The A to Z of Architecture by Allison Lee Palmer

Author:Allison Lee Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2008-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

– I –

INCA ARCHITECTURE. See MACHU PICCHU, PERU.

INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. The structural, aesthetic, and symbolic characteristics of Indian architecture are traditionally seen within the shared cultural history of the peoples of the South Asian subcontinent, which includes modern-day India and the surrounding countries of Pakistan and part of Afghanistan to the northwest, Nepal and Bangladesh to the northeast, and Sri Lanka off the southern coast. India itself is divided by the Vindhya Mountains, which demarcate two distinct styles, one northern and one southern. The earliest known civilization in this region has been found in the Indus Valley of Pakistan and northwest India, along the banks of the Indus River, where an early culture flourished from about 3000 BC to 1750 BC. Mountain passes through the Hindu Kush linked India to the rest of Asia, and along these roads major trade routes were established and new waves of immigrants entered the subcontinent.

While Harappa was the first site discovered along this river, Mohenjo Daro is the best preserved. These cities were probably organized much like their contemporary city-states along the river banks of Mesopotamia and the Nile in Old Kingdom Egypt, yet they reflect perhaps more advanced architectural innovations and merit much further study. For example, their cities are built with a fired brick that is stronger than the sun-dried mud brick so widely used across a variety of cultures at that time. Mohenjo Daro, at its high point, maintained a population of around 30,000 people who lived in a very well-organized city built on a grid with wide streets and distinct neighborhoods. In the center of the seven-square-mile town is an elevated citadel complex surrounded by a wall. Inside the citadel are buildings that were probably used for governmental and religious purposes, and large pools used to store water. The rest of the city has covered drainage ditches. Tall houses, often designed with courtyards, lined the streets to create separate neighborhoods. Many of the artifacts found in the Indus Valley region suggest influences from Mesopotamia, yet here figures that might be priest-kings are sometimes shown in proto-yogic poses that reveal a more culturally specific belief system.

By the Vedic Period, which began around 1750 BC, an influx of nomadic shepherds from central Asia, called the Aryans, brought bronze tools, weapons, horses, and chariots that enabled them to assume control of the region and create a rich culture from which sprang Sanskrit, metaphysical philosophy, epic poetry, and most importantly, the sacred writings called the Vedas. The vast majority of architecture constructed through history has been built for religious purposes, and in this case the monumental and durable temples and shrines are all that remain from this broad time period; no secular architecture at all has survived. Sanskrit literature describes beautiful palace complexes, however, which surely vied for architectural authority with these religious structures, only to be destroyed by later rulers. During the Maurya Dynasty (c. 322–185 BC), Buddhism had become the official language of Hindu architecture, established by King Ashoka, who sought to impose a more peaceful quality to what he deemed to be a too-warlike culture.

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