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Indian architecture is rooted in the history, culture, and religion of India. Among several architectural styles and traditions, the best-known include the many varieties of Hindu temple architecture and Indo-Islamic architecture, especially Rajput architecture, Mughal architecture, South Indian architecture, and Indo-Saracenic architecture. Early Indian architecture was made from wood, which did not survive due to rotting and instability in the structures. Instead, the earliest existing architecture are made with Indian rock-cut architecture, including many Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples.

The Hindu temple architecture is divided into the Dravidian style of southern India and the Nagara style of northern India, with other regional styles. Housing styles also vary between regions, depending on climate.

The first major Islamic kingdom in India was the Delhi Sultanate, which led to the development of Indo-Islamic architecture, combining Indian and Islamic features. The rule of the Mughal Empire, when Mughal architecture evolved, is regarded as the zenith of Indo-Islamic architecture, with the Taj Mahal being the high point of their contribution. Indo-Islamic architecture influenced the Rajput and Sikh styles as well.

During the British colonial period, European styles including Neoclassical, Gothic Revival, and Baroque became prevalent across India. The amalgamation of Indo-Islamic and European styles led to a new style, known as the Indo-Saracenic style. After India's independence, modernist ideas spread among Indian architects as a way of progressing from the colonial culture. Le Corbusier - who designed the city of Chandigarh - influenced a generation of architects towards modernism in the 20th century. The economic reforms of 1991 further bolstered the urban architecture of India as the country became more integrated with the world's economy. Traditional Vastu Shastra remains influential in India's architecture in the contemporary era.

Neolithic period

In South India, the Neolithic began in 6500 BCE and lasted till around 1400 BCE when the Megalithic transition period began. The South Indian neolithic period is characterized by ash mounds from 2500 BCE in the region of Karnataka, which later expanded into Tamil Nadu.

Neolithic settlements have been found in the northwest (Kashmir), east (Bihar and Odisha), south (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh), and the northeastern frontier (Meghalaya) of India.

The earliest clear evidence of the megalithic urn burials, discovered at various places in Tamil Nadu, date back to 1000 BCE. The most notable megalithic urn was discovered in Adichanallur, 24 kilometres (15 mi) from Tirunelveli, where archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India unearthed 12 urns containing human skulls, skeletons and bones, husks, grains of charred rice and Neolithic celts, confirming the presence of the Neolithic period 2800 years ago.

The unearthed local and foreign antiquities (of art, architecture, customs, and rituals) depicted by the engravings on pottery and other artifacts, indicate that the prehistoric people of the Burzahom established contact with Central Asia and South West Asia, and had links to the Gangetic plains and peninsular India.

Megalithic burial sites have been found scattered all over the subcontinent. The Neolithic period lasted up until 3300 BCE, overlapping with the following Early Harappan (Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age) period. One of the earliest Neolithic sites in India is Lahuradewa in the Middle Ganga region and Jhusi near the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, both dating to around the 7th millennium BCE.

Indus Valley Civilization (2600 BCE – 1900 BCE)

The Indus Valley civilization covered a large area around and beyond the Indus River basin in the late Bronze Age of India. In its mature phase, from about 2600 to 1900 BCE, the civilization developed several cities marked by great uniformity within and between sites, including Harappa, Lothal, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Mohenjo-daro.

The civic and town planning and the engineering of these cities are deemed remarkable, but the building designs are "of a startling utilitarian character". There are granaries, drains, water-courses and tanks, but neither palaces nor temples have been identified, though cities have a central raised and fortified "citadel". Mohenjo-daro has wells which may be the predecessors of the stepwell. As many as 700 wells have been discovered in just one section of the city, leading scholars to believe that 'cylindrical brick lined wells' were invented by the Indus Valley Civilization.

Architectural decoration is extremely minimal, though there are "narrow pointed niches" inside some buildings. Most of the art found is in miniature forms like seals, and mainly in terracotta, but there are very few larger sculptures of figures. In most sites, fired mud-brick (not sun-baked as in Mesopotamia) is used exclusively as the building material, but a few sites, such as Dholavira, are in stone. Most houses have two storeys, and uniform sizes and plans. The large cities declined relatively quickly, for unknown reasons, so a less sophisticated village culture was left behind.

