Delhi, Qutb Minar Enclosure, Hindu colonnade, 8th-10th Centuries.
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Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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A heritage of architecture based on wood continued to be foremost in Indian building even to the present day where it is carpentry and wood carving which set the guide lines for stone-carved architecture and its decorative elements. Hindu constructions made excellent use of the carpenter's art so that their buildings were works of sculpture and structural design in the same instance. Evidence for this combination is seen in [this] beautiful 8th century colonnade where the delicate pillars are carved as if on a lathe. To the Hindu architect, the stone was [as] much a living entity as a tree trunk, and [it] was the task of the artisan to frree the living form of the organism within the stone with exuberant carving. This is in keeping with the Hindu's broader conception of the divine manifesting itself wherever it saw fit.
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Archives Series
Basham Collection
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circa 1970s
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This item is provided for research purposes. Contact the Australian National University Archives at butlin.archives@anu.edu.au for permission to use.
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