INDIAN

• Geographical regions of India

  • Northern Region
  • Southerly range of the Himalayas - the great northern plain
  • Central and Southern peninsula of the Deccan Plateau
  • Western Region - divides India from Pakistan
  • Islands
• Materials used in Indian architecture

  • Fine red and cream sandstone in Agra
  • White marble of Rajasthan
  • Granite of Deccan
  • Volcanic potstone of Halebid
  • Teakwood from Burma
  • Softwood deodar from Northern mountain ranges
  • Shisham (Indian Rosewood)
  • Bricks and Terra Cotta from Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab
  • Rock for rock-cut sanctuaries in the Western Ghats
  • Rhats (rock-cut temples) in Mamallapuram and Ellora
• Religion in Indian architecture

  • Basis of social structure
  • Bound up with human behavior and conduct of public affairs
• Religions in Indian architecture

  • Vedism and Brahmanism
  • Hinduism
  • Jainism
  • Buddhism
  • Sikhism
  • Islam
• Vedism

  • Polytheistic religion by Aryan tribes
  • Worship of trees, stones, and water
  • Service replaced sacrifice with fire and Soma
  • Hope for an afterlife in heaven without karma and reincarnation
• Brahmanism

  • Developed theism and a heroic tradition
  • Theory of Bhakti, Asceticism, and Spiritual Knowledge
  • Period of great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata
• Hinduism

  • Mixture of Yogic mysticism, Tantrik occultism, Fertility cults, Monastic orders, Pagan customs, and belief in one God who manifests as innumerable divine beings
  • Chief god Brahma creates, maintains, destroys, and recreates the universe
• Aspects of occultism

  • Fertility cults
  • Monastic orders
  • Pagan customs
  • Belief in one God who manifests as innumerable divine beings
• BRAHMA


  • The chief god, the omnipresent one who is father of the Brahman Trinity
  • Creates, maintains, destroys, and recreates the universe in a never-ending cycle
  • Has 4 heads, 3 of which (representing their Trinity) can be seen from any point of view
• Deities worshipped by Hindus

  • Saktas - worship a Mother Goddess
  • Saivites - worship the god Siva
  • Vaishnavites - worship the god Vishnu
• SAKTAS


  • Worship a Mother Goddess
  • Erotic, sensual imagery symbolizes her abundant creativity
  • God incarnate in female form represents eternal creator, preserver, and destroyer
• Durga

  Beautiful woman with a gentle face, rides a lion with 10 arms holding weapons with which she vanquishes the demons who threaten the dharma
• Kali

  Fierce form, portrayed dripping with blood, carrying a sword and a severed head, wearing a girdle of severed hands and a necklace of skulls symbolizing her aspect as the destroyer of evil which means transformation
• Siva or Shiva


  • Creator, preserver, destroyer, personal Lord, friend, primal Soul
  • Sometimes depicted dancing above the body of the demon he killed, reconciling darkness and light, good and evil, creation and destruction, rest and activity in the eternal dance of life
  • God of yogis symbolizes asceticism, shown in austere meditation on Mount Kailas, clad only in a tiger skin, with a snake around his neck
  • Expressed as androgynous, with both masculine and feminine physical traits
  • Tantric belief incorporates an ideal of balance of male and female qualities within a person, hopefully leading to enlightenment, bliss, and worldly success as well
  • Unity of male and female is often expressed abstractly, as a lingam within a yoni, a symbol of the female vulva
• Vishnu


  • Merciful deity
  • Has been worshipped since Vedic times and came to be regarded as the Supreme as a person
  • Considered to have appeared in many earthly incarnations, some of them animal forms
• Indian Life: Duty was extremely important
• Three important pillars in Indian life

  • Caste System - ensure order
  • Family - extended
  • Village
• Caste system originated from the Aryans in order to maintain the purity of their blood and to maintain white supremacy
• Outcasts


  • Untouchables - "outcastes", without a varna
  • Gandhi's Harijans (children of God) or Dalits (downtrodden) - preferred names
  • Traditional professions: Deal with the bodies of dead animals (sacred cattle that wander Indian villages) or unclaimed dead humans, Tan leather, from dead animals, and manufacture leather goods, Clean up human and animal waste
• India and Pakistan won independence during the British Rule


