Indian architecture is as old as the history of the civilization. The earliest remains of recognizable building activity in the India dates back to the Indus Valley cities. Among India's ancient architectural remains, the most characteristic are the temples, Chaityas, Viharas, Stupas and other religious structures. In ancient India, temple architecture of high standard developed in almost all regions. The distinct architectural style of temple construction in different parts was a result of geographical, climatic, ethnic, racial, historical and linguistic diversities. The architectural methods practiced in India are a result of examination and implementation of its established building traditions and outside cultural interactions
The Rock-cut structures present the most spectacular piece of ancient Indian art specimen. Most of the rock-cut structures were related to various religious communities. In the beginning, remarkable Buddhist and Jain monuments were produced in areas such as Bihar in the east and Maharashtra in the west. Chaityas and Viharas are those rock-cut structures that were hewn out for Buddhist and Jain monks. Chaityas were places of worship whereas Viharas were residence of monks. The Rathas at Mahabalipuram are yet another great specimen of rock-cut architecture in ancient India.
Though old, this Eastern tradition has also incorporated modern values as India became a modern nation state. The economic reforms of 1991 further bolstered the urban architecture of India as the country became more integrated with the world's economy. Traditional Vastu Shastra remains influential in India's architecture during the contemporary era.
Starting from the urban architecture of the Harappan civilization to the contemporary architecture of India, change has always been vital. Indian architecture of the old has taken influences liberally from the regular inflow of cultures coming to India. In turn, India has also played a major role in influencing and shaping the architecture of South East Asian countries. The British left the President House and colonial architecture of New Delhi and Mumbai such as Gateway of India, Victoria Terminus etc as prominent examples of European Architecture. Each monument is a strikingly splendid specimen of incredible artistry, shrouding a sense of mystery, intrigue and romance. Be it the marvel in white marble, the unparalleled Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world; or the red stone splendor, the imposing Red Fort; or the magnificence of temple art of Khajuraho, Konark and Hampi, therein is evident the master craftsmanship and elegance, that brings to the fore the grandeur of the bygone era.
The talent of the shilpis or the Indian artisans' is till date visible in the temples constructed centuries ago. The sculptures boast of creativity and hard work. The numerous sculptures on temple walls are all carved out of hard rock & have lasted centuries. Rock-cut architecture was first perfected by the Buddhists, and was followed by several Hindu rulers. In Southern India, the Pallavas excelled in this art form. The sculptures or idols in temples are made of granite & the Utsava murthis are made of bronze & panchaloha. Apart from these, there are the huge Iyyanar statues & horses exist in South Indian villages. Every village city or state in India has some form of craft traditions in embroidery, metalwork, pottery, terracotta, jewelry work or other form of art.
The picture below shows the best example of Ancient Indian architecture
Harappan architecture
Harappan architecture was developed during the indus valley period 3300BCE to 1300BCE. The harappan citizen where one of the best architecturers.
Harappa is an archaeological site in Punjab, northeast Pakistan, about 20 km (12 mi) west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a modern village located near the former course of the Ravi River, some 5 km (3 mi) southeast of the site.
The site contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city, which was part of the Cemetery H culture and the Indus Valley Civilization, centered in Sindh and the PunjabThe city is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents—considered large for its time.
In 2005 a controversial amusement park scheme at the site was abandoned when builders unearthed many archaeological artifacts during the early stages of construction work. A plea from the prominent Pakistani archaeologist Ahmed Hasan Dani to the Ministry of Culture resulted in a restoration of the site.
HISTORY
The Indus Valley Civilization (also known as Harappan culture) has its earliest roots in cultures such as that of Mehrgarh, approximately 6000 BC. The two greatest cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, emerged circa 2600 BC along the Indus River valley in Punjab and Sindh. The civilization, with a writing system, urban centers, and diversified social and economic system, was rediscovered in the 1920s after excavations at Mohenjo-daro (which means "mound of the dead") in Sindh near Sukkur, and Harappa, in west Punjab south of Lahore. A number of other sites stretching from the Himalayan foothills in east Punjab, India in the north, to Gujarat in the south and east, and to Balochistan in the west have also been discovered and studied. Although the archaeological site at Harappa was partially damaged in 1857when engineers constructing the Lahore-Multan railroad (as part of the Sind and Punjab Railway), used brick from the Harappa ruins for track ballast, an abundance of artifacts has nevertheless been found.
Culture and economy
Coach driver 2000 B.C. Harappa, Indus Valley Civilization
Indus Valley civilization was mainly an urban culture sustained by surplus agricultural production and commerce, the latter including trade with Sumer in southern Mesopotamia. Both Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are generally characterized as having "differentiated living quarters, flat-roofed brick houses, and fortified administrative or religious centers." Although such similarities have given rise to arguments for the existence of a standardized system of urban layout and planning, such similarities are largely due to the presence of a semi-orthogonal type of civic layout, and a comparison of the layouts of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa shows that they are in fact, arranged in a quite dissimilar fashion. The chert weights and measures of the Indus Valley Civilization, on the other hand, were highly standardized, and conform to a set scale of gradations. Distinctive seals were used, among other applications, perhaps for identification of property and shipment of goods. Although copper and bronze were in use, iron was not yet employed. "Cotton was woven and dyed for clothing; wheat, rice, and a variety of vegetables and fruits were cultivated; and a number of animals, including the humped bull, were domesticated."[5] Wheel-made pottery—some of it adorned with animal and geometric motifs—has been found in profusion at all the major Indus sites. A centralized administration for each city, though not the whole civilization, has been inferred from the revealed cultural uniformity; however, it remains uncertain whether authority lay with a commercial oligarchy. There appears to be a complete lack of priestly "pomp or lavish display" that was common in other civilizations.
