Indo no kenchiku: Tameo Kamiya's invitation to Indian Architecture

[Guest guest]

HinduThought, "S. Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97> wrote:

 

Tameo Kamiya is an architect and member of JIA ( The Japan Institute of

Architects ) ,

AIJ ( Architectural Institute of Japan ) , and has been studying Indian

Architecture, Islamic Architecture and Romanesque Monastery. His

2005 publication is 'Sacred architecture in India'.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/publication/temple/tem_eng.htm Even though

the book is in Japanese, the sample pages with pictures provided at this URL

provide a breath-taking perspective of Hindu civilization as reflected in

sacred architecture.

 

The following excerpts from the first and last chapters (excerpted by Tameo

Kamiya) is a remarkable statement on how a culture should be understood with

compassion, as a pilgrim's progress. Sure, there are some misunderstandings,

but this is offset by the dedication with which an architect admires the

work of early architects of a civilization. How many know of Depaka, the

architect who constructed the sacred architectural marvel in memory of Sri

Adinatha at Ranakpur? See the photograph of Depaka at

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/jaina/6_ranakpur/xdepaka.htm thanks to Tameo

Kamiya.

 

k

 

( from the first and last chapters of " Indo no Kenchiku " published in 1996

with 435 beautiful photographs) *INVITATION TO THE ARCHITECTURE OF INDIA *

**

 

When we hear the name 'India,' even though it is a distant land, there is a

feeling of nostalgia in our hearts. This was the land that gave birth to one

of the four major civilizations in the ancient world. It is the land where,

along with China, an advanced civilization prospered. It is a great Asian

nation that had an impact on all the countries surrounding it. India was

also the leader of the Non-Aligned Nations which was formed after the Second

World War.

 

However for us the Japanese, India is the land which introduced Buddhism to

us. Before writing the name India as 'Indo' in Japanese with the kanji

character phonetically, it was written as 'Tenjiku' a translation for

Sindhu, an ancient name for India and was looked upon as the Paradise of the

West where Sanzo Hoshi (Monk of Tripitaka) headed for in the great Chinese

novel "Saiyu-ki (Record of a journey to the West)".

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xsanchi.htm>

Stupa No.1 and its western Torana, Sanchi

 

When European imperialists invaded India and other Asian countries, Japan

was a closed country. India became a colony of the British Empire, was

exploited and reduced to poverty. For a nation that was once so rich in

wealth and spirituality, the image we now have of India is very confused.

Moreover after the Meiji era, Japan turned its back on Asian countries

including India to improve ties with Europe. We turned to West and

concentrated on catching up with and overtaking them.

 

This distorted leaning has continued up to the present age, which has

further developed the erroneous image of India as being a mystical,

mysterious country. Our media projects India as a mystical, magical country,

but any civilization will look at people different from themselves as being

mystical. Moreover European civilization and Christianity also has its own

claims to mysticism as does India.

 

We need to recognize the true image and true value of the third world

starting with India, without the tinted glass of discrimination based on

economy, especially now, when Japan is at last freeing itself from being a

devotee of the West. And if the culture and art of India is closely

observed, one will find that, as with its music and dancing, Indian

architecture too has reached stupendous heights.

This book ¡Ê"Indo no Kenchiku") intends to introduce this true image of

Indian architecture, aided with a large number of colour photographs.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xbhubanes.htm>

Mukteshwara Temple of Hinduism, Bhubaneshwar

 

Any person who has visited India even once and seen some examples of Indian

architecture has come away in awe. This is because the architecture as we

know in Japan or the West differs greatly from the architecture of India.

The great temples brimming over with sculptures of gods, cave temples

created by digging a rocky mountain and mosques that look like they have

been built only on infinitely repeated geometrical shapes, may indeed make a

person feel that Indian architecture is very mystical.

 

However, unlike pictures or literature, a building cannot exist if it is not

built rationally. Any architectural culture that knows this principle, can

understand that Indian architecture too has been built along rational lines..

Any original expression or original thought that has been added to this

rationality is the artistic form of construction. An inexhaustible supply of

this architectural expression and work of art can be seen scattered all over

the Indian subcontinent.

 

Well, India is a vast country. It is a zone of civilization that is equal to

the whole of Europe geographically and historically, in its vastness and

depth of culture. Although it is a great nation with an unaccounted number

of architectural inheritances, there is no colossal architectural plan of

India. Enormous structures equivalent to the Great Wall of China, pyramids

of Egypt, or the city planning of Rome, cannot be found here. Cambodia and

Indonesia, which came under the influence of the Indian civilization, rather

has enormous constructions in the form of Ankor and Borobudor.

