Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14: Chapter VII: The Mahayana or Theistic Buddhist Monasteries of Gandhara (B.C. 250 to A.D. 450)

Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14

Language: English

Chapter VII: The Mahayana or Theistic Buddhist Monasteries of Gandhara (B.C. 250 to A.D. 450)

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DURING the centuries immediately before and after the beginning of the Christian era, it has been shown that the Buddhist communities in the middle and southern parts of the peninsula were actively engaged in producing monuments, such as masonry stupas, wooden chaitya halls, and rock-cut monasteries, according to the prevailing Hinayana system of the Buddhist faith. In the region towards the north-west of the country, however, a movement of a very different order was becoming apparent, and one which was destined to react, in a marked manner, on the cultural activities, of the people. The principal characters concerned in this great drama, which had Hither Asia as its setting, were offshoots of four races, or nationalities: (1) Greeks, (2) Parthians, (3) Scythians, and (4) Indians. It was the aspirations of these people, which caused what is now the country of Afghanistan, and the North-West frontier of India, to become the meeting place of streams of culture issuing from both European and Asiatic sources. And as a result there emerged in the early centuries of the first millennium, a form of Indo-Buddhist art, in itself of considerable significance, but still more important on account of its implications, as it affected, to some extent, much of the art of Asia.

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Briefly, the developments which ensued enabled Buddhism, by this time the prevailing religion in these parts, to interpret its oriental preceptions by means of an occidental medium, for it brought into the service of the Buddhist faith, the formative and rational art of Greece. In other words, it placed in the hands of the Buddhists, who, hitherto, had been content with a symbolical and non-representational mode of expression, plastic creations of an anthropomorphic character, so that they introduced into their buildings, figures and statuary based upon the Hellenic model. In conjunction with this departure they also borrowed freely from the architecture of the same classical school. The distinctly composite style thus evolved, which displayed a fusion of Hellenistic elements with Buddhist ideals, has sometimes been defined as Graeco-Bactrian, and also Graeco-Buddhist, but the designation now usually adopted is the geographical one of Gandhara, as the region from which it emanated bore that name. The country of Gandhara, before and after the beginning of the present era, corresponded approximately to the modern districts of Peshawar and Rawalpindi together with the eastern portion of Afghanistan

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The manner in which this current of Hellenistic art culture found its way into Central Asia there to take form on the walls of the Buddhist monasteries, was the outcome of the imagination and genius of Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia (356-323 B.C.). For it had its origin in the country of Bactria, one of the Greek colonies founded by this conqueror in the first half of the fourth century B C. as part of his ambitious scheme for a world dominion in the East. This extreme eastern outpost of the Macedonian Empire occupied a rich tract of land lying between the mountains of the Hindu Kush and the river Oxus, corresponding in a large measure to Northern Afghanistan, and now known as Balkh. The favourable position of such a powerful colony of Greeks enabled it to shed the living light of Hellenic culture over a wide area, and there can be few more romantic episodes than that of this European community making its home in so distant a land, where for nearly two centuries it maintained, as far as environment would permit, a close reproduction of the traditional Greek city-state. That it was a country of some consequence is shown by the fact that, at the height of its power in the third century B. C. Bactria boasted of as many as sixty large towns, and the legendary fame of its magnificent palaces was remarked on by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang as late as the seventh century A. D. For a time the colony kept in constant communication with the parent empire by means of a line of Greek cities across the west of Asia, so that direct stimulation of all forms of Hellenic culture was not lacking. As a proof of this contact the coins issued by the earlier rulers of Bactria are equal in artistic merit to the finest mintages of the Greeks, and from such evidence alone it seems clear that its satraps must have retained in their service artists of the first rank Moreover the rulers appear to have enriched their palatial abodes, and their subjects their sumptuous villas, with portable statues and reliefs, and thus by surrounding themselves with objects of Greek art endeavoured with considerable success to uphold the aesthetic instincts of their race. Unfortunately, owing to its situation, Bactria lay in the track of the invading hordes which from time to time swept across this portion of the continent, so that in effect all the material evidences of this remarkable colonization have long since been obliterated.

