India: Notable Artists and Architects (and their Art and Architecture)

Gandhara School of Art (All Facts)

• School of Indian art which originated in the namesake province of northwest India around the 100s CE

• School of Indian art characterized by blending and synthesizing Greek and Buddhist

  • Up until that point, artists had closely followed Buddhist iconographical rules, representing the image of the Buddha symbolically

  • By that point, however, the Buddha was portrayed with European features and replete with images of Ancient Greece

• The Greek Buddhas were found all over the namesake province in the form of statues and paintings, particularly in Taxila and the great monastery of Takhti-Bahi

Gandhara Buddha (All Facts)

Great Monastery of Takhti-Bahi (All Facts)

Buddhist Art during the Gupta Empire (All Facts) 

• Reached its peak of development with distinct iconography 

• The Buddha

  • Was shown in various mudras

  • Had a majestic silhouette with broad shoulders and long streamlined legs

  • Had a face that was finely drawn

  • Had an enigmatic smile

  • Had his eyes half-closed in deep meditation

Mathura School (All Facts) 

• School of Buddhist Art 

Sarnath School (All Facts)

• School of Buddhist Art which found a fine balance between beauty of form and spiritual suggestion 

Mudras (All Facts)

• Gestures which the Buddha was represented in within Buddhist art

• Each gesture related to a different episode of his life

• Gestures that were shown included

  • Sitting

  • Meditating

  • Teaching

  • Standing

• Gestures showed him with his arm half-bent in a compassionate gesture

Kaliasa Temple at Ellora (All Facts)

• Constructed during the reign of Krishna of the Rashtrakuta Empire

Sringeri Sharada Peetham Matha (All Facts)

Ratha (All Facts)

• Shrine built like a pyramid

• Many were constructed during the Pallava Dynasty

Shrine of Sanchi / Sanchi Stupa (All Facts)

• Founded by Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty

• Located in the state of Madhya Pradesh

• Became one of the great religious centers of Indian Buddhism

• Buried within it were the relics of the Buddha, kept in a casket

• Was admired without reservation by the thousands of pilgrims who flocked to it from all over India

• Its original monument or stupa still dominated over the lesser shrines built surrounding it

• It was first built of brick and topped by a stone umbrella-canopy, but was extended and embellished over time

  • It became a solid construction of bricks and rubble, faced in concrete, 54 feet high, shaped like a dome and still shaded by a stone umbrella

  • A stone railing ten feet high encircled the shrine

  • It was broken by four exquisite gateways of stone; their pillars and crossbars carved with lions, elephants, demi-gods, caryatids, and various forms of erotica

Dravidian Architecture (All Facts)

• Reached a peak of sophistication under the Chola Empire

427 - Nalanda Monastery (All Facts)

• Built during the reign of Kumaragupta

• Destroyed by the Arab Muslims in 1197

700s - 800s - Orissan-Style Temples (All Facts)

• Built at Bhuvanesvar in East India

• Features hollow-terraced pyramids supporting conical beehive-shaped spires

1000 - Rajarajeshwara Temple (All Facts)

• Constructed during the reign of Rajaraja of the Chola Empire

• Located at Thanjavur

1010 - Brihadisvara Temple (All Facts)

• Constructed during the reign of Rajaraja of the Chola Empire

• Also known as the Great Temple of Shiva at Tanjore, its pyramid and dome-shaped finial profoundly influenced Southeast Asian architecture

1025 - Kandariya Mahadeva Temple (All Facts)

• Temple of the Chandela Dynasty

• Located at Khajuraho

• It is the greatest masterpiece of the Chandela, surpassing the smaller temples built by the dynasty prior to it

• It was built in fine cream-colored sandstone

• Its phallic spire rises for 116 feet, though it appears even higher because of the deep basement and the vertical lines on the spire, surrounded by lesser spires

• Inside the Temple is a Pradaksina, or walkway, provided with shaded balconies

• At the lower levels of the Temple, depictions of scenes from hunting, warfare, and courtly life are depicted

• At the higher levels of the Temple, friezes depict representations of gods and goddesses, along with scenes of lovemaking, depicting couples and trios indulging in all the erotic variety which the vivid imagination of the gods had ordained

1026 - Siva Temple (All Facts)

• Precious Hindu Temple which was notably sacked, plundered, and damaged by Mahmud of the Ghaznavid Empire

1199 - Qutub Minar (All Facts)

• Constructed during the Delhi Sultanate, it is located in the city of Delhi

• It features a style in which buildings melded the intricate artistic details of Hindu art with the geometric patterns preferred by Islamic architecture, representing a an artistic and architectural syncretism between Islam and Hinduism

• An elaborate mosque was built on top of a Hindu temple in its location and used materials for the mosque from nearby Hindu and other religious shrines

  • Towering over the mosque is the namesake structure, a gigantic leaning tower

• It functioned as a symbol of Islamic influence and, at one time, the dominance of northern India

1200 - Nataraja Temple (All Facts)

• Located at Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu

• Built under the Chola Empire

• Hindu Temple

• It was grand yet simple, adorned with exquisite sculpture and dwarfed by its four beehive-shaped “gopuras” or gate towers

  • No gopuras so large, so intricately carved or so beautifully proportioned had been seen in India up to that point

1250 - Konark Sun Temple (All Facts)

• Jain Temple of the Sun

• Massive “Black Pagoda”

• Began construction in 1200

• Only the base, carved with erotic relief, survives

Jama Mosque (All Facts)

• Built during the reign of Akbar of the Mughal Empire

Charminar (All Facts)

• Located in Hyderabad

1604 - Golden Temple of Amritsar (All Facts)

• Sikh Temple built during the reign of Emperor Akbar of the Mughal Empire

• It was located at the namesake, a waterhole which the Sikhs renamed the “pool of immortality,” in the Punjab region of India

• It has a copper dome, walls, and cupolas covered with gold foil that glistens in the Indian sun

• Its two-story interior is as memorable as the exterior, displaying some of the most beautiful floral and geometrical motifs of India

1590 - 1624 - Ustad Mansur (All Facts)

• Mughal Painter under Jahangir

  • He was given by Jahangir the title “Nadir al-Wasr” meaning “the Wonder of the Age”

• He was a genius of Mughal miniature painting who recorded the natural world around him as ordered by his emperor Jahangir

• He produced exquisite paintings of zebras, wild goats, pheasants, and tukey cocks