As in Japan and Europe, India liked rich and dense constructions of a

moderate scale. Even the rich world that prefers the intimate scale, has an

attraction for Indian architecture.

 

------------------------------

 

 

  *THE RELIGIONS

AND ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA*

 

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xamritsar.htm>

Golden Temple of Sikhism, Amritsar

 

   In this book, I want to introduce as much as is possible the various

facets of Indian architecture. I want to show this variety and receptiveness

of Indian architecture through its history, geography and religions

classification. Browsing through the photographs in this book, one can see

the great variety. One might also be led to think that compared with

European architecture, Indian architecture lacks consistency.

 

One of the causes for this architectural diversity is the religious

diversity of this vast land. Europe has believed in Christianity as a

principle from medieval times and it continues to believe in it even in the

present age. The difference between the Catholic and Protestant is not so

glaring, and thus did not necessarily induce distinction of style in

architecture. The difference is similar in degree to the differences in the

Shaivite and Vaishnavite groups of Hinduism or the Shia and Sunni groups of

Islam.

 

However, in India, apart from Hinduism, Buddhism was dominant in ancient

age, and from the medieval age Islam has been. Added to this were Jainism,

Sikkism and in recent centuries, Christianity. All these religions have

greatly contributed to significant buildings in every urban landscape of the

country.

Hence, adding an easy explanation of these religions here may be useful, to

see its relation with architecture and may lead to a better understanding

while reading through the following chapters of this book.

 

Hinduism as everyone knows is the most prominent religion in India. However,

this religion differs from the Western-concept of religions. There is no

founder for this religion as there is in Christianity and Buddhism. As Jesus

preached Christianity and Buddha preached Buddhism , Hinduism was not

preached by any one individual. It is supposed that the fundamentals were

handed down from the heavens. Hinduism is a set of codes of conduct written

in the "Vedas," in the epics "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata," and in the "Manu

Smriti."

 

If Hinduism has to be summarized in one sentence it can be called an

aggregated Indian way of thinking and lifestyle. It is old styled Brahminism

when the system was not highly organized, and is a ceremonial religion in

which only a person born in the Brahmin upper caste could interact between

man and God.

As in ancient Greece, during the 5th, 6th century BC, in Indian too many

philosophers and free thinkers appeared against the religion hardened to a

caste regime of birth and sacrifice. The typical monks of that revolt were

Buddha who founded Buddhism and Mahavira who founded Jainism.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xbodhgaya.htm>

Mahabodhi Temple of Buddhism, Bodhgaya

 

Both Buddha and Mahavira were born in similar circumstances. Both were born

in Bihar, in eastern India as Kshatriyas (warrior caste). After getting

married and begetting children both the princes renounced their family and

wealth and became shramanas or monks and after a long period of penance and

meditation attained nirvana. There is no established date of the birth and

death of both these persons. There are various views, but Mahavira is

considered to be senior. While Buddha took the middle path of pain and

pleasure, Mahavira took the hard path of the asceticism whose fundamental

doctrine was Ahimsa or nonviolence.

 

Jainas did not create a centralized church system, and since it was not keen

on propagation, Jainism did not collect a large following.

On the other hand, Buddhism spread on account of its moderate nature and was

well received by the governing classes, and thus it was able to overshadow

Brahmanism and turn into a dominant religion in India. Above all, the person

who propagated Buddhism was Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who

conquered a great portion of India during the 3rd century.

 

As an ancient architectural inheritance, Buddhism has left many ruins all

over the country; the relics of Jainism are scarce. What is more amazing is

that there is not a single relic left of Brahmanism. Hence stating that, the

ancient architecture of India is Buddhist architecture is not a fallacy.

However, Brahmanism gained over Buddhism gradually in the 5-6th century in

developing highly its religious theory. This mature phase of revived

Brahmanism is called Hinduism. Originally Hindu meant people living on the

banks of Sindhu river (Indus river) as viewed from the west. Their religion

is called Hinduism and their language is called Hindi.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xtikse.htm>

Tikse Gompa (monastery) of Tibettan Buddhism, Ladakh

 

While it had achieved an advanced stage of philosophical development,

Hinduism also assimilated the native faith, gods and traditions and mores of

various parts of India, captured people's hearts and became a huge system

consisting of myths and codes that cannot be contained in one book of

scriptures.

