ORIENTAL ARCHITECTURE:INTRODUCTORY NOTE, CHINESE ARCHITECTURE

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APPENDIX. >>

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ORIENTAL ARCHITECTURE.

INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Cole, Monographs of Ancient Monuments of India. Conder,

Notes on Japanese Architecture (in Transactions of R.I.B.A., for 1886). Cunningham,

Archæological Survey of India. Fergusson, Indian and Eastern Architecture; Picturesque

Illustrations of Indian Architecture. Le Bon, Les Monuments de l'Inde. Morse, Japanese

Houses. Stirling, Asiatic Researches. Consult also the Journal and the Transactions of

the Royal Asiatic Society.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. The architecture of the non-Moslem countries and races of

Asia has been reserved for this closing chapter, in order not to interrupt the

continuity of the history of European styles, with which it has no affinity and

scarcely even a point of contact. Among them all, India alone has produced

monuments of great architectural importance. The buildings of China and Japan,

although interesting for their style, methods, and detail, and so deserving at least of

brief mention, are for the most part of moderate size and of perishable materials.

Outside of these three countries there is little to interest the general student of

architecture.

INDIA: PERIODS. It is difficult to classify the non-Mohammedan styles of India,

owing to their frequently overlapping, both geographically and artistically; while the

lack of precise dates in Indian literature makes the chronology of many of the

monuments more or less doubtful. The divisions given below are a modification of

those first established by Fergusson, and are primarily based on the three great

religions, with geographical subdivisions, as follows:

THE BUDDHIST STYLE, from the reign of Asoka, cir. 250 B.C., to the 7th century

A.D. Its monuments occupy mainly a broad band running northeast and southwest,

between the Indian Desert and the Dekkan. Offshoots of the style are found as far

north as Gandhara, and as far south as Ceylon.

THE JAINA STYLE, akin to the preceding if not derived from it, covering the same

territory as well as southern India; from 1000 A.D. to the present time.

THE BRAHMAN or HINDU STYLES, extending over the whole peninsula. They are

sub-divided geographically into the NORTHERN BRAHMAN, the CHALUKYAN in the

Dekkan, and the DRAVIDIAN in the south; this last style being coterminous with the

populations speaking the Tamil and cognate languages. The monuments of these

styles are mainly subsequent to the 10th century, though a few date as far back as

the 7th.

The great majority of Indian monuments are religious--temples, shrines, and

monasteries. Secular buildings do not appear until after the Moslem conquests, and

most of them are quite modern.

GENERAL CHARACTER. All these styles possess certain traits in common. While

stone and brick are both used, sandstone predominating, the details are in large

measure derived from wooden prototypes. Structural lines are not followed in the

exterior treatment, purely decorative considerations prevailing. Ornament is equally

lavished on all parts of the building, and is bewildering in its amount and

complexity. Realistic and grotesque sculpture is freely used, forming multiplied

horizontal bands of extraordinary richness and minuteness of execution. Spacious

and lofty interiors are rarely attempted, but wonderful effects are produced by

seemingly endless repetition of columns in halls, and corridors, and by external

emphasis of important parts of the plan by lofty tower-like piles of masonry.

The source of the various Indian styles, the origin of the forms used, the history of

their development, are all wrapped in obscurity. All the monuments show a fully

developed style and great command of technical resources from the outset. When,

where, and how these were attained is as yet an unsolved mystery. In all its phases

previous to the Moslem conquest Indian architecture appears like an indigenous art,

borrowing little from foreign styles, and having no affinities with the arts of

Occidental nations.

BUDDHIST STYLE. Although Buddhism originated in the sixth century B.C., the

earliest architectural remains of the style date from its wide promulgation in India

under Asoka (272236 B.C.). Buddhist monuments comprise three chief classes of

structures: the stupas or topes, which are mounds more or less domical in shape,

enclosing relic-shrines of Buddha, or built to mark some sacred spot; chaityas, or

temple halls, cut in the rock; and viharas, or monasteries. The style of the detail

varies considerably in these three classes, but is in general simpler and more massive

than in the other styles of India.

