ARCHITECTURE OF VEDIC PERIOD

(B.C. 1500- 800)

After the decay of the Indus Civilization when the art of building again comes into
view, this no longer consists of well laid out cities of finished masonry, but takes a
much more rudimentary form of humble village huts constructed of reeds and leaves
and hidden in the depths of the forest. The culture of the people was beginning
again.

The Vedic culture of India provides the material for a study of the first efforts at
building construction, when man's efforts were made in response to a need, and
before any ideas of architectural effect were conceived. This culture, which
produced the rudimentary type of forest dwelling referred to above, appeared
probably towards the end of the second millennium B.C. ; it was the outcome of
the great Indo-Aryan migration from the north-west, and which in the course of
time laid the foundations of the Vedic Age.

On the one hand the inhabitants of the Indus region, as already shown, were
mainly traders and town-dwellers, and on the other hand the Vedic people were
of the country, wresting their living from the fields and forests. As far as is known
the latter were originally nomads, an offshoot of an immense and obscure
migration, who, on settling down in the plains of India, became partly pastoral
and partly agricultural, having as their habitations rudimentary structures of
reeds and bamboo thatched with leaves.
These early immigrants had to protect themselves and their property from the
ravages of wild animals, and so they surrounded their little collection of huts
(grama) with a special kind of fence or palisade. This fence took the form of a
bamboo railing the upright posts (thabha) of which supported three horizontal bars
called suchi or needles, as they were threaded through holes in the uprights.

In the course of time this peculiar type of railing became the emblem of protection
and universally used, not only to enclose the village, but as a paling around fields,
and eventually to preserve anything of a special or sacred nature. In the palisade
encircling the village, entrances also of a particular kind were devised. These were
formed by projecting a section of the bamboo fence at right angles and placing a
gateway in advance of it after the fashion of a barbican, the actual gate resembling
a primitive portcullis (gamadvara).

Through the gamadvara the cattle passed to and from their pasturage, and in
another form it still survives in the gopuram (cow-gate) or entrance pylon of the
temple enclosures in the south of India.
In the vedic village huts were of the beehive pattern made of a circular wall of
bamboos held together with bands of withes (a flexible slender twig) and covered
either with a domical roof of leaves or thatched with grass. A remarkable illustration
of this may be seen in the interior of the rock-cut Sudama cell in the Barabar hill
group, where every detail of the timber construction is copied on the rocks.
At a later date in the evolution of the Vedic hut the circular plan was elongated into
an oval with a barrel roof formed on a frame of bent bamboos also covered with
thatch.
Soon some of these huts were arranged in threes and fours around a square
courtyard and the roofs covered with planks of wood or tiles. In the better class
houses unbaked bricks were used for the walls, and the doorways were square-
headed openings with double doors.

One device to maintain the barrel shape of the roof was to stretch a thong(strip of
leather) or withe across the end of the arch like the cord of a bow, in a word an
embryo tie-rod. (Plate I, Fig, 3.) This device constricted the bottom end of the arch
and produced a shape resembling a horseshoe, a type of archway commonly
referred to as the chaitya or "sun-window,” which became characteristic of the
subsequent architecture of the Buddhists, It will be seen therefore, that a very
ancient usage underlies many of these village forms, which is significant in view of
the ensuing structural developments.
Decorative character was obtained by means of color applied on the mud walls.
Huts in the remote villages of India, have almost invariably white-washed walls as
well as ground with patterns of archaic designs in red pigment painted on it. The
symbolism in such patterns suggests a very early origin which may go back to
Vedic times.

Towards the middle of the first millennium B.C., the social system of the Vedic
community so expanded that towns arose at certain important centers, where the
traditional structural features of the village were re- produced on a larger scale and
in a more substantial form.

The Vedic civilization now enters in an era of timber construction.

In the Rig- Veda the carpenter is recorded as holding the place of honor among all
artisans as on his handiwork the village community depended for some of its most
vital needs. It is not remarkable therefore, in view of this timber tradition that its
constructional features were freely and closely imitated in the rock and stone
architecture which eventuated and was the form of expression for many centuries
afterwards.
Cities largely of wooden construction, therefore began to appear in various
parts of the country (majorly in northern part). They were planned by an
architect named “Maha-Govinda” in the fifth century.

In principle these cities were rectangular in plan and divided into four quarters
by two main thoroughfares intersecting at right angles, each leading to a city
gate. One of these quarters contained the citadel and royal apartments another
resolved itself into the residences of the upper classes, a third was for the
middle class, and the fourth was for the accommodation of traders with their
workshops open to view us in the modern bazaar.
In spite, however, of the evidences of the literary records which indicate that
much of the building construction at this early date was of a temporary in nature,
the one example that has survived proves that some efforts were already being
made to produce stone masonry of a durables character.

The beginnings are seen in the city wall of Rajgriha, the ancient capital of
Magadha, now a vast area of ruins in the Patna district of Bihar
This wall consists of a rough pile of massive undressed stones, each between
three and five feet in length, but carefully fitted and bonded together.

The core between is composed of smaller blocks less carefully prepared with
fragments of stone packed within the gaps ; no mortar appears to have been
used.

This same system of walling is found in primitive masonry of the Pelasgicum of

the Acropolis at Athens, with which it is probably contemporary.

The desire for some stable method of construction was evidently being felt, but at
this stage, the skill and experience were lacking.