inexplicably beat against them, defeating the primary role
of eaves.

Facade of the Lomas Rishi Cave, Barabar Hill

THE INFLUENCE OF PERSIA AND LYCIA
This facade probably imitated the form of Persian masonry buildings, using frequently
arch-like shapes, and inclining the front pillars as if to resist the thrust of true arches. The
fact that the room-C fs ceiling is a dome and the room-B fs is a barrel vault must have
been the superficial imitation of western brick or stone architecture; there had been no
arches or domes in ancient India as it was a region of wooden culture.
A further problem is the structure of its roof: its gable form is not triangular, most usual for
wooden buildings, but pointed arch-like as if a masonry one. This can be presumed to be a
result of influences from Lycian sarcophagi and cave tombs, which were brought to India
through the eastern expedition by Alexander the Great of Macedonia. (I do not repeat the
subject here; please read my article gLycian Influence on Indian Cave Temples h on
this web site, if interested.)

A cave tomb at Pinara, (Lycia,Turkey)
That is to say, the facade expressed at Barabar is a piece of erock architecture f that
cannot actually exist but could only be carved on a rock as a piece of illusionary wooden
architecture. Since the impact of this mysterious facade was so strong, this style would
dominate almost all later Buddhist Chaitya caves in India, and moreover would generate
more fantastic interior designs by extending its principle into inner spaces of cave temples.
I suppose that the facade of the Lomas Rishi Cave was sculpted as a trial manufacture in
about the 2nd century B.C.E. by command of a king succeeding Ashoka.

Interior of Cave 10 at Ellora

WHITE MARBLE DOMES
1,900 years after the cave temples of Barabar, the development of stone architecture in
India reached a peak. Many would consider its best representative work to be the Taj
Mahal completed in 1654, which might be the best known piece of architecture not only
in India but also in the world.
When I taught ethe science of arts f at university, I asked my students over the summer
break to select one building from among a great number in the school textbook gThe
Guide to the Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent h and draw their own imaginative
picture, using the building as a motif. Come the next semester, I found that more than half
the students had submitted their drawings selecting the Taj Mahal as a motif. What might
have happened is that when most students leafed through the book nonchalantly, they
stopped at the page of the Taj Mahal and their eyes became riveted on its photographs;
oh! it is absolutely beautiful.
____
The Taj Mahal in Agra
Though the reasons that the Taj fascinates people so strongly would be many and diverse,
the major one must be that it is a complete ewhite edifice f made of white marble
entirely from the top of the dome to its extensive podium. In spite of being a tomb, its
purest immaculate figure might look like a celestial palace.
My long held question was if such a white edifice was so bewitching for people, why had
not sovereigns and clerics the world over made their historical monuments in this style?
Either religious buildings or secular ones, if they had erected them as pure white edifices,
they must have been admired like Shah Jahan of India by people all over the world.
I myself sometimes consulted stone dealers when designing buildings, they always gave
the conventional answer that white marble is so vulnerable to rain and acid that it should
not be used for an exterior and if used outside it would shortly get soiled and ugly,
showing photos of examples.
Then, I wondered, is it possible that the Taj Mahal, which was finished with white marble
on its most vulnerable part, the dome, is scaffolded and re-polished every year?
____
Mausoleum of Humayun in Delhi
When the English edition of my book gThe Guide to the Architecture of the Indian
Subcontinent h was published in India, a restoration-architect R. Nanda came to the
press release reception in Delhi and guided me to the Mausoleum of Humayun, which
also has a white marble dome, toward which he had contributed for its restoration. I asked
him the above-mentioned question, which had been on my mind for a long time, and his
reply was:
eThe mausoleums of Humayun and the Taj have never been re-polished. Marble that is
vulnerable to rain and acid is a western product such as from Carrara in Italy, while Indian
marble such as from Makrana or Kumbariya is of better quality. f
Indian cave temples were possible thanks to numerable sturdy rocky mountains, and
Indian stone architecture has been supported by high quality Indian stone. Fascinating
white marble domed roofs do not exist other than in India.


HINDU ARCHITECTURE

TAKEO KAMIYA



(from the 1st volume of the "Visual Introduction to Architecture",
Shokokusha, which has not been published
due to the oppression of the Japanese construction mafia.)


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Hinduism is the dominant religion in India as shown by its name; people do not become
Hindus but are born as Hindus. The word Hindu is originally derived from the River Sindhu
in Sanskrit (Indus in English), from which the S-sound dropped out, used by Persians to
indicate the people living along and over the Indus. The area was called Hindustan (the
country of Hindus) or Indos in Greek, and its language Hindi and religion Hinduism as well.
Though considered as a religion, Hinduism is different from the Western notion of religion,
rather being the living system of the Indians in a broad sense, including their social customs,
conventions and manners.

1. WHAT IS HINDU ARCHITECTURE ?
Hinduism did not have a particular founder as in Christianity or Islam. It subsumed every
phenomenon in the vast territory of India, including even local faiths and tribal gods, so they
could even be contradictory to each other. According to Hindu theory, even Buddhism and
Jainism are nothing but sects of Hinduism.
In the field of architecture too, those of Buddhism and Jainism, which were brought up in the
same climate as that of Hinduism, have no great disparities from Hindu architecture, making
it possible to say that their structural systems and forms of their components are completely
the same.
However, if Hindu architecture is geographically positioned as Indian architecture, it would
mean that Hindu architecture could not exist outside India. In order to avoid this
inconvenience, I will not adopt a geographical definition but treat it on the basis of religious
and historical distinction from Buddhist, Jain, and Islamic architecture. On this occasion,
secular buildings, such as residences, palaces, forts and others, must be excluded, that is,
Hindu architecture in this article indicates only Hindu temples.

