India and Southeast Asia

      Little is known of the cultures that produced such prehistoric Indian cities as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, which flourished along the banks of the Indus from the 3rd millennium BCE. Laid out on a grid oriented to the cardinal directions, these settlements’ advanced refinements – raised citadels on stepped terraces, sewers, running water for domestic use and large ritual baths – rival those of Sumerian cities of the time, though they are oddly lacking in large royal tombs or religious buildings. In general however, the architectural traditions of the Indian subcontinent – and indeed its surviving monuments – are largely religious in nature, focused on great temple complexes. Architectural style varied according to successive ruling regimes, who dictated the favoured religious system. Four major epochs can be discerned. The most ancient Indian culture, the forerunner of modern Hinduism, is sometimes termed Indo-Aryan, and lasted from about 1500 BCE until about 120 °CE. In the 3rd century BCE the great ruler Asoka imported skilled artisans from Persia to initiate a tradition of skilled stone carving. This period also saw the creation of the first Buddhist monuments, a religion that arose in the 6th century. Substantial Buddhist stupas (gated and domed mounds, serving as centres of pilgrimage), chatiyas (temples) and viharas (monasteries) can be found in southern India, and – as at Ajanta – often utilise natural caves or are cut into rock hillsides. The Kailasa Temple at Ellora (75 °CE), devoted to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, is part of a great complex of rock-cut architecture at the site. Excavated out of a 2-km stretch of basalt cliff, it was begun by vertical excavation: carvers cut down through the living rock, removing some 200,000 tons of material to create a complex monolithic structure featuring tall monuments and multi-storied