A Passage to India	November 14, 2000
by Spencer P.M. Harrington Photographs Courtesy Government of India Tourism

With a 5,000-year history, India presents visitors with a dazzling array of peoples, belief systems, and monuments. The country's architectural legacy is particularly rich, its tombs, shrines, and decorated caves monuments to earthly love or spiritual devotion. Sixteen sites in India have been selected as UNESCO world heritage sites for their historical and architectural value. The following is a pictorial resume of ten of these wonders accompanied by brief descriptions.

Ajanta Caves It was as late as the nineteenth century that a party of British officers discovered the Ajanta Caves on the banks of the Vaghora River in Maharashtra state, west-central India. These 30 caves were built to offer seclusion to the Buddhist monks who lived, taught, and performed rituals there. The caves are decorated with paintings showing the Buddha, nymphs, princesses, and various aspects of daily life in ancient India. Cave 26 includes splendid carvings such as a ca. 20-foot-long sculpture of the reclining Buddha, the Parinirvana.

Ellora Caves Ellora is India's finest example of cave temples with nearly 34 preserving intricate interiors and ornamental facades. Carved between A.D. 350 and 700 in what is now Maharashtra state, west-central India, the rock temples and monasteries represent three faiths-Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Among its highlights are the Kailasa temple in cave 16, which took 100 years to complete. Though carved out of a single rock, it resembles a freestanding south Indian-style temple. The exterior of the temple is richly carved with niches, pilasters, windows, as well as images of deities, mithunas (erotic male and female figures) and other figures. Most of the Hindu deities to the left of the entrance are Shaivaite (followers of Shiva), while on the right hand side the deities are Vaishnavaites (followers of Vishnu).

Taj Mahal India's architectural masterpiece, the Taj Mahal is set amidst landscaped gardens on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra. The Taj was built to enshrine the remains of Begum Mumtaz Mahal, consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666). Constructed by the Persian architect Ustad Isa, the Taj bears inscriptions from the Koran and was built on a 313-square-foot marble platform that stands atop a sandstone base. The monument's dome is 60 feet in diameter and rises 80 feet above the building. Ustad Isa's craftsmen inlaid semi-precious stones into the marble in process known as pietra dura. Within the dome lies the jewel-inlaid cenotaph of the queen.

Fatehpur Sikri Legend about this abandoned city, located 25 miles west of Agra, has it that the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542-1605) made a pilgrimage to this spot to consult the saint Shaikh Salim Chishti, who foretold the birth of a male heir to the childless king. Akbar named his son after the saint in gratitude and transferred his capital to Fatehpur Sikri, which was for 16 years the seat of government for his empire. It is thought that difficulties with water supply caused the city to be abandoned. Fatehpur Sikri is today an immaculately preserved example of a Mughal city at the height of the empire's magnificence.

Mamallapuram Carved out of rock in the A.D. seventh and eighth centuries by rulers of the local Pallava kingdom, the group of monuments that compose Mamallapuram are known for their rathas (temples in the form of chariots), mandapas (cave sanctuaries), and giant open-air reliefs. Located in Tamil Nadu state at the very southern tip of India, Mamallapuram includes the Shore Temple, the oldest in south India, which stands near the Indian Ocean shore, and spectacular bas-reliefs such as "Arjuna's Penance," more than 80 feet long and 25 feet high, named after the hero of the Indian epic Mahabharata.

Konark Sun Temple The Sun Temple of Konark, also known as the Black Pagoda, was built in A.D. 1250 and designed as a celestial chariot with 12 wheels on either side pulled by seven carved horses. The huge wheels represent time, unity, and justice and the movement of each wheel represents a fortnight and each horse a day of the week. The temple's walls feature carvings of divine, semi-divine, human, and animal figures amid floral and geometric decoration. Although some of the temple precincts are in ruins, the 120-foot-high audience hall, the dance hall, and parts of the temple of Chhaya Devi are still preserved.

Khajuraho The temples of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh state were built between A.D. 950-1050 under the patronage of the Chandela kings of north-central India. The 85 granite and sandstone temples of Khajuraho consist of bands of horizontal sculptures that contrast with the vertical line of the temples' superstructure. The temples are fine examples of stonework that include sculpture showing aspects of life in India 1,000 years ago. Khajuraho is most famous for its stone figures of apsaras, or celestial maidens, that appear on every temple and mithunas, erotic figures who demonstrate a variety of sexual positions.

Hampi Hampi, also known as Vijayanagar, located in Karnataka state in southwest India, was once capital of one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history. Extending over 12-and-a-half square miles, Hampi is reputed to have been home to a half million people at its height in the fourteenth century. Temples from this ruined city are known for their large size and wealth of sculptures depicting subjects from the India epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The highlight of the ruins is the Vitthala Temple, whose outer pillars, known as the Musical Pillars, reverberate when tapped. The stone chariot in front of the temple is a favorite subject of tourist photographs.

Sanchi Situated in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, Sanchi is known for some the oldest and most interesting Buddhist structures in India. Sanchi's stupas, monasteries, temples, and pillars date from the third century B.C., when the emperor Ashoka, a convert to Buddhism, built the first stupas here. Other temples were to be constructed here until the twelfth century A.D.. Sanchi's most famous building is Stupa No. 1, originally constructed by Ashoka, which features a hemispherical dome more than 100 feet in diameter. A railing encircles the stupa and four elaborately carved gateways mark entrances to the monument.

Qutab Complex The buildings of the Qutab Complex, located 10 miles south of New Delhi, date to the onset of Muslim rule in India in the twelfth century. Most famous of the buildings in this complex is the Qutab Minar, a tapered, five-story tower that rises 238 feet. Built of marble and sandstone, the Qutab Minar is decorated with ornamental bands of Koranic inscriptions. Each of its stories are ringed by balconies. Another important building in the complex is the Quwwat-ul-Islam Masjid, the earliest extant mosque in India, dating to 1198.

Spencer P.M. Harrington is a senior editor of ARCHAEOLOGY.

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