India Architecture (Hinduism & Islam)

India is one of the countries consisting of many religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism. Through these religions, specific architectures are expressed in different way according to the beliefs. Two most common religions in India are Hinduism and Islam. Hinduism is considered as the world’s third largest religion which originally occured in India.

It is different from other religions as it contains only a single founder, a specific theological system and a central religious authority. Hindu architecture concentrates extremely on the religious and spiritual while Islamic architecure focus on monuments, human way of living and forbids idol worship.

One of the notable architecture built under the

belief of Islam is Taj Mahal. In Agra, India, Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in mem

ory of his third wife. It is a white marble grave which is widely regconized as “The jewel of muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. One of the

feature that makes Taj Mahal very famouse is its symmetrical contruction. This way the architecture force people to look at th

e building in a specific perspective. Also, the craftmanship still resemble the Jali which is the latticed screen used for decoration in Islamic Mosque architecture. On the hand, Hinduism architecture main feature focuses on the religious and spiritual. Kanchipuram Temples consisted of a group of a hundred Hindu shrines which was built by Pallvala King. Early temples were mostly dedicated to Shiva. Later, pillars bore the brunt of the carver’s tool, and these came to be richly adorned with scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.