Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A. (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
Mrs Sudha Rani Maheshwari, M.Sc (Zoology), B.Ed.
Former Principal. A.K.P.I.College, Roorkee, India
” Before Indian art, as before every phase of Indian civilization, we stand in humble wonder at its age and its continuity. Probably no other nation known to us has ever had so exuberant a variety of arts.” Will Durant, American historian
It is the magnificent art and architecture of the old Indian colonies that the Indian influence is most marked. Indian art had accompanied Indian religion across straits and frontiers into Ceylon, Java, Cambodia, Siam, Burma. Actually in Asia all roads lead from India.”
Ceylon
Hindus from the Ganges valley settled Ceylon in the fifth century before Christ; Ashoka, two hundred years later, sent a son and a daughter to convert the population to Buddhism. Buddhism had a significant influence on Sri Lankan architecture, since it was introduced to the island in 3rd Century BC.The architecture of ancient Sri Lanka displays a rich variety of architectural forms and styles, varying in style and form from the Anuradhapura Kingdom to the Kingdom of Kandy.” Hindus from the Ganges valley settled Ceylon in the fifth century before Christ; Ashoka, two hundred years later, sent a son and a daughter to convert the population to Buddhism. Buddhism had a significant influence on Sri Lankan architecture, since it was introduced to the island in 3rd Century BC.The architecture of ancient Sri Lanka displays a rich variety of architectural forms and styles, varying in style and form from the Anuradhapura Kingdom to the Kingdom of Kandy.
Singhalese art began with dagobas domed relic shrines like the stupas of the Buddhist north; it passed to great temples like that whose ruins mark the ancient capital, Anuradhapura; it produced some of the finest of the Buddha statues, and a great variety of objets (Tart; and it came to an
end, for the time being, when the last great king of Ceylon, Kirti Shri Raja Singha, built the “Temple of the Tooth” at Kandy. The loss of independence has brought decadence to the upper classes, and the patron- age and taste that provide a necessary stimulus and restraint for the artist have disappeared from Ceylon.
Ancient Sri Lankan architecture mainly grew around religion, styles of Buddhist monasteries were in excess of Significant architectural buildings include the stupas of Jetavanaramaya, Ruwanvelisaya in the Anuradhapura kingdom and further in the Polonnaruwa Kingdom, the palace of Sigiriya is considered as a masterpiece of ancient architecture and ingenuity, the fortress in Yapahuwa Monasteries were designed using the Manjusri Vasthu Vidya Sastra, a manuscript which outlines the layout of the structure. The text is in Sanskrit but written in Sinhala script. The script is believed to be from the 5th century, It is exclusively about Buddhist monasteries and is clearly from the Mahayana school. The text shows much originality and there is nothing similar in the existing Indian treatises, which deal only with Hindu temples.
Java
Strange to say, the greatest of Buddhist temples some students would call it the greatest of all temples anywhere is not in India but in Java. Historiansbelieve that Hinduism spread in Java in the fifth century followed three centuries later by Buddhism.
At the time in which these monuments were built, Indian pilgrims had spread Buddhist and Hindu teachings spread across Java, Indonesia. The proud ruling dynasties of Central Java built a seemingly endless number of structures, of all scales.
Buddhist and Hindu religions lived harmoniously side by side across Java, and as families of different religions married, even mixed religion temples were built. Most Javanese are Islamic. But they’re generally not followers of the branches of Islam associated with the Near East. The Javanese have fused Islam with the island’s traditional mysticism, much like the Sufis of northern India
The adaption of Indian religion and customs with the local artistry and traditions bred its own unique style; “Hindu-Java Art” .
Just as some unearthed temples in east Java have a Hindu upper half and a Buddhist lower half, some early mosques had roofs in the shape of Hindu temples, said Timbul Haryono, a professor of archaeology at Gadjah Mada University here and an expert on Hinduism in Southeast Asia. Early mosques faced not in Mecca’s direction, but west or east in the manner of Hindu temples.