TOPES. These are found in groups, of which the most important are at or near Bhilsa

in central India, at Manikyala in the northwest, at Amravati in the south, and in

Ceylon at Ruanwalli and Tuparamaya. The best known among them is the Sanchi

Tope, near Bhilsa, 120 feet in diameter and 56 feet high. It is surrounded by a richly

carved stone rail or fence, with gateways of elaborate workmanship, having three

sculptured lintels crossing the carved uprights. The tope at Manikyala is larger, and

dates from the 7th century. It is exceeded in size by many in Ceylon, that at

Abayagiri measuring 360 feet in diameter. Few of the topes retain the tee, or model

of a shrine, which, like a lantern, once crowned each of them.

Besides the topes there are a few stupas of tower-like form, square in plan, of which

the most famous is that at Buddh Gaya, near the sacred Bodhi tree, where Buddha

attained divine light in 588 B.C.

CHAITYA HALLS. The Buddhist speos-temples--so far as known the only extant

halls of worship of that religion, except one at Sanchi--are mostly in the Bombay

Presidency, at Ellora, Karli, Ajunta, Nassick, and Bhaja. The earliest, that at Karli,

dates from 78 B.C., the latest (at Ellora), cir. 600 A.D. They consist uniformly of a

broad nave ending in an apse, and covered by a roof like a barrel vault, and two

narrow side aisles. In the apse is the dagoba or relic-shrine, shaped like a miniature

tope. The front of the cave was originally adorned with an open-work screen or frame

of wood, while the face of the rock about the opening was carved into the semblance

of a sumptuous structural façade. Among the finest of these caverns is that at Karli,

whose massive columns and impressive scale recall Egyptian models, though the

resemblance is superficial and has no historic significance. More suggestive is the

affinity of many of the columns which stand before these caves to Persian prototypes

(see Fig. 21). It is not improbable that both Persian and classic forms were

introduced into India through the Bactrian kingdom 250 years B.C. Otherwise we

must seek for the origin of nearly all Buddhist forms in a pre-existing wooden

architecture, now wholly perished, though its traditions may survive in the wooden

screens in the fronts of the caves. While some of these caverns are extremely simple,

as at Bhaja, others, especially at Nassick and Ajunta, are of great splendor and

complexity.

VIHARAS. Except at Gandhara in the Punjab, the structural monasteries of the

Buddhists were probably all of wood and have long ago perished. The Gandhara

monasteries of Jamalgiri and Takht-i-Bahi present in plan three or four courts

surrounded by cells. The centre of one court is in both cases occupied by a platform

for an altar or shrine. Among the ruins there have been found a number of capitals

whose strong resemblance to the Corinthian type is now generally attributed to

Byzantine rather than Bactrian influences. These viharas may therefore be assigned to

the 6th or 7th century A.D.

The rock-cut viharas are found in the neighborhood of the chaityas already described.

Architecturally, they are far more elaborate than the chaityas. Those at Salsette,

Ajunta, and Bagh are particularly interesting, with pillared halls or courts, cells,

corridors, and shrines. The hall of the Great Vihara at Bagh is 96 feet square, with

36 columns. Adjoining it is the school-room, and the whole is fronted by a

sumptuous rock-cut colonnade 200 feet long. These caves were mostly hewn

between the 5th and 7th centuries, at which time sculpture was more prevalent in

Buddhist works than previously, and some of them are richly adorned with figures.

JAINA STYLE. The religion and the architecture of the Jainas so closely resemble

those of the Buddhists, that recent authorities are disposed to treat the Jaina style as

a mere variation or continuation of the Buddhist. Chronologically they are separated

by an interval of some three centuries, cir. 650950 A.D., which have left us almost

no monuments of either style. The Jaina is moreover easily distinguished from the

Buddhist architecture by the great number and elaborateness of its structural

monuments. The multiplication of statues of Tirthankhar in the cells about the

temple courts, the exuberance of sculpture, the use of domes built in horizontal

courses, and the imitation in stone of wooden braces or struts are among its

distinguishing features.

FIG. 226.--PORCH OF TEMPLE ON MOUNT ABU.

