The word for sculpture is ‘Shilpa,’ which means to ‘create.’ Sculpture was the favoured medium of artistic manifestation on the Indian subcontinent. It signifies the traditions, forms, and styles of the civilisations of the Indian subcontinent. Many styles and traditions flourished throughout India over the succeeding centuries. By the 9th–10th centuries AD, Indian sculpture had…
Indo-Islamic architecture is a unique architecture of the Indian subcontinent generally produced by Islamic patrons. It was produced by and for Islamic patrons and purposes. Despite an initial Arab conquest in Sindh, the development of Indo-Islamic architecture began in earnest with the establishment of Delhi as the capital of the Ghurid empire in 1193. They also adopted…
The Vesara style of temples is a combination of both Nagara and Dravida; its superstructure is bell-shaped. Vesara temples are mainly erected by Chalukyas of Badami and Kalyani, Rashtrakutas and Hoysala Dynasty. Features of Vesara Style temple architecture: An open ambulatory passageway; The pillars, ceiling, walls and doorways are decorated with complex carvings; It gave…
Dravidian architecture/south Indian temple architecture emerged in the Southern parts of the Indian subcontinent during the closing decades of the seventh century And it reached its final form by the 16th century. Divisions of Dravidian-style temple architecture: Based on the shape of the layout of a temple, Dravidian temples can be subdivided into the following…
The Nagara style became popular in the northern part of India. Numerous temples were constructed at various other places in north India, like Mathura, Banaras, and Dilwara. While the earliest temples had one tower(shikhara), later temples had multiple. The garbhagriha is always located directly under the tallest tower. In North India, generally, the entire temple is built on…
The term stupa was used for the first time in Rigveda but did not refer to any architecture at that time. In the Rig Vedic age, the Stupa was the “shape of fire” coming out of alters during yajna. In some unknown source, we found that King Varuna raised a stupa in the forest without…
The importance of caves in human life is inextricably related to their cultural evolution. The pre-historic humans initially used the caves as dwelling units. Gradually, the caves became a focal point for their cultural activities. The cave walls became projections of human imaginations in the form of murals, such as hunting scenes, merry-making, etc. With…
India is often referred to as a civilization state because it has 5000 years old civilizational history. The earliest Indian civilization to be named is the Harappan Civilization (3300 BCE – 1300 BCE), which was contemporary to civilizations such as Mesopotamian and Egyptian. After its decline, we can see a continuous chain of cultures and civilizations…
The temple is a building for religious worship. We can observe that most of the art and architectural remains that have survived from Ancient and Medieval India are religious in nature. Most of them can be termed temples according to this understanding. Religious edifices in India seem to have developed during the Harappan civilisation. Recently,…