The great monuments of Java are either Hindu or Buddhist, or more likely combinations of both. Most of the sites were built in Java’s heroic age of temple construction, which lasted from the 8th to the 10th centuries. For mysterious reasons, many of these sites were abandoned soon after they were built.
Prambanan Plain
With this powerful Buddhist shrine, and the Brahmanical temples nearby at Prambanam, Javanese architecture reached its zenith, and quickly decayed. The island became for a time a maritime
power, rose to wealth and luxury, and supported many poets. But in 1479 the Moslems began to people this tropical Paradise, and from that time it produced no art of consequence. The Dutch pounced upon it in 1595, and consumed it, province by province during the following century, until their control was complete.
The most dramatic and important is the Loro Jonggrang complex, dedicated to the Hindu god Siva. The centerpiece of the complex is the central Siva temple, which stands 152 feet tall. It resembles a gothic spire cut off at the base — massive and impressive, with an emphasis on vertical lines similar to European Gothic cathedrals. The gaze is drawn up and making the structure appear awesomely tall.
But there’s a lot more to explore on Pramandan. Candi Sambisari, discovered in 1966 when a farmer hoeing his field hit a stone that turned out to be the top of the largest temple to be found buried intact in Java. Candi Sari is a beautiful Buddhist sanctury alive with decorations showing dancing goddesses and assorted other divine beings. Candi Sewu is noted for its large, well preserved guardian statues. The buildings of Ratu Boko have gone, but an evocative system of terraces, stairways and pools remain, with dramatic views of the plain and its encircling peaks.
Borobudur
In the eighth century the Shailendra dynasty of Sumatra conquered Java, established Buddhism as the official religion, and financed the building of the massive fane of Borobudur (i.e., “Many Buddhas”). This is the world’s largest Buddhist monument. Laid out like a pyramidal mandala, it’s a cosmology framed and inscribed in stone, massive amounts of stone — 6,500 cubic yards of it.
Only one Hindu temple surpasses that of Borobudur, and it, too, is far from India lost, indeed, in a distant jungle that covered it for cen- turies. In 1858 a French explorer, picking his way through the upper valley of the Mekong River, caught a glimpse, through trees and brush, of a sight that seemed to him miraculous: an enormous temple, incredibly majestic in design, stood amid the forest, intertwined and almost covered with shrubbery and foliage. That day he saw many temples, some of them already overgrown or split apart by trees; it seemed that he had arrived just in time to forestall the triumph of the wilderness over these works of men. Other Europeans had to come and corroborate his tale before Henri Mouhot was believed; then scientific expeditions descended upon
the once silent retreat, and a whole school at Paris devoted itself to charting and studying the find. Today Angkor Wat is one of the wonders of the world.
Javanese living in nearby Yogyakarta were aware of its existence when Borobudur was”discovered” by Europeans in 1815. At that time most of the monument was visible, even if large portions of it were filled in with soil sustaining overgrown trees and other plants. The temple proper is of moderate size, and of peculiar design a small domical stupa surrounded by seventy-two smaller topes arranged about it in concentric circles. If this were all, Borobudur would be nothing; what constitutes the grandeur of the structure is the pedestal, four hundred feet square, an immense mastaba in seven receding stages. At every turn there are niches for statuary; 436 times the sculptors of Borobudur thought fit to carve the figure of Buddha. Still discontent, they cut into the walls of the stages three miles of bas-reliefs, depicting the legendary birth, youth and enlightenment of the Master, and with such skill that these reliefs are among the finest in Asia. ”
The stupa, or tower at the top, has been destroyed by lightening. An unfinished statue Buddha that was found in the stupa has been moved a hundred yards away from the temple. But Borobudur stands as one of the great spiritual monuments of the world.
Dieng Plateau
The remains of the oldest Hindu temples in Java have been found here. And there is no doubt that Dieng was considered sacred in pre-Hindu times. But that didn’t stop at least 392 of the original 400 structures from disappearing since the beginning of the 19th century. Dieng has been ravished.
The Arjuna Group is the most impressive site still remaining. This a group of 5 blocky shrines, each dedicated to a different individual or group of Hindu deities. The whole complex, ironically, is dedicated to Siva, the destroyer.