JAINA TEMPLES. The earliest examples are on Mount Abu in the Indian Desert.

Built by Vimalah Sah in 1032, the chief of these consists of a court measuring 140

× 90 feet, surrounded by cells and a double colonnade. In the centre rises the shrine

of the god, containing his statue, and terminating in a lofty tower or sikhra. An

imposing columnar porch, cruciform in plan, precedes this cell (Fig. 226). The

intersection of the arms is covered by a dome supported on eight columns with stone

brackets or struts. The dome and columns are covered with profuse carving and

sculptured figures, and the total effect is one of remarkable dignity and splendor. The

temple of Sadri is much more extensive, twenty minor domes and one of larger size

forming cruciform porches on all four sides of the central sikhra. The cells about the

court are each covered by a small sikhra, and these, with the twenty-one domes (four

of which are built in three stories), all grouped about the central tower and adorned

with an astonishing variety of detail, constitute a monument of the first importance.

It was built by Khumbo Rana, about 1450. At Girnar are several 12th-century

temples with enclosed instead of open vestibules. One of these, that of Neminatha,

retains intact its court enclosure and cells, which in most other cases have perished.

The temple at Somnath resembles it, but is larger; the dome of its porch, 33 feet in

diameter, is the largest Jaina dome in India. Other notable temples are at Gwalior,

Khajuraho, and Parasnatha.

In all the Jaina temples the salient feature is the sikhra or vimana. This is a tower of

approximately square plan, tapering by a graceful curve toward a peculiar terminal

ornament shaped like a flattened melon. Its whole surface is variegated by horizontal

bands and vertical breaks, covered with sculpture and carving. Next in importance

are the domes, built wholly in horizontal courses and resting on stone lintels carried

by bracketed columns. These same traits appear in relatively modern examples, as at

Delhi.

FIG. 227.--TOWER OF VICTORY, CHITTORE.

TOWERS. A similar predilection for minutely broken surfaces marks the towers

which sometimes adjoin the temples, as at Chittore (tower of Sri Allat, 13th

century), or were erected as trophies of victory, like that of Khumbo Rana in the

same town (Fig. 227). The combination of horizontal and vertical lines, the

distribution of the openings, and the rich ornamentation of these towers are very

interesting, though lacking somewhat in structural propriety of design.

HINDU STYLES: NORTHERN BRAHMAN. The origin of this style is as yet an

unsolved problem. Its monuments were mainly built between 600 and 1200 A.D.,

the oldest being in Orissa, at Bhuwanesevar, Kanaruk, and Puri. In northern India

the temples are about equally divided between the two forms of Brahmanism--the

worship of Vishnu or Vaishnavism, and that of Siva or Shaivism--and do not differ

materially in style. As in the Jaina style, the vimana is their most striking feature,

and this is in most cases adorned with numerous reduced copies of its own form

grouped in successive stages against its sides and angles. This curious system of

design appears in nearly all the great temples, both of Vishnu and Siva. The Jaina

melon ornament is universal, surmounted generally by an urn-shaped finial.

In plan the vimana shrine is preceded by two or three chambers, square or polygonal,

some with and some without columns. The foremost of these is covered by a roof

formed like a stepped pyramid set cornerwise. The fine porch of the ruined temple at

Bindrabun is cruciform in plan and forms the chief part of the building, the shrine at

the further end being relatively small and its tower unfinished or ruined. In some

modern examples the antechamber is replaced by an open porch with a Saracenic

dome, as at Benares; in others the old type is completely abandoned, as in the temple

at Kantonnuggur (170422). This is a square hall built of terra-cotta, with four

three-arched porches and nine towers, more Saracenic than Brahman in general

aspect.

The Kandarya Mahadeo, at Khajuraho, is the most noted example of the northern

Brahman style, and one of the most splendid structures extant. A strong and lofty

basement supports an extraordinary mass of roofs, covering the six open porches and

the antechamber and hypostyle hall, which precede the shrine, and rising in

successive pyramidal masses until the vimana is reached which covers the shrine.

