• c.320-467
•  is generally considered the pinnacle of ancient Indian civilization
•  the apex of its development came during the reign of Samudragupta (335-76).
  
• This was a very urbane and sophisticated moment in Indian history:
  
  • Kalidas, ancient India's greatest poet, lived during this period (5th century)
  • Vatsyayana wrote the Kama Sutra during this period (a treatise on sexual pleasure that regarded sex as an important aspect of gracious living).
    
  • Buddhism was becoming dominant across East Asia, in India it was gradually disappearing.

• Bodh Gaya, India, 320-467
• is built on the site of the garden – Bodhgaya – where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment while sitting under a peepal tree.
•  It remains one of the most venerated pilgrimage sites in the whole Buddhist world.
  
• The first temple at the site was built by Ashoka.
  
• It was a non-representational Hinayana Buddhist construction: just a simple stone platform.
  
• But the whole site was rebuilt sometime during the Gupta period, more or less in its current form.
  
• This centers on a brick tower with a central chamber containing an image of the enthroned Buddha of the temple.
  
• There is another chamber up higher with a secondary Buddha image.
  
• This is among the oldest multistory brick temples in South Asia.
•  A description of this temple, by the Chinese traveler Hsuan Tsang, in the 7th century, became widely circulated in China and might have been an inspiration for the development of the Chinese Buddhist pagoda.

• 5th century, Sanchi
• components:
  • 1) A mysterious, unadorned inner womb-chamber (garbh-griha – literally "embryo chamber"), where the resident deities dwelled. The garbh-griha (pronounced "garb greh") is derived from the Buddhist caitya caves, which have now morphed into a conceptual womb. This chamber is considered "without form," whereas the world of the worshipper is the world of form. Hence, the garbh-griha is solid and unadorned, with no openings aside from the entry. Here the deity is in "unmanifest" form, and streams of energy flow from here in all directions. The further you are from this space, the less sacred the space becomes. Depictions of the deity on the temple's outer walls show him/her in "manifest" forms (animal or human), and these are less potent than the main icon in the garbh-griha, where the "unmanifest" image of the god is located. This "unmanifest" image is invariably either abstract (like a Shiva linga) or "unbeautiful," revealing the otherworldliness of the divinity.
  • 2) Preceding the garbh-griha is an antechamber or porch known as a mandapa. In Hindu worship, the doorway or threshold (antarala) between the garbh-griha and the mandapa marks the key moment of transition when worshipper and deity come into direct visual contact. This moment of transition is called darshan, which means "beholding of an auspicious deity."
• The temple itself is thus a portal between the world of the worshipper and the world of the deity: the deity descends into its "unmanifest" image as the worshipper ascends to the sacred threshold.

• were public institutions, like a Buddhist caitya, but organized differently.
  
• The temple is the deity's dwelling, where his or her needs are catered to by the temple priests.
  
• Individual Hindus are not obliged to attend temple services, but they can come, and circumambulation (parikrama) is a common practice, as is gazing upon the god, and making offerings of food, flowers, and prayers.
  
• But while the temple is never a congregational meeting place, it is a community focal point (particularly in the south).

• two types:
  • Northern (Nagara)
  • Southern (Dravidian)
• The distinction rests on their different ways of:
  • forming the tower surmounting the sanctum
  • the ground plan
  • the elevation or external walls.
    
  The two temple types also have different typical wall elevations.

• Bhubaneswar
• In Narara-type temples, the garbh-griha is surmounted by a large tapering superstructure called the sikhara (pronounced SHIKara)
  • which typically has a gently sloping curve with a fluted disk (amalaka) at the pinnacle.
    
  • The sikhara marks the vertical axis in the form of the cosmic mountain.
    
• Architectural texts from the 5th century on use body metaphors for temples
• while the tower is imagined as the cosmic mountain Meru, or, in temples to Shiva, as his mountain redoubt, Kaylash.
•  Its purpose is to enable the worshipper to visualize the order of the complete universe as described by Hindu cosmogony; it is a kind of 3D model of the Hindu cosmos
• The Nagara temple elevation (left) consists of a series of projections and recesses.

• an example of the Southern or Dravidian Hindu temple type.
  
• The Dravidian tower is called a vimana, and typically follows a dome and cornice pattern like a pyramid with diminishing tiers crowned by a square, polygonal, or round dome.
  
• Like the sikhara in the north, it too is a kind of cosmic mountain.
•  In both kinds of temples, the apex or finial functions as the conceptual center of the structure.
• From there the "cosmos" splays outwards, cascading down the building along radial lines. 
• Sikharas and vimanas alike are conceived of as solid and for the most part are, though for structural reasons some may have internal hollows.

• Pattadakal
• has a typical wall elevation that looks superficially similar to European buildings, with images within framed niches occurring at regular intervals.
  
• External ornamentation was mainly confined to towers and elevations.
  
• The three walls other than the entrance wall are described in early Hindu texts as "blind doors,"
  
  • which is to say that they were understood as symbolic exits marking emanations of the deity; often these "blind doors" were designed as niche shrines containing a deity.
    
• The ornament on the exterior of temples is animal, floral, geometric, and human, along with motifs based on architectural details.
  
• And, remember, ornament was seen as a manifestation of the deity whose divine energy radiates out from the garbh-griha.

• In plan, both types of temples are oriented in 8 cardinal directions
  • each one of which is presided over by a deity, though this is not always depicted.
    
• In the south, as in this example, temples are typically enclosed by protective walls with gate towers at the entrances.

Geometric Design of Hindu Architecture

• in Deogarh early 6th c; end of Gupta period
• Its plinth is divided up according to a nine-square mandala, with the main area occupying the central square.
•  The 4 directions are represented by stairs on all 4 sides, with the shrine facing west (as is appropriate for a Vishnu temple).
  
• This is an important early example of the attempt to design via interlocking geometries, which was to become a defining characteristic of Hindu temples forms in the centuries to come.
•  At the corners were originally 4 subsidiary shrines, also square, that were interlocked with the platform.

• in Deogarh early 6th c; end of Gupta period
• Its plinth is divided up according to a nine-square mandala, with the main area occupying the central square.
•  The 4 directions are represented by stairs on all 4 sides, with the shrine facing west (as is appropriate for a Vishnu temple).
  
• This is an important early example of the attempt to design via interlocking geometries, which was to become a defining characteristic of Hindu temples forms in the centuries to come.
•  At the corners were originally 4 subsidiary shrines, also square, that were interlocked with the platform.

• The entrance portal is one of the masterpieces of Gupta art, composed of a series of progressively recessed, highly sculpted jambs.

• The blind doorways (ghana-dwara) on the other three sides contain superb relief sculpture organized in a counterclockwise sequence and manifesting various aspects of Vishnu's identity in his savior god guises.
  

• The south niche (below) shows Vishnu dreaming a new age into existence.[image]

• 6th century
• built by Hindu monks living away from civilization like Buddhist monks.
  
• The temple is cut into a steep rockface.
•  It has a cruciform plan with a large central colonnaded, roughly square hall, with projections on E, W, and N which offer three entrances in all.
  
• There are two main axes: the E-W one is superior, marked by the main garbh-griha; whereas the less N-S axis, aligned with main entrance, terminates in three famous, gigantic Shiva sculptures in niches.

• To the west, the garbh-griha was conceived as a square chamber with portals on all 4 sides. These four axes centered on its sculptural deity, a Shiva linga 
• Thus there are three centers in this temple (see the plan): the crossing; the three Shiva sculptures; and the garbh-griha. But whereas the Shiva sculptures are hard to see in the shadows, it is ultimately the E-W axis that dominates, because of the garbh-griha and the silhouette of the Shiva linga that you immediately see (above R).

• 675-710 CE
  
• This is an extremely experimental temple that was commissioned by a private individual.
• It looks a little like a thatched village hall, with its heavy stone roof.
  
• Its apsidal end is derived from Buddhist caitya halls, and it accommodatesparikrama in an enclosed corridor that wraps around the garbh-griha.
  
• There are very few examples of similar apsidal temples in India.
  
• Outside this core, there is a secondary envelope that is unique in Hindu temple architecture (normally, the plinth might echo the main outline; but here a whole enclosed space was created).

• Another post-Gupta dynasty
•  founded in the mid-6th century.
  
• They were to the south of the Kalacuri dynasty area.
  
• The first temples in this area were in this dynasty's regional capitals, including Aiholi [pronounced e-YA-lee] and Pattadakal .