During the twentieth 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 side of a granite mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Although brilliant and majestic, this type of rock sculpture was not new. In fact this type of architecture is found in the Indian sub-continent and dates back to the 4th century BC. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Originally, Indian artists began carving trees (wood) with religious themes, which are now completely lost. Around the 3rd century BC, they began carving into cave walls creating rock-cut shrines and sanctuaries that eventually evolved into large, complex temples and monasteries. Thousands of these temples were carved and built along the Indus Valley, the oldest in brick and mortar, and still remain in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (now in Pakistan). Inside these caves, sculptures and pictographs similar to objects found in Mesopotamia have been found which make historians believe that there was some sort of interrelationship between these two cultures. Cave and rock carvings, however, appear to be synonymous only with ancient India. 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 this ancient period. The people of ancient India believed greatly in gods and had many assumptions about the world. Their main belief was that everything worked as a single process, that is, that change and perfection, time and eternity, existence and transcendence were one.1 It is this belief that made the artist understand that art cannot be separated from nature, nor that the work of art be separated from eternity. Carving stone, caves, and mountainsides, artists fused nature and eternity with the powerful art of their time, thus 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) gave imperial patronage to Buddha and built many monuments for religious purposes. The stupa, a dome-shaped or rounded structure that contained a relic of the Buddha, was considered the symbol of the Buddha and was a centerpiece of Buddhist worship.2 The largest structure commissioned by Asoka was the Great Stupa at Sanchi which honored death and the entrance to Buddha's Nirvana. It was a huge dome, surrounded by railings (vedika) and richly carved doors (torana). The main dome was carved into a small mountain and shaped into a semi-circular dome, with parts of the elaborate gates carved from another huge freestanding "living" rock. Basic 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 and decorated temples with pointed domes made of corbeled stones. The Jains built many structures, but none comparable to the remarkable Hindu style that was consecutively followed by the Jains. The Hindu style was 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 flourished. Initially, rock-cut Hindu temples closely resembled Buddhist temples, although they were carved with a different pattern, namely the creation of the universe. One such structure, the Orissa Temple, was a huge structure that.