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Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c57: Chapter XII: An Outline History of Hindu Temples (The Prāsādas & Vimānas)

Vāstu-śāstra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c57

Language
English

Contents

Chapter XII: An Outline History of Hindu Temples (The Prāsādas & Vimānas)

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AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF HINDU TEMPLES

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Much has been written on Hindu Temples. Fergusson, Havell Kramrish, Brown and a host of noted savants have contributed to this theme in their standard works on Indian architecture and sculpture. ‘Hindu Temple’ by Kramrisch is a remarkable exposition of a specialised undertaking. The present writer therefore is bound to be benefited, very much from these ‘Pūrva-sūris’. As he is primarily a student of the canons of Hindu architecture, sculpture (iconography) and painting, what are termed as Vāstu-śāstra, Śilpa-śāstra and Citra-śāstra, naturally his angle therefore must be coloured more by manuals than monuments. Accordingly in the previous chapters, an attempt has been made to study the canons of Temple Architecture, and the same theme may be continued in a pronounced way in relation to the monuments, the representative illustrations of the different types of temples that are described in these treatises on Vāstu-śāstra. Hence the presentation of this dessertation is bound to be different from those that are found in the text books of the subject by contemporary writers.

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LAYANAS, GUHĀDHARAS AND GUHĀRĀJAS

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We have already seen that one of the types of Prāsādas as described in the S. S. is the Layana or Guhārāja or Guhādharā. We have also seen—vide Origin of Temple-Architecture, that one of the most remarkable motifs of this origin was the mountain and its caves. Cave-dwelling has been a recognised institution for meditation and communion with God in India for times immemorial. Mountains are said to be the abodes of gods. In the celestial geography of India, mountain Meru is the abode of gods in general, and Mount Kailāśa, the abode of the Lord Śiva in particular. It is on this fascinating background of our mythology and implied sagacity of the searchers after truth—and the truth in this particular context being the divine communion—Deva-milana, that a separation from whom (i. e. the gods) was effected in Tretā-yuga due to the haughtiness and mis-demeanour of the mortals—vide ‘Sahadevādhikāra’ the S. S. Chapter VI, that the abodes of denizens, the temples were conceived, planned and executed on the models of mountains.

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This however is a history of the most developed motif of temple-architecture. What were the beginnings, the humble beginnings in this direction? The answer to this may be sought in the early caves like Lomaśa Ṛṣi, Khandagiri, Udaigiri, Hathigumpha, Bhaja, Kondane, Karli, Ajanta, Ellora and Mamallapuram groups etc., which to all intents and purposes were not only primitive shrines and abodes of worship but also the replicas of cave-dwelling, a very hoary institution of India. The forests and mountains both have been popular for such abodes and such dedicated devotion. The rise of hermitages in secluded corners of the forests and the caverns in the mountains are a testimony to testify to this ancient Hindu ideal of meditation (which also included the search after Truth—cf. the evolution of the Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads from the womb of the forest). Life of a foresteer—vide Vāṇaprasthāśrama, was a recognised and equally important mode of living in ancient India. It was one of the fourfold Āśramas, or the stages of life. Naturally any origin for worship and places of worship must have been motivated from the forests and mountains. These aforesaid places, our reputed archaeological sites are all in the midst of forests and also in the lap of the mountains. I therefore, take these caves to be the earliest representations of temples and temple architecture and illustrating fittingly our Vāstuśāstra temple-types or the Prāsāda-jātis of Layana, Guhādharā and Guhārāja Prāsādas or Vimānas.

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All these three names illustrate also the gradual evolution of this type. The primitive cave-shrines at places like Khandagiri, Udaigiri etc. are illustrative of the Layana-Prāsādas, the caves of Ajanta may be taken to illustrate the Guhādharā Prāsādas and the cave-temples of Ellora and Mamamalapuram being the finest specimens of rock-cut-architecture illustrate the zenith of this type, the Guhārāja, like the Prāsādarāja Meru which illustrates the finest and the grandest representation of Śikharottama Prāsādas taking their motifs from the Mountains, the specimens of which will be taken up in due course in this study. With this general introduction let us take these momuments one by one.

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LAYANAS—Early Mauryan specimens.—Kondane of the first century, B. C. cut out of the cliff-face consisted of a cahitya hall or temple and its attached monasteries represent the two characteristic types of structure, one arched over by means of a barrel-vault roof and the other having a flat roof. The seven rock-cut sanctuaries in the hills about nineteen miles north of Gaya—four on the Barbar hills adn three on the Nagarjuni hill in addition to one more example called the Sitamarhi situated some thirteen miles south of Rajgriha and twenty five miles east of Gaya may be said to illustrate the first monuments representing the Layana types of early Prāsāda-shrines. Among the Barbar groups the two most notable examples are the Lomaśa Rishi and the Sudama. They are not only the earliest examples of rock-cut method symbolizing the Layana, the retreat but also they represent the early model of Śālā-architecture, the wood and thatch which, as already remarked, was the rise of first house, the Śaraṇam or Nīḍam on earth either to house human beings or to dwell the divine. In the Nagarjuni group of sancturies notably in Gopi or milk-maid cave, we find the temple-architecture in making. The abundant application of pillars and motifs of the capitals are reminiscent of the later genesis of the Śikhara or the spires or more characteristically, to put in the Vāstuśāstra terminology, the Aṇḍas of the later temples and the Āmalaka or the Amalasilā of the finial in the later growth of the temple-superstructure. All these eight early Layanas, found in *Barbar Hills* (Karna-Kaupar, Sudama, Lomas Rishi and Visvajhoparī), *Nagarjuni group* (Gopika Vahijaka and Vadalhika) and *Sītāmarhī* are our earliest types of Layana-Prāsādas.

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The V. D. (III. XCIII 27, 28) like the S. S. also supports that the caves are the places where the denizens of the heaven are present. Naturally the man in his quest for re-union with the gods, his higher selves, makes an operation consummate with the high mission of godlines for cutting the living rocks to make them for this communion. Vāstuśāstra (S. S LIX—238) designates these secret (Guhā) places as Layana. Dr. Kramrisch also supports this conclusion—vide her observation in H. T. p. 114-15: "These, (i. e. caves) in their transformation by art, are stations of a return to nature symbolic of man's return to his original state and higher self. The devotee enters them as places of release equal to the structural temples with their transubstantiated walls. The cutting and entry into the living rock would thus re-instate man in that integrity from which he had departed and fallen since the Kṛta-yuga the perfect age, when he lived in the hills at peace with himself".

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Now a word may be added in regard to the discrepancy as may be noted from the lakṣaṇas as given in the S. S. (LIX. 236-37) according to which, Layana (place of rest) is undoubtedly the name for rock-cut temples and which have no Śreṇī, which means no superstructure with its cluster groups in similar shape; they are without buttresses (niryūhaka) while a circumambulatory (bhrama) and window (gavākṣa) should be carved on the rock in imitation of structural temples. This lakṣaṇa epitomizes the development to which the early sanctuaries, as referred to above, had undergone. Further the Layana is also equipped with stairs, a gateway, (pratolī), roll cornice (viṭaṅka—kapotapālikā) on the facade and doors. This description according to the learned authoress of Hindu Temple refers only to cave-temples such as those in Badami. The cave-temples, in the earlier example (3rd century B. C.—6th century A. D.) are interiors only, having a facade (which quite fits in with the eight examples cited above); to these types were added (Mamalla-puram, Ellura, Kalugumalai—which to my mind represent not Layanas but Guhārājas as we shall presently see) complete replicas of structural temples hewn out of the rock in their exterior and excavated within (Kailash Nath Temple and Indra-sabhā in Ellura). She observes: “Although the last named temples are, one Hindu, the other Jain, the majority of the rock cut temples and sacred abodes are Buddhist. Out of a total of 1200 rock-cut temples 900 are Buddhist, 200 are Jain and 100 are Hindu. Some of the sanctuaries in Ellura (Daśāvatāra, etc.) and the Śiva temple in Elephanta are, though posterior to the sixth century, interior excavations only with a facade.”

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“The square, dark, small Garbhagṛha, is not transferred from the cave temple to the structural temple. The flat roofed ‘Gupta’ temple is neither derived from Brahmanical excavated sanctuaries contemporary with it (Udayagiri in Bhopal, etc.), nor from earlier excavated cells with a flat ceiling; the early rock cut sanctuaries have domed or vaulted interiors, where as cells and halls in the rock cut monasteries have a straight ceiling. There is no scope for a flat roof in rock cut temples, the Caitya hall prior to the Gupta age; it belongs to the flat roofed porch only of the sanctuary proper. The flat roof of the rock cut Kailasanatha Temple in Ellura of the eight century is in imitation of a structural temple of that age. Any shape can be cut into the rock, no structural form is born there.” Vāstuśāstras (cf. the S. S. LIX) have codified the individual dedications of the respective temples (Prāsāda-stavanam) to the principal gods. Layanas in that context are the common abodes of the gods in general which also fits in with its un-sophisticated evolution.

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GUHĀDHARAS—Guhās and Layanas, for all intents and purposes are one and the same—the secret places where the denizens of heaven are present, for the communion with whom, men have been meditating for time immemorial. The S.S. LIX 193-197 describes this type of cave-temples. Its name however is derived from the division of the door frame (dvāraśākhā) into several compartments (guhās). It is also enjoined in the text that it should resemble the temple—Siṁha (e. g. Siṁhāsya cf. the M. P. CCLXIX). As already suggested it is illustrated in the cave temples of Ajanta and a brief review is accordingly called for. But before Ajanta is described a passing review of earlier or contemporary specimens may also be made. Primitive shrines like a rock-cut chamber at Guntupalle in the Kistna district of Madras state and another similarly rock-cut at Kondivte near Bombay represent the earlier efforts towards this direction. Both these illustrate one of the many sided currents of the building art under the Śuṅgas and Āndhras.

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The more developed types of Guhādharas however may be attributed to Buddhist rock-cut architecture, the early or Hīnayāna phase, as are represented in the monuments at Bhaja, Kondane, Pitalkhora, Ajanta, Bedsa, Nasika, Karli and Kanheri. These Hīnyāna rock-cut monasteries represent a definite regional development, as they are limited to the western side of India, many of them lying within the Bombay State. The South and the North (especially Orissa) also did not lag behind in responding to this exuberance. We have already remarked that these Layanas and Guhādharas come to a total of twelve hundred, majority of which are attributed to Buddhism. This rock-cut architecture, are not caves but cave-temples, the Layana, the Guhādhara, the Guhārāja Prāsādas, in the terminology of our Vāstuśāstra and Prāsādas or temples in the canons of Indian Art are architecture and sculpture both. Percy Brown also supports this implication. "The fashioning of architectural forms out of the living rock, or rock-architecture, occupies a very prominent place in the development of creative art in India. Yet in spite of the admittedly high aesthetic character of these productions they have never been allowed that position in field of art to which they are fully entitled. Ever since these examples of rock-architecture became a subject of study, it has been the custom to refer to them as "caves", implying that they were natural grottoes in the mountain side, the haunt of wild people, and still wilder animals. No word would be more misleading to designate these wonderful records of man's handwork, as many of them are large and well planned temples, skilfully wrought and chiselled out of the solid cliff, and to define which the term rock-architecture is the only one which can adequately describe their workmanship. If, however, the usually accepted definition of architecture as "good construction truthfully expressed"

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is applied, then on account of their technique alone they cannot be classed as architecture in the strict sense of the word. These rock-hewn forms are expert achievements but they involved no constructional principles, nor do they display any functional properties their columns signify no adjustment of support to load, the arches carry no weight, nor do they counteract any thrust, in the whole operation no structural intelligiblity is required, as no problems of this nature arise. In a word rock-architecture to all intents and purposes is not architecture, it is sculpture, but sculpture on a grand and magnificent scale"

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"Rock-architecture appealed to the Indian mind for several reasons. In the first place its stability, as it was as immoveable as the mountain of which it formed a part, was undoubtedly an attraction to a people living very largely in impermanent structures of wood and wattle. Secondly, it was acceptable to the Buddhists because from the earliest times natural caves and grottoes were the favourite abode of hermits and anchorites, a custom which even now survives in Nepal and parts of Tibet, where a Lamaistic form of Buddhism still prevails Such habitations were therefore not only associated with religion but had also the sanction of tradition. But the principal reason was the great increase in the conventual life of the country at this time. From the ancient practice of asceticism common in the Vedic period, it was but a step to that of monasticism, a system which all the world over has induced its followers to retir into rocky fastnesses, forest recesses, or lonely deserts, there to dedicate their lives to the rare wor hip of the self-absorbed. Some such convictions, perhaps, accentuated by the pressure of religious intolerance, for the ruling powers belonged to the Brahmanical faith, were largely responsible for extensive monastic establishments flourishing within these secluded mountain retreats."

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With this general introduction to the rehabilitation of these cave-temples of India in their proper perspective, it is not the business of this dissertation to give a detailed architectural account of these individual monuments, but for an idea of their characteristic features, some remarks in the words of Percy Brown are called for. "This architecture resolves itself into some ten separate groups of conventual establishments, each group being seperate and self-contained, and each originally consisting of a prayer-hall and its accompanying monastery. The prayer-hall or Buddhist temple, and usually referred to as the chaitya hall, as it accommodated a chaitya or stūpa, took the form of a large vaulted hall having an apsidal end and divided longitudinally by two colonades into a broad nave and two aisles. In the apse stood the stupa, also carved out of the natural rock, consisting of an elaborated representation of the structural tumulus previously described.” “The other architectural formation in these rock-cut retreats was the monastery proper, an arrangement of apartments for the accommodation of the monks, and known as a vihara. A typical vihara consisted of a square central hall entered by a doorway, in front of which was a vestible, verandah, or portico. Out of the central hall, doorways opened into square cells carried still further into the rock, each of which was the abode of one of the brotherhood. The original plan was for one of these viharas to be situated close to the chaitya hall, but as the priestly community increased, more cells were required to be excavated along the cliff side. These provided quarters for the ordinary members of the community, but there were others of a superior rank who felt it more seemly to live in chambers separated from the main group, of which an example is vihara number 4 at Karli. In addition there were those rare individuals on a still higher plane who claimed to be Arhats or Boddhisatvas, each of whom on account of his status lived alone in a single cell by itself, examples of which may also be seen at Karli. Communication between all these various forms of abode was maintained, where necessary by flights of steps, but in some of the larger monastic establishments, the cells are so numerous that the cliff side is honey-combed with them, recalling the nesting burrows of swifts in a disused quarry.”

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**Ajanta.** Now coming to Ajanta it may be said that it is not properly studied. A historical bias has been responsible for the lack of a coherent and unified picture. There are twenty nine caves, majority of which are Vihāras, the so called abodes of the monks and priests of the Buddhist Order. Chaitya halls numbering about five are the Buddhists shrines attached to the principal Vihāras. Among these 29 caves caves III, IV, V, XIV, XXIV, XXV, XXVII, XXVIII and XXIX are left incompleted. Ajanṭā is famous for its paintings; but its contributions in the realm of building art, especially the vase and foliage capital formed the remarkable legacy of the Gupta Art. Ajanta cave-temples represent many centuries of growth of art and evolution of the Order. Both the schools of Buddhism, the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna contributed to the Ajanta School of Indian Art, which in its onslaughts, powerfully contributed to all the three principle branches of Hindu Art—architecture, sculpture (iconography) and painting. It is said that at Ajanta a Hīnāyana order of priests had, towards the beginning of Christian era, excavated a group of large halls and monastic abodes, after which a quiescent period of four centuries intervened, when this Buddhist hierarchic settlement again sprang into life. These caves as already remarked signify two types of religious institutions established by convention, namely the Chaitya hall or temple and Vihāra or monastery. In the later Mahayana phase (A.D. 450 to A.D. 642) however some changes were introduced especially in the excavations of Vihāras, the Chaitya retained to all intents and purposes, the previous pattern of which the essential elements were the nave, aisles, apse, sūtpa and vaulted roof.

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GUHĀRĀJAS. Something has already been said on the caves and the mountains as providing the grandest of origins and evolutions of Temple-architecture in India. The caves are the ancient residences of the gods. Caves, like the banks of rivers, are our Tīrthas. Presence of gods is so strongly felt there that cave and god are one. The Vāyu Purāṇa XXXIX. 55 speaks of cave-dwelling of Guha, the Secret One (Kārtikeya) on the Visākha mountain. The god is very fond of living in caves. To these natural habitations of the gods have to be added, as places of worship, retreat and congregation other natural caves and also those cut into the rock for similar purposes. The Ajivikas, Jain sect and the Buddhists were the first to do it. Within Brahmanism which was passing through the Vedic ritualism and the solitary monasticism in the natural caves, the substitution of excavated caves for natural ones took time to evolve. "The heterodox sects preceded the Hindus by many centuries in their interference with and transformation of nature. They had already achieved magnificent results in such large, aspidal vaulted 'churches' as the cave-temple at Karli and in rock-cut monasteries like those at Nasik or Ajanta". The dated Ājivika caves in the Barbar hills, Bihār were excavated in the reign of Asoka, in the 3rd century B. C. The Brahmanical warship cut its entry into the rock near about 400 A. D. It has the shape of a small, flat roofed Garbhagṛha which was the most earliest temple-plan what is called the Chādya-Prāsāda. Among the Gupta temples, a structural porch or maṇḍapam belonging to Udaigiri, Bhopal may be taken as the earliest Brahmanical rock-cut temple. It dates from the reign of Chandragupta-II, 382-401 A. D.

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These early temple-plans as described in the Vāstu-śastra like the S. S. enjoining to be built against the back wall of the pillard hall not only correspond to a Garbhagṛha cut deep into the rock and preceded by its maṇḍapa, but to my mind, they also must have given to the Jainas and the Buddhists, the prototype for their rock-cut cave-temples.

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"Garbha, Pāli 'gabbha', is also the name of rock-cut cells of the Buddhist monks connected with their large monastic halls. Such an establishment is called a 'navagabha Maṇḍapa' (Karli cave inscr., 'Ep. Ind., XI, p. 119), if there are nine 'gabha' or cells; or also 'paca-gabha maṇḍapa' and 'sattagabha maṇḍapa', when their number is only 5 or 7 (Junnar cave inscriptions, pp. 131, 136). Any small room is finally called 'gabha', in Pāli texts and denotes various kinds of chambers or rooms ('Cullavagga', VI. 3-3.) which may be square or rectangular, etc The use of terms such as 'prāsāda', or its equivalent 'vimāna'; gabbha, and also 'guhā', cave (Cullavagga', VI. 1, 2) in civic architecture is also current in the Epics. "Dhātugarbha (dagabha) is the stūpa as receptacle or womb of the relics (dhātu) of the Buddha. The Buddhist rock-cut cells again had their equivalent in structural cells; these in stone buildings, such as are preserved in Gandhāra were also used as shrines for a Buddhist image or a stūpa (Takht-i-Bahai). In this particular instance however they are not square, but rectangular, etc. and they have not flat roofs". H.T. p. 170 f. n.—102.

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With this general introduction in the context of this last type of the cave-temple, the Guhārāja, let us deal with it in more details of architecture and the crowning illustrations at renowned sites like Ellora and Mamallapuram.

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Guhārāja, King of Caves, is a name as suggestive as it is unique among the ever-increasing types or Jātis of temples enumerated and described in the texts like the S. S. and A.P. the medieval compendiums of Indian Architecture. The name however occurs also as that of actual temples, such as 'Kuraja' (Guhārāja), Bir, Temple which is situated between Deogarh and Candpur in Central India. Kuhara or cave is a synonym of Śālā, or room in the Bhaviṣya-purāṇa (CXXX. 27) where the type of temple, called Meru, is described as having Kuharas. The Anand Pagoda, in Pagon, Burma, being a, (Ku) or cave has such Kuharas, 'caves' or halls in the four directions radiating from a massive centre. The Burmese name for structural brick temple is (Ku) which is only an imitation of our Vāstuśāstra tradition.

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According to Utpala (comm., Br. S. LV. 25) this temple-type has the shape of a cave. Its height, 32 cubits, follows the general rule, of being twice the width of the Prāsāda, and implies a superstructure as high as the walls of the Garbhagṛha.

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Prof. Kramrisch however takes this temple-type represented in Burmese temples. She says "This King of caves, Guhārāja, whatever its actual shape was, shares part of its name with Burmese brick built temples. "In Burma, brick-built temples with inner spaces are simply called 'Ku' or cave. One of the temples at Pagan bears the name Shwe Ku, Golden cave. The Burmese Glass Palace chronicle tells about the erection of the Ananda temple of Pagan, how King Kyanzi-ttha requested eight Arhats to produce by their concentrated thought an image of the cave Nandamūla in the Gandhamādana. This they did and the King built a large Ku-Guhā, a 'cave', or temple in the likeness of the cave Nandamūla and called it Nanda. The name of the cave, which properly is the Garbhagṛha, appears here as that of the whole Prāsāda". This may be one of the many frontier development of Hindu Art. From the interior off-shoots, however, the Cave-temples at Ellora, Elephanta and Mamallapuram may be regarded as the best representative monuments.

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Ellora—It is a remarkable architectural site, perhaps unique in whole of the country, where we find a confluence of all the three principal religious creeds, Buddhism, Brahmanism and Jainism. Its earlier Buddhist phase is contemporary to Ajanta, in a direct line only some sixty miles distant. The slight difference in the Buddhist rock-cut architecture at Ellora may be necessitated by not only the later adaptation in the creed and the ritual, but also the difference in the terrain of the two places. For instead of the almost vertical cliff as at Ajanta, the halls of Ellora are excavated out of ridge of low hills, pushed up from the vast plateau of the Deccan.

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*Buddhist*—"At Ellora the Buddhists were the first of the three great religious communities to occupy this site, and as such their monasteries are in the most favourable position, being at the southern end of a scarp of the plateau, where it throws out a horn to the west. Here they practised their religion for some two centuries, from A.D. 450 to 650, during which period the group of twelve rock-cut halls belonging to the Buddhist creed were produced". (see the tabulation of all these 12 excavations in Brown).

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"An architectural feature which emerges about this time is a type of pillar and capital thoroughly distinctive of the rock-out technique. Of massive proportions, the lower half, which corresponds to the shaft is a plain square prism, while the upper portion is round in section, vertically fluted, and elaborated into a capital consisting of the compressed "cushion" forms. This became the dominating type of capital and pillar and together with the other type already referred to as the "vase and foliage", constituted the two "orders" in all subsequent rock-cut architecture. So different in every aspect are these two capitals—the "cushion" and the "vase", that it is clear they are the outcome of two entirely different but parallel traditions."

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The Mahanwada is by far the largest and most remarkable and owing to its uncommon design, is in a class by itself and resembles with the 'Mahārāja' or the "Durbar-Hall" at Kanheri. Both these prayer halls were the outcome of the Lamaistic services in the Order.

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The most notable production of the whole Buddhist series at Ellora is chaitya Hall no. 10, commonly known as Viśvakarmā or 'Lord of Arts' as it has the reputation of being specially frequented by artisans. As a more orthodox type of Buddhist prayer-house and the only one of its kind on the site, it resembles in many respects the two almost contemporary Mahayan chaitya halls at Ajanta.

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*Brahmanical*—"It was early in the seventh century, when the activities of the Mahayana Buddhists on this site were drawing to a close, that the Hindu hierarchy began in their turn to prepare a series of columned halls in much the same architectural style as the Buddhist, but adapted to suit their own ritualistic needs. The Brahmanical group at Ellora extends along the west face of the hill for about half a mile, and consists of sixteen excavations numbered 13 to 29. The principal examples are : (No. 14) 'Ravana-ki-Khai' or Abode of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka (Ceylon); (No. 15) Das Avatāra, or the Ten Incarnations of Vishnu; (No. 16) the Kailasa or Siva's Paradise; (No. 21) Rameswara, or Lord of Ram; (No. 29) Dumar Lena, sometimes called Sita's Nani, or Bath of Sita. These resolve themselves, as follows, into four different types, most of them apparently taking their various shapes in order to conform to the changing requirements of the creed"—cf. Brown p. 86.

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Daśāvatāra cave-temple is the largest and the finest of the first type and is in two storeys along with a detached shrine or maṇḍapa, intended perhaps for Nandī, Śiva's bull or Dvārāpāla. The second type though quite simple, represents the elaboration to which the Hindu temple was subjected in the early medieval times. The third type, the Dumarlena is one of the largest and most imposing temples on Ellora site. It is a massive central shrine being made possible by the shape of the hill in which it is cut. The final type of Brahmanical rock-cut architecture consists of one example only, the Kailasa, Śivas Paradise, and stands in a class by itself as it is unique. It is the structure in rock—a new scheme altogether. Instead of the underground halls which had hitherto been the practice, its creators threw aside all previous conventions and boldly undertook to reproduce in the virgin rock to very large scale and in full detail a structural temple of the period.

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“Once the idea of the Kailasa was conceived, its production became a matter of time, patience, and skilled labour, all of which appear to have been readily forthcoming. That it was an expression of exalted religious emotion is obvious but even this condition could not have made such a consummation possible, had it not also had the patronage of a ruler with unlimited resources and who was at the same time moved by the loftiest ideals. This monarch has been identified as Krishna I (757-783) of the Rashtrakuta dynasty of Malkhed.”

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Artistically judged, Kailāśa is more closely allied to sculpture on a grand scale than to architecture which is the real genius of Hindu Architecture which is not only a mechanical art, but also a fine art grand and splendid. The temple-scheme is comprised of four parts, the body, the entrance, the Nandi and the cloisters surrounding the court yard. Two free standing pillars or dhvajastambhas fifty one feet high, one on each side of the Nandi shrine add to the grandeur of the temple. The whole monument shows how both the orders the Southern or Dravidian and Northern or Nāgara have got assimilated to evolve a composite All India Hindu architecture of the medieval period. ‘Cushion’ and ‘Vase and foliage’, both are before our eyes.

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Percy Brown is very apt: “The temple of Kailasa at Ellora is not only the most stupendous single work of art executed in India, but as an example of rock-architecture it is unrivalled. Standing within its precincts and surrounded by its grey and hoary pavilions, one seems to be looking through into another world, not a world of time and space, but one of intense spiritual devotion expressed by such an amazing artistic creation hewn out of the earth itself. Gradually one becomes conscious of the remarkable imagination which conceived it, the unstinted labour which enabled it to be materialized (a work of a hundred years), and, finally, the sculpture with which it is adorned; this plastic decoration is its crowning glory something more than a record of artistic form, it is a great spiritual achievement, every portion being a rich statement glowing with meaning. The Kailasa is an illustration of one of those rare occasions when men’s minds, hearts, and hands work in unison towards the consummation of a supreme ideal. It was under such conditions of religious and cultural stability that this grand monolithic representation of Siva’s Paradise was produced”. As regards the Jain monuments, they may be passed over for want of space, Ellora represents the final manifestation of rock-cut architecture in India along with the other notable sites (i) the islands of Elephanta and Salsette and (ii) Mamallapuram, a development under the Pallava dynasty.

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Elephanta—resembles the Dumar Lena in general distribution; but it is superior to all others of its kind in the character and quality of its sculptures. For details see Percy Brown.