2. THE ESSENCE of HINDU TEMPLES

Principal Plan and Cross Section of a Hindu Temple
(Malikarjuna Temple in Aihole, 8th century)
i from "Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture" II-1, 1988 j
The predecessor of Hinduism is called Brahmanism, in which only Brahmans (priests), the
highest class among four varnas into which people were divided by birth in ancient India,
could intermediate between gods and believers. It was essentially a religion of rituals
emphasizing sacrifices of animals to gods.
On the other side, Buddhism and Jainism were atheistic religions established around the 6th
century B.C.E. in contradiction to the caste system and the sacrificial practices of
Brahmanism, so their temples were fundamentally places of pursuing enlightenment for
monks and expounding teachings to lay people.
Hinduism, which was established around the beginning of the Common Era, was a highly
developed stage of Brahmanism in preparedness for theoretical dispute. Absorbing folk
faiths and local divinities in various regions, it was a thoroughgoing pantheistic religion
based on, above all, reverence for the gods that originated in the Vedas. Every Hindu temple
has one of those gods enshrined as the main deity, and is as hospitable to it as if it were a
living personality. The essential quality of the Hindu temple is the eHouse of God f,
though it differs from the metaphorical manner in the Christian church, as a Hindu temple is
considered as an actual place for a god to dwell, eat, and sleep.
The cardinal room, where is the statue is set into which a god is to enter, was called a
eGarbhagriha f literally meaning a ewomb house f, and its frontal hall, where priests
and followers entertain and worship the god, was called a eMandapa f, thenbecame the
fundamental form of Hindu temples.

3. CAVE TEMPLES and ROCK-CARVED TEMPLES

Unfinished rock-carved temple
(Pidari Ratha in Mahabalipuram, 7th century)
It is presumed that ancient India was abundant in wood and most temples were built of
timber, though none have survived. The ancient architecture that we can see now is made up
of cave temples, which were excavated into rocky mountains and architecturally carved in
detail. This form was initiated by Buddhist monks and workers, executing as many as a few
hundred in number from the 2nd century B.C.E. across India.
The oldest Hindu cave temples are a small group at Udayagiri from the 5th century of the
Gupta Dynasty, where many of the earliest Hindu sculptures are also extant. Because in this
age integral stone buildings, moving out of the phase of mixed structures of timber and
stone, began to be constructed, cave temples were to develop hand in hand with stone
architecture. The plan form of was also established through this process, as can be seen in
the Hindu cave temples of Ellora, excavated in the 7th and 8th centuries, most of which took
this form.
On the other hand, since the Hindus preferred sculpture more than any of the formative arts,
they wanted to make even their architectural works as if sculptures. Monolithic temples,
sculpted not as caves but directly upon one rock in the round in this attitude, are called
erock-carved temples f. Started in Mahabalipuram in the 7th century, it attained its
apogee in the Kailasa Temple at Ellora in the 8th century. Such a sculptural character in
Indian architecture would stay as the fundamental feature in later stone temples too.

4. WAYS of SOLEMNIZING TEMPLES


Plan of the Gondeshvara Temple in Sinnar, in the Pancha-yatana Form
i from the "Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan" by Henry Cousens, 1931j
Although simplest Hindu temples did not have Mandapas, constituted of only a Garbhagriha
(sanctum) accompanied with a porch, they gradually increased in scale, in accordance with
the establishment of the form . The Garbhagriha itself did not enlarge, because it is a square
room enclosed with windowless thick walls, but extended its plan, encircled with a
circumambulatory corridor for worship, and it came to be surmounted with a stone piled
tower, displaying its sculptural exterior view.
The Mandapa, in front of the Garbhagriha, was also fundamentally a square hall with four
pillars, occasionally becoming a great hypostyle hall.
In order to solemnize temples, architects often increased the number of Mandapas, placing
them in a line in the front, and occasionally added an open Mandapa without peripheral
walls, the porches, and even an independent shrine for a Nandi (bull), vehicle for Shiva, all
in line on the axis.
The reason for this manner is that a Hindu temple was destined to have a determined axial
direction, following the fact that Garbhagriha as a god fs abode had only one entrance door
in front to be locked at night. This restriction made the temple impossible to spread in four
directions, and engendered another method for the solemnization of temples, adding four
small independent shrines in four diagonal corners on the podium, giving the entire temple
the form of Pancha-yatana (five shrines).

5. THE NORTHRN and SOUTHERN TYPES

Vishvanatha Temple of the Northern type, Khajuraho
Through the great development of Hindu temple architecture in the medieval period,
rivalling stone architecture in Europe and the Middle East, its style was roughly divided into
two: the Southern Type and Northern Type. It might have reflected the differences of likings
between northern Indo-Aryans and southern Dravidians, languages of which were in
completely different branches.
The item that shows the difference between them most clearly was the design of their towers
over the sanctuary.
In the Northern Type, the tower soars in the shape of an artillery shell, which is called a
eShikhara f. On the top of the Shikhara is a fluted disk, an Amalaka, imitating the shape
of a sacred fruit, Anmalok, and further on top of it is a pitcher-like finial, a Kalasha. Similar
small Shikharas with the same components are piled up to make a greater Shikhara,
repeating this cycle in several layers to form the whole intricate body.
As opposed to this, in the Southern Type, lined mini-shrines make a horizontal story and
many stories piled up in steps form a pyramidal tower. On top of it is a large hemispheric or
octagonal dome-like crown stone, which is called a eShikhara f in southern India, literally
meaning a mountain summit in Sanskrit.
Among the Southern Type temples, the Karnataka region engendered star-shaped plans for
Garbhagrihas and a unique form composed of several Garbhagrihas and a shared Mandapa,
displaying their towers in the intermediate shape of the Northern and Southern Types.

