Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad
by Prasanna Kumar Acharya | 1946 | 195,370 words
This book discusses Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad, highlighting the architectural prowess of ancient India (including sculptures and fine arts) and its migration to regions like Central Asia and even possibly influencing the Mayan civilization in Central America. The survey acknowledges archaeological findings, such as those at Mohenjo-dar...
Architecture according to the Vedas
IT IS NEEDLESS to say that the details of the art of building were systematically embodied for the first time in the avowedly architectural treatises. They are necessarily missing in non-architectural literature, especially that composed before the growth of the VastuSastra. But casual references to this art go as far back as the oldest existing literature of the world. That the people of that time had learnt the art of building, and used to reside in skilfully constructed. houses and not in natural caves, is sufficiently clear, not only from the various synonyms for a house,1 but also from the articles of furniture. The hymns of the Atharva-veda give some information about the construction of a house, but the details are extremely obscure. : According to Zimmer," four pillars (upamit) were set up on a good site, and against them beams were leant at an angle as props (pratimit). The upright pillars were connected by crossbeams (parimit) resting upon them. The roof was formed of ribs of bamboo cane (vamsa),4 The walls were filled up with grass • in bundles (palada), and the whole structure was held together by ties of various sorts (nahana, pranaha, samdamsa, parishvanjalya). It ' For grha, dhama or dhaman, pastya, and harmya in the sense of the whole compound, see- Rig-veda, III, 53, 6; IV, 49, 6; VIII, 10, 1. Atharva-veda, VII, 83, 1 ; X, 6, 4. Aitareya-Brahmana, VIII, 21. Vedic Index, p. 229. III, 12; IX, 3. Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharva-veda, 343, ct seq. Weber Indische Studien, 17, 234, et seq. Whitney, Translation of the "Atharva-veda, 525 et scq. 3 Altindisches Leben, 153- 4. It seems likely that, as the ribs were of bamboo and were probably fixed in the ridge, the roof was wagon-headed, like the huts of the Todas at the present day (see illustrations of rivers, The Todas, pp. 25, 27, 28, 51), and the rock-cut Chaityas or assembly halls of the Buddhists in Western India, in some of the carliest of which the wooden ribs of the arched roof are still preserved.' See Fergusson, History of Indian Architecture, II, 135, cf. 126. 5 A. V., IX, 3, 4, 5. 54
INDIA AND ABROAD was composed of several rooms up." VEDAS and it could be securely shut The above conclusion is no longer tenable, as will be shewn by what is quoted below. The great variety of Vedic words2 denoting a dwelling-house shows that the Vedic Indians were long settled with a tradition of housebuilding. Already in the carly Vedic period houses were not simply unit family abodes, but were also individual private properties which could be acquired. Sometimes a ready-made house could be purchased for a considerable price (A.-V., IX, 3, 15). A well-to-do person possessed several houses. Thus a rich householder is called Pastyavant (R.-V., I, 151, 2; IX, 97, 18). Some poet-singers are described as purudama (A.-V., VII, 73, 1) and ayatanas are given as examples of prosperity (Chhand. Upanishad, VII, 24, 2).3 C The view of Zimmer and others after him (Vedic Index, I, 538 to 540), that Vedic India knew of nothing more solid and complex than the hamlet, like the early Germans and Slavs who had no castlestructures and town-life, is an extreme one; for it is now being realized more and more as a basic fact that the Vedic Indians, like the Iranians, Hellenes. and Italians, were superimposed upon as carlier civilization. . . . Thus it becomes quite reasonable to find in prithvi, urvi, satabhuji, asmamayi, or ayasi purs, or the massive, extensive, hundred-walled, stone-built, or iron-protected forts, the vivid descriptions of new and wonderful things the Vedic heroes actually saw; and rather forced explanations discovering in them mysteries of myths and fancies of metaphor become unnecessary. The archacological remains discovered at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and other places in Sind fully corroborate this view. 14 In addition to the noblemen's mansions (harmya, sala) and king's palaces (prasada), comprising several storeys, casually referred to in Vedas and Brahmanas, particulars of smaller houses may be inferred from the later Vedic literature like the Atharva-veda. Some carly scholars, to whom the discoveries made in Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, and other places of pre-Vedic age were not available, have interpreted these details in a figurative sense which is no longer 1 R.-V., VII, 85, 6. ☑ c.g., Stha, Vis, Pratishtha, Gaya, Dama, Dhaman, Sarma. 3 Some Aspects of the Earliest Social History of India, by S. C. Sarkar, p. 1. Sarkar, ibid, p. 19. 55