Sukuh Temple is a perhaps the strangest temple on the slope. Built in the 15th century, it’s a post-Hindu, post-Buddhist, post-Islam construction that hearkens back to early prehistoric animist traditions
Before the temple gates, there is a large stone fertility figures — a lingam and a yoni. Inside the grounds there are several odd sculptures telling stories that nobody has been able to figure out. But it seems to have something to do with fertility and war and turtles. Whatever mix of inspiration and legend came together to make this temple, it works.
Cambodia
At the beginning of the Christian era Indo-China, or Cambodia, was inhabited by a people essentially Chinese, partly Tibetan, called Kham- bujas or Khmers. When Kublai Khan’s ambassador, Tcheou-ta-Kouan, visited the Khmer capital, Angkor Thorn, he found a strong government ruling a nation that had drawn wealth out of its rice-paddies and its sweat. The king, Tchcou reported, had five wives: “one special, and four others for the cardinal points of the compass,” with some four thousand concubines for more precise readings. Gold and jewellery abounded; pleasure- boats dotted the lake; the streets of the capital were filled with chariots, curtained palanquins, elephants in rich caparison, and a population of almost a million souls. Hospitals were attached to the temples, and each had its corps of nurses and physicians.
Though the people were Chinese, their culture was Hindu. Their religion was based upon a primitive worship of the serpent, Naga, whose fanlike head appears everywhere in Cambodian art; then the great gods of the Hindu triad Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva entered through Burma; almost at the same time Buddha came, and was joined with Vishnu and Shiva as a favourite divinity of the Khmers. Inscriptions tell of the enormous quantity of rice, butter and rare oils contributed daily by the people to the ministrants of the gods.
To Shiva the Khmers, toward the end of the ninth century, dedicated the oldest of their surviving temples the Bayon, now a forbidding ruin half overgrown with tenacious vegetation. The stones, laid without cement.
In 1604 a Portuguese missionary told of hunters reporting sonic ruins in the jungle, and another priest made a similar report in 1672; but no attention was paid to these statements. Cement; have drawn apart in the course of a thousand years, stretching into ungodly grins the great faces of Brahma and Shiva which almost constitute the towers. Three centuries later the slaves and war-captives of the kings built Angkor Wat, a masterpiece equal to the finest architectural achievements of the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the cathedral builders of Europe. An enormous moat, twelve miles in length, surrounds the temple; over the moat runs a paved bridge guarded by dissua- sive Nagas in stone; then an ornate enclosing wall; then spacious galleries, whose reliefs tell again the tales of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; then the stately edifice itself, rising upon a broad base, by level after level of a terraced pyramid, to the sanctuary of the god, two hundred feet high. Here magnitude does not detract from beauty, but helps it to an imposing magnificence that startles the Western mind into some weak realization of the ancient grandeur once possessed by Oriental civilization. One sees in imagination the crowded population of the capital: the regimented slaves cutting, pulling and raising the heavy stones; the artisans carving reliefs and statuary as if time would never fail them; the priests deceiving and consoling the people; the devadasis (still pictured on the granite) deceiving the people and consoling the priests; the lordly aristocracy building palaces like the Phinean-Akas, with its spacious Terrace of Honour; and, raised above all by the labour of all, the powerful and ruthless kings. The kings, needing many slaves, waged many wars. Often they won; but near the close of the thirteenth century “in the middle of the way” of Dante’s life the armies of Siam defeated the Khmers, sacked their cities, and left their resplendent temples and palaces in ruins.
Tcheou-ta-Kouan speaks of the many books that were written by the people of Angkor, but not a page of this literature remains; like our- selves they wrote perishable thoughts upon perishable tissue, and all their immortals are dead. The marvellous reliefs show men and women wearing veils and nets to guard against mosquitoes and slimy, crawling things. The men and women are gone, surviving only on the stones. The mosquitoes and the lizards remain.
