•iTH'j'j'W'i 
 
TEMPLE AT K^iKTONOGGDK, DINAJEPORE. 
 
H I S T O E Y 
 
 OP 
 
 INDIAN AND EASTERN ARCHITECTURE; 
 
 By JAMES FERGUSSON, D.C.L, F.R.S., M.R.A.S., 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OP BRITISH ARCHITECTS, 
 MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI, 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 Tope at Manikyala. 
 
 FORMING THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE NEW EDITION OF THE 
 * HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.' 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN MUKEAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 189L 
 
 Tke rigid of Translation is reserved. 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ROCK-CUT TEMPLES OF INDIA. 
 
 18 Plates in Tinted Lithography, folio: with an 8vo. volume of Text, Plans, &c. 
 21. Is. Gd. London, Weale, 1845. 
 
 PICTURESQUE ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANCIENT ARCHITEC- 
 TURE IN HINDOSTAN. 24 Plates in Coloured Lithography, with Plans, 
 Woodcuts, and explanatory Text, &c. U. 4s. London, Hogarth, 1847. 
 
 AN HISTORICAL INQUIRY INTO THE TRUE PRINCIPLES 
 OF BEAUTY IN ART, more especially with reference to Architecture. Royal 
 Svo. 31s. 6cL London, Longmans, 1849. 
 
 THE PALACES OF NINEVEH AND PERSEPOLIS RESTORED : 
 
 An Essay on Ancient Assyrian and Porf-ian Architecture. 8vo, 16s. London, 
 Murray, 1851. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOK OF ARCHITECTURE. Being 
 a Concise and Popular Account of the Different Styles prevailing in all Ages and 
 all Countries. With 850 Illustrations. Svo. 26s. London, Murray, 1859. 
 
 RUDE STONE MONUMENTS IN ALL COUNTRIES, THEIR AGE 
 AND USES. With 234 Illustrations. 8\o. London, Murray, 1872. 
 
 TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP, OR ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
 
 MYTHOLOGY AND ART IN INDIA, in the 1st and 4th Centuries after Christ. 
 100 Plates and 31 Woodcuts. 4to. London, India Office; and W. H. Allen & Co. 
 2nd Edition, 1873. 
 
 THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS RESTORED, IN 
 CONFORMITY AVITII THE REMAINS RECENTLY DISCOVERED. Plates 
 4to. 7s. Gd. London, Murray, 1862. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSA- 
 LEM ; with restored Plans of the Temple, and with Plans, S. ctions, and Details of 
 the Church built by Constantino the Great over the Holy Sepulchre, now known as 
 the Mosque of Omar. 16s. Weale, 1847. 
 
 THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AND THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM. 
 
 Being the Substance of Two Lectures delivered in the Royal Institution, Albemarle 
 Street, on the 21st February, 1862, and 3rd March, 1865. Woodcuts. Svo. 7s. ed . 
 London, Murray, 1865. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON A PROPOSED NEW SYSTEM OF FORTIFICA- 
 TION, with Hints for its Application to our National Defences. 12s. 6d. London, 
 Weale, 1849. 
 
 THE PERIL OF PORTSMOUTH. French Fleets and English 
 
 FoKTS. Plan. Svo. 3s. London, Murray, 1853. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRITISH MUSEUI^I, NATIONAL 
 GALLEliY, and NATIONAL RECORD OFFICE; with Suggestions for tUeir 
 Improvement. Svo. London, Weale, 1859. 
 
 LONDON. WM. CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 During the nine years that have elapsed since I last wrote on this 
 snbject,^ very considerable progress has been made in the elucidation 
 of many of the problems that still perplex the student of the History 
 of Indian Architecture. The publication of the five volumes of 
 General Cunningham's ' Archaeological Eeports ' has thro^Mi new 
 light on many obscure points, but generally from an archaeological 
 rather than from an architectural point of view ; and Mr. Burgess's 
 researches among the western caves and the structural temples of 
 the Bombay presidency have added greatly not only to our stores 
 of information, but to the precision of our knowledge regarding 
 them. 
 
 For the purpose of such a work as this, however, photography 
 has probably done more than anything that has been written. There 
 are now very few buildings in India — of any importance at least — 
 which have not been photographed with more or less completeness ; 
 and for purposes of comparison such collections of photographs as are 
 now available are simply invaluable. For detecting similarities, or 
 distinguishing differences between specimens situated at distances 
 from one another, photographs are almost equal to actual personal 
 inspection, and, when sufficiently numerous, afford a picture of 
 Indian art of the utmost importance to anyone attempting to de- 
 scribe it. 
 
 These new aids, added to our previous stock of knowledge, are 
 probably sufficient to justify us in treating the architecture of India 
 
 ' ♦ History of Arcliitcctnro in all Conutric s.' 2ik1 cJ. Murray, 1867. 
 
vi PKEFACE. 
 
 Proper in the quasi-exhaustive manner in which it is attempted, in 
 the first GOO pages of this work. Its description might, of course, 
 be easily extended even beyond these limits, but without plans and 
 more accurate architectural details than we at present possess, any 
 such additions would practically contribute very little that was 
 valuable to the information the work already contains. 
 
 The case is different when we turn to Further India. Instead of 
 only 150 pages and 50 illustrations, both these figures ought at least 
 to be doubled to bring that branch of the subject up to the same 
 stage of completeness as that describing the architecture of India 
 Proper. For this, however, the materials do not at present exist. 
 Of Japan we know almost nothing except from photographs, without 
 .plans, dimensions, or dates ; and, except as regards Pekin and the 
 Treaty Ports, we know almost as little of China. We know a great 
 deal about one or two buildings in Cambodia and Java, but our 
 information regarding all the rest is so fragmentary and incomplete, 
 that it is hardly available for the purposes of a general history, and 
 the same may be said of Burmah and Siam. Ten years hence this 
 deficiency may be supplied, and it may then be possible to bring the 
 whole into harmony. At present a slight sketch indicating the 
 relative position of each, and their relation to the styles of India 
 Proper, is all that can well be accomplished. 
 
 Although appearing as the third volume of the second edition of 
 the ' General History of Architecture,' the present may be considered 
 as an independent and original work. In the last edition the Indian 
 chapters extended only to about 300 pages, with 200 illustrations,^ 
 and though most of the w^oodcuts reappear in the present volume, 
 more than half the original text has been cancelled, and consequently 
 at least 600 pages of the present work are original matter, and 200 
 illustrations — and these by far the most important — have been added. 
 These, with the new chronological and topographical details, present 
 the subject to the English reader in a more compact and complete 
 form than has been attempted in any work on Indian architecture 
 hitherto published. It does not, as I feel only too keenly, contain 
 all the information that could be desired, but I am afraid it contains 
 
 * ' History of Architecture,' vol. ii. 445-756, Woodcutb 966-1163. 
 
PREFACE. Yii 
 
 nearly all that the materials at present available will {idmit of l)cing 
 utilised, in a general history of the style. 
 
 When I published my first work on Indian arehiteeture thirty years 
 ago, I was reproached for making dogmatic assertions, and propounding 
 theories which I did not even attempt to sustain. The defect was, I am 
 afraid, inevitable. My conclusions were based upon the examination 
 of the actual buildings throughout the three Presidencies of India 
 and in China during ten years' residence in the East, and to have 
 placed before the world the multitudinous details which were the 
 ground of my generalisations, would have required an additional 
 amount of description and engravings which was not warranted by 
 the interest felt in the subject at that time. The numerous engravings 
 in the present volume, the extended letterpress, and the I'eferences 
 to works of later labourers in the wide domain of Indian architecture, 
 will greatly diminish, but cannot entirely remove, the old objection. 
 No man can direct his mind for forty years to the earnest investiga- 
 tion of any department of knowledge, and not become acquainted 
 with a host of particulars, and acquire a species of insight which 
 neither time, nor space, nor perhaps the resources of language will 
 permit him to reproduce in their fulness. I possess, to give a single 
 instance, more than 3000 photographs of Indian buildings, with 
 which constant use has made me as familiar as with any other object 
 that is perpetually before my eyes, and to recapitulate all the infor- 
 mation they convey to long-continued scrutiny, would be an endless, 
 if not indeed an impossible undertaking. The necessities of the 
 case demand that broad results should often be given when the 
 evidence for the statements must be merely indicated or greatly 
 abridged, and if the conclusions sometimes go beyond the appended 
 proofs, I can only ask my readers to believe that the assertions are not 
 speculative fancies, but deductions from facts. My endeavour from 
 the first has been to present a distinct view of the general principles 
 which have governed the historical development of Indian architecture, 
 and my hope is that those who pursue the subject beyond the pages of 
 the present work, will find that the principles I have enunciated will 
 reduce to order the multifarious details, and that the details in 
 turn will confirm the principles. Though the vast amount of fresh 
 knowledge which has gone on accumulating since I commenced my 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 investigations has enabled me to correct, modify, and enlarge my 
 vieVvs, yet the classification I adopted, and the historical sequences 
 I pointed out thirty years since, have in their essential outlines been 
 confirmed, and will continue, I trust, to stand good. Many sub- 
 sidiary questions remain unsettled, but my impression is, that not a 
 few of the discordant opinions that may be observed, arise prin- 
 cipally from the different courses which inquirers have pursued 
 in their investigations. Some men of great eminence and learning, 
 more conversant with books than buildings, have naturally drawn 
 their knowledge and inferences from written authorities, none of 
 which are contemporaneous with the events they relate, and all 
 of which have been avowedly altered and falsified in later times. My 
 authorities, on the contrary, have been mainly the imperishable 
 records in the rocks, or on sculptures and carvings, which necessarily 
 represented at the time the faith and feelings of those who executed 
 them, and which retain their original impress to this day. In such 
 a country as India, the chisels of her sculptors are, so far as I can 
 judge, immeasurably more to be trusted than the pens of her 
 authors. These secondary points, however, may well await the 
 solution which time and further study will doubtless supply. In 
 the meanwhile, I shall have realised a long-cherished dream if I 
 have succeeded in popularising the subject by rendering its prin- 
 ciples generally intelligible, and can thus give an impulse to its 
 study, and assist in establishing Indian architecture on a stable 
 basis, so that it may take its true position among the other great 
 styles which have ennobled the arts of mankind. 
 
 The publication of this volume completes the history of the 
 'Architecture in all Countries, from the earliest times to the present 
 day, in four volumes,' and there it must at present rest. As originally 
 projected, it was intended to have added a fifth volume on * Eude 
 Stone Monuments,' which is still wanted to make the series quite 
 complete ; but, as explained in the preface to my work bearing that 
 title, the subject was not, when it was written, ripe for a historical 
 treatment, and the materials collected were consequently used in an 
 argumentative essay. Since that work was published, in 1872, no 
 serious examination of its arguments has been undertaken by any 
 competent authority, while every new fact that has come to light — 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 especially in India — has served to confirm me more and more in the 
 correctness of the principles I then tried to establish. ^ Unless, how- 
 ever, the matter is taken np seriously, and re-examined by those who, 
 from their position, have the ear of the public in these matters, no 
 such progress will be made as would justify the publication of a 
 second work on the same subject, I consequently see no chance 
 of my ever having an opportunity of taking up the subject again, so 
 as to be able to describe its objects in a more consecutive or more 
 exhaustive manner than was done in the work just alluded to. 
 
 ' A distinguished German professor, 
 II( rr Kinkel of Zurich, in his ' Mosaik zur 
 Kunstgeschichte, Berlin, 1876,' has lately 
 adopted my views with regard to the age 
 
 of Stonehenge without any reservation, 
 though arriving at that conclusion by a 
 very different chain of reasoning from 
 that I was led to adopt. 
 
 Buddha preaching. (From a fresco painting at Ajuuta.) 
 
( -X ) 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 One of the great ditticultios that meets every one altemptinj^ to write ou Indian 
 subjects at tlie present day is to know how to spell Indian proper names. The 
 Gilchristian mode of using double vowels, which was fashionable fifty years ago, 
 has now been entirely done away with, as contrary to the spirit of Indian ortho- 
 graphy, though it certainly is the mode which enables the ordinary Englishman to 
 pronounce Indian names with the greatest readiness and certainty. On the otht r 
 hand, an attempt is now being made to form out of the ordinary English alphabet 
 a more extended one, by accents over the vowels, and dots under the consonants, 
 and other devices, so that every letter of the Devanagari or Arabic alphabets shall 
 have an exact equivalent in this one. 
 
 In attempting to print Sanscrit or Persian books in Eoman characters, such a 
 system is indispensable, but if used for printing Indian names in English books, 
 intended pri:icipally for the use of Englishmen, it seems to me to add not oidy im- 
 mensely to the rcpulsiveness of the subject, but to lead to the most ludicrous 
 mistakes. According to this alphabet for instance, d with dot under it represents 
 a consonant we pronounce as r ; but as not one educated Englishman in 10,000 is 
 aware of this fact, he reads t-uch words as Kattiwad, Chitod, and Himadpanti as if 
 spelt literally with a d, though they are pronounced Kattiwar, Chittore, and Himar- 
 panti, and are so written in all books hitherto published, and the two first are so 
 spelt in all maps hitherto engraved. A hundred years hence, when Sanscrit and 
 Indian alphabets are t;mght in all schools in England, it may be otherwise, but 
 in the present state of knowledge on the subject some simpler plan seems more 
 expedient. 
 
 In the following pages I have consequently used the Jonesian system, as nearly 
 as may be, as it was used by Prinsep, or the late Professor Wilson, but avoiding as 
 far as possible all accents, except over vowels wher.^ they were necessary for the 
 pronunciation. Over such words as Naga, Kaja, or Hindu — as in Tree and Serpent 
 worship — I have omitted accents altogether as wholly unnecessary for the pro- 
 nunciation. An accent, however, seems indispensable over the a in Lat, to prevent it 
 being read as Lath in English, as I have h( ard done, or over the i in such words 
 as Hullabid, to prevtnt its being read as short bid in English. 
 
 Names of known places I have in all instances tried to leave as they are usually 
 spelt, and are found on maps. I have, for instance, left Oudeypore, the capital of 
 the Kajput state, spelt as Tod and others always spelt it, but, to prevent the two 
 places being confouuded, have taken the liberty of spelling the name of a small 
 unknown village, where there is a temple, Udaipur — though I believe the names are 
 the same. I have tried, in short, to accommodate my spelling as nearly as possible 
 to the present state of knowledge or ignorance of the English public, without much 
 reference to scientific precision, as I feel sure that by this means the nomenclature 
 may become much less repulsive than it too generally must be to the ordinary 
 English student of Indian history and art. 
 
( xi ) 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTKODUCTION Puge 3 
 
 BOOK 1. 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Chap. Tage 
 I. Intkodiction and Classifica- 
 tion 47 
 
 ir. Stambhas oil Lats 52 
 
 III. Stupas— Bhilsa Topes— Topes 
 at Saruath and in Behar — Amra- 
 vati Tope — Gandhara Topes — 
 Jelalabad Topes — Manikyala 
 Tope 57 
 
 IV. Kails— Rails at Bharliut, Mut- 
 tra, Sauclii, and Amravati .. .. 84 
 
 V. Chaitya Halls — Behar Caves 
 —Western Chaitya Halls, &c. .. 105 
 
 Ciivp. Page 
 VI. ViHARAS ok MoNASTEUlIiS — 
 
 Structural Viharas — Bengal and 
 "Western Viliara Oaves — Nassick, 
 Ajunta, Bagh, Dhumnar, Kholvi, 
 and Ellora Viharas — Circular 
 Cave at Junir . . . . 133 
 
 VI [. Gandhara Monasteries — 
 Monasteries at Jamalgiri, Takht- 
 i-Bahi, and Shah Dehri .. ..169 
 
 VIII. Ceylon — Introduclory — 
 Anuradhapura — Pollonarua .. 185 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 I. Introductory 207 
 
 II. Construction — Arches— Domes 
 
 — Plans-Sikras 210 
 
 III. Northern Jaina Style — Pali- 
 tana — Girnar — IMount Abu — 
 Parisnath — Gualior — Khajuraho 22G 
 
 IV. Modern Jain a Style — Jaina 
 Temple, Delhi — Jaina Caves- 
 Converted Mosques 255 
 
 V. Jaina Style in Southern India 
 Bettus— Bastis 265 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 I. Kashmih— Temples— Marttand—Avautipore—Bhaniyar 2/9 
 
 II. Nepal— Stuaps or Chaityas— Wooden Temples— Thibet— Temples at 
 Kangra 
 
 298 
 
CONTENTiS. 
 
 BOOK ly. 
 
 DRAYIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Chap. Pack Chap. Page 
 
 I. iNTRODUCTORy 319 duia— Tiuuevelly — CombaconuDi 
 
 II. D;tA VIDIAN RjCK-CuT Temples — Coi.jeveram— Vellore and Pe- 
 
 — IMahavelliporc — Kylas, Ellora 320 roor— Vijayauagar 340 
 
 III. Dravidian Temples— Tanjore IV. Civil Archi tec tube— Palaces 
 — Tiruvalur— Seringliam — Chil- j at Madura and Tanj ore— Garden 
 lambaram — Ramisseram — Ma- | Pavilion at Vijayanagar .. .. 380 
 
 BOOK Y. 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYLE. 
 
 I. iNTKocrcTORY— Temple at Bucli- 
 ropully — Kirti Stanibha at Wo- 
 raugul — Temples at Somnatlipur 
 
 and Baillur — The Kait Iswara 
 at Hullabid — Temple at Hulla- 
 bid 38G 
 
 BOOK YI. 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 I. iNTiiODUCTORY — Dravidiaii and 
 Indo-Aryau Temples at Badami 
 
 — Modern Temple at Benares . . 406 
 
 II. Orissa — History — Temples at 
 Bhuvaneswar, Kaiiaruc, Puri, Ja- 
 jepur, and Cuttack 414 
 
 III. Western India — Dharwar — 
 Brahmanical Rock-cut Temples 437 
 
 IV. Central and Northern India 
 — Temples at Gualior, KhajuraliO, 
 Udaipur, Benares, Bindrabiin, 
 Kautonuggur, Amritsur .. .. 448 
 
 V. Civil Architecture — Cenotaphs 
 — Palaces at Gualior, Amber, 
 Deeg — Ghats — Reservoirs — 
 Dams 470 
 
 BOOK Yll. 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 I. Introductory 489 
 
 II. Ghazni — Tomb of Mahmud — 
 Gates of Somuath — Minars on 
 the Plain 494 
 
 III. Pathan Style — Mosque at 
 Old Delhi— Kutub Minar— Tomb 
 of Ala-ud-din— Pathan Tombs — 
 Ornamentation of Pathan Tombs 498 
 
 IV. Jaunpore — Mosques of Jumma 
 Musjid and Lull Durwaza .. .. 520 
 
 V. Gujerat — Jumma BTusjid and 
 other Mosques at Ahmedabad — 
 Tombs and IMosquos at Sirkej and 
 Butwa — Buildings in the Pro- 
 vinces 52G 
 
 VI. Malwa — The Great Mosque 
 
 at Mandu 510 
 
 VII. Bengal — Kudam ul Roussoul 
 Mosque, Gaur — Adinah Blosque, 
 Maid ah 545 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC AUCmTWTVUE,- continuefL 
 
 Chap. Tage 
 YIII. Kalbtjrgah— The Mosque at 
 Kalburgah 552 
 
 IX, BiJAPUR — Tlio Jumma Miisjid 
 — Tombs of Ibrahim and Mah- 
 mud — The Audience Hall — 
 Tomb of Nawab Amir Khan, near 
 Tatta 557 
 
 X. Mogul Architecture — Dynas- 
 ties — Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus, 
 
 <-'HAP. Pack 
 Gualior — Mosque at Futtehpore 
 Sikri — Akbar's Tomb, Sccundia 
 —Palace at Delhi — The Taje 
 Mehal — The Muti Musjid — 
 Mosque at Delhi — The Imambara, 
 Lucknow — Tomb of late Nawab, 
 Juuaghur 560 
 
 XI, Wooden Architecture — 
 Mosque of Shah Hamadan, Sri- 
 rmgger 
 
 G08 
 
 BOOK VIIL 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 I. BuRMAH — Introductory — Ruins 
 of Thatun, Prome, and Pagan — 
 Circular Dagobas — Monasteries 611 
 
 II. SiAM — Pagodas at Ayuthia and 
 Bangkok — Hall of Audience at 
 Bangkok — General Remarks . . 631 
 
 III. Java — History — Boro Buddor 
 
 —Temples at Mendoet and 
 Brambanam — Tree and Serpent 
 Temples— Temples at DjeiDg and 
 Suku 637 
 
 IV. Cambodia — Introductory — 
 Temples of Nakhon Wat, Ongcor 
 Thorn, Paten ta Phrohra , &c, . . 663 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 I. Introductory 685 
 
 II. Pagodas — Temple of the Great Dragon — Buddhist Temples — Taas — 
 Tombs — Pailoos — Domestic Architecture 689 
 
 APPENDIX 711 
 
 INDEX : .. 749 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO BINDEB. 
 
 Map of Buddhist and Jaina Localities 
 
 Map of Indo-Aryan, Chalukyan, and Dravidian Localities 
 
 To face 47 
 To face 279 
 
( xiv ) 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 No. 
 1. 
 
 5. 
 
 6. 
 
 7. 
 
 8. 
 
 9. 
 10. 
 11. 
 12. 
 13. 
 
 14. 
 15. 
 16. 
 
 17. 
 
 18. 
 19. 
 20. 
 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 23. 
 
 24. 
 25. 
 26. 
 27. 
 
 28. 
 
 29. 
 30. 
 31. 
 32. 
 33. 
 
 Page 
 
 Naga people worshipping the 
 Trisul emblem of Buddha, on a 
 
 fiery pillar 46 
 
 Sri seated on a Lotus, with two 
 elephants pouring water over 
 
 her 51 
 
 Lat at Allahabad 53 
 
 Assyrian honeysuckle ornament 
 from capital of Lat, at Allaha- 
 bad 53 
 
 Capital of Sankissa 54 
 
 Capital of Lat in Tirhoot .. .. 54 
 
 Surkh Minar, Cabul 56 
 
 Relic Casket of Moggalana .. .. 62 
 
 Relic Casket of Sariputra .. .. 62 
 
 View of the Great Tope at Sanchi 63 
 
 Plan of Great Tope at Sanchi ., 63 
 
 Section of Great Tope at Sanchi .. 63 
 Tee cut in the rock on a Dagoba 
 
 at Ajunta 61 
 
 Tope at Sarnath, near Benares . . 66 
 Panel on the Tope at Sarnath .. 68 
 Temple at Buddh Gaya with Bo- 
 tree " 70 
 
 Representation of a Tope from the 
 
 Rail at Amravati 72 
 
 Tope at Bimeran 78 
 
 Tope, Sultanpore 78 
 
 Relic Casket from Tope at Mani- 
 
 kyala 80 
 
 View of Manikyala Tope .. .. 81 
 Restored Elevation of the Tope at 
 
 Manikyala 81 
 
 Elevation and Section of portion of 
 
 Basement of Tope at Manikyala 82 
 
 Relic Casket, Manikyala . . . . 82 
 
 Tree Worship: Buddh Gaya Rail 86 
 
 Relic Casket : Buddh Gaya Rail . . 86 
 Portion of Rail at Bharhut, as first 
 
 uncovered 88 
 
 Tree and Serpent Worship at Bhar- 
 hut 90 
 
 Rail at Sanchi 92 
 
 Rail, No. 2 Tope, Sanchi .. .. 93 
 
 Representation of Rail . . . . 93 
 
 Rail in Gautamiputra Cave,Nassick 94 
 " Northern Gateway of Tope at 
 
 Sanchi 96 
 
 No. Page 
 
 34. Bas-relief on left-hand Pillar, 
 
 Northern Gateway 97 
 
 35. Ornament on right-hand Pillar, 
 
 Northern Gateway 97 
 
 36. External Elevation of Great Rail 
 
 at Amravati 100 
 
 37. Angle Pillar at Amravati .. ..101 
 
 38. Slab from Inner Rail, Amravati 101 
 
 39. Dagoba (from a Slab), Amravati 102 
 
 40. Trisul Emblem 104 
 
 41. Plan of Chaitya Hall, Sanchi .. 105 
 
 42. Nigope Care, Sat Ghurba group ,. 108 
 
 43. Facade of Lomas Rishi Cave .. 109 
 
 44. Lomas Rishi Cave 109 
 
 45. Chaitya Cave, Bhaja 110 
 
 46. Facade of the Cave at Bhaja ,. Ill 
 
 47. Front of a Chaitya Hall ,. ..Ill 
 
 48. Trisul. Shield. Chakra. Trisul 112 
 
 49. Plan of Cave at Bedsa .. .. 113 
 
 50. Capital of Pillar in front of Cave 
 
 at Bedsa 113 
 
 51. View on Verandah of Cave at 
 
 Bedsa 114 
 
 52. Chaitya Cave at Nassick .. .. 115 
 
 53. Section of Cave at Karli .. .. 117 
 
 54. Plan of Cave at Karli 117 
 
 55. View of Cave at Karli .. ..118 
 
 56. View of Interior of Cave at Karli 120 
 
 57. Interior of Chaitya Cave No. 10 at 
 
 Ajunta 123 
 
 58. Cross-section of Cave No. 10 at 
 
 Ajunta 123 
 
 59. Chaitya No. 19 at Ajunta ,. ..124 
 
 60. View of Facade Chaitya Cave 
 
 No. 19 at Ajunta 125 
 
 61. Rock-cut Dagoba at Ajunta .. 126 
 
 62. Small Model found in the Tope at 
 
 Sultanpore 126 
 
 63. Fa9ade of the Viswakarma Cave at 
 
 Ellora 128 
 
 64. Rail in front of Great Cave, 
 
 Kenheri 130 
 
 65. Cave at Dhumnar 131 
 
 66. Great Rath at Mahavellipore .. 134 
 
 67. Diagram Explanatory of the Ar- 
 
 rangement of a Buddhist Vihara 
 
 of Four Storevs in Heio-ht .. 134 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 XV 
 
 No. Pack 
 68-69. Square and oblong Cells from 
 
 a Bas-relief at Bharhut .. .. 135 
 
 70. Ganesa Cave 140 
 
 71. Pillar in Ganesa Cave, Cuttack 140 
 
 72. Upper Storey, Rani Gumpha ,. 140 
 
 73. Tiger Cave, Cuttack 143 
 
 74. Cave No. 11 at Ajunta .. .. 145 
 
 75. Cave No. 2 at Ajunta l-lfi 
 
 76. Cave at Bagh 146 
 
 77. Durbar Cave, Salsette . . . . 147 
 
 78. Nahapana Vihara, Nassick .. 149 
 
 79. Pillar in Nahapana Cave, Nassick 150 
 
 80. Pillar inGautamiputraCave, Nas- 
 
 sick 150 
 
 81. Yadnya Sri Cave, Nassick .. .. 151 
 
 82. Pillar in Yadnya Sri Cave.. .. 152 
 
 83. Plan of Cave No. 16 at Ajunta.. 154 
 
 84. View of Interior of Vihara No. 16 
 
 at Ajunta 154 
 
 85. View in Cave No 17 at Ajunta 155 
 80. Pillar in Vihara No. 17 at Ajunta 156 
 
 87. Great Vihara at Bagh .. ..160 
 
 88. Plan of Dehrwarra, Ellora .. 163 
 
 89. Circular Cave, Junir 167 
 
 90. Section of Circular Cave, Junir 167 
 
 91. Round Temple and part of Palace 
 
 from a bas-relief at Bharhut .. 168 
 
 92. Plan of Monastery at Jamalgiri 171 
 
 93. Plan of Monastery at Takht-i- 
 
 Bahi 171 
 
 94. Corinthian Capital from Jamal- 
 
 giri 173 
 
 95. Corinthian Capital from Jamal- 
 
 giri 173 
 
 96. Plan of Ionic Monastery, Shah 
 
 Dehri 176 
 
 97. Ionic Pillar, Shah Dehri ..176 
 
 98. Elevation of front of Staircase, 
 
 Ruanwelli Dagoba 190 
 
 99. View of Frontispiece of Stairs, 
 
 Ruanwelli Dagoba 191 
 
 100. Stela? at the end of Stairs, Abha- 
 
 yagiriD'goba .. .. .. .. 192 
 
 101. Thuparamaya Tope 192 
 
 102. Lankaramaya Dagoba, a.d. 221 194 
 
 103. Pavilion with Steps at Anurad- 
 
 hapura 197 
 
 104. Moon Stone at Foot of Steps lead- 
 
 ing to the Platform of the Bo- 
 tree, Anuradhapura ,. .. 197 
 
 105. The Jayta Wana Rama — Ruins of 
 
 Pollonarua 201 
 
 106. Sat Mehal Prasada 202 
 
 107. Round House, called Watte Daje 
 
 in Pollonarua 203 
 
 108. View of City Gateway, Bijanagur 211 
 
 109. Gateway, Jinjuwarra 211 
 
 110. Radiating Arch 213 
 
 111. Horizontal Arch 213 
 
 112. Diagram of Roofing 213 
 
 113-114. Diagrams of Roofing .. ., 214 
 
 115. Diagram of Roofing 214 
 
 1 1 6. Diagram of Indian construction . . 215 
 
 117. Diagram of the arrangement of 
 
 the pillars of a Jaina Dome .. 216 
 
 118. Diagram Plan of Jaina Porch .. 216 
 
 119. Diagram of Jaina Porch .. .. 217 
 
 120. Old Temple at AiwuUi .. 219 
 
 121. Temple at Aiwulli 220 
 
 122. Plan of Temple at Pittadkul .. 221 
 
 123. Restored Elevation of the Black 
 
 Pagoda at Kanaruc 222 
 
 124. Diagram Plan and Section of the 
 
 Black Pagoda at Kanaruc .. 223 
 
 125. The Sacred Hill of Sutrunjya, near 
 
 Palitana 227 
 
 126. Temple of Neminatha, Girnar .. 230 
 
 127. Plan of Temple of Tejpala and 
 
 Vastupala 232 
 
 128. Plan of Temple at Somnath .. 232 
 
 129. Temple of Vimala Sah, Mount 
 
 Abu 235 
 
 130. Temple of Vimala Sah, Mount 
 
 Abu 236 
 
 131. Pendant in Dome of Vimala Sah 
 
 Temple at Abu 237 
 
 132. Pillars at Chandravati .. ..238 
 
 133. Plan of Temple at Sadri .. ..240 
 
 134. View in the Temple at Sadri .. 241 
 
 135. External View of the Temple at 
 
 Sadri 242 
 
 136. * Jaina Temple at Gualior .. ..244 
 
 137. Temple of Parswanatha at Kha- 
 
 juraho 245 
 
 138. Chaonsat Jogini, Khajuraho .. 246 
 
 139. The Ganthai, Khajuraho .. ..248 
 
 140. * Temple at Gyraspore .. .. 249 
 
 141. Porch of Jaina Temple at Amwah, 
 
 near Ajunta 251 
 
 142. Jaina Tower of Sri Allat Chittore 252 
 
 143. Tower of Victory erected by 
 
 Khumbo Rana at Chittore ,. 253 
 
 144. * View of Jaina Temples Sona- 
 
 ghur, in Bundelcund .. .. 256 
 
 145. View of the Temple of Shet 
 
 Huttising at Ahmedabad . . 257 
 
 146. Upper part of Porch of Jaina 
 
 Temple at Delhi 259 
 
 11 7. Entrance to the Indra Subba Cave 
 
 at Ellora 262 
 
 148. Colossal Statue at Yannur .. 268 
 
 149. Jaina Basti at Sravana Belgula 270 
 
 150. Jaina Temple at Moodbidri .. 271 
 
 151. Jaina Temple at Moodbidri .. 272 
 
 152. Pillar in Temple, Moodbidri .. 273 
 
 153. Pavilion at Gurusankerry .. .. 274 
 
 154. Tombs of Priests, Moodbidri ., 275 
 
 155. Stambha at Gurusankerrv .. 270 
 
xvi 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 No. Page 
 
 156. Tomb of Zein-ul-ab-ud-din. Ele- 
 
 vation of Arches 281 
 
 157. Takt-i-Suleiman. Elevation of 
 
 Arches 282 
 
 158. Model of Temple in Kashmir .. 283 
 
 159. Pillar at Srinagar 284 
 
 160. Temple of Marttand 286 
 
 161. View of Temple at Marttand .. 287 
 
 162. CentralCellof Court at Marttand 288 
 
 163. Niche with Naga Figure at Mar- 
 
 ttand .. .. ' 290 
 
 164. Soffit of Arch at Marttand .. 291 
 
 165. Pillar at Avantipore 292 
 
 166. View in Court of Temple at Bha- 
 
 niyar 293 
 
 167. Temple at Pandrethan .. ..294 
 
 168. Temple at Payech 295 
 
 169. Temple at Miilot in the Salt 
 
 Pvange 296 
 
 170. Temple of Swayambunath, Nepal 302 
 
 171. Nepalese Kosthakar 303 
 
 172. Devi Bhowani Temple, Bhatgaon 304 
 
 173. Temple of Mahadeo and Krishna, 
 
 Patan 306 
 
 174. Doorway of Durbar, Bhatgaon ,. 307 
 
 175. Monoliths at Dimapur .. .. 309 
 
 176. Doorway of the Temple at Tassi- 
 
 ding 313 
 
 177. Porch of Temple at Pemiongchi 314 
 
 178. Temples at Kiragrama, near Kote 
 
 Kangra 316 
 
 179. Pillar at Erun of the Gupta age 317 
 
 180. Capital of Half Column from a 
 
 Temple in Orissa 317 
 
 181. Raths, Mahavellipore 328 
 
 182. Arjuna's Rath Mahavellipore .. 330 
 
 183. Perumal Pagoda, Madura .. .. 331 
 
 184. Entrance to a Hindu Temple, 
 
 Colombo 332 
 
 185. Tiger Cave at Sal u van Kuppan 333 
 
 186. Kylas at Ellora 334 
 
 187. Kylas, Ellora 335 
 
 188. Deepdan in Dharwar 337 
 
 189. Plan of Great Temple at Purudkul 338 
 
 190. Diagram Plan of Tanjore Pagoda 343 
 
 191. View of the Great Pagoda at Tan- 
 
 jore 344 
 
 192. * Temple of Soubramanya, Tanjore 345 
 
 193. Inner Temple at Tiruvalur .. 346 
 
 194. Temple at Tiruvalur 346 
 
 195. * View of the eastern half of the 
 
 Great Temple at Seringham ... 349 
 
 196. Plan of Temple of Chillambaram 351 
 
 197. View of Porch at Chillambaram 353 
 
 198. Section of Porch of Temple at 
 
 Chillambaram 353 
 
 199. * Ruined Temple or Pagoda at 
 
 Chillambaram 354 
 
 No. Page 
 
 200. Plan of Great Temple at Ramis- 
 
 seram 356 
 
 201. Central Corridor, Ramisseram .. 358 
 
 202. Plan of Tirumulla Nayak's Choul- 
 
 trie 361 
 
 203. Pillar in Tirumulla Nayak's Choul- 
 
 trie 361 
 
 204. * View in Tirumulla Nayak's 
 
 Choultrie, Madura 363 
 
 205. Half-plan of Temple at Tinne- 
 
 velly 366 
 
 206. * Gopura at Combaconum . . . . 368 
 
 207. Portico of Temple at Vellore .. 371 
 
 208. Compound Pillar at Vellore .. 372 
 
 209. Compound Pillar at Peroor .. 372 
 
 210. View of Porch of Temple of Vi- 
 
 toba at Vijayanagar .. .. 375 
 
 211. * Entrance through Gopura at 
 
 Tarputry 376 
 
 212. * Portion of Gopura at Tarputry 377 
 
 213. Hall in Palace, Madura ..382 
 
 214. Court in Palace, Tanjore .. ..383 
 
 215. Garden Pavilion at Vijayanagar 384 
 
 216. Temple at Buchropully ./ .. 389 
 
 217. Doorway of Great Temple at 
 
 Hammoncondah 390 
 
 218. Kirti Stambha at Worangul .. 392 
 
 219. Temple at Somnathpur .. .. 394 
 
 220. Plan of Great Temple at Baillur 395 
 
 221. View of part of Porch at Baillur 396 
 
 222. Pavilion at Baillur 397 
 
 223. Kait Iswara, Hullabid . . . . 398 
 
 224. Plan of Temple at Hullabid ,. 399 
 
 225. Restored view of Temple at Hul- 
 
 labid 400 
 
 226. Central Pavilion Hullabid, East 
 
 Front 402 
 
 227. Dravidian and Indo-Aryan Temples 
 
 at Badami 411 
 
 228. Modern Temple at Benares .. 412 
 
 229. Diagram Plan of Hindu Temple . . 412 
 
 230. Temple of Parasurameswura ,. 418 
 
 231. Temple of Mukteswara .. ,.419 
 
 232. Plan of Great Temple at Bhu- 
 
 vaneswar 421 
 
 233. View of Great Temple, Bhu- 
 
 vaneswar 422 
 
 234. Lower part of Great Tower at 
 
 Bhuvaneswar 423 
 
 235. Plan of Raj Rani Temple . . . . 424 
 233. Doorway in Raj Rani Temple .. 425 
 
 237. Plan of Temple of Juganat at 
 
 Puri 430 
 
 238. View of Tower of Temple of Juga- 
 
 nat 431 
 
 239. Hindu Pillar in Jujepur .. ..433 
 
 240. Hindu Bridge at Cuttaf-k .. .. 434 
 
 241. View of Temple of Papanatha at 
 
 Pittadkul 438 
 
LIST OF ITJJJSTRA'riONS. 
 
 XV ii 
 
 No. Page 
 
 242. Pillar in Kylas, Ellora .. ..443 
 
 243. Plan of Cave No. 3, Badami . . 444 
 
 244. Section of Cave No. 3, Badami . . 444 
 
 245. Dhumnar Lena Cave at Ellora . , 445 
 
 246. Rock-cut Temple at Dhumnar . . 446 
 
 247. Saiva Temple near Poonah . . 446 
 
 248. Temple at Chandravati . . . . 449 
 
 249. Temple at Barrolli 450 
 
 250. Plan of Temple at Barrolli . . 450 
 
 251. Pillar in Barrolli .. .. ..451 
 
 252. * Teli ka Mandir, Gualior . . . . 453 
 253* Kandarya Mahadeo, Khajuraho 455 
 
 254. Plan of Kandarya Mahadeo, Kha- 
 
 juraho 456 
 
 255. Temple at LTdaipur 457 
 
 256. Diagram explanatory of the Plan 
 
 of Meera Bale's Temple, Chit- 
 tore 458 
 
 257. * Temple of Vriji, Chittore .. 459 
 
 258. Temple of Vishveshwar . . . . 460 
 
 259. Temple of Scindiah's Mother, 
 
 Gualior 462 
 
 260. Plan of Temple at Bindrabun .. 463 
 
 261. View of Temple at Bindrabun .. 464 
 
 262. Balcony in Temple at Bindrabun 465 
 
 263. Temple at Kantonuggur .. .. 467 
 
 264. * The Golden Temple in the Holy 
 
 Tank at Amritsur 468 
 
 265. * Cenotaph of Singram Sing at 
 
 Oudeypore 471 
 
 266. * Cenotaph in Maha Sati at Oudey- 
 
 pore 472 
 
 267. * Tomb of Rajah Baktawar at 
 
 Ulwar 474 
 
 268. * Palace at Duttiah 477 
 
 269. * Palace at Ourtcha, Bundelcund 478 
 
 270. Balcony at the Observatory, 
 
 Benares 481 
 
 271. Hall at Deeg 482 
 
 272. View from the Central Pavilion 
 
 in the Palace at Deeg . . . . 483 
 
 273. Ghoosla Ghat, Benares .. .. 485 
 
 274. Bund of Lake Rajsamundra . . 487 
 
 275. Minar at Ghazni 495 
 
 276. Ornaments from the Tomb of 
 
 Mahmud at Ghazni 496 
 
 277. Plan of Ruins in Old Delhi .. 501 
 
 278. Section of part of East Colonnade 
 
 at the Kutub, Old Delhi . . . . 503 
 
 279. Central Range of Arches at the 
 
 Kutub 504 
 
 280. Minar of Kutub 505 
 
 281. Iron Pillar at Kutub 507 
 
 282. Interior of a Tomb at Old Delhi 509 
 
 283. Mosque at Ajmir 511 
 
 284. Great Arch in Mosque at Ajmir 512 
 
 285. Pathan Tomb at Shepree, near 
 
 Gualior 515 
 
 No. 
 286. 
 
 287. 
 288. 
 289. 
 
 290. 
 
 291. 
 
 292. 
 293. 
 
 294. 
 295. 
 
 296. 
 
 297. 
 
 298. 
 
 299. 
 
 300. 
 301. 
 
 302. 
 303. 
 
 304. 
 305. 
 
 306. 
 
 307. 
 
 308. 
 309. 
 
 310. 
 311. 
 312. 
 313. 
 314. 
 315. 
 
 316. 
 317. 
 318. 
 
 319. 
 
 320. 
 321. 
 
 322. 
 
 Page 
 
 Tomb at Old Delhi 516 
 
 Tomb of Shere Shah at Sasseram 516 
 
 Tomb of Shere Shah 517 
 
 Pendentive from Mosque at Old 
 
 I)elhi 519 
 
 Plan of Western Half of Court- 
 yard of Jumma Musjid, Jaun- 
 
 pore 522 
 
 View of lateral Gateway of Jum- 
 ma Musjid, Jaunpore . . . . 522 
 Lall Darwaza Mosque, Jaunpore 523 
 Plan of Jumma Musjid, Ahme- 
 
 dabad 528 
 
 Elevation of the Jumma Musjid 528 
 Plan of the Queen's Mosque, 
 
 Mirzapore 529 
 
 Elevation of the Queen's Mosque, 
 
 Mirzapore 529 
 
 Section of Diagram explanatory 
 
 of the Mosques at Ahmedabad 529 
 Plan of Tombs and Mosque at 
 
 Sirkej 531 
 
 Pavilion in front of tomb at 
 
 Sirkej 532 
 
 Mosque at Moohafiz Khan . . , . 532 
 Window in Bhudder at Ahme- 
 dabad 533 
 
 Tomb of Meer Abu Tourab . . 534 
 Plan and Elevation of Tomb of 
 
 Syad Osman 534 
 
 Tomb of Kutub-ul-Alum, Butwa 536 
 Plans of Tombs of Kutub-ul-Alum 
 
 and his Son, Butwa 536 
 
 Plan of Tomb of Mahraiid Begurra 
 
 near Kaira 538 
 
 Tomb of Mahmud Begurra, near 
 
 Kaira 538 
 
 Plan of Mosque at Mandu . . . . 542 
 Courtyard of Great Mosque at 
 
 Mandu 543 
 
 Modern curved form of Roof . . 546 
 Kudam ul Roussoul Mosque, Gaur 548 
 Plan of Adinah Mosque, Maldah 549 
 
 Minar at Gaur 550 
 
 Mosque at Kalburgah .. .. 554 
 Half-elevation, half-section, of the 
 
 Mosque at Kalburgah . . . . 555 
 View of the Mosque at Kalburgah 555 
 Plan of Jumma Musjid, Bijapur 559 
 Plan and Section of smaller Domes 
 
 of Jumma Musjid 560 
 
 Section on the line A B through 
 the Great Dome of the Jumma 
 
 Musjid 560 
 
 Tomb of Rozah of Ibrahim .. 561 
 Plan of Tomb of Mahmud at Bija- 
 pur 562 
 
 Pendentives of the Tomb of Mah- 
 miid, looking upwards .. .. 563 
 b 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 xviii 
 
 No. Tage 
 
 323. Section of Tomb of Mahmiid at 
 
 Bijapur 564 
 
 324. Diagram illustrative of Domical 
 
 Construction 565 
 
 325. Audience Hall, Bijapur . . . . 566 
 
 326. Tomb of Nawab Amir Khan, near 
 
 Tatta, A.D. 1640 568 
 
 327. Plan of Tomb of Mohammad 
 
 Ghaus, Gualior 576 
 
 328. Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus, 
 
 Gualior 577 
 
 329. Carved Pillars in the Sultana's 
 
 Kiosk, Futtehpore Sikri .. 579 
 
 330. Mosque at Futtehpore Sikri . . 580 
 
 331. Southern Gateway of Mosque, 
 
 Futtehpore Sikri 581 
 
 332. Hall in Palace at Allahabad .. 583 
 
 333. Plan of Akbar's Tomb at Se- 
 
 cundra 584 
 
 334. Diagram Section of one-half of 
 Akbar's Tomb at Secundra, ex- 
 planatory of its Arrangements 585 
 
 335 View of Akbar's Tomb, Secundra 586 
 
 336. Palace at Delhi 592 
 
 337 . ♦ View of Taje Mehal 596 
 
 338. Plan of Taje Mehal, Agra.. .. 597 
 
 339. Section of Taje Mehal, Agra .. 597 
 
 340. Plan of Mati Musjid 599 
 
 341. View in Courtyard of Mflti Mus- 
 
 jid, Agra 600 
 
 342. Great Mosque at Delhi from the 
 
 N.E 601 
 
 343. Plan of Imambara at Lucknow .. 605 
 
 344. Tomb of the late Nawab of Juna- 
 
 ghur 606 
 
 345. Mosque of Shah Hamadan, Sri- 
 
 nugger 609 
 
 346. Plan of Ananda Temple .. ..615 
 
 347. Plan of Thapinya 615 
 
 348. Section of Thapinya 616 
 
 349. View of the Temple of Gauda- 
 
 palen 617 
 
 350. Kong Madii Dagoba 620 
 
 351. Shoemadou Pagoda, Pegu .. .. 621 
 
 352. Half-plan of Shoemadou Pagoda 621 
 
 353. View of Pagoda in Rangun .. 623 
 
 354. Circular Pagoda at Mengun .. 625 
 
 355. Fa9ade of the King's Palace, Bur- 
 
 mah 627 
 
 356. Burmese Kioum 628 
 
 357. Monastery at Mandale . . . . 629 
 
 358. Ruins of a Pagoda at Ayuthia . . 632 
 
 No. Page 
 
 359. Ruins of a Pagoda at Ayuthia . . 633 
 
 360. The Great Tower of the Pagoda 
 
 Wat-ching at Bangkok .. .. 634 
 
 361. Hall of Audience at Bangkok .. 635 
 
 362. Half-plan of Temple of Boro Bud- 
 
 dor '.. .. 645 
 
 363. Elevation and Section of Temple 
 
 of Boro Buddor 645 
 
 364. Section of one of the smaller 
 
 Domes at Boro Buddor . . . . 646 
 
 365. Elevation of principal Dome at 
 
 Boro Buddor 64C 
 
 366. View of central entrance and 
 
 stairs at Boro Buddor .. .. 649 
 
 367. Small Temple at Brambanam . . 652 
 
 368. Terraced Temple at Panataram . . 655 
 
 369. View of the Maha Vihara,Anurad- 
 
 hapura .. .. 657 
 
 370. Plan of Temple of Nakhon Wat 668 
 
 371. Elevation of the Temple of Nak- 
 
 hon Wat 670 
 
 372. Diagram Section of Corridor, 
 
 Nakhon Wat 671 
 
 373. View of Exterior of Nakhon Wat 671 
 
 374. View of Interior of Corridor, 
 
 Nakhon Wat 672 
 
 375. General view of Temple of Nakhon 
 
 Wat 675 
 
 376. Pillar of Porch, Nakhon Wat . . 676 
 
 377. Lower Part of Pilaster Nakhon 
 
 Wat 677 
 
 378. One of the Towers of the Temple 
 
 at Ongcor Thom 680 
 
 379. Temple of the Great Dragon . . 690 
 
 380. Monumental Gateway of Buddhist 
 
 Monastery, Pekin 693 
 
 381. Temple at Macao 694 
 
 382. Porcelain Tower, Nankin .. .. 695 
 
 383. Pagoda in Summer Palace, Pekin 696 
 
 384. Tung Chow Pagoda 697 
 
 385. Chinese Grave 699 
 
 386. Chinese Tomb 699 
 
 387. Group of Tombs near Pekin .. 700 
 
 388. Pailoo near Canton 701 
 
 389. Pailoo at Amoy 702 
 
 390. Diagram of Chinese Construction 703 
 
 391. Pavilion in the Summer Palace, 
 
 Pekin 705 
 
 392. Pavilion in the Summer Palace, 
 
 Pekin 706 
 
 393. View in the Winter Palace, Pekin 707 
 
 394. Archway in the Nankau Pass .. 709 
 
 Note. — Those woodcuts in the above list marked with an asterisk are borrosved 
 from *L'Inde des Kajahs,' published by Hachette et Cie, Paris, translated and 
 republished in this country by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. 
 
HISTOKY 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
INDIAN 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is in vain, perhaps, to expect that the I iterature or the Arts of any 
 other people can be so interesting to even the best educated Europeans 
 as those of their own country. Until it is forced on their attention, 
 few are aware how much education does to concentrate attention 
 within a very narrow field of observation. We become familiar in 
 the nursery with the names of the heroes of Greek and Eoman 
 history. In every school their history and their arts are taught, 
 memorials of their greatness meet us at every turn through life, and 
 their thoughts and aspirations become, as it were, part of ourselves. 
 So, too, with the Middle Ages : their religion is our religion ; their 
 architecture our architecture, and their history fades so insensibly 
 into our own, that we can draw no line of demarcation that would 
 separate us from them. How different is the state of feeling, when 
 from this familiar home we turn to such a country as India. Its 
 geography is hardly taught in schools, and seldom mastered perfectly ; 
 its history is a puzzle ; its literature a mythic dream ; its arts a quaint 
 perplexity. But, above all, the names of its heroes and great men 
 are so unfamiliar and so unpronounceable, that, except a few of those 
 who go to India, scarcely any ever become so acquainted with them, 
 that they call up any memories which are either pleasing or worth 
 dwelling upon. 
 
 Were it not for this, there is probably no country — out of Europe 
 at least — that would so well repay attention as India. None, where 
 all the problems of natural science or of art are presented to us in so 
 distinct and so pleasing a form. Nowhere does nature show herself in 
 such grand and such luxurious features, and nowhere does humanity 
 exist in more varied and more pleasing conditions. Side by side 
 with the intellectual Brahman caste, and the chivalrous Kajput, are 
 found the wild Bhil and the naked Gond, not antagonistic and warring 
 
 B 2 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
4 
 
 HISTOKY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 one against the other, as elsewhere, but living now as they have done 
 for thousands of years, each content with his own lot, and prepared to 
 follow, without repining, in the footsteps of his forefathers. 
 
 It cannot, of course, be for one moment contended that India ever 
 reached the intellectual supremacy of Greece, or the moral greatness 
 of Eome ; but, though on a lower step of the ladder, her arts are 
 more original and more varied, and her forms of civilisation present 
 an ever-changing variety, such as are nowhere else to be found. 
 What, however, really renders India so interesting as an object of 
 study is that it is now a living entity. Greece and Eome are dead and 
 have passed away, and we are living so completely in the midst of 
 modern Europe, that we cannot get outside to contemplate it as a 
 whole. But India is a complete cosmos in itself ; bounded on the 
 north by the Himalayas, on the south by the sea, on the east by 
 impenetrable jungle, and only on the west having one door of com- 
 munication, across the Indus, open to the other world. Across that 
 stream, nation after nation have poured their myriads into her coveted 
 domain, but no reflex waves ever mixed her people with those beyond 
 her boundaries. 
 
 In consequence of all this, every problem of anthropology or 
 ethnography can be studied here more easily than anywhere else ; every 
 art has its living representative, and often of the most pleasing form ; 
 every science has its illustration, and many on a scale not easily 
 matched elsewhere. But, notwithstanding all this, in nine cases out 
 of ten, India and Indian matters fail to interest, because they are to 
 most people new and unfamiliar. The rudiments have not been 
 mastered when young, and, when grown up, few men have the leisure 
 or the inclination to set to work to learn the forms of a new world, 
 demanding both care and study ; and till this is attained, it can hardly 
 be hoped that the arts and the architecture of India will interest a 
 European reader to the same extent as those styles treated of in the 
 previous volumes of this work. 
 
 Notwithstanding these drawbacks, it may still be possible to present 
 the subject of Indian architecture in such a form as to be interesting, 
 even if not attractive. To do this, however, the narrative form must 
 be followed as far as is compatible with such a subject. All technical 
 and unfamiliar names must be avoided wherever it is possible to do so, 
 and the whole accompanied with a sufficient number of illustrations to 
 enable its forms to be mastered without difficulty. Even if this is 
 attended to, no one volume can tell the whole of so varied and so 
 complex a history. Without preliminary or subsequent study it can 
 hardly be expected that so new and so vast a subject can be grasped ; 
 but one volume may contain a complete outline of the whole, and enable 
 any one who wishes for more information to know where to look for it, 
 or how to appreciate it when found. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5 
 
 Whether successful or not, it seems well worth while that an 
 attempt should be made to interest the public in Indian architectural 
 art ; first, because the artist and architect will certainly acquire broader 
 and more varied views of their art by its study than they can acquire 
 from any other source. More than this, any one who masters the 
 subject sufficiently to be able to understand their art in its best and 
 highest forms, will rise from the study with a kindlier feeling towards 
 the nations of India, and a higher — certainly a correcter — appreciation 
 of their social status than could be obtained from their literature, or 
 from anything that now exists in their anomalous social and political 
 position. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, many may be inclined to ask, Is it worth 
 while to master all the geographical and historical details necessary to 
 unravel so tangled a web as this, and then try to become so familiar 
 with their ever-varying forms as not only to be able to discriminate 
 between the different styles, but also to follow them through all their 
 ceaseless changes ? 
 
 My impression is that this question may fairly be answered in 
 the affirmative. No one has a right to say that he understands the 
 history of architecture who leaves out of his view the works of an 
 immense portion of the human race, which has always shown itself 
 so capable of artistic development. But, more than this, architecture 
 in India is still a living art, practised on the principles which caused 
 its wonderful development in Europe in the 12th and 13th cen- 
 turies ; and there, consequently, and there alone, the student of archi- 
 tecture has a chance of seeing the real principles of the art in action. 
 In Europe, at the present day, architecture is practised in a manner 
 so anomalous and abnormal that few, if any, have hitherto been able 
 to shake off the influence of a false system, and to see that the art of 
 ornamental building can be based on principles of common sense ; 
 and that, when so practised, the result not only is, but must be, 
 satisfactory. Those who have an opportunity of seeing what perfect 
 buildings the ignorant uneducated natives of India are now producing, 
 will easily understand how success may be achieved, while those 
 who observe what failures the best educated and most talented archi- 
 tects in Europe are constantly perpetrating, may, by a study of 
 Indian models, easily see why this must inevitably be the result. 
 It is only in India that the two systems can now be seen prac- ^ 
 tised side by side— the educated and intellectual European always 
 failing because his principles are wrong, the feeble and unedu- 
 cated native as inevitably succeeding because his principles are 
 right. The Indian builders thinh only of what they are doing, 
 and how they can best produce the effect they desire. In the 
 European system it is considered more essential that a building, 
 especially in its details, should be a correct cojiij of something else, 
 
6 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 than good in itself or appropriate to its purpose ; hence the difference 
 in the result. 
 
 In one other respect India affords a singularly favourable field to the 
 student of architecture. In no other country of the same extent are 
 there so many distinct nationalities, each retaining its old faith and its 
 old feelings, and impressing these on its art. There is consequently 
 no country where the outlines of ethnology as applied to art can be 
 so easily perceived, or their application to the elucidation of the various 
 problems so pre-eminently important. The mode in which the art 
 has been practised in Europe for the last tliree centuries has been 
 very confusing. In India it is clear and intelligible. No one can look 
 at the subject without seeing its importance, and no one can study 
 the art as practised there without recognising what the principles of the 
 science really are. 
 
 In addition, however, to these scientific advantages, it will un- 
 doubtedly be conceded by those who are familiar with the subject that 
 for certain qualities the Indian buildings are unrivalled. They display 
 an exuberance of fancy, a lavishness of labour, and an elaboration of 
 detail to be found nowhere else. They may contain nothing so sublime 
 as the hall at Karnac, nothing so intellectual as the Parthenon, nor so 
 constructively grand as a mediaeval cathedral ; but for certain other 
 qualities — not perhaps of the highest kind, yet very important in 
 architectural art — the Indian buildings stand alone. They consequently 
 fill up a great gap in our knowledge of tlie subject, which without them 
 would remain a void. 
 
 HiSTOEY. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties that exist — perhaps the greatest — 
 in exciting an interest in Indian antiquities arises from the fact, that 
 India has no history properly so called, before the Mahomedan invasion 
 in the 13th century. Had India been a great united kingdom, like 
 China, with a long line of dynasties and well-recorded dates attached to 
 them, the task would have been comparatively easy ; but notliing of the 
 sort exists or ever existed within her boundaries. On the contrary, 
 so far as our knowledge extends, India has always been occupied by 
 three or four different races of mankind, who have never amalgamated 
 so as to become one people, and each of these races have been again 
 subdivided into numerous tribes or small nationalities nearly, sometimes 
 wholly, independent of each other — and, what is worse than all, not one 
 of them ever kept a chronicle or preserved a series of dates commencing 
 from any well-known era.^ 
 
 • The following brief resume of the i complete or exhaustive view of the sub- 
 priucipal events in the ancient history ject. It is intended only as such a 
 of India has no pretensions to being a : popular sketch as shall enable the general 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The absence of any historical record is the more striking, because 
 India possesses a written literature equal to, if not surpassing in variety 
 and extent, that possessed by any other nation, .before the invention, or 
 at least before the adoption and use, of printing. The Vedas them- 
 selves, with their Upanishads and Brahmanas, and the commentaries on 
 them, form a literature in themselves of vast extent, and some parts of 
 which are as old, possibly older, than any written works that are now 
 known to exist ; and the Puranas, though comparatively modern, make 
 up a body of doctrine mixed with mythology and itradition such as few 
 nations can boast of. Besides this, however, are two great epics, sur- 
 passing in extent, if not in merit, those of any ancient nation, and a 
 drama of great beauty, written at periods extending through a long 
 series of years. In addition to those we have treatises on law, on 
 grammar, on astronomy, on metaphysics and mathematics, on almost 
 every branch of mental science — a literature extending in fact to some 
 10,000 or 11,000 works, but in all this not one book that can be 
 called historical. No man in India, so far as is known, ever thought 
 of recording the events of his own life or of repeating the previous 
 experience of others, and it was only at some time subsequent to the 
 Christian Era that they ever thought of establishing eras from which 
 to date deeds or events. 
 
 All this is the more curious because in Ceylon we have, in the 
 ' Mahawanso,' and other books of a like nature, a consecutive history 
 of that island, with dates which may be depended upon within very 
 narrow limits of error, for periods extending from B.C. 250 to the present 
 time. At the other extremity of India, we have also in the Eaja 
 Tarangini of Kashmir, a work which Professor Wilson characterised 
 as "the only Sanscrit composition yet discovered to which the title 
 of History can with any propriety be applied." ^ As we at present, 
 however, possess it, it hardly helps us to any historical data earlier 
 than the Christian Era, and even after that its dates for some centuries 
 are by no means fixed and certain. 
 
 In India Proper, however, we have no such guides as even these, 
 but for written history are almost wholly dependent on the Puranas. 
 They do furnish us with one list of kings' names, with the length 
 of their reigns, so apparently truthful that they may, within narrow 
 limits, be depended upon. They are only, however, of one range 
 
 reader to grasp the main features of the 
 stoiy to sucli an extent as may enable 
 him to understand what follows. In order 
 to make it readable, all references and all 
 proofs of disputed facts have been post- 
 poned. They will be found in the body 
 of the work, where they are more appro- 
 priate, and the data on which the principal 
 disputed dates arc fixed will be found in 
 
 an Appendix especially devoted to their 
 discussion. Unfortunately no book exists 
 to which the reader could with advantage 
 be referred ; and without some such in- 
 troductory notice of the political history 
 and ethnography the artistic history would 
 be nearly, if not wholly, unintelligible. 
 * ' Asiatic Kesearches,' vol. xv. p. i. 
 
8 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of dynasties — probably, however, the paramount one — and extend only 
 from the accession of Chandragupta — the Sandrocottus of the Greeks — 
 B.C. 325, to the decline of the Andra dynasty, about a.d. 400 or 408. 
 It seems probable we may find sufficient confirmation of these lists 
 as far back as the An j ana era, B.C. 691, so as to include the period 
 marked by the life and labours of Sakya Muni — the present Buddha 
 — in our chronology, with tolerable certainty. All the chronology 
 before that period is purposely and avowedly falsified by the intro- 
 duction of the system of Yugs, in order to cany back the origin 
 of the Brahmanical system into the regions of the most fabulous 
 antiquity. From the 5th century onwards, when the Puranas began 
 to be put into their present form, in consequence of the revival of the 
 Brahmanical religion, instead of recording contemporary events, they 
 purposely confused them so as to maintain their prophetic character, 
 and prevent the detection of the falsehood of their claim to an antiquity 
 equal to that of the Vedas. For Indian history after the 5th century 
 we are consequently left mainly to inscriptions on monuments or on 
 copper-plates, to coins, and to the works of foreigners for the necessary 
 information with which the natives of the country itself have neglected 
 to supply us. These probably will be found eventually to be at 
 least sufficient for the purposes of chronology. Already such progress 
 has been made in the decipherment of inscriptions and the arrange- 
 ment of coins, that all the dynasties may be arranged consecutively, 
 and even the date of the reigns of almost all the kings in the 
 north of India have been already approximately ascertained. In 
 the south of India so much has not been done, but this is more 
 because there have been fewer labourers in the field than from want 
 of materials. There are literally thousands of inscriptions in the south 
 which have not been copied, and of the few that have been collected 
 only a very small number have been translated ; but they are such 
 as to give us hope that, when the requisite amount of labour is 
 bestowed upon them, we shall be able to fix the chronology of the 
 kings of the south with a degree of certainty sufficient for all ordinary 
 purposes. 1 
 
 It is a far more difficult task to ascertain whether we shall ever 
 recover the History of India before the time of the advent of Buddha, 
 or before the Anjana epoch, B.C. 691. Here we certainly mil find no 
 coins or inscriptions to guide us, and no buildings to illustrate the 
 arts, or to mark the position of cities, while all ethnographic traces 
 have become so blurred, if not obliterated, that they serve us little as 
 guides through the labyrinth. Yet on the other hand there is so large 
 
 ^ Almost the only person who has of 
 late done anything in this direction is 
 Sir Walter Elliot. His papers in the 
 ' Juunial of the Royal Asiatic Society ' 
 
 and the ' Madras Journal ' throw immense 
 light on the subject, but to complete the 
 task we want many workers instead of 
 only one. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 9 
 
 a mass of literature — such as it is — bearing on the subject, that we 
 cannot but hope that, when a sufficient amount of learning is brought 
 to bear upon it, the leading features of the history of even that period 
 may be recovered. In order, however, to render it available, it will 
 not require industry so much as a severe spirit of criticism to 
 winnow the few grains of useful truth out of the mass of worthless 
 chaff this literature contains. But it does not seem too much to expect 
 even this, from the severely critical spirit of the age. Meanwhile, 
 the main facts of the case seem to be nearly as follows, in so far as 
 it is necessary to state them, in order to make what follows in- 
 telligible. 
 
 Aryans. 
 
 At some very remote period in the world's history — for reasons 
 stated in the Appendix I believe it to have been at about the epoch 
 called by the Hindus the Kali Yug, or B.C. 3101 — the Aryans, a 
 Sanscrit-speaking people, entered India across the Upper Indus, coming 
 from Central Asia. For a long time they remained settled in the 
 Punjab, or on the banks of the Saras vati, then a more important stream 
 than now, the main body, however, still remaining to the westward of 
 the Indus. If, however, we may trust our chronology, we find them 
 settled 2000 years before the Christian Era, in Ayodhya, and then in the 
 plenitude of their power. It was about that time apparently that the 
 event took place which formed the groundwork of the far more modern 
 poem known as the * Ramayana.' The pure Aryans, still uncontami- 
 nated by admixture with the blood of the natives, then seem to have 
 attained the height of their prosperity in India, and to have carried 
 their victorious arms, it may be, as far south as Ceylon. There is, 
 however, no reason to suppose that they at that time formed any 
 permanent settlements in the Deccan, but it was at all events opened 
 to their missionaries, and by slow degrees imbibed that amount of 
 Brahmanism which eventually pervaded the whole of the south. 
 Seven or eight hundred years after that time, or it may be about or 
 before B.C. 1200, took place those events which form the theme of 
 the more ancient epic known as the ' Mahabharata,' which opens 
 up an entirely new view of Indian social life. If the heroes of 
 that poem were Aryans at all, they were of a much less pure type 
 than those who composed the songs of the Vedas, or are depicted in 
 the verses of the ' Eamayana.' Their polyandry, their drinking bouts, 
 their gambling tastes, and love of fighting, mark them as a very 
 different, race from the peaceful shepherd immigrants of the earlier 
 age, and point much more distinctly towards a Tartar, trans-Hima- 
 layan origin, than to the cradle of the Aryan stock in Central Asia. 
 As if to mark the difference of which they themselves felt the existence, 
 they distinguished themselves, by name, as belonging to a Lunar race, 
 
10 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN AKCHITECTUliE. 
 
 distinct from, and generally antagonistic to, the Solar race, Avhich 
 was the proud distinction of the purer and earlier Aryan settlers in 
 India. 
 
 Five or six hundred years after this, or about B.C. 700, we again 
 find a totally different state of affairs in India. The Aryans no longer 
 exist as a separate nationality, and neither the Solar nor the Lunar 
 race are the rulers of the earth. The Brahmans have become a priestly 
 caste, and share the power with the Kshatriyas, a race of far less purity 
 of descent. The Yaisyas, as merchants and husbandmen, have become 
 a power, and even the Sudras are acknowledged as a part of the body 
 politic ; and, though not mentioned in the Scriptures, the Nagas, or 
 Snake people, had become a most influential part of the population. 
 They are first mentioned in the ' Mahabharata,' where they play a most 
 important part in causing the death of Parikshit, which led to the 
 great sacrifice for the destruction of the Nagas by Janemajaya, which 
 practically closes the history of the time. Destroyed, however, they 
 were not, as it was under a Naga dynasty that ascended the throne 
 of Magadha, in G91, that Buddha was born, B.C. 623, and the Nagas 
 were the people whose conversion placed Buddhism on a secure basis 
 in India, and led to its ultimate adoption by Asoka (b.c. 250) as the 
 religion of the State. ^ 
 
 Although Buddhism was first taught by a prince of the Solar 
 race, and consequently of purely Aryan blood, and though its first 
 disciples were Brahmans, it had as little affinity with the religion of 
 the Yedas as Christianity had with the Pentateuch, and its fate was 
 the same. The one religion was taught by one of Jewish extraction 
 to the Jews and for the Jews ; but it was ultimately rejected by 
 them, and adopted by the Gentiles, who had no affinity of race or 
 religion with the inhabitants of Judsea. Though meant originally, no 
 doubt, for Aryans, the Buddhist religion was ultimately rejected by 
 the Brahmans, who were consequently utterly eclipsed and superseded 
 by it for nearly a thousand years ; and we hear little or nothing of 
 thom and their religion till they reappeared at the court of the great 
 Yicramaditya (490-530), when their religion began to assume that 
 strange shape which it now still retains in India. In its new form 
 it is as unlike the pure religion of the Yedas as it is possible to conceive 
 one religion being to another ; unlike that, also, of the older portions 
 of the ' Mahabharata ' ; but a confused mess of local superstitions and 
 imported myths, covering up and hiding the Yedantic and Buddhist 
 doctrines, which may sometimes be detected as underlying it. "What- 
 ever it be, however, it cannot be the religion of an Aryan, or even 
 of a purely Turanian people, because it was invented by and for as 
 
 * All this has been so fully gone into I Worship,' pp. 63, et seqq., that it will not 
 by me in my work on ' Tree and Serpent I be necessary to repeat it here. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 II 
 
 mixed a population as probably were ever gathered together into one 
 country — a people whose feelings and superstitions it only too truly 
 represents. 
 
 Dravidians. 
 
 Although, therefore, as was hinted above, there might be no great 
 difficulty in recovering all the main incidents and leading features of 
 the history of the Aryans, from their first entry into India till they 
 were entirely absorbed into the mass of the population some time 
 before the Christian Era, there could be no greater mistake than to 
 suppose that their history would fully represent the ancient history 
 of the country. The Dravidians are a people who, in historical times, 
 seem to have been probably as numerous as the pure Aryans, and at the 
 present day form one-fifth of the whole population of India. As 
 Turanians, which they seem certainly to be, they belong, it is true, to a 
 lower intellectual status than the Aryans, but they have preserved their 
 nationality pure and unmixed, and, such as they were at the dawn of 
 history, so they seem to be now. 
 
 Their settlement in India extends to such remote pre-historic 
 times, that we cannot feel even sure that we should regard them as 
 immigrants, or, at least, as either conquerors or colonists on a large 
 scale, but rather as aboriginal in the sense in which that term is usually 
 understood. Generally it is assumed that they entered India across the 
 Lower Indus, leaving the cognate Brahui in Belochistan as a mark of 
 the road by which they came, and, as the affinities of their language 
 seem to be with the Ugrians and northern Turanian tongues, this view 
 seems probable. ^ But they have certainly left no trace of their migra- 
 tions anywhere between the Indus and the Nerbudda, and all the facts 
 of their history, so far as they are known, would seem to lead to an 
 opposite conclusion. The hypothesis that would represent what we 
 know of their history most correctly would place their original seat in 
 the extreme south, somewhere probably not far from Madura or Tanjore, 
 and thence spreading fan-like tow^ards the north, till they met the 
 Aryans on the Vindhya Mountains. The question, again, is not of 
 much importance for our present purposes, as they do not seem to have 
 reached that degree of civilisation at any period anterior to the Christian 
 Era which would enable them to practise any of the arts of civilised 
 life with success, so as to bring them within the scope of a work devoted 
 to the history of art. 
 
 It may be that at some future period, when we know more of the 
 ancient arts of these Dravidians than we now do, and have become 
 familiar with the remains of the Accadians or early Turanian in- 
 
 ' Dr. Ciildwell, the author of the ' Dravidiau Grammar,' is the greatest and most 
 trustworthy advocate of this view. 
 
12 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 habitants of Babylonia, we may detect affinities which may throw some 
 light on this very obscure part of history. At present, how^ever, the 
 indications are much too hazy to be at all relied upon. Geographically, 
 however, one thing seems tolerably clear. If the Dravidians came into 
 India in historical times, it was not from Central Asia that they 
 migrated, but from Babylonia, or some such southern region of the 
 Asiatic continent. 
 
 Dasyus. 
 
 In addition to these two great distinct and opposite nationalities, 
 there exists in India a third, which, in pre-Buddhist times, was as 
 numerous, perhaps even more so, than either the Aryans or Dravidians, 
 but of whose history we know even less than we do of the two others. 
 Ethnologists have not yet been even able to agree on a name by 
 which to call them. I have suggested Dasyus,^ a slave people, as 
 that is the name by which the Aryans designated them when they 
 found them there on their first entrance into India, and subjected them 
 to their sway. Whoever they were, they seem to have been a people 
 of a very inferior intellectual capacity to either the Aryans or Dra- 
 vidians, and it is by no means clear that they could ever of them- 
 selves have risen to such a status as either to form a great community 
 capable of governing themselves, and consequently having a history,^ 
 or whether they must always have remained in the low and barbarous 
 position in which we now find some of their branches. When the 
 Aryans first entered India they seem to have found them occupying 
 the whole valley of the Ganges — the whole country in fact between 
 the Yindhya and the Himalayan Mountains.^ At present they are only 
 found in anything like purity in the mountain ranges that bound 
 that great plain. There they are known as Bhils, Coles, Sontals, 
 Nagas, and other mountains tribes. But they certainly form the lowest 
 underlying stratum of the population over the whole of the Gangetic 
 plain.* So far as their affinities have been ascertained, they are with 
 
 ^ ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' pp. 244- 
 247. 
 
 ^ In Arrian there is a curious passage 
 which seems certainly to refer to this 
 people. " During the space," he says, " of 
 6042 years in which the 153 monarch s 
 reigned, the Indians had the liberty of 
 being governed by their own laws only 
 twice, once for about 200 years, and after 
 that for about 120 years." — 'Indica,' cli. 
 ix. The Puranas, as may be supposed, 
 do not help us to identify these two periods. 
 
 ^ I cannot help fancying that they 
 
 occupied some part of southern India, and 
 even Ceylon, before the arrival of the 
 Dravidians. It seems difficult otherwise 
 to account for the connection between 
 Behar and Ceylon in early ages, and the 
 spread of Buddhism in that island leaping 
 over the countries which had been Dra- 
 vidianised. 
 
 * I cannot help suspecting that the 
 Gonds also belong to this northern race. 
 It is true they speak a language closely 
 allied to the Tamil ; but language, though 
 invaluable as a guide, is nearly useless as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 13 
 
 the trans-Himalayan population, and it either is that they entered 
 India through the passes of that great mountain range, or it might 
 be more correct to say that the Thibetans are a fragment of a great 
 population that occupied both the northern and southern slope of that 
 great chain of hills at some very remote pre-historic time. 
 
 Whoever they were, they were the people who, in remote times, 
 were apparently the worshippers of Trees and Serpents ; but what 
 interests us more in them, and makes the inquiry into their history 
 more desirable, is that they were the people who first adopted Buddhism 
 in India, and they, or their congeners, are the only people who, in 
 historic times, as now, adhered, or still adhere to, that form of faith. 
 No purely Aryan people ever were, or ever could be, Buddhist, nor, so 
 far as I know, were any Dravidian community ever converted to that 
 faith. But in Bengal, in Ceylon, in Thibet, Burmah, Siam, and 
 China, wherever a Thibetan people exists, or a people allied to them, 
 there Buddhism flourished and now prevails. But in India the 
 Dra vidians resisted it in the south, and a revival of Aryanism abolished 
 it in the north. 
 
 Architecturally, there is no difficulty in defining the limits of the 
 Dasyu province : wherever a square tower-like temple exists with a 
 perpendicular base, but a curvilinear outline above, such as that shown 
 in the woodcut on the following page, there we may feel certain of the 
 existence, past or present, of a people of Dasyu extraction, retaining 
 their purity very nearly in the direct ratio to the number of these 
 temples found in the district. Were it not consequently for the diffi- 
 culty of introducing new names and obtaining acceptance to what is 
 unfamiliar, the proper names for the style prevailing in northern 
 India would be Dasyu style, instead of Indo-Aryan or Dasyu-Aryan 
 which I have felt constrained to adopt. No one can accuse the pure 
 Aryans of introducing this form in India, or of building temples at 
 all, or of worshipping images of Siva or Vishnu, with which these 
 temples are filled, and they consequently have little title to confer 
 their name on the style. The Aryans had, however, become so impure 
 in blood before these temples were erected, and were so mixed up 
 with the Dasyus, and had so influenced their religion and the arts, 
 that it may be better to retain a name which sounds familiar, and does 
 not too sharply prejudge the question. Be this as it may, one thing 
 seems tolerably clear, that the regions occupied by the Aryans in 
 India were conterminous with those of the Dasyus, or, in other words, 
 
 a test of affinity. The Romans imposed 
 their language on all the diverse nation- 
 alities of Italy, France, and Spain. We 
 have imposed ours on tlie Cornish, and 
 are fast teaching the Irish, Welsh, and 
 Highlanders of Scotland to abandon their 
 
 tongue for ours, and the process is rapidly 
 going on elsewhere. The manners and 
 customs of the Goods are all similar to 
 those of the Coles or Khonds, though, 
 it is true, they speak a Dravidian tongue. 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN AECHITECTURE. 
 
 that the Aryans conquered the whole of the aboriginal or native 
 tribes who occupied the plains of northern India, and ruled over 
 them to such an extent as materially to influence their religion and 
 their arts, and also very materially to modify even their language. 
 So much so, indeed, that after some four or five thousand years of 
 domination we should not be surprised if we have some difficulty in 
 recovering traces of the original population, and could probably not 
 do so, if some fragments of the people had not sought refuge in the 
 hills on the north and south of the great Gangetic plain, and there have 
 remained fossilised, or at least sufficiently permanent for purposes of 
 investigation. 
 
 Leaving these, which must, for the present at least, be considered 
 as practically pre-historic times, we tread on surer ground when we 
 approach the period when Buddha was born, and devoted his life to 
 rescue man from sin and suffering. There seems very little reason 
 for doubting that he was born in the year 623, in the reign of Bim- 
 basara, the fifth king of this dynasty, and died B.C. 543, at the age of 
 eighty years, in the eighth year of Ajattasatru, the eighth king. New 
 sources of information are opening out so rapidly regarding these 
 times, that there seems little doubt we shall before long be able 
 to recover a perfectly authentic account of the political events 
 of that period, and as perfect a picture of the manners and the 
 customs of those days. It is too true, however, that those who wrote 
 
 Hindu Temple, Baiicorah. 
 
 SisuNAGA Dynasty, b.c. 691 to 325. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 15 
 
 the bioo-raphy of Buddha in subsequent ag^es so overlaid the simple 
 narrative of his life with fables and absurdities, that it is noAv difficult 
 to separate the wheat from the chaff ; but we have sculptures extendino- 
 back to within three centuries of his death, at which time we may 
 fairly assume that a purer tradition and correcter version of the Scrip- 
 tures must have prevailed. From what has recently occurred, we may 
 hope to creep even further back than this, and eventually to find early 
 illustrations which will enable us to exercise so sound a criticism on the 
 books as to enable us to restore the life of Buddha to such an extent, 
 as to place it among the authentic records of the benefactors of 
 mankind. 
 
 Immense progress has been made during the last thirty or forty 
 years in investigating the origin of Buddhism, and the propagation 
 of its doctrines in India, and in communicating the knowledge so 
 gained to the public in Europe. Much, however, remains to be done 
 before the story is complete, and divested of all the absurdities which 
 subsequent commentators have heaped upon it ; and more must yet be 
 effected before the public can be rendered familiar with what is so 
 essentially novel to them. Still, the leading events in the life of the 
 founder of the religion are simple, and sufficiently well ascertained for 
 all practical purposes.^ 
 
 The founder of this religion was one of the last of a long line 
 of kings, known as the Solar dynasties, who, from a period shortly 
 subsequent to the advent of the Aryans into India, had held para- 
 mount sway in Ayodhya — the modern Oude. About the 12th or 18th 
 century B.C. they were superseded by another race of much less 
 purely Aryan blood, known as the Lunar race, who transferred the 
 seat of power to capitals situated in the northern parts of the Doab. 
 In consequence of this, the lineal descendants of the Solar kings 
 were reduced to a petty principality at the foot of the Himalayas, 
 where Sakya Muni was born about 628 B.C. For twenty-nine years 
 he enjoyed the pleasures, and folloAved the occupations, usual to the 
 men of his rank and position ; but at that age, becoming painfully 
 impressed by the misery incident to human existence, he determined 
 to devote the rest of his life to an attempt to alleviate it. For this 
 purpose he forsook his parents and wife, abandoned friends and all 
 the advantages of his position, and, for the following fifty-one years, 
 devoted himself steadily to the task he had set before himself. Years 
 were spent in the meditation and mortification necessary to fit himself 
 
 * The most pleasing of the histories 
 of Buddlia, written wholly from a Euro- 
 pean point of view, is that of Bartlielemy 
 St. Hilaire, Paris. Of those partially 
 native, partly European, are those of 
 Bishop Bigandet, from the Burmese le- 
 
 gends, and the ' Romantic History of 
 Buddha,' translated from the Chinese 
 by the Rev. S. Beal. The ' Latita Vis- 
 tara,' translated by Foucaud, is more 
 modern than these, and consequently 
 niore fabulous and absurd. 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 for his mission ; the rest of his long life was devoted to wandering 
 from city to city, teaching and preaching, and doing everything that 
 gentle means could effect to disseminate the doctrines which he 
 believed were to regenerate the world, and take the sting out of human 
 misery. 
 
 He died, or, in the phraseology of his followers, obtained Nirvana — • 
 was absorbed into the deity — at Kusinara, in northern Behar, in the 
 80th year of his age, 543 years ^ B.C. 
 
 With the information that is now fast accumulating around the 
 subject, there seems no great difficulty in understanding why the 
 mission of Sakya Muni was so successful as it proved to be. He 
 was born at a time when the purity of the Aryan races in India had 
 become so deteriorated by the constant influx of less pure tribes from 
 the north and west, that their power, and consequently their influence, 
 was fast fading away. At that time, too, it seems that the native 
 races had, from long familiarity with the Aryans, acquired such a 
 degree of civilisation as led them to desire something like equality 
 with their masters, who were probably always in a numerical minority 
 in most parts of the valley of the Ganges. In such a condition of 
 things the preacher was sure of a willing audience who proclaimed 
 the abolition of caste, and taught that all men, of whatever nation 
 or degree, had an equal chance of reaching happiness, and ultimately 
 heaven, by the practice of virtue, and by that only. The subject 
 races — the Turanian Dasyus — hailed him as a deliverer, and it was 
 by them that the religion was adopted and proclaimed, and that of the 
 Aryan Brahmans was for a time obliterated, or at least overshadowed 
 and obscured. 
 
 It is by no means clear how far Buddha was successful in convert- 
 ing the multitude to his doctrines during his lifetime. At his death, 
 the first synod was held at Rajagriha, and five hundred monks of a 
 superior order, it is said, were assembled there on that occasion, ^ and 
 if so they must have represented a great multitude. But the accounts 
 of this, and of the second convocation, held 100 years afterwards 
 at Yaisali, on the Gunduck, have not yet had the full light of recent 
 investigation brought to bear upon them. Indeed the whole annals 
 of the Naga dynasty, from the death of Buddha, B.C. 543, to the 
 accession of Chandragupta 325, are about the least satisfactory of 
 the period. Those of Ceylon were purposely falsified in order to 
 carry back the landing of Yyjya, the first conqueror from Kalinga, 
 to a period coincident with the date of Buddha's death, while a period 
 
 ^ There may possibly be an error of 
 forty to sixty years in this date ; but, on 
 the whole, that here given is supported 
 by the greatest amount of concurrent testi- 
 mony, and may, after all, prove to ha 
 
 minutely correct. 
 
 2 ' Foe Koue Ki,' xxv. ch. 11 ; * Maha- 
 wanso,' V. p. 20 ; 'Journal of Ihe Asiatic 
 Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. 527. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 17 
 
 apparently of sixty years at least elapsed between the two events. 
 All this may, however, be safely left to future explorers. We have 
 annals and coins,^ and we may recover inscriptions and sculptures 
 belonging to this period, and, though it is most improbable we shall 
 recover any architectural remains, there are evidently materials existing 
 which, when utilised, may suffice for the purpose. 
 
 The kings of* this dynasty seem to have been considered as of a 
 low caste, and w^re not, consequently, in favour either with the 
 Brahman or, at that time, with the Buddhist ; and no events which 
 seem to have been thought worthy of being remembered, except the 
 second convocation, are recorded as happening in their reigns, after 
 the death of the great Ascetic — or, at all events, of being recorded 
 in such annals as we possess. 
 
 Maurya Dynasty, b.c. 325 to 188. 
 
 The case was widely different with the Maurya dynasty, which 
 was certainly one of the most brilliant, and is fortunately one of the 
 best known, of the ancient dynasties of India. The first king was 
 Chandragupta, the Sandrocottus of the Greeks, to whom Megasthenes 
 was sent as ambassador by Seleucus, the successor of Alexander in 
 the western parts of his Asiatic empire. It is from his narrative — 
 now unfortunately lost — that the Greeks acquired almost all the 
 knowledge they possessed of India at that period. The country was 
 then divided into 120 smaller principalities, but the Maurya residing 
 in Palibothra — the modern Patna — seems to have exercised a para- 
 mount sway over the whole. It was not, however, this king, but his 
 grandson, the great Asoka (b.c. 272 to 236), who raised this dynasty 
 to its highest pitch of prosperity and power. Though utterly un- 
 known to the Greeks, we have from native sources a more complete 
 picture of the incidents of his reign than of any ancient sovereign of 
 India. The great event that made him famous in Buddhist history 
 was his conversion to that faith, and the zeal he showed in propa- 
 
 * One coin at least of the period is well 
 known. It belongs to a king called 
 
 Kunanda or Krananda, generally assumed 
 to be one of the nine Nandas with whom 
 this dynasty closed. In the centre, on 
 one side, is a Dagoba with the nsual 
 Buddhist Trisul emblem over it, and a 
 serpent below it ; on the right the Sacred 
 
 Tree, on the left a Swastica with an altar? 
 on the other side a lady with a lotus (Sri ?) 
 witli an animal usually called a deer, but 
 from its tail more probably a horse, with 
 two serpents standing on their tails over 
 its head, which have been mistaken for 
 horns. Over the animal is an altar, with 
 an umbrella over it. In fact, a complete 
 epitome of emblems known on the monu- 
 ments of the period, but savouring much 
 more of Tree and Serpent worship than 
 of Buddhism, as it is now known. ' -lour- 
 nal of the Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. i. 
 (N.S.) p. 447, et seqq. 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN AECHITECTURE. 
 
 gating the doctrines of his new religion. He did, in fact, for Buddhism, 
 exactly what Constantine did for Christianity, and at about the same 
 distance of time from the death of the founder of the faith. From 
 a struggling sect he made it the religion of the State, and established it 
 on the basis on which it lasted supreme for nearly 1000 years. In 
 order to render his subjects familiar w^ith the doctrines of his new 
 faith, he caused a series of edicts embodying them to be engraved on 
 rocks near Peshaivur, in Gujerat, in the valley of the Dhoon under the 
 Himalayas, in Cuttack, and in several intermediate places. He held 
 the third and greatest convocation of the faithful in his capital at 
 Patna, and, on its dissolution, sent missionaries to spread the faith in 
 the Yavana country, whose capital was Alexandria, near the present 
 city of Cabul. Others were despatched to Kashmir and Gandhara ; 
 one was sent to the HimaAvanta — the valleys of the Himalaya, and 
 possibly part of Thibet ; others were despatched to the Maharatta 
 country, and to three other places in Central and Western India 
 which have not yet been identified with certainty. Two missionaries 
 were sent to the Souverna Bhumi, a place now known as Thatun 
 on the Sitang river, in Pegu, and his own son and daughter were 
 deputed to Ceylon.^ All those countries, in fact, which might be 
 called foreign, but which were inhabited by races who might in any 
 way be supposed to be allied to the Dasyus of Bengal, were then 
 sought to be converted to the faith. He also formed alliances with 
 Antiochus the Great, Antigonus, and with Ptolemy Philadelphus, and 
 Magas of Cyrene, for the establishment of hospitals and the protection 
 of his co-religionists in their countries. More than all this, he built 
 innumerable topes and monasteries all over the country ; and, though 
 none of those now existing can positively be identified as those 
 actually built by him, there seems no reason whatever for doubting that 
 the sculptured rails at Buddh Gaya and Bharhut, the caves at Bhara- 
 bar in Behar, some of those at Udyagiri in Cuttack, and the oldest 
 of those in the Western Ghats were all erected or excavated during 
 the existence of this dynasty, if not by him himself. These, with 
 inscriptions and coins, and such histories as exist, make up a mass of 
 materials for a picture of India during this dynasty such as no other 
 can present ; and, above all, they offer a complete representation of the 
 religious forms and beliefs of the kings and people, which render any 
 mistake regarding them impossible. It was Buddhism, but without 
 a personal Buddha, and with Tree and Serpent worship cropping up 
 in every unexpected corner. 
 
 There is certainly no dynasty in the whole range of ancient Indian 
 
 ' All these particulars, it need hardly 
 be said, are taken from the 12th and 
 15th chapters of the ' Mahawanso,' con- 
 
 firmed by the inscriptions themselves and 
 the relics found at Sanchi, to all which 
 reference will be made hereafter. 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 19 
 
 history that would better repay the labour of an exhaustive investi- 
 gation than that of these Maurya kings. Not only were they the 
 first in historical times who, so far as we know, united the whole of 
 India into one great kingdom, but they were practically the first who 
 came in contact with European civilisation and Western politics. 
 More than even this, it is probably owing to the action of the third 
 king of this dynasty that Buddhism, from being the religion of an 
 obscure sect, became, at one time, the faith of a third of the human 
 race, and has influenced the belief and the moral feelings of a greater 
 number of men than any other religion that can be named. 
 
 Fortunately, the materials for such a monograph as is required 
 are abundant, and every day is adding to them. It is to this dynasty, 
 and to it only, that must be applied all those passages in classical 
 authors which describe the internal state of India, and they are neither 
 few nor insignificant. Though the Hindus themselves cannot be 
 said to have contributed much history, they have given us, in the 
 * Mudra Rakshasa,' ^ a poetical version of the causes of the revolution 
 that placed the Mauryas on the throne. But, putting these aside, 
 their own inscriptions give us dates, and a perfectly authentic con- 
 temporary account of the religious faith and feelings of the period ; 
 while the numerous bas-reliefs of the rails at Buddh Gaya and Bharhut 
 afford a picture of the manners, customs, and costumes of the day, 
 and a gauge by which we can measure their artistic status and judge 
 how far their art was indigenous, how far influenced by foreign 
 elements. The dates of the kings of this dynasty are also perfectly 
 well known,^ and the whole framework of their history depends so 
 completely on contemporary native monuments, that there need be no 
 real uncertainty regarding any of the outlines of the picture when once 
 the subject is fairly grasped and thoroughly handled. 
 
 It is the firmest standpoint we have from which to judge of Indian 
 civilisation and history, whether looking to the past or to the future, 
 and it is one that gives a very high idea of the position at which the 
 Hindus had arrived before they came practically into contact with the 
 civilisation of the West. 
 
 SuNGA Dynasty, b.c. 188 to 76. 
 Kanwa Dynasty, b.c. 70 to 81. 
 
 History affords us little beyond the dates of the kings' reigns for the 
 next two dynasties, but there seems no reason to doubt the general 
 
 * Wilson's 'Hindu Drama,' vol. xii. according to liis hypothesis A soka, in the 
 p. 151, et seqq., edition 1871. sixteentli year of his reign, would claim 
 
 2 Lassen, it is true, brings these dates Magas as his ally ten or twelve years after 
 down by ten years below where I have his death, which is improbable, 
 placed it. But he overlotks the fact that 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 HISTOKY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 con'ectness with which these are recorded in the Pumnas, and by 
 degTees we are collecting inscriptions and finding* caves that certainly 
 belongs to their time, so that we may hope to breathe life into what 
 has hitherto appeared only a dry list of names. Such inscriptions 
 as bear their names have yet only been discovered on the western 
 caves at Karli, Nassick, and similar places, but there seems no reason 
 for doubting that they reigned also in Magadha, and, if so, over 
 Orissa, so that we may look for further information regarding them 
 on the eastern as well as on the western side of India. These 
 dynasties were not, however, apparently known to the Greeks, and, 
 being Buddhist, are passed over in comparative silence in the Puranas. 
 It is thus only from their monuments that we can hope to recover 
 their history. Up to the present time, those identified as belonging to 
 them are few and far between, but they have not yet been systematically 
 searched for, and till this is done there is no reason to. despair of 
 ultimate success. 
 
 Andea Dynasty, b.c. 31 to a.d. 420. 
 
 The dynasty that succeeded to these Rois faineants is — after the 
 Mauryas — the most important of all those about this period of Indian 
 history. To the classical authors they are known as the Andrse, in 
 the Puranas as Andrabrityas, and in the inscriptions as Satakaniis or 
 Satavahanas ; but under whatever name, notwithstanding occasional 
 periods of depression, they played a most important part in. the 
 history of India, during- more than four centuries and a half. Latterly 
 they have been very much overlooked in consequence of their leaving 
 no coins behind them, while it is from numismatic researches, 
 principally, that precision has been given to much of the history of 
 the period. The dynasties in India, however, who practically intro- 
 duced coinage within her limits, all came across the Indus as strangers 
 bringing with them an art they had learnt from the Bactrians, or 
 those who succeeded them in the north-west. The Andras, being a 
 native dynasty of Central India, had no coinage of importance, 
 and have consequently no place in these numismatic researches ; 
 they have, however, left many and most interesting inscriptions in 
 the western caves, and traces of their existence occur in many parts 
 of India. 
 
 Architecturally, their histoiy begins with the gateways of the Tope 
 at Sanchi ; the southern or oldest of these was almost certainly erected 
 during the reign of the first Satakarni in the first quarter of the 
 1st century — while Christ Avas teaching at Jerusalem — and the other 
 three in the course of that century. It ends with the completion of 
 the rail at Amravati, which with aUnost ecpuil certainty was com- 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 21 
 
 menced in the fii-st quarter of the 4th century, and completed about 
 A.D. 450.1 
 
 Between these two monuments there is no great difficulty in filling 
 up the architectural picture from the caves, at Nassick and Ajunta, 
 and other places in western India, and more materials will no doubt 
 eventually be discovered. 
 
 The history of this dynasty is more than usually interesting for 
 our purposes, as it embraces nearly the whole period during which 
 Buddhism reigned almost supreme in India. It became the state re- 
 ligion, it is true, two centuries earlier under Asoka, but there is no 
 reason for believing that the Yedic religion or Brahmanism vanished 
 immediately. During the first four centuries, however, of the Christian 
 Era we have not a trace of a Hindu building or cave, and, so far as any 
 material evidence goes, it seems that Buddhism at the time was the 
 religion of the land. It cannot, of course, be supposed that the Hindu 
 faith was wholly obliterated, but it certainly was dormant, and in 
 abeyance, and, to use a Buddhist expression, the yellow robes shone 
 over the length and breadth of the land. 
 
 It was during the reign of these Andras, though not by them, that 
 the fourth convocation was held by Kanishka, in the north of India, 
 and the new doctrine, the Mahayana, introduced by Nagarjuna — ■ 
 a change similar to that made by Gregory the Great when he 
 established the Church, as opposed to the primitive forms of Christi- 
 anity, at about the same distance of time from the death of the 
 founder of the religion. My impression is, that this convocation was 
 held in the last quarter of the first century of our era, probably 79. 
 Certain at least it is, that it was about that time that Buddhism was 
 first practically introduced into China, Thibet, and Burmah, and 
 apparently by missionaries sent out from this as they were from the 
 third convocation. 
 
 It was towards the end of the reign of the Andras that Fa Hian 
 visited India (a.d. 400). As his objects in doing so were entirely of a 
 religious nature, he does not allude to worldly politics, nor give us a 
 king's name we can identify ; but the picture we gather from his 
 narrative is one of peace and prosperity in so far as the country is 
 concerned, and of supremacy for his religion. Heretics are, it is 
 true, mentioned occasionally, but they are few and far between. 
 Buddhism was then certainly the religion of the north, especially in 
 the north-west of India ; but even then there were symptoms of a change, 
 in the central provinces and outlying parts of the country. 
 
 * For complete details of these two j ship,' whicli is practically devoted to a 
 monuments and- the dates, the reader is ' detcription of these two monuments, 
 referred to my ' Tree and Serpent Wor- 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Guptas, 819 to 465. 
 Ballabhis, 465 TO 712 (?). 
 
 At the time when Fa Hian was visiting the sacred places in India, 
 the power of the Andra dynasty w^as passing away. It had culmi- 
 nated with Gautamiputra (312 to 333), and they were fast sinking into 
 a second-class position among Indian princes. The dynasty that super- 
 seded them was that of the Guptas, who, at the end of the fourth 
 century of our era, seem to have attained to the position of lords 
 paramount in northern India. They date their inscriptions, which 
 are numerous and interesting, from an era established by the Andra 
 king Gautamiputra, four cycles of 60 years each, or 240 years after the 
 Saka era of a.d. 79, or in 319 ; but it was not apparently till under the 
 third king, Samudra, about 380, that they really obtained the empire 
 of northern India, which they retained till the death of Skandagupta, 
 about the year 465, or it may be a little later. 
 
 It is during their reign that we first perceive in high places the 
 germs of that change which was gradually creeping over the religious 
 system of India. That the Guptas were patrons of Buddhism is evident 
 from the gifts Chandragupta II. made to the tope at Sanchi in the 
 year 400, and recorded on the rail of that Monument, but their other 
 inscriptions, on the lats at Allahabad and Bhitari, show a decided 
 tendency towards Hinduism, but a class of Hinduism which was still 
 far removed from the wild extravagances of the Puranas. There seems 
 little doubt that the boar at Erun, and the buildings there, belong to 
 this dynasty, and are consequently among the earliest if not the very 
 oldest temples in India, dedicated to the new religion, which was then 
 raising its head in defiance to Buddhism. 
 
 From their coins and inscriptions, we may feel certain that the 
 Guptas possessed when in the plenitude of their power the whole of 
 northern India with the province of Gujerat, but how far the boasts 
 of Samudra Gupta on the Allahabad pillar were justified is by no means 
 clear. If that inscription is to be believed, the whole of the southern 
 country as far as Ceylon, together with Assam and Nepal, were subject 
 to their sway. However brilliant it may have been, their power was 
 of short duration. Gujerat and all the western provinces were wrested 
 from them by the Ballabhis, about the year 465, and a new kingdom 
 then founded by a dynasty bearing that name, which lasted till the 
 great catastrophe, wliich about tw^o and a half centuries after Avards 
 revolutionised India. 
 
 Ujjain Dynasty. 
 
 Although it was becoming evident in the time of the Guptas that 
 a change was creeping over the religious belief of India, it was not 
 
INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 23 
 
 then that the blow was struck which eventually proved fatal, l)ut by 
 a dynasty which succeeded them in Central India. Being Hindus, 
 we know less that is authentic about their history than about the 
 Buddhist dynasties, who lived to inscribe their names on rocks and in 
 caves ; but there seems very little doubt that the great Vicramaditya 
 reigned in Malwa from 495 to 530, though the Hindus, in order to 
 connect his name with an era they thought fit to establish 56 years B.C., 
 have done all they can to mystify and obscure the chronology of the 
 period. Notwithstanding this, it seems perfectly clear that about 
 this time there reigned in central India a king who, by his liberality 
 and magnificence, acquired a renown among the Hindus, only second 
 to that obtained by Solomon among the Jews. By his patronage of 
 literature and his encouragement of art, his fame spread over the 
 length and breadth of the land, and to this day his name is quoted 
 as the symbol of all that is great and magnificent in India. What is 
 more to our present purpose, he was an undoubted patron of the 
 Brahmanical religion, a worshipper of Siva and Vishnu, and no 
 tradition associates his name directly or indirectly with anything 
 connected with Buddhism. Unfortunately we have no buildings which 
 can be attributed to him, and no inscriptions. But the main fact of 
 a Brahmanical king reigning and acquiring such influence in Central 
 India at that time is only too significant of the declining position of the 
 Buddhist religion at that period. 
 
 His successor,' Siladitya, seems to have returned to the old faith, 
 and during his long reign of sixty years to have adhered to the Buddhist 
 doctrines. 
 
 In the beginning of the next century, after a short period of anarchy, 
 we find a second Siladitya seated on the throne of Canouge as lord 
 paramount in India, and, during a prosperous reign of thirty-eight to 
 forty years, exercising supreme sway in that country. It was during 
 his reign that the Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang visited India, and 
 gave a much more full and graphic account of what he saw than his 
 predecessor Fa Hian. Nothing can be more characteristic of the state 
 of religious feeling, and the spirit of toleration then prevailing, than the 
 fete given by this king at Allahabad in the year 643, at which the kings 
 of Ballabhi and Kamarupa (Assam) were present. The king being 
 himself a Buddhist, the first days were devoted to the distribution, 
 among the followers of that religion, of the treasures accumulated during 
 the previous five years, but then came the turn of the Brahmans, who 
 were treated with equal honour and liberality ; then followed the fete 
 of the other sects, among whom the Jains appear conspicuous. All 
 were feasted and feted, and sent away laden with gifts and mementos of 
 the magnificence and liberality of the great king. 
 
 Pleasant as this picture is to look upon, it is evident that such a 
 state of affairs could hardly be stable, and it was in vain to expect 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 that peace 'could long be maintained between a rising and ambitious 
 sect, and one which was fast sinking into decay ; apparently beneath 
 the load of an overgrown priesthood. Accordingly we find that ten 
 years after the death of Siladitya troubles supervened as prophesied,^ 
 and the curtain soon descends on the great drama of the history of 
 northern India, not to be raised again for nearly three centuries. It 
 is true, we can still follow the history of the Ballabhis for some little 
 time longer, and it would be satisfactory if we could fix the date of 
 their destruction with precision, as it was the event which in the Hindu 
 mind is considered the closing act of the drama. If it was destroyed 
 by a foreign enemy, it must have been by the Moslem, either before or 
 during the time Mohammed Kasim, a.h. 712, 713. It was a flourish- 
 ing city in 640, when visited by Hiouen Thsang, and from that time, 
 till the death of Kasim, the Moslems were in such power on the Indus, 
 and their historians tell us the events of these years in such detail, 
 that no other foreigner could have crossed the river during that period. 
 If it perished by some internal revolution of convulsion, which is more 
 probable, it only shared the fate that overtook all northern India about 
 this period. Strange to say, even the Moslems, then in the plenitude 
 of their power during the Khalifat of Bagdad, retired from their 
 Indian conquests, as if the seething cauldron were too hot for even them 
 to exist within its limits. 
 
 The more southern dynasty of the Chalukyas of Kalyan seem to 
 have retained their power down to about 750, and may, up to that 
 time, have exercised a partial sway to the north of the Nerbudda, but 
 after that we lose all sight of them ; while, as a closing act in the 
 great drama, the Raja Tarangini represents the King of Kashmir — • 
 Lalitaditya — as conquering India from north to south, and subjecting 
 all the five kingdoms, into which it was nominally divided, to his 
 imperious sway. 
 
 We need not stop now to inquire whether this was exactly what 
 happened or not. It is sufficient for present purposes to know that 
 about the middle of the 8th century a dark cloud settled over the 
 north of India, and that during the next two centuries she was torn 
 to pieces by internal troubles, which have left nothing but negative 
 evidence of their existence. During that period no event took place 
 of which we have any record ; no dynasty rose to sufficient distinction 
 to be quoted even in the lists of the bard ; no illustrious name 
 appears whose acts have been recorded ; no buildings were erected of 
 which we have a trace ; ^ and but few inscriptions engraved. Dark 
 
 * ' Vic et Voyages de Hiouen Thsang,' 
 i. p. 215. It need hardly be said that all 
 these particulars are taken from the three 
 volumes relating his Indian experiences, 
 translated by Stanislas Julien. 
 
 ^ This does not apply to Orissa, which, 
 from its remote situation, and having at 
 that time no resident Buddiiist popula- 
 tion, setms to have escaped being drawn 
 into the vortex of these troubles. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 25 
 
 night seems to have "settled over the land, and whether we shall ever be 
 able to penetrate into its mysteries seems more than doubtful. 
 
 When light again appears in the middle of the 10th century the 
 scene is wonderfully changed. Buddhism had practically disappeared 
 in the north and west at least, though it still lingered on in Bengal, 
 and Jainism had supplanted it in most places ; but the mass of the 
 people had become followers of Yishnu or Siva. New dynasties had 
 arisen which, though they try to trace their lineage back to the 
 troublous times when Ballabhi fell, were new to Indian history. Old 
 India had passed away, and the history of modern India was about 
 to open. The old dynasties had become extinct, and the Eajput 
 races were gaily stepping forward to assume their places — too soon, 
 alas ! to be engaged in a life or death struggle with the most 
 implacable foe to their race and religion that India has ever known. 
 It was a cruel Nemesis that their victories over the Buddhists should 
 soon have been followed by the fatal siege at Somnath in 1024, 
 and the fight on the banks of the Ghaghar in 1193, which practically 
 laid India at the feet of the Moslem invader, and changed the whole 
 course of her subsequent career. But, as hinted above, with the 
 appearance of the Moslem on the scene, our chronological difficulties 
 cease, and the subject need not therefore be further pursued in this 
 introduction. 
 
 Immigkations. 
 
 From the above brief sketch of ancient Indian history it may be 
 gathered that it is doubtful whether we shall ever be able to clothe 
 with solid flesh the skeleton of history which is all we possess anterior 
 to the advent of Buddha. It is also possible that pious frauds may 
 have so confused the sequence of events between his death and the 
 rise of the Mauryas, that there will be great difficulty in restoring 
 that period to anything like completeness. But for the thousand 
 years that elapsed between " the revenge of Chanakya " and the fall 
 of Ballabhi the materials are ample, and when sufficient industry is 
 applied to their elucidation there is little doubt that the whole may 
 be made clear and intelligible. It does not fall within the scope of 
 this work to attempt such a task ; but it is necessary to endeavour 
 to make its outlines clear, as, without this being done, what follows 
 will be utterly unintelligible ; while, at the same time, one of the 
 principal objects of this work is to point out how the architecture, 
 which is one important branch of the evidence, may be brought to bear 
 on the subject. 
 
 No direct evidence, however, derived only from events that occurred 
 in India itself, would suffice to make the phenomena of her history 
 clear, Avithout taking into account the successive migrations of tribes 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 and peoples who, in all ages, so far as we know, poured across the Indus 
 from the westward to occupy her fertile plains. 
 
 As mentioned above, the great master fact that explains almost 
 all we know of the ancient history of India is our knowledge that 
 two or three thousand years before the birth of Christ a Sanscrit- 
 speaking nation migrated from the valleys of the Oxus and Jaxartes. 
 They crossed the Indus in such numbers as to impress their civilisation 
 and their language on the whole of the north of India, and this to 
 such an extent as practically to obliterate, as far as history is concerned, 
 the original inhabitants of the valley of the Ganges, whoever they 
 may have been. At the time when this migration took place the 
 power and civilisation of Central Asia were concentrated on the lower 
 Euphrates, and the Babylonian empire never seems to have extended 
 across the Carmanian desert to the eastward. The road, consequently, 
 between Bactria and India was open, and nations might pass and 
 re-pass between the two countries without fear of interruption from any 
 other people. 
 
 If any of the ancient dynasties of Babylonia extended their power 
 towards the East, it was along the coast of Gedrosia, and not in a 
 north-easterly direction. It is, indeed, by no means improbable, as 
 hinted above, that the origin of the Dravidians may be found among 
 the Accadian or in some of the Turanian peoples who occupied southern 
 Babylonia in ancient times, and who may, either by sea or land, have 
 passed to the western shores of India. Till, however, further informa- 
 tion is available, this is mere speculation, though probably in the 
 direction in which truth may hereafter be found. 
 
 When the seat of power was moved northward to Nineveh, the 
 Assyrians seem to have occupied the country eastward of the Caspian 
 in sufficient force to prevent any further migration. At least, after 
 that time — say B.C. 1000 — we have no further trace of any Aryan 
 tribe crossing the Indus going eastward, and it seems mainly to have 
 been a consequence of this cutting off of the supply of fresh blood that 
 the purity of their race in India w^as so far weakened as to admit of 
 the Buddhist reform taking root, and being adopted to the extent it 
 afterwards attained. 
 
 During the period of the Achemaenian sway, the Persians cer- 
 tainly occupied the countries about the Oxus in sufficient strength 
 to prevent any movement of the peoples. So essentially indeed 
 had Bactria and Sogdiana become parts of the Persian empire, that 
 Alexander was obliged to turn aside from his direct route to conquer 
 them, as well as the rest of the kingdom of Darius, before advancing 
 on India. 
 
 Whether it were founded for that purpose or not, the little Greek 
 kingdom of Bactria was sufficiently powerful, while it lasted, to keep 
 the barbarians in check; but when about the year 127-12G B.C., 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 27 
 
 the Yiiechi and other cognate tribes invaded Sogdiana, and finally 
 about 120 B.C. conquered the whole of Bactria,^ they opened a new 
 chapter in the history of India, the effects of which are felt to the 
 present day. 
 
 It is not yet quite clear how soon after the destruction of the 
 Bactrian kingdom these Turanian tribes conquered Cabul, and occu- 
 pied the country between that city and the Indus. Certain it is, 
 however, that they were firmly seated on the banks of that river 
 before the Christian Era, and under the great king Kanishka had 
 become an Indian power of very considerable importance. The 
 date of this king is, unfortunately, one of those small puzzles that 
 still remain to be solved. Generally, it is supposed he reigned till 
 about twenty to forty years after Christ.^ Evidence, however, has 
 lately been brought to light, which seems to prove that he was the 
 founder of the Saka era, a.d. 79, and that his reign must be placed 
 in the last quarter of the first century of our era, instead of in the 
 earlier half.^ 
 
 Be this as it may, it seems quite certain that the power of these 
 Turuska kings spread over the whole Punjab, and extended as far 
 at least as Muttra on the Jumna, in the first century of the 
 Christian Era. 
 
 At the same time another horde, known to us only from the coins 
 and inscriptions in which they call themselves Sahs or Sah kings, 
 crossed the Indus lower down, and occupied the whole of the province 
 of Gujerat. It is not quite clear whether the first of them, Nahapana, 
 was only the Viceroy of one of these northern kings — ^probably of 
 Kanishka himself — though he and his successors afterwards became 
 independent, and founded a kingdom of their own. They seem to date 
 their coins and inscriptions from the Saka era, a.d. 79, and the 
 series extends from that date to a.d. 349, or at latest to 371.* It 
 thus happens that though Gautamiputra, the Andra king (312-333), 
 boasts of having humbled them,^ they were only in fact finally disposed 
 of by the rise of the Guptas. 
 
 No other foreign race, so far as we know, seems to have crossed the 
 Lower Indus into India. But the whole external history of northern 
 India, from the time of Kanishka to that of Ahmed Shah Durani (1761) 
 is a narrative of a continuous succession of tribes of Scythian origin. 
 
 The best and most accepted accouut j in favour of this last view, which I in- 
 
 of these events is found in Vivien de St, 
 Martin's ' Les Huns hlancs,' Paris, 1849. 
 ^ Cunningham's ' Numismatic Cliron.,' 
 
 tended stiould appear in the ' Journal of 
 the Asiatic Society.' The evidence being, 
 however, incomplete, it has only been 
 
 viii. 175 ; ' Journal of the Asiatic Society i printed for private circulation, 
 of Bengal,' vii. 704; Lassen's, 'ludische * 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Alterth.,' ii. p. 24. | Koyal Asiatic Sociely,' vol. viii. p. 28. 
 
 ^ I wrote a paper stating the evidence ' * Ibid., vol. v. p. 42. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 pouring across the Upper Indua into India, each more Turanian than 
 the one that preceded it, till the whole culminated in the Mogul con- 
 quest of India, in the 15th century, by a people as distinct in blood 
 from the Aryans as any that exist. 
 
 Of the older races, it seems probable that the Yavanas must be dis- 
 tinguished from the Turanians. It will hardly now be contended 
 that they were pure Greeks, though their name may be merely a 
 mispronunciation of Ionian. The term seems to have been applied by 
 Indian authors to any foreign race coming from the westward who 
 did not belong to one of the acknowledged kingdoms known to them. 
 As such it would apply to any western adventurers, who during the 
 existence of the Bactrian kingdom sought to establish settlements in 
 any part of India, and would also apply to the expatriated Bactrians 
 themselves when driven from their homes by the Yuechi, 120 or 130 
 years B.C. It is only in this sense that we can explain their presence in 
 Orissa before and about the Christian Era, but in the west the term 
 may have been more loosely applied. The Oambojas seem to have been 
 a people inhabiting the country between Candahar and Cabul, who, when 
 the tide was setting eastward, joined the crowd, and sought settlements 
 in the more fertile countries within the Indus. 
 
 The Sakas were well known to classical authors as the Sacae, or 
 Scythians. They pressed on with the rest, and became apparently 
 most formidable during the first four centuries of the Christian Era. 
 It was apparently their defeat by the great Yicramaditya in the 
 battle at Kortir, on the banks of the Indus, a.d. 524 or 544, that 
 raised the popularity of that monarch to its highest pitch, and 
 induced the Hindus at a subsequent age to institute the era known 
 by his name 600 years before his time, and another called by his 
 other name, Sri Harsha, 1000 years before the date of the battle 
 of Korur.^ 
 
 Another important horde were the Ephthalites, or White Huns, 
 who came into India apparently in the 4th century, and one of whose 
 kings, if we may trust Cosmas Indicopleustes, was the head of a 
 powerful state in northern India, about the year 535. They, too, 
 seem to have been conquered about the same time by the Hindus, and, 
 as both the Sakas and Hunas were undoubtedly Buddhists, it may have 
 been their destruction that first weakened the cause of that religion, 
 and which led to its ultimate defeat a little more than a century 
 afterwards. 
 
 During the dark ages, 750 to 950, we do not know of any horde 
 passing the Indus. The Mahomedans were probably too strong on 
 
 ^ The argument on which these asser- 
 tions are founded is stated at length in the 
 privately printed pamphlet alluded to on 
 preceding page. It is too long to insert 
 
 here, but, if not published before this work 
 is complete, an abstract will be inserted in 
 the Appendix. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 29 
 
 the frontier to admit of its being done, and after that age they and 
 
 they only — conducted the various invasions which completely changed 
 the face and character of northern India. For seven centuries they 
 were continued, with only occasional interruptions, and at last re- 
 sulted in placing the Mahomedan power supreme, practically, over 
 the whole of India, but only to fall to pieces like a house of cards, 
 before the touch of Western civilisation. All this, however, is written, 
 and written so distinctly, in so many books, that it need not be 
 recapitulated here. 
 
 Southern Inbta. 
 
 If the records of the ancient history of northern India are un- 
 satisfactory and untrustworthy, those of the southern part of the 
 peninsula are at least ten times more so. The Dravidians have no 
 ancient literature like that of the Yedas. They have no traditions 
 which point to any seat of their race out of India, or of their having 
 migrated from any country with whose inhabitants they can claim 
 any kindred. So far as they know, they are indigenous and abori- 
 ginal. The utmost extent to which even their traditions extend is to 
 claim for their leading race of kings — the Pandyas — a descent from 
 Arjuna, one of the heroes of the * Mahabharata.' He, it is said, when 
 on his travels, married a princess of the land, and she gave birth to 
 the eponymous hero of their race, and hence their name. It is true, 
 indeed, that they produce long lists of kings, which they pretend 
 stretch back till the times of the Pandus. These were examined by 
 the late Professor Wilson in 183G, and he conjectured that they might 
 extend back to the 5th or 6th century before our era.^ But all that 
 has since come to light has tended to show that even this may be an 
 over-estimate of their antiquity. If, however, as Dr. Kern believes, 
 the Ohoda, Pada, and Keralaputra of the second edict of Asoka do 
 really represent the Oholas, Pandyas, Cheras, of modem times, this 
 triarchy existed in the third century B.C. ; but there are difficulties in 
 the way of this identification which have not yet been removed. In 
 fact, all we really do know is that, in classical times, there was a 
 Regio Pandionis in the country afterwards known as the Pandyan 
 kingdom of Madura, and it has been conjectured that the king who 
 sent an embassy to Augustus in 27 b.c.^ was not a Porus, which 
 would indicate a northern race, but this very king of the south. Be 
 
 ^ * Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 
 vol. iii. p. 202. 
 
 ^ For an exhaustive description of this 
 subject see Priaulx, ' India and Rome,' 
 London, 1873. My own impressions arc, 
 I confess, entirely in favour of the northern 
 
 origin of the embassy. We are now in a 
 position to prove an intimate connection 
 between the north of India and Rome at 
 that time. Witli the south it seems to have 
 been only trade, but of this hereafter. 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 this, however, as it may, we do know, by the frequent mention of this 
 country by classical authors, that it was at least sufficiently civilised 
 in the early centuries of our era to carry on a considerable amount of 
 commerce with the western nations, and there is consequently no 
 improbability that at least one powerful dynasty may then have been 
 established in the south. If so, that dynasty was certainly the 
 Pandyan. The Chola and the Chera became important states only at 
 a much later date. 
 
 When we turn to their literature we find nothing to encourage 
 any hope that we may penetrate further back into their history than 
 we have hitherto been able to do. Dr. Caldwell, the best and latest 
 authority on the subject, ascribes the oldest work in the Tamil, or 
 any southern language, to the 8th or 9th century of our era,^ and 
 that even then can hardly be called native, as it undoubtedly belongs 
 to the Jains, who are as certainly a northern sect. According to the 
 same authority, it was superseded by a Yaishnava literature about 
 the 12th or 13th century, and that again made way for one of Saiva 
 tendency about the latter date. There is no trace of any Buddhist 
 literature in the south, and nothing, consequently, that would enable 
 us to connect the history of the south with the tolerably well-ascer- 
 tained chronology of Ceylon or Northern India, nor am I aware of the 
 existence of any ancient Buddhist monuments in the south which would 
 help us in this difficulty.^ 
 
 Not having passed through Bactria, or having lived in contact 
 with any people making or using coins, the Dravidians have none of 
 their own, and consequently that source of information is not available. 
 Whatever hoards of ancient coins have been found in the Madras 
 Presidency have been of purely Koman origin, brought there for the 
 purpose of trade, and buried to protect them from spoliation. 
 
 The inscriptions, which are literally innumerable all over the 
 Presidency, are the one source from which we can hope that new light 
 may be thrown on the history of the country, but none of those 
 hitherto brought to light go further back than the 5th or 6 th century, 
 and it is not clear that earlier ones may be found.^ It is, at all events, 
 the most hopeful field that lies open to future explorers in these dark 
 domains. There is nothing, however, that would lead us to expect to 
 find any Tamil or native inscription in the country extending so far 
 
 ^ ' Dra vidian Grammar,' second edition, 
 London, 1875, p. 129, et seqq. 
 
 2 Sir WalterElliot and others frequently 
 speak of Buddhist monuments in the south. 
 I have never, however, been able to see a 
 pliotogiaph or drawing of any one except 
 at Amravati and its neighbourhood. 
 
 3 In his 'Elements of South Indian 
 
 Palaeography,' Mr. Burnell, the last and 
 best authority on the subject, divides the 
 South Indian alphabet into Chera, Cha- 
 lukya, and Vengi. The first, he states, 
 appears in Mysore in the second half of 
 the 5th century. The oldest specimen of 
 the second he dates from the first half of 
 that century. The third is more modern. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 31 
 
 back as the age of Constantine. Those on the raths at Mahavellipore, 
 or the caves at Badami, which may be as old as the age of Justinian' 
 are in Sanscrit, and consequently look more like an evidence of the 
 northern races pushing southward than of the southern races extend- 
 ing themselves northward, or being sufficiently advanced in civilisation 
 to erect for themselves the monuments on which these inscriptions are 
 found. 
 
 From a study of the architecture of the south we arrive at pre- 
 cisely the same conclusions as to the antiquity of Dravidian civilisa- 
 tion that Dr. Caldwell arrived at from a study of their literature. 
 The only important Buddhist monument yet discovered in the Presi- 
 dency is that at Amravati, on the Kistnah,^ but that is avowedly a 
 foreign intrusion. It was a colony or settlement formed by the 
 northern Buddhists at or near their port of departm*e for Java and 
 their eastern settlements. The rock-cut temples at Mahavellipore and 
 Badami seem to be the works of northern Hindus advancing south- 
 ward in the 5th or 6th century, and engraving the evidence of their 
 religion on the imperishable rock. So far as is yet known, no indi- 
 genous native temple has been brought to light, built by any native 
 king, or with inscriptions in any southern tongue, whose date can be 
 carried further back than the 8th century. From that time forward 
 their building activity was enormous. The style culminated in the 
 16th and 17th centuries, to perish in the 18th, under the influence of 
 a foreign and unsympathetic invader. It is, however, by no means 
 impossible that future investigation may enable us to All up a portion 
 at least of the gap that exists between the 5th and the 8th century. 
 There may be buildings yet undescribed which are older than any we 
 now know. But if they do carry us back to the 5th century, which 
 is more than can reasonably be expected, they are still seven or eight 
 centuries behind what we knoAV for certainty to have existed in the 
 north. There we have buildings and caves certainly, extending back 
 to B.C. 250, and it seems by no means impossible that with sculptures, 
 coins, and inscriptions, and written documents, we may some day be 
 able to bridge over the gulf that exists between the death of Buddha 
 and the accession of the Mauryas. In other words, the materials for 
 history in the North of India carry us back with the same relative 
 degree of certainty for more than a thousand years beyond what those 
 found in the south enable us to trace of her history or her arts. 
 
 ^ I am, of course, aware of the existence 
 of a so-called Buddhist pagoda at Nega- 
 patam. It was, however, utilised by the 
 British — for railway purposes, I believe — 
 before it was photographed, so its history 
 may for ever remain a mystery. On the 
 spot it was apparently known as the 
 
 Jaina (hence China) pagoda, which it 
 may have been. To me it looks like the 
 gopura of a small Hindu temple, but I 
 have no real knowledge on the subject. 
 See Yule's ' Marco Polo,' vol. ii. p. 320, 
 second edition. 
 
32 
 
 HISTOHY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 When the history of the south does acquire something like con- 
 sistency it takes the form of a triarchy of small states. The eldest 
 and most important, that of Madura — so called after Muttra on the 
 Jumna — was also the most civilised, and continued longest as a united 
 and independent kingdom. 
 
 The Chola rose into power on the banks of the Cauvery, and to the 
 northward of it, about the year 1000, though no doubt they existed 
 as a small state about Conjeveram for some centuries before that 
 time. The third, the Chera, were located in the southern Mysore 
 country, and probably extending to the coast as early as the 4th or 
 5th century, and gradually worked their way northward, and became 
 so powerful that there is reason for believing that during the dark 
 ages of the north (750 to 950) their power extended to the Nerbudda, 
 and it may be to them that we owe the Kylas and other excavations at 
 Ellora, erected in the southern style about that time. They were, 
 however, superseded, first by the Cholas, about a.d. 1000, and finally 
 eclipsed by the Hoisala Bellalas, a century or so afterwards. These 
 last became the paramount power in the south, till their capital — 
 Hullabid — was taken, and their dynasty destroyed by the Mahomedan, 
 in the year 1310. 
 
 With the appearance of the Mahomedans on the scene the diffi- 
 culties of Indian chronology disappear in the south, as well as in the 
 north. From that time forward the history of India is found in 
 such works as those written by Ferishta or Abul Fazl, and has been 
 abstracted and condensed in numerous works in almost every Euro- 
 pean language. There are still, it must be confessed, slight dis- 
 crepancies and difficulties about the sequence of some events in the 
 history of the native principalities. These, however, are not of such 
 importance as at all to affect, much less to invalidate, any reasoning 
 that may be put forward regarding the history or affinities of any 
 buildings, and this is the class of evidence which principally concerns 
 what is written in the following pages. 
 
 Sculptures. 
 
 In order to render the subject treated of in the following pages 
 quite complete, it ought, no doubt, to be preceded by an introduction 
 describing first the sculpture and then the mythology of the Hindus 
 in so far as they are at present known to us. There are in fact few 
 works connected with this subject more wanted at the present day than 
 a good treatise on these subjects. When Major Moor published the 
 * Hindu Pantheon' in 1810, the subject was comparatively new, and 
 the materials did not exist in this country for a full and satisfactory 
 illustration of it in all its branches. When, in 1832, Coleman 
 published his ' Mythology of the Hindus,' he was enabled from the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 33 
 
 more recent researches of Colebroke and Wilson, to improve the text 
 considerably, but his illustrations are very inferior to those of his 
 predecessor. Moor chose his from such bronzes or marbles as existed 
 in our museums. Coleman's were generally taken from modern draw- 
 ings, or the tawdry plaster images made for the Durga puja of 
 Bengali Babus. By the aid of photography any one now attempting 
 the task would be able to select perfectly authentic examples from 
 Hindu temples of the best age. If this were done judiciously, and 
 the examples carefully engraved, it would not only afford a more 
 satisfactory illustration of the mythology of the Hindus than has yet 
 been given to the public, but it might also be made a history of the 
 art of sculpture in India, in all the ages in which it is known to us. 
 It is doubtful, however, whether such a work could be successfully 
 carried through in this country at the present day. The photographs 
 that exist of the various deities have generally been taken representing 
 them only as they appear as ornaments of the temples, without special 
 reference to their mythological character. They are sufficient to show 
 what the sculptor intended, but not so detailed as to allow all their 
 emblems or characteristics being distinctly perceived. To be satis- 
 factory as illustrations of the mythology, it is indispensable that these 
 points should all be made clear. At the same time it is to be feared 
 that there is hardly any one in this country so familiar with all the 
 details of emblems and symbols as to be able to give the exact meaning 
 of all that is represented. It would require the assistance of some 
 Pandit brought up in the faith, and who is familiar with the signifi- 
 cance of all the emblems, to convey to others the true meaning of these 
 innumerable carvings. In India it could easily be accomplished, and it 
 is consequently hoped it may before long be attempted there. 
 
 From its very nature, it is evident that sculpture can hardly ever 
 be so important as architecture as an illustration of the progress of 
 the arts, or the affinities of nations. Tied down to the reproduction 
 of the immutable human figure, sculpture hardly admits of the same 
 variety, or the same development, as such an art as architecture, 
 whose business it is to administer to all the varied wants of mankind 
 and to express the multifarious aspirations of the human mind. Yet 
 sculpture has a history, and one that can at times convey its meaning 
 with considerable distinctness. No one, for instance, can take up such a 
 book as that of Cicognara,i and follow the gradual development of the 
 art as he describes it, from the first rude carvings of the Byzantine 
 school, till it returned in the present day to the mechanical perfection 
 of the old Greek art, though without its ennobling spirit, and not 
 
 ' Storia della Scultura, dal suo risorgimento in Italia siao al seciilo di Napo- 
 Icoiie,' Venezin, 1813. 
 
 B 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 feel that he has before him a fah'ly distinct ilhistration of the progress 
 of the human mind during that period. Sculpture in India may 
 fairly claim to rank, in power of expression, with mediaeval sculpture 
 in Europe, and to tell its tale of rise and decay with equal distinctness ; 
 but it is also interesting as having that curious Indian peculiarity 
 of being written in decay. The story that Cicognara tells is one of 
 steady forward progress towards higher aims and better execution. 
 The Indian story is that of backward decline, from the sculptures of 
 the Bharhut and Amravati topes, to the illustrations of Coleman's 
 ' Hindu Mythology.' 
 