6. CORRESPONDENCE to CLIMATE

A Himalayan woodenTemple at Sungra
Although the Indian subcontinent belongs to the zone of monsoon to a large extent, its large
geographical expanse includes diversity from the cold district of the Himalayas to southern
India in the subtropical zone through arid western India embracing a great desert. Hindu
temples have also a wide variety corresponding to those climates. The foremost element
bringing about the variation is the building materials.
Central India, possessing a large number of sturdy rocky mountains, became the most
crowded area for cave temples. The delta regions along the Indus in the west and the Ganges
in the east do not produce stone of good quality, so brick has been used as the main material
since the time of the Indus Valley Civilization. Brick temples in Bengal covered with terra-
cotta panels, baked with carvings executed on not fully dried clay, dyed villages the color of
Indian red.
Wooden temples descended from ancient architecture to some extent are seen in the
Himalayan region in the north and the Kerala region in the south, both of which are blessed
with much precipitation and forests. Especially in mountainous Himachal Pradesh there are
curious wooden temples surmounted with conical or gambrel roofs, completely different in
shape from stone temples in the lower Indian planes.
However, what underlies these wooden temples is the composition of ; there is no difference
between these and stone temple in indicating the abode of god by its wooden eShikhara f
on a small chamber.

7. OUTWARD from the INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

Lorojonggrang Temple at Prambanan, Java, Indonesia
Indian culture was propagated to Southeast Asia mainly through trade. Hindu architecture
was brought to Burma (Myanmar), Khmer (Cambodia), Champa (Vietnam), and Java and
Bali (Indonesia) in indistinguishable forms from Buddhist architecture. In this process, it
produced various transfigurations according to the traditions and climates.
The best representative example is the Lorojonggrang Temple at Prambanan, Java, dedicated
to Shiva. Partly because of the ancient custom of ancestor worship in Java, a ehouse of
god f also came to have the character of a mausoleum for forefathers. This is probably the
reason why most temples were not accompanied with Mandapas but a porch only, located in
the center of its podium. The form of their towers was based on the Southern Type, in which
horizontal floors were piled up in steps.
Khmer architecture fs transfiguration is best shown in the Angkor Vat, in which the temple
and king fs tomb were united in one, conforming to the eDeve-Raja f (god-king)
philosophy, constructing its precincts on a vast scale than ever existed in India, on a square
plan like an enlarged form of Mandala.
It was made possible by the grace of the form of the Chaturmukha (four-faced shrine) plan
developed in Jain temples, which was brought to Southeast Asia along with Hindu
architecture. As a result, in contrast to Hindu temples in India, those in Southeast Asia could
spread in four directions, forming great Mandala-like plans. In the Garbhagriha of the
Angkor Vat, as a four-faced shrine, there would have been enshrined the God Vishnu. Its
tower is thought to have originated from the artillery shell shape of the Northern Type
PLAY in INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

TAKEO KAMIYA



(originally published in the magazine "Stoneteria" no. 5, March 1986 )


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PLAYING WITH SCULPTURES
Architects sometimes say gthis part is play h, when they make some shapes or employ
some ingenious device to give viewers a feeling of pleasure or curiosity over and above the
bare functions of the buildings that they are designing. However, when formally considering
what the play in architecture is, it is difficult to recall typical examples of earchitectural
play f.
Buildings are projected in order to meet certain strong needs, and architects, a normally
serious species, are immersed day and night in how amply they can create convenient and
comfortable buildings on a limited budget. They do not often play at the expense of their
clients unless the building is for the function of playing itself, such as amusement parks or
game rooms.
Then, let us inspect whether the situation was alike in the past, focusing on the historical
stone architecture of India.

Wall sculptures on the Parshvanatha Temple, Khajuraho
When it comes to Indian architecture, one would recall Hindu temples decorated with
innumerable sculptures, and suppose that play must be plentifully enjoyed in Indian
architecture. However, most of those sculptures, such as statues of deities, are means of
edification of religious tenets; even Mituna statues (sexual coupling) are explanations of a
doctrine of Hindu Tantrism. They bear a practical function, and cannot be called pure play.
There are occasionally sculptures unrelated to religious doctrines, exemplified by the figure
shown above in which a woman poses flirtatiously, wearing eye shadow, on the wall of a
Jain temple at Khajuraho.
An example expressing play more clearly is seen in a wall panel at the Hindu temple of
Mukteshvara in Bhubaneshvar, shown below.
If you conceal the lower half of this square panel by hand, you can see a lying woman. Then
conceal the right half, and she stands up on one knee. Next, conceal the left half, and another
woman is standing on her hands. Lastly conceal the upper half, she is turning a somersault.
This is utter play without any relation to the practicality of the building, reminding us of the
works of M. C. Escher or Shigeo Fukuda.

A terra-cotta panel on the wall of the Mukteshvara Temple,
Bhubaneshvar, 10th century
However, if I were asked whether the above-mentioned examples are real eplay in
architecture f, I would reply that I do not think so. Both of those temples are orthodox
pieces of architecture, seeming not to playing so much, that is, their play is nothing but
esculptural play f.
Whether in the West or the East, play in sculptures furnished on edifices would often be seen
in every period. Then, what kind of examples could exist, if one had played in architecture
itself?

