Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/666

 "6o8 COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE. Buddhism, and was in reality a social league resting upon caste, a complicated system of division of the people according to race, occupation, and geographical position. It broadly divided all classes of the community into : (a.) Brahmans or priests, law- givers, poets, and scientists; (b.) Rajputs; (c.) Vaisyas, or Aryan agricul- tural settlers and craftsmen; (d.) Sudras or serfs. Each caste became, as it were, a trade-guild, to whose care the manufactures, muslins, decorative art and treatment of precious stones of mediaeval India were due. The Brahmanical idea on the trans- migration of souls did not encourage tomb building. Monastic life ceased with the decay of Buddhism, monasteries being replaced by hypostyle halls, serving as shelters for pilgrims and having sacred lakes occasionally surrounded with porticos. For the Mahometan religion in India, see page 654. V. Social and Political. — The people of India have neer become amalgamated, but have continued to consist of several races, under conditions practically unchanged for centuries, and mostly independent of each other, hence the different phases of architecture and the want of unity shown therein. Broadly speaking, the people consist of: (a.) The non- Aryan tribes, or aborigines; {b.) the Aryan or Sanskrit-speaking race, now called Brahmans and Rajputs : (c.) Hindus, a mixed population formed of the above ; and (d.) Mahometans. The tenure of land by feudal princes or lords was an important factor. Such lands produced enormous revenues, which were spent in the erection of religious monuments, largely for self- gratification. Among the most intellectual class the spiritual and contempla- tive aspects of life overpowered the practical and political, and influenced architecture in avoiding constructive problems. Architecture, as a recorder of events, is silent from the expiring years of Buddhism, a.d. 750, to the commencement of the eleventh century, between which periods Indian history is also a blank. The " Mahawanso " of Ceylon, however, forms a history of that island from b.c. 250. The great Buddhist monastery of Nalanda, to the south of Patna, accommodating 10,000 priests, and existing for the first five hundred years of our era, corresponded to the European monasteries of the Middle Ages, attracting and disseminating all the learning of the age. The Chinese pilgrims to India in a.d. 400 and 630 have left interesting descriptions of their visit to this and other buildings. The Jains regarded temple building as a social virtue, leading to a happy future state. Thus private individuals endowed such buildings, which were numerous rather than grand. The absorption of human personality under the caste system was not favourable to domestic architecture, which has remained in a rudimentary state.