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Introduction: You can clone the whole from a part of the structure
The science of building in India is analogous to genetics. Just as the DNA, which contains hereditary information on cell life, every element of a building contains a dimensional code that will speak of the whole structure.
"It is possible to extrapolate the whole from the dimension and position of any relic," says Balagopal T.S. Prabhu, professor of architecture at the Regional Engineering College in Calicut, "the way the Harappans would have rebuilt their cities from the ruins of the old."
Mohenjo-daro, notes Stuart Piggott in Prehistoric India, passed through nine phases of rebuilding, often interrupted by disastrous river floods. But from the top to the bottom of the accumulated layer of debris no change can be detected in the content of the material culture.
The cities of the Harappan civilisation (the late phase of which was from 2000 BC-1500 BC) were laid out according to well-established precepts of town planning. Clearly, surveying instruments were used to fix cardinal points.
Archaeologist S.R. Rao mentions an instrument made of shell in Lothal. "It is a hollow cylinder with four slits on each of the two edges. When placed on a horizontal board it can be used almost as a compass in plane table survey for fixing the position of a distant object by viewing it through the slits in the margins.... Obviously, this instrument must have been used in land survey and for fixing alignment of streets and houses."
Each city had two major sectors: the citadel meant for the elite, and the lower town, comprising residences and commercial establishments, for the common men. The houses had open courtyards, furnished toilets, kitchens and living rooms, and drainage system from the bathrooms to the main sewer in the street. The style of construction is said to be bare and utilitarian. Sun-dried and burnt brick was the common material for walls and floors and roofings were in timber.
"We say that Harappans were utilitarian because of the grid pattern," says Prof. K.T. Ravindran, head of the department of urban design at School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. "This existed all over the world in different times-in the labour camps for building pyramids, in the Agoras of Greece, the Bastic cities of France. It also exists in contemporary cities like Chandigarh designed to build democratic accessibility to everyone, and in Jaipur or lower Tirupathi. Everything had a meaning. It depends on the value frame of the society, which is expressed in their structures."
The technological innovation of the Harappans, if not their worldview, is evident from the citadels, raised on a mud-brick and clay platform to prevent floods, and the special structures at the citadels (the fire altars at Kalibangan, the Great Bath, granary and pillared hall at Mohenjo-daro, rangashala or stadium at Dholavira, and warehouse and dockyard at Lothal).
The Great Bath in Mohenjo-daro, 12x7 metres and 2.5 metres deep, is an engineering marvel, says historian Abraham Eraly in Gem in the Lotus. "It was water-tight by lining its floor and two sides with two layers of close-fitting, carefully trimmed baked bricks set on gypsum mortar, with a 2.5-centimetre-thick skin of bitumen sealer between the layers. A high, corbelled conduit was provided at its north-western corner to drain the tank."
Planned cities, with fortification walls, properly aligned houses, drainage, water supply and sanitary provisions, are found again from the 6th century BC to the early centuries of the Christian era. Greek writers Megasthenes and Strabo have given detailed descriptions of Mauryan capital Pataliputra, built a year before the death of the Buddha, and its palace which was "splendid as that in the capital of Iran". Other cities that emerged in this period are Kausambi, Taxila, Vaisali and Ujjain.
The rise of Buddhism under the patronage of Asoka (3rd century BC) brought about changes in socio-cultural values and their expression in construction. Apart from the stone pillars, one of which at Sarnath became the national emblem of India, the principal contributions of the Asokan school were stupas. The most famous of them, the Sanchi stupa in Madhya Pradesh, is basically a dome, surmounted by a finial or harmika, with a circumambulatory path around it, delineated by a railing or vedika. The stupas containing relics of the Buddha were the first Buddhist shrines.
Religious architecture came of age with the temples of the Gupta Age (350-650 AD). Each constituent of the plan and the elevation had a certain proportion to all other parts of the structure.
The rudiments of this framework for construction and design can be seen in the Puranas, Shastras, Samhitas and Buddhist classics. Matsya Purana, for instance, has much on architecture and sculpture. Natya Sastra has a chapter on the design and construction of theatres while Padma Samhita covers planning and construction of temples.
But the earliest text codifying rules for art, sculpture and architecture is the early 6th century AD text Brhat Samhita of Varahamihira. Mayamata and Manasara are early texts which are held as standard reference works on Vastuvidya-the science of building.
The fountainhead of Vastushastra is the Sthapatyaveda, annexure of Atharvaveda. "At the level of Sthapatyaveda it is only at a conceptual level," says Prabhu. "Certain concepts can be applied to any situation, be it cattlesheds or huts, bridges or dams, palaces or temples."
Planning, design, construction and maintenance are the four aspects of the science of building. Sthalam (topographical features), jalam (hydrological characteristics) and vriksham (biotic features) are considered in the planning stage. "The basic philosophy is that a building is also a living thing," says Kanippayyur Krishnan Nambudiripad, a traditional exponent of Vastuvidya in Kerala. The philosophical underpinning of the inter-relatedness of all things in the universe is expressed best in the form of a temple. Several parts of the temple are thus likened to the body of a man. For instance, the tapering roof above the sanctuary or vimana is called the shikhara (head). Inside the vimana is the garbha-griha (the womb-house).
The finest example of an early north Indian temple architecture is the Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar, built as a series of four halls: a hall of offering, a dancing hall, an assembly hall and a sanctuary. The sanctuary is crowned by a great tower (shikhara) curving inwards terminated by an amalaka disc and a finial (kalas). The other three elements of the temple are also roofed with towers of smaller size.
The southern style of temple architecture
became quite distinct with the Pallava school (the shore temples of Mamallapuram,
7th century AD) and the Chola school (Brihadeswara temple at Thanjavur,
10th century). The Minakshi temple at Madurai, Ranganatha temple at Srirangam
and the Vittala temple at Hampi are a few other examples architectural
excellence.
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