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Yet in spite of subsequent effacement, the records of the Greek occupation, and its association with the Buddhists of India can readily be followed. After maintaining itself as a colony for nearly two hundred years, about 250 B C, Bactria considered it expedient, for political reasons to sever its connection with the Macedonian empire, and accordingly the country assumed independence under a Greek king named Diodotus. From now onward it became self-contained, and more or less isolated as its intercourse with the western world began to be intermittent. Finally in the third century B C. owing to the intervention of the rising power of the Parthians, who occupied a country corresponding to the modern Khorasan, through-communication in that direction practically ceased. Nevertheless although the territorial conditions were unfavourable, an infiltration of culture from the west, through Hither Asia, seems to have persisted, and the flow of art from the fountain head of Hellas still continued. But by this time it was not the untouched productions of the Attic school which found their way to Bactria, for on their journey they became impregnated with some of the aesthetic ideals of the Parthians, and so there developed towards the second century B. C, what has been referred to as a Graeco-Parthian phase. Material records are somewhat meagre as to the character of the art of the Parthians, but it appears basically to have taken the form of a revival of the ancient Persian style, as this existed under the Achaemenids in the sixth century B. C. The Graeco-Parthian phase therefore, while displaying a Hellenistic foundation, contained reminiscences of those monuments associated with the golden age of Cyrus and Darius, and their royal cities of Pasargadae and Persepolis, of which the motif known as the Persepolitan capital is a symbol.

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Such were the conditions which prevailed in the countries beyond the north-west frontier of India about the beginning of the second century B.C. At this juncture, however, the increasing supremacy of the independent, although still Hellenistic kingdom of Bactria, caused its ruler, Euthydemus to contemplate an expansion of his power. Any movement westward would have been abortive owing to the Parthians having strengthened their position in what is now northern Persia, while the invasions, of a nomadic horde from the north made any advance in this direction also impossible. On the other hand the dismemberment of the Mauryan empire in India, which began in the last half of the third century B. C , was an opportunity not to be lost, and accordingly in 190 B C., the Bactrian king carried Greek rule across the Hindu Kush, down the Kabul valley, and into the plains of Hindustan By this achievement a considerable tract of northern India was brought under the dominion of the Bactrian Greeks, who were now at the height of their power. An Indo-Greek kingdom was established under Demetrius who was styled "King of India", as he ruled over the country of the Indus

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There is little doubt that had this forward policy of penetration eastward persisted, and concerted action taken, the decaying Mauryan empire of India would have fallen an easy prey to the victorious Asiatic Greeks, with a possibility of the entire country becoming Hellenized. But it is also fairly clear that, owing to long separation from their native land, their stamina had deteriorated and their staying power was sapped, so that the limit of their attainment had been reached. Dissensions among themselves, the division of the newly conquered territory into a number or petty principalities, increasing pressure from the Parthians, and the menace of the ever-advancing nomadic tribes, all combined to make their position insecure. The beginning of the final phase came in 125 B C. when Bactria itself, the original Greek stronghold, was overwhelmed by the Scythians, a Mongolian horde which was sweeping down from the north. Forced out of their homeland by this disaster, the Bactrian Greeks became confined to their more recently acquired possessions in the Indus valley and the Punjab, which they administered from Sakala, the modern town of Sialkot, but with much diminished power and prestige. Gradually compressed within a territory of ever-narrowing limits, they lingered on until A.D. 60, when the whole country was devastated by the relentless onslaught of the Scythians, who eventually founded the Indo-Scythian empire of the Kushans (A.D. 20-225). With this invasion the last vestiges of Greek rule in India disappeared.

