Ancient Indian architecture
Ancient Indian architecture The Great Chaitya in the Buddhist Karla Caves , Maharashtra, India , c. 120 CE. Kailasa temple, Ellora , the largest rock-cut Hindu temple . [1] Ancient Indian architecture is the architecture of the Indian subcontinent from the Indian Bronze Age to around 800 CE. By this endpoint Buddhism in India had greatly declined, and Hinduism was predominant, and religious and secular building styles had taken on forms, with great regional variation, which they largely retained until and beyond the great changes brought about by the arrival of first Islam, and then Europeans. Much early Indian architecture was in wood, which has almost always decayed or burnt, or brick, which has often been taken away for re-use. The large amount of Indian rock-cut architecture , essentially beginning around 250 BCE, is therefore especially important, as much of it clearly adapts form...