 

Buddhism that enjoyed the support of the ruling classes gradually lost its

foothold after entering the age of Tantric Buddhism, heavily influenced by

Hinduism and disappeared from India completely by the 13th century. Instead,

it spread far and wide in the Asian countries and became a world religion

and as such it is still being practiced in the northern most part of India

in Ladakh and Sikkim. They follow Tibet Buddhism, which is also called

Lamaism.

Many of the Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Indian mainland were

destroyed as there was nobody to maintain them. Most of them are ruins or

excavated sites now.

 

On the other hand, early Hindu architecture followed the lines of Buddhist

architecture, or converted Buddhist temples to Hindu temples. In the 7th

century two unique temple styles developed for the two major gods Shiva and

Vishnu, that played a major role in the stone architecture that developed

1000 years later.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xkumbha.htm>

Mahavira Temple of Jainism, Kumbharia

 

Jainism did not spread much outside India. Instead it continued to thrive in

west India and has left a large amount of architectural heritage. As it was

a small minority group it followed Buddhism and Hinduism in its

architectural style, but in the 11 -15th century it developed remarkably in

west India.

As Jainism was a religion opposing Brahmanism, it was originally atheistic

religion. It is not Gods but 24 Saviours called Tirthankaras that are

worshiped in the temples. It is said that the 24th and the last Tirthankara

was Mahavira.

 

Islam that came from outside India originated in Arabia in the 7th century.

Prophet Muhammad brought the words of God to the people and this was written

down as the sacred book Koran. One of its most important teachings is that

there is only one God and all men are equal in front of Him. With this

equality concept Islam spread quickly from Spain in the west to central Asia

in the east.

They build Mosques as the places of worship and other buildings in every

place they conquered. As there was a preceding civilization in each area;

the Islamic principles were mixed with the native architecture and thus a

unique Islamic architecture for each area originated.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xfatehp.htm>

Tomb of Salim Chishti, Islam, Fatehpur Sikri

 

The Islamic invasion upon India started in the 11th century, and the Islamic

architecture of Persia from the west was brought in. Indo-Islamic

architecture reached its pinnacle during the rule of the Mughal dynasty

since the 16th century, which fused the Islamic and native architecture.

 

In the process however, the monotheism of Islam and polytheism of Hinduism

collided with each other. According to Islamic faith, God (Allah) is the

Absolute and his existence cannot be seen with the eyes, and so expressing

or representing him with an image is absolutely forbidden. Not only that, it

was prohibited to make the image form of man or animal, not to mention

Prophet Muhammad. Hence not a single idol carving or mural painting can be

found in the mosques. Thus the Hindu temple filled to the brim with images

was blasphemy for a believer of Islam (Muslim).

 

It would be rash to think that it is because of this belief that Muslims

completely destroyed the buildings and culture of infidels. Islam was rather

tolerant to the pagans.

Islam became the religion of the rulers in India. But the public was still

free to believe in Hinduism if they paid excess tax. Even Rajput countries

in west India served as vassals in the Mughal Empire and maintained

half-independent Hindu kingdoms. For this reason Hinduism and Jainism was

also able to survive up to the present age and many structures of great

temple architecture have remained intact.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xbombay.htm>

Afgan Memorial Church of St. John, Mumbai

 

Christianity was introduce to India very early. Tradition says that the

apostle Thomas came here for the mission work, but this has not been

ascertained. The Roman Catholic Church was brought to India by the

Portuguese in the 16th century and many churches and monasteries of the

times still stand in Goa and Cochin. When Britain started governing India,

the Church of England was introduced, and cathedrals and parish churches

were built in various places including the four big cities.

Christianity as a foreign culture, as compared with Islam, strictly adhered

to the European style in colonial buildings as its architectural style and

fusion with native architecture was not considered. Perhaps this might show

that Christianity is more the religion of non-tolerance rather than Islam.

 

According to the national census taken in 1981, the rate of religious

population in present day India is as follows. Hindu 82.6 per cent, Muslim

11.4 per cent, Christian 2.4 per cent, Sikh 2.0 per cent, Buddhist 0.7 per

cent, Jain 0.5 per cent, Others (Parsi, Jew etc.) 0.4 per cent.

 

In present day architecture, religion does not play a main role in its

development. When a new temple is built, it would be in old style on the

whole. Probably the impact of religion in changing India's architecture has

replaced by European and American culture and the development of science and

technology.

This personification of modern architecture can be seen clashing with

traditional architecture. It is slowly but steadily changing the townscape

of India and this is a common enough sight in any third world country.

