Monuments of Ancient India

North lndia

Temples with curvilinear sikharas are found all over Northern India, and there are large groups of them at Bhuvanesvar in Orissa, and Khajuraho in the State of Chattarpur in Central India.

 Many of these temples are covered with sculpture from top to bottom, and present a grand and magnificent appearance. Infinite charm and variety are introduced in the sikhara by suitable modification of forms and application of sculptures, without destroying its essential characteristics. In the Khajuraho temples, as in most later examples, miniature sikharas are used as decorative ornaments on the body of the sikharas and, in course of time, these decorative sikharas are developed into small independent sikharas, round about the central one.

It is impossible to describe in detail any one of these temples. The Lingaraja temple and the Rajarani temple at Bhuvanesvar, and some of the temples erected by the Chandella kings at Khajuraho, may be regarded as the finest specimens of earlier and later types. The temple of Jagannath at Puri though more famous, is less beautiful. There are also a good many fine temples in Rajputana.

In addition to the normal type, independent styles were developed in certain localities, notably Kashmir and Rajputana. The Martand temple is a good specimen of the former. As to the latter, the two temples at Dilavara on Mount Abu deserve special mention. They are small in dimension and not crowned by sikharas. But the dome which covers the shrine and the pillars of the mandapa in front are worked with an elegance and refinement which defy all description. The hard stone is worked as if it were a fragile substance like paper. The rich exuberance of their decoration displays almost superhuman skill and entitles them to rank as priceless treasures of art. One of these was erected by a minister or governor named Vimala Sha in AD 1032 and the other by Tejahpala in AD 1231.
South India

The history of architecture and sculpture in the South Indian peninsula begins with the Pallava temples, and here, for the first time, we meet with the Dravidian style. In addition to the temples in the capital city, Kanchi or Conjeeveram, and other places, some of the rock-cut temples, known as the seven Pagodas or Rathas of Mamallapuram, are built in this style which may therefore be justly called the Pallava style. The latter are small temples, each of which is cut out of a single big rock-boulder. They lie near the sea-beach and adorned the town called Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram, founded by the great Pallava king, Narasimhavarman (seventh century AD). It is now an insignificant place, and its only attraction is provided by these wonderful monolithic temples and a series of fine sculptures on rock. The temples or pagodas are named after the five Pandava brothers and their common spouse Draupadi (Dharmarajarath, Bhim-ratha, Draupadi-ratha, etc.) These monolithic temples, wrought out of massive stone, are complete with all the details of an ordinary temple and stand to-day as an undying testimony to the superb quality of Pallava art. Among the sculptures, one large composition has obtained great celebrity. The scene represented is usually described as the penance of Arjuna, but this is very doubtful. There are also many rock-cut caves belonging to the Pallava period.

It is important to note that the earliest specimens of Pallava art already exhibit a fairly advanced stage of development. Although we have no remains of an earlier epoch, we must presume its existence.

 For the men who built the temples at Kanchi or Mamallapuram, or wrought the sculptures on the rocks at the latter place, were no novices in their art, and must have been trained in schools with art traditions of centuries and generations at their back. The problem is analogous to that offered by the finished art of the Maurya period, and its probable solution has been discussed above. But the theory that foreign artists were imported to do the work can hardly be maintained in this case.

We must hold, therefore, that earlier artists mostly worked in wood or other perishable materials, and hence entirely disappeared, though chance or luck might some day restore a few relics of it.

The style of Pallava architecture not only set the standard in the South Indian Peninsula, but also largely influenced the architecture of the Indian colonies in the Far East. The characteristic Pallava or Dravidian type of sikhara is met with in the temples of Java, Cambodia, and Vietnam. But there are important differences between them and the South Indian temples. The pillars which form such an important adjunct to the latter are altogether absent in the former.

The Cholas who supplanted the Pallavas in South India were mighty builders. The Dravidian style was Dravidian architecturedeveloped and almost perfected under them. Perhaps the best example of this style is furnished by the great Saiva temple at Tanjore built by Rajaraja the Great. The great sikhara, consisting of fourteen storeys, rises to a height of 190 feet and is crowned by a massive dome consisting of a single block of stone. It is said that this huge block was carried to the immense height by being rolled along an inclined road, about four miles long, specially built for this purpose. The massive building is covered from the base to the top with sculptures and decorative mouldings. It occupies the centre of a courtyard with other subsidiary chapels, but the whole area is dominated by the high tower over the shrine which is a conspicuous landmark in the locality.

There was another massive temple at Gangaikonda-cholapuram, the new capital city built by Rajendra Chola in the Trichinopoly district. The city was also adorned with a magnificent palace and a vast artificial lake, with stone embankment, more than fifteen miles long. All these are now in ruins.

Chola art is characterised by a massive grandeur. The huge structures were decorated with minute sculptures involving immense labour and infinite pains. As Fergusson very aptly remarked, the Chola artists conceived like giants and finished like jewellers.

A new development was slowly taking place in Chola art which was destined to modify Dravidian architecture in later times. This was the addition of a huge gateway, called a Gopuram, to the enclosure of the temple. Gradually, the Gopurams came to be multiplied and assumed huge proportions, being composed, like the temple itself, of a large number of superimposed storeys. Ultimately the gigantic Gopurams, sometimes large in number, came to occupy the dominant place by their towering height and lavish decoration, while the central shrine, being far less imposing, was reduced to comparative insignificance. The Gopuram at Kumbhakonam, for example, is a very splendid piece of work, by itself, but it so completely overshadows the main shrine that the structure, taken as a whole, is less pleasing and produces far less artistic effect than might have been reasonably expected.

There are many massive temples in South India, built in the same style. In addition to Gopurams, pillared halls and long colonnades were added as new features in the later temples. Modern travellers are struck with awe by the sight of the gigantic temples at Madura, Srirangam, Ramesvaram, and other places, with successive enclosures, long courts with a bewildering maze of buildings, thousand-pillared halls, and long vistas of covered colonnades which seem to fade into the distance. But most of these temples are of a much later period.