The document discusses the architecture of ancient India and Southeast Asia. It describes the earliest remains found in the Indus Valley dating back to around Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. After disruptions, Hinduism and Buddhism emerged with distinctive temple styles. Both religions spread to Southeast Asia along silk roads, influencing architecture in countries like China and Japan. Specific structures discussed include stupas at Sanchi and cave temples at Karli, as well as Hindu temples featuring garbhagrihas and shikharas at sites like Bhubaneshwar, Khajuraho, Tanjore, and the massive Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia.

1. ©2014 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Buildings across Time, 4th Edition
Chapter Three: The Architecture of Ancient India and
Southeast Asia
Introduction
The earliest remains of architecture in the Indian subcontinent are associated
with settlements in the Indus Valley (now part of Pakistan) around Harappa
and Mohenjo-Daro.
After disruptions caused by natural forces and invasions, a new civilization
emerged that led to the development of Hinduism and Buddhism, major
religions that each created distinctive styles for shrines and temples. In time,
both these religions and their architectural forms spread to southeast Asia, and
Buddhism was carried eastward along the silk roads of central Asia to become
a major religious and artistic force in China and Japan.

2. Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
Plan of Mohenjo-Daro. The
city was located on a plain
beside the river, with a higher
citadel section (left) that
featured granaries and a large
stepped bath. Shaded areas
represent residential quarters
that have been excavated,
with one section (top center)
having outlines of the
foundations shown. As the
valley was subject to
flooding, storage of
foodstuffs on a high point
was a sensible precaution.
Notice the orthogonal
character of the residential
quarter.

3. ©2014 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
A well-planned street
grid and an elaborate
drainage system hint
that the occupants of
the ancient Indus
civilization city of
Mohenjo Daro were
skilled urban planners
with a reverence for
the control of water.
But just who occupied
the ancient city in
modern-day Pakistan
during the third
millennium B.C.
remains a puzzle.

4. ©2014 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
The city lacks
ostentatious palaces,
temples, or
monuments. There's
no obvious central
seat of government or
evidence of a king or
queen. Modesty,
order, and cleanliness
were apparently
preferred. Pottery and
tools of copper and
stone were
standardized. Seals
and weights suggest a
system of tightly
controlled trade.

5. Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
A watertight pool called the Great Bath,
perched on top of a mound of dirt and held in
place with walls of baked brick, is the closest
structure Mohenjo Daro has to a temple.
Wells were found throughout the city, and
nearly every house contained a bathing area
and drainage system
The city's wealth and
stature is evident in
artifacts such as ivory,
lapis, carnelian, and gold
beads, as well as the
baked-brick city
structures themselves.

6. Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
Plan of a house from
Mohenjo-Daro. This is an
atrium house that opens to
an inner courtyard (shaded
gray) and presents a blank
façade to the street, thereby
preserving privacy in a
densely built neighborhood.
Thick walls at the ground
floor level provided stability
for lighter wooden structure
at the upper level, and the
massive construction also
helped to regulate thermal
swings from day to night, by
absorbing heat during the
day and radiating it at night.

7. ©2014 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
Plan of a house from
Mohenjo-Daro. This is an
atrium house that opens to
an inner courtyard (shaded
gray) and presents a blank
façade to the street, thereby
preserving privacy in a
densely built neighborhood.
Thick walls at the ground
floor level provided stability
for lighter wooden structure
at the upper level, and the
massive construction also
helped to regulate thermal
swings from day to night, by
absorbing heat during the
day and radiating it at night.

8. Harappan Culture
Mohenjo-Daro
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=QUng-iHhSzU

9. Buddhist Shrines
Stupa Origins
Plan and section diagrams
illustrating the origin of the
stupa. The traditional
practice of placing stones and
earth over the graves of
distinguished people evolved
into the construction of a
hemispherical form that
incorporated the
cosmological associations of
a circle (in plan), the world-
mountain and dome of the
heavens, and the vertical
world axis. Stupas are based
on traditional Chaityas,
village memorials.

10. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
The harmika (square railing
that crowns the stupa) and
chatra (an umbrella like
shape) on top of the mound
symbolize the enclosure
surrounding the tree under
which the Buddha received
enlightenment. Elaborations
of the chatra will provide
inspiration for the pagoda in
China and Japan.
The Great Stupa at Sanchi (250 BCE – 200 CE).

11. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
The stupa also contains four
elaborately-carved torana or
entry gates at the four
cardinal directions and a
verdica, a fence that
encloses the procession for
priests to circumambulate, or
walk around, the stupa.
The Great Stupa at Sanchi (250 BCE – 200 CE).

12. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
Plan of the Great Stupa at
Sanchi, showing the four
gates and their bent-axis
entry design that creates a
swastika, perhaps linked to
ancient sun symbols.
Openings correspond to the
cardinal directions. Stairs
on the south side lead to the
elevated circumambulation
path used by priests.

13. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
Plan of the Great Stupa at
Sanchi, showing the four
gates and their bent-axis
entry design that creates a
swastika, perhaps linked to
ancient sun symbols.
Openings correspond to the
cardinal directions. Stairs
on the south side lead to the
elevated circumambulation
path used by priests.

14. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
Reconstruction
view of the
temple
complex at
Sanchi. In the
center is the
Great Stupa.
The
rectangular
plan building at
the upper left
is a vihara, a
residence for
monks, of
which only
foundations
remain.

15. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
A chaitya is a
Buddhist shrine
or prayer hall
with a stupa at
one end. In
modern texts on
Indian
architecture, the
term chaitya-
griha is often
used to denote
an assembly or
prayer hall that
houses a stupa.

16. Harappan Culture
Great Stupa at Sanchi
A chaitya is a
Buddhist shrine
or prayer hall
with a stupa at
one end. In
modern texts on
Indian
architecture, the
term chaitya-
griha is often
used to denote
an assembly or
prayer hall that
houses a stupa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJsLHcL3Bvs

17. ©2014 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Harappan Culture
Karli
Section and plan through
the cave temple at Karli,
ca. 80 BCE. Excavated in
a rock cliff, this temple
consists of a chaitya hall
with an ambulatory
around the stupa shrine at
the rear. Two free-
standing columns (one
now gone) flanked the
entrance, while stone and
teakwood carvings
screened the opening to
the cave.

18. Harappan Culture
Karli
Entrance to the
cave temple at
Karli, ca. 80
BCE.

19. Harappan Culture
Karli

20. Harappan Culture
Karli

21. Harappan Culture
Karli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDcbmMd1wr8

22. Hindu Shrines
Hindu Temple
Diagram illustrating the
fundamental basis for most
Hindu temples: a sacred
chamber (garbhagriha)
that radiates energy to the
cardinal and ordinal
directions; a passage for
circumambulation in a
clockwise direction; and a
shikhara, a sacred
mountain that defines the
central axis that towers
over the garbhagriha.
https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=Yiupwfu_h0k

23. The Garbhagriha is the
innermost sanctum of a
Hindu Temple, where
resides the idol or icon of
the primary deity of the
temple. Literally the word
means "womb chamber",
from the Sanskrit
words garbha for womb
and griha for house. Only
priests are permitted to
enter this chamber.
Hindu Shrines
Hindu Temple

24. Shikhara is the Sanskrit
word translating to
"mountain peak," and
refers to the rising tower
in the Northern Indian
temple architecture. The
Shikhara is located over
the Garbhagriha, where
the presiding deity is
enshrined.
Hindu Shrines
Hindu Temple

25. The linga and yoni are a
traditional composition of
an upright stone with a
concentric circle base,
found in Hindu shrines.
The two represent the
union of male and female
principles, resulting in
forces of creative energy.
Hindu Shrines
Hindu Temple

26. The Vishu Temple at
Bhitargaon is a
terraced brick building
built in the 5th century
during the Gupta period.
It is the oldest remaining
brick/terracotta Hindu
shrine with a roof and a
high shikara. The
vaulted, or true arch is
used here for the first
time anywhere in India.
Hindu Shrines
Vishu Temple at Bhitargaon

27. Hindu Shrines
Bhubaneshwar Temple
Plan of the Lingaraja
Temple at
Bhubaneshwar.
More elaborate than
some, this temple plan
has three separate
halls preceding the
garbhagriha at the end
of the processional
axis. Each hall is
provided with a
distinctive roof profile
so that the high
composition builds to
the high shikhara.

28. Hindu Shrines
Bhubaneshwar Temple

29. Hindu Shrines
Bhubaneshwar Temple

30. The Kandariya
Mahadeva Temple,
meaning "the Great God of
the Cave," is the largest
and most ornate Hindu
temple in the medieval
temple group found at
Khajuraho in Madhya
Pradesh, India. It is
considered one of the best
examples of temples
preserved from the
medieval period in India.
Hindu Shrines
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple in Khajuraho

31. Typical of the
carved erotic
sculptures on the
external walls of
the temple, the
human forms
assume a
swaying, S-
shaped posture.
Hindu Shrines
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple in Khajuraho

32. Hindu Shrines
Dharmaraja Ratha, Bhima Ratha, and Arjuna Ratha at Mahabalipuram
Dharmaraja Ratha, Bhima Ratha, and Arjuna Ratha at
Mahabalipuram are three unconsecrated temple forms loosely
resembling wheeled carts or chariots, carved out of a single granite ridge.

33. Hindu Shrines
Tanjore Temple
Plan of the Brihadisvara Temple at Tanjore. The Brihadishvara Temple
complex at Tanjore includes a great hall, a towering entrance gateway or
gopura, a main shrine or garbhagriha, and a shrine of Chandeshvara.
The central axis is defined by the gopura on the east side.

34. Hindu Shrines
Tanjore Temple

35. Hindu Shrines
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat (or
"Capital Temple") is
a temple complex in
Cambodia and the
largest religious
monument in the
world, on a site
measuring 402 acres.
It was originally
constructed as a
Hindu temple of god
Vishnu for the
Khmer Empire,
gradually
transforming into a
Buddhist temple
towards the end of
the 12th century.

36. Plan of Angkor Wat.
The clarity of this
design is comparable in
its way to Borobudur.
Nested sets of galleries
focus on the central
shrine, the symbolic
representation of
Mount Mehru, home of
the gods. The complex
rises from a
surrounding moat
representing the
primordial sea out of
which the sacred
mountain rises.
Hindu Shrines
Angkor Wat

37. Hindu Shrines
Angkor Wat

38. Hindu Shrines
Angkor Wat

39. Hindu Shrines
Angkor Wat

40. Hindu Shrines
Angkor Wat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI
SEEOmabFQ&t=2s