Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad

“This brief survey of Hindu architecture in India itself may enable the reader to follow the natural course of its migration, not only to the border lands, but also into what is known as Serindia and Insulindia, and, to a certain extent, to China, Japan, and even Central America. The account of the Central Asian Hindu architecture is largely based on the Serindian explorations of Sir Aurel Stein, to whom the indebtedness of the writer is gratefully acknowledged. Insulindia comprises a much larger area, and contains in its wonderful island stores numerous colossal Hindu and Buddhist monuments which were necessarily erected because of their aesthetic and scientific merits, and because the builders and the rulers who colonized those islands went from India and were lovers of Indian arts.

My grateful acknowledgment is, however, recorded here, also, to James Fergusson for the help received from his drawings and woodcuts in his History of Indian and Eastern Architecture and to Dr. R. C. Mazumdar and other scholars who recently contributed to the Greater India series. While the influence of Hindu culture on Chinese and Japanese civilizations is generally known and acknowledged, it would be news to many that the Yucatan Peninsula, in the Mexican territory of Central America, contains some Hindu monuments. The Maya manuscript book records the migration to America of the clans whose chief, Maya, is stated in the great Indian Epic to have built a wonderful audience hall for the King Yudhishthira. The British Museum Guide to the Maudsley Collection of Maya Sculptures further confirms the building activities of Maya clans in America. But the credit is due to Dr. Gann and Professor Morley for the first discovery of the great city of Coba and the famous monolith of Asokan type in the once populous site of the forests of Yucatan. The Mayas also erected magnificent temples and palaces, no doubt after Hindu originals, through the prototypes of Java. The conclusion of Professor Elliot Smith, of University College, London, which is gratefully reiterated here, is that ‘the Maya civilization of Central America was directly derived from India.’
Extract from the Author’s Preface