Module - V: History of Architecture-I
Module - V: History of Architecture-I
Module - V: History of Architecture-I
MODULE – V
Pre-classical Aryan & Mauryan: Vedic and Epic Age Salient features Vedic
Village, Mauryan Empire – Architectural remains from Pataliputra, Asokan pillar
at Vaishal, Lomas Rsi Cave
Buddhism – Religion influencing Architecture – Buddhist Chaityas, Viharas,
Stupa at Sanchi, Rock cut caves at Junnar, Chaitya hall at Bhajja
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jAdZGcQpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LYioyRKZT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7830x-3DcM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBIbflTfxm8
Pre-classical Aryan & Mauryan: Vedic and Epic Age Salient features Vedic
Village.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCzulW_kGMk
After the collapse of Indus valley civilization due to natural disasters and Aryan
Invasion (1500BC-1000BC), the Vedic culture with Vedic style of architecture came
into existence. These settlers were highly knowledgeable in the science of city
planning. They founded many cities along the banks of rivers, Delhi being the most
important of them all and was used as the Capital of all big dynasties including Prithvi
Raj Chauhan to all Mughal Dynasty to British east India Company and now the capital
of independent India. Vedic principles of planning use the 4 Vedas; Rig Veda, Sam
Veda, Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda. Vastu Shastra, Priccha, Manasollasa,
Prasadamandana, Shilparatnam etc are treatise on architecture and planning based
on Vedic hymns.
Aryans were a nomadic people and did not like to live in the towns and houses of
brick, as they were used to living in huts of grass and bamboos. In time they formed
village type settlements and huts of grass and bamboos, wattle & daub - which were
circular in plan. Bamboos were bound reeds and spaces between them filled with
other reeds and leaves and plastered with mud. These huts overtime, gave way to
elongated huts which were oval in plan and the roofs were vaulted with bent
bamboos. The shorter two ends became flatter and had semi-circular openings which
eventually became “Sun Windows” (OR “Chaitya Windows” as they were called in
subsequent Buddhist Architecture.)
Vedic villages were a collection of huts with Bamboo fence all-around the periphery
of the village. The fence had verticals and horizontals with a member at the top. Each
village had a gate which was called ‘Cow Gate’ as it was use for the cattle to go out
in the day and move in at the evening time. The gate became the ‘Torana’ in
subsequent Buddhist Architecture. The railing and fence was used to indicate the
importance of any religious monument. It was also used to symbolically indicate
sacredness. Internal supports of the huts had pots of clay at the base and this became
bases of columns in subsequent Architecture. The Sun windows at the ends became
windows at the top of the entrance, when the Bamboo and Grass architecture was
made into timber. The Semi-circular Sun windows evolved into ‘horse shoe’ shape
because of taking in of the bottom ends by a member at the base which was used
to keep the roof from spreading outwards.
The village structures gave way to building of towns which had battered walls and a
pillared storey above, which was topped with semi-circular roofs and ‘Horse Shoe’
windows. The towns had fences and moats around them.
Types of Housing:-
Aryan village was an incorporation of timber and thatched huts of different types:
1] Circular hut
The most elementary hut was circular in plan, this was the simplest to construct with
bamboo and thatch. Circular huts, through easy to erect had obviously functional
limitations.
2] Rectangular hut:
An addition was made to the circular hut and its form was changed to elastic. Elastic
nature of bamboos was used in roofing. A barrel like effect was created for the roof
by bending the bamboo in the form of an arch and bending the bamboo over
bamboo walls. The huts were arranged in groups of the threes or fours around an open
courtyard, a conglomerate of such units was a typical Aryan village. The village was
defined and screened off from the wildlife of the surrounding forests by a timber
fence. A gateway was installed in front of the entry portion, constructed much like a
fence and having its horizontal ties raised high enough to provide a controlled entry
through which cattle passed to and fro.
Primary Building Material: Earth and timber, the surrounding forests provided ample
building material in the form of bamboo and mud. The Aryan hut in its most basic
shape was circular in plan with a thatched roof over a network of bamboo ribs. Cluster
of these huts formed a courtyard. To protect themselves and their property from the
ravage of wild animals, they have surrounded their collection of huts with a special
kind of fence or palisade. Huts were arranged in threes and fours around the square
courtyard.
Towards the middle of first millennium BC, the social system expanded such town
arose at certain imp centres and were reproduced at larger scale and more
substantial form.
Strongly fortified
Surrounded by ramparts and wooden palisades
Buildings almost always of wood
Era of Timber Construction It is not surprising, therefore, that in later ages timber
construction techniques were employed even though the material of construction
was radically different - i.e. stone.
Palisade encircling the village entrance were of a particular kind. In course of time
these peculiar railing became emblem of protection, used not only to enclose the
village, but
Paling around fields
Eventually anything sacred in nature.
