Medieval Indian architecture
Osian Sun temple, 700's AD
By the 700's AD, after the collapse of the Guptan Empire, there were two different styles of temple-building in India, a north Indian style and a south Indian style. This temple from Osian shows the north Indian style - a high tower called a shikhara, and an open porch for visitors to the temple, called a mandapa. North Indian temples also had a high porch, like earlier Etruscan and Roman temples.
Brihidesvara Temple (1000's AD)
In south India, about 1000 AD, the Chola king Rajaraja the Great (his name means King-king) built a very big temple to the Hindu god Shiva. Like the northern temples, this southern temple has a shikhara (tower), but this tower is much higher - thirteen stories high! The southern temple is also much longer than the northern one, and is has several porches on the front ( mandapas) instead of only one. Both the northern and the southern temples have flat stone roofs. This temple is about fifty feet high, not counting the tower - compare this to Romanesque churches in Europe built about the same time, or to the Fatimid mosques in Egypt. Because it is so hot and sunny most of the time in southern India, the architects were more concerned to keep the sun out, so the temple would stay cool, than to let in light, as in northern Europe.
By 1061 AD, some builders in India started to use a new method of building using iron beams to replace wooden beams, because wooden beams were very hard to get in India. One example is Brahmeshwar temple in eastern India at Orissa.
More about Indian Architecture (the Muslim conquest)
West Asian architecture
Islamic architecture
Chinese Architecture
Main India page
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