Unique Features of Dravidian Architecture in India: A Retrospect

Abstract

Indian architecture progressed time to time with the assimilation of many influences that occurs as a result of India's global discourse with other regions of the world throughout its millennia-old past. The architecture of India is rooted back in its ancient civilization, culture and religion. Architectural methods practiced in India are a result of examination and implementation of its established building traditions and outside cultural interactions. The traditional Vastu Shastra remains influential in throughout India's architectural styles during the contemporary era. Dravidian architecture is an architectural idiom in Hindu temple architecture that emerged in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent or South India, reaching its final form by the sixteenth century. It consists predominantly of Hindu temples where the feature is the high gopura or gatehouse and large temples. All the majority of structures are located in the Southern Indian states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Various kingdoms and empires which ruled south India such as the Cholas, the Chera, the Kakatiyas, the Pandyas, the Pallavas, the Gangas, the Rashtrakutas, the Chalukyas, the Hoysalas, and Vijayanagara Empire among others have made substantial contribution to the evolution of Dravidian architecture. This style of architecture can also be found in parts of North India of Teli ka Mandir Gwalior, Bhitargaon Baitala Deula, Bhubaneshwar, Northeastern and central Sri Lanka also, having unique features of architectural styles in India.