Architectural Significance of Granite and Other Durable Rocks in the Context of India – An Analytical Study

Abstract

Architectures created through the cutting of naturally occurred massive rocks include different structures, buildings, tombs, monuments, caves and sculptures. On account of hard and tough property, the granite is considered as strong construction stone in human history. Granite is very common in the continental crust of our mother earth. It is characterised as coarse grained plutonic intrusive igneous rock and is composed of quartz, alkali feldspar and plagioclase. Typical mineralogical character and textural varieties of granite facilitates to develop a wide range of colours, which include white, pink and grey etc. Granite rocks established itself as praiseworthy architecture stone since historical past because of its distinctive character like durability, appreciable finishing, fascinating polish nature and above all its magnificent colour diversities. As architectural stone, the granitic rocks demand attraction owing to the combination of style and elegance. The application of granitic rocks is witnessed in the ancient world through the mesmerising major architectures in India and around the world like Mount Rushmore, Washington Monument, Great Pyramid of Giza; Ajanta and Ellora caves, monolithic structure in the Zagwe-built Lalibela in Ethiopia along with in most of the long-lived old Indian temples, old forts and monuments etc. The monolithic free-standing architecture is generally rock-cut structures as depicted in the Ellora Kailasanathar Temple. The biggest monolithic statue in world, the Gommateshwara statue of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola present in the Indian state at Karnataka was carved in the 983 CE from a single block of granite rock. The radioactivity stuff in the granite is an important concern to the people in recent world. Even though the impact of radioactivity is proved mostly very less harmful to mankind, current research indicates that few granite products are showing radioactive substance index beyond permissible limit of the specified standard, which is responsible for environmental pollution during the use for long. Therefore, due attention is required towards the pertinent issue of radioactivity in the granite stones. Apart from granite, many of the architectures in India are created by the other rock types that include rocks like sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks.