Ancient Indian architecture

Ancient Indian architecture

The Great Chaitya in the Buddhist Karla Caves, Maharashtra, India, c. 120 CE

Rock-cut Hindu temple^[1]

Ancient Indian architecture ranges from the Indian Bronze Age to around 800 CE. By this endpoint Buddhism in India had greatly declined, and Hinduism was predominant, and religious and secular building styles had taken on forms, with great regional variation, which they largely retain even after some forceful changes brought about by the arrival of first Islam, and then Europeans.

Much early Indian architecture was in wood, which has almost always decayed or burnt, or brick, which has often been taken away for re-use. The large amount of Indian rock-cut architecture, essentially beginning around 250 BCE, is therefore especially important, as much of it clearly adapts forms from contemporary constructed buildings of which no examples remain. There are also a number of important sites where the floor-plan has survived to be excavated, but the upper parts of structures have vanished.

In the Bronze Age, the first cities emerged in the Indus Valley civilization. The urbanization in the Gangetic plains began as early as 1200 BC with the emergence of fortified cities and appearance of Northern Black Polished Ware.^[2][a][4] The Mahajanapada period was characterized by Indian coins and use of stone in the Indian architecture. The Mauryan period is considered as the beginning of the classical period of Indian architecture. Nagara and Dravidian architectural styles developed in the early medieval period with the rise of Hindu revivalism and predominant role of Hindu temple architecture in the Indian Subcontinent.

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