Architectural art in India was not so impressive and grand as in Egypt, and was directed chiefly to the erection of temples.  Nor is it of very ancient date.  There is no stone architecture now remaining in India, according to Sir James Fergusson, older than two and a half centuries before Christ; and this is in the form of Buddhist temples, generally traced to the great Asoka, who reigned from 272 B.C. to 236 B.C., and who established Buddhism as a state religion.  There were doubtless magnificent buildings before his time, but they were of wood, and have all perished.  We know, however, nothing about them.

The Buddhist temples were generally excavated out of the solid rock, and only the facades were ornamented.  These were not larger than ordinary modern parochial churches, and do not give the impression of extraordinary magnificence.  Besides these rock-hewn temples in India there remain many examples of a kind of memorial monument called stupas, or topes.  The earliest of these are single columns; but the later and more numerous are in the shape of cones or circular mounds, resembling domes, rarely exceeding one hundred feet in diameter.  Around the apex of each was a balustrade, or some ornamental work, about six feet in diameter.  These topes remind one of the Pantheon at Rome in general form, but were of much smaller size.  They were built on a stone basement less than fifty feet in height, above which was the brickwork.  In process of time they came to resemble pyramidal towers rather than rounded domes, and were profusely ornamented with carvings.  The great peculiarity of all Indian architectural monuments is excessive ornamentation rather than beauty of proportion or grand effect.

In course of time, however, Indian temples became more and more magnificent; and a Chinese traveller in the year 400 A.D. describes one in Gaudhava as four hundred and seventy feet high, decorated with every sort of precious substance.  Its dome, as it appears in a bas-relief, must have rivalled that of St. Peter’s at Rome; but no trace of it now remains.  The topes of India, which were numerous, indicate that the Hindus were acquainted with the arch, both pointed and circular, which was not known to the Egyptians or the Greeks.  The most important of these buildings, in which are preserved valuable relics, are found in the Punjab.  They were erected about twenty years before Christ.  In size, they are about one hundred and twenty-seven feet in diameter.  Connected with the circular topes are found what are called rails, surrounding the topes, built in the form of rectangles, with heavy pillars.  One of the most interesting of these was found to be two hundred and seventy-five feet long, having square pillars twenty-two feet in height, profusely carved with scenes from the life of Buddha, topped by capitals in the shape of elephants supporting a succession of horizontal stone beams, all decorated with a richness of carving unknown in any other country.  The Amravati rail, one of the finest of the ancient monuments of India, is found to be one hundred and ninety-five by one hundred and sixty-five feet, having octagonal pillars ornamented with the most elaborate carvings.