Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c20.15

c20.15

This co-ordination of architectural practice was brought about mainly by means of two indigenous institutions, both of which played a considerable part in the aesthetic development of the country; these were the *seni*, or guilds, and the *silpas*, or canons of art. Guilds in India were a very ancient organization, known to have been in existence as early as the seventh century B.C., and therefore the oldest of their kind. At first the craft guilds were maintained by a system of apprentices, whose name, *antevasika*, literally "the boarder," denotes that these young learners were not only professionally but domestically connected with their master's establishment. Later, heredity became the custom, as each craft was specialized, and, like a family property was handed down from father to son. The character of the building art not infrequently necessitated the local guild of masons being moved about the country, and on some occasions the magnitude of their task forced them to settle down near the site of their labours for a generation or more, the great structure on which they were engaged being the sole object of their existence. In this way any large architectural undertaking became an art centre from which a local school and style were derived. For example, in the group of temples at Khajuraho (950-1050), and at Konarak (c. 1250), it is possible to trace the development of individual experience, distilled through long years of "trial and error," during the gradual process of producing such monumental works of art.