After the collapse of the Mature Harappan Period, some cities still remained urban and inhabited. Sites like Bet Dwarka in Gujarat, Kudwala (38.1 ha) in Cholistan, and Daimabad (20 Ha) in Maharashtra are considered urban. Daimabad (2000–1000 BC), developed a fortification wall with bastions in its Jorwe culture period (1400–1000 BC), and had public buildings, such as an elliptical temple and an apsidal temple. It also shows evidence of planning in the layout of rectangular houses, and streets or lanes, and planned streets. The area had risen to 50 hectares in with a population of 10,000 people. A 580-metre (1,900 ft) long protection wall dated 1500 BCE was found at Bet Dwarka which was believed to be damaged and submerged following a sea storm.

600 BCE—250 CE

Indian architecture after the Indus Valley Civilization around the Maurya Empire, from 322 to 185 BCE, most likely used wood or recycled brick. Much of the remains discovered from this period onwards are of Indian rock-cut architecture, predominantly Buddhist.

The construction of Buddhist monastic buildings began before the death of the Buddha, around 400 BCE. This first generation of monasteries only survive in floor-plans, notably the Jivakarama vihara in Bihar.

Important features of the period's architecture include, walled and moated cities with large gates and multi-storied buildings, wooden chaitya arches for roofs, and further structures above solid storeys. The reliefs of Sanchi, dated to the 1st centuries BCE-CE, denote places such as Kushinagar or Rajagriha as splendid walled cities, as in the Royal cortege leaving Rajagriha or War over the Buddha's relics. These views of ancient Indian cities are relied on for the understanding of ancient Indian urban architecture.

In the case of the Mauryan capital Pataliputra (near Patna), we have Greek accounts, and that of Faxian; Megasthenes (a visitor around 300 BCE) mentions 564 towers and 64 gates in the city walls. Modern excavations have uncovered a "massive palisade of teak beams held together with iron dowels". A huge apadana-like hall with eighty sandstone columns shows clear influence from contemporary Achaemenid Persia. The single massive sandstone Pataliputra capital shows clear Hellenistic features, reaching India via Persia. The famous Ashoka columns show great sophistication, and a variety of influences in their details. In both these cases a now-vanished Indian predecessor tradition in wood is likely.

Such a tradition is extremely clear in the case of the earliest-known examples of rock-cut architecture, the state-sponsored Barabar caves in Bihar, personally dedicated by Ashoka circa 250 BCE. The entrance of the Lomas Rishi Cave there has a sculpted doorway that clearly copies a wooden style in stone, which is a recurrent feature of rock-cut caves for some time. These artificial caves exhibit an amazing level of technical proficiency, the extremely hard granite rock being cut in geometrical fashion and given the Mauryan polish, also found on sculpture. Later rock-cut viharas, occupied by monastic communities, survive, mostly in Western India, and in Bengal the floor-plans of brick-built equivalents survive. The elaborately decorated facades and "chaitya halls" of many rock-cut sites are believed to reflect vanished free-standing buildings elsewhere.

The Buddhist stupa, a dome shaped monument, was used in India as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics. The stupa architecture was adopted in Southeast and East Asia, where it became prominent as a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics. Guard rails—consisting of posts, crossbars, and a coping—became a feature of safety surrounding a stupa. Temples—build on elliptical, circular, quadrilateral, or apsidal plans—were constructed using brick and timber. The Indian gateway arches, the torana, reached East Asia with the spread of Buddhism. Some scholars hold that torii derives from the torana gates at the Buddhist historic site of Sanchi (3rd century BCE – 11th century CE).

Rock-cut stepwells in India date from 200 to 400 CE. Subsequently, the construction of wells at Dhank (550–625 CE) and stepped ponds at Bhinmal (850–950 CE) took place. Cave temples became prominent throughout western India, incorporating various unique features to give rise to cave architecture in places such as the caves at Ajanta and Ellora.

A very important development, the emergence of the shikara or temple tower, is today best evidenced by the Buddhist Mahabodhi Temple. This was already several centuries old when the first very vertical structure replaced an Ashokan original, apparently around 150–200 CE. The current brick-built tower, probably a good deal larger, dates to the Gupta period, in the 5th or 6th centuries.