This is 116 feet high, but seems much loftier, by reason of the small scale of its

constituent parts and the marvellously minute decoration which covers the whole

structure. The vigor of its masses and the grand stairways which lead up to it give it

a dignity unusual for its size, 60 × 109 feet in plan (cir. 1000 A.D.).

At Puri, in Orissa, the Temple of Jugganat, with its double enclosure and numerous

subordinate shrines, the Teli-ka-Mandir at Gwalior, and temples at Udaipur near

Bhilsa, at Mukteswara in Orissa, at Chittore, Benares, and Barolli, are important

examples. The few tombs erected subsequent to the Moslem conquest, combining

Jaina bracket columns with Saracenic domes, and picturesquely situated palaces at

Chittore (1450), Oudeypore (1580), and Gwalior, should also be mentioned.

CHALUKYAN STYLE. Throughout a central zone crossing the peninsula from sea to

sea about the Dekkan, and extending south to Mysore on the west, the Brahmans

developed a distinct style during the later centuries of the Chalukyan dynasty. Its

monuments are mainly comprised between 1050 and the Mohammedan conquest in

1310. The most notable examples of the style are found along the southwest coast,

at Hullabid, Baillur, and Somnathpur.

FIG. 228.--TEMPLE AT HULLABÎD. DETAIL.

TEMPLES. Chalukyan architecture is exclusively religious and its temples are easily

recognized. The plans comprise the same elements as those of the Jainas, but the

Chalukyan shrine is always star-shaped externally in plan, and the vimana takes the

form of a stepped pyramid instead of a curved outline. The Jaina dome is, moreover,

wholly wanting. All the details are of extraordinary richness and beauty, and the

breaking up of the surfaces by rectangular projections is skilfully managed so as to

produce an effect of great apparent size with very moderate dimensions. All the

known examples stand on raised platforms, adding materially to their dignity. Some

are double temples, as at Hullabid (Fig. 228); others are triple in plan. A noticeable

feature of the style is the deeply cut stratification of the lower part of the temples,

each band or stratum bearing a distinct frieze of animals, figures or ornament, carved

with masterly skill. Pierced stone slabs filling the window openings are also not

uncommon.

The richest exemplars of the style are the temples at Baillur and Somnathpur, and at

Hullabîd the Kait Iswara and the incomplete Double Temple. The Kurti Stambha, or

gate at Worangul, and the Great Temple at Hamoncondah should also be mentioned.

DRAVIDIAN STYLE. The Brahman monuments of southern India exhibit a style

almost as strongly marked as the Chalukyan. This appears less in their details than in

their general plan and conception. The Dravidian temples are not single structures,

but aggregations of buildings of varied size and form, covering extensive areas

enclosed by walls and entered through gates made imposing by lofty pylons called

gopuras. As if to emphasize these superficial resemblances to Egyptian models, the

sanctuary is often low and insignificant. It is preceded by much more imposing

porches (mantapas) and hypostyle halls or choultries, the latter being sometimes of

extraordinary extent, though seldom lofty. The choultrie, sometimes called the Hall of

1,000 Columns, is in some cases replaced by pillared corridors of great length and

splendor, as at Ramisseram and Madura. The plans are in most cases wholly

irregular, and the architecture, so far from resembling the Egyptian in its scale and

massiveness, is marked by the utmost minuteness of ornament and tenuity of detail,

suggesting wood and stucco rather than stone. The Great Hall at Chillambaram is

but 10 to 12 feet high, and the corridors at Ramisseram, 700 feet long, are but 30

feet high. The effect of ensemble of the Dravidian temples is disappointing. They lack

the emphasis of dominant masses and the dignity of symmetrical and logical

arrangement. The very loftiness of the gopuras makes the buildings of the group

within seem low by contrast. In nearly every temple, however, some one feature

attracts merited admiration by its splendor, extent, or beauty. Such are the

Choultrie, built by Tirumalla Nayak at Madura (162345), measuring 333 × 105

feet; the corridors already mentioned at Ramisseram and in the Great Temple at

Madura; the gopuras at Tarputry and Vellore, and the Mantapa of Parvati at

Chillambaram (15951685). Very noticeable are the compound columns of this

style, consisting of square piers with slender shafts coupled to them and supporting

brackets, as at Chillambaram, Peroor, and Vellore; the richly banded square piers,

the grotesques of rampant horses and monsters, and the endless labor bestowed upon

minute carving and ornament in superposed bands.