  August 1947
• Religions of newly independent India and Pakistan


  • India = Hindus
  • Pakistan = Muslims
• Hindu architectural character

  • Hindu temple is a representation of the macrocosm (the universe) as well as the microcosm (the inner space)
  • These temples are built in key geographical points, such as a hilltop, near waterfalls, caves, and rivers, which makes worship easier - to contemplate to their God
• JAINISM: Established in the 6th c. BCE by Vardhamana, called Mahavira “the Great Hero” or Jina, the “Victorious One”
• JAINISM

  • Based on asceticism and ahimsa, theory and practice of non-violence (non-injury to
• Jainism

  • Established in the 6th c. BCE by Vardhamana, called Mahavira “the Great Hero” or Jina, the “Victorious One”
  • Based on asceticism and ahimsa, theory and practice of non-violence (non-injury to all living things)
  • Without a belief in God, though there are other forms of idol worships
  • Sacred text – Agamas
  • Two groups of Jains: Digambaras ("sky clad" or naked) - monks carry asceticism to the point of rejecting even clothing (even when they appear in public), Shvetambaras ("white clad") - monks wear simple white robes. The laity is permitted to wear clothes of any color
  • The universe exists as a series of layers, both heavens and hells. It had no beginning and will have no ending
  • Karma - invisible material substance that interferes with liberation and can only be dissolved through asceticism
• Jain temples have little difference from Hindu temples but are distinguished by the extraordinary richness and complexity of their sculptural ornament
• Buddhism

  • Religion and philosophy founded in NE India in the 5th c. BCE
  • Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha (Enlightened One), Sakya prince
  • Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha
  • Buddhism's two major branches: Theravada (the lesser vehicle) – remains faithful to ancient rules Maha, Mahayana (the greater vehicle) – worship of bodhisattvas or creatures of charity
  • Emperor Ashoka 3rd most powerful Mauryan emperor, who created the first pan-Indian empire (273 - 232 BCE) promoted Buddhism during the 3rd c. BCE, but it declined in succeeding centuries and was nearly extinct by the 13th c.
  • Buddhist religious buildings became concentrated in monasteries and in shrines where relics of those whom had achieved salvation (nirvana) were deposited
  • Shrines took the form of Stupas or domical mounds grouped with their rails, gateways, processional paths, and crowning umbrella came to be regarded as symbols of the universe
  • Monasteries became places of international pilgrimage and dissemination of learning
• Islam was founded by Muhammad/ Mohammed in the 7th century, also known to Medieval Christianity as Mahomet
• Islam is the youngest of the three monotheistic world religions and is nearest in kin to Judaism and Christianity
• Sikhism

  • The all-pervading spirit – the concept of "God"
  • Panentheistic religion founded during the 15th c. in the Punjab region by Guru Nanak
  • Emphasis on the principle of equality of all humans and rejects discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, and gender
• Indus Valley Civilization


  • Mehrgarh, Pakistan - Neolithic site considered as the first urban civilization of South Asia in 6500-6000 BCE
  • Precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization
  • First Indus village comprises of an irregular scattering of mud brick houses separated by refuse dumps and passageways
  • These are square and rectangular houses subdivided into four or more units
• The first urban civilization of South Asia existed in 6500-6000 BCE
• The Harappan culture emerged around 2600 BCE
• Urban Centers

  • Agricultural and commerce, trading with Sumer and in Mesopotamia
  • Served as an alternative political centralization or capital
  • Large and complex hill citadels, housing palaces, granaries, and baths probably used for sacred ablutions
  • Well planned city with main and secondary streets
• Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were two great cities with 100 towns and villages
• Harappa is located in West Punjab
• Mohenjo-daro is located in Sindh
• Harappa had as many as 23,500 residents and occupied about 150 hectares during the Mature Harappan phase
• Harappans developed systems of writing, counting, and building drainage systems
• Harappans used standardized weights and the same size bricks as other Indus cities