Gupta architecture

The Gupta period chiefly represented a hiatus in Indian rock-cut architecture; the first wave of construction was completed before the empire was assembled, and the second wave began in the late 5th century, after its end. For example, an early group of the Ajanta Caves was crafted by 220 CE and a later group was made around 460 CE. Nonetheless, most of the first surviving free-standing structures in India are accredited to the Gupta period, in particular, the beginnings of Hindu temple architecture. As Milo Beach writes, "Under the Guptas, India was quick to join the rest of the medieval world in a passion for housing precious objects in stylized architectural frameworks", the "precious objects" primarily suggesting the icons of gods.

The caves at Ajanta, including Elephanta and Ellora (respectively Buddhist, Hindu, mixed, and Jain) were produced under other dynasties in Central India. Ellora was made after the Gupta period, yet they primarily reflect the monumentality and balance of Guptan style. The Ajanta Caves contain the most significant and mature survivals of painting and the periods, mainly in palace paintings. The Hindu Udayagiri Caves record connections with the dynasty and its ministers, and the Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh, one of the earliest to survive, showcases important sculpture.

North Indian Hindu temples that have survived after the 5th century Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh include those at Tigawa (early 5th century), Sanchi Temple 17 (similar, but respectively Hindu and Buddhist), Deogarh, Parvati Temple, Nachna (465), Bhitargaon, the largest Gupta brick temple to survive, and Lakshman Brick Temple, Sirpur (600–625). Gop Temple in Gujarat (c. 550 or later) is an oddity, with no surviving close comparator.

There are a number of broad models of Guptan-style temples, however, the most common plan exemplifies small but massively built stone prostyle buildings with a sanctuary and a columned porch, apparent at Tigawa and Sanchi Temple 17 and continued today. Both temples have flat roofs over the sanctuary, which would become uncommon by about the 8th century, as seen in the design of the Mahabodhi Temple, Bhitargaon, Deogarh and Gop, with high superstructures of different shapes. The Chejarla Kapoteswara temple further demonstrates the continuance of free-standing chaitya-hall temples with barrel roofs, with many smaller wooden examples.

• A tetrastyle prostyle Gupta period temple at Sanchi beside the Apsidal hall with Maurya foundation. An example of Buddhist architecture from the 5th century.
• The Hindu Tigawa Temple from the early 5th century.
• The current structure of the Mahabodhi Temple dates to the Gupta era in the 5th century. It marks the location where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.
• Vishnu temple in Eran from the 5th-6th century.
• Pataini temple is a Jain temple built during the Gupta period in the 5th century.
• Relief of Jain tirthankara Parshvanatha on the Kahaum pillar, erected by a person named Madra during the reign of Skandagupta in 461.
• The Buddhagupta pillar at Eran (c.476–495)

Temple architecture

Whereas the visible stylistic forms of the temple vary greatly and have a complicated development, the basic elements of a Hindu temple remain the same across all periods and styles. The most essential feature is the inner sanctuary, the garbhagriha or "womb-chamber", where the primary murti of a deity is housed in. Around this chamber are other structures and buildings, at times covering several acres. On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikhara, also called the vimana in the south. The temple may include an ambulatory for parikrama (circumambulation), one or more mandapas or congregation halls, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between the garbhagriha and mandapa.

Larger temples may include more shrines or buildings, either connected together or detached, with smaller temples in the compound. The entire temple compound is usually enclosed by a wall, and at times, raised on a plinth (adhiṣṭhāna). Large areas of the structure are often decorated with carving, including figurative images of deities and other religious figures.

By the 7th century CE, most key features of the Hindu temple were established in theoretical texts on temple architecture and building methods. Three styles of temple were identified: nagara, dravida and vesara. The styles were sometimes mixed, and not yet associated with specific regions in India. For example, in Karnataka, the group of 7th and 8th-century temples at Pattadakal famously mixes forms later associated with both north and south, as does that at Aihole, which still includes apsidal chaitya hall-type plans.