Buddhism has two major schools, or traditions, Southern and Northern. Theravada (“The Doctrine of the Elders”), moved south from India to Sri Lanka and then to Southeast Asia. Mahayana (“The Greater Vehicle”), moved north through present-day Afghanistan and along the Silk Road to East Asia, splitting into multiple sects along the way. The majority of Thais today are Theravadin Buddists whose sacred belief also includes animism and Brahmanism, the precursor to modern Hinduism. So, while the majority of Thai temples belong to Theravada Buddhism, there are Mahayana Buddhist temples and Taoist temples, established by Chinese immigrants, a few Hindu temples, and a number of ruined Hindu temples left by the Khmer empire and subsequently converted for Buddhist use.
The term for most temples is wat. A few palace-like structures with multiple spires are known as prasat, which, in the case of Khmer-style buildings, means a sanctuary for the worship of Hindu deities. The word prang may be used for a structure which only has one or more Khmer-style spires remaining. Shrines dedicated to one specific spirit or non-Buddhist deity are known as san. The Srivijaya empire, based in Sumatra, stretched up the penninsula from the 7th to the 13th centuries. The Dvaravati kingdom of the Mon people flourished in the central region and parts of Burma until it came under the influence of the Khmer empire in the 10th century, and was invaded by the Khmer in the first half of the 12th century. Haripunjaya, another Mon kingdom, existed as far north as modern-day Lamphun (Hariphunchai) until the late 13th century. The earliest Tai group settled in the central region’s Chao Phraya River basin and further south. They came to be known as the Siamese (syam.
Although there are regional variations, the basic temple layout is an assembly hall (viharn) facing east (the direction the Buddha faced when he attained enlightenment), with a stupa (chedi) behind and an ordination hall (ubosot or boht) beside it. The ubosot is usually smaller because it is used mainly for monks’ activities, and it can be recognized by sacred boundary stones (bai sema) outside the building at the eight cardinal and sub-cardinal points. Beneath the bai sema are buried spherical stones about the size of canon balls known as luk nimit, with a ninth luk nimit beneath the center of the ubosot or its principal Buddha image. At some temples, the ubosot may also serve as a viharn.
There may be other small halls called viharn housing sacred images, a Buddha footprint, or a shrine to a former ruler or well-known hermit in the Indian tradition of rishi. They are known in Thai as reusee or lersi, and are often associated with the founding of temples. If the ubosot does not contain a famous Buddha image or murals, it may well be closed to the public. Other halls may be locked to prevent theft of historical artifacts.
The stupa, known as a chedi in Thailand (“pagoda” is the name given to stupas in the Far East), is both a memorial to the Buddha and a reliquary. It also represents Mount Meru, the mountain at the center of the mythical Hindu and Buddhist cosmos. Chedis vary a lot in style, from the classic bell shape to a cone or a pyramid. Another type of stupa is the Khmer-influenced stone “corn cob,” known as a prang.
Some temples have a scripture hall, known as a hor trai, and a few old ones are built on stilts in a pond to keep crawling insects away from the delicate palm-leaf scriptures.
Outside the main buildings a few temples have a “Hell Garden” with gory depictions of what existence in a hell-realm is like according to the Three Worlds Cosmology. Here concrete human figures with animals’ heads, naked people forced to climb spiked trees, and people being boiled in a large vat with a variety of demons in attendance.
The most noticeable aspect of temple decoration is the guardians at the doors and windows. At a few famous temples, these may be the iconic yak, or giants. At others they may be Hindu deities, celestials, benign demons, and a variety of mythical creatues, especially lions (singh) and serpents (naga). Some temples are covered in pieces of glass in mosaic patterns that originated with an ancient belief that evil spirits would flee in they saw their own reflection.
Temple murals were originally a way of bringing the teachings of the Buddha to illiterate lay folk. Traditionally, the west (associated with death) wall of a viharn will feature scenes of beings in other realms as described in the Thai Buddhist textTraiphum Phra Ruang (Three Worlds Cosmology), the east wall will feature a mural of the Buddha subduing Mara prior to his enlightenment, and the lower side walls will be covered with scenes from the Jataka Tales (stories of the Buddha’s previous lives) while the upper walls will feature celestials and benign demons facing the principal Buddha image.
