During the 20th century, the United States witnessed the carving of one of the greatest architectural phenomena of the time, namely Mount Rushmore. It's here that workers painstakingly carved the faces of three presidents into the granite mountainside of South Dakota's Black Hills. Although brilliant and impressive, this type of rock carving was not new. In fact, this type of architecture can be found on the Indian subcontinent as early as the 4th century BC. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Originally, Indian artists began carving trees (wood) with religious themes, which are now entirely lost. Around the 3rd century BC, they began digging into cave walls, creating rock-hewn shrines and shrines that eventually evolved into large and complex temples and monasteries. Thousands of these temples were carved and built along the Indus Valley, the oldest in brick and mortar, and still survive in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (now in Pakistan). In these caves were found sculptures and pictograms similar to objects found in Mesopotamia which make historians believe that there was some sort of relationship between these two cultures. The cave and rock carvings, however, seem to be synonymous with ancient India only. It is believed that the reason why this type of architecture started in India is as a result of the religion, beliefs and culture of India during that ancient era. The people of ancient India believed a lot in gods and had many assumptions about the world. Their primary belief was that everything worked as a single process, that is, change and perfection, time and eternity, existence and transcendence were one.1 It is this belief which made the artist understand that art cannot be separated from nature, nor can art be separated from nature. the work of art is separated from eternity. By carving stone, caves and mountain sides, artists merged nature and eternity with the powerful art of their time, glorifying the mystery of these conflicts. With the advent of Buddhism came the first historical period of this type of Indian architecture. The Indian king Asoka (250 BC) granted imperial patronage to Buddha and had many monuments built for religious purposes. The stupa, a domed or rounded structure containing a relic of Buddha, was considered the symbol of Buddha and was a center of Buddhist worship.2 The largest structure commissioned by Asoka was the Great Stupa of Sanchi which honored death and the entrance. to the Nirvana of Buddha. It was a huge dome surrounded by balustrades (vedika) and richly carved portals (torana). The main dome was carved from a small mountain and shaped into a semi-circular dome, with parts of the elaborate doorways carved from other enormous free-standing "living" rocks. Buddhist architecture survived for about five centuries in India as Hinduism and Jainism became more dominant. Following the same type of rock-cut architecture, the Jains built many larger, ornate temples with pointed domes made of corbelled stones. The Jains built many structures, but none compare to the remarkable Hindu style that came after the Jains. The Hindu style was very closely related to the Buddhist style. It began around the 6th century AD, when Hindu dynasties began to flourish. There were three areas where Hindu architecture.