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Mammalapuram—Leaving other cave-temples illustrating guhārājas, let us now concentrate on Mammallapuran, the famous seat of Pallava rock-architecture. Pallava-architecture has two phases, wholly rock-cut and wholly structural. The former illustrates Mahendra Group A.D. 610 to 640, pillared halls (maṇḍapas) only together with Mamalla Group A. D. 640 to 690, maṇḍapas and rathas (monolithic temples) and the latter Rājasimha-Nandivarman Groups. We are concerned here with the first phase. Of the rock-cut examples of Pallava architecture at Mammallapuram, the excavated halls or maṇḍapas are ten in number some of which are unfinished: Dharmarāja, Kotikal, Mahiṣāsura, Kṛṣṇa, Pañca Pāṇḍava, Varāha, Rāmānuja—Five-celled Saivite and the last two unfinished.

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As regards the series of monolethic temples called rathas, popularly known as the ‘Seven Pagodas’ they may be regarded a stupendous artistic creation and an entirely novel form of expression. “Solitary, unmeaning, and clearly never used, as none of their interiors is finished, sphinx-like for centuries these monoliths have stood sentinel over mere emptiness, the most enigmatical architectural phenomenon in all India, truly a riddle of the sands. Each a lithic cryptogram as yet undeciphered, there is little doubt that the key when found will disclose much of the story of early temple architecture in Southern India.”

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“As with all the rock productions of the Pallavas, the rathas are of no great size, the largest measuring only 42 feet long, the widest 35 feet, and the tallest is but 40 feet high. They number eight in all, and, with one exception, are derived from the two types of structure hitherto attributed to the Buddhists, the Vihara or monastery, and the Chaitya hall or temple. The exception is that known as Draupadi's ratha, the smallest of the series, as well as being the simplest and most finished. This example is merely a cell or pansala, and the shape of the roof indicates plainly that it was copy of a thatched structure, most probably a form of portable shrine belonging to a village community, as shown by its substructure.”

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The other rathas go after Arjun, Bhīma, Sahadeva, Dharmarāja, Gaņeśa etc. These monolithic shrines, were of Śaivite attribution as may be confirmed by the images carved in rock, of a lion, an elephant and a bull.

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STUPAS

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After this brief treatment of Rock-cut Architecture from a synthetic standpoint where manuals and monuments, both have been given equal prominence, some remarks are called for here and now on the Stūpa Architecture as well. As already pointed out that the Indian rock-cut architecture is predominently Buddhist and Stūpa-architecture is cent percent Buddhist it, therefore, has to be examined in alliance with the rock-cut. Any sacred architecture of the post-Vedic period is fundamentally influenced by the motif of mountains. Caves and mountains have provided the shapes and the forms, to put it in one word, the prototypes for the formative evolution of the Prāsādas and Vimānas. If Hindu Temple is the grand Icon of the Supernal Man “प्रासादं पुरुषं मत्वा पूजयेत्”, Buddhist Stūpa is not lesser than it. It is a sacred structure akin to a mountain-temple to enshrine not the deity but the relics of that great Buddhist deity who was all against deification. If caves go with mountains, the cave-temples should also go with the Stūpas, the mountain-temples and the Buddhist architecture has a very rich heritage in this splendid side-branch of Indian Architecture. The Stūpa monuments at the renowned sites of Sanchi Barhut, Amaravati etc. are a superb legacy of Indian art and a brief purview is called for.

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The earlier structure of a stūpa used to be formed by bricks which in the Vedic symbolism were the body of the sacrifice, later on the stone took the place of bricks. Thus the substances (the materials etc.) and the symbolism of the Buddhist stūpa and the Hindu temple are identical. Both are sacred places, shrines for devotion accompanied with respective rituals. Buddhist chaitya-halls invariably house a stūpa. Chaitya is derived from citi-this we have already seen. A chaitya, in the Buddhist application with reference to a man-made form is the stūpa. Chaitya in both the Epics is sacrificial altar. Chaitya, Āyatana, Prāsāda and Stūpa, etymologically and originally are piled up seats or altars, sanctuaries in the open and also within an enclosed space (which in the present context is reserved to enshrine a relic). The principal part of a Hindu temple is the garbhagṛha and a Buddhist stūpa too has a garbhagṛha as per no lesser an authoritative sacred book of Buddhists than the Cullabagga VI. 33 where Dhātugarbha (dagabbha) is the stūpa as receptacle of the relics (dhātu) of the Buddha. Prof.

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Kramrisch has made some illuminating observations (H. T. p. 197–99) where the plan of Hindu Temple and the Buddhist sanctuaries such as in Gandhāra, at Takht-i-Bahai are to all intents and purposes identical. This is about the lay out. As regards the component parts bearing respective symbolisms we can have some identical manifestations and Prof. Kramisch's observations in this respect are quoteworthy : "An indispensible part of the Buddhist Stūpa is the Harmikā, the railing which surrounds its shaft where it emerges from the dome-shaped pile of the monument. This railing is square (caturaśra koṣṭha); it encloses moreover a small pavilion or chapel—similar to that on the Āyakakhambhas and also to the High Temple of a Drāviḍa Prāsāda—where it is not represented in the shape of a solid cube. The part where the shaft of the central pillar of the Stūpa emerges above the Harmikā is called Devatā Kotuva in Ceylon. It is there that the 33 gods reside, in their heavenly world, above the sphere guarded by the Regents of the directions of space. The hierarchy of divine manifestation is thus accommodated in the monument, it is especially located within its vertical axis, the Cosmic Pillar. The Harmikā and Devatā Kotuva are above the expanse of the Stūpa, and are part of as well as surrounding its axis ; they exactly correspond in place and function to the 5 Vimānas as High Temples".

