The Buddhist and Gupta era influences on Indian architecture The present Indian civilization, culturally speaking, can be traced back to early Harappan, Buddhist and Gupta age roots, when the foundations of Indian culture were laid. However, few recognize that many core Indian architectural forms also took shape during this era as well. Some of the architectural transitions from the Buddhist to the Gupta age were deciphered by British colonial archaeologists and historians in the 19th century by decoding and preserving manuscripts, artifacts and structures from ancient India. The Buddha preached and laid the foundations for Buddhism between the 4th and 6th centuries BC. As Buddhist monks needed no graven images of gods, or the Buddha, early Buddhist structures revolved around two prototypes: the Vihara, or monastery, and Chaitya, or mound, where relics of the Buddha were kept. There is a curious resemblance between the modern day word “Bihar” (a state in India) and the Buddhist, or Pali, word “Vihara,” for the seclusion centers where Buddhist monks used to stay. Vihara possibly meant refuge or dwelling or even a place to stay, and the typology originally came into use to shelter wandering Buddhist monks from the vagaries of the weather. In its initial, early form, Buddhism did not permit the use of iconography or images of the Buddha, and so viharas, by definition, are bereft of all but the most simple iconography and images, preferring instead to reflect the reclusive life of their inhabitants. In the 4th century BC, when the Buddha actually lived, there was little need for permanent shelters, since most of the monks lived a wandering life. It was only later on, around the 2nd century BC, when the development of the janapada kingdoms and the appearance of a rich merchant class, accompanied with the lucrative trade routes into the hinterland of Asia and Persia, that enough money became available for some of the early rich converts to Buddhism to upgrade the monasteries from temporary, thatched wooden structures to a more permanent abode. There were two types of viharas, though both types followed the same standard plan. The first was a stand-alone, structural building (more common in South India) and the second was a rock cut vihara hewn into the side of a mountain or a hill, which can be found in central India with the chaitya structures in the Deccan. Form and History The Deccan plateau in India is home to some of the earliest chaityas and viharas, some dating as early as the 3rd or even the 4th century BC. While we see in these viharas and chaityas a struggle to evolve a distinct plan form, some of the most common features are elaborate pillars, doorway arches and ornate facades. Endowed by wealthy merchants, these viharas and chaityas benefited from the trade routes across Asia toward Roman territory. The later chaitya consist of a pillared archway on the door, a central court, with or without pillars, marking its periphery, and three rows of secluded cells with narrow, low doorways ringing the court’s perimeter. There is very little in the way of sources of light, except from the main entrance itself. The overall effect is that of seclusion and penance, as exhorted by the principal tenets of Mahayana Buddhism, whose precepts the monks were serving. The difference between these early rock cut viharas and the later free standing ones in Bengal and Bihar, for example, is that the latter have four rows of cells, not three, around a free standing courtyard. Later examples became more complicated, with rows of adjunct and ancillary buildings marking the appearance of a complex of buildings reflecting the increasingly complex life of the Buddhist monastery, which changed in function from a simple abode for monks to an administrative and educational center, the prime example being the Buddhist university at Nalanda in Bihar, which attracted scholars from regions as far as China and south east Asia. These accounts were witnessed by the Chinese travelers Xuanzuang and Hsieun-Tsang, who also noted the appearance of a stupa containing relics of the Buddha at the end of the vihara. It has been said that viharas and chaityas, however ornate they became in the late era of Buddhism, never totally forgot their roots from wood structures and that the stone carvings and indeed the structure reflected this nuance. However, Buddhism is a very plastic religion in comparison to the rigid tenets of the late Vedic religion, and some of this playfulness of the exterior facades and interior spaces of the later vihara and chaitya structures may simply have been a response to this playfulness and a desire to differentiate between the nascent religion and the overwhelming presence of the dominant religion. Later viharas, among them Vikramshila, Nalanda, Odantapura and Jaggadara became still more complex as Buddhism achieved the status of a “state religion.” By now the vihara complexes were under central administration with the buildings and structures, even though far apart, acting in concert under councils of monks. What happened to these famed vihara and chaitya complexes later? With Hinduism successfully absorbing Buddhism by making the Buddha part of the Hindu pantheon of dashavatara or the ten avatars, the importance of the monastic complexes decreased. New trade routes and new patterns of living may also have played a role in the decline of Buddhism in India. With the coming of the Gupta dynasty and the building of increasingly magnificent Hindu temples in the region, Buddhism declined further. However the places of learning continued to retain their prestige over the ages, and new and recent attempts in modern day Bihar to revive the university of Nalanda as a modern institution testify to the continued relevance of the legacy of Buddhism in India — as a fount of learning and principles, rather than a living religion whose torch has since passed elsewhere in Asia. Art and Architecture of the Guptas The Buddhist era was rapidly succeeded by the empire of the Guptas, who held sway over much of northern India and even parts of the south during their