User:Johnbod/seals

There are over 30 architectural World Heritage Sites in India, dating from the 3rd or 2nd millenium BCE to the 20th century CE. Indian architecture over most of the country has a tradition of very fine work in stone, though wood has also been very important, but rarely survives for long periods in most regions. No complete buildings survive from the Indus Valley Civilization, though there are very extensive remains in fired brick of ground floors, as well as the streets and water channels. Indian rock-cut architecture has the largest number of significant buildings in any country, and includes the earliest surviving structures, such as the Barabar Caves from the 3rd century BCE. Enigmatic remains, especially at Kosambi and Pataliputra (modern Patna) suggest the existence of large palaces in fortified cities in North India in the last centuries BCE.

From the 2nd century BCE numbers of elaborate Buddhist cave complexes were cut out, especially in the Western Ghats, many with large chaitya halls for worship and instruction. The Ajanta Caves are the best known. Sanchi is the best survival of a stupa complex, and the Mahabodhi Temple the only Buddhist survival of a very high tower over a temple, looking forward to later Hindu temples. After a lull, a second wave of cave construction from the 5th century onwards included Hindu and Jain caves, often beside Buddhist ones, as at the Ellora Caves.

Hindu temple architecture has developed several regional styles giving very different exteriors, although internally all centre on a plain windowless sanctuary containing a murti, expressing a metaphor of a cave within a mountain. In the north large shikhara towers rise over the sanctuary, as at Khajuraho and Bhubaneswar, while in the south the equivalent vihara is much lower. Instead, large southern temples have towering gopurams or gate towers around the edges of the site. Stone temples are massive in construction, traditionally using no mortar, and very elaborately carved. The carved brick temples in Bishnupur, West Bengal are one very distinct regional style.

Indo-Islamic architecture brought large domes and the heavy use of arches to India, giving mosques large central spaces for communal worship. Elaborate tombs of a similar plan were an innovation for India, the Taj Mahal the most famous. The Mughal style was influential on other religions, especially in palaces. Surviving palace architecture is mostly in fort-palaces, such as the Mughal Red Fort in Delhi, the Agra Fort and the Hill Forts of Rajasthan. Havelis are large townhouses whose style varies regionally. Those in the Historic City of Ahmadabad are one group.