EVOLUTION OF HINDU ARCHITECTURE

Hindu forms of worship -Evolution of temple form - meaning, symbolism,

ritual and social Importance of temple

Categories of temple - elements of temple architecture

Early shrines of the Gupta and Chalukyan periods

Tigawa temple

Ladh Khan and Durga temple -Aihole

Papanatha, Virupaksha temples -Pattadakal

Kailasanatha temple - Ellora

ROCK CUT ARCHITECTURE –
BUDDHISM

100 AD – 160 AD
Harappan
•Drainage syste
•Rectangular intersecting roads
•Sanitary system
Mauryan
•Monolithic Pillars
•Finely carved capitols – Bull capitol and Sarnath capitol
•Stupas start during this period – 4 gateways
•Surface built with bricks
•Viharas and Chaityas
•Rock Cut Architecture
Shunga – Satvahanas
· Early classic architecture
· Carved railings and gateways around Buddhist shrines
Kushan
· Sculpture developed
· The emperor himself was a divine authority
· Buddha was first time given a human form during this time
Gupta period
· Beginning of Hindu temples – temple at Deoghar, Udaigiri caves in Orissa
· Vaishnavite temple in Vidisha
Chalukyas
• Blend of Aryan and Dravidian style of architecture
Pallavas
· Mandaps, Rathas and finely carved panels and pillars
· Shore temple at Mahabs is a structural temple
· Ratha temple is a rock cut temple
· Kanchipuram also has temples.
Panels depict shiva as Natraja, History of Pallavas
Cholas
· Tanjaur Temple: 65 m tall vimana
· Pillared halls and sculptures depicting Bharata’s natyashastra
· Fine paintings
Pandyas
· Built high outer walls and gopuram
· Their gopurams can be seen from long distances
Hoysalas
· Belur and Halebeed temples
· Profusion of manifold pillars with rich and intricate carvings
· Panels depict gods and goddesses
Orissa Temples
· Lingraja temple 40 m high
· Sun Temple
 Hindu temples
• The temple is a holy site (tirtha), where they practitioners can perform
circumambulation (pradaksina).
• They also perform the pious act of gazing at the deity (darsan) and
offering prayers, flowers and food (puja).
• The temple is never a meeting place for a congregation, but it came to be
a focal point of the community.
• The heart of the temple is the dark hall called garbha grha (womb hall),
where the most important icon is placed. It is the most important area.
• Pillared halls (mandapa) and porticos were added to the garbha graha,
which was surmounted with a tower (sikhara)--center of the universe
(axis mundi).
• Many varieties: wood, brick, terracotta, and variety of stone (e.g., schist,
chlorite, marble)
• Temples required to be heavily ornamented (things lacking in ornament
were considered imperfect or incomplete.
• Motifs: narrative reliefs, animal motifs, floral and vegetation motifs.
Brahma-God of Creator
Vishnu-God of Preserver (has many incarnations such as Rama and Krishna)
Shiva-God of Destroyer (also the protector of animals)
Devi-goddess (e.g., Laksmi (“Good Fortune”) and Parvati); symbolizing
beauty, benevolent, and wealth as well as power and wrath
10 scientific reasons behind the rituals in Hinduism according
to the ancient texts

1. The Location and Structure of the Temple

•Temples are found
deliberately at a place
where the positive energy
- magnetic and electric
wave conveyances of
north/south post push.

•The idol of God is set in

the core center of the
temple, known as
“Garbhagriha” or
“Moolasthanam”- place
where earth’s magnetic
waves are discovered to be
most extreme.
BHUTHANADHA TEMPLE, BADAMI TEMPLE , KARNATAKA
 Vastu-purusa mandala
• A myth explains the symbolic diagram (mandala): the gods in
seeking to impose order on chaos, forced the primeval man,
Purusa, into a square grid, the vastu-purusa mandala, whose
basic unit is the square pada

• Hindu temple is the dwelling of the gods. It is based on the

grid systems of 64 (8x8) and 81 (9x9) squares.

• Square is the prefect shape for the ground plan.

• Priests perform ritual of consecrations which connect

between sexual rites and fertility in Hindu architecture.
Vastu-purusa mandala
RAJAGOPURAM DWAJASTHAMBA MAHAMANDAPAM SANCTUM
Artha Mandapa.