i tenable. The upamit, pratimit and parimit really imply timber pillars and beams in various positions, vertical, horizontal and slanting.` The vamsa, or bamboos, were used mainly for the framework of roofing, the central horizontal bamboo supported on the main pillars (sthhuna) being prominent. The akshu was the wicker-work or split bamboolining over which was laid the thatch (chhadis) of hay, straw or long reedy grass (palada and trna). fastened by net to keep the strawbundles intact. The ridge on the top of the roofing (vishuvant) looked like parted hair. Fine clay for flooring and reed-work for walls completed the frame work of such a small house,' which is still in practice in most parts of East Bengal, ་ e In keeping with the requirements of such a house for a family of Brahmanic custom in a village settlement, the accommodation provided was of modest character. There were several side-rooms with a central hall in bungalow pattern (paksha, Kath. Sam., XXX, 54 Taitt. Bra., I, 2, 3, 1). The agni-sala (lit. hall of fire-altar), probably in the centre, served the purpose of both sacrifice and sitting-room. With it was connected the havirdhana (sacrificial store-room) and patni sadana (women's apartments or bedrooms). A covered verandah ran all round the house. Altogether brhach-chhandas (well preportioned) house was covered by a many-winged roofing." e This type of dwelling-houses. Sarkar correctly concludes. can not have been the only one, in the Vedic ages, and other varieties must have developed according to regional conditions." The particulars of monumental stone structures erected over or near burnt or buried bodies are also available in the Vedic literature. The Satapatha Brahmana (Chapter XIII) supplies the full details. The smasana (funerary) structures are classified under three groups vastu (reliquary of bones), grihan (dwelling-house), and prajnanam (memorial pillars or stone-slabs). The etymological differences of these terms are fully borne out by the actual structures they represent. The vastu type still survives in the name Kapila-Vastu, which might have been originally built as the memorial stupa of Kapila * rather than the abode of Kapila as usually taken. In this sense it would look like a solid stone or brick vault with stone enclosures and might have supplied the pattern of subterranean and rock-cut caves of Some Aspects of the Earliest Social History of India, by Sarkar (pp. 28 to 32) who compares this type with modern Bengal straw-houses with two, four, and eight slanting roofs (chalas). 56
later ages. The Roman catacombs and Egyptian cave-graves offer instructive parallels.' The grhan means a dwelling-house with many chambers and implies that the funcral structure was either an actual house (mausoleum) with many rooms, erected over or beside the grave in memory of the deceased, and for the benefit of his soul dedicated to some religious order or philanthropic use." Its extensiveness is indicated by its other epithet, harmya, which has been frequently used in the carly Vedic literature to imply a nobleman's residence and the king's palace." 6 Apart from the minor differences within the approved range at regards special forms for the several orders, the structural type thais regarded as unorthodox is described clearly as round and domes shaped parimandala, Sat. Bra., XIII, 8, 1). That whereby the Easterners make the imasana (funerary structure) separate from the earth is described by the usual Vedic word (chamu) for a large hemispherical bowl, which must here refer to something like a vault or dome of solid stone or bricks.' The structure is then enclosed by an indefinite number of enclosing stones 3 (Sat. Bra., XIII. 8, 2, 2) as in the case of fire-hearth. The orthodox style is stated to be square or quadrilateral not separate from earth (ibid, XIII. 8, 1, 1: 8, 1, 21. Bricks one foot square are used in its construction (ibid, XIII, 8, 4, 11). A memorial mound like a fire-altar is prescribed for the builders of the same (ibid, XIII, 8, 1, 1). . " ' The former is the prototype of the Buddistic, Eastern and heretical stupa architecture of the very next epoch, and through it of the Saiva temple styles of subsequent ages (characterized by the round domes). The latter is a specially Brahmanical style, associated with sacrificial altars and rectilineal figures, strikingly paralleled by the This is not a forced explanation dervied from the later Buddhist monuments \othara, chaitya). In the Rig-veda (VII, 89, 1) itself the grave is described as minmaya griha. It is more frequently mentioned in the Atharva-veda- let these grihasah be a refuge for him for ever' (A.-V., XVIII, 3, 51=R.-V., X, 18, 12) ; make ye griha for him according to his kindred (4.-V., XVIII, 4, 37), that is, the size and excellence depended on the number, position, and means of the kinsmen of the deceased (Sarkar, ibid, p. 44; as the five claus (manava) implanted a harmya (edifice) for Yama, so I implant a harmya that there may be many of me (A.-V., XVIII, 4, 55). : See the writer's Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture under Harmya, and compare 1.-V., XVII, 4, 55, which refers to building a harmya for the dead." 3 Stones are used instead of the square bricks in the case of non-fireworshippers (Sat. Bra., XIII, 8, 4, 11). 57