Nagara commonly refers to North Indian temple styles, most easily recognised by a high and curving shikhara over the sanctuary. Dravida or Dravidian architecture is the broad South Indian style, possessing a lower superstructure over the sanctuary. Instead, the structure has a straight profile, rising in a series of terraces to form a decorated pyramid. Today, this is often dwarfed in larger temples by the far larger gopuram outer gateways, a much later development. The ancient term vesara is also used to describe a temple style with characteristics of both the northern and southern traditions. These attributes come from the Deccan and other fairly central parts of India. Although disagreement stands on the exact period and styles that vesara represents, the term is mainly assigned to the northern tradition, but are regarded as a kind of northern dravida by others.

Nagara architecture

Early

Excluding earlier structures in timber-based architecture, hardly any remains of Nagara Hindu temples exist from before the Gupta dynasty in the 4th century CE. The rock-cut Udayagiri Caves are among the most important early sites. The earliest preserved Hindu temples are simple cell-like stone temples, some rock-cut and others structural, as at Sanchi. By the 6th or 7th century, these evolved into high shikhara stone superstructures. However, there is inscriptional evidence, such as the ancient Gangadhara inscription from around 424, that towering temples predated the 6th or 7th century, and they were made from more perishable material. These temples have not survived.

Early North Indian temples that have survived after the 5th century Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh include, Deogarh, Parvati Temple, Nachna (465 CE), Lalitpur District (c. 525), Lakshman Brick Temple, Sirpur (600–625 CE); Rajiv Lochan temple, and Rajim (7th-century CE).

Pre-7th century CE South Indian style stone temples have not survived. However, early South Indian temples that have survived, though in ruins, include the diverse styles at Mahabalipuram, from the 7th and 8th centuries. According to Meister, the Mahabalipuram temples are "monolithic models of a variety of formal structures all of which already can be said to typify a developed "Tamil Architecture" (South Indian) order". They suggest a tradition and a knowledge base existing in South India by the time of the early Chalukya and Pallava era when these were built. Other examples are found in Aihole and Pattadakal.

From between about the 7th and 13th centuries a large number of temples and their ruins have survived (though far fewer than once existed). Many regional styles developed, very often following political divisions, as large temples were typically built with royal patronage. In the north, Muslim invasions from the 11th century onwards reduced the building of temples, and saw the loss of many existing ones. The south also witnessed Hindu-Muslim conflict that affected the temples, but the region was relatively less affected than the north. In the late 14th century, the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire came to power and controlled much of South India. During this period, the distinctive very tall gopuram gatehouse actually a late development, from the 12th century or later, typically added to older large temples.

The recently constructed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is constructed as per the Nagara style.

Later

North Indian temples showed increased elevation of the wall and elaborate spire by the 10th century. On the shikara, the oldest form, called latina, with wide shallow projections running up the sides, developed alternative forms with many smaller "spirelets" (urushringa). Two varieties of these are called sekhari, where the sub-spires extend vertically, and bhumija, where individual sub-spires are arrayed in rows and columns.

Richly decorated temples—including the complex at Khajuraho—were constructed in Central India. Examples include the Lingaraja Temple at Bhubaneshwar in Odisha, Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha, Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. Indian traders brought Indian architecture to South East Asia through various trade routes.

Styles called vesara include the early Badami Chalukya Architecture, Western Chalukya architecture, and finally Hoysala architecture. Other regional styles include those of Bengal, Kashmir and other Himalayan areas, Karnataka, Kalinga architecture, and Māru-Gurjara architecture.

Hoysala architecture is the distinctive building style developed under the rule of the Hoysala Empire in the region historically known as Karnata, today's Karnataka, India, between the 11th and the 14th centuries. Large and small temples built during this era remain as examples of the Hoysala architectural style, including the Chennakesava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara temple at Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura. Other examples of fine Hoysala craftmanship are the temples at Belavadi, Amrithapura, and Nuggehalli. Study of the Hoysala architectural style has revealed a negligible Indo-Aryan influence while the impact of Southern Indian style is more distinct. A feature of Hoysala temple architecture is its attention to detail and skilled craftsmanship. The temples of Belur and Halebidu are proposed UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Approximately 100 Hoysala temples survive today.

Temples of Khajuraho

The Khajuraho Temples are a group of Hindu and Jain temples located in the town of Khajuraho, in the Chhatarpur District of Madhya Pradesh, India. The temples were built between 950 and 1050 by the Chandela dynasty.