OTHER MONUMENTS. Other important temples are at Tiruvalur, Seringham,

Tinevelly, and Conjeveram, all alike in general scheme of design, with enclosures

varying from 300 to 1,000 feet in length and width. At Tanjore is a magnificent

temple with two courts, in the larger of which stands a pagoda or shrine with a

pyramidal vimana, unusual in Dravidian temples, and beside it the smaller Shrine of

Soubramanya (Fig. 229), a structure of unusual beauty of detail. In both, the vertical

lower story with its pilasters and windows is curiously suggestive of Renaissance

design. The pagoda dates from the 14th, the smaller temple from the 15th century.

ROCK-CUT RATHS. All the above temples were built subsequently to the 12th

century. The rock-cut shrines date in some cases as far back as the 7th century; they

are called kylas and raths, and are not caves, but isolated edifices, imitating

structural designs, but hewn bodily from the rock. Those at Mahavellipore are of

diminutive size; but at Purudkul there is an extensive temple with shrine, choultrie,

and gopura surrounded by a court enclosure measuring 250 × 150 feet (9th

century). More famous still is the elaborate Kylas at Ellora, of about the same size as

the above, but more complex and complete in its details.

PALACES. At Madura, Tanjore, and Vijayanagar are Dravidian palaces, built after

the Mohammedan conquest and in a mixed style. The domical octagonal throne-room

and the Great Hall at Madura (17th century), the most famous edifices of the kind,

were evidently inspired from Gothic models, but how this came about is not known.

The Great Hall with its pointed arched barrel vault of 67 feet span, its cusped

arches, round piers, vaulting shafts, and triforium, appears strangely foreign to its

surroundings.

FIG. 229.--SHRINE OF SOUBRAMANYA, TANJORE.

CAMBODIA. The subject of Indian architecture cannot be dismissed without at least

brief mention of the immense temple of Nakhon Wat in Cambodia. This stupendous

creation covers an area of a full square mile, with its concentric courts, its encircling

moat or lake, its causeways, porches, and shrines, dominated by a central structure

200 feet square with nine pagoda-like towers. The corridors around the inner court

have square piers of almost classic Roman type. The rich carving, the perfect

masonry, and the admirable composition of the whole leading up to the central mass,

indicate architectural ability of a high order.

CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. No purely Mongolian nation appears ever to have

erected buildings of first-rate importance. It cannot be denied, however, that the

Chinese are possessed of considerable decorative skill and mechanical ingenuity; and

these qualities are the most prominent elements in their buildings. Great size and

splendor, massiveness and originality of construction, they do not possess. Built in

large measure of wood, cleverly framed and decorated with a certain richness of color

and ornament, with a large element of the grotesque in the decoration, the Chinese

temples, pagodas, and palaces are interesting rather than impressive. There is not a

single architectural monument of imposing size or of great antiquity, so far as we

know. The celebrated Porcelain Tower of Nankin is no longer extant, having been

destroyed in the Tæping rebellion in 1850. It was a nine-storied polygonal pagoda

236 feet high, revetted with porcelain tiles, and was built in 1412. The largest of

Chinese temples, that of the Great Dragon at Pekin, is a circular structure of

moderate size, though its enclosure is nearly a mile square. Pagodas with diminishing

stories, elaborately carved entrance gates and successive terraces are mainly relied

upon for effect. They show little structural art, but much clever ornament. Like the

monasteries and the vast lamaseries of Thibet, they belong to the Buddhist religion.

Aside from the ingenious framing and bracketing of the carpentry, the most striking

peculiarity of Chinese buildings is their broad-spreading tiled roofs. These invariably

slope downward in a curve, and the tiling, with its hip-ridges, crestings, and finials

in terra-cotta or metal, adds materially to the picturesqueness of the general effect.

