Indian architecture

Indian architecture

Indian architecture The architecture of the Indian subcontinent, originally a timber and mud-brick architecture of which nothing survives. Early Buddhist monuments, chaitya halls, stupa rails, and toranas clearly imitate wood construction, and timber buildings appear on relief representations. All surviving architecture is of stone, using exclusively a structural system of post and lintel, brackets, and corbels. The basically simple Indian architectural forms are generally obscured and overwhelmed by a rhythmical multiplication of pilasters, cornices, moldings, aediculae, roofs, and finials, and an exuberant and sensuous overgrowth of sculptural decoration.