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Further she observes : "The central shaft of the temple holds the divine presence ; it is specially manifested on the lowest level, in the womb, the Garbhagṛha, and on the highest level, above the body of the temple. The vertical column of the temple is the cosmic trunk and its quadruple ramifications are the four directions of space in which the Prāsāda has its extension. The vertical column of Prāsāda and Stūpa alike has its prototype in that vertical shaft across the strata of the Vedic altar formed by the naturally perforated ‘bricks’ the Svayamātṛṇṇā stones, which were placed in the vertical succession above the Golden Puruṣa".

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Further again the closed body of the temple is full of openings not factually but symbolically e g. ghanadvāras and gavākṣas. In its largest form as exemplified on the Hindu temple, the Gavākṣa is an antifix known as Śukanāsā. It shields the structural opening of the Śikhara or superstructure. Such Nāsās (Nasikā ; Kudu) are also repeated horizontally on the kapotālis or cornices ; there they had their place, originally, as attic windows, in which form they have figured since the days of Barhut. The so-called "caitya-hall window" of Buddhist Caitya-hall, the "sun window" which is the correct name of the caitya hall window, is of similar purpose with identical implication. It admits the light of the sun which reaches the Caitya or Stūpa at the far end of the hall.

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Still further Prof. Kramrisch is our greatest interpretor in regard to the crowning part of a temple, the Āmalaka and that of a Stūpa, the Harmikā. Let us quote her fully :

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“The Āmalaka moreover in early Vāstuśāstra is also called ‘Aṇḍa’; the ‘egg’ (see Parts VII p. 273). The interchange of these two images has its background in the ‘Chāndogya Upaniṣad’, III. 19.1 : “The sun is Brahman. Such is the teaching ; and its exposition is this : In the beginning, this was indeed non-existent ; it became existent ; it came into being ; it became an egg ; it lay for the period of one year ; it broke open ; then came the two halves of the egg shell, one silver, one gold” and Śaṅkarāchārya’s commentary : “What is emphasized is not the negation of existence (but the absence of differentiation of Name and Form). As a matter of fact, the term ‘sat’, ‘Existent’, is found to be used in the sense of ‘differentiated name and form’ and this dfferentiation of name and form of the universe is mostly dependent upon the sun.” The Brahmāṇḍa the ‘world egg’ is the true ‘Dhātugarbha’ and is enshrined as such in the Harmikā or casket above the stūpa. (In this connection it may be possible to see some light thrown also on the corbels or bracket capitals of pillars, etc. where an inverted pyramid composed of tiers (Hīragrahaṇa) rises above the Āmalaka. Their symbolism might be referable to that of the spheres above the sun, from Svarloka upwards. The successive increase in area of the single ‘slabs’ serves a purpose akin to that of a bracket capital on the pillars, where as no such purpose is served by the same shape on top of the Stūpa. The slabs of this inverted pyramid share with the pyramid of slabs of the temple the function of a solid cover.”

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With this general introduction to the Stūpa and its affinity with the Hindu Temple let us deal with some more famous stūpas of Indian architecture, our sublime architectural heritage. Emperor Aśoka is the founder of Buddhist art as beginnings of Buddhitst art of which pillars and stūpas were the first specimens are credited to the Mauryan age. It was however left to Śuṅgas and Āndhras to contribute to the exuberance of the artistic creations in the domain of stūpa-architecture, its many-sided architectural evolutions and ornamentation with very rich sculptures. Asokan art was fundamentally religious. Under the Śuṅgas and Āndhras, it naturally followed the same course as the religion, there being a static interval between the cessation of the autocratic art of Ashoka and the beginning of the new or hierarchic phase. Percy Brown has succinctly defined the architecture of the period:

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“Of the many places in his dominions that the Mauryan Emperor had consecrated by the erection of stūpas, a certain number from various causes had been invested with special sanctity and importance. Although through the imposing monolithic pillars raised in the vicinity of several of these shrines their sacred character was appreciably augmented, it was to the stūpa, as the symbol of the Buddha, that the pious pilgrims paid their most fervent devotions. At this early date it is fairly clear that these tumuli of brick, endowed as they were with great spiritual significance, were in appearance somewhat uninspiring. They consisted of a masonry hemisphere some 70 feet in diameter and about 35 feet high, solidly constructed of large unburnt bricks each of which averaged the large size of 16 ins. 10 ins. 3 ins. In the centre of this domical mound or aṇḍa (egg) a small space was usually left for a receptacle containing a relic of the Buddha and on the summit as a mark of dignity was raised a wooden parasol (chhattrayashti). This honorific umbrella was in some instances, as in the stupas at Sarnath and Sanchi, made of polished stone fashioned by the sculptors of the Asokan school, as fragments of these have been preserved. The brickwork surface of the dome was finished off with a thick layer of plaster, in which at intervals recesses were left for the reception of small lamps to be lit on festival occasions. Over all a certain amount of colour and gilding was applied, and it was also the custom to furnish them with festoons of flowers and drapery together with banners and flags. As the Buddhist ritual consisted of circumambulating the stupa, a processional passage (Pradakshina patha) was provided by enclosing the monument within a wooden railing (vedica) leaving a space for promenading with an entrance at each of the cardinal points. At least one of these stupas, very much in the state described above, still survives, appearing as a rough white-washed mound rather incongruously set amidst an aggregation of later and more finished artistic accessories. Such is that at the shrine of Shwayambhu Nath in Nepal, which has been continuously worshipped for over two thousand years”.

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This definition fully corroborates our standpoint from which we have viewed the affinity of the Buddhists Stūpa with the Hindu Temple. It may be pointed out that many of the Asokan stūpas were simply augmented with further elaborations as the case was with those that are situated at Sanchi, Barhut, Buddha Gaya, etc. Many an addition to the existing tumuli were a history of the development of Stūpa-architecture. Railings, Toraṇas or Gateways are a subsequent emblishment at Sanchi—cf. the chart appended in Percy Brown’s book. p. 22 which gives a clear story of these augmentations and enrichments at Sanchi, Barhut and Buddha Gaya in the successive periods of Indian history.