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The disintegration of the power of the Indo-Greeks which took place in the first century A. D , would, in ordinary circumstances, have coincided with the inevitable decline of the Hellenistic culture that was an accompaniment of their rule. It was however the reverse that actually occurred. For, at the same time that the dominion of the Greeks was ending, a movement was being created which was the means of reviving and maintaining in a remarkable manner some of the characteristics and structure of their art. This took the form of a development of the Buddhist religion of such intensity and purpose that it can have had few equals The focus and centre of the movement was the country of Gandhara, and it expressed itself by the establishment of a very large number of monasteries, so that, like the cult of Lamaism in Tibet, it is evident that an unlimited proportion of the population was employed in the service of the creed As owing to the course of history, Afghanistan has, during most of the last millennium, been inhabited by a most zealous Islamic people, it is not easy to visualize this country as a stronghold of the Buddhists faith but, that such was the case, is proved by the profusion of its structural remains. For over the entire country the ruins recording the Buddhist occupation are visible, chiefly in the form of monasteries situated on the crest of the hills or on the mountain slopes, in the same manner as the innumerable white pagodas are distributed on the heights following the course of the Irrawady river in Burma Around Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and in the Swat valley and its neighbourhood, ruins of monasteries may be counted by the dozen, while in the Kabul valley alone there are some fifty examples These buildings, some of them very extensive, together with many other structural and even rock-cut evidences, testify that this territory was not only the home of a large population of devout followers of the Great Teacher, but also that they expressed their devotion in a material and substantial form

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The architectural style employed in the monasteries, and their plastic and painted embellishment, as will have been gathered, was of a special character. While the intention of the buildings, as well as their surface treatment, was fundamentally Indian, for the religion they served was essentially the result of Indian thought, on the other hand there was much in their structure and mode that was appropriated from the art of the Greeks. In their design there are numerous motifs of purely Hellenic origin, as for instance the Corinthian capital, pediments, entablatures, medallions and mouldings, of a debased classical order, built into stupas, shrines, temples and other religious edifices of an entirely Buddhistic foundation To these Hellenistic adoptions were also added ornamental elements of Parthian extraction, such as the fire-altar, the addorsed animal capital and other forms identified with the art of that empire.

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It was however in the sculpture, with which these Buddhist monuments were so lavishly endowed, that the Gandhara style was most distinctive, and which fully entitled it to the name of Graeco-Buddhist. Much of the particular character that this plastic art assumed, was the result of a notable change which was taking place at the time in the constitution and principles of the creed. The Gandhara Compositions mark the beginning of the movement, when the Hinayana or primitive system of Buddhism was being superseded by the Mahayana or theistic system, a reformation which provided a broader and more progressive interpretation of the teachings of the Buddha. This newer doctrine inclined towards the deification of the Buddha as a personal saviour, and also created other Buddhas besides considerably increasing the mythological nature of the belief as a whole One of the effects of such an endeavour was greatly to stimulate image worship, and in the production of plastic representations of divine forms on the Buddhist monuments, the Hellenistic methods provided the means And so there appeared in the art of these parts, statues of the Buddha and other sacred figures, posed, modelled, and draped, after the Greek manner, and according to the Greek ideal. This Hellenistic ascription, however, went even further. So powerful was its influence that it contributed characters from its own Olympian system to the Buddhist pantheon, with the result that such well known pagan deities as Hercules, Pallas Athene, Eros, and Bacchus, thinly disguised but still identifiable, are included in some of the Gandhara compo- [Figure: Fig 2 Udaigiri, Orissa : Ranı Gumpha c B C. 150.]

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Fig 1

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[Figure: ROCK-CUT MONASTERY, UDAIGIRI, ORISSA C.150 B.C. ① RANI GUMPHA. ③ PLAN OF UPPER STORY ② PLAN OF LOWER STORY. ④ BAGH (TIGER) GUMPHA ⑤ & ⑥ TYPES OF BRACKETS MANCHAPURI GUMPHA]

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CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF THE COURT OF THE STUPA, TAKHT-I-BAHAI, NORTH-WEST FRONTIER C. 2ND. CENT A.D.

