Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c27.7

c27.7

The likeness of some of the larger temples of this period to those of the ancient Egyptians will no doubt be noticed, but any such analogy is more apparent than real, although a comparison brings into relief certain interesting facts. A seeming similarity is produced by two causes, namely the presence of the entrance pylons, and the form of the layout. As already observed the principle of the batter, or inward slope, as for instance in the gateways, must always owe something through the association of ideas, to the monuments of the Nile valley. The Dravidian gopuram and the Egyptian propylon are however two very different structural conceptions, in the former the doorway is an opening through the centre of a single edifice, the latter is a double composition with the doorway produced by an opening between the two sloping towers. As regards the layout, both types of temple, the Pharoic and the Dravidian, begin with these high and imposing entrances and, what is equally significant, their arrangements within have in a measure an uncommon resemblance. From such massive entrances the courts comprising the interior progress by diminishing stages, each compartment leading to a lesser, until the whole scheme terminates in one relatively small and inconspicuous cell in the centre A system of structural composition of this nature is however generally regarded as contrary to the accepted rules of good building, in other words it is a negation of the fundamental principles of rational architectural procedure, as it starts with the large and impressive and finishes with the small and insignificant. Yet it is possible that in both the Egyptian and Indian instances the underlying concept was primarily not architectural but spiritual, they were planned with the object of engendering religious emotion in the mind of the devotee. He was first confronted by the majestic entrance towers which filled him with awe, and then led on by a process of progressive abasement from one hall to another, each smaller and dimmer than the last, until, he finds himself, reduced to infinitesimal nothingness as in a dream before the mystery of the darkened shrine, into the holy of holies and in the presence of the god himself.