heyday from the turn of the BC-AD age for about 400 years. Who were the Guptas? Was the period of this dynasty really a symbol of an Indian classical age? What were its accomplishments in terms of art and architecture? How did it carry on the heritage of the Buddhist era in India? The first question is easy to answer. Though historical records in ancient and medieval India are not easy to discern — the main problem being linear time as evidenced in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and the concept of cyclical time as is usual for Indian historical records — yet there are enough archaeological and numismatic traces to construct a fairly accurate record of the age that was said to be of the Guptas. While this period is justly famous for the flowering of what is called core Hindu culture, after the Vedic and Buddhist age, architectural temples had not coalesced into their final form as would be evidenced some 200 years later, now had experiments with rock cut architecture and the free standing temples further south. At its height, which extended from approximately the 4th century to the 6th century AD, the Gupta empire included much of north India, with zones of influences extending further south down to modern day Chennai and Pondicherry. It was natural that such an uninterrupted age of relative peace and prosperity brought with it ancillary development in the sciences, astronomy, literature, the lively arts and what is today called Indian philosophy. Some of the greatest pre-medieval Indian poets and writers, among them Kalidasa, lived and worked during the Gupta age. Perhaps the most durable contribution in art and architecture during the Gupta period is the series of monasteries and caves at Ajanta and Ellora. Cut above the natural bed of a river through living rock, the Ajanta Caves are close to Aurangabad and were “discovered” by a British officer in 1818. The caves were dug out through an iterative process roughly contemporaneous with the Gupta Empire, i.e. from the 2nd to the 6th century AD. There area has nearly 30 caves, of which a substantial number chaitya halls and viharas. Famous for their paintings, the cave art depicts tales from the Jatakas in a range of styles and forms, though as time goes by, there is diminishing quality, ranging from inferior materials to dull, lifeless forms. The earliest caves date from the 1st century BC, with a second phase beginning in the 5th century AD, which is when the art of painting during the Gupta era really comes into its own. Apart from its art, the Ajanta and Ellora caves are significant works of architecture, even though rock cut, in their own right. Most of the monasteries, which take the form of vihara interiors, are rectangular in shape and surrounded by monk’s cells. Later viharas also have place for a small stupa at the end, which doubles as a sanctuary containing a graven image of the Buddha. The viharas are complemented, as in caves 9, 10, 19 and 26 by chaitya halls with a central space leading to the culminating stupa. The use of timber forms as inspiration continues in both viharas and chaityas. Temple Forms The Gupta empire was responsible, apart from the continuing tradition of Buddhism, for the initial development of Hinduism. The architecture of Hinduism demanded a different approach to its form than earlier Buddhist architecture. For one, the temple or place of worship was said to be in direct communion with the gods, and so an open place away from the cloistered existence of monkish life was required. Secondly, great emphasis was placed on the square and its permutations as far as formal vocabulary was concerned. This led early temples, though simple in their interior plan, to have a form that reflected both openness to both the air as well as the four cardinal directions. In addition, there was a requirement for height, with the main objective to provide to the worshiper a sense of power as well as closeness to the heavens. A superb early example of this philosophic typology is the Vishnu temple at Deogarh, as well as the brick temple at Bhitargaon. Constructed on a high pedestal of steps, the Vishnu temple suffers much from deterioration through age and exposure to the elements. However, there is enough of its form left to appreciate the new winds of change and the prelude to the architectural renaissance that would take place in the aftermath and late years of the Gupta Empire. With four entrances or possible doorways, and a space to perambulate around the structure, the Vishnu temple is among the earlier examples to contain within itself the feature of a pradakshina path, or circumferential passage, which embodies the symbolism and the ritualism of making one’s way across the cosmos. There is also evidence of a rudimentary shikhara, or spire, constructed of stone laid on top of one another. Structurally speaking, the Vishnu temple is rudimentary, but it does contain within its form powerful early Hindu symbolism. A miracle of survival, the brick temple at Bhitargaon is one of the oldest surviving terracotta/brick buildings from the late Gupta age. Here too a square plan provides the base for a brick spire or shikhara. A possibly new innovation in this temple is found at its entrance, with a vaulted arch constructed out of brick to mark the entry. While the Gupta empire is better — and justly so — known for its achievements other than architecture, it also marks the break between the dominance of Buddhism in north India and the emergence of a fully-fledged Hindu culture in the subcontinent. Much of the cultural foundation in arts, literature and science that would go on to become the pillars of the Hindu tradition was laid during this period. However, architecture too contributed — with the first temples and temple forms taking shape. The few examples that survive from this period testify to the legacy of the Gupta monarchs and the cultural phenomena of Hinduism that would dominate the subcontinent for a several centuries to come.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 08:57:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015