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[Figure: CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF THE JANDIAL TEMPLE (TAXILA) SCYTHO PARTHIAN PERIOD CIR 2ND CENT B.C
(2) DETAIL OF CAPITAL
(3) DETAIL OF COLUMN BASES PILASTER
(1) PLAN PERISTYLE OPISTHODOMOS NAOS PRONAOS SCALES OF FEET FOR 1 FOR 2 FOR 3]

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sitions. But no architectural element common in these monasteries epitomises the style more concisely than that of a Corinthian capital with a small figure of the Buddha enthroned amidst the leaves of the conventional Greek acanthus. The impact of the two cultures, illustrating the mysticism of Buddhism superimposed on the rationalism of the Greeks, is crystallized in this architectural motif.

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It will no doubt have been already inferred that, of all the Gandharan monuments, the monastery is the most frequent and also the most typical of the style. This religious establishment consists usually of a somewhat irregular aggregation of buildings, in which, however, there are two main structures, the stupa, and the *sangharama* or quarters for the monks. The planning of some of these monasteries was obviously fortuitous, often consisting of a complicated grouping of structures, an arrangement which may be traced to the fact that they sometimes occupied the site of ancient stupas, which, afterwards enlarged and elaborated, gathered around them many miscellaneous buildings, including chapels, priests, houses, and innumerable votive stupas, so that there is little schematic co-ordination. Such were those of Dharmarajika, at Taxila, and of Jamalgarhi, thirty-six miles north of Peshawar, also the great group of sanctuaries at Charsada in the Peshawar valley, and at Manikyala near Rawalpindi, besides several others in Afghanistan. Some, however, of more moderate size, and unencumbered by any traditional foundation, were designed with an attempt at symmetry, as for instance those at Takht-i-Bahai, north of Hoti Mardan, and Mohra Moradu and Jaulain, at Taxila. But whatever the scheme, the central feature was the stupa, whether it was of the large reliquary type as at Manikyala, or the devotional kind, standing within its own court, as at Takht-i-Bahai. There is evidence that the original shape of the stupa of this region was in the form of the traditional hemispherical mound, as devised by the emperor Asoka, a shape which, at Manikyala, in spite of repeated enlargements, it still retains. But the tendency of the Gandharan builders was to depart from the orthodox yet commonplace tumulus, and to develop it into an architectural composition of more inspiring proportions and character. Their aim was the creation of a structure of more height, which they obtained by elevating the stupa on a tall platform, and by elongating the body of the stupa upwards. The upper surface of the platform, which was approached by a flight of steps, became the processional path, while the stupa itself, being composed of a series of diminishing drums and surmounted by a slender many-tiered umbrella, began to assume the appearance of a pagoda. So lofty were some of these stupas, that the Chinese pilgrims have described them as pagodas, and it is not impossible that in the same way as the Buddhist-Indian *torana* gateway became the *torii* of Japan, so the many-storied stupa of India may have given some of its character to the multiple-pitched roofs of the Chinese temple. In addition to changes in the proportions of the stupa, plastic ornamentation, often brilliantly coloured, in the form of cornices, mouldings, niches, arcades, modillions, and other quasi-architectural elements, were freely applied. Against a background of the bare and featureless mountain side, these richly patterned and painted shrines, although perhaps inclined to be garish, would present an effective and colourful picture.

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One of the most representative examples of this type of monastic sanctuary is that at Takht-i-Bahai, which, although ruined, is still understandable. In spite of the varying levels of the rocky spur to which it so picturesquely clings, it has been designed on an axial plan with all its parts logically arranged. The principal buildings are contained within a rectangle of approximately two hundred feet in length, and consist of (*a*) the stupa court on the south, (*b*) the monastery on the north, and (*c*) an intervening terrace for the reception of votive stupas, small chapels, and similar structural contributions. To the west of the monastery is a conference or assembly hall, the remainder of the site being taken up by various subsidiary edifices, their exact uses at present not having been determined, but they were probably, a refectory, vestment chamber, kitchens and servants quarters. Of these structures, the court (*a*) with its stupa, was the main feature and was accordingly most artistically treated (Plate XXXIII). The court-yard was an open quadrangle measuring 45 feet by 55 feet, and in the centre, on a platform of 20 feet side and 8 feet high, rose the tall tapering stupa, which with its six-tiered umbrella, reached a total height of 50 feet. An elegant stairway on the north side gave access to the platform for circumambulation, but the ordinary processional path was around the quadrangle at the base. Enclosing the court on three sides was a range of small chapels, each containing a cell or niche, not as in the Hinayana examples for the accommodation of the priests, but, in accordance with the reformed system for the reception of either a statue of the Buddha, or a votive stupa. The roofs of the chapels were so designed that a cupola alternated with a trefoil vault, each an architecturally decorative motif and depicting a separate constructional tradition, for the former was derived from the anchorite's bee-hive hut, and the latter from the conventional shape of the chaitya hall. These particular roofs over the miniature chapels of the monastery are a distinctive feature of the Gandhara style; in their construction no true arches are found, as the method invariably employed was that of corbelling.

