  In this paper we extend the construction of the canonical polarized variation
of Hodge structures over tube domain considered by B. Gross in \cite{G} to
bounded symmetric domain and introduce a series of invariants of infinitesimal
variation of Hodge structures, which we call characteristic subvarieties. We
prove that the characteristic subvariety of the canonical polarized variations
of Hodge structures over irreducible bounded symmetric domains are identified
with the characteristic bundles defined by N. Mok in \cite{M}. We verified the
generating property of B. Gross for all irreducible bounded symmetric domains,
which was predicted in \cite{G}.