The planning of the village was organic in the way that it was planned according to
the User groups/varnas function in the Society. Society was divided into the four
varnas –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu0Rt1Z7_K4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzte8p36kII
In the period prior to about 300 BCE, connections between India and the rest of Asia
had been somewhat tentative, as India, despite its vibrant urban culture, had
remained relatively isolated from the Hellenistic economies that linked Delos and
Pergamon in the west to China in the east. This situation changed rapidly when the
Mauryan kings unified the Indian subcontinent, forming a new and potent economic
force in the Asian world. Maurya, centered on the fertile plains of the Ganges River,
had under its control not only a rich agricultural basin, but also the Barabar Hills to the
south of the Mauryan capital Pataliputra, where copper and iron could be mined.
Consequently, India could begin to compete in the global politics of iron, and thus
emerge from its relative isolation.
The Mauryan kings expanded their territory westward and southward until, at its
height, the empire stretched northward along the natural boundaries of the
Himalayas and westward to Kandahar, which had been founded by Alexander in the
4th century BCE. This brought India into full contact with Greek and Persian culture,
and soon Indian spices, copper, gold, silk, and rice began to appear in distant places.
The impact of this contact manifest in Indian buildings in a shift from wood to stone
architecture, initially in the form of monumental columns and rock-cut Buddhist caves.
Chandragupta (340–298 BCE), the founder of the Mauryan Empire, located his capital
at Pataliputra, at the confluence of the Ganges and one of its tributaries, the Gandak.
Not much has been recovered of this city, but an account by Megasthenes, the
Greek ambassador at Chandragupta’s court, describes it as about 15 kilometres long
and 2.5 kilometers wide, girded by a moat and a wooden wall with 64 gates and
some 570 towers. Excavations at the site have so far uncovered what appears to be
a hypostyle audience hall on a grand scale, as indicated by 80 highly polished stone
pillars, severed from their bases, set about 5 meters apart.
Pataliputra
The ancient city was situated on the confluence of river Son with Ganga and in
ancient times, Son flowed parallel to Ganga for a certain length before merging in it.
This long stretch of land provided the site for a great city which came to prominence
with the shifting of the Magadhan capital from Rajagriha to Pataliputra, possibly by
Udayin Bhadra, the son of Ajatasatru, a contemporary of the Buddha. Prior to that,
this place was known as Pataligrama which possibly was a significant village of that
time. King Kalasoka and Nanda kings Pataliputra was still the Magadhan capital. With
the onset of the Mauryan Empire under Chandragupta about 323 BC, the city
became the capital of one of the largest empires in Indian history and the status of
this city continued to be so during Sunga and also possibly Gupta periods but in
between and after it, its importance as a great city dwindled.
Ashok Pillar is the most popular sightseeing destination of Vaishali situated near a
Buddhist monastery and a coronation tank, named Ramkund. It is also a Lion Pillar like
the other Ashoka Pillars but the difference between this Ashoka Pillar and other Asoka
pillars is that, this one has only one lion capital. This pillar was built by Emperor Ashoka
at Kolhua out of a polished single piece of red sandstone, cut into a bell shaped
capital of a height of 18.3 m. The lion capital is placed on the top of this pillar. There is
also a nearby brick stupa to this Ashoka Pillar which is said to commemorate the last
sermon of Buddha.
Barabar Hills Caves
Buddhist ascetics were responsible for the oldest rock-cut caves in India, which date
to the mid- 3rd century BCE. They are located in the Barabar Hills of Bihar, 20 miles
north of Bodh Gaya, at a prominent cluster of rock outcroppings in an otherwise flat
landscape. There are four caves, consisting of two chambers each: a rectangular hall
followed by a round room with a hemispherical ceiling. Inscriptions in three of them
note that they were dedicated by Asoka for use by the ajivikas.
Unadorned, with crisp rectangular openings punched into the rock, they are carved
out of the granite with exacting precision and with a highly polished internal surface.
One of them, the Lomas Rsi Cave, is incomplete. It was probably abandoned after
the interior rock sheared and the roof partially collapsed. This cave has deeply carved
openings and a wooden roof outline with a finely etched elephant frieze centered on
a stupa. Since this cave has no inscription, it probably dates to Asoka, though its
exterior may well have been carved later.
Rock-cut architecture had a long tradition in Egypt, Anatolia, and Patra, so the
technique was most likely brought to India through Persia, particularly after Asoka. The
word cave, which is used to describe these and subsequent such structures, is
misleading, since these are constructed structures, and as such a form of architecture.
In the centuries to come, this simple beginning was to flower into a tradition of rock-
cut buildings that spread throughout South Asia and China.
ASSIGNMENT
Write more notes about architectural remains from Pataliputra and Asoka pillar
at Vaishali