INDIAN ARCHITECTITRE. The styles of art which have existed at different times in India, as in other countries, vary with the religion prevalent at the time. The earliest faith of which we have any architectural monuments is that of Buddhism (q.v.). About 250 me. Asoka, a powerful monarch, became a strenuous supporter and propagator of Buddhism, and to his zeal we owe the oldest architectural remains of India. From his time to the present' day the sequence is unbroken, and the whole history of Buddhist architecture can be most distinctly traced either in India or in Ceylon, Java, and Thibet. The whole subject is as yet, however, but imperfectly illustrated, the best account of the Indian styles being that contained in Fergusson's Handbook of Architecture, and his other works.
The Buddhist remains are of two kinds: 1. Commemorative monuments, called stupas or topes (q.v.); the earliest stupas are single pillars, bearing evident traces of a western origin, and 'thus affording a clue to the history of Indian art. 2. Temple* (chaityas) and monasteries (viharas). Of the chaityas and viharas no built examples remain; they arc all excavated out of the solid rock. There are no less than 40 or 50 groups of these monuments, each group comprising from 10 to 100 distinct excavations. A few of these belong to other religions, but the great majority are Buddhist, and nearly the whole are monasteries, not over 20 to 30 being temples. The oldest are at Bahar Cuttack in Bengal (200 me.), but they are few in number, nine-tenths of the caves beinfr in the Bombay presidency. This probably arises from the nature of time material in which they are cut, the eastern caves being hi a hard granite, and those of the west being is a very uniform and ComparatiVely soft antygdalOid. The latter date front the beginning to to about the 10th c. of the Christian era. The cave-temple at Karli is one of the largest, and is of a good style. ' (See section in art. BUDDHA.) In plan and general arrangements, it strongly, though no doubt accidentally, resembles a Christian basilica, with nave, aisles, and vaulted roof, and an apse with the shrine in the place of the altar. There is also an outer hall or atrium, and a gallery like the rood-loft. On the roof are numerous wooden ribs, attached to the vault; these and other portions indicate that the building from which the cave was copied. was wooden, which may-account for the absence of earlier built examples. This cave is 126 ft. long, 45 ft. 7 in. wide, and 40 to 45 ft. high.
The vihara or monastery caves are very numerous, as was required by the enormous number of Buddhist priests. The oldest and simplest examples are in Bengal, but the finest are in western India. They consist of a central hall, with cells round three sides, and a verandah on the fourth side, next the open air; opposite the central entrance there is usually a large cell or shrine, containing an image of Buddha. There arc fine caves at Ajuuta, Baugh, etc., many of them beautifully carved and painted. The pillars are most elaborately ornamented, and have the bracket capitals which distinguish all Indian architecture. From the absence of any built example, there has been great difficulty forming a correct idea of the exterior of the buildings from which these caves were copied. By following the style into other countries where the religion has prevailed at different times, Mr. Fergusson has been able to trace it up to the present day, and to establish by analogy the probable external appearance of the early Buddhist architecture.
The temple of Brambanam, in Java, seems to show the original form of built cells. They are quite detached, and arranged in a square round a central temple—evidently suggesting the arrangement in the caves at Ajunta. Some rock-cut temples which have an exterior (at Mahavellipore), show the cells attached to the main building. In Burmah, where the monastic system still prevails, the -monasteries, which are of wood, are built in stages in a pyramidal form. The temple of I3oro Budder (q.v.), in Java, has a similar arrangement, consisting of a large number of cells or niches in tiers; but in place of being occupied by priests, they are filled with cross-legged Buddhas, a conversion quite corn • mon in later Hindu architecture. In many styles of architecture the niches or other subordinate parts are frequently copies on a small scale of the facade of the building itself. Thus, for instance, the windows with pillars and. pediments in classic architecture, are a repetition of a 'temple end. The niches inside the caves, containing statues of Buddhist saints, are in a similar manner imitations of the main facade. In the same way externally the Burmese pagodas and Hindu temples are ornamented all over with models of the buildings themselves.