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This is a bird’s eye view on the northern stūpas. The South also contributed a good number, principally at Jaggayyapeta, Amaravati, Nagarjuni-konda etc ctc. cf. Brown p. 48.

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CHĀDYA-PRĀSĀDAS AND SABHA-MAṆḌAPAS (Flat-roofed and Hall-temples).

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The Hindu Temple, so far as the main shrine is concerned, whether built in the Nāgara style or in the Drāviḍa style has three principal parts—the Adhiṣṭhāna or Pīṭha ( the socle or base ), the Garbhagṛha (the enclosed chamber) and the Śikhara or the superstructure. Accordingly the evolution and development of the various phases and styles of temples are manifested in the three main types of temples as are represented and preserved to us thereof in our architectural heritage.

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These are:— 1. Chādya Prāsādas and Pillared hall temples
2. Śikharottama Prāsādas and
3. Bahubhaumika Vimānas.

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We are concerned in this section with the first type. The chādyas are pillared halls like Sabhā-maṇḍapas; though are not identical both of them take a common architectural origin. The different architectural origins of the Hin u Temple really centre round the superstructure, hence the evolution of the Hindu temple is the evolution of the superstructure. The accessory buildings like maṇḍapas (attached or detached) gopurams, prākāras and so many other allied structures are only the side-developments of that upsurge to which these devotional places had given the motivating force consequent upon the development of the Bhakti cult to which the enormous temple-building activity and magnetic religious fervour for undertaking a pilgrimage to these places, really owed their impetus. All this was the out come of that Pauranic Dharma in which the foundation and dedication of temples and the enshrinement of the cult-deities was the main inculcation.

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The chādyas were the first begining in the domain of temples superstructure. The Samarāṅgaṇa-sūtradhāra gives the first place to these chādya-prāsādas and pillard halls in its first formal chapter on temple-architecture, the 49th. Chādya-superstucture may have either a single - roof or multi-roof divichādya (double-roofed) or trichādy (triple-roofed) or malla-chādya (many-roofed). This gives us a clear indication that these chādyas are really the precursors of the later Bhūmikāyuktas (the storyed Vimanas of the South). The chādya-prāsāda in its preinstine shape is a flat-roofed temple and the most predominent characteristic of the planning of this type is the application of the pillars. Hence, hall-temples, the Sabhā-maṇḍapas and these so-called chādyaprāsādas go along with each other. Further this chādya is not necessarily always flat. The most primitive and primordial shape of a sacred place like the hut of an ascetic or shrine of a deified object was the sloping one. Many a temple relief as exhibited on Sanchi or Barhut illustrates these primitive types. The Central Indian Gupta temples are flat roofed. Similarly some of the temples in Aihole grdup are hall-temples. Fort Kramrisch also supports this evaluation of mine vide H. T. p. 284 3rd para and p. 284 f. n. 88.

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With this general introduction to these types of chādyas and halls let us switch over to their representation in the monuments.

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Gupta-temples—The Gupta age, the 4th century heralded the dawn of an epoch which eventually developed into what has generally been accepted as time of India's greatest intellectual awakening. Several forces operating at the same time contributed to produce this summit of attainment. These forces were the established rule, the personal patronage and scholarly encouragement, favourable atmosphere and universal spirit for revival of Brahmanism and lastly the unification of the state under one authority and consequently therefore there engendered a national spirit to give birth to ideals which transformed every phase of thought and every form of action. This fortuitious synchronisation of circumstances produced a remarkable effect on the art of the age notably that of Architecture. Percy Borwn has made a lucid estimation of this upsurge in a histrocial perspective and there cannot be a better support of my thesis as elaborated before in the context of the Chādya types—See Indian Architecture pp 57—58.

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Chalukyan Temples:—One of the brilliant and characteristic phases of Indian Architecture is what is called the Chalukyan architecture. The contemporary writers have not given a serious thought to one of the most important contributions that this phase is credited to. This phase may be regarded to have provided the nucleus to the evolution of the Hindu Temple in both the styles of its art, the Dravidian and the Northern or Nāgara styles of architecture. Its beginnings at Aihole and Badami, the ancient Vitapi 450 A. D. to 650 are remarkable for this characteristic which got developed in its clear cut norms in-its early phase at all the three ancient Chalukyan capitals—Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal, during its onslaughts in 600 to 750 A. D., This thesis is corroborated by Percy Brown's estimation.—See Indian Architecture p. 63 1st two paras.

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The temples known as the Ladh Khan, the Durgā, the Huchchimallegudi, the Jain temple of Meguti, and a series of the four pillared halls (three Brahmanical and one Jain) excavated in the scarp of a hill overlooking the south-east side of Badami, represent the beginnings of Chālukyan architecture. Ladh Khan is notable for a particular form of Dravidian Order, the “Cushion” Capital with an expanded floral abacus supporting the bracket. The Durgā temple though a Brahmanical shrine, may be regarded a Brahmanical version of the Buddhist Caitya hall, adapted to suit the service of the former creed. The ancient township of Aihole in Dharwar, the capital of the early Chalukyan dynasty was one of the cradles of Indian temple-architecture. Most of the temples of this site are of the flat roofed order, and similar therefore to those of the Gupta style of the more northerly latitude, displaying a characteristic which implies an early stage in the process of evolution of Hindu temple towards its two powerful exuberences, as already propounded in the preceeding pages. Other stages of development in the Chalukyan temples may be enumerated:

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