 

------------------------------

 

 

  *A WAY OF INTRODUCING

INDIAN ARCHITECTURE*

 

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xabaneri.htm>

Great Kunda (stepped cistern) at Abaneri

 

   Be it India or be it Europe, there are various methods in introducing the

architectural culture. Probably, since there are various religions in India,

introducing architecture according to religion can also be a method.

However, all buildings are not necessarily religion based. James Ferguson

who had discussed the Indian architecture based on religion was strongly

accused for this by E.B. Havell.

 

According to Havell all buildings are a continuation of Indian architecture

and classification according to religion is but marginal. His opinion is

that if Buddhism had survived much longer it would have built temples in

almost same style as that of Hindu temples, and that Islamic architecture in

India was none other than the Indian architecture, is correct to a certain

extent.

 

A more commonly used method is that of taking up style and technology of

architecture historically. There is also another method of looking at the

buildings of every place in geographical order.

This book is different from others in the sense that it has not classified

buildings according to age, nor is it classified in the geographical order,

transcending even religious differences. As such it is just an attempt to

understand from the point of view of the various characteristics of Indian

architecture.

 

Geographically India has a great disparity in climate with the cold

Himalayas in the north, desert area in the west, and tropical rain forest in

the south and accordingly the disparity in the architectural designs are

also many.

In the case of European architecture there is the tendency of limiting our

image to Britain, Germany, France, and Italy. In Northern Europe, there is

the wooden culture and those churches have a considerably pagan appearance.

In Southern Spain, Islamic architecture can be seen in the Alhambra palace

and so on.

Take the ancient Celtic forms, the Byzantine East European church and the

synagogue of the Jews; they will all show a wide variety of architectural

forms. And since they are in the European continent they have to be

classified as "European architecture."

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xcorb.htm>

High Court in Chandigarh by Le Corbusier

 

What I attempted with this book was also to show the total image of Indian

architecture by evenly picking up architecture forms from the Tibetian

Buddhism in Ladakh in the extreme north to the wooden architecture in Kerala

in the extreme south, and by not limiting to the typical style of Indian

architecture in the narrow range. For this purpose, even Pakistan and

Bangladesh are included in the range of Indian architecture for this book.

 

Apart from the classical architecture, I have also introduced colonial

architecture designed by the British architects during the British rule, and

the modern architecture designed after India got its independence from the

British. This was because; it is thought that the colonial architecture that

was built with Indian involvement is Indian architecture, as is the fact

that Muslim architecture introduced to India and built in India is Indian

architecture.

The totality of all the buildings that were built for the various dynasties,

religions, races etc, with the Indian subcontinent as the stage, through the

ages till today has to be called the "Indian Architecture."

 

------------------------------

 

 

  *CONCLUSION *

 

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xsarahan.htm>

Bhimakali Temple of Hinduism, Sarahan

 

   The journey of 26 chapters in search of the characteristics of Indian

architecture begins with the ancient pastoral earthen mounds and caves and

ends with the high-rise modern architecture of concrete and glass.

Considering the large amount of architectural inheritance that is scattered

in the subcontinent, buildings from only 160 places may seem too inadequate..

But I feel that I have clearly shown in great detail the typical style or

characteristics of the buildings of various different ages and areas. Hence

going through this whole book will be like looking with fresh wonder at the

diversity of Indian architecture.

 

The existence of wooden structures might be most unexpected. Even after

traveling two or three times to India the structures mostly seen are made of

stone. There must not be many who have travelled to Himachal Pradesh or

Kerala and seen the wooden buildings thoroughly.

The villages in the Himalayas surrounded by the deodar forest are a

nostalgic sight for the Japanese traveller, but the wooden temple there is

richly different sight. Although very interesting as compared with the

wooden structures of Japan or Southeast Asia, the mountains and its

hinterland are very difficult areas to travel in and information is not very

easily available either.

 

On the other hand, the trip to the southern State of Kerala is easy, but the

Hindu temples here are unwelcoming to the non-believer. Here one has to bare

the upper part of the body and has to tie a white wrap called the lungi

around the lower half and have to walk bare foot. Even if you are allowed to

enter, cameras are not allowed. Visiting the Jain temples on the mountain is

also a very difficult trip. One has to climb up the mountain for many hours

to Mt. Shatrunjaya<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/jaina/5_mountain/xsatrun.htm>and

Mt.

Girnar <http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/jaina/5_mountain/xgirnar.htm> and

then climb down again. One feels so tired that one just wants to die. But

when you reach the summit at last, the spectacle that unfolds makes one

forget all the tiredness.

