The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c9.7

c9.7

Just as the root of Indian religion is to be found in the daily life of the people, rather than in dogmas or religious feasts and ceremonies, so the derivations of Indian temple-architecture must be looked for in the simple shrines of the Indian village, where Indian life continues to find its fullest and most characteristic expression, rather than in the splendid monuments by which royal devotees sought to establish the supremacy of their own particular cult; though the sculptures of Asoka's monuments disclose some of the characteristics of Indian village shrines in the third century B.C.