similar sacrificial and geometrical style of squares and bricks in ancient Babylonia, and represented recognizably in some later forms of Bralimanical temple architecture' such as at Madura, Tanjore, and also in carlier monasteries or several storeys built pyramidically.1 Another remarkable feature of these funerary structures as described in the Satapatha Brahmana is the regulation-- let there be chitras on the back of the smasana. The commentaries explain chitras as natural sceneries. In the case of the brick-built tumuli, these chitras would be paintings on suitable plaster, but in the case of the stone-built round chamu of the Easterners the most suitable chitras would be sculptured figures in relief. The nature of these chitras is indicated by the reason given for chitras mean offspring. Thus : the figures painted or carved might have been of women and children, and possibly couples of men and women. The third variety of the funerary monuments, the prajnanam, implies the monumental pillars (or slabs of stones). In the Vedas (R.-V., X, 18, 3; 4.-V., XVIII, 3, 52) a pillar (sthuna) is stated to have been set up the grave, and a loga (clod, pole, also pillar) is erected after the earth is piled up from about the grave. On the sthuna (pillars) maintained by the Fathers, Yama makes seats for the departed* (R.-V., X, 18, 3; A.-V., XVIII, 3, 52). Seats on memorial pillars, like lion capitals of Mauryan age, may imply some sort of effigy or bust of the dead person. In the time of the Satapatha Brahmana (XXX, 8, 4, 1 ; IV, 2, 5, 15; Kat. Sr. Sut., XXI, 3, 31) a stone-pillar (sanku) was set up along with three timber ones at the four corners of the smasana (gravc or cemetery). The symbolism of these smasana structures might have been derived from the civic and sacrificial Vedic drupadas (posts)" to 1 Sarkar further observes (ibid, pp. 40, 39, note 9) that from these indications, and from the recognition of round forms in the construction of altars and smasana (funerary structures) in the later samhitas (Tailt. Sam., V, 4, 11), it would appear that the antagonism to round and stone structures displayed by the Satapatha Brahmana is a later development in the seventh century B. G., very likely due to the growing estrangement between the prachya (castern) and midland religions and philosophical doctrines in the Buddhistic reformation (arrangement of round and star-shaped bricks in a circle).' 2 Sarkar further compares (ibid, p. 43) the account in the epic of the representation of the fertility goddess Jara (or jata, the traditional village Spirit) on the palace walls of the King of Girivraja of a plump woman with children all around, and also the panels of female figures, amorous couples, etc., in the later stupa and vihara architecture' and in Orissan temple sculptures. 3 R.-V., I, 24, 13; IV, 32, 23; VII, 86, 5; A.-V., VI, 63, 3, 115, 2; XIX, 47, 9; Vaj. Sam. XX, 20. 58
which offenders and sacrificial victims were bound. The Buddhistic monolithic pillars erected beside the relic-stupas and on the highways and public thoroughfares is probably the developed form of such memorial sankus. This is sufficient explanation of the Asokan pillars, and a theory of their Persepolitan origin is unnecessary. 1 The articles of furniture give more reality to architecture, especially regarding the residential buildings. Although conquest and religion were the chief characteristics of the Vedic Indians, fortified settlements, cities, forts and fortresses on the one hand, and fire-altars of various designs in the absence of regular temples on the other, were not the only examples of Vedic architecture. The evidences gathered together above will amply justify the conclusion that civil architecture was probably the chief building activity of civilized conquerors like the Vedic Indians. Thus there are unquestionable references to noblemen's mansions (harmya) and king's palaces (prasada), which are corroborated by the Mohenjo-daro discoveries of carlier ages. But the matter of greater importance is the references to unpretentious dwelling-houses of priestly population in village settlements. These smaller houses, of which a pen picture has been drawn above and of which the main design is still followed in border lands like East Bengal villages, were furnished in a way which affords a real insight into the life of the remote past. 6 Thus the Rig-veda (VII, 55, 8) refers to married women occupying their commodious talpas, the new (and prospective) brides on the fashionable vahyas, other single women of the household on the broad proshthas, and a maiden on a sayana, which, as well as paryanka, are stated to be the ordinary bedsteads or couches. The talpa is the nuptial bed whereupon alone a legitimate son (talpya) could be born (Sat. Bra., XII, 1, 6, 2). Its sanctity is further increased as it was reserved for the preceptor (cf. Guru-talpa. Chhand. Upanishad, V, 10, 9). Vahya, that which can be casily carried, is a lighter structure used specially in marriage ceremony of getting the bride and bridegroom lain on bed side by side (A.-V., XIV, 2, 30), which ceremony may also be performed upon a humbler settee (asandi). Upon it a weary bride mounts (A.-V., IV, 20, 3), and women generally sleep' (R.-V., VII, 55, 8; A.-V., IV, 5, 3). Thus ་ 1 Sarkar, ibid, pp. 45, 46. 59 See later p. 63, note 2.