VARIOUS TECHNIQUES
There is the Mausoleum of the saint Salim Chishty in the grand courtyard of the Great
Mosque of Fathehpur Sikri, the abandoned Mughal capital near Agra. One can recognize that
this renowned building fs walls make geometric patterns combining white marble and
blackish stone, but when going inside and looking back at the wall, one realizes that the
stone that looked blackish is actually a delicate screen of the same white marble. It is, so to
say, a magic stone wall, looking only like a blackish solid stone as an exterior view,
impossible to see through from the outside, but possible from inside, out to the courtyard.
___
Mausoleum of Salim Chishty, Fathehpur Sikri
Although those stone panels can be imagined being quite vulnerable, having been made so
delicately, they are actually very sturdy marble boards of 5 to 10 cm in thickness, drilled in a
systematic pattern. It is as strong enough as to not break even if strongly kicked.
Is this play? Again, no. In India, constantly hot, and rainy every day in the wet season, even
stone buildings have protruding stone eaves (amazing for us Japanese) and have to be well
ventilated. This trellised stone wall is an Indian time-honored technique for ventilation and
prevention of trespass as well, often seen in Mughal architecture too.
Then, how about the case of the Mausoleum of Humayun? This enormous tomb of the
Mughal emperor in the capital Delhi is completely covered with marquetry of red sandstone
and white marble. This elaborate method in stone architecture, equivalent to Byzantine
mosaics, is the technique that was most highly developed in Mughal architecture.
Though edifices covered with stone have been increasing in recent times in Japan, it is rare
to find it finished with such laborious marquetry. However, this is also an orthodox
architectural technique for finishing buildings, and we are not able to call it play.
___ @
Mausoleum of Humayun and Jantar Mantar, Delhi
When pursuing examples of play not in finishing but in architectural form itself, the
buildings of the Jantar Mantar (observatories) are recalled. Although their unique singular
forms, still extant in Jaipur, Delhi, Banaras and other places, are so extravagant as to make
German Expressionist works inconspicuous, they are also not play but practical forms.
Jai Singh II, the intelligent Maharaja of Jaipur in the 18th century, had an untiring passion
for science, constructing huge observatories in various cities in northern India. His research
and assemblage of the essence of leading-edge sciences at that time and pursuit of the most
functional and rational forms based on them bore fruit in these astonishing architectural
figures. It is quite interesting that neither traditional elements of Hindu architecture nor the
details of Islamic architecture are used here, but as the outcome of scientific development, it
would not have been play.

PLAY IN ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
As we saw in the above sections, it is quite difficult to find examples of play in architecture
itself in India. Then, is there nothing at all around the world?
In point of fact, I notice that the spirit of play pervaded not only sculpture but also
architecture of the mediaeval period in Europe, which was strictly controlled by the
Christian religion.
The famous Romanesque abbey, Santo Domingo de Silos, in northern Spain has a
magnificent courtyard encircled with beautiful cloisters. A compound pillar of four columns
in the west cloister is conspicuous because of being twisted; those columns are all slanted as
if the masons had carelessly set their tops and bottoms at wrong positions, giving a quite
eccentric posture to the pillar.
Since this pillar is actually monolithic, and not twisted in the least, it can sufficiently support
its heavy vertical load. This aspect of the pillar is not connected to the practicality of the
building; on the contrary it is a joke or an expression of a spirit of humor, enjoying tricking
viewers in their sense of sight.
@ @
Cloisters of the abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos
Although it is a surprise that such a joke or play is done in a monastery, which normally
would be quite austere, one can notice that similar behavior in architecture is seen in various
places during a tour of Romanesque architecture in Europe; some columns bend or meander
like spaghetti and others buckle as if they cannot sustain a too heavy load.
If the ornamentation such as sculpture is categorized in the secondary elements of
architecture, Romanesque architecture would be the first instance of play in the primary
elements of architecture such as columns, beams and arches.
Though there are a large number of examples of play in sculptures in India, I know of no
examples of making a joke in the primary elements of architecture.
However, is this perspective too narrow to see examples of eplay in architecture f? In the
category of sculpture, there is a difference between those set independently on the surface of
buildings and those carved inseparably from the primary elements of architecture. In the
latter cases, if some carvings are intended to give enjoyment to the viewer, without relation
to practicality, they might also be called eplay in architecture f.
@
Window screens of the Sanprati Raja Temple, Girnar

PLEASURE IN INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
Given this viewpoint, plenty of examples of eplay in architecture f can be instantly
recalled. Typical examples are the Derwara Temples in the bosom of Mt. Abu and the
Adinatha Temple soaring alone among deep mountains at Ranakpur.
The Vimala Vasahi is a temple donated by a minister of the Solanki Dynasty on Mt. Abu; it
is made of white marble, surface of which is exquisitely carved except the floors, while
the Adinatha Temple at Ranakpur has about 400 columns similarly carved, none of which
is said to have the same pattern.
An example of this principle applied to windows is in the Sanpraty Raja Temple on Mt.
Girnar, in which play can be seen in all the window screens of different patterns. Moreover
sculptures on the domical ceilings of the temples on Mt. Abu are enormously complex and
delicate beyond imagination; according to tradition, sculptors were paid in proportion to the
amount of marble that they carved off, so they carved more and more intricately.
___
A domical ceiling at Mt. Abu and pillars of the Vitthala Temple
Such spectacular architectural components can be seen above all in the architecture of
Vijayanagara, the last Hindu dynasty in southern India, as seen in the above photograph of
the Vitthala Temple, every pillar of which is carved out so fantastically and endlessly, in a
way that cannot be found other than in India throughout the world. This extreme world,
mixing religious passion and artistic eagerness, seem to have fallen into a slight decadence
beyond the spirit of play.
If one supposes that temples and palaces are always decorated brilliantly, so they are not
eplay in architecture f, I can show a yet more astonishing example: the stepwells existing
mainly in the state of Gujarat, western India.
Originally they were nothing other than practical facilities, but their steps leading to the
bottom of the wells consist of stone columns and beams, which are carved with unbelievable
magnificence, though they were not for the use of kings or nobles. The photo shows the
stepwell at the small village of Adalaj, which can be reached by a one-hour bus ride from
Ahmadabad. Villagers can take a cool rest on the landings of the stairs during days of
insufferable heat.
___ @
Stepwell at Adalaj, India, and Khaju Bridge in Isfahan, Iran
It is a piece of underground architecture; one can see only an entrance part on the ground,
and all the the other parts were constructed below the ground. The perspective view of its
subterranean framework of columns and beams emerging in the dark, bathed in the light
from the sky, is quite fantastic.
It is one of the two greatest achievements of civil engineering construction for common
people, exceeding simple utility, and attaining artistic beauty with splendid space and
decoration, ranking alongside the Khaju Bridge on the Zayandeh River in Isfahan, Iran.
ACROMEGALIC ARCHITECTURE

TAKEO KAMIYA



( originally published in the September 2000 issue of Journal of Architecture
and Building Science of the Architectural Institute of Japan )


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ACROMEGALY in ARCHITECTURE
What is Acromegaly in architecture? @It is the tendency in design to devote tremendous
energy on spaces and forms of minor importance and make them more conspicuous than
those of main functions of the building, in other words, it is the attitude of giving explicit
independency to some less important parts rather than subordinating them to the central
scheme.
Such a design attitude would be rejected by orthodox view of architecture and criticized by
the rationalistic mind. However, that eorthodoxy f is only defined in modern Europe or
Japan, and cannot be called universal for all ages and areas.