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By means of a passage and flights of steps on account of the difference in levels, the court of the stupas was connected with the monastery (*b*) as a church with its abbey. The passage traversed the open space (*c*) reserved for stupas and other symbols contributed to the shrine as acts of merit, while the front walls of the monastery facing this enclosure, were also made into a range of cells to contain votive offerings of structural form or imagery. The monastery proper or sanghrama for the accommodation of the monks was built on a plan common to all such Buddhist structures, and consisted of ranges of cells around a central courtyard. These rooms were simple and unadorned, but, on the walls between each chamber, and protected by a verandah, it became the custom to place large figure groups, often of stucco and vividly coloured, which caused these usually sombre retreats to become animated picture-galleries of sacred subjects.

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Although monasteries were the most representative buildings of the Gandharan style, the excavations at the ancient and historical city of Taxila, near Rawalpindi, have thrown considerable light on various other forms of architecture of this period. One structure at Jandial (Taxila), presumed to date as early as the second century B.C., provides an excellent illustration of the penetration of the Greek building art into such a distant field. It takes the form of a distyle-in-antis type of Hellenic temple, adapted to suit the conditions of some local belief, probably Zoroastrian. Not a large edifice—no Greek temple is remarkable for its size—its entire length over all being only 158 feet, and its width 80 feet, it was surrounded by a peristyle, and its interior included a vestibule, a *pronaos* or porch, a *naos* or sanctuary, and, at the rear, an *opisthodomos*, or back porch. Where it differed from its prototype was that between the back porch and the sanctuary there was a solid mass of masonry with deep foundations, this part evidently being intended to carry a heavy superstructure or tower, probably 40 feet in height. But what is most significant is that the sandstone capitals of the portico were not of the Corinthian but of the Ionic order, and also the shafts were not monolithic, as is usual in Indian architecture, but built up in the Greek manner by means of separate drums fixed with dowels, while the rest of the structure is of plastered limestone and *kanjur*. In the design and execution of the frontal portion of the Jandial temple there is fairly clear proof that only Greek masons in close touch with the Attic school could have produced stone-work of this character (Plate XXXIV).

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Sealed up for centuries within the mounds of Taxila, and now exposed by excavation, are many other remains showing how in this region several distinct civilizations met. Among the structures thus revealed there is the base of a stupa at Sirkap, probably erected in the first century B.C., the ornamentation of which shows how elements appertaining to each culture were sometimes introduced into one production. On an architectural foundation of a quasi-Corinthian order, with pilasters and a moulded entablature, there may be seen such an agglomeration of motifs as a Buddhist chaitya arch and torana, a Greek triangular pediment, an Achaemenid niche, and an Iranian fire-altar. Included with these elements is the figure of a double-headed eagle, after which this stupa has been named, a symbol believed to have been of Scythian origin, from which source it afterwards found its way into the imperial arms of Russia and Germany, but it also travelled southward to appear in the insignia of Vijayanagar in the Deccan, and it even penetrated into Ceylon. On the same site at Taxila, the remains of a palace have been unearthed, apparently of Parthian foundation, but in the disposition of its parts it bears a marked resemblance, although on a smaller scale, to the plans of the Assyrian palaces, as for instance Sargon's great palatial residence at Khorsabad. Most eastern palaces were laid out on the same general principles, with the apartments arranged around open courtyards, one portion for public and official purposes, the other for the private use of the royal family, with a wing and enclosed garden reserved for the ladies. In all such palaces, and at all periods, two large and important halls were invariably provided, one for the public and the other for private audiences. And in many other particulars, the planning of these royal residences in India, from this Parthian example at Sirkap to the magnificent palace fortresses of the Mughals, the builders followed the same general tradition.