it must be more than a mere litter or canopied sedan-chair. It must have been a regular bed spacious enough for two, 'bearing all forms and of carved wood-work, furnished with a gold-embroidered coverlet (rukma-prastarana). It formed a part of the principal dowry. The proshthas look like a ' combination of a settee and a coffer and were also used as long benches and couches or beds, which were also sent as dowry along with the bride to her husband's home. They could also be fixed against the walls and furnished with turned legs. The term proshtha-pada as a proper name (arm-chaired or stretched-legged gentleman) may indicate it as an easy chair with provision for stretching the two legs. The sayana. or ordinary bedsteads, were also meant for a beloved woman or maiden (A.-V.. III, 25, 1) who felt pain (tuda) of the silken coverlet (because of the absence of a male companion). Pururavas and Urvasi slept on such a soft couch (Sat. Bra., XI, 5, 1, 2) and a Vedic student could also sleep on it (A.-V., V, 29, 8). ་ : C i ' • The asandi and paryanka originated with the ruling nobility. though in their ritualized and modified form (reed-covered and claydaubed) these must have been subsequently used in the ordinary priests dwelling-houses. In the Vajasaneyi Samhita of the Yajurveda (XIX, 86; XX, 1) asandi is regarded as the 'mother or womb of Rajanyas^ (kings). In the same sense of a high seat it is referred to in the Satapatha Brahmana also (V. 4, 4, 1). The Aitareya Brahmana refers (VIII, 5, 6) to its use at consecration and other ceremonies where it is mounted with the right knee first, then the left, approaching from behind and taking hold of it by both hands. This king's asandi was generally carried by two persons, while a god's asandi called the throne of justice was carried by four persons. While the height of the former reached the knce, that of the latter came up to the navel. Both were of great width and depth. The imperial asand¡ for samraj was shoulder-high, while the sacrificial one was a spanbigh, a cubit in width and depth. All were made of strong wood (khadira or udumbara), perforated (vitrinna) and joined with straps. pleasant and soft seated, and covered with a tiger's or antelope's skin. The Brahman's far-shining asandi in an extensive hall of an invincible abode in a city was furnished with two fore-feet, two lengthwise and two cross-pieces' (Kaush. Upan. I, 5; Sakmh. Aran. [I]; Jaim. Bra., II, 24). 6 • The paryanka is a magnified asandi, and like it associated with regal style and opulence, rather approaching a bedstead in later 60
edic times (Kaush. Upan., I, 5; Jaim. Bra., II, 24, Sankh. Aran., iii), but yet used for sitting only; so also, later on, asandi is taken to mean paryamkika, or a smaller variety. But it developed to be of ⚫ unmeasured splendour,' having same arrangement of feet and frame, and straps (tantu) stretched lengthwise and crosswise, with headpiece of the couch (sirshanya), the supporting back (upasri), and cushion and pillow for the head (uch-chhirshaka)." Various other smaller seats and smaller articles of furniture are referred to throughout the Vedic literature. [These will undoubtedly indicate a highly developed taste and culture.] . • The ritualistic types of furniture cannot, however, be taken as a faithful counterpart of the contemporary secular ones, for it is well known that sacrificial and ritual requisites almost always remain primitive and unchanged throughout long ages, and it is particularly true of India; so that the furniture of the priestly texts is almost that with which the Brahmanic cult and civilization started. So great is the ritual conservatism in these respects that even where special circumstances required alteration in the sacrificial paraphernalia, the external items are transformed into Brahmanical-looking accessories, by the employment of primitive materials sacred in ritual tradition." Thus even today the prastara, a sacrificial seat, consists only of strewn grass (darbha, R.-V., X, 14, 4; A.