PilgrimTrips - India Pilgrimage

Buddhism has a history dating back around 2,500 years old. The religion (or a way of life indeed) was established, spread across and got millions of adherents around the world. Having its foundation in India, Buddhism reached countries like China, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, Burma, Ceylon, Combodia etc. However, due to some historical reasons, the system of belief went through a phase of decline but again in the 20th century, it began to rose. Today, Buddhism has its followers all across the globe. It's not because Buddhism is a religion or a faith, but because it is a philosophy, a way of life.Great Departure Stone, Gandhara The Indian architectural brilliance and the worthy efforts of the master craftsmen of the bygone eras can never be complete without the excellent pieces of Buddhist architecture. Indians, that are and eclectic mix of cultures and traditions, are known for the harmonious combination they share among themselves. Tourists and devotees from far and wide pour into the country to visit the Buddhist sites and experience the architecture that represents Buddhism.

Gandhara Architecture - The Genesis of Buddhist Architecture

Gandhara Art was an outcome of the amalgamation of the Indian Art and the Greek Art. It later gave rise to the specialized form of Buddhist art and architecture. The Gandhara Art led to the formation of Buddhist cult objects, Buddhas and other Buddhist decorations and ornaments. During this phase, Hindu coins were only few and the monasteries were used to be built in stone. Sculptures decorated only the lower level of buildings. The first Buddhist stupas that were built during this period were actually votive stupas illustrated with clay images of birds, dragons, sea serpents and humans. A standing or seated Buddha was the characteristic feature of the Gandhara sculptures.

Magnificent Buddhist Sculptures

The Mauryan King Ashoka the Great had adopted the teachings of Buddhism after the self-reproach that followed from the battle of Kalinga. The king followed the basic principles of Buddhism himself and also made an endeavour to make his subjects follow the noble paths of the religion. To get the message of Buddhism across, King Ashoka began setting up sculptures that fall under the following categories.

Edicts (Stone pillars bearing inscriptions)

Stupas

Monolithic Pillars

Shrines

Vast Palace

Rock Cut Chambers As a religious institution and place of worship, the temple in India has had a hoary past. As a structure that enshrines a god or some other object of veneration, circumambulation (pradakshina), adoration and worship (puja), it has a varied growth in different parts of the subcontinent. This was according to the local needs and credal requirements and subject, of course, to the interplay or exchange of thoughts and ideas. Though fundamentally the basic elements of the temples and worship in them derived mostly from Vedic and Puranic sources, in course of centuries they assumed different styles and patterns during their diffusion over wide areas from the cradle centers of the great Indian religions in north India. The rise of the protestant cults of Jainism and Buddhism during the Pre-Christian epoch and the development of their own versions of the legends, creeds, forms of deities, rituals and the like, resulted in their adaptation of one kind or another of the temple form and its adjuncts as suited the object of their particular worship and its glorification, for essentially the temple in its form and layout depended on the object of veneration installed and the method adopted for its worship. The three creeds being indigenous, and not exotic, had not to derive the basic forms of their temples from anywhere except from their own land of origin. All the three, while retaining the common Indian plans and elevations, and the native principles and techniques by suitable adaptations of their forms and through emphasis on the features of the cognition’s of the respective creeds in the general make-up and content of the structure.

The builders or the craftsmen-sthapatis and the silpins-who belonged to the same guilds of artisans, had common principles and set methods of design and construction and they worked in collaboration with the priesthood which knew the rituals, the nature of the object of veneration, and the modes of their worship. They together determined the forms of the temples with such modifications as suited the respective cases, as also the fixation of the features of the principal deities and the decorations of the structure with iconic and other sculptural embellishments. As a result, the Vastu, Slipa and Agama texts and canons as described in the sastras were evolved. All that was known and necessary in the creation of the temple and the conduct of worship therein was codified. Thus to the Indian mind the indigenous architecture remains basically and essentially Indian. It cannot be sub-divided into what is usually attempted to be made out as Hindu, Jain, or Buddhist architecture.