Khajuraho is home to 25 sandstone temples in total, although only 20 remain mostly intact. The beautiful carvings on these temples, which show themes from Hindu mythology as well as other facets of everyday life in ancient India, are well-known. Both Hindu and Jain architectural influences may be seen in their design. The temples are split into three groups: the Western group, the Eastern group, and the Southern group. The Western group has the greatest popularity and draws the most tourists.

The Khajuraho Temples were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, and they continue to be a popular tourist attraction in India. According to UNESCO, the Khajuraho Temples "are a masterpiece of Indian art, with their unique architecture and stunning sculptures.

Dravidian style

Dravidian style or the South Indian temple style is an architectural idiom in Hindu temple architecture that emerged in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent or South India and in Sri Lanka, reaching its final form by the sixteenth century. It is seen in Hindu temples, and the most distinctive difference from north Indian styles is the use of a shorter and more pyramidal tower over the garbhagriha or sanctuary called a vimana, where the north has taller towers, usually bending inwards as they rise, called shikharas. However, for modern visitors to larger temples the dominating feature is the high gopura or gatehouse at the edge of the compound; large temples have several, dwarfing the vimana; these are a much more recent development. There are numerous other distinct features such as the dwarapalakas – twin guardians at the main entrance and the inner sanctum of the temple and goshtams – deities carved in niches on the outer side walls of the garbhagriha.

Mayamata and Manasara shilpa texts estimated to be in circulation by 5th to 7th century, is a guidebook on Dravidian style of Vastu Shastra design, construction, sculpture and joinery technique. Isanasivagurudeva paddhati is another text from the 9th century describing the art of building in India in south and central India.

From 300 BCE – 300 CE, the greatest accomplishments of the kingdoms of the early Chola, Chera and the Pandyan kingdoms included brick shrines to deities Kartikeya, Shiva, Amman and Vishnu. Several of these have been unearthed near Adichanallur, Kaveripoompuharpattinam and Mahabalipuram, and the construction plans of these sites of worship were shared to some detail in various poems of Sangam literature.

The architecture of the rock-cut temples, particularly the rathas, became a model for south Indian temples. Architectural features, particularly the sculptures, were widely adopted in South India. Descendants of the sculptors of the shrines are artisans in contemporary Mahabalipuram.

The Badami Chalukyas also called the Early Chalukyas, ruled from Badami, Karnataka in the period 543–753 and spawned the Vesara style called Badami Chalukya Architecture. The finest examples of their art are seen in Pattadakal, Aihole and Badami in northern Karnataka. Over 150 temples remain in the Malaprabha basin.

The Rashtrakuta contributions to art and architecture are reflected in the splendid rock-cut shrines at Ellora and Elephanta, situated in present-day Maharashtra. It is said that they altogether constructed 34 rock-cut shrines, but most extensive and sumptuous of them all is the Kailasanatha temple at Ellora. The temple is a splendid achievement of Dravidian art. The walls of the temple have marvellous sculptures from Hindu mythology including Ravana, Shiva and Parvathi while the ceilings have paintings. These projects spread into South India from the Deccan. The architectural style used was partly Dravidian. They do not contain any of the shikharas common to the Nagara style and were built on the same lines as the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal in Karnataka.

Vijayanagara architecture of the period (1336–1565) was a notable building style evolved by the Vijayanagar empire that ruled most of South India from their capital at Vijayanagara on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in present-day Karnataka. The architecture of the temples built during the reign of the Vijayanagara empire had elements of political authority. This resulted in the creation of a distinctive imperial style of architecture which featured prominently not only in temples but also in administrative structures across the deccan. The Vijayanagara style is a combination of the Chalukya, Hoysala, Pandya and Chola styles which evolved earlier in the centuries when these empires ruled and is characterised by a return to the simplistic and serene art of the past. The South Indian temple consists essentially of a square-chambered sanctuary topped by a superstructure, tower, or spire and an attached pillared porch or hall (maṇḍapa or maṇṭapam), enclosed by a peristyle of cells within a rectangular court. The external walls of the temple are segmented by pilasters and carry niches housing sculpture. The superstructure or tower above the sanctuary is of the kūṭina type and consists of an arrangement of gradually receding stories in a pyramidal shape. Each story is delineated by a parapet of miniature shrines, square at the corners and rectangular with barrel-vault roofs at the centre.