All temples have one or more Buddha image in the viharn and the ubosot, the purpose of which is to act as a reminder of the historical Buddha and his teachings The principal Buddha image in a hall will be placed facing east, the direction the Buddha was facing when he attained enlightenment.
In the ninth century, the Khmer established Angkor as the capital of their huge kingdom stretching from present-day Thailand to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. For the next six centuries they ruled one of the largest empires in South East Asia. Angkor cultivated a power base of a mighty military and political force, and a rich and sophisticated civilization. The ruins seen today represent successive capitals constructed by a dozen Khmer kings, between the 9th and 13th Centuries. These were cities of massive stone temples, wide majestic causeways, thrusting towers and imposing gates.This Cambodian empire has left some of the greatest buildings and sandstone carvings depicting the religious figures of Vishnu, Shiva, Uma, Hanuman and their epic deeds one the one hand.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is the largest religious temple in the world, with a volume of stone equalling that of the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. It is unlike all the other Khmer temples in that it faces west, and 12th Century Hinduism inspires it. Its symmetrical towers are stylized on the modern Cambodian flag.
Conceived by Suryavarman II, Angkor Wat took an estimated 30 years to build. It is generally believed to have been a funeral temple for the king. It has been occupied continuously by Buddhist monks and is well preserved.
Intricate bas-reliefs surround Angkor Wat on four sides. Each tells a story. The most celebrated of these is the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, which is located on the east wing. In it, the Naga serpent is twisted by demons and gods to produce the elixir of life.
The way the light glows on the ancient stones makes sunset the best time to wander through Angkor Wat’s two square kilometers, climb its towers and ponder its creators.
Angkor Thom
The ancient walled city of Angkor Thom, literally “Great city,” built in the 12th Century by Jayavarman VII, contains the famous Bayon temple with its more than 200 enormous mysterious faces. It also contains the 300 meter long Elephant Terrace with its large sculptured royal elephants and mythical Garudas, the half-man and half-bird figures. Also within the walled area is a massive terrace named after the 15th century sculpture of the “Leper King” that was thought to be atop the northern platform; it seems however it is replica of Yama.
Preah Khan
Preah Khan is an extensive monastic complex covering over 56 hectares built by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a monastery and teaching complex. It is located in the northern part of Angkor, a short distance beyond the northern gate of the Angkor Thom precinct. It is one of a group of temple complexes situated on a small ‘Baray’ or water tank including the temples of Neak Pean and the monastic complex of Ta Som. Together these structures constitute one of Angkor’s major axial arrangements and hydrological complexes.
Today Preah Khan is in a state of ruin resulting from a slow decline due to its loss of royal patronage in the middle of the 15th Century. There is evidence that some of the temples and shrines have remained in use probably through the 17th Century. It was not until the end of the 19th Century that Preah Khan, like many of the other Angkor sites, was ‘rediscovered’. During the 1940s the archaeological team of the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient (EFEO) undertook some consolidation and reconstruction projects in Preah Khan all of which were carefully documented and were subsequently made available to the World Monument Fund (WMF) since the fund’s inception at Preah Khan in 1992.
Ta Prohm is the temple that has been left largely in its natural state since its “re-discovery” by French archeologists. Surrounded by jungle, its labyrinth of stone hallways is overgrown with the roots and limbs of massive silk cotton trees, which envelop the stone like tentacles. It is one of the largest temples at Angkor, dedicated in 1186 to the King’s mother. Historians have noted its mystical charm. Its close connection with nature makes it easy for the imagination to roam back to the days when it housed the Angkor kings in splendor.
Banteay Srei
The Citadel of Women, the most beautiful of the temples in Siem Reap, some 34 kilometres north of Siem Reap town. Remarkable for its total restoration, this small temple built by Brahmins for human use rather than for use by god-kings has the finest pink sandstone carving in Cambodia. These carvings can be seen at close quarter clearly telling extracts of the Ramayana. Incorporated in long stay tours in Siem Reap, Banteay Srei is an essential temple to visit.