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The age of the Gandharan buildings may be presumed from the character of the sculptures, the test applied being, the more Hellenistic the sculpture, the earlier the date. Some of the examples indicate by the spontaneity and confidence of their handling that they were not far removed from the first phase of the Alexandrian school of Greek sculpture, which was at its zenith in the second century B.C. Another class appertains more to the style of the statuary recovered from the site of Herculaneum, near Naples, and therefore related to the Graeco-Roman school of the first century B.C. But the bulk of the Gandharan sculpture was executed in the subsequent period, during the rule of the Indo-Scythians or Kushans (A.D. 20 to A.D. 225), in the first centuries of the Christian era, for it was at this time that Mahayana Buddhism received its greatest encouragement in northern India under the patronage of the Kushan king Kanishka (c. A.D. 123-153). Much of the work produced under this regime was of a somewhat mediocre kind, and can only be described as of a "commercial" character, prepared in large quantities by artizans of not very special artistic ability. It is not difficult to see that the increasing demand brought into being many studio-workshops, supervised by Asiatic Greeks and their descendants, assisted by a subordinate staff of indigenous craftsmen, whom they had trained to copy their style and technique.

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The method employed in the construction of the Gandhara buildings was of a rather commonplace order. They are of stone masonry, composed of a schist, which is readily available in these parts, and in the earlier structures the walls were built of ordinary rubble. An advance was made on this slightly primitive system about the first century A.D., when a form of masonry known as diaper-patterned rubble appears. It consisted of using larger irregular blocks of schist with their outer surfaces dressed before being laid in position, and the spaces between filled with stone snecks. Later, and in certain localities, an improvement on this method was effected, the larger blocks being more carefully prepared and dressed, while the stone snecks were replaced by courses of small bricks, fitted into the interstices with some precision and skill. The better type of masonry was that employed in the buildings raised during the reign of Kanishka, whose great "pagoda", of which the remains have been excavated near Peshawar, was of this kind. It is interesting to note that construction, of exactly the same order, is to be found in some of the larger houses of Rajputana and Central India built during the nineteenth century.

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The Gandharan style of architecture continued to be practised throughout the supremacy of the Kushans, and although their power declined in the third century A.D., the monasteries were not noticeably affected, as in the year 400, when the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian passed through the country, they appear to have been in a relatively flourishing condition. The first serious check to Buddhism in Gandhara took place however about fifty years later, when through the iconoclastic zeal of Mihiragula—the "Attila of India", who, with his hordes of barbarian White Huns, is said to have destroyed sixteen hundred stupas and sanctuaries.¹ From this calamity the religion in northern India never fully recovered, although Buddhist monasteries and other buildings continued to be erected, mainly in regions far outside the country of Gandhara, until a much later date.

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¹ M. A. Stein, *Rajatarangini*, Vol. I, p. 89.

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Until quite recently, the art of Gandhara was considered by the authorities of the time as a form of expression of marked merit, due entirely to its Hellenistic character. This was a period when all styles of art were tested by the Attic standard. Now that a broader view is taken this Graeco-Buddhist movement has been relegated to its proper place, its productions being regarded as indefensibly hybrid. Yet its plastic and painted forms influenced to no little degree the arts of Asia, chiefly on account of their emotional significance and the definite message they conveyed. On the other hand, on the architecture of those countries which accepted Buddhism, however, and particularly on the building art of India, the Gandharan style had little effect, owing to its lack of power. Its monasteries and stupas were the result of a remarkable current of religious fervour and passionate feeling, but such qualities, in themselves, do not necessarily create a great art. There are evidences that although the art of Gandhara was conveyed by means of the Buddhist teaching to many parts of India, its aesthetic character moved the people but little. Latent within them was a much greater art of their own.