Temple of Horus with soaring Pylon, Edfu, Egypt
When looking at the temple architecture of ancient Egypt for example, its rectangular
precincts are entirely surrounded with high walls like a fortress, making it impossible to
figure out from the outside what is within, on the contrary one part of the temple is massively
displayed, the gigantic pair of pylons on one short side wall. The pylons are a temple
gateway, soaring high-rise stone buildings in a pair, sandwiching a huge entrance door to the
precincts between them, and connected to each other over the entrance door, looking like a
single edifice.
The surfaces of these magnificent pylons are embellished with various ornaments such as
relief sculptures of gods or kings. The impression of the total external appearance of
Egyptian temples is determined entirely by pylons, other components are completely hidden
within high walls, even the upper part of the central sanctuary is not made visible from
outside.
Even when going into the temple, one finds that the sanctuary is nothing but a small dark
room, and one wonders why the architect made only its gateway so majestic and neglected
the physical form of its central shrine, which would have been esteemed as the most
important architectural component. This is eacromegaly in architecture f.
Functionally, the gate is only an entrance to the precincts, with the ability to be locked
regularly or on occasion, not demanding to be as huge as to surpass the principal space; this
way of thinking is the spirit of modern rationalism.
The ancient Egyptians did not think so. They must have considered that the gate itself is the
face of the building complex, and just as human personality and character permeates a face,
the eraison dtre f of a building should be likewise expressed in the gate. They must never
have thought that giving majesty to a minor component of a temple would harm the dignity
of its main shrine.
In the case of the largest piece of temple architecture in ancient Egypt, the Great Temple of
Amun in Karnak, larger pylons were constructed in front each time the scale of the temple
was enlarged, eventually reaching six pairs in number. Such acromegalic architecture could
be considered a curious anomaly in the history of world architecture.

Gopuras in the Arnachaleshvara Temple

DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES in SOUTHERN INDIA
However, there was another architecture in the world, which also held such mentality, other
than Egyptian; the early modern Hindu temples of the so-called Dravidian Style in southern
India. Although during the age of the Chola Empire in the medieval period, Vimanas (main
shrines) were given tremendous figures with heights reaching up to more than 60m, such as
the Brihadishvara Temple in Thanjavur , the mode of temple architecture thoroughly
changed in the 14th century during the Vijayanagara Dynasty.
Leaving main shrines as small as they were when first built, and encircling the whole
precincts as a rectangle with walls, architects came to construct magnificent tower gates at
the entrances, which are not called pylons but gopuras.
In the course of time, their precincts were further enlarged and surrounded with high walls as
in ancient Egypt, erecting huger gopuras. In the cases of important temples, this cycle was
repeated many times; the number of gopuras occasionally increased to more than ten and the
highest ones could attain to over 70m in height. iNote j
In the city of Tiruvannamalai, as the result of the repeated enlargement of the
Arnachaleshvara Temple, its imposing gopuras soar like skyscrapers in Manhattan, looking
down the town scape and the surrounding landscape.
Since the main shrine is very small and located in the central enclosure, its existence cannot
figured out from outside. It would be difficult for current architects to even consider that
these ten majestic skyscrapers are nothing but gates of a temple.
Though the reason for the change in direction to acromegaly in Dravidian temple architecture
is not yet clear, we can also find similar acromegaly, or the phenomena of the independency
of elements constituting a whole, in the design of a gopura itself.

The North Gopura of the Minakshi-Sundareshvara Temple
The Minakshi-Sundareshvara Temple in Madurai, which is considered to be the best
representative of Dravidian temples in early modern ages, has as many as 12 gopuras, mainly
erected in the 17th century. The great gopura at the northern side has ten stories and is about
45m in height. Its upper stories are gradually set back from the lower stories, delineating a
slightly concave curve in silhouette, and rising high into the sky like a Gothic cathedral.
As for the material of this gopura, only the ground floor, which stands high astride an
entrance passageway, is made of stone, and the superstructure constituting the upper nine
stories is of brick, the surface of which is elaborately sculpted and colorfully plastered. Its
base plan is standardized rectangular and the top is surmounted with a barrel vaulted
enormous stone ridgepole.

COMPOSITONAL PRINCIPLES of GOPURAS
Indian temple architecture is popularly known to be covered with numerous sculptures of
gods, animals and human couples, but when observing details of a gopura, one will see that it
is made far more architecturally than sculpturally. Let us look slightly left of the center in the
second story of the north gopura of Madurai (photo and diagram below).
There is a Shala, or a temple-form unit (a basic temple form of two stories) of the Dravidian
style, carved minutely. Each story of the gopura has such temple units lined up innumerably.
On the top of the photo can be seen the bottom part of the temple-form unit in the third story,
and its central axis is a little deviated from that of the one below because of the setback of
upper stories into slightly reduced proportion.

