Temples of North India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Temples of North India
Author: Krishna Deva
Publisher: National Book Trust, 2005 (First published 1969)
ISBN: 8123719701
Pages: 83

India is richly endowed with a fine variety of magnificent temples of different architectural styles. There are predominantly two schools of temple construction, based in the north and south of the country but equally impressive and artistically fulfilling. This book covers the temples of north India, focusing on the nagara style. We can see them as far south as the Tungabhadra valley. Despite a basic homogeneity in essential aspects, the various regional styles followed their own course of evolution. This book describes the development of various temple styles in the period from the seventh to twelfth centuries. Krishna Deva was the former director of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and later director of the Birla Academy of Art, Kolkata. He was an eminent scholar of art and architecture and had made several significant archeological explorations in the country. He had worked with great archeologists like Aurel Stein and Mortimer Wheeler. Having organized the Temple Survey Project (Northern Region) of the ASI, he conducted a systematic architectural survey of the temples of north India in general and central India in particular.

The temple as we see it today developed during the Gupta period (400 – 700 CE) though simpler constructions that are much older goes back to the Maurya period (200 BCE). The concept of kingship as a viable form of political organisation became well developed in the Gupta period so that the deity in the temple was thought to represent a divine king in the spiritual domain. The abode of the king is the royal palace and hence the temple acquired characteristic features of the palace adapted to the new purpose for which they were being implemented. The early temples contained a simple, square sanctum and a rectangular pillared porch as seen in the remains of such a temple at Sanchi. From the beginning of the seventh century, the sanctum began to be roofed by a tall, curvilinear spire called shikhara.

The construction of an intricately carved temple required such a large investment in men, money and resources that ordinary people or even merchant guilds could not manage it on their own. Consequently, major dynasties took part in the venture as a display of their might and to underline their right to govern the kingdom as being sanctioned by the gods. Temples in central and north India up to the Gupta era were largely made of timber or other perishable material. Dressed stone was introduced at this stage. This increased the durability as no remains of timber were unearthed so far, yet stone temples of the period are so numerous. The development of Bhakti cult as the devotion to a personalized god in the Gupta age led to establishment of an ambulatory path around the sanctum in the extant architecture. The Chalukyas (500 – 750 CE) contributed their part in temple building in the south, but following nagara style of the north. The highly ornate temples of the Hoysala period as evidenced in the magnificent temples at Belur and Halebid was an offshoot of the Chalukyan school. The Pratihara dynasty (eighth - ninth centuries CE) who ruled from Kanauj, instituted a unique style in central and northern India. The group of temples at Naresar near Gwalior is the earliest example of Pratihara style.

The book is divided into chapters that examine local variations in the architecture. The temples in Rajasthan are well known for their exquisite organisation, but from the twelfth century onwards, the style loses its individuality and neatly merges into the Solanki style. The climax of the medieval architecture of the Rajasthan and Solanki styles was reached in the Dilwara group of Jain temples at Mount Abu. The author is an expert on central Indian temples and a large number of references and examples are made to this region. Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, the Kalachuri dynasty kept the torch burning in the eastern part of central India, Chandellas in the central part, Paramaras in the western part and Kachchhapaghatas in the north.

Khajuraho richly deserves and finds a prominent place in the narrative. These breathtakingly beautiful structures mark the zenith of the central Indian building style and reveal certain distinctive peculiarities of plan and elevation. They are compact and lofty temples without any enclosure wall and are erected on a high platform. The peak is reached in the Kandariya Mahadev Temple, which represents the grand finale and culmination of architectural movement. The north Indian style was followed in a large tract of Deccan plateau as well. In the upper Deccan, between the rivers Tapti and Krishna, flourished an individual style of northern architecture. The early notable achievements of this stream are seen in Ajanta and Ellora. This Deccani style was named Bhumija and is widely seen in the central and western parts of India. The book also covers the grand temples of Odisha due to their spectacular individuality. Bhubaneshwar, with about 100 temples is the pre-eminent centre of the Odisha style. The spire of a typical Odishan temple has an almost vertical outline with a pronounced curve only near the top.

The tolerance, peaceful coexistence and mutual assimilation of Indian religions are legendary and a pleasing instance is observed in the seamless overlap of architecture and motifs of Hindu and Jain temples. In some places, you can see them existing side by side with the devotees not making any distinction between them. They follow the same architectural patterns and style to such a level that many devotees cannot even tell them apart. Even the religious motifs of one faith permeate the other’s art as seen in a fine example at Khajuraho. The Parshwanath Jain temple bears significant kinship to the Vaishnava Lakshmana temple a little distance away in displaying among its sculptures a predominance of Vaishnava themes, including scenes from the romantic life of Krishna. Another aspect of the Indian temple architectural style should strike the readers as something extraordinary, even though it is not enumerated in the text. The styles of the north and south of India differ very much in appearance and content, but the flowering of the method occurred at around the same time, during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries CE, across the country.

The book is very short, at only 83 pages with an index, but each page is filled with so much information of a technical nature that some readers would definitely find tedious. But, this book assumes a general familiarity of the readers to architectural terms. No glossary is included. An introductory chapter on the technical terms with illustrations would do wonders to the book’s utility. Many ancient temples, representing specific instances of the development of art are listed and readers are advised to search for the pictures on Google for a hands-on idea. This book was first published in 1969 and several editions and reprints have been effected. This may be the reason why the cover page is wrongly attributed. The page displays the Kandariya Mahadev Temple of Khajuraho, but is indicated as the Sun Temple of Konark.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star