Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c20.24

c20.24

Very few indeed of the names of these master masons have survived, for Indian art as a whole, and particularly its architecture, is anonymous, a fact which applies to the Hindus as well as to the Islamic productions. The name and character of the Indian genius who conceived and supervised the execution of that marvelous masterpiece, the rock-cut temple of Kailasa, is unknown, and that of the Moslem architect who much later planned that unique monument the Taj Mahal is also matter for speculation. Much of this was due to the system by which architecture was treated not so much as an art, but as a craft, the building was not the creation of one man, but the combined and often equal efforts of several, each an expert in his profession and each making his own particular contribution to the whole. Here and there a name has been preserved in the same manner as those of some of the leading master masons of the Gothic cathedrals have been handed down, but not as the names of the great architects of Greece and the Renaissance were known, each of whom was the sole author of the monument with the design and construction of which he was entrusted.