1. Garbhagriha
2. Mandapa.
3. Antarala.
4. Mahamandapa.
5. Enclosing wall
6. Pradhikshana path.
•Shikara has the repetition of architectural motifs, converted into an element
of decoration. These architectural motifs have much deeper
meaning.Symbolically it means to reach or get closer to the GOD
•There are two style of temple architecture were followed.
•Dravidian style in south
•Indo Aryan in north.
1. In one concept it was the derivation from the peaked or domed huts.
2. Temple developed form stupa-elongated form of the dome.
3. Temple is referred as ratha or car.so the sikhara

North Indian Nagara Style South Indian Dravida Style Combined Style
 Elements of Hindu temple
• The sanctuary as whole is known as the
• Vimana that consists of two parts.
• The upper part of the Vimana is called as the Sikhara
• the lower portion inside the Vimana is called as the Garbhagriha (cella or
inner chamber).
 Elements of Hindu temple
‘Sikhara’ meaning the tower or the spire.

• It is the pyramidal or tapering portion of the temple

which represents the mythological ‘Meru’ or the highest
mountain peak.
• The shape and the size of the tower vary from region to region.

‘Garbhagriha’ meaning the womb chamber.

• It is nucleus and the innermost chamber of the temple where the image
or idol of the deity is placed.
• The chamber is mostly square in plan and is entered
by a doorway on its eastern side.
• The visitors are not allowed inside the
 Elements of Hindu temple
• Pradakshina patha’ meaning the ambulatory passageway for
circumambulation.

• It consists of enclosed corridor carried around the outside of

garbhagriha.

• The devotees walk around the deity in clockwise direction as a worship

ritual and symbol of respect to the temple god or goddess.
• ‘Mandapa’, is the pillared hall in front of the garbhagriha, for the
assembly of the devotees.
• It is used by the devotees to sit, pray, chant, meditate and watch the
priests performing the rituals.
 Elements of Hindu temple
• It is also known as ‘Natamandira’ meaning temple hall of dancing, where
in olden days ritual of music and dance was performed.

• In some of the earlier temples the mandapa was an isolated and separate
structure from the sanctuary like in Mahabalipuram

• . ‘Antarala’ meaning the vestibule or the intermediate chamber.

• It unites the main sanctuary and the pillared hall of the temple.

• ‘Ardhamandapa’ meaning the front porch or the main entrance of the

temple leading to the mandapa.
CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE
•No structural innovativeness
•Based on centre of gravity
•Mass supporting mass
•Repetition
• No mortar- dry order
•Method of quarrying-
•groove drawn
•hole driven
•wooden peg inserted
•on pouring water wood expands
•stone breaks free
•facing was hammer dressed
•offsite fabrication was always carried out
•assembling at site after preparation of each block at quarry
•To enable this accurate measurements are needed
•Sometimes models are prepared initially
•Main aim was mass rather than line for a temple
GUPTA PERIOD ARCHITECTURE - 320 – 650 AD
4th BC- 6th BC
The Gupta Empire was one of the first people to use stone to build instead of wood.

Their architecture was dedicated to building stone temples for the various gods.

Their architecture marked the beginning in the creation of stone structures.

They built the first free standing structural temples.

They made structures called Stupas, this form of architecture made its way to china, where it was altered
slightly and renamed the Pagoda.
They invented manuals which described how to build the temples.
•Sophisticated urban culture, people of prime. Lot of literature, scultpure, texts, art etc
•Best knows old poets from this period Kalidas,Kama Sutra came from this period
•Establishment of Sanskrit culture, high culture of city elites AND Bhramanical Architecture. Rituals were
imbibed in the Temple Architecture. Scientific reasoning was given for all. And were reserved for upper
class.
Revival of Arya concepts as a new civic culture.

•Revival of kingship legitimized but Brahmins as the custodians of order

•Projection of Arya/Vedic age as a lost golden age; modernization of old Vedic gods and rituals
•Incorporation of Buddha and Buddhist ideas, into the new Hinduism.
•The birth of the Hindu temple.
•Rise of Shiva and Vishnu, puja introduced.
 GUPTA ARCHITECTURE – TEMPLES AND THEIR FEATURES
The Gupta style was influenced by Kusana, Mathura, and Gandhara and borrowed the common
features of T-shaped doorways, decorated door jambs, sculpted panels with high-relief figures,
and laurel-wreath and acanthus motifs.

Constructed using sandstone, granite, and brick, Gupta-era temples added to this architectural
heritage with horseshoe gavakshas arches and distinctive curved shikhara towers which are
frequently topped with a ribbed disk ornamentation known as an amalaka,t he crown.

These elaborate buildings are further decorated with a mass of ornate mouldings and
sculptures set in niches.

In Gupta architecture, the square was considered the most perfect form and temples were
designed to be appreciated from all sides so that each carries decorative architectural features.

Most temples also adopt a square plan with the single cubicle garbhagriha in the centre. This is
normally entered by a short columned porch set over a single, highly decorated doorway with a
projecting lintel.