Archaeology
Remains from the final phase of the Harappa occupation: A large well and bathing platforms
Miniature Votive Images or Toy Models from Harappa, ca. 2500. Hand-modeled terra-cotta figurines with polychromy.
By far the most exquisite but most obscure artifacts unearthed to date are the small, square steatite seals engraved with human or animal motifs. Large numbers of the seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro, many bearing pictographic inscriptions generally thought to be a kind of Indus script. Despite the efforts of philologists from all parts of the world, and despite the use of modern cryptographic analysis, the script remains undeciphered. It is also unknown if it reflects proto-Dravidian, proto-Sramanic (Jain), non-Vedic (non-Hindu or non-Brahmnic), or is perhaps related to Brāhmī script. The ascription of Indus Valley Civilization iconography and epigraphy to historically known cultures is extremely problematic, in part due to the rather tenuous archaeological evidence of such claims, as well as the projection of modern South Asian political concerns onto the archaeological record of the area. This is especially evident in the radically varying interpretations of Harappan material culture as seen from both Pakistan and India-based scholars.
Notes
Harappa. Fragment of Large Deep Vessel, circa 2500 B.C.E. Red pottery with red and black slip-painted decoration, 4 15/16 x 6 1/8 in. (12.5 x 15.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum
• The earliest radiocarbon dating mentioned on the web is 2725+-185 BCE (uncalibrated) or 3338, 3213, 3203 BCE calibrated, giving a midpoint of 3251 BCE. Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1991) Urban process in the Indus Tradition: A preliminary report. In Harappa Excavations, 1986-1990: A multidisciplanary approach to Third Millennium urbanism, edited by Richard H. Meadow: 29-59. Monographs in World Archaeology No.3. Prehistory Press, Madison Wisconsin.
• Periods 4 and 5 are not dated at Harappa. The termination of the Harappan tradition at Harappa falls between 1900 and 1500 BCE.
• Mohenjo-daro is another major city of the same period, located in Sindh province of Pakistan.
• Dholavira is an ancient Metropolitan City. The Harappans used roughly the same size bricks and weights as were used in other Indus cities, such as Mohenjo Daro and Dholavira. These cities were well planned with wide streets, public and private wells, drains, bathing platforms and reservoirs. One of its most well-known structures is the so-called Great Bath of Mohenjo Daro.
City walls
Each city in the Indus Valley was surrounded by massive walls and gateways. The walls were built to control trade and also to stop the city from being flooded. Each part of the city was made up of walled sections. Each section included different buildings such as: Public buildings, houses, markets, and craft workshops.
Streets
The Harappans were great city planners. They based their city streets on a grid system. Streets were oriented east to west. Each street had a well organized drain system. If the drains were not cleaned, the water ran into the houses and silt built up. Then the Harappans would build another story on top of it. This raised the level of the city over the years, and today archaeologists call these high structures "mounds".
Wells
An old well in Lothal, a town near Harappa. The building styles of the two cities were fairly similar.
Although not every Harappan house had a well, there are quite common and comprise one of the most recognizable features of Harappan urbanism. Over the years, the level of streets and houses were raised owing to the accumulation of debris (see above) which necessitated raising the height of the wells. This is the reason why very tall wells are often seen at Harappa and in surrounding areas.
Houses
Houses and other buildings were made of sun-dried or kiln-fired mud brick. These bricks were so strong, that they have stood up to thousands of years of wear. Each house had an indoor and outdoor kitchen. The outdoor kitchen would be used when it was warmer (so that the oven wouldn’t heat up the house), and the indoor kitchen for use when it was colder. In present day, village houses in this region (e.g. in Kachchh) have two kitchens (outdoor and indoor). They use indoor kitchen mostly as store house and use as cooking place only when there is raining outside, otherwise prefer using outdoor kitchen. This is because people use dry shrub and cow dung as cooking fuel which is very smoky and makes indoor cooking difficult.
Tools
The Harappans used chisels, pickaxes, and saws. The saws they used had undulated edges so that dust escaped from the cut that they were sawing. These tools were most likely made of copper, as copper tools and weapons have been found at Harappan sites.
Lack of temples
So far, no unequivocal examples of temples have been found at sites belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. Archaeologists do not know yet what religion was practiced in the Indus Valley Civilization. Community water pools (swimming or bathing) do exist, which may be linked with religion practice. Water plays an important role in Hindu sacred places, and pilgrimage to such places often involves sacred bathing (apart from Ganges). The architecture of water pools used by Hindu pilgrimage and in Harappan cities are similar, although scholars disagree whether such similarities are functional, or cultural, in nature.
From excavated remains, it is clear that the Indus Valley civilization possessed a flourishing urban architecture. The major cities associated with the civilization, notably Mohenjo-daro, Harappā, and Kalibangan, were laid out on a grid pattern and had provisions for an advanced drainage system. The residential buildings, which were serviceable enough, were mainly brick and consisted of an open patio flanked by rooms. For monumental architecture, the evidence is slight, the most important being a “sacred” tank (thought to be for ritual ablution) and associated structures. Corbel vaulting (arches supported by brackets projecting from the wall) was known, and, to a limited extent, timber was used together with brick; whatever architectural ornamentation existed must have been of brick or plaster.
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