A Shala (temple-form unit) on the second stair of the North Gopura,
(the Minakshi-Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai)

Disassembly of the Shala (above photo) into its self-similar elements
When looking carefully into this complete temple-form unit (1 on the disassembly diagram),
which is a self-sufficient temple enshrining a sculpted goddess, one can realize that three
smaller Shalas (temple units) are stacked on its central axis (2 - 4 on the diagram), each of
which is a complete independent temple of two stories, and furthermore one can find
minimum-sized temples in and around them (5 - 14).
In short, this temple unit in the second story has an intricate telescopic structure comprised of
14 temples that are all self-sufficient independent buildings, with a sanctuary, front columns
on a podium, eaves, and a vault-like roof on the second floor columns.
Though the proportions of temple units are full of variety, each story of the gopura has a line
of some 30 units of telescopic structure, so if a gopura has ten stories, it can be calculated to
contain 3,000 to 4,000 temples in total. Since the Minakshi-Sundareshvara Temple has
twelve gopuras, surprisingly close to 30,000 temples are embedded throughout its entire
precincts in a telescopic way.
While that great number is quite something, the architectural method in which minimum
temples are combined with each other to make small temples, which in turn are joined
together to form middle sized temples, which are piled up to compose a large gopura is
extremely unique, never known in the world other than in India.
However huge and complicated Gothic cathedrals might be, their components, arches,
pillars, buttresses, turrets, traceries and so on, never take the form of independent church
buildings. From what derived the impulses that gave such inclusion into a gopura, which has
the function of a mere gate, and granted a temple form to each inferior element in spending
considerable energy?

Vimana of the Mallikarjuna Temple, Kuruvatti
COLUMN BASE DESIGN
In order to explore this further, let us examine another appearance of acromegaly in
architecture. It is also in southern India but from an age when vimanas were erected greater
than gopuras: a mediaeval Hindu temple in the Karnataka region.
Close to the end of the 10th century, Indian stone architecture had almost attained to its
highest technical accomplishment, in spite of being wooden-like post and beam structure.
The Mallikarjuna Temple in Kuruvatti was built in the late Chalkyan Style, which is just the
middle form between the Northern and Southern temple styles. (The temple is especially
famous by the sculptures on its column capitals on its facade).


Plan of the Mallikarjuna Temple, Kuruvatti
( from "Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture" by M.A. Dhaky,
American Institute of Indian Studies, 1996 j
Its plan consists of the Garbhagriha (sanctuary), an Antarala (anteroom) and a Mandapa
(hall) with three entrance porches. The Mandapa has four columns as usual to sustain the
ceiling beams. The chlorite columns take a form like a stack of round disks, which are
supposed to have been produced with a lathe. The most interesting factor is their elaborate
column bases.

Column Base of the Mallikarjuna Temple

They are probably the most exuberantly decorated column bases in the world. In contrast to
the round shape shaft, each base is square in outline, standing on a geometrically chiseled
podium, four corners of which have small fluted columns with a three tiered capitals, on
which are mini-temples of two stories.
On each face, between these corner columns, is carved a high towered temple of one story on
four mini-columns. This tower has an artillery shell shape called a Shikhara, which is
composed of a stack of small Shikharas and surmounted with an Amalaka (fluted disk) and a
Kalasha (finial). Apart from volute ornament around the Shikhara, it is a complete northern
type temple with even a statue of the main deity carved between the mini-columns.
In short, each of these four columns in the Mandpa contains four northern type temples back
to back on its column base.
Since a Stambha (pillar or column) in India symbolizes the vertical axis connecting heaven
and earth, the center of each column is the independent axis of the universe, having four
temples (houses of gods) facing the four directions (the world).
In the first place, the main shrine of a Hindu temple is a Garbhagriha (womb house as a
sanctuary), which enshrines a Linga (phallus as a symbol of Shiva), erecting a Shikhara (high
tower as a large Linga) over it and crowning it with a Kalasha (Himalayan Mt. Kailasa as an
abode of Shiva), so it is interpreted as the axis of the universe connecting the earth for men
and the heaven for gods.
In this Mallikarjuna Temple, the Mandapa also forms a symbolic sacred place surrounded by
four columns, each of which stands as an independent axis of the universe, plainly indicating
that the temple is a cosmos with the omnipresence of Hindu gods.
Usually in Western architecture since the ancient Greeks, people do not pay much attention
to column bases compared to capitals, the Indian sprit, which is to make every column in a
Mandapa an axis of the universe, has the foot of each column immanent of the universe,
making its extremity hypertrophy to tremendous density and elaboration in form.
It has to be said that the method which filled some thousand temples into a single Gopura in
southern type Hindu temples take root on the same spirit as this.



< NOTE >
The temple composition, which gave extreme prominence to only the entrance gates and left
the main shrines smaller, and manifoldly encircled the precincts by high walls, is not seen in
the world other than in ancient Egypt and in early modern southern India. What relationship
was able to exist between these two remote regions both in time and distance?
As according to geophysics the current Indian Subcontinent was integrated with the African
continent eons ago, might the memory of remote ancestors of some hundred million years
past revived in a common architectural constitution?
ARCHITECTURE of MODERN INDIA

TAKEO KAMIYA


The delivery of New Delhi to the viceroy



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The miniature shown above is painted in the Indian traditional style, bordered with flowers
and foliage, but actually the depicted scene is not the Mughal Court. The dignitaries wearing
courtiers f costumes at the audience are all British.
This picture, painted in 1931 by a British woman, Marjorie Shoosmith, symbolizes the last
brilliance of the ancient regime and the final days before the advent of new architecture, in
the mid-19th century. Here I will concisely describe what sort of end it was, through the
vicissitudes of architecture before and after the scene of this miniature.
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
in the LAST HALF of the 19th CENTURY
Colonizing most of India, the British Empire attained to its golden age in the last half of the
19th century. Its colonial capital Calcutta (now Kolkata) was embellished with edifices in
the style of European Neo Classicism (the tendency to design new buildings in ancient
Greco-Roman styles), such as the huge Government House.
However, as the summer in Calcutta is so hot and was not considered hygienic enough, the
summer resort town Shimla in the north became the summer capital in 1865, where the
English country-house-like Rashtrapati Niwas (Viceregal Lodge) was constructed in 1888
based on Henry Irwin fs design.
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Rashtrapati Niwas (Viceregal Lodge), Henry Irwin, Shimla
As this typically shows, the designs of main edifices during the British rule were almost
exclusively by the hands of British architects. They were ecolonial architecture f, for
which Indians were not entrusted, and moreover there were no institutions to bring up
architects in colonial India. Therefore, there would have hardly emerged nationalist
architects, equivalent to Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) in the field of painting in
modern India.
On the other hand in Bombay (now Mumbai), in concert with the Gothic Revival movement
in the suzerain, not only Christian churches but also commercial buildings were
magnificently built in Gothic style, manifesting the opulent strength of the Empire. The
Library and Convocation Hall of Bombay University designed by George Gilbert Scott are
its best representatives.

