Question

What is the contribution of ancient India in the field architecture

Answer 1

The art and architecture of Ancient India touched new height during the rule of Gupta Empire. The most impressive artistic achievements of the Gupta period lie in the cave painting of Ajanta. In this connection we may deal with the art and architecture of the Kushana period. From the first years of Kanishka’s reign dedicated statutes of Buddha’s and Bodhisttvas were produced from the red sandstone and some of them soon found their way as far as Sarnath and Sravasti and Sanchi, where they influenced the development of Gupta art in succeeding centuries. The ambitious Mathura craftsmen also began to try their hands at portrait sculpture. An incribed headless statute of Kanishka found at Mathura is one of the best known examples.

In the secluded valley of Bamian, west of Kabul at the foot of the Hindukush, first or second century sculpture were busy hewing from the living rock face two enormous images of Buddha—one of them no less than 170 feet high, the other 115 feet. The idea of the Banian Buddhist cave was most probably copied from the famous Ajanta caves in western India.

During the rule of the Kushanas the most important thing was the emergence of the Gandhana School of art. This art developed in Afghanistan and north-west India. It evolved a mixture of styles, one of which was the Greece-Roman style of Alexandria, from where sculpture in bronze and stucco travelled along the west Asian trade routes to influence Hellenistic and Indian models nearer home. Previously Buddha was not portrayed in the image of God or historical person.

In the Gupta epoch the role of Buddhism declined and the consequent changes took place in the character of sculptural monuments. The images of Buddha and Boddhistavas were strictly canonized, and sculptures of Hindu Gods became widespread. Temple for the worship of Vishnu and Shiva were built with royal patronage. But these temples were not in the form of caves cut into the hills as at Ajanta and Ellora. On the other band they were built of materials like brick and stone. Several temples of the Gupta age have survived: the most famous among those was the one discovered at Deogarh near Jhansi in U.P. It was probably affected in the sixth century A.D. Another temple was the Martand temple of Kashmir, probably affected in the eighth century A.D.