 

Thus, although travelling in India is not easy, every time there are new

surprises and you discover something new. It is not difficult to pick up 26

keywords to explain the character of Indian architecture. However, if I am

asked whether those "characteristics" have been fully explained I feel a

little uneasy. There might have been other classification of characteristics

of Indian architecture. Hopefully I want to make this book a stepping stone

and want more young people to come up with fresh Indian architectural

theory.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xkuruva.htm>

Capital carving of Mallikarjuna Temple, Kuruvatti

 

Up till now, we saw the characteristic of each keyword and its various

aspects in this trip of 26 Chapters. What is the biggest characteristic of

Indian architecture with all of them put together? Two things can be said

about this. The first one is that since the people of India liked sculpture

most among figurative arts, they wanted to make their construction also look

like a sculpture.

 

When you visit an Indian temple you will be amazed at the carvings

decorating the structure from end to end regardless of whether they are

freestanding temples, cave temples, stone constructions or wooden. You begin

to wonder whether the building was constructed just so that one could sculpt

on them.

Compared with this, mural paintings are few and they have not played as

important a role as sculpture. This is in contrast with the Japanese who

love paintings. This tendency has continued till the present day. In his

autobiography, Antonin Raymond, an architect, has written his impression of

his stay in India as follows. "It was a wonder to me that there were not

many painters in India. In Japan even our servant was a painter, and his

works were of good quality too."

 

The Indians not only decorated the inside and outside of a building with

sculpture, but considered that the whole building to be a huge sculpture. It

is contrary to the thought that architecture is an art and technology to

enclose 'the space' inside.

When visiting various temples and admiring the wonders of sculptural

expression, often there is disappointment about the poor quality of interior

space of the temple. The inside is dark, small and 'cave like,' so the whole

structure is exterior oriented architecture. As time passed, the sculpture

decorating the walls got more and more complicated. If it had gone on this

line only, the Indian architecture must have got biased toward an

architectural deviation.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xgopra.htm>

Upper part of Gopura at Nageshwara Temple, Kumbakonam

 

The advent of Islamic architecture reversed this trend. In Islam idol

worship is completely banned. Islam forbids image-expression of sculpture,

pictures, etc. and has developed the architecture of just a plain wall

enclosing space.

On the other hand, compared with the architecture in other Islamic areas,

the Islamic architecture of India took to the outward expression of

sculpting in response to the influence of native architecture. Even Taj

Mahal <http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/unesco/15_tajmahal/xmorning.htm>, a

mausoleum of Persian style has as brilliant sculpture-expression that was

obtained owing to the construction by Indians.

 

The second characteristic is that although main Indian monuments were

constructed of stone, they had held principles of wooden architecture.

In ancient India, since wood was more abundant than is available now, Indian

architecture started with wooden origins, and even though stone construction

became more popular during medieval period, it still stuck to the principles

of wooden construction in its frame and expression. Even after Islamic

architecture brought with it the arch and dome, the framework construction

with posts and beams were still adhered to and stone continued to be used

like wood.

 

<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/xakbar.htm>

Mausoleum of Akbar, Sikandra near Agra

 

Probably, an ingrained feeling of beauty was more important than structural

superiority or inferiority. The Islamic architecture transplanted to India

was also influenced by this concept and the framework-based Islamic

construction that cannot be seen in any other Islamic area, was developed. "

Chattri <http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/information/indoislam/xchatri.htm>,"

a heavy domed roof supported only with thin posts and beams, without using

an arch is one such type.

 

It was clear that, unlike wood, the framework construction method where

stone weak in tension is used for beam or lintel is theoretically inferior

compared with the arch and dome structure where stone and brick is stacked

in a radial pattern and built over a big span. Nevertheless, people from

India persisted in it and completed magnificent buildings.

 

It resembles monophonic Indian music. Compared with Occidental polyphony

(many voices) monophony is theoretically inferior. However, achievement of

art cannot be compared as superior or inferior based only on principle. Even

if the music of India is monophonic, with exhaustive research it has

acquired an extremely advanced theory and musical expression.

So also, the stone architecture of India has given rise to an extremely

advanced architecture rival to Islamic or European architecture, by

experiments with wooden-like post-and-beam and corbelled dome structures.

The zenith of this architecture can be seen in the Adinatha

Temple<http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/jaina/6_ranakpur/xdome.htm>at

Ranakpur.

 

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/introduction/intr_eng.htm