Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c39.6

c39.6

The first phase, or early Buddhist period, is represented by bare foundations, but these are of the utmost significance, as they serve to explain the origins of the building art in Kashmir, with some of its influences and associations. These remains are the result of excavations, two sites having been thus explored, one at Harwan near Srinagar, and the other at Ushkar near Baramula. The former has yielded the more important material, from which the character of the building art at its beginning may be realized. Harwan occupies an ideal situation on the slopes of high ground overlooking the crystal waters of the Dal Lake, with a glorious range of mountains in the distance. Here, in the early centuries of the Christian era, on a series of terraces covering a large area, there grew up a prosperous Buddhist settlement, which included the usual group of buildings forming such a monastic establishment, as for instance a stupa within its courtyard, accommodation for the resident monks, several chapels, and a chaitya-hall, or temple. The stupa was square in plan, with its base in three tiers, and approached by a flight of steps on its western side, the whole being contained within an open quadrangle, an arrangement corresponding in every particular to the stupa courts of Gandhara, with which country Kashmir at this time was closely connected. As to the upper part of the stupa, this has entirely disintegrated, but fortunately by the aid of certain small terracotta plaques bearing miniature replicas in bas-relief, and found in the debris, its shape and character have been revealed. The stupa itself was the customary stilted ovoid surmounted in this instance by a disproportionately large finial in the form of an umbrella of thirteen tiers, the great size of the superstructure necessitating as supports a number of sloping struts, probably of wood, between the body of the stupa and its lowest rim, there also appears to have been a free-standing pillar of the Asokan type erected on each side.