 When Hindu sculpture first dawns upon us in the rails at Buddh 
 Gaya, and Bharhut, B.C. 200 to 250, it is thoroughly original, absolutely 
 without a trace of foreign influence, but quite capable of expressing 
 its ideas, and of telling its story with a distinctness that never was 
 surpassed, at least in India. Some animals, such as elephants, deer, 
 and monkeys, are better represented there than in any sculptures 
 known in any part of the world ; so, too, are some trees, and the 
 architectural details are cut with an elegance and precision which 
 are very admirable. The human figures, too, though very different 
 from our standard of beauty and grace, are truthful to nature, and, 
 where grouped together, combine to express the action intended 
 with singular felicity. For an honest purpose-like pre-Raphaelite 
 kind of art, there is probably nothing much better to be found 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The art certainly had declined when the gateways at Sanchi were 
 executed in the first century of the Christian Era. They may then 
 have gained a little in breadth of treatment, but it had certainly lost 
 much in delicacy and precision. Its downward progress was then, 
 however, arrested, apparently by the rise in the extreme north-west 
 of India of a school of sculpture strongly impregnated with the tradi- 
 tions of classical art. It is not yet clear whether this arose from a 
 school of art implanted in that land by the Bactrian Greeks, or w^hether 
 it was maintained by direct intercourse with Rome and Byzantium 
 during the early centuries of the Christian Era. Probably both 
 causes acted simultaneously, and one day we may be able to dis- 
 criminate what is due to each. For the present it is sufficient to 
 know that a quasi-classical school of sculpture did exist in the Punjab, 
 and to the west of the Indus during the first five centuries after Christ, 
 and it can hardly have flourished there so long, without its presence 
 being felt in India. 
 
 Its effects were certainly apparent at Amravati in the 4th and 
 5th centuries, where a school of sculpture was developed, partaking 
 of the characteristics of both those of Central India and of the w^est. 
 Though it may, in some respects, be inferior to either of the parent 
 styles, the degree of perfection reached by the art of sculpture at 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 35 
 
 Amravati may probably be considered as the culminating point attained 
 by that art in India. 
 
 When we meet it again in the early Hindu temples, and later 
 Buddhist caves, it has lost much of its higher aesthetic and phonetic 
 qualities, and frequently resorts to such expedients as giving dignity 
 to the principal personages by making them double the size of less 
 important characters, and of distinguishing gods from men by giving 
 them more heads and arms than mortal man can use or undei'stand. 
 
 All this is developed, it must be confessed, with considerable vigour 
 and richness of effect in the temples of Orissa and the Mysore, down to 
 the 13th or 14th century. After that, in the north it was checked by 
 the presence of the Moslems ; but, in the south, some of the most 
 remarkable groups and statues — and they are very remarkable — were 
 executed after this time, and continued to be executed, in considerable 
 perfection down to the middle of the last century. 
 
 As we shall see in the sequel, the art of architecture continues to be 
 practised with considerable success in parts of India remote from 
 European influence ; so much so, that it requires a practised eye to 
 discriminate between what is new and what is old. But the moment 
 any figures are introduced, especially if in action, the illusion vanishes. 
 No mistake is then possible, for the veriest novice can see how painfully 
 low the art of sculpture has fallen. Were it not for this, some of the 
 modern temples in Gujerat and Central India are worthy to rank with 
 those of past centuries ; but their paintings and their, sculptured 
 decorations excite only feelings of dismay, and lead one to despair of 
 true art being ever again revived in the East. 
 
 To those who are familiar w^ith the principles on which these 
 arts are practised, the cause of this difference is obvious enough. 
 Architecture being a technic art, its forms may be handed down 
 traditionally, and its principles practised almost mechanically. The 
 higher phonetic arts, however, of sculpture and painting admit of 
 no such mechanical treatment. They require individual excellence, 
 and a higher class of intellectual power of expression, to ensure their 
 successful development. Architecture, may, consequently, linger on 
 amidst much political decay ; but, like literature, the phonetic arts 
 can only be successfully cultivated where a higher moral and intel- 
 lectual standard prevails than, it is feared, is at present to be found 
 in India. 
 
 Mythology. 
 
 Whenever any one will seriously undertake to w^rite the history 
 of sculpture in India, he will find the materials abundant and the 
 sequence by no means difficult to follow ; but, with regard to mytho- 
 logy, the case is different. It cannot, however, be said that the 
 materials are not abundant for this branch of the inquiry also ; but 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 they are of a much less tangible or satisfactory nature, and have 
 become so entangled, that it is extremely difficult to obtain any clear 
 ideas regarding them ; and it is to be feared they must remain so, 
 until those who investigate the subject will condescend to study the 
 architecture and the sculpture of the country as well as its books. 
 The latter contain a good deal, but they do not contain all the infor- 
 mation available on the subject, and they require to be steadied and 
 confirmed by what is built or carved, which alone can give precision 
 and substance to what is written. 
 
 Much of the confusion of ideas that prevails on this subject no 
 doubt arises from the exaggerated importance it has of late years been 
 the fashion to ascribe to the Vedas, as explaining everything connected 
 with the mythology of the Hindus. It would, indeed, be impossible 
 to over-estimate the value of these writings from a philological #r 
 ethnological point of view. Their discovery and elaboration have 
 revolutionised our ideas as to the migrations of races in the remote 
 ages of antiquity, and establish the affiliation of the Aryan races on 
 a basis that seems absolutely unassailable ; but it cannot be too 
 strongly insisted upon that the Aryans are a race of strangers in 
 India, distinct from the Indian people themselves. They may, as 
 hinted above, have come into India some three thousand years before 
 Christ, and may have retained their purity of blood and faith for two 
 thousand years ; but with the beginning of the political Kali Yug — 
 or, to speak more correctly, at the time of the events detailed in the 
 ' Mahabharata,' say 1200 years B.C. — they had lost much of both ; 
 while every successive wave of immigration that has crossed the Indus 
 during the last three thousand years has impaired the purity of their 
 race. From this cause, and from their admixture with the aborigines, 
 it may probably be with confidence asserted that there is not now five 
 per cent. — perhaps not one — of pure Aryan blood in the present popula- 
 tion of India, nor, consequently, does the religion of the Yedas constitute 
 one-twentieth part of the present religion of the people. 
 
 Though this may be absolutely so, it must not be overlooked that 
 there are few things more remarkable, as bearing on this subject, than 
 the extraordinary intellectual superiority of the Aryans over the Dasyus, 
 or whatever we may call the people they found in India when they 
 entered it. This superiority was sufficient to enable them to subdue 
 the country, though they w^ere probably infinitely inferior in numbers 
 to the conquered people, and to retain them in subjection through 
 long ages of time. Even now, when their purity of blood has become 
 so diluted that they are almost lost among the people, their intellect, 
 as embalmed in their writings, has left its impress on every corner 
 of the land, and is still appealed to as a revelation of the will of God 
 to man. 
 
 With the Yedas, however, we have very little to do in the ])resent 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 work. The worship they foreshadow is of a class too purely intel- 
 lectual to require the assistance of the stonemason and the carver to 
 g-ive it expression. The worship of the Aryans was addressed to the 
 sun and moon. The firmament and all its hosts ; the rain-bearing 
 cloud ; the sun-ushering dawn ; all that was beautiful in the heavens 
 above or beneficent on earth, was sung by them in hymns of elevated 
 praise, and addressed in terms of awe or endearment as fear or hope 
 prevailed in the bosom of the worshipper. ^ Had this gone on for 
 some time longer than it did, the objects worshipped by the Aryans 
 in India might have become gods, like those of Greece and Rome, 
 endowed with all the feelings and all the failings of humanity. In 
 India it was otherwise ; the deities were dethroned, but never were 
 degraded. There is no trace in Vedic times, so far as at present 
 known, of Indra or Varuna, of Agni or Ushas, being represented in 
 wood or stone, or of their requiring houses or temples to shelter them. 
 It is true indeed that the terms of endearment in which they are 
 addressed are frequently such as mortals use in speaking of each other ; 
 but how otherwise can man express his feeling of love or fear, or 
 address his supplication to the being whose assistance he implores ? 
 
 The great beauty of the Veda is, that it stops short before the 
 powers of nature are dwarfed into human forms, and when every man 
 stood independently by himself and sought through the intervention 
 of all that was great or glorious on the earth, or in the skies, to 
 approach the great spirit that is beyond and above all created things. 
 
 Had the Aryans ever been a numerical majority in India, and 
 consequently able to preserve their blood and caste in tolerable purity, 
 the religion of India never could have sunk so low as it did, though 
 it might have fallen below the standard of the Veda. What reaUy 
 destroyed it was, that each succeeding immigration of less pure Aryan 
 or Tm'anian races rendered their numerical majority relatively less 
 and less, while their inevitable influence so educated the subject races 
 as to render their moral majority even less important. These pro- 
 cesses went on steadily and uninterruptedly till, in the time of 
 Buddha, the native religions rose fau:ly to an equality with that of 
 the Aryans, and afterwards for a while eclipsed it. The Vedas were 
 only ultimately saved from absolute anniliilation in India, by being 
 embedded in the Vaishnava and Saiva superstitions, where their 
 inanimate forms may still be recognised, but painfully degraded from 
 their primitive elevation. 
 
 AVhen we turn from the Vedas, and try to investigate the origin 
 of those religions that first opposed and finally absorbed the Vedas in 
 their abominations, we find our means of information painfully scanty 
 
 » The ritual of the Veda is chiefly, if I ticularly to fire."— H. H. Wilson, ' Asiatic 
 not\vholly,addressedtotheelemeuts,i)ar- I Researches,' xvii. p. 194; ibid., p. G14. 
 
38 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 and unsatisfactory. As will appear in the sequel, all that was written 
 in India that is worth reading was written by the Aryans ; all that 
 was built was built by the Turanians, who wrote practically nothing. 
 But the known buildings extend back only to the 3rd century B.C., 
 while the books are ten centuries earlier, or possibly even more than 
 that, while, as might be expected, it is only accidentally and in the 
 most contemptuous terms that the proud Aryans even allude to the 
 abject Dasyus or their rehgion. What, therefore, we practically 
 know of them is little more than inferences drawn from results, and 
 from what we now see passing in India. 
 
 Notwithstanding the admitted imperfection of materials, it seems 
 to be becoming every day more and more evident, that we have in 
 the north of India one great group of native or at least of Turanian 
 religions, which we know in their latest developments as the Buddhist, 
 Jaina, and Vaishnava religions. The first named we only know as 
 it was taught by Sakya Muni before his death in 543 B.C., but no one 
 I presume supposes that he was the first to invent that form of faith, 
 or that it was not based on some preceding forms. The Buddhists 
 themselves, according to the shortest calculation, admit of four pre- 
 ceding Buddhas — according to the more usual accounts, of twenty-four. 
 A place is assigned to each of these, where he was born, and when he 
 died, the father and mother's name is recorded, and the name, too, of 
 the Bodhi-tree under whose shade he attained Buddhahood. The 
 dates assigned to each of these are childishly fabulous, but there 
 seems no reason for doubting that they may have been real person- 
 ages, and their dates extend back to a very remote antiquity. ^ 
 
 The Jains, in like manner, claim the existence of twenty-four 
 Tirthankars, including Mahavira the last. Their places of birth and 
 death are equally recorded, all are in northern India, and though 
 little else is known of them, they too may have existed. The series 
 ends with Mahavira, who was the contemporary — some say the preceptor 
 — of Sakya Muni. 
 
 The Vaishnava series is shorter, consisting of only nine Avatars, 
 but it too, closes at the same time, Buddha himself being the ninth 
 and last. Its fifth Avatur takes us back to Rama, who, if our chrono- 
 logy is correct, may have lived B.C. 2000 ; the fourth, — Narasinha, 
 or man lion — points to the time the Aryans entered India. The three 
 first deal with creation and events anterior to man's appearance on 
 earth. In this respect the Vaishnava list differs from the other two. 
 
 * A list of the twenty-four Buddhas, 
 with these particulars, is given in the 
 introduction to Tumour's ' Mahawanso,' 
 p. 32. Representations of six or seven 
 of these Bodlii-trees, with the names at- 
 tached, have been found at Bliarhut, 
 
 showing at least that more than four 
 were recognised in the time of Asoka. 
 If the rail there were entire, it is probable 
 representations of the whole might be 
 found. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 39 
 
 They only record the existence of men who attained greatness by the 
 practice of virtue, and immortality by teaching the ways of God to 
 man. The Vaishnavas brought God to earth, to mix and interfere in 
 mundane affairs in a manner that neither the Aryan nor the Buddhist 
 ever dreamt of, and so degraded the purer religion of India into the 
 monstrous system of idolatry that now prevails in that country. 
 
 No attempt, so far as I know, has been made to explain the origin 
 of the Saiva religion, or even to ascertain whether it was a purely local 
 superstition, or whether it was imported from abroad. The earliest 
 authentic written allusion to it seems to be that of the Indian ambas- 
 sador to Bardasanes (a.d. 218, 222), who described a cave in the north 
 of India which contained an image of a god, half -man, half- woman. ^ 
 This is beyond doubt the Ardhanari form of Siva, so familiar after- 
 wards at Elephanta and in every part of India. The earliest engraved 
 representations of this god seem to be those on the coins of Kadphises 
 (B.C. 80 to 100^), where the figure with the trident and the Bull 
 certainly prefigure the principal personage in this religion. Curiously 
 enough, however, he or she is always accompanied by the Buddhist 
 trisul emblem, as if the king, or his subjects at least, simultaneously 
 professed both religions. Besides all this, it seems now tolerably 
 well ascertained, that the practice of endowing gods with an infinity 
 of limbs took an earlier, certainly a greater development in Thibet 
 and the trans-Himalayan countries than in India, and that the wildest 
 Tantric forms of Durga are more common and more developed in 
 Nepal and Thibet than they are even in India Proper. If this is so, 
 it seems pretty clear, as the evidence now stands, that Saivism is a 
 northern superstition introduced into India by the Yuechi or some of 
 the northern hordes who migrated into India, either immediately 
 before the Christian Era, or in the early centuries succeeding it. 
 
 It does not seem at first to have made much progress in the valley 
 of the Ganges, where the ground was preoccupied by the Vaishnava 
 group, but to have been generally adopted in Rajputana, especially 
 among the Jats, who were almost certainly the descendants of the 
 White Huns or Ephthalites, and it seems also to have been early 
 carried south by the Brahmans, when they undertook to instruct the 
 Dravidians in the religion of the Puranas. That of the Vedas never 
 seems to have been known in the south, and it was not till after 
 the Vedas had been superseded by the new system, that the Brah- 
 manical religion was introduced among the southern people. It is 
 also, it is to be feared, only too true that no attempt has yet been 
 made to ascertain what the religion of the Dravidians was before the 
 northern Brahmans induced them to adopt either the Jaina or the 
 
 * Stobseus, ' Physica,' Gaisford's edition, p. 54. See also Priaulx, ' India and Rome,' 
 p. 153. ^ Wilson's ' Ariaua Antiqua,' plates 10, 11. 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Vaishnava or Saiva forms of faith. It is possible that among the 
 Pandu Kolis, and other forms of ' Rude Stone Monuments ' that arc 
 found everywhere in the south, we may find the fossil remains of 
 the old Dravidian faith before they adopted that of the Hindus. 
 These monuments, however, have not been examined with anything- 
 like the care requisite for the solution of a problem like this, and 
 till it is done we must rest content with our ignorance.^ 
 
 In the north we have been somewhat more fortunate, and enough 
 is now known to make it clear that, so soon as the inquirers can con- 
 sent to put aside personal jealousies, and apply themselves earnestly 
 to the task, we may know enough to make the general outline at 
 least tolerably clear. When I first published my work on * Tree and 
 Serpent Worship,' seven years ago, no one suspected, at least no one 
 had hinted in type, that such a form of religion existed in Bengal. 
 Since that time, however, so much has been written on the subject, 
 and proof on proof has accumulated with such rapidity, that few will 
 now be bold enough to deny that Trees were worshipped in India in 
 the earliest times, and that a Naga people did exist, especially in the 
 north-west, who had a strange veneration for snakes. It may be too 
 bold a generalisation to assert, at present, that no people became 
 Buddhists who had not previously been serpent worshippers, but it 
 certainly is nearer the truth than at first sight appears. It is, at all 
 events, quite certain that underlying Buddhism we everywhere find 
 evidence of a stratum of Tree and Serpent Worship. Sometimes it 
 may be repressed and obscured, but at others it crops up again, and, 
 to a certain extent, the worship of the Tree and the Serpent, at some 
 times and in certain places, almost supersedes that of the founder of 
 the religion himself. 
 
 The five, or seven, or one thousand-headed Naga is everywhere 
 present in the temples of the Jains, and pervades the whole religion 
 of the Yaishnavas. In the great act of creation the Naga performs 
 the principal part in the churning of the ocean, and in almost every 
 representation of Yishnu he appears either as supporting and watching 
 over him, or as performing some subsidiary part in the scene. It 
 is, in fact, the Naga that binds together and gives unity to this 
 great group of religions, and it is the presence of the Tree and 
 Serpent worship underlying Buddhism, Jainism, and Vishnuism that 
 seems to prove almost incontestably that there existed a people in the 
 north of India, whether we call them Dasyus, Nishadhas, or by any 
 other name, who were Tree and Serpent worshippers, before they 
 
 ^ A book has recently been published 
 by the late Mr. Breeks, of the Madras 
 Civil Service, on the primitive tribes of 
 the Nilagiris, which gives a fuller ac- 
 count of these 'rude stone monuments' 
 
 than any other yet given to the public. 
 It can hardly, however, be accepted as a 
 soluiion of the problem, which requires 
 a wider survey than he was able to 
 make. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 41 
 
 adopted any of the Hindu forms of faith. Nothing can be more 
 antagonistic to the thoughts and feelings of any Aryan race than such 
 forms of worship, and nothing more completely ante-Vedic than its 
 rites. It seems also to have no connection with Saivism.^ Nor is 
 there any trace of it found among the Dravidians. There appears, in 
 fact, no solution of the riddle possible, but to assume that it was an 
 aboriginal superstition in the north of India, and it was the conversion 
 of the people to whom it belonged that gave rise to that triarchy of 
 religions that have succeeded each other in the north during the last two 
 thousand years. 
 
 This solution of the difficulty has the further advantage that it 
 steps in at once clearly to explain what philology is only dimly 
 guessing at, though its w^hole tendency now seems in the same direction. 
 If this view of the mythology be correct, it seems certain that there 
 existed in the north of India, before the arrival of the Aryans, a people 
 whose affinities were all with the Thibetans, Burmese, Siamese, and 
 other trans- Himalayan populations, and who certainly were not Dra- 
 vidians, though they may have been intimately connected with one 
 division at least of the inhabitants of Ceylon. 
 
 Both the pre- Aryan races of India belonged, of course, to the 
 Turanian group ; but my present impression is, as hinted above, that 
 the Dravidians belong to that branch of the great primordial family 
 of mankind that was developed in Mesopotamia and the countries to 
 the westward of the Caspian. The Dasyus, on the contrary, have all 
 their affinities with those to the eastward of that sea, and the two 
 might consequently be called the Western and the Eastern, or the 
 Scythian and Mongolian Turanians. Such a distinction would cer- 
 tainly represent our present knowledge of the subject better than 
 considering the whole as one family, which is too often the case at the 
 present day. 
 
 These, however, are speculations which hardly admit of proof in 
 the present state of our knowledge, and would consequently be quite 
 out of place here, were it not that some such theory seems indispensable 
 to explain the phenomena of the architectural history of India. That 
 of the north is so essentially different from that of the south that they 
 cannot possibly belong to the same people. Neither of them certainly 
 are Aryan ; and unless we admit that the two divisions of the country 
 
 ^ The serpent of Siva is always a cobra, 
 or poisonous snake, and used by him as 
 an awe-inspiring weapon, a very different 
 auimal from the many-headed tutelary 
 Naga, the guardian angel of mankind, 
 and regarded only with feelings of love 
 and veneration by his votaries. It may 
 also be remarked that no tree is appro- 
 
 priated to Siva, and no trace of tree wor- 
 ship mingled with the various forms of 
 adoration paid to this divinity — a cir- 
 cumstance in itself quite sufficient to 
 distinguish this form of faith from that 
 of the Dasyu group which pervaded the 
 valley of the Ganges. 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 were occupied by people essentially different in blood, though still 
 belonging to the building races of mankind, we cannot possibly under- 
 stand how they always practised, and to the present employ, styles 
 so essentially different. Until these various ethnographical and 
 mythological problems are understood and appreciated, the styles of 
 architecture in India seem a chaos without purpose or meaning. Once, 
 however, they are grasped and applied, their history assumes a dignity 
 and importance far greater than is due to any merely aesthetic merits 
 they may possess. Even that, however, is in many respects remarkable, 
 and, when combined with the scientific value of the styles, seem to 
 render them as worthy of study as those of any other people with whose 
 arts we are acquainted. 
 
 Statistics. 
 
 It would add very much to the clearness of what follows if it were 
 possible to compile any statistical tables which would represent with 
 anything like precision the mode in which the people of India are 
 distributed, either as regards their religious beliefs or their ethno- 
 graphical relations. The late census of 1871-72 has afforded a mass 
 of new material for this purpose, but the information is distributed 
 through five folio volumes, in such a manner as to make it extremely 
 difficult to abstract what is wanted so as to render it intelligible to 
 the general reader. Even, however, if this were done, the result 
 would hardly, for several reasons, be satisfactory. In the first place, 
 the census is a first attempt, and the difficulty of collecting and 
 arranging such a mass of new materials was a task of the extremest 
 difficulty. The fault of any shortcomings, however, lay more wdth the 
 enumerated than with the enumerators. Few natives know anything 
 of ethnography, or can give a distinct answer with regard to their 
 race or descent ; and even with regard to religion their notions are 
 equally hazy. Take for instance the table, page 93 of the Bombay 
 Report. The compilers there divide the Hindus of that Presidency into 
 three classes : — 
 
 3,465,349 Saivas. 
 1,419,233 Vaishnavas. 
 8,029,989 Mixed. 
 
 12,914,571 
 
 The mixed class they proceed to define as " all who simply worship 
 some god or goddess, without knowing anything of theology" — a 
 description that probably applies with equal truth to two-thirds of 
 the Hindu population of the other presidencies. The upper and 
 educated classes do know now what sect they belong to, and the sects 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 43 
 
 are so distinctly marked as to admit of no doubt ; but even that was 
 not so clear in former days. 
 
 The great defect, however, of the census is, that it does not 
 include the population of the Native States, estimated at 46,245,000, 
 or one-fifth of the whole population of India ; and, though it may be 
 fair to assume that the proportions of races and their beliefs are the 
 same as those of the adjacent states under British rule, this is only an 
 assumption, and as such must vitiate any attempt at precision in 
 statements regarding the whole of India. 
 
 Notwithstanding these difficulties or defects, it may be useful to 
 state here that the population of the whole of India — exclusive, of course, 
 of British Bunnah — was ascertained by the late census to amount to 
 235,000,000 of souls. Of these, about 7-lOths — or, more nearly, 
 15-20ths — or 175,000,000, belonged to the various branches of the 
 Hindu religion ; more than l-5th or 4-20ths or 50,000,000, professed 
 the Mahomedan faith ; and the remaining 1-2 0th was made up 
 principally of the uncivilised hill tribes, and various minor sects which 
 cannot correctly be classified with the followers of Siva and Yishnu. 
 In this last group of 11,000,000 are the Jains and the Christians, who, 
 though so influential from their wealth or intellect, form numerically but 
 a very small fraction of the entire population. 
 
 The tables of the census, unfortunately, afford us very little in- 
 formation that is satisfactory with regard to the distribution of races 
 among the people. From the new edition of Caldwell's ^Dravidian 
 Grammar,' we learn that upwards of 45,000,000 are Dravidian or speak 
 Tamil, or languages allied to that dialect.^ This may be somewhat 
 of an over-estimate, but, taking it as it stands, it accounts for only 
 l-5th of the population ; and what are we to say regarding the other 
 4-5ths, or 190,000,000 of souls ? Four or five millions may be put 
 on one side as Koles, Bhils, Sontals, Nagas, &c. — hill tribes of various 
 classes, whose affinities are not yet by any means settled, but whose 
 ethnic relations are of very minor importance compared with those of 
 the 185,000,000 remaining. 
 
 As the census leaves us very much in the dark on this subject, 
 supposing we assume that one-half, or 90,000,000 more or less, of the 
 inhabitants of northern India are the descendants of the original 
 inhabitants of the country — Dasyus, Nishadhas, or whatever we may 
 call them. Let us further divide the remaining 90,000,000 into three 
 parts, and assume that one-third are lineal descendants of the Aryans 
 who entered India before the time of Buddha ; one-third the de- 
 scendants of Yavanas, Sakas, Hunas, and other Scythian tribes who 
 crossed the Indus between the Christian Era and the time of the 
 
 * Page 41, Dr. Cornish, iu the iutro- | very considerable difference ; but on the 
 ductiou to the 'Madras Statistical Tables,' whole I am inclined to place faith in 
 p. 67, states this at only 30,000,000— a Dr. Caldwell's figures. 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Mahomedan invasion ; and that the remainder are the Moslem races, 
 or their descendants, Avho have entered India during the last 800 
 years. Such a scheme may nearly represent the facts of the case ; 
 but it seems almost certainly to exaggerate the importance of the 
 foreign immigrant element. Taking, for instance, the last, about 
 which we know most, it seems hardly probable that since the time 
 of Mahmood of Guzni any such number of tribes professing the 
 Mahomedan religion could have entered India so as to be able to 
 procreate a population of 30,000,000 of souls, even supposing they 
 had brought their women with them — which they certainly did not, 
 except in the most exceptional cases. Two or three millions of warriors 
 may have crossed the Indus in that time and settled in India, and, 
 marrying the females of the country, may have had a numerous 
 progeny ; but thirty millions is a vast population by direct descent, 
 especially as we know how many of the Moslems of India were re- 
 cruited from slaves purchased and brought up in the faith of their 
 masters. In Bengal especially, where they are most numerous, they are 
 Bengalis pure and simple, many, perhaps most, of w^hom have adopted 
 that faith quite recently from motives it is not difficult to under- 
 stand or explain. Though there may consequently be 50,000,000 
 of Mussulmans in India at the present day, we may feel quite 
 certain that not one-half of this number are immigrants or the 
 descendants of emigrants who entered India during the last eight 
 centuries. 
 
 The same is probably true of the Turanian races, who entered India 
 in the first ten centuries after our era. It is most improbable that they 
 were sufficiently numerous to be the progenitors of thirty millions of 
 people, and, if they were so, the mothers, in nine cases out of ten, were 
 most probably natives of India. 
 
 Of the Aryans we know less ; but, if so great a number as thirty 
 millions can trace anything like a direct descent from them at the 
 present day, the amount of pure Aryan blood in their veins must be 
 infinitesimally small. But, though their blood may be diluted, the 
 influence of their intellect remains so powerfully impressed on every 
 institution of the country that, had they perished altogether, their 
 previous presence is still an element of the utmost importance in the 
 ethnic relations of the land. 
 
 Another census may enable us to speak with more precision with 
 regard to these various divisions of the mass of the people of Hindu- 
 stan, but meanwhile the element that seems to be most important, 
 though the least investigated hitherto, is the extent of the aboriginal 
 race. It has hitherto been so overlooked, that putting it at ninety 
 millions may seem to many an exaggeration. Its intellectual in- 
 feriority has kept it in the background, but its presence everywhere 
 seems to me the only means of explaining most of the phenomena we 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 45 
 
 meet continually, especially those connected with the history of the 
 architecture of the country. Except on some such hypothesis as that 
 just shadowed forth, I do not know how we are to account for the 
 presence of certain local forms of buildings we find in the north, or 
 to explain the persistence with which they were adhered to. 
 
 When from these purely ethnographic speculations we turn to ask 
 liow far religion and race coincide, we are left with still less infor- 
 mation of a reliable character. As a rule, the Dravidians are Saiva, 
 and Saiva in the exact proportion of the purity of their blood. In 
 other words, in the extreme south of India they are immensely in the 
 majority. In Tanjore, 7 to 1 of the followers of Vishnu ; in Madura, 
 5 to 1 ; in Trichinopoly, 4 to 1 ; and Salem, and generally in the 
 south, 2 to 1 ;^ but as we proceed northward they become equal, and 
 in some of the northern districts of the Madras Presidency the pro- 
 portions are reversed. 
 
 In Bengal, and wherever Buddhism once prevailed, the Vaishnava 
 sects are, as might be expected, the most numerous. Indeed if it 
 were not that so much of the present Hindu religion is an importa- 
 tion into the south, and w^as taught to the Dravidians by Brahmans 
 from the north, it would be difficult to understand how the Vaishnava 
 religion ever took root there, where Buddhism itself only existed to a 
 slight extent, and where it, too, was an importation. If, however, 
 it is correct to assume that Saivism had its origin to the northward 
 of the Himalayas, among the Tartar tribes of these regions, there is 
 no difficulty in understanding its presence in Bengal to the extent 
 to which it is found to prevail there. But, on the other hand, 
 nothing can be more natural than that an aboriginal Naga people, 
 who worshipped trees and serpents, should become Buddhists, as 
 Buddhism was originally understood, and, being Buddhists, should 
 slide downwards into the corruptions of the present Vaishnava form 
 of faith, which is avowedly that most fashionable and most prevalent 
 in the north of India. 
 
 One of the most startling facts brought out by the last census, is 
 the discovery that nearly one-third of the population of Eastern 
 Bengal are Mahomedan— 20,500,000 out of 66,000,000— while in the 
 north-west provinces the Mahomedans are less than l-6th — 4,000,000 
 among 25,000,000 ; and in Oude little more than 1-1 0th. It thus 
 looks more like a matter of feeling than of race ; it seems that as 
 the inhabitants of Bengal were Buddhists, and clung to that faith 
 long after it had been abolished in other parts of India, they came 
 in contact with the Moslem religion before they had adopted the 
 modern form of Vishnuism, and naturally preferred a faith which 
 acknowledged no caste, and freed them from the exactions and 
 
 ' Madras Kei)ori,' p. 90. 
 
4G 
 
 HISTORY OF INDIAN AKCHITECTURE. 
 
 tyranny of a dominant priesthood. The Mahomedan rehgion is in fact 
 much more like Buddhism than are any of the modern Hindu forms, 
 and when this non-Aryan casteless population came in contact with it, 
 before they had adopted the new faith, and were free to choose, after 
 the mysterious evaporation of their old beliefs, they naturally adopted 
 the religion most resembling that in which they had been brought 
 up. It is only in this way that it seems possible to account for the 
 predominance of the Moslem faith in Lower Bengal and in the Punjab, 
 where the followers of the Prophet outnumber the Hindus, in the 
 proportion of 3 to 2, or as 9,000,000 to 6,000,000. 
 
 Where Buddhism had prevailed the choice seemed to lie between 
 Yislmu or Mahomet. Where Saivism crept in was apparently among 
 those races who were Turanians, or had affinities with the Tartar races, 
 who immigrated from the north between the Christian era, and the age 
 of the Mahomedan conquest. 
 
 To most people these may appear as rash generalisations, and at 
 the present stage of the inquiry would be so in reality, if no further 
 proof could be alforded. After reading the following pages, I trust 
 most of them at least will be found to rest on the firm basis of a fair 
 induction from the facts brought forward. It might, consequently, 
 have appeared more logical to defer these statements to the end of 
 the work, instead of placing them at the beginning. Unless, however, 
 they are read and mastered first, a great deal that is stated in the 
 following pages will be unintelligible, and the scope and purpose of 
 the work can be neither understood nor appreciated. 
 
 1. Naga people worshipping the Trisul emblem of Buddha, on a fiery pillar. 
 (From a bas-relief at Amravati.) 
 
A it A B I 
 
 Xe ccadive 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 c 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 o 
 
 0 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Maldive 
 Islands 
 
 SJievriTi^-Che Principal 
 
 BUDDHIST SfJAINA 
 LOCALITIES. 
 
 Buddhist Jled 
 Jazrut, . - Slue. 
 
 CEYIiON 
 
 ^ON AR U A ^ Statute Mile 
 
 lOO O lOO 200 300 
 
 80 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 BOOK L 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 INTRODUCTION AND CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 It may create a feeling of disappointment in some minds when they 
 are told that there is no stone architecture in India older than two 
 and a half centuries before the Christian Era ; but, on the other hand, 
 it adds immensely to the clearness of what follows to be able to assert 
 that India owes the introduction of the use of stone for architectural 
 purposes, as she does that of Buddhism as a state reUgion, to the great 
 Asoka, who reigned from B.C. 272 to 236. 
 
 It is not, of course, meant to insinuate that the people of India 
 had no architecture before that date ; on the contrary it can be 
 proved that they possessed palaces and halls of assembly, perhaps 
 even temples, of great magnificence and splendour, long anterior to 
 Asoka's accession ; but, like the buildings of the Burmese at the present 
 day, they were all in wood. Stone, in those days, seems to have been 
 employed only for the foundations of buildings, or in engineering 
 works, such as city walls and gates, or bridges or embankments ; all 
 else, as will appear from the sequel, were framed in carpentry. Much 
 as we may now regret this, as all these buildings have consequently 
 perished, it is not so clear, as it may at first appear, that the Indians 
 were wrong in this, inasmuch as, in all respects, except durability, 
 wood is a better building material than stone. It is far more easily 
 cut and carved, larger spaces can be covered with fewer and less cum- 
 brous points of support than is possible with stone, and colour and 
 gilding are much more easily applied to wood than to stone. For the 
 same outlay twice the space can be covered, and more than twice 
 the splendour obtained by the use of the more perishable material, 
 the one great defect being that it is ephemeral. It fails also in 
 producing that impression of durability which is so essential to archi- 
 tectural effect ; while, at the same time, the facility with which it 
 can be carved and adorned tends to produce a barbaric splendour far 
 less satisfactory than the more sober forms necessitated by the employ- 
 ment of the less tractable material. 
 
48 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Be this as it may, it will, if I mistake not, become quite clear 
 when we examine the earliest " rock-cut temples " that, whether from 
 ignorance or from choice, the Indians employed wood, and that only 
 in the construction of their ornamental buildings, before Asoka's 
 time.^ From this the inference seems inevitable that it was in con- 
 sequence of India being brought into contact with the western world, 
 first by Alexander's raid, and then by the establishment of the 
 Bactrian kingdom in its immediate proximity, that led to this change. 
 We do not yet know precisely how early the Bactrian kingdom ex- 
 tended to the Indus, but we feel its influence on the coinage, on the 
 sculpture, and generally on the arts of India, from a very early date, 
 and it seems as if before long w^e shall be able to fix with precision 
 not only the dates, but the forms in which the arts of the Western 
 world exerted their influence on those of the East. This, however, will 
 be made clearer in the sequel. In the meanwhile it may be sufficient 
 to state here that we know absolutely nothing of the temples or archi- 
 tecture of the various peoples or religions who occupied India before 
 the rise of Buddhism,^ and it is only by inference that we know any- 
 thing of that of the Buddhists before the age of Asoka. From that 
 time forward, however, all is clear and intelligible ; w^e have a sufficient 
 number of examples whose dates and forms are known to enable us 
 to write a perfectly consecutive history of the Buddhist style during 
 the 1000 years it was practised in India, and thence to trace its 
 various developments in the extra Indian countries to which it was 
 carried, and where it is still practised at the present day.^ 
 
 If our ethnography is not at fault, it would be in vain to look for 
 any earlier architecture of any importance in India before Asoka's 
 time. The Aryans, who were the dominant people before the rise of 
 
 * These remarks must not be taken as 
 applying to sculpture also. It is quite 
 true that no stone sculptures have yet 
 been found in India of an earlier date 
 than the age of Asoka ; but, as will be seen 
 in the sequel, the perfection the Indian 
 artists had attained in stone sculpture 
 when they executed the bas-reliefs at 
 Bhurhut (b.c. 200), shows a familiarity 
 with the material that could only be at- 
 tained by long practice. 
 
 2 No mention of temples, or, indeed, of 
 buildings is, I believe, found in the Vedas, 
 and though both are frequently alluded 
 to, and described in the Epic Poems and 
 the Purauas, tliis hardly helps u^ ; first 
 because, like all verbal descriptions of 
 buildings, they are too vague to bo in- 
 telligible, and secondly, because there is 
 no proof that the passages containing 
 
 these descriptions may not have been 
 interpolated after — probably long after — 
 the Christian Era. 
 
 ^ I believe I was the first to ascertain 
 these facts from a personal inspection of 
 the monuments themselves. They were 
 communicated to the Royal Asiatic So- 
 ciety in a paper I read on the * Rock-cut 
 Temples of Indii,' in 1842. Every subse- 
 quent research, and every increase of our 
 knowledge, has tended to confirm those 
 views to such an extent that they are not 
 now disputed by any one acquainted with 
 the literature of the subject, though some 
 writers do still indulge in rhapsodies about 
 the pritiiseval antiquity of the caves, and 
 their connection witii those of Egypt, &c. 
 Till all this is put on one side, no clear 
 idea can be obtained of the true position 
 of the art in India. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 49 
 
 Buddhism, were essentially a non-artistic race. They wrote books 
 and expressed their ideas in words like their congeners all the world 
 over, but they nowhere seem successfully to have cultivated the 
 aesthetic arts, or to have sought for immortality through the 
 splendour or durability of their buildings. That was always the 
 aspiration of the less intellectaal Turanian races, and we owe it to 
 this circumstance that we are' enabled to write with such certainty 
 the history of their rise and fall as evidenced in their architectural 
 productions. 
 
 There is no a priori improbability that the Dravidian races of the 
 south of India, or the indigenous races of the north, may not have 
 erected temples or other buildings at a very early date, but if so, all 
 that can be said is that all trace of them is lost. When we first meet 
 the Buddhist style it is in its infancy — a wooden style painfully 
 struggling into lithic forms— and we have no reason to suppose that 
 the other styles were then more advanced. When, however, we first 
 meet them, some six or seven centuries afterwards, they are so com- 
 plete in all their details, and so truly lithic in their forms, that they 
 have hitherto baffled all attempts to trace them back to their original 
 types, either in the wood or brick work, from which they may have 
 been derived. So completely, indeed, have all the earlier examples 
 been obliterated, that it is now doubtful whether the missing links 
 can ever be replaced. Still, as one single example of a Hindu temple 
 dating before the Christian Era might solve the difficulty, we ought 
 not to despair of such being found, while the central provinces of 
 India remain so utterly unexplored as they now are. Where, under 
 ordinary circumstances, we ought to look for them, would be among 
 the ruins of the ancient cities which once crowded the valley of the 
 Ganges ; but there the ruthless Moslem or the careless Hindu have 
 thoroughly obliterated all traces of any that may ever have existed. 
 In the remote valleys of the Himalaya, or of Central India, there may, 
 however, exist remains which will render the origin and progress of 
 Hindu architecture as clear and as certain as that of the Buddhist ; 
 but till these are discovered, it is with the architecture of the 
 Buddhist that our history naturally begins. Besides this, however, 
 from the happy accident of the Buddhists very early adopting the mode 
 of excavating their temples in the living rock, their remains are im- 
 perishably preserved to us, while it is only too probable that those of 
 the Hindu, being in less durable forms, may have disa]Dpeared. The 
 former, therefore, are easily classified and dated, while the origin of 
 the latter, for the present, seems lost in the mist of the early ages 
 of Indian arts. Meanwhile, the knowledge that the architectural 
 history of India commences B.C. 250, and that all the monuments now 
 known to us are Buddhist for at least five or six centuries after that 
 time, are cardinal facts that cannot be too strongly insisted upon" by 
 
 * E 
 
50 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 those who wish to clear away a great deal of what has hitherto tended 
 to render the subject obscure and unintelligible. 
 
 Classification. 
 
 For convenience of description it will probably be found expedient 
 to classify the various objects of Buddhist art under the five following 
 groups, though of course it is at times impossible to separate them 
 entirely from one another, and sometimes two or more of them must 
 be taken together as parts of one monument. 
 
 1st. Stamlhas^ or Ldts. — These pillars are common to all the styles 
 of Indian architecture. With the Buddhists they were employed to 
 bear inscriptions on their shafts, with emblems or animals on their 
 capitals. With the Jains they were generally Deepdans, or lamp- 
 bearing pillars ; with the Yaishnavas they as generally bore statues 
 of Graruda or Hunaman ; with the Saiva they were flag-staffs ; but, 
 whatever their destination, they were always among the most original, 
 and frequently the most elegant, productions of Indian art. 
 
 2nd. Stupas, or Topes. — These, again, may be divided into two 
 classes, according to their destination : first, the true Stupas or 
 towers erected to commemorate some event or mark some sacred 
 spot dear to the followers of the religion of Buddha : secondly, 
 Dagobas, or monuments containing relics of Buddha, or of some 
 Buddhist saint.i If it were possible, these two ought always to be 
 kept separate, but no external signs have yet been discovered by 
 which they can be distinguished from one another, and till this is so, 
 they must be considered, architecturally at least, as one. 
 
 3rd. Rails. — These have recently been discovered to be one of the 
 most important features of Buddhist architecture. Grenerally they 
 are found surrounding Topes, but they are also represented as 
 enclosing sacred trees, temples, an(l pillars, and other objects. It 
 may be objected that treating them separately is like describing the 
 peristyle of a Greek temple apart from the cella. The Buddhist rail, 
 however, in early ages at least, is never attached to the tope, and is 
 used for so many other, and such various purposes, that it will 
 certainly tend to the clearness of what follows if they are treated 
 separately. 
 
 4th. Chaityas,'^ or Assembly Halls. — These in Buddhist art cor- 
 
 * From two Sanscrit words, Dhatu, a 
 relic, and Garbha (Pali, Gabbhan), the 
 womb, receptacle, shrine of a relic. (Tur- 
 nour, ' Mahawanso,' p. 5.) The word Pa- 
 goda is probably a corruption of Dagoba. 
 
 ^ In Nepal, according to Hodgson, and, 
 I believe, in Thibet, the monuments which 
 
 are called Stupas in India are there called 
 Chaityas. Etymologically, this is no 
 doubt the correct desigaation, as Ohaitya, 
 like Stupa, means primarily a heap or 
 tumulus, but it also means a place of 
 sacrifice or religious worship — an altar 
 from Chita, a heap, an assemblage, a 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 51 
 
 respond in every respect with the churches of the Christian religion. 
 Their plans, the position of the altar or relic casket, the aisles, and 
 other peculiarities are the same in both, and their uses are identical, 
 in so far as the ritual forms of the one religion resemble those of the 
 other. 
 
 5th. ViharaSy or Monasteries. — Like the Chaityas, these resemble 
 very closely the corresponding institutions among Christians. In 
 the earlier ages they accompanied, but were detached from, the 
 Chaityas or churches. In later times they were furnished Avith 
 chapels and altars in which the service could be performed inde- 
 pendently of the Chaitya halls, which may or may not be found in 
 their proximity. 
 
 multitude, &c. (Monier Williams' 'Sans- or "chaitya halls," aud this latter term 
 
 crit Dictionary ' Stt& wee). Properly speak- will consequently be used wherever any 
 
 iiig,thcrefore, these caves ought perhaps to ambiguity is likely to arise from the use 
 
 be called " halls containing a chaitya," of Jihe simple term Chaitya. 
 
 Sri seated on a Lotus, with two Elepliants pouring water over Ler. 
 (From a modern sculpture from Indoie.) 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 BUDDHIST AKCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 STAMBHAS OR LATS. 
 
 It is not clear whether we ought to claim a wooden origin for these, 
 as w^e can for all the other objects of Buddhist architecture. Certain 
 it is, however, that the lats of Asoka, with shafts averaging twelve 
 diameters in height, are much more like wooden posts than any 
 forms derived from stone architecture, and in an age w^hen Avooden 
 pillars were certainly employed to support the roofs of halls, it is 
 much more likely that the same material should be employed for 
 the purposes to which these stambhas were applied, than the more 
 intractable material of stone. 
 
 The oldest authentic examples of these lats that we are acquainted 
 with, are those which King Asoka set up in the twenty-seventh year 
 after his consecration — the thirty-first of his reign — to bear in- 
 scriptions conveying to his subjects the leading doctrines of the new 
 faith he had adopted. The rock-cut edicts of the same king are 
 dated in his twelfth year, and convey in a less condensed form the 
 same information — Buddhism without Buddha — but inculcating respect 
 to parents and priests, kindness and charity to all men, and, above 
 all, tenderness towards animals.^ 
 
 The best known of these lats is that set up by Feroze Shah, in 
 his Kotila at Delhi, without, however, his being in the least aware 
 of the original purpose for which it w^as erected, or the contents of the 
 inscription. A fragment of a second was recently found lying on 
 
 ' These inscriptions have been published 
 in various forms and at various times by 
 the Asiatic Societies of Calcutta and Lon- 
 don C Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 566, et seqq.; 'Journal 
 ofthe Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xii. p. 153, 
 et 8eqq.)and in various other publications, 
 but always mixed up with extraneous 
 matters. It is, however, very much to be 
 regretted thatacaref ully-edited translation 
 is not issued in some separate form easily 
 accessible to the general public. An abso- 
 lutely autlieutic and unaltered body of 
 Buddhist doctrine, as it stood 250 years 
 
 before the birth of Christ, would be one of 
 the most valuable contributions possible to 
 the religious history of the modern world, 
 and 60 much has been already done that 
 the task does not seem difficult. Among 
 other things, they explain to us negatively 
 why we have so little history in India in 
 these days. Asoka is only busied about 
 doctrines. He does not even mention his 
 father's name ; and makes no allusion to 
 any histoiical event, not even those con- 
 nected with the life of the founder of the 
 religion. Among a people so careless of 
 genealogy, history is impossible. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 STAMBHAS OR LAT!S. 
 
 53 
 
 the ground near Hindu Rao's house, north of Delhi.i Two others 
 exist in Tirhoot at Radhia, and Mattiah, and a fragment of another 
 was recognised utilised as a roller for the station roads, 
 by an utilitarian member of the Bengal Civil Service. 
 The most complete, however, is that which, in 1837, 
 was found lying on the ground in the fort at Allah- 
 abad, and then re-erected with a pedestal, from a design 
 by Captain Smith.^ This pillar is more than usually 
 interesting, as in addition to the Asoka inscriptions 
 it contains one by Samudra Gupta (a.d. 380 to 400), 
 detailing the glories of his reign, and the great deeds 
 of his ancestors.^ It seems again to have been thrown 
 down, and was re-erected, as a Persian inscription tells 
 us, by Jehangir (a.d. 1605), to commemorate his acces- 
 sion. It is represented without the pedestal (Wood- 
 cut ISTo. 3). The shaft, it will be observed, is more 
 than 3 ft. wide at the base, diminishing to 2 ft. 2 in. 
 at the summit, which in a length of 33 ft.* looks more 
 like the tapering of the stem of a tree — a deodar pine, 
 for instance — than anything designed in stone. Like 
 all the others of this class, this lat has lost its crown- 
 ing ornament, which probably was a Buddhist emblem 
 — a wheel or the trisul ornament^ — but the necking 
 still remains (Woodcut No. 4), and is almost a literal 
 
 I a 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 Assyrian honeysuckle ornament from capital 
 of Lat, at Allahabad. 
 
 copy of the honeysuckle ornament we are so familiar 
 with as used by the Greeks with the Ionic order. In 
 this instance, however, it is hardly probable that it was 
 introduced direct by the Greeks, but is more likely to 
 
 Lat at Allahabad. 
 
 » ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 794. 
 2 Ibid., plate 40. ' Ibid., p. 969, et seqq. 
 
 4 These dimensions are taken from Capt. Burt's drawings pub- 
 lished in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. iii. 
 plate 3. 
 
 5 ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' plates 9, 10, 10a, et passim. 
 
•54 
 
 BUDDHIST AKCHITECTURI^:. 
 
 EOOK I. 
 
 have been borroAved from its native conntry Assyria, whence the 
 Greeks also originally obtained it. The honeysnckle ornament, again, 
 occurs as the crowning member of a pillar at Sankissa, in the Doab, 
 half-way between Muttra and Canouge (Woodcut No. 5), and this 
 time surmounting a capital of so essentially Persepolitan a type, 
 that there can be little doubt that the design of the whole capital 
 came from Central Asia. This pillar, which is of a much stouter and 
 shorter proportion than the edict lats, is surmounted by an elephant, 
 but so mutilated that even in the 7th century the Chinese traveller 
 
 Hiouen Thsang mistook it for a lion, if 
 this is indeed the effigy he was looking 
 at, as General Cunningham supposes,^ 
 which, however, is by no means so 
 clear as might at first sight appear. 
 
 6. Capital at Sankissa. (From a Drawing 
 by Gen. Cunningbain.) 
 
 6. Capital of LSt in Tirhoot. (From a Draw- 
 ing by the late Capt. Kittoe.) 
 
 Another capital of a similar nature to that last described crowns a 
 lat at Bettiah in Tirhoot— this time surmounted by a lion of bold and 
 good design (Woodcut No. 6). In this instance, however, the honey- 
 suckle ornament is replaced by the more purely Buddhist ornament of 
 a flock of the sacred hansas or geese. In both instances there are cable 
 ornaments used as neckings, and the bead and reel so familiar to the 
 student of classical art. The last named form is also, however, found 
 at Persepolis. These features it may be remarked are only found on 
 the lats of Asoka, and are never seen afterwards in India, though 
 common in Gandhara and in the Indus for long afterwards, which 
 seems a tolerably clear indication that it was from Persia, though 
 probably on a suggestion from the Greeks, that he obtained those 
 
 ' ♦ ArchEeological Reports,' vol. i. p. 274, plate 46. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 STAMBHAS OR LATS. 
 
 55 
 
 hints which in India led to the conversion of wooden architecture 
 into stone. After his death, these classical features disappear, and 
 wooden forms resume their sway, though the Persian form of capital 
 long retained its position in Indian art. 
 
 It is more than probable that each of these Asoka lats stood in 
 front of, or in connection with some stupa, or building of some sort ; 
 but all these have disappeared, and the lats themselves have — some of 
 them at least — been moved more than once, so that this cannot now 
 be proved. So far, however, as can now be ascertained, one or two 
 stambhas stood in front of, or beside each gateway of every great 
 tope, and one or two in front of each chaitya hall. At least we 
 know that six or seven can now be traced at Sanchi, and nearly an 
 equal number at Amravati,^ and in the representation of topes at the 
 latter place, these lats are frequently represented both outside and 
 inside the rails. 
 
 At Karli, one still stands in front of the great cave surmounted by 
 four lions, which, judging from analogy, once bore a chakra or wheel, 
 probably in metal. ^ A corresponding pillar probably once stood on 
 the opposite side of the entrance bearing some similar emblem. 
 Two such are represented in these positions in front of the great cave 
 at Kenheri, which is an exact but debased copy of the great Karli 
 cave.^ 
 
 The two lats at Erun and the iron pillar at Delhi, though similar 
 in many respects to those just described, seem certainly to belong to 
 the era of the Guptas at the end of the fourth or the beginning of 
 the fifth century of our era, and to be dedicated to the Yaishnava 
 faith, and in consequence belong to a subsequent chapter. That at 
 Pathari is not inscribed or is at least unedited, and though it looks 
 old, may also be of the Gupta times. 
 
 This is a meagre account, it must be confessed, of Buddhist lats, 
 which probably at one time could be counted by hundreds in the im- 
 portant Buddhist localities in Bengal ; but it is feared we shall hardly 
 be able to add many more to our list. They are so easily overthrown 
 and so readily utilised in populous localities, that all trace of most of 
 them has probably been irrecoverably lost, though one or two more 
 examples may probably be found in remote, out-of-the-way places. 
 
 ^ ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' plates 1 
 and 5, and plates 89 and 90. 
 ' Ibid., plate 42. 
 
 ^ In the description accompanying 
 Daniell's view of this cave he says : " On 
 the pillars to the right, above the capital, 
 is a group of lions, from the centre of 
 
 On the left lie remarked a figure of 
 Buddha, which he mistook for Mahadeva, 
 and in another part a row of bulls, and 
 he adds : " The Chacra of Yichnou, the 
 Mahadeva, and the bulls, seem not to 
 favour the opinion of its being a temple 
 of the Bhoods." He was not aware how 
 
 which a few years bince arose the chacra, inextricably these religions were mixed 
 or war disk of Viclmon, though not the | up at the time when this cave was e\- 
 Icast appearance of it at present remains." cavatcd, about a.d. 400. 
 
56 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 There is no instance, so far as I am aware, of a built monumental 
 pillar now standing in India. This is sufficiently accounted for by 
 the ease with which they could be thrown down and their materials 
 removed, when they had lost the sanctity which alone protected them. 
 There are, however, two such pillars among the topes of Cabul, and 
 evidently coeval with them, now called the Surkh Minar (Woodcut 
 No. 7), and the Minar Chakri. These are ascribed by the traditions 
 of the place to Alexander the Great, though they are evidently 
 Buddhist monuments, meant to mark some sacred spot, or to com- 
 memorate some event, the memory of which has passed away. There 
 can be little doubt that their upper members are meant to be copies 
 of the tall capitals of the Persepolitan pillars, which Avere probably 
 common also in Assyria, and throughout this part of Asia, but their 
 shape and outline exhibit great degeneracy from the purer forms 
 with which that architecture commenced in India, and which were 
 there retained in their purity to a much later period than in this 
 remote province. No reliable data seem to exist for ascertaining what 
 the age of these monuments may be. It probably was the third or 
 fourth century of our era, or it may be even earlier. 
 
 Surkh Miliar, Cabul. 
 (From a Drawing by Mr. Massoii, in Wilson's 'Ariana Antiqua.') 
 
Chap. IH. 
 
 STUPAS. 
 
 57 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 STUPAS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Bhilsa Topes — Topes at Sarnath and in Behar — Amravati Tope — Gandhara 
 Topes — Jelalabad Topes — Manikyala Tope. 
 
 There are few subjects of like natm-e that would better reward the 
 labour of some competeut studeut than an investigation into the 
 origin of Relic Worship and its subsequent diffusion over the gi'eater 
 part of the old world. So far as is at present known, it did not 
 exist in Egypt, nor in Greece or Rome in classical times, nor in 
 Babylon or Assyiia. In some of these countries the gi'eatest possible 
 respect was shown to the remains of departed greatness, and the 
 bones and ashes of persons who were respected in life were preserved 
 with care and affection ; but there was no individual so respected 
 that a hair of his head, a tooth, or a toe-nail, even a garment or a 
 utensil he had used, was considered as a most precious treasm-e after 
 his death. In none of these countries does it appear to have occun-ed 
 to any one that a bone or the begging-pot of a deceased saint was a 
 thing worth fighting for ; or that honour done to such things was 
 a meritorious act, and that prayers addressed to them were likely 
 to be granted. Yet so ingrained do these sentiments appear to be 
 among the followers of Buddha, that it is difficult to believe that the 
 first occasion on which this sentiment arose, was at the distribution 
 of his remains on his attaining Xirvana at Kusinagara, B.C. 543. On 
 that occasion, eight cities or kingdoms are said to have contended for 
 the honour of possessing his mortal remains, and the difficulty was met 
 by assigning a portion to each of the contending parties, who are said 
 to have erected stupas to contain them in each of their respective 
 localities.^ None of these can now be identified with certainty — 
 everything in futm-e ages being ascribed to Asoka, who, according to 
 
 * Tumour in 'Journal of the Asiatic i partition of the remains of Menander, 
 Society of Bengal,' vol. vii., p. 1013. I among eight cities who are said to have 
 
 The fame of this distribution seems to desired to possess his remains ; but as 
 have reached Europe at least as early as the he does not hint that it was for pur- 
 ist century of the Christian Era, inasmuch poses of worship, the significance of the 
 as Plutarch (' Moralia,' p. 1002, Diibner fact does not seem to have been appre- 
 edition, Paris, 1841) describes a similar ciated. 
 
58 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECT UEE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 popular tradition, is said to have erected the fabulous number of 84,000 
 relic shrines, or towers to mark sacred spots.^ Some of these may be 
 those we now see, or are encased within their domes ; but if so, they, 
 like everything else architectural in India, are the earliest things we 
 find there. It is true, the great pagoda — the Shewe Dagon — at Rangoon 
 is said to contain relics of all the four Buddhas of the present Kalpa, 
 the staff of Kakasanda ; the water-dipper of Konagamma ; the bathing 
 garment of Kasyapa, and eight hairs from the head of Gautama 
 Buddha ; ^ but supposing this to be true, we only now see the last and 
 most modern, which covers over the older erections. This is at least 
 the case with the great Dagoba at Bintenne, near Kandy, in Ceylon, 
 in which the thorax-bone of the great ascetic lies enshrined. The 
 ' Mahawanso,' or great Buddhist history of Ceylon, describes the mode 
 in which this last building was raised, by successive additions, in a 
 manner so illustrative of the principle on which these relic shrines 
 arrived at completion, that it is well worth quoting : — " The chief of 
 the Devos, Sumano, supplicated of the deity worthy of offerings for 
 an offering. The Vanquisher, jDassing his hand over his head, 
 bestowed on him a handful of his pure blue locks from the growing- 
 hair of the head. Eeceiving and depositing it in a superb golden 
 casket, on the spot where the divine teacher had stood, he enshrined 
 the lock in an emerald dagoba, and bowed down in worship. 
 
 " The thero Sarabhu, at the demise of the supreme Buddha, re- 
 ceiving at his funeral pile the Thorax-bone, brought and deposited it 
 in that identical dagoba. This inspired personage caused a dagoba 
 to be erected 12 cubits high to enshrine it, and thereon departed. 
 The younger brother of King Devenampiatisso (b.c. 259), having 
 discovered this marvellous dagoba, constructed another encasing it, 
 30 cubits in height. King Duttagamini (b.c. IGl), while residing 
 there, during his subjugation of the Malabars, constructed a dagoba, 
 encasing that one, 80 cubits in height." This was the "Mahiyan- 
 gana dagoba completed." ^ It is possible that at each successive 
 addition some new deposit was made ; at least most of the topes 
 examined in Afghanistan and the Punjab, which show signs of these 
 successive increments, seem also to have had successive deposits, one 
 above the other. 
 
 Of all the relics of Buddha, the most celebrated is the left canine 
 tooth. At the original distribution it is said to have fallen to the 
 lot of Orissa, and to have been enshrined in a town called from that 
 circumstance " Dantapura." This, most probably, was the modern 
 town of Puri, and the celebrated temple of Juggernath, which now 
 
 ^ 'Malia\vunso,'p. 26, 'HioueuTlisang,' xiv. p. 270. 
 vol. ii. p. 417. 3 Abstracted from Turuour's 'Maha- 
 
 2 Account of tlie great bell at Ran- wans >,' p. 4. 
 2:oon, Hongli, ' Asiatic Rcscai clics,' vol. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 ST UPAS. 
 
 59 
 
 flourishes there, not only in all probability occupies the same spot, 
 but the worship now celebrated there is the same, miitato nomine, 
 as that which was once performed in honour of this tooth. Be this 
 as it may, it seems to have remained there in peace for more than 
 eight centuries, when the king of the country, being attracted by 
 some miracles performed by it, and the demeanour of the priests, 
 became converted from the Brahmanical faith, to which he had 
 belonged, to the religion of Buddha. The dispossessed Brahmans 
 thereon complain to his suzerain lord, resident at Palibothra, in 
 the narrative called only by his title Pandu, but almost certainly 
 the Gautamiputra of the Andrabhitya dynasty. He ordered the tooth 
 to be brought to the capital, when, from the wonders it exhibited, he 
 was converted also ; but this, and the excitement it caused, led to its 
 being ultimately conveyed surreptitiously to Ceylon, where it arrived 
 about the year 311 ; ^ and in spite of various vicissitudes still remains 
 in British custody, the Palladium of the kingdom, as it has done 
 during the last fifteen centuries and a half.^ 
 
 About the same time (a.d. 324^) another tooth of Buddha was 
 enshrined in a tope on the island of Salsette, in Bombay harbour, 
 apparently in the time of the same Gautamiputra, but what its 
 subsequent fate was is not known.'* When the tope was opened for 
 Dr. Bird, it was not there, but only a copper plate, which recorded its 
 enshrinement, by a noble layman called Pushyavarman.^ 
 
 Almost as celebrated as these was the begging-pot of Sakya Muni, 
 which was long kept in a dagoba or vihara erected by Kanishka at 
 Peshawur, and worshipped with the greatest reverence.^ After paying 
 a visit to Benares,' it was conveyed to Kandahar, and is still said to be 
 preserved there by the Mussulmans, and looked upon even by them as 
 a most precious relic.^ 
 
 1 There may be an error in this date 
 to the extent of its being from fifteen to 
 twenty years too early. 
 
 2 The principal particulars of this story 
 are contained in a Cingalese work called 
 the ' Daladavamsa,' recently translated by 
 Sir Mutu Comara Swamy. I have col- 
 lected the further evidence on this subject 
 in a paper I read to the Asiatic Society, 
 and published in their ' Journal ' (N.S.)> 
 vol. iii p. 132, et. seqq., and again in 'Tree 
 and Serpent Worship,' p. 174, et. seqq. 
 
 ^ The date being given as 245, Samvat 
 has generally been assumed to be dated 
 from the era of Vicraraaditya. I am not 
 aware, however, of any insciiption of so 
 early an age being dated from that era, 
 nor of any Buddhist inscription in which 
 it is used either then or thereafter. 
 
 * The same fate had overtaken another 
 tooth relic at Nagrak in northern India. 
 Fa Hian, b.c. 400, describes it as perfect in 
 his 13th chapter. ' Iliouen Thsang,' vol- 
 ii. p. 97, describes the stupa as ruined, 
 and the tooth having disappeared. 
 
 ^ For a translation, &c., see ' Journal 
 Bombay Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic 
 Society,' vol. v. p. 33. See also Bird, 
 ' Historical Eeseai ches,' Bombay, 1847. 
 
 *^ ' Foe Koue' Ki,' ch. xii. p. 77. 
 
 ^ ' Hiouen Thtang,' vol. i. p. 83. 
 
 « ' Foe Koue Ki,' p. 353. A detailed 
 account of its transference from the true 
 Gandhara — Peshawur — to the new Gan- 
 dhara in Kandahar will be found in a 
 paper by Sir Henry Kawlinson, ' Journal 
 of the Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. xi. 
 p. 127. 
 
60 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 All this will become plainer as we proceed, for we shall find 
 every Buddhist locality sanctified by the presence of relics, and that 
 these were worshipped apparently from the hour of the death of the 
 founder of the religion to the present day. Were this the place to do 
 it, it would be interesting to try and trace the path by which, and 
 the time when, this belief in the efficacy of relics spread towards the 
 west, and how and when it was first adopted by the early Christian 
 Church, and became with them as important an element of worship 
 as with the Buddhists. That would require a volume to itself ; 
 meanwhile, what is more important for our present purpose is the 
 knowledge that this relic-worship gave rise to the building of these 
 great dagobas, which are the most important feature of Buddhist 
 architectural art. 
 
 No one can, I fancy, hesitate in believing that the Buddhist 
 dagoba is the direct descendant of the sepulchral tumulus of the 
 Turanian races, whether found in Etruria, Lydia, or among the Scyths 
 of the northern steppes. The Indians, however, never seem to have 
 buried, but always to have burnt, their dead, and consequently 
 never, so far as we know, had any tumuli among them. It may be 
 in consequence of this that the dagobas, even in the earliest times, 
 took a rounded or domical form, while all the tumuli, from being of 
 earth, necessarily assumed the form of cones. Not only out of doors, 
 but in the earliest caves, the forms of dagobas are always rounded ; and 
 no example of a straight-lined cone covering a dagoba has yet been 
 discovered. This peculiarity, being so universal, w^ould seem to indi- 
 cate that they had been long in use before the earliest known example, 
 and that some other material than earth had been employed in 
 their construction ; but we have as yet no hint when the rounded 
 form was first employed, nor why the conical form of the tumulus 
 was abandoned when it was refined into a relic shrine. We know, 
 indeed, from the caves, and from the earliest bas-reliefs, that all the 
 roofs of the Indians were curvilinear ; and if one can fancy a circular 
 chamber with a domical roof — not in stone, of course — as the original 
 receptacle of the relic, we may imagine that the form was derived from 
 this.i 
 
 Bhilsa Topes. 
 
 The most extensive, and taking it altogether, perhaps the most 
 interesting, group of topes in India is that known as the Bhilsa 
 
 * Among the bas-reliefs of the Bharhut 
 tope is one representing just sucli a 
 domical roof as this ,Woodcut No. 90). 
 It is not, however, quite easy to make 
 
 out its plan, nor to feel sure whether 
 the object on the altar is a relic, or 
 ■whether it may not be some other kind 
 of offering. 
 
Chap. III. BHILSA TOPES. Gl 
 
 Topes, from a town of that name in the kingdom of Bhopal, near 
 which they are situated. There, within a district not exceeding ten 
 miles east and west and six north and south, are five or six groups of 
 topes, containing altogether between twenty-five and thirty indi- 
 vidual examples. The principal of these, known as the great tope 
 at Sanchi, has been frequently described, the smaller ones are known 
 from General Cunningham's descriptions only ; ^ but altogether they 
 have excited so much attention that they are perhaps better known 
 than any group in India. We are not however, perhaps, justified 
 in assuming, from the greater extent of this group, as now existing, 
 that it possessed the same pre-eminence in Buddhist times. If we 
 coald now see the topes that once adorned any of the great Buddhist 
 sites in the Doab or the Behars, the Bhilsa group might sink into 
 insignificance. It may only be, that situated in a remote and thinly- 
 peopled part of India, they have not been exposed to the destructive 
 energy of opposing sects of the Hindu religion, and the bigoted 
 Moslem has not wanted their materials for the erection of his mosques. 
 They consequently remain to us, while it may be that nobler and more 
 extensive groups of monuments have been swept from the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that has been written about them, we know 
 very little that is certain regarding their object and their history. 
 Our usual guides, the Chinese Pilgrims, fail us here. Fa Hian 
 never was within some hundreds of miles of the place ; and if Hiouen 
 Thsang ever was there, it was after leaving Ballabhi, when his 
 journal becomes so wild and curt that it is always difficult, some- 
 times impossible, to follow him. He has, at all events, left no 
 description by which we can now identify the place, and nothing to 
 tell us for what purpose the great tope or any of the smaller ones 
 were erected. The ' Mahawanso,' it is true, helps us a little in our 
 difficulties. It is there narrated that Asoka, when on his way to 
 Ujjeni (Ujjain), of which place he had been nominated governor, 
 tarried some time at Chetyagiri, or, as it is elsewhere called, Wessa- 
 nagara, the modern Besnagar, close to Sanchi. He there married 
 Devi, the daughter of the chief, and by her had tAvin sons, Ujjenio 
 and Mahindo, and afterwards a daughter, Sanghamitta. The two last 
 named entered the priesthood, and played a most important part in 
 the introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon. Before setting out on this 
 mission, Mahindo visited his royal mother at Chetyagiri, and was 
 
 * ♦ Bhilsa Topes, or Buddhist Monu- 
 monts in Ceutral India,' Smith, Elder, 
 and Co., 1854. One half of my work on 
 ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' and forty- 
 five of its plates, besides woodcuts, are 
 devoted to the illustration of the great 
 
 Tope ; and numerous papers have ap- 
 peared on the same subject in the 
 ' Journal of the Asiatic Society ' and 
 elsewliere. A cast of the eastern gate- 
 way is in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
62 
 
 BUDDHIST AECHITECTUI^E. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 lodged in "a superb vihara," which had been erected by herself.^ 
 In all this there is no mention of the great tope, which may have 
 existed before that time ; but till some building is found in India 
 which can be proved to have existed before that age, it will be safe 
 to assume that this is one of the 84,000 topes said to have been 
 erected by him. Had Sanchi been one of the eight cities w^hich 
 obtained relics of Buddha at the funeral pyre, the case might have 
 been different ; but it has been dug into, and found to be a stupa, and 
 not a dagoba. It consequently was erected to mark some sacred spot 
 or to commemorate some event, and we have no reason to believe that 
 this was done anywhere before Asoka's time. 
 
 On the other hand two smaller topes on the same platform con- 
 tained relics of an undoubted historical character. That called No. 2 
 Tope contained those of ten Buddhist teachers who took part in the 
 third great convocation held under Asoka, and some of whom were sent 
 on missions to foreign countries, to disseminate the doctrines then 
 settled, and No. 3 Tope contained tw^o relic caskets, represented in 
 the accomjjanying woodcuts (Nos. 8 and 9). One of these contained 
 
 8. Relic Casket of Moggalana. 9. Relic Casket of Saiiputra. 
 
 relics of Maha Moggalana, the other of Sariputra, friends and com- 
 panions of Buddha himself, and usually called his right and left 
 hand disciples.^ It does not of course follow from this that this 
 dagoba is as old as the time of Buddha ; on the contrary, some 
 centuries must elapse before a bone or rag belonging to any mortal 
 becomes so precious that a dome is erected to enshrine it. The great 
 probability seems to be that these relics were deposited there by 
 Asoka himself, in close proximity to the sacred spot, which the great 
 tope was erected to commemorate. The tope containing relics of his 
 contemporaries must of course be much more modern, probably con- 
 temporary with the gateways, wdiich are subsequent to the Christian 
 Era.3 
 
 ' * Muhawansn,' p. 76. See also ' Tree 
 and Serpent Worship,' p. 99, el seqq., 
 where all this is more fully set out than 
 is necessary here. 
 
 2 Cunningham, 'Bliilsa Topes,' p. 299, 
 
 ' The Chandragupta inscription on tlie 
 rail near the eastern gateway (' Journal 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. ii. 
 p. 454 ) is evidently a subsequent addition, 
 and belongs to the year a.d. 400. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 BHILSA TOPES. 
 
 63 
 
 The general appearance of the Sanchi Tope will be understood 
 from the view of it on Woodcut No. 10, and its shape and arrange- 
 
 ment from the plan and section, Nos. 11 and 12. From these it 
 will be observed that the principal building consists of a dome 
 
1)4 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book 1. 
 
 somewhat less than a hemisphere, lOG ft. in diameter, and 42 ft. in 
 li eight. ^ 
 
 On the top of the tope is a flat space about 34 ft. in diameter, 
 formerly surrounded by a stone railing, some parts of which are still 
 lying there ; and in the centre of this once stood a feature known to 
 Indian archaeologists as a Tee. The w^oodcut (No. 13), from a rock- 
 
 casket. No tope, and no representation of a tope — and we have 
 hundreds — are without this feature, and generally it is or was sur- 
 mounted by one or more discs representing the umbrellas of state ; in 
 modern times by as many as nine of these. The only ancient wooden 
 one now known to exist is that in the cave at Karli (Woodcut No. SO), 
 but the representations of them in stone and painting are literally 
 thousands in number. 
 
 The dome rests on a sloping base, 14 ft. in height by 120 ft. in 
 diameter, having an offset on its summit about 6 ft. wide. This, to 
 judge from the representations of topes on the sculptures, must have 
 been surrounded by a balustrade, and was ascended by a broad double 
 ramp on one side. It was probably used for processions round the 
 monument, which seem to have been among the most common 
 Buddhist ceremonials. The centre of this great mound is quite solid, 
 being composed of bricks .laid in mud ; but the exterior is faced with 
 dressed stones. Over these w^as laid a coating of cement nearly 4 
 inches in thickness, which was, no doubt, originally adorned either 
 with painting or ornaments in relief. 
 
 Beside the group at Sanchi, which comprises six or seven topes, 
 there are at Sonari, six miles distant, another group of eight topes. 
 Two of these are important structures, enclosed in square courtyards, 
 and one of these yielded numerous relics to the explorers. 
 
 At Satdhara, three miles further on, is a great tope 101 ft. in 
 diameter, but which, like that at Sanchi, seems to have been a stupa, 
 and yielded no relics. No. 2, however, though only 24 ft. in diameter, 
 was found to contain relics of Sariputra and Moggalana, like No. 3 at 
 
 ' These views, plans, &c., are taken I ham, ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 from a Memoir by Capt. J. D. Cunning- | Bengal,' August, 1847. 
 
 13. Tee cut in the rock on a Dagoba at Ajunta. 
 
 cut example at Ajunta, repre- 
 sents the usual form at this 
 age. The lower part is adorned 
 with the usual Buddhist rail 
 (to be described hereafter), the 
 upper by the conventional win- 
 dow, two features which are 
 universal. It is crowned by a 
 lid of three slabs, and no doubt 
 either was or simulated a relic 
 
Chap. III. TOPES AT SAENATH AND IX BEHAR. 
 
 65 
 
 Sanchi. Besides these there are S2veral others, all small, and very much 
 ruined. 
 
 The most numerous gi'oup, however, is situated at Bhojpur, seven 
 miles from Sanchi, where thirty-seven distinct topes are grouped together 
 on various platforms. The largest is 66 ft. in diameter, hut No. 2 
 is described as one of the most perfect in the neighbourhood, and, like 
 several others in this group, contained important relics. 
 
 At Andher, about five miles west of Bhojpur, is a fine group of 
 three small, but very interesting topes. With those above enume- 
 rated, this makes up about sixty distinct and separate topes, in this 
 small district, which certainly was not one of the most important in 
 India in a religious point of view, and consequently was probably sur- 
 passed by many, not only in the number but in the splendour of its 
 religious edifices.^ 
 
 Without more data than we at present possess, it is of course 
 impossible to speak with certainty with regard to the age of this 
 group of topes, but, so far as can be at present ascertained, there seems 
 no reason for assuming that any of them are earlier than the age 
 of Asoka, B.C. 250, nor is it probable that any of them can be of later 
 date than the era of Salivahana, a.d. 79, or say after the first century 
 of our era. Their rails may be later, but the topes themselves seem all 
 to be included within these three centuries and a half. 
 
 Topes at Sarxath axd ix Behar. 
 
 Not only is there no other group of topes in India Proper that 
 can be compared, either in extent or in preservation, to those of 
 Bhilsa, but our knowledge of the subject is now so complete that it 
 is probably safe to assert that only two, or at most three, topes exist 
 between the Sutlej and the sea, sufficiently perfect to enable their 
 form and architectural features to be distinguished. There are, of 
 course, numerous mounds near all the Buddhist cities which mark 
 the site, and many of which probably hide the remains, of some of the 
 hundreds of stupas or dagobas mentioned by the Chinese PilgTims, 
 besides many that they failed to distinguish. All, however, with the 
 fewest possible exceptions, have perished ; nor is it difficult to see 
 why this should be so. All, or nearly all, were composed of brick or 
 small stones, laid either without mortar, or with cement that was 
 little better than mud. They consequently, when desecrated and 
 deserted, formed such convenient quarries for the villagers, that 
 
 ^ As all the particulars regarding all Topes,' published by Smith and Elder, 
 these topes, except the grent one and I in one volume 8vo., in 1854, it has not 
 No. 3 of Sanchi, are taken from Gen. been thought necessar}^ to repeat the 
 Cunningham's work entitled ' Bhilsa I reference at every statement. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 nearly all have been utilised for building huts and houses of the 
 Hindus, or the mosques of the iconoclastic Mussulmans. Their rails, 
 being composed of larger stones and not so easily removed, have in 
 some instances remained, and some will no doubt be recovered when 
 looked for ; and as these, in the earlier ages at least, were the 
 
 14. Tope at Saniuth, near Benares. (^Fruiu u I'liutdgraph.) 
 
 iconostasis of the shrine, their recovery will largely compensate for 
 the loss of the topes which they surrounded. 
 
 The best known, as well as the best preserved of the Bengal topes, 
 is that at Sarnath, near Benares (Woodcut No. 14). It was carefully 
 explored by General Cunningham in 1835-36, and found to be a 
 stupa : viz., containing no relics, but erected to mark some spot 
 sanctified by the presence of Buddha, or by some act of his during 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 SARXATH TOPE. 
 
 67 
 
 his long residence there. It is situated in the Deer Park, where he 
 took up his residence with his five disciples when he first remo^-ed 
 from Gaya on attaining Buddhahood, and commencing his mission 
 as a teacher. What act it commemorates we, shall probably never 
 know, as there are several mounds in the neighbourhood, and the 
 descriptions of the Chinese Pilgrims are not sufficiently precise to 
 enable us now to discriminate between them. 
 
 The building consists of a stone basement, 93 ft. in diameter, and 
 solidly built, the stones being clamped together with iron to the 
 height of 43 ft. Above that it is in brickwork, rising to a height of 
 110 ft. above the surrounding ruins, and 128 ft. above the plain. ^ 
 Externally the lower part is relieved by eight projecting faces, each 
 21 ft. 6 in. wide, and 15 ft. apart. In each is a small niche, intended 
 apparently to contain a seated figure of Buddha, and below them, 
 encircling the monument, is a band of sculptured ornament of the 
 most exquisite beauty. The central part consists — as will be seen by 
 the cut on the next page — of geometric patterns of great intricacy, 
 but combined with singular skill ; and, above and below, foliage 
 equally well designed, and so much resembling that carved by Hindu 
 artists on the earliest Mahomedan mosques at Ajmir and Delhi, as to 
 make us feel sure they cannot be very distant in date. 
 
 The carvings round the niches and on the projections have been 
 left so unfinished — in some instances only outlined — that it is impos- 
 sible to guess what ultimate form it may have been intended to give 
 them. The upper part of the tower seems never to have been finished 
 at all, but from our knowledge of the Afghanistan topes we may sur- 
 mise that it was intended to encircle it with a range of pilasters, and 
 then some bold mouldings, before covering it with a hemispherical 
 dome. 
 
 In his excavations. General Cunningham found, buried in the 
 solid masonry, at the depth of 10 J ft. from the summit, a large stone 
 on which was engraved the usual Buddhist formula, " Ye dharmma 
 hetu," &c., in characters belonging to the 7th century, from which 
 he infers that the monument belongs to the 6th century. To me 
 it appears so extremely improbable that men should carefully en- 
 grave such a formula on a stone, and then bury it ten or twelve 
 feet in a mass of masonry which they must have hoped would endure 
 for ever, that I cannot accept the conclusion. It seems to me much 
 more probable that it may have belonged to some building which 
 this one Avas designed to supersede, or to have been the pedestal 
 of some statue which had been disused, but which from its age had 
 become venerable, and was consequently utilised to sanctify this 
 
 ^ These dimensions and details arc taken fro:n Gen. Cunningham's ' Archseological 
 Reports,' vol. i. p. 107, et n'tjq. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 BUDDHIST AriCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 new erection. I am consequently mnch more inclined to adopt the 
 tradition preserved by Captain Wilford,^ to the effect that the Sarnath 
 monument was erected by the sons of Mohi Pala, and destroyed 
 (interrupted ?) by the Mahomedans, in 1017, before its completion.^ 
 The form of the monnment, the character of its sculptured orna- 
 
 ments, the unfinished condition in which it is left, and indeed the 
 whole circumstances of the case, render this date so much the most 
 probable that I feel inclined to adopt it almost without hesitation. 
 
 The other Bengal to])e existing nearly entire is known as Jara- 
 sandha Ka Baitliak. General Cnnningham states its dimensions to 
 
 ^ 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. ix. p. 203. 
 
 2 See also paper by ^'csy Wcstin icutt, ' Calcutta Review,' 1874, vol, lix. p. G8. 
 
CUAl'. 111. 
 
 BUDDH CiAYA. 
 
 69 
 
 hd 28 ft. in diameter by 21 ft. in height, resting- oji a basement 14 ft. 
 high, so thlit its total height, when complete, may have been abont 
 55 ft.^ As it Avas not mentioned by Fa Hian, a.d. 400, and is by 
 Hiouen Thsang, a.d. G4(), its age is probably, as General Cnnningham 
 states, intermediate between these dates, or about a.d. 500.^ It is a 
 bold, fine tower, evidently earlier than that at Sarnath, and showing 
 nothing of the tendency towards Hindu forms there displayed. It 
 has, too, the remains of a procession-path, or extended basement 
 which is wholly wanting at Sarnath, but which is always found in 
 the earlier monuments. It was erected, as Hiouen Thsang tells us, 
 in honour of a Hansa — goose — who devoted itself to relieve the Avants 
 of a starving community of Bhikshus.^ 
 
 The third stupa, if it may be so called, is the celebrated temple 
 at Buddh Gaya, which stands immediately in front of the celebrated 
 Bodhi-tree (Ftcus relifjiosa) * under whose shade Buddha attained 
 complete enlightenment in the thirty-fifth year of his age, B.C. 588. 
 Its history is told in such detail by Hiouen Thsang ^ that there seems 
 little doubt as to the main facts of the case. According to this 
 authority, Asoka built a small vihara here, but long afterwards this 
 was replaced by a temple 160 ft. high and GO ft. (20 paces) wide, 
 which are the exact dimansions of the present building, according to 
 Cunningham,^ and we are further told that it was erected by a 
 Brahman, who was warned by MahesAvara (Siva), in a vision, to 
 execute this Avork. In this temple there Avas a cella corresponding 
 Avith the dimensions of that found there, in Avhich the Brahman 
 placed a statue of Buddha, seated cross-legged, Avitli one hand pointing 
 to the earth. Who this Brahman Avas A\^e learn from an inscription 
 translated by Mr. Wilkins in vol. i. of the ' xisiatic Researches ' (p. 
 284), for it can hardly be doubted that the Brahman of the Chinese 
 pilgrim is identical Avith the Amara Deva of the inscription, Avho Avas 
 one of the ornaments of the court of Vicramaditya of Malwa, a.d. 
 495-5o0. From a Burmes3 inscription on the spot, first translated by 
 Colonel Burney, aa^c further learn that the place, having fallen into 
 decay, Avas restored by the Burmese in the year 1806-1309.'^ 
 
 From the data these accounts afford us Ave gather, Avith very 
 tolerable certainty, that the building Ave uoav see before us (Woodcut 
 
 * ' Aicluiiological Reportri,' vol. i. p. 17. 
 2 Ibid., p 19.. 
 
 ^ ' Hiouen Thsang,' vol. iii. p. GO. 
 
 * Buchauau Hamilton was tol 1 by tlie 
 priests on the spot, in 1811, that it was 
 planted there 2225 years ago, or B.C. 414, 
 and that the temple A\'as built 120 years 
 afterwards, or iu 289. Not a bad guess for 
 Afcoka's age in a locality where Buildhisni 
 
 has been so long forgotten. IMontgomery 
 INIartin's ' Ea.-tern India,' vol. i. p. 7G. 
 
 ^ ' H oueii Tl sang,' vol. ii. pp. 4Gl:-40'^. 
 ' ArcIaTeoIogical Reports,' vol. i. p. 5. 
 
 " 'Journnl of the Asi.ttic Society of 
 Bengal,' 1834, vol. iv. p. '214. See also 
 Cuimiughain, ' Archaeological Reports,' 
 vol. i. p. 5, et seq'i. 
 
70 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUIIE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 No. 16) is substantially that erected by Amara the Brahman, in the 
 beginning of the Gth century, but the niches Hiouen Thsang saw, 
 containing golden statues of Buddha, cannot be those now existing, 
 and the sculptures he mentions find no place in the present design ; 
 and the amalakas of gilt copper that crowned the whole, as he saw 
 it, have disappeared. The changes in detail, as well as the intro- 
 duction of radiating arches in the interior, I fancy must belong to 
 
 Temple at Badeih Gaya with Bo-tree. (From a Photograph by Mr, Peppe, C.E.) 
 
 the Burmese restoration in the beginning of the 14th century. 
 Though these, consequently, may have altered its appearance in 
 detail, it is probable that we still have before us a straight-lined 
 pyramidal nine-storeyed temple of the (Ith century, retaining all its 
 essential forms — anomalous and unlike anything else w^e find in 
 India, either before or afterwards, but probal)ly the parent of many 
 nine-storeyed towers found beyond the Himalayas, both in China and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Eventually we mny discover other examples which may render 
 
CiiAr. III. 
 
 AMRAVATl. 
 
 71 
 
 this noble tower less exceptional than it now appears to be ; but 
 perhaps its anomalous features may be due to the fact that it was 
 erected by Brahmans for Buddhist purposes in an age of extremest 
 toleration,^ when it w^as doubtful whether the balance would incline 
 towards Buddhist or Brahmanical supremacy. In less than a century 
 and a half after its erection the storm burst (a.d. 648) which eventu- 
 ally sealed the fate of Buddhism in Central India, with only a fitful 
 flickering- of the lamp afterwards during lulls in the tempest. 
 
 At Keseriah, in Tirhoot, about 20 miles north of Bakra, where one 
 of the pillars of Asoka mentioned above is found, are the ruins of 
 what appears to have been a very large tope. It is, however, entirely 
 ruined externally, and has never been explored, so that we cannot 
 tell w^hat was its original shape or purpose.^ All along this line of 
 country numerous Buddhist remains are found, all more or less ruined, 
 and they have not yet been examined with the care necessary to 
 ascertain their forms. This is the more to be regretted as this was 
 the native country of the founder of the religion, and the place where 
 his doctrines appear to have been originally promulgated. If any- 
 thing older than the age of Asoka is preserved in India, it is probably 
 in this district that it must be looked for. 
 
 Amravati. 
 
 Although not a vestige remains in uta of the central dagoba at 
 Amravati, there is no great difficulty, by piecing together the frag- 
 ments of it in the India Museum — as is done in Plate 93 of ' Tree and 
 Serpent Worship' — in ascertaining what its dimensions and general 
 appearance were. It was small, only 30 ft. to 35 ft. in diameter, or 
 about 100 ft. in circumference, and 50 ft. high. The perpendicular part, 
 31: ft. high, was covered with sculptures in low relief, representing 
 scenes from the life of Buddha. The domical part was covered with 
 stucco, and with wTeaths and medalUons either executed in relief 
 or painted. No fragment of them remains by which it can be ascer- 
 tained which mode of decoration was the one adopted. 
 
 Altogether, there seems no doubt that the representation of a tope 
 on the following page (Woodcut No. 17), copied from the inner rail at 
 Amravati, fairly represents the central building there. There were 
 probably forty-eight such representations of dagobas on this rail. In 
 each the subject of the sculpture is varied, but the general design is 
 the same throughout ; and, on the whole, the woodcut may be taken as 
 representing the mode in which a Buddhist dagoba was ornamented in 
 
 1 'Hiouen Thsang, Festival of the | 2 ^ view of it is given, ' Journal of the 
 three Religions at Allahabad in 643,' Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. iv. p, 122. 
 vol. i. p. 251. 
 
72 
 
 BUDDHltST ARCHITECTUIIE. 
 
 r>ooK 1. 
 
 the 4tli or 5tli century, which is the time at which the style seeins to 
 have readied its highest point of elaboration, in India at least. 
 
 17. llepiesentition of a Tope from the Rail at Amravati. (From u bas-relief in the India Museuiu.) 
 
 Gandhaha Topes. 
 
 The extreme paucity of examples retaining their architectural 
 form, in the valley of the Ganges, is, to some extent, compensated for 
 by the existence of a very extensive range of examples in Afghanistan 
 and the western Punjab. In his memoir of these topes, published 
 by Professor Wilson, in his ' Ariana Antiqua,' Mr. Masson enumerates 
 and describes, in more or less detail, some sixty examples, or almost 
 exactly the same number which General Cunningham described as 
 existing at Bhilsa. In this instance, however, they extend over a 
 range of 200 miles, from Cabul to the Indus, instead of only 16 or 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 GANDBIARA TOPES. 
 
 73 
 
 17 miles from Sonari to Andher. To these must be added some fifteen 
 or twenty examples, found at Manikyala or in its neig-hbourhood, and 
 it is probable about the same number still exist undescribed, making- 
 altogether perhaps 100 stupas in this province. 
 
 Notwithstanding this wealth of examples, we miss one, which 
 was probably the finest of all. When Fa Hian passed through the 
 province in a.d. 400, he describes the dagoba which King Kanishka 
 had erected at Peshawur as " more than 470 ft. in height, and decorated 
 with every sort of precious substance, so that all who passed by, 
 and saw the exquisite beauty and graceful proportions of the tower 
 and the temple attached to it, exclaimed in delight that it was 
 incomparable for beauty ; " and he adds, " Tradition says this was the 
 highest tower in Jambudwipa." ^ When Hiouen Thsang passed that 
 way more than two hundred years afterwards, he reports the tower 
 as having been 400 ft. high, but it was then ruined — " the part 
 that remained, a li and a half in circumference (1500 ft.) and 150 ft. 
 high ; " and he adds, in twenty-five stages of the toAver there were a 
 "ho" — 10 bushels of relics of Buddha.^ No trace of this monument 
 now exists. 
 
 These north-western topes are so important for our history, and 
 all have so nmch that is common among them, and are distinguished 
 by so many characteristics from those of India Proper, that it would 
 be extremely convenient if we could find some term which would 
 describe them without involving either a theory or a geographical 
 error. The term Afghanistan topes, by which they are generally 
 designated, is too modern, and has the defect of not including 
 Peshawur and the western Punjab. " Ariana," as defined by Pro- 
 fessor Wilson, describes very nearly the correct limits of the province ; 
 for, though it includes Bactria and the valley of the Upper Oxus, 
 where - no topes have yet been found, w^e know from the Chinese 
 Pilgrims that in the 5th and 7th centuries these countries, as far 
 as Khoten, Avere intensely Buddhist, and monuments must exist, 
 and will, no doubt, be found Avhen looked for. The name, howcA^er, 
 has the defect that it seems to imply the existence in that region 
 of an xlryan people, and consequently an Aryan religion. At the 
 time to Avhich he Avas referring, that was no doubt the case, and 
 therefore from the Professor's point of vicAV the name was correctly 
 applied. 
 
 When the Sanscrit-speaking races first broke up from their 
 original settlements in the valley of the Oxus, they passed through 
 the valley of the Cabul river on their Avay to India, and lingered, in 
 all probability, both there and in the Punjab before reaching their 
 first permanent position on the SarasAvati — the true " Arya Yarta " — 
 
 ' Bcal's 'Fa Hian,' p. 35. ^ ' Vie et Voyages de Hioucu Thsang,' vol. i. p. 83. 
 
74 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITKCTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 between the Sutlej and the Jumna. It is also nearly certain that 
 they remained the dominant caste in these countries down to the 
 time of Alexander's invasion, and during the supremacy of the 
 Bactrian kingdom. About 180 years, however, before the Christian 
 Era, if we may trust the Chinese accounts,^ the Yuechi, and other 
 tribes of Tartar origin, were on the move in this direction. About 
 that time they struck down the Bactrian monarchy, and appear from 
 tlienceforward to have permanently occupied their country. It is 
 not clear whether they immediately, or at what interval they pene- 
 trated into the Cabul valley ; but between that time and the Christian 
 Era successive hordes of Yuechi, Sakas, Turuskas, and Hunas, had 
 poured into the valley and the western Punjab to such an extent as 
 to obliterate, or at least for the time supersede the Aryan population, 
 and supplant it by one of Turanian origin, and with this change 
 of race came the inevitable change of religion. Turania would there- 
 fore for our purposes be a more descriptive name than Ariana ; but 
 it is not sufficiently precise or well defined. No people, so far as is 
 know^n, ever adopted and adhered to the Buddhist religion who had 
 not a large proportion of Turanian blood in their veins, and the 
 name would consequently include all the people who adopted this 
 faith. Gandhara is, on the contrary, a local name, which certainly, 
 in early times, included the best part of this province, and in Kanishka's 
 time seems to have included all he reigned over, and, if so, would be the 
 most appropriate term we could find. 
 
 It has, moreover, this advantage, that it is essentially Buddhist. 
 In the time of Asoka, it was Kashmir and Gandhara to which he sent 
 his missionaries, and from that time forward Gandhara is the term by 
 which, in all Buddhist books, that kingdom is described, of which 
 Taxila was the capital, and which is, as nearly as can now be ascertained, 
 conterminous with our architectural province. 
 
 It is not clear whether Kanishka was or was not the first 
 Buddhist king of this country ; but, so far as is at present known, 
 he seems to have done for Buddhism in Gandhara exactly what Asoka 
 did for that religion in central India. He elevated it from its posi- 
 tion as a struggling sect to that of being the religion of the State. We 
 know, however, that Asoka himself sent missionaries to this country ; ^ 
 and, more than this, that he engraved a complete set of his edicts on a 
 rock at Kapurdigiri, 30 miles north-east from Peshawur, but we do 
 not know what success they or he attained. Certain it is, as Pro- 
 fessor Wilson remarks, that " no coin of a Greek prince of Bactria 
 has ever been met with in any tope." ^ The local coins that are found 
 in them all belong to dynasties subsequent to the destruction of the 
 
 ' De Giiigne's ' Histoire des Huns,' vol. ii. p. 40, et seqq. 
 ^ ' Mahavvaiiso,' p. 71. ^ ' Ariana Antiqua,' p. 43. 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 GANDHAEA TOPES. 
 
 75 
 
 Bactrian kingdom, and, according to the same authority (p. 322), 
 " were selected from the prevailing currency, which was not of any 
 remotely previous issue ; " " while the Greek Bactrian coins had long 
 ceased to be cuiTent, though they had not, perhaps, become so scarce 
 as to be enshrined as rarities " (p. 44). Under these circumstances. 
 Professor Wilson arrives at the conclusion that the topes " are un- 
 doubtedly all subsequent to the Christian Era " (p. 322). It is true 
 that some of- the kings whose coins are found in the topes, such as 
 Hermaeus, Azes, Kadphises, and others, may have lived prior to that 
 epoch, but none of their coins show a trace of Buddhism. On those 
 of the last-named king, it is also true that we find the trisul eml)lem 
 of the Buddhists on the reverse, but it is coupled with the bull and 
 trident of Siva in so remarkable a manner that it can hardly be 
 doubted that the monarch was a follower of the Hindu relio-ion, 
 though acknowledging the presence of Buddhism in his realm. ^ 
 With Kanishka, however, all this is altered. He was a Buddhist, 
 beyond all doubt ; he held the convocation called the third by the 
 northern Buddhists — the fourth ticcording to the southern — at which 
 Nagarjuna was apparently the presiding genius. From that time the 
 Thibetans, Burmese, and Chinese date the introduction of Buddhism 
 into their countries : not, hoAvever, the old simple Buddhism, known as 
 the Hinayana, Avhich prevailed before, but the corrupt Mahayana, 
 which was fabled to have been preserved by the Nagas from the 
 time of Buddha's death, and from whom Xagarjuna received it, and 
 spread it from Peshawur over the Avhole of northern and eastern 
 Asia. It was precisely the same revolution that took place in the 
 Christian Church, about the same time after the death of its founder. 
 Six hundi'ed yeare after Christ, Gregory the Great established the 
 hierarchical Roman Catholic system, in supei'session of the simpler 
 primitive forms. Six hundred years after the Mrvana, Nagarjuna 
 introduced the complicated and idolatrous Mahayna,^ though, as we 
 learn from the Chinese Pilgrims, a small minority still adhered in after 
 times to the lesser vehicule, or Hinayana system. 
 
 Although, therefore, we are probably safe in asserting that none 
 of the Gandhara topes date before the Christian Era, it is not because 
 there is any inherent, d jrriori improbability that they should date 
 before Kanishka, as there is that those of India Proper cannot 
 extend beyond Asoka. There is no trace of wooden construction here. 
 All is stone and all complete, and copied probably from Bactrian 
 originals that may have existed two centuries earlier. Their dates 
 depend principally on the coins, which are almost invariably found 
 
 * ' Ariana Antiqna,' pla'e 10. 1 passim. He spells the words Makhaiana 
 
 - Vassilief, ' Le Bouddhisme, ses and Kbinaiaua. 
 Dogmes,' &c., Paris, 1865, p. 31, et \ 
 
76 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Bi OK I. 
 
 deposited with the relics, in these topes. No coins so far as I know have 
 been found in any Indian tope. They are found in hundreds in these 
 north-western ones, and always fix a date beyond which the tope cannot 
 be carried back, and generally enable us to approximate very nearly 
 to the true date of the monument in question. If these of Kanishka 
 are the earliest, which appsars to be the case, the great one which he 
 commenced, at Manikyala, is probably also the last to be finished in 
 its present form, inasmuch as below 12 ft. of solid masonry, a coin of 
 Yasoverma of Canouge was found, and his date cannot be carried back 
 beyond a.d. 720. Between these dates, therefore, must be ranged the 
 whole of this great group of Buddhist monuments. 
 
 There probably were no great Buddhist establishments in Gand- 
 hara before Kanishka, and as few, if any, after Yasoverma, yet we learn 
 that between these dates this province was as essentially Buddhist as 
 any part of India. Fa Hian tells us, emphatically, that the law of 
 Buddha is universally honoured, and enumerates 500 monasteries,^ and 
 Hiouen Thsang makes no complaint of heretics, while both dilate in 
 ecstasies on the wealth of relics everywhere displayed. Part of the 
 skull, teeth, garments, staffs, pots of Buddha — impressions of his 
 feet, even his shadow — was to be seen in this favoured district, Avhich 
 was besides sanctified by many actions which had been commemorated 
 by towers erected on the spot where these meritorious acts were per- 
 formed. Many of these spots have been identified, and more will no 
 doubt rcAvard the industry of future investigators, but meanwhile 
 enough is known to render this province one of the most interesting 
 of all India for the study of the traditions or art of Mediseval 
 Buddhism. 
 
 The antiquities of the western part of the province were first 
 investigated by Dr. Honigberger, in the years 1833-34,^ and the result 
 of his numismatic discoveries published in Paris and elsewhere ; but 
 the only account we have of the buildings themselves is that given 
 by Mr. Masson, who, with singular perseverance and sagacity, com- 
 pleted what Dr. Honigberger had left undone.^ Those of the eastern 
 district and about Manikyala were first investigated by General 
 Yentura and M. Court, officers in the service of Runjeet Sing, and 
 the result of their researches published by Prinsep in the third volume 
 of his ' Journal ' in 1830 ; but considerably further light has been 
 thrown on them by the explorations of General Cunningham, and 
 published in his 'Archaeological Reports ' for 1863-18G1:. 
 
 ' Beal's translation, p. 2G. ]itlio;^rciplis from Mr. Massou's sketches 
 
 Honigberger, • Reise.' which, though not so detailed as we could 
 
 ' Mr. Mas&ou's account was commuui- wish, are still sufficient to render their 
 cated to Professor Wilson, and by him 1 form auJ appearance intelligible, 
 published in his ' Ariaua Anliqua,' with ' 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 JELALABAl) TOPES. 
 
 77 
 
 Jelalabad Topes. 
 
 The topes examined and described by Mr. Masson as existing ronnd 
 Jelalabad are thirty-seven in nnmber, viz., eighteen disting-nished as 
 the Dariinta group, six at Chahar Bagh, and thirteen at Hidda. Of 
 these about one-half yielded coins and relics of more or less impor- 
 tance, which proved the dates of their erection to extend from the 
 Christian Era, or it may be a few years before it, to the 7th or 8th 
 century. 
 
 One of the most remarkable of these is No. 10 of Hidda, which 
 contained, besides a whole museum of gems and rings, five, gold solid i 
 of the emperors Theodosius (a.d. 408), Marcian and Leo (474) ; two 
 gold Canouge coins ; and 202 Sassanian coins extending to, if not 
 beyond, the Hegira.^ This tope, therefore, must belong to the 7th 
 century, and would be a most convenient landmark in architectural 
 history, were it not that the whole of its exterior is completely peeled 
 off, so that no architectural mouldings remain, and, apparently from 
 the difficulty of ascertaining them, no dimensions are quoted in the 
 text.^ About one-half of the others contained relics, but none were 
 found to be so rich as this. 
 
 In general appearance they differ considerably from the great 
 Indian topes just described, being all taller in proportion to their 
 breadth, and having a far more tower-like appearance, than any found 
 in India, except the Sarnath example. They are also smaller, the 
 largest at Darunta being only IGO ft. in circumference. This 
 is about the usual size of the first-class topes in Afghanistan, the 
 second class being a little more than 100 ft., while many are much 
 smaller. 
 
 In almost every instance they seem to have rested on a square base, 
 though in many this has been removed, and in others it is buried in 
 rubbish. Above this rises a circular base or drum, crowned by a belt 
 sometimes composed merely of two architectural string-courses, with 
 different coloured stones disposed as a diaper pattern between them. 
 Sometimes a range of plain pilasters occupies this space. More gene- 
 rally the pilasters are joined by arches sometimes cii'cular, sometimes 
 of an ogee form. In one instance — the Eed Tope — they are alternately 
 circular and three-sided arches. That this belt represents the enclosing 
 rail at Sanchi and the pilastered base at Manikyala cannot be doubted. 
 
 ^ The length of time ever which these 1 earlier than the coins deposited in it, 
 coins range — more than 200 years — is j but, as in this case, it may be one or two 
 sufficient to warn us what caution is re- : hundred years more modern, 
 quisite in fixing the date of buildings j ^ ' Ariana Antiqua,' p. 109. 
 frjm their deposits. A tope cannot be \ 
 
78 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUnE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 It shows, however, a very considerable change in style to find it 
 elevated so far up the monument as it here is, and so completely changed 
 from its original purpose. 
 
 Generally speaking, the dome or roof rises immediately above this, 
 but no example in this group retains its termination in a perfect state. 
 
 Some appear to have 
 had hemispherical 
 roofs, some ' more 
 nearly conical, of 
 greater or less 
 steepness of pitch ; 
 and some (like that 
 represented in Wood- 
 cut No. 18) were 
 probably flat, or 
 with only a slight 
 elevation in the 
 centre. It seems 
 
 18. Tope at BimerMTi. (From a Drawing by Mr. Miisson. probablc tllCrC may 
 
 ill Wilson s 'ArianaAntiqua.') havc been somc Con- 
 
 nection between the 
 
 shape of the roof and the purpose for which the tope was raised. But 
 we have no evidence to lead us to any decision of this point. 
 
 One interesting peculiarity was brought to light by Mr. Masson 
 in his excavation of the tope at Sultanpore, and is shown in the 
 
 annexed section (Woodcut No. 
 19). It is proved that the monu- 
 ment originally consisted of a 
 small tope on a large square 
 base, with the relic placed on its 
 summit. This was afterwards 
 increased in size by a second 
 tope being built over it. 
 
 Besides those already men- 
 tioned there are about twenty 
 
 Masson, in Wilson's ' Ariana Amiqua.' j thirty topCS iu the neigh- 
 
 bourhood of Cabul, but all much 
 ruined, and few of any striking appearance. So at least we are led 
 to infer from Mr. Massoii's very brief notice of them. No doubt many 
 others still remain in spots hitherto unvisited by Europeans. 
 
 In the immediate vicinity of all these topes are found caves and 
 tumuli, the former being the residences of priests, the latter for the 
 most part buryiiig-places, perhaps in some instances smaller relic- 
 shrines. Their exact destination cannot be ascertained without a 
 careful investigation by persons thoroughly conversant with the 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 MANIKYALA. 
 
 79 
 
 subject. There are still, however, many points of great interest 
 which require to be cleared up by actual examination. AVhen this 
 has been done we may hope to be able to judge with some certainty 
 of their affinity with the Indian buildings on the one hand, and those 
 of Persia on the other. 
 
 Manikyala. 
 
 The most important group, however, of the Gandhara topes is that 
 at Manikyala in the Punjab, situated between the Indus and the 
 Jelum or Hydaspes. Fifteen or twenty examples are found at this 
 place, most of which were opened by General Ventura and M. Court 
 about the year 1830, when several of them yielded relics of great 
 value, though no record has been preserved of the greater part of 
 their excavations. In one opened by M. Court, a square chamber 
 was found at a height of 10 ft. above the ground level. In tliis was 
 a gold cylinder enclosed in one of silver, and that again in one of 
 copper. The inner one contained four gold coins, ten precious stones 
 and four pearls. These were, no doubt, the relics which the tope 
 was intended to preserve. The inscription has only partially been 
 read, but certainly contains the name of Kanishka,^ so that we may 
 feel assured it was erected during his reign. Some Roman coins were 
 found much worn, as if by long use,^ before they reached this remote 
 locality ; and, as they extend down to a date 33 b.c.,^ it is certain the 
 monument was erected after that date. The gold coins were all those 
 of Kanishka. This tope, therefore, could hardly have been erected 
 earlier than twenty years before Christ ; how much later, we will be 
 able to say only when we know more of the date and history of the 
 monarch to whom it owes its origin. To the antiquary the inquiry 
 is of considerable interest, but less so to the architect, as the tope 
 is so completely ruined that neither its form nor its dimensions can 
 now be distinguished. 
 
 Another w^as recently opened by General Cunningham, in the relic 
 chamber of which he found a copper coin, belonging to the Satrap 
 Zeionises, who is supposed to have governed this part of the country 
 about the Christian Era, and we may therefore assume that the tope 
 was erected by him or in his time. This and other relics were enclosed 
 in a glass stoppered vessel, placed in a miniature representation of 
 the tope itself, 4 J in. wide at base, and 8 J in. high (Woodcut No. 20), 
 which may be considered as a fair representation of what a tope was 
 or was intended to be, in that day. It is, perhaps, taller, however. 
 
 ' Thomas in ' Prinsep,' vol. i. p. 144. I Bengal,' vol. iii. p. 559. 
 
 2 ' Journal of the Asiatic SoL-iety of I ^ Thomas in ' Prinsep,' p. 148. 
 
80 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 than a structural example would have been ; and the tee, with its 
 four umbrellas, is, no doubt, exaggerated. 
 
 The principal tope of the group is, perhaps, the most remark- 
 able of its class in India, though inferior in size to several in Ceylon. 
 It was first noticed by Mountstuart Elphiustone, and a very 
 correct view of it published by him, with the narrative of 
 
 his mission to Cabul in 1815. It was 
 afterwards thoroughly explored by 
 General Yentui-a, in 1830, and a com- 
 plete account of his investigations 
 published by Prinsep in the third 
 volume of his ' Journal.' Since then 
 its basement has been cleared of the 
 rubbish that hid it to a depth of 
 12 ft. -to 15 ft. all round by the officers 
 of the Public Works Department. 
 They also made careful plans and 
 sections of the whole, manuscript copies 
 of wliich are now before me. 
 
 From those it appears that the 
 dome is an exact hemisphere, 127 ft. 
 in diameter, and consequently, as 
 nearly as may be, 400 ft. in circum- 
 ference. The outer circle measures 
 in like manner 159 ft. 2 in., or 500 ft. 
 20. Relic Casket from Tope at Manikyaia. m circumfereucc, and is asccudcd by 
 
 (Found and drawn by Gen. Cunai,.gham..) f^^^^, ^.^^^ ^.^.^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 in each face, leading to a procession- 
 path 16 ft. in width, ornamented both above and below by a range 
 of dwarf pilasters, representing the detached rail of the older Indian 
 monuments. It is, indeed, one of the most marked characteristics 
 of these Gandhara topes, that none of them possess, or ever seem 
 to have possessed, any trace of an independent rail ; but all have 
 an ornamental belt of pilasters, joined generally by arches simulating 
 the original rail. This can hardly be an early architectural form, and 
 leads to the suspicion that, in spite of their deposits, their outward 
 casing may be very much more modern than the coins they contain. 
 
 The outw^ard appearance of the Manikyala tope, in its present 
 half -ruined state, may be judged of from the view" (Woodcut No. 21). 
 All that it really requires to complete its outline is the tee, which 
 was an invariable adjunct to these buildings ; no other feature 
 has wholly disappeared. The restored elevation, half-section, half- 
 elevation (Woodcut No. 22), to the usual scale, 50 ft. to 1 in., will 
 
 ^ • Archieological Reports,' vol. ii. p. 1 67, plate 65. 
 
Chap. III. MANIKYALA. 81 
 
 afford the means of comparison with other monuments ; and the 
 section and elevation of the base (Woodcut No. 23, next page) will 
 expkin its architectural details in so far as they can be made out. 
 
 21. View of Manikyala Tope. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 22. Restored Elevation of the l ope at Manikyala. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 On digging into this monument, General Ventura found three 
 separate deposits of relics, deposited at apparently equal distances 
 of 25 ft. from the surface of the finished monument and from each 
 other, and each apparently increasing in value or importance as it 
 
 G- 
 
82 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 descended. The first was at the base of a solid cubical mass of 
 
 PART OF FRONT ELCVATJON 
 
 CROSS SeCTION. 
 
 Elevation and Section of Portion of Basement of Tope at Maiiikyala. 
 
 squared masonry, and contained, inter alia, some Sassanian coins 
 and one of Yasoverma (a.d. 720), and one of 
 Abdullah ben Hassim, struck at Merv a.h. G6, 
 or A.D. 685.^ The second, at a depth of 50 ft., 
 contained no coins. The principal deposit, at 
 a depth of 75 ft., was on the exact level of the 
 procession-path outside. It consisted of a copper 
 vessel, in which was a relic casket in brass, 
 represented in the annexed woodcut (No. 24), 
 containing a smaller vessel of gold, filled with 
 a brown liquid, and with an inscription on the 
 lid which has not yet been fully deciphered, but 
 around it were one gold and six copper coins of 
 the Kanishka type. 
 
 If this were all, it would be easy to assert 
 that the original smaller tope, as shown in the 
 section (Woodcut No. 22), was erected by Kanishka, 
 or in his age, and that the square block on its 
 summit was the original tee, and that in the 8th 
 century an envelope 25 ft. in thickness, but 
 following the original form, was added to it, and with the extended 
 
 24. Kelic Casket, 
 Maiiikyala. 
 
 ' Thomas's ' Piinsep,' vol. i. p. 94. 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 MANIKYALA. 
 
 83 
 
 procession-path it assumed its present form, whicli is very much 
 lower than we w^ould otherwise expect from its age. 
 
 Against this theory, however, there is an ugly little fact. It is 
 said that a fragment ^ or, as it is printed, three Sassanian coins were 
 found at a depth of 64 ft. (69 ft. from the finished surface) ; and 
 if this were so, as the whole masonry was found perfectly solid and 
 undisturbed from the surface to the base, the whole monument must 
 be of the age of this coin. As engraved, however, it is such a frag- 
 ment ^ that it seems hardly sufficient to base much upon it. Unless 
 the General had discovered it himself, and noted it at the time, 
 it might so easily have been mislabelled or mixed up with other 
 Sassanian fragments belonging to the upper deposits that its position 
 may be wrongly described. If, howe^'er, there were three, this ex- 
 planation will not suffice. It may, however, be that the principal 
 deposit was accessible, as we know was sometimes the case^ in this 
 instance, at the bottom of an open well-hole or side gallery, before 
 the time of the rebuilding in the 8th century, and was then, and then 
 only, built up solid. If, however, neither of these explanations suffice, 
 the Manikyala tope is a mystery and a riddle I cannot unravel. If 
 we may disregard this deposit, its story seems self-evident as above 
 explained. But whatever its internal arrangements may have been, 
 it seems perfectly certain that its present external appearance is due 
 to a rebuilding in the early part of the 8th century. 
 
 General Cunningham identifies M. Court's tope as the Huta Murta, 
 one of the most celebrated topes in the province, erected to commemo- 
 rate Buddha, in a previous stage of existence, offering his body to 
 appease the hunger of a tiger, and— according to another version — of 
 its seven famishing cubs ; * but, as before remarked, nothing of its ex- 
 terior coating now^ remains. Unfortunately, the same is true of all the 
 other fifteen topes at this place, and, what is worse, of all the fifty or 
 fifty-five which can still be identified at Taxila. As General Cunning- 
 ham remarks, of all these sixty or seventy stupas there is not one, 
 excepting the great Manikyala tope, that retains in its original position 
 a single ^\Tought stone of its outer facing ; ^ none, consequently, are 
 entitled to a longer notice in a work wholly devoted to architecture. 
 
 ^ la the text it is certainly printed 
 "three" with a reference to 19 in the 
 plate 21 of vol. iii. The latter is un- 
 doubtedly a misprint, and I canuot help 
 believing the former is so also, as only 
 one fragment is figured ; and Prinsep 
 complains more than once of the state 
 of the French MS. from which he was 
 compiling his account. I observe that 
 Geneial Cunningham, in his volume just 
 received, adopts the same views. At 
 
 p. 7>*, vol. v., he says: " I have a strong 
 suspicion that General Ventura's record of 
 three Sassanian coins having been found 
 below deposit B may be erroneous." 
 
 2 ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. iii. plate 21, fig. 18. 
 
 ' ' Foe Koue Ki,' chap. xiii. 
 
 * ' Fa Hian,' Beal's translation, p. 32. 
 ' Hiouen Thsang,' vol. i, p. 89. 
 
 ^ 'Archaeological Keports,' vol. ii. p. 
 172, 
 
 G 2 
 
Si 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTLTlllO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 
 RAILS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Rails at Bharhut, Muttra, Sauclii, and Amravati. 
 
 It is only recently that our rapidly-increasing knowledge has enabled 
 us to appreciate the important part which Rails play in the history of 
 Buddhist architecture. The rail of the great Tope at Sanchi has, it 
 is true, been long known ; but it is the plainest of those yet dis- 
 covered, and without the inscriptions which are found on it, and the 
 gateways that were subsequently added to it, presents few features 
 to interest any one. There is a second rail at Sanchi which is more 
 ornamented and more interesting, but it has not yet been published 
 in such a manner as to render its features or its history intelligible. 
 The same is at least partially true of the great rail at Buddh 
 Gaya, though it is one of the oldest and finest of its kind. When, 
 however, the Amravati sculptures were brought to light and pieced 
 together,^ it was perceived that the rail might, and in that instance 
 did, become one of the most elaborate and ornamental features of 
 the style. Since then General Cunningham has found two or three 
 buried rails at Muttra, and his crowning discovery of the great rail 
 at Bharhut, has made it clear that this was the feature on which the 
 early Buddhist architects lavished all the resources of their art, and 
 from the study of which we may consequently expect to learn most. 
 
 The two oldest rails of which we have any knowledge in India 
 are those at Buddh Gaya and that recently discovered at Bharhut. 
 The former. General Cunningham thinks, cannot be of much later 
 date than Asoka.^ The latter, in his ' Memorandum,' ^ he ascribes to the 
 age of that monarch. These determinations he founds principally on 
 the form of the characters used in the inscriptions on them, which 
 certainly are nearly identical with those used on the lats. From 
 them, and the details of the sculptures, it is quite evident they 
 cannot be far removed in age from the dates so assigned to them. 
 
 ' ' Tree and Serpent Wordhip,' Preface ^ ' Memorandum,' dated 13tli April, 
 to the First Edition. j 1874, printed by the Bengal Goveru- 
 
 2 ' Archajological Reports,' vol. 1. p. 10 I ment, but not published. 
 
Chap. 1Y. 
 
 RAILS. 
 
 85 
 
 On the whole, however, I am inclined to believe that the Buddh 
 Gaya rail was really erected by Asoka, or during- his reign. At all 
 events, we know from the fifteenth chapter of the ' Mahawanso ' that 
 even if he did not worship this tree, he certainly reverenced it to 
 such an extent that when he sent his daughter Saiigamitta to aid in 
 the conversion of Ceylon to the true faith, he cut off and entrusted her 
 with a branch of this tree planted in a golden vessel. That tree was 
 replanted with infinite ceremony at Anuradhapura, and it, or its Uneal 
 descendant, remains the principal ?iume?i of the island to this day. 
 Hiouen Thsang tells us that Asoka built a small vihara to the east of 
 the tree on the spot where the present temple stands ;^ and nothing 
 is consequently more probable than he should have added this rail, 
 which is concentric with his vihara, but not with the tree. 
 
 There certainly is no inherent improbability that he should have 
 done so, for it seems hardly doubtful that this was the tree under 
 whose shade Sakya Muni attained "complete enlightenment," or, in 
 other words, reached Buddhahood ; and no spot consequently could be 
 considered more sacred in the eyes of a Buddhist, or was more likely 
 to be reverenced from the time forward. 
 
 The Bharhut rail, according to the inscription on it, was erected 
 by a Prince Yadha Pala, son of Raja Dhanabhuti, — a name we cannot 
 recognise in any list, but hardly could have been contemporary with 
 the all-powerful and all-pervading rule of Asoka, and must conse- 
 quently have been subsequent, as no such works were, so far as we 
 now know, erected in India before his day. The ultimate deter- 
 mination of the relative dates of these two monuments will depend 
 on a careful comparison of their sculptures, and for that the materials 
 do not exist in this country. I have, thanks to the kindness of 
 General Cunningham, a nearly complete set of photographs of the 
 Bharhut sculptures, but not one of the Buddh Gaya rail. It is true 
 the drawings by Major Kittoe, in the India House Library, are very 
 much better than those published by General Cunningham in his 
 report ; ^ but they do not suffice for this purpose. In so far, however, 
 as the evidence at present available enables us to judge, it seems 
 nearly certain that the Bharhut sculptures are half a century nearer 
 those of the gateways at Sanchi than those at Buddh Gaya are ; and 
 consequently we may, for the present at least, assum.e the Buddh 
 Gaya rail to be 250 B.C., that at Bharhut 200 B.C., and the gateways at 
 Sanchi to range from 10 to say 70 or 80 a.d.^ 
 
 The Buddh Gaya rail is a rectangle, measuring 131 ft. by 98 ft., 
 and is very much ruined. Its dimensions w^ere, indeed, only obtained 
 
 * * Voyage's dans les Contrees OcciJen- 
 tales,' vol. i. p. 465. 
 
 2 ' Arehaoological Reports,' vol. i. plates 
 
 8 to 11. 
 
 ' For tills last determination, see ' Tree 
 and Serpent Worship,' p. 09, et seqq. 
 
86 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 by excavation. The pillai*s are apparently only 5 ft. 11 in. in height, 
 and are generally ornamented with a semi-disc top and bottom, 
 containing a single figure, or a group of several. They have also 
 a central circular disc, with either an animal or bust in the centre of 
 a lotus. No part of the upper rail seems to have been recovered, and 
 none of the intermediate rails between the pillars are sculptured. 
 As the most ancient sculptured monument in India, it would be 
 extremely interesting to have this rail fully illustrated,^ not so much 
 for its artistic merit as because it is the earliest authentic monu- 
 ment representing manners and mythology in India. Its religion, as 
 might be expected, is principally Tree and Serpent worship, mingled 
 with veneration for dagobas, wheels, and Buddhist emblems. The 
 domestic scenes represent love-making, and drinking, — anything, in 
 fact, but Buddha or Buddhism, as we afterwards come to undei'stand 
 the term. 
 
 Bharhut. 
 
 Whatever interest may attach to the rail at Buddh Gaya, it is 
 surpassed ten times over by that of the newly-discovered rail at 
 
 * It is to be hoped that when Gen. 
 Cunningham publishes the volume he is 
 preparing on the Bharhut Tope, he will 
 add photographs of the pillars of this 
 rail. It would add immensely to the 
 value of his work if it atforded the means 
 of comparing the two. Some illustrations 
 of the sculpture from Major Kittoe's draw- 
 ings will be found in ' Tree and Serpent 
 Worship,' woodcuts 7, 20, 24. Two of 
 them are reproduced here, the first re- 
 
 25. Tree Worship : Buddh Gaya Rail. 
 
 presenting a man on his knees before an 
 altar worshipping a tree, while a flying 
 figure brings a garland to adorn it. The 
 other represents a relic casket, over which 
 a seven -headed Naga spreads his hood, 
 and over hiiu an umbrella of state. There 
 are, besides, two trees in a sacred en- 
 closure, and another casket with tiiree 
 umbrellas (Woodcuts Nns. 25, 26). They 
 are from drawings by Major Kittoe. 
 
 Relic Casket ; Buddh Gaya Rail. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RAIL AT BHARHUT. 
 
 87 
 
 Bharhut, which, taking it all in all, is perhaps the most interesting 
 monument — certainly in a historical point of view — known to exist 
 in India. The tope itself, which seems to have been 68 ft. in dia- 
 meter, has entirely disappeared, having been utilised by the natives 
 to build, their villages ; but about one-half of the rail, which was 
 partly thrown down and buried in the rubbish, still remains. 
 Originally it was 88 ft. in diameter, and consequently some 275 ft. 
 in length. It was divided into four quadrants by the four entrances, 
 each of which was guarded by statues 4J ft. high, carved in relief 
 in the corner pillai*s of Yakshas and Yaksliinis, and Xaga Rajas — 
 the representatives, in fact, of thos3 peoples who afterwards became 
 Buddhists. The eastern gateway only seems to have been adorned 
 with a Toran — or, as the Chinese would call it, a " Pailoo " — like 
 those at Sanchi. One pillar of it is shown in the following woodcut, 
 (No. 27), and sufficient fragments were found in the excavations to 
 enable General Cunningham to restore it with almost absolute cer- 
 tainty. From his restoration it appears to have been 22 ft. 6 in. in 
 height from the ground to the top of the chakra, or wheel, which 
 was the central emblem on the top of all, supported by a honeysuckle 
 ornament of great beauty. The beams had no human figm-es on 
 them, like those at Sanchi. The lower had a procession of elephants, 
 bringing offerings to a tree ; the middle beam, of lions similarly em- 
 ployed ; the upper beam has not been recovered, but the beam-ends 
 are ornamented with conventional crocodiles, and show elevations of 
 buildings so correctly drawn as to enable us to recognise all their 
 featm-es in the rock-cut edifices now existing. 
 
 The toran, most like this one, is that which surmounted the 
 southern entrance at Sanchi, which, for reasons given elsewhere,^ I 
 believe to be not only the oldest of the four found there, but to have 
 been erected in the first quarter of the first century of our era (a.d. 10 
 to 28). This one, however, is so much more wooden than even that 
 and constructively so inferior, that I would, on architectural grounds 
 alone, be inclined to affirm that it was at least a century older, and 
 see no reason why it should not be two centuries more ancient. The 
 age of the rail, however, does not depend on this determination, as 
 the toran may have been added af tei'wards. 
 
 The rail was apparently 9 ft. in height, including the coping, 
 and had three discs on intermediate rails. The inner side of the 
 upper rail was ornamented by a continuous series of bas-reliefs, 
 divided from each other by a beautiful flowing scroU. The inside 
 also of the discs was similarly ornamented, and some of the piUars 
 had bas-reliefs in thi-ee storeys on three of their sides. Altogether, 
 I fancy not less than one hundred separate bas-reliefs have been 
 
 ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' p. 99, et seqfi 
 
88 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. Book I. 
 
 recovered, all representing some scene or legend of the time, and 
 nearly all inscribed not only with the names of the principal persons 
 represented, but with the title of the jataka or legend, so that they 
 are easily recognised in the books now current in Buddhist countries. 
 
 27. Portion of Rail at Bharhut, as first uncovered. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 It is the only monument in India that is so inscribed, and it is this 
 that consequently gives it such value for the history not only of art 
 but of Buddhist mythology.^ 
 
 If this work professed to be a history of Indian art, including 
 sculpture, it would be necessary to illustrate this rail to a much 
 
 ^ When I wrote my work on ' Tree and 
 Serpent Worship ' nothing was practically 
 known as to the age of the jatakas, or 
 
 the early form in which they were repre- 
 sented ; much, therefore, that was then 
 advanced was, or at least appeared to 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 HAIL AT BHARHUT. 
 
 89 
 
 greater extent than is attempted ; but as architecturally it is hardly 
 more important than others, that task may well be left to its 
 discoverer. Meanwhile, however, it cannot be too strongly in- 
 sisted upon that the art here displayed is purely indigenous. There 
 is absolutely no trace of Egyptian influence. It is, indeed, in 
 every detail antagonistic to that art ; nor is there any trace of 
 classical art ; nor can it be affirmed that anything here exhibited 
 could have been borrowed directly from Babylonia or Assyria. The 
 capitals of the pillars do resemble somewhat those at Persepolis, 
 and the honeysuckle ornaments point in the same direction ; but, 
 barring that, the art, especially the figure-sculpture belonging to 
 the rail, seems an art elaborated on the spot by Indians, and by 
 Indians only.^ 
 
 Assumhig these facts to be as stated, they give rise to one or two 
 inferences which have an important bearing on our investigations. 
 First, the architecture of this rail, with its toran, are more essentially 
 wooden than even those at Sanchi, and, so far as it goes, tends to con- 
 firm the conclusion that, at the period they were erected, the style 
 was passing from wood to stone. On the other hand, however, the 
 sculpture is so sharp and clean, and every detail so well and so 
 cleverly expressed in the hard sandstone in which it is cut, that 
 it is equally evident the carvers were perfectly familiar with the 
 material they were using. It is far from being a first attempt. 
 They must have had chisels and tools quite equal to carving the 
 hardest stone, and must have been perfectly familiar with their use. 
 How long it may have taken them to acquire this degree of perfection 
 in stone carving, it is of course impossible to guess, without further 
 data ; but it must have been centuries. Though, therefore, we may 
 despair of finding any architectural buildings older than the time of 
 Asoka, it is by no means improbable that we may find images or bas- 
 reliefs, and inscriptions of a much earlier date, and for the history of 
 India and her arts they would be as usefill as the larger examples. 
 They, like this rail, are probably buried under some neglected mound 
 or the ruins of some forsaken city, and will only be recovered by 
 excavation or by accident. 
 
 others to be, mere guess work, or daring 
 speculation. It is, consequently, no small 
 satisfaction to me to find that this sub- 
 sequent discovery of a monument 200 
 years earlier does not force me to unsay 
 a single word I then said. On the con- 
 trary, everything I then advanced is 
 confirmed, and these inscriptions render 
 certain what before their discovery was 
 necessarily sometimes deficient in proof. 
 ^ The following outline (Woodcut No. 
 
 28, on the next page) of one of the bas- 
 reliefs on a pillar at Bharhut may serve 
 to convey an idea of the ttyle of art 
 and of the quaint way in which the 
 stories are there told. On tlie left, a 
 king with a five-headed snake-hood is 
 represented, kneeling before an altar 
 strewn with flowers, behind which is a 
 tree {Sirisa Accasia?) hung with garlands. 
 Behind him is an inscription to this 
 effect, "Erapatra tiie Naga Raja worships 
 
90 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. Book I. 
 
 For the present we must be content with the knowledge, that we 
 now know perfectly what the state of the arts was in India when the 
 
 the Divinity (Bliaj^avat)." Above him is 
 the great fivc-heaJed Naga himself, rising 
 from a lake. To its right a man ia the 
 robes of a priest standing up to his 
 midvlle in the water, and above the Naga 
 a female genius, apparently floating in 
 the air. Belowis another Naga Raja, with 
 his quintuple snake- hood, and behind 
 him two females with a single snake 
 at the back of their heads — an arrange- 
 ment which is universal in all Naga 
 sculpture. They are standing up to their 
 waists in water. If we may depend on 
 the inscription below him, this is Era- 
 patra twice over, and the females Lis 
 
 two wives. I should, however, rather be 
 , inclined to fancy there were two Naga 
 Rajas represented with their two wives. 
 
 This bas-relief is further interesting 
 as being an epitome of my work on 
 ' Tree and Serpent Worship.' As ex- 
 pressing in the shortest possible com- 
 pa>8 ueaily all tliat is said there at 
 length, it will also serve to explain 
 much tliat is advanced in the following 
 
 j 
 
 I pages. As it is 200 years older than 
 : anything that was known when that 
 
 book was written, it is a confirmation 
 i of its theories, as satisfactory as it is 
 
 complete. 
 
 28. 
 
 Tree ami SiTpeut Worship at Bharhut. (From a Photograph.) 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 MUTTRA. 
 
