Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14.16

c14.16

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.