The organized religious, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, did, in their early stages of growth, spread into the southern peninsula across the Vindhyan barrier of mountains and forests, because of their own vitality, in successive waves, merging into the religious of the south which had viable cultures, social patterns, traditions and religious beliefs of their own, not to speak of a language that could flower into its own literature, independently of every other factor. A greater impetus to these contacts was given by the mauryan conquests that reached the northern borders of the Mysore plateau, beyond which Asoka, the great patron of Buddhism, recognized viable, stable and organized kingdoms of the far south, with their own indigenous culture. He treated them as friendly neighbours across the border among which he could spread his message through his southern administrators.

The tradition or rock-cut architecture and excavation into living rocks of chaityas and uiharas of the Buddhists initiated by Asoka near Gaya was soon taken up in the trap-rock regions of the Deccan and western India, reproducing aspects of contemporary brick-and-timber originals which, because of the perishable nature of the fabric of their construction, did not survive the march of time. This expression of forms of architecture and sculpture through the permanent medium of stone, adopted earlier by the Buddhists, then by the Hindus and Jains, has enabled the monuments to last for centuries and give as a fairly good idea of what the contemporary religious architecture and good idea of what the contemporary religious architecture and sculpture in general was. The brick-built stupas and chaityas, which are in essence temples, in the eastern Andhra and northern Karnataka regions, too, have survived because of the adoption of stone for their protective casing and sculptured veneer, not to mention the stone railings which totally imitated timberwork in their joinery and fixtures. In these cases stone cannot be said to have gone into actual construction which was still of brick. These stupas and chaityas show their own distinct regional characters as against their compeers in north and north-western India.

From the sixth and seventh centuries AD, the Hindus and Jains of the south too adopted the stone medium, and started excavating rock-cut cave-temples, or carving out rock-cut monolithic temple forms, and ultimately building them of stone. We have a long series of such stone temples created in close succession and extending uninterruptedly through the past thirteen centuries, surviving in their thousands all over the peninsula, more to the far south where most of them are still in use. The comparative freedom from foreign invasions and disruption in this part of India and the relative strength of the kingdoms and society were some of the contributing factors. Even the early Hindu and Jain temples came into being under the royal patron age of the rulers of the three great empires of the south-the Chalukyas, the Pallavas and the Pandyas-along with the lesser kingdoms wedged in between. The spirit was soon casught up by the nobility, the mercantile corporations and the agricultural trade, and artisan guilds the flourished during those times. The result was that a chain of temples, great and small, studded every village and town of the south, which thus came to be known as the land of temples. The temples were documented by their own expressive and detailed inscriptions, again in their thousands. Temples from the Chola times (ninth-tenth centuries) became the very hub of the rural and urban life in all its aspects-religious, cultural, social, economic and educational-and thus became the repository of all that was best in fabric, architecture, sculpture and other arts.

Buddhism almost went into complete eclipse soon; the Hindu temples to a greater extent and the Jain ones to a lesser extent predominating. There had been, of course, a natural interchange of ideas and usages among the three during their periods of development and growth in the region on a matrix that was essentially indigenous. The Buddha, for instance was adopted as the ninth of the ten incarnations of Vishnu in the Hindu pantheon in place of Krishna, who came to be considered as the whole aspect of Vishnu. This is testified by a pallava inscription of the seventh centrury AD in one of the early cave-temples at Mahabalipuram. Then again, Buddhist tantric rituals percolated into the Hindu modes of worship. The Jains had by then established their sangas at Madurai, and even earlier their creed of the Digambara persuasion had centred principally in Sravana Belagola in Mysore with its affiliates and branches-the guchchhas- radiating into Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Naadu and Kerala. Hinduism witnessed a great revival under the Saiva saints (Nayanmars) and the Vaishnava saints (Alvars) who were soon defined and became part and parcel of the pantheon and in the ritual and calendar of festivals. Sankara, the great philosopher and teacher, also reformed the popular Hindu creeds-the Shanmata and the model of the related worship. With such a back ground Tue growth of temples and organized temple worship became truly phenomenal.