 91 
 
 Greeks first visited it. Neither the Buddh Gaja nor the Bharhut 
 rails were, it is true, in existence in Alexander's time ; but both were 
 erected within the limits of the century in which Megasthenes visited 
 the country, as ambassador from Seleucus, and it is principally from 
 him that we know what India was at that time. If he did not see 
 these monuments he must have seen others like them, and at all events 
 saw carvings executed in the same style, and wooden chaityas and 
 temples similar to those depicted in these sculptures. But one of the 
 curious points they bring out is, that the religious observances he 
 witnessed at the courts of the Brahmanical king, Chandragupta, are 
 not those he would have witnessad had he been deputed to his 
 Buddhist grandson the great Asoka. There, as everywhere else at 
 this age, everything is Buddhist, but it is Buddhism without Buddha. 
 He nowhere appears, either as a heavenly person to be worshipped, 
 or even as an ascetic. The nearest indication of his presence is in a 
 scene where Ajatasatra — the king in whose reign he attained Nirvana — 
 kneels before an altar in front of which are impressions of his feet. 
 His feet, too, seem impressed on the step of the triple ladder, by 
 which he descended from Heaven at Sankissa ; Maya's dream, and 
 the descent of the white Elephant can be recognised, and other 
 indications sufficient to convince an expert that Buddhism is the 
 religion indicated. But, as at Sanchi, by far the most numerous 
 objects to which worship is addressed in these sculptures, are trees, 
 one of which, the inscription tells us, is the Bodhi-tree of Sakya 
 Muni. Besides this, the Bo-trees of six or seven of his predecessors 
 are represented in these sculptures, and both by their foliage and their 
 inscriptions we can can easily recognise them as those known at the 
 present day as belonging to these previous Buddhas.^ 
 
 Naga people, and kings with their five-headed serpent-hoods are 
 common ; but only one instance has yet been brought to light in 
 which the serpent can be said to be worshipped. Making love and 
 drinking are not represented here as at Sanchi — nor are females 
 represented nude as they are at Muttra. All are decently clothed, 
 from the waist downwards at least, and altogether the manne s and 
 customs at Bharhut are as much purer ;as the art is better than 
 it is in the more modern example at Sanchi. 
 
 MUTTRA. 
 
 When excavating at Muttra, General Cunningham found several 
 pillars of a rail, which, judging from the style, is most probably of 
 about the same age as that at Bharhut, or it may be a little more 
 modern, but still certainly anterior to the Christian Era. The pillars. 
 
 ' ' Maliuwauso,' Introduction, p. 32. 
 
92 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Bock I. 
 
 however, are only 4J ft. high, and no trace of the top rail nor of the 
 intermediate discs has been found. Each pillar is adorned by a figure 
 of a naked female in high relief, singularly well executed, richly 
 adorned with necklaces and bangles, and a bead belt or truss round 
 their middles. Each stands on a crouching dwarf, and above each, 
 in a separate compartment, are tbe busts of two figures, a male and 
 female, on a somewhat smaller scale, either making violent love to 
 each other, or drinking something stronger than water.^ 
 
 Though the sculptures at Sanchi and Cuttack have made us 
 familiar with some strange scenes, of what might be supposed an 
 anti-Buddhistical tendency, this rail can hardly be Buddhist. We 
 do not, indeed, know if it was straight or circular, or to what class of 
 building it was attached. If part of a palace, it would be unobjection- 
 able. But if it belonged to a temple, it ought to have been dedi- 
 cated to Krishna, not to Buddha. It is not, indeed, impossible that 
 a form of Vishnuism may have co-existed with Buddhism in the 
 neighbourhood of Bindrabun, even at this early age. But these are 
 problems, the existence of which is only just dawning upon us, and 
 which cannot be investigated in a work like the present. 
 
 Sanchi. 
 
 Though the rails surrounding the topes at Sanchi are not, in them- 
 selves, so interesting as those at Buddh Gaya and Bharhut, still they 
 are useful in exhibiting the various steps by which the modes of 
 decorating rails were arrived at, and the torans or gateways of the 
 
 great rail aro quite unequalled 
 by any other examples known 
 to exist in India. The rail that 
 suriounds the great tope may 
 be described as a circular en- 
 closure IttO ft. in diameter, but 
 not quite regular, being elliptical 
 on one side, to admit of the ramp 
 or stairs leading to the berm or 
 procession-path surrounding the 
 monument. As will be seen from 
 the annexed woodcut (No. 29), it 
 consists of octagonal pillars 8 ft. 
 These are joined together at the 
 top by a rail 2 ft. 3 in. deep, held in its position by a tenon cut 
 
 i JzO .-t 2 3 a S 6 78 S lOftet 
 
 29. Rail at Sanchi. (From a Drawing by 
 Gen. Cunningham.) 
 
 in height, and spaced 2 ft. apart. 
 
 1 Outlines of thcfcG sculptures are given graphs of the v liole, which represent 
 in General Cunningham's third volume what is omitted in the lithographs, 
 of his ' Reports,' pLite 6. I have photo- \ 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 EAIL AT SANCHI. 
 
 93 
 
 on the top of the pillars, as at Stoneheiige ; between the pillars are 
 three intermediate rails, which are slipped into lens-shaped holes, 
 on either side, the whole showing how essentially wooden the con- 
 straction is. The pillars, for instance, could not have been put up 
 first, and the rails added afterwards. They must have been inserted 
 into the right or left hand posts, and supported while the next pillar 
 was pushed laterally, so as to take their ends, and when the top rail 
 was shut dowTi the whole became mortised together as a piece of car- 
 pantiT, but not as any 
 stone-work was done, 
 either before or after- 
 wards. 
 
 The next stage in 
 rail design is exempli- 
 fied in that of Xo. 2 
 Tope, Sanchi (Woodcut 
 No. 30) ; there circular 
 discs are added in the 
 centre of each pillar, 
 and semicircular plates 
 at top and bottom. In 
 carpentiy the circular 
 ones would represent a 
 great nail meant to 
 keep the centre bar in 
 its place ; the half discs 
 top and bottom, metal 
 plates to strengthen the 
 junctions — and this it seems most probably may really have been the 
 origin of these forms. 
 
 If from this we attempt to follow the progi*ess made in the 
 ornamentation of these rails, it seems to have been arrived at by 
 
 31. Representation of Rail. (From a Bas-relief at Amravati.) 
 
 placing a circular disc in each of the intermediate rails, as shown in 
 the woodcut (No. 31), copied from a representation of the outer face 
 
 30. Rail, Xo. 2 Tope, S;iTiclii. 
 
 (From a Drawing by Colonel Maisey.) 
 
94 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 of the Amravati rail, carved upon it. In the actual rail the pillars 
 are proportionally taller and the spaces somewhat wider, but in 
 all other respects it is the same — it has the same zoophorus below, 
 and the same conventional figures bearing a roll above, both which 
 features are met with almost everywhere. 
 
 A fourth stage was reached in that shown in the next woodcut 
 (No. 32), from a representation of a rail in the Gautamiputra cave 
 at Nassick, a.d. 312 to 333, where there are three full discs on the 
 
 Q Q Q D 
 
 32. Rail in Gautamiputra Cave, Nassick. 
 
 pillars as well as on the rails, and no doubt other variations may 
 yet be found ; but these are sufficient to show how the discs were 
 multiplied till the pillars almost become evanescent quantities in 
 the composition. 
 
 The greatest innovation, however, that took place, was the substi- 
 tution of figure-sculpture for the lotus or water leaves of the discs, 
 if that can be called an innovation, which certainly took place in the 
 wooden age of architecture, before it was thought of translating these 
 things into stone. The earliest rails we know, those at Buddh Gaya 
 and Bharhut, show these changes already completed in the manner 
 above described. The plainness of the rail, or the absence of figure- 
 sculpture, is consequently no test of its greater or less antiquity, 
 though the extreme multiplication of discs, as shown in the last 
 example, seems only to ha^e taken place just before their dis- 
 continuance. 
 
 To return, however, from this digression. The rail that surrounds 
 the great tope at Sanchi was probably commenced immediately after 
 its erection, which, as explained above, was probably in Asoka's time, 
 B.C. 250 ; but as each rail, as shown by the inscription on it, was the 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RAIL AT SANCH[. 
 
 95 
 
 gift of a different individual/ it may have taken 100 or 150 years to 
 erect. The age of the torans is more easily ascertained. There is 
 an inscription on the south gateway, which is certainly integral, 
 which states that the gateway was erected during the reign of a Sat 
 Kami king, and it is nearly certain that this applies to a king of 
 that name who reigned a.d. 10 to 28. As this gateway is certainly 
 the oldest of the four, it gives us a starting-point from which to 
 determine the age of the others. The next that was erected was 
 the northern. That was followed by the eastern — the one of which 
 there is a cast at South Kensington — and the last erected was the 
 western. The style and details of all those show a succession and a 
 progress that could hardly have taken place in less than a century, 
 and, with other reasons, enable us to assert without much hesitation, 
 that the four gateways were added to the rail of the great tope during 
 the first century of the Christian Era, and their execution spread 
 pretty evenly over that period.^ The northern gateway is shown in 
 the general view of the building (Woodcut No. 10), but more in 
 detail in the cut (No. 33) on the following page. 
 
 In design and dimensions these four gateways are all very similar 
 to one another. The northern is the finest,^ as well as somewhat 
 larger than the others. Its pillars, to the underside of the lower 
 beam, measure 18 ft., including the elephant capitals, and the total 
 height to the top of the emblem is 35 ft. The extreme width across 
 the lower beam is 20 ft. The other gateways are somewhat less in 
 dimensions, the eastern being only 33 ft. in height. The other two 
 having fallen, it is not easy to be sure what their exact dimensions 
 may have been while standing. 
 
 All these four gateways, or torans as they are properly called, 
 were covered with the most elaborate sculptures both in front and 
 rear — wherever, in fact, their surface was not hidden by being 
 attached to the rail behind them. Generally the sculptures represent 
 scenes from the life of Buddha when he was the Prince Siddharta, 
 rarely, if ever, after he became an ascetic, and nowhere is he repre- 
 sented in the conventional forms either standing or seated cross-legged, 
 which afterwards became universal. In addition to these are scenes 
 from the jatakas or legends, narrating events or actions that took place 
 during the five hundred births through which Sakya Muni had passed 
 before he became so purified as to reach perfect Buddhahood. One of 
 
 ^ General Cunningham collected and i et seqq. It is consequently not necessary 
 
 translated 196 inscriptions from this tope, j to repeat them here, 
 
 which will be found in his work on the ^ It Is very much to be regretted tliat 
 
 BhilsaTupe8,p. 235, e^segg-., plates 16-19. when Lieut. Cole had the opportunity he 
 
 - The details from whicli these de- j did not take a cast of this one instead of 
 
 terminations are arrived at will be found i the eastern. It is far more complete, and 
 
 in ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' p. 98, | its sculptures more interesting. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RAIL AT SANCHF. 
 
 97 
 
 these, the Wessantara, or "alms-giving Jataka," occupies the whole 
 of the lower beam of the northern gateway, and reproduces all the 
 events of that wonderful tale exactly as it is narrated in Ceylonese 
 books at the present day. 
 Besides these historical 
 scenes, the w^orship of 
 trees is represented at 
 least seventy-six times ; of 
 dagobas or relic shrines, 
 thirty-eight times ; of the 
 chakra, or w^heel, the em- 
 blem of Dharma — the law 
 — ten times ; and of Devi 
 or Sri, the goddess, who 
 afterwards, in the Hindu 
 Pantheon, became the con- 
 sort of Yishnu, ten times. 
 The trisul or trident em- 
 blem which crowns the 
 gateways may be, and I 
 am inclined to believe 
 does, represent Buddha 
 himself. On the left-hand 
 pillar of the north gate- 
 way it crowns a pillar, 
 hung with wreaths and 
 emblems, at the bottom of 
 which are the sacred feet 
 (Woodcut No. 34). The 
 whole looking like a 
 mystic emblem of a divi- 
 nity, it was forbidden to 
 represent it under a human 
 form. The corresponding 
 face of the opposite pillar 
 is adorned with architec- 
 tural scrolls, wholly with- 
 out any esoteric meaning 
 so far as can be detected, 
 but of great beauty of 
 
 Bas-relief on left-hand Pillar, (Iesi<^"n (Woodcut No. 35). Ornament on right-hand Pillar 
 Northern Gateway. to V 'J' nvr^vfUom nntow^v 
 
 Northern Gateway. 
 
 Other sculptures re- 
 present sieges and fighting, and consequent triumphs, but, so far 
 as can be seen, for the acquisition of relics or subjects connected 
 with the faith. Othei'S portray men and women eating and drinking 
 
 H 
 
08 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 lioOK ]. 
 
 and making love, and otherwise occupied, in a manner as unlike any- 
 thing we have hitherto been accustomed to connect with Buddhism 
 as can well be imagined. Be this as it may, the sculptures of these 
 gateways form a perfect picture Bible of Buddhism as it existed in 
 India in the first century of the Christian Era, and as such are as 
 important historically as they are interesting artistically.^ 
 
 The small tope (No. 3), on the same platform as the great tope 
 at Sanchi, was surrounded by a rail, which has now almost entirely 
 disappeared. It had, however, one toran, the pillars and one beam 
 of which are still standing. It is only about half the size of those 
 of the great tope, measuring about 17 ft. to the top of the upper 
 beam, and 13 ft. across its lower beam. It is apparently somewhat 
 more modern than the great gateways, and its sculptures seem to 
 have reference to the acts of Sariputra and Moggalana, whose relics, 
 as above mentioned, were deposited in its womb. 
 
 This tope was only 40 ft. in diameter, which is about the same 
 dimension as No. 2 Tope, containing the relics of the ten apostles 
 who took part in the third convocation under Asoka, and afterwards 
 in the diffusion of the Buddhist religion in the countries bordering on 
 India. 
 
 As above pointed out, the rails at Buddh Gaya and Bharhut afford 
 a similar picture of Buddhism at a time from two to three centuries 
 earlier. At first sight the difference is not so striking as might be 
 expected, but on a closer examination it is only too evident that both 
 the art and the morals had degenerated during the interval. There is 
 a precision and a sharpness about the Bharhut sculptures which is 
 not found here, and drinking and love-making do not occur in the 
 earlier sculptures — they do, however, occur at Buddh Gaya — to any- 
 thing like the extent they do at Sanchi. There is no instance at 
 Bharhut of any figure entirely nude ; at Sanchi nudity among the 
 females is rather the rule than the exception. The objects of worship 
 are nearly the same in both instances, but are better expressed in the 
 earlier than in the later examples. Till, however, the Bharhut 
 sculptures are published in the same detail as those of Sanchi, it is 
 hardly fair to insist too strongly on any comparison that may be 
 instituted between them. I believe I know nearly all, but till the 
 publication of General Cunningham's work the public will not have 
 the same advantage. 
 
 Before leaving these torans, it may be well to draw attention 
 again to the fact of their being, even more evidently than the rails, 
 so little removed from the wooden originals out of which they were 
 
 ^ For details of these sculptures and 
 references, I must refer the reader to my 
 work on ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' 
 where they are all represented and 
 
 described in great detail. Sculptures 
 do not, strictly speaking, belong to this 
 work, and, except for historical purposes, 
 are not generally alluded to. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RAIL AT AMRAYATI, 
 
 99 
 
 elaborated. No one can look at them, however carelessly, without 
 perceiving that their forms are such as a carpenter would imagine, 
 and could construct, but which could not be invented by any process 
 of stone or brick masonry with wliich we are familiar. The real 
 wonder is that, when the new fashion was introduced of repeating 
 in stone what had previously been executed only in wood, any one 
 had the hardihood to attempt such an erection in stone ; and still 
 more wonderful is it that, having been done, three of them should 
 have stood during eighteen centuries, till one was knocked down by 
 some clumsy Englishmen, and that only one — the earliest, and con- 
 sequently the slightest and most wooden — should have fallen from 
 natm-al causes. 
 
 Although these Sanchi torans are not the earliest specimens of 
 their class executed wholly in stone, neither are they the last. We 
 have, it is true, no means of knowing whether those represented 
 at Amravati^ were in stone or in wood, but, from their different 
 appearances, some of them most probably were in the more permanent 
 material. At all events, in China and Japan their descendants are 
 counted by thousands. The pailoos in the former country, and the 
 toris in the latter, are copies more or less coiTect of these Sanchi 
 gateways, and like their Indian prototypes are sometimes in stone, 
 sometimes in wood, and frequently compounded of both materials, in 
 varying proportions. What is still more curious, a toran with five 
 bai-s was erected in front of the Temple at Jerusalem, to bear the 
 sacred golden vine, some forty years before these Sanchi examples. 
 It, however, was partly in wood, partly in stone, and was erected to 
 replace one that adorned Solomon's Temple, which was wholly in 
 bronze, and supported by the celebrated pillars Jachin and Boaz.^ 
 
 AMRAYATI. 
 
 Although the rail at Bharhut is the most interesting and important 
 in India in an historical sense, it is far from being equal to that at 
 Ami-avati, either in elaboration or in artistic merit. Indeed, in these 
 respects, the Amravati rail is probably the most remarkable monu- 
 ment in India. In the first place it is more than twice the dimensions 
 of the rail at Bharhut, the great rail being 195 ft. in diameter, the 
 inner 165 ft., or almost exactly twice the dimensions of that at 
 Bharhut ; between these two was the procession-path, which in the 
 
 * They must certainly have been very 
 common in India, for, though only one 
 representation of them has been detected 
 among the sculptures at Sanchi (' Tree 
 and Serpent Worship,' plate 27, fig. 2), 
 at least ten representatiom? of them 
 are found at Amravati, plates 59 (lig. 2), 
 
 60 (fig. 1), 63 (fig. 3), 64 (fig. 1), 69, 83 
 (fig. 2), 85 (figs. 1 and 2), 96 (fig. 3), 
 98 (fig. 2), and no doubt many more 
 may yet be found. 
 
 2 ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' Appen- 
 dix I. p. 270. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 earlier examples was on the tope itself. Externally, the total height 
 of the great rail was about 14 ft. ;- internally, it was 2 ft. less, while 
 the inner rail was solid, and only 6 ft. in height. 
 
 The external appearance of the great -rail may be judged of from 
 the annexed woodcut (No. 36), representing a small section of it. The 
 lower part, or plinth, was ornamented by a frieze of animals and 
 boys, generally in ludicrous and comic attitudes. The pillars, as usual. 
 
 36. External Elevation of Great Rail at Amravati. 
 
 were octagonal, ornamented with full discs in the centre, and half 
 discs top and bottom, between which were figure sculptures of more or 
 less importance. On the three rails were full discs, all most elabo- 
 rately carved, and all different. Above runs the usual undulating roll 
 moulding, which was universal in all ages,^ but is here richly inter- 
 spersed with figures and emblems. The inside of the rail was very 
 
 ^ In Burmah at the present day a roll manner as shown here, on each side of 
 
 preciselysimilarto this, formed of coloured the procession that accompanies a high 
 
 muslin, distended by light bamboo hoops, priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary to 
 
 is borne on men's shoulders in the same the grave. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RAIL AT AMKAVATL 
 
 101 
 
 much more richly ornamented than the outside shown in the wood- 
 cut ; all the central range of discs, both on the pillars and on the 
 
 rails, being carved with figured 
 subjects, generally of very great 
 elaboration and beauty of detail, 
 and the upper rail was one con- 
 tinuous bas-relief upwards of 600 
 ft. in length. At the returns of 
 the gateways another system was 
 
 37. Angle pillar at Amravati. 
 
 38. Slab from Inner Rail. Amarvati. 
 
 adopted, as shown in the above woodcut (No. 37). The pHlars being 
 narrower, and the discs smaller, the principal sculpture was on the 
 intermediate space : in this instance a king on his throne receives 
 a messenger, while his army in front defends the walls ; lower down 
 
102 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 the infantry, cavalry, and elephants sally forth in battle array, while 
 one of the enemy sues for peace, which is probably the information 
 being communicated to the king. 
 
 The inner rail, though lower, was even more richly ornamented 
 than the great rail, generally with figures of dagobas — apparently 
 twelve in each quadrant — most elaborately carved with scenes from 
 the life of Buddha or from legends. One of these dagobas has 
 already been given (Woodcut No. 17). Between these were pillars 
 and slabs ornamented, either as shown in Woodcuts Nos. 38 and 89, or 
 with either Buddhist designs or emblems, but all as rich, at least, as 
 
 these ; the whole making up a 
 series of pictures of Buddhism, 
 as it was understood in the 4th 
 and 5th centuries, unsurpassed by 
 anything now known to exist in 
 India. The slab represented in 
 Woodcut No. 38 (p. 101), though 
 now much ruined, is interesting 
 as showing the three great objects 
 of Buddhist worship at once. At 
 the top is the dagoba with its rail, 
 but with the five-headed Naga 
 in the place usually occupied by 
 Buddha. In the central compart- 
 ment is the chakra or wheel, now 
 generally acknowledged to be the 
 emblem of Dharma, the second 
 member of the Buddhist Trinity ; 
 below that the tree, possibly re- 
 presenting Sanga or the congrega- 
 tion ; and in front of all a throne, 
 on which is placed what I believe 
 to be a relic, wrapt up in a silken 
 cloth. 
 
 This combination is repeated again and again in these sculptures, 
 and may be almost designated as the shorter Buddhist catechism, or 
 rather the confession of faith, Buddha, Dharma, Sanga. The last 
 woodcut (No. 39) is also interesting, as showing, besides the three 
 emblems, the form of pillars with its double animal capitals so common 
 in structures of this and an earlier age. 
 
 The age of these rails does not seem doubtful. ^ 
 
 Diigoba (from a Slab), Amravati. 
 
 The outer or 
 
 * For the reasons of the following de- 
 termination and other particulars, the 
 reader is referred to my work on ' Tree 
 
 are set out at length. A short account 
 of the tope will also be found in the 
 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 
 
 and Serpent Worship,' where the whole vol. iii. (N. S.) p. 132, ef seqq. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 KAIL AT AMRAVATI. 
 
 103 
 
 great rail seems to have been commenced about a.d. 819, at the time 
 when the tooth relic paid this place a visit on its way from Pari to 
 Ceylon, and its erection may have occupied the whole of the rest of 
 that century. The inner rail is more modern, and seems to have been 
 begun about a.d. 400, and, with some other detached fragments, carry 
 the history of the monument down, it may be, to 500. At the same 
 time it is clear that an older monument existed on the spot. The 
 fragments that exist of the central tope are certainly of an earlier 
 age, and some of the slabs of the inner rail exhibit sculptures of a 
 much earlier date on their backs. It seems as if they had belonged 
 to some disused earlier building, and been re-worked when fitted to their 
 new places. 
 
 When Hiouen Thsang visited this place in the year 639 it had 
 already been deserted for more than a century, but he speaks of its 
 magnificence and the beauty of its site in more glowing terms than 
 he applies to almost any other monument in India. Among other 
 expressions he uses one not easily understood at first sight, for he 
 says, " It was ornamented with all the magnificence of the palaces of 
 Bactria " ^ (Tahia). Now, however, that we know what the native art 
 of India was from the sculptures at Bharhut and Sanchi, and as we 
 also know nearly what the art of Bactria was from those recently 
 dug up near Peshawur, especially at Jamalgiri, we see at once that 
 it was by a marriage of these two arts that the Amravati school of 
 sculpture was produced, but with a stronger classical influence than 
 anything of its kind found elsewhere in India. It is now also 
 tolerably evident that the existence of so splendid a Buddhist estab- 
 lishment so far south must have been due to the fact of the mouths of 
 the Kistnah and Godavery being ports of departure from which the 
 Buddhists of the north-west and west of India, in early times, conquered 
 or colonised Pegu and Cambodia, and eventually the island of Java. 
 
 All this will be clearer as we proceed. Meanwhile it seems pro- 
 bable that with this, which is certainly the most splendid specimen 
 of its class, we must conclude our history of Buddhist rails. No later 
 example is known to exist ; and the Gandhara topes, which generally 
 seem to be of this age or later, have all their rails attached to their 
 sides in the shape of a row of pilasters. If they had any figured illus- 
 trations, they must have been in the form of paintings on plaster on 
 the panels between the pilasters. This, indeed, was probably the 
 mode in which they were adorned, for it certainly was not with sculp- 
 tures, but we cannot understand any Buddhist monument existing 
 anywhere, without the jatakas or legends being portrayed on its Avails 
 in some shape or other. 
 
 At Sarnath all reminiscences of a rail had disappeared, and a new 
 
 ' ' Histoire de Hiouen Thsang,' trachiite par Julien, vol. i. p. 188. 
 
104 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Rook I. 
 
 mode of ornamentation introduced, which bore no resemblance to 
 anything found on the earlier topes. 
 
 Although, therefore, our history of the rails may finish about 
 A.D. 500, it by no means follows that many examples may not yet be 
 brought to light belonging to the seven and a half centuries that 
 elapsed between that date and the age of Asoka. As they all 
 certainly were sculptured to a greater or less extent, when they are 
 examined and published we may hope to have an ancient pictorial 
 history of India for those ages nearly as complete as that possessed 
 by any other country in the world. At present, however, we only 
 know of ten or twelve examples, but they are so easily thrown down 
 and buried that Ave may hope to find many more whenever they are 
 looked for, and from them to learn the whole story of Buddhist art. 
 
 Note. — The central crowuiug orna- 
 ment in Woodcut No. 33, page 96, is a 
 chakra or wheel in the centre, with trisul 
 emblems right and left. On the upper 
 beam, five dagobas and two trees are 
 worshipped ; on the intermediate blocks, 
 Sri and a chakra ; on the middle beam 
 are seven sacred trees, with altars ; on 
 the intermediate blocks, Sri and the 
 
 chakra again. The lower beam is wholly 
 occupied by the early scenes in the 
 Wessantara jataka, which is continued 
 in the rear. The subjects on the pillars 
 have all been described in ' Tree and 
 Serpent Worship,' but are on too small 
 a scale to be distinguishable in the 
 woodcut. 
 
 40. Trisul Emblem. (From a sculpture at 
 Amravati.) 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CHAITYA HALLS. 
 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHAITYA HALLS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Beliar Caves — Western Chaitya Halls, &c. 
 
 Although, if looked at from a merely artistic point of view, it will pro- 
 bably be found that the rails are the most interesting Buddhist remains 
 that have come down to our time, still, in an historical or architectural 
 sense, they are certainly surpassed by the chaitya halls. These are 
 the temples of the religion, properly so called, and the exact counter- 
 part of the churches of the Christians, not only in form, but in use. 
 
 Some twenty or thirty of these are known still to exist in a state 
 of greater or less preservation, but, with one exception, all cut in the 
 rock. In so far as the interior is concerned this is of little or no 
 consequence, but it prevents our being able to judge of their external 
 form or effect,^ and, what is perhaps worse, it hides from us entirely 
 the mode in which their roofs were constructed. We know that they 
 were formed with semicircular ribs of timber, and it 
 is also nearly certain that on these ribs planks in two 
 or three thicknesses were laid, but we cannot even guess 
 what covered the planks externally. It could hardly 
 have been metal, or any kind of felt, and one is unwil- 
 ling to believe that they were thatched with grass, 
 though I confess, as the evidence at present stands, this 
 seems to me the most probable suggestion.^ 
 
 The only structural one is at Sanchi, and is shown 
 in plan in the accompanying woodcut (No. 41). It does 
 not however, suffice to show us how the roofs of the 
 aisles were supported externally. What it does show, 
 which the caves do not, is that when the aisle which surrounded 
 
 £3 Ei:'."_'.:-.iD □ 
 
 41. Plan uf Chaitya 
 
 Hall, Sanclii. 
 Scale 30 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 ^ It is probable that a tolerably correct 
 idea of the general exterior appearance of 
 the buildings from wbich these caves were 
 copied may be obtained from the Baths 
 (as they are called) of Mahavellipore 
 (described further on, p. 328). These 
 are monuments of a later date, and 
 belonging to a different religion, but 
 they correspond so nearly in all their 
 parts with the temples and monasteries 
 
 now under consideration, that we cannot 
 doubt their being, in most respects, close 
 copies of them. Curiously enough, the 
 best illustrations of some of them are to 
 be found among tlie unpublished sculp- 
 tures of the Bharhut Tope. 
 
 2 The only buildings in India I know 
 of that gave the least hint of the ex- 
 ternal forms or construction of these 
 halls are the huts of the Todas on the 
 
106 
 
 BUDDHIST AKCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the apse could be lighted from the exterior, the apse was carried 
 up solid. In all the caves the pillars surrounding the dagoba are 
 different from and plainer than those of the nave. They are, in fact, 
 kept as subdued as possible, as if it was thought they had no business 
 there, but Avere necessary to admit light into the circumambient aisle 
 of the apse. 
 
 As almost all our information regarding these chaityas, as well as 
 the viharas, which form the next group to be described, is derived 
 from the rock-cut examples in Western India, it would be convenient, 
 if it were possible, to present something like a statistical account of 
 the number and distribution of the groups of caves found there. The 
 descriptions hitherto published do not, however, as yet admit of this. 
 
 I have myself visited and described all the most important of 
 them ;^ and in an interesting paper, communicated to the Bombay 
 branch of the Asiatic Society by the Eev. Dr. Wilson, he enumerated 
 thirty-seven different groups of caves, more or less known to 
 Europeans.^ This number is exclusive of those in Bengal and Madras, 
 and new ones are daily being discovered ; we may therefore fairly 
 assume that certainly more than forty, and probably nearly fifty, 
 groups of caves exist in India Proper. 
 
 Some of these groups contain as many as 100 different and distinct 
 excavations, many not more than ten or a dozen ; but altogether I feel 
 convinced that not less than 1000 distinct specimens are to be found. 
 Of these probably 100 may be of Brahmanical or Jaina origin ; the 
 remaining 900 are Buddhist, either monasteries or temples, the former 
 being incomparably the more numerous class ; for of the latter not 
 more than twenty or thirty are known to exist. This difference arose, 
 no doubt, from the greater number of the viharas being grouped 
 around structural topes, as is always the case in Afghanistan and 
 Ceylon ; and, consequently, they did not require any rock-cut place 
 of worship while possessed of the more usual and appropriate edifice. 
 
 The facades of the caves are generally perfect, and form an excep- 
 tion to what has been said of our ignorance of the external appearance 
 of Indian temples and monasteries, since they are executed in the rock 
 
 Nilj-iii Hills. In a work recently pub- 
 lished by the late Mr. Breeks, of the 
 Madras Civil Service, he gives two photo- 
 graphs of these dwellings, plates 8 and 
 9. Their roofs have precisely the same 
 elliptical forms as the chaitya with the 
 ridge, giving the ogee form externally, 
 and altogether, whether by accident or 
 design, they are miniature chaitya halls. 
 Externally they are covered with short 
 thatch, neatly laid on. Such forms may 
 
 have existed in Indi.i two thousand years 
 ago, and may have given rise to the 
 peculiarities of the chaitya halls, but it 
 is, of course, impossible to prove it. 
 
 ' ' lUusI rations of the Eock-cut Temples 
 of India,' 1 vol., text 8vo., with folio plates. 
 Weale, London, 1845. 
 
 2 ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. iii. pt. ii. 
 p. 36, et 8eqq., and vol. iv. p. 340, et seqq. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CHAITYA HALLS. 
 
 107 
 
 with all the detail that could have graced the buildings of which 
 they are copies. In the investigation of these objects, the perfect im- 
 mutability of a temple once hewn out of the living rock is a very 
 important advantage. No repair can add to, or indeed scarcely alter, 
 the general features of what is once so executed ; and there can be no 
 doubt that we see them now, in all essentials, exactly as originally 
 designed. This advantage will be easily appreciated by any one who 
 has tried to grope for the evidence of a date in the design, afforded 
 by our much-altered and often reconstructed cathedrals of the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 The geographical distribution of the caves is somewhat singular, 
 more than nine-tenths of those now known being found within the 
 limits of the Bombay Presidency. The remainder consist of two groups 
 in Bengal ; those of Behar and Cuttack, neither of which is important 
 in extent ; one only is known to exist in Madras, that of Mahavel- 
 lipore ; and two or three insignificant groups, which have been traced 
 in Afghanistan and the Punjab. 
 
 At one time some were inclined to connect this remarkable local 
 distribution with the comparative proximity of the west side of India to 
 the rock-cutting Egyptians and Ethiopians. But the coincidence can 
 be more simply accounted for by the existence in both countries of 
 rocks perfectly adapted to such works. The great cave district of 
 western India is composed of horizontal strata of amygdaloid and 
 other cognate trap formations, generally speaking of very considerable 
 thickness and great uniformity of texture, and possessing besides the 
 advantage that their edges are generally exposed in perfectly perpen- 
 dicular cliffs. No rock in any part of the world could either be more 
 suited for the purpose or more favourably situated than these forma- 
 tions. They were easily accessible and easily worked. In the rarest 
 possible instances are there any flaws or faults to distm-b the uni- 
 formity of the design ; and, when complete, they afford a perfectly 
 dry temple or abode, singularly uniform in temperature, and more 
 dm-able than any class of temple found in any other part of the world. 
 
 From the time of Asoka, who, two hundred and fifty years before 
 Christ, excavated the first cave at Kajagriha, till the great cataclysm 
 in the 8th century, the series is uninterrupted ; and, if properly 
 examined and drawn, the caves would furnish us with a complete 
 religious and artistic history of the greater part of India during ten 
 or eleven centmies, the darkest and most perplexing of her existence. 
 But, although during this long period the practice was common to 
 Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains, it ceased before the Mahomedan conquest. 
 Hardly • any excavations have been made or attempted since that 
 period, except, perhaps, some rude Jaina monoliths in the rock at 
 Gualior, and it may be one or two in southern India. 
 
108 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book L 
 
 Behar Caves. 
 
 As might be expected from what we know of the history of the 
 localities, the oldest caves in India are situated in Behar, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Rajagriha, which was the capital of Bengal at the time of 
 the advent of Buddha. There is, indeed, one cave there which claims 
 to be the Satapanni cave, in front of which the first convocation was 
 held B.C. 543. It is, however, only a natural cave very slightly im- 
 proved by art, and of no architectural importance. 
 
 The most interesting group is situated at a place called 
 Barabar, sixteen miles north of Gaya. One there, called the 
 Karna Chopar, bears an inscription which records the excavation 
 of the cave in the nineteenth year of Asoka (b.c. 245).^ It 
 is very simple, and, except in a doorway with sloping jambs, 
 has no architectural feature of importance. A second, called the 
 Sudama or Nigope cave (Woodcut No. 42), bears an inscription 
 by Asoka in the twelfth year of his reign, 
 the same year in which most of his edicts 
 are dated, 260 or 264 B.C., and, consequently, 
 is the oldest architectural example in India. 
 It consists of two apartments : an outer, 32 ft. 
 0 in. in length, and 19 ft. 6 in. in breadth, 
 and beyond this a circular apartment, 10 ft. 
 in diameter, in the place usually occupied by 
 the solid dagoba ; ^ in front of w^hich the roof 
 hangs down and projects in a manner very 
 much as if it were intended to represent 
 thatch. The most interesting of the group is that called Lomas 
 Itishi, which, though bearing no contemporary inscription, certainly 
 belongs to the same age. The frontispiece is singularly interesting 
 as representing in the rock the form of the structural chaityas of the 
 age. These, as will be seen from the woodcut (No. 43), were apparently 
 constructed with strong wooden posts, sloping slightly inwards, 
 supporting a longitudinal rafter morticed into their heads, while 
 three small blocks on each side are employed to keep the roof in form. 
 Between the pillars was a framework of wood, Avhich served to 
 support five smaller rafters. Over these lies the rocf, apparently 
 
 Nigope Cave, Sat Ghurba group. 
 
 ' Cunniugham, ' Avchrcological Re- 
 ports,' vol. 1. p. 4.5. 
 
 2 At Koudooty, near Bombay, there is 
 a chaitya cave of much more modern 
 date, which possesses a circular chamber 
 like this. In the older examples it is 
 probable a relic or some sacred symbol 
 
 occupied the cell ; in the later it may 
 have been an image of Buddha. No 
 plans or details of ihe Kondoo4iy temple 
 have, to far as I know, been published. 
 I speak from information derived from 
 MS. drawings. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 BEHAK CAVES. 
 
 109 
 
 formed of three thicknesses of plank, or probably two of timber planks 
 laid reverse ways, and one of metal or some other snbstance externally. 
 
 43. Fa9ade of Lomas Kishi Cave. (From a l liologiapli by Mr. Peppe, C.E.) 
 
 The form of the roof is something of a pointed arch, with a slight ogee 
 point on the summit to form a watershed. The door, like all those 
 of this series, has sloping jambs ^ — a peculiarity arising, as we shall 
 afterwards see, from the lines of the openings following, as in this 
 instance, those of the supports of the roof. 
 
 The interior, as will be seen from the annexed plan (No. 44), is 
 quite plain in form, and does not seem to have been ever quite com- 
 pleted. It consists of a hall 33 ft. by 19 ft.. 
 
 beyond which is an apartment of nearly 
 circular form, evidently meant to represent 
 a tope or dagoba, but at that early age the 
 architects had not quite found out how to 
 
 accomplish this in a rock-cut structure. u. Lomas ii:shi cave. 
 
 Judging from the inscriptions on these 
 caves, the whole were excavated between the date of the Nigope and 
 that of the Milkmaid's Cave, so called (which was excavated by 
 Dasaratha, the grandson of Asoka), probably within fifty years of that 
 date. They appear to range, therefore, from 2G0 to 200 B.C., and the 
 
 ' General Cunningham (' Archssologi- Nor can it properly be called Pelasgic. 
 
 cal Eeports,' vol. i. p. 45) and others are The Pelasgi did use that form, but de- 
 
 in the habit of calling this an Egyptian rived it from stone constructions. The 
 
 form. This it certainly is not, as no Indians only obtained it from wood. 
 Egyptian doorway had sloping jambs. 
 
no 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Lomas Rishi is probably the most modern^ — it certainly is the most 
 richly ornamented. No great amount of elaboration, however, is found 
 in these examples, inasmuch as the material in which they are excavated 
 is the hardest and most close-grained granite ; and it was hardly to be 
 expected that a people who so recently had been using nothing but .wood 
 as a building material would have patience sufficient for labours like 
 these. They have polished them like glass in the interior, and with that 
 they have been content. 
 
 Western Chaitya Halls. 
 
 There are in the Western Ghats in the Bombay Presidency live 
 or six important chaitya caves whose dates can be made out, either 
 from inscriptions, or from internal evidence, with very fair ap- 
 proximate certainty, and all of which were excavated, if I am 
 not very much mistaken, before the Christian Era. The oldest 
 of these is situated at a place called Bhaja, four miles south of 
 the great Karli cave in the Bhore Ghat. There is no in- 
 scription upon it, but I have a plan and several photographs. 
 From the woodcut (No. 45), it will be perceived that it is a chaitya 
 
 hall of the usual plan, but of no great 
 dimensions, being only 60 ft. from the 
 back of the apse to the mortices (a a), in 
 which the supports of the wooden screen 
 once stood. From the w^oodcut (No. 46), 
 taken from one of these photographs, it 
 will be perceived that the pillars of the 
 interior slope inwards at a considerable 
 and most unpleasing angle. The rood- 
 screen which closes the front of all other 
 caves of this class is gone. In all other 
 examples it is in stone, and consequently 
 1yMSg'r)^S5i^^^^^^^ remains; but in this instance, being in 
 
 wood, it has disappeared, though the 
 holes to receive its posts and the mortices by which it was attached to 
 the walls are still there. The ogee fronton was covered with wooden 
 ornaments, which have disappeared ; though the pin-holes remain by 
 which they were fastened to the stone. The framework, or truss 
 that filled the upper part of the great front opening, no longer 
 exists, but what its appearance was may be judged of by the 
 numerous representations of itself with which it is covered, or 
 
 ' A very detailed account of all these caves will be found in Gen. Cunningham's 
 'Archaeological Report' for 1861-62. 
 
Chap. V 
 
 WESTEKN CHAITYA HALLS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Illttil/iifililH 
 
 Facade of the Cave at Bhaja. (1* rom a Photograph.) 
 
 from the representation of a chaitya facade from the contemporary 
 rail at Buddh Gaya (Woodcut 
 No. 47), and there are several 
 others on the rail at Bharhut, 
 Avhich are not only correcL ele- 
 vations of such a fagade as this, 
 but represent the wooden carved 
 ornaments which — according 
 to that authority — invariably 
 adorned these fagades. The only 
 existing example of this wooden 
 screen is that at Karli, but the 
 innumerable small repetitions 
 of it, not only here but in all 
 these caves, shows not only its 
 form, but how universal its em- 
 ployment was. The rafters of 
 the roof were of wood, and 
 many of them, as may be seen in the woodcut, remain to the present 
 
 Front of a Chaitya Hall. 
 (From a Bas-relief at Buddh Gaya.) 
 
112 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 day. Everything, in fact, that could be made in wood remained in 
 wood, and only the constructive parts necessary for stability were 
 executed in the rock. 
 
 It is easy to understand that, the first time men undertook to 
 repeat in stone forms they had only been accustomed to erect in 
 wood, they should have done so literally. The sloping iuAvards of the 
 pillars was requisite to resist the thrust of the circular roof in the 
 wooden building, but it must have appeared so awkward in stone that it 
 would hardly be often repeated. As, however, it was probably almost 
 universal in structural buildings, the doorways and openings naturally 
 followed the same lines, hence the sloping jambs. Though these were 
 by no means so objectionable in practice, they varied with the lines of 
 the supports, and, as these became upright, the jambs became parallel. 
 In like manner, when it was done, the architects could hardly fail to 
 perceive that they had wasted both time and labour in cutting away the 
 rock to make way for their wooden screen in front. Had they left it 
 standing, with far less expense they could have got a more ornamental 
 and more durable feature. This was so self-evident that it never, so far 
 as is known, was repeated, but it was some time before the pillars of the 
 interior got quite perpendicular, and the jambs of the doors quite 
 parallel. 
 
 There is very little figure-sculpture about this cave ; none in the 
 interior, and what there is on the fagade seems to be of a very domestic 
 character. But on the pillars in the interior at g and h in the plan 
 (Woodcut No. 45), we find two emblems, and at a, and /three others 
 are found somewhat rudely formed, but which occur again so frequently 
 that it may be worth while to quote them here. They are known as the 
 
 48. 
 
 Trisul. Shield. Chakra. Tii.~ul. 
 
 trisul, or trident, the central point being usually more important than 
 here shown, the shield, and the chakra, or wheel. The two first are 
 generally found in combination, as in Woodcut No. 33, and the wheel 
 is frequently found edged with trisul ornaments, as in the central 
 compartment of Woodcut No. 38 from Amravati. The fourth emblem 
 here is the trisul, in combination with a face, and the fifth is one which 
 is frequently repeated on coins and elsewhere, but to which no name has 
 yet been given. 
 
 The next group of caves, however, that at Bedsa, ten or eleven 
 miles south of Karli, shows considerable progress towards lithic 
 construction. The screen is in stone ; the pillars are more upright. 
 
CriAP. V. 
 
 WESTERN CHAITYA PIALLS. 
 
 113 
 
 though still sloping slightly inwards, the jambs more nearly parallel, 
 and in fact we have nearly all the features of a well-designed 
 
 49. Plan of Cave at Bedsa. (From a Plan by Mr. Burgess,) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 chaitya cave. The two pillars in front, however, as will be seen 
 from the plan (Woodcut No. 49), are so much too large in proportion 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 BUDDHIST AECHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 to the rest, that they are evidently stambhas, and ou^i^ht to stand 
 free instead of supporting a verandah. Their capitals (Woodcut 
 No. 50, p. 113) are more like the Persepolitan than any others in 
 India, and are each surmounted by horses and elephants bearing men 
 
 51. View on Verandah of Cave at Bedsa. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 and women of bold and free execution. From the view (Woodcut 
 No. 51) it will be seen how much the surface is covered with the rail 
 decoration, a repetition on a small scale of the rails described in the last 
 section, and which it may here be mentioned is a fair test of the age 
 of any building. It gradually becomes less and less used after the date 
 
116 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 of these two chaitya caves, and disappears wholly in the 4th or 5th 
 centuries, but during that period its greater or less prevalence in any 
 building is one of the surest indications we have of the relative age of 
 any two examples. In this cave, as will be observed, nearly the whole 
 of the ornamentation is made up of miniature rails, and repetitions 
 of window fronts or fagades. It has also a semicircular open-work 
 moulding, like basket-work, which is only found in the very oldest 
 caves, and is evidently so unsuited for stone-work that it is no wonder 
 it w^as dropped very early. No example of it is known after the 
 Christian Era. There is an inscription in this cave in an ancient form 
 of letter, but not sufficiently distinct to fix its age absolutely without 
 further evidence. 
 
 The third cave is the chaitya at Nassick. Its pillars internally are 
 so nearly perpendicular that their inclination might escape detection, 
 and the door jambs are nearly parallel. 
 
 The facade, as seen in the woodcut (No. 52, p. 115), is a very perfect 
 and complete design, but all its details are copied from wooden forms, 
 and nothing was executed in wood in this cave but the rafters of the 
 roofs internally, and these have fallen down. 
 
 Outside this cave, over the doorway, there is an inscription, stating 
 that the cave was the gift of a citizen of Nassick,^ in the reign of 
 King Krishna, the second of the Andrabritya kings, who reigned just 
 before the Christian Era,^ and inside, on the pillars, another in an 
 older form of character, stating that it was excavated in honour of 
 King Badrakaraka,^ who was almost certainly the fifth king of the 
 Sunga dynasty, and who ascended the throne about B.C. 129. It may 
 be possible that a more critical examination of these inscriptions may 
 render their testimony less absolute than it now appears, but, taking 
 them in conjunction with the architecture, the age of this cave hardly 
 seems doubtful. For myself, I see no reason for hesitating to accept 
 B.C. 129 as the date of its inception, though its completion may be a 
 century later, and, if this is so, it carries back the caves of Bhaja and 
 Bedsa to a period considerably before that time, while, on the other 
 hand, it as certainly is older than the Karli cave, which appears to 
 come next to it in age. 
 
 Karli. 
 
 The fourth cave mentioned above, known as that at Karli, is 
 situated on the road between Bombay and Poonah, and is the finest 
 of all — the finest, indeed, of its class. It is certainly the largest as 
 well as the most complete chaitya cave hitherto discovered in India, 
 
 ^ From a photograph and an unpub- 
 lished paper by Professor Bhandarkur, 
 read before the Oriental Congress. 
 
 2 From Bliandarkur's paper, ubi supra. 
 ^ ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. v. p. 55. 
 
CllAP. V. 
 
 GREAT CHAITYA AT KAELI. 
 
 117 
 
 and was excavated at a time when the style was in its greatest 
 purity. In it all the architectural defects of the previous examples 
 ai-e removed ; the pillars of the nave are quite perpendicular. The 
 screen is ornamented with sculpture— its first appearance apparently in 
 such a position— and the style had reached a perfection that was never 
 afterwards surpassed. 
 
 Sc«le 20 ft to I io. 
 
 S4 . Han of Cave at Karli. 
 
 In this cave there is an inscription on the side of the porch, and 
 another on the Uon-pillar in front, which are cenainly integral, and 
 ascribe its excavation to the Maharaja Bhuti or Deva Bhuti,^ who, 
 according to the Ptu^as, reigned B.C. 78, and, if this is so, they fix 
 the age of this typical example beyond aU cavil. 
 
 The building, as wiU be seen by the annexed illustrations (Xos. 53, 
 54, 55), resembles, to a very great extent, an early Christian church 
 in its arrangements : consisting of a nave and side-aisles, terminating 
 in an apse or semidome, round which the aisle is carried. The general 
 dimensions of the interior are 126 ft. from the entrance to the back 
 wall, by 45 ft. 7 in. in width. The side-aisles, however, are very much 
 narrower than in Christian churches, the central one being 25 ft. 7 in., 
 so that the others are only 10 ft. wide, including the thickness of the 
 pillars. As a scale for comparison, it may be mentioned that its 
 
 * * Jonrnal Bombay Branch of tlic Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. r. pp. 152-3. 
 
118 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUllE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GREAT CHAITYA AT KARLI. 
 
 119 
 
 arrangement and dimensions are very similar to those of the choir of 
 Norwich Cathedral, or of the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen, omitting 
 the outer aisles in the latter buildings. The thickness of the piers at 
 Norwich and Caen nearly corresponds to the breadth of the aisles in the 
 Indian temple. In height, however, Karli is very inferior, being only 
 42 ft. or perhaps 45 ft. from the floor to the apex, as nearly as can be 
 ascertained. 
 
 Fifteen pillars on each side separate the nave from the aisles ; each 
 pillar has a tall base, an octagonal shaft, and richly ornamented 
 capital, on which kneel two elephants, each bearing two figures, gene- 
 rally a man and a woman, but sometimes two females, all very much 
 better executed than such ornaments usually are. The seven pillars 
 behind the altar are plain octagonal piers, without either base or 
 capital, and the four under the entrance gallery differ considerably 
 from those at the sides. The sculptures on the capitals supply the 
 place usually occupied by frieze and cornice in Grecian architecture ; 
 and in other examples plain painted surfaces occupy the same space. 
 Above this springs the roof, semicircular in general section, but some- 
 what stilted at the sides, so as to make its height greater than the 
 semi-diameter. It is ornamented even at this day by a series of 
 wooden ribs, probably coeval with the excavation, which prove beyond 
 the shadow of a doubt that the roof is not a copy of a masonry arch, 
 but of some sort of timber construction which we cannot now very well 
 understand. 
 
 Immediately under the semidome of the apse, and nearly where the 
 altar stands in Christian churches, is placed the dagoba, in this instance 
 a plain dome slightly stilted on a circular drum. As there are no 
 ornaments on it now, and no mortices for woodwork, it probably was 
 originally plastered and painted, or may have been adorned with 
 hangings, which some of the sculptured representations would lead us to 
 suppose was the usual mode of ornamenting these altars. It is sur- 
 mounted by a Tee, the base of which is similar to the one shown on 
 Woodcut No. 13, and on this still stand the remains of an umbrella in 
 wood, very much decayed and distorted by age. 
 
 Opposite this is the entrance, consisting of three doorways, under 
 a gallery exactly corresponding with our roodloft, one leading to the 
 centre, and one to each of the side-aisles ; and over the gallery the 
 whole end of the hall is open as in all these chaitya halls, forming 
 one great window, through which all the light is admitted. This 
 great window is formed in the shape of a horseshoe, and exactly 
 resembles those used as ornaments on the fa9ade of this cave, as well 
 as on those of Bhaja, Bedsa, and at Nassick described above, and which 
 are met with everywhere at this age. Within the arch is a frame- 
 work or centering of wood standing free (Woodcut No. 55). This, so 
 far as we can judge, is, like the ribs of the interior, coeval with the 
 
120 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 building ;^ at all events, if it has been renewed, it is an exact copy 
 of the original form, for it is found repeated in stone in all the niches 
 of the fagade, over the doorways, and generally as an ornament every- 
 where, and with the Buddhist "rail," copied from Sanchi, forms the 
 most usual ornament of the style. 
 
 The presence of the woodwork is an additional proof, if any were 
 wanted, that there were no arches- of construction in any of these 
 Buddhist buildings. There neither were nor are any in any Indian 
 
 building anterior to the Mahomedan Conquest, and very few indeed in 
 any Hindu building afterwards. 
 
 To return, however, to Karli, the outer porch is considerably wider 
 
 * A few years ago it was reported that 
 this screen was in danger of falling out- 
 wards, and I wrote repeatedly to India 
 begging that something might be done 
 to preserve it; but I have never been 
 able to learn if this has been attended 
 to. Only a small portion of the original 
 ribbing of the Bhaja cave now remains. 
 That of the Bedsa cave has been de- 
 sti oyed within the last ten or twelve years 
 ('Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal 
 
 Asiatic Society,' vol. ix. p. 223) ; and it 
 would bo a thousand pities if this, which 
 is the only original screen in India, were 
 allowed to perish when a very small out- 
 lay would save it. Like the Iron pillar 
 at Delhi which never rusts, teak wood 
 that does not decay though exposed to 
 the atmosphere for 2000 years, is a phe- 
 nomenon worth the attention not only of 
 antiquaries, but of natural philosophers. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GREAT CHAITYA AT KARLI. 
 
 121 
 
 than the body of the buildmg, being 52 ft. wide, and is closed in front 
 by a screen composed of two stout octagonal pillars, without either base 
 or capital, supporting what is now a plain mass of rock, but wliich was 
 once ornamented by a wooden gallery forming the principal ornament 
 of the fagade. Above this a dwarf colonnade or attic of fom- columns 
 between pilastei*s admitted light to the great wuidow, and this again 
 was surmounted by a wooden cornice or ornament of some sort, though 
 we cannot now restore it, since only the mortices remain that attached 
 it to the rock. 
 
 In advance of this screen stands the lion-pillar, in tliis instance 
 a plain shaft with thirty-two flutes, or rather faces, surmounted by a 
 capital not unlike that at Kesariah (Woodcut No. 6), but at Karli 
 supporting four lions instead of one, and, for reasons given ahoxa 
 (p. 55), they seem almost certainly to have supported a chakra or 
 Buddhist wheel. A similar pillar probably stood on the opposite 
 side, but it has either fallen or been taken down to make way for 
 tlie little temi3lc that now occupies its place. 
 
 The absence of the wooden ornaments of the external porch, as 
 well as our ignorance of the mode in which this temple was finished 
 laterally, and the porch joined to the main temple, prevents us from 
 judging what the effect of the front would have been if belonging 
 to a free-standing building. But the proportions of such parts as 
 remain are so good, and the effect of the whole so pleasing, that 
 there can be little hesitation in ascribing to such a design a tolerably 
 high rank among architectural compositions. 
 
 Of the interior we can judge perfectly, and it certainly is as 
 solemn and grand as any interior can well be, and the mode of lighting 
 the most perfect — one undivided volume of light coming tlu'ough a 
 single opening overhead at a very favourable angle, and falling 
 directly on the altar or principal object in the building, leaving the 
 rest in comparative obscurity. The effect is considerably heightened 
 by the closely set thick columns that divide the three aisles from one 
 another, as they suffice to prevent the boundary walls from ever being 
 seen, and, as there are no openings in the walls, the view between the 
 pillars is practically unlimited. 
 
 These pecuUarities are found more or less developed in all the 
 other caves of the same class in India, varying only with the age and 
 the gradual change that took place from the more purely wooden 
 forms of these caves to the lithic or stone architecture of the more 
 modern ones. This is the principal test by which their relative ages 
 can be determined, and it proves incontestably that the Karli cave 
 was excavated not very long after stone came to be used as a building- 
 material in India. 
 
 There are caves at A junta and probably at Junir which are as 
 old as the four just described, and, when the liistory of cave arclii- 
 
122 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 tecture comes to be \vritten in extenso, will supply details that are 
 wanting in the examples just quoted. Meanwhile, however, their 
 forms are sufficient to place the history on a firm basis, and to 
 explain the origin and early progress of the style with sufficient 
 distinctness. 
 
 From the inscriptions and literary evidence, it seems hardly doubt- 
 ful that the date of the Karli cave is about 78 B.C., and that at Nassick 
 about 120 B.C. We have no literary authority for the date of the two 
 earlier ones, but the archaeological evidence appears irresistible. The 
 Bhaja cave is so absolutely identical in style with the Lomas Rishi 
 cave at Behar (Woodcut No. 43) that they must be of very nearly 
 the same age. Their pillars and their doorways slope so nearly at 
 the same angle, and the essential woodenness — if the expression may 
 be used — of both is so exactly the same, that, the one being of the 
 age of Asoka, the other cannot be far removed from the date of his 
 reign. The Bedsa cave exhibits a degree of progress so nearly half- 
 way between the Bhaja and Nassick examples, that it may safely 
 be dated 150 to 200 B.C., and the whole four thus exhibit the progress 
 of the style during nearly two centuries in the most satisfactory 
 manner, and form a basis from which we may proceed to reason with 
 very little hesitation or doubt. 
 
 AJUNTA.I 
 
 There are four chaitya caves in the A junta series which, though 
 not so magnificent as some of the four just mentioned, are nearly as 
 important for the purposes of our history. The oldest there (No. 9) 
 is the lowest down on the cliif, and is of the smallest class, being 
 only 45 ft. by 23 ft. in width. All its woodwork has perished, though 
 it would not be difficult to restore it from the mortices left and the 
 representations of itself on the fagade. There are several inscriptions, 
 but they do not seem integral. They are painted on the walls, and 
 belong, from the form of their characters, to the 2nd or 3rd century 
 of our era, when the frescoes seem to have been renewed, so that the 
 real tests of its age are, first, its position in the series, which make 
 it, with its accompanying vihara (No. 12), undoubtedly the oldest 
 there ; the other test is the architecture of its fa9ade, which so much 
 resembles that of the Nassick chaitya (b.c. 129) that it cannot be far 
 off in date. It may, however, be somewhat earlier, as the pillars in 
 the interior slope inwards at a somewhat greater angle, and, in so far 
 as that is a test of age, it indicates a greater antiquity in the A junta 
 example. 
 
 * For further particulars regarding the 
 Ajunta caves, tlic reader is referred to a 
 paper I wrote iu the 'Journal of the 
 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' 1842, and repub- 
 lished afterwards with a folio volume of 
 plates to illustrate it. 
 
ClIAP. V. 
 
 CHAITYA HALLS AT AJUNTA. 
 
 123 
 
 The next chaitya (No. 10) is situated very near to the last, a 
 Uttle higher up in the rock, however, and of nearly twice its dimen- 
 sions. It is 94 ft. 6 in. in depth by 41 ft. 3 in. in width internally. 
 As may be seen from the annexed view (Woodcut No. 57), the nave 
 
 57. Interior of Chaitya Cave No. 10 at Ajunta. (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 plain octagonal shafts, 
 The triforium belt 
 plastered and painted, 
 design cannot be made 
 
 is separated from the aisles by a range of 
 perfectly upright, but without capitals or 
 is of unusual height, and was originally 
 Traces of this can still be seen, though the 
 out (Woodcut No. 58). One of 
 the most remarkable character- 
 istics of the cave is that it shows 
 signs of transition from wood to 
 stone in its architectural details. 
 The ribs of the aisle are in stone 
 cut in rock, but copied from the 
 wooden forms of previous ex- 
 amples. The vault of the nave 
 was adorned with wooden ribs, 
 the mortices for which are still 
 there, and their marks can still 
 be traced in the roof, but the ^ 
 wood itself is gone. 
 
 There are two inscriptions in this cave which seem to be integral, 
 but unfortunately neither of them contain names that can be iden- 
 tified ; but from the form of their characters a palasographist would 
 
 Crosi-Section of Cave No. 10 at Ajunta. 
 No scale. 
 
124 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 almost certainly place them anterior to the Christian Era.^ Taking, 
 however, all the circumstances of the case into consideration, and so 
 as to avoid stretching any point too far, it would, perhaps, be better 
 to assume for the present that the cave belongs to the 1st century 
 of our era. 
 
 The fagades of both these caves are so much ruined by the rock 
 falling aw\ay that it is impossible to assert that there was no sculp- 
 ture on the lower parts. None, certainly, exists in the interior, 
 where everything depends on painting ; and it is, to say the least of 
 it, very improbable that any figure-sculpture ever adorned the oldest, 
 while it seems likely that even No. 10 depended wholly on con- 
 ventional architectural forms for its adornment. 
 
 The next chaitya cave in this series (No. 19) is separated from 
 these two by a very long interval of time. Unfortunately, no in- 
 scription exists upon it which would assist in assigning it any precise 
 date ; but it belongs to a group of viharas, Nos. IG and 17, whose 
 date, as we shall afterwards see, can be fixed with tolerable certainty 
 as belonging to the 5th century of our era. The cave . itself, 
 as will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 59), is of the smallest 
 size, nearly the same as No. 9, or 46 ft. 4 in. by 
 23 ft. 7 in., and its arrangements do not differ 
 much, but its details belong to a totally different 
 school of art. All trace of woodwork has ' dis- 
 appeared, but wooden forms are everywhere re- 
 peated in stone, like the triglyphs and mutules of 
 the Doric order, long after their original meaning 
 was lost. More than this, painting in the interval 
 had to a great extent become disused as a means 
 of decoration, both internally and externally, and 
 59. ChaKyaNo. 19 sculpturc Substituted for it in all monumental 
 scaie'so^ft" tJTi In. works ; but the greatest change of all is that 
 Buddha, in all his attitudes, is introduced every- 
 where. In the next woodcut (No. 60) — the view of the fa5ade — it 
 will be seen how completely figure-sculpture had superseded the 
 plainer architectural forms of the earlier caves. The rail ornament, 
 too, has entirely disappeared ; the window heads have been dwarfed 
 down to mere framings for masks ; but, what is even more significant 
 than these, is that from a pure theism or rather atheism we have 
 passed to an overwhelming idolatry. At Karli, the eight figures 
 that originally adorned the porch are chiefs with their wives, in 
 pairs. All the figures of Buddha that appear there now are long 
 
 ^ These inscriptions are translated in 
 Bhau Dajis' paper on the Ajuuta in- 
 scriptions, 'Journal Bombay Branch of 
 the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 63, 
 
 as if found in cave 2. On the accompany- 
 ing plate they are described as one on 
 cave 10, the other on cave 12. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CHAITYA HALLS AT AJUNTA. 
 
 125 
 
 subsequent additions. None but mortals were sculptured in the 
 earlier caves, and among these mortals Sakya Muni nowhere apj)ears. 
 Here, on the contrary, he is Bhagavat — the Holy One — the Deity — 
 the object of worship, and occupies a position in the front of the 
 dagoba or altar itself (Woodcut No. 61, p. 126), surmounted by the 
 triple umbrella and as the Numen of the place. 
 
 At a future stage of our inquiries we may be able to fix more 
 nearly the time in which this portentous change took place in 
 Buddhist ritual. For the present it is sufficient to remark that 
 images of Buddha, and their worship, were not known in India in 
 the 1st century of our era, and that the revolution was complete in 
 the 5th century. 
 
 Before leaving this cave, however, it may be well to remark on 
 the change that had taken place in the form of the dagoba during 
 these 500 years. K Woodcut No. 61 is compared with the dagobas 
 in Nos. 56 and 57, it will be seen how much the low rounded form 
 of the early examples had been conventionalised into a tall steeple- 
 like object. The drum had become more important than the dome, 
 and was ornamented with architectural features that have no meaning 
 as applied. But more curious still is the form the triple umbrella 
 
126 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 had assumed. It had now become a steeple reaching to the roof of 
 the cave, and its original form and meaning would hardly be suspected 
 by those who were not familiar with the intermediate steps. 
 
 I am not aware of more than three umbrellas being found sur- 
 mounting any dagoba in the caves, but the annexed representation 
 
 61. Rock-cut Dagoba at Ajunta. G2. Small Model found in the Tope at Sultanpore. 
 
 (From a Drawing by the Author.) (From Wilson's ' Ariana Antlqua.') 
 
 numerous models are found with seven, making with the base and 
 finial nine storeys,^ which afterwards in China became the conven- 
 tional number for the nine-storeyed towers of that land. 
 
 The last chaitya at Ajunta (No. 26) is of a medium size, GG ft. by 3G, 
 and has a long inscription, but which unfortunately contains nothing to 
 enable us to fix its date with certainty. It is certainly more modern 
 than the last-named, its sculptures are coarser, and their meaning more 
 mythological. We shall probably not err in assuming tbat it was 
 excavated towards the end of the Gth or beginning of the 7th century ; 
 
 ' Kittoe in 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' Marcli, 1847, plate 6. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CBAITYA AT ELLORA. 
 
 127 
 
 and that the year GOO is not far from its true date. Its chief interest 
 is in showing how nearly Buddhism was approximating to Brahmanism 
 when the catastrophe took place which expelled the former from the 
 country of its birth. 
 
 Ellora. 
 
 The celebrated Viswakarma cave at Ellora is a chaitya of the first 
 class, intermediate in age between the two last-described caves at 
 Ajunta, or it may be as modern as the last. There are unfortunately no 
 inscriptions nor any traditions^ that would assist in fixing its age, 
 which must consequently depend wholly on its position in the series 
 and its architectural peculiarities. 
 
 The dimensions of this cave are considerable, 85 ft. by 43 ft., and 
 the inner end is entirely blocked up by the dagoba which, instead of 
 being circular as in all the older examples, has a frontispiece attached 
 to it larger than that in cave No. 19 at Ajunta, which, as shown in 
 Woodcut No. 60, makes it square in front. On this addition is a figure 
 of Buddha seated with his feet down, and surrounded by attendants 
 and flying figures in the latest style of Buddhist art. In the roof, all 
 the ribs and ornaments are cut in the rock, though still copied from 
 wooden prototypes, and the triforium has sculptured figures as in 
 Nos. 19 and 2G of Ajunta. Its most marked characteristic, however, 
 is the fagade, where for the first time we miss the great horseshoe 
 opening, which is the most marked feature in all previous examples. 
 We can still trace a reminiscence of it in the upper part of the 
 window in the centre (Woodcut No. 63, p. 128) ; but it was evidently 
 considered necessary, in this instance, to reduce the size of the 
 opening, and it is easy to see why this was the case. At Bedsa, 
 Karli, Kenheri and elsewhere, there was a verandah or porch with a 
 screen in front of the great window, which prevented the direct 
 rays of the sun from reaching it, and all the older caves had 
 wooden screens, as at Karli, from which curtains could be hung so 
 as to modify the light to any desired extent. At Ellora, no screen 
 could ever have existed in front, and wooden additions had long ceased 
 to be used, so that it consequently became necessary to reduce the 
 size of the opening. In the two later chaityas at Ajunta, this is 
 effected by simply reducing their size. At Ellora it was done by 
 dividing it. If we had the structural examples in which this change 
 was probably first introduced, we might trace its progress ; but, as 
 this one is the only example we have of a divided window, we must 
 
 ^ Sir Charles Mallet, in the second 
 volume of the ' Bombay Literary Transac- 
 tions,' quotes a tradition that the Ellora 
 caves were excavated by a Raja Eelu, 
 
 1000 years before his day. This might 
 be true if applied to the Brahman- 
 ical Kailas, but hardly to any Buddhist 
 cave in the series. 
 
128 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book L 
 
 accept it as one of the latest modifications of the facades of tlicse 
 cliaityas. Practically, it may be an improvement, as it is still 
 sufficiently large to light the interior in a satisfactory manner ; but 
 artistically it seems rather to be regi'etted. There is a character and 
 a grandeur about the older design which we miss in this more 
 
 Fu9ade of the Viswakarma Cave at Ellura. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 domestic-looking arrangement, though it is still a form of opening 
 not destitute of beauty. 
 
 Owing to the sloping nature of the ground in which it is excavated 
 this cave possesses a forecourt of considerable extent and of great 
 elegance of design, which gives its fa9ade an importance it is not 
 entitled to from any intrinsic merit of its own. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 WESTERN CHAITYA HALLS. 
 
 129 
 
 Kenheri. 
 
 One of the best known and most frequently described chaityas in 
 India is that on the island of Salsette, in Bombay Harbour, known 
 as the great Kenheri cave. In dimensions it belongs to the first rank, 
 being 88 ft. 6 in. by 39 ft. 10 in., and it has the advantage that its date is 
 now almost absolutely fixed. In the verandah there is an inscription 
 recording that the celebrated Buddhaghosha dedicated one of the 
 middle-sized statues in the porch to the honour of the lord Bhagawan,^ 
 and in the same porch another inscription records the execution of the 
 great statues of Buddha by " Gotamiputra's imperial descendant Sri 
 Yadnya Sat Kami." ^ Now we know that the first-named, Buddha- 
 ghosha, went on his mission to Ceylon, B.C. 410,^ and he is not known 
 ever to have returned to India ; and Yadnya Sri has always been 
 assumed to have lived 408-428, generally it must be confessed on the 
 mistaken etymology of confounding his name with that of Yuegai of 
 the Chinese. That, however, is apparently only a translation of the 
 " Moon beloved king," and more applicable, consequently, to Chandra 
 Sri or Chandragupta, who was his contemporary. The true basis 
 for the determination of his date is the Puranic chronology, which, 
 for this period seems indisputable.* Be all this as it may, the con- 
 junction of these two names here in this cave settles their date, and 
 settles also the age of the cave as belonging to the early years of the 
 5th century, at the time when Fa Hian was travelling in India. 
 
 This being so, one would naturally expect that the architecture of 
 the cave should exhibit some stage of progress intermediate between 
 cave No. 10 and cave No. 19 of Ajunta, but nothing of the sort is 
 apparent here ; the Kenheri cave is a literal copy of the great cave 
 at Karli, but in so inferior a style of art that, when I first saw it, I 
 was inclined to ascribe it to an age of Buddhist decrepitude, when 
 the traditions of true art had passed away, and men were trying 
 by spasmodic efforts to revive a dead art. This being now proved not 
 to be the case, the architecture of this cave can only be looked upon 
 as an exceptional anomaly, the principles of whose design are unlike 
 anything else to be found in India, emanating probably from some 
 individual caprice, the origin of which we may probably never now 
 be able to recover. 
 
 Internally the roof was ornamented with timber rafters, and 
 though these have fallen away, the wooden pins by which they were 
 
 * 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. v. p. H. 
 ' Loc. cit. p. 25. 
 
 ^ Introduction to 
 * See Appendix. 
 
 Mahawanso,' p. 30. 
 
130 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 fastened to the rock stiR remain ; and the screen in front has aR the 
 mortices and other indications, as at KarR, proving that it was 
 intended to be covered with wooden gaReries and framework. What 
 is stiR more curious, the figures of chiefs with their wives, whicli 
 adorn the front of the screen at Karli, are here repeated RteraRy, but 
 copied so badly as not at first sight to be easily recognisable. This is 
 the more strange as it occurred at an age when their place was reserved 
 for figures of Buddha, and when, at Karli itself, they were cutting 
 away the old sculptures and old inscriptions, to introduce figures of 
 Buddha, either seated cross-legged, or borne on the lotus, supported 
 by Naga figures at its base.^ 
 
 In front of this cave is a dwarf rail which, with the knowledge 
 we now have, would in itself be almost sufficient to settle the age, in 
 spite of these anomalies (Woodcut No. 64). Unfortunately it is so 
 weather-worn that it is difficult to make out all its details ; but 
 comparing it with the Gautamiputra rail (Woodcut No. 32) and the 
 
 ^1 
 
 s 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rail in front of Great Cave, Kenheri. (From a Drawing by Mr. AVest.) 
 
 Amravati rail (Woodcut No. 36), it wiR be seen that it contains all 
 those complications that were introduced in the 3rd and 4th centuries, 
 but which were discontinued in the 5th and 6th, when the rail in any 
 shape fell into disuse as an architectural ornament.^ 
 
 The evidence in fact seems complete that this cave w^as excavated 
 in the early years of the 5th century ; but, admitting this, it remains 
 an anomaly, the like of which only occurs once again so far as I know 
 in the history of Indian architectm'e, and that in a vihara at Nassick 
 of the same age, to be described hereafter. 
 
 • A tolerably correct representation of 
 these sculptures is engraved in Langlo's 
 ' Hindostau,' vol. ii. p. 81, after Niebulir. 
 The curious part of the thing is, that the 
 Buddhist figures of the Karli facade 
 are not copied here also, from which I 
 would infer, as well as from their own 
 
 intrinsic evidence, that they were more 
 modern than even this cave. 
 
 2 For further particulars regarding this 
 cave, the reader is referred to my work on 
 the ' Rock-cut Temples of India,' p. 36, 
 plates 11 and 12. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 WESTERN CHAITYA HALLS. 
 
 Dhumnar. 
 
 About half way between Kotah and Ujjain, in Rajputana, there 
 exists a series of caves at a place called Dhumnar which are of con- 
 siderable extent, but the interest that might be felt in them is 
 considerably diminished, by their being cut in a coarse laterite con- 
 glomerate, so coarse that all the finer architectural details had to be 
 worked out in plaster, and that, having perished with time, only their 
 plans and outlines can now be recognised. Among the sixty or seventy 
 excavations here found one is a chaitya of some extent, and presenting 
 peculiarities of plan not found elsewhere. It is practically a chaitya 
 cella situated in the midst of a vihara (Woodcut No. 65). The cell 
 
 65. Cave at Dhumnar. (From a Plan by Gen. Cunningham.) 
 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 in which the dagoba is situated is only 35 ft. by 13 ft. 6 in., but to 
 this must be added the porch, or ante-chapel, extending 25 ft. further, 
 making the whole 60 ft. On two sides, and on half the third, it is 
 surrounded by an open verandah leading to the cells. The third side 
 never was finished, but in two of the side cells are smaller dagobas — 
 the whole making a confused mass of chambers and chaityas in which 
 all the original parts are confounded, and all the primitive simplicity 
 of design and arrangement is lost, to such an extent that, without 
 previous knowledge, they would hardly be recognisable. 
 
 There are no exact dates for determining the age of this cave, 
 but like all of the series it is late, probably between the years 500 
 and 600 a.d., or even later, and its great interest is that, on comparing 
 
132 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 it with the chaitya and vihara at Bhaja or Bedsa (Woodcuts Nos. 46 
 and 49), we are enabled to realise the progress and changes that 
 took place in designing these monuments during the seven or eight 
 centuries that elapsed between them. 
 
 Kholvi. 
 
 Not far from Dhumnar is another series of caves not so extensive, 
 but interesting as being probably the most modern group of Buddhist 
 caves in India. No very complete account of them has yet been 
 published,^ but enough is known to enable us to feel sure how 
 modern they are. One, called Arjun's House, is a highly ornamented 
 dagoba, originally apparently some 20 ft. in height, but the upper 
 part being in masonry has fallen away. Inside this is a cell open to 
 the front, in which is a cross-legged seated figure of Buddha, showing 
 an approach to the Hindu mode of treating images in their temples, 
 which looks as if Buddhism was on the verge of disappearing. 
 
 The same arrangement is repeated in the only excavation here 
 which can be called a chaitya hall. It is only 26 ft. by 13 ft. inter- 
 nally ; but the whole of the dagoba, which is 8 ft. in diameter, has 
 been hollowed out to make a cell, in which an image of Buddha is 
 enshrined. The dagobas, in fact, here — there are three standing by 
 themselves — have become temples, and only distinguishable from 
 those of the Hindus by their circular forms.^ 
 
 It is probably hardly necessary to say more on this subject now, 
 as most of the questions, both of art and chronology, will be again 
 touched upon in the next chapter when describing the viharas which 
 were attached to the chaityas, and were, in fact, parts of the same 
 establishments. As mere residences, the viharas may be deficient in 
 that dignity and unity which characterises the chaityas, but their 
 number and variety make up to a great extent for their other defi- 
 ciencies ; and altogether their description forms one of the most 
 interesting chapters in our history. 
 
 ^ The plates in Gen. Cunningham's 
 'Archaeological Reports,' vol. ii. pi. 70 
 and 74, are on too small a scale to be of 
 much use. I have not myself visited 
 these caves. 
 
 2 The particulars of the architecture 
 of these caves are taken from Gen. Cun- 
 
 ningham's report above alluded to. I 
 entirely agree with him as to their age, 
 and am surprised Dr. Impey could be 
 so mistaken regarding them. 'Journal 
 Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society,' vol. v. p. 336, et seqq. 
 
Chap. V[. 
 
 VIHARAS. 
 
 133 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 VIHARAS/ OR MONASTERIES. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Structural Viharas — Bengal and Western Vihara Caves — Nassick, Ajunta, Bagh, 
 Dhumnar, Kholvi, and Ellora Viharas — Circular Cave at Juuir. 
 
 Structural Viharas. 
 
 We are almost more dependent on rock-cut examples for our know- 
 ledge of the Viharas or monasteries of the Buddhists than we are 
 for that of their Chaityas or churches : a circumstance more to be 
 regretted in this instance than in the other. In a chaitya hall 
 the interior is naturally the principal object, and where the art 
 of the architect would be principally lavished. Next w^ouid come 
 the fagade. The sides and apse are comparatively insignificant and 
 incapable of ornament. The fagades and the interior can be as well 
 expressed in the rock as when standing free ; but the case is different 
 with the viharas. A court or hall surrounded with cells is not an 
 imposing architectural object. Where the court has galleries two or 
 three storeys in height, and the pillars that support these are richly 
 carved, it may attain an amount of picturesqueness we find in our 
 old hostelries, or of that class of beauty that prevails in the courts 
 of Spanish monasteries.^ Such was, I believe, the form many of the 
 Indian structural viharas may have taken, but which could hardly 
 be repeated in the rock ; and, unless some representations are dis- 
 
 * Throughout this work the term " Vi- 
 hara " is applied only to monasteries, the 
 abodes of monks or hermits. It was not, 
 however, used in that restricted sense 
 only, in former times, though it has been 
 so by all modern writers. Hiouen Thsang, 
 for instance, calls the Great Tower at 
 Buddh Gaya a vihara, and describes 
 similar towers at Nalanda, 200 and 300 
 feet high, as viharas. The ' Mahawanso ' 
 also applies the term indiscriminately to 
 temples of a certain class, and to resi- 
 dences. My impression is that all build- 
 ings designed in storeys were called 
 viharas, whether used for the abode of 
 priests or to enshrine relics or images. 
 
 The name was used to distinguish them 
 from stupas or towers, which were always 
 relic shrines, or erected as memorials of 
 places or events, and never were resi- 
 dences or simulated to be such, or con- 
 tained images, till the last gasp of the 
 style, as at Kholvi. At present this is 
 only a theory ; it may, before long, become 
 a certainty. Strictly speaking, the resi- 
 dences ought probably to be called 
 Sangharamas, but, to avoid multiplication 
 of terms, vihara is used in this work as 
 the synonym of monastery, which is the 
 sense in which it is usually understood 
 by modern authors. 
 
 - Vol. iv., Woodcuts Nos. 89, 90. 
 
,134 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. Book I. 
 
 covered among- the paintings or sculptures, we shall probably never 
 know, though we may guess, what the original appearances may 
 have been. 
 
 Great Rath at Mahavellipore. (From a Photograph.) 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 VIHAEAS. 
 
 135 
 
 There was, however, I beheve, another form of Vihara even less 
 capable of being repeated in the rock. It was pjTamidal, and is the 
 original of all the temples of southern India. Take, for instance, a 
 description of one mentioned both by Fa Hian and Hiouen Thsang,i 
 though neither of them, it must be confessed, ever saw it, which 
 accounts in part for some absurdities in the description : — " The 
 building," says Fa Hian, " has altogether five storeys. The lowest is 
 shaped into the form of an elephant, and has 500 stone cells in it ; 
 the second is in the form of a lion, and has 400 chambers ; the third 
 is shaped like a horse, and has 300 chambei-s ; the fourth is in the 
 form of an ox, and has 200 chambers ; and the fifth is in the shape of 
 a dove, and has 100 chambers in it " — and the account given of it by 
 Hiouen Thsang is practically the same.^ At first sight this looks wild 
 enough ; but if we substitute the assertion that the several storeys were 
 adorned with elephants, lions, horses, &c., we get a mode of decoration 
 which began at Karli, where a great range of elephants adorn the 
 lower storey, and was continued with variations to Hullabid, where, 
 as we shall see further on, all these five animals are, in the 13th century, 
 superimposed upon one another exactly as here recounted. 
 
 The opposite woodcut (No. 66), taken from one of the raths at Maha- 
 velhpore, probably correctly represents such a structure, and I believe 
 also the form of a great many ancient viharas in India. The diagram 
 (No. 67) is intended to explain what probably were the internal ar- 
 rangements of such a structure. As far as it can be understood from 
 the rock-cut examples we have, the centre was occupied by halls of 
 varying dimensions according to height, supported by wooden posts 
 above the ground-floor, and used as the common day-rooms of the 
 monks. The sleeping-cells 
 (Woodcuts Xos. 68, 69) 
 were apparently on the 
 terraces, and may have 
 been such as are fre- 
 quently represented in the 
 bas-reliefs at Bharhut and 
 elsewhere. Alternately 
 they seem to have been 
 square and oblong, and 
 
 Ti , , Square and oblong Cells from a Bas-relief at Bharhut. 
 
 With smaller apartments 
 
 between. Of course we must not take too literally a representation 
 of a monastery, carried out solidly in the rock for a different pm-pose, 
 as an absolutely correct representation of its original. The import- 
 ance, however, of this form, as explaining the peculiarities of sub- 
 
 * Beal's 'Fa Hiau,' p. 139, 'Hiouen I ^ ' Journal of the Koyal Asiatic Society, 
 Thsang,' vol. iii. p. 102. 1 vol. vi. (N.S.) p. 257, et seqq. 
 
136 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 sequent Buddhist and Dravidian architecture, is so great that it is 
 well worth quoting here, though this will be more evident in the 
 sequel than it can be at present. In construction the breadth, in 
 a structural building, would probably have been greater in proportion 
 to the height than in this example, but that is of little consequence 
 for our present purposes. 
 
 It is, of course, always difficult, sometimes impossible, to realise 
 the form of buildings from verbal descriptions only, and the Chinese 
 Pilgrims were not adepts at architectural definitions. Still Hiouen 
 Thsang's description of the great Nalanda monastery is important, and 
 so germane to our present subject that it cannot well be passed over. 
 
 This celebrated monastery, which was the Monte Oassino of India 
 for the first five centuries of our era, was situated thirty-four miles 
 south of Patna, and seven miles north of the old capital of Raja- 
 griha. If not founded under the auspices of the celebrated Nagar- 
 juna in the 1st century, he at all events resided there, introducing the 
 Mahayana or great translation, and making it the seat of that school for 
 Central India. After his time six successive kings had built as many 
 viharas on this spot, when one of them surrounded the whole with 
 a high Avall, which can still be traced, measuring 1600 ft. north and 
 south, by 100 ft., and enclosing eight separate courts. Externally to 
 this enclosure were numerous stupas or tower-like viharas, ten or 
 twelve of which are easily recognised, and have been identified, with 
 more or less certainty, by General Cunningham, from the Pilgrim's 
 description.^ The general appearance of the place may be gathered 
 from the following : — " In the different courts the houses of the 
 monks wei'e each four storeys in height. The pavilions had pillars 
 ornanunted with dragons, and had beams resplendent with all the 
 colours of the rainbow — rafters richly carved — columns ornamented 
 Avith jad3, painted red and richly chiselled, and balustrades of carved 
 open work. The Lintels of the doors were decorated with elegance, 
 and the roofs covered with glazed tiles of brilliant colours, which 
 multiplied themselves by reflection, and varied the effect at every 
 moment in a thousand manners." Or as he enthusiastically sums 
 up : — " The Sangharamas of India are counted by thousands, but 
 there are none equal to this in majesty or richness, or the height 
 of their construction." ^ 
 
 From what we know of the effects of Burmese monasteries at the 
 present day this is probably no exaggeration ; and with its groves of 
 Mango-trees, and its immense tanks, which still remain, it must have 
 been, as he says, "an enchanting abode." Here there resided in his 
 time — within and without the walls — 10,000 priests and neophytes, and 
 
 ^ ' Archfeological Reports,' vol. i. p. 28, 1 ^ 'Hiouen Thsaug,' vol. i. p. 151. 
 plate 16. 1 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 VIHARAS. 
 
 137 
 
 religion and philosophy were taught from a hundred chairs, and here 
 consequently our Pilgrim sojourned for five years, imbibing the 
 doctrines of the Law of Buddha. What Cluny and Clairvaux were 
 to France in the Middle Ages, Nalanda was to Central India, the 
 depository of all true learning, and the foundation from which it spread 
 over all the other lands of the faithful ; but still, as in all instances 
 connected with that strange parallelism which existed between the two 
 religions, the Buddhists kept five centuries in advance of the Christians 
 in the invention and use of all the ceremonies and forms common to 
 both religions. 
 
 It w^ould indeed be satisfactory if the architecture of this cele- 
 brated monastery could be restored and its arrangements made clear. 
 Something has been done by Cunningham^ towards this, and 
 excavations have been made by Mr. Broadley and Captain Marshall. 
 The former it is feared has destroyed more than he has restored, and 
 his drawings are so imperfect as to be utterly unintelligible. The 
 latter has not yet published his discoveries. Nothing, however, 
 would probably better repay a systematic exploration than this cele- 
 brated spot, if undertaken by some one accustomed to such researches, 
 and capable of making detailed arcliitectural drawings of what is 
 found. 
 
 If, however, it should turn out, as hinted above, that the whole of 
 the superstructure of these viharas w^as in wood, either fire or natural 
 decay may have made such havoc among all that remains of them, as to 
 leave little to reward the labours of the explorer. What has been done 
 in this direction certainly affords no great encouragement to hope for 
 much. At Sultangunge, near Monghyr, a large vihara was cut through 
 by the railway, but except one remarkable bronze statue of Buddha ^ 
 nothing was found of importance. The monastery apparently consisted 
 of two large courtyards surrounded by cells. What was found, however, 
 could only have been the foundations, as there were no doorways to the 
 apartments or means of communication between each other or with the 
 exterior.^ 
 
 The vihara excavated by Captain Kittoe and Mr. Thomas, at 
 Sarnath, seems certainly to have been destroyed by fire. All that 
 remained w^as a series of some twenty cells and four larger halls 
 surrounding a pillared court 50 ft. square. On one side were three 
 cells evidently forming a sanctuary, as is frequently found in the later 
 rock-cut examples.* 
 
 The excavations conducted by General Cunningham, at the same 
 place, are hardly more satisfactory in their result. The two buildings 
 
 * 'Archaeological Reports,' vol. i. pp. I ^ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 28-36, plate 16. Bengal,' vol. xxxiii. p. .360, et seqq. 
 
 2 Now in private hands in Birmingham. I Ibid., vol. xxiii. p. 469, et seqq. 
 
138 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 he explored seem to bear the relation to one another of a vihara GO ft. 
 square over all, and a temple of little more than half these dimensions 
 with a projecting porch on each face.^ Ou\j the foundation of these 
 buildings now remains, and nothing to indicate how they were originally 
 finished. 
 
 We may eventually hit on some representation which may enable 
 us to form definite ideas on this subject, but till we do this we 
 probably must be content with the interiors as seen in the rock-cut 
 examples. 
 
 Bengal Caves. 
 
 None of the Behar caves can, properly speaking, be called viharas, in 
 the sense in which the word is generally used, except perhaps the Son 
 Bhandar, which, as before mentioned. General Cunningham identifies 
 with the Sattapanni cave, in front of which the first convocation Avas 
 held 543 B.C. It is a plain rectangular excavation, 33 ft. 9 in. long by 
 17 ft. wide, and 11 ft. 7 in. to the springing of the curved roof.^ It 
 has one door and one window, but both, like the rest of the cave, 
 without mouldings or any architectural features that would assist in 
 determiuing its age. The jambs of the doorway slope slightly inwards, 
 but not sufiicieiitly to give an idea of great antiquity. In front there 
 was a wooden verandah, the mortice holes for which are still visible in 
 the front wall. 
 
 The other caves, at Barabar and Nagdrjuna, if not exactly chaityas 
 in the sense in which that term is apphed to the western caves, were at 
 least oratories, places of prayer and worship, rather than residences. 
 One Arhat or ascetic may have resided in them, but for the purpose of 
 performing the necessary services. There are no separate cells in them, 
 nor any division that can be considered as separating the ceremonial 
 from the domestic uses of the cave, and they must consequently, for the 
 present at least, be classed as chaityas rather than viharas. 
 
 The case is widely different w^hen we turn to the caves in Orissa, 
 which are among the most interesting, though at the same time the 
 most anomalous, of all the caves in India. They are situated in two 
 isolated hills of sandstone rock, about twenty miles from Cuttack and 
 five from Bhuvaneswar. The oldest are in the hill called Udayagiri ; 
 the more modern in that portion designated Khandagiri. They became 
 Jaina about the 10th or 11th century, and the last-named hill is 
 crowned by a Jaina temple, erected by the Maharattas in the end of the 
 last century. 
 
 ^ For this aud the other Sarnath re- 
 mains sec Cuuuingham's ' Archajological 
 Reports,' vol. i. p. 114, ct seqq., plates 
 
 2 These dimensions are from plate 42, 
 ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 
 for 1847, by the late Capt. Kittoo. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 BENGAL CAVES. 
 
 139 
 
 What we know of the age of the older caves is principally derived 
 from a long inscription on the front of the oldest, known as the Hathi 
 Gumpha, or Elephant Cave.^ From it we learn that it was engraved 
 by a king called Aira, who ascended the throne of Kalinga in his 
 twenty-fourth year, and spread his power by conquest over neighbouring 
 rajas. He seems at first to have vacillated betAveen the Brahmanical 
 and Buddhist faiths, but finally to have adopted the latter and 
 distributed infinite alms. Among other good works, he is said " to have 
 constructed subterranean chambers — caves containing a chaitya temple, 
 and pillars." 
 
 PalaBographically, the forms of the letters used in this inscription 
 are identical with those used by Asoka in the copy of his edicts on the 
 Aswatama rock close by, and that recently found at Aska, near the 
 northern corner of the Chilkya lake. The first presumption, therefore, 
 is that they may be of about the same date. This is justified by the 
 mention of Nanda in the past tense, while there seems no reason for 
 doubting that he was one of the kings of that name who immediately 
 preceded the revolution that placed Ohandragupta on the throne. 
 Beside these, there are other indications in this inscription which seem 
 to make it almost certain that Aira was contemporary with the great 
 Mamyan dynasty of Magadha ; but whether he preceded or followed 
 Asoka is not quite so clear. Still it appears unlikely that Asoka would 
 have been allowed to set up two copies of his edicts in the dominions 
 of such powerful kings as Aira and his father seem to have been, and as 
 unlikely that Aira should make such a record without some allusion 
 to the previously promulgated edicts, had they then existed. On the 
 whole, I am inclined to believe that Aira lived before Asoka, and, if so, 
 that this is the oldest inscription yet found in India. Be this as it 
 may, the cave in which it is found is certainly the oldest here. It 
 is a great natural cavern, the brow of which has been smoothed to 
 admit of this inscription, but all the rest remains nearly in a state of 
 nature. Close to it is a small cave, the whole " fronton " of which over 
 the doorway is occupied by a great three-headed Naga, and may be 
 as old as the Hathi cave. The inscription on it merely says that it 
 is the unequalled chamber of Chulakarma, who seems also to have 
 excavated another cave, here called the Pawan Gabha,^ or Purification 
 Cave. 
 
 Besides these, and smaller caves to be noticed hereafter, the great 
 interest of the Udayagiii caves centres in two — the so-called Ganesa 
 
 ' This inscription first attracted the | admitted, made by Prinsep, with the 
 attention of Stirling, and a plate repre- assistance of his pundits, and published, 
 senting it very imperfectly is given in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 
 15th volume of the ' Asiatic Researches.' vol. vi. p. 1080, et seqq. 
 It was afterwards copied by Kittoe, and ^ - ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 a translation, as far as its imperfection Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 1073, plate 54. 
 
140 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 Book 1. 
 
 cave, and that called the Raj Raiii, or Rani Hanspur, from a tradition 
 — Hindu — that it was excavated by the Rani of Lelat Indra Kesari, the 
 celebrated builder of the Bhuvaneswar temple in the 7tli century. 
 
 The former is a small cave, consisting of two cells, together 30 ft. 
 long by 10 ft. wide, in front of which is a verandah, slightly longer, 
 that was once adorned with five pillars, though only three are now 
 standing (Woodcut No. 70). There is an inscrip- 
 tion on this cave in the Kutila characters, de- 
 dicating it to Jaganath ; but this is evidently an 
 addition in modern times.^ The style of the 
 architecture may be judged of from the annexed 
 woodcut, representing one of its pillars (Wood- 
 cut No. 71). They are of extreme simplicity, 
 being square piers, changing into octagons in the centre only, and 
 with a slight bracket of very wooden construction on each face. The 
 
 doorways leading into the cells are 
 adorned with the usual horseshoe 
 formed canopies copied from the fronts 
 of the chaitya halls, and which w^e are 
 now so familiar with from the Bharhut 
 sculptures, and from the openings com- 
 mon to all wooden buildings of that 
 
 70. Ganesa Cave. (From 
 a Plan by Mr. Locke.) 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 71. 
 
 Pillar in Ganesa Cave, Cuttack. 
 (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 72. 
 
 Upper Storey, Rani Gumpha. (From a Plan by 
 H. H. Locke.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 The other cave is very much larger, being two storeys in height, 
 both of which were originally adorned by verandahs : the upper 
 62 ft. long, opening into four cells (Woodcut No. 72), the lower, 44 
 ft., opening into three. All the doors leading into these cells have 
 jambs sloping slightly inwards, which is itself a sufficient indication 
 that the cave is anterior to the Christian Era, it may be, by a century 
 or thereabouts. Of the nine pillars of the upper verandah only 
 
 ' ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 1 075. 
 
CllAP. VI. 
 
 BENGAL CAYES. 
 
 141 
 
 two remain standing, and these mnch mutilated, while all the six 
 of the lower storey have perished. It seems as if from inexperience 
 the excavators had not left sufficient substance to support the mass 
 of rock above ; and probably, in consequence of some slight shocks 
 of an earthquake, the mass above fell in, bearing everything before 
 it. Either then, or at some subsequent period, an attempt has been 
 made to restore the lower verandah in wood, and for this purpose 
 a chase has been cut through the sculptures that adorned its back 
 w^all, and they have been otherwise so mutilated that it is almost 
 impossible to make out their meaning. Fortunately, those of the 
 upper verandahs are tolerably entire, though in some parts they, too, 
 have been very badly treated. 
 
 Besides this, which may be called the main body of the building, 
 two wings project forward ; that on the left 40 ft., that on the right 
 20 ft. ; and, as these contained cells on both storeys, the whole 
 afforded accommodation for a considerable number of inmates. 
 
 The great interest of these two caves, however, lies in their 
 sculptures. In the Ganesa cave there are two bas-reliefs. The first 
 represents a man asleep under a tree, and a woman watching over 
 him. To them a woman is approaching leading a man by the hand, 
 as if to introduce him to the sleeper. Beyond them a man and a 
 woman are fighting with swords and shields in very close combat, 
 and behind them a man is carrying off a naked female in his arms.^ 
 
 The second bas-relief comprises fifteen figures and two elephants. 
 There may be in it two successive scenes, though my impression is, that 
 only one is intended, while I feel certain this is the case regarding 
 the first. In the Raj Rani cave the second bas-relief is identical, in 
 all essential respects, with the first in the Ganesa, but the reliefs 
 that precede and follow it represent different scenes altogether. It 
 is, perhaps, in vain to speculate what episode this rape scene repre- 
 sents, probably some local tradition not known elsewhere ; its greatest 
 interest for our present purposes is that the first named is singu- 
 larly classical in design and execution, the latter wilder, and both 
 in action and costume far more purely Indian. Before the discovery 
 of the Bharhut sculptures, it is hardly doubtful that we would have 
 pronounced those in the Ganesa cave the oldest, as being the most 
 perfect. The Bharhut sculptures, how^ever, having shown us how 
 perfect the native art was at a very early date, have considerably 
 modified our opinions on this subject ; and those in the Rani cave. 
 
 ^ There is a very faithful drawing of 
 this bas-relief by Kittoe in the ' Journal 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. 
 vii. plate 44. But casts of all these 
 sculptures were taken some three years 
 ago by Mr. Ijocko. of the School of IJe- 
 
 sign, Calcutta, and photographs of these 
 casts, with others of the caves, are now 
 before me. Keduced copies of some of 
 these were published on plate 100, ' Tree 
 and Serpent Worship,' 2ud edition, 1873. 
 
142 
 
 BUDDHIST AKCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 being so essentially Indian in their style, now appear to nie the 
 oldest. Those in the Ganesa (xumpha, as more classical, may have 
 been executed by some Yavana artist at a subsequent age, but still 
 both seem anterior to the Christian Era.^ The other bas-reliefs in 
 the Raj Rani cave represent scenes of hunting, fighting, dancing, 
 drinking, and love-making — anything, in fact, but religion or praying 
 in any shape or form. From the sculptures at Sanchi and Bharhut, 
 we were prepared to expect that we should not find any direct 
 evidence of Buddhism in any sculptures anterior to the first century 
 of the Christian Era ; but those at this place go beyond these in that 
 respect. Nothing here can be interpreted as referring to any scenes 
 in the life of Sakya Muni, or to any known jataka, and it is by no 
 means clear whether we shall ever discover the legends to which they 
 refer. Besides these bassi-relievi, there is in the Rani cave a figure, 
 in high relief, of a female (?) riding on a lion. Behind him or her, 
 a soldier in a kilt, or rather the dress of a Roman soldier, with laced 
 boots reaching to the calf of the leg — very similar, in fact, to those 
 represented Plate 28, fig. 1, of * Tree and Serpent Worship,' as 
 strangers paying their addresses to the three-storeyed dagoba — and 
 behind this, again, a female of very foreign aspect. 
 
 In another cave of the same group, called the Jodev Garbha, and 
 of about the same age, between the two doorways leading to the cell, 
 a sacred tree is being worshipped. It is surrounded by the usual 
 rail, and devotees and others are bringing offerings.^ 
 
 In another, probably older than either of the two last-mentioned, 
 called Ananta Garbha, are two bassi-relievi over the two doorways : 
 one is devoted, like the last, to Tree worship, the other to the honour 
 of Sri (vide ante, p. 51). She is standing on her lotus, and two 
 elephants, standing likewise on lotuses, are pouring w^ater over her.^ 
 The same representation occurs once, at least, at Bharhut, and ten 
 times at Sanchi, and, so far as I know, is the earliest instance of 
 honour paid to god or man in Indian sculptures. 
 
 One other cave deserves to be mentioned before leaving Udayagiri. 
 It is a great boulder, carved into the semblance of a tiger's head, 
 Avith his jaws open, and his throat, as it should be, is a doorAvay 
 leading to a single cell (Woodcut No. 73). It is a caprice, but one 
 that shows that those who conceived it had some experience in the 
 
 * That there were Yavanas iu Orissa 
 about this time is abuudautly evident, 
 from the native authorities quoted by 
 Stirling — ' Asiatic Researclies,' vol. xv. p. 
 258, et seqq. 'I'hese represent them as 
 coming from Kashmir, and Babul Des, 
 or Persia, and one account names the 
 invader as Haagsha Deo, which looks 
 very like Hnshka, or Huvishka (the 
 
 brother of Kanishka). whose inscriptions 
 are found at Muttra. — Cunningham, 
 ' Archajological Reports,' vol. ii. p. 32, d 
 seqq. 
 
 2 • Journal of the Asiatic Society cl 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. plate -12, 'Tree and 
 Serpent Worship,' plate 100. 
 
 ' ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' plate 
 100, p. 105. 
 
Cfiap. VI. 
 
 BENGAL CAVES. 
 
 143 
 
 plastic arts before they undertook it. From the form of the characters 
 which are engTaved upon it, it is undoubtedly anterior to the 
 Christian Era, but how much 
 earlier it is dii!icult to say. 
 
 From whatever point of 
 view they are looked at, these 
 Orissan caves are "so unlike 
 anything that we have pre- 
 viously been in the habit of 
 considering Buddhist, that it 
 may well be asked whether 
 we are justified in ascribing 
 their excavation to the fol- 
 lowers of that religion at all. 
 Not only is there no figure 
 of Buddha, in the conventional forms and attitudes by which he 
 was afterwards recognised, but there is no scene which can be inter- 
 preted as representing any event in his life, nor any of the jatakas 
 in which his future greatness was prefigured. There is no dagoba 
 in the caves ^ or represented in the sculptures, no chaitya cave, no 
 wheel emblem, nor anything in fact that is usually considered 
 emblematical of that religion. 
 
 When we look a little more closely into it, however, we do detect 
 the Swastica and shield emblem attached to the Aira inscription, and 
 the shield and trisul ornament over the doorways in the older caves, 
 and these we know, from what w^e find at Bharhut and Sanchi, and at 
 Bhaja {ante, p. 112), were considered as Buddhist emblems in these 
 places. But were they exclusively so ? The trisul ornament is found 
 on the coins of Kadphises, in conjunction with the bull and trident of 
 Siva,2 and we have no reason for assuming that the Swastica, and it 
 may be even the shield, were not used by other and earlier sects. 
 
 The truth of the matter appears to be that hitherto our knowledge 
 of Buddhism has been derived almost exclusively from books, which 
 took their present form only in the fourth or fifth century of our era, 
 or from monuments erected after the corruptions of the Mahayana intro- 
 duced by Nagarjuna, and those who assisted at the fourth convocation 
 held by Kanishka in the first century of our era. We now are able 
 to realise from the sculptures of Bharhut, of these caves, and of the 
 Sanchi gateways, and the older western caves, what Buddhism really 
 was between the ages of Asoka and Kanishka, and it is a widely 
 different thing from anything written in the books we possess, or 
 
 ^ There may have been a structural I may have disappeared, 
 dagoba attached to the series, which I ^ Wilson, ' Ariana An tiqua,' plate 10. 
 
144 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCPHTECTURE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 represented afterwards in scnlptnres or paintings. Whether we 
 shall ever recover any traces of what Buddhism was between the 
 death of Sakya Muni and Asoka, is more than doubtful. If found, it 
 would probably be even more unlike the present Buddhism than that 
 of the intermediate period. Judging from what we have hitherto 
 found, it looks as if it would turn out to be a pure worship of trees 
 by a Naga or serpent-reverencing race, on whose primitive faith 
 Asoka engrafted the teachings of Sakya Muni. There were Buddhists, 
 of course, in India before Asoka's time, but it seems doubtful if they 
 were sufficiently powerful to dig caves or erect monuments. None at 
 least have yet been discovered, and till they are we must be content 
 to stop our backward researches with such a group of monuments as 
 these Udayagiri caves. 
 
 Western Vihara Caves. 
 
 There are at least four Yiharas which w^e know for certainty were 
 excavated before the Christian Era. There are probably forty, but 
 they have not yet been edited with such care as to enable us to feel 
 confident in affixing dates to them. The four that are known are 
 those attached to the chaityas at Bhaja and Bedsa (Woodcuts Nos. 
 45, 49), and the two oldest at Ajunta, Nos. 12 and 11. Those at 
 Karli are probably coeval with the great chaitya itself, but, strange to 
 say, they have never been drawn or investigated, so that we really 
 know little or nothing about them. At Junir there are several, which 
 are very old, and at Sana and Tulaja, in Gujerat, there are several of 
 very ancient date, but they, like those at Junir, are too imperfectly 
 known to be quoted as authenticated examples of the period. 
 
 The oldest of these is that attached to the chaitya at Bhaja 
 {ante, Woodcut No. 45). It is five-celled ; three of these have single 
 stone beds in them, one is double-bedded, and one, apparently the resi- 
 dence of the superior, is without that uncomfortable piece of furniture. 
 In front of these are two long stone benches at either end of a hall 
 33 ft. in length. It is not clear whether this hall was always open 
 as at present, but, if it was closed, it was by a wooden screen like the 
 chaitya beside it, which is undoubtedly of the same age. They are 
 indeed parts of one design. The same may be said of the Bedsa 
 vihara, though placed a little further apart. In this case, however, 
 there are three cells with stone beds in the verandah of the chaitya, 
 and a fourth was commenced when apparently it was determined to 
 remove the residence a little further off, and no instance, I believe, 
 occurs afterwards in which they were so conjoined, till at least a very 
 late date, when, as at Dhumnar (Woodcut No. 65), all the parts got 
 again confounded together. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut 
 No. 40) it is exceptional in form, being apsidal like the chaitya itself. 
 
Chap. VL 
 
 WESTERN VIHARA CAVES. 
 
 145 
 
 It is not clear whether this is a copy of any existing wooden erection, 
 or whether it was that, being the first attempt at an independent 
 vihara in the rock, they thought it ought to resemble a chaitya in 
 plan. My impression is that the latter is the true explanation ; such 
 an arrangement in a free-standing structure intended for a residence 
 would be absurd, but we are here assisting at the " incunabula " of the 
 style, and must not be surprised at anomalies. 
 
 Number 12 at Ajunta is merely a square hall, measuring 36 ft. 7 in. 
 each way. It has no pillars, and its only ornament consists of seven 
 horseshoe arches, four of which are over the doors of cells, the other three 
 only ornamental. Unfortunately, the rock over its front has given way, 
 and carried with it the fa9ade, which jDrobably was the most ornamental 
 part of the design. 
 
 Number 11 is a step in advance of this one, there being four 
 pillars in its centre (Woodcut No. 74). It has nine cells, but is without 
 any sanctuary or ritual arrangement. 
 
 In age, it seems to be contemporary , , , , 
 
 with the chaitya No. 10, to which it > Jii ^ t' 
 
 evidently belongs, and like it may be ' ^ | ' 
 
 considered as a transitional example, ^- f^"^ ^ | 
 
 datina- about the Christian Era, or C -i 
 
 □ 
 
 rather before that time, _-_r„,,^ nr:'-±r^'^ 
 
 vr' ' ' I 
 
 The most marked characteristic , ' 
 
 - 1 — 
 
 of these early viharas on the western " 
 side of India, is that unlike their 74. Cave no. n, at Ajunta. 
 eastern contemporaries, they are wholly '^^'^^'^^afesi S^tlflJl nr^""''^ 
 devoid of figure-sculpture : no bassi- 
 
 relievi, not even an emblem, relieves the severity of their simpUcity. 
 Over the doorways of the cells there are the usual horseshoe arches, 
 copied from the windows of the great chaityas, and the invariable 
 Buddhist rail repeated everywhere as a stringcourse, with an occa- 
 sional pillar or pilaster to relieve the monotony. 
 
 There do not at present seem to exist any data sufficient to 
 account satisfactorily for this curious difference between the ex- 
 uberance of figure-sculpture in the east, and its total absence in the 
 west in the pre-Christian Era caves, and the problem must be relegated 
 for further inquiries. Looking, however, at the progress made of late 
 years in these subjects, there is little doubt that its solution is not far 
 off, and will, when reached, throw fresh light on the early history of 
 Buddhism. Meanwhile, it may be worthy of remark, that the only 
 living representation that is common to both sides of India, is the 
 presence of the three-headed Naga on the fagade of the Nassick 
 chaitya (Woodcut No. 52), and its appearance in a similar position 
 on the Chulakarma and Ananta caves at Udayagiri in Orissa. It points 
 to an important feature in early Buddhist history, but not exactly 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 , r 
 1 1 
 O 
 n 
 
 IP 
 
 rt 
 
 what wc are now looking for. Besides this the three, five, or seven- 
 headed Naga occurs so frequently at Bharhut, Sanchi and elsewhere, 
 that his presence here can hardly be called a distinctive peculiarity. 
 
 The next step after the introduction of four pillars to support the 
 roof, as in cave No. 11 at Ajunta (Woodcut No. 74), was to introduce 
 
 twelve pillars to support the roof, 
 there being no intermediate number 
 which would divide by four, and 
 admit of an opening in the centre 
 of every side. This arrangement 
 is shown in the woodcut (No. 75), 
 representing the plan of the cave 
 No. 2 at Ajunta. Before this stage 
 of cave architecture had been 
 reached, the worship had degene- 
 rated considerably from its original 
 purity ; and these caves always 
 possess a sanctuary containing an 
 image of Buddha. There are fre- 
 quently, besides this, as in the 
 instance under consideration, two 
 side chapels, like those in Catholic churches, containing images of 
 subordinate saints, sometimes male, sometimes female. 
 
 W 
 
 .r! 
 
 Cave No. 2, at Ajunta. 
 CFrom a P an by the Author.) 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 76, Cave at Bagh. (From a Plan, by Captain Dangerfield, in the ' Transactions of the Bombay 
 Literary Society.') Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 The next and most extensive arrangement of these square monastery- 
 
Chap. VL 
 
 NASSICK VIHARAS. 
 
 147 
 
 caves is that in which twenty pillars are placed in the floor, so as 
 to support the roof, six on each side, counting the corner pillars twice. 
 There are several of these large caves at Ajunta and elsewhere ; and 
 one at Bagh, on the Tapty, represented in the last woodcut (No. 76), 
 has, besides the ordinary complement, four additional pillars in the 
 centre ; these were introduced evidently in consequence of the rock not 
 being sufficiently homogeneous and perfect to support itself without this 
 additional precaution. 
 
 These — which might be classed, according to the terms used in 
 Greek architecture, as astyle, when having no pillars ; distyle, when 
 with two pillars in each face ; tetrastyle, with four ; and hexastyle 
 with six — form the leading and most characteristic division of these 
 excavations, and with slight modification are to be found in all the 
 modern series. 
 
 The forms, however, of many are so various and so abnormal, that 
 it would require a far more extended classification to enable us to 
 describe and include them all. In many instances the great depth of 
 the cave which this square arrangement required was felt to be incon- 
 venient ; and a more 
 oblong form was 
 adopted, as in the 
 Durbar cave at Sal- 
 sette (Woodcut No. 
 77), where, besides, 
 the sanctuary is pro- 
 jected forward, and 
 assists, with the 
 pillars, to support 
 the roof. In some 
 examples this is 
 carried even further, 
 and the sanctuary, 
 standing boldly forward to the centre of the hall, forms in reality 
 the only support. This, however, is a late arrangement, and must be 
 considered more as an economical than an architectural improvement. 
 Indeed by it the dignity and beauty of the whole composition are almost 
 entirely destroyed. 
 
 Nassick Viharas. 
 
 The two most interesting series of caves for the investigation of 
 the history of the later developments of the Yihara system, are those 
 at Nassick and Ajunta. The latter is by far the most extensive, con- 
 sisting of twenty-six first-class caves, four of which are chaityas. 
 The latter group numl)crs, it is true, seventeen excavations, but 
 
 L 2 
 
 e 0 6> ® ® a *■ 
 
 77. Durbar Cave, Salsette. (Krora a Plan by the Author.) 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
148 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 only six or seven of these can be called first-class, and it possesses 
 only one chaitya. The others are small excavations of no particular 
 merit or interest. Ajunta has also the advantage of retaining the 
 greater portion of the paintings which once adorned the Avails of all 
 viharas erected subsequently to the Christian Era, while these have, 
 almost entirely disappeared at Nassick, though there seems very little 
 doubt that the walls of all the greater viharas there were once so 
 ornamented. This indeed was one of the great distinctions between 
 them and the earlier primitive cells of the monks before the Christian 
 Era. The Buddhist church between Asoka and Kanishka was in the 
 same position as that of Christianity between Constantine and Gregory 
 the Great. It was the last-named pontiff who inaugurated the Middle 
 Ages with all their pomp and ceremonial. It might, therefore, under 
 certain circumstances be expedient to describe the Ajunta viharas 
 first ; but they are singularly deficient in well-preserved inscriptions 
 containing recognisable names. Nassick, on the other hand, is peculiarly 
 rich in this respect, and the history of the series can be made out with 
 very tolerable approximative certainty.^ 
 
 The only difficulty is at the beginning of the series. If the chaitya 
 cave was, as above stated, commenced 129 years before Christ, there 
 ought to have been a vihara of the same age attached to it, but such 
 does not seem to exist. There is indeed a small vihara close to it, 
 and on a lower level than those now on each side of it, and conse- 
 quently more likely to be what we are looking for, than they are. It 
 is a simple square hall measuring 14 ft. each way, with two square 
 cells in three of its sides, the fourth opening on a verandah with two 
 octagon pillars in front. The only ornament of the interior is a horse- 
 shoe arch over each opening, connected with a simple Buddhist rail. 
 In every detail it is in fact identical with the two old viharas Nos. 
 12 and 11 Ajunta, and certainly anterior to the Christian Era ; but it 
 bears an inscription of Krishna Eaja, and he seems almost certainly 
 to be the second of the Andrabritya race, and he ascended the throne 
 B.C. 8, or 120 years after the time we are looking for.^ But for this 
 
 ^ These inscriptions were first pub- 
 lished by Lieut, Brelt, with translations 
 by Dr. Stevenson, in the fifth volume of 
 the ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Eoyal Asiatic Society,' p. 39, et seqq., 
 plates 1 to 16. They were afterwards 
 revised by Messrs. E. W. and A. A. West 
 in the eighth volume of the same journal, 
 p. 37, et seqq., and translated by Professor 
 Bhandarkar in a paper not yet published, 
 but to wliich I have had access. I have 
 also been assisted by manuscript plans 
 and notes by Mr. Burgess ; and, though 
 
 I have not seen the caves myself, I fancy 
 that I can realise all their main features 
 without difficulty. 
 
 ^ Professor Biiandarkar, in his paper 
 on these inscriptions, passes over the 
 inscriptions in the interior of the chaitya, 
 without alluding to them in any way. 
 Is it that there is any mistake about 
 them? and that the cave is a century 
 more modern than they would lead us 
 to suppose? The answer is probably to 
 be obtained on the spot, and there only. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 NASSrCK VIHARAS. 
 
 149 
 
 the archifcectural details would accord perfectly with those of the 
 chaitya, and the age ascribed to it ; but the inscriptions may have 
 been added afterwards. If this is not so, the only suggestion that 
 occurs to me is that, as originally executed, the chaitya had a forecourt, 
 and that the cells were in this, as at Bedsa and Sana, but that havino- 
 fallen away, from some flaw in the rock, was entirely removed, and 
 at a subsequent time that on the right was added at a height of 6 ft. 
 above the level of the floor of the chaitya, that on the left at 12 ft., 
 about the same datum,i which could hardly have been the case if they 
 were part of the original conception. 
 
 Turning from these, which practically belong to the last chapter 
 rather than to this, the interest is centred in three great viharas, 
 the oldest of which bears the name 
 of Nahapana (Woodcut No. 78), the 
 second that of Gautamiputra, and 
 the third that of Yadnya Sri — if my 
 chronology is correct, their dates 
 are thus fixed, in round numbers, 
 as A.D. 100, 300, and 400. 
 
 The two principal viharas at 
 Nassick, Nos. 3 and 8, are so similar 
 in dimensions and in all their ar- 
 rangements, that it is almost impos- 
 
 ^78. JMahapana Vihara, Nassick. 
 
 Slble to distinguish between their (From a Plan by Mr. Burgess.) 
 
 , ^ Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 plans on paper. They are both 
 
 square halls measuring more than 40 ft. each side, without any pillars 
 in the centre, and are surrounded on three sides by sixteen cells of nearly 
 the same dimensions. On the fourth side is a six-pillared verandah, in 
 the one case with a cell at each end, in the other with only one cell, 
 which is the most marked distinction between the two plans. The 
 architecture, too, is in some respects so similar that we can hardly 
 hesitate in assuming that the one is an intentional copy of the other. 
 It is in fact the problem of the great cave at Kenheri, being a copy 
 of that at Karli repeated here.^ Only the difference in age between 
 the two chaityas being five centuries, the degradation in style is 
 greater than here, where it appears to be little more than two. 
 
 The pillars in the verandah of cave No. 8 (Woodcut No. 79, p. 150) 
 are so similar to those in the great Karli chaitya, that if it should turn 
 out, as Justice Newton ^ supposes, that Nahapana was the founder of the 
 Samvat era, 56 B.C., there would be nothing in the architecture to con- 
 tradict such a date. According to Mr. West, " the pillars are shorter 
 
 ^ ' Journal Bombay Brancli of the where the pillars of the two caves are 
 
 Eoyal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 40. contrasted as here. 
 
 2 Ante, p. 129. See also plate 11 of ^ 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 
 my folio work on the 'Kock-cut Temples,' Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. ix, p. 16. 
 
150 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 in proportion, and the human figures more rudely designed ; " ^ but 
 whether to such an extent as to justify an interval of nearly two cen- 
 turies is not quite clear. On the other hand no vihara I know of on 
 this side of India has a fagade so richly ornamented as this. Those 
 at Bhaja and Bedsa are quite plain, and those around Karli, though 
 richer, are far inferior to this, so that on the whole the architectural 
 evidence tends strongly to a date subsequent to the Christian Era. 
 
 The inscription on this cave says, that it was excavated by 
 
 79. Pillar in Naliapana Cave, Nabslck. 
 (trom a Photograph.) 
 
 80. Pillar in Gautauiiputra Cave, Nassick. 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
 Ushavadata, son-in-law of Nahapana, viceroy under King Kshaha- 
 ratra,^ evidently a foreigner, whose proper name has not yet been 
 discovered, but for reasons given in the Appendix, there seems little 
 doubt but that the Saka era (a.d. 78-9) dates from his coronation, 
 and as some years must have elapsed before the son-in-law of the 
 viceroy could have been in a position to undertake such a work as 
 this, I presume a.d. 100 is not far from the date of the cave. 
 
 The pillars of the Gautaniiputra cave No. 3 have, as will be seen 
 
 ' Journal Bombay Braiicli Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 42. ^ j^*^ y^j^ y p 
 
Chai>. VI. 
 
 NASSICK VIHARAS. 
 
 151 
 
 from the last woodcut (No. 80), lost much of the elegance of those 
 last described. Instead of the graceful bell-shaped Persian capitals, 
 we have the pudding forms that afterwards became so prevalent. The 
 shafts are straight posts, and have no bases, and the whole shows an 
 inferiority not to be mistaken. The richly carved and sculptured 
 doorway also belongs to a much more modern age. Besides this, 
 there are three things here which prove almost incontestably that it 
 belongs to the same age as the Amravati tope erected in the 4th century 
 — the rail in front, already given (Woodcut No. 36), the pilaster at the 
 end of the verandah,^ and the bas-relief of a dagoba, which occupies the 
 same position on the back wall in this cave that the man with the club 
 occupies in No. 8. It has the same attendants, and the same superfluity 
 of umbrellas, as are found there,^ so that altogether the age of the 
 excavation can hardly be considered doubtful. 
 
 Cave No. 12 is a small vihara, the central hall being 30 ft. by 23 
 ft., and with only four cells on one side. Considerable alterations 
 have been attempted in its interior at some date long subsequent to 
 its first excavation, to adapt it apparently to Hindu worship. Its 
 verandah, however, consisting of two attached and two free-standing 
 columns, is undoubtedly of the same age as the Nahapana cave No. 8. 
 An inscription upon it states that it was excavated by Indragnidatta, 
 prince regnant under Patamitraka of the northern region.^ None of 
 these names can be recognised, but they point to an age when foreign 
 kings, possibly of the Punjab, 
 ruled this countiy by satraps. 
 
 The great vihara beyond the 
 chaitya cave, and 12 ft. above its 
 level, is one of the most important 
 of the series, not only from its 
 size, but from its ordinance and 
 date (Woodcut No. 81). The hall 
 is 60 ft. in depth by 40 ft. wide 
 at the outer end, increasing to 
 45 ft. at the inner, and with 
 eight cells on either side. The 
 most marked peculiarity, how- 
 ever, is that it has a regular 
 sanctuary at its inner end, with 
 two richly - carved pillars in gi. 
 front (Woodcut No. 82, p. 152), 
 and within, a colossal figure of 
 Buddha, seated, with flying and standin 
 
 Ya-lnya Sri Cave, Nassick. 
 (From a Plan by Mr. Burgess.) 
 Scale 60 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 attendants, dwarpals, dwarfs. 
 
 * ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' wood- 
 cut 12, p. 92. 
 
 2 Ibid., plates 81, 91, 97, ct 2)cissi)n. 
 
 ' ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. v. p. 55. 
 
152 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 and all the usual accompaniments usually found in the fifth and sub- 
 sequent centuries, but never, so far as I know, before. 
 
 called a vihara — of very irregular shape, and covered with sculpture 
 of a date at least a century more modern than that of the cave last 
 described. Buddha is there represented in all his attitudes, standing or 
 sitting, accompanied by chowrie bearers, flying figures, dwarfs, &c. On 
 one side is a colossal recumbent figure of him attaining Nirvana, which 
 is a sure sign of a very modern date. Besides these, there are Dyani 
 Buddhas, Bodhisatwas, and all the modern pantheon of Buddhism, 
 arranged in most admired confusion, as in all the most modern caves. 
 There is no inscription, but from its sculpture and the form of its 
 pillars we may safely ascribe it to the last age of Buddhist art, say 
 about the year 600 or later. The pillars approximate closely in style to 
 those found at Elephanta, and in the Brahmanical caves at EUora, 
 which from other evidence have been assigned to dates varying from 
 600 to 800 years of our era. 
 
 More has perhaps been said about the Nassick caves than their 
 architectural importance would seem at first sight to justify, but they 
 
 ' 'Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 56. 
 
 Fortunately we have 
 in this cave an inscription 
 containing a well-known 
 name. It is said to have 
 been excavated by the wife 
 of the commander-in-chief 
 of the Emperor Yadnya 
 Sri, Sat Karni, descendant 
 of King Gautamiputra, in 
 the seventh year.^ We 
 are not able to fix the ex- 
 act year to which this date 
 refers ; probably it was 
 only regnal, but it does 
 not seem doubtful that 
 this king reigned in the 
 first quarter of the 5th 
 century, and we conse- 
 quently have in this cave 
 a fixed point on which to 
 base our calculations for the 
 period about the time. 
 
 82. 
 
 Pillar in Yadnya Sri Cave. 
 (From a Drawing by Mr. Burgese.) 
 
 Beyond this there is 
 still another excavation. 
 No. 17 — it can hardly be 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 AJUNTA VIHARAS. 
 
 153 
 
 are one of the most important of the pnrely Buddhist groups, and they 
 have hardly yet been aUuded to in European books. Their great 
 merit, however, is that they belong to one of the most important of 
 the older Indian dynasties, known as the Andrabrityas, Sata Karnis, 
 or Satavahanas. Being of purely Indian extraction, they, however, 
 did not coin money like the Punjab dynasties, nor their contempora- 
 ries and rivals the Sah kings of Gujerat, who brought the art with 
 them when they came as conquerors from the north-west, where 
 they had learnt the art from the Greeks. This dynasty has, conse- 
 quently, been overlooked by numismatists and others, and can only 
 be rehabilitated by their inscriptions and their architectural work, on 
 which these are found inscribed. 
 
 Ajunta Vihakas. 
 
 As before mentioned, the central group of the four oldest caves 
 at Ajunta forms the nucleus from which the caves radiate north and 
 south — eight in one direction, and fourteen in the other. It seems, 
 however, that there was a pause in the excavation of caves after the 
 first great effort, and that they were then extended, for some time at 
 least, in a southern direction. Thus caves Nos. 13 to 20 form a 
 tolerably consecutive series, without any violent break. After that, 
 or it may be contemporaneously with the last named, may be grouped 
 Nos. 8, 7, and 6 ; and, lastly, Nos. 21 to 26 at one end of the series, 
 and Nos. 1 to 5 at the other, form the latest and most ornate group of 
 the whole series.^ 
 
 As above explained of the central four, three are certainly anterior 
 to the Christian Era. One, No. 10, being transitional in some of its 
 features, may belong to the 1st century, and be consequently contem- 
 porary with the gateways at Sanchi. After this first effort, however, 
 came the pause just alluded to, for Nos. 13, 14, and 15, which are the 
 only caves we can safely assign to the next thi-ee centuries, are com- 
 paratively insignificant, either in extent or in richness of detail. 
 
 Leaving these, we come to two viharas, Nos. 16 and 17, which are 
 the most beautiful here, and, taken in conjunction with their paintings, 
 probably the most interesting viharas in India. 
 
 No. 16 is a twenty-pillared cave, measuring about 65 ft. each way 
 (Woodcut No. 83, p. 154), with sixteen cells and a regular sanctuary, 
 in which is a figure of Buddha, seated, with his feet down. The 
 general appearance of the interior may be judged of by the following 
 woodcut (No. 84) in outline, but only a coloured representation in much 
 
 ^ The caves, it may be explained, were 
 numbered consecutively, like houses in a 
 street, beginning at the north end, the 
 
 first cave there being No. 1, the last 
 accessible cave at the southern end being 
 No. 26. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 AJUNTA VIHAEAS. 
 
 155 
 
 g-reater detail could give an idea of the richness of effect produced by its 
 decoration. All the walls are covered with frescoes representing scenes 
 from the life of Buddha, or from the legends of saints, and the roof and 
 pillars by arabesques and ornaments, generally of great beauty of outline, 
 heightened by the most harmonious colouring. 
 
 No. 17, which is very similar in plan, is generally known as the 
 Zodiac cave, from the figure of a Buddhist chakra or wheel painted 
 
 85. View in Cave No. 17, at Ajunta. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 at one end of its verandah, which was mistaken by early visitors for 
 a celestial emblem. The general effect of its architecture internally 
 may be gathered from the above woodcut (No. 85) from a photograph, 
 or from the next woodcut (No. 86) representing one of its pillars to 
 a larger scale, from which the curiously wooden construction of the 
 roof will be better observed than from the photograph. It is, in fact, 
 the usual mode of forming flat or terraced roofs at the present day 
 throughout India, and which consequently does not seem to have 
 
156 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 varied from the Sth century at all events. As may be gathered 
 from these illustrations the pillars in these caves are almost in- 
 definitely varied, generally in pairs, but no pillars in any one cave 
 
 are at all like those 
 
 in any other. In 
 each cave, however, 
 there is a general 
 harmony of design 
 and of form, which 
 prevents their variety 
 from being unpleas- 
 ing. The effect on 
 the contrary is sin- 
 gularly harmonious 
 and satisfactory. 
 The great interest 
 of these two caves 
 lies, however, in 
 their frescoes, which 
 represent Buddhist 
 legends on a scale 
 and with a distinct- 
 ness found nowhere 
 else in India. The 
 sculptures of Am- 
 ravati — some of 
 which may be con- 
 temporary, or only 
 slightly earlier — are 
 what most nearly 
 approach them ; but, 
 as in most cases, 
 painting admits of 
 greater freedom and 
 greater variety of 
 incident than sculp- 
 ture ever does, and 
 certainly in this 
 instance vindicates 
 its claim to greater 
 phonetic power. 
 Many of the frets 
 
 Pillar in Vihara No. 17, at Ajunta. 
 (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 and architectural details painted on the roofs and pillars of these 
 and in viharas are also of great elegance and appropriateness, 
 and, when combined Avith the architecture, make up a whole un- 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 AJUNTA VIHARAS. 
 
 157 
 
 rivalled in India for its ethnographic as well as for its architectural 
 beauty. 
 
 Fortunately the age of these two caves is not doubtful ; there is 
 a long inscription on each, much mutilated it must be confessed, but 
 of which enough can be made out to show that they were excavated 
 by kings of the Yindhyasacti race, one of whom, Pravarasena, whose 
 name appears in the inscription on No. 16, married a daughter of 
 Maharaja Deva, alias Chandra-gupta.^ We have inscriptions of the 
 last king dated 82 and 93 of the Gupta era, or in a.d. 400 and 411, 
 and his son-in-law may probably have reigned a few years later. We 
 may consequently safely place these two caves in the first half of 
 the 5th century. They are thus slightly more modern than the Yadnya 
 Sri cave, No. 15, at Nassick, which is exactly the result we would 
 expect to arrive at from their architecture and the form of their 
 sanctuaries. 
 
 Their great interest, therefore, from a historical point of view, 
 consists in their being almost unique specimens of the architecture 
 and arts of India during the great Gupta period, when Theodosius II. 
 was emperor of the East, and at a time when Bahram Gaur, the 
 Sassanian, is said to have visited India. He reigned 420 to 440 ; if he 
 did visit India, it must have been while they were in course of being 
 excavated. 2 
 
 Nos. 18, 19, and 20 succeed this group, both in position and in 
 style, and probably occupied the remaining half of the 5th century in 
 construction, bringing down our history to about a.d. 500. 
 
