Indian rock-cut architecture

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Ellora cave 16
Ellora cave 16

Indian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance than any other forms of rock-cut architecture around the world.[1] Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a a structure by carving it out of solid living rock. Rock that is not part of the structure is removed until the only rock left are architectural elements of the excavated interior. Indian rock-cut architecture is mostly religious in nature.[2]

The earliest cave temples are found in the western Deccan dating between 100 BC and 170 AD and are mostly Buddhist. They were probably preceded as well as accompanied by timber structure which have not outlasted time. These earliest cave temples include the Bhaja Caves, the Karla Caves, and some of the Ajanta Caves. Relics found in these caves suggest an important connection between the religious and the commercial, as Buddhist missionaries often accompanied traders on the busy international trading routes through India. Some of the cave temples, commissioned by wealthy traders, included pillars, arches, and elaborate facades while maritime trade boomed between the Roman Empire and south-east Asia.[3]

Later rock-cut cave architecture became more sophisticated as in the Ellora Caves, culminating ultimately the monolithic Kailash Temple. After this, rock-cut architecture became structural in nature, made from rocks cut into bricks and built as free standing constructions.

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[edit] Early caves

Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka rock painting
Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka rock painting

The earliest caves employed by humans were natural caves used by local inhabitant for a variety of purposes such as shrines and shelters. They included overhanging rock decorated with rock-cut art as well as natural caves of the Mesolithic period (6000 BC) and their uses has continued in some areas into historic times.[4] The Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, a World Heritage Site, are on the edge of the Deccan Plateau where deep erosion has left huge sandstone outcrops. The many caves and grottos found there contain implements and decorative rock paintings that reflect the ancient tradition of human interation with their landscape.[5]

[edit] Cave temples

Carved frame and lintel
Carved frame and lintel
Ajanta caves
Ajanta caves

When Buddhist missionaries arrived they naturally gravitated to caves for use as cave temples and abodes, in accord with their religious ideas of asceticism and the monastic life. The western Ghats topography with its flat-topped basalt hills and ravines, terraced flanks and sharp scarps was suited to their natural inclinations. As the Buddhist ideology encouraged identification with trade, monasteries became stopovers for inland traders and provided lodging houses that were usually located near trade routes. As their mercantile and royal endowments grew, cave interiors became more elaborate with interior walls decorated with paintings and reliefs and intricate carvings. Facades were added to the exteriors as the interiors became designated for specific uses as monasteries (viharas) and worship halls (chaityas). Over the centuries simple caves began to resemble three-dimensional buildings, formally designed and requiring highly skilled artisans and craftsmen to complete. The highly skilled artisans never forgot their timber roots and imitated the nuances of a wooden structure and the wood grain.[4]

Fresco from Ajanta cave
Fresco from Ajanta cave

Early examples of rock cut architecture are the Buddhist and Jain cave basadi, temples and monasteries many with chandrashalas. The aesthetic nature of these religions inclined their followers to live in natural caves and grottos in the hillsides, away from the cities, and these became enhanced and embellished over time. Although many temples, monasteries and stupas had been destroyed, by contrast cave temples are very well preserved as they are both less visible and therefore less vulnerable to vandalism as well as made of more durable material than wood and masonry. There are around 1200 cave temples still in existence, most of which are Buddhist. The residences of monks were called Viharas and the cave shrines, called Chaityas, were for congregational worship.[6]

The earliest rock-cut chaitya-grihas, similar to free-standing ones later, had an inner circular chamber with pillars to create a circumambulatory path (pradakshina) around the stupa and an outer rectangular hall for the congregation of the devotees. In later years, the wall separating the stupa from the hall was removed to create an apsidal hall with a colonnade around the nave and the stupa (Dehejia 1972).

Ajanta the ceiling before entrance
Ajanta the ceiling before entrance

The Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, a World Heritage Site, are 30 rock-cut cave Buddhist temples carved into the side of a gorge near a waterfall-fed pool located in the hills of the Sahyadri mountains. Like all the locations of Buddhist caves, this one is located near main trade routes and spans six centuries beginning in the 2nd or 1st century B.C.[7] A variety of decorative sculpture, columns, and carved panels are found, including carved lintels. Skilled artisans crafted living rock to imitate timbered wood in contruction and grain and intricate decorative carving.[8]

Another example of cave temple architecture are the Badami Cave temples at Badami, the early Chalukya capital, carved out in the 6th century. There are four cave temples hewn from the sides of cliffs, three Hindu and one Jain, that contain carved architectural elements such as decorative pillars and brackets as well as finely carved sculpture and richly etched ceiling panels. Nearby are many small Buddhist cave shrines.[9]

[edit] Monolithic rock-cut temples

A rock cut temple is carved from a large rock from the top down and cut to imitate a wooden or masonry temple with wall decorations and works of art.[10] The term "rock cut temples" distinguishes this architecture from cave temples.[2]

Ellora cave temple 16 (Kailasanatha Temple), a single huge excavation 100 feet deep into the basaltic cliff rock, was commissioned in 8th century by King Krishna I and took more than 100 years to carve.[11]

The Kailash Temple, known as cave 16 at Ellora Caves, is a huge monolithic temple located at Maharastra and dedicated to Lord Shiva. It dates to the 8th and 9th centuries CE and was excavated from the top down out of the volcanic rock of the Deccan Plateau. There are 34 caves built into the side of the plateau at this site, but the other 33 caves, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain, were carved into the side of the plateau rock. The effect of the Kailash complex is that of a free-standing temple surrounded by smaller cave shrines carved out of the same black rock. The temple is carved with figures of gods and goddesses from the Hindu Puranas, along with mystical beings like heavenly nymphs and musicians and figures of good fortune and fertility.[12] Ellora Caves is also a World Heritage Site.[13]

Jain Badami cave

Ajanta rock-cut temples

Elephanta Caves entrance

Cave 3, Badami


[edit] Free-standing temples

There is no timeline that divides the creation of rock-cut temples and free-standing temples built with cut stone as they developed in parallel. The building free-standing structures began in 5th century, while rock cut temples continued to be excavated until the 12th century.[14]

Buddha - Ellora cave 10

Ellora rock-cut cave

Jain cave at Ellora

A Shiva panel from the Kailashtemple, Ellora

Painted panel, Ellora

Detailed carvings, Ellora

Ellora cave temples

Old Kannada inscription, Badami

Carved stair at Kanheri Caves

[edit] Cave and temples examples

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ History of Architecture - Early civilizations. historyworld.net. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  2. ^ a b Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent - glossary. indoarch.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  3. ^ Keay, John (2000). India: A History. New York: Grove Press, pp 124-127. ISBN 0802137970. 
  4. ^ a b Prehistoric Rock Art. art-and-archaeology.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-17.
  5. ^ Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka. Retrieved on 2006-12-20.
  6. ^ Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. indoarch.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  7. ^ Ajanta. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
  8. ^ Monuments of India. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
  9. ^ Badami (Western Chalukya). art-and-archaeology.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
  10. ^ Rock-cut architecture. Architecture Style. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
  11. ^ Monuments of India. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
  12. ^ Kailash Rock Cut Temple. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  13. ^ Ellora UNESCO World Heritage Site. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
  14. ^ Architectual of the Indian Subcontinent. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
  15. ^ Ellora Caves. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.

[edit] References

  • Dehejia, V. (1972). Early Buddhist Rock Temples. Thames and Hudson: London. ISBN 0-500-69001-4.
  • Rajan, K.V. Soundara (1998). Rock-Cut Temple Styles. Somaiya Publications: Mumbai. ISBN 81-7039-218-7

[edit] External links

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