Some interesting facts about Indian architecture - Quora

A Rashtrakuta King named Krishna I wanted to build a temple which resembles the Mount Kailasha - the abode  of Lord Shiva in the 8th century. At that time, the architectural style  prevalent was rock cut caves and they were beginning to move towards rock  cut monuments.

If you wonder, what is a rock cut monument, look at the famous statue of David. It is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet Michelangelo.

It is made out of a single marble block like the one given below.

And by Michelangelo working on it like this example.

Similarly, a rock cut monument is something made out of a single stone usually a big boulder - like the Ratha Temples in Mahabalipuram. But the King felt, if he is going to make a temple resembling Mount Kailasha - the abode of Lord Shiva, it can't be small but it had to be proportionately bigger than the ones currently existing in the world.

He needed a single rock big enough to fulfill his dream. So, his architects & sculptors made one by cutting three big trenches in the three sides of the hill. Now they have got a block of stone and they started chiseling it from its top. When they finished it, it became the largest monolithic human built structure of the world measuring 276 X 154 X 107 feet (length X width X height) and it is no wonder it is called the Kailasa Temple. It is in Ellora along with the other Buddhist & Jain monuments.  Although technically sculpted out of single rock, Kaliasa Temple is free standing structure with two storyes and consists of a main shrine, sixteen pillared mandapa, a nandimandapa and a gopura, of which the last three are connected by rock bridges.

When I saw it, it was a mind blowing experience to see an entire temple built out of single stone and even a single error in the construction would have resulted in abandoning the whole and starting with a new one. An amazing achievement which I feel impossible to achieve even now.



Rani-ki-Vav, on the banks of the Saraswati River, was initially built as  a memorial to a king in the 11th century AD. Stepwells are a  distinctive form of subterranean water resource and storage systems on  the Indian subcontinent, and have been constructed since the 3rd  millennium BC. They evolved over time from what was basically a pit in  sandy soil towards elaborate multi-storey works of art and architecture.  Rani-ki-Vav was built at the height of craftsmens’ ability in stepwell  construction and the Maru-Gurjara architectural style, reflecting  mastery of this complex technique and great beauty of detail and  proportions. But do you know the well was designed as an inverted temple to highlight the sanctity of water?

If  you can't imagine, just look at this temple picture below - the Big Temple at  Thanjavur. Each temple has a vimanam / tower with the main deity in the  sanctum sanctum sanctorum and it is connected by a vestibule to the  mandapas / hall - praying hall, wedding hall and you have the portico for the entrance.

Now just the invert same temple and build it under the ground and you get the Rani Ki Vav step well. The vimana / tower dug deep in the ground first and you have the water in the place of the deity within it. Then the various mandapas following it. It is divided into seven levels of stairs with sculptural panels of  high artistic quality; more than 500 principle sculptures and over a  thousand minor ones combine religious, mythological and secular imagery,  often referencing literary works.The dimensions of the well are  64m long, 20m wide & 27m deep.

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Started around 5th century, Nalanda university is considered as one of the world's first residential university. Nalanda Mahavihara, regarded as one of  the greatest universities of  ancient world, was founded by Kumaragupta I  (413-455 A.D.) of the great  Gupta dynasty. King Harshavardhana of  Kannauj (606-647A.D.) and the Pala  kings of east India (8th-12th  Century A.D.) continued to extend  patronage to this centre. Spread  across 1 square kilometre, with 6 temples and eleven monasteries, this  university taught various subjects like theology, grammer, logic,  astronomy, metaphysics, medicine and philosophy. At its hey day, it  hosted 10,000 students & 2000 teachers and had students from various  parts of the world. Guess, even now very few universities can match its  credentials. There is a legend stating that when it was ravaged by  turkish invader Bakhtiyar Khilji in the 12th Century, the library was so  big that it burnt for 6 months.