 Before proceeding further in this direction, the cave-diggers seem 
 to have turned back and excavated Nos. 8, 7, and 6. The last named 
 is the only tw^o-storeyed cave at Ajunta, and would be very interesting 
 if it were not so fearfully ruined by damp and decay, owing to the 
 faulty nature of the rock in which it is excavated. No. 7 has a 
 singularly elegant verandah, broken by two projecting pavilions.^ 
 Internally, it is small, and occupied by a whole pantheon of Buddhas. 
 It resembles, in fact, in almost every respect. No. 17 at Nassick, with 
 which it is, no doubt, contemporary. 
 
 There still remain the five first caves at the northern end, and 
 the six last at the southern : one of these is a chaitya, the other ten 
 are viharas of greater or less dimensions. Some are only commenced, 
 
 ' ' Journal Bomaby Branch of the 
 Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 56. 
 See also, ' Journal of the Asiatic Society 
 of Bengal,' vol. v. p. 726. 
 
 ^ Curiously enough, on the roof of this 
 cave there are four square compartments 
 representing the same scene, in different 
 manners — a king, or very import mt per- 
 sonage, drinking out of a cup with male 
 
 and female attendants. What the story 
 is, is not known, but the persons repre- 
 seuted are not Indians, but Persians, and 
 the costumes those of the Sassanian 
 period. Copies of these pictures by Mr. 
 Griffith are now exhibited in the India 
 Museum at Kensington. 
 
 ^ ' Kock cut Temples,' pi 8. 
 
158 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 and two, Nos. 4 and 24, which were intended to have been the finest 
 of the series, are left in a very incomplete state : interesting, however, 
 as showing the whole process of an excavation from its commencement 
 to its completion. Both these were intended to be 28-pillared caves, 
 and the hall of No. 4 measures 84 ft. by 89 ft. 
 
 Caves Nos. 1 and 2 are among the most richly-sculptured of the 
 caves. The fagade, indeed, of No. 1 is the most elaborate^ and beautiful 
 of its class at A junta, and with the corresponding caves at the opposite 
 end conveys a higher idea of the perfection to which decorative sculptm^e 
 had attained at that age than anything else at Ajunta. With the 
 last chaitya, which belongs to this group, these caves carry our history 
 down certainly into the 7th century. The work in the unfinished caves, 
 I fancy, must have been arrested by the troubles which took place in 
 Central India about the year 650, or shortly afterwards, when, I fancy, 
 the persecution of the Buddhists commenced, and after which it is 
 hardly probable that any community of that faith would have leisure 
 or means to carry out any works, on such a scale at least, as these 
 Ajunta viharas. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible, without a much greater amount of 
 illustration than is compatible with the nature of this work, to convey 
 to those who have not seen them any idea of the various points of 
 interest found in these caves ; but it is to be hoped that a complete 
 series of illustrations of them may be one day given to the world. The 
 materials for this nearly existed when the disastrous fire at the Crystal 
 Palace, in 1860, destroyed Major Gill's facsimiles of the paintings, 
 which can hardly now be replaced.^ A good deal, however, may be, 
 and it is hoped will be, done, as they afford a complete series of 
 examples of Buddhist art without any admixture from Hinduism, or 
 any other religion extending from 200 years before Christ to 600 or 7 00 
 years after his era ; and besides illustrating the arts and feelings 
 of those ages, they form a chronometric scale by which to judge of, 
 and synchronise other known series with which, however, they differ 
 in several important particulars. For instance, at Ajunta there is no 
 single example of those bell-shaped Persian capitals to pillars, with 
 
 ^ Eight large lithographic plates illus- 
 trating these caves will be found in my 
 work on the ' Rock-cut Temples of India,' 
 1843. In 1864 1 published a small volume 
 containing fifty-eight photographic illus- 
 trations of the same series. Reductions 
 of some of the more important frescoes, 
 copied by Major Gill, were fortunately 
 published by Mrs. Speir in her ' Life in 
 Ancient India,' in 1856 ; and since then 
 Mr. Griffith, of the School of Arts at 
 
 Bombay, has been employed to recover, 
 as far as it can now be done, the frescoes 
 destroyed in the Crystal Palace fire. If 
 lie is successful, these curious paintings 
 may still be made available for the his- 
 tory of art in Jndia. It is feared, liow- 
 ever, that the means taken by Major 
 Gill to heighten their colour before copy- 
 ing them, and the destructive tendencies 
 of British tourists, have rendered the 
 task to a great extent a hopeless one. 
 
ClIAP. VI. 
 
 BAGH VIHAKAS. 
 
 159 
 
 waterpot bases ; nor is there any example of animals with riders 
 crowning the capitals, snch as are found at Bedsa, Karli, Nassick, 
 Salsette, and elsewhere in the Ghats. These dilferences seem to point 
 to a Avestern influence, Persian, Saka, or Scythian, or by whatever name 
 we like to designate it, which did not penetrate so far inland as Ajunta 
 or EUora, but was confined to those regions where we know the foreign 
 influence prevailed. 
 
 These, and many more ethnographic distinctions in architecture 
 will, no doubt, be brought out by careful examination and com- 
 parisons, from which, when made, it can hardly be doubted that the 
 most important results will be derived. 
 
 BAaH. 
 
 At a distance about 150 miles a little west of north from Ajunta, 
 and thirty miles west of Mandu, near a little village of the name of 
 Bagh, there exists a series of viharas only little less interesting than 
 the later series at Ajunta. They are situated in a secluded ravine in 
 the side of the range of hills that bounds the valley of the Nerbudda 
 on the north, and were first visited or at least first described by 
 Lieutenant Dangerfield, in the second volume of the ' Transactions of 
 the Literary Society of Bombay.' They have since been described more 
 in detail by Dr. Impey in the fifth volume of the ' Journal Bombay 
 Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic Society.' Unfortunately the plates that 
 were to accompany that paper were not published with it, but being 
 deposited by the author in the library of the India Office, they are 
 now before me, and from them and from this paper the principal details 
 that follow have been gleaned. 
 
 The series consists of eight or nine viharas, some of them of the 
 very first class, but no chaitya hall, nor does any excavation of that 
 class seem ever to have been attempted here. On the other hand, the 
 larger viharas seem to have had a shala or schoolroom attached to 
 them, which may also have been employed for divine service. The 
 fact, however, that the sanctuaries of the viharas generally have a 
 dagoba in them, instead of an image of Buddha, points to a distinction 
 which may hereafter prove of value. On the whole they are purer 
 and simpler than the latest at Ajunta, though most probably of about 
 the same age. 
 
 The plan of one has already been given, but it is neither so large 
 nor architecturally so important as the great vihara, shown in plan. 
 Woodcut No. 87. Its great hall is 96 ft. square, and would at Ajunta 
 rank as a twenty-eight pillared cave, like No. 4 there, but inside this 
 are eight pillars ranged octagonally ; and at a later age, apparently 
 in consequence of some failure of the roof, four structural pillars — 
 
160 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 shaded lighter — were introduced. It is not clear from Dr. Impey's 
 description how the central octagon was originally roofed. He seems 
 
 Great Vihara, at Bagli. (Kroiu a P»an by Dr. Impey.) 
 
 to have believed that a dagoba originally stood in the centre, and 
 having been destroyed brought down the roof with it. As, however, 
 there is a dagoba in the sanctuary, this is hardly probable, and it 
 seems much more likely that it was a copy of a structural octagonal 
 dome, such as we find the Jains invariably employing a few centuries 
 afterwards. If this is so, it would be highly interesting that it should 
 be examined by some architect capable of restoring it constructively 
 from such indications as remain. We have hundreds, almost thousands, 
 of these domes supported on eight pillars after the revival in the 
 loth century, but not one before. If this is one, it might help to 
 restore a missing link in our chain of evidence. 
 
 The shala connected with this vihara measures 94 ft. by 44 ft., and 
 the two are joined together by a verandah measuring 220 ft. in length, 
 adorned by twenty free-standing pillars. At one time the whole of 
 the back wall of this gallery was adorned with a series of frescoes, 
 equalling in beauty and in interest those of Ajunta. As in those at 
 Ajunta, the uninitiated would fail to trace among them any symptoms 
 of Buddhism as generally understood. The principal subjects are 
 pi'ocessions on horseback, or on elephants. In the latter the number 
 of women exceeds that of the men. Dancing and love-making are as 
 usual prominently introduced, and only one small picture, containing 
 two men, can be said to be appropriated to worship. 
 
 With one exception, no man or woman has any covering on their 
 heads, and the men generally have the hair cropped short, and with 
 only very small moustaches on the face. Some half-dozen are as 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 SALSETTE. 
 
 161 
 
 dark as the Indians of the present day. The rest are very much 
 fairer, many as fair as Spaniards, and nearly all wear coloured 
 dresses. 
 
 We are not at present in a position to say, and may not for a 
 long time be able to feel sure, who the races are that are repre- 
 sented in these frescoes or in those at Ajunta. Negatively we may 
 probably be justified in asserting that they are not the ancestors of the 
 present inhabitants of Rajputana, nor of any of the native races — Bhils, 
 Gronds, or such like. Are they Sakas, Yavanas, or any of the trans- 
 Indus tribes who, in the first centuries of the Christian Era flowed into 
 India across that river, bringing with them their arts and religious 
 forms ? The style of art, especially at Bagh, is very similar to that of 
 Persia at about the same date. 
 
 The date of this group of caves seems hardly doubtful. The earliest 
 could not well have been commenced much before a.d. 500 ; the date of 
 the latest, if our chronology is correct, could not well be carried down 
 beyond 650 or 700, unless it was, that the troubles that convulsed the 
 rest of India after that date did not reach those remote valleys in 
 Rajputana till some time afterwards. 
 
 Salsette. 
 
 One of the most extensive, but one of the least satisfactory of all 
 the groups of Indian caves, is that generally known as the Kenheri 
 Caves on the Island of Salsette in Bombay Harbour. The great chaitya 
 cave there, as mentioned above, is only a bad copy of the Karli cave, 
 and was excavated in the beginning of the 5th century, and none of the 
 viharas seem to be earlier. The place, however, must have had some 
 sanctity at an earlier date, for there seems no doubt that a tooth of 
 Buddha was enshrined here in the beginning of the 4th century, when 
 these relics were revolutionising the Buddhist world at least at two 
 diametrically opposite points of the coast of India, at Puri, and in this 
 island.^ It may have been in consequence of the visit of this relic 
 that the island became holy, and it may have been because it was 
 an island, that it remained undisturbed by the troubles of the main- 
 land, and that the practice of excavating caves lasted longer here 
 than in any series above described. Be this as it may, the caves here 
 go straggling on till they fade by almost imperceptible degrees into 
 those of the Hindu religion. The Hindu caves of Montpezir, Kundoty, 
 and Amboli are so like them, and the change takes place so gradually, 
 that it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between the two 
 religions. 
 
 Although, therefore, we have not at Salsette any viharas that can 
 compare with those of Nassick, Ajunta, or Bagh, and they nowhere 
 
 * Ante, p. .59. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 BUDDHIST AECHITKCTri^i:. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 form a series which might assist us in guessing their dates, yet, just 
 because they are so late, and because they do fade so gradually into the 
 next phase, are they worthy of more attention than has been bestowed 
 upon them. 
 
 As these caves are so near Bombay, and so easily accessible, it 
 seems strange that they have lately been so much neglected, and no 
 one seems to have visited, or at least described, the outlying groups. 
 What we know of those of Montpezir or Amboli is derived from 
 Daniell's drawiugs,^ made at the end of the last century, or from the 
 travels of Lord Valentia or Niebuhr.^ The Kenheri group is better 
 known, and I can speak of them from personal knowledge. 
 
 A plan of one has already been given (Woodcut No. 77). It is a 
 two-storeyed vihara, and one of the finest here, though it would not 
 be considered remarkable anywhere else. Another, of which a repre- 
 sentation is given in my 'Kock-cut Temples,' plate 19, represents 
 Avalokiteswara with ten heads, — the only instance I know of in 
 India, though it is common in Thibet in modern times.^ The othei-s 
 are generally mere cells, or natural caverns slightly improved by art, and 
 hardly worthy of illustration in a general history, though a monograph 
 of these caves w^ould be a most valuable addition to our scanty stock of 
 knowledge. 
 
 Dhumnar and Kholvi. 
 
 There are no viharas at either of these places which can at all 
 compare, either in dimensions or in interest, with those already de- 
 scribed. The largest, at Dhumnar, is that already given in com- 
 bination with the chaitya. Woodcut No. 65, and, though important, is 
 evidently transitional to another state of matters. Next to this is one 
 called the Great Kacheri ; but it is only a six-celled vihara, with a hall 
 about 25 ft. square, encumbered by four pillars on its floor ; and near 
 the chaitya above alluded to is a similar hall, but smaller and without 
 cells. At Kholvi there is nothing that can correctly be called a vihara 
 at all. There is, indeed, one large hall, called Bhim's home, measuring 
 42 ft. by 22 ft. ; but it has no cells, and is much more like Avhat would 
 be called a shala at Bagh than a vihara. The others are mere cells, of 
 no architectural importance.'^ 
 
 * I possess a large collection of MS. 
 drawings of these caves, made for Daniell 
 by his assistants in 1795-6. 
 
 ^ ' Voyage en Arabic et d'autres pays 
 circonvoisins,' 1776-80. Most of the 
 plates referring to these caves were re- 
 produced by Langles in his ' Monuments 
 d'Hindostan,' vol. ii., plates 77, et seqq. 
 
 ^ Schlagintweit, ' Buddhismus in 
 Thibet,' plate 3. 
 
 Plans of these caves, with descrip- 
 tions and some architectural details, will 
 be found in Gen. Cunningham's ' Archaeo- 
 logical Iteports,' v.)l. ii. pp. 270-288, plates 
 77-81. Those of Dhumnar I have seen 
 myself, but till those of Kholvi arc 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 ELLORA. 
 
 163 
 
 The fact seems to be that when these two groups of caves were 
 bemg excavated Buddhism was fast losing its original characteristics, 
 and fading into the bastard Brahmanism that succeeded it. When 
 that took place, we cannot at present exactly say ; but I cannot help 
 fancying that this religion may have lingered on, and flourished in 
 the remote wilds of Rajputanai or in the island of Salsette long after it 
 had been driven from the neighbourhood of the great cities and from 
 the populous and well-cultivated plains ; and these caves, especially 
 those of Kholvi, may have been excavated in the 8th or even in the 9th 
 century of our era. 
 
 Ellora. 
 
 At Ellora there are numerous viharas attached to the Yiswakarma, 
 or the great chaitya above described (p. 128). Like it, however, they 
 are all modern, but on that very account interesting, as showing 
 more clearly than elsewhere the 
 steps by which Buddhist cave- 
 architecture faded into that of the 
 Hindus. Every step of the process 
 can be clearly traced here, though 
 the precise date at which the 
 change took place cannot yet be 
 fixed with certainty. 
 
 The great vihara, which is also 
 evidently contemporary with the 
 chaitya, is known as the Dehr- 
 warra, and, as will be seen from 
 the plan (Woodcut No. 88), differs 
 considerably from any of those 
 illustrated above. Its dimensions 
 are considerable, being 110 ft. in 
 depth by 70 ft. across the central 
 recesses, its great defect being the 
 lowness of its roof. Its form, too, 
 is exceptional. It looks more like 
 
 „ , „ , , . , • n • , , 1 88, Plan of Dphrwarra, Ellora. (From 
 
 a nat-rooiea cnaitya, with its three Danieii's 'Views.') Scaie 50 ft. to i 
 aisles, than an ordinary vihara ; 
 
 and such it probably was intended to be, and, if so, it is curious to 
 observe that at Bedsa (Woodcut No. 49) we had one of the earliest 
 
 photographed we shall not be able to than sixty miles north of Ujjain, that 
 speak positively regarding them; the of Dhumnar about twenty-five further 
 General's drawings are on too small a north, and deeper into the Central Indian 
 scale for that purpose. jungles. 
 ' The Kholvi group is situated more ! 
 
 U 2 
 
164 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 complete viharas, looking like a chaitya in plan ; and here we have 
 one of the latest, showing the same confusion of ideas ; a thing very 
 common in architectural history, where a new style or a new aiTange- 
 ment generally hampers itself Avith copying some incongruous form, 
 which it casts off during its vigorous manhood, but to which it returns 
 in its decrepitude — a sure sign that it is passing away. 
 
 Close to the Viswakarma is a small and very pretty vihara, in 
 which the sanctuary stands free, with a passage all round it, as in 
 some of the Saiva caves further on ; and the appearance of the 
 warders on each side of the door would lead one rather to expect 
 an image of Siva inside than the Buddha which actually occupies 
 it. The details, how^ever, of its architecture are the same as in the 
 great cave. 
 
 Communicating with this one is a small square vihara, the roof of 
 which is supported by four pillars of the same detail as the Dookya 
 Ghur, which is the cave next it on the north ; but though surrounded 
 by cells it has no sanctuary or images. 
 
 Higher up the hill than these are two others containing numerous 
 cells, and one with a very handsome hall, the outer half of which has 
 unfortunately fallen in ; enough, however, remains to show^ not only its 
 plan, but all the details, w^hich very much resemble those of the last 
 group of viharas at Ajunta. 
 
 In the sanctuaries of most of these caves are figures of Buddhas 
 sitting with their feet down. On each side of the image in the 
 principal one are nine figures of Buddhas, or rather Bodhisatwas, 
 seated cross-legged, [and below them three and three figures, some 
 cross-legged, and others standing, probably devotees, and one of them a 
 woman. 
 
 Neither of these caves have been entirely finished. 
 
 There is still another group of these small viharas, called the 
 Chumarwarra, or (if I understand correctly) the Chumars' (or shoe- 
 makers') quarter. The first is square, Avith twelve pillars on the 
 same plan as those at Ajunta, though the detail is similar to the 
 Viswakarma. There are cells, and in the sanctuary Buddha sitting 
 with the feet down ; it never has been finished, and is now much 
 ruined. 
 
 The second is similar in plan, though the pillars are of the 
 cushion form of Elephanta and the Dehrwarra, but the capitals are 
 much better formed than in the last example, and more ornamented ; 
 the lateral galleries here contain figures of Buddha, all like the one 
 in the sanctuary, sitting with their feet down, and there are only two 
 cells on each side of the sanctuary. 
 
 The last is a small plain vihara with cells, but without pillars, and 
 much ruined. 
 
 Thft whole of the caves in this group resemble one another so 
 
Chap. VL 
 
 ELLORA. 
 
 165 
 
 much ill detail and execution that it is difficult to make out any suc- 
 cession among them, and it is probable that they were all excavated 
 within the same century as the Yiswakarma. 
 
 The next three temples are particularly interesting to the anti- 
 quarian, as pointing out the successive steps by which the Buddhistical 
 caves merged into the Brahman ical. 
 
 The first is the Do Tal, or Dookya Ghur, a Buddhist vihara of 
 two storeys ; most of its details are so similar to those above described 
 that it may be assumed to be, without doubt, of the same age. It 
 is strictly Buddhistic in all its details, and shows no more tendency 
 towards Brahmanism than what was pointed out in speaking of 
 the Yiswakarma. It apparently was intended to have had three 
 storeys, but has been left unfinished. 
 
 The next, or Teen Tal, is very similar to the last in arrangement 
 and detail, and its sculptures are all Buddhistical, though deviating 
 so far from the usual simplicity of that style as almost to justify the 
 Brahmans in appropriating them as they have done. 
 
 The third, the Das Avatar, is another two-storeyed cave, very 
 similar in all its architectural details to the two preceding, but 
 the sculptures are all Brahmanical. At first sight, it seems as if the 
 excavation had been made by the Buddhists, and appropriated and 
 finished by their successors. This may be true to a certain extent, 
 bnt on a more careful examination it appears more probable that we 
 owe it entirely to the Brahmans. It is evidently the earliest Brahma- 
 nical temple here, and it is natural to suppose that when the Saivites 
 first attempted to rival their antagonists in cave-temples they should 
 follow the only models that existed, merely appropriating them to 
 their own worship. The circumstance, however, that makes this most 
 probable, is the existence of a pseudo-structural mantapa, or shrine of 
 Nundi, in the courtyard ; this evidently must have been a part of 
 the original design, or the rock would not have been left here for it, 
 and it is a model of the usual structural building found in Saiva 
 temples in different parts of India. This is a piece of bad grammar 
 the Buddhists never were guilty of ; their excavations always are 
 caves, whilst the great characteristic of Brahmanical excavations, as 
 distinguished from that of their predecessors, is that they generally 
 copied structural buildings : a system that rose to its greatest height 
 in the Kylas, to be described further on. The Buddhist excavations, 
 on the contrary, were always caves and nothing else. 
 
 It is not easy, in the present state of our knowledge, to determine 
 whether the Ellora Buddhist group is later or earlier than those of 
 Dhumnar and Kholvi. It is certainly finer than either, and conforms 
 more closely with the traditions of the style in its palmiest days ; but 
 that may be owing to local circumstances, of which we have no precise 
 knowledge. The manner, however, in which it fades into the Hindu 
 
166 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 group is in itself sufficient to prove how late it is. If we take a.d. 600 
 as the medium date for the Yiswakarma and its surroundings, and 
 A.D. 750 as a time w^hen the last trace of Buddhism had disappeared 
 from western India, we shall probably not err to any great extent ; 
 but we must wait for some inscriptions or more precise data before 
 ■attempting to speak Avith precision on the subject. 
 
 A great deal more requires to be done before this great cartoon 
 can be filled up with anything like completeness ; but in the mean- 
 while it is satisfactory to know that in these " rock-cut temples," eked 
 out by the few structural examples that exist, we have a complete 
 history of the arts and liturgies of the Buddhists for the thousand 
 years that ranged from B.C. 250 to-« a.d. 750 ; and that, when any one 
 with zeal and intelligence enough for the purpose will devote himself to 
 the task, he will be able to give us a more vivid and far more authentic 
 account of this remarkable form of faith than can be gathered from any 
 books whose existence is now known to us. 
 
 JUNIR. 
 
 When the history of the cave-temples of western India comes to 
 be written in anything like a complete and exhaustive manner, the 
 groups situated near and around the town of Junir, about half-way 
 between Nassick and Poonah, will occupy a prominent position in 
 the series. There are not, it is true, in this locality any chaityas so 
 magnilicent as that at Karli, nor any probably so old as those at 
 Bhaja and Bedsa ; but there is one chaitya, both in plan and dimen- 
 sions, very like that at Nassick and probably of the same age, and 
 one vihara, at least, quite equal to the finest at that place. The 
 great interest of the series, however, consists in its possessing examples 
 of forms not known elsewhere. There are, for instance, certainly 
 two, probably three, chaitya caves, with square terminations and 
 without internal pillars, and one circular cave which is quite unique 
 so far as we at present know. 
 
 These caves have long been known to antiquarians. In 1833 
 Colonel Sykes published a series of inscriptions copied from them, 
 but without any description of the caves themselves.^ In 1847, 
 Dr. Bird noticed them in his ' Historical Eesearches,' with some 
 .wretched lithographs, so bad as to be almost unintelligible ; in 1850, 
 Dr. Wilson described them in the 'Bombay Journal;' and in 1857 
 Dr. Stevenson republished their inscriptions, with translations, in 
 the eighth volume of the same journal ; and lastly Mr. Sinclair of the 
 Bombay Civil Service, wrote an account of them in the ' Indian 
 Antiquary' for February, 1874. Notwithstanding all this, we are 
 
 • ' Journal of.the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iv. pp. 287-291. 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 JUNIR. 
 
 1G7 
 
 still without drawings or photographs which would enable us to 
 understand their peculiarities. The late Dr. Bhau Daji had a set of 
 negatives taken, but never would allow any prints to be made from 
 them ; and, when Mr. Bargess visited the caves last autumn, he did 
 not take a photographic apparatus with him, as he depended on 
 obtaining, through Government, the use of Dr. Bhau Daji's negatives. 
 This has not yet been effected, and till it is this series is hardly 
 available for the purposes of our history, yet it can hardly be passed 
 over in silence. 
 
 The great peculiarity of the group is the extreme simplicity of the 
 caves composing it. They are too early to have any figures of Buddha 
 himself, but there are not even any of these figures of men and women 
 which we meet with at Karli and elsewhere. Everything at Junir 
 wears an aspect of simplicity and severity, due partly to the antiquity 
 of the caves of course, but, so far as at present known, unequalled else- 
 where. One exception — but it is in the most modern cave here — is 
 that Sri, with her two elephants pouring water over her, occupies the 
 frontispiece of a chaitya cave.^ Though so ubiquitous and continuous 
 through all ages, it is seldom this goddess occupies so very important 
 a position as she does here ; but her history has still to be written. 
 
 The annexed plan and section (Woodcuts Nos. 89, 90) will explain 
 the form of the circular cave above alluded to. It is not large, only 
 
 89. Circular Cave, Jiinir. 90. Section of Circular Cave, Junir. 
 
 (From a Plan by Mr. Burgess.) (From a Drawing by Mr. Buigess.) 
 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. Scale 25 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 25 ft. 6 in. across, while its roof is supported by twelve plain octa- 
 gonal pillars which surround the dagoba. The tee has been removed 
 from the dagoba to convert it into a lingam of Siva, in which form it 
 is now worshipped ; a fact that suggests the idea — I fancy a very 
 probable one — that the lingam is really a miniature dagoba, though 
 bearing a different meaning now, and that it was really originally 
 copied from that Buddhist emblem. The interest of the arrangement 
 of this cave will be more apparent when we come to describe the dagobas 
 at Ceylon, which were encircled with pillars in the same manner as 
 
 ^ There is a representation of this cave I done that it requires being told what is 
 in Dr. Bird's book, plate IG, but so badly | intended in order to find it out. 
 
168 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 this one.- Meanwhile the annexed representation (Woodcut No. 91) 
 of a circular temple from the Buddhist sculptures at Bharhut may 
 enable us to realise, to some extent at least, the external form of 
 these temples, which probably were much more common in ancient 
 times than any remains we now possess would justify us in assuming-. 
 
 91. Hound Temple and part of Palace, from a bas-relief at Bliarhut. 
 
 Besides this group at Junir, there is one apparently equally 
 extensive near Aurungabad, and two others, still more extensive, at 
 Daraseo, or Darasinha, and at Hazar Kotri, in the Nizam's territories ; 
 but they are even less known than the Junir group, and there are 
 several others whose existence is only known to us by hearsay. If 
 Mr. Burgess is enabled to continue his explorations a few years longer, 
 they may be brought within the domain of history. At present, like 
 those at Junir, they are not available for any historical or scientific 
 purpose. 
 
Chap. Vll. 
 
 GANDHARA MONASTERIES. 
 
 IGO 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 GANDHARA MONASTERIES. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Monasteries at Jamalgiri, Takht-i-Bahi, and Shall Dehri. 
 
 Few of the recent discoveries in India promise to be more fruitful 
 of important results for the ehicidation of the archaeology of India 
 than those obtained from the recent excavations of ruined monas- 
 teries in the neighbourhood of Pesha^nir. A great deal still remains 
 to be done before we can speak with certainty with regard either to 
 their age or origin, but enough is kno^vn of them to make it certain 
 that the materials there exist for settling not only the question of 
 the amount of influence classical art exercised on that of India, but 
 also for solving many problems of Buddhist archaeology and art. 
 
 As mentioned above, it is from their coins, and from them only, that 
 the names of most of the kings of Bactria and their successors have been 
 recovered ; but we have not yet found a vestige of a building that 
 can be said to have been erected by them or in their age, nor one 
 piece of sculpture that, so far as we now know, could have been 
 executed before their downfall, about B.C. 130. This, however, may be 
 owing to the fact that Bactria proper has long been inhabited by 
 fanatic Moslems, who destroy any representations of the human form 
 they meet with, and no excavations for hidden examples have yet been 
 undertaken in their country ; while it is still uncertain how far the in- 
 fluence of the true Bactrians extended eastward, and Avhether, in fact, 
 they ever really possessed the valley of Pesha\\iTr, where all the sculp- 
 tures yet discovered have been found. No one, in fact, suspected their 
 existence in our own territory till Lieutenants Lumsden and Stokes, in 
 1852, partially explored the half -buried monastery at Jamalgiri, which 
 had been discovered by General Cunningham in 1848. It is situated 
 about thirty-six miles north-east from Peshawur, and from it these 
 officers excavated a considerable number of sculptures, which after- 
 wards came into the possession of the Hon. E. Clive Bayley. He 
 published an account of them in the ' Journal of the Bengal Asiatic 
 Society,' in 1853, and brought the collection itself over to this 
 country. Unfortunately, they were utterly destroyed in the dis- 
 astrous fire that occurred at the Crystal Palace, where they were 
 
170 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 being exhibited in 1860, and this before they had been photographed, 
 or any serious attempt made to compare them with other sculptures. 
 
 Since that time other collections have been dug out of another 
 monastery eight miles further westward, at a place called Takht-i- 
 Bahi, and by Dr. Bel lew at a third locality, ten miles southward, 
 called Sahri Bhalol, some of which have found their way to this 
 country ; and two years ago Dr. Leitner brought home an extensive 
 collection, principally from Takht-i-Bahi. The bulk of the sculp- 
 tures found in these places have been deposited in the Lahore Museum, 
 where upwards of 800 specimens of this class of art now exist, and 
 many are being added every season. Some of these have been photo- 
 graphed,^ and these representations, together with the specimens 
 brought home, are sufficient to enab^.e a student to obtain a fair 
 general idea of the art they represent. The worst thing is, that 
 the excavations have been so un systematically carried on that it is 
 impossible to ascertain in most instances where the sculptures came 
 from,^ and in almost no instance can the position of any one piece of 
 sculpture be fixed with anything like certainty.^ 
 
 The following plans (Woodcuts Nos. 92, 93), of the two principal 
 monasteries which have been excavated in the vicinity of Peshawur, 
 will explain their arrangements in so far as they have yet been made 
 out. As will be seen at a glance, they are very similar to each other. 
 
 * I have for some time possessed plio- 
 tograplis of about one hundred objects 
 o itained in these excavations, princi- 
 pally those in the Lahore Museum ; and 
 latterly I have received from Gen. Cun- 
 ningham twenty large photographic 
 plates, representing 165 separate objects 
 recently obtained in a more methodical 
 manner by himself, principally from 
 Jamalgiri. These plates are, as I under- 
 stand, to form part of the illustrations 
 of a work he intends publishing on the 
 subject. When it is in the hands of the 
 public there will be some data to reason 
 upon. At present there is scarcely any- 
 thing to which a reference can be made. 
 
 2 When Gen. Cunningham was select- 
 ing specimens in the Lahore Museum, 
 to be photographed for the Vienna Ex- 
 hibition, he complains that he could 
 only ascertain the " find spot " of five 
 or six out of the whole number — 500 
 or 600. It is therefore to be regretted 
 that, when publishing a list with descrip- 
 tions of the 1G5 objects discovered by 
 himself (' Archaeological Reports,' vol. v. 
 
 pp. 197-202), he does not mention where 
 they came from, and gives the dimensions 
 of a few only. 
 
 ^ The mode in which the excavations 
 have recently been conducte I by Govern- 
 ment has been to send out a party of 
 sappers in the cold weather to dig, but 
 the officer in charge of the party has 
 been the subaltern who happened to be 
 in command of the company at the time. 
 A new otficer is consequently appointed 
 every year, and no one has ever been 
 selected because he had any experience 
 in such matters or any taste for such pur- 
 suits. What has been done has been done 
 wonderfully well, considering the cir- 
 cumstances under which it was under- 
 taken ; but the result on the whole is, 
 as might be expected, painfully disap- 
 pointing. Quite recently, however, it 
 is understood that Gen. Cunningham 
 has taken charge of the excavations, 
 and we may consequently hope that in 
 future these defects of arrangement will 
 be remedied. 
 
to contain images, though none were found in situ. In the centre 
 of each stands a circular or square platform or altar, approached by 
 steps. The circular one at Jamalgiri is adorned with cross-legged, 
 
172 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 conventional, seated figures of Buddha, the square one at Takht-i-Bahi 
 by two rows of pilasters one over the other. ^ Beyond this is an oblong 
 court, BB, called the pantheon, from the number of images, small 
 models of topes, and votive offerings of all sorts, that are found in it. 
 It, like the last court, is surrounded by niches for images. Beyond 
 this again the vihara or residence, CC, with the usual residential cells. 
 At Takht-i-Bahi there is a square court, D, surrounded by a high wall 
 with only one door leading into it. A corresponding court exists 
 at Jamalgiri ; but so far detached that it could not be included in 
 the woodcut. It is called the cemetery, and probably not without 
 reason, as Turner in his * Embassy to Thibet ' ^ describes a similar 
 enclosure at Teshoo Loomboo in which the bodies of the deceased 
 monks were exposed to be devoured by the birds, and what happened 
 there in 1800 may very well have been practised at Peshawur at a 
 much earlier age. 
 
 When we attempt to compare these plans with those of our rock- 
 cut examples in India, we at once perceive the difficulty of comparing 
 structural with rock-cut examples. The monastery or residential 
 parts are the only ones readily recognised. The pantheon does not 
 apparently exist at Ajunta, nor is anything analogous to it attached 
 to other series of caves, but a group of small rock-cut dagobas exists 
 just outside the cave at Bhaja, and a much more extensive one at 
 Kenheri,^ and similar groups may have existed elsewhere. Numbers 
 of small models of topes and votive offerings are found in the neigh- 
 bourhood of all Buddhist establishments, and w^ere originally no 
 doubt deposited in some such place as this. The circular or 
 square altar is, however, a feature quite new to us, and takes the 
 place of the dagoba in all the rock-cut chaitya halls. From its 
 having steps to ascend to it, it seems as if it was intended either for a 
 platform from which either a congregation could be addressed, or a 
 prayer offered up to a deity. If, however, it was really a dagoba, as 
 General Cunningham supposes, that difficulty disappears, and on the 
 whole I am inclined to believe he may be right in this decision. 
 
 * In the fifth volume of his ' Archaeo- 
 logical Reports' just received, Gen. 
 Cunningham assumes that both these 
 were stupas of the ordinary character. 
 They may have been so, but both having 
 steps up to them would seem to militate 
 against that assumption. The circular 
 one is only 22 ft., the square one 15 ft, 
 in diameter, and there is consequently 
 no room on either for a procession-path 
 round the dome, if it existed ; and, if this 
 is so, of what use could the steps be ? 
 Lieut. Crompton, who excavated the 
 
 Jamalgiri monastery, is clearly of opinion 
 that it was a platform — see page 2 of his 
 report, published in the ' Lahore Gazette,' 
 30th August, 1873. To prevent mis- 
 understanding, I may mention that Gen, 
 Cunningham, in his plate No. 14, by mis- 
 take, ascribes the plan to Sergt. Wilcher, 
 instead of to Lieut, Crompton. 
 
 2 ' Embassy to Thibet,' p, 317. 
 
 ^ 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. vii., No. 21, 
 p. 116, et seqq. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 GANDHARA MONASTERIES. 
 
 173 
 
 One of the most remarkable ornamental features that adorn this 
 monastery is a series of bas-reliefs that adorn the front of the 
 steps of the stairs leading from the so-called Pantheon to the 
 circular court at Jamalgiri. They are sixteen in number, and each 
 is adorned with a bas-relief containing twenty, thirty, or forty 
 figures according to the subject. ^ Among these the Wessantara 
 and Sanaa jatakas can easily be recognised,^ and so may others 
 Avhen carefully examined. Besides these there are representations of 
 the chase, processions, dancing, and domestic scenes of various kinds. 
 
 Corinthian Capital from Jamalgiri. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 95. Corinthian Capital from Jamalgiri. (From a Thotograph.) 3 
 
 In fact such a series of sixteen bas-reliefs, one over another, is 
 hardly know^n to exist anywhere else, but is here only an appropriate 
 part of an exuberance of sculptural ornamentation hardly to be 
 matched, as existing in so small a space, in any other building of its 
 class. 
 
 ' These have been removed, and are 
 now in Gen. Cunningham's possession 
 at Simla, I believe. He has sent me 
 photographs of twelve of them. 
 
 - ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' plates 
 
 24 (fig. 3) and 36 (fig. 1). 
 
 ' '1 he modillion cornice, though placed 
 on the capital in the photograph, be- 
 longs in reality to another part of the 
 building. 
 
174 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 The architecture of this monastery seems to have been of singular 
 richness. General Cunningham brought away a dozen of capitals of 
 the Corinthian order, and others exist in the Lahore Museum. As will 
 be seen from the last two illustrations (Nos. 94, 95), they are unmistak- 
 ably classical, but of a form to which it is not at hrst sight easy to 
 assign a date. They are more Greek than Roman in the character 
 of their foliage, but more Roman than Greek in the form of their 
 volutes and general design. Perhaps it would be correct to say they 
 are more Byzantine than either, but, till we have detailed drawings 
 and know more of their surroundings, it is difficult to give a positive 
 opinion as to their age. 
 
 Not one of these was found in situ, nor, apparently, one quite 
 entire, so that their use or position is not at first sight apparent. 
 Some of them were square, and it is consequently not difficult to see 
 they may have formed the caps of the antse on each side of the cells, 
 and are so represented in General Cunningham's plate (15). If this is 
 so, the circular ones must have been placed on short circular pillars, 
 one on each side, forming a porch to the cells. One at least seems to 
 have stood free — like a stambha — and, as the General represents it 
 on plate 48, may have carried a group of elephants on its head. 
 
 All these capitals were apparently originally richly gilt, and most 
 of them, as well as some of the best of the sculptures, show^ traces of 
 gilding at the present day,^ and, as others show traces of colour, the 
 effect of the whole must have been gorgeous in the extreme. From 
 the analogy of what we find in the contemporary caves at Ajunta 
 and Bagh, as well as elsewhere, there can be little doubt that fresco- 
 painting was also employed : but no gilding, as far as I know, has 
 been found in India, nor indeed any analogue to the Corinthian 
 capital. All the capitals found in India are either such as grew out 
 of the necessities of their own wooden construction, or were copied 
 from bell-shaped forms we are familiar with at Persepolis, where alone 
 in Central Asia they seem to have been carried out in stone. There 
 is little doubt, however, that before the time of the Acheemenians the 
 same forms were used in Avood by the Assyrians ; ^ and they may 
 have been so employed down to the time of Alexander, if not later. 
 Certain it is, at all events, that this was the earliest form we know of 
 emplo^'d in lithic architecture in India, and the one that retained 
 its footing there certainly till long after the Christian Era, and also 
 among the Gandhara sculptures probably to a very late date. 
 
 It is not difficult to restore, approximately, the front of the cells 
 in these monasteries, from the numerous representations of them 
 
 ^ ' Arcliajological Reports,' vol. v. pp sepolis Restored.' By the Author. Part 
 40 and 19G. : II. sect, i., ef 
 
 - 'The Palaces of Nineveh and Per- I 
 
Chap. Vll. 
 
 GANDHAEA MONASTEKIES. 
 
 175 
 
 found among the ruins, where they are used as conventional frames for 
 sculptures. It probably was owing to the fact that their fronts 
 may have been adorned with paintings representing scenes from the 
 life of Buddha, or emblems of various sorts, that these miniature 
 representations of them were used to convey the same design in 
 sculpture. The form of the wooden framework which filled the upper 
 part of all the great windows of the chaitya halls, from the earliest 
 known examples, is also used for the same purpose in these Gandhara 
 monasteries. Few things among these sculptures are more common 
 than these semicircular frames, filled with sculpture of the most 
 varied design. They are in fact the counterparts of what would have 
 been carried out in painted glass had they possessed such a material. 
 
 It is to be feared that it is hardly likely we shall now recover one 
 of these cells or chapels in so perfect a state as to feel sure of its form 
 and ornamentation. It would, however, be an immense gain to our 
 knowledge of the subject if one were found, for it is hardly safe to 
 depend on restorations made from conventional representations. 
 
 Meanwhile there is one monument in India which — mutatis 
 mutandis — reproduces them with considerable exactness. The small 
 detached rath at Mahavellipore is both in plan and dimensions, as 
 well as in design, an almost exact reproduction of these Jamalgiri 
 cells. Its lower front is entirely open, flanked by two detached 
 pillars. Above this are two roofs, with a narrow^ waist between 
 them — somewhat dil¥erently arranged it must be confessed, but still 
 extremely similar. In the Jamalgiri representations of these cells 
 everything is simplified to admit of the display of sculpture. At 
 Mahavellipore all the architectural features are retained, but they are 
 still marvellously alike, so much so, that there seems no doubt this 
 little rath (Woodcut No. 181, p. 328), with its circular termination, is 
 as exact a co]3y of what a Buddhist chaitya hall was at the time it was 
 carved, as that the great rath (Woodcut No. G6) is a correct reproduc- 
 tion of a Buddhist viliara at the same period. 
 
 If this is so, these Gandhara sculptures and these raths represent 
 the chaitya hall of the Buddhists in a much more complicated and 
 elaborate form than we find it in the simple but majestic examples at 
 Karli, Nassick, or Ajunta. The Jamalgiri cells need not be so modern 
 as the rath at Mahavellipore, but they are certainly approaching to 
 it^ as nearly in date as they are in form. 
 
 Quite recently, General Cunningham has dug out a small vihara 
 
 ^ One curious peculiarity of these to the Christian Era. In Gandhara it is 
 Gandhara sculptures is that they gene- : only found in decorative sculpture, and 
 rally retain the sloi)ing jamb on each retained apparently from association. It 
 side of their openings. In India and in does not, at all events, appear as if any 
 a structural building this peculiarity ! argument could be based on its use as 
 would certainly fix their age as anterior ' there employed. 
 
176 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 at Shah Dehri, the ancient Taxila, which seems more ancient than 
 these Peshawur monasteries. As will be seen from the plan (Wood- 
 cut No. 96), it is not 
 ^SM^a^ only small in dimen- 
 sions, but simple in 
 its arrangements — as 
 simple, indeed, as any 
 of those at Cuttack or 
 in the western Ghats. 
 Like them it has a 
 raised bench, not how- 
 ever divided into beds 
 as there, but more like 
 a continuous seat. It 
 no doubt, however, was 
 used for both purposes. 
 Its most remarkable 
 
 peculiarity, however, is its Ionic order. As will be seen, the bases of 
 the pillars are of the usual form, and as correct as any that could be 
 found in Greece or Rome, from before the Christian 
 
 Era to the age of Constantine, and, thoudi the 
 
 l ^i-l^ r capital is not fully made out, there can be little 
 ' ' doubt what was intended (Woodcut No. 97) ; twelve 
 
 coins of Azes were found close by, from which it 
 may be inferred the building was of his age, or 
 belonging to the first century b.c.,^ and there is 
 nothing in the architecture to militate against this 
 idea. It seems the oldest thing yet found in this 
 province. 
 
 96. Plan of Ionic Monastery, Shah Dehri. (From a Plan 
 by General Cunningham.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 inch. 
 
 Ionic Pillar, Shah Dehri. 
 
 The extraordinary classical character and the 
 oSer'^iluinrngfam.) bcauty of the sculpturcs found in these Gandhara 
 monasteries is of such surpassing interest for 
 the history of Indian art, that it is of the utmost importance 
 their age should be determined, if it is possible to do so. At 
 present, sufficient materials do not exist in this country to enable 
 the general public to form even an opinion on any argument that 
 may be brought forward on the subject ; nor will they be in a 
 position to do so till the Government can be induced to spend the 
 trifling sum required to bring some of them home. They are quite 
 thrown away where they now are ; here, they would hardly be sur- 
 passed in interest by any recent discoveries of the same class. Pending 
 
 ' Assuming that his age has been correctly ascertained, which I am beginning, 
 liowcver, to flouht exceedingly. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 GANDHARA MONASTEIilES. 
 
 177 
 
 this, the reader must be content with such a statement of the argu- 
 ment as may be put forward by those who have access to photographs 
 and such materials as are not available to the general public.^ It 
 it is understood that General Cunningham intends to publish photo- 
 graphs of the 165 objects in his collection. When this is done, it 
 will supply the want to a certain extent, but a really correct judg- 
 ment can only be formed on an actual inspection of the objects 
 themselves. 
 
 Among Indian antiquaries there are two different views as to the 
 age of these sculptures, regarding either of which a great deal may be 
 urged with a considerable degree of plausibility. The first is, that the 
 Bactrian Greeks carried with them into Asia the principles of Grecian 
 sculpture and the forms of Grecian architecture, and either during 
 their supremacy or after their expulsion from Bactria established a 
 school of classical art in the Peshawur valley. It further assumes 
 that, w^hen Buddhism was established there under Kanishka and his 
 successors, it bloomed into that rich and varied development we find 
 exhibited in these Gandhara monasteries. This is the view adopted 
 by General Cunningham, who, however, admits that, as all the sculp- 
 tures are Buddhist, the earliest must be limited to the age of 
 Kanishka, which he assumes to be about B.C. 40,^ and that they extend 
 to A.D. 100, or thereabouts. 
 
 The other theory equally admits the presence of the classical 
 element, derived from the previous existence of the Bactrian Greeks, 
 but spreads the development of the classical feeling through Buddhist 
 art over the whole period during which it existed in the valley, 
 or from the 1st to the 7th or 8th century of our era, and 
 ascribes its peculiar forms as much, if not more, to constant com- 
 munication with the West, from the age of Augustus to that of 
 Justinian, rather than to the original seed planted there by the 
 Bactrians. 
 
 Confining the argument as much as possible to the instances 
 above quoted, either it is that these Corinthian capitals are a local 
 development of forms the Greeks took with them to Bactria, or 
 they were executed under Western influence when the classical 
 orders had lost their original form, after the age of Constantine. We 
 know perfectly the history of the Corintliian capitals in Italy, in 
 Greece, and in Syria, between the ages of Augustus and Aurelian 
 at all events (a.D. 270) ; and we know that it requires a practised 
 and well-educated eye to distinguish between the capitals of the 
 
 ^ I possess photographs of about 300 
 objects from the Lahore and other mu- 
 seums, and have had access to about as 
 many actual examples — of an inferior 
 class, however — in collections in this 
 
 country, but even they barely suffice for 
 the purpose. 
 
 ^ ' Archaeological Reports,' vol. v.. 
 Introduction, p. vi. See also Appendix 
 to the same volume, pp. 193-1. 
 
178 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Pantheon of Agrippa and those last executed at Baalbec or Palmyra. 
 The entablatures show considerable progress, but the capitals were 
 so stereotyped that it is evident, if any Greek or Roman artists had 
 designed capitals in Gandhara during the period just alluded to, we 
 could predicate exactly what they would have been. After Constantine, 
 however, the design of the capitals went wild, if the expression may 
 be used. The practice of springing arches from them, instead of their 
 supporting horizontal architraves, required a total change, and in the 
 West it produced exactly the same effects that we find in Gandhara. 
 The capitals, for instance, in the churches of St. Demetrius and that 
 now known as the Eski Jouma at Salonica, both built in the early 
 part of the 5th century, are almost identical in design with these ;^ 
 and many in the churches in Syria and Asia Minor ^ show the same 
 " abandon " of design, though frequently in another direction. 
 
 The presence of little cross-legged figures of Buddha among the 
 foliage of the capitals is another sign of a comparatively modern age. 
 The first prominent example of the practice, I believe, in classical art, 
 seems to be found in the Baths of Caracalla, at Rome (a.d. 312-330) ;^ 
 but it certainly did not become common till long afterwards, and 
 only general in what may be called mediaeval art.* It is not, how- 
 ever, so much in the presence of figures of Buddha on these capitals 
 that I would insist on as an indication of age, as on their presence in 
 the monastery at all. 
 
 In the first place, I believe it is correct to state that no statue 
 of Buddha, in any of his conventional attitudes, has been found in 
 India executed as early as the Christian Era. Those on the fagade 
 at Karli and in the western caves are avowedly insertions of the 
 4th or 5th centuries or later. There are none belonging to the eastern 
 caves ; nor any found at Buddh Gaya, Bharhut, or Sanchi ; nor do 
 I know of any one in India that can be dated before a.d. 100. In 
 these Gandhara monasteries they are very frequent, and of a type 
 which in India would be assumed to be certainly as late as the 4th 
 or 5th century ; some of them very much later. 
 
 It is true Buddhist books tell us frequently of statues of Buddha 
 
 ^ Texier and Pullan, ' Byzantine Ar- 
 chitecture,' London, 1864, pis. 22-25 and 
 pi. 44. 
 
 2 De Vogue, ' Syrie Centrale,' passim. 
 
 ^ By a curious slip of the pen General 
 Cunningham Archjeological Reports,' 
 vol. V. p. 193) places " These Roman 
 examples in the baths of Caracalla in 
 the beginning of the first century of the 
 Christian Era, almost contemporary," he 
 adds, with that which I assign to the 
 finest Indo-Corinthian examples just 
 
 described, namely, the latter half of the 
 first century n.c." This is so evidently 
 a mere slip that I would not allude to it 
 were it not that much of his argument 
 for the early age of these sculptures is 
 based upon this coincidence. 
 
 * There is a capital at i^iah, in Syria, 
 on which a bust is introduced, which may 
 be as early as the Christian Era, but it 
 is a solitary example not repeated after- 
 wards, so far as I know. See ' Syrie 
 Centrale,' by De Vogue, plate 3. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 GANDHARA MONASTERIES. 
 
 179 
 
 having been made at much earher dates.^ Bnt Indian books have 
 this fatal defect, that they represent facts and beUefs at the time 
 they were m'itten, or acquired the forms in which we now find them, 
 without much reference to contemporary authorities or facts at the 
 time at which they are supposed to have happened. Consequently, 
 till we get some book that assumed its present shape before a.d. 400,^ 
 their testimony is of very little avail in the controversy. 
 
 Besides these figures of Buddha, there are a great number of 
 figures which General Cunningham supposes represent kings. This 
 can hardly be the case, as they have all got nimbuses or glories at 
 the back of their heads. All have the tika on their foreheads, as 
 Buddha has, and none have any kingly attributes, but all wear the 
 same ornaments and amulets. The first impression was, they may 
 represent Bodhisatwas, or Buddhist saints ; but, as no similar figures 
 occur anywhere in India, it is not easy to feel certain on this point. 
 If I may be allowed to hazard a guess, I would suggest that they 
 may represent the patriarchs who presided over the Church from 
 the time of Amanda till it ceised to be a living institution in India. 
 Nagarjuna was one of the most important of these, and, if this theory 
 is correct, his statue will certainly be found among the series ; but 
 this is, I fear, a point that must be left for future investigation.^ 
 The misfortune is, that no inscribed statue has yet been found in 
 Gandhara, and, till it is, all identification must be more or less 
 guess-work or conjecture. 
 
 A more important point than the mere presence of these con- 
 ventional figures of Buddha or of saints in these monasteries, is their 
 excessive reduplication, which renders it probable that they are very 
 much more modern than is generally assumed. 
 
 In India, no building or cave is known with a date anterior to, 
 say, A.D. 300 or 400, in which more than one such figure is repre- 
 
 * In Beal's introduction to ' Fa Hian,' 
 p. 18, he mentions, on Chinese autho- 
 rity, which is much more reliable than 
 Indian, that a statue of Buddha was 
 brought to China from Kartchou (?) in 
 B.C. 121. On asking Mr. Beal to look 
 carefully into the authorities for this 
 statement, he reports them to be hazy 
 in the extreme, and not to be relied upon. 
 
 2 I believe it is generally admitted 
 that the redaction of the 'Mahawanso,' 
 and other Ceylonese scriptures made in 
 Buddaghosha's time, a.d. 408-420, is the 
 oldest authentic Buddhist work we now 
 possess. They, like the ' I.alita Vistara,' 
 and other works, are founded on older 
 works of course, but the earlier forms 
 
 have been lost, and what we have is what 
 the writers of the 5th and subsequent 
 centuries thought they ought to be. 
 
 ' Unfortunately no Indian list of these 
 patriarchs has yet come to light. Those 
 we have are derived from Japanese or 
 Chinese sources, and are all tainted with 
 the falsification which the Chinese made 
 in Buddhist chronology by putting 
 Buddha's date back to about 1000 B.C., in 
 order that he might have precedence of 
 Confucius in autiquity ! for so it is that 
 history is written in the East. For a 
 list of the twenty-eight known patriarchs, 
 see Lassen, ' Indische Alterthumskunde,' 
 vol. ii., Beilage ii. p. 1004. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I 
 
 sented. Even at Amravati they do not occur on the great rail which 
 was erected in the beginning of the 4th century {ante, p. 100), but 
 appear first on the inner rail which was added a century afterwards : 
 and they first occur in such caves as No. 19 and No. 26 at Ajunta, and 
 in the later caves in the island of Salsette, none of which seem to be 
 earlier than A.D. 500, if so early. 
 
 In the Gandhara monasteries they exist literally in hundreds — 
 on the base of the altars or stupas, on the walls, and in the cells. 
 The latter is, indeed, the most remarkable peculiarity of any. In no 
 Buddhist monument in India, so far as is kno\\ii, have the monks been 
 thrust out of their cells to make way for images. The practice is 
 universal with the Jains, and in the latest Buddhist monuments the 
 cells are ignored ; but here we have what in all earlier Buddhist 
 monuments would be cells surrounding courts or halls, but all filled 
 with images of Buddha or saints. To such an extent is this carried, 
 that if the plans of these monasteries had been submitted to me, with 
 merely a verbal or written description of their sculptures, I would 
 unhesitatingly have pronounced them to be Jaina temples of the 
 9th or 10th century. The sculptures, of course, negative any such 
 adscription, but the similarity of their plans is most striking. 
 
 Considerable allowance must also be made for the fact that the 
 Mahayana, or Greater Translation, introduced in the north of India 
 by Nagarjuna, was considerably in advance of the Hinayana school 
 of Central India in all complications of ritual observances. Making, 
 however, an allowance of one or even two centuries for this, it is 
 difficult to believe that any of these monasteries yet brought to light 
 are earlier than the 4th or 5th century. 
 
 If I am correct in assigning the outer casing of the Manikyala 
 tope to the beginning of the 8th century {ante, p. 83), there is cer- 
 tainly no a priori improbability in this view. The pilasters that 
 surround its base are so similar to those represented in the bas-reliefs 
 of the monasteries^ that they must belong nearly to the same age. 
 Those of the tope are less classical, it is true, than those of the bas- 
 reliefs, and may, therefore, be more modern ; but they cannot be very 
 far apart. 
 
 All these statues of Buddha, or of Buddhist saints, in the Gandhara 
 monasteries, have a peculiarity which will interest the Clu-istian 
 archaeologist. Without exception, they have a nimbus or circular disc 
 behind their heads. This does not occur at Sanchi in the 1st century 
 of our era, nor, so far as is known, in any sculpture, on any rail, or in 
 
 ^ The capitals of these pillars are so 
 ruined that it is difficult to speak very 
 confidently about them. I have draw- 
 ings of them by Col. Yule and by Mr. 
 W. Simpson, and latterly Gen. Cunning- 
 
 ham has published drawings of them, 
 ' Archseological Keports,' vol. v. jdI. 24. 
 None of them are quite satisfactory, but 
 this must arise from the difficulty of the 
 task. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 GANDHAEA MONASTERIES. 
 
 181 
 
 any cave, before it appears at Amravati on the great rail, in the 4th 
 century of our era. Earlier examples may be found, but till they are, 
 its presence militates against the idea that these sculptures can be so 
 early as the 1st century after Christ, and, with the other evidence, 
 would seem to indicate a much more modern date. 
 
 One other argument seems to bear directly on this point. From 
 what has been said above (ante, p. 76), it appears that the erection 
 of the topes in Gandhara was spread pretty evenly over the whole 
 time that elapsed from the Christian Era till Buddhism ceased to be 
 the religion of the country, in the 7th or 8th century ; and that the 
 most flourishing period was about the year a.d. 400, when Fa Hian 
 visited the country. It seems reasonable to suppose that the erection 
 of the monasteries would follow the same course, and that we might 
 expect their greatest development to be simultaneous. To compress 
 the monasteries and their sculptures within the limits of the first 
 century after Christ would seem to violate all the probabilities of the 
 case. 
 
 In addition to all this local evidence, when we come to compare these 
 sculptures with those of the western world, especially with those of 
 sarcophagi or the ivories of the lower empire, it seems impossible not to 
 be struck with the many points of resemblance they present. There are 
 many of the Gandhara bas-reliefs which, if transferred to the Later an 
 Museum, and labelled as "Early Christian," would pass muster with 
 ninety-nine people out of one hundred who visit that collection. 
 There may be one or two that might be described as belonging to 
 as early an age as that of Hadrian, but generally they would seem of 
 later date. 
 
 Among the ivories, those about the time of Constantine present 
 about the same jumble of the classical orders, the same reminiscence 
 of classical art in the figure-sculpture, mixed up with the incon- 
 gruities borrowed from extraneous sources which it is difficult to 
 account for ; but both in their perfections and their faults they seem 
 so distinctly to belong to the same class of art that it is difficult to 
 believe they do not belong to the same age. The great difficulty here 
 is to know what equation we ought to allow for distance in space 
 which may have the same effect as time in producing apparent 
 differences ; but this hardly seems to have been of much importance 
 here. 
 
 Against all this may be urged the difficulty of understanding how 
 such direct and important influence could have been exercised by the 
 Byzantines in this remote province without its leaving any trace of 
 its existence on the arts of the Parthians or Sassanians, whose king- 
 dom lay between, and without our having any written record of such 
 intimate relations. It is difficult, of course, but, if the facts are as 
 stated above, such negative inferences must make way before the posi- 
 
182 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUI^E. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 tive testimony of the sculptures themselves. Till within the last very 
 few years no one dreamt of classical art having any such influence 
 at any age on the arts of Gandhara. That being established in con- 
 tradiction of all previously conceived ideas, the time at Avhich it 
 took place ought to be ascertainable with comparative facility ; and, 
 in so far as any mitten evidence is concerned, may have been as pro- 
 bably at or after the time of Constantine, as at or after that of 
 Augustus. 
 
 It would be easy to extend this argument to any length ; but 
 Avithout producing the data on which it is based, or giving references to 
 drawings and photographs Avhich have not been published, it would 
 hardly carry conviction to the minds of those who have not access to 
 means of information not yet made public.^ To avoid, therefore, being 
 tedious, perhaps I may be allowed to state that, having given the best 
 attention to the materials at my command, the conclusion I have 
 arrived at is, that though some of these Gandhara sculptures probably 
 are as early as the 1st century of the Christian Era, the bulk of those at 
 Jamalgiri and more especially those at Takht-i-Bahi, are subsequent 
 to the 3rd and 4th, and that the series extends down to the 
 8th — till, in fact, the time when Buddliism was obliterated in these 
 countries. 
 
 The discovery of some new^ fact, or of an inscription on a piece of 
 sculpture either with a date or a king's name that can be recognised, 
 may any day settle beyond dispute which of these views is the correct 
 one. Meanwdiile, however, as the evidence at present stands, it seems 
 hardly doubtful that the theory which assigns the more modern date to 
 these sculptures, is that w^hich accords best with all that has hitherto 
 been brought to light, or with the history of the Buddhist religion as at 
 present known. 
 
 If this is so, it is evident that the term Graeco-Bactrian, or Grgeco- 
 Buddhist, which has been applied to these sculptures, is a misnomer. 
 The Bactrians may have sown the seeds of a classical style in these 
 parts, but the art w^e now find there would be more properly called 
 Indo-Roman or Indo-Byzantine, and must have been nourished and 
 kept up by constant communication between the East and the "West 
 during the period at which it was most flourishing, which may be 
 described as that intervening between the age of Constantine and that of 
 Justinian. 
 
 ^ No complete history of the ivories 
 has been published which is sufficient 
 for reference on this subject. Gori's 
 are too badly engraved for this purpose ; 
 but the first twelve plates in Labarte's 
 ' Histoire do I'Art ' are perfect as far as 
 they go. So are the plates in Maskell's 
 
 ' Catalogue of the South Kensington 
 Museum,' and those published by the 
 Arundel Society ; but it is to the col- 
 lection of casts in these two last-named 
 institutions that the reader should refer 
 for fuller information on the subject. 
 
Chap. VJI. 
 
 GANDHARA MONASTERIES. 
 
 183 
 
 From what has been said above regarding the sculptures of Bharhut 
 and Sanchi, it appears evident that the Indians had a school of art of 
 their own before they knew anything of the arts of the western world ; 
 but that native art seems to have had very little influence on the arts of 
 Gandhara. The western arts, on the contrary, acting through that 
 country, seem to have had considerable influence on those of India at 
 periods subsequent to the Christian Era. It seems at least almost 
 impossible to escape the conviction that the arts of Amravati and the 
 later caves, say of the Gupta period, betray most marked evidence of 
 Western influence, and it seems that it is only through Gandhara that 
 it can have reached them. 
 
 So strongly marked is all this that it may become a subject of an 
 interesting investigation to inquire whether the Greeks were not the 
 first who taught the Indians idolatry. There is no trace of images in 
 the Vedas or in the laws of Manu, or any of the older books or traditions 
 of the Hindus. As repeatedly mentioned, there is as little trace of any 
 image of Buddha or Buddhist figures being set up for worship before 
 the Christian Era, or for a century after it. But the earliest, the finest, 
 and the most essentially classical figures of Buddha are to be found in 
 Gandhara, and, so far as we at present know, of an earlier date there 
 than any found in India Proper. 
 
 If General Cunningham's sculptures or the contents of the Lahore 
 Museum could only be made available to the learned in Europe, with 
 the requisite local information, they would, I fancy, at once supersede 
 the meagre and most unsatisfactory written details which have alone 
 come down to us, and w^ould throw a flood of light on one of the 
 most interesting but most obscure chapters of the history of the 
 commerce and of the early intercourse between the western and the 
 eastern world. 
 
 Pending this being done, we already know enough to open our 
 eyes to many things that promise to result in the most interesting 
 discoveries, and to teach us to cease to wonder at many things which 
 hitherto appeared inexplicable. If, for instance, it is not true that 
 the King of Taxila, in the first century, spoke good Greek, as Apol- 
 lonius of Tyana would persuade us he did, we know at least that he 
 practised Greek architecture. If St. Thomas did not visit Gondo- 
 phares, king of Gandhara, in the same century, many, at least, of his 
 countrymen did, and there is no a priori reason why he should not 
 have done so also. If there are traces of Christian doctrine in the 
 ' Bhagavat Gita,' and of classical learning in other poetic works of 
 the Hindus, we now know at least where they may have come from. 
 In short, when we realise how strongly European influence prevailed 
 in Gandhara in the first five or six centuries after Christ, and think 
 how many thousands, it may be millions, crossed the Indus, going 
 eastward during that period, and through that country, we ought not 
 
184 
 
 BUDDHIST AECHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 to be surprised at any amount of Western thought or art we may find in 
 India. These, however, are problems that are only just dawning upon 
 us, and which are certainly not yet ripe for solution, though it may be 
 most important they should be stated as early as possible, as it seems 
 evident that the materials certainly exist from which an early answer 
 may be obtained. 
 
 In the meanwhile the question that bears most directly on the 
 subject now in hand is the inquiry, how far the undoubted classical 
 influence shown iji these Gandhara sculptm'es is due to the seed sown by 
 the Bactrian Greeks during the existence of their kingdom there, and 
 how much to the direct influence of Rome and Byzantium between the 
 times of Augustus and Justinian ? Both, most probably, had a part 
 in producing this remarkable result ; but, so far as we at present know, 
 it seems that the latter was very much more important than the former 
 cause, and that in the first centuries of the Christian Era the civilisa- 
 tion of the West exercised an influence on the arts and religion of 
 the inhabitants of this part of India far greater than has hitherto been 
 suspected. 
 
 Feet of Buddha. 
 
 (From a bas-relief at Amravati.) 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 185 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory — Auuradliapura — Pollonarua, 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 If the materials existed for writing it in anything like a complete 
 and satisfactory manner, there are few chapters in this history that 
 ought to be so interesting or instructive as that which treats of the 
 architecture of Ceylon. It alone, of all known countries, contains a 
 complete series of Buddhist monuments extending from the time of 
 Asoka to the present day, and in the ' Mahawanso ' it alone possesses a 
 history so detailed and so authentic, that the dates and purposes of the 
 earlier buildings can be ascertained with very tolerable precision. 
 Besides its own intrinsic interest, if it were possible to compare this 
 unbroken series with its ascertained dates with the fragmentary groups 
 on the continent of India, its parallelisms might throw much light on 
 many questions that are obscure and uncertain, and the whole acquire 
 a consistency that is now only too evidently wanting. Unfortu- 
 nately, no one has yet visited the island who was possessed of the 
 necessary qualifications to supply the information necessary for these 
 purposes. Sir Emerson Tennent's book, published in 1859, is still the 
 best work on the subject. He had, however, no special qualifications 
 for the task, beyond what were to be expected from any well-educated 
 gentleman of talent, and his description of the buildings ^ is only 
 meant for popular reading. 
 
 The two papers by Captain Chapman, in the third volume of the 
 * Transactions,' and thirteenth volume of the ' Journal of the Asiatic 
 Society,' are still the best account of the ruins of Anuradhapura, and 
 beyond these a few occasional notices are nearly all the printed matter 
 we have to depend upon. Some seven or eight years ago, a series of 
 photographs, by the late Mr. Lawton, threw some light on the matter, 
 and quite recently a second series by Captain Hogg, R.E., have added 
 
 ^ I purchased from his artist, Mr. I sketches from which the illustrations of 
 NichoU, and possess all the original 1 his book were engraved. 
 
186 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, 
 
 Book I. 
 
 somethiii<>- to our knowledge. But photographs without plans or 
 dimensions or descriptions are most deceptive guides, and, as none of 
 these have been supplied, they add little to our scientific knowledge 
 of the subject. This is the more to be regretted, as quite recently 
 some excavations have been undertaken at Anuradhapura which are 
 calculated to throw considerable light on the structure of the great 
 dagobas there, but regarding which no information, except what is 
 afforded by these photographs, has reached this country.^ 
 
 One of the most striking peculiarities of Ceylonese art, as compared 
 with that of the continent, is the almost total absence of sculpture 
 which it exhibits, and may be a peculiarity that may render it much 
 less useful for comparison than might at first sight appear. The most 
 obvious suggestion to meet this difficulty is to assume that the 
 sculptures are buried in the accumulated ruins, in the cities where 
 the great monuments are found, and will be discovered when excava- 
 tions are made. It is to be feared, however, that this theory is hardly 
 tenable ; Ceylon has never been occupied by Mahomedans, or other 
 hostile races, and there is no reason to suppose that at any time 
 statues would be thrown down, or bas-reliefs destroyed ; besides this, 
 such excavations as have been made — and they are in the most likely 
 places — have revealed nothing that would lead us to hope for better 
 results elsewhere. Perhaps this ought not to surprise us, as nearly 
 the same thing occurs in Burmah. In that country there is an un- 
 limited amount of painting and carving, but no sculpture properly 
 so called ; and the same thing may have occurred in Ceylon. 
 So far as we can now see, all the great topes were covered with 
 chunam, which may have been painted to any extent, and all the 
 viharas, as in Burmah, were in wood, and consequently unfitted for 
 permanent sculpture. Besides this, such information as we have 
 would lead us to suppose that painting was a more favoured art 
 with the islanders than sculpture. When Fa Hian, for instance, 
 
 * When the present governor was ap- 
 pointed hopes ran high that tliis unsatis- 
 factory stite of our knowledge would be 
 cleared away. Tlie stars, however, in 
 their courses have warred ; gainst archaeo- 
 logy in Ceylon ever since he assumed 
 Bway over the island, and the only re- 
 siduum of his exertions seems to be that 
 a thoroughly competent German scholar, 
 Herr Goldsmidt, is occupied now in copy- 
 ing the inscriptions, which are numerous, 
 in the island. These, however, are just 
 what is least wanted at present. In 
 India, where we have no history and 
 no dates, inscriptions are invaluable. 
 
 and are, in fact, our only sources of 
 correct information. In Ceylon, how- 
 ever, they are, for archaeological pur- 
 poses, comi^aratively unimportant. What 
 is there wanted are plans and architec- 
 tural details, and these, accompanied by 
 general descriptions and dimensions, 
 would, with the photographs we possess, 
 supply all we now want. Any qualified 
 person accustomed to such work could 
 supply nearly all that is wanted in twelve 
 months, for the two principal cities at 
 least; but I despair of seeing it done 
 in my day. 
 
Chap. VIU. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 187 
 
 visited the island in 412-J:1;3, he describes an accompaniment to the 
 procession of the tooth relic as follows : — " The king next causes to 
 be placed on both sides of the road representations of the 500 bodily 
 forms which Bodisatwa assumed during his successive births " (the 
 jataka in fact). " These figures," he adds, " are all beautifully painted 
 in divers colours, and have a very life-like appearance." ^ It was 
 not that they could not sculpture in stone, for, as we shall pre- 
 sently see, some of their carvings are of great delicacy and cleverness 
 of execution, but they seem to have preferred colour to the more 
 permanent forms of representation. If this is so, it certainly is 
 remarkable, when we think of the wealth of sculpture exhibited by 
 such monuments as Bharhut, Sanchi, or Amravati. In so far as our 
 present information goes, one single monastery in Gandhara, such as 
 Jamalgiri, for instance, possessed more sculpture than is to be found 
 in the whole island of Ceylon. The form, too, of such sculptures as 
 have been discovered, is almost as curious as its rarity. Only one 
 ancient figure of Buddha has yet been discovered at Anuradhapura. 
 It may be of the 3rd or 4th century, and is placed un symmetrically 
 in a chapel in front of the Ruanwelli dagoba. Everywhere, how- 
 ever, there are statues of five or seven-headed serpents, or of men with 
 serpent-hoods, which may be of any age, and at the foot of every 
 important flight of steps there are two dwarpals or doorkeepers with 
 this strange appendage,^ and attached to each flight of steps of all the 
 larger and older dagobas are figures of the great Naga himself. In 
 fact, in so far as the testimony of the sculptures alone is concerned, 
 we would be forced to conclude that all the great monuments of the 
 capital were devoted to Serpent worship instead of that of Buddha, 
 with one exception, however ; that one is dedicated to the Bo-tree, 
 which is supposed to be the tree originally sent by Asoka from Buddh 
 Gaya more than 2000 years ago. We know, of course, that all this 
 is not so, but it is a testimony to the early prevalence of Tree and 
 Serpent worship in the island, as strange as it was unexpected. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the Ceylonese monuments is their situation 
 in the two capitals of the island, for, it will have been observed, none 
 of the remains of Buddhist architecture described in the previous 
 chapters are found in the great capital cities of the Empire. They 
 are detached monuments, spared by accident in some distant corner 
 of the land, or rock-cut examples found in remote and secluded 
 valleys. Buddhist Palibothra has entirely perished — so has Sravasti 
 and Yaisali ; and it is with difficulty we can identify Kapilawastu, 
 Kiisinara, and other famous cities, whose magnificent monasteries and 
 
 ' Beal's translation, p. 1 57. 
 
 2 The artist who made the drawings 
 for Sir E. Tenuent's book, not knowing 
 what a serpent-hood was, has in almost 
 
 all instances so drawn it as to be un- 
 recognisable, 'J'he photographs, however, 
 make it quite clear that all had serpent - 
 hoods. 
 
188 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 stupas are described by the Chinese travellers in the fifth or seventh 
 century of our era. In a great measure, this may be owing to their 
 having been built of brick and wood ; and, in that climate, vegetation 
 is singularly destructive of the first, and insects and decay of the 
 second. But much is also due to the country having been densely 
 peopled ever since the expulsion of the Buddhists. It may also be 
 remarked that the people inhabiting the plains of Bengal since the 
 expulsion of the Buddhists, were either followers of the Brahmanical 
 or Mahomedan religions — both inimical to them, or, at least, having 
 no respect for their remains. 
 
 In Ceylon the case is different. Though the great capitals were 
 early deserted, the people are now Buddhists, as they have been for 
 the last 2000 years, and there, consequently, cities are still found 
 adorned with monuments, which, though in ruins, convey a sufficient 
 impression of what those of India must have been in the days of her 
 glory. 
 
 Anuradhapura seems to have become the capital of Ceylon about 
 400 years before Christ, or about a century and a half after the death 
 of Buddha, and the fabled introduction of his religion into the island. 
 It was not, however, till after the lapse of another 150 years that it 
 became a sacred city, and one of the principal capitals of Buddhism 
 in the East, which it continued to be till about the year 769, when, 
 owing to the repeated and destructive invasions of the Malabars, the 
 capital was removed to Pollonarua. That city reached its period of 
 greatest prosperity and extension, apparently in the reign of 
 Prala-ama Bahu, 1153-1186, and then sank during a long and 
 disastrous period into decay. The seat of government was afterwards 
 moved hither and thither, till the country fell into the hands of the 
 Portuguese and Dutch, and finally succumbed to our power. 
 
 Anueadhapura. 
 
 The city of Anuradhapura is now totally deserted in the midst of an 
 almost uninhabited jungle. Its public buildings must have suffered 
 severely from the circumstances under which it perished, exposed for 
 centuries to the attacks of foreign enemies. Besides this, the rank 
 vegetation of Ceylon has been at work for 1000 years, stripping off 
 all traces of plaster ornaments, and splitting the masonry in many 
 places. 
 
 The very desolation, however, of its situation has preserved these 
 ancient monuments from other and greater dangers. No bigoted 
 Moslem has pulled them down to build mosques and monuments of 
 his own faith ; no indolent Hindu has allowed their materials to be 
 used for private purposes or appropriated as private plunder ; and no 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 ANURADHAPURA. 
 
 189 
 
 English magistrate has yet rendered them available for mending 
 station roads and bridges. We may be sure, therefore, that these 
 ruins deserve the greatest attention from the student of Buddhist 
 architecture, and that a vast fund of information may be drawn from 
 them when sufficiently explored and described. 
 
 The peculiar fortune of Anuradhapura is that it continued the 
 capital of Ceylon for ten centuries ; and, alone of all Buddhist cities, it 
 retains something like a complete series of the remains of its greatness 
 during that period. We possess, moreover, in the 'Mahawanso' and 
 other Ceylonese scriptures, a tolerably authentic account of the build- 
 ing of all these monuments, and of the purposes to which they were 
 dedicated. Among the vestiges of its former grandeur still to be 
 found, are the ruins of seven dome-shaped topes or dagobas, of one 
 monastery, of a building erected to contain the sacred Bo-tree, and 
 several other ruins and antiquities. Among these is the great mound 
 called the tomb of the usurper Elaala, but more probably it is a tope 
 erected by the king Duttagaimuni to commemorate the victory over 
 that intruder which he gained on this spot about the year B.C. 161. 
 As it is now a mere mound, without any distinguishable outline, it 
 will not be again alluded to. 
 
 Two of the topes are of the largest size known : one, the Abhayagiri, 
 was erected B.C. 88 ; its dome is exactly hemispherical, and described 
 with a radius of 180 ft., being thus more than 1100 ft. in circum- 
 ference, and with the base and spire making up a total elevation of 
 244 ft., which is only 16 ft. less than the traditional height of 120 
 cubits assigned to it in the ' Mahawanso.' ^ It was erected by a king 
 Walagambahu, to commemorate his reconquest of his kingdom from 
 a foreign usurper who had deposed him and occupied his throne for 
 about sixteen years. 
 
 The second tope is the Jetawana, erected by a king Mahasena 
 A.D. 275. In form and dimensions it is almost identical with the last 
 described, though somewhat more perfect in outline, and a few feet 
 higher, owing probably to its being more modern than its rival. 
 These two were commemorative monuments, and not relic shrines. 
 
 Next to these, but far more important from its sacredness, is the 
 Ruanwelli dagoba, erected by king Duttagaimuni, between the years 
 161 and 137 B.C., over a very imposing collection of relics, of which a 
 full account is given in the 31st chapter of the * Mahawanso.' Its 
 dimensions are very similar to those of the two last described, but it 
 has been so much defaced, partly by violence, and partly, it seems, 
 from a failure of the foundations, that it is not easy to ascertain either 
 its original shape or size. The same king erected another smaller 
 tope, 260 ft. in diameter. It is now known as the Mirisiwellya. Like 
 
 The cubit of Ceylon is nearly 2 ft. 3 in. 
 
190 
 
 BUDUHIS^J' xVRCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the last described it is very much ruined, and not particularly in- 
 teresting either from its form or history. 
 
 Some excavations that have recently been undertaken have dis- 
 closed the fact that the Kuanwelli dagoba had at its base three offsets, 
 or procession paths, rising like steps, one behind and above the other, 
 but with no ornament now apparent, except a plain Buddhist rail of 
 two bars on the outer edge of the two lower ones, and of an elephant 
 cornice to the upper. It can hardly, however, be doubted that the inner 
 faces were originally plastered, and painted with historical scenes. On 
 
 98. Elevation of front of Staircase, Ruanwelli Dagoba. No scale. 
 
 each of the four fronts of this dagoba was an ornamental projection 
 containing and partially concealing the flights of steps by which access 
 was had to these galleries. ^ From the photographs, it is not clear 
 where the steps were that lead to the first, but those leading from the 
 first to the second and third were arranged like those at Sanchi 
 (Woodcut No. 11) behind this frontispiece. Without a plan, however, 
 it is difficult to make out exactly what the arrangement may have 
 been. 
 
 A precisely similar arrangement of stairs exists on the four faces 
 of the Abhayagiri and Jetawana dagobas, to that shown in the two 
 Woodcuts Nos. 98, 99, and consists first of a plain base, above which is 
 a frieze of elephants' heads with paterae between them, very like those 
 used in the metopes of the Roman Doric order ; above this are three 
 plain faces divided by ornamental string courses. Then a bracket cor- 
 nice with patera3 again, and above this two or three more cornices. 
 Above this there w^as probably a parapet simulating a Buddhist rail. 
 
 At each end of this projecting arrangement were two stelae — at 
 the Ruanwelli the inner covered by a foliaged pattern, the outer by 
 
 ^ In the photographs it is called an altar, which it certainly was not. 
 
CiiAP. YIIL 
 
 ANURADHAPUHA. 
 
 191 
 
 a seven-headed Naga, as will be observed in the Woodcut No. 99 ; 
 at the Abhayagiri, the inner stele is adorned with a pattern so 
 nearly identical with that on the pillars of the western gateway at 
 Sanchi,^ that we have no difficulty in recognising them as belonging 
 to about the same age ; though this one, of course, is the older of 
 
 99. View of Frontispiece of Stairs, Riianwelli DagoLa. (From a Pbotograph.) 
 
 the two (B.C. 104). On the other stele in this tope (Woodcut No. 100), 
 we recognise the shield, the Swastica, the trisul, the conch (of 
 Vishnu ?) and all the other Buddhist emblems with which we are 
 already familiar. The Naga here has a stele of his own and 
 detached from the other two. 
 
 All this is architecturally so unlike anything we find of the same 
 age on the continent of India, while its sculptured details are so 
 nearly identical, that, when we come to know more about it, these 
 differences and similarities may lead to most important inferences ; 
 but we must at present wait for the requisite information to enable 
 us to see the bearing of these peculiarities. 
 
 Besides these four large buildings there are two smaller ones, 
 known as the Thuparamaya and Lankaramaya, very similar to one 
 
 ' ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' pi. 19. In some respects it resembles the Wood- 
 cuts Nos. 34 and 35. 
 
192 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. Book I. 
 
 100. Stelae at the end of Stairs, Abhayagiri Dagoba. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 another in size and arrangement. The first-named is represented in 
 Woodcut No. 101. The tope itself, though small and somewhat 
 
 101. Thiiparamaya Topo. (From an unpublished Lithograph by the late James Prinsep.) 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 ANURADHAPURA. 
 
 193 
 
 ruined, is of a singularly elegant bell-shaped outline. ^ Its diameter 
 and height are nearly the same, between 50 ft. and GO ft., and it 
 stands on a platform raised about 9 ft. from the ground, on which 
 are arranged three rows of pillars, which form by far the most import- 
 ant architectural ornament of the building. The inner circle stands 
 about 2 ft. from the dagoba, and the other two about 10 ft. from each 
 other. The pillars themselves are monoliths 26 ft. in height, of which 
 the lower part, to the height of 9 ft., is left square, each side being 
 about 1 ft. The next division, 14 ft.. 6 in. in length, has the angles 
 cut off, as is usual in this style, so as to form an octagon ; the two 
 parts being of one piece of granite. These sustain a capital of the 
 same material, 2 ft. 6 in. in height. 
 
 Accounts differ as to the number of the pillars, as Mr. Knighton 
 says they were originally 108 ; ^ whereas Captain Chapman counted 
 149, and states the original number to have been 184.^ 
 
 This relic-shrine was erected by the celebrated king Devenampia- 
 tissa, about 250 years B.C., to contain the -right jawbone of Buddha, 
 which — say the Buddhist chroniclers — descending from the skies, 
 placed itself on the crown of the monarch. As contemporary with 
 Asoka it belongs to the most interesting period of Buddhist history, 
 and is older, or, at least, as old, as anything now existing on the con- 
 tinent of India ; and there is every reason to suppose it now exists, as 
 nearly as may be, in the form in which it was originally designed, 
 having escaped alteration,* and, what is more unusual in a Buddhist 
 relic-shrine, having escaped augmentation. When the celebrated 
 tooth relic was brought hither from India at the beginning of the 
 4th century, it was deposited in a small building erected for the 
 purpose on one of the angles of the platform of this building, instead 
 of being placed, as seems generally to have been the case, in a shrine 
 on its summit, and eventually made the centre of a new and more 
 extended erection. Perhaps it was an unwillingness to disturb the 
 sacred circle of pillars that prevented this being done, or it may have 
 been that the tooth relic, for some reason we do not now understand, 
 was destined never to be permanently hid from the sight of its adorers. 
 It is certain that it has been accessible during the last 2000 years, 
 and is the only relic of its class that seems to have been similarly 
 preserved and exhibited. 
 
 The Lankaramaya (Woodcut No. 102) is extremely similar to the 
 last — though considerably more modern, having been erected a.d. 221 
 
 ^ Since the drawing was made from 
 which this cut is taken, it has been 
 thoroughly repaired and made as unlike 
 what it was as can well be conceived. 
 
 2 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal ' for March, 1847, p. 218. 
 
 ' 'Transactions of the Eoyal Asiatic 
 Society,' vol. iii. p. 474, and ' Journal of 
 the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xiii. p. 168. 
 
 * I am afraid this is no longer true. 
 From what I learn, I fear it has been 
 repaired. 
 
 0 
 
194 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 Book T. 
 
 — and looks of even more recent date than it really is, in consequence 
 of a thorong-h repair some time ago, which has nearly obliterated 
 its more ancient features. 
 
 102. Lankaramaya Dagoba, a.d. 221. (From a Pliotograpb.) 
 
 As will be observed the two last-mentioned dagobas present us 
 with a peculiarity not found on any example we have yet met 
 with, inasmuch as they are surrounded by three circles of slender 
 monolithic columns, of very elegant design. It can hardly be doubted 
 that these represent, and take the place of, the rail of the northern 
 topes, and subserve the same purpose, but in what manner is not at 
 first sight very apparent. Referring, however, to what was said above, 
 about the Ceylonese preferring painting to sculpture, it does not 
 seem difficult to explain the anomaly. These pillars were originally, 
 I fancy, connected with one another by beams of wood on their 
 capitals, and from these, frames or curtains may have been suspended 
 covered with the paintings which are so indispensable a part of 
 Buddhist decoration. But it may be objected why three ? or, as I 
 believe, the Lankaramaya had originally, four such ranges of pillars ? 
 It is true the northern dagobas had generally only one rail, but that 
 at Amravati had two, and as the great dagobas here had three pro- 
 cession-paths, while none of the northern ones had more than one, we 
 should not be surprised if the smaller dagobas had three paths also, 
 though differently arranged, and even then hardly capable of dis- 
 playing the same amount of painting. When we come to describe the 
 great temple of Boro Buddor in Java it will be seen that it had five 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 ANURADHAPURA. 
 
 195 
 
 procession-paths, and that their walls were sculptured, both inside 
 and outside, with an amount of stone decoration which none of these 
 Ceylonese topes could display, even in painting, by any arrangement 
 we can now understand. 
 
 There is still another — the Saila dagoba — within the limits of the 
 city, but so ruined that its architectural features are undistinguishable, 
 though tradition would lead us to suppose it was the oldest in the 
 place, belonging to a period even anterior to Sakya Muni. The spot 
 at all events is said to have been hallowed by the presence of Kasyapa, 
 the preceding Buddha. 
 
 Besides these, there are on the hill of Mehentele, a few miles to 
 the north-east of the city, two important relic-shrines : one of the first 
 class, erected on its summit to cover a hair that grew on the forehead 
 of Buddha over his left eyebrow. The other, on a shoulder of the hill 
 immediately below this, is of the same class as the Thuparamaya ; a 
 small central building surrounded by concentric rows of granite pillars, 
 which, as appears to have been usual when this mode of decoration 
 was employed, rose to half the height of the central mound. 
 
 There are, in addition to these, a gTeat number of topes of various 
 sorts scattered over the plain, but whether any of them are particularly 
 interesting, either from their architecture or their history, has not been 
 ascertained, nor will it be till the place is far more carefully surveyed 
 than it has yet been. 
 
 There is another ruin at Anuradhapura, which, if a little more 
 perfect, would be even more interesting than those topes. It goes 
 by the name of the Lowa Maha Paya, or Great Brazen Monastery. 
 We have a full account in the ' Mahawanso ' of its erection by the pious 
 king Duttagaimuni (B.C. 161),^ according to a plan procured from 
 heaven for the purpose — as well as a history of its subsequent destruc- 
 tion and rebuildings. 
 
 When first erected it is said to have been 100 cubits or 225 ft. 
 square, and as high as it was broad ; the height w^as divided into nine 
 storeys, each containing 100 cells for priests, besides halls and other 
 indispensable apartments. Nearly 200 years after its erection (a.d. 
 30) it required considerable repairs, but the first great disaster occurred 
 in the reign of Mahasena, a.d. 285, who is said to have destroyed it 
 utterly.^ It was re-erected by his son, but with only five storeys 
 instead of nine ; and it never after this regained its pristine magnifi- 
 cence, but gradually fell into decay even before the seat of govern- 
 ment was removed to Pollonarua. Since that time it has been 
 completely deserted, and all that now remains are the 1600 pillars 
 which once supported it. These generally consist of unhewn blocks of 
 granite about 12 ft. high ; some of the central ones are sculptured, and 
 
 ' 'Mahawauso,' Tumour's trauslatiou, p. 1(38. ^ Loc. cit., p. 235. 
 
 0 2 
 
196 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 many have been split into two, apparently at the time of the great 
 rebni'ding after its destruction by Mahasena ; as it is, they stand 
 about G ft. apart from centre to centre in a compact phalanx, forty on 
 each face, and covering a space of 250 ft. or 260 ft. each way. Upon the 
 pillars must have been placed a strong wooden framing from which 
 the remaining eight storeys rose, as in the modern Burmese monasteries, 
 in a manner to be explained in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 There is only one difficulty, so far as I can see, in understanding 
 the arrangement of the superstructure of this building, and that is the 
 assertion of the ' Mahawanso ' that it consisted of nine storeys — after- 
 wards of five — each containing 100 apartments. For myself I have 
 no hesitation in rejecting this statement as impossible, not only from 
 the difficulty of constructing and roofing such a building, but because 
 its form is so utterly opposed to all the traditions of Eastern art. If 
 we turn back to Fa Hian or Hiouen Thsang's description of the great 
 Dekhani monastery (page 135) or to the great rath at Mahavellipore 
 (Woodcut No. 66), or, indeed, to any of the 1001 temples of southern 
 India, all of which simulate three, five, or nine-storeyed residences, 
 we get a distinct idea of what such a building may have been if 
 erected in the Indian style. It would, too, be convenient and 
 appropriate to the climate, each storey having its terrace for walk- 
 ing or sleeping in the open air, and the whole easily constructed 
 and kept in order. All this will be clearer in the sequel, but in 
 the meanwhile it hardly appears doubtful that the Lowa Maha Paya 
 was originally of nine, and subsequently of five storeys, each less in 
 dimension than the one below it. The top one was surmounted as at 
 Mahavellipore by a dome, but in this instance composed of brass — 
 whence its name ; and, gilt and ornamented as it no doubt was, it 
 must have been one of the most splendid buildings of the East. It 
 was as high as the topes, and, though not covering quite so much 
 ground, was equal, in cubical contents, to the largest of our English 
 cathedrals, and the body of the building was higher than any of them, 
 omitting of course the spires, which are mere ornaments. 
 
 Besides these there are scattered about the ruins of Anuradhapura 
 some half dozen, it may be a dozen, groups of pillars, whose use and 
 purpose it would be extremely interesting to know something about. 
 They all seem raised on a platform or stylobate, and approached by 
 one or more flights of steps, of a highly ornamental character. One 
 of these, leading to a group of pillars attached to the Euanwelli dagoba, 
 will convey some idea of their general character (Woodcut No. 103). 
 At the foot of the flight of steps is a semicircular stone, popularly 
 known in Ceylon as a moon stone (Woodcut No. 104). At least a dozen 
 of these are known to exist at Anuradhapura and as many probably 
 at Pollonarua. Some are large and some smaller than others, but they 
 
Chap. VIIL 
 
 ANURADHAPURA. 
 
 197 
 
 are all nearly identical in design and quite peculiar to Ceylon — nothing 
 of the sort having yet been found on the continent of India or else- 
 where. Inside an outer ornamental ring is a procession of animals, 
 divided from the next compartment by a richly elaborated scroll ; 
 
 103. Pavilion with Steps at Anuradliapura. (Krom a I'liotugrapli.) 
 
 104. Moon Stone at Foot of Steps leading to the Platform of the Bo-tree, Anuradhapura. 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
 within that again a row of birds bearing lotus buds, and then a lotus 
 flower with a disc ornamented with circles. The animals are always 
 elephants, lions, horses, and bulls, the birds either hansas, or sacred 
 geese, or it may be pigeons. These, it will be recollected, are the 
 
198 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 animals which Fa Hian and Hiouen Thsang describe as ornamenting 
 the five storeys of the great Dekhani monastery, and which, as we 
 shall afterwards see, were also arranged at Hullabid in the 13th 
 century in precisely the same manner. For 1500 years they, and 
 they only, seem to have been selected for architectural purposes, but 
 why this was so we are yet unable to explain.^ 
 
 The risers of these stairs, though not adorned with storeyed bas- 
 reliefs, like those of the Jamalgiri monastery in Gandhara, are all 
 richly ornamented, being divided generally into two panels by figures 
 of dwarfs and framed by foliaged borders, while the jambs or flanking 
 stones are also adorned by either figures of animals or bas-reliefs. 
 
 If we had plans or any architectural details of the pavilions to 
 which these steps led, it probably would be easy to say to what pur- 
 pose they were dedicated and how they were roofed. The photographs 
 do not enable us to do either, but from them we gather that some 
 of these halls were certainly enclosed by walls, as the outer side of 
 the pillars is left rough and unsculptured, while those in the centre 
 are sculptured all round. Meanwhile my impression is that they are 
 the buildings Fa Hian describes as preaching halls — the chaitya or 
 ceremonial halls attached to the great dagobas. In India the form 
 these take is that of halls with simulated dagobas inside them, towards 
 which the worship was addressed, but when a real dagoba existed 200 ft. 
 to 400 ft. in diameter, what was w^anted was a hall in which the 
 priests could assemble to chant their liturgies, and from which to 
 address their prayers to the great object of their reverence. If this 
 were so, the axis of these halls ought to be turned towards the dagobas, 
 but whether this was so or not is not yet ascertained.^ 
 
 Besides these there is at Anuradhapura a temple called Isurumuniya, 
 partly cut in the rock, partly structural, regarding which some infor- 
 mation would be extremely interesting. Till within the last few 
 years the pillars of its porch still carried the wooden beams of a roof, 
 but whether it was the original one or a subsequent addition is by no 
 means clear. From the mortises in the face of the rock I would be 
 inclined to believe that it was at least in the original form, but the 
 building has been so knocked about and altered in modern times, that 
 it is impossible to speak with certainty regarding it. So far as can be 
 
 ^ At Amravati the Zoophoriis (Wood- 
 cut No. 36) consisted of the same ani- 
 mals, I believe, but it is not complete, 
 110 fragment of the horse having been 
 brought home, and generally, it seems, 
 that this limited menagerie is to be 
 found in all Buddhist works. 
 
 " Any architect of ordinary ability 
 could in a w^eek easily make the plans 
 
 and draw ngs requisite to give us all 
 the information required respecting these 
 halls in Anuradhapura. I am not sure 
 that Capt. Hogg has not already done 
 all that is wanted, but he was sent oif 
 so suddenly to St. Helena that no time 
 was allowed him to communicate his 
 information to others, even if he had it. 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 rOLLONARUA. 
 
 199 
 
 judged from such photographs as have come home, I would be incUned 
 to ascribe the original excavation to the Gth or 7th century. The 
 architecture of the steps and the Naga dwarpals are all of the old 
 pattern, but coarser and showing unmistakable signs of decadence. 
 
 To us these are the most interesting of the remains of the 
 ancient city, but to a Buddhist the greatest and most sacred of the 
 vestiges of the past is the celebrated Bo-tree. This is now reverenced 
 and worshipped even amidst the desolation in which it stands, and 
 has been worshipped on this spot for more than 2000 years ; and thus, 
 if not the oldest, is certainly among the most ancient of the idols that 
 still command the adoration of mankind. 
 
 When Asoka sent his son Mahindo, and his daughter Sangamitta, 
 to introduce Buddhism into Ceylon, one of the most precious things 
 which they brought was a branch of the celebrated tree which still 
 grows at Gaya^ (Woodcut No. 16). The branch, so says the legend, 
 spontaneously severed itself from the parent stem, and planted itself 
 in a golden vase prepared for its reception. According to the pro- 
 phecy, it was to be " always green, never growing nor decaying," and 
 certainly present appearances would go far to confirm such an assertion, 
 for, notwithstanding its age, it is small, -and, though healthy, does not 
 seem to increase. Its being evergreen is only a characteristic of its 
 species, the Ficus religiosa- our acquaintance with it, however, must 
 extend over a longer series of years than it yet does, before we can 
 speak with certainty as to its stationary qualities. 
 
 It grows from the top of a small pyramid, which rises in three 
 terraces, each about 12 ft. in height, in the centre of a large square 
 enclosure called the Maha Vihara. But though the place is large, 
 sacred, and adorned with gates of some pretension, none of the 
 architectural features which at present surround it are such as to 
 requh^e notice in a work like the present. 
 
 POLLONAEUA.2 
 
 Although very much more modern in date, and consequently less 
 pure in style, the ruins at Pollonarua are scarcely less interesting than 
 those of the northern capital to which it succeeded. They form a link 
 between the ancient and modern styles at a time when the Buddhists 
 had ceased to exist, or at least to build, on the continent of India, and, 
 
 ' Singularly enough, the natives of 
 Behar ascribe the planting of their Bo- 
 tree to Duttagaimuui, the pious king 
 of Ceylon. — See Buchanan Hamilton's 
 ' St atistics of Behar,' p. 76, Montgomery 
 Martin's edition. 
 
 ^ Aecordiug to Mr. Rhys Davids, the 
 
 proper name of the city is I'ulastipura 
 (' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 
 vol. vii. (N.S.) p. 156), and its modern 
 name Topawoewa or Topawa. As, how- 
 ever, that here given is the only one by 
 which it is known in English literature, 
 it is retained. 
 
200 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 when properly illustrated, will enable us to speak with confidence of 
 much that we find beyond the Ganges. Almost all we know at present 
 of these ruins is due to the publications of Sir Emerson Tennent/ 
 which, though most valuable contributions, are far from exhausting 
 the subject. According to this authority, the principal ruins extend 
 in a line nearly north and south for about a mile and a half from the 
 palace to the Gal Yihara, and comprise two dagobas, besides a 
 immber of smaller edifices. The greater part seem to have been 
 erected during the reign of Prakrama Bahu, 1153-86, though, as the 
 city became the capital of the kingdom in the 8th centm'y, it is prob- 
 able that an intelligent search would reveal some of earlier date ; 
 while, as it was not deserted till 1235, some of them may also be 
 more modern. 
 
 If not the oldest, certainly the most interesting group at Pollona- 
 rua is that of the rock-cut sculptures known as the Gal Vihara. They 
 are not rock-cut temples in the sense in which the term is under- 
 stood in India, being neither residences nor chaitya halls. On the 
 left, on the face of the rock, is a figure of Buddha, seated in the usual 
 cross-legged conventional attitude, 16 ft. in height, and backed by 
 a throne of exceeding richness : perhaps the most elaborate specimen 
 of its class known to exist anywhere. Next to this is a cell, with 
 two pillars in front, on the back wall of which is another seated 
 figure of Buddha, but certainly of a more modern aspect than that 
 last described ; that appearance may, however, be owing to whitewash 
 and paint, which have been most liberally applied to it. Beyond 
 this is a figure of Buddha, standing in the open air ; and still 
 further to the right another of him, lying down in the conventional 
 attitude of his attaining Nkvana. This figure is 45 ft. long, while 
 the standing one is only 25 ft. high.^ These Nirvana figures are 
 rare in India, but there is one in the most modern cave at A junta, 
 No. 26, and others in the latest caves at Nassick and Salsette. None 
 of these, however, so far as I know, ever attained in India such 
 dimensions as these. In another century or two they might have 
 done so, but the attainment of such colossal proportions is a sure sign 
 of their being very modern. 
 
 In front of the Gal Yihara stands the principal religious group of 
 
 ' ' Christiauity in Ceylon,' Murray, 
 1850; 'An Account of the Island of 
 Ceylon,' 2 vols., Longmans, 1859. Since 
 then Mr. Lawton's and Capt. Hogg's pho- 
 tographs have added considerably to the 
 precision but not to the extent of oar 
 knowledge. Not one plan or dimension, 
 and no description, so far as I know, 
 have reached this country. 
 
 2 Among Capt. Hogg's photographs 
 are two colossal statues of Buddha, one 
 at Seperawa, described as 41 ft. high, 
 the other at a place called Aukana, 40 
 ft. high ; but where these places are 
 there is nothing to show. They are 
 extremely similar to one another, and, 
 except in dimensions, to that at the Gal 
 Vihara. 
 
Chap. VHI. 
 
 POLLONARUA. 
 
 201 
 
 the city, consisting first of the Jayta Wana Eama Temple, 170 ft. 
 long by 70 ft. wide (Woodcut No. 105), containing an erect statue of 
 Buddha 58 ft. in height. On one side of it is the Kiri dagoba— 
 
 on the right of the woodcut— with two smaller topes, standing on 
 raised platforms, the whole space measuring 577 ft. by 500 ft., and 
 was apparently at one time entirely filled with objects of religious 
 
202 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 adoration. The whole certainly belongs to the age of Prakrama- 
 Bahu. It was, however, built of brick, and plastered, which gives it 
 an appearance of inferiority even beyond what is due to the inferior 
 style of that age. 
 
 Next in importance to this is the Rankot Dagoba, 18G ft. in 
 diameter. This, though only half that of some of those in the older 
 capital, is still larger than any known to exist on the continent of 
 India. Its base is smTounded, like those in Burmah, by a number 
 of small shrines, which at this age supplied the place of the pillars 
 or of the rails which formed so important a part of the structm-e of the 
 older examples. 
 
 At some distance from this, and near the palace, stands the Sat 
 Mehal Prasada (Woodcut No. 1 OG), which is one of the most interesting 
 
 106. Sat Mehal Prasada. (From Sir J. E. Tennent's ' Ceylon.') 
 
 buildings of the place, as it is one of the most perfect representations 
 existing of the seven-storeyed temples of Assyria already described, 
 vol. i. page 152, et seqq. That this is a lineal descendant of the Birs 
 Nimroud can hardly be doubted. It is also interesting as affording 
 a hint as to the appearance of the five or nine-storeyed monasteries 
 mentioned in a previous page (196). This one, however, never was a 
 residence, nor does it simulate one, like the raths at Mahavellipore 
 or other buildings in the Dravidian style, Avhich will be described in a 
 subsequent chapter. 
 
 In front of it lies a splendid dolmen, or stone table, 2C ft. long, 
 4 ft. broad, and 2 ft. thick. It would be interesting to know if 
 the dolmen rests on the ground, or is supported on three or more 
 upright stones — most probably the latter. Like most of the Indian 
 examples, it appears to be a squared and carved repetition of what 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 POLLONAKUA. 
 
 203 
 
 in Europe we find only rough and unhewn. The carving on its 
 border represents a number of hansas or sacred geese — always a 
 favourite subject of the Buddhist sculptors.^ At one end of this 
 stone is engraved a representation of Sri, with her two elephants 
 with their water-pots (Woodcut No. 2) ; and I fancy I can detect 
 her also in other photographs elsewhere in Ceylon, but not so distinctly 
 as to feel sure. 
 
 Close to the Sat Mehal is a circular building, which, so far as is 
 at present known, is unique. It may almost be described as a hollow 
 dagoba, being a circular enclosure surrounded by a wall, but empty 
 in the centre, at least containing nothing now. Originally, it may 
 
 107. Round House, called Wntte Daje, in Pollonarua. (From Sir J. E. Teuneiit.) 
 
 have had a shrine in its centre, or tabernacle of some sort, con- 
 taining a relic or, more probably, a sacred Tree. It is surrounded by 
 a procession-path, enclosed by a highly-ornamental screen, and beyond 
 this by a second gallery adorned with a range of slender pillars, 
 like those which surround the dagobas at Anuradhapura (Woodcut 
 No. 107) ; below this, again, is a richly-carved stylobate. 
 
 Four flights of steps lead up to its procession-paths, more magni- 
 ficent and elaborate than any others that have yet been discovered 
 in Ceylon. They all have most elaborate moon stones to start from. 
 Their risers are each adorned with twelve figures of dwarfs, and their 
 side-pieces, or jambs, are also of exceptional richness, and each has 
 
 ^ They occur also on Asoka's pillars 
 in the earliest known sculptures in India 
 (Woodcut No. 6). It was the cackling 
 
 of these sacred geese which is said to 
 have saved the Capitol at Kome from 
 being surprised by the Gauls. 
 
204 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 a pair of Naga-headed dwarpals on each side of its upper flight. 
 The photographs are sufficient to show that this is one of the most 
 interesting buildings in Ceylon, as well as one of the richest in 
 sculptural decorations ; but unless the antiquities of Java throw some 
 light on the subject, we must be content with ignorant admiration till 
 some one capable of investigating its history visits the place.^ 
 
 Besides these, there are in Pollonarua several of those groups of 
 pillars, without roofs or walls, which we tried to describe in speaking 
 of Anuradhapura. One, called the Audience Hall, seems to be very 
 similar to those of the northern capital ; another, known as the Hetti 
 Vihara, is more extensive, and may really be the foundation of a vihara ; 
 but till we have plans and more details it is needless speculating on 
 what they may or may not have been. 
 
 Although built in brick, and very much ruined, there still exist 
 in Pollonarua a palace and a vihara— the Abhayagiri — which was 
 really a residence, and whose examination would, no doubt, throw 
 considerable light on the arrangement of similar buildings in India. 
 That information might, however, be difficult to obtain, and, till the 
 simpler and more monumental buildings are examined and drawn, its 
 investigation may well be postponed. 
 
 Besides these, Pollonarua possesses another point of interest of 
 considerable importance, though hardly germane to our present 
 subject. Among its ruins are several buildings in the Dravidian 
 style of architecture, whose dates could easily, I fancy, be at least 
 approximately ascertained. One of these is called the Dalada Mali- 
 gawa, apparently from its possessing at one time the tooth relic ; for 
 it is hardly probable that when migrating southward for fear of the 
 Tamils they would have left their cherished palladium behind them. 
 If it was sheltered here, and this was the first building erected to 
 receive it, it would be a most important landmark in the very vague 
 chronology of that style. Another, though called the Vishnu Dey- 
 anne Dewala, was certainly either originally, or is now, dedicated to 
 the worship of Siva, as is testified by the presence of the bull along- 
 side of it, and also apparently on its roof. But be this as it may, 
 it is the lowest and flattest of those buildings I have yet met with, 
 and more like a direct literal copy from a constructive vihara than 
 even the raths at Mahavellipore (Woodcut No. 181). This may arise 
 either from its being a copy of an actual vihara existing at the 
 time it was built, or to its being very old. Those at Mahavellipore, 
 
 * The preceding woodcut, from Sir 
 E. Tcnueut's book, is far from doing 
 justice to the building or to Mr. Nicholl's 
 drawings, wMch are before me ; but among 
 the half dozen photographs I possess of 
 
 it not one is sufficiently explanatory to 
 convey a correct idea of its peculiarities, 
 and, after all,without plans or dimensions, 
 it is in vain to attempt to convey a correct 
 idea of it to others. 
 
f^HAP. VII r. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 205 
 
 even if older than this one, may have gone through certain stages 
 towards their present conventional forms before they were cut in the 
 rock. But more of this hereafter. 
 
 It is unfortunate for the history of architecture in Ceylon that 
 the oldest and finest of her rock-cut temples — ^as those, for instance, 
 at Dambul and Dunumadala Kanda — are only natural caverns, 
 slightly improved by art ; and those mentioned above, as the Isuru- 
 muniya at Anuradhapura, and Gal Yihara at Pollonarua, besides being 
 comparatively modern, have very little architecture about them, and 
 that little by no means of a good class. Generally speaking, what 
 architecture these Ceylonese caves do possess is developed on applied 
 fa9ades of masonry, never of the same age as the caves themselves, 
 and generally more remarkable for grotesqueness than beauty. Besides, 
 the form of these caves being accidental, they want that interest 
 which attaches so strongly to those of India, as illustrating the 
 religious forms and ceremonies of the early Buddhists. Indeed, their 
 only point of interest seems to consist in their being still used for the 
 celebration of the same rites to which they were originally dedicated 
 2000 years ago. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Although the above sketch cannot pretend to be anything like 
 a complete and exhaustive treatise on the subject, it may probably 
 be accepted, as far as it goes, as a fairly correct and intelligible descrip- 
 tion of Buddhist architecture in India. We certainly know the 
 beginning of the style, and as certainly its end. The succession of 
 the buildings hardly admits of doubt, and their dates are generally 
 ascertained within very narrow limits of error. A great deal more 
 must, of course, be done before all the examples are known and all 
 the lacuncB filled up ; but this is being rapidly done, and in a few 
 years from this time all that is necessary to complete the history 
 may be available for the purpose. It is hardly probable, however, 
 that anything will be now discovered in India which will materially 
 alter the views put forward in the preceding pages. Another dis- 
 covery like General Cunningham's at Bharhut may reward the industry 
 of explorers ; but even that, though it has given breadth and precision 
 to our inquiries, and added so much to om* stores of knowledge, has 
 altered little that was know^n before. What was written in my work 
 on 'Tree and Serpent Worship' before the discovery was made, has, 
 in almost every instance, been confirmed, and in no important par- 
 ticular modified or changed ; and om' knowledge is now so extended, 
 it probably will be the same in other cases. It is difficult, however, 
 to form an opinion on the chances of any such discoveries being now 
 
206 
 
 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 made. The one important building we miss of which accounts have 
 reached us, is the rock-cut monastery described by the Chinese Pilgrims 
 {ante, p. 135). If it was rock-cut, it almost certainly exists, and 
 may yet be found in some of the unexplored parts of the Nizam's 
 territory. If it is discovered, it will throw more light on Buddhist 
 architecture in the first century of our era than anything yet brought 
 to light. That it did exist seems hardly doubtful, inasmuch as 
 w^e have in the great rath at Mahavellipore (Woodcut No. 66) a 
 literal copy of it — on a small scale, it is true — but so perfect that 
 it certainly is not a first attempt to repeat, in a monolithic form, a 
 class of building that must have been very common at the time this 
 was attempted. 
 
 Be this as it may, even such a sketch as that contained in the 
 preceding pages is sufficient to prove that it is almost impossible 
 to overrate the importance of architecture and its associated arts in 
 elucidating and giving precision to our knowledge of Buddhist history 
 and mythology, from the time when it became the religion of the 
 state till it perished in so far as India was concerned. In the rails 
 at Buddh Gaya and Bharhut, with the eastern caves, we have a 
 complete picture of Buddhism as it existed during the great Mauryan 
 dynasty (B.C. 325 to B.C. 188). At Sanchi and the western caves we 
 have as complete a representation of the form it took from the first 
 century before our era to the third or fourth after it. At Amravati, 
 and from the Gandhara monasteries, w^e learn w^hat modifications 
 had been introduced before and during the 4th century ; and from the 
 Ajunta and later caves we trace its history downw^ard through its 
 period of decay till it became first almost Jaina and then faded away 
 altogether. 
 
 During the first half of this thousand years we have no con- 
 temporary records except those written in stone, and during the 
 latter w^e have no books w^e can depend upon ; but the architecture, 
 with its sculptures and paintings, remain, and bear the indelible 
 impress of the thoughts, the feelings, and the aspirations of those 
 who executed them, and supply us with a vast amount of exact 
 knowledge on the subject which is not attainable by any other means 
 now known to us. 
 
( 207 ) 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 There are few of the problems connected with this branch of our 
 subject so obscure and so puzzling as those connected with the early 
 history of the Architecture of the Jains. AYhen we first practically 
 meet with it in the early part of the 11th century at Abu, or at 
 Girnar, it is a style complete and perfect in all its parts, evidently 
 the result of long experience and continuous artistic development. 
 From that point it progresses during one or two centuries towards 
 greater richness, but in doing so loses the purity and perfection it 
 had attained at the earlier period, and from that culminating point 
 its downward progress can be traced through abundant examples to 
 the present day. When, however, we try to trace its upward progress 
 the case is widely different. General Cunningham has recently found 
 some Jaina statues at Muttra, with dates upon them apparently of 99 
 and 177 a.d.^ If this is so, it is the earliest material trace of Jainism 
 that has yet been discovered, and they must have been associated with 
 buildings which may yet reward the explorer. From this time forward, 
 till the 11th century, we have only fragments of temples of uncertain 
 origin and date, and all in so very ruined a condition that they hardly 
 assist us in our researches. Yet we cannot doubt that the Jains did 
 exist in India, and did build temples, during the whole of this interval, 
 and the discovery of some of them may yet reward the industry of some 
 future investigator. 
 
 Meanwhile one thing seems tolerably clear, that the religions of 
 the Buddhists and that of the Jains were so similar to one another 
 
 ' ' Archaeological Reports,' vol. iii. 
 p. 31, et seqq., plates 13 and 15. As 
 neither photographs nor even drawings 
 of these figures are yet available, we are 
 still uuable to speak of their style of 
 art, or to feel sure of their authenticity ; 
 
 nor has the era from which these dates 
 are to be calculated been fixed with any- 
 thing like certainty. The evidence, how- 
 ever, as it now stands, is strongly in 
 favour of their being what they arc re- 
 presented to be. 
 
208 
 
 JAINA AI^CHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 both in their origin, and their development and doctrines, that their 
 architecture must also at one time have been nearly the same. In 
 consequence of this, if we could trace back Jaina art from about the 
 year 1000, when practically we first meet it, to the year 600 or 700, 
 when we lose sight of Buddhist art, we should probably find the two 
 very much alike. Or if, on the other hand, we could trace Buddliist art 
 from A.D. GOO to a.d. 1000, we should as probably find it developing 
 itself into something very like the temples on Mount Abu, and elsewhere, 
 at that period of time. 
 
 A strong presumption that the architecture of the two sects was 
 similar arises from the fact of their sculptures being so nearly identical 
 that it is not always easy to distinguish what belongs to the one and 
 what to the other ; and in all instances it requires some experience to 
 do this readily. The Tirthankars are generally represented seated in 
 the same cross-legged attitude as Buddha, with the same curly hair, 
 and the same stolid contemplative expression of countenance. Where, 
 however, the emblems that accompany the Jaina saints can be recog- 
 nised, this difficulty does not exist. Another, but less certain test 
 arises from the fact that the Jaina saints are generally represented as 
 naked — -Digambaras or Sky-clad, which in ancient times seems to have 
 been the most numerous sect, though another division or the Swetam- 
 baras, or White-robed, were clothed much like the Buddhist. When, 
 therefore, a figure of the class is represented as naked it may certainly 
 be assumed to belong to the sect of the Jains, but the converse is by no 
 means so certain. If clad it may belong to either, and in consequence 
 it is frequently difficult to distinguish between late Buddhist and early 
 Jaina bas-reliefs and sculptures. 
 
 So far as we can at present see, the most hopeful source of informa- 
 tion regarding Jaina architecture seems to be the ruined monasteries of 
 the Gandhara country (Woodcuts Nos. 92, 93, 96). The square or poly- 
 gonal court of these viharas surrounded by cells containing images is 
 what is found in all Jaina temples. The square or circular altar, or 
 place of worship, may easily be considered as the prototype of the Sikra 
 surrounded by cells of the Jains ; and altogether these viharas, though 
 probably as early as the fourth or fifth century of our era, are more like 
 the temples at Abu and Girnar than anything intermediate. It is indeed 
 every day becoming more and more apparent that, in consequence of 
 our knowledge of Buddhist architecture being derived almost exclusively 
 from rock-cut examples, we miss a great deal which, if derived from 
 structural buildings, would probably solve this among other problems 
 that are now perplexing us. 
 
 The same remarks apply equally to the Jaina caves. Those at 
 EUora and Badami do not help us in our investigation, because they 
 are not copies of structural buildings, but are imitations of the rock- 
 cut examples of the Hindus, which had grown up into a style of 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 209 
 
 their own, distinct from that of structural edifices. These, being 
 interposed between the Buddhist and Jaina styles, separate the two 
 as completely as if no examples existed, and prevent our tracing any 
 connexion that may have existed between the two forms of art. 
 
 The earliest hint we get of a twelve-pillared dome, such as those 
 universally used by the Jains, is in a sepulchre at Mylassa,^ probably 
 belonging to the 4th century. A second hint is found in the great 
 cave at Bagh (Woodcut No. 87) in the 6th or 7th century, and 
 there is little doubt that others will be found when looked for — but 
 where ? In the valley of the Ganges, and wherever the Mahomedans 
 settled in . force, it would be in vain to look for them. These zealots 
 found the slender and elegant pillars, and the richly carved horizontal 
 domes of the Jains, so appropriate and so easily re-arranged for their 
 purposes, that they utilised all they cared not to destroy. The great 
 mosques of Ajmir, Delhi, Canouge, Dhar and Ahmedabad, are all merely 
 reconstructed temples of the Jains. There is, however, nothing in any 
 of them that seems to belong to a very remote period — nothing in fact 
 that can be carried back to times long, if at all, anterior to the year 
 1000. So we must look further for the cause of their loss. 
 
 As mentioned in the introduction the curtain drops on the drama 
 of Indian history about the year 650, or a little later, and for three 
 centuries w^e have only the faintest glimmerings of what took place 
 within her boundaries. Civil wars seem to have raged everywhere, 
 and religious persecution of the most relentless kind. When the cur- 
 tain again rises we have an entirely new scene and new dramatis 
 personae presented to us. Buddhism had entirely disappeared, except 
 in one corner of Bengal, and Jainism had taken its place throughout 
 the west, and Yishnuism had usm'ped its inheritance in the east. On 
 the south the religion of Siva had been adopted by the mass of the 
 people, and these three religions had all assumed new and complex 
 forms from the adoption of local superstitions, and differed widely 
 from the simpler forms of the earlier faiths. My impression is that it 
 was during these three centuries of misrule that the later temples and 
 viharas of the Buddhists disappeared, and the earlier temples of the 
 Jains ; and there is a gap consequently in our history which may be 
 filled up by new discoveries in remote places,^ but which at present 
 separates this chapter from the last in a manner it is by no means 
 pleasant to contemplate. 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 359, Woodcut No. 241. 
 
 2 The antiquities of Java will probably, 
 to some extent at least, supply this defi- 
 
 ciency, as will be pointed out in a sub- 
 sequent chapter. 
 
 V 
 
210 
 
 JAINA AHCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER 1\. 
 CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Arches— Domes — Plans — Sikras. 
 
 Arches. 
 
 Before proceeding to describe the arrangements of Jaina or Hindu 
 temples, it may add to the clearness of what follows if we first explain 
 the peculiar modes of constructing arches and domes which they 
 invariably employed. 
 
 As remarked above, although we cannot assert with absolute 
 certainty that the- Buddhists never employed a true arch, this at 
 least is certain — that no structural example has yet been found in 
 India, and that all the arched or circular forms found in the caves 
 are without one single exception copies of wooden forms, and nowhere 
 even simulate stone construction. With the Hindus and Jains the 
 case is different : they use stone arches and stone domes which are 
 not copied from wooden forms at all ; but these are invariably 
 horizontal arches, never formed or intended to be formed with 
 radiating voussoirs. 
 
 It has already been explained, in speaking of Pelasgic art,^ how 
 prevalent these forms were in ancient Greece and Asia Minor, and how 
 long they continued to be employed even after the principles of the 
 true arch were perfectly understood. In India, however, the adherence 
 to this form of construction is even more remarkable. As the Hindus 
 quaintly express it, " an arch never sleeps ; " and it is true that a 
 radiating arch does contain in itself a vis viva which is always tending 
 to thrust its haunches outwards, and goes far to ensure the ultimate 
 destruction of every building where it is employed : while the hori- 
 zontal forms employed by the Hindus are in stable equilibrium, and, 
 unless disturbed by violence, might remain so for ever. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Hindus carried their horror of an 
 arch to an excess which frequently led them to worse faults on the 
 other side. In city walls for instance, where there is a superabundant 
 
 ' Vol, i. p. 212, e< seqq. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 ARCHEvS: 
 
 211 
 
 View of City Gateway, Bijaiiagur. (From a I'liolograph.) 
 
 abutment on either hand 
 principle is entirely mis- 
 placed. If we take, for 
 instance, one of the city 
 gates at Bijanagur 
 (Woodcut No. 108), we 
 cannot help perceiving 
 that with much smaller 
 stones and less trouble a 
 far more stable construc- 
 tion could have been ob- 
 tained, so long as the wall 
 on either hand remained 
 entire. What the Hindu 
 feared was that if the wall 
 were shattered, as we now 
 find it, the arch would 
 have fallen, though the 
 horizontal layers still re- 
 main in their places. 
 
 Instead of a continuous 
 bi-acket like that shown in 
 the last example, a more 
 usual form, in modern 
 times at least, is that of 
 
 to counteract any thrust, the horizontal 
 
 Gateway, Jiiijiuvai la. 
 (From Kinlocli Forbes' 'Ras Mala.') 
 
212 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 several detached brackets placed a little distance apart the one from 
 the other. "When used in moderation this is the more pleasing form 
 of the two, and in southern India it is generally used with great 
 success. In the north they are liable to exaggerate it, as in the 
 gateway from Jinjuwarra in Gujerat (Woodcut No. 109, p. 211), when 
 it becomes unpleasing, though singularly characteristic of the style. 
 
 It is this horizontal or bracket mode of construction that is the 
 formative principle of the Dravidian or Southern style of Hindu 
 architecture, every form and every ornament depending almost wholly 
 upon it. In the north, however, another development of the same 
 principle is found in the horizontal dome, which is unknown in the 
 south, but which has given a new character to the style, and, as 
 one of its most beautiful features, demands a somewhat detailed 
 explanation. 
 
 Domes. 
 
 It is to be regretted that, while so much has been written on the 
 history of the pointed arch, so little should have been said regarding 
 the history of domes : the one being a mere constmctive peculiarity 
 that might very well have been dispensed with ; the other being the 
 noblest feature in the styles in Avhich it prevails, and perhaps the 
 most important acquisition with which science has enriched the art of 
 architecture. 
 
 The so-called Treasuries of Mycense and Orchomenos, as well as the 
 chambers in Etruscan tombs, prove that as early as ten or twelve cen- 
 turies before Christ the Pelasgic races had learned the art of roofing 
 circular chambers with stone vaults, not constructed, as we construct 
 them, with radiating vaults, on the principle of the common arch, but 
 by successive layers of stones converging to a point, and closed by one 
 large stone at the apex. 
 
 Whoever invented the true or radiating arch, the Eomans were 
 the first who applied it as a regular and essential architectm'al feature, 
 and who at the same time introduced its complement, the radiating 
 dome, into architectm'al construction ; at what period it is not now 
 known. The earliest example, the Pantheon, is also the finest and 
 largest ; but we have lost entirely the innumerable steps by which 
 the architects must have slowly progressed to so daring an experi- 
 ment. 
 
 There is, however, a vast difference between these two classes of 
 domes, which it is necessary to bear in mind in order to understand 
 what follows. 
 
 The Roman arch and Roman dome are always constructed (Woodcut 
 No. 110) on the principle of voussoirs, or truncated wedges, radiating 
 from a centre. This enabled the Romans to cover much larger spaces 
 
ClIAP. II. 
 
 DOMES. 
 
 213 
 
 with their domes than perhaps was possible on the horizontal prin- 
 ciple ; but it involved the inconvenience of great lateral thrusts, 
 continually tending to split the dome and tear the building in pieces, 
 and requiring immense and massive abutments to counteract their 
 destructive energy. 
 
 Radiating Arc! 
 
 111. Hoiizontal Arch. 
 
 The Indian or horizontal dome never can be made circular in 
 section, except w^hen used on the smallest scale, but almost always 
 takes a form more or less pointed (Woodcut No. 111). From the time 
 of the building of the Treasm-y of Mycenae ^ to the birth of Christ we 
 have a tolerably complete series of arches and vaults constructed on 
 this principle, but few domes properly so called. After the Christian 
 Era the first example is found in a singular tomb at Mylassa,^ 
 near HaUcarnassus,^ where the dome exhibits all the peculiarities of 
 construction found in the Jaina temples of India. After this we lose 
 the thread of its history till the form reappears in porches like those 
 of the 11th century on Mount Abu, where it is a perfectly established 
 architectural feature, that must have been practised long before it 
 could be used as we find it in that building. Whether we shall ever 
 be able to recover the lost links in this chain is more than doubtful, 
 but it would be deeply interesting to the history 
 of art if it could be done. In the meantime, 
 there is no difficulty in explaining the construc- 
 tive steps by which the object is now attained 
 in India. These may also throw some light on 
 the history of the invention, though this is not, 
 of course, capable of direct proof. 
 
 The simplest mode of roofing a small square 
 space supported by four pillars is merely to run 
 an architrave or stone beam from each pillar, and 112. Diagi-am of Roofing, 
 cover the intermediate opening by a plain stone 
 slab. Unless, however, slabs of great dimensions are available, this 
 mode of construction has a limit very soon arrived at. The next step 
 therefore is to reduce the extent of the central space to be covered by 
 cutting off its corners ; this is done by triangular stones placed in each 
 angle of the square, as in Woodcut No. 112, thus employing five stones 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 213. 2 ibicl,^ p, 334. 
 
 ' Fully illustrated in vol. ii. of the Dilettanti Society's ' Antiquities of Ionia.' 
 
214 
 
 JAIN A ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 instead of one. By this means, the size of the central stone remaining 
 the same, tlie side of the square space so roofed is increased in the ratio 
 of ten to seven, the actual area being doubled. The next step in the 
 process (Woodcut No. 113) is by employing three tiers and nine stones 
 
 113. Diagrams of Roofing. 114. 
 
 instead of two tiers and five stones, which quadruples the area roofed. 
 Thus, if the central stone is 4 ft., by the second process the space 
 roofed will be about ,5 ft. 8 in. ; by the third 8 ft. square ; by a fourth 
 process (Woodcut No. 114) — with four tiers and thirteen stones — the 
 extent roofed may be 9 ft. or 10 ft., always assuming the central stone to 
 remain 4 ft. square. All these forms are still currently used in India, 
 but with four pillars the process is seldom carried further than this ; 
 
 with another tier, however, and eight 
 pillars (as shown in Woodcut No. 115), 
 it may be carried a step further — exactly 
 the extent to which it is carried in the 
 tomb at Mylassa above referred to. In 
 this, however, as in all instances of octa- 
 gonal domes in this style, instead of the 
 octagonal form being left as such, there 
 are always four external pillars at the 
 angles, so that the square shape is re- 
 tained, with twelve pillars, of which the 
 eight internal pillars may be taken as 
 mere insertions to support the long archi- 
 trave between the four angular pillars. 
 
 It is evident that here again we 
 come to a limit beyond which we can- 
 not progress without using large and long stones. This was some- 
 times met by cutting off the angles of the octagon, and making the 
 lower course of sixteen sides. When this has been done an awkward- 
 ness arises in getting back to the square form. This was escaped 
 
 115. Diagram of Roofing. 
 
Chap. IL 
 
 DOMES. 
 
 213 
 
 from, in all the instances I am acquainted with, by adopting circular 
 com'ses for all above that with sixteen sides. In many instances the 
 lower course with sixteen sides is altogether omitted, and the circles 
 placed immediately on the octagon, as in the temple at Yimala Sah 
 (Woodcut No. 130, p. 236). It is difficult to say how far this 
 system might be carried constructively without danger of weakness. 
 The Indian domes seldom exceed 30 ft. in diameter, but this may have 
 arisen more from the difficulty of getting architraves above 12 ft. or 
 13 ft. in length to support the sides, than from any inability to construct 
 domes of larger diameter in themselves. This last difficulty was to 
 some extent got over by a system of bracketing, by which more than 
 half the bearing of the architrave was thrown on the capital of the 
 column, as shown in Woodcut No. 116. Of course this method might 
 
 116. I liagrani O! Indian construction. 
 
 B. Form of bracket capital in the angle of an octagonal dome. 
 
 have been carried to any extent, so that a very short architrave would 
 suffice for a large dome ; but whether this could be done with elegance 
 is another matter. The Indians seem to have thought not ; at least, 
 so far as I know, they never carried it to any extent. Instead of 
 bracketing, however, they sometimes used struts, as shown in Wood- 
 cut No. 116, but it is questionable whether that could ever be made 
 a really serviceable constructive expedient in stone architecture. 
 
 The great advantage to be derived from the mode of constructing 
 domes just described was the power it gave of placing them on pillars 
 without having anything to fear from the lateral thrust of the vault. 
 The Romans never even attempted this, but always, so to speak, 
 brought their vaults down to the ground, or at least could only erect 
 them on great cylinders, which confined the space on every side. The 
 
216 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book 11. 
 
 Byzantine architects, as we have seen, cut away a great deal of the 
 substructure, but nevertheless could never get rid of the great heavy 
 piers they were forced to employ to support their domes, and in all 
 ages were forced to use either heavy abutments externally, or to 
 crowd their interiors with masses of masonry, so as in a great mea- 
 sure to sacrifice either the external effect or the internal convenience 
 of their buildings to the constructive exigencies of their domes. This 
 in India never was the case ; all the pressure was vertical, and to 
 ensure stability it only required sufficient strength in the support to 
 bear the downward pressure of the mass — an advantage the import- 
 ance of which is not easily over-estimated. 
 
