How to Prepare for Nata Architecture Awareness?

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Introduction

Karle caves are located near Pune in India, along the ancient trade route from Arabian Sea to Deccan. Developed between 2^nd – 5^th century BC & associated with ‘Mahasamghika’ sect of Buddhism the caves are one of the ancient Buddhist rock cut architectural masterpieces. The cave complex today is one of the protected monuments under Archeological Survey of India. Can you imagine how difficult it would had been in olden times, to carve out such structures without the modern machinary and equipments.

The entrance of the Karle Chaitya Hall as seen when approached. The horseshoe shaped window is the major source of light inside the 45 m long chaitya hall. At the entrance stands a huge lion pillar in all its glory. Earlier there was one more. Exactly in front of the Chaitya Hall stands the Ekveera Mata Temple.

Outer screen

An outer screen, heavily carved, stands in front of the façade. Two lion pillars stood before the screen however, only one stands today. The architecture of rock cut caves of Karle, depicts clear influence from earlier examples of timber construction.

Karle Chaitya Halls

Chaityas are Buddhist prayer halls or shrines where the devotees gathered to worship Lord Buddha.

The Karle Chaitya is a long rectangular hall (45 meters long and 14 meters in height) with an apsidal end where stands the Stupa.

The hall is divided into a central nave and two narrow side aisles with two rows of octagonal columns, 15 on each side, separating central nave from the side aisles.

The nave has a barrel vault for roof.

A ‘pradakshina path’ is provided around the rock cut stupa which acts as a circumambulatory passage for devotees. 

As is clear in the picture provided below, the pillars behind the stupa are plain and devoid of any carved capitals.

View of Karle Chaitya Hall with Stupa at the centre of apsidal end and octagonal pillars on either side of nave. 

Left: The Stupa is a hemispherical mound set on a terrace enshrining a relic. Here, since it is a rock-cut monolith, it has nothing buried underneath but symbolic of the original Stupas. Right: Pradakshina Path around the Stupa.

Columns

There are 15 octagonal pillars on both side of the central nave and 7 rectangular ones at the apsidal end behind the stupa. It is interesting here to observe the details of the pillars. The pillars behind the stupa are quite plain in terms of decoration, whereas pillars on either side of the nave are pot based with intricate carvings and crowned with inverted lotus capital, which is widely used in Buddhist architecture.

Left: The columns have an inverted Lotus Capital along with intricate carvings at the top. Right: The Pot shaped base forms an integral part of the columns in Karle Chaitya Hall.

The Sun Window

The only source of light is the big Sun Window at the entrance. The light penetrates through the central nave and the pillars diffuse the fierce light of the sun into the aisles leaving the aisles as relatively dark spaces.

The Sun Window is the only source of illumination inside the Rock-Cut Chaitya Hall of Karle. The space is relatively dark towards the apsidal end due to low penetration of light.

About the Author: Anu Handa is an Interior Designer, DIY Artist, Co-Founder and Educator at Mosaic Institute of Design. She has been the lead blogpost writer at www.mosaicdesigns.in since 2009. Her educational background in Interior Design, Urban Planning and the English Language has given her a broad base to cover a range of topics in her articles. Anu has spent 15+ years training Design & B.Arch Aspirants for entrance exams.

Passionate about Design Education, she’s briefly worked with Annamalai University as a paper setter for Design Exams. Likes to write about Design, Architecture and related fields, on online platforms like Quora. Aims at challenging the conventional & age old teaching methodology.