University Library by George Gilbert Scott, 1878, Bombay
However, recognizing that these unilateral compulsions of Western civilization helped
engender the Indian Mutiny against the British army during 1857-59, the colonial
government turned its cultural policy in the direction of adopting Indian traditional factors
into colonial buildings. The result is the thriving of the eIndo-Saracenic style f, which
made a compromise between Western and Mughal architectures, from the 1880s.
The style, which provided stone eaves in precaution against the rainy season and erected
small embellishing Chhatris on roofs around main domes, caught on swiftly all over the
Indian subcontinent, and was received amicably by the Indians too. It can be interpreted that
British architects represented Indian nationalism in architecture on behalf of Indians.

Old Town Hall by Vincent Esch, 1913, Hyderabad

NEW DELHI, THE END of COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE
In the 20th century the anti-British and independence movements grew rapidly, based mainly
in Calcutta. The British government, experiencing a sense of crisis, declared in 1911 that it
would construct a new city south of Delhi, located in central India, and transfer the capital
from Calcutta in the west.
Thus the British leading architects Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) and Herbert Baker (1862-
1946) were invited to design the city of New Delhi and its important edifices such as the
Viceroy fs House (Government House) and the Secretariats. Here they diluted the character
of Indo-Saracenic style, inclining toward European Classicism, in accordance with the policy
of the government.

Secretariats by Herbert Baker, 1931, New Delhi
It is the miniature at the beginning of this article that humorously depicts the delivery of
these last large-scale colonial buildings to the viceroy, Lord Irwin, in 1931. The man
presenting the model of Viceroy House is Lutyens, the next holding the model of Parliament
House is Baker, and the last with a drawing of the city plan in his hand is the chief engineer,
Alexander Rouse. The Viceroy fs House and Mughal garden designed by Lutyens are seen
in the background.
In Europe in this period the movement of modern architecture, which rejected 19th century
architecture based on classical styles, had attained to its high watermark.
Lutyens f assistant, who supervised the construction of New Delhi in situ, was the young
architect Arthur Gordon Shoosmith (1888-1974). His wife was Marjorie Cartwright
Shoosmith who painted the above-mentioned miniature. She may have learned traditional
Mughal painting while her husband commuted to the construction sites.
A.G. Shoosmith was only one year younger than the champion of modern architecture, Le
Corbusier (1887-1965), being likely dissatisfied with Lutyens f old styles. When he was
given an opportunity to design the Garrison Church of St. Martin (1930) during the
supervision of the construction of New Delhi, he adopted a constructivist-like style with
almost no embellishment, but a powerful mass of brick. It is the first piece of modern
architecture in India.

St. Martinfs Garrison Church by A.G. Shoosmith, New Delhi

ARCHITECTURE AFTER THE INDEPENDENCE
Seventeen years after the construction of St Martin fs Garrison Church, India became
independent from the British Empire in 1947, and Indian architecture immediately parted
from European classical styles and rushed into modernism. The leading light who
determined its direction was the French architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965), who planned
the new capital city of Punjab state, Chandigarh, and designed its capital complex and
principal facilities.
____

Left: Secretariat by Le Corbusier, 1953, Chandigarh
Right: Sangath (Doshifs Atlier) by Barkrishna Doshi, 1980, Ahmadabad
Barkrishna Doshi, who had trained at Le Corbusier fs atelier in Paris, made this direction
take root, working energetically in Ahmadabad in western India and boosted this city into a
mecca of Indian modern design.
While successive Indian architects developed new architecture, Raj Rewal especially
modernized symbolically Indian traditional housing styles and forms, freely using the
techniques of Western modern architecture.

STC Building by Raj Rewal, 1989, New Delhi
On the other hand there was an alternative tendency of a vernacular method of contemporary
architecture, intending to adopt indigenous technologies suitable for the local climate rather
than manipulate architectural forms.
The architect who most greatly influenced this current was the British architect Laurie Baker
(1917-2007). He lived in the Kerala region in southern India, pursuing low-tech architecture
for the common people, suitable to the tropical climate.
____

Left: St. Johnfs Cathedral by Laurie Baker, 1973, Tiruvalla
Right: University Lecture Hall by Uttam C. Jain, 1979, Jodhpur
Uttam C. Jain who succeeded to this trend is developing an architecture taking root on arid
land in the desert district in western India.
Indian contemporary architecture spreads between these two reaches: globalism tightly
connected with Europe and the U.S.A. and regionalism deeply based on the Indian earth.
ENCOUNTERS with MODERNISM