-V., 2, 6; Taitt. Sam., 1, 7, 7, 4; Vaj. Sam., 11, 18; XVIII, 63; Ait. Bra., I, 26; II, 3; Sat. Bra., 1, 3, 3, 5). Similarly barhis made of bulbaja grass strewn grass strewn on the sacrificial ground and used as the seat for gods is a sort of litter. The kurcha is a small square grass-mat (Taitt. Sam., VII, 5, 8, 5; Sat. Bra., XI, 5, 3, 4, 7: Ait. Aran., V, 1, 4; Brihad. Upan., II, 11, 1). The golden kurcha (Sat. Bra., XIII, 4, 3, 1) is interpreted as a golden stool with feet, having a kurcha-like pad over it,' or 'a wooden seat carved or painted so as to resemble a kurcha.' The brsi (or vrshi) is a cushion seat often spread over the grass kurcha. The kasipu (A.-V., VI, 138, 5) implies a mat (or cushion) made from grass, but the chief priest (hotr) is stated to sit upon a golden kasipu, which must be of stronger material than grass and of better craftsmanship. The sadas, wherefrom the term sadasya (councillor) is formed, must have been a raised seat and of a style specially associated with his office.' It is elsewhere (Sat. Bra., XIV, 3, 1, 8) used as domestic 1 For further details, see Sarkar, ibid., pp. 52-56, and vide Vedix Index of Macdonell and Keith. 63 '
furniture and implies a seat in a dwelling-house. The pitha is a wooden low seat, square or rectangular. The nadvala (Vaj. Sam.. XXX, 16; Taitt. Bra., III, 4, 12, 1) is also a mat or cushion made of reeds (nada). The kata (Taitt. Sam., V, 3, 12, 2) is a rattan mat made of split cane (vaitasa). That these humbler articles of furniture, like their richer counterparts, were extensively in use is proved by the fact that there were professional (women) workers (kari) who evidently turned out artistic seats and carpets, as is shewn in the early occurrence of hiranya kasipu (A.-V., V, 7, 10) in the sense of a gorgeous woman or courtesan with golden mantle' (drapi)." In the light of the above the following quotations need no longer be interpreted as imaginary or a mere poetic fancy. ' Atri is stated to have been thrown into a machine room with a hundred doors, where he was roasted." Vasishtha desired to have a three-storeyed dwelling (tri-dhatu-saranam). Mention is made of a sovereign 'who, exercising no oppression, sits down in this substantial and elegant hall built with a thousand pillars,'3 and of residential houses with such pillars and said to be ' vast, comprehensive, and thousand-doored.'4 Mitra and Varuna are represented as occupying a great palace with a thousand pillars and a thousand gates.5 Muir's comment that this is but an exaggerated description of a royal residence such as the poet had seen, 36 is no longer tenable. If the Indians of an earlier age could built cities, towns, and villages with splendid buildings like those of Mohenjo-daro, there can be no reason to believe that they merely exaggerated, even in a poetic description, what they had actually seen and probably practised. But it is true that these Vedic gods did not occupy such palaces as referred to in the hymns, although such palaces might have existed at that time. 1 R.-V., I, 112, 7. Wilson's R.-V., IV, 148. 3 Ibid, IV, 179. 4 Ibid, II, 313. 2 Ibid, IV, 200. Compare R.-V., II, 41, 5; V, 62, 6; VII, 88, 5; A.-V., III, 12; IX, 3, which contains prayers for the stability of a house at the time of its construction. 6 Muir, Sanskrit Text, V, 455 Compare R. L. Mitra, Indo-Aryans, I, 27: 'Pillars, spacious doors and windows, though frequently mentioned, are not decisive indications of the existence of masonry buildings, but bricks could not possibly have originated unless required for such structures, for it would be absurd to suppose that bricks were known, and made, and yet they were never used in the construction of houses.' 62
NOTE VEDIC FIRE ALTARS TRIVE LAYERS] EVERT ALTAR IS 192 PURUSHING IN AREA EVERY LAYER CONTAINS 109 BRICKS GHS BRICH IS NEVER LAID UPON ANOTHER OF SAME SIZE & FORM 8899 LAYER PARIMANDALA DRONA CITI SECOND LAYER Vedic Fire ALTARS (PARIMANDALA-DRONA-CHI? PLATE XX(a) (i) Page 62
FIRST LAYER. FIVE LAYERS EAST. SECOND LAYER UBHAYATA-PRAYUGA CITI VIDIC FIRE ALTARS. FROM BAUDHAYANA SULVA SUTRA. E. FIRST LAYER. SECOND LAYER PRAYUGA-CITI FIRST LAYER NO BRICK PLATE XX(a\ \ii-v)\ SECOND LAYER. RATHA CHAKRA-CIT!. NOTE Every alta 13 15 2 Purushas in area. Every Layer contains 250 tricks One brick is never laid upon anothe of the same size and form. FIRST LAYER. SAMUHYA-CITT SECOND LAYER.