Thematic Space in Indian Architecture

Thematic Space in Indian Architecture represents an attemptto understand th spatial order that apparently runs right across the enormous spectrum of building types in India. This spatial order seems to emerge more from its own meanings rather than the specificity of any function. This very ambiguity creates a range od spaces that are similar in form and yet diverse in character. An effort to understand space in Indian architecture can draw on the simple and direct physical conditions of the environment prevailing at any place, thus giving a meaning to the creation of spaces within specific physical parameters. This discussion is, therefore, an attempt to understand and explain the ideas of space as observed in various essential, functional and structural expressions in the architectural traditions of India. It is not based on mythical beliefs or romantic versions of ‘notion of space’. While most writing on the subject have so far concentrated on the sculptural and the decorative, the idea here is to examine the simplest and most common feature of a spatiality that has lasted for centuries. The thrust is on the thematic and the conceptual. And the study includes both the mundane and the sacred. It is the abstract notion of space common to both that are the focus of this set of articles.