Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c8.s1.12

c8.s1.12

The "Indus Civilization" declined probably some time early in the second millennium B.C., for the excavations reveal that its cities were then falling into a state of decay. At a later date the deserted appearance of this part of India was remarked on by a Greek writer who relates that here were "the remains of over a thousand towns and villages once full of men."² In spite of its virile character and the experienced methods of construction that were achieved at this early age in India this powerful and well founded culture died out without appearing to influence in the slightest degree the nature of the building art that followed. It is possible that some great cataclysm cut across the current of events making an entirely fresh beginning necessary. Some such an interruption is not unknown in the world's history as the advance of civilization is not always a steady progression but may become an intermittent phenomenon. A case in point is that of the Myceanized Greeks of the thirteenth century B.C., and at a much later date the Romanized Gauls, who in both instances relinquished their methods of permanent construction to revert to temporary habitations of wattle and daub.³ As in Europe so in India. After the [Figure: VEDIC VILLAGE SHOWING GATEWAY AND FENCE 1 BUDDHIST TORAN AND RAIL DERIVED FROM ABOVE 2 CONSTRUCTIONAL DERIVATIONS FROM SANCHI BAS-RELIEFS 3 4 FROM SANCHI 5 FROM KARLI]