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Reference may be made here to a phase of art development, based on the type of architecture which evolved during the first millennium, and which concerned a region having as its centre the ancient Mathura (Muttra), a city on the right bank of the Jumna. Subsequent cataclysms have however destroyed almost completely the many buildings, Buddhist and Brahmanical, which at different times proclaimed the flourishing state of both these religions in this part of the country, so that only the barest fragments have survived as a record of their architectural greatness. Of the examples illustrating this movement it is hardly possible to form an opinion, but from the sculptures embellishing these stupas and the temples sufficient remains have come to light to indicate its character and effect. From these relics it has been found that the schools of the Mathura period had great influence on the arts of many parts of India as a whole and it also becomes evident that the buildings, of which numerous specimens of carvings are the only existing record, had a similar influence on the styles of architecture which prevailed for a long period on the Gangetic plain, and even far beyond.

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The first development of the Mathura movement is disclosed by a number of stone carvings torn from railings and gateways which decorated Buddhist and Jain shrines built during the domination of the Kushana dynasty. Beginning with the ruler Kadphises in the first century, under the patronage of his successor, the great Kanishka, this early school attained its meridian when stupas, Buddhist temples and monasteries were erected throughout this region in large numbers. From the remains it is clear that similar structures consecrated to the Jain faith were also not uncommon. Under the Kushanas, who ruled over a vast territory extending from north west India into the Gangetic plain, what is known as the Gandhara school, depicting that style of Graeco-Roman art carried eastward by the philhellene Parthians, attained its maturity. Evidence of this debased classical influx are found in the sculptured remains left of the Mathura school, and it is therefore probable that the contemporary architecture was also affected, although of this there is no direct knowledge. But the real basis of the Mathura movement was not so much the result of an attenuated Attic trend, as a derivative from indigenous sources, for instance from the important Buddhist monuments of Barhut and Sanchi. Judged therefore from the scanty remains, the architecture of Mathura would have exhibited characteristics of the Buddhist stupa, its railings and gateways, rather than classical porticos from Graeco-Roman sources. Torana lintels have been unearthed, carved with architectural features obviously reduced reproductions of full scale structural originals, which show that the chaitya arch and other Buddhist elements were the main forms used in the building art of Mathura at this time. On the other hand, later, when Hinduism gained ascendency, on the site of the Buddhist sanctuaries, were erect temples of a grand order, such as that on the Katra dedicated to Vishnu under the name of Kesava Deva, since despoiled by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in the seventh century to give place to the mosque which now occupies the centre of its enclosure. But there is every reason to believe that this temple was built in conformity with Brahmanical ideals, with mandapa, cella and sikhara, according to the accepted plan of the Hindu temple structure. In Mathura, if that ancient and sacred city had not been almost obliterated at a later date, there might have been found, architecturally illustrated, that change from the chaitya hall of the Buddhists to the temple of the Hindus, a chapter in the development of religious building art in India which is regrettably missing.

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REFERENCES

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Foucher, A. *L'Art greco-bouddhique du Gandhara.* Paris 1923. Grunwedel, A. *Buddhist Art in India* (Eng trans ) London 1901. Marshall, J. H. *Guide to Taxila* Calcutta, 1918. Rawlinson, H. G. *Bactria, The History of a Forgotten Empire* (1912). Smith, V. A *The Jain Stupa and other Antiquities of Mathura.* Allahabad 1901. Spooner, D. B. *Excavations at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri*, Arch. Sur. of Ind. An. Rep. 1908-09 Cal. 1912. " " *Excavations at Shahr-i-Bahlol.* Arch. Sur of India 1909-10 Cal 1914. " " *Excavations at Saheth-Maheth,* Arch Sur. of India. An. Rep 1907-08. Cal 1911. Vogel, J. Ph. *La Sculpture de Mathura,* Paris 1930.

Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14: Chapter VII: The Mahayana or Theistic Buddhist Monasteries of Gandhara (B.C. 250 to A.D. 450)

Chapter VII: The Mahayana or Theistic Buddhist Monasteries of Gandhara (B.C. 250 to A.D. 450)

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