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different sizes, fortifications, connecting road-ways and
city-gates.
Bharata's Natyas膩stra (Adhyaya II) gives the necessary
rules for the construction of theatres. There we get the
technical nature of ancient Indian theatre.
From this brief summary of the literary evidences of
the history of Indian Architecture we may conclude that by the
time of Buddha or that of Kautilya's Arthasastra, and even
earlier, the science of architecture had been fully developed
in India.
Actual architectural remains are found from the third
century B.C. i.e. the Maurya period. The remains of
Pataliputra, modern Patna, are very important because
Magasthenes, the Greek Ambassador at the Maurya court, has given
full description of this city. We find here the main
architectural types namely the stambhas or pillars, the stupa,
the caitya hall and the Vihara. Emperor Asoka erected many
monolithic stone pillars with imposing capitals.
Very elaborate and informative histories of Indian
architecture have been written before, covering the period
from the 2nd century B.C. to the 6th century A.D. The very
valuable works of Mr. Percy Brown, Dr. Coomaraswamy, Fergusson,
Dr. V.A. Smith are well-known.
With the help of these
researches, I am giving here a brief account of architectural
specimens in the period from the 2nd Century B.C. to the 6th
Century A.D.