 One of the consequences of this mode of construction was, that all 
 the decoration of the Indian domes was horizontal, or, in other words, 
 the ornaments were ranged in concentric rings, one above the other, 
 instead of being disposed in vertical ribs, as in Roman or Gothic 
 vaults. This arrangement allows of far more variety without any 
 offence to good taste, and practically has rendered some of the 
 Indian domes the most exquisite specimens of elaborate roofing that 
 can anywhere be seen. Another consequence of this mode of con- 
 struction was the employment of pendants from the centres of the 
 domes, which are used to an extent that would have surprised even 
 the Tudor architects of our own country. With them, however, the 
 pendant was an architectural tour de force, requiring great construc- 
 tive ingenuity and large masses to counterbalance it, and is always 
 tending to destroy the building it ornaments ; while the Indian 
 pendant, on the contrary, only adds its own weight to that of the 
 dome, and has no other prejudicial tendency. Its forms, too, generally 
 have a lightness and elegance never even imagined in Gothic art ; it 
 hangs from the centre of a dome more like a lustre of crystal drops 
 than a solid mass of marble or of stone. 
 
 As before remarked, the eight pillars that support the dome are 
 almost never left by themselves, the base being made square by the 
 addition of four others at the angles. 
 There are many small buildings so con- 
 structed with only 
 twelve pillars, as 
 shown in the an- 
 nexed diagram (No. lA ^ j 
 117), but two more ' 
 are oftener added on 
 
 making 
 
 Diagram of the arrangement 1^ f 
 of the pillars of a Jaina ^'^'^^^ 
 
 twenty altogether, as 
 
 
 1/ \! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i II II 1 
 
 
 
 Diagram Flan of Jaina Porch. 
 
 shown on the upper 
 side of the annexed diagram (No. 118) ; or four on each face, making 
 twenty-eight ; or again, two in front of these four, or six on each 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOMES. 
 
 217 
 
 face, so as to make thirty-six ; and the same system of aggregation 
 is carried on till the number of pillars reaches fifty-six (Woodcut 
 No. 119), which is the largest 
 number I ever saw surrounding 
 one dome ; but any number of 
 these domes may surround one 
 temple, or central dome, and the 
 number consequently be multi- 
 plied ad infinitum. When so 
 great a number of pillars is 
 introduced as in the last in- 
 stance, it is usual to make the 
 outmost compartment on each 
 face square, and surmount it 
 with a smaller dome. This is 
 
 occasionally though rarely done ng. Diagram of Jaina Porch. 
 
 even with the smallest number. 
 
 The first result of this arrangement is, that the Hindus obtained 
 singularly varied outline in plan, producing the happiest effects of 
 light and shade with every change in the sun's position. Another 
 result was, that by the accentuation of the salient and re-entering 
 angles, they produced those strongly-marked vertical lines which give 
 such an appearance of height to Gothic designs. To accomplish this, 
 however, the Western architects were obliged to employ buttresses, 
 pinnacles, and other constructive expedients. The Hindus obtained 
 it by a new disposition of the plan without anywhere inteiTupting 
 the composition. This form of outline also expresses the internal 
 arrangements of the porch better than could be done by the simpler 
 outline of either a square or circle, such as is usually employed 
 in Europe. Its greatest merit, however, is, that the length of the 
 greater aisles is exactly proportioned to their relative width as com- 
 pared with that of the subordinate aisles. The entrance being in 
 the angle, the great aisle forms the diagonal, and is consequently in 
 the ratio of 10 to 7, as compared to what it would be if the entrance 
 were in the centre of the side, where we usually place it. From the 
 introduction of the octagonal dome in the centre the same proportion 
 (correctly 707 to 1000) prevails betweeen the central and side aisles, 
 and this again is perhaps the most pleasing that has yet been intro- 
 duced anywhere. In Gothic churches the principal aisles are generally 
 twice as wide as the side ones, but they are also twice as high, which 
 restores the proportion. Here, where the height of all is the same, or 
 nearly so, this gradation just suffices to give variety, and to mark 
 the relative importance of the parts, without the one overpowering 
 the other : and neither has the appearance of being too broad nor 
 too narrow. 
 
218 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 It is, of course, difficult for those who have never seen a building of 
 the class just described to judge of the effect of these arrangements ; and 
 they have seldom been practised in Europe. There is, however, one 
 building in which they have accidentally been employed to a consider- 
 able extent, and which owes its whole beauty to the manner in which 
 it follows the arrangement above described. That building is Sir 
 Christopher Wren's church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. Internally its 
 principal feature is a dome supported on eight pillars, with four more 
 in the angles, and two principal aisles crossing the building at right 
 angles, with smaller square compartments on each side. This church 
 is the great architect's masterpiece, but it would have been greatly 
 improved had its resemblance to a Hindu porch been more complete. 
 The necessity of confining the dome and ais'es within four walls greatly 
 injures the effect as compared with the Indian examples. Even the 
 Indian plan of roofing, explained above, might be used in such a 
 building with much less expense and less constructive danger than a 
 Gothic vault of the same extent. 
 
 Plans. 
 
 Up to the present time only one temple has been discovered in India 
 which gives us even a hint of how the plans of the Buddhist Chaitya 
 Halls became converted into those of the Jaina and Hindu temples. 
 Fortunately, however, its evidence is so distinct that there can be 
 very little doubt about the matter. The temple in question is situated 
 in the village of Aiwulli, in Dharwar, in western India, not far from 
 the place where the original capital of the Chalukyan sovereigns is 
 supposed to have been situated, and near the caves of Badami on the 
 one hand and the temples of Pittadkul on the other. Its date is 
 ascertained by an inscription on its outer gateway, containing the name 
 of Vicramaditya Chalukya, whom we know from inscriptions certainly 
 died in a.d. 680, and with less certainty that he commenced to reign 
 A.D. 650.^ The temple itself may possibly be a little older, but the 
 latter may fairly be taken as a medium date representing its age. It is 
 thus not only the oldest structural temple known to exist in western 
 India, but in fact the only one yet discovered that can with certainty be 
 said to have been erected before the great cataclysm of the beginning of 
 the 8th century, 
 
 Mr. Burgess is of opinion that it Avas originaTy dedicated to 
 Vishnu,'^ but this does not seem quite clear. There certauily are 
 Jaina figures among those that once adorned it ; ^ and it seems to be 
 
 ' •Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. iv. p. 1, et seqq. ; ' Madras 
 Journal,' vol. xx. p. 78, et seqq. ; ' Journal 
 Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
 
 Society/ vol. iii. p. 206, et seqq. 
 
 2 ' Archaeological Reports,' 1874, pp. 41. 
 and 42. 
 I ^ Loc. cit., plate 54. 
 
CiiAr. II. 
 
 FLANS. 
 
 219 
 
 a fact that though the Jains admitted Siva, Vishnu, and all the gods 
 of the Hindu Pantheon into their temples, there is no evidence of the 
 reverse process. The Hindus never admitted the human Tirthankars 
 of the Jains among their gods. Its original dedication is fortunately, 
 however, of very little importance for our present purposes. The 
 religions of the Jains and Vaishnavas, as pointed out above (p. 40), 
 were, in those days and for long afterwards, so similar that it was 
 impossible to distinguish between them.^ Besides this, the age when 
 this temple was erected was the age of toleration in India. The 
 Chinese traveller Hiouen Thsang has left us a most vivid description 
 of a great quinquennial festival, at which he was present at Allahabad 
 in A.D. 648, at which the great King Siladitya presided, and distri- 
 buted alms and honours, on alternate days, to Buddhists, Brahmans, 
 and heretics of all classes, who were assembled there in tens of 
 thousands, and seem to have felt no jealousy of each other, or rivalry 
 that led, at least, to any disturbance.^ It was 
 on the eve of a disruption that led to the most 
 violent contests, but up to that time we have no 
 trace of dissension among the sects, nor any reason 
 to believe that they did not all use similar edifices 
 for their religious purposes, with only such slight 
 modifications as their different formulae may have 
 required (Woodcut No. 120). 
 
 Be this as it may, any one who will compare 
 the plan of the chaitya at Sanchi (Woodcut No. 40), 
 which is certainly Buddhist, with that of this temple 
 at Aiwulli, which is either Jaina or Yaishnava, can 
 hardly fail to perceive how nearly identical they om Temi^e^at AisvuHi. 
 must have been when complete. In both instances. Bur-ess.) 
 it will be observed, the apse is solid, and it appears 
 that this always was the case in structural free-standing chaityas. 
 At least, in all the rock-cut examples, so far as is known, the pillars 
 round the apse are difi'erent from those that separate the nave from 
 the aisles ; they never have capitals or bases, and are mere plain 
 makeshifts. From the nature of their situation in the rock, light 
 could not be admitted to the aisle behind the apse from the outside, 
 but must be borrowed from the front, and a solid apse was conse- 
 quently inadmissible ; but in free-standing examples, as at Aiwulli, 
 it was easy to introduce windows there or anywhere. Another 
 change was necessary when, from an apse sheltering a relic-shrine, 
 it became a cell containing an image of a god ; a door was then 
 indispensable, and also a thickening of the wall when it was necessary 
 
 ^ 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. ix. p. 270, I ^ 'Hiouen Thsang, Vie et Voyages,' 
 vol. xvii. p. 285. I vol. i. p. 253, et seqq. 
 
220 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 it should bear a tower or sikra to mark the position of the cella on the 
 outside. Omitting the verandah, the other changes introduced between 
 the erection of these two examples are only such as were required 
 to adapt the points of support in the temple to carry a heavy stone 
 roof, instead of the light wooden superstructure of the Buddhist chaitya. 
 (Woodcut No. 121.) 
 
 It may be a question, and one not easy to settle in the present 
 state of our knowledge, whether the Buddhist chaityas had or had 
 not verandahs, like the Aiwulli example. The rock-cut examples 
 naturally give us no information on this subject, but the presump- 
 tion certainly is, looking at their extreme appropriateness in that 
 climate, that they had this appendage, sometimes at least, if not 
 always. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 SIKRAS. 
 
 221 
 
 If from this temple at Aiwulli we pass to the neighboming one at 
 Pittadkul, built probably a couple of centuries later, we find that we 
 have passed the boundary line that separates the ancient from the 
 mediaeval architecture of India, in so far at least as 
 plans are concerned (Woodcut No. 122). The circular 
 forms of the Buddhists have entirely disappeared, and 
 the cell has become the base of a square tower, as 
 it remained ever afterwards. The nave of the chaitya 
 has become a well defined mantapa or porch in front 
 of, but distinct from, the cell, and these two features 
 in an infinite variety of forms, and with various 
 subordinate adjuncts, are the essential elements of 
 the plans of the Jaina and Hindu temples of all the 
 subsequent ages. 
 
 The procession-path round the cell— called Pra- 
 . dakshina — as that round the apse, remained for some 122. pian of Temple 
 
 ^ . I. , . • 1 r ^ at Pittadkul. 
 
 centuries as a common but not a universal leature. (FromaPianhy 
 
 The verandah disappeared. Pound a windowless scal'e 5o^ft.^tri\n. 
 
 cell it was useless, and the pillared porches contained 
 
 in themselves all the elements of shelter or of shadow that were 
 
 required. 
 
 SiKRAS. 
 
 There is one other peculiarity common to both Jaina and Hindu 
 architecture in the north of India that requires notice, before pro- 
 ceeding to describe particular examples. It is the form of the towers 
 or spires called Sikras, or Vimanas, which invariably surmount the 
 cells in which the images are placed. It is probably correct to assert 
 that the images of the Tirthankars or of the Hindu deities are in- 
 variably placed in square, generally cubical cells, of no great dimen- 
 sion, and that these cells receive their light from the doorway only. 
 It seems also an invariable ru^^e that the presence and position of the 
 cell should be indicated externally by a tower or spire, and that these 
 towers, though square or nearly so in plan, should have a curvilinear 
 outline in elevation. If the tower at Buddh Gaya {ante, p. 70) 
 retains unaltered the original form given to it when erected in the 
 5th or 6th century, this dictum would not apply to Buddhist architec- 
 ture. As it is, however, the only Buddhist sikra yet discovered it is 
 hardly fair to draw any decided inference from one single example, 
 while with Jaina or Hindu towers I know of no exception. Take for 
 instance the tower represented in the following woodcut (No. 123), 
 which purports to be an elevation of the celebrated Black Pagoda at 
 Kanaruc in Orissa, and may be looked upon as a typical example 
 of the style, and of which it may be considered as a fair medium 
 
222 
 
 .IAIN A ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book it. 
 
 example. The upper part of the tower, to some extent, overhangs 
 its base. It bends inward towards the summit, and is sm-mounted by 
 
 what is called an Amalaka from 
 its supposed resemblance to a fruit 
 of the name — Phyllanthus emUica. 
 This, however, is certainly a mis- 
 take. Had it been said it was copied 
 from a melon or any large gourd 
 that was divided into pips exter- 
 nally — if there are any such — there 
 are some early examj^les that might 
 seem to countenance such an idea ; 
 but the Phyllanthus is so insignifi- 
 cant a berry that it could hardly 
 
 123. 
 
 Restored Elevation of tbe Black Pagoda at Ranaruc. 
 (.From a Drawing by the Author.) No scale. 
 
 ever have been adopted as an architectural model. Besides this its 
 peculiar nicked form occurs frequently in old examples as a sort 
 of blocking course dividing the sikras horizontally into numerous 
 small compartments, and it seems as if what is used there in a 
 straight-lined form was employed as a circular ornament at the 
 /' summit. It is a very beautiful architectural device, and was, as far 
 as I can see, adopted only because it was so, and contrasted brilliantly 
 with the flat ornaments with which it was employed. At present 
 we do not seem to be in a position to explain its origin, or that of 
 a great many other details that are fre(]uently met with in Hindu 
 architecture. 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 SIKIIAS. 
 
 223 
 
 Whatever its origin, this amalaka is generally surmounted by a 
 flat dome of reverse curvature, in the centre of which stands the 
 kullus, or pinnacle, in the form of a vase, generally of very beautiful 
 and graceful design. 
 
 The great and at first sight puzzling question is, from what 
 original is this curious combination of forms derived ? It is like 
 nothing found anywhere out of India, and like no utilitarian form in 
 
 India that we now know of. It 
 cannot be derived from the dome- 
 like forms of the topes. They are 
 circular both in plan and eleva- 
 tion. The sikras are straight-lined 
 in plan, and their section is never 
 a seo:ment of a circle ; it is not 
 
 12 J. Diagram I'laii and Section of th? Black Pasndi at Ivanaruc, detigned to exiikiin 
 ilic construction of Hindu Temples. 
 
224 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 derived from any many-storeyed building-s, as the sikras or vimanas 
 of the Dravidian architecture of the south of India, which seem 
 certainly to have been copied from the many-storeyed viharas of the 
 Buddhists, and we cannot fancy any class of domestic building which 
 could hive formed a model out of which they could have been 
 elaborated. One curious thing we do know, which is that all the 
 ancients roofs in India, whether represented in the bas-reliefs or copied 
 in the caves, were invariably curvilinear — generally circular or rather 
 ogee — having a ridge added externally to throw off the rain from that 
 weakest part ; but nothing on any bas-relief or painting gives us a hint 
 of any building like these sikras. 
 
 Another curious and perplexing circumstance regarding the sikras 
 is that when Ave first meet them, at Bhuvaneswar for instance, or the 
 Bay of Bengal, or at Pittadkul in the 7th century, on the west coast of 
 India, the style is complete and settled in all its parts. There was 
 no hesitation then, nor has there been any since. During the twelve 
 or thirteen centuries that have elapsed since the erection of these 
 earliest known examples, they have gone on becoming more and more 
 attenuated, till they are almost as pointed as Gothic spires, and 
 their degree of attenuation is no bad test of their age ; but 
 they never changed in any essential feature of the design. All 
 the parts found in the oldest examples are retained in the most 
 recent, and are easily recognisable in the buildings of the present 
 century. 
 
 The one hypothesis that occurs to me as sufficient to account for 
 this peculiarity is to assume that it was a constructive necessity. If 
 we take for instance an assumed section of the diagram (Woodcut 
 No. 124, p. 223), it will be seen how easily a very tall pointed 
 horizontal arch, like that of the Treasury at Mycenae (Woodcut 
 No. 122, vol. i.), would fit its external form. In that case we 
 might assume that the tower at Buddh Gaya took a straight- 
 lined form like that represented in Woodcuts Nos. 128, 129, vol. i., 
 while the Hindus took the more graceful curvilinear shape, 
 which certainly was more common in remote classical antiquity, ^ 
 and as it is found in Assyria may have reached India at a remote 
 period. 
 
 This hypothesis does not account for the change from the 
 square to the circular form in the upper part, nor for its peculiar 
 ornamentation ; but that may be owing to our having none of the 
 earlier examples. When we first meet with the form, either in 
 Dharwar or Orissa, it is complete in all its parts, and had evidently 
 
 ' Sec Woodcuts Nos. 99, 112, 122, 124, 127, 172, 177 and 178 of vol. i. of this 
 work. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 SIKRAS. 
 
 225 
 
 reached that state of perfection through long stages of tentative 
 experience. The discovery of some earlier examples than we now 
 know may one day tell us by what steps that degree of perfection 
 was reached, but in the meanwhile I fear we must rest content with 
 the theory just explained, which, on the whole, may be considered 
 sufficient for present purposes at least.^ 
 
 ' In his work on the ' Antiquities of but if his diagram were all that is to 
 Orissa,' Babu Kajendra Lala Mittra sug- be said in favour of the hypothesis, I 
 gests at page 31 something of this sort, would feel inclined to reject it. 
 
 Q 
 
22G 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IT. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NORTHERN JAINA STYLE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Palitana — Girnar — Mount Abu — Parisnatli — Gualior — Khajuraho. 
 
 Palitana. 
 
 The grouping together of their temples into what may be called 
 " Cities of Temples " is a peculiarity which the Jains practised to a 
 greater extent than the followers of any other religion in India. The 
 Buddhists grouped their stupas and viharas near and around sacred 
 spots, as at Sanchi, Manikyala, or in Peshawur, and elsewhere ; but 
 they were scattered, and each was supposed to have a special meaning, 
 or to mark some sacred spot. The Hindus also grouped their temples, 
 as at Bhuvaneswar or Benares, in great numbers together ; but in all 
 cases, so far as we know, because these were the centres of a popula- 
 tion who believed in the gods to whom the temples were dedicated, 
 and wanted them for the purposes of their worship. Neither of these 
 religions, however, possess such a group of temples, for instance, as 
 that at Sutrunjya, or Palitana, as it is usually called, in Gujerat, 
 about thirty miles from G-ogo, on its eastern coast (Woodcut No. 125). 
 No survey has yet been made of it, nor have its temples been counted ; 
 but it covers a very large space of ground, and its shrines are 
 scattered by hundreds over the summits of two extensive hills and 
 in the valley between them. The larger ones are situated in tuks, or 
 separate enclosures, surrounded by high fortified walls ; the smaller 
 ones line the silent streets. A few yatis, or priests, sleep in the 
 temples and perform the daily services, and a few attendants are 
 constantly there to keep the place clean, which they do with the 
 most assiduous attention, or to feed the sacred pigeons, which are the 
 sole denizens of the spot : but there are no human habitations, 
 properly so called, within the walls. The pilgrim or the stranger 
 ascends in the morning, and returns when he has performed his 
 devotions or satisfied his curiosity. He must not eat, or at least 
 must not cook his food, on the sacred hill, and he must not sleep 
 there. It is a city of the gods, and meant for them only, and not 
 intended for the use of mortals. 
 
 Jaina temples and shrines are, of course, to be found in cities, and 
 
Chap. IIL 
 
 PALITANA. 
 
 227 
 
 where there are a sufficient number of votaries to support a temple, 
 as in other rehgions ; but, beyond this, the Jains seem, almost more 
 than any sect, to have realised the idea that to build a temple, and 
 
 to place an image in it, was in itself a highly meritorious act, wholly 
 irrespective of its use to any of their co-religionists. Buildmg a 
 temple is with them a prayer in stone, which they conceive to be 
 
228 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 eminently acceptable to the deity and likely to secure them benefits 
 both here and hereafter. 
 
 It is in consequence of the Jains believing to a greater extent 
 than the other Indian sects in the efficacy of temple-building as a 
 means of salvation, that their architectural performances bear so 
 much larger a proportion to their numbers than those of other re- 
 ligions. It may also be owing to the fact that nine out of ten, or 
 ninety-nine in a hundred, of the Jaina temples are the gifts of single 
 wealthy individuals of the middle classes, that these buildings 
 generally are small and deficient in that grandeur of proportion that 
 marks the buildings undertaken by royal command or belonging to 
 important organised communities. It may, however, be also owing 
 to this that their buildings are more elaborately finished than those 
 of more national importance. When a wealthy individual of the 
 class who build these temples desires to spend his money on such an 
 object, he is much more likely to feel pleasure in elaborate detail and 
 exquisite finish than on great purity or grandeur of conception. 
 
 All these peculiarities are found in a more marked degree at 
 Palitana than at almost any other known place, and, fortunately for 
 the student of the style, extending through all the ages during which 
 it flourished. Some of the temples are as old as the 11th century, 
 and they are spread pretty evenly over all the intervening period 
 down to the present century. But the largest number and some of 
 the most important are now erecting or were erected in the present 
 century or in the memory of living men. Fortunately, too, these 
 modern examples by no means disgrace the age in Avhich they are 
 built. Their sculptures are inferior, and some of their details are 
 deficient in meaning and expression ; but, on the whole, they are 
 equal, or nearly so, to the average examples of earlier ages. It is this 
 that makes Palitana one of the most interesting places that can be 
 named for the philosophical student of architectm-al art, inasmuch 
 as he can there see the various processes by which cathedrals were 
 produced in the Middle Ages, carried on on a larger scale than almost 
 anywhere else, and in a more natural manner. It is by watching the 
 methods still followed in designing buildings in that remote locality 
 that Ave become aware hoAV it is that the uncultivated Hindu can 
 rise in architecture to a degree of originality and perfection which 
 has not been attained in Europe since the Middle Ages, but which 
 might easily be recovered by following the same processes. 
 
 GlRNAR. 
 
 The hill of Girnar, on the south coast of Gujerat, not far from 
 Puttun Somnath, is another shrine of the Jains, as sacred, but some- 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 GIRNAR. 
 
 229 
 
 how not so fashionable in modern times as that at Palitana. It wants, 
 consequently, that bewildering magnificence arising from the number 
 and variety of buildings of all ages that crowd that temple city. 
 Besides this, the temples themselves at Girnar lose much of their 
 apparent size from being perched on the side of a hill rising 3500 ft. 
 above the level of the sea, composed of granite rocks strewn about in 
 most picturesque confusion. 
 
 Although we have no Girnar Mahatmya to retail fables and 
 falsify dates, as is done at Sutrunjya, we have at Girnar inscriptions 
 which prove that in ancient times it must have been a place of great 
 importance. On a rock outside the town at its foot, called jpar excel- 
 lence Junaghar — the Old Fort — Asoka, B.C. 250, carved a copy of 
 his celebrated edicts.^ On the same rock, in a.d. 151, Rudra Dama, 
 the Sah king of Saurastra, carved an inscription, in which he boasted 
 of his victories over the Sat Karni, king of the Dekhan, and recorded 
 his having repaired the bridge built by the Maurya Asoka. ^ The 
 embankment of the Sudarsana lake again burst and carried away this 
 bridge, but was again repaired by Skanda, the last of the great Guptas, 
 in the year a.d. 457,^ and another inscription on the same rock records 
 this event. 
 
 A place where three such kings thought it worth while to record 
 their deeds or proclaim their laws must, one would think, have been an 
 important city or place at that time ; but what is so characteristic of 
 India occurs here as elsewhere. No material remains are found to 
 testify to the fact.* There are no remains of an ancient city, no 
 temples or ruins that can approach the age of the inscriptions, and 
 but for their existence we should not be aware that the place was 
 known before the 10th century. There are, it is true, some caves in 
 the Uparkot which may be old ; but they have not yet been exa- 
 mined by any one capable of discriminating between ancient and 
 modern things, and till so visited their evidence is not available.^ 
 
 ^ No really satisfactory translation of 
 these Asoka edicts lias yet been pub- 
 lished. The best is that of Professor 
 Wilson, in vol. xii. 'Journal of Royal 
 Asiatic Society.' Mr. Burgess has, how- 
 ever, recently re-copied that at Girnar, 
 and General Cunningham those in the 
 north of India. When these are pub- 
 lished it may be possible to make a 
 better translation than has yet appeared. 
 
 ^ 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 120. 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. vii. p.'l24. 
 
 * Lieut. Postans' 'Journey to GirJiar,' 
 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Ben- 
 gal,' vol. vii. p. 865, et seqq. This, with 
 
 most of the facts here recorded, is 
 taken either from Mr. Burgess's descrip- 
 tions of the photographs in his ' Visit 
 to Somnath, Girnar, and other places in 
 Kathiawar,' or Lieut. Postans' 'Journey,' 
 just referred to. Col. Tod's facts are too 
 much mixed up with poetry to admit of 
 their being quoted. 
 
 ^ Mr. Burgess visited this place during 
 the spiing of the pretent year, and has 
 brought away plans and sections, from 
 which it appears these caves are old, but 
 till his materials are published it is im- 
 possible to state exactly how old they 
 may be. I am afraid this work will be 
 published long before his Report. 
 
230 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 My impression is that they may belong to the age of the Guptas, 
 which was a great age for excavating caves of this class in India, but 
 Ave must await further information before deciding. 
 
 The principal group of temples at Girnar, some sixteen in number, 
 is situated on a ledge about 600 ft. below the summit, and still conse- 
 ({uently nearly 3000 ft. above the level of the sea. The largest, possibly 
 also the oldest of these, is that of Neminatha (Woodcut No. 120). An 
 
 126. Temple of Ncminatlia, Girnar. (From a Plan by Mr. Hurgess.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 inscription upon it records that it was repaired in a.d. 1278, and 
 unfortunately a subsequent restorer has laid his heavy hand upon it, 
 so that it is difficult now to realise what its original appearance may 
 have been. This unfortunately is only too often the case with Jaina 
 temples. If a Hindu temple or Mahomedan mosque is once deserted 
 and goes to decay, no one ever after repairs it, but its piaterials are 
 ruthlessly employed to build a new temple or mosque according to the 
 newest fashion of the day. AVith the Jains it is otherwise. If a man 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 GIRNAK. 
 
 231 
 
 is not rich enough to build a new fane, he may at least be able to 
 restore an old one, and the act with them seems equally meritorious, 
 as it usually is considered to be with us ; but the way they set about 
 it generally consists in covering up the whole of the outside with a 
 thick coating of chunam, filling up and hiding all the details, and 
 leaving only the outline. The interior is generally adorned with 
 repeated coats of whitewash, as destructive to artistic effect, but not 
 so irreparable. 
 
 The plan and the outline are generally, however, left as they were 
 originally erected, and that is the case with the temple of Neminatha. 
 It stands in a courtyard measuring 195 ft. by 130 ft. over all externally. 
 The temple itself has two porches or mantapas, one of which is called 
 by Hindu architects the Maha Mantapa, the other the Ard'ha 
 Mantapa,^ though it is not quite clear to which of the two the term 
 Maha, or great, should be applied in this instance ; I would say the 
 inner, though that is certainly not the sense in which the term is 
 usually understood. 
 
 Around the courtyard are arranged seventy cells with a 
 covered and enclosed passage in front of them, and each of these 
 contains a cross-legged seated figure of the Tirthankar to whom the 
 temple is dedicated, and generally with a bas-relief or picture 
 representing some act in his life. But for the fall of the rock there 
 w^ould have been nine or ten more cells, and indeed this repetition of 
 the images of the saint, like the multiplication of temples, seems to 
 have been the great aim of the Jaina architects. As we shall presently 
 see in a Jaina temple at Brambanam in Java, there were 236 small 
 temples or cells surrounding the great one, and there, as here, each of 
 them was intended to contain a similar image of one of the Tir- 
 thankars. 
 
 Immediately behind the temple of Neminatha is a triple one 
 erected by the brothers Tejpala and Vastupala, who also erected one of 
 the principal temples in Abu. From inscriptions upon its walls it 
 seems to have been erected in a.d. 1177. The plan is that of tlu^ee 
 temples joined together, an arrangement not unfrequently found in 
 the south, but rare in the north, w^hich is to be regretted, as it is 
 capable of great variety of effect, and of light and shade to a greater 
 extent than plainer forms. In this instance there is an image of Mal- 
 linatha, the 19th Tirthankar, in the central cell, but the lateral ones 
 each contain a remarkable solid pile of masonry called a Samosan, that 
 on the north side named Mera or Sumera — a fabled mountain of the 
 Jains and Hindus — having a square base (Woodcut No. 127) ; that on 
 the south, called Samet Sikhara — Parisnath, in Bengal — with a nearly 
 circular base. Each rises in four tiers of diminishing width, nearly to 
 
 * Ram Raj, ' Architecture of the Hindus,' p. 49. 
 
232 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 the roof, and is siirniounted by a small square canopy over the images.^ 
 From this it would appear that with the Jains, the Mounts Girnar, 
 Sutrunjya, Abu, &c., were not only holy places, but holy things, and 
 that with them — as with the Syrians — the worship of high places was 
 really a part of their religion. 
 
 127. Plan of Temple of Tejpala and Vastupa a. (From a Plan by Mr. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 Some of the other temples at Girnar are interesting from their 
 
 history, and remarkable from fragments 
 of an ancient date that have survived 
 the too constant repairs ; but without 
 illustrating them it would only be 
 tedious to recapitulate their names, or 
 to attempt to describe by words objects 
 which only the practised eye of the 
 Indian antiquary can appreciate. Not 
 far from the hill, however, on the sea- 
 shore, stands the temple of Somnath, 
 historically perhaps the most celebrated 
 in India, from the campaign Avhich 
 Mahmood of Gazni undertook for its 
 destruction in 1025, and the momentous 
 results that campaign had eventually on 
 the fate of India. 
 
 As will be seen from the annexed plan 
 (Woodcut No. 128) the temple itself never 
 could have been remarkable for its dimensions, probably it never 
 
 123. Plan of Temple at Son,nath. 
 (From a Plan by Mr. F?urgess.) 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 * Burgess, 'Visit to Girnar,' &c., p. 3. 
 
Chap. IK. 
 
 GIllNAR. 
 
 233 
 
 exceeded about 130 ft. over all, but the dome of its porch, which 
 measures 33 ft. across, is as large as any we know of its age. From 
 the accounts, hoAvever, which we have of the siege, it is evident that 
 it w^as enclosed like the temple of Neminatha (Woodcut No. 126) 
 in a courtyard, and that may have been of surpassing magnificence. 
 Though very similar in plan, it is nearly twice the dimensions of that of 
 Neminatha, and if its court was proportionately large, it may really 
 have justified all that has been said regarding its splendour. From 
 what fragments of its sculptured decorations remain, they too must 
 have been of great beauty, quite equal to anything we know of this 
 class, or of their age. It has not yet been determined, however, 
 whether what we now see are fragments of the temple attacked by 
 Mahmood, and consequently whether they belong to the 10th or even 
 the 9th century, or whether they may be due to a repair which was 
 effected in the 12th. As the story is now told, after Mahmood's 
 departure it was restored by Bhima Deva of Anhilwarra Puttun, who 
 reigned 1021-1073, and adorned by Siddha Raja, 1093-1143, and 
 lastly by Kumara Pala in 1168. Generally it is thought that what we 
 now see belongs to the last-named king. Any one on the spot, 
 thoroughly acquainted with the subject, might discriminate among 
 these and tell us its story. In so far as photographs enable us to judge, 
 it would appear that a considerable portion of what we now see belongs 
 to the original fane, though very much altered and knocked about by 
 subsequent restorers. 
 
 Another point of dispute is the name of the god to whom the 
 temple was dedicated when the Moslem marched against it. From 
 the name Someswara, it is generally assumed to have been Siva. If, 
 however, that had been the case, the image in the sanctuary would 
 almost certainly have been a lingam. The Mahomedan historians, 
 however, represent it distinctly as having a head with eyes, arms, and 
 a belly.^ In that case it must either have been Vishnu or one of the 
 Tirthankars. I can find no trace of Yishnuism in Gujerat at this 
 period, but what seems to me to settle the case is, that all the kings 
 above mentioned, who took part in the repairs after the departure of 
 Mahmood, were undoubtedly Jains, and they would hardly have repaii'ed 
 or rebuilt a temple belonging to another sect. 
 
 ^ 'Fcrishta,' translated by General 
 Briggs, vol. i. p. 72. Wilson, however 
 (' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xvii. p. 194), is 
 clearly of opinion that it was a lingam. 
 One slight circumstance mentioned inci- 
 dentally by Ferishta (p. 74) convinces 
 me as clearly it was Jaina. After de- 
 scribing the destruction of the great idol, 
 
 he goes on to say, " There were in the 
 temple some thousands of tmall images, 
 wrought in gold and silver, of various 
 shapes and dimensions." I know of no 
 religion except that of the Jains — and 
 the very late Buddhists — who indulged 
 in this excessive reduplication of images. 
 
234 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Mount Abu. 
 
 It is hardly to be wondered at that Mount Abu was early fixed 
 upon by the Hindus and Jains as one of their sacred spots. Rising 
 from the desert as abruptly as an island from the ocean, it presents 
 on almost every side inaccessible scarps 5000 ft, or 6000 ft. high, and 
 the summit can only be approached by ravines cut into its sides. 
 When the summit is reached, it opens out into one of the loveliest 
 valleys imaginable, six or seven miles long by two or three miles in 
 width, cut up everywhere by granite rocks of the most fantastic 
 shaj^es, and the spaces between them covered with trees and luxuriant 
 vegetation. The little Nucki Talao, or Pearl Lake, is one of the love- 
 liest gems of its class in all India, and it is near to it, at Dilwarra, 
 that the Jains selected a site for their Tirth, or sacred place of 
 rendezvous. It cannot, however, be said that it has been a favourite 
 place of worship in modern times. Its distance and inaccessibility 
 are probably the causes of this, and it consequently cannot rival 
 either Palitana or Girnar in the extent of its buildings ; but during 
 the age of Jaina supremacy it was adorned with several temples, 
 two of which are unrivalled for certain qualities by any temples in 
 India. They are built wholly of white marble, though no quarries 
 of that material are known to exist within 300 miles of the spot, 
 and to transport and carry it up the hill to the site of these 
 temples must have added immensely to the expense of the under- 
 taking. 
 
 The more modern of the two was built by the same brothers, Tejpala 
 and Yastupala, who erected the triple temple at Girnar (Woodcut 
 No. 1*27). This one, we learn from inscriptions, was erected between 
 the years 1197 and 1247, and for minute delicacy of carving and beauty 
 of detail stands almost unrivalled even in the land of patient and lavish 
 labour.^ 
 
 The other, built by another merchant prince, Yimala Sah, appa- 
 rently about the year a.d. 1032,^ is simpler and bolder, though still 
 as elaborate as good taste would allow in any purely architectural 
 object. Being one of the oldest as well as one of the most complete 
 examples known of a Jaina temple, its peculiarities form a convenient 
 introduction to the style, and among other things serve to illustrate 
 how complete and perfect it had already become when we first meet 
 with it in India. 
 
 ^ See 'Illustrations of Indian Archi- 
 tecture,' by the Author, p. 30, from which 
 work the plan and view are taken. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 MOUNT ABU. 
 
 235 
 
 The annexed plan (Woodcut No. 129) will suffice to explain the 
 general arrangements of the temple of Vimala Sah, which, as will be 
 observed, are similar to some we have already met, though of course 
 varying consideraby in 
 extent and detail. 
 
 The principal object 
 here, as elsewhere, is 
 a cell lighted only 
 from the door, contain- 
 ing a cross-legged seated 
 figure of. the saint to 
 whom the temple is 
 dedicated, in this in- 
 stance Parswanatha. 
 The cell, as in all other 
 examples, terminates 
 upwards in a sikra, or 
 pyramidal spire-like 
 roof, which is common 
 to all Hindu and Jaina 
 temples^ of the age in 
 the north of India. 
 To this, as in almost 
 all instances, is attached 
 a portico, generally of 
 considerable extent, and 
 in most examples sur- 
 mounted by a dome 
 resting on eight pillars, which forms indeed the distinguishing charac- 
 teristic of the style, as well as its most beautiful feature. In this 
 example the portico is composed of forty-eight free-standing pillars, 
 which is by no means an unusual number ; and the whole is enclosed 
 in an oblong courtyard, about 140 ft. by 90 ft., surrounded by a double 
 colonnade of smaller pillars, forming porticos to a range of cells, 
 fifty-five in number, which enclose it on all sides, exactly as they do 
 in Buddhist viharas. In this case, however, each cell, instead of being 
 the residence of a monk, is occupied by one of those cross-legged images 
 which belong alike to Buddhism and Jainism, and between which 
 so many find it difficult to distinguish. Here they are, according to 
 the Jaina practice, all repetitions of the same image of Parswanatha, 
 and over the door of each cell, or on its jambs, are sculptured scenes 
 from his life. 
 
 In other religions there may be a great number of separate similar 
 
 ' See ante, p. 221. 
 
236 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 chapels attached to one building-, but in no other would fifty-five be 
 found, as in this example, or the seventy that surround the temple of 
 Neminatha at Girnar (Woodcut No. 126), each containing an image of 
 the same saint, and all so identical as to be undistinguishable. With 
 the Jains it seems to be thought the most important point that the 
 
 deity or saint is honoured by the number of his images, and that each 
 image should be provided with a separate abode. In other examples, 
 however, it is only a separate niche. On some Jaina monuments the 
 image of the Tirthankar is repeated hundreds, it may almost be said 
 a thousand times over, all the images identical, and the niches 
 arranged in rows beside and above each other, like pigeon-holes in 
 a dovecote. 
 
ClIAP. III. 
 
 MOUNT ABU. 
 
 237 
 
 Externally the temple is perfectly plain, and there i^ nothing to 
 indicate the magnificence within, except the spire of the cell peeping 
 over the plain wall, though even this is the most insignificant part of 
 the erection. 
 
 The woodcut (No. 130) will give some idea of the arrangement 
 of the porch, but it would require a far more extensive and elaborate 
 drawing to convey a correct impression of its extreme beauty of 
 detail and diversity of design. The great pillars, as will be seen. 
 
 131. Pendant in Dome of Vimala Sah Temple at Abu. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 are of the same height as those of the smaller external porticos ; and 
 like them they finish with the usual bracket-capital of the East ; 
 upon this an upper dwarf column or attic, if it may be so called, is 
 placed to give them additional height, and on these upper columns 
 rest the great beams or architraves which support the dome ; as, 
 however, the bearing is long, at least in appearance, the weight is 
 relieved by the curious angular strut or truss of white marble, men- 
 tioned above (p. 215), which, springing from the lower capital, seems 
 to support the middle of the beam. 
 
 That this last feature is derived from some wooden or carpentry 
 
238 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 original, can, I think, scarcely be doubted ; but in what manner it 
 was first introduced into masonry construction is unknown : probably 
 it might easily be discovered by a more careful examination of the 
 buildings in this neighbourhood. It continues as an architectural 
 feature down almost to the present day, but gradually becoming 
 more and more attenuated, till at last, except in one example at Delhi, 
 to be mentioned hereafter, it loses all its constructive significance as 
 a supporting member, and dwindles into a mere ca^nament. 
 
 132. ^/ Pillars at Chandrdvati. (From Tod's 'Western India.') 
 
 On the octagon so formed rests the dome, the springing of which 
 is shown in Woodcut No. 130 (p. 236). In this instance a single 
 block in the angles of the octagon suffices to introduce the circle. 
 Above the second row of ornaments sixteen pedestals are introduced 
 supporting statues, and in the centre is a pendant of the most exqui- 
 site beauty ; the whole is in white marble, and finished with a 
 delicacy of detail and appropriateness of ornament which is probably 
 unsurpassed by any similar example to be found anywhere else. 
 Those introduced by the Gothic architects in Henry YII.'s chapel at 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 PARISNATH. 
 
 239 
 
 Westminster, or at Oxford, are coarse and clumsy in comparison. It 
 is difficult, by any means of illustration, to convey a correct idea of 
 the extreme beauty and delicacy of these pendant ornaments, but the 
 woodcut on page 237 (No. 131) from a photograph will explain their 
 form, even if it cannot reflect their beauty. 
 
 As before hinted, there never seems to have been any important 
 town on Mount Abu. It was too inaccessible for that purpose ; but 
 a few miles to the southward on the plain are the remains of an 
 extensive city, called Chandravati, where there are extensive remains 
 of Jaina temples of the same age and style as those on the mount, 
 some of them probably more modern, but still all of the best age. 
 The place, however, was destroyed at the time of the Mahomedan 
 conquest in the middle of the 14th century, and has since remained 
 wholly deserted. It has in consequence been used as a quarry by the 
 neighbouring towns and villages, so that few of its buildings remain 
 in a perfect state. The fragment, however, shown in Woodcut No. 
 132, may serve to illustrate the style in which they were erected, 
 but as no two pillars are exactly alike, it Avould require hundreds to 
 represent their infinite variety of detail. 
 
 Parisnath. 
 
 The highest point of the Bengal range of hills, south of Eaj- 
 mahal, has characteristically been appropriated by the Jains as one 
 of their most favourite Tirths. Its original name apparently was 
 Mount Sikhar, and no less than nineteen of their twenty-four Tirth- 
 ankars are said to have died and been buried there, among others 
 Parswanatha, the last but one, and he consequently gave the hill the 
 name it now bears. 
 
 Unfortunately, no photographer has yet visited the hill, nor 
 any one who was able to discriminate between what was new and 
 what old. Such accounts, however, as we have are by no means 
 encouraging, and do not lead us to expect any very remarkable 
 architectural remains. The temples on the hill are numerous, but 
 they seem all modern, or at least to have been so completely repaired 
 in modern times that their more ancient features cannot now be 
 discerned. Something may also be due to the fact that, since the 
 revival of that religion, Bengal has never been essentially a Jaina 
 country. The Pala dynasty of Bengal seem to have remained 
 Buddhist nearly to the Mahomedan conquest (a.d. 1203), when they 
 seem suddenly to have dropped that religion and plunged headlong 
 into the Vaishnava and Saiva superstitions. Whether from this, or 
 from some other cause we cannot now explain, Jainism never seems 
 to have taken root in Bengal. At the time that it, with Buddhism, 
 took its rise in the Gth century B.C., Behar was the intellectual 
 
240 JAINA AKCHITECTURE. Book II. 
 
 and the political centre of India, and Buddhism long held its sway 
 in the country of its birth. Before, however, Jainism became politi- 
 cally important, the centre of power had gravitated towards the 
 West, and Jainism never seems to have attained importance in the 
 country where it first appeared. Were it not for this, there seems 
 little doubt but that Parisnath would have been more important in 
 their eyes than Palitana or Girnar ; but it is not so, and it conse- 
 quently occupies only a very slight corner in an architectural history 
 of India. 
 
 Besides the effect the Jains sought to obtain by grouping their 
 temples on hill-tops, the love of the picturesque, which they seem 
 to have cultivated more than any other sect in India, led them to 
 seek it in an exactly opposite direction. Some of their favourite 
 Tirths are found in deep and secluded valleys. One at Muktagiri, 
 for instance, near Gawelghur, is situated in a deep Avell-wooded 
 valley, traversed by a stream that breaks in its course into numerous 
 picturesque waterfalls. 
 
 Another example of this love of the picturesque is found at 
 Sadri. In a remote valley piercing the western flank of the Ara- 
 vulli, there is a group of temples, neither so numerous nor perhaps 
 
 so picturesquely situated as 
 those at Muktagiri, but of 
 more interest architecturally, 
 and situated in a spot evi- 
 dently selected for its natural 
 beauties. 
 
 The principal temple here 
 was erected by Khumbo Ran a 
 of Oudeypore. He seems to 
 have been a zealous promoter 
 of the Jaina religion, and 
 during his long and pros- 
 perous reign filled his 
 country with beautiful build- 
 ings, both civil and eccle- 
 siastical. Amongst others, 
 he built tliis temple of Sadri, 
 situated in a lonely and de- 
 serted glen, running into the 
 western slope of the Ara- 
 vulli, below his favourite fort of Komulmeer. Notwithstanding 
 long neglect, it is still nearly perfect, and is the most complicated 
 and extensive Jaina temple I have myself ever had an opportunity 
 of inspecting. 
 
 From the plan (Woodcut No. 133) it will be perceived that it is 
 
 133. Plan of Temple at Sadri. 
 
 (From a Plan by the Author.) 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 TEMPLE AT SADRI. 
 
 241 
 
 nearly a square, 200 ft. by 225 ft., exclusiye of the projections on each 
 face. In the centre stands the great shrine, not, however, occnpied, 
 as nsnal, by one cell, bnt by fonr ; or rather four great niches, in 
 each of which is placed a statue of Adinatha, or Rishabde\'a, the first 
 and greatest of the Jaina saints. Above this are four other niches, 
 similarly occupied, opening on the terraced roofs of the building. 
 Near the four angles of the court are four smaller shrines, and around 
 them, or on each side of them, are twenty domes, supported by about 
 420 columus ; four of these domes — the central ones of each group — • 
 
 134. View in the Temple at Sadri. (From a sketch by the Author.; 
 
 are three storeys in height, and tower over the others ; and one — that 
 facing the principal entrance — is supported by the very unusual 
 number of sixteen columns, and is 80 ft. in diameter, the others being 
 only 24 ft. Light is admitted to the building by four uncovered 
 courts, and the whole is surrounded by a range of cells, many of them 
 now unoccupied, each of which has a pp'amidal roof of its own. 
 
 The internal effect of this forest of columns may be gathered from 
 the view (Woodcut No. 134) taken across one of its courts ; but it is 
 impossible that any view can reproduce the endless variety of persjxic- 
 tive and the play of light and shade which results from the disposition 
 of the pillars, and of the domes, and from the mode in which the light 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 JAINA AECHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 is introduced. A wonderful effect also results from the number of 
 cells, most of them containing imag'es of the Tirthankar, which every- 
 where meet the view. Besides the twelve in the central sikras there 
 are eighty-six cells of very varied form and size surrounding the 
 interior, and all their fa9ades more or less adorned with sculpture. 
 
 The general external effect of the Sadri Temple may be judged 
 of by Woodcut No. 135 ; owing to its lofty basement, and the greater 
 
 \ 
 
 135. External View of the Templc at Sadri. 
 
 elevation of the principal domes, it gives a more favourable impres- 
 sion of a Jaina temple than is usually the case — the greatest defect 
 of these buildings as architectural designs being the want of orna- 
 ment on their exterior faces ; this, however, is more generally the 
 case in the older than in the more modern temples. 
 
 The immense number of parts in the building, and their general 
 smallness, prevents its laying claim to anything like architectural 
 grandeur ; but their variety, their beauty of detail — no two pillars 
 in the whole building being exactly alike — the grace with which 
 they are arranged, the tasteful admixture of domes of different heights 
 with flat ceilings, and the mode in which the light is introduced, 
 combine to produce an excellent effect. Indeed, I know of no other 
 building in India, of the same class, that leaves so pleasing an im- 
 pression, or affords so many hints for the graceful arrangement of 
 columns in an interior. 
 
 Besides its merits of design, its dimensions are by no means to be 
 despised ; it covers altogether about 48,000 sq. ft., or nearly as much 
 as one of our ordinary medij^eval cathedrals, and, taking the basement 
 into account, is nearly of equal bulk ; while in amount of labour and 
 of sculptural decorations it far surpasses any. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 GUALIOR. 
 
 243 
 
 GUALIOR. 
 
 The rock at Gualior is, and must always have been, one of the 
 most remarkable high places in Central India, and seems, as such, 
 early to have been appropriated by the Jains. Its position and its 
 scarps, however, led to its being- fortified, and, as one of the strongest 
 places in India, it was attacked and taken by storm by Altumsh, 
 the first Moslem emperor of Delhi, in a.d. 1232 ; and from that time 
 till the fall of the Mogul empire it was held by the Mahomedans, or 
 by Hindu kings subject to their suzerainty. Under these circum- 
 stances, we should hardly expect to find any extensive ancient Hindu 
 remains in the place. There are, however, two very remarkable 
 temples : one, known as the Sas Bahu, is generally understood to be 
 a Jaina erection, and seems to be so designated and dedicated to 
 Padmanatha, the sixth Tirthankar. General Cunningham doubts this 
 adscription,^ in consequence of the walls being adorned with bas- 
 reliefs, belonging certainly to the Yaishnava and Saiva sects. As 
 in the case of the Aiwulli temple, it is extremely difficult sometimes 
 to say for what sect a temple was originally erected. In the times 
 of which we are now speaking the sects had not become distinct 
 and antagonistic as they afterwards were. The different deities were, 
 like those of the Greeks and Romans, parts of one religion, which all 
 shared in, and the temples were frequently of a most pantheistic 
 character. Be this as it may, this temple was finished apparently 
 in A.D. 1093, and, though dreadfully ruined, is still a most pic- 
 turesque fragment. What remains is the cruciform porch of a temple 
 which, when complete, measured 100 ft. from front to rear, and 63 ft. 
 across the arms of the porch. Of the sanctuary, with its sikra, 
 nothing is left but the foundation ; but the porch which is three 
 storeys in height, is constructively entire, though its details — and 
 principally those of its roof — are very much shattered (Woodcut 
 No. 136, next page). 
 
 An older Jaina temple is described by General Cunningham, but 
 as it was used as a mosque it is more likely that it is a Mahomedan 
 building entirely, though made up of Jaina details.^ The most 
 striking part of the Jaina remains at Gualior are a series of caves 
 or rock-cut sculptures that are excavated in the rock on all sides, and 
 amount, when taken together, to hardly less than a hundred, great 
 and small. They are, however, very unlike the chaityas or viharas of 
 the Buddhists, still less do they resemble the Brahmanical caves, to 
 be mentioned hereafter. Most of them are mere niches to contain 
 statues, though some are cells that may have been originally intended 
 
 ' Arch.icological Reports,' vol. ii. p. 357. 
 
 2 Ibid., plate 90. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 JATNA AUCHITECTURE. 
 
 Pm.ok II. 
 
 for residences. One curious fact 'regarding them is, that, according to 
 inscriptions, they were all excavated within the short period of about 
 
 thirty-three years, between a.d. 1441 and a.d. 1474. Some of the 
 figures are of colossal size : one, for instance, is 57 ft. high, which is 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 KHAJURAHO. 
 
 245 
 
 greater thau auy other iu the north of India^ thuugh iti the s^^iith cherv 
 are several which ei^iial or surpass it, and, as free-standing tigitfts are 
 more exja-essive and more difficult to execute. 
 
 Khajtraho. 
 
 The city of Khajnraho, the 
 ancient capital of the Chandels, 
 is situated about 125 miles 
 W.S.W. from Allahabad, and 
 abont 150 miles S.E. from 
 Goalior. It is now a wretched 
 deserted place, but has in and 
 arotmd it a group of some 
 thirty temples, which, so far 
 as is at present known, are 
 the niost beautiful in form 
 as well as the most elt^nt 
 iu detail of any of the temples 
 now standing in India.^ 
 
 So far as can be made 
 out from such inscriptions as 
 exist, as well as from their 
 style, it appears that all these 
 temples, with two unimport- 
 ant exceptions, were executed 
 simultaneously and within the 
 limits of the 11th century : and, 
 what is also curious, they seem 
 to be, as nearly as possible, 
 e»iually divided between the 
 three religions. In each group 
 there is one greater than the 
 rest — a cathedral in fact — 
 round which the smaller ones 
 are clustered. In the Saiva 
 group it is the Kandarya 
 Mahadeva. of which a repre- 
 sentation will l)e given further 
 on ; in the Vaishnava group it is the Bamachandra ; and in the 
 
 Temple of Fvsw^uutha Kiujuraoo. 
 (Frvan a PfaoCograpb.) 
 
 ^ The only person who has described 
 these temples in any detaQ id Gen. Cun- 
 ningham, ' Aiehseological Beporta,' toL 
 ii. p. 412, et iei)*j., from which cemse- 
 qaently all that L5 here suid u taken. 
 
 I am alao inddbted to the Goia&l for 
 a eomplele aei of pliologn^liB ci 
 these femplea, whidi enaUes me to 
 speuk of their appearance with confi- 
 dence. 
 
246 
 
 JAINA AECHITECTUEE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Jaina the Jinanatha : all three so like one another that it requires 
 very great familiarity with the photographs to distinguish the temple 
 of one religion from those of the others. It looks as if all had 
 been built by one prince, and by some arrangement that neither 
 sect should surpass or be jealous of the other. Either from this, 
 or from some cause we do not quite understand, we lose here all 
 the peculiarities we usually assign to Jaina temples of this age. 
 The vimana or sikra is more important than the porch. There 
 are no courtyards with circumambient cells ; no prominent domes, 
 nor, in fact, anything that distinguishes Jaina from Hindu archi- 
 tecture. If not under the sway of a single prince, they must have 
 been erected in an age of extreme toleration, and when any rivalry 
 that existed must only have been among 4he architects in trying 
 who could produce the most beautiful and most exquisitely adorned 
 building. 
 
 As an illustration of one of the three great temples will be given 
 
 further on, a view of one of the 
 smaller Jaina temples, that of 
 Parswanatha (Woodcut No. 137), 
 will suffice to illustrate the style 
 of art here employed. Its porch 
 either never was added or has been 
 removed and replaced in modern 
 times by a brick abomination with 
 pointed arches. This, however, 
 hardly interferes with the temple 
 itself. There is nothing probably 
 in Hindu architecture that sur- 
 passes the richness of its three- 
 storeyed base combined with the 
 extreme elegance of outline and 
 delicate detail of the upper part. 
 
 The two exceptional temples 
 above alluded to are, first, one 
 called the Chaonsat Jogini, or 
 sixty-four female demons. It 
 consists merely of a courtyard, 
 measuring 105 ft. by 60 ft. and 
 surrounded by sixty-four small 
 cells each of which is surmounted by a small spire, as shown in the 
 woodcut (No. 138). This is so essentially a Jaina arrangement (see 
 Temple of Neminatha, for instance — Woodcut No. 126), that I have 
 very little doubt this was originally a temple belonging to that 
 religion. The temple itself it is true has gone, but if it was as old 
 
 138. Chaorsat Jogini, Khajurtho. 
 
 (From a Plan by Gen. Cunningham.) 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 KHAJURAHO. 
 
 247 
 
 as I believe it is/ nothing is more probable than that it was of 
 wood, like the old chaityas of the Buddhists, and has perished. If 
 this view is correct it is probably the oldest Jaina temple yet 
 discovered. 
 
 The other exceptional building is one of totally different character, 
 and is as remarkable for its extreme elegance, even at Khajuraho, as 
 the other is for its rudeness. It is called Ganthai, either from the bells 
 sculptured on its pillars, or for some other cause unknown. Unfortu- 
 nately it is only a fragment — a skeleton without flesh — a few pillars 
 of a double portico now standing alone without the walls that once 
 enclosed them (Woodcut No. 139, next page). 
 
 From the form of several letters in an inscription, found among 
 these ruins, General Cunningham is inclined to believe that this 
 temple may belong to the sixth or seventh century of our era ; which 
 is, as near as may be, the date I would ascribe to it, from the character 
 of its architectural details. But when at the same time from finding 
 a Buddhist statue and a short Buddhist inscription near them (p. 431), 
 he is inclined to assign them to that religion, I beg leave to differ. 
 Till, however, we know more than we now do of what the differences 
 or similarities between the architecture of the Jains and Buddhists 
 were at the age when the temple was erected, it is impossible to argue 
 the question. Almost all we know of Buddhist art at that time 
 being derived from rock-cut examples, we have no pillars so slender 
 as these, but it by no means follows that they may not have existed. 
 They are not known however, while many Jaina examples are 
 known so nearly like these as to establish a strong presumption that 
 they belong to that religion. The plan too of the building, so far as 
 it can be made out, is utterly unlike anything we know that is 
 Buddhist, but very similar to many that certainly are Jaina.^ 
 
 Be this as it may, these pillars are singularly graceful in their 
 form, and elegant in their details, and belong to a style which, if there 
 were more examples of it, I would feel inclined to distinguish as the 
 " Gupta style." Except, however, some fragments at Erun and 
 these pillars, we have very little we can ascribe with anything like 
 certainty to their age, 400 to 600. It would be most interesting, 
 however, if something more could be discovered, as it is the age when 
 the great Vicramaditya lived, and w^hen Hindu literature reached its 
 highest point of perfection, and one Hindu temple of that age would 
 consequently throw light on many problems. Some Buddhist caves 
 
 ^ General Cunningham hesitates to 
 adopt its extreme simplicity and rude- 
 ness as a test of its age, because it is 
 built of granite, the other in the exquisite 
 stone of the neighbourhood. Its pla.i, 
 however, and the forms of its eikras, in- 
 
 duce me to believe it to be exceptionally 
 old. 
 
 2 For plans of similar Jaina temples, 
 see Mr. Burgess's Report on Belgam and 
 Kuladgi, pis. 2, 10 and 45. These, how- 
 ever, are more modern than this ono. 
 
248 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 and these Jaina fragments are all, however, that have yet come to 
 light. There seems, nevertheless, very little doubt that more exist in 
 
 139. The Ganthai, Khajuraho. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 Rajputana and Central India. At Gyraspore, near Bhilsa, 140 miles 
 soiith-west from this, there is a group of columns arranged like these. 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 GYRASrORE. 
 
 219 
 
 and like them deprived of their walls (Woodcut No. 140). In the 
 Mokundra pass there is a third example.^ Was it that their walls 
 were of sun-burnt bricks ? or merely of small square stones which, 
 being easily removed, were utilised ? My impression is, the latter 
 was the case ; but be this as it may, these Gyraspore pillars are un- 
 doubtedly the remains of a Jaina edifice, but of an age considerably 
 
 140. Temple at Gyraspore, (From a Photograph.) 
 
 more modern than the Ganthai. They can hardly under any circum- 
 stances be ascribed to an age anterior to the great civil war which 
 commenced a.d. G50 ; but they are almost certainly anterior to the 
 great revival in the 10th century. In the same town of Gyraspore is 
 a very grand old temple apparently of about the same age as these 
 pillars. Its details at least are old, but it has been so ruined and 
 
 ^ Picturesque lllustratious of Iiidiau Architecture,' by the Author, plate 5. 
 
250 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 repaired, and almost rebuilt, that it is extremely difficult to say what 
 the form or purpose of the original erection may have been. There is 
 also a toran of great beauty in the village, probably of the 11th 
 century, and in fact throughout this region there are numberless 
 remains partially made known to us by photography, but which if 
 scientifically examined would probably suffice to fill up some of the 
 largest gaps in our history, and especially in that of Jain a archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 At Bhanghur for instance, in the Alwar territory, there are some 
 very beautiful Jaina temples. One in that neighbourhood, photo- 
 graphed by Captain Impey, belongs to the 10th or 11th century, and is 
 as beautiful as any of its class, either at Khajuraho or elsewhere, 
 and near it again is a colossal Jaina image, called Nan Gungi, some 
 20 ft, in height, which is apparently of the same age as the temples, 
 and consequently superior to any of the colossi at Gualior or in the 
 south of India. ^ The Jains as a sect are hardly now known in 
 Rajputana, and their temples are consequently neglected and falling 
 into decay ; though some of them, being of the best age and unrestored, 
 are of extreme interest to the investigator of Indian art. 
 
 Among these, few are more pleasing than the little temple at 
 Amwah, near Ajunta (Woodcut No. 141). It is only a fragment. 
 The sanctuary with its spire are gone, only the portico remaining ; 
 and its - roof externally is so ruined, that its design can with diffi- 
 culty be made out. Yet it stands so well on its stylobate, and 
 the thirty-tw^o small columns that support the roof externally are so 
 well proportioned and so artistically arranged, as to leave little to 
 be desired. 
 
 The great feature of the interior is a dome 21 ft. in diameter, 
 supported on twelve richly carved pillars, with eight smaller ones 
 interspersed. Like all Indian domes, it is horizontal in construction, 
 and consequently also in ornamentation, but as that is done here, it 
 is as elegant or more so than the ribbed domes of western art. This 
 one is plain in the centre, having no pendant — which, however, is 
 one of the most marked and pleasing features of Jaina domes, as 
 may be gathered from the example in the temple of Vimala Sah at 
 Mount Abu (Woodcut No. 131). 
 
 As before mentioned, the Buddhists, though always employing 
 circular roofs, and in all ages building topes with domical forms 
 externally, never seem to have attempted an internal dome, in stone 
 at least. The Hindus occasionally essayed a timid imitation of those of 
 the Jains, but in no instance with much success. It is essentially a 
 feature of Jaina architecture, and almost exclusively so among the 
 
 ^ Tmpcy, ' Views in Delhi, Agra, and Rajpootana,' London, 18G5, frontispiece 
 and plate GO. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AMWAH. 
 
 251 
 
 northern Indians, though, why this particular sect should have 
 adopted it, and why they, and they only, should have persevered in 
 using it through so long a period, are questions we are not yet in 
 a position to answer. It was an essential feature in the architecture 
 of the Moslems before they came into India, and they consequently 
 eagerly seized on the domes of the Jains when they first arrived 
 there, and afterwards from them worked oat that domical style 
 which is one of the most marked characteristics of their art in India. 
 
 141. Porch of Ja'ma Tenip'e at Amwali, near Ajunta. (From a Photograph by Major Gill.) 
 
 One of the most interesting Jaina monuments of the age is the 
 tower of Sri Allat,^ which still adorns the brow of Chittore (Woodcut 
 No. 142, next page), and is one probably of a great number of similar 
 monuments that may at one time have existed. From their form, how- 
 ever, they are frail, and trees and human violence so easily overthrow 
 them, that we ought not to wonder that so few remain. This one is 
 a singularly elegant specimen of its class, about 80 ft. in height, and 
 adorned with sculpture and mouldings from the base to the summit.^ 
 An inscription once existed at its base, which gave its date as a.d. 
 896, and though the slab was detached this is so nearly the date we 
 would arrive at from the style that there seems little doubt that it 
 
 * Sri Allat, to whom the erection of this ^ ' Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient 
 
 tower is ascribed, is the 12th king, men- Architecture in Hiudostan,' by the 
 
 tioned in Tod's Aitpore inscriptions Author, pi. 8, p. 38. 
 (' Rajastan,' vol. i. p. 802). 
 
142. 
 
 Jaina Tower of Sri Alhit, Chittoie. (From a Pholograpli.) 
 
Chap. TIL 
 
 TOWER AT CHITTORE. 
 
 253 
 
 was of that age. It was dedicated to Adnatli, the first of the Jaiiia 
 Tirthankars, and his figure 
 is repeated some hundreds of 
 times on the face of the 
 tower, but, so far as I could 
 perceive, not that of any of 
 tlie other Jaina saints. 
 
 The temple in the fore- 
 ground is of a more modern 
 date, being put together 
 principally of fragments of 
 older buildings which have 
 disappeared. 
 
 Most of the buildings 
 above described belong to 
 the first or great age of 
 Jaina architecture, which 
 extended down to about the 
 year i:-500, or perhaps a little 
 after that. There seems 
 then to have been a pause, 
 at least in the north of India, 
 but a revival in the 15th 
 century, especially under 
 the reign of Khumbo, one of 
 the most powerful of the 
 kings of the Mewar dynasty 
 whose favourite capital w^as 
 Chittore. His reign ex- 
 tended from 1418 to 1468, 
 and it is to him that we owe 
 the other of the two towers 
 that still adorn the brow of 
 Chittore. The older one 
 has just been described and 
 illustrated. This one was 
 erected as a pillar of vic- 
 tory to commemorate his 
 victory over Mahmud of 
 Malwa, in the year 1439. 
 It is therefore in Indian 
 phraseology a J ay a StamJtha^ 
 or pillar of victory, like 
 that of Trajan at Rome, 
 
 but in infinitely better taste as an architeatural object than the Roman 
 
 14:i. 
 
 Tower of Victuiy erected by Khumbo Kana ac 
 Chittore. (From a Photograph.) 
 
254 
 
 JAIXA AKCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IT. 
 
 example, though m sculpture it may be inferior. As will be seen 
 from the last woodcut (No. 143), it is nine storeys in height, each of 
 which is distinctly marked on the exterior. A stair in the centre 
 communicates with each, and leads to the two upper storeys, which 
 are open, and more ornamental than those below. It is 30 ft. wide 
 at the base, and more than 120 ft. in height ; the whole being covered 
 with architectural ornaments and sculptures to such an extent as to 
 leave no plain parts, while at the same time this mass of decoration is 
 kept so subdued, that it in no way interferes either with the outline or 
 the general effect of the pillar. ^ 
 
 The Mahomedans, as we shall afterwards see, adopted the plan of 
 erecting towers of victory to commemorate their exploits, but the most 
 direct imitation was by the Chinese, whose nine-storeyed pagodas are 
 almost literal copies of these Jaina towers, translated into their own 
 peculiar mode of expression. 
 
 Other examples of this middle style of Jaina architecture are to be 
 found at Palitana, Girnar, and all the fashionable tirths of the Jainas, 
 but they have not yet been described or illustrated to that extent that 
 enables us always to feel sure that what we see really belongs to this 
 date, and may not be a repair or a modification of some pre-existing 
 building. The Chaumuk — or Four-faced — at Palitana seems certainly 
 to have been erected in its present form in 1618, and is a very grand 
 and beautiful example of the style.^ The temple too of Ardishur 
 Bagavan, which is the largest single temple on that hill, seems to have 
 assumed its present form in 1530,^ though parts of it may be older. 
 At least, it is certain that an older temple stood on the spot, though not 
 with the fabulous antiquity ascribed to it by the priests, and credulously 
 repeated by Colonel Tod.* 
 
 Though deficient in the extreme grace and elegance that charac- 
 terised the earlier examples, those of the middle style are bold and 
 vigorous specimens of the art, and still show an originality and an 
 adherence to the traditions of the style, and a freedom from any 
 admixtures of foreign elements, which cannot be predicated of the 
 modern style that succeeded it. 
 
 * The dome that now crowns this tower 
 was substituted for the old dome since I 
 sketched it in 1839. 
 
 2 Burgess, ' Sutrunjya,' p. 20. A plan 
 of this temple is given by him and 
 
 several photographs. 
 
 2 Burgess, loo. cit., p. 25. 
 
 * Tod's ' Travels in Western India,' 
 pp. 280, 281. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 MODERN JAlXxV STYLE. 
 
 255 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MODERN JAIXA STYLE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Jaina Temple, Delhi — Jaina Caves — Converted Mosques. 
 
 The two places in northern India where the most modern styles of 
 Jaina arcliitecture can probably be stndied to most advantage are 
 Sonag'hnr, near Dntteah, in Bnndelcund, and Miiktagm, near Gawelghur, 
 in Berar. The fonner is a granite hill, covered with large loose masses 
 of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to one hnndred 
 temples of varions shapes and sizes ("\Yoodcnt Xo. 144, p. 256). So far 
 as can be made out from photogTaphs or drawings,^ not one of these 
 temples assumed its present form more than one hundred years ago. 
 Their original foundation may be earlier, but of that we know nothing, 
 no traveller having yet enlightened us on the subject, nor explained 
 how and when this hill became a sacred mount. 
 
 Like most Hindu buildings of the period, all these temples show 
 very distinctly the immense influence the Mahomedan style of archi- 
 tecture had on that of the native styles at this age. Almost all the 
 temples here are surmounted by the bulbous dome of the Moguls. 
 The native sikra rarely appears, and the openings almost invariably 
 take the form of the Mahomedan foliated pointed arch. The result is 
 picturesque, but not satisfactory when looked closely into, and generally 
 the details want the purity and elegance that characterised the earlier 
 examples. 
 
 Muktagiri, instead of being situated on a hill, as the tirths of 
 the Jains usually are, is in a deep romantic valley, and the largest 
 gi'oup of temples are situated on a platform at the foot of a waterfall 
 that thunders down from the height of 60 ft. above them. Like 
 those of Sonaghur, they are all of the modern domed style, copied 
 from Moslem art, and none of them, so far as can be ascertained 
 from such illustrations as exist, remarkable for beauty of desigTi. It 
 would, however, be difiicult to find another place in India where 
 
 ^ L. Eousselfct, in ' L'Inde des Eajahs,' j temples. I possess several photographs 
 devotes three plates, pp. 396-S, to these j of them. 
 
256 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. Book 
 
258 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 architecture is so happily combined with the beauties of nature, and 
 produces so pleasing an impression on the lover of the picturesque, 
 though nearer acquaintance may result in disappointment to the 
 antiquarian student of the style. 
 
 In remote parts of the empire, and especially in the immediate 
 vicinity of the older shrines, this Mahomedan influence was much 
 less felt than in the places just mentioned. The modern temples, for 
 instance, at Palitana have domes, it is true, but they are much more 
 directly the lineal descendants of the old Jaina domes than copies of 
 those of the Moguls, and the foliated pointed arch rarely, if ever, 
 occurs in the walls of that old city. It requires, indeed, a practised 
 eye to discriminate between what is old and what is new, and 
 without the too manifest inferiority of modern sculpture this would 
 not always be easy even to the most accomplished antiquary. 
 
 One example must for the present suffice to show the effect aimed 
 at by this style in recent times, as well as to illustrate how little it has 
 degenerated from its ancient excellence. For, though this woodcut 
 (No. 145) does not prove it, there are photographs in this country 
 which do exhibit the marvellous details of this temple in a manner 
 not to be mistaken. It was erected about thirty years ago by Hutti- 
 sing, a rich Jaina merchant, and dedicated to Dharmanath, the 15th 
 Tirthankar. In this instance the external porch between two circular 
 towers is of great magnificence and most elaborately ornamented, 
 and leads to an outer court with sixteen cells on either side. In the 
 centre of this is a domed porch of the usual form, with twenty pillars 
 (see Woodcut No. 117). This leads to an inner porch of twenty-two 
 pillars, two storeys in height, and with a roof of a form very fashion- 
 able in modern Jaina temples, though by no means remarkable for 
 beauty, and difficult to render intelligible without more illustration 
 than it merits. This leads to a triple sanctuary, marked by three 
 sikras, or spires, externally. Behind this is a smaller court with 
 two groups of eight cells, one in each angle, with a larger cell in 
 the centre, and two, still more important, at the point of junction 
 between it and the first court. To the eye of a European, un- 
 accustomed to its forms, some of them may seem strange ; but its 
 arrangement, at least, will probably be admitted to be very perfect. 
 Each part goes on increasing in dignity as we approach the sanctuary. 
 The exterior expresses the interior more completely than even a 
 Gothic design ; and whether looked at from its courts or from the 
 outside, it possesses variety without confusion, and an appropriateness 
 of every part to the purpose for which it was intended. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 JAINA TEMPLE, DELHI. 
 
 259 
 
 Jaina Temple, Delhi. 
 
 There is one other example that certainly deserves notice before 
 leavin^^ this branch of the subject, not only on account of its beauty. 
 
 146. Upper part of Porch of Jaina Temple at Delhi. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 but its singularity. In the preceding pages it has frequently been 
 necessary to remark upon that curious wooden strut by which the 
 
 s 2 
 
260 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTUHE. 
 
 Book 11. 
 
 Jains soufi^ht to relieve the apparent weakness of the longer beams 
 under their domes. It occurs at Abu (Woodcut No. 129), at Girnar, 
 at Oudeypore, and many other places we shall have to remark upon 
 in the sequel ; everywhere, in fact, where an octagonal dome ^^'as 
 used. It was also employed by the Hindus in their torans, and so 
 favourite an ornament did it become that Akbar used it frequently 
 both at Agra and Futtehpore Sikri. For centuries it continued with- 
 out much alteration, but at last, in such an example as the great 
 Bowli at Bundi,^ we find it degenerating into a mere ornament. 
 It was left, however, for a Jaina architect of the end of the last 
 or beginning of this century, in the Mahomedan city of Delhi, to 
 suggest a mode by which what was only conventionally beautiful 
 might really become an appropriate constructive part of lithic 
 architecture. 
 
 As will be observed in the last cut (No. 146), the architect has 
 had the happy idea of filling in the whole of the back of the strut 
 Avith pierced foliaged tracery of the most exquisite device — thus 
 turning what, though elegant, was one of the feeblest parts of Jaina 
 design into a thoroughly constructive stone bracket ; one of the 
 most pleasing to be found in Indian architecture, and doing this 
 while preserving all its traditional associations. The pillars, too, 
 that support these brackets are of great elegance and constructive 
 propriety, and the whole makes up as elegant a piece of architectural 
 design as any certainly of its age. The weak part of the composition 
 is the dome. It is elegant, but too conventional. It no longer has 
 any constructive propriety, but has become a mere ornament. It 
 is not difficult, however, to see why natives should admire and 
 adopt it. When the eyes of a nation have been educated by a 
 gradual succession of changes in any architectural object, persevered 
 in through five or six centuries, the taste becomes so accustomed 
 to believe the last fashion to be the best, the change has been so gra- 
 dual, that people forget how far they are straying from the true path. 
 The European, who has not been so educated, sees only the result, 
 without having followed the steps by which it has been so reached, and is 
 shocked to find how far it has deviated from the form of a true dome 
 of construction, and, finding it also unfamiliar, condemns it. So, 
 indeed, it is with nine-tenths of the ornaments of Hindu architec- 
 ture. Few among us are aware how much education has had to do 
 with their admiration of classical or mediaeval art, and few, con- 
 sequently, perceive how much their condemnation of Indian forms 
 arises from this very want of gradual and appropriate education. 
 
 'Picturesque Illustrations of Indian Architecture,' pi. 17. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CAVES. 
 
 2G1 
 
 Jaina Caves. 
 
 The Jains never were great cave-diggers ; the nature of their 
 religion did not require great assembly halls like the chaityas of the 
 Buddhists, nor was it necessary that their priests should live apart in 
 monasteries like those of their predecessors, and their ceremonial 
 affected light and air rather than gloom or mystery. Like the 
 Brahmans, however, during the stage of transition they could hardly 
 refuse entirely to follow a fashion set by the Buddhists, to which all 
 India had been accustomed for nearly 1000 years, and which was 
 in reality a singularly impressive form of temple-building. We find 
 them, consequently, excavating caves at Khandagiri, near Cuttack, in 
 succession to the older ones in the Udayagiri. At Ellora they followed 
 immediately after the Buddhists ; and elsewhere there are caves which 
 may be claimed by either religion, so like are they to each other in 
 their transitional state. 
 
 Great light has recently been thrown on the history of these 
 excavations by the discovery of a Jaina cave at Badami, in Dharwar, 
 with a well-ascertained date.^ There is no inscription on the cave 
 itself, but there are three other Brahmanical caves in the same place, 
 one of which has an inscription with an undoubted date, 500 Saka 
 or A.D. 579 ; and all four caves are so like one another in style that 
 they must have been excavated within the same century. The Jaina 
 cave is probably the most modern ; but if we take the year a.d. G50 
 as a medium date, we may probably consider it as certain within an 
 error of twenty years either way. 
 
 The cave itself is very small, only 31 ft. across and about 19 ft. 
 deep, and it is a little uncertain whether the groups of figures at 
 either end of the verandah are integral, or whether they may not 
 have been added at some subsequent period. The inner groups, how- 
 ever, are of the age of the cave, and the architecture is unaltered, 
 and thus becomes a fixed standing-point for comparison with other 
 examples ; and when we come to compare it with the groups known 
 as the Indra Subha and Jaganat Subha at Ellora, we cannot hesitate 
 to ascribe them to about the same age. Hitherto, the Jaina group 
 at Ellora has been considered as the most modern there : an im- 
 pression arising partly from the character of the sculptures them- 
 selves, which are neither purely Jaina nor purely Hindu — more, 
 however, from the extreme difficulty of comparing rock-cut examples 
 with structural ones. Our knowledge of the architecture of temples 
 is, in nine cases out of ten, derived from their external forms, to which 
 the interiors are quite subordinate. Cave-temples, however, have 
 practically no exteriors, and at the utmost facades modified to admit 
 
 * Burgess, 'lieport on Belgam and Kuladji Districts,' 1875, p. 25, plates 36 and 37. 
 
262 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 more li<^lit tlian is usual iu structural edifices, and then strengthened 
 and modified so as to suit rock-cut architecture. As no ancient Jaina 
 temple hitherto known had a dated inscription upon it, nor a tolerably 
 authenticated history, it is no wonder that guesses might be Avide of 
 the truth. Now, however, that we know positively the age of one 
 example, all this can be rectified, and there seems no doubt that all 
 the Indra Subha group were finished before the cataclysm — say 
 before a.d. 750. 
 
 When with this new light we come to examine with care the 
 architecture of these fa9ades, we find the Ellora group exhibits an 
 
 147. Entrance to the ludra Subba Cave at Ellora, (From a Photograph.) 
 
 extraordinary affinity with the southern style. The little detached 
 shrine in the courtyard of the Indra Subha, and the gateway shown 
 in the above woodcut (No. 147), are as essentially Dravidian 
 in style as the Kylas itself, and, like many of the details of these 
 caves, so nearly identical that they cannot possibly be distant in 
 date. May we, therefore, assume from this that the Chalukyan king- 
 dom of Kalian, in the 7th century of our era, extended from 
 Ellora on the north to Badami on the south, and that all these rock- 
 cat examples, with the temple at AiwuUi (Woodcut No. 120), were 
 excavated or erected under their auspices ? 
 
 To this \\'e shall have occasion to re\ert presently, when de- 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CONVERTED MOSQUES. 
 
 263 
 
 scribing the Dravidian style ; but meanwhile it may be assumed that 
 this theory represents the facts of the case more nearly than any 
 hitherto brought forward. The Chalukyas of Kalian were situated 
 on the border-line, halfway between the north and the south, and 
 they, or their subjects, seemed to have practised the styles of archi- 
 tecture belonging to those two divisions indiscriminately — it might 
 almost be said alternately — and we consequently find them mixed up 
 here and at Dhumnar in a manner that is most puzzling. 
 
 The last king of this race, Yicramaditya II., ascended the throne 
 A.D. 733,^ and died probably in or about the year a.d. 750. It was 
 probably, therefore, before that date that these Dravidian temple- 
 forms were introduced by the Jains at Ellora. The Kylas and other 
 great Saiva temples were, I believe, excavated by the Cheras or 
 Cholas, who were the Dravidian races, and, if I mistake not, superseded 
 the Chalukyas on the death of Yicramaditya, their last king, and 
 carried their power, as will presently be explained, up to the Ner- 
 budda. The Jains, however, seem to have been earlier in the field, 
 and this little shrine in the com*t of the Indra Subha looks very 
 much as if it may have been the model that suggested the Kylas, the 
 greatest of all Indian rock-cut examples of its class. 
 
 Converted Mosques. 
 
 Another form in which we can study the architectm-e of the 
 Jains in the north of India is the courtyards of the early mosques 
 which the Mahomedans erected on their first entiy into India. So 
 essentially do some of these retain their former features that it might 
 be convenient to describe them here. It is doubtful, however, in 
 some instances whether the pillars are — some or all of them — in their 
 original position, or to what extent they have been altered or eked out 
 by the conquerors. Be this as it may, for our present purposes 
 the one fact that is certain is, that none of them are now Jaina 
 temples. All are Mahomedan mosques, and it will, therefore, be 
 more logical, as well as more convenient, to group them with the 
 latter rather than with the former class of buildings. 
 
 "Were it not for this, the Arhal-din-ka Jomphra, at Ajmir — so 
 called — might be, and has been, described as a Jaina temple.^ So 
 might a great part of the mosque at the Kutub, Delhi. That at 
 Canouge, however, was originally a rean-angement, and has been 
 much altered since I knew it ; that at Dhar, near Mandu, is of com- 
 paratively recent date ; while the Jaina pillai*s, so frequently used 
 
 * ' Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. iv, p. 7; 'Madras Journal,' 
 vol. XX. p. 78, et seqq. 
 
 2 Tod's ' Eajastan,' vol. 1. p. 778, and 
 plate facing it. 
 
264 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 at Ahmedabad in the loth centui'y, are all imported, and used in 
 positions for which they never were intended. 
 
 The astylar temples of the Hindus were useless to the Moslems 
 except as quarries — a purpose to which they were frequently applied ; 
 but the light columnar style of the Jains not only supplied materials 
 more easily adapted to their purposes, but furnished hints of which 
 the Moslem architects were not slow to avail themselves. The archi- 
 tecture of Ahmedabad, for instance (a.d. 1396 to 1572), is derived 
 far more directly from the Jaina than from any style familiar to 
 their co-religionists in any other part of the w^orld. The same may 
 be said of that of Juanpore, though in the last-named city there 
 is hardly a stone that can be said to be derived direct from any 
 previously existing building. 
 
 The process by which this conversion of a Jaina temple to a 
 Moslem mosque w^as effected will be easily understood by referring to 
 the plan of that of Yimala Sah, on Mount Abu (Woodcut No. 129, 
 p. 235). By removing the principal cell and its porch from the 
 centre of the court, and building up the entrances of the cells that 
 surround it, a courtyard was at once obtained, surrounded by a 
 double colonnade, which always w-as the typical form of a mosque. 
 Still one essential feature was wanting — a more important side 
 towards Mecca ; this they easily obtained by removing the smaller 
 pillars from that side, and re-erecting in their place the larger pillars 
 of the porch, with their dome in the centre ; and, if there were two 
 smaller domes, by placing one of them at each end. Thus, Avithout a 
 single new column or carved stone being required, they obtained a 
 mosque which, for convenience and beauty, was unsurpassed by any- 
 thing they afterwards erected from their own original designs. 
 
OllAP. V. 
 
 SOUTHERN IKDIA. 
 
 265 
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 JAINA STYLE IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Bettus — Bastis. 
 
 A GOOD deal has been done lately in the way of photograph in g 
 the monuments of the Jains in southern India, but nothing, so far 
 as I am aware, has recently been written that gives any statistical 
 account of their present position in the country, nor any information 
 when their establishments were first formed in Mysore and Canara.^ 
 What is even more to be regretted for our present purposes is, that 
 no plans have been made of their buildings and no architectural 
 details drawn, so that altogether our knowledge of the subject is 
 somewhat superficial ; but it is interesting from its extent, and 
 curious from the unexpected relationship it reveals with other styles 
 and countries. 
 
 Mr. Burgess's report has proved that Jains did exist at Aiwulli 
 and Badami {supra, p. 261) as early as the end of the 6th, or cer- 
 tainly in the 7th century ; but after that there is a pause or break 
 of four or five centuries, w^hen the style reappears in strength at 
 Belgaon and in that neighbourhood in the 11th and 12th centuries. 
 In the same manner southern Jains seem to have pressed northward 
 as far as Ellora in the 7th or 8th century, taking their Dravidian 
 style with them {supra, p. 261) ; but there again we stop, in so far 
 as any direct evidence has been found, till the great outburst of Jaina 
 magnificence at the end of the 10th century, which then seems to have 
 continued in the north till disturbed by the Mahomedan invasion. 
 It is by no means clear whether the destruction of their temples, as at 
 Ajmir and Delhi, and the persecution of their faith generally, may 
 not have been the cause that induced the Jains to migrate south- 
 ward. It certainly was about that time when its greatest develop- 
 ment in the south took place. Of course it existed there before. 
 
 * Unfortunately the census of 1872 did | southern India. The figures thus given 
 not extend to the Mysore, where the j do not consequently at all represent the 
 principal Jaina establishments are situ- ' facts of the case, 
 atcd, nor to any of tlie native states of 
 
266 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book 11. 
 
 and some of the early kings of Hoisala Bellalas were Jains nominally 
 at least. All their buildings, however, so far as we know them, 
 either at Somnathpm-, Bellur, or HuUabid, belong to the Vaishnava 
 or Saiva faiths. 
 
 Another circumstance which is perplexing, or at least unusual, is, 
 that the Jainism of the south does not seem to be founded on any pre- 
 existing Buddhism. No important Buddhist remains have yet been 
 discovered south of Poona, with the single exception of the Amravati 
 tope and a few caves in its immediate neighbourhood. More may pro- 
 bably exist, or have existed ; but the rapid manner in which Hiouen 
 Thsang passes through these countries, and the slight mention he 
 makes of Buddhist establishments,^ render it doubtful if any im- 
 portant communities belonging to that faith existed in Dravida-desa.^ 
 In the capital, indeed, Konkanapura, which seems to have been situ- 
 ated somewhere in Northern Mysore, there may have been some ex- 
 tensive Buddhist establishments ; but as they have left no memorials 
 on the spot, and no monuments, we may be allowed to suspect they were 
 not so important as he describes them to be in the 7th century. 
 
 If, however, there was no Buddhism in the south on which 
 Jainism could be based, there are everywhere traces of the prevalence 
 of Serpent worship in those districts where the religion of Jaina now 
 prevails. Sculptured serpents, with many heads and in all their 
 conventional forms, are found everywhere about and in the temples ; 
 and Subramuni, below the Ghats, is still one of the principal seats 
 of Serpent worship in southern India. It is not, unfortunately, easy 
 to say how far Tree worship was mixed up with the latter faith. 
 Trees perish more easily and quickly than sculptured stones, and 
 when the worship ceases its traces disappear more readily. There 
 are some indications that it did prevail here also, but, till purposely 
 inquired after, it is impossible to say to what extent or how far the 
 indications can be relied upon. Enough, however, is known, even 
 now, to justify the assertion that Tree and Serpent worship did exist 
 antecedently in those districts in which Jainism prevailed in the 
 south, but did not appear in the more purely Dravidian countries 
 where the people are now devoted to the worship of Siva and the 
 Hindu Pantheon. 
 
 The truth of the matter appears to be, that until the numerous 
 Jaina inscriptions which exist everywhere in the south are collected 
 
 ^ 'Vie et Voyages,' vol. i. p. 201, et 
 seqq., vol. iii. p. 146, et seqq. 
 
 ^ Sir Walter Elliot and others have 
 told me there are Buddhist remains in 
 the south, and I know the general 
 opinion is that this is so. I have never 
 myself seen any, nor been able to obtain 
 
 photographs or detailed information re- 
 garding them. When they are brought 
 forward these assertions may be modi- 
 fied. They, however, express in the 
 meanwhile our present knowledge of 
 the subject. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 BETTUS. 
 
 267 
 
 and translated, and until plans are made of their buildings, and 
 statistics collected about them, it is idle to speculate either about 
 the time of the introduction of Jain ism into the south, or its vicis- 
 situdes during its existence there. It is a task which, it is to be 
 feared, few in that Presidency are capable of undertaking, and that 
 fewer still are willing to devote the time and labour requisite for 
 its successful accomplishment ; but it is worthy of being attempted, 
 for, if successfully carried out, it would add to our scant stores of 
 knowledge one of the most interesting chapters still available for the 
 religious and artistic history of the people of India. 
 
 Bettus. 
 
 The first peculiarity that strikes one as distinguishing the Jaina 
 architecture of the south from that of the north, is the division of the 
 southern temples into two classes, called Bastis and Bettus.^ The 
 former are temples in the usual acceptance of the word, as understood 
 in the north, and, as there, always containing an image of one of the 
 twenty-four Tirthankars, which is the object there worshipped. The 
 latter are unknown in the north ; and are courtyards open to the 
 sky and containing images, not of a Tirthankar, but of a Gomati or 
 Gomata Eaja so called, though who he was, and why worshipped, no 
 one seems exactly to know. He is not known to the Jains in the 
 north. All the images on the rock at Gualior are of one or other of 
 the Tirthankars, and even the Ulwar colossus. Nan Gungi, can hardly 
 be identified with these southern images. It looks almost as if some 
 vague tradition of Gautama Buddha the prince, as distinguished from 
 Mahavira the last of the Tirthankars, and who is said to have been 
 his preceptor, had in late times penetrated to the south, and given 
 rise to this peculiar form. Be this, however, as it may, the images 
 of this king or Jaina saint are among the most remarkable works of 
 native art in the south of India, Three of them are known, and have 
 long been known to Europeans,^ and it is doubtful if any more 
 exist. They are too remarkable objects not to attract the attcHtion 
 of even the most indifferent Saxon. That at Sravana Belgula attracted 
 the attention of the late Duke of Wellington when, as Sir A. 
 Wellesley, he commanded a division at the siege of Serin gapatam. 
 He, like all those who followed him, was astonished at the amount of 
 labour such a work must have entailed, and puzzled to know whether 
 it was a part of the hill or had been moved to the spot where it 
 now stands. The former is the more probable theory. The hill called 
 
 ^ 'Asiatic Restarclies,' vol. ix. p. 285. i I have photographs of them, but not of 
 2 These three were engraved in Moor's | any others, nor have I been able to hear 
 ' Pantheon,' plates 73 and 74, in 1810. i of any but these three. 
 
268 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book 11. 
 
 Indra Giri is one muss of granite about 400 ft. in heig'ht, and 
 probably had a mass or Tor standing on its summit — either a part of 
 the subjacent mass or lying on it. This the Jains undertook to 
 fashion into a statue 70 ft. 3 in. in height, and have achieved it with 
 marvellous success. The task of carving a rock standing in its place 
 the Hindu mind never would have shrunk from, had it even been twice 
 the size ; but to move such a mass up the steep smooth side of the hill 
 seems a labour beyond their power, even with all their skill in con- 
 centrating masses of men on a single point. Whether, however, the 
 rock was found in situ or was moved, nothing grander or more 
 imposing exists anywhere out of Egypt, and even there no known statue 
 surpasses it in height, though, it must be confessed, they do excel it 
 
 in the perfection of art 
 they exhibit. 
 
 The image at Kar- 
 kala, which is next — its 
 size being 41 ft. 5 in. 
 in height, and weighs 
 about 80 tons ^ — was 
 moved certainly to the 
 place where it now 
 stands, and its date 
 luckily is engraved 
 upon it, A.D. 1432, and 
 it is so like that at 
 Belgula, that there can 
 hardly be much dif- 
 ference between their 
 ages. 
 
 The third at Yannur 
 is smaller, about 35 ft. 
 high apparently,^ but 
 from the style of art 
 in which it is executed 
 it is probably the oldest 
 of the three (Woodcut 
 No. 148). 
 
 All these three 
 figures belong to the 
 Digambara sect of Jains, being entirely naked ; and all possess the 
 peculiarity of having twigs of the Bo-tree of Sakya Muni — the Ficus 
 relifjiosa — twisted round their arms and legs in a manner found 
 
 ^ ' Asiatic Ecsearclics,' vol. Ix. p. 285 ; ' Indian Antiquary,' vol. ii. p. 353. 
 2 Moor's ' Pantheon,' plate 73. 
 
 148. Colossal Statue at Yannur. 
 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 BASTIS. 
 
 269 
 
 nowhere else, and in having serpents at their feet. In the Jaina 
 cave at Badami a similar figure has two serpents wound round its 
 arms and legs precisely as these twigs are here, and the Bo-tree is 
 relegated to the background.^ This figure, though probably not 
 so old as the cave in which it is found — say a.d. 600 — is certainly 
 much older than the three great monoliths, and with other indications 
 renders it probable that the greater prominence of the serpent or the 
 tree is no unfair indication of the relative age of any two statues. 
 In that at Yannur, the serpents are three-headed and very prominent 
 beside the statue, on steles alongside the legs. At Kfirkala they 
 are less so,^ and at Belgula they are relegated to the base, while 
 the tree with its leaves is there thickly spread over the whole 
 figure. 
 
 Bastis. 
 
 The principal group of the Bastis of the Jains, at present known 
 at least, above the Ghfits, is that at Sravana Belgula. There are there 
 two hills — the Indragiri, on whose summit the colossal image just 
 described stands, and dominates the plain. On a shoulder of the other, 
 called Chandragiri, stand the Bastis, fifteen in number. As might be 
 expected from their situation, they are all of the Dravidian style of 
 architecture, and are consequently built in gradually receding stories, 
 each of which is ornamented with small simulated cells, as was 
 explained above, p. 134, and will be more fully described presently. 
 No instance occurs among them of the curvilinear sikra or spire, 
 which is universal with the northern Jains, except in the instance of 
 Ellora above alluded to. 
 
 Unfortunately, no one has yet thought it worth while to make a 
 plan of any of these temples, nor even to describe them in detail, so 
 that it is difficult to feel sure of anything regarding them. The 
 following woodcut (No. 149) conveys, however, an idea of the general 
 external appearance, which is more ornamental than that of the 
 generality of northern Jaina temples. The outer wall of those in the 
 north is almost always quite plain. The southern ones are as gene- 
 rally ornamented with pilasters and crowned with a row of orna- 
 mental cells. Inside is a court probably square and surrounded by 
 cloisters, at the back of which rises the vimana over the cell, which 
 contains the principal image of the Tirthankar. It always is sur- 
 mounted by a small dome, as is universally the case with every 
 vimana in Dravidian architecture, instead of with the mysterious 
 amalaka ornament of northern sikras. 
 
 ' Burgess, ' Arclioeological Reports,' 
 1875, p. xxxvii., plate 25. 
 
 2 Tlic artist who drew the litliograpbs 
 for the ' Indian Antiquary,' vol. ii. plate 
 
 on p. 353, not knowing that serpents were 
 intended, has supplied their place with 
 an ornamentation of his own design. 
 
270 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book IT. 
 
 It may ])e a vain speculation, but it seems impossible to look at 
 this woodcut, and not be struck with its resemblance to the temples 
 of southern Babylonia (Woodcuts Nos. 47 and 48 of vol. i.). The same 
 division into stories, with their cells ; the backward position of the 
 temple itself ; the panelled or pilastered basement, are all points of 
 resemblance it seems difficult to regard as purely accidental. The 
 distance of time would seem to bar such an idea, but the combinations 
 of men with bulls and lions, and the many similarities between the 
 Pantheons of Babylonia and India, render the fact of the architecture 
 
 149. Jaina Basli at Siavaua Belgula. (From a Pbotograi'b.) 
 
 of the one country influencing that of the other, far from being 
 impossible, though by some it may be considered improbable. I ha^'e 
 long tried to shake off the idea as an untenable hypothesis, but every 
 time I return to the study of the subject, its likelihood recurs with 
 increasing strength. Its verification, however, or refutation must 
 depend on our possessing greater knowledge of the subject than we 
 do at present. 
 
 When Ave descend the Ghfits into Canara, or the Tulava country, 
 we come on a totally different state of matters. Jaiuism is the 
 religion of the country, and all or nearly all the temples belong to 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 TEMPLE AT MOODBIDRT. 
 
 271 
 
 this sect, but their architecture is neither the Dravidian style of the 
 south, nor that of northern India, and indeed is not known to exist 
 anywhere else in India Proper, but recurs with all its peculiarities 
 in Nepal. 
 
 The annexed two views (Woodcuts Nos. 150-51) of one of the largest 
 of these temples, found at a place called Moodbidri,^ in Canara, will give 
 a fair idea of the general aspect of these temples externally. They are 
 much plainer than Hindu temples usually are. The pillars look like logs 
 
 150. Jaina Temple at Moodbidri. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 of wood with the angles partially chamfered off, so as to make them 
 octagons, and the sloping roofs of the verandahs are so evidently 
 
 ^ Among the photographs of the 
 ' Architecture of Dharwar and Mysore,' 
 plates 74 and 75, there labelled Hlr- 
 pouhully. When writing the descrip- 
 tions of these plates, I was struck with, 
 and pointed out, the curiously exceptional 
 nature of the style of that temple, and 
 its affinities with the style of Nepal ; 
 but I had no idea then that it was below, 
 and not above, the Ghats, and far from 
 being exceptional in the country where 
 it was situated. In fact, one of the 
 
 great difficulties in writing a book like 
 the present is to avoid making mis- 
 takes of this sort. Photographers are 
 frequently so careless in naming the 
 views they are making, and mounters 
 frequently more so, in transferring the 
 right names to the mounts, that in very 
 many instances photographs come to me 
 with names that have no connexion with 
 the subjects ; and it is only by careful 
 comparison, aided with extraneous know- 
 ledge, that grave errors can be avoided. 
 
272 
 
 JAINA AllCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book ir. 
 
 wooden that tlie style itself cannot be far removed from a wooden 
 original. In many places, indeed, below the Ghats the temples are 
 still wholly constructed in wood without any admixture of stone, and 
 almost all the features of the Moodbidri temples may be found in wood 
 at the present day. The blinds between the pillars, which are there 
 executed in stone, are found in wood in every city in India, and with 
 very little variation are used by Europeans in Calcutta to a greater 
 extent, perhaps, than they were ever used by the natives. 
 
 lol. Jama lemplo at Moodbidn. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 The feature, however, which presents the greatest resemblance to 
 the northern styles, is the reverse slope of the eaves above the 
 verandah. I am not aware of its existence anywhere else south of 
 Nepal, and it is so peculiar that it is much more likely to have been 
 copied than re-invented. 
 
 The interiors of the Canarese temples are in marked contrast with 
 the plainness of the exteriors. Nothing can exceed the richness or the 
 variety with which they are carved. No two pillars seem alike, and 
 many are ornamented to an extent that may seem almost fantastic. 
 This again seems an indication of their recent descent from a wooden 
 
Chap. V. 
 original. 
 
 TEMPLE AT MOODBIDKI. 273 
 Long habit of using stone would have sobered their forms, 
 
274 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 JioOK II. 
 
 ncss — and this is just such an excess of strength as a people accus- 
 tomed to wooden architecture would employ when first called upon to 
 replace in stone supports which in wood would have appeared neces- 
 sary to carry a heavy stone roof (Woodcut No. 152, p. 273). 
 
 Their plans, as far as can be made out from photographs, are those 
 usual in Jaina temples — spacious, well-lighted porches, leading to a 
 dark cell in which the image of one of the Tirthankars is placed, 
 naked of course, as all the southern Jains seem to have belonged to 
 the Digambara sect. 
 
 Their age has not yet been determined with certainty, as no 
 inscriptions from them have yet been published or translated, but, 
 in so far as information can be gathered from the various sources 
 available, three or four hundred years seems to be about the limit of 
 their age. Some may go back as far as 1300, but it looks as if the 
 kingdom of the Zamorin was at the height of its prosperity about the 
 time it was first visited by the Portuguese, and that the finest temples 
 may belong to that age. 
 
 Besides the greater temples, there are several varieties of smaller 
 ones which seem peculiar to the style — such, for instance, as the five- 
 pillared shrine at Gurusan- 
 kerry (Woodcut No. 153). 
 Four-pillared pavilions are 
 not uncommon in front of 
 Hindu temples in the south. 
 There is a very famous one, 
 for instance, on the opposite 
 shore of India at Mahavelli- 
 pore, but not one, that I know 
 of, with five pillars, or with 
 access to the upper chambers. 
 There are three of these upper 
 chambers in this instance — 
 the two lower now closed, 
 but apparently originally 
 open ; but to what use they 
 were devoted, or what pur- 
 pose they were intended to 
 subserve, is by no means 
 clear. At the base of the 
 temple are a number of 
 
 153. Pavilion at rJunisankeiry. , . . „ 
 
 (From a Fhotograph.) stoues bearing unagcs or 
 
 serpents ; seven or eight are 
 now there, and the serpents themselves are some with one, others 
 three, five, or seven heads. It may be that this is a serpent temple, 
 and that the living form of this strange divinity, when alive, 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 TOMBS OF PRIESTS, MOODBIDRI. 
 
 275 
 
 inhabited the upper storey. But it may also be, that the stones were 
 brought there in modern times, so that till some one on the spot 
 will take the trouble to ascertain the facts of the case, it is not safe 
 to speculate regarding them. 
 
 A third feature, even more characteristic of the style, is found 
 in the tombs of the priests, a large number of which are found in 
 the neighbourhood of Moodbidri. Three of these are illustrated in 
 the annexed Woodcut (No. 154). They vary much in size and magni- 
 
 154. Tombs of Priests, Moodbidri. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 ficence, some being from three to five or seven storeys in height, 
 but they are not, like the storeys of Dravidian temples, ornamented 
 with simulated cells and finishing with domical roofs. The division 
 of each storey is a sloping roof, like those of the pagodas at Kat- 
 mandhu, and in China or Thibet. In India they are quite anomalous. 
 In the first place, no tombs of priests are known to exist anywhere 
 else, and their forms, too, are quite unlike any other building noAV 
 known to be standing in any other part of India. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Bock II. 
 
 Thou<^li not the grandest, certainly tlie most elegant and graceful 
 objects to be found in Canara belonging to the Jaina style of archi- 
 tecture are the stambhas, Avhich are found attached to almost every 
 temple. These are not, hoAvever, peculiar to the place or style. They 
 are used sometimes by the Hindus, but then generally as deepdans, 
 or lamp-bearing pillars, and in that case have some arrangement 
 for exhibiting light from their summit. With the Jains this does 
 not appear ever to have been the case. Their pillars are the lineal 
 descendants of those of the Buddhists, which bore either emblems 
 or statues — generally the former — or figures of animals ; with the 
 Jains or Vaishnavas they as generally bore statues. Be this as it 
 
 may, they seem nowhere to 
 have been so frequent or so 
 elaborately adorned as among 
 the Jains in the south, and 
 especially in Canara. The ex- 
 ample here given of one at 
 Gurusankerry is a fair average 
 specimen of its class (Woodcut 
 No. 155). The sub-base is 
 square and spreading ; the base 
 itself square, changing into an 
 octagon, and thence into a 
 polygonal figure approaching 
 a circle ; and above a wide- 
 spreading capital of most ela- 
 borate design. To many this 
 may at first sight appear top- 
 heavy, but it is not so in 
 reality. If you erect a pillar 
 at all, it ought to have some- 
 thing to carry. Those we erect 
 are copied from pillars meant 
 ^^^^^i to support architraves, and are 
 absurd solecisms when merely 
 supporting statues ; we have, 
 however, got accustomed to 
 them, and our eye is offended 
 if anything better proportioned to the work to be done is proposed ; 
 but, looking at the breadth of the base and the strength of the 
 shaft, anything less than here exhibited would be found dispropor- 
 tionately small. 
 
 On the lower or square part of these stambhas, as well as on 
 the pillars inside the temples at Moodbidri (Woodcut No. 152) and 
 elsewhere in Canara, we find that curious interlaced basket-pattern, 
 
 Statu blm at (jurnsflnkerry. 
 (Fiom a Photugi'aph.) 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 STAMBHAS. 
 
 277 
 
 which is so familiar to us from Irish manuscripts or the ornaments 
 on Irish crosses. As pointed out in a former volume (ii. p. 475), it 
 is equally common in Armenia, and can be traced up the valley of 
 the Danube into central Europe ; but how it got to the west coast 
 of India we do not know, nor have we, so far as I know, any indi- 
 cation on which we can rely for its introduction. There was at all 
 times for the -last fifteen centuries a large body of Christians estab- 
 lished on this coast who were in connection with Persia and Syria, 
 and are so now. It would be strange, indeed, if it were from them 
 the Jains obtained this device. But stranger things have happened 
 than even this in the history of architecture, and few things can be 
 more interesting when the means exist of tracing any connection that 
 may be detected between them. 
 
 If any one wished to select one feature of Indian architecture 
 which Avould illustrate its rise and progress, as well as its perfection 
 and weakness, there are probably no objects more suited for this 
 purpose than these stambhas, or free-standing pillars. They are found 
 of all ages, from the simple and monolithic lats which Asoka set up 
 to bear inscriptions or emblems, some 250 years B.C. down to the seven- 
 teenth or perhaps even eighteenth centuiy of om' era. During these 
 2000 years they were erected first by the Buddhists, then by the Jains, 
 and occasionally by the other sects in all parts of India ; and not- 
 withstanding their inherent frailty, some fifty — it may be a hundred 
 — are known to be still standing. After the first and most simple, 
 erected by Asoka, it may be safely asserted that no two are alike 
 though all bear strongly the impress of the age in which they were 
 erected, and all are thoroughly original and Indian in design. 
 
 It may be owing to the styloclastic propensities of the Moslems 
 that these pillars are not found so frequently where they have held 
 sway, as in the remoter parts of India ; but, whether from this 
 cause or not, they seem to be more frequent in Canara and among 
 the southern Jains than in any other part of India. In the north we 
 depend mainly on the rock-cut examples for their forms, but they 
 are so usual there that it seems hardly doubtful they were relatively 
 as frequent in connection with structural examples, though these 
 have generally disappeared. 
 
 It has been suggested that there may be some connection between 
 these stambhas and the obelisks of the Egyptians. The time that 
 elapsed, however, between the erection of the monoliths in the valley 
 of the Nile and those in India seems to render this doubtful, though 
 they were certainly erected for similar purposes and occupied the 
 same position relatively to the temples. When, however, we look at 
 the vast difference between their designs, it is evident, even assuming 
 a connection, that vast ages must have elapsed before the plain 
 straight-lined forms of the obelisks could have been changed into the 
 
278 
 
 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book 11. 
 
 complicated and airy forms of the Jaina stambhas. The two are the 
 Alpha and Omega of architcctm-al design — the older, simple and 
 severe, beyond any other examples of pm'ely ornamental objects ; the 
 latter, more varied and more highly ornamented than almost any 
 others of their class that can be named. 
 
 We are hardly yet in a position to push these speculations to 
 their legitimate issue, and must Avait for further information before 
 any satisfactory conclusion can be derived from them ; but mean- 
 while it may be pointed out how curiously characteristic of Indian 
 art it is that this little remote province of Tulava, or Canara, should 
 have a style of its own, differing essentially from that found in any 
 other part of the Indian continent, but still having affinities Avith 
 outlying and distant countries, Avith wdiich one Avould hardly suspect 
 any connection but for the indications derived from their architecture. 
 
 I cannot offer even a plausible conjecture how or at what time 
 a connection existed betAveen Nepal and Thibet and Canara ; but 
 I cannot doubt that such was the case, and that some one with 
 better opportunities Avill hereafter explain what noAv seems so mys- 
 terious. It is less difficult to conjecture hoAV early and frequent 
 intercourse may have existed betAveen the Persian Gulf and the 
 western shores of India, and how the relations betAA^een these two 
 countries may have been so intimate as to account for the amount of 
 Assyrian, or, as we now call them Armenian, forms aa^c now find in 
 the Jaina architecture of southern India, especially in that beloAv the 
 Ghats. It will require, hoAvever, that the Indian branch of the 
 subject should be much more fully and more scientifically investi- 
 gated than has hitherto been the case before it is worth Avhile to do 
 more than indicate how rich a field lies open to rcAvard the industry 
 of any future explorer. 
 
Mtnxthsof-V 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 80 9 0 
 
 100 
 
 TKe TKui 
 IndiajT. Deseri. BINDRABUNJ 
 
 Bombay) M 
 
 ^ W^Irabad, 
 
 A it A ^ / 
 
 HURi 
 
 HI 
 
 Xs ccadive ^. 
 ijalands o 
 
 C 
 
 CO 
 
 a 0" 
 
 o 
 
 C.Coinorin. 
 
 Maldive ,Ji- 
 Islands 
 
 INNEVEC 
 
 PTOC OALUE 
 
 W 
 
 'il£# Plat' 
 
 wmmmm 
 
 iouths csf the 
 juths of ■&ie 
 
 LLUM OF B JEN GAL 
 
 SKe^'iii^'tKe Prirvcipal 
 HILLAMBARAM INDOARYAN 
 
 JbacoZS' CHALUKYAN & DRAVIDIAN 
 
 I.OCALITIES. 
 
 SERAM 
 
 CEYLON 
 
 lonarua 
 
 Lxdo Arycux Slue 
 
 ChctluJcycuh Srown 
 
 DravTcUarL Red 
 
 Scale oC Statute Mile 
 
 o loo aoo 300 
 
 3C 
 
 20 
 
 80 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 "Vincertt Broaks^ay ^.Son. Tith, 
 
( 279 ) 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 KASHMIR. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Temples — Marttand — Avantipore — Blianiyar. 
 
 Although neither so beautiful in itself, nor so interesting either 
 from an artistic or historical point of view as many others, the archi- 
 tecture of the valley of Kashmir has attracted more attention in 
 modern times than that of any other styles in India, and a greater 
 number of special treatises have been written regarding it than are 
 devoted to all the other styles put together. This arises partly from 
 the beauty of the valley in which the Kashmiri temples are situated. 
 The beauty of its scenery has at all times attracted tourists to its 
 verdant snow-encircled plains, and the perfection of its climate has 
 induced them to linger there, and devote their leisure to the investi- 
 gation of its treasures, natural and artistic. In this respect their 
 fate is widely different from that of temples situated on the hot 
 and dusty plains of India, where every official is too busy to devote 
 himself to such a task, and travellers too hurried to linger for a 
 leisurely and loving survey of their beauties. 
 
 Apart, however, from this adventitious advantage, the temples 
 of Kashmir do form a group well worthy of attention. When one 
 or two spurious examples are got rid of, they form a complete and 
 homogeneous group, extending through about six centuries (a.d. 600 
 to A.D. 1200), singularly uniform in their development and very 
 local, being unlike any other style known in India. They have 
 besides this a certain classical element, which can hardly be mis- 
 taken, and is sufficient in itself to attract the attention of Europeans 
 who are interested in detecting their own familiar forms in this 
 remote valley iu the Himalayas. 
 
280 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 POOK IJI. 
 
 The earliest of the modern investigators of the subject were 
 Messrs. Moorcroft and Trebeck, who visited the valley in 1819-25.^ 
 They were both acute and intelligent observers, but, having no special 
 knowledge of the subject, their observations on the architecture of the 
 valley do not add much to our knowledge of its history. 
 
 They were followed by Gr. T. Vigne in 1833, who being an artist 
 drew the buildings with wonderful correctness, so as to bring out the 
 peculiarities of the style, and also to api3roximate their history with 
 very tolerable exactness.^ About the same time Baron Hiigel gave 
 his impression on the subject to the public, but in a manner much 
 less critical than his predecessors.^ 
 
 In 1848, Captain (now General) A. Cunningham published in the 
 September number of the ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ' 
 an essay on what he called the Aryan order of architecture, but 
 which was wholly devoted to that of Kashmir. It was illustrated by 
 fifteen folding plates, containing plans, elevations, and views, and in 
 fact all that was required for settling the history of the style, and, 
 but for one or two unfortunate mistakes, would have left little to be 
 done by his successors in this field of inquiry. 
 
 In 1866, the Rev. W. C. Cowie, Chaplain on duty in Kashmir, 
 published in the same journal an essay on the same subject, as a supple- 
 ment to General Cunningham's paper, describing several temples he 
 had not visited, and adding considerably to our knowledge of those 
 he had described. This paper was also extensively illustrated. 
 
 In consequence of all this wealth of literature, very little remained 
 to be done, when in 1868 Lieutenant Cole, R.E., obtained an appoint- 
 ment as superintendent of the Archgeological Survey of India, and 
 proceeded to Kashmir with a staff quite sufficient to settle all 
 the remaining outstanding questions.* Unfortunately, hoAvever, 
 Lieutenant Cole had no previous knowledge of Indian antiquities 
 in general, and had not qualified himself by any special study for 
 the investigation he was deputed to undertake. All, therefore, he 
 could do was to adopt blindly General Cunningham's dates, and in 
 this there would have been no great harm, but, when he came across a 
 temple which had escaped his predecessor's attention, he arbitrarily 
 interpolated it, with a date of his own, into the General's series. As 
 all these dates are given as if perfectly ascertained without any of 
 the reasoning on which they are based, they Avould, if accepted, lead 
 
 * ' Travels in the Himalayan Provinces 
 and in Ladakh and Kashmir,' London, 
 Murray, 1841. 
 
 2 'Travels in Kashmir, Ladak,' &c., 
 two vols. 8vo., London, Colburn, 1842. 
 
 ^ ' Travels in Kashmir and the Pun- 
 jab.' Translated by Miijor Jcrvis, Lou- 
 
 don, 1845. 
 
 * 'Illustrations of the Ancient Build- 
 ings in Kashmir,' &c., prepared, under 
 the authority of the Secretary of State 
 for In lia in Council, by Lieut. H. H. 
 Cole, R.E., quarto, Allen and Co., Lon- 
 don, 18G9. 
 
CllAP. I. 
 
 TOMB OF ZEIN-UL-AB-UD-DiX. 
 
 281 
 
 to the most erroneous •conclusions. Putting these, however, aside. 
 Lieutenant Cole's plans and architectm*al details are a valuable 
 contribution to our knowledge of the subject, and with his photo- 
 graphs and those now available by others, enable those who have not 
 had an opiX)itunity of visiting the valley to foim an opinion of their 
 own, and with all these lights there seems little difficulty in ascer- 
 taining all the really important facts connected with this style. 
 
 
 7^ 
 
 
 
 'J 
 
 
 
 
 j • i 
 
 
 The first and most misleading mistake that has l)een made with 
 reference to Kashmiri architecture, was the assumption by General 
 Cunningham that the enclosiu'e to Zein-ul-ab-ud-din's tomb in 
 Srinagar originally belonged to an ancient Kashmii'i temple. 
 Lieutenant Cole boldly prints on his plates, ''probable date a.d. 40u 
 to 5()0," a mistake as nearly as may be of 1(m;)0 years, as it is hardly 
 doubtful that it was erected for or by the prince whose name it bears, 
 and who in a.d. 1416 succeeded his father Sikandar, who bore the ill- 
 omened nickname of Butshikan, the idol-breaker. As will be seen from 
 the woodcut (Xo. 156), it consists of a series of small pointed arches in 
 rectangular frames, such as are very frequently found in Mahomedan 
 art, and the peculiarities of the gateways 
 
 and other parts are just such as are found V~ 3 
 in all contemporary Moslem art in India. 
 All the mosques and tombs for instance 
 at Ahmedabad, a.d. 1396-1572, are made 
 
 up of details borrowed from the architecture i_ 
 
 of the Jains, and the bases of theu* minarets i56. Tomb of zeiu-ni-ab-ud dii.. 
 
 , 1 1 T Elevation of Arch-s. 
 
 and tneu" internal pillars can only be ois- (Frooi a drawing by Lieut, 
 tinguished from those of the heathen by 
 
 their position, and by the substitution of foliage for human figures 
 in the niches or places where the Hindus would have introduced 
 images of their gods. 
 
 In this instance there is no incongruity, no borrowed features ; 
 eveiT stone was carved for the place where it is found. There are 
 niches it is true on each side of the gateway, like those found at 
 Marttand and other Pagan temples ; but like those at Ahmedabad 
 they are without images, and the arch in brick wliich simnounts this 
 gateway is a radiating arch, which appears certainly to bs integi'al, 
 but, if so, could not possibly be erected by a Eindu.^ When General 
 Cunningham visited the valley in 18J:8, he was not so familiar as 
 he has since become with the ruins of Gom*, Juanpore, Alunedabad, 
 and other Moslem cities where the architectural forms adopted by the 
 
 ^ I cannot make out the span of this according to the scale on the plan, only 
 arch. AcJordinET to the rods laid aero.- s I half that amount. 
 
 the photograph, it apixars to l.te 15 feet; j 
 
282 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book IIT. 
 
 Moslems are with difficulty distinguished from those of the Hindus. 
 With the knowledge we now possess it is not likely that any one can 
 mistake the fact, that this enclosure was erected by the prince whose 
 name it bears to surround his tomb, in the Mahomedan cemetery of 
 the city in which it is found. 
 
 Assuming this for the present, it gives us a hint as to the age of 
 the other anomalous building in Kashmir — the temple that crowns the 
 hill, called the Takt-i-Suleiman, near the capital. Inside the octagonal 
 enclosure that surrounds the platform on which 
 the temple stands is a range of arches (Woodcut 
 No. 157), similar to those of the tomb of Zein-ul- 
 ab-ud-dm (Woodcut No. 156), not so distinctly 
 pointed, nor so Saracenic in detail, but still very 
 157. Takt-i-suieimau. nearly rescmblino: them, only a little more debased 
 
 Klevaiion of Arches. n 7 j 
 
 (From a drawing by in stvlc. At the bottom of the stcps is a round- 
 Lieut. Cole.) ^ 
 
 headed doorw^ay, not it is true surmounted by a 
 true arch, but by a curved lintel of one stone, such as are universal 
 in the Hindu imitations of Mahomedan architecture in the 17th and 
 18th centuries. The same is the case in the small temples alongside, 
 which are evidently of the same age.^ The temple too, itself, is far 
 from liaving an ancient look. The one most like it, that I am 
 acquainted with, is that erected by Cheyt Sing at Rannuggur, near 
 Benares, at the end of the last century. I know of no straight- 
 lined pyramid of a much older date than that, and no temple with 
 a polygonal plan, combined with a circular ceU, as is the case here, 
 that is of ancient date. The four pillars in the cell, with the Persian 
 inscriptions upon them, are avowedly of the 17th century. It is 
 suggested, however, that they belong to a repair ; my conviction, 
 however, is, from a review of the whole evidence, that the temple, 
 as it now stands, was commenced by some nameless Hindus, in 
 honour of Siva, during the tolerant reign of Jehangir, and that the 
 building was stopped at the date engraved on the staircase, a.h. 1069 
 (a.d. 1659), the first year of the reign of the bigot Aurungzebe. It 
 was then unfinished, and has consequently remained a ruin ever 
 since, which may give it an ancient look, but not such as to justify 
 any one putting it 1879 years before what seems to be its true date, 
 as is done by General Cunningham and his follower Lieutenant 
 Cole. 
 
 If we may thus get rid of these two anomalous and exceptional 
 examples, the history of all the remaining temples in the valley is 
 more than usually homogeneous and easily intelligible. The date 
 of the principal example — the temple at Marttand — is hardly doubtful 
 (a.d. 750) ; and of the others, some may be slightly older, but none 
 
 ' Lieut. Colo's plates, 1-08 to 4-68. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 KASHMIIU TEMPLES. 
 
 283 
 
 can be carried further back than the reign of Kanaditya, a.d. 578 to 
 594. Nor can any one be brought down below, say 1200, which is 
 probably the date of that of Payech. Between these dates, with a 
 very little local knowledge, the Avhole might easily be arranged. 
 Such a classification is, however, by no means necessary at present. 
 The style during these six centuries is so uniform that it may be 
 taken as one, for the purposes of a general history. 
 
 Temples. 
 
 Before proceeding to speak of the temples themselves, it may add 
 to the clearness of what follows if we first explain what the pecu- 
 liarities of the styles are. This we are able to 
 do from a small model in stone of a Kashmiri 
 temple (Woodcut No. 158), which was drawn by 
 General Cunniugham ; such miniature temples 
 being common throughout India, and in all in- 
 stances exact copies of their larger prototypes. 
 
 The temple in this instance is surmounted 
 by four roofs (in the built examples, so far as 
 they are known, there are only two or three), 
 which are obviously copied from the usual 
 wooden roofs common to most buildings in i ' y ] 
 Kashmir, where the upper pyramid covers the 
 central part of the building, and the lower a 
 verandah, separated from the centre either by 
 walls or merely by a range of pillars. ^ In the 
 wooden examples the interval between the two 
 roofs seems to have been left open for light and 
 air ; in the stone buildings it is closed with 
 ornaments. Besides this, however, all these roofs 
 are relieved by dormer windows, of a pattern 
 very similar to those found in mediaeval build- 
 ings in Europe ; and the same steep, sloping lines 
 are used also to cover doorways and porches, these 
 being virtually a section of the main roof itself, and ^°Kls^mii°^^'^ ^° 
 evidently a copy of the same wooden construction. 
 
 The pillars which support the porticoes and the one on which 
 the model stands are by far the most striking peculiarity of this 
 style, their shafts being almost identical with those of the Grecian 
 Doric, and unlike anything of the class found in other parts of India. 
 
 ^ See drawing of mosque by Vigne, 
 vol. i. p. 269 ; and also ' Journal of the 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 1848, p. 253, 
 
 containing General A. Cunningliam's 
 paper on the subject, from which tliis 
 woodcut is taken. 
 
284 
 
 APtCIIITECTUliE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 BOJK III. 
 
 Generally they are from three to four diameters in height, dimi- 
 nishing slightly towards the capital, and adorned with sixteen flutes, 
 rather shallower than those of the Grecian order. Both the bases 
 and capitals are, it is true, far more complicated than w^ould have 
 been tolerated in Greece, but at Paestum and in Rome we find with 
 the Doric order a complexity of mouldings by no means unlike that 
 found here. These peculiarities are still more evident in the annexed 
 representation of a pillar found in Srinagar (Woodcut No. 159), 
 which is a far more highly ornamented example than the last, but 
 equally classical in its details, and, if anything, more unlike any 
 known examples of true Hindu architecture. Nowhere in Kashmir 
 do we find any trace of the bracket capital of the Hindus, nor of the 
 changes from square to octagon, or to the polygon of sixteen sides, 
 and so on. Now that we are becoming familiar with the extent of 
 
 classical influence that prevailed in 
 Gandhara {ante, p. 176) doAvn to the 
 7th or 8th century, we have no diffi- 
 culty in understanding wdience these 
 quasi-Grecian forms were derived, nor 
 why they should be found so pre- 
 valent in this valley. It adds, how- 
 ever, very considerably to our interest 
 in the subject to find that the civiliza- 
 tion of the West left so strong an 
 impress on the arts of this part of 
 India that its influence can be de- 
 tected in all the Kashmiri buildings 
 down to the time when the local style 
 perished under Mahomed an influence 
 in the beginning of the 14th century. 
 Although, therefore, there can be no 
 mistake about the principal forms of 
 the architecture of Kashmir being derived from the classical styles 
 of the West, and as little doubt as to the countries through which 
 it was introduced into the valley, it must not be overlooked that the 
 classical influence is fainter and more remote from its source in Kash- 
 mir than in Gandhara. Nothing resembling the Corinthian capitals 
 of the Jamalgiri monastery are found in the valley. The classical 
 features in Kashmir are in degree more like those of the Manikyala 
 tope and the very latest examples in the Peshawur valley. The one 
 style, in fact, seems to commence Avhere the other ends, and to carry 
 on the tradition for centuries after it had been lost in the country 
 from w'hich it was introduced. 
 
 The fact, however, of a quasi-Doric order being currently used 
 in the vallcv from the sth to the 12th centui'v is one of the manv 
 
 159. Pillar at Srinagar. (From a drawing 
 by W. Carpenter, E^q.) 
 
Chap. T. 
 
 MARTTAND. 
 
 285 
 
 arguments that tend to confirm the theory that the Corinthian order 
 of the Gandhara monasteries is not so ancient as might at first sight 
 appear. At all events, if a Doric order was the style of the Kashmiri 
 valley at so "late a date, there is no a jjriori improbability in a 
 Corinthian order being used at Peshawnr in the 5th or Gth century. 
 On the contrary, as both were evidently derived from the same 
 source, it seems most unlikely that there should be any break in the 
 continuity of the tradition. Strange though it may at first sight 
 appear, it seems as if the impulse first given by Bactria three centuries 
 before the Christian Era continued without a break to influence the 
 architecture of that corner of India for twelve centuries after that 
 epoch. 
 
 No example of the Doric order has yet been found in Gandhara, 
 but, as both Ionic and Corinthian capitals have been found there, it 
 seems more than probable that the Doric existed there also ; but as 
 our knowledge, up to this date, is limited practically to two monas- 
 teries out, probably, of a hundred, we ought not to be surprised at 
 any deficiencies in our series that may from time to time become 
 apparent. 
 
 There is still one other peculiarity of this style which it is by 
 no means easy to account for. This is the trefoiled arch, which is 
 everywhere prevalent, but which in our present state of knowledge 
 cannot be accounted for by any constructive necessity, nor traced 
 to any foreign style from which it could have been copied. My own 
 impression is, that it is derived from the facades of the chaitya halls 
 of the Buddhists. Referring, for instance, to Woodcut No. 46 or to 
 No. 58,1 it will be perceived that the outline of the section of the 
 cave at Ajunta, which it represents, is just such a trefoil as is every- 
 where prevalent in Kashmir ; and, as both there and everywhere else 
 in India, architectural decoration is made up of small models of large 
 buildings applied as decorative features wherever required, it is by 
 no means improbable that the trefoiled fagade may have been adopted 
 in Kashmir as currently as the simple horse-shoe form was through- 
 out the Buddhist buildings of India Proper. All these features, 
 however, mark a local style differing from anything else in India, 
 pointing certainly to another race and another religion, which we are 
 not as yet able to trace to its source. 
 
 Marttand. 
 
 By far the finest and most typical ^example of the Kashmiri 
 style is the temple of Marttand, situated about five miles east of 
 
 ' On the Toian attached to the rail at I showu in section, which represent this 
 Bharhut are elevations of chaitya halls, | trefoil form with great exactness. 
 
286 
 
 AKCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 Book III. 
 
 Islamabad, the ancient capital of the valley. It is the architectural 
 lion of Kashmir, and all tourists think it necessary to go into 
 raptures about its beauty and magnificence, comparing it to Palmyra 
 or Thebes, or other wonderful groups of ruins of the old world. 
 Great part, however, of the admiration it excites is due to its 
 situation. It stands well on an elevated plateau, from which a most 
 extensive view is obtained, over a great part of the valley. No tree 
 or house interferes with its solitary grandeur, and its ruins — shaken 
 down apparently by an earthquake — lie scattered as they fell, and 
 are unobscured by vegetation, nor are they vulgarised by any modern 
 accretions. Add to this the mystery that hangs over their origin, 
 and a Western impress on its details unusual in the East, but which 
 calls back the memory of familiar forms and suggests memories 
 that throw a veil of poetry over its history more than sufficient to 
 excite admiration in the most prosaic spectators. AVhen, however, 
 
 we come to reduce its dimensions 
 to scale (Woodcut No. 160), and 
 to examine its pretensions to rank 
 among the great examples of archi- 
 tectural art, the rhapsodies of which 
 it has been the theme seem a little 
 out of place. 
 
 The temple itself (Woodcut No. 
 161) is a very small building, be- 
 ing only 60 ft. in length by 38 ft. 
 in width. The width of the fa9ade, 
 however, is eked out by two wings 
 or adjuncts, which make it 60 ft. 
 As General Cunningham estimates 
 that its height, when complete, 
 was 60 ft. also, it realises the pro- 
 blem the Jews so earnestly set 
 themselves to solve — how to build 
 a temple with the three dimensions 
 equal, but yet should not be a cube. 
 Small, however, as the Jewish temple was, it was more than twice as 
 large as this one. At Jerusalem the temple was 100 cubits, or 150 
 ft. in length, breadth, and height.^ At Marttand these dimensions 
 were only 60 ft. But it is one of the points of interest in the Kash- 
 miri temple that it reproduces in plan, at least, the Jewish temple 
 more nearly than any other known building. 
 
 160. Temple of Marttand. (From a drawing 
 by General A.'Cuiiiiingham.) 
 Scale 100 If et to 1 inch. 
 
 > Josephus, ' Bell, jud.,' v. v. 4, Mid- 
 doth, iv. 6. I have written a work I Lope 
 Olio day to publish, 'On the temples 
 
 of tlie Jews,' in which all these dimensions 
 will be drawn to scale. 
 
Chap. L 
 
 MARTTAND. 
 
 287 
 
 The roof of the temple has so entirely disappeared that Baron 
 Hiigel doubted if it ever possessed one.^ General Cunningham, on 
 the other hand, has no doubts on the subject, and restores it in stone 
 on his plate No. 14. The absence, however, of any fragments on the 
 floor of the temple that could have belonged to the roof, militates 
 seriously against this view ; and, looking at the tenuity of the walls 
 and the large voids they include, I doubt extremely if they ever 
 could have supported a stone roof of the usual design. When, too. 
 
 IGl. View of Temple at Mai ttand. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 the plan is carefully examined, it will be seen that none of the masses 
 are square ; and it is very difficult to see how the roof of the porch 
 could, if in stone, be fitted to that over the cella. Taking all these 
 things into consideration, my impression is, that its roof — it certainly 
 had one — was in wood ; and knowing how extensively the Buddhists 
 used wooden roofs for their chaitya halls, I see no improbability of 
 this being the case here at the time this temple was erected. 
 
 The courtyard that surrounds and encloses this temple is, in its 
 state of ruin, a more remarkable object than the temple itself. Its 
 
 ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' Sept. 1848, p. 2G7. 
 
288 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 Rook III. 
 
 internal dimensions are 220 ft. by 142 ft.,i which are respectable, 
 though not excessive ; they are not mnch more than those of the 
 temple of Xeminatha at Girnar (Woodcut Xo. 12G), which are 165 ft. 
 and 105 ft., though that is by no means a large Jaina temple. On 
 each face is a central cell, larger and higher than the colonnade in 
 which it is placed (Woodcut Xo. 1G2), but even then only 30 ft. 
 
 162. Ceiitral Cell of Court at Marttand. (From a drawing by General A. Cunningham.) Ko Bcale. 
 
 in height to the summit of the roof, supposing it to be completed, 
 and the pillars on each side of it are only 9 ft. high, which are 
 not dimensions to go wild about, though their strongly-impressed 
 Grecian aspect is certainly curious and interesting. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features of the courtyard, though it 
 is common to all true Kashmiri temples, is thus described by General 
 Cunningham : — " I have a suspicion also that the whole of the in- 
 terior of the quadrangle was originally filled with water to a level 
 
 ^ Cuuningliam iu the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' Sept. 18i8, 
 p. 209. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 MAKTTAND. 
 
 289 
 
 within one foot of the bases of the cohimns, and that access to the 
 temple was gained by a raised pathway of slabs, supported on solid 
 blocks at short intervals, which connected the gateway flight of steps 
 with that leading to the temple. The same kind of pathway must 
 have stretched right across the quadrangle from one side doorway to 
 the other. Sunilar pathways still exist in the Shalimar gardens, as 
 passages across the different reservoirs and canals. On the outside 
 of the quadrangle, and close by the northern side of the gateway, 
 there is a drain by which the surplus w^ater found its exit, thus 
 keeping the surface always at the same level. The temples at Pan- 
 drethan Ledari, and in the Barahmula Pass, are still standing in the 
 midst of water. A constant supply of fresh water was kept up by a 
 canal or watercourse from the River Lambadari, which was conducted 
 alongside of the mountain for the service of the neighbouring village 
 of Sinharotsika," &c. " The only object," the General goes on to 
 remark, "of erecting temples in the midst of water must have been 
 to place them more immediately under the protection of the Nagas, 
 or human-bodied and snake-tailed gods, who were zealously worshipped 
 for ages throughout Kashmir." ^ 
 
 There are no inscriptions on this temple which \\'ould enable us 
 to fix its date with certainty, but all authorities are agreed that the 
 enclosure at least was erected by Lalitaditya,^ who reigned a.d. 725 
 to 761 ; and my conviction is that he also erected the temple itself. 
 General Cunningham, however, on the strength of a passage in the 
 * Raja Tarangini,' ascribes the building of the temple to Ranaditya,^ 
 who reigned a.d. 578 to 594. He may have local information which 
 enables him to identify the village Sinharotsika with this place 
 wiiich he has not given to the public ; but even then it is only said 
 he erected a temple to the sun at that place,* but nothing to show 
 that it was this temple. Whether also it was dedicated to the sun is 
 not clear. I never saw a sun temple, or a drawing of one, and can, 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' Sept. 1848, p. 273. 
 
 2 Cunningham, loc. cit., p. 263 ; 
 Vigne, ' Travels in Kashmir,' vol. i. p. 
 384. 
 
 3 It is not a little singular, however, 
 that the only temple I know of in India 
 that resembles this one, either in plan 
 or arrangement, is the smaller temple of 
 Conjeveram in the Chola country, near 
 INIarlras ; and it is curious that both the 
 ' Riija Tarangini,' the Kashmiri history, 
 and that of the Chola country, mention 
 that Ranaditya of Kaslimir married a 
 daughter of the Cliola king, and assisted 
 
 in forming an aqueduct from tlie Cauvery 
 — showing at least an intimacy which 
 may have arisen from that affinity of 
 race and religion, which, overleaping 
 the intruded Aryans, united the two ex- 
 tremities of India in one common bond. 
 True, the style of the two temples is 
 difterent ; but when I saw the one I did 
 not know of the existence of the other, 
 and d d not, as I now should, examine 
 the details with tliat care which alone 
 would enable any one to pronounce de- 
 finitely regarding their affinities. 
 
 * Trover's ' Translation,' lib. iii., v. 462. 
 
290 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 therefore, give no opinion on that head. Be this, therefore, as it 
 may, it seems to me extremely improbable that the temple should 
 have stood naked for 150 years, and then that a far greater king than 
 its founder should have added the indispensable adjunct of a court. 
 If, like all Kashmiri temples, it was intended to stand in the water, 
 something of the sort must have existed from the beginning, and very 
 little have been left for the great Lalitaditya to add. In addition to 
 this, many of the details of the temple itself are so nearly identical 
 with those of the temple at Avantipore, erected a.d. 852 or 853, that 
 it is very much more likely that only 100 instead of 250 years inter- 
 vened between the dates of the Marttand and Avantipore temples. 
 
 The question as to what deity this temple was dedicated to is 
 
 more difficult to determine 
 than its date. According to 
 the ' Raja Tarangini,'^ espe- 
 cially as summarised by 
 Wilson,^ Lalitaditya was at 
 the same time Buddhist, 
 Jaina, or Yaishnava — three 
 religions that were undistin- 
 guishable in that time of 
 tolerance, but which, after 
 200 years of persecution and 
 wars, came out distinct and 
 antagonistic in the 10th 
 century. If only the plan 
 were submitted to me, I 
 would unhesitatingly declare 
 it Jaina ; when its water 
 arrangements were explained, 
 it would as clearly appear 
 Naga^ (Woodcut No. 163), 
 but not at all necessarily 
 antagonistic to either Budd- 
 hism or Vishnuism at that 
 age. As I have just said, 
 1 know nothing of sun 
 temples, aud cannot, therefore, say whether this resembles them or 
 not. 
 
 Unfortunately, the stone of which the temple is built is of so 
 friable a nature that the sculptures are now barely recognisable, but, 
 so far as can be made out from such photographs as exist, all the 
 
 Niche with Naga Figure at Marttand. 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
 ^ Trover's ' Translation,' lib. iv., v. 126-871. ^ 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. 49. 
 ^ ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' p. 47. 
 
ClIAP. I. 
 
 AVANTIPORE. 
 
 291 
 
 principal figures in the niches have snake-hoods — are Ngaas, in fact, 
 with three or five-headed snakes at the backs of their heads. Any 
 one on the' spot, with his attention turned to this, could easily deter- 
 mine in a few minutes how far this was the case or not ; but no one 
 has yet visited it with the prepara- 
 tion necessary to settle this and 
 many other uncertain points regard- 
 ing the architecture and mythology 
 of the place. A monograph, however, 
 of this temple would be a work well 
 worthy of any pains that might be 
 bestowed upon it by any Indian 
 archaeologist ; for, besides its historical 
 and mythological importance, many 
 of its details are of great beauty, 
 and they have never been drawn 
 with the care they so well merit. 
 (Woodcut No. 164.) As the typical 
 example of a quasi-classical style, a 
 
 perfect knowledge of its peculiarities would be a landmark in the 
 history of the style both before and after its date. 
 
 164, Soffit of Arch at Marita'.d. (From a 
 Sketch by the late Mr. Wilson, B.C.S.) 
 
 AVANTIPORE. 
 
 Next in importance to Marttand, among Kashmiri temples, are 
 those of Avantipore, all erected certainly within the limits of the 
 reign of Avantiverma, the first king of the Utpala dynasty, and 
 who reigned from a.d. 875 to a.d. 904. The stone with which they 
 are erected is so friable, and the temples themselves are so ruined, 
 that there might be a difficulty in ascertaining to what religion 
 they were dedicated if the ' Raja Tarangini ' were not so distinct 
 in describing this monarch as a devoted follower of Siva,^ and naming 
 these temples as dedicated to various forms of that god. 
 
 The two principal ruins stand in courtyards of nearly the same 
 size, about 200 ft. by IGO ft. or 170 ft. internally. One, called 
 Avantiswami, has pillars all round, like Marttand, and almost 
 identical in design and dimensions. The other is astylar, but the 
 temple itself was much more important than in the first example.^ 
 
 ^ ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. 61. 
 Troyer's ' Translation,' lib, v., c. 128. 
 
 2 Plans of tlitse temples with details 
 are given by Cunningham, plates 17 and 
 18, and by Lieut, Cole with photographs, 
 plates 20 to 27, and 2 to 5 for details. Mr, 
 
 Cowie also adds considerably to our in- 
 formation on the subject, Tlie dimen- 
 sions quoted in the text are from Lieut. 
 Cole, and are in excess of those given by 
 General Cunningham. 
 
 U 2 
 
292 
 
 ARCfllTECTUEE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 The characteristic that seems most clearly to distinguish the 
 style of the temples at Marttand from that of those at Avantipore 
 is the greater richness of detail which the latter 
 exhibit ; just such a tendency, in fact, towards 
 the more elaborate carvings of the Hindu style 
 as one might expect from their difference in date. 
 Several of these have been given by the three 
 authors to whose works I have so often had occasion 
 to allude, and to which the reader is referred ; bat 
 the annexed fragment (Woodcut No. 165) of one 
 of its columns is as elegant in itself, and almost 
 as interesting historically, as the Doric of the ex- 
 amples quoted above, inasmuch as if it is compared 
 
 165. P liar at Avanti- . f i I c -xr ^-rrr ^ 
 
 pore. (Fromannw- With the piUars of tlic touib 01 Mycene (Woodcut 
 
 ing by Mr. Wilson, -^-r ^ ^ „ i • x •, i-m . 
 
 C.S.) No. 117, vol. 1.) it seems dimcult to escape the con- 
 
 viction that the two forms w^ere derived from some 
 common source. At all events, there is nothing between the Pelo- 
 ponnesus and Kashmir, so far as we now know, that so nearly 
 resembles it. 
 
 Bhaniyae. 
 
 At a place near the remote village of Bhaniyar, on the road 
 between Uri and Naoshera, there stands one of the best-preserved 
 temples in the valley. Like all the older temples, it was supplied 
 with the means of keeping its courtyard full of water, and during 
 the long ages of neglect these brought down silt and mud sufficient 
 to half bury the place. It was recently, however, excavated by 
 order of the Raja of Kashmir, and hence its nearly perfect state.^ Its 
 dimensions are less than those of the temples last described, being only 
 145 ft. by 120 ft., but, except from natural decay of the stone, it is 
 nearly perfect, and gives a very fair idea of the style of these buildings. 
 The trefoiled arch, with its tall pediment, the detached column and 
 its architrave, are as distinctly shown here as in any other existing 
 example of a Kashmiri colonnade, and present all those quasi- 
 classical features which w^e now know Avere inherited from the 
 neighbouring province of Gandhara. The central temple is small, 
 only 26 ft. square, and its roof is now covered with wooden shingles ; 
 but whether that was the original covering is not certain. Looking, 
 however, at the central side-cell of the colonnade (Woodcut No. 166), 
 it seems to me extremely doubtful w^hether General Cunningham is 
 justified in restoring the roof of the temple, or of the central cell at 
 
 ^ Lieut. Cole, ' Ill'istrations of Ancient Btiikliugs in Kashmir,' P- 23, plates 37 
 and 38. 
 
Chap 1. 
 
 BHANIYAR. 
 
 293 
 
 Marttand in stone. My impression rather is, as hinted above, that 
 the temple-roof was in wood ; that of the side-cell in stone, but flat. 
 
 166. View in Court of Temple at Bhaniyar. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 At a place called Waniyat are two' groups of temples, which were 
 carefully examined and described by the Rev. Mr. Cowie,^ and plans 
 and photographs are found in Lieutenant Cole's book.^ They differ 
 somewhat from those we have been describing, inasmuch as they do 
 not seem to have been enclosed in colonnaded courts, and consist each 
 of one large and several smaller temples, unsymmetrically arranged. 
 The larger ones are 30 ft. and 32 ft. square in plan over all ; the 
 smaller 10 ft. or 12 ft. 
 
 There are no inscriptions, nor any historical indications that would 
 enable us to fix the date of the Waniyat temples with certainty, 
 and the stone has decayed to such an extent that the details cannot 
 be defined with the precision necessary for comparison with other 
 examples ; but whether this decay arises from time or from the nature 
 of the stone there are no means of knowing. Lieutenant Cole, 
 basing his inferences on certain similarities he detects between them 
 and the temple of the Takt-i-Suleiman, which he believes was erected 
 B.C. 220, ascribes their erection to the first century after Christ. 
 Reasoning from the same basis, if the temple on the Takt belongs 
 to the 17th century, I would infer that they were among the most 
 modern temples in this style in the valley. Besides this, they are 
 purely Hindu temples, without any of those Naga or Jaina peculi- 
 arities that distinguish the older ones, and almost certainly, therefore, 
 may be placed after the year a.d. 1000. How much more modern 
 they may be must be left for future inquiry. 
 
 * ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of I ^ < Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in 
 Bengal,' 186G, p. 101, et seqq. \ Kashmir,' p. 11, plates 6 to 11. 
 
294 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 Book III. 
 
 Among the remaining examples, perhaps the one that most clearly 
 exhibits the characteristics of the style is that at Pandrethan (Wood- 
 cut No. 1G7). It still 
 stands, as it has always 
 stood, in the centre of 
 its tank ; but the over- 
 flow drains, which ori- 
 ginally served to keep 
 the Avater at the same 
 level, having become 
 choked by neglect, it 
 can now only be ap- 
 proached by swimming 
 or in a boat. Originally, 
 it seems to have had a 
 third storey or division 
 to its roof, but that has 
 fallen ; the lower part 
 of the building, how- 
 ever, exhibits all the 
 characteristic features 
 of the style in as much 
 perfection as almost any 
 other known example. 
 
 167. 
 
 Temple at Pandrethan. 
 (From a Drawing by General Cunningham ) 
 
 One last example must conclude our illustrations of Kashmiri 
 architecture. The temple at Payech, though one of the smallest, is 
 among the most elegant, and also one of the most modern examples 
 of the style (Woodcut No. 168). Its dimensions are only 8 ft. square 
 for the superstructure, and 21 ft. high, including the basement ; but 
 with even these dimensions it acquires a certain dignity from being 
 erected with only six stones — four for the walls and two for the 
 roof.^ It stands by itself on a knoll, without any court, or any of 
 the surroundings of the older temples, and, being dedicated wholly 
 to the gods of the Hindu Pantheon, it certainly belongs to an age 
 when their worship had superseded the older faiths of the valley. It 
 would be interesting if its date could be ascertained, as it carries with 
 it that of the caves of Bhaumajo and of several other temples. So 
 far as can at present be made out, it seems to belong to the 13th 
 century of our era, but is probably of a more modern rather than 
 of a more ancient date. 
 
 In order to write a complete monography of the Kashmiri style, 
 we ought to be able to trace it very much further back than any- 
 thing in the previous pages enables us to do, and by some means 
 
 ' Ciinuingliam, ' Jonrnal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' Sc] t. 1848, p. 250. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 TEMPLE AT PAYECH. 
 
 295 
 
 168. Temple at Payech. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 to connect it with the other styles of India. In order to do this, 
 however, we must discover some Buddhist remains in Kashmir. We 
 know from history that Asoka, B.C. 250, sent missionaries to convert 
 the inhabitants of the valley to the Buddhist faith, and that in the 1st 
 century Kanishka, a Buddhist king, reigned here absolutely ; ^ and we 
 know that in the 7th century Hiouen Thsang found Buddhism, if not 
 the only religion, at least one of the dominant faiths of the people. The 
 details he mentions, and the fact of his lingering here for two whole 
 years (a.d. 633 to a.d. 634) to study its forms and scriptures, proves how 
 important this religion then was.^ But not one vestige of a chaitya 
 or of a vihara has yet come to light ; and though there are mounds 
 which may contain stupas, it is most improbable that they will con- 
 tain any architectural forms that may be of any use for our purposes. 
 
 When we know more of the forms and ages of the Gandhara monas- 
 teries (ante, pages 169, et seqq.), they may supply some of the missing 
 links required to connect the Kashmiri style to that of the outer 
 world ; but till the temples in Salt Eange, and other little-frequented 
 parts of the Punjab are examined, we shall not know all that we 
 
 * ' Kaja Tarangiiii,' vol. i. verse 170. ^ ' Vie et Voyages,' vol. i. p. 96. 
 
2iiG ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 desire. Meanwhile the annexed woodcut (No. 169), representing a 
 temple at Miilot, shows how nearly the Punjabi style resembled that 
 of Kashmir. There are the same trefoil -headed openino's : the fluted 
 
 169, Templeiat Mulot, in the bait Itaugc. (i'rom a Photograph.") 
 
 pillars, with quasi-classical bases and capitals ; and a general simi- 
 larity of style not to be mistaken. There is another temple very 
 similar, but smaller, at Kathwai ; both are near Pind Dadan Khan, 
 and from what I can learn there are others which may form a con- 
 necting link between the Gandhara monasteries and the Kashmiri 
 temples. It may be that Mahomedan bigotry has defaced them all ; 
 but, looking at the immense strides that have been made during the 
 last few years in this direction, I feel confident that so soon as they 
 are looked for all that is still wanting will certainly be found. 
 
 So many and so various are the points of interest connected with 
 the style of the ancient buildings in Kashmir, that they deserve much 
 fuller illustration than is compatible with the scope of the present 
 work. Though not magnificent, they are very pleasing and appro- 
 priate examples of art, and they have this advantage over most 
 of the Indian styles, that Kashmir possesses, in the ' Raja Tarangini,' 
 
Chap. L 
 
 KASHMIRI TEMPLES. 
 
 297 
 
 what may be said to be the only Indian history in existence. Any 
 one familiar with that work, and with the actual buildings, could 
 without much difficulty fix their dates, and from the buildhigs illus- 
 trate the history. This has not yet been accomplished, but there is no 
 doubt that it can be done. 
 
 Another point of interest connected with this style is the strange 
 but undoubted affinity which exists between it and the architectural 
 forms of ancient Greece. This, when fully investigated, may reveal 
 to us relations between the two countries or their outlying depend- 
 encies which are not now suspected. 
 
 But the greatest point of interest is that arising out of the con- 
 nexion which at one time seems to have existed between Kashmir 
 and Cambodia, which will form the subject of a subsequent chapter. 
 Between the two we shall probably be able to gather up the threads 
 of the long-lost form of Serpent superstition, and learn to know 
 what were the arrangements of the temples, and what the worship 
 addressed to that mysterious deity. 
 
 I have already, in my work on Tree and Serpent worship, and in 
 the Introduction, entered so fully into this subject, and said all that 
 I have at present to say about it, that I need not do more here than 
 recapitulate the results, but they can hardly be too often repeated in 
 order to render the context intelligible. So far as I can ascertain, the 
 people who adopted Buddhism in India were neither the Aryans nor 
 the Drayidians, but a native aboriginal race in the north, whom the 
 Aryans called Dasyus. Before their conversion they worshipped 
 trees and serpents, and after their adoption of the higher and purer 
 form of worship they continually relapsed to their old faith and old 
 feelings whenever the influence of Buddhism became weak, or its 
 discipline relaxed. This was especially the case in Kashmir, with 
 Taxila, and Gandhara ; it was the head-quarters of Naga worship in 
 northern India ; and though the inhabitants embraced Buddhism 
 with avidity, there are everywhere signs of their backslidings. In 
 Kashmir the oldest temples, if not exclusively Naga, certainly show 
 an unmistakable tendency in that direction, and continued to do so 
 till the Hindu revival in the 11th century. After that they were 
 dedicated to Siva and Yishnu, and the people of the valley seem to 
 have been completely converted to the Hindu religion, when they 
 fell under the influence of the followers of Mahomet, and adopted the 
 faith of the Arabian Prophet in or about the 14th century. 
 
 It is between the fall of Buddhism and the rise of Mahomedanism 
 that all the temples in the true Kashmiri style must be ranged. 
 Before that we have nothing — after that, only the tomb of Zein-ul- 
 ab-ud-dln and the temple on the Takt-i-Suleiman can be classed as 
 examples of the style, though the latter can hardly even claim a 
 title to that affiliation. 
 
298 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 P>OOK III. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 N E P A L. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Stii})as or Chailyas — Wooden Temples — Tliibet — Temples at Kaiigra. 
 
 Any one looking at the map, and the map only, would probably be 
 inclined to fancy that, from their similarity of situation and sur- 
 roundings, the arts and archaeology of Nepal must resemble those of 
 Kashmir. It would not, however, be easy to make a greater mistake, 
 for there are no two provinces of India which are more diametrically 
 opposed to one another in these respects than these two Himalayan 
 states. Partly this is due to local peculiarities. The valley of Nepal 
 proper — in which the three capitals, Patau, Bhatgaon, and Khat- 
 mandu, are situated — ^is only twelve miles north and south, by nine 
 in width east and west. It is true, the bulk of the population of the 
 Gorkha state live in the valleys that surround this central point ; but 
 they are sparse and isolated communities, having very little com- 
 munication with each other. Kashmir, on the other hand, is one of 
 the most beautiful and fertile valleys in the world, measuring more 
 than one hundred miles in one direction and more than seventy in 
 another, without any ridges or interruptions of any sort, and capable 
 of maintaining a large population on one vast, unbroken, fertile 
 plain. 
 
 Another point of difference is, that Kashmir never was a thorough- 
 fare. The population who now possess it entered it from the south, 
 and have retained possession of it — in aU historical times, at least — 
 in sufficient numbers to keep back any immigration from the north. 
 In Nepal, on the contrary, the bulk of the population are Thibetans, 
 a people from the north, left there apparently in their passage south- 
 ward ; and, so far as we can gather from such histories as exist, the 
 southern races who are found there only entered the valley in the 
 begmning of the 14th century, and never in such numbers as 
 materially to modify the essentially Turanian character of the 
 people. 
 
 Nepal also differs from Kashmir from the fact that the Maho- 
 medans never had possession of their valley, and never, consequently, 
 influenced their arts or their religions. The architectural history of 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 NEPAL. 
 
 209 
 
 the two valleys differs, consequently, in the following particulars : — 
 In Kashmir we have a Buddhist period, superseded in the 8th century 
 by an original quasi-classical style, that lasted till it, in its turn, 
 was supplanted by that of the Moslem in the loth centuiy. In 
 Nepal we have no succession of styles — no history in fact — for we do 
 not know when any of the three religions was introduced ; but what 
 we find is the Yaishnava, Saiva, and Buddhist religions existing side 
 by side at the present day, and flourishing with a rank luxmiance 
 unknoAvn on the plains of Bengal, where probably their exuberance 
 was checked by the example of the Moslems, who, as just remarked, 
 had no influence in the valley. 
 
 Owing to all the principal monuments in Nepal being modern — 
 all, certainly, subsequent to the IJrth century — and to the people 
 being too poor to indulge in such magnificence as is found on the 
 plains, the buildings of Nepal cannot compare, as architectural objects, 
 with those found in other parts of India. But, on the other hand, 
 the very fact of their being modern gives them an interest of their 
 own, and though it is an exaggeration, it is a characteristic one, 
 when it is said that in Nepal there are more temples than houses, and 
 more idols than men ; it is true to such an extent that there is an 
 unlimited field for inquiry, and even if not splendid, the buildings 
 are marvellously picturesque. Judging from photographs and such 
 materials as are available, I have no hesitation in asserting that 
 there are some streets and palaces in Khatmandu and Bhatgaon 
 which are more picturesque, and more striking as architectural 
 compositions, than are to be found in any other cities in India. 
 The style may be called barbarous, and the buildings have the 
 defect of being principally in wood ; but their height, their variety 
 of outline, their wealth of carving and richness of colour, are 
 such as are not to be found in Benares or any other city of the 
 plains. 
 
 The real point of interest in the architecture of Nepal to the true 
 student of the art lies in its ethnographic meaning. When fully 
 mastered, it presents us with a complete microcosm of India as it 
 was in the 7th century, when Hiouen Thsang visited it — when the 
 Buddhist and Brahmanical religions flourished side by side ; and 
 when the distinctive features of the various races were far more 
 marked than they have since become under the powerful solvent of 
 the Mahomedan domination. 
 
 From all these causes I believe that if the materials existed, and 
 it were possible to write an exhaustive history of the architecture 
 of the valley of Nepal, it would throw more light on most of the 
 problems that are now perplexing us than that of any other province 
 in India. It only, however, can be done by some one on the spot, 
 and perfectly familiar not only with the Nepalese buildings but with 
 
300 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE lilMALAYAS. Book HI. 
 
 all the phases of the question ; ^ but even then its value would be more 
 ethnographic than aesthetic. If this were an ethnographic history 
 of architecture, to which the aesthetic question were subordinate, it 
 would be indispensable that it should be attempted, however incom- 
 plete the materials might be ; but the contrary being the case, it 
 must suffice here to point out the forms of the architecture, merely 
 indicating the modes in which the various styles are divided among 
 the different races. 
 
 Like that of so many other countries of India, the mythic history 
 of Nepal commences with that of the heroes of the ' Mahabarata,' but 
 with some more reasons in this case than in most others, for it seems 
 probable that it was through the Himalayas that the Pandus entered 
 India, and certain, at all events, that the poem represents the sur- 
 vivors of the great war returning to their homes, accompanied by 
 their dogs, across these mountains, through the dominion of the 
 Gorkhas, if not actually through the valley of Nepal. The long 
 lists of names, how^ever, that connect these events with modern 
 events, if not purely fabulous, are at least barren of all interest, and 
 no event is recorded between 1300 years B.C. and a.d. 1300 that need 
 arrest attention. What we do gather is, that at some remote period, 
 probably the first century of our era. Buddhism did penetrate into 
 the valley, and, finding it inhabited by a people of Thibetan origin, 
 it was, of course, easily adopted, and has since remained the religion 
 of that section of the population.^ 
 
 * Nepal is fortunate in having 
 possessed in Mr. Brian H. Hodgson one of 
 the most acute observers that ever graced 
 the Bengal Civil Service. At the time, 
 however, when he was Resident in the 
 valley, none of the questions mooted in 
 this work can be said to have been 
 started ; and he was mainly engrossed 
 in exploring and communicating to others 
 the unsuspected wealth of Buddhist learn- 
 ing which he found in Nepal, and the 
 services he rendered to this cause are in- 
 calculably great. Nor did he neglect the 
 architecture. I have before me a short 
 manuscript essay on the subject, only 
 four sheets foolscap, with about one hun- 
 dred illustrations, which, if fully worked 
 out, would be nearly all that is required. 
 Unfortunately there are neither dates 
 nor dimensions, and the essay is so 
 short, and the drawings, made by na- 
 tives, so incomplete, that it does not 
 supply what is wanted ; but, if worked 
 out on the spot and supplemented by 
 
 photographs, it might be all that is 
 required. 
 
 ^ A curious mistake occurs in Buchanan 
 Hamilton's ' Account of the Kingdom of 
 Nepal.' At page 57 he says : " Gautama, 
 according to the best authorities, lived 
 in the sixth century B.C., and Sakya in the 
 first century a.d. The doctrines of Sakya 
 Siugha differ most essentially from those 
 of Gautama." In the writuigs of any 
 other man this would be put down as 
 a stupid mistake, but he was so careful 
 an observer that it is evident that his 
 informers confounded the founder of the 
 Saka era — whether he was Kanishka or 
 not — with the founder of the religion, 
 though they seem to be perfectly aware 
 of the novelty of the doctrines introduced 
 by Nagarjuna and the fourth convocation. 
 He adds, page 190, that Buddhism was 
 introduced into Nepal a.d. 33, which is 
 probably, however, fifty years too early 
 — if, at least, it was consequent on the 
 fourth convocation. 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 NEPAL. 
 
 301 
 
 There are two accounts of the mode in which the Hindu or Rajput 
 element was introduced into the valley. The favourite one is, that 
 after the sack of Chittore by Ala-u-din, in 1306, the conqueror sought 
 the hand of the proud Rajput's daughter, and to avoid the con- 
 tamination he and his followers fled and sought refuge in Nepal. ^ 
 Another account represents the Rajas of Mithila and Semrun — de- 
 scendants of the Surya Yansa kings of Ayodhya — and the Rajputs of 
 Canouge flying in like manner, in 1326, to avoid the tyranny of the 
 Delhi emperors ; and that it was these tribes, and not the fugitives 
 from Chittore, wfio conquered and colonised a part of the valley.^ 
 Both accounts are probably to some extent true, and they and their 
 followers form the Parbuttya or Hindu element in the population 
 at the present day, and make up the bulk of those who profess the 
 Hindu religion and worship Siva and Yishnu and the other gods of 
 the Hindu Pantheon. 
 
 Before they entered the valley, however, it seems to have been 
 occupied by Kiratas, Bhotyas, Newars, and other tribes of impure 
 origin,^ according to the Hindu idea of purity — in other words, 
 Tartars or Thibetans — and they are those who had early adopted 
 the doctrines of Buddha and still adhere to them. The Newars seem 
 to have been the governing caste till the year 1768, when a weak 
 sovereign having called in the assistance of a neighbouring Gorkha 
 Raja, he seized the kingdom, and his successors still rule in Nepal. 
 They apparently were originally of the Magar tribe,* but having mixed 
 with the immigrant Hindus call themselves Rajputs, and have adopted 
 the Hindu religion, though in a form very different from that known 
 in the plains, and differing in a manner we would scarcely be inclined 
 to expect. When the religion of the destroyer was introduced into 
 a country that professed the mild religion of Buddha, it might 
 naturally be supposed that its most savage features would be toned 
 down, so as to meet, to some extent at least, the prejudices of the 
 followers of the religion it was superseding. So far from this being 
 the case in this instance, it is said that when first introducing the 
 religion the Gorkhas propitiated the deity with human sacrifices, till 
 warned in a dream to desist and substitute animals.^ Besides this, 
 the images of Durga or Kali, though hideous and repulsive enough in 
 the plains, are ten times more so in Nepal ; and, in fact, throughout 
 there is an exaggeration of all the most prominent features of the 
 religion, that would lead to the balief that it found a singularly 
 congenial soil in the valley and blossomed with unusual exuberance 
 there. This, in fact, is one of the reasons that lead to the belief that 
 
 * Buchanan Hamilton, 'Account of 
 the Kingdom of Nepal,' p. 12. 
 2 Ibid., p. 49. 
 
 ^ Buchanan Hamilton, ' Account of tl e 
 Kingdom of Nepal,' p. 190. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 22. ' Ibid., pp. 35 and 211. 
 
S02 
 
 ARCUITECTURE IX THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 the religion of Siva is a northern Tartar superstition, which, when 
 introduced into India, was softened and modified to suit the milder 
 genius of the people ; but among the hill tribes, with northern 
 affinities, it was practised with all the Tantric devil- worshipping 
 peculiarities that characterise its original birthplace. So far, too, as 
 the architecture of the Saiva temples in Nepal is concerned, it seems 
 to indicate that the worship came into the valley from the north, 
 and not from the plains of Bengal. The architecture of the temples 
 of Vishnu, on the contrary, seems evidently to be an offshoot of the 
 art of the plains. 
 
 Stupas or Chaityas. 
 
 The two oldest and most important Buddhist monuments in the 
 valley of Nepal are those of Swayambunath and Bouddhama : ^ the 
 former, beautifully situated on a gentle eminence about a mile from 
 Khatmandu, the latter at Kasachiel, at some distance off. 
 
 170. Temple of Svvayambunath, Nepal, (From a Diawing in the Hodgson Collection.) 
 
 ' A view of this temple from the frontispiece of Bucliai)au Hamilton's volume. 
 
Chap. U. 
 
 STUPAS OR CHAITYAS. 
 
 303 
 
 No very precise information is to be had about the date of either, 
 but, in their present form at least, they are not the oldest in the 
 valley. According to Brian Hodgson, there are several low, flat, 
 tumuli-like chaityas, with very moderate tees, which are older, and 
 may be of any age ; but, as will be seen from the previous woodcut 
 (No. 170), that at Swayambunath is of an irregular clumsy form, 
 and chiefly remarkable for the exaggerated form of its tee. This 
 is, in fact, the most marked characteristic of the modern Thibetan 
 dagoba, which in China is carried frequently to such an extent that 
 the stupa becomes evanescent, and the tee changes into a nine or 
 thirteen storeyed tower. According to Kirkpatrick (p. 151), "this 
 temple is chiefly celebrated for its perpetual fire, the two principal 
 wicks having preserved their flames from time immemorial." The 
 continual presence of the fire-altar, in connexion with statues of 
 Buddha in Gandhara, would lead us to suspect a connexion between 
 fire-worship and Buddhism in that province, but hardly so intimate 
 as this would seem to 
 indicate. 
 
 In Mr. Hodgson's 
 collection there are 
 nearly one hundred 
 drawings of chaityas 
 in Nepal, all different, 
 most of them small, 
 and generally highly 
 ornamented ; but none 
 of them grand, and 
 none exhibiting that 
 elegance of form or 
 beauty of detail which 
 characterises the build- 
 ings of the plains. 
 From a low, flat 
 mound, one - tenth of 
 its diameter in height, 
 they rise to such a tall 
 building as this, which 
 is a common form, 
 bearing the name of 
 Kosthakar (Woodcut 
 No. 171), in which 
 
 the dagoba is only the crowning ornament, and between these there 
 is every conceivable variety of shape and detail. Among others, 
 there is the four-faced lingam of Siva, with a corresponding emblem 
 with four Buddhas ; and altogether such a confusion of the two 
 
 Nepalese Koslhakar. No scale. 
 
304 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book IH. 
 
 religions as to confirm the idea hinted at above, that the lingam 
 
 Devi Bhowani Temple, Bhatgaon. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 is really a diminutive dagoba, and not tlie emblem it is nsnally 
 
ClIAP. II. 
 
 NEPAL. 
 
 305 
 
 supposed to represent, though, no doubt, in modern times understood 
 to have that meaning. 
 
 By far the most characteristic and beautiful temples of the 
 Nepalese are those possessing many storeys divided Avith sloping 
 roofs. They are unlike anything found in Bengal, and all their 
 affinities seem with those in Burmah or China. Usually, they seem 
 to be dedicated to the Saiva faith, but Mr. Hodgson mentions one at 
 Patau, where " Sakya occupies the basal floor, Amifcabha the second 
 storey, a small stone chaitya the third, the Dharmadatu Mandala the 
 fourth ; the fifth, or apex of the building, externally consisting of a 
 small churamani, or jewel-headed chaitya." 
 
 One of the most elegant of this class is the Bhowani temple at 
 Bhatgaon, represented in the previous woodcut (No. 172). It is five 
 storeys in height, but stands particularly well on a pyramid of five 
 steps, which gives it a greater dignity than many of its congeners. 
 Another, dedicated to Mahadeo, is seen in the centre of the next 
 woodcut (No. 173). It is only two storeys in height, but has the 
 same characteristic form of roof, which is nearly universal in all 
 buildings, civil or ecclesiastical, which have any pretension to archi- 
 tectm-al design. The temple on the left of the last cut is dedi- 
 cated to Krishna, and will be easily recognised by any one familiar 
 with the architecture of the plains from its sikra or spire, with the 
 curvilinear outline, and its clustering pavilions, not arranged quite 
 like the ordinary types, but still so as to be unmistakably Bengali. 
 
 One other example must complete our illustration of the archi- 
 tecture of Nepal. It is a doorway leading to the durbar at Bhatgaon, 
 and is a singularly characteristic specimen of the style, but par- 
 taking much more of China than of India in the style of its orna- 
 ments (Woodcut No. 174, p. 307). It is indeed so like an archway in 
 the Nankau Pass, near Pekin — given further on — that I was at first 
 inclined to ascribe them to the same age. The Chinese example, 
 however, is dated in 1345 ; ^ this one, according to Mr. Hodgson, was 
 erected as late as 1725, yet their ornamentation is the same. In the 
 centre is Garuda, with a seven-headed snake-hood ; and on either 
 hand are Nagas, with seven-headed hoods also ; and the general 
 character of the foliaged ornaments is so similar that it is difficult to 
 believe in so great a lapse of time between them ; but I dare not 
 question Mr. Hodgson's evidence. Since he was in Nepal the building 
 on the left-hand side of the cut has been " improved." His drawings 
 show it to have been one of the most picturesque buildings in the 
 valley. It certainly is not so now. 
 
 It may be remembered that in speaking of the architecture of 
 Canara (ante, p. 272), I remarked on the similarity that existed 
 
 ' 'Journal of tlie Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. v. (N.S.) p. 18. 
 
 X 
 
30G 
 
 AllCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 between tluit of that remote province and the style tliat is found in 
 this Himalayan valley ; and I do not think that any one can look 
 
 173. Temple ot Maliado and Krishna, Patan. (From a riiotograph.) 
 
 at the illustrations quoted above, especially Woodcuts Nos. 150 and 
 153, and not perceive the similarity between them and the Nepalese 
 examples, though it might require a familiarity Avith all the photo- 
 
CiiAP. ]I. NEPAL. 307 
 
 graphs to make it evident, without its l)eiiig pointed out. Tliis 
 
 174. Doorway of Darbar, Bbatgaon. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 beino- the case, it is curious to find Colonel Kirkpatrick stating, more 
 
 X 2 
 
SOS 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 than seventy years a^^o, that " it is remarkable enonu:h that the 
 Newar women, like those among the Nairs, may, in fact, have as 
 many husbands as they please, being at liberty to divorce them con- 
 tinually on the slightest pretence." ^ Dr. Buchanan Hamilton also 
 remarks that " though a small portion of the Neware have forsaken 
 the doctrine of Buddha and adopted the worship of Siva, it is without 
 changing their manners, which are chiefly remarkable for their extra- 
 ordinary carelessness about the conduct of their women ; " and he 
 elsewhere remarks on their promiscuousness and licentiousness.^ In 
 fact, there are no two tribes in India, except the Nairs and Newars, 
 who are known to have the same strange notions as to female chastity, 
 and that, coupled with the architecture and other peculiarities, seems 
 to point to a similarity of race which is both curious and interesting ; 
 but how and when the connexion took place I must leave it to others 
 to determine. I do not think there is anything in the likeness of 
 the names, but I do place faith in the similarity of their architecture 
 combined with that of their manners and customs. 
 
 Wooden Temples. 
 
 In the Himalayan districts between Kashmir and Nepal, in Kulu, 
 Kangra, and Kumaon, there are a vast number of temples, regarding 
 w^hich it would be extremely interesting to have more information 
 than we now possess. They are all in wood, generally Deodar pine, 
 and, like most buildings in that material, more fantastic in shape, 
 but at the same time more picturesque and more richly carved than 
 buildings in more permanent and more intractable materials. What 
 we now know of them, however, is mainly derived from photographs, 
 taken without any system, only as pictures, because the buildings 
 were either picturesque in themselves or so situated as to improve 
 the landscape. No one yet has thought of measuring them, nor of 
 asking to what divinities they are dedicated, and still less of inquiring 
 into their age or traditions ; and till this is done it is impossible to 
 treat of them in anything like a satisfactory manner. 
 
 Whenever this chapter of Indian architectural history comes to 
 be written, it will form a curious pendant to that of the w^ooden 
 architecture of Sweden and Norway, the similarities between the two 
 groups being both striking and instructive. It can hardly be ex- 
 pected that any ethnographical or political connexion can be traced 
 between peoples so remote from one another which could influence 
 their architectural forms ; but it is curious, if this is so, to observe 
 how people come independently to adopt the same forms and similar 
 
 1 ' Nepaul,' p. 187. 
 
 2 Buchanan Hamilton, 'Acoount of. 
 
 tlie Kingdom of Nepal,' ••pp. 29, 42, 
 .51, &c. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 WOODEN TEMPLES. 
 
 modes of decoration when using the same materials for like purposes, 
 and under similar climatic influences. Although it may, consequently, 
 be impossible to trace any influence that the people of the Himalayas 
 could have exerted on the peoples of the north-west of Europe, it is 
 by no means clear that in these wooden structures we may not find the 
 germ of much that is now perplexing us with regard to the earlier forms 
 of Hindu stone architecture. Like Buddhist architecture, there can 
 hardly be a doubt that much of it was derived from w^ooden originals, 
 and it is difficult to see any locality where wooden styles were likely 
 to be earlier adopted and longer practised than in those valleys where 
 the Deodar pine is abundant, and forms so excellent and so lasting a 
 building material. 
 
 An exploration of these valleys, would, no doubt, bring to light 
 many curious monuments, which would not only be interesting in 
 themselves, but might . . . 
 
 throw considerable light , _ ^ 
 
 standing in front of this. 
 
 The tallest is 15 ft., the smallest 8 ft. 5 in., the general range being 
 from 12 to 13 ft. in height, and 18 ft. to 20 ft. in circumference. 
 
 ' The followiug iiaiticulars a-e taken j'Jouraalof the Asiatic Society of Ben- 
 from a paper by Major Austen in the ' gal,' voh xliii. part i., 1874. 
 
 on many now obscure 
 points of our inquiries. 
 One monument, for in- 
 stance, has recently been 
 discovered by Major God- 
 win Austen near the foot 
 of the Naga hills in As- 
 sam, which is unlike any 
 other known to exist any- 
 where else.^ The temple 
 ■ — if temple it may be 
 called — consists of a long 
 corridor, about 250 ft. in 
 length and 21 ft. wide, 
 the roof of which was 
 supported by pillars 
 richly carved, spaced 15 
 ft. to 21 ft. apart ; but 
 its most remarkable fea- 
 tures are two rows — one 
 of sixteen, the other of 
 seventeen monoliths — 
 
 175. 
 
 Monolitbs at Dim ipur. 
 (From a Drawing by Major Godwin Auskn.) 
 
310 
 
 AKCHITKCTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 No two are exactly alike, though all have a general similarity of design 
 to those represented in the preceding woodcut (No. 175), which may 
 be considered as typical of the style. Another similar monolith was 
 found a small distance off, -measuring IG ft. 8 in. in height, and 23 ft. 
 in circumference. 
 
 The natives were quite unable to give any account of these curious 
 monuments, nor is it easy to guess why they were placed w^here they 
 are. So far as I know, no similar monument exists anywhere, for the 
 pillars seem perfectly useless, though attached to two rows of stones 
 that may have borne a roof ; otherwise they look like those rows of 
 rude stone monuments which we are familiar with in this country and 
 in Brittany, but which a more artistic people may have adorned with 
 rude carvings, instead of leaving them quite plain, as our forefathers 
 did. As for their carving, the only things the least like them, so 
 far as I know, in India, are the pillars in the temple at Moodbidri 
 (Woodcut No. 152), and in other places in Canara, but there the pillars 
 are actual supports of roofs ; these are round-headed, and evidently 
 never were intended for any utilitarian purpose. 
 
 Judging from the gateway and other remains of the town of 
 Dimapur, in which these pillars are found, they cannot be of any 
 great age. The gateway is of the Gaur type, with a pointed arch, 
 probably of the IGth or 17th century ; and, if Major Austen's obser- 
 vation is correct, that the sandstone of which they are composed 
 is of a friable and perishable nature, they cannot be of any remote 
 antiquity. 
 
 It would be very interesting if a few more similar monuments 
 could be found, and Assam is one of the most promising fields in India 
 for such discoveries. When Hiouen Thsang visited it, in the 7th 
 century, it was known as the kingdom of Kamrup, one of the three 
 principal states of Northern India, and continued populous and im- 
 portant till the Pathan sovereigns of Delhi attempted its conquest in 
 the 15th century. Owing to the physical difficulties of the country, 
 they never were able to succeed in this attempt ; but they blockaded 
 the country for many years, and, cut off from the rest of the world, 
 the savage hill tribes on either hand, aided by famine, so depopu- 
 lated the country that the jmigie overpowered the feeble remnant 
 that survived, and one of the richest valleys in the world is now 
 one of the most sparsely inhabited. A good and liberal government 
 might, in a few years, go far to remedy this state of affairs, and, if 
 so blessed, the jungle might again be cleared and rendered fit for 
 human population. When this is done there can be no doubt but 
 that the remains of many ancient cities will be found. Already 
 Captain Dalton has given an account of the ruins of Gohati, which 
 was almost certainly the ancient capital of the province. " Its former 
 importance," the Ooniniissioner says, " is well attested by the immense 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 THIBET. 
 
 311 
 
 extent of its fortifications, and the profusion of carved stones which 
 every excavation of the modern town brings to light. The remains 
 of stone gateways and old stone bridges are found both within and 
 without the old city walls." ^ Captain Hannay gives a view of one of 
 these bridges. Like all the rest, it is constructed without arches, on 
 the horizontal principle,^ but it may be as old as the time of the 
 Chinese Pilgrims. Besides these, other ruins have been found and 
 described, in more or less detail, in the pages of the ' Journal of the 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal.' When more fully known they will certainly 
 be of considerable historic and ethnographic value, though they hardly 
 can compare with the vast monuments of such provinces as Orissa or 
 Gujerat, and other parts of India Proper. 
 
 Thibet. 
 
 It would be extremely interesting if, before leaving this part of 
 the world, it were possible to compile anything like a satisfactory 
 account of the Buddhist style in Thibet, for it is there that Buddhism 
 exists in its gTeatest purity at the present moment, and there only 
 is it entirely and essentially a part of the system of the people. We 
 would gladly, therefore, compare the existing state of things in Thibet 
 with our accounts of India in the days of the supremacy of the same 
 religion. The jealousy of the Chinese, however, who are now supreme 
 over that nation of priests, prevents free access to the country, and 
 those who have penetrated beyond its forbidden barriers have either 
 done so in the disguise of mendicants, and, consequently, dared neither 
 to draw nor examine minutely what they saw, or else had little taste for 
 portraying what was unintelligible, and, consequently, of very little 
 interest to them.^ 
 
 So far as can be made out from such narratives as we have, there 
 does not seem to be in Thibet a single relic-shrine remarkable either 
 for sanctity or size, nor does relic-worship seem to be expressed either 
 in their architectm*e or their religious forms. But as no country 
 in the world possesses a larger body of priests in proportion to its 
 population, and as all these are vowed to celibacy and live together, 
 their monasteries are more extensive than any we know of elsewhere 
 — some containing 2000 or 3000 lamas, some, if we may trust M. Hue, 
 as many as 15,000.* The monasteries do not seem to be built with 
 
 * 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. xxiv. p. 1. et seqq. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. XX. p. 21)1, et seqq. 
 
 ^ Capt. Turner, it is true, who was sent 
 to Teeshoo Lomboo by Warren Hastings, 
 has published with his interesting nar- 
 rative a number of very faithful views of 
 
 what he saw, but they are not selected 
 from that class of monuments which is 
 the subject of our present inquiry. 
 
 * ' Voyage dans le Thibet,' vol. ii. p. 
 289. The monastery referred to is that 
 of Se'ra, in the neighbourhood of Lassa, 
 I the capital. 
 
312 
 
 ARCHITECTURE IN THI^] HIMALAYAS. Book III. 
 
 any regularity, or to be gTouped into combinations of any architectural 
 pretension, but to consist of long streets of cells, mostly surrounding 
 small courtyards, three or four on each side, and sometimes two or 
 even three storeys high ; generally, perhaps always, Avith a small 
 shrine or altar in the centre. The monastery of Bouddha La, outside 
 the city of Lassa, where the Delai Lama resides, seems to be of more 
 magnificence than all the rest — the centre being occupied by a building 
 four storeys high, crowned by a dome (making the fifth) coA'ered 
 entirely with sheets of gold (rather, perhaps, merely gilt), and sur- 
 rounded by a peristyle of columns, which are gilt also. Around this 
 central palace are grouped a number of smaller ones, where the inferior 
 members of this great ecclesiastical order reside ; but of all this it is 
 difficult to form a distinct idea without some better drawings than 
 the native ones, which are at present alone available. 
 
 The Delai Lama, who resides in this palace, is believed by the 
 Thibetans to be the living incarnation of the Deity, and, in conse- 
 quence, is the prhicipal, if not the only, object of worship in Lassa. 
 There are, however, four or five subordinate incarnations in different 
 parts of Thibet and Mongolia, who, though inferior to this one, are 
 still objects of worship in the places where they reside, and by 
 particular sects of Buddhists. 
 
 It is this worship of a living rather than of a dead deity that 
 seems to be the principal cause of the difference of the architectural 
 forms of India and Thibet. In the countries we have hitherto been 
 describing no actual incarnation of the Deity is believed to have taken 
 place since the death of Sakya Muni, though the spirit of God has 
 descended on many saints and holy men ; in India, therefore, they 
 have been content to worship images of the departed deity, or relics 
 which recall His presence. In Thibet, where their deity is still present 
 among them, continually transmigrating, but never dying, of com*se 
 such a form of worship would be absurd ; no relic of a still living god 
 can exist, nor is the semblance or the memory of any past manifestation 
 thought worth preserving. A priori, therefore, we should scarcely 
 look here for the same class of sacred edifices as we find in India 
 or Ceylon. 
 
 Owing to the jealousy with Avhich the country is guarded against 
 the intrusion of Europeans, we may probably ha\'e to wait some time 
 before Thibet itself, or even the valleys dependent upon it in the 
 Himalayas, are so accessible to European travellers as to enable 
 them to supply the data requisite for the purpose. In the mean- 
 while, however, the view (Woodcut No. 176) of the doorway of 
 the temple at Tassiding is curious as showing a perseverance 
 in the employment of sloping jambs, which w^e do not meet 
 with in the plains. It will be recollected that this featm'e is 
 nearly universal in the Behar and early western caves (Woodcuts 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 THIBET. 
 
 313 
 
 176. D-joi way of ihe Temple at TassuUng. (From Dr. Hook'^r s ' Himalayan Journals.') 
 
 No3. 4:3, 45, and 50), but there we lo3e it. It may have con- 
 tinued to be commonly employed during the Middle Ages, though 
 the examples have perished ; but it is curious to find it cropping up 
 here again after a lapse of 2000 years. ^ 
 
 Another view in the porch of the temple at Pemiongchi is also 
 interesting, as showing the form of roof which we are familiar with 
 in the rock examples, and also as illustrating the extent to which the 
 bracket capital of India may be carried under the influence of wooden 
 architecture (Woodcut No. 177). It hardly seems doubtful that the 
 idea was originally derived from wooden construction, but was 
 ecpially appropriate to masonic forms, and is used in masonry so 
 judiciously by Indian architects that we lose sight of its origin in 
 most instances altogether. 
 
 Interesting as these minor styles undoubtedly are from their 
 variety, and valuable though they may be for the hints they afford 
 us in understanding the history of the other styles, they never can 
 be so important as the greater architectural groups that are found on 
 the plains of India itself. A monograph of the styles of Kashmir or 
 Nepal, or of the intermediate valleys, would be an invaluable addition 
 to our knowledge ; but hardly more is required in a general history 
 than that their places should be indicated, and their general charac- 
 
 ^ It is found currently employed iu Ihc I monasteries, but never as a constructive 
 decorative sculpture of the Gaudhara | feature. 
 
314 
 
 ARCHITECTUEE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 
 
 Book III. 
 
 teristics so defined as to render them recognisable. Even these minor 
 styles, however, will become more intelligible when studied in con- 
 nexion with the Dravidian and northern styles, which are those it is 
 next proposed to define and describe. 
 
 Temples at Kangra. 
 
 Though a little out of their place in the series, there are two small 
 temples in one of the Himalayan valleys which it may be expedient 
 
Chap. If. 
 
 TEMPLES AT KANGRA. 
 
 315 
 
 to describe here before leaving this part of the subject, as their 
 peculiarities will assist us in understanding much that has just been 
 said, or that will be presently advanced. Besides this, they do not 
 exactly fit into any other series, but they can hardly be passed 
 over, as they possess what is so rare in Indian temples — a well- 
 ascertained date. 
 
 The temples are situated in the village of Kiragrama, not far 
 from Kote Kangra, and, as an inscription on them records, were 
 built by two brothers, Baijnath and Siddhnath, in the year 804 a.d.^ 
 Neither of them are large. The larger has a porch 20 ft. square 
 inside by 28 ft. (not 48 ft.) over all externally, and the whole length 
 of the temple, from front to rear, is 50 ft. The smaller one is only 
 38 ft. over all, including the sanctuary. In 178G, the large temple 
 underwent a thorough repair at the hands of a Raja Sinsarchand, 
 which has obliterated many of its features ; but it is easy to see at a 
 glance what was done in the beginning of the 9th century, and what 
 1000 years afterwards. The small temple, though ruinous, is more 
 interesting, because it has escaped the hand of the spoiler. As will 
 be seen from the woodcut (No. 178), it has all the features of a very 
 old temple — great simplicity of outline, no repetitions of itself, and 
 the whole surface of the upper part covered with that peculiar horse- 
 shoe diaper which was so fashionable in those early days. It looks 
 here as if it must be copied from some brick or terra-cotta construc- 
 tion ; otherwise its repetition over a whole surface seems unac- 
 countable. The amalaka stringcourses are subdued and in good 
 taste, and the crowning ornament wxll proportioned.^ 
 
 There is little doubt that the sikra of the larger temple was simi- 
 larly adorned, but all its details are so completely obliterated by the 
 coating of plaster it has received that it has lost its interest. The 
 pillars, however, of its porch retain their forms up to their capitals, 
 at least. The architraves, as may be seen from the woodcut, belong 
 to the repair in 1786. The shafts of the pillars are plain cylinders, 
 of very classical proportions, and the bases also show that they are 
 only slightly removed from classical design. The square plinth, 
 the two toruses, the cavetto, or hollow moulding between, are all 
 classical, but partially hidden by Hindu ornamentation, of great 
 elegance, but unlike anything found afterwards. The capitals are, 
 however, the most interesting parts, though their details are con- 
 siderably obliterated by whitewash. They belong to Avhat may be 
 styled the Hindu-Corinthian order, though the principles on which 
 
 ^ Cuuningliam, 'Archaeological Re- 
 ports,' vol. V. p. 178, et seqq., from which 
 the following particulard are abstracted. 
 I hope no oue will mistake the ele- 
 
 vation, pi. 44, vol. V. of Cunningham's 
 'Archaeological Reports' for a representa- 
 tion of this temple. It does not in the 
 least resemble it. 
 
316 AKCIllTECTUEE IN THE HlxMALAYAS. Book 111. 
 
 they are designed is diametrically opposed to those of the classical 
 
 178. Ttnipletj at Kiiagrauia, uear Kote Kangra. (From a Photograpli.) 
 
 order of the same name. The object of both — as is well-known — is 
 to con\'ert a circular shaft into a square architraAX'-bearing capital 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 TEMPLES AT KANGKA. 
 
 817 
 
 in a gmceful and pleasing manner. We all know the manner in 
 which the Ionic and Corinthian capitals effect this ; pleasingly, it 
 is true, but not without effort and some little clumsiness, which it 
 required all the skill and taste of classical architects to conquer. 
 To effect this object, the Hindus placed a vase on the top of 
 their column, the bowl of which was about the same diameter as 
 that of the pillar on which it was placed, or rather larger ; but such 
 an arrangement was weak, because the neck and base of the vase were 
 necessarily smaller than the shaft of the pillar, and both were still 
 circular. To remedy these defects, they designed a very beautiful 
 class of foliaged ornament, which appears to grow out of the vase, on 
 each of its four faces, and, falling downwards, strengthens the hollows 
 of the neck and leg of the vase, so as to give them all the strength 
 they require, and at the same time to convert the circular form of 
 the shaft into the required square for the abacus of the capital. The 
 Hindus, of course, never had sufficient ability or constructive skill to 
 enable them to produce so perfect a form as the Corinthian or Ionic 
 capitals of the G-reeks or Romans ; but it is probable that if this 
 form were taken up at the present day, a capital as beautiful as 
 either of these might even now be produced. It is, indeed, almost 
 the only suggestion that Indian architecture seems to offer for 
 European use. 
 
 It is by no means clear when this form of capital was first intro- 
 duced. It first appears, but timidly it must be confessed, in such 
 
 179. Pillar at Krun of the ISO. Capital of Half Column from a temple in 
 
 Gupta age. Orissa. (From a Lithograph.) 
 
 late Buddhist caves as were excavated after the beginning of the 
 5th century : — as, for instmce, in the Yadnya Sri cave at Nassick 
 
318 
 
 AKCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. Book Ul. 
 
 (Woodcut No. 81); in the . courtyard of the Viswakarma, at Ellora 
 (Woodcut No. 68) ; and in some of the later caves at Ajunta — the 
 twenty-fourth for instance. It is found at Erun (Woodcut No. 
 179), among some fragments that I believe to be of the age of 
 the Guptas, about a.d. 400, and it is currently employed in the 
 middle group of Hindu caves at Ellora, such as the Ashes of Ravana, 
 and other caves of that age, say about a.d. 600. It afterwards 
 became frequent, almost universal, with the Jains, down to the 
 time of the Mahomedan conquest. The preceding representation of 
 one (Woodcut No. 180), from a half column of a temple in Orissa, 
 shows it in a skeleton form, and therefore more suited to explain its 
 construction than a fuller capital would do. On its introduction, the 
 bell-shaped or Persepolitan capital seems to have gone out of fashion, 
 and does not again appear in Indian art. 
 
 To return from this digression : there can be no doubt that the 
 temple of Baijnath is dedicated to Siva, not only from the presence 
 of the bulls in front of it, in pavilions of the same architecture as the 
 porch, but also because Ganesa appears among its integral sculptures ; 
 yet, strange to say, the back niche, is occupied by a statue of Maha- 
 vira, the last Jaina Tirthankar, with a perfectly legible inscription, 
 dated in a.d. 1240.^ It looks as if the age of toleration had not passed 
 even them. 
 
 ' CuuniDgham, ' Arcli.icological Reports,' vol. v. p. 188. 
 
( 319 ) 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The limits within which the Dravidian style of architecture pre- 
 vailed in India are not difficult to define or understand. Practically 
 they are those of the Madras Presidency, or, to speak more correctly, 
 they are identical with the spread of the people speaking Tamil, or 
 any of the cognate tongues. Dr. Caldwell, in his ' Grammar,' estimates 
 these at forty-five or forty-six millions,^ but he includes among them a 
 number of tribes, such as the Tudas and Gonds, who, it is true, speak 
 dialects closely allied to the Tamil tongues, but who may have learnt 
 them from the superior races, in the same manner that all the nations 
 of the south-west of Europe learnt to speak Latin from the Romans ; 
 or as the Cornish men have adopted English, and the Irish and 
 northern Scots are substituting that tongue for their native Gaelic 
 dialects. Unless we know their history, language is only a poor test 
 of race, and in this instance architecture does not come to our aid. 
 It may do so hereafter, but in so far as we at present know, these tribes 
 are in too rude a state to have any architecture of their own in a 
 sufficiently advanced state for our purposes. Putting them aside, 
 therefore, for the present, we still have, according to the last census, 
 some thirty millions of people speaking Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, and 
 Malayalam, whom we have no reason for doubting are practically of 
 thesa me race, and who, in so far as they are Hindus — not Jains, but 
 followers of Siva and Vishnu — practise one style of architecture, and 
 that known as the Dravidian. On the east coast the boundaries of the 
 style extend as far north as the mouth of the Kistnah, and it penetrates 
 sporadically and irregularly into the Nizam's territories, but we cannot 
 yet say to what extent, nor within what limits. 
 
 ' 'Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages,' London, second edition, 
 1875, p. 42. 
 
320 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. Book IV. 
 
 On the west coast its natural boundary northwards is the Kistnah, 
 but it did at one time (a.d. 7 00 ?) reach as far as Ellora, in latitude 
 20° ; but it seems to have been a spasmodic effort, and it took no per- 
 manent root there, while the reflex Avave brought the northern styles 
 into the Mysore or other southern countries, where their presence was as 
 little to be expected as that of the Dravidian so far north. 
 
 Although considerable progress has lately been made in the right 
 direction, no satisfactory solution has yet been arrived at of the 
 problem of the origin of the Dravidians. The usual theory is that, 
 coming from the westward, they crossed the Lower Indus, passed 
 through Scinde and Grujerat, and, keeping to the right, sought the 
 localities in which we now find them ; or rather, that they were 
 pushed into that corner, first by the Aryans, who almost certainly 
 crossed the Upper Indus, and passed through the Punjab into the valley 
 of the Ganges, and afterwards by the Rajputs, w^ho followed nearly in 
 their footsteps. 
 
 In favour of this view is the fact first pointed out by Dr. Caldwell,^ 
 that the Brahuis in Belochistan speak a Dravidian tongue, and may 
 consequently be considered as a fragment of the race dropped there in 
 transitu. But against this view it may be urged that between the 
 Brahuis and the northern Tamils we have a tract of civilized country 
 extending over 1000 miles in which we have no evidence of the passage 
 of the Dravidians, and where it is nearly certain, if it were a national 
 migration, we should find their traces. 
 
 So far as history is concerned, in such glimmerings of tradition as 
 w^e possess, they certainly do not favour this view of matters. Not 
 only to they fail to afford us any trace of such a migration or con- 
 quest, but at the earliest time at which we find any mention of them 
 the most civilized and important of their communities occupied the 
 extreme southern point of the peninsula.^ North of them all was 
 forest, but between the Christian Era and the Mahomedan invasion 
 we find the jungle gradually disappearing, and the southern races 
 pushing northwards, till, in the 14th century, they were checked and 
 driven back by the Moslems. But for their interference it looks as 
 if, at that time, the Dravidians might eventually have driven the 
 Aryans through the Himalayas back to their original seats, as the 
 Maharattas, who are half Dravidians, nearly did at a subsequent 
 period. 
 
 If any clear or direct relationship could be discovered between 
 
 ' ' Grammar,' p. 44. 
 
 2 The best account of the Pandyan 
 kingdom — the Ivegio Paudionis of the 
 classical authors — is Wilson's historical 
 
 sketch in the 'Journal of the Eoyal 
 Asiatic Society,' vol. iii. p. 199, et seqq. 
 173G. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 321 
 
 the Tamil and the Median or Accadian languages of Turanian origin, 
 which the decipherment of arrow-headed inscriptions is revealing to 
 us, it might help a good deal in explaining the original introduction 
 of the Dravidians into India, and the numerous Assyrianisms that 
 exist in the mythology and architecture of southern India. Till, 
 however, more progress is made in that direction, it seems it would be 
 more expedient for the present to assume that the Tamil-speaking 
 races are practically aboriginal, and that the evidences of connexion 
 between them and Babylonia are due to continued and close com- 
 mercial intercourse between the Persian Gulf and the Malabar coast. 
 That such did exist from very remote ages we may feel certain, and 
 its extent seems such as to justify and explain any similarities that 
 are now found existing in southern India. 
 
 Be all this as it may, as far back as their traditions reach, we find 
 the Dravida Desa, or southern part of India, divided into three king- 
 doms or states, the Pandyas, the Cholas, and the Oheras, formiug a 
 little triarchy of powers, neither interfered with by the other nations 
 of the earth, nor interfering with those beyond their limits. During 
 the greater part of their existence all their relations of war and 
 peace have been among themselves, and they have grown up a 
 separate people, as unlike the rest of the world as can well be 
 conceived. 
 
 Of the three, the most southern was called the Pandyan kingdom ; 
 it was the earliest civilized, and seems to have attained sufficient 
 importance about the time of the Christian Era to have attracted the 
 special attention of the Greek and Roman geographers. How much 
 earlier it became a state, or had a regular succession of rulers, we 
 know not,^ but it seems certainly to have attained to some consistency 
 as early as five or six centuries before the Christian Era, and main- 
 tained itself within its original boundaries till in the middle of 
 the last century, when it was swallowed up in our all-devouring 
 aggression. 
 
 During this long period the Pandyas had several epochs of great 
 brilliancy and power, followed by long intervening periods of de- 
 pression and obscurity. The 1st century, and afterwards the 5th 
 or 6th, seem to have been those in which they especially dis- 
 tinguished themselves. If buildings of either of these epochs still 
 exist, which is by no means improbable, they are utterly unknown to 
 us as yet, nor have w^e any knowledge of buildings of the intervening 
 periods down to the reign of Tirumulla Nayak, a.b. 1624. This 
 
 ' Besides the account of this state 
 given by Professor Wilson, in voh iii. of 
 the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- 
 
 ciety,' there are many scattered notices 
 found in Taylor's 'Analysis of the 
 Mackenzie MSS-,' and elsewhere. 
 
 y 
 
322 
 
 DllA VIDIAN STYLE, 
 
 Book IV 
 
 prince adorned the capital city of MMura with many splendid 
 edifices, some of which have been drawn by Daniell and others. 
 "What more ancient remains there may be will not be known till the 
 place has been carefully and scientifically explored. 
 
 The Chola kingdom extended northwards from the valley of the 
 Can very and Coleroon rivers, whose banks seem always to have been 
 its principal seat, nearly to Madras, all along the eastern coast, called 
 after them Cholomandalam or Coromandel. The date of the origin of 
 their kingdom is not known, but their political relations with Kash- 
 mir can be traced as early as the 6th century, and probably earlier.^ 
 Their epoch of greatest glory, however, was between the 10th and 
 12th centuries, w^hen they seem to have conquered not only their 
 neighbours the Pandyas and Cheras, but even to have sui-passed the 
 bounds of the triarchy, and carried their arms into Ceylon, and to 
 have maintained an equal struggle with the Chalukyas in the north. 
 After this period they had no great revival like that of the Pandyas 
 under TirumuUa Nayak, but sank step by step under the Mahomedans, 
 Mahrattas, and English, to their present state of utter political 
 annihilation. 
 
 The Cheras occupied the country northward of the kingdom of 
 Pandya, and westward of Chola, including a considerable part of 
 what is now known as Mysore. Their rise according to their own 
 annals took place nearly at the time of the Christian Era, but this 
 most probably is an exaggeration ; but there are inscriptions which 
 prove that they were powerful in the 4th and 5th centuries. From 
 this time they seem gradually to have extended their conquest north- 
 wards. Their sixteenth king boasts of having conquered Andhra and 
 Kalinga,^ and their tw^entieth king, Kongani Eaya III., boasts of 
 having conquered Chola, Pandya, Dravida, Andhra, Kalinga, Varada, 
 and Maharastra desas as far as the Nerbudda river.^ According to 
 the dates in the Kongadesa Rajakal, this must have taken place in the 
 7th century, but from what we know of history, it could not have 
 taken place till after the overthrow of the Chalukyan dynasty, and 
 consequently hardly before 750. That a southern conquest did take place 
 about that time seems almost certain from the eclipse of the Chalukyas 
 between 750 and 1000,* and from the excavation of the Kylas and 
 other temples of Dravidian architecture at Ellora about that time, 
 and there seems no race but the Cheras who could have effected this. 
 
 Yira Chola (a.d. 927-977) seems first to have checked their vic- 
 torious career, and Ari Vara Deva, another Chola king (1004), to have 
 completed their destruction. He also boasts of having carried his 
 
 ^ 'Asiatic Eesearches,' vol. xv. p. 40. 
 2 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. viii. p. 5. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 * Ibid., vol. iv. p. 10. 
 
Chap. 1. 
 
 INTUUDUCTOKY. 
 
 323 
 
 victorious standard to the Nerbudda, and to have been a benefactor 
 to Ohillambaram, the then famed temple of his race. 
 
 This was the last great effort of the early triarchy ; after this 
 the rise of the Bellalas in Mysore, and the revival of the Chalukyas in 
 central India, seem to have checked them to such an extent, that 
 they never regained a perfect independence, though at times wealthy 
 and powerful and capable of embarking in the most splendid architec- 
 tural undertakings.^ 
 
 Although, politically, these three states always remained distinct, 
 and generally antagonistic, the people belonged to the same race. 
 Their architecture is different from any- other found in India, but 
 united in itself, and has gone through a process of gradual change 
 from the earliest times at which we become acquainted with it, until 
 we lose sight of it altogether in the last century. This change is 
 invariably for the worse, the earlier specimens being in all instances 
 the most perfect, and the degree of degradation forming, as mentioned 
 above, a tolerably exact chronometric scale, by which we may measure 
 the age of the buildings. 
 
 Buddhism, as before hinted, does not seem to have ever gained a 
 footing of much importance among any of the Dravidian races of India, 
 and as early as the 7th century the few votaries of Buddha that 
 existed in the south of India were finally expelled.^ So completely 
 was it extirpated that I do not know of one single Buddhist monument 
 south of the Kistnah, except the tope at Amravati described above, 
 and am inclined very much to doubt if any really important ones ever 
 existed. 
 
 The Jaina religion, on the contrary, continued to flourish at 
 Conjeveram and in the Mysore, and seems to have succeeded Buddhism 
 in these places, and to have attracted to itself whatever tendency 
 there may have been towards the doctrines of Buddhism on the part 
 of the southern people. Though influential from their intelligence, 
 the Jains never formed more than a small numerical fraction of the 
 people among whom they were located. 
 
 The Hindu religion, which thus became supreme, is now commonly 
 designated the Brahmanical, in order to distinguish it from the earlier 
 Yedic religion, which, however, never seems to have been known in 
 the sonth. The two sects into which it is divided consist of the 
 worshippers of Siva and of Vishnu, and are now quite distinct and 
 almost antagonistic ; but both are now so overloaded with absurd 
 fables and monstrous superstitions, that it is very difficult to ascertain 
 
 ^ The particulars are abstracted from 
 Sir Walter Elliot's paper in tl.e fourth, 
 and Mr. Dowsoii's paper on the Cheras 
 in the eighth, volume of the ' Journal 
 of the Royal Asiatic Society.' 
 
 2 The documents collected by Colonel 
 Mackenzie are full of the disputes which 
 ended in the persecution, and these ex- 
 tended apparently from the 5th to the 7th 
 centuiy. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 what they really are or ever were. Nor are we yet in a position to 
 speak confidently of their origin. 
 
 Recent discoveries in Assyria seem, however, to point to that country 
 as the origin of much that we find underlying the local colouring of 
 the Vaishnava faith. Garuda, the eagle-headed Vahana, and com- 
 panion of Vishnu, seems identical with the figure now so familiar to 
 us in Assyrian sculpture, probably representing Ormazd. The fish- 
 god of the Assyrians, Dagon, prefigures the " Fish- Avatar," or 
 incarnation of Vishnu. The man-lion is not more familiar to us in 
 Assyria than in India, and tradition generally points to the West for 
 the other figures scarcely so easily recognised — more especially Bali, 
 whose name alone is an index to his origin ; and Maha Assura, who, 
 by a singular inversion, is a man with a bull's head,^ instead of a bull 
 with a man's head, as he is always figured in his native land. It is 
 worthy of remark that the ninth Avatar of Vishnu is always Buddha 
 himself, thus pointing to a connexion between these two extremes of 
 Indian faith ; and we are told by inscriptions of the 14th century that 
 there was then no appreciable difference between the Jains and 
 Vaishnavas.^ Indeed, as pointed out in the introduction, it seems 
 impossible to avoid considering these three faiths as three stages of 
 one superstition of a native race — Buddhism being the oldest and 
 purest ; Jainism a faith of similar origin, but overlaid with local 
 superstitions ; and Vishnuism a third form, suited to the capacity of 
 the natives of India in modern times, and to compete with the 
 fashionable worship of Siva. 
 
 Both these religions have borrowed an immense amount of nomen- 
 clature from the more abstract religions of the Aryan races, and both 
 profess to venerate the Vedas and other scriptures in the Sanscrit 
 language. Indeed it is all but impossible that the intellectual supe- 
 riority of that race should not make itself felt on the inferior tribes, 
 but it is most important always to bear in mind that the Sanscrit- 
 speaking Aryan was a stranger in India. It cannot indeed be too 
 often repeated that all that is intellectually great in that country — 
 all, indeed, which is written — belongs to them ; but all that is built — 
 all, indeed, which is artistic — belongs to other races, who were either 
 aboriginal or immigrated into India at earlier or subsequent periods, 
 and from other sources than those which supplied the Aryan stock. 
 
 There does not seem to be any essential difference either in plan 
 or form between the Saiva and Vaishnava temples in the south of India. 
 It is only by observing the images or emblems worshipped, or by 
 
 1 See Dr. Babingtou, Plate 4, vol. ii. 
 of ' Transactions of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society,' for the aculpture at Malia 
 
 Balipuram. 
 
 2 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. ix. p. 270, 
 and vol. xvii. p. 285. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTOKY. 
 
 325 
 
 reading the stories represented in the numerous sculptures with which 
 a temple is adorned, that we find out the god to whom it is dedicated. 
 Whoever he may be, the temples consist almost invariably of the four 
 following parts, arranged in various manners, as afterwards to be 
 explained, but differing in themselves only according to the age in 
 which they were executed : — 
 
 1. The principal part, the actual temple itself, is called the Vma7ia. 
 It is always square in plan, and surmounted by a pyramidal roof of 
 one or more storeys ; it contains the cell in which the image of the 
 god or his emblem is placed. 
 
 2. The porches or Mantapas^ which always cover and precede the 
 door leading to the cell. 
 
 3. Gate pyramids, Gopuras^ which are the principal features in the 
 quadrangular enclosures which always surround the Vimanas. 
 
 4. Pillared halls or Choultries, used for various purposes, and which 
 are the invariable accompaniments of these temples. 
 
 Besides these, a temple always contains tanks or wells for water — 
 to be used either for sacred purposes or the convenience of the priests, 
 — dwellings for all the various grades of the priesthood attached to it, 
 and numerous other buildings designed for state or convenience. 
 
326 
 
 DEAYJDIAN STYLE. 
 
 BuoK IV 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 DRAVIDIAN ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Mahavellipore — Kylas, EUora. 
 
 Although it may not be possible to point out the origin of the 
 Dravidian style, and trace its early history with the same precision as 
 we can that of Buddhist architecture, there is nothing so mysterious 
 about it, as there is regarding the styles of northern India, nor does 
 it burst on us full blown at once as is the case with the architecture 
 of the Chalukyas. Hitherto, the great difficulty in the case has been, 
 that all the temples of southern India have been found to be of so 
 modern a date. The great building age there was the IGth and 17th 
 centuries of our era. Some structural buildings, it is true, could be 
 traced back to the 12th or 13th with certainty, but beyond that all 
 was to a great extent conjecture ; and if it were not for rock- cut 
 examples, we could hardly go back much further with anything like 
 certainty. Recent investigations, how^ever, combined with improved 
 knowledge and greater familiarity with the subject, have now altered 
 this state of affairs to a great extent. It seems hardly doubtful now that 
 the Kylas at Ellora, and the great temples at Purudkul (Pattadkul), 
 are anterior to the 10th century.^ It may, in fact, be that they date 
 from the 8th or 9 th, and if I am not very much mistaken the " raths," 
 as they are called, at Mahavellipore are as early, if not indeed earlier, 
 than the 5th or Gth, and are in reality the oldest examples of their 
 class know^n, and the prototypes of the style. 
 
 One circumstance which has prevented the age of the Mahavelli- 
 pore raths being before detected is, that being all cut in granite and 
 in single blocks, they show no sign of wearing or decay, which is so 
 frequently a test of age in structural buildings, and being all in the 
 same material produces a family likeness among them, which makes 
 it at first sight difficult to discriminate between what is old and 
 what new. More than this, they all possess the curious peculiarity of 
 being unfinished, Avhether standing free, as the raths, or cut in the rock, 
 as caves, or on its face, as the great bas-relief ; they are all left with 
 one-third or one-fourth merely blocked out, and in some instances with 
 
 ^ Burgess, ' Report on Belgam and Kaladgi,' 1875, plates 39, 40. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 MAHAYELLIPORE. 
 
 327 
 
 the intention merely indicated. It looks as if the workmen had been 
 suddenly called off while the whole was in progress, and native 
 traditions, which always are framed to account for what is otherwise 
 most unintelligible, have seized on this peculiarity, and make it the 
 prominent feature in their myths. Add to this that it is only now 
 we are acquiring that knowledge of the subject and familiarity 
 with its details, which will enable us to check the vagaries of Indian 
 speculation. From all these causes it is not difficult to understand 
 how easily mistakes might be made in treating of such mysterious 
 objects. 
 
 If we do not know all we would wish about the antiquities of 
 Mahavellipore, it is not because attempts have not been made to 
 supply the information. Situated on an open sea-beach, within one 
 night's easy dak from Madras, it has been more visited and oftener 
 described than any other place in India. The first volume of the 
 'Asiatic Researches' (1788) contained an exhaustive paper on them 
 by W. Chambers. This was followed in the fifth (1798) by another 
 l)y Mr. Goldingham. In the second volume of the 'Transactions 
 of the Royal Asiatic Society ' there appeared what was then considered 
 a most successful attempt to decipher the inscriptions there, by Dr. 
 Guy Babington, accompanied by views of most of the sculptures. 
 The 'Madras Journal,' in 1844, contained a guide to the place by 
 Lieutenant Braddock, with notes by the Rev. W. Taylor and Sir "Walter 
 Elliot ; and almost every journal of every traveller in these parts 
 contains some hint regarding them, or some attempt to describe and 
 explain their peculiarities or beauties. Most of these were collected 
 in a volume in 18G9 by a Lieutenant Carr, and published at the expense 
 of the Madras Government, but unfortunately the editor selected had 
 no general knowledge of the subject, nor had he apparently any local 
 familiarity with the place. His work in consequence adds little to our 
 previous stores. 
 
 In addition to all this. Colonel Mackenzie undertook to illustrate 
 the place, and employed his stalf to make detailed drawings of all the 
 sculptures and architectural details, and a volume containing thirty- 
 seven drawings of the place is in his collection in the India Ofiice, and 
 Daniell has also published some faithful representations of the place. 
 Quite recently it has been surveyed by the revenue surveyors, and 
 photographed by Dr. Hunter, Captain Lyon, and others, so that the 
 materials seem ample ; but the fact is, they have been collected at such 
 distant times, and by individuals differing so essentially in capability 
 or instruction, that it is almost impossible, except on the spot, to 
 co-ordinate the whole. Any accomplished architect or archsGologist 
 could do it easily in a month, and tell us the whole story. Meanwhile, 
 however, the main features seem tolerably distinct, and ascertained 
 within limits sufficient for our present purposes. 
 
328 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 The oldest and most interesting group of monuments at Maha- 
 vellipore, are the so-called five raths or monolithic temples standing 
 on the sea-shore — one of these, that with the apsidal termination in 
 the centre of the annexed woodcut (No. 181), stands a little detached 
 from the rest. The other four stand in a line north and south, and 
 look as if they had been carved out of a single stone or rock, which 
 originally, if that were so, must have been between 35 ft. and 40 ft. 
 high at its southern end, sinking to half that height at its northern 
 extremity, and its width diminishing in a like proportion. 
 
 The first on the north is a mere Pansala or cell 11 ft. square 
 externally, and IG ft. high. It is the only one too that seems finished 
 
 181. Ratbs, Mahavellipore, (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 or nearly so, but it has no throne or image internally from which we 
 might guess its destination. 
 
 The next is a small copy of the last to the southward, and measures 
 11 ft. by 16 ft. in plan, and 20 ft. in height. The third, seen partially in 
 the above woodcut, is very remarkable : it is an oblong building with a 
 curvilinear shaped roof with a straight ridge. Its dimensions are 42 ft. 
 long, 25 ft. wide, and 25 ft. high. Externally, it seems to have been 
 completely carved, but internally only partially excavated, the works 
 being apparently stopped by an accident. It is cracked completely 
 through, so that daylight can be seen through it, and several masses 
 of the rock have fallen to the ground — this has been ascribed to an 
 earthquake and other causes. My impression is, the explanation is 
 not far to seek, but arose from unskilfulness on the part of workmen 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 MAHAVELLirORE. 
 
 329 
 
 employed in a first attempt. Having completed the exterior, they set 
 to work to excavate the interior so as to make it resemble a structural 
 building of the same class, leaving only such pillars and supports 
 as were sufficient to support a wooden roof of the ordinary con- 
 struction. In this instance it was a mass of solid granite which, 
 had the excavation been completed, would certainly have crushed 
 the lower storey to powder. As it was, the builders seem to have 
 taken the hint of the crack and stopped the further progress of the 
 works. 
 
 The last, however, is the most interesting of the series. A view of 
 it has already been given (Woodcut No. 66), and it is shown on the 
 right hand of the last woodcut. Its dimensions are 27 ft. by 28 ft. in 
 plan, 34 ft. in height. Its upper part is entirely finished with its 
 sculptures, the lower merely blocked out. It may be, that frightened 
 by the crack in the last-named rath, or from some other cause, they 
 desisted, and it still remains in an unfinished state. 
 
 The materials for fixing the age of this rath are, first, the pala?o- 
 graphical form of the characters used in the numerous inscriptions 
 with which it is covered.^ Comparing these with Prinsep's alphabets, 
 allowing for difference of locality, they seem certainly to be anterior 
 to the 7th century.^ The language, too, is Sanscrit, while all the 
 Chola inscriptions of the 10th and subsequent centuries are in Tamil, 
 and in very much more modern characters.^ Another proof of 
 antiquity is the character of the sculpture. We have on this rath 
 most of the Hindu Pantheon, such as Brahma and Vishnu ; Siva too 
 appears in most of his characters, but all in forms more subdued than 
 are to be found elsewhere. The one extravagance is that the gods 
 generally have four arms — never more — to distinguish them from 
 mortals ; but none of these combinations or extravagances we find 
 in the caves here, or at Ellora or Elephanta. It is the soberest and 
 most reasonable version of the Hindu Pantheon yet discovered, and 
 consequently one of the most interesting, as well, probably, as the 
 earliest. 
 
 None of the inscriptions on the raths have dates, but from the 
 mention of the Pallavas in connexion with this place, I see no reason 
 for doubting the inference drawn by Sir Walter Elliot from their 
 inscriptions — " that the excavations could not well have been made 
 later than the 6th century." * Add to all this, that these raths are 
 certainly very like Buddhist buildings, as we learn to know them 
 from the early caves, and it seems hardly to admit of doubt that we 
 
 ^ Most of these were copied by Dr. 
 Babiugtou, and published with the pa- 
 pers above referred to, but others are 
 given in tlie volume on the Mackenzie 
 collection ill the India Offi.;e. 
 
 2 'Journal of the Atiutic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. plate 13. 
 
 3 Sir Walter Elliot in Lieut. Carr's 
 compilation, p. 127. 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
330 
 
 DKA VIDIAN «TYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 have here petrifactions of the last forms of Buddhist architecture/ 
 and of the first forms of tliat of the Dravidians. 
 
 The Avant of interiors in these raths makes it sometimes difficult 
 to make this so clear as it might be. We cannot, for instance, tell 
 whether the apsidal rath in the centre of woodcut No. 181 was meant 
 to reproduce a chaitya hall, or a vihara like that of woodcut No. 48. 
 From its being in several storeys I would infer the latter, but the 
 whole is so conventionalised by transplantation to the south, and by 
 the different uses to which they are applied for the purposes of a 
 different religion, that we must not stretch analogies too far.^ 
 
 There is one other rath, at some distance from the others, called 
 Arjuna's rath, represented in the above woodcut (No. 182), which, 
 strange to say, is finished, or nearly so, and gives a fair idea of the 
 form these oblong temples took before we have any structural build- 
 
 * Among the recently discovered ruins 
 at Bharliut is a bas-relief representing a 
 building so exactly like the long rath 
 here, that there can be no doubt that 
 such buildings were used in the north 
 of India two centuries at least before 
 Christ, but to what purpose they were 
 applied is not so clear. The one at 
 Bharhut seems to have contained the 
 thrones or altars of the four last Buddhas. 
 
 2 Among the sculptures of the Gand- 
 
 hara monasteries are several represent- 
 ing fa9ades of buildings. They may bo 
 cells or cliaitya halls, but, at all events, 
 they are almost exact reproductions of 
 the faQade of this ratli. Being used 
 
 ' as frameworks for sculpture, the northern 
 examples are, of course, conventionalised ; 
 but it is impossible to mistake the iden- 
 
 j tity of intention. They may probably be 
 of about the same age. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 MAHAVELLIPUHE. 
 
 331 
 
 ings of the class. This temple, though enteruig in the side, was 
 never intended to be pierced tlu'ough, but always to contain a cell. 
 The large oblong rath, on the contrary, was intended to be open 
 all round, and whether, consequently, we should consider it as a 
 choultrie or a gopura is not quite clear. One thing, at all events, 
 seems certain — and it is what interests us most here — that the 
 square raths are copies of Buddliist viharas, and are the originals 
 from which all the vimanas in southern India were copied, and 
 
 Perumal Pagoda, Mddura. (From a MS. Drawing in the possession of 
 the late General Momeith. Madras Engineers.) No scale. 
 
 continued to be copied nearly unchanged to a very late period. 
 Woodcut No. 183, for instance, represents one from Madura, 
 erected in the 18th century. It is changed, it is true, and the cells 
 and some of the earlier featm'es are hardly recognisable ; but the 
 wonder rather is that twelve centuries should not have more com- 
 pletely obliterated all traces of the original. There is nothing, 
 however, in it which cannot be easily recognised in intermediate 
 examples, and their gradual transformation detected by any one 
 
332 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 EooK IV. 
 
 familiar with the subject. On the other hand, the oblong raths were 
 halls or porticoes with the Buddhists, and became the gopuras or gate- 
 ways which are frequently — indeed generally — more important parts 
 of Dravidian temples than the vimanas themselves. They, too, like the 
 vimanas, retain their original features very little changed to the 
 present day, as may be seen from the annexed example from a modern 
 Tamil temple on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Manaar (Woodcut 
 No. 184). To all this, however, we shall have frequent opportuni- 
 ties of referring in the sequel, and it will become much plainer as we 
 proceed. 
 
 184. Entrance to a Hindu Templ^', Colombo. (From Sir J. E. Tennent's 'Ceylon.') 
 
 The other antiquities at Mahavellipore, though very interesting in 
 themselves, are not nearly so important for our history as the raths 
 just described. The caves are generally small, and fail architecturally, 
 from the feebleness and tenuity of their supports. The southern 
 cave diggers had evidently not been grounded in the art, like their 
 northern compeers, by the Buddhists. The long experience of the 
 latter in the art taught them that ponderous masses were not only 
 necessary to support their roofs, but for architectural effect ; and 
 neither they nor the Hindus who succeeded them in the north ever 
 hesitated to use pillars of two or three diameters in height, or to crowd 
 them together to any required extent. In the south, on the contrary, 
 the cave diggers tried to copy literally the structural pillars used to 
 support wooden roofs. Hence, I believe, the accident to the long rath, 
 and hence certainly the poor and modern look of all the southern 
 caves, which has hitherto proved such a stumbling-block to all who 
 have tried to guess their age. Their sculpture is better, and some of 
 their best designs rank with those of EUora and Elephanta, with 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 MAHAVELLIPOIiE. 
 
 333 
 
 which they were, in all probability, contemporary. Now, however, 
 that we know that the sculptures in cave No. 3 at Badami were 
 executed in the 6th century ^ (a.d. 579), we are enabled to approximate 
 the date of those in the Mahavellipore caves with very tolerable 
 certainty. The Badami sculptures are so similar in style with the 
 best examples there that they cannot be far distant in date, and if 
 placed in the follov^ing century it will not probably be far from the 
 truth. 
 
 The great bas-relief on the rock, 90 ft. by 40 ft., is perhaps the 
 most remarkable thing of its class in India. Now that it is known to 
 be wholly devoted to Serpent worship,^ it acquires an interest it had 
 not before, and opens a new chapter in Indian mythology.^ There 
 seems notliing to enable us to fix its age with absolute certainty ; it 
 can hardly, however, be doubted that it is anterior to the 10th 
 century, and may be a couple of centuries earlier. 
 
 There is one other antiquity in a place called Saluvan Kuppan, 
 two miles north of Mahavellipore, which has not yet been drawn or 
 
 135. 
 
 Tiger Cave at Saluvan Kuppan. (From a I'hotograp.li.) 
 
 described, but deserves notice as a lineal descendant of the tiger cave 
 at Cuttack (Woodcut No. 73). Here not one but a dozen of tiger 
 heads welcome the anchorite to his abode. Here, too, they are conven- 
 tionalised as we always find them in Chalukyan art ; and this example 
 serves, like every other, to show how the Hindu imagination in art 
 
 * Burgess, ' Report on Bel gain,' Sec, 
 p. 24. 
 
 ^ ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' p. 73. 
 ^ If it were possible to rouse the Madras 
 Government to take any interest in such 
 
 matters, it might be hoped they would 
 replace the head of the great Naga on 
 his body before it is destroyed by being 
 made a cockshy for idle Britishers. 
 
334 DllAVIDIAN STYLE. Book IV. 
 
 runs wild when once freed from the trammels of sober imitation of 
 
 natural things, which we find to be its characteristic in the early 
 stages of Buddhist art. 
 
 Kylas, Ellora. 
 
 From the raths at Mahavellipore to the Kylas at Ellora the transi- 
 tion is easy, but the step considerable. At the first-named place we 
 have manifest copies of structures intended originally for other pur- 
 poses, and used at Mahavellipore in a fragmentary and disjointed 
 manner. At Ellora, on the contrary, the whole is welded together, 
 and we have a perfect Dravidian temple, as complete in all its parts 
 as at any future period, and so far advanced that we might have 
 
 some difficulty in tracing 
 the parts back to their 
 originals without the for- 
 tunate possession of the 
 examples on the Madras 
 shore. 
 
 Independently, how- 
 ever, of its historical or 
 ethnographical value, the 
 Kylas is in itself one of 
 the most singular and 
 interesting monuments of 
 architectural art in India. 
 Its beauty and singularity 
 always excited the aston- 
 ishment of travellers, and 
 in consequence it is better 
 known than almost any 
 other structure in that 
 country, from the nume- 
 rous views and sketches 
 of it that have been pub- 
 lished. Unlike the Budd- 
 hist excavations we have 
 hitherto been describing, 
 it is not a mere interior 
 chamber cut in the rock, 
 but is a model of a complete temple, such as might have been erected 
 on the plain. In other words, the rock has been cut away, externally 
 as well as internally. The older caves are of a much more natural 
 and rational design than this temple, because, in cutting away the 
 rock around it to provide an exterior, the whole has necessarily been 
 
 Kylas at Ellora, (Curiectcd from a Pliin in Daniell's 
 ' Views ill Hindcstan.') Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chai'. II. 
 
 KYLAS, ELLUKA. 
 
 335 
 
 placed in a pit. In the cognate temples at Mahavellipore (Woodcut 
 No. 181) this difficulty has been escaped by the fact that the boulders 
 of granite out of which they are hewn were found lying free on the 
 shore ; but at Ellora, no insulated rock being available, a pit was 
 dug around the temple in the sloping side of the hill, about 100 ft. 
 deep at its inmost side, and half that height at the entrance or gopura, 
 the floor of the pit being 150 ft. wide and 270 ft. in length. In 
 the centre of this rectangular court stands the temple, as shown 
 in the preceding plan (Woodcut No. 18G), consisting of a vimana. 
 
 between 80 ft. and 90 ft. in height, preceded by a large square porch^ 
 supported by sixteen columns (owing probably to the immense weight 
 to be borne) ; before this stands a detached porch, reached by a bridge ; 
 and in front of all stands the gateway, which is in like manner con- 
 nected with the last porch by a bridge, the whole being cut out of 
 the native rock. Besides these there are two pillars or deepdans 
 (literally lamp-posts) left standing on each side of the detached 
 porch, and two elephants about the size of life. All round the court 
 there is a peristylar cloister with cells, and some halls not shown in 
 the plan, which give to the whole a complexity, and at the same time 
 
336 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Cook IV. 
 
 a completeness, which never fail to strike the beholder with astonish- 
 ment and awe. 
 
 As will be seen from the view (Woodcut No. 187) the outline 
 of the vimana is at first sight very similar to that of the raths at 
 Mahavellipore, but on closer inspection we find everything so modi- 
 fied at EUora as to make up a perfect and well understood design. 
 The vimana with its cells, and the porch in front of it with its side 
 cells, make a complete Hindu temple such as are found in hundreds 
 in southern India, and instead of the simulated cells that surround 
 the hall in the Madras example, they again become realities, but used 
 for widely different purposes. Instead of being the simulated resi- 
 dences of priests, the five or rather seven cells that surround the 
 central object here are each devoted to a separate divinity of the 
 Hindu Pantheon, and group most pleasingly with the central vimana. 
 It is, however, so far as is now known, the last reminiscence of this 
 Buddhist arrangement in Hindu architecture ; after the year 1000 
 even these cells disappear or become independent erections, wholly 
 separated from the temple itself. 
 
 Though considerably damaged by Moslem violence, the lower 
 part of the gopura shows a considerable advance on anything found 
 at Mahavellipore, and a close approach to what these objects after- 
 wards became, in so far, at least, as the perpendicular parts are 
 concerned ; instead, however, of the tall pyramids which were so 
 universal afterwards, the gopura in the Kylas exhibits only what may 
 be called the germ of such an arrangement. It is only the upper 
 member of a gopura placed in the flat roof of the gateway, and so 
 small as not to be visible except from above. In more modern times 
 from five to ten storeys would have been interposed to connect these 
 two parts. Nothing of the kind however exists here.^ 
 
 On either side of the porch are the two square pillars called 
 deepdans, or lamp-posts, before alluded to, the ornament at the top of 
 which possibly represents a flame, though it is diflicult to ascertain 
 what it really is, while the temptation to consider them as represen- 
 tatives of the lion pillars of the Buddhists (Woodcut No. 6) is very 
 great (Woodcut No. 188). 
 
 In the south of India, however, among the Jains, as mentioned 
 above (p. 276), such pillars are very common, standing either singly 
 or in pairs in front of the gopuras, and always apparently intended to 
 carry lamps for festivals. They generally consist of a single block of 
 granite, square at base, changing to an octagon, and again to a figure 
 of sixteen sides, with a capital of very elegant shape. Some, however, 
 are circular, and, indeed, their variety is infinite. They range from 
 
 ' In DauicH's plates, No. 16, the upper | rock no addition or alteration could after- 
 part of this is shown. Being cut in the | wards have been intended. 
 
Chat. U. 
 
 ROCK- CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 337 
 
 133. Deepdan in Dharwar. (From a l^hotograph.) 
 
 30 ft. to 40 ft. and even 50 ft. in height, and, whatever their dimen- 
 sions, are among the most elegant specimens of art in southern 
 India. 
 
 Unfortunately, there is no inscription or other date from which 
 the age of the Kylas can be ascertained with precision. It is safe, 
 however, to assert that it was erected by the southern Dravidians, 
 either the Cheras or the Cholas who held sway here during the eclipse of 
 the Chalukyas, or between a.d. 750 and 950 ; and Mr. Burgess's recent 
 researches in Dharwar enable us to assert with tolerable confidence 
 that its age must be nearer the first than the second of these dates. 
 The great "temple at Purudkul— his Pattadkal— is covered with inscrip- 
 tions, none of which unfortunately are dated, but from their import 
 and the form of their characters, both Bhau Daji^ and himself ascribe 
 to the 8th or 0th century ,2 and I see no reason for doubting the 
 
 ' ' Journal Bombay Branch of tin; 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. ix. p. 314, 
 et seqq. 
 
 ■ ' Report, on Bel gam and Kaladji,' 
 1874, p. 31, et seqq. 
 
338 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 189. 
 
 correctness of the date assigned by Mr. Burgess to this temple, which, 
 according to him was erected during the 8th century. In plan it is 
 almost exactly a duplicate of the Kylas, as 
 may be gathered from the annexed woodcut 
 (No. 189), but there is some little difficulty 
 in instituting such a comparison of their archi- 
 tecture as would enable us to feel sure of their 
 relative dates ^ — in the first place, because the 
 one is structural the other rock-cut, but also 
 because we hardly know what allowance to 
 1 tt^iMte^^ make for distance of locality. On the whole, 
 p I^J however, I am inclined to believe the southern 
 
 temple is the elder of the two, but certainly 
 not distant in date. If, consequently, it were 
 necessary to fix on a date which should cor- 
 rectly represent our present knowledge of the 
 age of the Kylas, I would put down a.d. 800, 
 with considerable confidence that it was not 
 many years from the truth either way, 
 ^']?umdkuK allowing, of course, some thirty to fifty 
 
 ^^'"""scarj loo^ft to'un.''^''''^ J^^'^^ cxccution of so important a 
 
 monument. 
 
 Considerable misconception exists on the subject of cutting temples 
 in the rock. Almost every one who sees these temples is struck with 
 the apparently prodigious amount of labour bestowed on their exca- 
 vation, and there is no doubt that their monolithic character is the 
 principal source of the awe and wonder with which they have been 
 regarded, and that, had the Kylas been an edifice of masonry situated 
 on the plain, it would scarcely have attracted the attention of European 
 travellers. In reality, however, it is considerably easier and less 
 expensive to excavate a temple than to build one. Take, for instance, 
 the Kylas, the most wonderful of all this class. To excavate the area 
 on which it stands would require the removal of about 100,000 cubic 
 yards of rock, but, as the base of the temple is solid and the super- 
 structure massive, it occupies in round numbers about one-half of the 
 excavated area, so that the question is simply this — whether it is 
 easier to chip away 50,000 yards of rock, and shoot it to spoil (to 
 borrow a railway term) down a hillside, or to quarry 50,000 cubic 
 yards of stone, remove it, probably a mile at least to the place where 
 the temple is to be built, and then to raise and set it. The excavating 
 process would proba,bly cost about one-tenth of the other. The 
 
 * There arc four photographs of this 
 temple in the ' Arcliitectural Antiquities 
 of Dharwar and Mysore,' plates 54-57. 
 
 One of these is repeated in Mr. Burgess's 
 book, plate 38. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 339 
 
 sculpture and ornament would be the same in both instances, more 
 especially in India, where buildings are always set up in block, and 
 the carving executed in situ. Xevertheless the impression produced 
 on all spectators by these monolithic masses, their unalterable 
 character, and appearance of eternal diu-ability, point to the process 
 as one meriting more attention than it has hitherto received in 
 modern times ; and if any rock were found as uniform and as easily 
 worked as the Indian amygdaloidal traps, we might hand down to 
 posterity some more diu'able monument than many we are now 
 erecting at far greater cost. 
 
 Before leaving this branch of the subject there is one other rock- 
 cut example which deserves to be quoted, not either for its size or 
 antiquity, but from the elegance of its details. It is situated at a 
 place called Kumululu,^ thirty-five miles south-west from Shivelli- 
 puttun, and consequently twice that distance north from Cajx; 
 Comorin. Like the examples at Mahavellipore, this one never was 
 finished, probably because the person who commenced it did not live 
 to complete it, and it was nobody's business to finish what was of no 
 use, and intended only to glorify him who made it. It is not cut out 
 of a separate boulder, but out of a ridge, as I fancy those at Maha- 
 vellipore to have been, and if successful, any number of others of any 
 dimensions might have followed. The other side of the hill had been 
 occupied by the Jains, and numerous images of their Tirthankars are 
 carved upon it, with inscriptions that could easily be read if any one 
 cared to do so. It was evidently to mark the triumph of Siva over 
 Mahavira that this little shrine was undertaken, probably in the 
 10th or 11th century, and if it had been completed it would have 
 been one of the most perfect gems of the style. For some reason 
 unexplained it was only blocked out, and the up]:)er part only 
 carved, when it was abandoned, and is now entirely forsaken. From 
 its details, it certainly is more modern than the Kylas — how much 
 we cannot yet say with certainty. 
 
 ^ Several pLotograpLs of it will be found in Capt. Lyon's collection. 
 
340 
 
 DKAVIDJAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 CIIArTER III. 
 
 DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Tanjoro — Tiruvaliir — ScnngliaTn — Cliillambaram — Rnmisscram — Madura — 
 Ti!iiicvclly — Combacomim — Conjcvcrani — Vellore and Pcroor— Vijayanagar. 
 
 When we turn from these few scattered rock-cut examples to the p'eat 
 structural temples of the style, we find their number is so ^reat, their 
 extent so vast, and their variety so perplexing, that it is extremely 
 difficult to formulate any distinct ideas regarding them, and still 
 more so, as a matter of course, to convey to others any clear idea on 
 the subject. To any one at all familiar with the present status of the 
 population of the ])rovince, the greatest wonder is how such a people 
 could ever have conceived, much less carried out, such vast under- 
 takings as these, and that so recently that some of the greatest and 
 boldest were only interrupted by our wars with the French little 
 more than a century ago. The cause of this, however, is not far to 
 seek. Ever since we took possession of the country, our countrymen 
 have been actuated by the most beneficent intentions of protecting the 
 poor against the oppression of the rich. By every means we have 
 songht to secure the ryot in his holding, and that he should not be 
 called on to pay more than his fair share of the produce of his land ; 
 while to the landowner we have offered a secure title to what 
 belonged to him, and a fixed income in money in lieu of bis portion 
 of the produ(;e. To a people, however, in the state of civilization 
 to which India has reached, a secure title and a fixed income only 
 means the poAver of borrowing on the occasion of a marriage, a funeral, 
 or some great family festival, ten times more than the borrower can 
 ever pay, and our courts as inevitably give the lender the power of 
 foreclosing his mortgage and selling the property. During the cen- 
 tury in which this communistic process has been going on the 
 landed aristocracy have gradually disappeared. All the wealth of 
 the country has passed into the hands of the money-lenders of the 
 cities, and by them dissipated in frivolities. If the aim of the govern- 
 ment is to reduce the whole population to the condition of peasant 
 proprietors, occupying the land without capital, and consequently on 
 the verge of starvation, they have certainly succeeded. It may be 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 TEMPLES. 
 
 341 
 
 beneficent, and may produce the greatest happiness to the greatest 
 number ; but in such a community neither science, nor literature, nor 
 art have any place, and religion itself becomes degraded by the status 
 of its votaries. 
 
 Before we interfered, the condition of things was totally different. 
 The practical proprietorship of the land was then in the hands of a 
 few princes or feudal lords, who derived from it immense revenues 
 they had no means of spending, except in works of ostentation, 
 which in certain stages of civilization, are as necessary for the em- 
 ployment of the masses as for their own glorification. In such a 
 country as India the employment of one-half of the population in 
 agriculture is sufficient to produce food for the whole, while the other 
 half are free for any employment that may be available. We in this 
 country employ our non-agricultural half in manufactures and com- 
 merce. The southern Indians had neither, and found no better 
 occupation for the surplus population than in temple-building. 
 Whether this was more profitable or beneficial than hammering iron 
 or spinning cotton is not a question it is necessary to enter on here. 
 It is enough to know the fact, and to mark its consequences. The 
 population of southern India in the 17th and 18th century was pro- 
 bably hardly less than it is now — some thirty millions — and if one- 
 third or one-fourth of such a population were to seek employment in 
 building, the results, if persevered in through centuries, would be 
 something astonishing. A similar state of affairs prevailed appa- 
 rently in Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs, but with very different 
 results. The Egyptians had great and lofty ideas, and a hankering 
 after immortality, that impressed itself on all their works. The 
 southern Indians had no such aspirations. Their intellectual status 
 is, and always was, mediocre ; they had no literature of their own — no 
 history to which they could look back with pride, and their religion 
 was, and is, an impure and degrading fetishism. It is impossible that 
 anything very grand or imposing should come out of such a state of 
 things. What they had to offer to their gods was a tribute of labour, 
 and that was bestowed without stint. To cut a chain of fifty links 
 out of a block of granite and suspend it between two pillars, was with 
 them a triumph of art. To hollow deep cornices out of the hardest 
 basalt, and to leave all the framings, as if of the most delicate wood- 
 work, standing free, was with them a worthy object of ambition, and 
 their sculptures are still inexplicable mysteries, from our ignorance of 
 how it was possible to execute them. All that millions of hands work- 
 ing through centuries could do, has been done, but with hardly any 
 higher motive than to employ labour and to conquer difficulties, so as 
 to astonish by the amount of the first and the cleverness with which 
 the second was overcome — and astonished we are ; but without some 
 higher moti\'e true architecture cannot exist. The Dravidians had 
 
342 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 not even the constructive difficulties to overcome which enabled the 
 mediaeval architects to produce such noble fabrics as our cathedrals. 
 The aim of architects in the Middle Ages was to design halls which 
 should at the same time be vast, but stable, and suited for the accom- 
 modation of great multitudes to witness a lofty ritual. In their 
 struggle to accomplish this they developed intellectual poAvers which 
 impress us still through their works. No such lofty aims exercised 
 the intellectual faculties of the Hindu. His altar and the statue of his 
 god were placed in a dark cubical cell wholly without ornament, and the 
 porch that preceded that was not necessarily either lofty or spacious. 
 What the Hindu architect craved for, was a place to display his 
 powers of ornamentation, and he thought he had accomplished all his 
 art demanded when he covered every part of his building with the 
 most elaborate and most difficult designs he could invent. Much of 
 this ornamentation, it is true, is very elegant, and evidences of power 
 and labour do impress the human imagination, often even in defiance 
 of our better judgment, and nowhere is this more apparent than in 
 these Dravidian temples. It is in vain, however, we look among them 
 for any manifestation of those lofty aims and noble results which con- 
 stitute the merit and the greatness of true architectural art, and 
 which generally characterise the best works in the true styles of the 
 western world. 
 
 Turning from these generalities to the temples themselves, the 
 first great difficulty experienced in attempting either to classify or 
 describe them is that no plans of them exist. I know myself upwards 
 of thirty great Dravidian temples, or groups of temples, any one of 
 which must have cost as much to build as an English cathedral, some 
 a great deal more ; but of all these there are only three, or it may be 
 four, of which even a moderately trustworthy plan is available. 
 Two- thirds of these have been sufficiently photographed by Dr. 
 Hunter, Capt. Lyon,^ and others ; the remaining third I know either 
 from personal inspection or from drawings and descriptions. This is, 
 of course, irrespective of village temples, and, it may be, of some 
 extensive groups which have been overlooked. If these temples had 
 been built like those of the Greeks, or even as the Christian churches 
 in the Middle Ages, on one uniform plan, changing only with the 
 progress of time, one or two plans might have sufficed ; but the fact 
 is that, in nine cases out of ten, Dravidian temples are a fortuitous 
 aggregation of parts, arranged without plan, as accident dictated at 
 
 ^ Capt. Lyon was employed by Govern- 
 ment fur this purpose, and made 276 
 photographs of these temples. Fourteen 
 sets were furnished to Government, but, 
 
 owing to difficulties which occurred in 
 bringing them out, they can hardly be 
 said to be published — in this country at 
 least. 
 
CHAr. III. 
 
 TANJORE. 
 
 343 
 
 the time of their erection ; and, without plans, no adequate idea can 
 be conveyed to those who have not seen them. The one great excep- 
 tion to this rule is to be found at Tanjore. The great Pagoda there was 
 commenced on a well-defined and stately plan, which was persevered 
 in till its completion. As will be seen from 
 the annexed diagram (Woodcut Xo. 190) it 
 consists of two courts,^ one a square of 
 about 250 ft., originally devoted to minor 
 shrines and residences ; but when the temple 
 was fortified by the French in 1777 ^ it 
 was converted into an arsenal, and has not 
 been re-appropriated to sacred purposes. The 
 temple itself stands in a courtyard extremely 
 well proportioned to receive it, being about 
 500 ft. long by half that in width, the 
 distance between the gateway and the temple 
 being broken by the shrine of the Bull 
 Nundi,^ which is sufficiently important for 
 its pm-pose, but not so much so as to 
 interfere with the effect of the great vimana, 
 which stands near the inner end of the 
 court. The perpendicular part of its base 
 measures 82 ft. square, and is two storeys 
 in height, of simple outline, but sufficiently 
 relieved by niches and pilasters. Above 
 this the pyramid rises in thirteen storeys 
 to the summit, which is crowned by a 
 dome said to consist of a single stone, 
 and reaching a height of 190 ft. The 
 porch in front is kept low, and as will 
 be seen from the woodcut (Xo. 191) the 
 tower dominates over the gopuras and 
 
 surrounding objects in a manner that imparts great dignity to the 
 whole composition. 
 
 Besides the great temple and the Nundi porch there are several 
 
 Diagram Plan ol Tanjore Pagoda. 
 (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 Scale 200 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 ' As the plan is only an eye-sketch, 
 and the dimensions obtained by pacing, 
 it must not be too much relied on. It 
 is sufficient to explain the text, and that 
 is all that is at present required. 
 
 2 Inscription on gateway. 
 
 ^ The dimensions of this image are 
 16 ft. from muzzle to rump, by above 
 7 ft. across, 12 ft. 2 in. to top of head, 
 10 ft. 4 in. to top of hump, and 7 ft. 5 in. 
 
 to top of back. It is composed of a single 
 block of stone, I believe granite, but it 
 has been so frequently and so thoroughly 
 coated with oil, which is daily applied 
 to it, that it looks like bronze. I tried 
 to remove a portion of this epidermis in 
 order to ascertain what was beneath, but 
 was not successful. No other kind of stone, 
 however, is used in any other part of the 
 temple. 
 
344 
 
 DllAVlDlAX STYLE. 
 
 Book IV 
 
 'p - 
 
 lyi. View of the Great Pagoda at Taiijore. (From a Photugrai)h by M;ddletoii Rayne. Esq., C. K.) 
 
 other smaller shrines in the enclosure, one of which, dedicated to 
 Soubramanya, a son of Siva's, is as exquisite a piece of decorative 
 architecture as is to be found in the south of India, and though small, 
 almost divides our admiration with the temple itself (Woodcut No.' 
 192). It is built behind an older shrine, which may be coeval with 
 the great temple as originally designed. 
 
 One of the peculiarities of the Tanjore temple is that all the sculp- 
 tures on the gopuras belong to the religion of Vishnu, while everything 
 m the courtyard is dedicated to the worship of Siva. At first I felt in- 
 clined to believe it had been erected wholly in honour of the first- 
 named di\ inity, but am now more inclined to the belief that it is 
 only an instance of the extreme tolerance that prevailed at the age 
 at which it was erected, before these religions became antagonistic. 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 TANJORE. 
 
 345 
 
 What, then, was that age ? Strange to say, though so complete 
 and uniform, and standing, as it does, almost alone, its date is not 
 known. Mr. Norman, a competent authority, in the text that accom- 
 panied Tripe's photographs, says it was erected by Kadu Vettiya 
 Soran, or Cholan,^ a king reigning at Conjeveram in the beginning of 
 the 14th century. At one time I hoped it was earlier, but on the 
 whole I am now convinced that this must be very nearly the truth. 
 
 The Soubramanya is certainly one century, probably two centuries, 
 more modern. The Bull itself is also inferior in design, and therefore 
 more modern than those at HuUabid, which belong probably to the 
 13th century, and the architecture of his shrine cannot be carried 
 back beyond the 15th century. It may even be considerably more 
 modern. It is disappointing to find the whole so recent in date, but 
 there seems no excuse for ascribing to this temple a greater antiquity 
 than that just mentioned. 
 
 ^ Though so very important in Dra- 
 vidian history, we have not even now a 
 correct list of tlie Chola kings from the 
 year 1000 downwards. There certainly is 
 not one among the Mackenzie MSS. Tlie 
 late Mr. Ellis, it is said, had one, but 
 ho determined not to publish anything 
 
 before he was forty years of age, and be- 
 fore that time he swallowed a bottleful 
 of laudanum by mistake, and was found 
 dead in his bed one morning. His papers 
 served his successor's cook to light fires 
 for some years afterwards. 
 
346 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 TiRUVALUR. 
 
 The temple at Tiruvalur, about thirty miles west of Madras, 
 contrasts curiously with that at Tanjore in the principles on which it 
 was designed, and serves to exemplify the mode in w^hich, unfortu- 
 nately, most Dravidian temples were aggregated. 
 
 The nucleus here was a small village temple 
 (Woodcut No. 193), drawn to the same scale as the 
 plan of Tanjore in Woodcut No. 190. It is a double 
 shrine, dedicated to Siva and his consort, standing 
 in a cloistered court which measures 192 ft. by 
 156 ft. over all, and has one gopura in front. So 
 far there is nothing to distinguish it from the ordi- 
 nary temples found in every village. It, however, 
 at some subsequent period became sacred or rich, 
 and a second or outer court was added, measuring 470 ft. each way, 
 with two gopuras, higher than the original one, and containing 
 within its walls numberless little shrines and porches. Additions 
 
 193, 
 
 Inner Temple at 
 Tiruvalur. 
 Scale 200 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 were again made at some subsequent date, the whole being enclosed 
 in a court 910 ft. by 701 ft. — this time with five gopuras, and 
 several important shrines. When the last addition was made, it Avas 
 intended to endow the temple with one of those great halls which 
 
ClIAP, III. 
 
 SERINGHAM. 
 
 347 
 
 were considered indispensable in temples of the first class. Generally 
 they had — or were intended to have — 1000 columns ; this one has 
 only G88, and only about one-half of these carry beams or a roof of 
 any sort. There can, however, be very little doubt that, had time 
 and money been available, it would have been completed to the 
 typical extent. As it is, it is probably owing to our management 
 of the revenues of the country that the requisite funds were not 
 forthcoming, and the buildings stopped probably within the limits of 
 the present century. 
 
 The general effect of such a design as this may be gathered from 
 the bird's-eye view (Woodcut No. 194). As an artistic design, no- 
 thing can be worse. The gateways, irregularly spaced in a great 
 blank wall, lose half their dignity from their positions ; and the 
 bathos of their decreasing in size and elaboration, as they approach 
 the sanctuary, is a mistake which nothing can redeem. "We may 
 admire beauty of detail, and be astonished at the elaboration and 
 evidence of labour, if they are found in such a temple as this, but as 
 an architectural design it is altogether detestable. 
 
 Seringham. 
 
 The temple which has been most completely marred by this false 
 system of design is that at Seringham, which is certainly the largest, 
 and, if its principle of design could be reversed, would be one of the 
 finest temples in the south of India (Woodcut No. 195, p. 349). Here 
 the central enclosure is quite as small and as insignificant as that at 
 Tiruvalur, and except that its dome is gilt has nothing to distinguish 
 it from an ordinary village temple. The next enclosure, however, is 
 more magnificent. It encloses the hall of 1000 columns, which mea- 
 sures some 450 ft. by 130 ft. The number of columns is, I believe, 
 sixteen in front by sixty in depth, or 960 altogether ; but I do not 
 feel sure there is not some mistake in my observations, and that the 
 odd forty are to be found somewhere. They consequently are not 
 spaced more than 10 ft. apart from centre to centre ; and as at one 
 end the hall is hardly over 10 ft. high, and in the loftiest place only 
 15 ft. or 16 ft., and the pillars spaced nearly evenly over the floor, 
 it will be easily understood how little effect such a building really 
 produces. They are, however, each of a single block of granite, and 
 all carved more or less elaborately. A much finer portico stretches 
 across this court from gopura to gopura ; the pillars in it are 
 much more widely spaced, and the central aisle is double that of 
 those on the sides, and crosses the portico in the centre, making 
 a transept ; its height, too, is double that of the side aisles. It 
 is a pleasing and graceful architectural design ; the other is only an 
 
318 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 evidence of misapplied labour. The next four enclosures have nothing 
 very remarkable in them, being generally occupied by the Brahmans 
 and persons connected with the temple. Each, however, has, or was 
 intended to have, four gopuras, one on each face, and some of these 
 are of very considerable magnificence. The outer enclosure is, prac- 
 tically, a bazaar, filled with shops, where pilgrims are lodged, and 
 fed, and fleeced. The wall that encloses it measures 2475 ft. by 
 2880 ft.,^ and, had its gopuras been finished, they would have sur- 
 passed all others in the south to the same extent as thase dimensions 
 exceed those of any other known temple. The northern gopura, 
 leading to the river and Trichinopoly, measures 130 ft. in width by 
 100 ft. in depth ; the opening through it measures 21 ft. 6 in., and 
 twice that in height. The four jambs or gateposts are each of a 
 single slab of granite, more than 40 ft. in height, and the roofing- 
 slabs throughout measure from 28 ft. to 24 ft. Had the ordinary 
 brick pyramid of the usual proportion been added to this, the whole 
 would have risen to a height of nearly 300 ft. Even as it is, it is 
 one of the most imposing masses in southern India, and probably — 
 perhaps because it never was quite finished — 'it is in severe and good 
 taste throughout.^ Its date, fortunately, is perfectly well known, as 
 its progress was stopped by its being occupied and fortified by the 
 French during our ten years' struggle with them for the possession of 
 Trichinopoly ; and if we allow fifty years for its progress, even this 
 would bring the whole within the limits of the 18th century. The 
 other three gopuras of this enclosure are in the same style, and w^ere 
 commenced on the same scale, but not being so far advanced when 
 we stopped the work, their gateposts project above their walls in a 
 manner that gives them a very singular appearance, and has led to 
 some strange theories as to their design. 
 
 Looked at from a distance, or in any direction where the whole 
 can be grasped at once, these fourteen or fifteen great gate towers 
 cannot fail to produce a certain effect, as may be gathered from 
 the view in Woodcut No. 195 ; but even then it can only be by 
 considering them as separate buildings. As parts of one whole, 
 their arrangement is exactly that which enables them to produce the 
 least possible effect that can be obtained either from their mass or 
 ornament. Had the four great outer gopuras formed the four sides of 
 a central hall, and the others gone on diminishing, in three or four 
 directions, to the exterior, the effect of the whole would have been 
 increased in a surprising degree. To accomplish this, however, one 
 
 ' Except this dimension, which is from 
 a survey, and those of the gopuras, the 
 dimensions above quoted must be taken 
 cum gram. They were obtained only by 
 pacing and eye- sketching. 
 
 2 A drawhig of it was published in 
 my ' Picturesque Illustrations of Indian 
 Architecture.' It has since been fre- 
 quently photographed. 
 
350 
 
 DRAVmiAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 other defect must have been remedied : a gateway even 150 ft. wide 
 in a wall nearly 2000 ft. in extent is a solecism nothing can redeem ; 
 but had the walls been broken in plan or star-shaped, like the plans of 
 Chalukyan temples, light and shade would have been obtained, and due 
 proportions of parts, without any inconvenience. But if the Dra vidians 
 ever had it in them to think of such things, it was not during the 
 17th and 18th centuries, to which everything in this temple seems to 
 belong. 
 
 Chillambaram. 
 
 The temple at Chillambaram is one of the most venerated, and 
 has also the reputation of being one of the most ancient, temples in 
 southern India. It was there, therefore, if anywhere, that I at one 
 time hoped to find some remains that would help to elucidate the 
 history of the style. It was, besides, so far removed from any capital 
 city or frequented haunt of man that one might hope to find its 
 original form unaltered. 
 
 It is old, but I am afraid the traditions that connect its founda- 
 tion with Hiranya Yerma of Kashmir, in the beginning of the 6th 
 century, on which I was at one time inclined to rely,^ are of too 
 impalpable a nature to be depended upon. I see no great reason for 
 doubting that there may have been a connexion between the kings of 
 Chola and those of Kashmir at the period ; but I cannot see anything 
 in this temple either of so early an age, or any feature in the style of 
 Kashmiri architecture. On the other hand, the foundation of the 
 temple appears to be clearly described in the following passage of the 
 Kongadesa Eaja Kal : — " Yira Chola Raya (a.d. 927 to 977) one day 
 saw on the sea-shore the Sabhapati of Chillambara (Siva), attended 
 by Parvati, dancing and beating the damaraka (a kind of drum) ; he 
 therefore expended great sums of money in building the Kanaka, or 
 Golden Sabha."^ A little further on, it is said, "Ari Yari Deva 
 (a.d. 1004), observing that his grandfather had built only a Kanaka 
 Sabha to the Chillambara deity, he built gopuras, maddals (enclosures), 
 madapanas (image-houses), sabhas (holy places or apartments), and 
 granted many jewels to the deity." If this last could be applied to the 
 great enclosure, it would be a most important date ; but on a careful 
 examination of the whole circumstances of the case I feel convinced 
 that these passages refer only to the two inner enclosures, B B, at the 
 west end of the tank (Woodcut No. 196). They, indeed, measuring 
 about 320 ft. square, appear to have been the whole of the original 
 temple, at least in the 10th and nth centuries, always supposing 
 
 ^ 'Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient I ^ 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- 
 Architccturc in Hindustan,' p. GO. I cicty,' vol. viii. p. 7. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 CHILLAMBARAM. 
 
 351 
 
 ISeale of Feet 
 
 196. Plan of Temple of Cliillambaram. 
 
 (From a Flan by Admiral Paris, ia ' Tom- du Monde,' vol. xvi. p. 35.) 
 
 that any part of the building is really as old as this. On the whole, 
 however, I am inclined to believe that this inner temple is really the 
 one referred to in the above extract. The temple of Parvati, C, on 
 the north of the tank, was added afterwards, most probably in the 
 14th or 15th centmy, and to that age the great gopm'as and the 
 second enclosure also belong. The hall of 1000 columns, E, was 
 almost certainly erected between 1595 and 1685, at which time, we 
 learn from the Mackenzie MSS., the kings of the locality made 
 many donations to the fane.^ It was then, also, in all probability. 
 
 ^ 'Madras Journal,' No, 20, p. 15 
 
852 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 the oiifcer enclosure was commenced ; but it never was carried out, 
 being in most places only a few feet above the foundation. 
 
 The oldest thing now existing here is a little shrine in the inmost 
 enclosure (opposite A in the plan), with a little porch of two pillars, 
 about 0 ft. high, but resting on a stylobate, ornamented with 
 dancing figures, more graceful and more elegantly executed than any 
 other of their class, so far as I know, in southern India. At the sides 
 are wheels and horses, the whole being intended to represent a car, 
 as is frequently the case in these temples. Whitewash and modern 
 alterations have sadly disfigured this gem, but enough remains to 
 show how exquisite, and consequently how ancient, it was. It was 
 dedicated to Yerma, the god of dancing, in allusion, probably, to 
 the circumstance above mentioned as leading to the foundation of the 
 temple. 
 
 In front of it is a shrine of very unusual architecture, with a tall 
 copper roof, which, I have no doubt, represents or is the golden sal)ha 
 above referred to, and in front of this is a gopura and pillared porch, 
 making up what seems to have been the temple of Yira Deva. The 
 outer enclosure, with the buildings it contains, are, it appears, those 
 of Ari Yari. 
 
 The temple of Parvati, C, is principally remarkable for its porch, 
 which is of singular elegance. The following woodcut (No. 197) 
 gives some idea of its present appearance, and the section (Woodcut 
 No. .198) explains its construction. The outer aisles are 0 ft. in 
 width, the next 8 ft., but the architect reserved all his power for the 
 central aisle, which measures 21 ft. 6 in. in width, making the whole 
 50 ft. or thereabouts. In order to roof this without employing stones 
 of such dimensions as would crush the supports, recourse was had to 
 vaulting, or rather bracketing, shafts, and these brackets were again 
 tied together by transverse purlins, all in stone, and the system w^as 
 continued till the width was reduced to a dimension that could easily 
 be spanned. As the whole is enclosed in a court suiTounded by 
 galleries two storeys in height, the effect of the whole is singularly 
 pleasing. 
 
 Opposite to this, across the tank, is the hall of 1000 columns, 
 similar in many respects to that at Seringham, above described, but 
 probably slightly more modern. Here the pillars are arranged twenty- 
 four in front by forty-one in depth, making 984 ; but in order to get 
 a central space, four in the porch, then twenty-eight, then two, and 
 again twenty-four, have been omitted, altogether fifty-eight ; but, on 
 the other hand, those of the external portico must be added, which 
 nearly balances the loss, and makes up the 1000.^ It must be con- 
 
 ^ Its flimeDsioriF, as nearly as can bo asccrtninod from my paces, and Admiral 
 Paris' j.lanp, arc 840 ft. by 180 ft. 
 
Chap. Hi. 
 
 CHILLAMBARAM. 
 
 353 
 
 View of Porch at Uhillambarain. C^'rom Drawings by the Author.) 
 
 i. Section of Poich of Temple at Cluliambaraoj. (From a Sketch by the Author.) JNo Scale. 
 
354 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 fessed tins forest of granite pillars, each of a single stone, and all 
 more or less carved and ornamented, does produce a certain grandeur 
 
 of effect, but the want of design in the arrangement, and of subordi- 
 nation of parts, detract painfully from the effect that might have been 
 
Chap. TIL 
 
 RAMISSERAM. 
 
 355 
 
 l^rodiiccd. Leaving out the pillars in the centre is the one redeeming 
 featnre, and that conld easily have been effected without the brick 
 vaults, formed of radiating arches, which are employed here — another 
 certain proof of the modern age of the building. These vaults are 
 certainly integral, and as certainly could not have been employed 
 till after the Mahomedans had settled in the south, and taught the 
 Hindus how to use them. 
 
 Although this temple has been aggregated at different ages, and 
 grown by accident rather than design like those at Tiruvalur and 
 Seringham just described, it avoids the great defect of these temples, 
 for though like them it has no tall central object to give dignity to 
 the whole from the outside, internally the centre of its great court is 
 occupied by a tank, round which the various objects are grouped 
 without at all interfering with one another. The temple itself is one 
 important object, to the eastward of it ; the Parvati temple another, on 
 the north, and forms a pleasing pendant to the 1000-columned choultrie 
 on the south. Alongside the Parvati another temple w^as commenced 
 (Woodcut No. 199), with a portico of square pillars, four in front, 
 and all most elaborately ornamented, but in such a manner as not to 
 interfere with their outline or solidity. 
 
 From its unfinished and now ruined state, it is not easy to say to 
 whom this temple was dedicated — most probably Soubramanya — nor to 
 feel sure of its age. From its position, however, and the character of 
 its ornamentation, there seems little doubt that it belongs to the end 
 of the 17th and first half of the 18th century. From its style, I 
 would be inclined to ascribe it to the earlier date, but in that case 
 it is difficult to understand its not being finished. When they had 
 money to erect the great hall, and to commence a new enclosure, 
 they might certainly have spared enough to complete this solitary 
 shrine. 
 
 Ramisseram. 
 