TAKEO KAMIYA


Millowner's Association Building by Le Corbusier


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MAESTROS of MODERN ARCHITECTURE
It is Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) and Frank Lloyd Wright
(1867-1959) who have been most highly praised as the three maestros of modern
architecture.
Mies fs architectural style, symbolized by steel and glass office buildings, has prevailed in
large cities all over the world, a match for the age of industrialization and economy.
At the opposite extreme was Frank Lloyd Wright fs distinctive style, which has hardly
spread outside America, only producing some works in Japan such as the Imperial Hotel in
Tokyo. His formative arts and decoration, almost completely different from Japanese
tradition, did not necessarily accompany well with general Japanese feelings.
It can be said that it was Le Corbusier fs theory on urban design and architecture and his
formative design in the use of concrete that mainly lead Japanese modern architecture, partly
because he was blessed with excellent Japanese disciples.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Thus almost all countries f modern architecture was dominated by the principles of Mies
and Corb. However, there is one that seems to have more fully accepted those of Wright. It is
India.
Being a British colony until 1947, India lagged behind in industrialization and had a sluggish
economy, so Miesian-style steel and glass architecture hardly developed. Since Indian
traditional architecture, best represented by Hindu temples, was amply decorated in detail
with sculptures, it had a sensuous familiarity with Wright among the three maestros.
Two young people, who probably felt this familiality, went to Wright fs atelier in Taliesin
in the USA to learn architecture from him. They were Gautam Sarabhai (1917-95) and his
younger sister Gira (1923- @) from the Sarabhai family, which was often likened to the
Medici family in Renaissance Italy through its contribution to cultural development in
modern India as a plutocratic clan in cotton spinning industry in Ahmadabad.
After two years discipline in Taliesin in the first half of the 1940s they came back to India
and encouraged their family to bring to materialization a work by Frank Lloyd Wright.


Sarabhai Calico Mills Store by Frank Lloyd Wright
( from "Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings" by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, 1990j
In 1946, a year before the Independence of India, Wright presented a design for the
administration office building for Sarabhai Calico Mills. However, though the reason is not
known, Wright was gradually estranged from the Sarabhai family and his plan was not
actualized. Although the pendulum would swing from Wright to Le Corbusier, if Wright fs
building had been constructed, the subsequent history of modern architecture in India would
have developed in a quite different direction.
ANTONIN RAYMOND
However, that was not India fs first encounter with modernism. Nine years earlier, Antonin
Raymond (1888-1976) was invited to India by Shri Aurobindo (1872-1950), a philosopher
and a religious leader in Pondicherry in southern India, and built the Dormitory of his
Ashram (monastic training center) as an authentic work of modern architecture.
____
Shri Aurobindo Ashram Dormitory by Antonin Raymond
Raymond, who had earlier come to Japan as the assistant of Wright to supervise the
construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, had established his own office to continue
architectural works in Japan.
Unfortunately, as Japan inclined to the military regime, he felt it increasingly difficult to
work there, when he was conveniently called to India and he left Japan in 1937. His design
of the Shri Aurobindo Ashram Dormitory of exposed concrete, with well detailed movable
brise-soleil (sunshade), has been much more carefully maintained than later Corbuisier fs
works and is still lovingly used. And it was George Nakashima (1905-1990) who designed
its garden and supervised its construction.
Nevertheless, this was not the first piece of modernist architecture in India. The story still
goes back seven more years.
ARTHUR GORDON SHOOSMITH
The younger architect Arthur Gordon Shoosmith (1888-1974), assistant to the prominent
English architect Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) who was in charge of the city planning of New
Delhi and design of the Viceroy fs House (Government House), built the Garrison Church
of St. Martin in 1930, while supervising New Delhi construction.
____
St Martin's Garisson Church, by A.G. Shoosmith
Its powerful massive formation of brick in the constructivist-like style, almost completely
excluding decorations, is considered to be the first work of modernist architecture in India.
Though he went on to produce more work, his name seems to have dropped out of the
history books. He could be said to be an unknown modernist architect in the history, only
one year younger than Le Corbusier.
LE CORBUSIER
It was in 1950 that India met Le Corbusier, when the Indian government commissioned the
design of the new capital of Punjab state, Chandigarh. Originally it was offered to an
American architect, Albert Mayer (1897-1981), an acquaintance of the first Indian Prime
Minister Nehru, but was suspended due to the sudden accidental death of Mayer fs
admirable partner, Matthew Nowicki (1910-1949).
Accordingly the committee of the state government went to Europe to interview many
architects, and then selected Le Corbusier as the designer of the new city and its main
edifices.

Capital Complex of Chandigarh by Le Corbusier
In response to this, in Ahmadabad, the Sarabhai family switched to Le Corbusier from Frank
Lloyd Wright and the state government and other entrepreneurs followed by commissioning
design works to Le Corbusier. As Le Corbusier, in parallel with works in Chandigarh, built
the Sarabhai House, Shodhan House, Mill-owner's Association Building, and Sanskar
Kendra Museum successively in Ahmadabad, India came to have the second largest
collection of his works after France. Those works decided the principal course of Indian
modern architecture.
BALKRISHNA DOSHI
While the Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi (1927- ), who had trained at Le Corbusier fs
atelier in Paris, supervised the construction of those buildings, he commenced his own
practice in his office in Ahmadabad and furthermore established the School of Architecture
and Planning, educating students himself. He was the leading figure in making Ahmadabad a
mecca of modern design in India.
When he was asked to design the campus of the Indian Institute of Management in
Ahmadabad, he turned it over to the American venerable architect Louis Kahn (1901-74)
with the intention of effectively profitting for the education of young architects and students
in India.
LOUIS KAHN
In the same period Louis Kahn got a larger commission from Bangladesh.
East Pakistan (present Bangladesh), which became independent together with West Pakistan
from the British Empire separately from India, made Dhaka its capital and decided to
construct edifices for capital functions, such as the National Assembly Hall, in the northern
district.
The government of Bangladesh selected Le Corbusier as the architect at the beginning, but
he declined as he was already at an advanced age. Since the second candidate, Alvar Aalto in
Finland, also declined, it came around to Louis Khan.
____
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and Indian Institute of Management by Louis Kahn
Khan visited India and Bangladesh for the first time at the end of 1962. Although these
works did not proceed under an always favorable wind, it is quite beneficial for the
architectural community of India that the works of a maestro other than Le Corbusier have
been actualized in the Indian subcontinent.
As Le Corbusier fs sculptural buildings with huge concrete eaves and brise-soleils match
the tradition of Hindu architecture in India, Khan fs pure-geometry-like style has no discord
against the tradition of Islamic architecture in Bangladesh