The southern temples with their characteristic tiered uimana shrines, major and minor, their axial and peripheral mandapa adjuncts, which are flat-roofed halls and the towering gopura entrances, form a distinct class by themselves as against the northern prasada temples with their curuvilinear superstructures, the crowing amalaka and mandapas with rising tired roofs. That the uimana form its various plans and elevations built of brick and timber had been already developed in the south before the seventh century will be only too evident from the maturity shown by the first monolithic replicas as reproduced in the so-called rathas of Mahabalipuram and the earliest of the stone structural uimanas. The mandapa forms are likewise evident from the cave-temple types, while the gopura in its simplest from is also to be found in the early temple units. They could not have arisen in stone spontaneously.

The prevailing maritime contacts with the regions of the east in the Indian Ocean, which were actuated more by trade and emigration than by motives of political aggrandizement and were, therefore, peaceful and the resultant emigrations of colonists, lent much to the contemporary make-up of the religion, culture, art and architecture of these lands. South Indian temple architecture, sculpture and iconography may be said to have had a great share in this. In fact, it may be said that many of the greatest achievements in the fields of religion, art and architecture are said to be found in regions beyond the cradle centres of the great religions in south India-as at Thanjavur and Madurai, and in other lands, as in Java and Cambodia. Thus in an integrated scheme of a study of the temples of India, the southern temples have perforce to be studied independently in order to understand not only their origin and mode of development through time and space into the varied regional styles, but also the similarities and differences and the mutual influences of the two great traditions, northern and southern. An attempt has been made in the following pages to portray in outline the temples of the south. Since even the simplest architectural and art terms of the European classical origin, often employed in the description of Indian temples, are inadequate and not always apt, the barest use of Indian technical terms of common Sanskrit origin for the most important parts, as used in the Vastu and Silpa manuals, has been made. The terms most of which are familiar to temple-goers of the south are not only explained in the course of the running description but also collected in a glossary at the end, so that they can eventually be put to a more purposeful use.

Buddhist - Architecture and Stupas

Being the country of origin of Buddhism, India is full of many Buddhist monuments. These impressive structures are glaring reminders of the great levels that Buddhist arts and culture had attained during the heydays of Buddhism in India. The Buddhist monuments of India are also major tourist attractions. Many tourists from all over the world visit these monuments every year. Sarnath, Bodh Gaya, Sanchi, Dhauli and Kushinagar are the locations of some of the best known Buddhist monuments of India. The monuments include Stupas, Viharas and Chaityas.

The Barhut stupa was built by emperor Ashoka. Later it was renovated by the subsequent Sunga rulers. The structure is a fin example of the fusion of Buddhist elements and architecture of the Mauryan period. The stupa is adorned by panels and statues depicting the many incarnations of Buddha.

The Mahabodhi temple is situated in Bodhgaya, one of the four most important Buddhist sites in the world. The temple is very important for Buddhist pilgrims as this was where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment and realized the middle way, the core of Buddhist teachings. The original temple is said to have been built by emperor Ashoka. The structure ahs gone considerable changes and repairs in the 19th century. The major attractions of the temple are the 52 meter tall dome and the large gilded statue of Buddha next to the Bodhi tree. The temple has inspired many more similar temples in countries like Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar.

Dhamek stupa in Sarnath is an imposing structure. It is considered the largest and one of the holiest Buddhist monuments in the world. The structure has a diameter of 28.3 meters, and a height of 31.3 meters. The spot is important as this was where Lord Buddha delivered his first lessons on Buddhism to a group of five disciples.

The Mahachaitya stupa in Amravati is the largest stupa in India with a height of 95 feet. The stupa was built during the 2nd century BC. The simple structure was modified by the subsequent Satavahana rulers, finally giving it a grand appearance.

The Shanti stupa in Dhauli in Orissa is different from other structures because it has been built in 1971. it is modeled after the Shanti stupa in Rajgir. The stupa in Dhauli is a magnificent structure adorned by statues and panels depicting themes from the life of Lord Buddha. There are many more Buddhist monuments in India. These include the Dharmarajika stupa in Uttar Pradesh , the ruins at Nalanda in Bihar, the Itanagar Buddhist temple, the rock cut caves at Ajanta , Ellora, and Bhagalpur, and the Sanchi stupa in Madhya Pradesh.