Ancient India

• For the ancient Vedic people, the physical world was only part of the story; there also existed an immaterial world that was non-manifested. Vedic ideas consisted of sacred geometry, repeated procedures, change and equivalence. Ancient Hindu art and architecture are full of iconography and distinct forms traced back to Sutra texts that discuss primitive structures. Such iconography in ancient Hindu temples constructed on principles of sacred geometry appear as an attempt to make manifest the non-manifested, immaterial world. The same applies to painting and sculptures. The classical Hindu art and architectural forms consist of Rajasthani, Moghul, Kangra, Pahari and Kalighat to name a few. As Hindu society evolved and continually diversified, so did Hindu art and architecture.
  
  

Buddhist Influences

• With roots dating back to 225 B.C., Buddhist art and architecture have a rich tradition almost as ancient as the Hindu forms. With Asoka, the Mauryan (Northern India) emperor establishing Buddhism as the state religion, Buddhist art and architecture flourished. Asoka was responsible for a range of architecture and art commissions revering Buddhism. With his death, however, his empire crumbled, but not his legacy of art and architecture. The Hindu dynasties of the Sungas and the Andhras both succeed Asoka and were tolerant of the Buddhist tradition, often adding to Asoka's architectural structures, fusing Hindu art forms with Buddhist traditions. This trend still continues in modern-day India, in particular with many lower caste Hindus converting to Buddhism but still retaining Hindu influences in the arts and architecture.
  
  

Islamic Influences

• Around the end of the 12th century, Islam introduced to the Indian subcontinent not only a new religion, but also new forms of art and architecture. However, Islamic invaders were not so tolerant of Hindu expressions or Buddhist traditions, often destroying sculptures and other art forms. Islamic invasion is often attributed to the decline of Buddhism in India, its birthplace, with adherents either fleeing or converting to Hinduism. This further fueled the integration of Buddhist and Hindu art forms, but the process also made use of Islamic expressions. Two of the most influential Islamic forms were the arch and minaret, both incorporated into Hindu art and architecture. The Islamic influence on Hindu art and architecture is primarily of the Persian-Islamic tradition with the most major changes taking place in musical art forms that produce "Hindustani" music and architecture involving the fusion of Hindu stone masonry and Islamic tradition of spaciousness and grace.
  
  

Modern India

• In modern India, a struggle is under way to nationalize, or "Indianize," art and architecture. As pointed out by architecture scholar Ritu Bhatt when she was a Woodrow Wilson fellow with University of California at Berkeley, the effort is hindered by fallacies in the study of ancient art and architecture, which often fails to fully appreciate how the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic expressive traditions merged and evolved simultaneously. As these different traditions intersected, the arts and architectures that emerged proved to be wholly integrated, rather than distinct, styles. This integration was often highly personal, resulting in a diverse range of art and architecture that defies classification. Another complication, Bhatt wrote, is the modern tendency to read political or religious significance into the purely stylistic merging of architecture. Embracing the stylistic diversity seems fitting. After all, Hindu art and architecture have an distinctive history of embracing new ideas, even under the direst circumstances.