Beng Mealea
“Lotus Pond” Temple from the early 11th Century built by Suryavarman II as a Hindu Temple. If there is one temple to explore resplendent with jungle engulfing it, it is Beng Mealea. Clambering over large sandstone blocks to reach the inner sanctuary and eerie worship corridor is an exploration to remember. Situated 60 km east of Angkor Wat, through traditional countryside life, over bumpy roads, Beng Mealea is a temple hidden in a maze of jungle.
Architecturally, Beng Mealea is noted for its innovative, in its time, construction of hallways, it was a very large temple with wide galleries foreshadowing Angkor Wat. Garudas, hold up an outer platform, finer in detail than those to be found out in the elements of the Elephant Terrace at Angkor Thom. Surprises of fallen lintels with intricate carvings lay amongst the fallen wall and roofs.
Georges Groslier writes in 1916 of Beng Mealea “There emanates from Beng Mealea a harmony, powerful and sober, which permits to place this temple first amongst the first and to consider it the prototype, the classical and purified specimen of Khmer art”.
Roluos Group
Hariharalaya, the earliest capital in the Siem Reap area has left the Roluos group of Temples- Bakong, Preah Ko and Lo Lei. Sandstone was used rather than bricks in the construction of Bakong, fine carvings are to be found at both Preah Ko and Lo Lei.
Pre Rup
Situated amongst rice paddy fields and made of bricks rather than carved sandstone, Pre Rup’s depiction of Mount Meru is a classic example of early Hindu design.
Siam
Nearby, in Siam, a people half Tibetan and half Chinese had gradually expelled the conquering Khmers, and had developed a civilization based upon Hindu religion and art. After overcoming Cambodia the Siamese built a new capital, Ayuthia, on the site of an ancient city of the Khmers. From this scat they extended their sway until, about 1600, their empire included southern Burma, Cambodia, and the Malay Peninsula. Their trade reached to China on the east and to Europe on the west. Their artists made illuminated manu- scripts, painted with lacquer on wood, fired porcelain in the Chinese style, embroidered beautiful silks, and occasionally carved statues of unique excellence. Then, in the impartial rhythm of history, the Burmese captured Ayuthia, and destroyed it with all its art. In their new capital at Bangkok the Siamese built a great pagoda, whose excess of ornament cannot quite conceal the beauty of its design.
Burma
The Burmese were among the greatest builders in Asia. Coming down into these fertile fields from Mongolia and Tibet, they fell under Hindu influences, and from the fifth century onward produced an abundance of Buddhist, Vaishnavite and Shivaite statuary, and great stupas that culminated in the majestic temple of Ananda one of the five thousand pagodas of their ancient capital, Pagan. Pagan was sacked by Kublai Khan, and for five hundred years the Burmese government vacillated from capital to capital. For a time Manda- lay flourished as the center of Burma’s life, and the home of artists who achieved beauty in many fields from embroidery and jewelry to the royal palace which showed what they could do in the frail medium of wood.” 11 The English, displeased with the treatment of their missionaries and their merchants, adopted Burma in 1886, and moved the capital to Rangoon, a city amenable to the disciplinary influence of the Imperial Navy. There the Burmese had built one of their finest shrines, the famous Shwe Dagon, that Golden Pagoda which draws to its spire millions upon millions of Burmese Buddhist pilgrims every year. For doesnot this temple contain the very hairs of Shaky a-n ami’s head? Many religions are practised in Burma. Religious edifices and orders have been in existence for many years. 89% of the population embraces Buddhism (mostly Theravāda). Other religions are practiced largely without obstruction.
Although Hinduism is presently only practiced by 1% of the population, it was a major religion in Burma’s past. Several strains of Hinduism existed alongside both Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism in the Pyu period in the first millennium CE, and down to the Pagan period (9th to 13th centuries) when “Saivite and Vaishana elements enjoyed greater elite influence than they would later do.” Kodi Lingeswaran Temple. Thanlyin area. Original temple is said to be more than 100years, new temple shrine is located nearby. This is the only temple where Sivan and Paravati are together. Sree Ankala Eeswari Temple. Pelikha Village Kyauktan Township. This temple is located in the middle of a vast paddy field.
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