 If it were proposed to select one temple which should exhil)it all 
 the beauties of the Dravidian style in their greatest perfection, and at 
 the same time exemplify all its characteristic defects of design, the 
 choice would almost inevitably fall on that at Ramisseram, in the 
 island of Paumben (Woodcut No. 200). In no other temple has the 
 same amount of patient industry been exhibited as here, and in none, 
 unfortunately, has that labour been so thrown away for want of a 
 design appropriate for its display. It is not that this temple has 
 grown by successive increments like those last described ; it was 
 begun and finished on a previously settled plan, as regularly and as 
 undeviatingly carried out as that at Tanjore, but on a principle so 
 diametrically opposed to it, that Avhile the temple at Tanjore produces 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 an effect greater than is due to its mass or detail, this one, with 
 double its dimensions and ten times its elaboration, produces no effect 
 
 6 72 Jcel 
 
 ^Cr arc/en 
 
 Ik, r^' 
 
 L 
 
 « 4 f 4 « M M M « M f X 
 VtMMMMMMM 
 
 \t M M M M 
 
 ♦ \M M M M ♦ M - 
 
 M M 
 
 <r™i ■ * fil"**' 
 
 3'r 
 
 ♦ • M M K I M\ 
 
 / f • • ♦ • • • • Xt • M/ 
 
 Vf » • M M M M M h (* 
 
 53 
 
 □ U LI 
 
 □ u o 
 
 MS* t? 
 
 Uj3 
 
 50 loo 200 aoo *oo soo"^-- 
 
 J . H I I I M-M 1 —I -I I 
 
 200. Plan of Great Temple at Ramisseram, Scale 170 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 externally, and internally can only be seen in detail, so that the parts 
 hardly in any instance aid one another in producing the effect aimed at. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 RAMISSERAM. 
 
 357 
 
 The only part of the temple which is of a different age from the 
 rest is a small vimana, of very elegant proportions, that stands in the 
 garden, on the right hand of the visitor as he enters from the west^ (D). 
 It has, however, been so long exposed — like the temple on the shore 
 at Mahavellipore — to the action of the sea-air, that its details are so 
 corroded they cannot now be made out, and its age cannot conse- 
 quently be ascertained from them. It is safe, however, to assert that 
 it is more modern than any of the rock-cut examples above quoted ; 
 possibly it may be of the 11th or 12th century. Its dimensions may 
 be guessed as 50 ft. in height, by 30 ft. or 40 ft. in plan, so that it hardly 
 forms a feature in so large a temple. From the four bulls that 
 occupy the platform under the dome, it is evident it was originally 
 dedicated to Siva, as the whole temple now apparently is, though the 
 scene of Rama's most celebrated exploit, and bearing his name. 
 
 Externally the temple is enclosed by a wall 20 ft. in height, and 
 possessing four gopuras, one on each face, which have this peculiarity, 
 that they alone, of all those I know in India, are built wholly of stone 
 from the base to the summit. The western one (D) alone, however, is 
 finished, and owing apparently to the accident of its being in stone, 
 it is devoid of figure- sculpture — some half-dozen plaster casts that now 
 adorn it having been added quite recently. Those on the north and 
 south (A and C) are hardly higher than the wall in which they stand, 
 and are consequently called the ruined gateways. Such a thing is, 
 however, so. far as I know, unknown in southern India. Partly from 
 their form, and more from the solidity of their construction, nothing 
 but an earthquake could well damage them, and their age is not such 
 as would superinduce ruin from decay of material. These, in fact, have 
 never been raised higher, and their progress was probably stopped in 
 the beginning of the last century, when Mahomedan, Mahratta, and 
 other foreign invaders checked the prosperity of the land, and destroyed 
 the wealth of the priesthood. The eastern fagade has two entrances 
 and two gopuras. The smaller, not shown in the plan, is finished. The 
 larger one (B in the plan) never was carried higher than we now see 
 it. Had it been finished,^ it would have been one of the largest of its 
 class, and being wholly in stone, and consequently without its outline 
 being broken by sculpture, it would have reproduced more nearly the 
 effect of an Egyptian propylon than any other example of its class 
 in India. 
 
 ^ The plan of this temple (Woodcut 
 No. 200) is taken from one in the 
 'Journal of the Geographical Society 
 of Bombay,' vol. vii., and may he de- 
 pended upon in so far as dimensions 
 and general arrangements are concerned. 
 The officers who made it were surveyors, 
 but, unfortunately, not architects, and 
 
 photographs since made reveal certain 
 discrepancies of detail which prove it 
 to require revision by some one on the 
 spot. 
 
 2 There is a view of it in the Atlas of 
 plates that accompanies Lord Valeutia's 
 travels ; not very correct, but conveying 
 a fair idea of its proportions. 
 
358 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV 
 
 The ^lory, however, of this temple resides in its corridors. These, 
 as will be seen by the plan, extend to nearly 4000 feet in length. The 
 breadth varies from 20 ft. to 80 ft. of free floor space, and their height 
 is apparently about 30 ft. from the floor to the centre of the roof. 
 Each pillar or jjier is compound, and richer and more elaborate in 
 design than those of the Parvati porch at Chillambaram (Woodcut 
 No. 197), and are certainly more modern in date. 
 
 The general appearance of these corridors may be gathered from 
 the annexed woodcut (No. 201), but no engraving, even on a much 
 more extended scale, can convey the impression produced by such a 
 display of labour when extended to an uninterrupted length of 700 ft. 
 
 201. Central Corridor, Ramisseram. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 None of our cathedrals are more than 500 ft., and even the nave 
 of St. Peter's is only 600 ft. from the door to the apse. Here the side 
 corridors are 700 ft. long, and open into transverse galleries as rich in 
 detail as themselves. These, with the varied devices and modes of 
 lighting, produce an effect that is not equalled certainly anywhere in 
 India. The side corridors are generally free from figure-sculpture, and 
 consequently, from much of the vulgarity of the age to which they 
 belong, and, though narrower, produce a more pleasing effect. The 
 central corridor leading from the sanctuary is adorned on one side 
 by portraits of the rajas of Ramnad in the 17th century, and 
 ()])posite them, of their secretaries. Even they, however, would be 
 tolerable, were it not that within the last few years they have been 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 MADUKA. 
 
 359 
 
 painted witli a vulgarity that is inconceivable on the part of the 
 descendants of those who built this fane. Not only they, however, 
 but the whole of the architecture has first been dosed with repeated 
 coats of whitewash, so as to take off all the sharpness of detail, and 
 then painted with blue, green, red, and yellow washes, so as to dis- 
 figure and destroy its effect to an extent that must be seen to be 
 believed. Nothing can more painfully prove the degradation to which 
 our system has reduced the population than this profanity. No upper 
 class, and consequently no refinement, now remains, and the priest- 
 hood, instead of being high bred and intellectual Brahmans, must be 
 sunk into a state of debasement from which nothing can now probably 
 redeem them. 
 
 Assuming, however, for the nonce, that this painting never had 
 been perpetrated, still the art displayed here would be very inferioi- 
 to that of such a temple as, for instance, Hullabid, in the Mysore, 
 to be described further on. The perimeter, however, of that temple 
 is only 700 ft. ; here we have corridors extending to 4000 ft., carved 
 on both sides, and in the hardest granite. It is the immensity of the 
 labour here displayed that impresses us, much more than its quality, 
 and that, combined with a certain picturesqueness and mystery, does 
 produce an effect which is not surpassed by any other temple in 
 India, and by very few elsewhere. 
 
 The age of this temple is hardly doubtful. From first to last its 
 style — excepting the oldvimana— is so uniform and unaltered that its 
 erection could hardly have lasted during a hundred years, and if this 
 is so, it must have been during the 17th century, when the Ramnad 
 rajas were at the height of their independence and prosperity, and 
 when their ally or master, TirumuUa Nayak, was erecting buildings in 
 the same identical style at Madura. It may have been commenced fifty 
 years earlier (1550), and the erection of its gopuras may have ex- 
 tended into the 18th century, but these seem the possible limits of 
 deviation. Being so recent, any one on the spot could easily ascer- 
 tain the facts. They could indeed be determined very nearly from 
 the photographs, were it not for the whitewash and paint, which so 
 disfigure the details as to make them almost unrecognisable. 
 
 Madura. 
 
 If the native authorities consulted by the late Professor Wilson in 
 compiling his Historical sketch of the Kingdom of Piindya could be 
 relied upon, it would seem that the foundation of the dynasty ought 
 to be placed some five or six centuries before the Christian Era.^ 
 Even, however, if this is disputed, the fact of the southern part of 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iii, p. 202. 
 
360 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 the Peninsula being described as the " Regio Pandionis " by classical 
 authorities is sufficient to prove that a kingdom bearing that name 
 did exist there in the early centuries of the Christian Era. Their 
 first capitals, however, seem to have been Kurkhi, possibly the Kolkhi 
 of the Periplus, near Ramnad, and Kalyana, near Cape Comorin. The 
 story of Kula Sekhara founding MMura, and the fabulous incidents 
 with which the tale is adorned, is one of the favourite legends of 
 the south, and is abundantly illustrated in sculptm-es of Tirumulla 
 Nayak's choultrie and in other buildings of the capital. 
 
 For our present purposes it is hardly worth while to attempt to 
 investigate the succession of the dates of the seventy- three kings who 
 are said to have succeeded one another before the accession of the 
 Nayak or Naik dynasty, in 1532, inasmuch as no building is now 
 known to exist in the kingdom that can claim, even on the most 
 shadowy grounds, to have been erected by any of these kings. It 
 may have been that, anterior to the rise of the great Chola dynasty, 
 in the 10th and 11th century, that of Madura may have had a long 
 period of prosperity and power ; but certain it is, that if they did 
 build anything of importance, its existence cannot now^ be identified. 
 After that, for a while they seem to have been subjected to the Bellala 
 dynasty of the Mysore, and the same Mahomedan invasion that 
 destroyed that power in 1310 spread its baneful influence as far as 
 Ramnad, and for two centuries their raids and oppressions kept 
 the whole of southern India in a state of anarchy and confusion. 
 Their power for evil was first checked by the rise of the great Hindu 
 state of Yijayanagar, in the Tongabhadra, in the 14th century, and 
 by the establishment, under its protection, of the Nayak dynasty 
 by Yiswanath Nayak, in the beginning of the 16th. After lasting 
 210 years, the last sovereign of the race — a queen — ^was first aided, 
 and then betrayed, by Ohanda Sahib the Nawaub of the Carnatic, 
 who plays so important a part in our wars with the French in these 
 parts. 
 
 It may be — indeed, probably is the case — that there are temples in 
 the provinces that were erected before the rise of the Nayak dynasty, 
 but certain it is that all those in the capital, with the great temple at 
 Seringham, described above, were erected during the two centuries of 
 their supremacy, and of those in the capital nine-tenths at least were 
 erected during the long and prosperous reign of the tenth king of 
 this dynasty, Tirumulla Nayak, or as he is more popularly known, 
 Trimul Naik, who reigned from 1621 to 1657. ^ 
 
 Of his buildings, the most important, for our purposes ^ at least, is 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. iii. p. 230, et seqq. 
 2 Fortunately this clioultrie is also one 
 
 of the best known of Indian buildings. 
 It was drawn by Daniell in the end of 
 the last century, and his drawings have 
 
ClIAP. III. 
 
 MADURA. 
 
 3GI 
 
 the celebrated clioultrie which he built for the reception of the pre- 
 siding deity of the place, who consented to leave his dark cell in the 
 temple and pay the king an annual visit of ten days' duration, on 
 condition of his building a hall worthy of his dignity, and where he 
 could receive in a suitable manner the homage of the king and his 
 subjects. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 202) the hall 
 
 is 333 ft. long by 105 ft. in width, measured on the stylobate, and 
 consists of four ranges of columns, all of which are different, and all 
 most elaborately sculptured. An elevation of one is given (Woodcut 
 No. 203), but is not so rich as those of the centre, which have life- 
 
 been repeated by Langles and others. 
 It was described by Mr. Blackadder in 
 the ' Archgeologia,' vol. x. p. 457; and 
 by Wilson, ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society,' vol. iii. p. 232. Volumes of 
 
 native drawings exist in some collections 
 containing representations of every pillar. 
 A model in bronze of a porch exists at 
 South Kensington Museum, and it has 
 been abundantly photographed. 
 
362 
 
 DRAYIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 sized tig-ures attached to them, and are even more elaborate in their 
 details. In this instance it will be observed that the detached 
 bracketing shaft at Chillambaram has become attached to the square 
 central pier, and instead of the light elegance that characterised that 
 example, has become a solid pier, five or six feet in depth — richer cer- 
 tainly, but far from being either so elegant or so appropriate as the 
 earlier example. 
 
 The view of the interior (Woodcut No. 204) gives some, but only 
 a faint, idea of the effect. The sides are now closed with screens, and 
 it is difficult to procure good photographs ; but hi effect, as in detail, 
 it is identical with the corridors at Ramisseram, where the light is 
 abundant. 
 
 As the date of this hall is perfectly well known — it took twenty- 
 two years to erect it, 1623 to 1645— it becomes a fixed point in our 
 chronology of the style. We can, for instance, assert Avith perfect 
 certainty that the porch to Parvati's shrine at Chillambaram (Woodcut 
 No. 197) is certainly anterior to this, probably by a couple of cen- 
 turies, and, with equal certainty that the corridors at Ramisseram are 
 contemporary. From the history of the period we learn that the 
 rajas of Ramnad were at times independent, at others at war with 
 the Nayaks ; but in Tirumulla Nayak's time either his allies or depen- 
 dants ; and the style and design of the two buildings are so absolutely 
 identical that they must belong to the same age. It is, indeed, most 
 probable that the king of Madura may have assisted in the erection of 
 the temple. If he had indeed been allowed any share in making the 
 original design, the temple would probably have been a nobler build- 
 ing than it is ; for, though the details are the same, his three-aisled 
 hall leading to the sanctuary Avould have been a far grander feature 
 architecturally than the singled-aisled corridors that lead nowhere. 
 The expense of one of the single-aisled corridors at Ramisseram, 700 
 ft. long, would have been about the same as the triple-aisled choultrie 
 at Madura, which is half their Jength. If, consequently, the choultrie 
 cost a million sterling — as is confidently asserted — the temple must 
 have cost between three and four millions ; and such an estimate 
 hardly seems excessive when we consider the amount of labour ex- 
 pended on it, and that the material in both is the hardest granite. 
 
 The fagade of this hall, like that of almost all the great halls in the 
 south of India, is adorned either with Yalis — monsters of the lion type 
 trampling on an elephant — or, even more generally, by a group consist- 
 ing of a warrior sitting on a rearing horse, whose feet are supported 
 on the shields of foot soldiers, sometimes slaying men, sometimes 
 tigers. These groups are found literally in hundreds in southern India, 
 and, as works exhibiting difficulties overcome by patient labour, they 
 are unrivalled, so far as I know, by anything found elsewhere. As 
 works of art, they arc the most barbarous, it may be said the most 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 MADURA. 
 
 363 
 
 \ulgar, to be found in India, and do more to shake one's faith in 
 the civilization of the people who produced them than anything they 
 
 did in any other department of art. Where these monstrosities are 
 not introduced, the pillars of entrances are only enriched a little more 
 
364 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 than those of the interior, when the ornamentation is in better taste, 
 and generally quite sufficiently rich for its purpose. 
 
 Immediately in front of his choultrie, TirumuUa Nayak commenced 
 a gopura, which, had he lived to complete it, would probably have 
 been the finest edifice of its class in southern India. It measures 
 174 ft. from north to south, and 107 ^ ft. in depth. The entrance 
 through it is 21 ft. 9 in. wide ; and if it be true that its gateposts are 
 GO ft. (Tripe says 57 ft.) in height, that would have been the height 
 of the opening. 2 It will thus be seen that it was designed on even a 
 larger scale than that at Seringham, described above, and it certainly 
 far surpasses that celebrated edifice in the beauty of its details. Its 
 doorposts alone, w^hether 57 ft. or 60 ft. in height, are single blocks 
 of granite, carved with the most exquisite scroll patterns of elaborate 
 foliage, and all the other carvings are equally beautiful. Being un- 
 finished, and consequently never consecrated, it has escaped whitewash, 
 and alone, of all the buildings of Madura, its beauties can still be 
 admired in their original perfection. 
 
 The great temple at Madura is a larger and far more important 
 building than the choultrie ; but, somehow or other, it has not attracted 
 the attention of travellers to the same extent that the latter has. 
 No one has ever attempted to make a plan of it, or to describe it in 
 such detail as would enable others to understand its peculiarities. It 
 possesses, however, all the characteristics of a first-class Dravidian 
 temple, and, as its date is perfectly well known, it forms a landmark 
 of the utmost value in enabling us to fix the relative date of other 
 temples. 
 
 The sanctuary is said to have been built by Viswanath. the first 
 king of the Nayak dynasty, A.D. 1520, which may possibly be the case ; 
 but the temple itself certainly owes all its magnificence to Tirumulla 
 Nayak, a.d. 1622-1657, or to his elder brother, Muttu Yirappa, Avho 
 preceded him, and who built a mantapa, said to be the oldest thing 
 now existing here. The Kalyana mantapa is said to have been built 
 A.D. 1707, and the Tatta Suddhi in 1770. These, however, are insig- 
 nificant parts compared with those which certainly owe their origin 
 to Tirumulla Nayak. 
 
 The temple itself is a nearly regular rectangle, two of its sides 
 measuring 720 ft. and 729 ft., the other two 834 ft. and 852 ft. It 
 possessed four gopuras of the first class, and five smaller ones ; a very 
 beautiful tank, surrounded by arcades ; and a hall of 1000 columns, 
 whose sculptm-es surpass those of any other hall of its class I am 
 acquainted with. There is a small shrine, dedicated to the goddess 
 
 ^ In the description of Tripe's photo- 
 graph this dimension is given as 117 ft, 
 
 2 Most of these particulars, with those 
 that follow regarding the temples, are 
 
 taken from Capt. Lyon's description of 
 his photographs of the places. He de- 
 votes twenty-six photos, to this temple 
 alone. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 MADURA. 
 
 365 
 
 Miiiakshi, the tutelary deity of the place, which occupies the space 
 of fifteeu columns, so the real number is only 985 ; but it is not their 
 number but their marvellous elaboration that makes it the wonder of 
 the place, and renders it, in some respects, more remarkable than the 
 choultrie about which so much has been said and written. I do not 
 feel sure that this hall alone is not a greater work than the choultrie ; 
 taken in conjunction with the other buildings of the temple, it certainly 
 forms a far more imposing group. 
 
 As mentioned above, the great Vaishnava temple at Serin gham 
 owes all its magnificence to buildings erected during the reign of the 
 Nayak dynasty, whose second capital was Trichinopoly, and where 
 they often resided. Within a mile, how^ever, of that much-lauded 
 temple is another, dedicated to Siva, under the title of Jumbiikeswara, 
 which, though not so large as that dedicated to Sri Rangam, far sur- 
 passes it in beauty as an architectural object. The first gateway of 
 the outer enclosure is not large, but it leads direct to the centre of a 
 hall containing some 400 pillars. On the right these open on a tank 
 fed by a perpetual spring, which is one of the wonders of the place. ^ 
 The corresponding space on the left was intended to be occupied by 
 the 600 columns requisite to make up the 1000, but this never was 
 completed. Between the two gopuras of the second enclosure is a very 
 beautiful portico of cruciform shape, leading to the door of the sanc- 
 tuary, which, however, makes no show externally, and access to its 
 interior is not vouchsafed to the profane.^ The age of this temple is 
 the same as that of its great rival, except that, being all of one design, 
 it probably was begun and completed at once, and from the simplicity 
 of its parts and details may be earlier than the great buildings of 
 Tirumulla Nayak. If we assume a.d. 1600, with a margin of ten or 
 fifteen years either way, we shall probably not err much in its date. 
 
 One of the great charms of this temple, when I visited it, was 
 its purity. Neither whitewash nor red nor yellow paint had then 
 sullied it, and the time-stain on the warm-coloured granite was all 
 that relieved its monotony ; but it sufficed, and it was a relief to 
 contemplate it thus after some of the vulgarities I had seen. Now 
 all this is altered. Like the pagodas at Ramisseram, and more so 
 those at Madura, barbarous vulgarity has done its worst, and the 
 traveller is only too fully justified in the contempt with which he 
 speaks of these works of a great people which have fallen into the 
 hands of such unworthy successors. 
 
 ' The view in this temple in my ' Pic- 
 turesque Illustrations of Indian Archi- 
 tecture,' No. 21, is taken from the corner 
 of this tank. 
 
 ^ There is a native plan of this temple 
 in the India Museum, which makes it 
 
 very much more extensive than my in- 
 spection of the part I was allowed access 
 to would have led me to supjiose. 1 do 
 not know, however, how far the plan can 
 be depended upon. 
 
366 
 
 DRAYIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 TlNNEVELLY. 
 
 Book 1Y 
 
 Though neither among the largest nor the most splendid temples 
 of southern India, that at Tinnevelly will serve to give a good general 
 
 205. Half-plan of Temple at Tinnevelly. (From a Plan in the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society.) 
 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 COMBACONUM. 
 
 867 
 
 idea of the arrangement of these edifices, and has the advantage of 
 having been built on one plan, and at one time, without subsequent 
 alteration or change. Like the little cell in the Tiruvalur temple 
 (Woodcut No. 193), it has the singularity of being a double temple, 
 the great square being divided into equal portions, of which one is 
 dedicated to the god Siva, the other to his consort Parvati. The 
 preceding plan (Woodcut No. 205) represents one of the halves, which, 
 though differing in arrangement from the other, is still so like it as to 
 make the representation and description of one sufficient for both. 
 
 The general dimensions of the whole enclosure are 508 ft. by 
 75G ft., the larger dimension being divided into two equal portions of 
 378 ft. each. There are three gateways to each half, and one in the 
 wall dividing the two ; the principal gateway faces the entrance to 
 the temple, and the lateral ones are opposite each other. An outer 
 portico precedes the great gateway, leading internally to a very 
 splendid porch, which, before reaching the gateway of the inner 
 enclosure, branches off on the right to the intermediate gateway, and 
 on the left to the great hall of 1000 columns — 10 pillars in width by 
 100 in depth. 
 
 The inner enclosure is not concentric with the outer, and, as 
 usual, has only one gateway. The temple itself consists of a cubical 
 cell, surmounted by a vimana or spire, preceded by two porches, and 
 surrounded by triple colonnades. In other parts of the enclosure are 
 smaller temples, tanks of water, gardens, colonnades, &c., but neither 
 so numerous nor so various as are generally found in Indian temples 
 of this class. 
 
 The great 1000-pillared portico in the temple is one of the least 
 poetic of its class in India. It consists of a regiment of pillars 10 
 deep and extending to 100 in length, without any break or any open 
 space or arrangement. Such a forest of pillars does, no doubt, produce 
 a certain effect ; but half that number, if arranged as in some of the 
 Chalukyan or Jaina temples, would produce a far nobler impression. 
 The aim of the Dravidians seems to have been to force admiration by 
 the mere exhibition of inordinate patient toil. 
 
 COMBACONUM. 
 
 If the traditions of the natives could be trusted, Combaconum — 
 one of the old capitals of the Chola dynasty — is one of the places 
 where we might hope to find something very ancient. There are 
 fragments of older temples, indeed, to be found everywhere, but none 
 in situ. All the older buildings seem to have been at some time ruined 
 and rebuilt, probably on the same site, but with that total disregard 
 to antiquity which is characteristic of the Hindus in all ages. One 
 portico, in a temple dedicated to Sri Rama, is very like that leading 
 
206. 
 
 Gopura at Combaconum. (From a Photograph. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 CONJEVEKAM. 
 
 369 
 
 from the second to the third gopura in the temple of Jumbiikeswara, 
 described above, but, if anything, it is slightly more modern. There 
 is also one fine gopura in the town, represented in the last wood- 
 cut (No. 206). It is small, however, in comparison with those we 
 have just been describing, being only 84 ft. across and about 130 ft. 
 in height. Those of Seringham and Madura have, or were intended 
 to have, at least double these dimensions. 
 
 It is, however, a richly-ornamented example of its class, and the 
 preceding woodcut conveys a fair impression of the effect of these build- 
 ings generally. It is not old enough to be quite of the best age, but it 
 is still not so modern as to have lost all the character and expression 
 of the earlier examples. 
 
 * CONJEVEEAM. 
 
 Conjeveram is another city where tradition would lead- us to 
 expect more of anti(|uity than in almost any city of the south. It is 
 said to have been founded by Adondai, the illegitimate son of Kolo- 
 tunga Chola, in the 11th or 12th century, and to have succeeded 
 Combaconum as the capital of the Chola Mandalam. Even before 
 this, however, it is supposed to have been inhabited by Buddhists,^ 
 and that they were succeeded by Jains. If this is so, all that can be 
 said is, that neither of these religions have left any traces of their 
 existence on the spot, and many passages in the Mackenzie MSS. 
 would lead us to suppose that it was a jungle inhabited by savage 
 Kurumbars when the Cholas took possession of it. 
 
 Be this as it may, the two towns. Great and Little Conjeveram, 
 possess groups of temples as picturesque and nearly as vast as any 
 to be found elsewhere. The great temple at the first-named place 
 possesses some first-class gopuras, though no commanding vimana. 
 It has, too, a hall of 1000 columns, several large and fine mantapas, 
 large tanks, with flights of stone steps, and all the requisites of a first- 
 class Dravidian temple, but all thrown together as if by accident. No 
 two gopuras are opposite one another, no two w^alls parallel, and there 
 is hardly a right angle about the place. All this creates a picturesque- 
 ness of effect seldom surpassed in these temples, but deprives it of that 
 dignity we might expect from such parts if properly arranged. 
 
 There may be some part I did not see^ which may be older, but 
 certainly none of the principal buildings are so old as Parvati's shrine 
 at Chillambaram, but all seem equally to be anterior to the great 
 building epoch of the Nayak dynasty. They probably are the last 
 
 ^ It is supposed, erroneously, I believe 
 (♦ Journal of tlie Royal Asiatic Society,' 
 (N.S.) vol. vi. p. 265), to be the Kanchi- 
 puram visited by Hiouen Thsang in 640. 
 Nagapatam was more probably the place 
 
 be indicated. 
 
 2 I was too unwell when I visited 
 Conjeveram to make so careful a survey 
 of its temples as I would have wished 
 to have done. 
 
 2 B 
 
370 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 efforts of the Cholas ; but here, again, whitewash and red paint have 
 done so much to obliterate the record, that it is not safe to dogmatise 
 regarding the age of any buildings in either of the two Conjeverams. 
 
 VeLLORE and PEliOOR. 
 
 Although the temples at Yellore and at Peroor, near Coimbatore, 
 can only rank among the second class as regards size, they possess 
 porticos of extreme interest to architectural history, and are con- 
 sequently worthy of more attention than has been bestowed upon them. 
 That at Vellore, however, is unfortunately situated in the fort occupied 
 by the British, and has consequently been utilised as a store. Walls 
 have been built between its piers, and whitew^ash and fittings have 
 reduced it to that condition which we think appropriate for the 
 noblest works of art in India. Enough, however, still remains to 
 enable us to see that it is one of the most elegant as well as one of 
 the oldest porches or mantapas in the south. As will be seen from 
 the woodcut (No. 207), the Yalis and rearing horsemen are clearly 
 and sharply cut, and far from being so extravagant as tliey sometimes 
 are. The great cornice too, with its double flexures and its little 
 trellice-work of supports, is not only very elegant in form, but one of 
 those marvels of patient industry, such as are to be found hardly 
 anywhere else. There are many such cornices, however, in the south : 
 one at Avadea Covill is deeper and more elaborate than even this one. 
 The outer facing there is said to be only about an inch in thickness, 
 and its network of sui)ports is more elaborate and more delicate 
 than those at Yellore, though it is difficult to understand how either 
 was ever executed in so hard a materia,!. 'J'he ti'aditions of the place 
 assign the erection of the Yellore porch to the year l^aO, and though 
 this is perhaps being too precise, it is not far from tlie truth. 
 The bracket shafts (Woodcut No. 208) are similar but even more 
 elegant than those in Parvati's porch at Chillambaram ; but they 
 lire — some of them at least — attached to the pier by very elegant 
 open-work, such as is found in Pratapa Rudra's temple at Worangid 
 (Woodcut No. 217) or in the windows at Hullabid. As both these 
 examples are earlier than 1800, it might seem that this one was 
 so also, but it is difficult to feel certain when comparing buildings so 
 distant in locality, and belonging to different styles of art. On the 
 whole, however, I am inclined to believe that between 1300 and 1400 
 will be found the true date of this porch. 
 
 The date of the porch at Peroor is ascertained within narrow 
 limits by the figure of a Sepoy loading a musket being carved on the 
 base of one of its pillars, and his costume and the shape of his arm 
 are exactly those we find in contemporary pictures of the wars of 
 Aurungzebe, or the early Mahrattas, in the beginning of the 18th 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 VELLORE AND PEROOR. 
 
 371 
 
 century. As shown in Woodcut No. 209, the bracket shafts are there 
 attached to the piers as in Tirumulla Najak's buildings, and though 
 the general character of the architecture is the same, there is a coarse- 
 
 207. Portico of Temple at Yellore. 
 
 ness in the details, and a marked inferiority in the figure-sculpture, 
 that betrays the distance of date between these two examples. 
 
 Slight as the difference may appear to the unpractised eye, it is 
 within the four centuries that include the dates of these two buildings 
 (1850 to 1750) that practically the whole history of the Dra vidian 
 
208. Compound Pillar at Vellore. (From 
 a Photograph.) 
 
 209. Compound Pillar at Peroor. (From 
 a Photograph.) 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 VIJAYANAGAR. 
 
 37a 
 
 temple architecture is included. There are rock-cut examples before 
 the first date, and some structural buildings in Dharwar on a smaller 
 scale, which are older, but it is safe to assert that nine-tenths, at least, or 
 more, of those which are found south of the Tongabhadra, were erected 
 between these dates. 
 
 Of course it is not meant to assert that, before the first of these 
 dates, there were not structural temples in the south of India. So 
 far from this being the case, it seems nearly certain that during the 
 six or seven centuries that clasped between the carving of the rocks 
 at Mahavellipore and the erection of the Vellore pagoda, numerous 
 buildings must have been erected in order that a style should be 
 elaborated and so fixed that it should endure for five centuries after- 
 wards, with so little change, and with only that degradation in detail, 
 which is the fatal characteristic of art in India. 
 
 It seems impossible that the horsemen, the Yalis, and above all, 
 the great cornice of double curvature, shown in the woodcut (No. 207), 
 could have been brought to these fixed forms without long experience, 
 and the difficulty is to understand how they could ever have been 
 elaborated in stone at all, as they are so unlike lithic forms found 
 anywhere else ; yet they are not wooden, nor is there any trace in 
 them of any of their details being derived from wooden architecture, 
 as is so evidently the case with the Buddhist architecture of the 
 north. The one suggestion that occurs to me is that they are derived 
 from terra-cotta forms. Frequently, at the present day, figures of 
 men on horseback larger than life, or of giants on foot, are seen near 
 the village temples made of pottery, their hollow forms of burnt clay, 
 and so burnt as to form a perfect terra-cotta substance. Most of the 
 figures also on the gopuras are not in plaster as is generally said, 
 but are also formed of clay burnt. The art has certainly been long 
 practised in the south, and if we adopt the theory that it was used 
 for many ornamental purposes before wood or stone, it will account 
 for much that is otherwise unintelligible in the arts of the south. 
 
 YlJAYANAGAR. 
 
 The dates just quoted will no doubt sound strange and prosaic to 
 those who are accustomed to listen to the childish exaggerations of the 
 Brahmans in speaking of the age of their temples. There is, however, 
 luckily a test besides the evidence above quoted, which, if it could 
 be perfectly applied, would settle the question at once. 
 
 When in the beginning of the 14th century the Mahomedans from 
 Delhi first made their power seriously felt in the south, they struck 
 down the kingdom of the Hoisala Bellalas in 1310, and destroyed 
 their capital of Hullabid ; and in 1322 Worangul, which had been 
 previously attacked, was finally destroyed, and it is said they then 
 
374 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 carried their victorious arms as far as Ramnad. The Mahomedans 
 did not, however, at that time make any permanent settlement in the 
 south, and the consequence was, that as soon as the Hindus were able 
 to recover from the panic, Bukka and Harihara, princes it is said of 
 the deposed house of Worangul, gathered around them the remnants 
 of the destroyed states, and founded a new state in the toAvn of 
 Vijayanagar on the Tongabhadra. An earlier city it is said had been 
 founded there in 1118, by a Yijaya Rayal, but only as a dependency of 
 the Mysore Raj, and there is consequently no reason for supposing that 
 any of the buildings in the city belong to that period, nor indeed till 
 the new dynasty founded by Bukka had consolidated its power, which 
 was certainly not before the beginning of the 15th century. 
 
 The city was finally destroyed by the Mahomedans in loGo, but 
 during the two pre\'ious centuries it maintained a gallant struggle 
 against the Bahmnny and x\dil Shahi dynasties of Kallmrgah and 
 Bijapur, and was in fact the barrier that prevented the Moslems from 
 taking possession of the whole country as far as Cape Comorin. 
 
 Its time of greatest prosperity was between the accession of 
 Krishna Deva, 1508, a,nd the death of Achutya Rayal, 1542, and it is 
 to their reigns that the finest monuments in the city must be ascribed. 
 There is, perhaps, no other city in all India in which ruins exist in 
 such profusion or in such variety as in Vijayanagar, and as they 
 are all certainly comprised within the century and a half, or at the 
 utmost the two centuries, that preceded the destruction of the city, 
 their analogies afford us dates that hardly admit of dispute. 
 
 Among those in the city the most remarkable is that dedicated 
 to Yitoba, a local manifestation of Vishnu. It was erected by Achutya 
 Rayal, A.D. 1529-1542, and never was finished ; and if it were not that 
 no successor ever cares in India to complete the works begun by his 
 predecessor, we might fancy the works were interrupted by the siege. 
 The principal part of the temple consists of a porch, represented in 
 the annexed woodcut (No. 210). It is wholly in granite, and carved 
 with a boldness and expression of power nowhere surpassed in the 
 buildings of its class.^ As will be observed, it has all the characteristic 
 peculiarities of the Dravidian style : the bold cornice of double flexure, 
 the detached shafts, the Talis, the richly-carved stylobate, &c. But 
 what interests us most here is that it forms an exact half-way house in 
 style between such porches as those at Vellore and Chillambaram, and 
 that of Tirumulla Nayak at Mtldura. The bracket shafts are detached 
 here, it is true, but they are mere ornaments, and have lost their 
 meaning. The cornice is as bold as any, but has lost its characteristic 
 
 ' I have never been able to ascertain 
 even apiiroximately its diraensious. Huu- 
 tlrcds visit it, many have phot(igraphed, 
 some written descriptions, but to measure 
 
 dimensions and make even a sketch plan 
 seems beyond tlie educational capacity 
 of our countrymen. 
 
Chap. llf. 
 
 VIJAYANAGAR. 
 
 875 
 
 210. View of Porch of Temple of Vitoba at Vijayanagar. (From a Photograph by Mr. Neill.) 
 
 supports, and other changes have been made, which would inevitably 
 have led in a short time to the new style of the Nayak dynasty. 
 
 The little building on the right is the car of the god, formed of a 
 single block of granite, with movable wheels, but they are the only 
 parts that move. There are, besides, either one or two pavilions, 
 smaller, but similar in design to that represented in the woodcut, a 
 gopura, and other adjuncts, which w^ould be interesting, if we had 
 the means of comparing and describing them. 
 
 Although the temple of Vitoba is certainly one of the most remark- 
 able ruins in India, and there are other temples of great beauty and 
 extent in the capital, it is not quite clear that it is there the chffs- 
 cTmuvre of this dynasty are to be found, but rather at a place called 
 Tarputry, about one hundred miles a little east of south from the 
 capital. There are two temples there : the one now in use, dedicated 
 to Vishnu, is the elder, and in so far as whitewash and paint will 
 allow one to judge, ranges with the works of the earliest kings of the 
 Vijayanagar dynasty ; but the w^onders of the place are two gopuras 
 belonging to a now deserted teifiple on the banks of the river, about a 
 quarter of a mile from the others. One of these was apparently quite 
 finished, the other never carried higher than the perpendicular part. 
 In almost all the gopuras of India this part is comparatively plain, 
 all the figure-sculpture and ornament being reserved for the upper 
 or pyramidal part. In this instance, however, the whole of the per- 
 pendicular part is covered with the most elaborate sculpture, cut with 
 exquisite sharpness and precision, in a fine close-grained hornblende 
 (?) stone, and produces an effect richer, and on the whole perhaps in 
 
376 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 Entrance tlircmgh Gopura at Tarputry. (From a Photograph.) 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 TAEPUTRY. 
 
 377 
 
 212. Portion of Gopuia at Tarputry. (From a Photograph.) 
 
378 
 
 DHAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 better taste, than anything else in this style (Woodcuts Nos. 211, 212). 
 It is difficult of course to institute a comparison between these 
 gopuras and such works as Tiramulla Nayak's choultrie, or the corridors 
 at Ramisseram ; they are so different that there is no common basis 
 of comparison but the vulgar one of cost ; but if compared with 
 Hullabid or Baillur, these Tarputry gopuras stand that test better 
 than any other works of the Vijayanagar Rajas. They are inferior, but 
 not so much so as one would expect from the two centuries of decadence 
 that elapsed between them, and they certainly show a marked supe- 
 riority over the great unfinished gopura of Tirumulla Nayak, which was 
 commenced, as nearly as may be, one century afterwards. 
 
 About fifty miles still further east, at a place called Diggu Hublum, 
 there is a large unfinished mantapa, in plan and design very like that 
 of the temple of Vitoba at Vijayanagar, but its style and details are so 
 much more like those of the Nayaks, that it must be at least a century 
 more modern, and could not therefore have been erected before the de- 
 struction of that capital in a.d. 15G5. The dynasty, however, continued 
 to exist for one or two centuries after that time, till the country was 
 finally conquered by Tipu Sultan. It must have been by one of the 
 expatriated rajas that this temple was erected, but by whom even 
 tradition is silent. Whoever may have built it, it is a fine bold speci- 
 men of architecture, and if the history of the art in the south of India 
 is ever seriously taken up, it will worthily take a place in the series as 
 one of the best specimens of its age, wanting the delicacy and elegance 
 of the earlier examples, but full of character and merit.^ 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The buildings mentioned, and more or less perfectly described, in 
 the preceding pages are in number rather more than one-third of 
 the great Dravidian temples known to exist in the province. In im- 
 portance and extent they certainly are, however, more than one- 
 half. Of the remainder, none have vimanas, like that of Tanjore, 
 
 ^ When I was in Madras, and indeed 
 up to the present year, the temple on the 
 hill of Tripetty or Tirupetty was reputed 
 to be the richest, the most magnificent, 
 as it was certainly tlie most tacred of 
 all those in the Presidency. So sacred, 
 indeed, was it, that no unbelieving 
 foreigner had ever been allowed to climb 
 the holy hill (2500 ft. high) or profane 
 its sacred precincts. In 1870, a party of 
 police forced their way in, in pursuit of a 
 murderer who had taken refuge there, 
 and a Mr. Gribblc, who accompanied 
 
 them, published this year (1875) an ac- 
 count of what they saw in the ' Calcutta 
 Review.' As he exclaims, " Another 
 of the illusions of my youth destroyed." 
 The temple is neither remarkable for its 
 size nor its magnificence. In these re- 
 spects it is inferior to Cunjevtram, 
 Seringhair, and many others; and what- 
 ever may be done with its immense re- 
 venues, they certainly are not applied to 
 its adornment. It is a fair specimen of a 
 Dravidian temple of the second class, but 
 in a sad state of dilapidation anddisrepair. 
 
Chap. IIL 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 379 
 
 nor corridors, like those of Ramisseram ; but several have gopuras 
 quite equal to or exceeding those mentioned above, and many have 
 mantapas of great beauty and extent. Several — such as Avadea 
 Covin, Veeringepuram, Taramungulam, and others — possess features 
 unsurpassed by any in the south, especially the first-named, which 
 may, perhaps, be considered as one of the most elegant of its class, 
 as well as one of the oldest. It would, however, be only tedious to 
 attempt to describe them without plans to refer to, or more extensive 
 illustrations than are compatible with a work of this class. They 
 are, however, worthy of more attention than has been paid to them, 
 and of more complete illustration than has hitherto been bestowed 
 upon them. Taken altogether, they certainly do form as extensive, 
 and in some respects as remarkable, a group of buildings as are 
 to be found in provinces of similar extent in any part of the 
 world — ^Egypt, perhaps, alone excepted ; but they equal even the 
 Egyptian in extent, and though at first sight so different,, in some 
 respects present similarities which are startling. Without attempt- 
 ing to enumerate the whole, it may be mentioned that the gopuras, 
 both in form and purpose, resemble the pylons of the Egyptian 
 temples. The courts with pillars and cloisters are common to both, 
 and very similar in arrangement and extent. The great mantapas 
 and halls of 1000 columns reproduce the hypostyle halls, both in 
 purpose and effect, with almost minute accuracy. The absence of any 
 central tower or vimana over the sanctuary is universal in Egypt, 
 and only conspicuously violated in one instance in India. Their mode 
 of aggregation, and the amount of labour bestowed upon them for 
 labour's sake, is only too characteristic of both styles. There are, 
 besides, many similarities that will occur to any one familiar with 
 both styles. 
 
 Is all this accidental ? It seems strange that so many coincidences 
 should be fortuitous, but, so far as history affords us any information, 
 or as any direct communication can be traced, we must for the present 
 answer that it is so. The interval of time is so great, and the mode in 
 which we fancy we can trace the native growth of most of the features 
 in India seem to negative the idea of an importation ; but there cer- 
 tainly was intercourse between Egypt and India in remote ages, and 
 seed may then have been sown which fructified long afterwards. 
 
 If we were to trust, however, to either tradition or to mytho- 
 logical or ethnological coincidences, it is rather to Babylonia than 
 to Egypt that we should look for the incunabula of what are found 
 in southern India. But here the architectural argument is far from 
 having the same distinctness ; and, in fact, whichever way we turn, we 
 ' are forced to confess that these problems are not yet ripe for solution, 
 though enough is known to encourage the hope that the time is not 
 distant when materials will be gathered that will make all clear. 
 
380 
 
 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Palaces at Madura and Tan j ore— Garden Pavilion at Vijayauagar. 
 
 AliTHOUOH, like all nations of Turanian race, the Dravidians were 
 extensive and enthusiastic builders, it is somewhat singular that till 
 they came in contact with the Mahomedans all their efforts in this 
 direction should have been devoted to the service of religion. No 
 trace of any civil or municipal building is to be found anywhere, 
 though from the stage of civilization that they had attained it might 
 be expected that such must have existed. What is, however, even 
 more remarkable is, that kingdoms always at war with one another, 
 and contending for supremacy within a limited area, might have been 
 expected to develop some sort of military architecture. So far, how- 
 ever, as is now known, no castle or fortification of any sort dates 
 from the Pandya, Chera, or Chola days. What is still more singular 
 in a people of Turanian blood is, that they have no tombs. They 
 seem always to have burnt their dead, and never to have collected 
 their ashes or raised any mounds or memorials to their departed 
 friends or great men. ' There are, it is true, numberless " Rude stone 
 monuments " all over the south of India, but, till they are more 
 thoroughly investigated, it is impossible to say whether they beloug 
 to the Dravidians when in a lower stage of civilization than when 
 they became temple builders, or whether they belong to other under- 
 lying races who still exist, in scattered fragments, all over the south 
 of India, in a state bordering on that of savages.^ Whoever these 
 Dolmens or stone circles may have belonged to, we know, at least, 
 that they never were developed into architectural objects, such as would 
 bring them within the scope of this work. No Dra vidian tomb or 
 cenotaph is known to exist anywhere. 
 
 When, however, the Dravidians came in contact with the Mussul- 
 mans this state of affairs was entirely altered, in so far, at least, as 
 civil buildings were concerned. The palaces, the kutcherries, the 
 
 ' What I know on this subject I have already said in my work on ' Rude Stone 
 Monuments,' p. 455, et ceqq. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 381 
 
 elephant-stables, and the dependencies of the abodes of the rajas at 
 Yijayanagar and Mddura, rival in extent and in splendour the temples 
 themselves, and are not surpassed in magnificence by the Mahomedan 
 palaces of Bijapur or Bidar. 
 
 One of the most interesting peculiarities of these civil buildings 
 is, that they are all in a new and different style of architecture from 
 that employed in the temples, and the distinction between the civil 
 and religious art is kept up to the present day. The civil buildings 
 are all in what we would call a pointed-arched Moorish style — pic- 
 turesque in effect, if not always in the best taste, and using the arch 
 everywhere and for every purpose. In the temples the arch is never 
 used as an architectural feature. In some places, in modern times, 
 when they wanted a larger internal space than could be obtained 
 by bracketing without great expense, a brick vault was introduced, 
 — it may be said surreptitiously — for it is always concealed. Even 
 now, in building gopuras, they employ wooden beams, supported by 
 pillars, as lintels, to cover the central openings in the upper pyra- 
 midal part, and this having decayed, many of the most modern 
 exhibit symptoms of decay which are not observable in the older 
 examples, where a stone lintel always was employed. But it is not 
 only in construction that the Dravidians adhere to their old forms 
 in temples. There are, especially, some gopuras erected within the 
 limits of this century, and erecting even now, which it requires a 
 practised eye to distinguish from older examples ; but with the civil 
 buildings the case is quite different. It is not, indeed, clear how 
 a convenient palace could be erected in the trabeate style of the 
 temples, unless, indeed, wood was very extensively employed, both in 
 the supports and the roofs. My conviction is, that this really was 
 the case, and its being so, to a great extent, at least, accounts for 
 their disappearance. 
 
 The principal apartments in the palace at Madura are situated 
 round a courtyard which measures 244 ft. east and west by 142 ft. 
 north and south, surrounded on all sides by arcades of very great 
 beauty. The pillars which support the arches are of stone, 40 ft. 
 in height, and are joined by foliated brick arcades of great elegance 
 of design. The whole of the ornamentation is worked out in the 
 exquisitely fine stucco called "chunan," or shell lime, which is 
 a characteristic of the Madras Presidency.^ On one side of the 
 court stands the Swerga Yilasam, or Celestial Pavilion, formerly 
 the throne-room of the palace, now used by the High Court of 
 
 ^ Some money was, I believe, expended purview of an Anglo-Saxon to make a 
 during Lord Napier's administration on plan of the place. It is, consequently, 
 the repairs of this court and its appur- very difficult to describe it. 
 tenances, but it was quite beyond the ' 
 
382 
 
 TJRAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 Justice. It is an arcaded octagon, covered by a dome GO ft. in 
 diameter and 60 ft. in height. On another side of this court 
 is placed the splendid hall shown in the annexed woodcut (No. 
 218), the two corresponding with the Dewanni Khas and Dewanni 
 Aum of Mahomedan palaces. This one, in its glory, must have 
 been as fine as any, barring the material. The hall itself is said 
 to be 120 ft. long by 67 ft. wide,^ and its height to the centre 
 of the roof is 70 ft. ; but, what is more important than its dunen- 
 sions, it possesses all the structural propriety and character of a 
 
 213. Hall in Talace, Mtldura. (From DanielL's ' Views in Hindustan. ') 
 
 Gothic building. It is evident that if the Hindus had persevered 
 a little longer in this direction they might have accomplished some- 
 thing that would have surpassed the works of their masters iu this 
 form of art. In the meauAvhile it is curious to observe that the 
 same king who built the choultries (AVoodcuts Nos. 202, 203 and 20'!) 
 built also this hall. The style of the one is as different from that of 
 the other as Classic Italian from Mediaeval Gothic : the one as much 
 over ornamented as the other is too plain for the purposes of a palace. 
 
 ^ Description attached to Tripe'« Photographs. 
 
Chap. IV. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 383 
 
 but both among the best things of their class which have been built 
 in the country where they are found. 
 
 The modern dynasty of Tanjore was founded by Eccoji, a brother 
 of Sivagi, the great Mahratta chief, during the decline of the Madura 
 
384 
 
 DEAVIDIAN STYLE. 
 
 Book IV. 
 
 dynasty in 1675. The palace was probably commenced shortly after- 
 wards, but the greater part of its buildings belong to the 18th century, 
 and some extend even into the 19th. 
 
 It is not unlike the Madura palace in arrangement — is, indeed, 
 evidently copied from it — nor very different in style ; but the orna- 
 mentation is coareer and in more vulgar taste, as might be expected 
 from our knowledge of the people who erected it (Woodcut No. 214). 
 In some of the apartments this is carried so far as to become almost 
 offensive. One of the most striking peculiarities of the palace is the 
 roof of the great hall externally. As you approach Tan j ore, you see 
 
 215. Garden Pavilion at Vijayanagar. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 two great vimanas, not unlike each other in dimensions or outline, 
 and at a distance can hardly distinguish which belongs to the great 
 temple. On closer inspection, however, that of the palace turns out 
 to be made up of dumpy pilasters and fat balusters, and ill-designed 
 mouldings of Italian architecture, mixed up with a few details of 
 Indian art ! A more curious and tasteless jumble can hardly be 
 found in Calcutta or Lucknow. 
 
 The palace buildings at Vijayanagar are much more detached and 
 scattered than those either at Tanjore or Madura, but they are older, 
 and proljably reproduce more nearly the arrangements of a Hindu 
 prince's residence, before they fell completely under the sway of 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 ClYIL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 385 
 
 Moslem influence. Practically the palace consists of a number of 
 detached pavilions, baths, hareems, and other buildings, that may 
 have been joined by wooden arcades. They certainly were situated 
 in gardens, and may consequently have had a unity we miss in their 
 present state of desolation. One of these pavilions is represented in 
 the preceding woodcut (No. 215). It is a fair specimen of that pic- 
 turesque mixed style which arose from the mixture of the Saracenic 
 and Hindu styles. 
 
 Even this mixed style, however, died out wherever the Europeans 
 settled, or their influence extended. The modern palaces of the 
 Nawabs of the Carnatic, of the Rajas of Ramnad or Travancore, are 
 all in the bastard Italian style, ado^^ted by the Nawabs of Lucknow 
 and the Babus of Calcutta. Sometimes, it must be confessed, the 
 buildings are imposing from their mass, and picturesque from their 
 variety of outline, but the details are always detestable, first from 
 being bad copies of a style that was not understood or appreciated, 
 but also generally from their being unsuited for the use to which 
 they were applied. To these defects it must be added, that the whole 
 style is generally characterised by a vulgarity it is difficult to under- 
 stand in a people who have generally shown themselves capable of so 
 much refinement in former times. 
 
 In some parts of the north of India matters have not sunk so low 
 as in the Madras Presidency, but in the south civil architecture as a 
 fine art is quite extinct, and though sacred architecture still survives 
 in a certain queer, quaint form of temple-building, it is of so low a 
 type that it would hardly be a matter of regret if it, too, ceased to 
 exist, and the curtain dropped over the graves of both, as they are 
 arts that practically have become extinct. 
 
 2 c 
 
386 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book V. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Temple at Bucliropully — Kirti Stamblia at Worangiil — Temples at Somuathpur 
 and Baillur — The Kait Iswara at Hullabid — Temple at Hullabid. 
 
 Of the three styles into which Hindu architecture naturally divides 
 itself, the Chalukyan is neither the least extensive nor the least beau- 
 tiful, but it certainly is the least known. The very name of the 
 people was hardly recognised by early writers on Indian subjects, 
 and the first clear ideas regarding them were put forward, in 1826, 
 in a paper by Sir Walter Elliot, in the fourth volume of the ' Journal 
 of the Royal Asiatic Society.' To this he added another paper, in 
 the twentieth volume of the * Madras Journal : ' and since then 
 numerous inscriptions of this dynasty and of its allied families have 
 l)een found, and translated by General Le Grand, Jacob and others, in 
 the ' Bombay Journal,' and by Professor Dowson in the ' Journal of 
 the Royal Asiatic Society ' here.^ 
 
 From all this we gather that early in the sixth century of our 
 era ^ this family rose into importance at Kalyan — in what is now the 
 Nizam's territory — and spread eastward as far as the shores of the 
 Bay of Bengal, in the neighbourhood of the mouths of the Kistnah and 
 Godavery. They extended, in fact, from shore to shore, right across 
 the peninsula, and occupied a considerable portion of the country 
 now known as Mysore, and northward extended as far, at least, as 
 Dowlutabad. 
 
 ^ Vol. i. (N.S.) p. 247, et seqq. | wrong about it, but how the error arose 
 
 2 Professor Eggelirig tells me he has is not yet clear. It seems at least a 
 
 great reason for suspecting the date 411 | century too early. See the 'Journal of 
 
 for Palakesi I. (' Journal of the Royal j the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iv. p. 12 ; 
 
 Asiatic Society,' vol. iv. p. 8) to be a i ibid., vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 93. 
 
 forgery. There is something certainly 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTEODUCTORY. 
 
 887 
 
 Beyond this, they seem to have been closely allied with the 
 Ballabhi dynasty of Gujerat, and afterwards to be the parent stems 
 from which the Hoisala Bellalas of Dwarasamndra took their rise. 
 
 Their affiliations and descents are more easily traced than their 
 origin. Jaya Singa, the founder of the Kalyan dynasty (a.d. 500 ? ), 
 claims to be of the Solar race of Bajputs, and descended from kings 
 reigning in Ayodhya 1000 years (fifty-nine generations) before his 
 time. This, however, seems as likely to be a reminiscence of the 
 origin of their religion as of their race ; for, though we are not yet 
 in a position to prove it, it seems likely that the Chalukyas w^ere 
 originally Jains. At all events, it seems clear that the extension of 
 the Jaina religion is nearly conterminous with that of Chalukyan 
 sway, and the time at which the religion spread over India was also 
 coincident with their rise and fall. 
 
 It Avould, of course, be too much to assert that the Chalukyas 
 were either the revivors of the Jaina faith or even its principal 
 propagators ; but, during the early part of their history, this form 
 of faith is inextricably mixed up with the more orthodox religions 
 as practised by them, and prevails to the present day, in the countries 
 where they ruled. The style of architecture which they invented 
 when Jains was, it is true, practised afterwards by them both as 
 Vaishnavas and Saivas ; but it seems to have had its origin in the 
 earlier form of faith. 
 
 Like all dynasties of Central and Northern India, the Chalukyas 
 suffered eclipse in the dark ages that intervened between a.d. 750 and 
 1)50 ; ^ and the difficulty is to know whether w^e have any temples in 
 their style before that period. Those at Aiwulli and Purudkul de- 
 scribed above (Woodcuts Nos. 121 and 189), belong to their age, and 
 may have been erected by early kings of this race ; but they do not 
 belong to their style. Their sikras, or towers, either show the cur- 
 vilinear outline of the northern style, or the storeyed pyramids of 
 the Dravidians. It is as if this intrusive race adopted hesitatingly 
 the styles of earlier inhabitants of the country, but that it was not 
 till they had consolidated their power, and developed peculiar in- 
 stitutions of their own, that they expressed them in the style to 
 which their name has been affixed. 
 
 It is more than probable that the materials exist for settling 
 these and all other questions connected with this style ; but, un- 
 fortunately, if it is so, they exist in the Nizam's territory, and that 
 is terra incognita to us in so far as architecture is concerned. No 
 one has yet passed through it Avho had any knowledge of the art, or 
 was even aware that any interest attached to the forms or age of the 
 buildings. It thus happens that, but for a few stray photographs, it 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Hocioty,' vol. iv. p. 10, d seqq. 
 
388 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book Y. 
 
 must have been passed over as a style less known, from an artistic 
 point of view, than that of almost any civilized country in the world. 
 The rulers of the Hydrabad territory being bigoted Mahomedans, it is 
 to be feared that great destruction of native temples may have taken 
 place ; but the real cause of our ignorance on the subject is the in- 
 difference and apathy to such matters in those who rule the rulers, 
 and who, if they chose, could clear up the whole mystery in a few 
 months or years, and with little expense to themselves, beyond 
 expressing a wish that it should be done. 
 
 It may be, however, that the remains have perished. The line of 
 Mahomedan capitals — Bijapur, Kalburgah, Bidar, and Hydrabad — 
 which have long occupied the native country of the Chalukyas, is 
 painfully suggestive of the destruction of Hindu temples ; but still 
 the wealth of remains that exists in Dharwar on the south and west, 
 and the Berars on the north of the Nizam's territories, is so great that 
 all certainly cannot have perished, and many will probably be found 
 to solve the historical enigmas, though they may not be sufficient to 
 restore the style in its integrity. 
 
 Whether Kalyani itself has escaped is by no means clear. In a 
 list of remains in the Bombay Presidency, prepared by Mr. Burgess, 
 dated 1873, there are the following entries : — " Three miles to the 
 south-east of town, some fine temples and other ruins ; " and further 
 on, on the authority of the late Bhau Daji, it is stated, " has extensive 
 ruins for miles around. There are caves in the hills, called Hazar 
 Khotri, or Thousand Chambers. Pir Padshah Musjid is probably 
 part of a Hindu temple." If this is so, the history of the style is 
 probably all there, and only awaits the advent of some one capable of 
 reading it. 
 
 The simplest and most typical example of the style that I know, 
 and the one, consequently, which will serve best to explain its pecu- 
 liarities, is at a place called BuchropuUy, not far from Hydrabad. 
 It probably is also one of the oldest, and may even date before the 
 cataclysm ; but this is only a guess. I have no such real knowledge 
 of the early form of the style as would enable me to feel sure on such 
 a subject. As will be observed, the temple itself is polygonal, or 
 star-shaped, of twenty-four sides (Woodcut No. 21G). These, however, 
 are not obtained, as in the northern style, by increments added flatly 
 to a square, as will be explained hereafter, but are points touching a 
 circle, in this instance apparently right angles, but afterwards were 
 either more acute or flatter than a right angle. There are four 
 principal faces, how^ever, larger than the others : three occupied by 
 niches, the fourth by the entrance. The roof is in steps, and with a 
 flat band on each face in continuation of the larger face below. The 
 summit ornament is a flower or vase, in this instance apparently 
 incomplete. The porch is simple, consisting only of sixteen pillars. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 TEMPLE AT BUCHROPULLY. 
 
 389 
 
 216. Temple at BuchropuUy. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 disposed equidistantly, without any attempt at the octagonal dome 
 of the Jains or the varied arrangements subsequently attempted. 
 
 Although of no great magnificence in itself, this temple is inte- 
 resting as possessing all the features which distinguish the Chalukyan 
 style from those that surround it either on the north or south. 
 Instead of their square plans, this one is practically star-shaped. 
 The sikra is a straight-lined cone, and its decorations in steps is 
 as unlike the Dravidian spire in storeys as it is to the curvilinear 
 outline of the Jaina or northern temples. The porch, too, is open, 
 and consists of columns spaced equidistantly over its floor, without 
 either the bracketing arrangements of the southern or the domical 
 forms of the northern styles. Situated as it was locally, half-way 
 between the Dravidian and northern styles, the Chalukyan borrowed 
 occasionally a feature or form from one or from the other, but never 
 to such an extent as to obliterate its individuality, or to prevent its 
 being recognised as a separate and distinct style of architecture. 
 
 When the Nizam's territory is examined, w^e shall probably be 
 able to trace all the steps by which this simple village example 
 developed into the metropolitan temple of Hammoncondah, the old 
 capital, six miles north of Worangul. According to an inscription 
 on its walls, this temple was erected, in a.d. 1163, by Pratapa Rudra,^ 
 
 * Priusep's ' Useful Tables,' re-edited by Thomas, pp. 267-2G8. 
 
;5i)0 ("HALUKYAN STYLE. Book V. 
 
 who, tlioni>h not exactly himself a Chalukya in blood, succeeded to 
 theii' possessions and their style. The temple itself is triple, having- 
 tlij'ee detached cells of A'ery considerable dimensions, in front of which 
 is a ])()rtic(), sn]>])orted by between 240 or 8(KI pillars, disposed in a 
 
 217. Doorway of Great Temple at Hammoncondab. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 varied and complicated pattern, ^ but without any sign, so far as I 
 can trace, of the Jaina octagonal arrangement for a dome. Like 
 
 ' If all the quadrants of this portico notliiug but photographs to go by, and 
 were equal the numbers ought to be ; they only show tlie exterior, even this is 
 300, or 75 in each, but I fancy a consider- I uncertain, and the dimensions I cannot 
 abb; [(oriion of two of them was cut oft' even guess at. They arc very large, 
 by the ,sitc of the U'lnjilc. A?^ I liuvc liowever, for a Hindu temj>lo. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 WOKANGUL. 
 
 391 
 
 most of these late temples, this one was never finished. It was too 
 extensive for one king's reign, even for one so powerfnl as he was 
 w^ho nndertook it, and before it was heartily taken up again the 
 Mahomedans were upon them (in a.d. 1309), and there was an end of 
 Hindu greatness and of Hindu art. 
 
 Some of its details, however, are of great beauty, especially 
 the entrances, which are objects on which the architects generally 
 lavished their utmost skill. The preceding woodcut (No. 217) will 
 explain the form of those of the great temple, as well as the general 
 ordinances of the pillars of the great portico. Nothing in Hindu art 
 is more pleasing than the pierced slabs Avhich the Chalukyas used 
 for windows. They are not, so far as I recollect, used — certainly, 
 not extensively — in any other style, but as used by them are highly 
 ornamental and appropriate, both externally and internally. 
 
 The pillars, too, are rich, without being overdone ; and as it is 
 only in pairs that they are of the same design, the effect of the whole 
 is singularly varied, but at the same time pleasing and elegant. 
 
 There are at Hammoncondah or Worangul a great number of 
 smaller temples and shrines, in the same style as the great temple, 
 and, like it, apparently all dedicated to Siva, from the constant 
 presence of his bull everywhere. Most are ruined ; but whether this 
 is owing to Moslem bigotry or faulty construction, it is difficult to 
 say. Judging from appearances, I am inclined to believe the latter 
 was the true cause. The mode of building is without mortar, and 
 the joints are by no means well fitted. The style is also remarkably 
 free from figure-sculpture, which is generally the thing that most 
 easily excites the iconoclastic feelings of the followers of the 
 Prophet. 
 
 In Worangul there are four Kirti Stambhas, as they are called, 
 facing one another, as if they formed the entrances to a square 
 enclosure (Woodcut No. 218). No wall is there, however, nor is 
 there anything inside ; so the object of their erection is by no means 
 apparent. They were set up by the same Pratapa Eudra who built the 
 great temple in the old capital, and built several others in this new 
 city. It cannot be said they are particularly elegant specimens of 
 art. Their main interest lies in their being the lineal descendants of 
 the four gateways at Sanchi (Woodcut No. 33), and they may have 
 been erected to replace some wooden or frailer structure which had 
 fallen into decay. Whether this is so or not, they are curious as 
 exemplifying how, in the course of a thousand years or thereabouts, 
 a wooden style of building may lose all traces of its origin and 
 become as essentially lithic as these, but still betray its origin as 
 clearly as they do ; for it seems most unlikely that any such form 
 could have been invented by any one using stone constructions, and 
 that only. 
 
302 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book Y 
 
 Kirti Staiiibha at Woraiigul. (From a Photograph. ) 
 
 Mysore. 
 
 It is ill the province of Mysore, however, that the Chahikyan style 
 attained its fullest development and highest degree of perfection 
 during the three centuries — a.d. 1000 to 1300 — in which the Hoisala 
 Bellalas had supreme sway in that country. Three temples, or rather 
 groups of temples, were erected by them — the first at a place called 
 Somnathpur, south of Mysore, by Yinaditya Bellala, who ascended the 
 throne a.d. 1043 ; the second at Baillur, in the centre of the province, 
 owed its origin apparently to Yishnu Yerddhana, in or about a.d. 1114 ; 
 the last and greatest at a place they called Dwarsamudra — the Gate 
 of the Sea — now known as Hullabid, not far from the last-named, 
 from which the capital was removed by Yijaya Narsinha, in 1145. 
 It continued to be the metropolis of the kingdom, till it was destroyed 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 MYSOKE. 
 
 893 
 
 and the building of the great temple stopped by the Mahomedan 
 invasion in a.d. 1810-1311.^ 
 
 Even in this short series Ave see evidence of that downward 
 progress of art, especially in sculpture, which is everywhere the 
 characteristic of Hindu art. Though the design is the grandest, the 
 sculpture and details of HuUabid are inferior to those of Baillur, and 
 Somnathptir seems superior to both. We consequently long to trace 
 back the history of the style to some more distant date, when we 
 might find it emerging in purity and elegance from some unknoAvn 
 prototype. Unfortunately, we are not at present able to do this. 
 We are obliged to leap over the dark ages to the caves and temples 
 of Badami and Aiwulli, and have no intermediate examples to connect 
 the tAvo. It is more than probable that they do exist, and Avill be 
 found Avhen looked for. Meanwhile, however, we can only assume 
 that the star-like plans and peculiar details of the style Avere elaborated 
 between the Gth and the 10th centuries in Central and Western India, 
 but Avhere and by Avhom remains still to be discoA^ered. 
 
 Like the great temple at Hammoncondah, that at Somnathpur is 
 triple, the cells, with their sikras, being attached to a square pillared 
 hall, to the fourth side of which a portico is attached, in this in- 
 stance of very moderate dimensions.^ The AA'hole stands in a square 
 cloistered court, and has the usual accompaniments of entrance- 
 porches, stambhas, &c. 
 
 The folloAving illustration (No. 219) Avill giA^e an idea — an 
 imperfect one, it must be confessed — of the elegance of outline and 
 marvellous elaboration of detail that characterises these shrines. 
 Judging from the figure of a man in one of the photographs, its height 
 seems to be only about 30 ft., Avhich, if it stood in the open, would 
 be almost too small for architectural effect ; but in the centre of an 
 enclosed court, and Avhere there are no larger objects to contrast 
 AA'ith it, it is sufficient, when judiciously treated, to produce a con- 
 siderable impression of grandeur, and apparently does so in this 
 instance. 
 
 The temple at Somnathpur is a single but complete Avhole ; that 
 at Baillm*, on the other hand, consists of one principal temple, sur- 
 rounded by four or five others and numerous subordinate buildings, 
 enclosed in a court by a high AA'all measuring 860 ft. by 440 ft., and 
 having two very fine gateways or gopuras in its eastern front. As 
 
 ^ These dates are taken from a list of | any triple temple. That at Girnar (Wood - 
 this dynasty among the Mackenzie MSS., j cut No. 127) belongs to another religioi), 
 quoted by Prinsep, ' Useful Tables,' xli., and is too far distant in locality to assist 
 and are confirmed by tlie architectural j us here. An imperfect one might be 
 evidence and other indications. | compiled from the photographs, but I 
 
 2 I regret that I have been unable to j have not even an approximate dimen- 
 g t a plan of this temple or, indeed, of sion. 
 
394 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book V. 
 
 Temple at SonmatlipiiV. (From a Plioiograjjh.) 
 
 will be seen from the following- plan (AYooclcnt No. 220), the great 
 temple consists of a very solid vimana, with an anterala, or porch ; and 
 in front of this a porch of the nsnal star-like form, measnring 90 ft. 
 across. The whole length of the temple, from the east door to the 
 back of cell, is 115 ft., and the whole stands on a terrace abont 3 ft. 
 high, and from 10 ft. to 15 ft. wide. This is one of the characteristic 
 features of Chalnkyan design, and adds very considerably to the 
 effect of their temples. 
 
 The arrangements of the pillars have much of that pleasing 
 
CUAl'. I. 
 
 TEMPLE AT BAILLUR. 
 
 395 
 
 220. Plan of Great Temple at Baillur. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 siil)ordiiiatioii and variety of spacing' which is found in those of the 
 Jains, but we miss here the octagonal dome, which gives sucli poetry 
 and meaning to the arrangements they adopted. Instead of that, 
 we have only an exaggerated compartment in the centre, which fits 
 nothing, and, though it does give dignity to the centre, it does it so 
 clumsily as to be almost offensive in an architectural sense. 
 
 It is not, however, either to its dimensions, or the disposition of 
 its plan, that this temple owes its pre-eminence among others of its 
 class, but to the marvellous elaboration and beauty of its details. The 
 effect of these, it is true, has been, in modern' times, considerably 
 marred by the repeated coats of whitewash which the present low 
 order of priests consider the most appropriate way of adding to the 
 l)eauty of the most delicate sculptures. Notwithstanding this, how- 
 ever, their outline can always be traced, and where the whitcAvash 
 lias not been applied, or has been worn off, their beauty comes out 
 with wonderful sharpness. 
 
 The following" woodcut (No. 221) will convey some idea of the 
 richness and variety of pattern displayed in the windows of the 
 porch. These are twenty-eight in number, and all are different. 
 Some are pierced with merely conventional patterns, generally star- 
 shaped, and with foliaged bands between ; others are interspersed 
 with figures and mythological subjects — the nearest one, for instance, 
 on the left, in the woodcut, represents the Yaraha Avatar, and otliers 
 
39B 
 
 CllALUKYAN iSTYLE. 
 
 Book V. 
 
 View of part of Porch at Baillilr, (From a Photograph.) 
 
 different scenes connected with the worship of Vishnu, to whom the 
 temple is dedicated. The pierced slabs themselves, however, are 
 hardly so remarkable as the richly-carved base on wdiich they rest, 
 and the deep cornice which overshadows and protects them. The 
 amount of labour, indeed, which each facet of this porch displays is 
 such as, I believe, never was bestowed on any surface of equal extent 
 in any building in the world ; and though the design is not of the 
 highest order of art, it is elegant and appropriate, and never offends 
 against good taste. 
 
 The sculptures of the base of the vimana, which have not been 
 whitew^ashed, are as elaborate as those of the porch, in some places 
 more so ; and the mode in which the undersides of the cornices have 
 been elaborated and adorned is such as is only to be found in temples 
 of this class. The upper part of the tower is anomalous. It may be 
 that it has been whitewashed and repaired till it has assumed its 
 present discordant appearance, which renders it certainly a blot on 
 the whole design. My own impression rather is, that, like many 
 others of its class, it was left unfinished, and the upper part added at 
 subsequent periods. Its original form most probably was that of the 
 little pavilions that adorn its portals, one of which is represented 
 in the following woodcut (No. 222), which has all the peculiar 
 features of the style — the flat band on each face, the three star-like 
 
 projections between, and the peculiar 
 
 ornament of the 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 HULLABln. 
 
 397 
 
 style. The plan of the great tower, and the presence of the pavilions 
 Avhere they stand, seems to prove almost beyond donbt that this was 
 the original design ; but the design 
 may have been altered as it pro- 
 gressed, or it may, as I suspect, have 
 been changed afterwards. 
 
 There seems to be little or no donbt 
 about the date of this temple. It was 
 erected by Yishnu Yerddhana, the 
 fourth king of the race, to comme- 
 morate his conversion by the cele- 
 brated Eama Anuja from the Jaina to 
 the Hindu faith. He ascended the 
 throne a.d. 1114, and his conversion 
 took place soon afterw^ards ; but it 
 is possible he did not live to finish 
 the temple, and as the capital was 
 removed by the next king to Hullabid, 
 it is possible that the vimana of the 
 great temple, and the erection of some 
 at least of the smaller shrines, may 
 belong to a subsequent period. 
 
 Hullabid. 
 
 Pavilion at Baillur. ( from a 
 I'hotograph.") 
 
 The earliest temple known to exist 
 at Hullabid is a small detached shrine, 
 
 known by the inexplicable name of Kait Iswara, dedicated to Siva, 
 and probably erected by Vijaya, the fifth king of the Bellala dynasty. 
 Its general appearance will be understood from the next woodcut 
 (No. 223). It is star-shaped in plan, with sixteen points, and had 
 a porch, now so entirely ruined and covered up with vegetation that 
 it is difficult to make out its plan. Its roof is conical, and from 
 the basement to the summit it is covered with sculptures of the 
 , very best class of Indian art, and these so arranged as not materially 
 to interfere with the outlines of the building, while they impart 
 to it an amount of richness only to be found among specimens of 
 Hindu art.^ If it were possible to illustrate this little temple in 
 
 ^ In a very few years this builling will 
 be entirely destroyed by the trees, which 
 have fastened their roots in the joints of 
 the stones. In a drawing in the Macken- 
 zie collection in the India Office, made in 
 the early part of this century, the build- 
 ing is shown entire. Twenty years ago 
 
 it was as shown at p. 398. A subsequent 
 photograph shows it almost hidden ; a few 
 years more, if some steps are not taken 
 to save it, it will have perished entirely. 
 A very small sum would save it ; and, as 
 the country is iu our charge, it is hoped 
 that the expenditure will not begrudged. 
 
398 
 
 C^HALUKYxVN STYLE. 
 
 Kait Iswani, Hullabkl. (From a Phctograph hy CaiU. Tripo.) 
 
 anything like completeuess, there is prol)ably nothing- in India whicli 
 would convey a better idea of what its architects \vere capable of 
 accomplishing. 
 
 It is, however, surpassed in size and magnificence by its neigh- 
 bour, the great temple at Hullabid, which, had it been completed, 
 is one of the buildings on which the advocate of Hindu architecture 
 would desire to take his stand. Unfortunately, it never was finished, 
 the works having been stopped by the Mahomedan conquest in 
 A.])., after tliey had been in progress apparently for eighty-six 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 HULLABlD. 
 
 899 
 
 years. It is instructive to observe that the single century that 
 elapsed between the execution of the sculpture of the Kait Iswara and 
 of this temple, was sufficient to demonstrate the decay in style which 
 we have already noticed as an inherent characteristic of Indian art. 
 The sculptures of Hullabid are inferior to those of the Kait Iswara, 
 and those of that temple, again, to those at Baillur. 
 
 The general arrangements of the building are given on the annexed 
 plan (Woodcut No. 224), from which it will be perceived that it is 
 
 224. Plan of Temple at Hullabid. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 a double temple. If it were cut into halves, each part would be com- 
 plete with a pillared porch of the same type as that at Baillur, above 
 referred to, an anterala or intermediate porch, and a sanctuary con- 
 taining a lingam, the emblem of Siva. Besides this, each half would 
 have in front of it a detached, pillared porch as a shrine for the Bull 
 Nundi, which, of course, was not required in a Vaishnava temple. 
 Such double temples are by no means uncommon in India, but the 
 two sanctuaries usually face each other, and have the porch between 
 them. Its dimensions may roughly be stated as 200 ft. square over 
 all, including all the detached pavilions. The temple itself is lOo ft. 
 
400 CHALUKYAN STYLE. Book V. 
 
 north and south, by 122 ft. east and west. Its height, as it now 
 remains, to the cornice is about 25 ft. from the terrace on which it 
 stands. It cannot, therefore, be considered by any means as a large 
 building, though large enough for effect. This, however, can hardly 
 be judged of as it now stands, for there is no doubt but that it was 
 intended to raise two pyramidal spires over the sanctuaries, four 
 smaller ones in front of these, and two more, one over each of the two 
 central pavilions. Thus completed, the temple would have assumed 
 something like the outline shown in the woodcut (No. 225), and if 
 carried out w^ith the richness of detail exhibited in the Kait Iswara 
 (Woodcut No. 223) would have made up a whole which it would be 
 difficult to rival anywhere. 
 
 The material out of which this temple is erected is an indurated 
 
 225. Restored View of Temple at Hullabid. 
 
 potstone, of volcanic origin, found in the neighbourhood. This stone 
 is said to be soft when first quarried, and easily cut in that state, 
 though hardening on exposure to the atmosphere. Even this, how- 
 ever, will not diminish our admiration of the amount of lal)our 
 bestowed on the temple, for, from the number of parts still unfinished, 
 it is evident that, like most others of its class, it was built in block, 
 and carved long after the stone had become hard. As we now see it, 
 the stone is of a pleasing creamy colour, and so close-grained as to 
 take a polish like marble. The pillars of the great Nundi pavilion, 
 which look as if they had been turned in a lathe, are so polished as 
 to exhibit what the natives call a double reflection — in other words, 
 to reflect light from each other. The enduring qualities of the stone 
 seem to be unrivalled, for, though neglected and exposed to all the 
 vicissitudes of a tropical climate for more than six centuries, the 
 
Chap. L 
 
 HULLABlD. 
 
 401 
 
 minutest details are as clear and sharp as the day they were linishcd. 
 Except from the splitting of the stone arising from bad masonry, 
 the building is as perfect as when its erection w^as stopped by the 
 Mahomedan conquest. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to illustrate completely so complicated 
 and so varied a design ; but the following woodcut (No. 22G) will 
 suffice to explain the general ordonnance of its elevation. The building 
 stands on a terrace ranging from 5 ft. to 6 ft. in height, and paved 
 with large slabs. On this stands a frieze of elephants, following all 
 the sinuosities of the plan and extending to some 710 ft. in length, 
 and containing not less than 2000 elephants, most of them with 
 riders and trappings, sculptured as only an Oriental can represent the 
 wisest of brutes. Above these is a frieze of " shardalas," or conven- 
 tional lions — the emblems of the Hoisala Bellalas who built the temple. 
 Then comes a scroll of infinite beauty and variety of design ; over 
 this a frieze of horsemen and another scroll ; over which is a bas- 
 relief of scenes from the ' Ramayana,' representing the conquest of 
 Ceylon and all the varied incidents of that epic. This, like the other, 
 is about 700 ft. long. (The frieze of the Parthenon is less than 
 550 ft.) Then come celestial beasts and celestial birds, and all along 
 the east front a frieze of groups from human life, and then a cornice, 
 with a rail, divided into panels, each containing two figures. Over 
 this are windows of pierced slabs, like those of Baillur, though not so 
 rich or varied. These windows will be observed on the light and left 
 of the woodcut. In the centre, in place of the windows, is first a 
 scroll, and then a frieze of gods and heavenly apsaras — dancing girls 
 and other objects of Hindu mythology. This frieze, which is about 
 5 ft. 6 in. in height, is continued all round the western front of the 
 building, and extends to some 400 ft. in length. Siva, with his 
 consort Parvati seated on his knee, is repeated at least fourteen times ; 
 Vishnu in his nine Avatars even oftener. Brahma occurs three or 
 four times, and every great god of the Hindu Pantheon finds his 
 place. Some of these arc carved with a minute elaboration of detail 
 which can only be reproduced by photography, and may probably be 
 considered as one of the most marvellous exhibitions of human labour 
 to be found even in the patient East. 
 
 It must not, however, be considered that it is only for patient 
 industry that this building is remarkable. The mode in which the 
 eastern face is broken up by the larger masses, so as to give height 
 and play of light and shade, is a better way of accomplishing what the 
 (xothic architects attempted by their transepts and projections. This, 
 however, is surpassed by the western front, where the variety of 
 outline, and the arrangement and subordination of the various facets 
 in which it is disposed, must be considered as a masterpiece of design 
 in its class. If the frieze of gods were spread along a plain suiface it 
 
 2 u 
 
226. 
 
 Ceatnvl Pavilion, lluliabid, iiiiist Fiuiit. (From a I'Lioiograph.) 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 HULLABlD. 
 
 403 
 
 would lose more tluiii half its effect, while the vertical angles, without 
 interfering with the continuity of the frieze, give height and strength 
 to the whole composition. The disposition of the horizontal lines of 
 the lower friezes is equally effective. Here again the artistic com- 
 bination of horizontal with vertical lines, and the play of outline and 
 of light and shade, far surpass anything in Gothic art. The effects 
 are just what the mediaeval architects were often aiming at, but which 
 they never attained so perfectly as was done at Hullabid. 
 
 Before leaving Hullabid, it may be well again to call attention 
 to the order of superposition of the different animal friezes, alluded 
 to already, when speaking of the rock-cut monastery described by 
 the Chinese Pilgrims {ante, p. 135). There, as here, the lowest were 
 the elephants ; then the lions ; above these came the horses ; then the 
 oxen ; and the fifth storey was in the shape of a pigeon. The oxen 
 here is replaced by a conventional animal, and the pigeon also by a 
 bird of a species that would puzzle a naturalist. The succession, 
 however, is the same, and, as mentioned above, the same five genera 
 of living things form the ornaments of the moonstones of the various 
 monuments in Ceylon. Sometimes in modern Hindu temples only 
 two or three animal friezes are found, but the succession is always 
 the same, the elephants being the lowest, next above them are the 
 lions, and then the horses, &c. When we know the cause of it, it 
 seems as if this curious selection and succession might lead to some 
 very suggestive conclusions. At present we can only call attention 
 to it in hopes that further investigation may afford the means of 
 solving the mystery. 
 
 If it were possible to illustrate the Hullabid temple to such an 
 extent as to render its peculiarities familiar, there would be few things 
 more interesting or more instructive than to institute a comparison 
 between it and the Parthenon at Athens. Not that the two buildings 
 are at all like one another ; on the contrary, they form the tw^o 
 opposite poles — the alpha and omega of architectural design ; but they 
 are the best examples of their class, and between these two extremes 
 lies the whole range of the art. The Parthenon is the best example 
 we know of pure refined intellectual power applied to the production 
 of an architectural design. Every part and every effect is calculated 
 with mathematical exactness, and executed with a mechanical pre- 
 cision that never was equalled. All the curves are hyperbolas, para- 
 bolas, or other developments of the highest mathematical forms— 
 every optical defect is foreseen and provided for, and every part has a 
 relation to every other part in so recondite a proportion that we feel 
 inclined to call it fanciful, because we can hardly rise to its appre- 
 ciation. The sculpture is exquisitely designed to aid the perfection 
 of the masonry— severe and godlike, but with no condescension to the 
 lower feelings of humanity. 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 
 
 CHALUKYAN STYL?:. 
 
 Book V. 
 
 The Hiillabid temple is the opposite of all this. It is regular, but 
 with a studied variety of outline in plan, and even greater variety in 
 detail. All the pillars of the Parthenon are identical, while no two 
 facets of the Indian temple are the same ; every convolution of e\ ery 
 scroll is different. No two canopies in the whole building are alike, 
 and every part exhibits a joyous exuberance of fancy scorning every 
 mechanical restraint. All that is wild in human faith or warm in 
 human feeling is found portrayed on these walls ; but of pure intellect 
 there is little — less than there is of human feeling in the Parthenon. 
 
 It would be possible to arrange all the buildings of the world 
 between these two extremes, as they tended toward the severe intel- 
 lectual purity of the one, or to the playful exuberant fancy of the 
 other ; but perfection, if it existed, would be somewhere near the 
 mean. My own impression is, that if the so-called Gothic architects 
 had been able to maintain for two or three hundred years more the 
 rate of progress they achieved between the 11th and the 14th century, 
 they might have hit upon that happy mean betw^een severe construc- 
 tive propriety and playful decorative imaghiings Avhich would have 
 combined into something more perfect than the world has yet seen. 
 The system, however, as I have endeavoured to point out elsewhere, 
 broke down before it had acquii'ed the requisite degree of refinement, 
 and that hope was blighted never to be revived. If architectm-e 
 ever again assumes an onward path, it will not be by leaning too 
 strongly towards either of the extremes just named, but by grasping 
 somewhere the happy mean between the two. 
 
 For our present pm'pose, the great value of the study of these 
 Indian examples is that it widens so immensely our basis for archi- 
 tectural criticism. It is only by becoming familiar with forms so 
 utterly dissimilar from those wx have hitherto been conversant with, 
 that we perceive hoAV narrow is the purview that is content with one 
 form or one passing fashion. By rising to this wider range we shall 
 perceive that architecture is as many-sided as human nature itself, 
 and learn how few feelings and how few aspirations of the human 
 heart and brain there are that cannot be expressed by its means. On 
 the other hand, it is only by taking this wide survey that we aj^pre- 
 ciate how worthless any product of architectural art becomes which 
 does not honestly represent the thoughts and feelings of those who 
 built it, or the height of their loftiest aspirations. 
 
 To return, however, from this digression. There are some eight 
 or nine different temples in this style illustrated by })hotographs in 
 the great work ou the ' Architecture of Dharwar and Mysore,' ^ which 
 exhibit the peculiarities of this style in more or less detail ; but none 
 
 1 Plates 1 and 32-40. rublishcd by Murray, 18G4. 
 
C^HAP. 1. 
 
 lIULLABlD. 
 
 405 
 
 of these plates are accompanied by plans or details that throw new 
 light on the subject, and none of the temples are either so large or so 
 beautiful as those just described, so that the enumeration of their 
 unfamiliar names would add very little to the interest of the subject. 
 
 It Avould be very interesting, however, if we could adduce some 
 northern examples of the style from either the capital city of the 
 Ballabhis, or some town in their kingdom. For about two centuries 
 — A.D. 500 to 700 — ^they were a leading power in India, and closely 
 allied to the Chalukyas ; and their style, if any examples could be 
 found, would throw great light on that of their southern allies just 
 at the period when it is most wanted. Unfortunately, however, even 
 the site of their capital is unknown. If it were at Wulleh, near Gogo, 
 on the shores of the Gulf of Cambay, as is generally supposed, it has 
 perished root and branch. Not one vestige of its architecture now 
 remains, and what antiquities have been found seem all to belong to 
 a much more modern period, when a city bearing that name may 
 have existed on the spot. If it were situated near Anhulwarra 
 Puttun, which seems far more probable, it has been quarried to 
 supply materials for the successive capitals which from that time 
 forward have occupied that favoured neighbourhood, and it would 
 require the keen eye of a practised archaeologist to detect Chalukyan 
 details in the temples and mosques that have been erected there 
 during the last 800 years. Nothing of the sort has yet been attempted, 
 and no materials consequently exist for the elucidation of one of the 
 most interesting chapters in the history of Indian art. 
 
406 
 
 NOETHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 BOOK VL 
 
 KOETHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory — Dravidian and Indo- Aryan Temples at Badami — Modern Temple 
 
 at Benares. 
 
 Of the three styles into which Hindu architecture naturally divides 
 itself, the northern is found spread over a far larger portion of the 
 country than either of the other two. It wants, however, the com- 
 pactness and strongly-marked individuality of the Dravidian, and 
 never was developed with that exuberance Avhich characterised the 
 southern style from the 15th to the 18th century. In many respects 
 it resembles more the Chalukyan style, the examples being small and 
 elegant, and found dispersed over the face of the country, where 
 wanted, without any apparent massing together in particular spots. 
 
 Unfortunately, we have no name which would describe the style 
 in its ethnographical and geographical relations without being open 
 to the objection of expressing either too much or too little. In this 
 respect the southern style is singularly fortunate : Dravidian correctly 
 limits it to people speaking Tamil, Telugu, or some cognate dialect ; 
 and the country where the people speaking those tongues are to be 
 found is generally and correctly known as Dravida Desa, or country 
 of the Dravidians. 
 
 The term Chalukyan, applied to the second style, is not so 
 expressive ; but it is unobjectionable, as it cannot mislead any one. 
 It is only a conventional term, derived from the principal known 
 dynasty ruling in tliat country, applied to a style occupying a border- 
 land between the other tAvo, but a land that has not yet been fully 
 surveyed, and w^hose boundaries cannot now be fixed with precision. 
 Till they are, a conventional name that does not mislead is all that 
 can be hoped for. 
 
 If it were allowable to adopt the loose phraseology of philological 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTKODUCTOEY. 
 
 407 
 
 ethiiograpliy, the term Arvan niig-lit be employed, as it is the name by 
 which the people practising this style are usually known in India, 
 and it Avould be particularly conyenient here, as it is the correct and 
 direct antithesis of Drayidian. It is eyident, ho\yeyer, that any such 
 term, if applied to architecture, ought to be descriptiye of some style 
 practised by that i>eople, whereyer they settled, all across Euroj^xi and 
 Asia, bet\yeen the shores of the Atlantic and the Bay of Bengal : ' 
 and it need hardly be said that no such style exists. If used in con- 
 junction with the adjectiye Indian or Indo, it becomes much less 
 objectionable, and has the adyantage of limiting its use to the people 
 who are generally known as Aryans in India — in other Ayords, to all 
 those parts of the country where Sanscrit was eyer spoken, or where 
 the people no\y s})eak tongues so far deriyed from Sanscrit as to be 
 distinguishable as offsets of that gi'eat family of languages. Its use, 
 in this respect, has the great conyenience that any ordinary ethno- 
 graphical or linguistic map of India is sufficient to describe the 
 boundaries of the style. It extends, like the so-called Aryan tongues, 
 from the Himalayas to the Yindhya mountains. On the east, it is 
 found preyalent in Orissa ; and on the west in ^laharastra. Its 
 southern boundary between these two proyinces will only be known 
 when the Xizam's territory is architecturally suryeyed ; but mean- 
 while Aye may rest assured that whereyer it is traced the linguistic; 
 and architectural boundary-lines will be found coincident. 
 
 Another reason why the term Aryan should be applied to the style 
 is, that the country just described. Ay here it preyails, is, and ahyays 
 has been, called Aryayarta by the natiyes themselyes. They consider 
 it as the land of the pure and just — meaning thereby the Sanscrit- 
 speaking peoples — as contradistinguished from that of the casteless 
 Dasyus, and other tribes, Ayho, though they may haye adopted 
 Brahmanical institutions, could not acquire their purity of race. 
 
 The great defect of the term, howcA^r, is that the people inha- 
 biting the north of India are not Aryans in any reasonable sense 
 of the term, whateyer philologists may say to the contrary. The 
 Sanscrit-speaking people, Ayho came into India 2U00 or it may be 3000 
 years B.C., could neyer haA'e been numerically one-half of the inha- 
 bitants of the country, except, perhaps, in some such limited district 
 as that betAyeen the Sutlej and the Jumna ; and since the Christian 
 Era no Aryan race has migrated eastAyard across the Indus, but waye 
 after Avaye of peoples of Turanian race, under the names of Yayanas, 
 
 ^ In 1848 Gen. Cunningham applied 
 the term Aryan to the architecture of 
 Kashmir, apparently on the strength of 
 a pun ('Journal of the Asiatic Society 
 of Bengal/ September, 1818, p. 242). 
 Tiiid, huwcA'cr, was limiting a term that 
 
 belongs to two continents to an insig- 
 nificant valley, in one of them. It was?, 
 besides, wholly uncalled for. The term 
 Kashmiri was amply sufficient, and all 
 that was wanted for so strictly local a 
 style. 
 
408 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 Sakas, Huiias, or Mono-ols, have poured into India. This, combined 
 with the ascendancy of the aboriginal races during the period when 
 Buddhism was the reUgion of the country, has so completely washed 
 out Aryanism from northern India during the building ages, that 
 there is probably no community there which could claim one- tenth of 
 pure Aryan blood in its veins, and with nine-tenths of impurity the 
 term is certainly a misnomer. If it were not, we would certainly 
 find some trace of external Aryan affinities in their style ; but this is 
 not the case. In fact, no style is so purely local, and, if the term 
 may be used, so aboriginal, as this. The origin of the Buddhist style 
 is obvious and unmistakeable ; that of the Dravidian and Chalukyan 
 nearly as certain, though not quite so obvious ; but the origin of the 
 northern Hindu style remains a mystery, unless, indeed, the solution 
 suggested above {ante, p. 224) be considered an explanation. It may 
 be so, to some extent ; but I confess it is to my mind neither quite 
 satisfactory nor sufficient. 
 
 The style was adopted by the Jains, who, as the successors of the 
 Buddhists, certainly were not Aryans, and several examples of the 
 peculiar forms of their vimanas, or sikras have already been given 
 (Woodcuts Nos. 137, 145, &c.) ; but it still remains to be ascertained 
 from what original form the curvilinear square tower could have 
 arisen. There is nothing in Buddhist, or any other art, at all like it. 
 It does not seem to have been derived from any wooden form we 
 know, nor from any brick or stone, or tile mode of roofing found 
 anywhere else. I have looked longer, and, perhaps, thought more, on 
 this problem than on any other of its class connected with Indian 
 architecture, but I have no more plausible suggestion to ofi^er than 
 that hinted at above. The real solution will probably be found in 
 the accidental discovery of old temples — so old as to betray in their 
 primitive rudeness the secret we are now guessing at in vain. Mean- 
 while Ave probably may remain sure that it was not an imported form, 
 but an indigenous production, and that it has no connection with the 
 architecture of any other people Aryan, or others outside of India. 
 
 The view above proposed for the origin of the style derives con- 
 siderable support from the mode in which the temples are now found 
 distributed. There are more temples now in Orissa than in all the 
 rest of Hindustan put together. They are very fi'equent in Maha- 
 rastra, and, if we admit the Jains, who adopted this style, they are ten 
 times more frecjuent in Gujerat and the valley of the Nerbudda than 
 in the valley of the Ganges, or in Aryavarta, properly so called. The 
 first and most obvious explanation of this fact might be that the 
 last-named country has for 600 years been occupied by a Mahomedan 
 empire, and they, hating idolatry and idol temples, have destroyed 
 them wherever they were so absolutely in possession of the country 
 as to be able to do so with impunity. This may be so, and it is an 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 409 
 
 argument which, with our present materials, it is difficult to disprove. 
 My impression, however, is that it does not correctly represent the 
 true state of the case. That the Moslems did ruthlessly destroy Jaina 
 temples at Ajmir, Delhi, Canouge, and elsewhere, may be quite true, 
 but then it was because their columns served so admirably for the 
 construction of their mosques. The astylar temples of the followers 
 of Siva or Vishnu could only have served as quarries, and no stones 
 that had been previously used in Hindu temples have been traced to 
 any extent in Moslem buildings. Even admitting that at Delhi or 
 Allahabad, or any of their capitals, all Hindu buildings have been 
 utilised, this hardly would have been the case at such a provincial 
 capital as Fyzabad, once Ayodhya, the celebrated capital of Dasaratha, 
 the father of the hero of the ' Ramayana,' but where not one carved 
 stone or even a foundation can be discovered that belongs to any 
 ancient building.^ The most crucial instance, however, is the city of 
 Benares, so long the sacred city, ^^cir excellence, of the Hindus, yet, so 
 far as is known, no vestige of an ancient Hindu temple exists within 
 its precincts. James Prinsep resided there for ten years, and Major 
 Kittoe, who had a keener eye than even his great master for an 
 architectural form, lived long there as an archaeologist and architect. 
 They drew and measured everything, yet neither of them ever thought 
 that they had found anything that was ancient ; and it was not till 
 Messrs. Horne and Sherring^ started the theory that the buildings 
 around the Bakariya Kund were ancient Buddhist or Hindu remains, 
 that any one pretended to have discovered any traces of antiquity in 
 that city. Tliey certainly, however, are mistaken. Every building 
 about the Bakariya Kund was not only erected by the Mahomedans, 
 but the pillars and roofing-stones, with the fewest possible exceptions, 
 were carved by them for the purposes for which they were applied. 
 They may have used the stones of some deserted monasteries, or other 
 Buddhist buildings, in the foundations or on their terraces, or for 
 little detached pavilions ; but all the architecture, properly so 
 called, is in a style invented, or at least introduced by the Pathans, 
 and brought to perfection under Akbar. That the Moslems did 
 destroy Hindu temples may be admitted, but it is not clear that this 
 was done wantonly. In all the instances which are authenticated, it 
 
 ^ ' Historical Sketch of Tahi-il Fyza- 
 bad,' by P. Carnegy, Lucknow, 1870. 
 Gen. Cunningham attempts to identify 
 the various mounds at this place with 
 those described as existing in Saketu 
 by the Buddhist Pilgrims (' Ancient 
 Geography of India,' p. 401, et seqq. ; 
 ' Archajological Reports,' vol. i, p. 293, 
 et seqq.) The truth of the matter, how- 
 ever, is, that neither Fa Hiannor Hiouen 
 
 Thsang were ever near the place. The 
 city they visited, and where the Tooth- 
 brush-tree grew, was the present city 
 of Lucknow, which was the capital of 
 the kingdom in Sakya Muni's time. 
 
 2 ' Sacred City of the Hindus,' London, 
 18G8, p. 271, et seqq. ; ' Journal of the 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxxiv. p. 
 1, et seqq. 
 
410 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-AIJYAX STYLE, 
 
 Book YI. 
 
 was to gain ready-made materials for their mosques, and it was not 
 till the time of Aurungzebe that any of their monarchs felt himself 
 sufficiently powerful or was so bigoted as to dare the power and 
 enmity of the Brahmans of Benares, by erecting a mosque on the site 
 of one of the most sacred temples as an insult and a defiance to the 
 Hindus. Even then, had such a temple as the great one at Bhu- 
 vaneswar ever existed in Benares, every stone of Avhich, from the 
 ground to the kullus, is covered with carving, it seems impossible 
 that all these carved stones should be hid away and not one now to 
 be found. I am myself personally tolerably familiar with Benares, 
 and the conviction such knowledge as I have forces on my mind is, 
 that though the city was the earliest and most important settlement 
 of the Yedic Brahmans— the sacred city of the Aryan Hindus from 
 the remotest ages — yet just from that cause it had fewer temples than 
 any of the cities inhabited by less pure races. What few fragments 
 remain are Buddhist or Jaina, and Ave must consequently ascribe the 
 absence of anything really ancient more to the non-building instincts of 
 the Brahmanical Aryans than the iconoclastic bigotry of the Moslems. 
 
 All this will be clearer as we proceed ; but meanwhile it may be 
 well to point to one or two other instances of this. The rock at 
 Gualior was one of the earliest conquests of the Moslems, and they 
 held it more or less directly for five centuries. They built palaces 
 and mosques within its precincts, yet the most conspicuous objects 
 on the hill are Hindu temples, that were erected before they obtained 
 possession of it. In like manner Chittore was thrice besieged and 
 thrice sacked by the Mahomedans, but its numerous buildings are 
 intact, and I do not recollect observing a single instance of wanton 
 destruction in the place. An even more striking instance is found 
 at Ellora. Though Aurungzebe, the most bigoted of his race, built 
 his capital in its neighbourhood, and lies buried within sight of the 
 caves, there is no proof that he or any of his race were the authors 
 of any of the damage that has been done to the idols there. Prac- 
 tically, they are intact, or ha\;e only received such mutilation as is 
 easily accounted for from other causes. 
 
 It would be tedious to attempt it, but, fortunately, it is not 
 necessary for our present purposes to go into the whole evidence ; but 
 I may state that the impression I have derived from such attention 
 as I have been able to give to the subject is, that the absence of old 
 temples in northern India is more owing to ethnographic than to 
 religious causes. It seems more probable that they never existed 
 than that they were destroyed. No temples are mentioned in the 
 Yedas or the older Indian writings, and none were required for the 
 simple quasi-domestic rites of their worship ; and so long as they 
 remained pure^ no temples were built. On the other hand, it appears 
 as if between the fall of Buddhism and the advent of the Moslems 
 
Chap. T. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 411 
 
 the Jaiiis had stepped in with a readj^-made religion and style, and 
 the followers of Siva and Vishnu had not time to develope anything 
 very important in these northern provinces before it was too late. 
 
 If these views are correct, it is evident that though we may use 
 the term Indo-Aryan as the most convenient to describe and define 
 the limits of the northern style, the name must not be considered as 
 implying that the Aryans, as such, had anything to do either with 
 its invention or its use. All that it is intended to convey is, that it 
 
 227. Dravidian and Iiido-Aryau Temples at Badanii. (From a Photograph ) 
 
 was invented and used in a country which they once occupied, and 
 in which they have left a strong impress of their superior mental 
 power and (civilization. 
 
 If this reservation is always borne in mind, I know of no term 
 that more conveniently expresses the characteristics of this style, 
 and it is consequently proposed to ado]^t it in the following pages 
 as the name of the style that prevailed among the Hindus in 
 northern India, between the Yindhya and Himalayan mountains, 
 from the 7th century to the present day. 
 
 The general appearance of the northern temples, and the points 
 of difference between them and those of the south, will be appreciated 
 from the above woodcut (No. 227), representing two very ancient 
 temples, built in juxtaposition, at Badami, in Dharwar. That on 
 the left is a complete specimen of Dravidian architecture. There is 
 the same pyramidal form, the same distinction of storeys, the same 
 cells on each, as we find at Mahavellipore (Woodcut No. 181), at 
 
412 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 Taiijore (Woodcut No. 191), or at Madura (Woodcut No. 188). In 
 the light-hand temple, the ludo-Aryaii, on the contrary, the outline 
 
 of the pyramid is curvilinear ; no trace 
 of division of storeys is observable, no 
 reminiscence of habitations, and no 
 pillars or pilasters anywhere. Even in 
 its modern form (Woodcut No. 228), 
 it still retains the same characteristics, 
 and all the lines of the pyramid or sikra 
 are curvilinear, the base polygonal. No 
 trace of utilitarianism is visible any- 
 where. If Woodcut No. 228 is com- 
 pared with that at page 831 (Woodcut 
 No. 183), the two styles will be ex- 
 hibited in their most modern garbs, 
 when, after more than 1000 years' prac- 
 tice, they have receded furthest from 
 the forms in which we first meet them 
 Yet the Madras temple retains the 
 
 228. Modern Temple at Benares 
 
 229. Diagram Plan of Hindu Temple. 
 
 memory of its storeys and its cells. The Bengal example recalls 
 nothing known in civil or domestic architecture. 
 
 Neither the pyramid nor the tumulus affords any suggestion as to 
 the origin of the form, nor does the tower, either square or circular ; 
 nor does any form of civil or domestic architecture. It does not seem 
 to be derived from any of these ; and, whether we consider it as 
 beautiful or otherwise, it seems certainly to have been invented 
 principally at least for assthetic purposes, and to have retained that 
 impress from the earliest till the present day. 
 
 The plan of a northern temple is always a square internally, and 
 generally the same form is retained in the exterior ; but very rarely, 
 if ever, without some addition. In some instances it is only a thin 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 413 
 
 parallel projection, as at A in the diagram (No. 229). Sometimes it 
 has two such slices added, as at B ; but in the oldest examples these 
 are only half the thickness shown here. From this they proceeded 
 to three projections, as at C, the oldest examples being the thinnest. 
 In more modern times the thickness of the projections became equal 
 to their distance from each other, as at D ; so that the temple became 
 in plan practically a square, the sides of which were parallel to the 
 diagonal of the original square or to the line E F G. Even, however, 
 when this was the case, the cell always retained its original form 
 and direction, and the entrance and windows kept their position on 
 what had thus practically become the angles of the building. This is 
 the case with the temple at Benares, shown in Woodcut No. 228, and 
 generally also with the Jaina temples, and especially the case with 
 the temple on the Takht-i-Suleiman at Kashmir. Although the 
 depth and width of these offsets vary considerably even in the same 
 design, the original square is never lost sight of ; the four central 
 angles, as at F, being always larger and more strongly accentuated 
 than the others, and their line is always carried through to the 
 summit of the pyramid. 
 
 It will be observed that by this process we have arrived at the 
 same form or plan for a solid building that was attained by the 
 arrangement of pillars described above, page 216. In fact, the two 
 forms were elaborated simultaneously, and were afterwards constantly 
 used together. My impression is, that the pillared arrangement is the 
 oldest, and led to the deepening of the additions to the solid square till 
 the two became identical in plan. Whether this w^ere so or not, it is 
 one of the most distinguishing features of northern Hindu architecture. 
 
 In the very centre of India, near a place marked Adjmirghur on 
 the map, is a sacred tank, from which it is said that the Soane flows 
 to the north, the Mahanuddi to Cuttack in the Bay of Bengal, and 
 the Nerbudda to the Indian Ocean. All these rivers certainly have 
 their sources in the hill. The spot has always been held sacred, and 
 is surrounded by temples — as far as can be gathered from the im- 
 perfect accounts available — of great age. On the south and east of 
 this hill extends the great and fertile table-land of Chutteesghur. 
 This is now, and has always been, so far as our knowledge extends, 
 one of the principal seats of the native tribes. My conviction is, that 
 if that country and the surrounding valleys could be examined, much 
 older forms of these temples might be discovered — some perhaps so 
 old as to betray the secret of their origin ; but, till this is done, the 
 Bengali devala must be relegated — like the Irish round towers^ — to 
 the category of unexplained architectural puzzles. 
 
 1 Curiously cuoiigh they muko their i time, aud both then complete and per- 
 appearauce on the stage about the same | feet iu all their details. 
 
414 
 
 NOirniERN OPi INDO-AKYAX STYLE, 
 
 I'hx.k Y1. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 OR IS S A. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 History — Temples at Bliiiv;mcswar, Kaiiaruc, Piiri, Jajcpnr, and Ciittack. 
 
 The two provinces of India, where the Iiido-Aryan style can he 
 studied with the greatest advantage, are Dharwar on the west, and 
 Orissa on the east coast. The former has the advantage of being 
 mixed up with the Dravidian style, so as to admit of synonyms and 
 contrasts that are singularly interesting, both from an ethnological 
 and historical point of view. In Orissa, on the contrary, the style is 
 perfectly pure, being unmixed with any other, and thus forms one of 
 the most compact and homogeneous architectural groups in India, and 
 as such of more than usual interest, and it is consequently in this 
 province that the style can be studied to the greatest advantage. 
 
 One of the most marked and striking peculiarities of Orissan 
 architecture is the marked and almost absolute contrast it presents to 
 the style of the Dravidian at the southern end of the peninsula. The 
 curved outline of the towers or vimanas has already been remarked 
 upon, but, besides this, no Orissan towers present the smallest trace 
 of any storeyed or even step-like arrangement, which is so universal 
 further south, and the crowning member is never a dome, nor a remi- 
 niscence of one. Even more remarkable than this, is the fact that the 
 Orissan style is almost absolutely astylar. In some of the most 
 modern examples, as for instance in the porches added to the temples 
 at Bhuvanesw^ar and Puri in the 12th and 14th centuries, w^e do find 
 pillars, but it is probably correct to state that, among the 500 or 600^ 
 original shrines at Bhuvaneswar, not one pillar is to be found. This 
 is the more remarkable, because, within sight of that capital, the 
 caves in the Udayagiri {ante^ p. 140) are adorned with pillars to such 
 an extent as to show that their forms must have been usual and well 
 known in the province before any of the temples were constructed. 
 When we recollect that no great temple in the south was considered 
 
 ^ ' Hunter's Orissa,' vol. i. p. 233. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 ORTSSA. 
 
 415 
 
 complete without its liall of lOOO columns, and many besides 
 this had Imndreds dispersed about the place, aud used for every 
 conceivable purpose, the contrast is more striking, and shows 
 what a complete barrier the Chalukyas, whoever they were, in- 
 terposed between the two races on this side of India, though not 
 on the other. As a rule, every Orissan temple consists of tAvo 
 apartments, similar in plan, as shown in the diagram (Woodcut 
 No. 124). The inner one is generally a cube, surmounted by a tower, 
 here called Bara Deul, or Dewail, corresponding with the vimana of 
 the south, and in it the image or images of the gods are enshrined ; 
 in front of this is a porch, called Jagamohan, equally a cube or ap- 
 proaching it, and surmounted by a pyramidal roof of varying pitch. 
 The peculiarities are illustrated in the diagram (Woodcut No. 124) 
 just referred to, which purports to be an elevation of the celebrated 
 Black Pagoda at Kanaruc. It is only, how^ever, an eye-sketch, and 
 cannot be depended upon for minute detail and correctness, but it is 
 sufficient to explain the meaning of the text. Sometimes one or tAvo 
 more porches w^ere added in front of this one, and called Nat and 
 Bhog mandirs (mantapas), but these, in almost every instance, are 
 afterthoughts, and not parts of the original design. Be this as it 
 may, in every instance in Orissa the tower with its porch forms the 
 temple. If enclosed in a wall, they are always to be seen outside. 
 There are gateways, it is true, but they are always subordinate, and 
 there are none of those accretions of enclosures and gopuras that form 
 so marked a characteristic of the southern style. There generally are 
 other shrines within the enclosures of the great temples, but they are 
 always kept subordinate, and the temple itself towers over everything 
 to even a greater extent than that at Tanjore (Woodcut No. 191), 
 giving a unity and purpose to the whole design, so frequently wanting 
 in the south. 
 
 Other contrasts will come out as we proceed, but, in the mean- 
 while, few examples bring out more clearly the vast importance of 
 ethnography as applied to architecture. That two people, inhabiting 
 practically the same country, and worshipping the same gods under 
 the guidance of the same Brahmanical priesthood, should have adopted 
 and adhered to tw^o such dissimilar styles for their sacred buildings, 
 shows as clearly as anything can well do how much race has to do 
 with these matters, and how little we can understand the causes of 
 such contrasts, unless we take affinities or differences of race into 
 consideration. 
 
 HiSTOEY. 
 
 Thanks to the industry of Stirling and others, the main outlines 
 of the history of Orissa have been ascertained Avith sufficient accuracy 
 to enable us to describe its architecture AAithout the fear of making 
 
416 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book Y1. 
 
 any important chronological blunders. It is trm^ that the dates of 
 only two of its temples have been ascertained with tolerable certainty. 
 The great one at Bhuvaneswar is said to have been erected in or 
 about A.I). G37, and that at Puri in a.d. 1174, nearly the first and the 
 last of the series. My impression is that the series may be carried 
 back to about the year 500, but in the other direction it can hardly 
 be extended beyond the year 1200, but within these limits it seems 
 possible to arrange the sequence of all the temples in the province 
 without much difficulty, and to ascertain their dates with at least 
 a fair approximate certainty.^ 
 
 With the exception of the great temple of Juganat at Puri, all the 
 buildings described in this chapter were erected under the great 
 Kesari dynasty, or " Lion line," as Hunter calls them. Few of the 
 particulars of their history have been recorded, but we know at least 
 the date of their accession, a.d. 473, and that in a.d. 1181 they were 
 succeeded by a new dynasty, called Ganga Yansa, the third of whom 
 was the builder of the great Puri Temple. 
 
 As mentioned in a previous part of this work, Orissa was princi- 
 pally Buddhist, at least from the time of Asoka, B.C. 250, till the Gupta 
 era, a.d. 319, when all India was distracted by wars connected with 
 the tooth relic, which was said to have been preserved at Puri — then 
 in consequence called Danta Pura — till that time. If the invaders 
 came by sea, as it is said they did, they probably were either Mughs 
 
 ^ I regret very much being obliged to j 
 send this chapter to press before the i 
 receipt of the second volume of Babu ' 
 Rajendra Lala Mittra's ' Antiquities of j 
 Orissa.' He accompanied a Government 
 expedition to that province in 1868 as 
 archaeologist, and being a Brahman and 
 an excellent Sanscrit scholar, he has had 
 opportunities of ascertaining facts such as 
 no one else ever had. Orissa was the 
 first province I visited in India for the 
 purposes of antiquarian research, and 
 like every one else, I was then quite 
 unfamiliar with the forms and affinities 
 of Hindu architecture. Photographs 
 have enabled me to supply to some ex- 
 tent the deficiency of my knowledge at 
 that time ; but unless photographs are 
 taken by a scientific man for scientific 
 purposes, they do not supply the place of 
 local experience. 1 feel confident that, 
 on the spot, I could now ascertain the 
 sequence of the temples with perfect 
 certainty ; but whether the Babu has 
 sufficient knowledge for that purpose 
 remains to be seen. His first volume 
 
 is very learned, and may be very inter- 
 esting, but it adds little or nothing to 
 what we already knew of the history of 
 Orissan architecture. 
 
 I have seen two plates of plans of 
 temples intended for the second volume. 
 They are arranged without reference 
 either to style or dates, so they convey 
 very little information, and the photo- 
 graphs prove them to be so incorrect that 
 no great dependence can be placed upon 
 them. The t^xt, which I have not seen, 
 may remedy all this, and I hope will, but 
 if he had made any great discoveries, 
 such as the error in tlie date of the 
 Black Pagoda, they most probably would 
 have been hinted at in the first volume, 
 or have leaked out in some of the Babu's 
 numerous publications during the last 
 seven or eight years. 
 
 Mr. Hunter, who was in constant com- 
 munication with the Babu, adds very 
 little in his work on Orissa to what we 
 learnt long ago from Stirling's, which up 
 to this hour remains the classical work on 
 the province and its antiquities. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 ORISSA. 
 
 417 
 
 from Arrakaii, or the Burmese of Pegu, and if their object was to 
 obtain possession of the tooth, they as probably were Buddhists ; but 
 as they have left no buildings that have yet been identified as theirs, 
 it is impossible now to determine this. Whoever they were, they 
 were driven out, after 1-46 years' possession, and were succeeded in or 
 about A.D. 473 by Yayati, the first of the Kesari line.^ The annals 
 of the race unfortunately do not tell us who the Kesaris were, or 
 whence they came. From the third king before the Yavana invasion 
 being called Bato Kesari, it seems probable it may have been only a 
 revival of the old dynasty ; and from the circumstances narrated 
 regarding the expulsion of these strangers, it looks as if it were due 
 more to a local rising than to extraneous aid. If they came from the 
 interior, it was from the north-west, where a similar style seems to 
 have prevailed. Their story, as told in their own annals, states that 
 the first, or one of the first kings of the race, imported, about the year 
 A.D. 500, a colony — 10,000 Brahmans — from Ayodhya, and they being 
 all bigoted Saivites, introduced that religion into the province, and 
 rooted it so firmly there, that it was the faith of the land so long as the 
 Kesaris ruled.^ If we read 100 as the number of the Brahmans, and 
 A.D. 600 as the date of their advent, we shall probably be nearer the 
 truth ; but be this as it may, these Brahmans were settled at Jajepur, 
 not at Bhuvaneswar, and soon came into conflict with a class of " Old 
 Brahmans," who had been established in the province long before 
 their arrival. Mr. Hunter supposes them to have been Buddhists — 
 Brahmans converted to the Buddhist faith — which seems probable, 
 but if this were so, they would certainly have become Yaishnavas on 
 the decline of that religion, and such, I fancy, was certainly the case 
 in tliis instance. 
 
 The architecture of the province seems to me to confirm this view 
 of the case, for, unless I am very much mistaken, the oldest temple 
 in the city of Bhuvaneswar is that called Parasurameswara (Woodcut 
 No. 230), which from its name, as well as the subjects portrayed on 
 its walls, I would take to be certainly Yaishnava. It may, however, 
 belong to the preceding dynasty. Its style is certainly different from 
 the early Kesari temples, and more like what we find in Dharwar 
 and at other places outside the province. If, indeed, it were not 
 found in a city which there seems every reason for thinking was 
 founded by the Lion kings, I would not hesitate to give it a date of 
 A.D. 450, instead of a.d. 500. It is not large, being only 20 ft. square^ 
 
 ^ These particulars are taken, of course, 
 from Stirling, 'Asiatic Kesearcbes,' vol. 
 XV. pp. 263, 264. The whole evidence 
 was embodied in a paper on the Amra- 
 vati tope, ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
 
 Society,' vol. iii. (N.S.), p. 149, et seqq. 
 
 2 Hunter's ' Orissa,' vol. i. 4). 238. 
 
 ' This dimension is from Babu Eajen- 
 dra's ' Orissan Antiquities,' vol. i. p. 41, 
 but I don t like it. 
 
 2 E 
 
418 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 230. Temple of Parasurameswara. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 at its base ; but its sculptures are cut with a delicacy seldom sur- 
 passed, and there is an appropriateness about the ornaments greater 
 than is seen in most of the temples. 
 
 The temple itself is apparently 38 ft. in height, and from the 
 summit to the base it is covered with sculptures of the most elaborate 
 character, but still without detracting from the simplicity and vigour 
 of its outline. 
 
 If I am correct in assigning so early a date to the tower of this 
 temple, it is evident that the porch must be a subsequent addition : 
 in the first place, because it fits badly to the tower, but more 
 because the necessities of its construction require pillars internally, 
 and they do not occur in Orissan architecture till a long subsequent 
 date. It may, however, be that if this is really the oldest temple of 
 its class in Orissa, its design may be copied from a foreign example, 
 and borrowed, with all its peculiarities, from a style practised else- 
 where. Be that as it may, it is interesting as showing the mode 
 by which light was sometimes introduced into the porches of these 
 temples between the ends of the beams of the stone roof. As the 
 sloping roofing-stones project considerably beyond the openings, a 
 subdued light is introduced, without either the direct rays of the 
 sun, or the rain being able to penetrate. 
 
Chap. II. ORISSA. " 419 
 
 The temple of Muktcswara (Woodcut No. 231) is very similar 
 in general design to that of Parasurameswara, but even richer and 
 more varied in detail, and its porch partakes more of the regular 
 Orissan type. It has no pillars internally, and the roof externally 
 
 231. Temple of Mukteswara. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 exhibits at least the germ of what we find in the porches of the 
 great temple at Bhuvaneswar and the Black Pagoda. Its dimensions 
 are somewhat less than those of the last temple described, but in its 
 class it may be considered the gem of Orissan architecture. 
 
 2 E 2 
 
420 
 
 NORTHEFtN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book YI. 
 
 The style of these temples differs so much from that of the next 
 group, of which the great temple is the typical example, that I was 
 at one time inclined to believe they may have belonged to different 
 religions — this one to the Yaishnava, that to the Saiva. I have no 
 means, however, of verifying this conjecture, and it is not always 
 easy to do so even on the spot, for in India there is nothing so 
 common as temples originally destined for the worship of one deity 
 being afterwards devoted to that of another. Whatever may be the 
 case in this instance, it is well to bear this in mind, as, whenever we 
 have a complete history of Orissan architecture, these distinctions 
 may lead to most important historical deductions. 
 
 Besides these, there are several other temples which, from the 
 style of their architecture, I would feel inclined to place as earlier 
 than the great temple. One is known as Sari Deul, near the great 
 temple, and another, a very complete and beautiful example, is called 
 Moitre {query Mittra) Serai, w^hich is almost a duplicate, on a small 
 scale, of the great temple, except that it lias no repetition of itself on 
 itself. As above pointed out, almost all the ornaments on the fagades 
 of Buddhist temples are repetitions of themselves ; but the Hindus 
 do not seem to have adopted this system so early, and the extent 
 to w^hich it is carried is generally a fair test of the age of Hindu 
 temples. In the great Pagoda there are eight copies of itself on each 
 face, and in the Raj Bani the system is carried so far as almost to 
 obliterate the original form of the temple. 
 
 Geeat Temple, Bhuyaneswar. 
 
 The great temple at Bhuvaneswar is one of the landmarks in the 
 style. It seems almost certainly to have been built by Lelat Indra 
 Kesari, who reigned from a.d. 617 to a.d. 657, and, taking it all in all, 
 it is perhaps the finest example of a purely Hindu temple in India. 
 
 Though not a building of the largest class, the dimensions of this 
 temple in plan are, so far as I can make out, far from contemptible. 
 The whole length is nearly 300 ft., with a breadth varying from 
 60 ft. to 75 ft. The original temple, however, like almost all those 
 in Orissa, consisted only of a vimana, or Bara Dewul, and a porch 
 or Jagamohan, shaded darker in the plan (Woodcut No. 232), and 
 they extend only to 160 ft. The Nat and Bhog-mandirs, shaded 
 lighter, were added in the beginning of the 12th century. Though 
 several temples have all these four apartments, so far as I can make 
 out, none w^ere originally erected with them. The true Orissan 
 temple is like that represented in Woodcut No. 124, a building with 
 two apartments only, and these astylar, or practically so : the pillars 
 were only introduced in the comparatively modern additions. 
 
 The outline of this temple in elevation is not, at first sight. 
 
Chap. IT. 
 
 GREAT TEMPLE AT BHU VANES WAR. 
 
 421 
 
 pleasing to the European eye ; but when once 
 to it, it has a singularly solemn and 
 pleasing aspect. It is a solid, and would 
 be a plain square tower, but for the 
 slight curve at the top, which takes off 
 the hardness of the outline and int^*^- 
 duces pleasingly the circular crown i 
 object (Woodcut No. 233). Ascompai I 
 with that at Tanjore (Woodcut No. 19j.;, 
 it certainly is by far the finer design 
 of the two. In plan the southern ex- 
 ample is the larger, being 82 ft. square. 
 This one is only 6G ft.^ from angle to 
 angle, though it is 75 ft. across the 
 central projection. Their height is 
 nearly the same, both of them being 
 over 180 ft., but the upper part of the 
 northern tower is so much more solid, 
 that the cubic contents of the two are 
 probably not very different. Besides, 
 however, greater beauty in form, the 
 northern example excels the other im- 
 measurably in the fact that it is wholly 
 in stone from the base to the apex, and 
 — what, unfortunately, no woodcut can 
 show — every inch of the surface is 
 covered with carving in the most ela- 
 borate manner. It is not only the divi- 
 sions of the courses, the roll-mouldings 
 on the angles, or the breaks on the face 
 of the tower : these are sufficient to re- 
 lieve its flatness, and with any other 
 people they would be deemed suffi- 
 cient ; but every individual stone in 
 the tower has a pattern carved upon it, 
 not so as to break its outline, but suffi- 
 cient to relieve any idea of monotony. 
 It is, perhaps, not an exaggeration to 
 say that if it would take a sum — say 
 a lakh of rupees or pounds — to erect 
 such a building as this, it would take 
 
 the 
 
 eye 
 
 is accustomed 
 
 232. Plan of Great Temple at Bhuvanes- 
 war. (Compiled partly from Plan in 
 Babu Rajendra's work, but corrected 
 from Photographs. (Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.) 
 
 * This and the dimensions in plan they are only round numbers, and 
 generally are taken from a table in Babu certainly incorrect, but they suffice for 
 Rajendra's work, p. 41. I am afraid ! comparison. 
 
422 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 three lakhs to carve it as this one is carved. Whether such an 
 outlay is judicious or not, is another question. Most people 
 would be of opinion that a building four times as large would 
 produce a greater and more imposing architectural effect ; but 
 
 233. View of Great Temple, Bhu vanes war. CFrom a Photograph.) 
 
 this is not the way a Hindu ever looked at the matter. Infinite 
 labour bestowed on every detail was the mode in which he thought 
 he could render his temple most worthy of the deity ; and, 
 whether he was right or wrong, the effect of the whole is cer- 
 
Chap. U. GRKAT TEMPLE AT BHl' VANESWAR. 
 
 423 
 
 tainly marvellonslY beautiful. It is not. however, in those parts 
 of the building shown in the woodcut that the greatest amount 
 of carving or design was bestowed, but in the perpendicular parts 
 seen from the courtyard (^Woodcut No. 284). There the sculpture 
 is of a very high order 
 and great beaut v of 
 design. This, however, 
 ought not to smprise 
 us when we recollect 
 that at Amravati, cn 
 the banks of the Kist- 
 nah, not far from the 
 southern boimdarv of 
 this kingdom, there 
 stood a temple more 
 delicate and elaborate 
 in its carvings than 
 any other building in 
 India,^ and that this 
 temple had been finished 
 probably not more than 
 a century before th- 
 Kesari dynasty was 
 established in Orissa : 
 and though the his- 
 tory of art in India is 
 written in decay, there 
 was not much time for 
 decline, and the dynasty 
 was new and visrorous 
 
 -ISL. Lower {«n of Great lover at l>iiavauesw«r. 
 when this temple was (From a PhotosRaph.) 
 
 erected. 
 
 Attached to the Jagamohan of this temple is a Xat-mandir, or 
 dancing-haD, whose date is, fortimately, perfectly well known, and 
 enables us to measure the extent of this decay with almost absolute 
 certainty. It was erected by the wife of Salini between the years 
 1099 and 1104.^ It is elegant, of course, for art had not yet 
 perished among the Hindus, but it differs from the style of the porch 
 to which it is attached more than the leanest example of Tudor art 
 differs from the vigour and grace of the buildings of the early 
 Edwards. All that power of expression is gone which enabled the 
 early architects to make small things look gigantic from the exu- 
 berance of labour bestowed upon theuL A glance at the Xat-mandir 
 
 » ' Tree and Serpent Worship/ plate = iS-L ^. - Hunter's ' Orissa,' voL i. p. 237. 
 
424 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VL 
 
 is sufficient for the mastery of its details. A week's study of the 
 Jagamohan would every hour reveal new beauties. 
 
 The last Avoodcut may convey some idea of the extent to which 
 the older parts were elaborated : but even the photograph hardly 
 enables any one not familiar with the style to realise how exquisite 
 the combination of solidity of mass with exubeiance of ornament 
 really is. 
 
 During the four centuries and a half which elapsed between the 
 erection of these two porches, Bhuvaneswar was adorned with some 
 hundreds of temples, some dozen of which have been photographed, 
 but hardly in sufficient detail to enable the student to classify them 
 according to their dates. On the spot ^ it probably would be easy for 
 any one trained to this class of study, and it would be a great gain if 
 it were done. The group nearest in richness and interest is that at 
 Khajuraho, mentioned above (p. 245) ; but that group belongs to an 
 age just subsequent ^ to that of the Bhuvaneswar group, and only 
 enables us to see that some of the most elaborate of the Cuttack 
 temples may extend to the year 1000 or thereabouts. It is to this 
 date that I would ascribe the erection of the Raj Rani temple. The 
 names of those of which I have photographs, with their approximate 
 data, are given in the list at the end of this chapter ; but I refrain 
 from burdening the text with their unpronounceable names, as I 
 despair, by any reasonable number of woodcuts, of illustrating their 
 marvellous details in anything like a satisfactory 
 manner. 
 
 The Raj Rani temple, as will be seen from the 
 woodcut (No. 235), is small ; but the plan is ar- 
 ranged so as to give great variety and play of 
 light and shade, and as the details are of the most 
 exquisite beauty, it is one of the gems of Orissan 
 art. The following woodcut (No. 236), without 
 attempting to illustrate the art, is quoted as cha- 
 racteristic of the emblems of the Kesari line. 
 Plan of Rnj Rani Temple. Below the pillar are three kneeling elephants, over 
 
 (Compiled from a Plan by i • n . , , ,-, , , „ , , 
 
 Babu R,ijendra, and cor- which domiuecr thrcc lious, tlic cmblems of the race. 
 
 s2ieVo'ft?to\°hr^^^^''* Above this a Nagni, or female Naga, with her 
 seven-headed snake-hood, adorns the upper part of 
 the pillar. They are to be found, generally in great numbers, in almost 
 all the temples of the province. Over the doorway are the Nava 
 
 1 
 
 ^ It is to be hoped that Babu Rajen- 
 dra's book may to some extent remedy 
 this deficiency. In the part, however, 
 now pubUslied, he docs not promise that 
 
 this will be the case. 
 
 2 Cunningham's 'Reports,' vol. ii. p. 
 41G. 
 
Chap. IT. 
 
 BHUVANESWAR. 
 
 425 
 
 Graha, or nine planets, which are almost more universal, both in 
 temples dedicated to Vishnu and in those belonging to the worship 
 of Siva. Indeed, in so far as any external signs are concerned, 
 there does not seem to be any means by which the temples of the 
 two religions can be dis- 
 tinguished from one an- 
 other. Throughout the 
 province, from the time 
 we first meet it, about 
 A.D. 500, till it dies out 
 about A.D. 1200, the style 
 seems to be singularly 
 uniform in its features, 
 and it requires consider- 
 able familiarity with it to 
 detect its gradual progress 
 towards decay. Notwith- 
 standing this, it is easy to 
 perceive that there are two 
 styles of architecture in 
 Orissa, w^hich ran side by 
 side with one another 
 during the whole course. 
 The first is represented 
 by the temples of Parasu- 
 rameswara and Muktes- 
 wara (Woodcuts No. 230, 
 231) ; the second by the great temple (Woodcut No. 233). They are not 
 antagonistic, but sister styles, and seem certainly to have had at least 
 partially different origins. We can find affinities with that of the 
 Mukteswara group in Dharwar and most parts of northern India : but 
 I know of nothing exactly like the great temple anywhere else. It 
 seems to be quite indigenous, and if not the most beautiful, it is the 
 simplest and most majestic of the Indo-Aryan styles. It may look 
 like riding a hobby to death, but I cannot help suspecting a wooden 
 origin for it — the courses look so much more like carved logs of 
 wood laid one upon another than courses of masonry, and the mode 
 and extent to which they are carved certainly savours of the same 
 material. There is a mosque built of Deodar pine in Kashmir, to be 
 referred to hereafter, which, certainly seems to favour this idea ; but 
 till we find some older temples than any yet discovered in Orissa 
 this must remain in doubt. Meanwhile it may be well to point out 
 that about one-half of the older temples in Orissa follow the type of 
 the great temple, and one-half that of Mukteswara ; but the two 
 get confounded together in the 8th and 0th centuries, and are mixed 
 
426 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 together into what may almost be called a new style in the Raj Rani 
 and temples of the lOth and 11th centmies. 
 