Color and gilding are freely used, and in some cases--as in a summer pavilion at

Pekin--porcelain tiling covers the walls, with brilliant effect. The chief wonder is that

this resource of the architectural decorator has not been further developed in China,

where porcelain and earthenware are otherwise treated with such remarkable skill.

JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. Apparently associated in race with the Chinese and

Koreans, the Japanese are far more artistic in temperament than either of their

neighbors. The refinement and originality of their decorative art have given it a wide

reputation. Unfortunately the prevalence of earthquakes has combined with the

influence of the traditional habits of the people to prevent the maturing of a truly

monumental architecture. Except for the terraces, gates, and enclosures of their

palaces and temples, wood is the predominant building material. It is used

substantially as in China, the framing, dovetailing, bracketing, broad eaves and tiled

roofs of Japan closely resembling those of China. The chief difference is in the greater

refinement and delicacy of the Japanese details and the more monumental disposition

of the temple terraces, the beauty of which is greatly enhanced by skillful landscape

gardening. The gateways recall somewhat those of the Sanchi Tope in India, but are

commonly of wood. Owing to the danger from earthquakes, lofty towers and pagodas

are rarely seen.

The domestic architecture of Japan, though interesting for its arrangements, and for

its sensible and artistic use of the most flimsy materials, is too trivial in scale, detail,

and construction to receive more than passing reference. Even the great palace at

Tokio,28 covering an immense area, is almost entirely composed of one-storied

buildings of wood, with little of splendor or architectural dignity.

MONUMENTS (additional to those in text). BUDDHIST: Topes at Sanchi, Sonari,

Satdara, Andher, in Central India; at Sarnath, near Benares; at Jelalabad and Salsette; in

Ceylon at Anuradhapura, Tuparamaya, Lankaramaya.--Grotto temples (chaityas), mainly

in Bombay and Bengal Presidencies; at Behar, especially the Lomash Rishi, and Cuttack;

at Bhaja, Bedsa, Ajunta, and Ellora (Wiswakarma Cave); in Salsette, the Kenheri Cave.--

Viharas: Structural at Nalanda and Sarnath, demolished; rock-cut in Bengal, at Cuttack,

Udayagiri (the Ganesa); in the west, many at Ajunta, also at Bagh, Bedsa, Bhaja, Nassick

(the Nahapana, Vadnya Sri, etc.), Salsette, Ellora (the Dekrivaria, etc.). In Nepâl, stupas

of Swayanbunath and Bouddhama.

JAINA: Temples at Aiwulli, Kanaruc (Black Pagoda), and Purudkul; groups of temples at

Palitana, Gimar, Mount Abu, Somnath, Parisnath; the Sas Bahu at Gwalior, 1093;

Parswanatha and Ganthai (650) at Khajuraho; temple at Gyraspore, 7th century; modern

temples at Ahmedabad (Huttising), Delhi, and Sonaghur; in the south at Moodbidri,

Sravana Belgula; towers at Chittore.

NORTHERN BRAHMAN: Temples, Parasumareswara (500 A.D.), Mukteswara, and Great

Temple (600650), all at Bhuwaneswar, among many others; of Papanatha at Purudkul;

grotto temples at Dhumnar, Ellora, and Poonah; temples at Chandravati, Udaipur, and

Amritsur (the last modern); tombs of Singram Sing and others at Oudeypore; of Rajah

Baktawar at Ulwar, and others at Goverdhun; ghâts or landings at Benares and elsewhere.

CHALUKYAN: Temples at Buchropully and Hamoncondah, 1163; ruins at Kalyani;

grottoes of Hazar Khutri.

DRAVIDIAN: Rock-cut temples (raths) at Mahavellipore; Tiger Cave at Saluvan Kuppan;

temples at Pittadkul (Purudkul), Tiruvalur, Combaconum, Vellore, Peroor, Vijayanagar;

pavilions at Tanjore and Vijayanagar.

There are also many temples in the Kashmir Valley difficult of assignment to any of the

above styles and religions.

28. See Transactions R.I.B.A., 52d year, 1886, article by R. J. Conder, pp. 185

214.

Ebd

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