Columns can support a pot-and-foliage capital, and roofs were generally flat, as in surviving
examples at Tigawa and Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh. Other typical Gupta decorative features
include triangle motifs inside doorways and lion's heads at the ends of stone beams.
Evolution of Temple Architecture in India during Gupta Period:

During the Gupta period, a firm foundation of temple architecture was laid when the basic
elements of the Indian temple consisting of a square sanctum and pillared
porch emerged.

The evolved Gupta temple also had a covered processional path for circumambulation
(Pradakshana Path) that formed a part of the worship-ritual.
 Earlier temples of the period had a monolithic flat
slab roof.

Later temples in brick and stone developed a Shikhara

The gradual evolution of the Gupta style is traceable through

development of the plan and the ornamentation on the pillars and
doorframe.

the later introducing new decorative motifs like goblins, couples,

flying angels, door-keepers and a figure relief in the centre of the
lintel emblematic of the deity consecrated in the temple

Sculptures of deities, their consorts, celestial beings, couples,

directional deities, composite animals and decorative motifs formed

the mass of images that adorned the walls of the temples and their
interiors.
 The deities consecrated in the sanctum were carved strictly
according to religious canons and installed by performing
a special consecration ceremony.

Temple sculptures were not necessarily religious. Many drew

on secular subject matters and decorative motifs.

The scenes of everyday life consist of military processions,

royal court scenes, musicians, dancers, acrobats and amorous
couples.

TYPES OF GUPTA ARCHITECTURE:

1. TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE
2. ROCK-CUT TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE
Temple of Bhitargaon:

•This temple is the earliest and the most remarkable example of

brick building and bears resemblance to the Buddhist temple of Bodhgaya.
•The temple at Bhitaragaon stands at the centre of a fairly high plinth.
•It is a tower-like edifice, rising in diminishing stages to a height of 70 feet.
•The projected porch on the east side is approached by steps.
•The outer ornamentation of terracotta sculpture is certainly the most striking feature of the Bhitaragaon
temple.
•The walls rise in bold moldings, their upper portions being decorated with a row of rectangular panels
alternating with ornamental pilasters.
•Like many Brahmanical structures, it was not a temple for worshippers but a repository or a shrine for an
image.
•This is the oldest remaining Hindu shrine with a roof and a high Sikhara in which there is a series of
arches
Parvathi Temple at
Nachana Kuthara:

•This is a west facing temple, contrary

to most of other Hindu temples which
face east.

•The sanctum doorway is surrounded

by finely carved guardians with Ganga
and Yamuna, river goddesses.

•North and south walls are provided

with pierced stone windows so that the
light can enter the sanctum.
Shiva temple at Bhumara:

•It resembles in type and plan to the Bhitaragaon temple.

•This shrine consists of a square masonary cella ( garbagriha) of about 35 feet side with a flat slab-roof
and a carved doorway having representations of river-goddesses on the jambs and a fine bust of Shiva,
with flying figures on the lintel.
•Around the garba griha are the scattered remains of a larger chamber which surrounded it, providing a
roofed pradaksina patha, and of amandapam attached to and preceding this enclosure.
•These remains consist of a great variety of columns which are not monolithic, of richly carved lintels
that supported the roofing slabs, of Chaitya-window niches from the cornice.
•Some of the gana figures have raksasa faces on their Bellies.
Dasavathara Vishnu Temple at Deogarh:

•The most important feature of the temple is Sikhara instead of the conventional flat roof
•Another most important feature of this temple is the arrangement of its portico.
•In the centre of the over-door slab is a plaque of Vishnu on the great naga
•To the right and the left at the top and outside the main zone of the frame are reliefs of the river
goddess Ganga and Jamuna.
•Dvarpalas or door guardians and female divinities are carved on the overlapping frames of the door.
GUPTA IRON PILLAR 4th c.
• Shaft
• Lion abacus ; Bell capital
• Supports a statue of god Vishnu with a halo
• 43’ high
• At present it is the iron pillar at Delhi
• Erected by Kumaragupta,Original site near Mathura
• Erected 415 BC
• Later shifted to a mosque site
• 23’ 8” high, made of pure malleable iron
• 6 tons weight
• First it bore the image of Garuda
• Moldings on top
• Can be divided into three parts
o Uppermost- square abacus
o Below melon capital
o Campani form capital
The iron pillar is 7.21 metres tall, with 93 cm buried below the present floor level, and has a
diameter of 41 cm
The pillar, made up of nearly seven tones of 98 per
cent wrought iron of pure quality, is 7.21m (23 feet
8 inches) high, with 93 cm buried below the
present floor level, and has a diameter of 41cm (16
inches)
According to the inscription on it, the pillar was erected at its
original venue by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375–414
C.E.