Course Description:
Throughout northern India, a variety of masonry architecture evolved
between 400 and 600 A.D. to provide a house for images of deities. These
structures can be seen as one of Architecture's most extreme cases:
where the form itself becomes a primary function of the monument.
Several problems can be addressed in approaching these temples: the
sources of their unique form; the nature of the symbolism embodied; and
the remarkable variety of regional expressions over time given by
craftsmen to this otherwise homogeneous model.
This seminar intends primarily to train your eye to see the forms of the
temple, to recognize their meanings, to be able to test and analyse their
evolution over time, and as a final project to interpret and discuss
their regional expressions.