 Kanaruc. 
 
 With, perhaps, the single exception of the temple of Juganat at 
 Puri, there is no temple in India better known and about which more 
 has been written than the so-called Black Pagoda at Kanaruc ; nor 
 is there any one whose date and dedication is better known, if 
 the literature on the subject could be depended upon. Stirling 
 does not hesitate in asserting that the present edifice, "as is well 
 known, was built by the Raja Langora Narsingh Deo, in a.d. 
 1241, under the superintendence of his minister Shibai Sautra;"^ 
 and every one who has since written on the subject adopts this 
 date without hesitation, ^ and the native records seem to confirm it. 
 Complete as this evidence, at first sight, appears, I have no hesitation 
 in putting it asido, for the simple reason that it seems impossible 
 — after the erection of so degraded a specimen of the art as the 
 temple of Puri (a.d. 1174) — the style ever could have reverted to 
 anything so beautiful as this. In general design and detail it is so 
 similar to the Jagamohan of the great temple at Bhuvaneswar that 
 at first sight I should be inclined to place it in the same century ; 
 but the details of the tower exhibit a progress towards modern forms 
 which is unmistakeable,^ and render a difference of date of two or 
 possibly even three centuries more probable. Yet the only written 
 authority I know of for such a date is that given by Abul Fazl. 
 After describing the temple, and ascribing it to Raja ISTarsingh Deo, 
 in A.D. 1241, with an amount of detail and degree of circumstantiality 
 which has deceived every one, he quietly adds that it is said " to be 
 a work of 730 years' antiquity." * In other words, it was erected in 
 A.D. 850 or A.D. 873, according to the date we assume for the com- 
 position of the Ayeen Akbery. If there were a king of that name 
 among the Rois faineants of the Kesari line, this would suffice ; but 
 no such name is found in the lists.^ This, however, is not final ; for 
 in an inscription on the Brahmaneswar temple the queen, who built 
 it, mentions the names of her husband, Udyalaka, and six of his 
 
 * * Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. 327. 
 
 2 Myself included in the number ! but, 
 as explained above, I had no knowledge 
 of the style when I visited Orissa, and 
 had no photographs to illustrate the 
 architecture of temples to which I was 
 not then allowed access. 
 
 2 When I visited Orissa in 1837 and 
 sketched this temple, a great part of the 
 tower was still stanliug. See ' Pictu- 
 
 resque Illustrations of Indian Architec- 
 ture,' part iii. It has since fallen entirely, 
 but whether from stress of weather or by 
 aid from the Public Works Department 
 is by no means clear. 
 
 * 'Ayeen Akbery,' Gladwin's trans- 
 lation, vol. ii. p. 16. 
 
 ^ Hunter's 'Orissa,' Appendix vii. p. 
 187, et seqq. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 KANARUC. 
 
 427 
 
 ancestors ; but neither he nor any of them are to be found in the 
 lists except the first, Janmejaya, and it is doubtful whether even he 
 was a Kesari king or the hero of the * Mahabharata.' ^ In all this 
 uncertainty we have really nothing to guide us but the architecture, 
 and its testimony is so distinct that it does not appear to me doubtful 
 that this temple really belongs to the latter half of the 9th century. 
 
 Another point of interest connected with this temple is, that all 
 authors, apparently following Abul Fazl, agree that it was like the 
 temple of Marttand, in Kashmir (ante, p. 287), dedicated to the sun. 
 I have never myself seen a Sun temple in India, and being entirely 
 ignorant of the ritual of the sect, I would not wish to appear to 
 dogmatise on the subject ; but I have already expressed my doubts 
 as to the dedication of Marttand, and I may be allowed to repeat 
 them here. The traces of Sun worship in Bengal are so slight that 
 they have escaped me, as they have done the keen scrutiny of the 
 late H. H. Wilson.^ 
 
 In the Yedas it appears that Vishnu is called the Sun, or it may 
 be the sun bears the name of Vishnu ; ^ and this may account, 
 perhaps, for the way in which the name has come to be applied to 
 this temple, which differs in no other respect from the other temples 
 of Vishnu found in Orissa. The architectural forms are identical ; 
 they are adorned with the same symbols. The Nava Graha, or nine 
 planets, adorn the lintel of this as of all the temples of the Kesari 
 line. The seven-headed serpent-forms are found on every temple 
 of the race, from the great one at Bhuvaneswar to this one, and it 
 is only distinguishable from those of Siva by the obscenities that 
 disfigure a part of its sculptures. This is, unfortunately only too 
 common a characteristic of Vaishnava temples all over India, but is 
 hardly, if ever, found in Saiva temples, and never was, so far as I 
 know, a characteristic of the worship of the Sun god. 
 
 Architecturally, the great beauty of this temple arises from the 
 form of the design of the roof of the Jagamohan, or porch — the only 
 part now remaining. Both in dimensions and detail, it is extremely 
 like that of the great temple at Bhuvaneswar, but it is here divided 
 into three storeys instead of two, which is an immense improvement, 
 and it rises at a more agreeable angle. The first and second storeys 
 consist of six cornices each, the third of five only, as shown in the 
 
 * • Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 557. 
 
 2 ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xvi. p, 25. 
 
 ' In his ' Antiquities of Orissa ' (p. 151), 
 Babu Rajendra sums up exhaustively the 
 argument for and against Yishnu being 
 considered the same as the Sun in the 
 Vedas, and, on the whole, makes out 
 a strong cate in favour of the identifica- 
 
 tion. Even, however, if the case were 
 much less strong than it appears to be, 
 it by no means follows that what was 
 only dimly shadowed forth in the Yedas 
 may not have become an accepted fact in 
 the Puranas, and aa established dogma 
 in Orissa in the 9th century, when this 
 temple was erected. 
 
428 
 
 NORTHERN OK INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 diagram Woodcut No. 124. The two lower ones are carved with 
 infinite beauty and variety on all their twelve faces, and the antefixae 
 at the angles and breaks are used with an elegance and judgment a 
 true Yavana could hardly have surpassed. There is, so far as I know, 
 no roof in India where the same play of light and shade is obtained 
 with an equal amount of richness and constructive propriety as in 
 this instance, nor one that sits so gracefully on the base that 
 supports it. 
 
 Internally, the chamber is singularly plain, but presents some 
 constructive peculiarities worthy of attention. On the floor it is 
 about 40 ft. square, and the walls rise plain to about the same height. 
 Here it begins to bracket inwards, till it contracts to about 20 ft., 
 where it was ceiled with a flat stone roof, supported by wrought- 
 iron beams — Stirling says nine, nearly 1 ft. square by 12 ft. to 18 ft. 
 long.i My measurements made the section less — 8 in. to 9 in., but 
 the length greater, 23 ft. ; and Babu Rajendra points out that one, 
 21 ft. long, has a square section of 8 in. at the end, but a depth of 
 11 in. in the centre,^ showing a knowledge of the properties and 
 strength of the material that is remarkable in a people who are now 
 so utterly incapable of forging such masses. The iron pillar at Delhi 
 (Woodcut No. 281) is even a more remarkable example than this, and 
 no satisfactory explanation has yet been given as to the mode in 
 which it was manufactured. Its object, however, is plain, while the 
 employment of these beams here is a mystery. They were not wanted 
 for strength, as the building is still firm after they have fallen, and 
 so expensive a false ceiling was not wanted architecturally to roof so 
 plain a chamber. It seems to be only another instance of that pro- 
 fusion of labour which the Hindus loved to lavish on the temples of 
 their gods. 
 
 PURI. 
 
 When from the capital we turn to Puri, we find a state of affairs 
 more altered than might be expected from the short space of time 
 that had elapsed between the building of the Black Pagoda and the 
 celebrated one now found there. It is true the dynasty had changed. 
 In 1131, the Kesari Yansa, with their Saiva worship, had been super- 
 seded by the Ganga Yansa, who w^ere apparently as devoted followers 
 of Yishnu ; and they set to work at once to signalise their triumph 
 by erecting the temple to Juganat, which has since acquired such a 
 world-wide celebrity. 
 
 * ' Asiatic Kesearches,' vol. xv. p. 330, 
 ^ These discrepancies arise from the 
 fact that the beams lie on tlie floor buried 
 under the ruins of the stone roof they 
 
 once supported, and it is extremely diffi- 
 cult to get at them so as to obtain correct 
 measurements. 
 
Chap. TI. 
 
 PURI. 
 
 429 
 
 It is not, of course, to be supposed that the kings of the Ganga 
 line were the first to introduce the worship of Vishnu to Orissa. The 
 whole traditions, as recorded by Stirling, contradict such an assump- 
 tion, and the first temple erected on this spot to the deity is said 
 to have been built by Yayati, the founder of the Kesari line.^ He it 
 was who recovered the sacred image of Juganat from the place where 
 it had been buried 150 years before, on the invasion of the Yavanas, 
 and a " new temple was erected by him on the site of the old one, 
 which was found to be much dilapidated and overwhelmed with 
 sand." 2 This, of course, was before the arrival of the Ayodhya Brah- 
 mans alluded to above, who, though they may have retained pos- 
 session of the capital during the continuance of the dynasty, did not 
 apparently interfere with the rival worship in the provinces. 
 
 It w^ould indeed be contrary to all experience if, in a country 
 where Buddhism once existed, those who were follow^ers of that faith 
 had not degenerated first into Jainism and then into Yishnuism. At 
 Udayagiri we have absolute proof in the caves of the first transition, 
 and that it continued there till the time when the Mahrattas erected 
 the little temple on the southern peak. In like manner, there 
 seems little doubt that the tooth relic was preserved at Puri till 
 the invasion of the Yavanas, apparently, as before mentioned, to 
 obtain possession of it. According to the Buddhist version, it was 
 buried in the jungle, but dug up again shortly afterwards, and con- 
 veyed to Ceylon.^ According to the Brahnianical account, it was 
 the image of Juganat, and not the tooth, that was hidden and reco- 
 vered on the departure of the Yavanas, and then was enshrined at 
 Juganat in a new temple on the sands. The tradition of a bone of 
 Krishna being contained in the image * is evidently only a Brahniani- 
 cal form of Buddhist relic worship, and, as has been frequently sug- 
 gested, the three images of Juganat, his brother Balbhadra, and the 
 sister Subhadhra, are only the Buddhist trinity — Buddha, Dharma, 
 Sanga — disguised to suit the altered condition of belief among the 
 common people. The pilgrimage, the Eat Jutra, the suspension of 
 caste prejudices, everything in fact at Puri, is redolent of Buddhism, 
 but of Buddhism so degraded as hardly to be recognisable by those 
 who know that faith only in its older and purer form. 
 
 The degradation of the faith, however, is hardly so remarkable as 
 that of the style. Even Stirling, who was no captious critic, re- 
 marks that it seems unaccountable, in an age when the architects 
 obviously possessed some taste and skill, and were in most cases par- 
 ticularly lavish in the use of sculptural ornament, so little pains 
 
 * 'Asiatic Rosearclies,' vol. xv. p. 31G. 
 2 Loc. c:t., p. 265. 
 
 ^ Tour.iour's abstract of the D.ila- 
 
 ^Yan£o in the 'Journal of the Asiatic 
 Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 85G, et seqq. 
 ^ 'Asiatic Ecscarchcs,' v. 1. xv. p. 320. 
 
430 
 
 NOKTHEEN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 should have been taken with the decoration and finishing of this 
 sacred and stupendous edifice.^ It is not, however, only in the detail, 
 but the outline, the proportions, and every arrangement of the temple, 
 show that the art in this province at least had received a fatal down- 
 ward impetus from Avhich it never recovered. 
 
 As will be seen from the annexed plan ^ (Woodcut No. 287), this 
 temple has a double enclosure, a thing otherwise unknown in the 
 north. Externally it measures 670 ft. by 640 ft., and is surrounded 
 by a wall 20 ft. to 30 ft. high, with four gates. The inner enclosure 
 
 Sca^le 200 f!^ to the Inch. 
 
 237. rian of Temple ol Juganat at Piiri. (From a Tlan by E.. P. Mukerji.) 
 
 measures 420 ft. by 815 ft., and is enclosed by a double wall with 
 four openings. Within this last stands the Bara Dewul, A, measuring 
 80 ft. across the centre, or 5 ft. more than the great temple at Bhu- 
 vaneswar ; with its porch or Jagamohan, B, it measures 155 ft. east 
 and west, while the great tower rises to a height of 192 ft.^ Beyond 
 
 ' ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. 315. 
 
 2 The plan is reduced from one to a 
 Fcale of 40 feet to 1 in., made by an 
 iiitelli;2:ent native assistant to the Public 
 Works Department, named Radliicv Pur- 
 
 sad Mukerji, and is the only plan I ever 
 found done by a native sufficiently cor- 
 rc ct to be used, except as a diagram, or 
 after perious doctoring. 
 
 ^ Hunter, ' Orissn,' vol. i. p. 128. 
 
ClIAP. II. 
 
 PURl. 
 
 431 
 
 this two other porches were afterwards added, the Nat-mandir, C, and 
 Bhog-mandir, D, making the whole length of the temple about 300 ft., 
 or as nearly as may be the same as that at Bhuvaneswar. Besides 
 this there are, as in all great Hindu temples, numberless smaller 
 shrines within the two enclosures, but, as in all instances in the 
 north, they are kept subordinate to the principal one, which here 
 towers supreme over all. 
 
 238. View of Tower of Temple of Jugauat. (PYom a Pbotograpb.) 
 
 Except in its double enclosure, and a certain irregularity of plan, 
 this temple does not differ materially in arrangement from the great 
 ones at Bhuvaneswar and elsewhere ; but besides the absence of detail 
 already remarked upon, the outline of its vimana is totally devoid 
 either of that solemn solidity of the earlier examples, or the grace that 
 characterised those subsequently erected ; and when we add to this 
 that whitewash and paint have done their worst to add vulgarity to 
 forms already sufficiently ungraceful, it will easily be understood that 
 
432 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 this, the most famous, is also the most disappointing of northern 
 Hindu temples.^ As may be seen from the preceding iUustration 
 (Woodcut No. 238), the parts are so nearly the same as those found 
 in all the older temples at Bhuvaneswar, that the difference could 
 hardly be expressed in words ; even the woodcut, however, is sufficient 
 to show how changed they are in effect, but the building itself should 
 be seen fully to appreciate the degradation that has taken place. 
 
 Jajepur and Cuttack. 
 
 Jajepur, on the Byturni, was one of the old capitals of the pro- 
 vince, and even now contains temples which, from the squareness of 
 their forms, may be old, but, if so, they have been so completely dis- 
 guised by a thick coating of plaster, that their carvings are entirely 
 obliterated, and there is nothing by which their age can be deter- 
 mined. The place was long occupied by the Mahomedans, and the 
 presence of a handsome mosque may account for the disappearance of 
 some at least of the Hindu remains. There is one pillar, however, still 
 standing, which deserves to be illustrated as one of the most pleasing 
 examples of its class in India (Woodcut No. 239). Its proportions 
 are beautiful, and its details in excellent taste ; but the mouldings of 
 the base, which are those on which the Hindus were accustomed to 
 lavish the utmost care, have unfortunately been destroyed. Originally 
 it is said to have supported a figure of Garuda — the Yahana of Yishnu 
 — and a figure is pointed out as the identical one. It may be so, and 
 if it is the case, the pillar is of the 12th or 13th century. This also 
 seems to be the age of some remarkable pieces of sculpture which 
 were discovered some years ago on the brink of the river, where they 
 had apparently been hidden from Mahomedan bigotry. They are in 
 
 ^ News has just reached this country 
 of a curious accident having happened 
 in this temple. Just after the gods had 
 been removed from their Sinhasan to 
 take their annual excursion to the 
 Gundicha N^r, some stones of the roof 
 fell in, and would have killed any atten- 
 dants and smashed the gods had they 
 not fortunately all been absent. As- 
 suming the interior of the Bara Dewul 
 to be as represented (Woodcut No. 124), 
 it is not easy to see how this could have 
 happened. But in the same woodcut the 
 porch or Jagamohan of the Kanaruc 
 pagoda is represented with a flat false 
 roof, which has fallen, and now encum- 
 bers the floor of the apartment. That 
 roof, however, was formed of stone laid 
 
 on iron beams, and looked as if it could 
 only have been chaken down by an earth- 
 quake. I have little doubt that a simi- 
 lar false roof was formed someway up the 
 tower over the altar at Puri, but formed 
 probably of stone laid on wooden beams 
 and either decay or the white ants having 
 destroyed the timber, the stones have 
 fallen as narrated. 
 
 A similar roof so supported on wooden 
 beams still exists in the structural temple 
 on the shore at Mahavellipore, and, I 
 have no doubt, elsewhere, but it is almost 
 impossible to get access to these cells 
 when the gods are at home, and the 
 places are so dark it is equally impossible 
 to see, except when in ruins, how they 
 were roofed. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 JAJEPUR AND CUTTACK. 
 
 433 
 
 quite a different style from anything at Bhuvaneswar or Kanamc, 
 and probably more modern than anything at those places. 
 
 Cuttack became the capital of the country in a.d. 989-1006, when 
 a certain Markut Kesari built a stone 
 revetement to protect the site from en- 
 croachment of the river. ^ It too, how- 
 ever, has suffered, first from the intoler- 
 ant bigotry of the Moslem, and after- 
 wards from the stolid indifference^ of 
 the British rulers, so that very little 
 remains ; but for this the nine-storeyed 
 palace of Mukund Deo, the contem- 
 porary of Akbar, might still remain to 
 us in such a state at least as to be intel- 
 ligible. We hear so much, however, of 
 these nine-storeyed palaces and viharas, 
 that it may be worth while quoting 
 Abul Fazl's description of this one, in 
 order to enable us to understand some of 
 the allusions and descriptions we after- 
 wards may meet with : — " In Cuttack," 
 he says, " there is a fine palace, built by 
 Rajah Mukund Deo, consisting of nine 
 storeys. The first storey is for ele- 
 phants, camels, and horses ; the second 
 for artillery and military stores, where 
 also are quarters for the guards and 
 other attendants ; the thii'd is occupied 
 by porters and watchmen ; the fourth is 
 appropriated for the several artificers ; 
 
 the kitchens make the fifth range ; the sixth contains the Rajah's 
 public apartments ; the seventh is for the transaction of private 
 business ; the eighth is where the women reside ; and the ninth is the 
 Rajah's sleeping apartment. To the south," he adds, " of this palace 
 is a very ancient Hindu temple."^ 
 
 As Orissa at the period when this was ^nitten was practically a 
 part of Akbar's kingdom, there seems little doubt that this description 
 was furnished by some one who knew the place. There are seven- 
 storeyed palaces at Jeypur and Bijapur still standing, which 
 were erected about this date, and one of five storeys in Akbar's 
 own palace at Futtehpore Sikri, but none, so far as I know, of nine 
 
 239. Hindu Pillar in Jajepur. 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
 ' ' Asiatic Kesearches,' vol. XV. p. 367. ^ ' 'Ayeen Akbery,' Gladwin's tians- 
 2 Ibid , p. 335 ; Hunter's ' Orissa,' vol. lution, vol. ii. p. 13. 
 i. p. 266. I 
 
434 
 
 NOETHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 storeys, though I see no reason for doul)ting the correctness of the 
 description of the one just quoted. 
 
 Although it thus consequently happens that we have no more 
 means of ascertaining what the cix'il edifices of the Indo-Aryans of 
 Orissa were like, than we have of those of the contemporary Dra- 
 vidians, there is a group of engineering objects which throw some 
 light on the arts of the period. As has been frequently stated above, 
 the Hindus hate an arch, and never will use it except under com- 
 pulsion. The Mahomedans taught them to get over their prejudices 
 and employ the arch in their civil buildings in later times, but to 
 
 Uiiidii Briilge at Cuttack. (Imoui a riiotograph.) 
 
 the present day they avoid it in their temples in so far as it is 
 possible to do so. In Orissa, howe^'er, in the 13th century, they built 
 numerous bridges in various parts of the province, but never em- 
 ployed a true arch in any of them. The Atarah Nullah bridge at 
 Puri, built by Kebir Narsingh Deo, about 1250, has been drawn and 
 described by Stirling, and is the finest in the province of those still 
 in use. Between the abutments it is 275 ft. long, and with a road- 
 way 35 ft. wide. That shown in the above woodcut (No. 240) is 
 probably older, and certainly more picturesque, though constructed 
 on the same identical ]ilan. It may be unscientific, but many of 
 
CflAP. 11. 
 
 JAJEPUR AND CUTTACK. 
 
 435 
 
 tliese old britlo'es are standing and in use, while many of those we 
 have constructed out of the ruins of the temples and palaces have 
 been swept away as if a curse were upon them. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The above may be considered as a somewhat meagre account of 
 one of the most complete and interesting styles of Indian architecture. 
 It would, however, be impossible to do it justice without an amount 
 of illustration incompatible with the scope of this work, and with 
 details drawn on a larger scale than its pages admit of. It is to be 
 hoped that Babu Rajendra's work may, to some extent, at least, 
 supply this deficiency. The first volume can only, however, be con- 
 sidered as introductory, being wholly occupied with preliminary 
 matters, and avoiding all dates or descriptions of particular buildings. 
 The second, when it appears, may remedy this defect, and it is 
 to be hoped will do so, as a good monograph of the Orissan style 
 would convey a more correct idea of what Indian art really is than 
 a similar account of any other style we are acquainted with in India. 
 From the erection of the temple of Parasurameswara, a.d. 500, to that 
 of Juganat at Puri, a.d. 1174, the style steadily progresses without any 
 interruption or admixture of foreign elements, while the examples 
 are so numerous that one might be found for every fifty years of 
 the period — probably for every twenty — and we might thus have a 
 chronometric scale of Hindu art during these seven centuries that 
 would be invaluable for application to other places or styles. It is 
 also in Orissa, if anywhere that we may hope to find the incunahula 
 that will explain much that is now mysterious in the forms of the 
 temples and the origin of many parts of their ornamentation. An 
 examination, for instance, of a hundred or so of the ruined and half- 
 ruined temples of the province would enable any competent person to 
 say at once how far the theory above enunciated (Woodcut No. 124) — 
 to account for the curved form of the towers — was or was not in 
 accordance with the facts of the case, and, if opposed to them, what 
 the true theory of the curved form really was. In like manner, it 
 seems hardly doubtful that a careful examination of a great number 
 of examples would reveal the origin of the amalaka crowning orna- 
 ment. I feel absolutely convinced, as stated above, that it did not 
 grow out of the berry of the PhyUanthus emdltca, and am very 
 doubtful if it had a vegetable origin at all. But no one yet has 
 suggested any other theory which will bear examination, and it is 
 only from the earliest temples themselves that any satisfactory 
 answer can be expected. 
 
 It is not only, however, that these and many other technical 
 questions will be answered when any competent person undertakes a 
 
 2 F 2 
 
436 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 thorough examination of the ruins, but they will afford a picture of 
 the civilization and of the arts and religion of an Indian community 
 during seven centuries of isolation from external influences, such as can 
 hardly be obtained from any other source. So far as we at present 
 know, it is a singularly pleasing picture, and one that will well repay 
 any pains that may be taken to present it to the English public in a 
 complete and intelligible form. 
 
 Tentative List of Dates and Dimensions of the Pbincipal Orissan Temples. 
 
 Dates. 
 
 500-600 
 
 600-700 
 657 
 
 700-850 
 
 
 External 
 
 Internal 
 
 
 Dimensions 
 
 Dimensions 
 
 
 of Towers. 
 
 of Cells. 
 
 
 ft. ft. 
 
 ft. ft. 
 
 
 20 X 20 . 
 
 . 11 X 9 
 
 
 ,. 14 X 14 . 
 
 . 6x6 
 
 Sari Dewala 
 
 . .. 24 X 22 . 
 
 . 12 X 12 
 
 
 
 
 Ananta Vasii Deva 
 
 .. 26 X 26 . 
 
 IH X 14 
 
 
 ,, 66 X 60 . 
 
 . 42 X 42 
 
 Sideswara 
 Vitala Devi 
 
 Markandeswara in Puri 
 Brahmeswara . . 
 
 873 .. Kanaruc 
 
 :. :. 
 
 1104 .. Nat Mandir at Blmvaneswar 
 1198 .. Juganat, Puri 
 
 60 
 
 X 
 
 60 . 
 
 . 40 
 
 X 
 
 40 (?) 
 
 32 
 
 X 
 
 25 . 
 
 . 12 
 
 X 
 
 
 73 
 
 X 
 
 73 . 
 
 . 29 
 
 X 
 
 29' 
 
 ' These dimensions, except those of 
 Kanaruc, are taken from a table in Babu 
 Rajendra's 'Antiquities of Orissa,' vol. i. 
 p. 41, and are sufficient to give an idea 
 of the relative size of the building. So 
 far as I can make out they are taken 
 from angle to angle of the towers, but as 
 they all have projections on their faces, 
 
 when cubed, as is done in the table re- 
 ferred to, they are much too small. I may 
 also observe that I know of no instance 
 in which the two dimensions differ. The 
 four faces are always, I believe, alike. 
 The dates are my own ; none are given, 
 except for the great temple, in the Babu's 
 first volume. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 DHAKWAR. 
 
 437 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WESTERN INDIA. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Dharwar — Brahiiianical Rock-cut Temples. 
 
 Dharwar. 
 
 If the province of Orissa is interesting from the completeness and 
 uniformity of its style of Indo-Aryan architecture, that of Dharwar, 
 or, more correctly speaking of Maharastra, is almost equally so from 
 exactly the opposite conditions. In the western province, the Dra- 
 vidian style struggles with the northern for supremacy during all 
 the earlier stages of their growth, and the mode in which the one 
 influenced the other will be one of the most interesting and in- 
 structive lessons we can learn from their study, when the materials 
 exist for a thorough investigation of the architectural history of this 
 province. In magnificence, however, the western can never pretend 
 to rival the eastern province. There are more and far finer buildings 
 in the one city of Bhuvaneswar alone than in all the cities of 
 Maharastra put together, and the extreme elaboration of their details 
 gives the Orissan examples a superiority that the western temples cannot 
 pretend to rival. 
 
 Among the oldest and most characteristic of the Dharwar temples 
 is that of Papanatha, at Purudkul, or Pittadkul, as it is now spelt. 
 As will be seen from the plan of this temple given above (Woodcut 
 No. 122, page 221), the cell, with its tower, has not the same 
 predominating importance which it always had in Orissa ; and 
 instead of a mere vestibule it has a four-pillared porch, which would 
 in itself be sufiicient to form a complete temple on the eastern side 
 of India. Beyond this, however, is the great porch, Mantapa, or 
 Jagamohan — square, as usual, but here it possesses sixteen pillars, 
 in four groups, instead of the astylar arrangements so common in 
 the east. It is, in fact, a copy, with very slight alterations, of the 
 plan of the great Saiva temple at the same place (Woodcut No. 189), 
 or the Kylas at Ellora (Woodcut No. 186). These, with others recently 
 brought to light, form a group of early temples wholly Dravidian in 
 style, but having no affinity, except in plan, with the Temple of 
 
^38 
 
 NOHTIIERN OR INDO-AllYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 Papanatha, which is as essentially Indo-Aryaii in all its architectural 
 arrangements. This, in fact, may be looked upon as the charac- 
 teristic difference between the styles of Dharwar and Oris^a. The 
 Avestern style, from its proximity to the Dravidian and admixture 
 with it, in fact, used pillars freely and with effect whenever wanted ; 
 while their use in Orissa is almost unkrown in the best ages of the 
 style, and their introduction, as it took p^ice there, showed only too 
 
 241. View of Temple of Papanatha at rittadkul. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 clearly the necessity that had arisen in the decay of the style, to supply 
 with foreign forms the want of originality of invention. 
 
 The external effect of the building may be judged of from the 
 above woodcut (No. 241). The outline of the tower is not unlike 
 that of the Parasurameswara temple at Bhuvaneswar, with which it was 
 probably contemporary — circa a.d. 500 — but the central belt is more 
 pronounced, and always apparently was on the west side of India. 
 It will also be observed in this tower that every third course has on 
 the angle a form which has just been described as an amalaka in 
 speaking of the crowning members of Orissan temples. Here it looks 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 BHAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 439 
 
 as if the two intermediate courses simulated roofs, or a roof in two 
 storeys, and then this crowning member was introduced, and the same 
 thing repeated over and over again till the requisite height was 
 obtained. In the Parasurameswara there are three intermediate 
 courses (Woodcut No. 280) ; in the great tower at Bhuvaneswar, 
 five ; and in the more modern temples they disappear from the 
 angles, but are supplied by the miniature temple-forms applied to 
 the sides. In the temple at Buddh Gaya the same form occurs 
 ("Woodcut No. 16) on the angle of each storey ; but there it looks 
 more like the capital of a pillar, which, in fact, I believe to be its real 
 original. But from whatever form derived, this repetition on the angles 
 is in the best possible taste ; the eye is led upwards by it, and is pre- 
 pared for the crowning member, which is thus no longer isolated and 
 alone, but a part of a complete design. 
 
 The frequency of the repetition of this ornament is, so far as is 
 now known, no bad test of the age of a temple. If an example were 
 found where every alternate course was an amalaka, it probably would 
 be older than any temple we have yet known. It would then represent 
 a series of roofs, five, seven, or nine storeys, built over one another. It 
 had, however, passed into conventionalities before we meet with it. 
 
 Whenever the temples of this district are thoroughly investigated, 
 they will, no doubt, throw immense light on the early history of tlie 
 style.^ As the case now stands, however, the principal interest 
 centres in the caves of Badami, which being the only Brahman ical 
 caves known that have positive dates upon them, they give us a fixed 
 point from which to reason in respect of other series such as we have 
 never had before. For the present, they must make way for other 
 examples better known and of more general architectural interest. 
 
 Brahmanical Rock-cut Temples. 
 
 Although the structural temples of the Badami group ^ in Dharwar 
 are of such extreme interest, as has been pointed out above, they are 
 surpassed in importance, for our present purposes at least, by the 
 rock-cut examples. 
 
 At Badami there are three ca\'es, not of any great dimensions. 
 
 ' The two works ou this subject are 
 the 'Architectural History of Dharwar 
 and Mysore,' fol., 100 plates, Murray, 
 1866, and Burgess's ' Keport on the Bel- 
 gam and Kuladgi Districts,' 1874. Con- 
 sidering the time available and the 
 means at iiis disposal, Mr. Burgess did 
 wonders, but it is no dispraise to say 
 that he has not, nor could any man in 
 his place, exhaust so vast a subject. 
 
 ! For architectural purposes the three 
 places may be considered as one. AiwuUi 
 is five or six miles north of Badami, and 
 Purudkul or Pittadkul as far south. Ten 
 miles covers the whole, which must have 
 been in the 6th or 7th century a place 
 of great importance — possibly Watipi- 
 pura, the capital of the Chalukyas in 
 the 5th or 6th century. See ' Journal of 
 the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iv. p. y. 
 
440 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 but of singular interest from their architectural details and sculp- 
 tures, and more so from the fact that one of them, N"o. 3, contains an 
 inscription with an undoubted date upon it. There are, as pointed 
 out above, innumerable Buddliist inscriptions on the western caves, 
 l>ut none with dates from any well-ascertained era, and none, un- 
 fortunately, of the Brahmanical caves at Ellora or elsewhere have 
 inscriptions that can be called integral, and not one certainly with a 
 date on it. The consequence is, that the only mode by which their 
 ages could be approximated was by arranging them in sequences, 
 according to our empirical or real knowledge of the history of the 
 period during which they were supposed to have been excavated. At 
 Ellora, for instance, it was assumed that the Buddhist preceded the 
 Brahmanical excavations, and that these were succeeded by the Jaina ; 
 and various local and architectural peculiarities rendered this hypo- 
 thesis extremely probable. Arguing on this basis, it was found that 
 the one chaitya cave there, the Yiswakarma, was nearly identical in 
 style with the last of the four chaityas at Ajunta (No. 26), and that 
 cave, for reasons given above, was placed at the end of the 6th 
 century, say a.d. 600. The caves next it were assumed to occupy the 
 7th century, thus leading on to the Rameswara group, about a.d. 700, 
 and the Jaina group would then have occupied the next century. 
 The age of the Kylas or Dravidian group, being exceptional, could 
 only be determined by extraneous evidence, and, as already pointed 
 out, from its extreme similarity with the great temple at Pittadkul, 
 belongs almost certainly to the 8th century ; and from a similar chain 
 of reasoning the Jaina group is brought back to about the same age, or 
 rather earlier, say a.d. 650. 
 
 The inscription on the No. 3 cave at Badami is dated in the twelfth 
 year of the reign of a well-known king, Mangaliswara, in the 500th 
 year after the inauguration of the Saka king, or in 79 ; the date 
 therefore is a.d. 579. Admitting, which I think its architecture ren- 
 ders nearly certain, that it is the earliest of the three, still they are 
 so like one another, that the latest must be assumed to have been 
 excavated within the limits of the next century, say a.d. 575-700. 
 Comparing the architecture of this group with that known as the 
 central or Rameswara group at Ellora, it is so nearly identical, 
 that though it may be slightly more modern, it can hardly now be 
 doubted they too, including perhaps the cave known as the Ashes of 
 Ravana, must have been excavated in the 7th century. Instead, there- 
 fore, of the sequence formerly adopted, we are forced to fall back on 
 that marvellous picture of religious toleration described by the 
 Chinese Pilgrim as exhibited at Allahabad in the year a.d. 643. On 
 that occasion the King Siladitya distributed alms or gifts to 10,000 
 priests {religieux), the first day in honour of Buddha, the second of 
 Aditya the Sun (Vishnu ?), and the third in honour of Iswara or 
 
Chap. III. BHAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 411 
 
 Siva ;^ and the eighteen kings who assisted at this splendid quin- 
 quennial festival seem promiscuously to have honoured equally these 
 three divinities. With this toleration at head-quarters, we ought not to 
 be surprised if we find the temples of the three religions overlapping 
 one another to some extent. 
 
 The truth of the matter is, that one of the greatest difificulties an 
 antiquary experiences before the 8th century, is to ascertain to what 
 divinity any temple or a cave is dedicated. In the three caves, for 
 instance, at Badami, the sculptures are wholly Vaishnava, and no one 
 would doubt that they were dedicated to that deity, but in the sanc- 
 tuaries of all is the lingam or emblem of Siva. It has been suggested 
 that this may have been an afterthought, but if so the cave must have 
 been without meaning. There is no sinhasan or throne on which an 
 image of a deity could be placed, nor is the cell large enough for that 
 pm-pose. 
 
 Unfortunately there are no Buddliist buildings or caves so far 
 south as Badami, and we are consequently deprived of that means for 
 comparison ; and before anything very definite can be laid do^vn, it 
 will require that some one familiar with the subject should go over 
 the whole of the western caves, and institute a rigid comparison of 
 theii' details. Meanwhile, however, the result of the translations of 
 the inscriptions gathered by Mr. Burgess, and of his plans and views,^ 
 is that we must compress om* history of the western caves within nar- 
 rower limits [than originally seemed necessary. ^ The buildings in the 
 Dharwar district seem all to be comprised between the years 500 
 and 750 A.D., with probably a slight extension either way, and those 
 at Ellora being certainly synchronous, must equally be limited to the 
 same period of time. 
 
 Pending a more complete investigation, which I hope may be 
 undertaken before long, I would propose the following as a tentative 
 chronology of the far-famed series of caves at Ellora : — 
 
 Buddhist: — Viswakarnia to Das Avatani .. .. a.d. 500-600 
 
 Jaina : — ludra, Juganat, Subhas, &c 550-650 
 
 Hindu: — Eameswara to Dhumnar Lena .. .. 600-750 
 
 Dravidian :— Kylas 725-800 
 
 The cave at Elephanta follows of course the date here given for 
 the Dhumnar Lena, and must thus date after the middle of the 8th 
 centmy.* 
 
 ^ * Hifctoire de Hiouen Thsaiig,' p. 255 ; 
 ' Vie et Voyages,' vol. i. p. 280. 
 
 2 'Keport on tlie District of Belgam 
 and Kuladgi.' 1874. 
 
 ^ When I originally wrote on tlie sub- 
 ject I thought I had the 9tli and 10th cen- 
 
 turies at my disposal. It now appettrs 
 they must be blotted out as non-existent 
 for any historical or artistic purpose, 
 
 * This is the date given by Mr. Burgess 
 in his description in 'The Caves at 
 Elephanta,' Bombay, 1871, p. 5. 
 
442 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO- ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 These dated caves and buildings have also rendered another service 
 to the science of archaiology, inasmuch as they enable us to state with 
 confidence that the principal caves at Mahavellipore must be circum- 
 scribed within the same limits. The architecture there being so lean 
 and poor, is most misleading, but, as hinted above, I believe it arose 
 from the fact that it was Dravidian, and copied literally from struc- 
 tural buildings, by people who had not the long experience of the 
 Buddhists in cave architecture to guide them, for there seems to have 
 been no Buddhists so far south. But be that as it may, a comparison 
 of the Hindu sculptures at Badami with those of Ellora on the one 
 hand, and Mahavellipore on the other, renders it almost absolutely 
 certain that they were practically contemporary. The famous bas- 
 relief of Durga, on her lion, slaying Mahasura, the Minotaur,^ is 
 earlier than one very similar to it at Ellora ; and one, the Yiratarupa,^ 
 is later by probably a century than the sculpture of the same subject 
 in cave 3 at Badami.^ Some of the other bas-reliefs are later, some 
 earlier, than those representing similar subjects in the three series, 
 l)ut it seems now impossible to get over the fact that they are practi- 
 cally synchronous. Even the great bas-relief, which I was inclined to 
 assign to a more modern period, probably belongs to the 7th or 8th 
 century. The great Naga king, whom all the world are there w^orship- 
 ping, is represented as a man whose head is shaded by a seven-headed 
 serpent-hood, but also with a serpent-body from the waist downwards. 
 That form was not known in the older Buddhist sculptures, but has 
 now been found on all the Orissan temples (for instance Woodcut 
 No. 236), and nearly as frequently at Badami.^ This difficulty being 
 removed, there seems no reason why this gigantic sculpture should not 
 take the place, which its state of execution would otherwise assign to 
 it — say A.D. 700 — as a mean date, subject to subsequent adjustment. 
 
 In a general work like the present it is of course impossible to 
 illustrate so extensive a group as that of the Brahmanical caves to 
 such an extent as to render their history or affinities intelligible to 
 those who have not by other means become familiar with the subject. 
 Fortunately, however, in this instance the materials exist by which 
 any one may attain the desired information with very little difficulty. 
 Daniell's drawings — or rather Mr. Wales' — made in 1795, have long 
 made the public acquainted with the principal caves at Ellora ; Sir 
 Charles Malet's paper in the sixth volume of the * Asiatic Researches ; ' 
 Seely's ' Wonders of Ellora,' published in 1820, and numerous other 
 works, with the photographs now available, supply nearly all that 
 can be desired in that direction. The same may be said of Elephanta, 
 
 ^ ' Transactions of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society,' vol. ii. pi. 4. 
 " Loc. cit., pi. G, 
 
 ^ Burgess, 'Report on Belgam,' &c.^ 
 pi. 31. 
 
 * Loc. cit,, pis. 20, 23, 40. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 BRAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 443 
 
 which has been exhaustively treated by Mr. Burgess in the work 
 above referred to. Chambers' paper in the second volume of the 
 ' Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,' supplies, with Dr. Hunter's 
 photographs, a vast amount of information regarding the Mahavelli- 
 pore antiquities ; and Mr. Burgess's recent report on the Dharwar 
 caves completes, to a great extent, the information wanted to under- 
 stand the peculiarities of the group. Notwithstanding this, it is well 
 worthy of a monograph, insomuch as it affords the only representation 
 of the art and mythology of the Hindus on the revival of their 
 religion, which was commenced by the Guptas a.d. 318-465, but really 
 inaugurated by the great Vicramaditya, a.d. 495-530, and which, when 
 once started, continued to flourish till the great collapse in the 
 8tli century. 
 
 After all, however, the subject is one more suited to the purposes 
 of the mythologist and the sculptor than to the architect. Like all 
 rock-cut examples, except the Dravidian, the caves have the intolerable 
 defect of having no exteriors, and consequently no external archi- 
 tectural form. The only parts of them which strictly belong to 
 architectural art are their pillars, and though a series of them would 
 be interesting, they vary so 
 much, from the nature of the 
 material in which they are 
 carved, and from local circum- 
 stances, that they do not possess 
 the same historical significance 
 that external forms would af- 
 ford. Such a pillar, for instance, 
 as this one from the cave called 
 Lanka, on the side of the pit 
 in which the Kylas stands 
 (Woodcut No. 242), though in 
 exquisite taste as a rock-cut 
 example, where the utmost 
 strength is apparently required 
 to support the mass of rock 
 above, does not afford any 
 points of comparison with struc- 
 tural examples of the same age. 
 Li a building it would be cum- 
 bersome and absurd ; under a 
 mass of rock it is elegant and 
 
 appropriate. The pillars in the caves at Mahavellipore fail from 
 the opposite fault : they retain their structural form, though used in 
 the rock, and look frail and weak in consequence ; but while this 
 diversity in practice prevailed, it prevents their use as a chronometric 
 
 Pillar in Kylas, Ellora. 
 (From a Drawing by the Author.) 
 
444 
 
 NORTHERN OK INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book YI. 
 
 scale being appreciated, as it would be if the practice had been 
 uniform. As, however, No. 3 at Badami is a cave with a positive 
 date, A.D. 579, it may be well to give a plan and section (Woodcuts 
 Nos. 248 and 244) to illustrate its peculiarities, so as to enable 
 
 a comparison to be made between 
 it and other examples. Its details 
 will be found fully illustrated in Mr. 
 Burgess's report. 
 
 Though not one of the largest, it 
 is still a fine cave, its verandah mea- 
 suring 70 ft., with a depth of 50 ft., 
 beyond which is a simple plain cell, 
 containing tlie lingam. At one end 
 of the verandah is the Narasingha 
 Avatar ; at the other end Yishnu 
 seated on the five-headed serpent 
 Ananta. The front pillars have each 
 three brackets, of very wooden design, all of which are ornamented 
 by two or three figures, generally a male and female, with a child 
 
 243 
 
 Plan of Cave No. 3, Badami. 
 (From a Plan by Mr. Burgess.) 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 244. Section of Cave No. 3, Badami. (From a Drawing by Mr. Burgess.) Scale 25 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 or dwarf — all of considerable beauty and delicacy of execution. The 
 inner pillars are varied, and more architectural in their forms, but 
 in the best style of Hindu art. 
 
 Compared with the style of art found at Amravati, on the opposite 
 coast, it is curious to observe how nearly Buddha, seated on the many- 
 headed Naga,^ resembles Yishnu on Ananta in the last woodcut, and 
 though the religion is changed, the art has hardly altered to such an 
 extent as might be expected, considering that two centuries had pro- 
 bably elapsed between the execution of these two bas-reliefs. The 
 change of religion, however, is complete, for though Buddha does 
 appear at Badami, it is in the very subordinate position of the ninth 
 Avatar of Yishnu.^ 
 
 Sometimes the Hindus successfully conquered one of the main 
 difficulties of cave architecture by excavating them on the spur of a 
 
 ^ ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' pi. 76. 
 
 2 Burgess, 'Report on Belgara and Kuladji,' pi. 31. 
 
Chap. III. BRAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 445 
 
 hill, as at the Dhumnar Lena at Ellora, or by surrounding them by 
 courts, as at Elephanta ; so that light was introduced on three sides 
 instead of only one, as was too often the case both with Buddhist 
 and Hindu excavations. These two, though probably among the 
 last, are certainly the finest Hindu excavations existing, if looked at 
 from an architectural point of view. The Ellora example is the 
 larger and finer, mea- 
 suring 150 ft. each way 
 (Woodcut No. 245). 
 That at Elephanta, 
 though extremely simi- 
 lar in general arrange- 
 ment, is less regular in 
 plan, and also some- 
 what smaller, mea- 
 suring only 130 ft. by 
 120 ft. It is easy to 
 see that if these temples 
 stood in the open they 
 would only be porches, 
 like that at Baillur 
 (Woodcut No 221), and numberless other examples, which are found 
 everywhere ; but the necessities of rock-cut architecture required that 
 the cella should be placed inside the mantapa, or porch, instead of 
 externally to it, as was always the case in structural examples. This, 
 perhaps, was hardly to be regretted ; but it shows how little the 
 practice of cutting temples in the rock was suited to the temple-forms of 
 the Hindus, and we need not, therefore, feel surprised how readily they 
 abandoned it when any idea of rivalling the Buddhists had ceased to 
 prompt their efforts in this direction. 
 
 So far as I know, there is only one example where the Indo- 
 Aryan architects attempted to rival the Dravidian in producing a 
 monolithic exterior. It is at a place called Dhumnar, in Rajputana, 
 where, as already mentioned {ante^ p. 162), there is an extensive series 
 of late Buddhist excavations. In order to mark their triumph over 
 that fallen faith, the Hindus, apparently in the 8th century, drove 
 an open cutting into the side of the hill, till they came to a part 
 high enough for their purpose. Here they enlarged this cutting into 
 a pit 105 ft. by 70 ft., leaving a temple of very elegant architecture 
 standing in the centre, with seven small cells surrounding it, pre- 
 cisely as was done in the case of the Kylas at Ellora. The effect, 
 however, can hardly be said to be pleasing (Woodcut No. 246). A 
 temple standing in a pit is always an anomaly, but in this instance 
 it is valuable as an unaltered example of the style, and as showing 
 how small shrines — which have too often disappeared — were originally 
 
 245. Dhumnar Lena Cave at Ellora. 
 
 (From Daniell's ' Views in Hindostan.') 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
446 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 2J6. Rock-cut Temple at Dhumnar. (From a plan by Gen. Cunningham.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 grouped round the greater shrines. The value of this characteristic we 
 shall be better able to appreciate when we come to describe the temples 
 at Brambanam and other places in Java. When the Jains adopted the 
 architecture of the Buddhists, they filled their residential cells with 
 images, and made them into little temples, and the Hindus seem to some 
 extent to have adopted the same practice as here exemplified, but never 
 carried it to the same extent. 
 
 With a sufficient number of examples, it would be easy to trace 
 the rise and fall of this cellular system, and few things would be 
 more interesting ; for now that we find it in full force in the Bud- 
 dhist monasteries at Gandhara {ante, p. 171), it would be most im- 
 portant to be able to say exactly when the monk made way to the 
 image. In India Proper there is no instance of this being done in 
 
 Saiva Tcuii 
 
 ruonah. (From a Sketch by Daniell.) 
 
Chaf. in. BRAHMANICAL EOCK-CUT TEMPLES. 
 
 447 
 
 Buddhist times, or before a.d. G50, and hitherto we have been in the 
 habit of considering it a purely Jaina arrangement. This must now be 
 modified, but the question still remains — to what extent should this 
 be done ? 
 
 One more illustration must conclude what we have at present 
 to say of Hindu rock-cut temples. It is found near Poonah, and is 
 very little known, though much more appropriate to cave archi- 
 tecture than most examples of its class. The temple itself is a 
 simple pillared hall, with apparently ten pillars in front, and pro- 
 bably had originally a structural sikra built on the upper plateau to 
 mark the position of the sanctuary. The most original part of it, 
 however, is the Nundi pavilion, which stands in the courtyard in 
 front of the temple (Woodcut No. 247). It is circular in plan, and 
 its roof — which is a great slab of rock — is supported by, apparently, 
 sixteen square pillars of very simple form. Altogether it is as appro- 
 priate a bit of design as is to be found in Hindu cave architecture. 
 It has, however, the defect only too common in those Hindu exca- 
 vations — that, being in a pit, it can be looked down upon ; which is 
 a test very few buildings can stand, and to which none ought to be 
 exposed. 
 
448 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book Vf. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CENTRAL AND NORTHERN INDIA. 
 contents: 
 
 Temples at Gualior, Khajuraho, Udaipur, Benares, Bindrabun, Kantonuggur, 
 
 Amritsur. 
 
 Theee are certainly more than one hundred temples in Central 
 and Northern India which are well worthy of being described in 
 detail, and, if described and illustrated, would convey a wonderful 
 impression of the fertility in invention of the Hindu mind and of 
 the elegance with which it was capable of expressing itself. None of 
 these temples can make the smallest pretension to rival the great 
 southern examples in scale ; they are all, indeed, smaller even than the 
 greater of Orissan examples ; and while some of them surpass the 
 Orissan temples in elegance of form, many rival them in the profuse 
 elaboration of minute ornamental details. 
 
 None of these temples — none, at least, that are now complete — 
 seem to be of any great antiquity. At Erun, in the Saugor territory, 
 are some fragments of columns, and several sculptures that seem to 
 belong to the flourishing age of the Guptas, say about a.d. 450 ; and 
 in the Mokundra Pass there are the remains of a choultrie that may 
 be as old, or older, but it is a mere fragment,^ and has no inscription 
 upon it. 
 
 Among the more complete examples, the oldest I know of, and 
 consequently the most beautiful, is the porch or temple at Chandra- 
 vati, near Jahra Puttun, in Rajputana. In its neighbourhood Colonel 
 Tod found an inscription, dated a.d. 691,^ which at one time I thought 
 might have been taken from this temple, and consequently might 
 give its date, which would fairly agree with the style,^ judged from 
 that of some of the caves at EUora, which it very much resembles. 
 
 ^ A view of this was published in 
 my 'Picturesque Illustrations of Indian 
 Architecture,' pi. 5. 
 
 2 Tod's 'Annals of Rajastan,' vol. ii. 
 p. 734. 
 
 * ' Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient 
 Architecture in Hindostan,' pi. 6, with 
 
 description. Gen. Cunningham ('Archjeo- 
 logical Reports,' vol, ii. p. 264) agrees with 
 me as to the date, but inadvertently adds 
 a scale to his plan whicli makes the build- 
 ing ten times larger than I made it, or 
 than it really is. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CHANDRAYATI. 
 
 449 
 
 As recent discoveries, however, have forced us to carry their dates 
 further back by at least a century, it is probable that this too must 
 go back to about the year GOO, or thereabouts. Indeed, with the 
 Chaori in the Mokundra Pass, and the pillars at Erun, this Chan- 
 dravati fragment completes the list of all we at present can feel 
 sui'e of having been erected before the dark ages. There may be 
 others, and, if so, it would be well 
 they were examined, for this is 
 certainly one of the most elegant 
 specimens of architecture in India 
 (Woodcut Xo. 248), It has not 
 the poetry of arrangement of the 
 Jaina octagonal domes, but it ap- 
 proaches very nearly to them by 
 the large square space in the centre, 
 which was covered by the most 
 elegantly designed and most ex- 
 quisitely carved roof known to 
 exist anywhere. Its arrangement 
 is evidently borrowed from that 
 of Buddhist viharas, and it differs 
 from them in style because their 
 interiors were always plastered and 
 painted ; here, on the contrary, 
 everything is honestly carved in 
 stone.^ 
 
 Leaving these fragments, one 
 of the oldest, and certainly one of 
 the most perfect, in Central India 
 is the now desecrated temple at 
 Barrolli, situated in a Avild and 
 romantic spot, not far from the 
 
 falls of the Chumbul, whose distant roar in the still night is the 
 only sound that breaks the silence of the solitude around them. The 
 principal temple, represented in the Woodcut Xo. 249, may probably 
 be added to the list of buildings enumerated above as erected 
 before 750 a.d. It certainly is at least a century more modern than 
 that at Chandravati, and, pending a more precise determination, may 
 be ascribed to the 8th or 9th century, and is one of the few of 
 that age now known which were originally dedicated to Siva. Its 
 general outline is identical with that of the contemporary Orissan 
 
 Temple at Chandravati. 
 
 ' Tod (loc. cit.) gives seveial plates of 
 the details of the porch by a native 
 
 artist — fairly well drawn, but wanting 
 shadow to reader them intelligible. 
 
 2 G 
 
450 
 
 NORTHEIIN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 up the temple, and is sculptured with a richness and complexity of 
 design almost unrivalled, even in those days of patient prodigality 
 of labour. It will be observed in the plan (Woodcut No. 250) that 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 BARROLLI. 
 
 451 
 
 the dimensions are remarkably small, and the temple is barely 60 ft. 
 high, so that its merit consists entirely in its shape and propor- 
 tions, and in the elegance and profnsion of the ornament that 
 coyers it. 
 
 In front of the temple is a detached porch, here called a Chaori, or 
 nuptial hall (the same word, I belieye, as Choultrie in the south), in 
 which tradition records the marriage of a Huna (Hun) prince to a 
 Rajputni bride, for which purpose it is said to haye been erected ; ^ 
 but whether this is so or not, it is one of the finest examples of such 
 detached halls known in the north. We miss here the octasfonal 
 dome of the Jains, which would haye giyen elegance and relief to its 
 ceiling, though the yariety in the spacing of the columns has been 
 attained by a different process. The dome was seldom if eyer em- 
 ployed in Hindu architecture, but they seem to haye attempted to 
 gain sufficient relief to their otherwise monotonous arrangement of 
 columns by breaking up the external outline of the plan of the 
 mantapa, and by ranging the aisles 
 diagonally across the building, instead 
 of placing them parallel to the sides. 
 
 The other two temples here are 
 somewhat taller and more pointed 
 in their form, and are consequently 
 either more modern in date, or if of 
 the same age — which may possibly 
 be the case — would bring the date 
 of the whole group down to the 10th 
 century, which, after all, may be their 
 true date, though I am at present in- 
 clined to think the more ancient date 
 more consistent with our present 
 knowledge. 
 
 A little way from the great temple 
 are two pillars, one of which is here 
 represented (Woodcut No. 251). 
 They eyidently supported one of 
 those torans, or triumphal archways, 
 which succeeded the gateways of 
 the Buddhist topes, and form fre- 
 quently a yery pleasing adjunct to 
 Hindu temples. They are, howeyer, frail edifices at best, and easily 
 oyerthrown, whereyer the bigotry of the Moslems came into p'ay. 
 
 251. Pillar in Ban olli. 
 
 (From a Plate ia I'od's ' Annals of 
 Kajastan.') 
 
 ToJ's ' Annals of Eajastan,' vol. ii. p. 712. 
 
 2 G 2 
 
452 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 GUALIOR. 
 
 One temple, existing in the fortress of Gimlior, has been already 
 described under the title of the Jaina Temple {ante, p. 244), though 
 whether it is Jaina or Yaishnava is by no means easily determined. 
 At the same place there is another, bearing the not very dignified 
 name of the Teli ka Mandir, or Oilman's Temple (Woodcut No. 252). 
 It is a square of 60 ft. each way, with a portico on the east projecting 
 about 11 ft. Unlike the other temples we have been describing, it 
 does not terminate upwards in a pyramid, nor is it crowned by an 
 amalaka, but in a ridge of about 30 ft. in extent, which may originally 
 have had three amalakas upon it. I cannot help believing that this 
 form of temple was once more common than Ave now find it. There 
 are several examples of it at Mahavellipore (Woodcut Nos. 181, 182), 
 evidently copied from a form common among the Buddhists, and 
 one very beautiful example is found at Bhuvaneswar,^ there called 
 Kapila Devi, and dedicated to Siva. The Teli ka Mandir was ori- 
 ginally dedicated to Vishnu, but afterwards converted to the worship 
 of Siva. There is no inscription or any tradition from which its 
 date can be gathered, but on the whole I am inclined to place it 
 in the 10th or lltli century. 
 
 KhajurIho. 
 
 As mentioned above, the finest and most extensive group of 
 temples belonging to the northern or Indo-Aryan style of archi- 
 tecture is that gathered round the great temple at Bhuvaneswar. 
 They are also the most interesting historically, inasmuch as their 
 dates extend through five or six centuries, and they alone conse- 
 quently enable us to bridge over the dark ages of Indian art. From 
 its remote situation, Orissa seems to have escaped, to a great extent 
 at least, from the troubles that agitated northern and western India 
 during the 8th and 9th centuries ; and though from this cause we can 
 find nothing in Central India to fill up the gap between Chandra vati 
 and Gualior, in Orissa the series is complete, and, if properly exa- 
 mined and described, would afford a consecutive history of the style 
 from say 500 to 1100 or 1200 a.d. 
 
 Next in interest and extent to the Bhuvaneswar group is that 
 at Khajuraho,^ in Bundelcund, as before mentioned (p. 245). At 
 
 ^ A view of this temple will be found 
 in my ' Picturesque Illustrations of Indian 
 Architecture,' pi. 4. 
 
 ^ We are indebted to Gen. Cunning- 
 
 ham for almost all we know about this 
 place, and it is from his 'Reports' and 
 photographs that the following account 
 has been compiled. 
 
Teli ka Maudir, Gualior. (From a Photograph.) 
 
454 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VL 
 
 this place there are now to be found some thirty important temples, 
 all of which, with the exception of the Chaonsat Jogini and the 
 Ganthai, described when treating of Jaina architecture, are of the 
 same or nearly the same age. Nor is it difficult, from theii* style and 
 from the inscriptions gathered by General Cunningham, to see what 
 that age was. The inscriptions range from a.d. 954 to a.d. 1001 ; 
 and though it is not clear to what particular temple they apply, we 
 shall not probab'y err much if we assign the whole twenty-eight 
 temples he enumerates to the century beginning 950 and ending 
 1050, with a margin of a few years either way. What renders this 
 group more than usually interesting is, that the Khajuraho temples 
 are nearly equally divided between the three great Indian religions : 
 one-third being Jaina, one-third Yaishnava, and the remainder Saiva ; 
 and all being contemporary, it conveys an impression of toleration 
 we were hardly prepared for after the struggles of the preceding 
 centuries, though it might have been expected three centuries earlier. 
 
 A curious result of this toleration or community of feeling is, 
 that the architecture of all the three groups is so similar that, looking 
 to it alone, no one could say to which of the three religions any 
 particular temple belonged. It is only when their sculptures are 
 examined that their original destination becomes apparent, and even 
 then there are anomalies which it is difficult to explain. A portion, 
 for instance, of the sculptures of the principal Saiva temple — the 
 Kandarya Mahadeo — are of a grossly indecent character ; ^ the only 
 instance, so far as I know, of anything of the sort being found in 
 a Saiva temple, that bad pre-eminence being reserved to temples 
 belonging to the worshippers of Yishnu. It is possible that it may 
 originally have belonged to the latter sect ; but, taking all the 
 circumstances into consideration, this is most unlikely, and the fact 
 must be added to many others to prove how mixed together the 
 various sects were even at that time, and how little antagonistic 
 they then were to each other. 
 
 The general character of these temples may be gathered from the 
 annexed representation (Woodcut No. 258) of the principal Saiva 
 temple, the Kandarya Mahadeo. As will be seen from the plan 
 (Woodcut No. 254), it is 109 ft. in length, by GO ft. in breadth over 
 all, and externally is 116 ft. above the ground, and 88 ft. above its 
 own floor. Its basement, or perpendicular part, is, like all the great 
 temples here, surrounded by three rows of sculptured figures. General 
 Cunningham counted 872 statues on and in this temple, ranging from 
 2^ ft. to 3 ft. in height, or about half life-size, and they are mixed up 
 with a profusion of vegetable forms and conventional details which 
 defy description. The vimana, or tower, it will be observed, is built 
 
 Cunningham, ' Archseological Reports,' vol. ii. p 420. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 KHAJUKAHO. 
 
 455 
 
 ^5j. Kaiidarya Maliadco, kliajuraho. (iTuma I'iiotogvapli.) 
 
456 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-AHYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 up of smaller repetitions of itself, which became at this age one of the 
 favom:'ite modes of decoration, and afterwards an essential feature of 
 the style. Here it is managed with singular grace, giving great 
 variety and play of light and shade, without 
 unnecessarily breaking up the outline. The 
 roof of the porch, as seen in front, is a little 
 confused, but as seen on the flank it rises 
 pleasingly step by step till it abuts against 
 the tower, every part of the internal arrange- 
 ment being appropriately distinguished on the 
 exterior. 
 
 If we compare the design of the Jaina 
 temple (Woodcut No. 13G) with that of this 
 building, we cannot but admit that the former 
 is by far the most elegant, but on the other 
 hand the richness and vigour of the Mahadeo 
 temple redeem its want of elegance and fasci- 
 
 Plan of Kaiidar*va ft]ahadeo, UatCS iu SpitC of itS SOmCWhat COUfuScd OUt- 
 
 (From a Plan by Gen. Cuii- line. The Jaina temple is the legitimate 
 scair5(ff5;!'to^i in. outcrop of the class of temples that originated 
 in the Great Temple at Bhuvaneswar, while 
 the Kandarya Mahadeo exhibits a complete development of that 
 style of decoration which resulted in continued repetition of itself 
 on a smaller scale to make up a complete whole. Both systems have 
 their advantages, but on the whole the simpler seems to be preferable 
 to the more complicated mode of design. 
 
 Udaipur. 
 
 The examples already given will perhaps have sufficed to render 
 the general form of the Indo- Aryan temple familiar to the reader, but 
 as no two are quite like one another, their variety is infinite. There 
 is one form, however, which became very fashionable about the 11th 
 century, and is so characteristic that it deserves to be illustrated. 
 Fortunately a very perfect example exists at a place called Udaipur, 
 near Bhilsa, in the Bhopal territory. 
 
 As will be seen from the Woodcut (No. 255) the porch is covered 
 with a low pyramidal roof, placed diagonally on the substructure, and 
 rising in steps, each of which is ornamented with vases or urns of 
 varying shapes. The tower is ornamented by four flat bands, of 
 great beauty and elegance of design, between each of which are 
 thirty-five little repetitions of itself, placed one above the other 
 in five tiers, the wiiole surmounted by an amalaka, and an urn of 
 very elegant design. As every part of this is carved with great 
 precision and delicacy, and as the whole is quite perfect at the present 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 UDAIPUR. 
 
 457 
 
 day, there are few temples of its class which give a better idea 
 of the style than this one. Fortunately, too, its date is perfectly 
 well known. From an inscription copied by Lieutenant Burt, it 
 appears it was erected by a king who was reigning at Malwa, in the 
 year 1060 of our era.^ 
 
 255. Temple at Udaipur. 
 
 At Kallian, in Bombay harbour, there is a temple called Ambernath, 
 very similar to this, on making drawings and casts from which the 
 
 ^ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of' given from four difTerent epochs, so that 
 Bengal,' vol. ix. p. 548. The date is | there can be no mistake about it. 
 
458 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 Bombay government has lately spent a good deal of money.^ It is, 
 however, in a very rninous state, and even when perfect could never 
 have been equal to this one at Udaipur, and to many others on which 
 the money might have been better laid out. In it there is a slab 
 with an inscription, dated in the Saka year 782, or a.d. 860.^ It 
 is not quite clear, however, whether this inscription belongs to the 
 temple which we now see, or to an earlier one, fragments of w^hich are 
 found built into the vimana of the present one. If the date of the 
 temple is that just quoted, as Dr. Bhau Daji would have us believe, 
 all that can be said is that it is utterly anomalous. If it is in a.d. 1070, 
 as another inscription he quotes found near the place might lead us to 
 infer,^ it accords with all else we know of the style. 
 
 One other illustration must complete what we now have to say 
 regarding these Indo-Aryan temples. It is one of the most modern of 
 the style, having been erected by Meera Bale, the wife of Khunibo 
 Eana of Ohittore (a.d. 1418-1468). Khumbo was, 
 as is well known, devoted to the Jaina faith, having 
 erected the temple at Sadri (Woodcut No. 133), and 
 the Pillar of Victory (Woodcut No. 143) ; yet here 
 we find him and his wife erecting in their capital 
 two temples dedicated to Vishnu. The king's temple, 
 which is close by, is very much smaller than this 
 Diagram^^xpianatory ouc, for wliich his wifc gcts Credit. lu plan, the 
 MeemBaie?Tempie, ouly peculiarity is that the pradakshina, or pro- 
 No' scJfe cession-path round the cell, is here an open colonnade, 
 with four little pavilions at the four corners, and this 
 is repeated in the portico in the manner shown in the annexed diagram 
 (Woodcut No. 256). 
 
 The roof of the portico, in the form of a pyramid, is placed 
 diagonally as at Udaipur, while the tower itself is of so solid and 
 unbroken an outline, that it might at first sight be ascribed to a 
 much earlier date than the 15th century (Woodcut No. 257). When, 
 however, it is closely looked at, we miss the frequent amalaka 
 bands and other ornamental features of earlier times, and the crown- 
 ing members are more unlike those of ancient temples. The curve, 
 too, of its outline is regular from base to summit, and consequently 
 feebler than that of the older examples ; but taking it all in all, it 
 certainly is more like an ancient temple than any other of its age 
 I am acquainted with. It was a revival, the last expiring effort 
 of a style that was dying out, in that form at least. 
 
 ^ A portion of the casts are in the I ^ ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 South Kensington Mufeum. Transcripts Royal Asiatic Society/ vol. ix. p. 219. 
 from the dra\Aings were published in the ^ Ibid., vol. ix, p. 221. 
 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. iii. p. 316. \ 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 TEMPLE OF VISHVESHWAR, BENARES. 
 
 459 
 
 257. Temple of Vriji, Chittore. C^'om a Photograpli.) 
 
 ViSHVESHWAR, BeNARES. 
 
 If you ask a Brahman of Benares to point out to you the most 
 ancient temple of his city, he inevitably leads you to the Vishveshwar, 
 as not only the most holy, but the oldest of its sacred edifices. Yet it 
 is known, and cannot be disputed, that the temple, as it now stands, 
 was erected from the foundation in the last century, to replace one 
 that had been thrown down and desecrated by the bigot Aurungzebe. 
 This he did in order that he might erect on the most venerated 
 spot of the Hiudus his mosque, whose tall minarets still rear their 
 heads in insult over all the Hindu buildings of the city. The 
 strange thing is, that in this assertion the Brahmans arc not so very 
 
460 
 
 NORTllEHN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book YI. 
 
 far from representing the true state of the case. There is hardly 
 any great city in Hindustan that can show so few evidences of 
 antiquity as Benares. The Buddhist remains at Sarnath hardly 
 can be said to belong to the city, and even there they are, as above 
 explained, the most modern examples of their class in India. The 
 fact is, that the oldest buildings in the city are the Moslem tombs and 
 
 258. Temple of Vishveshwar. (From Trinsep's ' Views in Benares.') ISIo scale. 
 
 buildings about the Bukariya Kund, and they almost certainly 
 belong to the 15th century. Even the temple of Vishveshwar, 
 which Aurungzebe destroyed, was not erected before the reign of his 
 predecessor Akbar. The style is so nearly identical with that of 
 known buildings of his reign, at Muttra and elsewhere, that there can 
 be no doubt on this head. When desecrated it was the principal, and 
 probably the most splendid, edifice of its class in the city. It may be, 
 and probably is true, that the Vedic Brahmans erected their fire 
 
Chap. IV. TEMPLE OF SCINDIAH'S MOTHER, GUALIOK. 461 
 
 altars, and worshipped the sun, and paid adoration to the elements on 
 this spot 4000 years ago. It may be also that the emblem of Siva has 
 attracted admiring crowds to this spot for the last 1000 years ; but 
 there is no material evidence that before the time of Akbar (a.d. 1556- 
 1605) any important permanent building was ever erected there to 
 dignify the locality. 
 
 The present temple is a double one : two towers or spires almost 
 exactly duplicates of each other. One of these is represented in the 
 preceding woodcut (No. 258), and they are connected by a porch, 
 crowned by a dome borrowed from the Mahomedan style, which, 
 though graceful and pleasing in design, hardly harmonises with the 
 architecture of the rest of the temple. The spires are each 51 ft. in 
 height, and covered with ornament to an extent quite sufficient even 
 in this style. The details too are all elegant, and sharply and cleanly 
 cut, and without any evidence of vulgarity or bad taste ; but they are 
 feeble as compared with the more ancient examples, and the forms 
 of the pyramidal parts have lost that expression of power and of 
 constructive propriety which were so evident in the earlier stages 
 of the art. It is, however, curiously characteristic of the style and 
 place, that a building, barely 50 ft. in length, and the same in height, 
 should be the principal temple in the most sacred city of the Hindus, 
 and equally so that one hardly 150 years old should be considered as 
 the most ancient, while it is only that which marks this most holy 
 spot in the religious cosmogony of the Hindus. 
 
 Temple of Scindiah's Mother, Gualior. 
 
 One more example must suffice to explain the ultimate form which 
 the ancient towers of the Orissan temples have reached in the present 
 century. It is just finished, having been erected by the mother of the 
 present reigning Maharajah of Gualior, and to it has been added a 
 tomb or cenotaph either by herself or her son. As will be seen from 
 the woodcut (No. 259) it is elegant, though feeble as compared with 
 ancient examples. The Mahomedan dome appears in the background, 
 and the curved Bengali roof in the pavilion in front. The most 
 striking peculiarity of the style is, that the sikras have nearly lost the 
 graceful curved form, which is the most marked peculiarity of all the 
 ancient examples. As has already been remarked, the straight-lined 
 pyramid first appears in the Takht-i-Suleiman's temple in Kashmir, 
 where its introduction was probably hastened by the wooden straight- 
 lined roofs of the original native style. It is equally evident, however, 
 in a temple which Cheyt Sing, the Raja of Benares, erected at Eam- 
 nugger in the end of the last or beginning of the present century. 
 Since that time the tendency has been more and more in that direction, 
 and if not becked, the probability is that the curve will be entirely 
 
462 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 259. Temple of Scindiah's Moih r, Gualior. (From a Phoiograph.) 
 
 lost before the century is out. To an European eye, accustomed only 
 to our straight-lined spires, that may seem hardly a matter for regret ; 
 but to any one educated in Eastern forms it can scarcely appear 
 doubtful that these spires will lose half their charm if deprived 
 of the graceful curved outline they have so long retained. 
 
 BlNDKABUN. 
 
 In order not to interrupt the story of the gradual development 
 of the style, the history has been brought down to the present day 
 in as nearly a consecutive manner as possible, thus anticipating the 
 dates of several temples. It seems expedient, however, in any history 
 that this should be done, for few things of its class are more inte- 
 resting than to trace the progressive changes by which the robust form 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 BINDRABUN. 
 
 463 
 
 of the Parasurameswara temple at Bhuvaneswar, or of the great temple 
 there, became changed into the feeble elegance of the Yishveshwar 
 or Gualior temples. The few examples that can be adduced in such a 
 work as this may not suffice to make this so clear to others as it is 
 to myself. With twenty or thirty examples it could be made self- 
 evident, and that may one day be done, and this curious chapter in 
 architectural history ba thus added to the established sequences which 
 every true style of art affords. Meanwhile, however, it is necessary 
 to go back a little to mention one or two aberrant types which still 
 are not without interest. 
 
 As mentioned above, it does not appear proven that the Moslems 
 did wantonly throw down the temples of the Hindus, except when 
 they wanted the materials for the erection of mosques or other 
 buildings. But, whether this was so or not, it is evident that the 
 first three centuries of Mahomedan rule in India were singularly 
 unfavourable for the development of Hindu art in any part of the 
 country w^here their rule was firmly established. With the tolerant 
 reign of Akbar, however, a new state of affairs was inaugurated. Not 
 only was he himself entirely devoid of religious bigotry, but most — or 
 at least the most eminent — of his ministers and friends were Hindus, 
 anB. he lent an attentive ear to the Christian missionaries wiio fre- 
 quented his court. But, besides its tolerance, his reign was marked by 
 a degree of prosperity and magnificence till then unknown during that 
 of any other Indian sovereign of his faith. Not only are his own 
 buildings unrivalled in their extent and magnificence, but he en- 
 couraged all those around him to follow his example, and found, 
 among others, a most apt imitator in the celebrated Man Singh of 
 Amber, afterwards of Jeypore, who reigned a.d. 1592-1615. He erected 
 at Bindrabun a temple, which either he left un- 
 finished at his death, or the sikra of which may 
 have baen thrown down by Aurungzebe. It is one 
 of the most interesting and elegant temples in 
 India, and the only one, perhaps, from which an 
 European architect might borrow a few hints. 
 
 The temple, as it now stands, consists of a 
 cruciform porch, internally nearly quite perfect, 
 though externally it is not clear how it was 
 intended to be finished (Woodcuts Nos. 260, 261). 
 The cell, too, is perfect internally — used for wor- 
 ship — but the sikra is gone ; possibly it may 26o. 
 never have been completed. Though not large, ^ drSn? ^ 
 
 its dimensions are respectable, the porch mea- sL^ie loo ft."to I'^iu. 
 suring 117 ft. east and west, by 105 ft. north 
 and south, and is covered by a trae vault, built with radiating arches 
 — the only instance, except one, known to exist in a Hindu temple 
 
464 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book V[. 
 
 in the north of India. Over the foni' arms of the cross the vault 
 is plain, and only 20 ft. span, but in the centre it expands to 
 85 ft., and is quite equal in design to the best Gothic vaulting 
 known. It is the external design of this temple, howe\'er, Avhich 
 is most remarkable. The angles are accentuated with singular 
 force and decision, and the openings, which are more than sufficient 
 for that climate, are picturesquely arranged and pleasingly divided. 
 It is, however, the combination of vertical with horizontal lines, 
 covering the whole surface, that forms the great merit of the design. 
 This is, indeed, not peculiar to this temple ; but at Bhuvaneswar, 
 
 261. View of Temple at Bindrabun. (From a Photograph ) 
 
 Hullabid, and elsewhere, the whole surface is so overloaded with 
 ornament as to verge on bad taste. Here the accentuation is equal, 
 but the surfaces are comparatively plain, and the effect dependent on 
 the elegance of the profile of the mouldings rather than on the extent 
 of the ornamentation. Without elaborate drawings, it would be 
 difficult to convey a correct impression of this ; but the annexed view 
 (Woodcut No. 262) of a balcony, with its accomj^animents, will suffice 
 to illustrate what is meant. The figures might as well be omitted : 
 being carved where Moslem influences had long been strong, they are 
 the weakest part of the design. 
 
 The other vaulted temple, just alluded to, is at Goverdhun, not 
 far off, and built under the same tolerant influence during the reign 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 KANTONUGGUR. 
 
 465 
 
 262. Balcouy in Temple at Bindrabua. (^Krom a Pliotograph.) 
 
 of Akbar. It is a plain edifice 135 ft. long by 35 ft. in width ex- 
 ternally, and both in plan and design singularly like those early 
 Romance churches that are constantly met with in the south of 
 France, belonging to the 11th and 12th centuries. If, indeed, the 
 details are not too closely looked into, it might almost pass muster 
 for an example of Christian art at that age,^ while except in scale 
 the plan of the porch at Bindrabun bears a most striking resemblance 
 to that of St. Front at Perigeux (Woodcut No. 328, vol. i.). The simi- 
 larity is accidental, of course ; but it is curious that architects so 
 distant in time and place should hit so nearly on the same devices to 
 obtain certain desired effects. 
 
 Kantonuggur. 
 
 In addition to the great Indo-Aryan style of temple-building 
 described above, there are a number of small aberrant types which 
 
 ^ Both these temples are illustrated | Muttra and Agra, published by the India 
 to a considerable extent in Lieut. H. H. [ Office, 1873, to which the reader is re- 
 Cole's illustrations of ^buildings near j ferred for further information. 
 
 2 H 
 
466 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VL 
 
 it might be expedient to descril)e in a more extensive work ; but, 
 except one, none of them seem of sufficient importance to require 
 iUustration in a work like the present. The exceptional style is that 
 which grew up in Bengal proper on the relaxation of the Maho- 
 medan severity of religious intolerance, and is practised generally in 
 the province at the present day. It may have existed earlier, but no 
 examples are known, and it is consequently impossible to feel sure 
 about this. Its leading characteristic is the bent cornice, copied 
 from the bambu huts of the natives. To understand this, it may be 
 as well to explain that the roofs of all the huts in Bengal are formed 
 of tAvo rectangular frames of bambus, perfectly flat and rectangular 
 when formed, but when lifted from the ground and fitted to the 
 substructure they are bent so that the elasticity of the bambu, 
 resisting the flexure, keeps all the fastenings in a state of tension, 
 which makes a singularly firm roof out of very frail materials. It 
 is the only instance I know of elasticity being employed in building, 
 but is so singularly successful in attaining the desired end, and is 
 so common, that we can hardly wonder when the Bengalis turned 
 their attention to more permanent modes of building they should 
 have copied this one. It is nearly certain that it was employed for 
 the same purposes before the Mahomedan sovereignty, as it is found 
 in all the mosques at Gaur and Malda ; but we do not know of its use 
 in Hindu temples till afterwards, though now it is extremely common 
 all over northern India. 
 
 One of the best examples of a temple in this style is that at Kan- 
 tonuggur, twelve miles from the station at Dinajepore. It was com- 
 menced in A.D. 1704 and finished in 1722.^ As will be seen from the 
 annexed illustration (Woodcut No. 263), it is a nine-towered temple, 
 of considerable dimensions, and of a pleasingly picturesque design. 
 The centre pavilion is square, and, but for its pointed form, shows 
 clearly enough its descent from the Orissan prototypes ; the other 
 eight are octagonal, and must, I fancy, be derived from Mahomedan 
 originals. The pointed arches that prevail throughout are certainly 
 borrowed from that style, but the building being in brick their 
 employment was inevitable. 
 
 No stone is used in the building, and the whole surface is covered 
 with designs in terra-cotta, partly conventional, and these are fre- 
 quently repeated, as they may be without offence to taste ; but the 
 bulk of them are figure-subjects, which do not ever seem to be 
 repeated, and form a perfect repository of the manners, customs, and 
 costumes of the people of Bengal at the beginning of the last century. 
 In execution they display an immeasurable inferiority to the carvings 
 
 * Buchanan Hamilton, ' Eastern India,' edited by Montgomery Martin, 1837, 
 vol. ii. p. 628. 
 
Chap. IV. KANTONUGGUR. 467 
 
 on the old temples in Orissa or the Mysore, but for general effect of 
 richness and prodigality of labour this temple may fairly be allowed 
 to compete with some of the earlier examples. 
 
 263. Temple at Kantonuggur. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 There is another and more ornate temple, in the same style, at 
 Gopal Gunge,^ in the same district, but in infinitely worse taste ; and 
 
 ^ Frontispiece to Buchanan Hamilton's ' Eastern India.' 
 
 r 1 2 
 
468 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book YL 
 
 one known as tlie Black Pagoda, at Calcutta, and many others all 
 tlirongli Lower Bengal ; but hardly any so well worthy of illustration 
 as this one at Kantonuggur. 
 
 Amritsur. 
 
 One other example may serve for the present to complete what we 
 have at present to say regarding the temples of modern India. This 
 time, however, it is no longer an idol-shrine, but a monotheistic place 
 of prayer, and differs, consequently, most essentially from those we 
 
 2G4. Ihc Golden I'emple in tlie Holy Tank at Amritsur. 
 
 have been describing. The religion of the Sikhs appears to have 
 been a protest alike against the gross idolatry of the Hindus and 
 the inflexible monotheism of the Moslems. It does not, however, seem 
 that temples or gorgeous ceremonial formed any part of the religious 
 system propounded by its founders. Beading the ' Granth ' and prayer 
 are what were insisted upon, but even then not necessarily in public. 
 We, in consequence, know nothing of their temples, if they have any ; 
 but Bunjeet Singh was too emulous of the wealth of his Hindu and 
 Moslem subjects in this respect not to desire to rival their magni- 
 ficence, and consequently Ave have the Golden Temple in the Holy 
 
CUAP. IV. 
 
 AMKITSUR. 
 
 Tank at Amritsur — as splendid an example of its class as can be 
 found in India, thoug'h neither its outline nor its details can be com- 
 mended (Woodcut No. 2G4). It is useful, however, as exemplifying* 
 one of the forms which Indian temple-architecture assumed in the 
 19th century, and where, for the present, we must leave it. The Jains 
 and Hindus may yet do great things in it, if they can escape the 
 influence of European imitation ; but now that the sovereignty has 
 passed from the Sikhs we cannot expect their priests or ]x;ople to 
 indulge in a magnificence their religion does not countenance or 
 encourage. 
 
470 
 
 xoirrHRiiN (n\ indo-aryan style. 
 
 B(.<.K VT. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Cenotaphs — rulaces at Gualior, Amber, Deeg — Glials— Reservoirs — Dams. 
 
 Cenotaphs. 
 
 As remarked above, one of the most unexpected peculiarities of 
 ^ the art, as practised by the inhabitants of southern India, is the 
 absence of any attempt at sepulchral magnificence. As the Dra- 
 vidians were undoubtedly of Turanian origin, and were essentially 
 builders, we certainly would expect that they should show some 
 respect for the memories of their great men. It is, however, even 
 uncertain how far the cromlechs, dolmens, or sepulchral circles found 
 all over the south of India can be said to belong to the Dravidians in 
 a ruder stage of society, or whether they belong to some aboriginal 
 tribes who may have adopted the language of the superior races 
 without being able to change the instincts of their race. Even after 
 they had seen how much respect the Mahomedans paid to departed 
 greatness, they failed to imitate them in this peculiarity. It was 
 otherwise in the north of India — not among the pure Aryans, of 
 course ; but in the Rajput states, where blood is less pure, they 
 eagerly seized the suggestion offered by Mahomedan magnificence in 
 this respect, and erected chuttries on the spots where their bodies had 
 been burnt. Where, too, their widows, with that strange devotion 
 which is the noblest trait in the Hindu female's character, had 
 sacrificed themselves to what they conceived to be their duty. 
 
 In Rajputana every native capital has its Maha Sati, or place 
 where the sovereigns of the state and their nearest relatives are 
 buried with their wives. Most of these are appropriately situated in 
 a secluded spot at some little distance from the town, and, the locality 
 being generally chosen because it is rocky and well-wooded, it forms 
 as picturesque a necropolis as is to be found anywhere. Of these, 
 however, the most magnificent, and certainly among the most pic- 
 turesque, is that of Oudeypore, the capital of Mewar and the chief 
 of all the Rajput states still existing. Here the tombs exist literally 
 in hundreds, of all sizes, from the little domical canopy supported by 
 
Chap. Y. 
 
 CENOTAPHS. 
 
 471 
 
 four columns to the splendid chuttry whose octagonal dome is sup- 
 ported by fifty-six, for it has been the burying-place of the race ever 
 since they were expelled from the ancient capital at Chittore by 
 Akbar in 1580. All are crowned by domes, and all make more or 
 less pretensions to architectural beauty ; while as they are grouped 
 together as accident dictated, and interspersed with noble trees, it 
 would be difficult to point out a more beautiful cemetery anywhere. 
 
 265. Cenotaph of Sinjram Sing at Oudeypore, (From a Phutograpu.) 
 
 Among the finest is that of Singram Sing, one of the most illustrious 
 of his race, who was buried on this spot, with twenty-one of his 
 wives, in a.d. 1733. As will be seen from the annexed Woodcut 
 (No. 265), it is a fifty-six pillared portico, with one octagonal dome 
 in the centre (vide ante, Woodcut No. 119). The dome itself is sup- 
 ported on eight dwarf pillars, which, however, hardly seem sufficient 
 
472 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VL 
 
 for the pm-pose. The architect seems to have desired to avoid all 
 appearances of that gloom or solemnity which characterise the con- 
 temporary tombs of the Moslems, but, in doing this, to have erred 
 in the other direction. The base here is certainly not sufficiently 
 solid for the mass it has to support ; but the whole is so elegant, 
 and the effect so pleasing, that it seems hypercritical to find fault 
 
 
 
 f 1 \fi\ 
 
 
 266. Cenotaph in Maha Sati at Oudeypore, (From a Photograpb.) 
 
 with it, and difficult to find, even among Mahomedan toml)s, any- 
 thing more beautiful. 
 
 He it was, apparently, who erected the cenotaph to the memory 
 of his predecessor Amera Sing II., for the Hindus do not appear to 
 have gone so far in their imitation of the Moslems as to erect their 
 own tombs. In style it is very similar to that last described, except 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CENOTAPHS. 
 
 473 
 
 that it possesses only thii'ty-two columns instead of fifty-six. It 
 has, however, the same lofty stylobate, which adds so much to the 
 effect of these tombs, but has also the same defect — that the dome is 
 raised on eight dwarf columns, which do not seem sufficient for the 
 purpose.^ 
 
 "Woodcut No. 266 represents a cenotaph in this cemetery with 
 only twelve columns, which, mutatis mutandis, is identical with the 
 celebrated tomb at Halicarnassus.^ The lofty stylobate, the twelve 
 columns, the octagonal dome, and the general mode of construction 
 are the same ; but the twelve or thii'teen centuries that have elapsed 
 between the construction of the tAvo, and the difference of locality, 
 have so altered the details that the likeness is not at first sight easily 
 recognisable. From the form of its dome it is evidently considerably 
 more modern than that last described ; it may, indeed, have been 
 erected within the limits of the present centm-y. 
 
 To the right of the same woodcut is another cenotaph with only 
 eight pillars, but the effect is so weak and nnpleasing that it is 
 hardly to be wondered at that the arrangement is so rare. The angle 
 columns seem indispensable to give the design that accentuation and 
 firmness which are indispensable in all good architecture. 
 
 These last two illustrations, it will be observed, are practically 
 in the Jaina style of architectm-e ; for, though adopting a Maho- 
 medan form, the Eanas of Oudeypore clung to the style of archi- 
 tectm'e which their ancestors had practised, and which Khumbo Rana 
 had only recently rendered so famous. This gives them a look of 
 greater antiquity than they are entitled to, for it is quite certain 
 that Oudeypore was not the capital of the kingdom before the sack 
 of Chittore in 1580 ; and nearly equally so that the Hindus never 
 thought of this mode of commemorating their dead till the tolerant 
 reign of Akbar. He did more than all that had been done before or 
 since to fuse together the antagonistic feelings of the two religions 
 into at least a superficial similarity. 
 
 Further north, where the Jaina style never had been used to the 
 same extent at least as in the south-west, the Hindus adopted quite a 
 dilferent style in their palaces and cenotaphs. It was much more of 
 an arched style, and though never, so far as I know, using a true 
 arch, they adopted the form of the foliated arch, which is so common 
 in the palaces of Agra and Delhi, and all the Mogul buildmgs. In 
 the palace at Deeg, and in the cenotaphs of Goverdhun, this style is 
 seen in great perfection. It is well illustrated, with all its pecu- 
 liarities, in the next view of the tomb of Baktawar Sing at Ulwar, 
 
 * A view of this temple is given iu Arcliitecture in Hindostan,' pi. 14. 
 my ' Picturestiue lUustratious of Aucieut i - Ante, vol. i., Woodcut No. 241. 
 
474 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 erected within the limits of the present centnry (Woodcut No. 267). 
 To a European eye, perhaps the least pleasing part will be the Ben- 
 
 gali curved cornices alluded to in the last chapter ; but to any one 
 familiar with the style, its employment gets over many difficulties 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 PALACES. 
 
 475 
 
 that a straight line could hardly meet, and altogether it makes up 
 with its domes and pavilions as pleasing a group of its class as is to 
 t)e found in India, of its age at least. The tombs of the Bhurtpore 
 Rajahs at Goverdhun are similar to this one, but on a larger scale, and 
 some of them being older, are in better taste ; but the more modern 
 ones avoid most of the faults that are only too characteristic of the 
 art in India at the present day, and some of them are very modern. 
 One was in course of construction when I was there in 1839, and from 
 its architect I learned more of the secrets of art as practised in the 
 Middle Ages than I have learned from all the books I have since read. 
 Another was commenced after the time of my visit, and it is far from 
 being one of the worst buildings of its class. If one could only 
 inspire the natives with a feeling of pride in their own style, there 
 seems little doubt that even now they could rival the works of their 
 forefathers. 
 
 Palaces. 
 
 Another feature by which the northern style is most pleasingly 
 distinguished from the southern, is the number and beauty of the 
 palaces, which are found in all the capitals of the native states, espe- 
 cially in Rajputana. These are seldom designed with much reference 
 to architectural symmetry or effect, but are nevertheless always pic- 
 turesque and generally most ornamental objects in the landscape 
 where they are found. As a rule, they are situated on rocky emi- 
 nences, jutting into or overhanging lakes or artificial pieces of water, 
 which are always pleasing accompaniments to buildings of any sort in 
 that climate ; and the way they are fitted into the rocks, or seem to 
 grow out of them, frequently leads to the most picturesque combi- 
 nations. Sometimes their bases are fortified with round towers or 
 bastions, on whose terraces the palace stands ; and even when this is 
 not the case, the basement is generally built up solid to a considerable 
 height, in a manner that gives a most pleasing effect of solidity to the 
 whole, however light the superstructure may be, and often is. If to 
 these natural advantages you add the fact that the high caste Hindu 
 is almost incapable of bad taste, and that all these palaces are exactly 
 what they profess to be, without any affectation of pretending to be 
 what they are not, or of copying any style, ancient or modern, but 
 that best suited for their purposes — it will not be difficult to realise 
 what pleasing objects of study these Rajput palaces really are. At 
 the same time it will be easily understood how difficult it must be in 
 such a work as this to convey any adequate idea of their beauty ; 
 without plans explaining their arrangements, and architectural details 
 of their interior, neither their elegance nor appropriateness can be 
 judged of. A palace is not like a temple — a simple edifice of one or 
 two halls or cells, almost identical with hundreds of others ; but a vast 
 
476 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 congeries of public and private apartments grouped as a whole more 
 for convenience than effect. 
 
 Few of the palaces of India have escaped the fate of that class of 
 edifice all the world over. Either they must be deserted and left to 
 decay, which in India means rapid obliteration, or they must be 
 altered and modified to suit the requirements of subsequent occupants, 
 till little if anything remains of the original structure. This fate, so 
 far as is known, has overtaken all the royal abodes that may have 
 existed before the dark ages ; so much so, indeed, that no trace of 
 them has been found anywhere. Even after that we look in vain for 
 anything important before the 13th century. At Chittore, for instance, 
 where one of the earliest Rajput dynasties was established, there are 
 buildings that bear the name of the Palace of the Mori, but so altered 
 and remodelled as to be unrecognisable as such ; nor can the palace of 
 the Khengar at Girnar exhibit any feature that belongs to the date to 
 which it is assigned. 
 
 At Chittore the oldest building of this class which can with cer- 
 tainty be said to have existed anterior to the sack of the place by 
 Alla-u-din in 1305, is the palace of Bhim and Pudmandi, which 
 remains unaltered, and is, though small, a very pleasing example of 
 the style.i The palace of Khumbo Rana (a.d. 1418-1468) in the same 
 place is far more ^grandiose, and shows all that beauty of detail which 
 characterises his buildings in general. 
 
 The palaces at Chittore belonging to this dynasty were however 
 far surpassed, in extent at least, by those which Udya Sing commenced 
 at Udyapur or Oudeypore, to which place he removed his capital after 
 the third sack of Chittore by Akbar in 1580. It has not unfrequently 
 been compared with the Castle at Windsor, and not inaptly, for both 
 in outline and extent it is not unlike that palace, though differing so 
 wonderfully in detail and in situation. In this latter respect the 
 Eastern has the advantage of the Western palace, as it stands on the 
 verge of an extensive lake, surrounded by hills of great beauty of 
 outline, and in the lake are two island palaces, the Jug Newas and 
 Jug Mundir, which are more beautiful in their class than any similar 
 objects I know of elsewhere.^ It would be difficult to find any scene 
 where art and nature are so happily blended together and produce so 
 fairy-like an effect. Certainly nothing I know of so modern a date 
 equals it. 
 
 The palace at Boondi is of about the same modern age as that at 
 
 1 A view of it is given in Tod's 'Ra- ^ A view of one of these is given iuniy 
 jastau,' vol. i. p. 2G7. Some parts have ' Illustrations of Ancient Architecture iu 
 been misunderstood by the engraver, but India,' plate 15. Other illustrations will 
 on the whole it represents the building bo found iu ' L'Inde dcs Rajahs,' p. 187, 
 fairly. j tt seqq. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 PALACES. 
 
 477 
 
 Ondeypore, and almost ecjuals it in architectnral effect. It is smaller 
 however, and its lake is less in extent, and has only temples standing 
 on its islets, instead of palaces with their pavilions and gardens. 
 Still, the mode in which it is placed on its hill, and the way in which 
 its buildings gradnally fade into the bastions of the hill above, are sin- 
 gularly pictnresqne even for this coimrry, and the hills being higher, 
 and the valleys narrower, the effect of this palace is in some respects 
 even more imposing than that at Ondeypore. 
 
 There are, however, some twenty or thirty similar royal residences 
 in Central India, aU of which have points of interest and beanty : some 
 
 263. P^-^-r : 
 
 for their extent, others for their locality, and some for their beanty 
 in detail, bnt every one of which wonld require a volmne to describe 
 in detail. Two examples, thongh among the least known, must at 
 present snffice to illustrate their general appearance. 
 
 That at Duttiah (Woodcut Xo. 268), in Bimdelcund, is a large 
 square block of building, more regular than such buildings generaUj 
 are, but stiU sufficiently relieved both in outline, and in the variety 
 of detail applied to the various storeys, to avoid monotony, and with 
 its gardens leading down to the lake, and its tombs opposite, combine 
 to make up an architectural scene of a singidarly pleasing character. 
 
 The other is even less known, as it belongs to the little Bundel- 
 
ClIAP. V. 
 
 GUALIOR. 
 
 479 
 
 cund state of Ourtcha (Woodcut No. 209), but is of a much more 
 varied outline than that at Duttiah, and with its domes and gateways 
 makes up as picturesque a combination as can well be found any- 
 where. It is too modern for much purity of detail, but that in a 
 residence is less objectionable than it would be in a temple, or in an 
 edifice devoted to any higher purpose. 
 
 GUALIOR. 
 
 Perhaps the most historically interesting of these Central Indian 
 palaces is that of Gualior. The rock on which that fortress stands is 
 of so peculiar a formation, and by nature so strong, that it must 
 always have been occupied by the chiefs of the state in which it 
 is situated. Its temples have already been described, but its older 
 palaces have undergone the fate of all similar edifices ; it, however, 
 possesses, or possessed, in that built by Man Sing (a.d. 1486-1 5 1G), the 
 most remarkable and interesting example of a Hindu palace of an 
 early age in India. The external dimensions of this palace are 300 ft. 
 by 160 ft., and on the east side it is 100 ft. high, having two under- 
 ground storeys looking over the country. On all its faces the flat 
 surface is relieved by tall towers of singularly pleasing design, 
 crowned by cupolas that were covered with domes of gilt copper 
 when Baber saw them in 1527.^ His successor, Vicramaditya, added 
 another palace, of even greater extent, to this one in 1516 and 
 Jehangir and Shah Jehan added palaces to these two, the whole 
 making up a group of edifices unequalled for picturesqueness and 
 interest by anything of their class that exists in Central India.^ 
 Among the apartments in the palace was one called the Baradurri, sup- 
 ported on twelve columns, and 45 ft. square, with a stone roof, which 
 was one of the most beautiful apartments of its class anywhere to be 
 
 * Erskine's ' Memoirs of Baber,' p. 384 . 
 
 2 These particulars are taken from 
 Cunningham's ' Archaeological Reports,' 
 vol. ii. p. 346, et seqq., plates 87 and 88. 
 
 ^ How far anything of all this now 
 exists is by no means clear. We occu- 
 pied tlie fort during the mutiny, and I 
 have retained it ever since. The first 
 thing done was to occupy the Barradurri 
 as a mess-room : to fit up portions of the 
 palace for military occupation ; then to 
 build a range of barracks, and clear away 
 a lot of antiquarian rubbish to make a 
 parade ground. What all this means is 
 only too easily understood. M. Rousselet 
 — no unfriendly critic — observes : — " Les 
 Anglais sont tres-activement occupes a 
 
 simplifier la besogne de I'arche'ologue, et 
 k faire disparaitre ce pre'cieux document 
 de I'histoire de I'lnde; deja toutes les 
 constructions la gauche de la porte de 
 Test sont livrees a la pioche et le meme 
 sort est reserve' au reste (' L'Inde des 
 Rajah's,' p. 362). And, again: "Mais, 
 helas ! I'Ourwahai lui aussi a vecu. Quand 
 j'y revins en Decembre, 1867, les arbres 
 etaient coupes, les statues volaient en 
 e'clats, sous les pics des travailleurs, et 
 le ravin se remplissait des talus d'uue 
 nouvelle route construite par les Anglais 
 — talus dans lesquels dorment les palais 
 des Chandelas et des Tomars, les idoles 
 des Bouddhistes et des Jainas." — Loc. 
 cit. p. 366. 
 
480 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Rook VI. 
 
 found. It was, besides, singularly interesting from the expedients 
 to which the Hindu architect was forced to resort to imitate the 
 vaults of the Moslems. They had not then learned to copy them, 
 as they did at the end of that century, at Bindrabun and else- 
 where, under the guidance of the tolerant Akbar. 
 
 Of these buildings, which so excited the admiration of the Emperor 
 Baber, probably little now remains. The Moslems added to the 
 palaces of the Hindus, and spared their temples and the statues of 
 the Jains. We have ruthlessly set to work to destroy whatever inter- 
 feres with our convenience, and during the few years we have occupied 
 the fort, have probably done more to disfigure its beauties, and obliterate 
 its memories, than was caused by the Moslems during the centuries 
 they possessed or occupied it. Better things w^ere at one time hoped 
 for, but the fact seems to be, the ruling powers have no real heart in 
 the matter, and subordinates are allowed to do as they please, and if 
 they can save money or themselves trouble, there is nothing in India 
 that can escape the effect of their unsympathising ignorance. 
 
 Ame^r. 
 
 The palace at Amber, the original capital of the Jeypore states, 
 ranks next after that of Gualior as an architectural object among the 
 Rajput palaces. It is, however, a century more modern, having been 
 commenced by another Man Singh, who ascended the throne in 1592, 
 and was completed by Siwai Jey Sing, who added the beautiful gate- 
 way w^hich bears his name before he removed the seat of government 
 to Jeypore in 1728. In consequence of this more modern date it has 
 not that stamp of Hindu originality that is so characteristic of the 
 Gualior example, and throughout it bears a strong impress of that 
 influence w^hich Akbar's mind and works stamped on everything that 
 was done in India during his reign. Its situation, too, is inferior 
 to that of Gualior for architectural effect. Instead of standing on a 
 lofty rocky pedestal, and its pinnacles being relieved boldly against 
 the sky, the Amber palace is situated in a valley — picturesque, it 
 is true, but where the masonry competes with the rocks in a manner 
 which is certainly unfavourable to the effect of the building. Nothing, 
 however, can be more picturesque than the way in which the palace 
 grows, as it were, out of a rocky base or reflects itself in the mirror 
 of the deep lake at its base, and nothing can be happier than the mode 
 in which the principal apartments arc arranged, so as to afford views 
 over the lake and into the country beyond. 
 
 The details, too, of this palace are singularly good, and quite 
 free from the feebleness that shortly afterwards characterised the 
 style. In some respects, indeed, they contrast favourably with those 
 of Akbar's contemporary palace at Futtehpore Sikri. There the 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 PALACES. 
 
 481 
 
 second commandment confined the fancy of the decorator to pnrelj 
 inanimate objects ; here the laxer creed of the Hindus enabled him 
 to indulge in elephant 
 capitals and figure-sculp- 
 ture of men and animals 
 to any extent. The Hin- 
 dus seem also to have 
 
 indulged in colour and in 
 mirrors to an extent that 
 Akbar did not apparently 
 feel himself justified in 
 employing. The conse- 
 quence is that the whole 
 has a richer and more 
 picturesque effect than its 
 Mahomedan rival, but the 
 two together make up a 
 curiously perfect illustra- 
 tion of the architecture of 
 that day, as seen from a 
 Hindu, contrasted with 
 that from a Mahomedan, 
 point of vicAV. 
 
 It was the same Man 
 Sing who erected the Ob- 
 servatory at Benares which 
 still bears his name, and 
 though not very architec- 
 tural in its general appear- 
 ance, has on the river-face 
 a balconied window, which 
 is a fair and pleasing spe- 
 cimen of the architecture 
 of his age (Woodcut No. 
 270). He also was the 
 king who erected the temple at Bindrabun, which has been illus- 
 trated above (pp. 468, 464). 
 
 Balcony at the Conservatory, Benares. (From a 
 Drawing by the late James Prinsep.) 
 
 Deeg. 
 
 All the palaces above described are more or less irregular in their 
 disposition, and are all situated on rocky and uneven ground. That 
 at Deeg, however, is on a perfectly level plain, and laid out with 
 a regularity that would satisfy the most fastidious Renaissance 
 architect. It is wholly the work of Suraj Mull, the virtual founder 
 
 2 I 
 
482 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 of the Bluirtpore dynasty, who commenced it, apparently in 1725, 
 and left it as we now see it, when he was slain in battle with 
 Nudjiff Khan in 1703. It wants, it is true, the massive character 
 of the fortified palaces of other Rajput states, but for grandeur of 
 conception and beauty of detail it surpasses them all. 
 
 The whole palace was to have consisted of a rectangular enclosure 
 tAvice the length of its breadth, surrounded with buildings, with a 
 garden in the centre, divided into two parts by a broad terrace, in- 
 tended to carry the central pavilion. Only one of these rectangles 
 has been completed, measuring about 7(tO feet square,^ crossed in the 
 centre by ranges of the most beautiful fountains and parterres, laid 
 out in the formal style of the East, and interspersed with archi- 
 tectural ornaments of the most elaborate finish. 
 
 The pavilion on the north side contains the great audience-hall, 
 7G ft. 8 in. by 54 ft. 7 in., divided in the centre by a noble range of 
 arcades, behind which are the principal dwelling apartments, two, 
 and in some parts three, storeys in height. Opposite this is a pavilion 
 occupied principally by fountains. On one side stands a marble hall, 
 attached to an older palace facing the principal pavilion, which was 
 meant to occupy the centre of the garden. As will be seen by the 
 plan (Woodcut No. 271), it is a parallelogram of 152 ft. by 87 ft., 
 
 each end occupied by a small but very ele- 
 gant range of apartments, in two storeys ; 
 the central hall (]()8 ft. by 87 ft.) is sup- 
 ported on four roAvs of columns, and open 
 at both sides ; at each end is a marble 
 reservoir for fountains, and a similar one 
 exists externally on each side. The whole 
 is roofed with stone, except the central part, 
 which, after being contracted l)y a bold 
 cove, is roofed with a flat ceiling of timber 
 exquisitely carved. This wooden ceiling 
 seems to have been considered a defect, 
 nothing but stone being used in any other 
 part of the palace. The architect, therefore, 
 attempted to roof the corresponding pavilion of the unfinished court 
 with slabs of stone 34 ft. in length, and 18 in. square. Some of these 
 still exist in their places, but their weight was too great for the 
 arcades, which are only 18 in. thick, and not of solid stone, but of 
 two facings 4 in. or 5 in. thick, and the intermediate spaces filled 
 in with rubble. Besides this, though the form of the arch is lite- 
 I'ally copied from the Mahomedan style, neither here, nor elsewhere 
 
 ^ A plan of it is given in Lieut. Cole's I — correct as far as it goes, but not 
 'Report on the liuildings nenr Agra' I comiilote. 
 
 27 I. Hall at Deeg. 
 
 (From a Flan by the Author.) 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. Y. 
 
 PALACES. 
 
 483 
 
 throughout the palace, is there a single true arch, the oj^^niuii's being 
 virtually covered by two brackets meeting in the centre. 
 
 The general appearance of the arcades of these buildings mav he 
 gathered from the annexed view (Woodcut Xo. 272), and may be 
 characterised as more elegant than rich. The glory of Deeg, however, 
 consists in the cornices, which are generally double, a peculiarity not 
 seen elsewhere, and which for extent of shadow and richness of detail 
 surpass any similar ornaments in India, either in ancient or modern 
 buildings. The lower cornice is the usual sloping entablature, almost 
 universal in such buildings. This was adopted apparently because it 
 
 View from the Central Pavilion in the Palac-j at Deeg. (Fiuni a riioto-raph.) 
 
 took the slope of the curtains, which almost invariably hang beneath 
 its projecting shade, and which, when drawn out, seem almost a con- 
 tinuation of it. The upper cornice, which was horizontal, is peculiar 
 to Deeg, and seems designed to fin-nish an extension of the flat roof, 
 w^hich in Eastern palaces is usually considered the best apartment of 
 the house ; but whether designed for this or any other purpose, it 
 adds singtilarly to the richness of the effect, and by the double 
 shadow affords a relief and character seldom exceeded even in the 
 East. 
 
 Generally speaking, the bracket arcades of Deeg are neither so 
 
 2 I 2 
 
484 
 
 NORTH I^:EN ok INDO-AllYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 rich nor so appropriate as the bold bracket capitals of the older styles. 
 That the bracket is almost exclusively an original Indian form of 
 capital can, I think, scarcely be doubted ; but the system Avas carried 
 much further by the Moguls, especially during the reign of Akbar, 
 than it had ever been carried by its original inventors, at least in 
 the ^^orth. The Hindus, on receiving it back, luxuriated in its pic- 
 tnres(iue richness to an extent that astonishes every beholder ; and 
 half the effect of most of the modern buildings of India is owing to 
 the bold projecting balconies and fanciful kiosks that diversify the 
 otherwise plain walls. 
 
 The greatest defect of the palace is that the style, when it was 
 erected, was losing its true form of lithic propriety. The form of its 
 pillars and their ornaments are better suited for wood or metal than for 
 stone architecture ; and though the style of the Moguls, in the last days 
 of their dynasty, was tending in that direction, it never threw off the 
 solidity and constructive propriety to such an extent as is done in 
 these modern palaces of the Hindus. It is not at Deeg carried so far 
 as to be offensive, but it is on the verge of good taste, and in some 
 more modern buildings assumes forms more suited for upholstery 
 than for stone architecture. 
 
 Since the time when Suraj Mull completed this fairy creation, 
 the tendency, not only with the Rajput princes, but the sovereigns of 
 such states as Oude, and even as Delhi, has been to copy the bastard 
 style of Italian architecture we have introduced into India. It was 
 natural, perhaps, that they should admire the arts of a race who had 
 shown themselves in w^ar and policy superior to themselves ; but it 
 was fatal to their arts, and whether a revival is now possible remains 
 to be seen. It might be so, if their rulers showed the smallest possible 
 appreciation of the works of their ancestors, but can hardly be hoped 
 for while a department of the^istate is organised, as they must believe, 
 for the express purpose of destroying and obliterating all traces of 
 what was once noble and beautiful in the land. 
 
 Ghats or Landing-places. 
 
 Another object of architectural magnificence peculiar to northern 
 Hindustan, is the construction of the fjJidts that everywhere line the 
 river-banks in most of the great cities, more especially those which 
 are situated on the Ganges. Benares possesses perhaps the greatest 
 number of edifices of this class ; but from Calcutta to Hurdwar no 
 city is without some specimens of this species of architectural display. 
 The Ghoosla Ghat at Benares (Woodcut No. 273), though one of the 
 most modern, may be taken as a fair specimen of the class, although 
 many are richer and much more elaborately adorned. Their object 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GHATS OR LANDIKG-PLACES. 
 
 485 
 
 being to afford easy access to bathers, the flight of steps in front is 
 in reality the ghat, and the main object of the erection. These are 
 generally broken, as in this instance, by small projections, often 
 crowned by kiosks, which take off the monotony inherent in long 
 lines of narrow steps. The flight of stairs is always backed by a 
 building, which in most instances is merely an object of architectural 
 display without any particular destination, except to afford shelter 
 from the rays of the sun to such of the idle as choose to avail them- 
 selves of it. When the bank is high, the lower part of these buildings 
 is solid, and when, as in this instance, it is nearly plain, it affords 
 a noble basement to an ornamental upper storey, with which they 
 are generally adorned, or to the temple which frequently crowns 
 them. 
 
 Though the Ganges is, par exceUence, the river of ghats, one of 
 the most beautiful in India is that erected by Ahalya Baiee (Holkar's 
 
 273. Ghoosla Gbat, Benjies. (From Prinsep's Views.) 
 
 widow) at Maheswar, on the Nerbudda ; and Ujjain and other ancient 
 cities almost rival Benares in this respect. Indeed, there is scarcely 
 a tank or stream in all India that is without its flight of steps, and it 
 is seldom indeed that these are left without some adornment or an 
 attempt at architectural display, water being always grateful in so 
 
486 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. 
 
 Book YI. 
 
 hot a climate, and an especially favourite resort with a people so fond 
 of washing and so cleanly in their habits as the Hindus. 
 
 Keservoirs. 
 
 The same fondness for water has given rise to another species of 
 architectural display peculiar to India, in the great reservoirs or 
 howlees, which are found wherever the wells are deep and water far 
 from the surface. In design they are exactly the reverse of the ghats, 
 since the steps are wholly below the ground, and descend to the 
 water often at a depth of 80, ft. or 100 ft. Externally they make no 
 display, the only objects usually seen above ground being two pavilions 
 to mark the entrance, between which a bold flight of steps, from 20 ft. 
 to 40 ft. in width, leads down to the water. Facing the entrance is 
 a great screen, rising perpendicularly from the water to the surface of 
 th3 ground, and dividing the stairs from a circular shaft or well, up 
 which the water is drawn by pulleys by those who prefer that mode of 
 obtaining it instead of descending the steps. The w^alls between which 
 the steps descend are ornamented by niches, or covered with galleries 
 leading to the great screen. Where the depth is great, there is often 
 a screen across the stairs about half-way down. 
 
 To persons not familiar with the East such an architectural object 
 as a bowlee may seem a strange perversion of ingenuity, but the 
 grateful coolness of all subterranean apartments, especially when accom- 
 panied by water, and the quiet gloom of these recesses, fully com- 
 pensate, in the eyes of the Hindu, for the more attractive magnificence 
 of the ghats. Consequently, the descending flights of which we are 
 now speaking, have often been made more elaborate and expensive 
 pieces of architecture than any of the buildings above ground found 
 in their vicinity. 
 
 Dams. 
 
 In the same manner the bunds or dams of the artificial lakes, or 
 great tanks, which are so necessary for irrigation, are often made 
 works of great architectural magnificence, first by covering them 
 with flights of steps, like those of the ghats, and then erecting 
 temples or pavilions, and kiosks, interspersed with fountains and 
 statues in breaks between these flights. Where all these are of marble, 
 as is soraL3times the case in Rajputana, the whole make up as perfect 
 a piece of architectural combination as any the Hindus can boast of. 
 
 One of the most beautiful of these is that erected by Eaj Sing, 
 who ascended the throne of Oudeypore, in 1053, to form the lake of 
 Rajsamundra (Woodcut No. 274), which is one of the most extensive 
 in his dominions. This bund is 37G paces in length, and wholly 
 
CUAP. V. 
 
 DAMS. 
 
 487 
 
 covered with white marble steps ; and with its beautiful kiosks pro- 
 jecting into the water, and the palaces which cvovm the hills at 
 either end, it makes up a fairy scene of architectural beauty, with 
 its waters and its woods, which is hardly sui-passed by any in 
 the East. 
 
 It would be tedious, however, to enumerate, without illustrating 
 them, which the limits of this work will not permit, all the modes of 
 architectural magnificence of the Hindus. Like all people untram- 
 melled by rales derived from incongruous objects, and gifted with a 
 feeling for the beautiful, they adorn whatever they require, and 
 convert every object, however utilitarian in its purposes, into an 
 
 274. Bund of Lake Rajsaaiundra. (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 object of bsauty. They long ago found out that it is not temples 
 and palaces alone that are capable of such display, but that everything 
 Avhich man makes may become beautiful, provided the hand of taste 
 be guided by sound judgment, and that the architect never forgets 
 what the object is, and never conceals the constructive exigences 
 of the building itself. It is simply this inherent taste and love of 
 beauty, which the Indians seem always to have possessed, directed by 
 unaffected honesty of purpose, which enables those who are destitute 
 of political independence, or knowledge, or power, to erect, even at 
 the present day, buildings that will bear comparison with the best of 
 those erected in Europe during the Middle Ages. It must be con- 
 fessed that it would reipiire far moi'e comprehensive illustration than 
 
488 
 
 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI. 
 
 the preceding slight sketch of so extensive a subject can pretend 
 to be, to make this apparent to others. But no one who has personally 
 visited the objects of interest with which India abounds can fail to 
 be struck w^ith the extraordinary elegance of detail and propriety 
 of design which pervades all the architectural achievements of the 
 Hindus ; and this not only in buildings erected in former days, but 
 in those now in course of construction in those parts of the country 
 to which the bad taste of their European rulers has not yet penetrated. 
 
( 489 ) 
 
 BOOK VIL 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 INTRODUCTOKY. 
 
 From a very early period in the world's history a great group of 
 civilized nations existed in Central iVsia between the Mediterranean 
 and the Indus. They lived apart, having few relations with their 
 neighbours, except of war and hatred, and served rather to separate 
 than to bring together the Indian and European communities Avhich 
 flourished beyond them on either hand. 
 
 Alexander's great raid Avas the first attempt to break through this 
 barrier, and to join the East and West by commercial or social inter- 
 changes. The steady organisation of the Roman empire succeeded in 
 consolidating what that brilliant conqueror had sketched out. During 
 the permanence of her supremacy the space intervening between India 
 and Europe was bridged over by the order she maintained among the 
 various communities established in Central Asia, and there seemed no 
 reason why the intercourse so established should be interrupted. Un- 
 suspected, however, by the Roman world, two nomade nations, unin- 
 fluenced by its civilization, hung on either flank of this great line of 
 communication, ready to avail themselves of any moment of weakness 
 that might occur. 
 
 The Arabs, as the most impetuous, and nearest the centre, were the 
 first to break their bounds ; and in the course of the 7th century Syria, 
 Persia, Egypt, and the north of Africa became theirs. Spain was con- 
 quered, and India nearly shared the same fate. Under Muawiah, the 
 first Khalif of the Ommiahs, two attempts were made to cross the 
 Indus by the southern route — that which the Scythians had success- 
 fully followed a short time before. Both these attempts failed, but 
 under Walid, Muhamed Kasim, a.h. 99, did effect a settlement in 
 Scinde. It proved a barren conquest, however ; for though a Maho- 
 medan dynasty was established there, it soon became independent of 
 the Khalifat, and eventuahy died out. 
 
490 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 The supremacy of the Khalifat was as brief as it was brilliant. Its 
 hour of greatest glory was about the year a.d. 800, in the reign of 
 Haroun al Eashid. From that time decay set in ; and after two 
 centuries more the effeminacy and corruption inherent in Eastern 
 dynasties had so far progressed as to encourage the Northern hordes 
 to move. 
 
 During the course of the 11th century the Tartar hordes, who were 
 hitherto only known as shepherds pasturing their herds on the steppes 
 of Northern Asia, first made their appearance south of the Paropamisan 
 range as conquerors ; and for six centuries their progress was steadily 
 onwards, till, in the'year a.d. 1G83, we find the Turks encamped under 
 the walls of Vienna, and the Mogul Aurungzebe lord paramount of 
 the whole of India Proper, while Egypt and all the intervening 
 countries owned the rule of sovereigns of Turanian race. 
 
 The architecture of the nations under the Arab Khalifat has already 
 been described, and is of very minor importance.^ The ruling people 
 were of Semitic race, and had no great taste for architectural magni- 
 ficence ; and unless where they happened to govern a people of another 
 stock, they have left few traces of their art. 
 
 With the Northern hordes the case w^as widely different ; they 
 were, without an exception, of Turanian blood, more or less pure, and 
 wherever they went their mosques, and especially their tombs, remain 
 to mark their presence, and to convey an idea of their splendour. In 
 order to understand what follows, it is necessary to bear in mind that 
 the Semitic conquest, from Mecca as a centre, extended from the 
 mouths of the Guadalquivir to those of the Indus, and left but little 
 worthy of remark in architecture. The Turanian conquest, from 
 Bokhara and Balkh as centres, extended from Constantinople to 
 Cuttack, and covered the whole intervening space with monuments 
 of every class. Those of the west and centre have already been 
 described in speaking of Turkey and Persia ; the Eastern branch 
 remains to be discussed, and its monuments are those of which this 
 division of the work purports to be a description. 
 
 The Saracenic architects showed in India the same pliancy in 
 adopting the styles of the various people among whom they had settled 
 which characterised their practice in the countries already described. 
 It thus happens that in India we have at least twelve or fifteen dif- 
 ferent styles of Mahomedan architecture : and if an attempt were 
 made to exhaust all the examples, it would be found necessary to 
 enumerate even a greater number. Meanwhile, however, the fol- 
 lowing thirteen divisions will probably be found sufficient for present 
 purposes : — 
 
 ^ Egypt showed little taste for arclii- 
 tectural display till she fell iiiider the 
 sway of the Metnlook Sultaus, aud Sara- 
 
 cenic architecture in Persia practically 
 commences with the Seljiiklanb. 
 
CflAP. I. 
 
 l^^TRODUCTORY. 
 
 491 
 
 1. The first of these is that of Ghazni^ which, though not, strictly 
 speaking, in India, had without doubt the most important influence 
 on the Indian styles, and formed in fact the stepping-stone by means 
 of which the architecture of the West was introduced into India, and 
 it long remained the connecting link between the styles of the Eastern 
 and those of the Western world. It would consequently be of the 
 greatest importance in enabling us to understand the early examples 
 of the style in India Proper, if we could describe this one with any- 
 thing like precision, but for that we must wait till some qualified 
 person visits the province. 
 
 2. Xext to tliis comes the Patlian style of northern India (a.d. 
 1193-1554), spreading over the whole of Upper India, and lasting for 
 about three centuries and a half. After the death, however, of Ala 
 ud-din (a.d. 1316) the central power was at times so weak, that the 
 recently conquered outlying provinces were frequently enabled to 
 render themselves independent, and when this was the case, exhibited 
 their individuality everywhere, by inventing a style of architecture 
 expressive of their local peculiarities. 
 
 3. One of the first to exhibit this tendency was the brilliant but 
 short-lived Sharki dynasty of Jaunpore (a.d. 1394-1476). Though 
 existing for less than a century, they adorned their capital with a 
 series of mosques and other buildings which are hardly sui-passed by 
 those of any city in India for magnificence, and by none for a well- 
 marked individuality of treatment. 
 
 4. The style adopted by the kings of Gujerat during theii* period 
 of independence (a.d. 1396-1572) was richer and more varied than 
 that of Jaunpore, though hardly so original or marked by such indi- 
 viduality. They borrowed too mu2h, physically as well as intel- 
 lectually, from the architecture of the Jains, among whom they 
 were located, to be entirely independent ; but the richness of their 
 style is in proportion to the Hindu details they introdaced. 
 
 5. MaJwa became independent in a.d. 1401, and between that date 
 and A.D. 1568, when they were absorbed in the Mogul empu'e, her 
 kings adorned their capital at Mandu with palaces and mosques of 
 great magnificence, but more similar to the parent style at Delhi 
 than the two last-named styles, and wanting, consequently, in the 
 local individuality. 
 
 6. Bengal was early erected into a separate kingdom — in a.d. 1203 
 — more or less independent of the central power ; and during its con- 
 tinuance — till A.D. 1573 — the capitals, Gaur and Maldah, were adorned 
 with many splendid edifices. Generally these were in brick, and 
 are now so overgrown by jungle as to be either ruined or nearly 
 invisible. They are singularly picturesque, however, and display all 
 the features of a strongly-marked individuality of style. 
 
 These six divisions are probably sufficient to characterise the 
 
492 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTUHE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 Mahomedaii styles north of tlie Nerbudda. To the south of that river 
 there are three well-marked styles. 
 
 7. First that of the Bahmani dynasty. First at Kalbergah, a.d. 
 1:^47, and afterwards at Bidar, a.d. 142G, they adorned their capitals 
 Avith edifices of groat magnificence and well-marked individuality, 
 before they were absorbed, in a.d. 1525, in the great Mogul empii-e. 
 
 8. Next to these was the still more celebrated Adil Shahi dynasty 
 of Bijajmr (a.d. 1489-1660). Their style differed most essentially 
 from all those above enumerated, and was marked by a grandeur of 
 conception and boldness in construction unequalled by any edifices 
 erected in India. 
 
 9. The third southern style is that of the Kutub Shahi dynasty of 
 (Jolconda, a.d. 1512-1672. Their tombs are splendid, and form one 
 of the most striking groups in India, but show evident signs of a 
 decadence that Avas too surely invading art at the age when they 
 were erected. 
 
 10. One by one all these brilliant individualities Avere absorbed 
 in the great Mogul empire, founded by Baber, a.d. 1494, and Avhich, 
 though practically perishing on the death of Aurungzabe, a.d. 1706, 
 may be considered as existing till the middle of the last century, 
 A.D. 1750. It is to this dynasty that Agra, Delhi, and most of the 
 towns in northern India owe their most splendid edifices. 
 
 11. Before leaving this branch of the subject, it may be expedient 
 to enumerate the style of Moslem art existing in Scinde. Practically, 
 it is Persian both in its form and the style of decoration, and must 
 have existed in this province from a very ancient time. All the 
 examples, however, now known of it are comparatively modern, and 
 bring us back, curiously enough, to the neighbourhood of Ghazni, 
 from^ which we started in our enumeration. 
 
 12. Leaving these, which may be called the true styles of Maho- 
 medan architecture, we have two which may be designated as the 
 bastard styles. The first of these is that of Oude (a.d. 1756-1847). 
 In its capital there are ranges of building equal in extent and rich- 
 ness to those of any of the capitals above enumerated, but degraded 
 in taste to an extent it is hardly possible to credit in a people who 
 so shortly before had shown themselves capable of such noble 
 aspirations. 
 
 13. The style adopted by the short-lived dynasty of Mysore 
 (a.d. 1760-1799), being further removed from the influences of Euro- 
 pean vulgarity, is not so degraded as that of Lucknow, but is poor 
 and inartistic when compared with earlier styles. 
 
 In an exhaustive treatise on the subject, the styles of Ahmed- 
 nugger and Arungabad, a.d. 1490-1707, ought, perhaps, to be enu- 
 merated, and some minor styles elsewhere. These have not, however, 
 sufficient individuality to deser\'e being erected into separate styles. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 493 
 
 and the amount of illustration that can be introduced into a work 
 like the present is not sufficient to render the differences sensible to 
 those who are not personally acquainted with the examples. 
 
 Even as it is, it would require a much more extensive series of 
 illustrations than that here given to make even their most marked 
 merits or peculiarities evident to those who have no other means than 
 what such a work as this affords of forming an opinion regarding 
 them. Each of these thirteen styles deserves a monograph ; but, 
 except for Bijapur ^ and Ahmedabad,^ nothing of the sort has yet 
 been attempted, and even the two works in which this has been 
 attempted for these two capitals by no means exhaust the materials 
 available for the purpose. Let us hope that these deficiencies will 
 be supplied, and the others undertaken before long and before 
 it is too late, for the buildings are fast perishing from the ravages 
 of time and climate and the still more destructive exigences of the 
 present governing power in India. 
 
 * ' Ar •liitecture of Beejapore. Photo- 
 graphed from Drawings by Capt. Hart 
 and A. Cumming, C.E., and on the spot 
 by Col. Biggs and Major Loch, with text 
 by Col. Meadows Taylor and J. BY-rgiis- 
 
 son.' Folio, Murray, 1866. 
 
 2 'Architecture of Ahmedabad. 120 
 Photographs by Col. Biggs, with Text 
 by T. C. Hope, B.C.S. and Jas. Fergus- 
 son.* Small folio, Murray, 1866. 
 
494 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VI F. 
 
 CHAPTEK 11. 
 
 GHA ZNI. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Tomb of Mahmud — Gates of Somnath — Minars on the Plain. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Sabuktagin, founder 
 Mahmud .... 
 Masud .... 
 
 . A.D. 975 Ahdul-rashid 
 
 911 Ibrahim 
 
 1030 Shabab ud-diii (first of Ghori dynasty) 
 
 .D. 104 -i 
 1054 
 1139 
 
 Towards the latter part of the 9 th century the power of the Khalifs 
 of Bagdad was sinking into that state of rapid decline which is 
 the fate of all Eastern dynasties. During the reign of Al Motamed, 
 A.D. 870-891, Egypt became independent, and the northern province 
 of Bokhara threw off the yoke under the governor appointed by the 
 Khalif, Nasr ben Ahmed, a descendant of Saman, a robber chief, who 
 declared and maintained his independence, and so formed the Samanian 
 dynasty. After the dynasty had existed about a century, Sabuktagin, 
 a Turkish slave belonging to a general of one of the last of the 
 Samanian kings, rendered himself also independent of his master, and 
 established himself in Ghazni, of which he was governor, founding 
 the well-known dynasty of Ghaznavides. His successor, Mahmud, 
 A.D. 977-1030, is one of the best-known kings in Indian history 
 owing to his brilliant campaigns in India, and more especially that in 
 which he destroyed the celebrated temple of Somnath. 
 
 On his return from an earlier campaign, in which he had sacked 
 the town of Muttra, we learn from Ferishta that the king ordered a 
 magnificent mosque to be built of marble and granite, afterwards 
 known by the name of the Celestial Bride. Near it he founded a 
 university. When the nobility of Ghazni perceived the taste of their 
 king in architecture, they also endeavoured to vie with one another 
 in the magnificence of their palaces, as well as in the public buildings 
 which were raised for the embellishment of the city, "Thus," con- 
 tinues the historian, " the capital was in a short time ornamented 
 with mosques, porches, fountains, aqueducts, reservoirs, and cisterns, 
 beyond any city in the East." ^ 
 
 Brigg's translation, vol. i. p. 61. 
 
Chap. II. GHAZNI. 495 
 
 The plain of Ghaziii still shows the remains of this splendonr ; 
 and, in the dearth of information regarding Persian art of that age, 
 an acconnt of it wonld be one of the most interesting and valuable 
 
 275. Minar at Ghazui. (From a Drawing bj- (i. T. Vigne, Esq.) 
 
 pieces of information we could receive. These ruins, however, have 
 not been as yet either examined or described ; ^ and even the tomb of 
 
 ' It is very much to be regretted that , is to be hoped, if an opportunity should 
 not a single officer accompanied our [ again occur, that their importance to the 
 armies, when they passed and repassed j history of art in the East will not be 
 through Ghazni, able or willing to appre- j overlooked, 
 ciate the interest of these ruins ; and it [ 
 
496 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book YII. 
 
 the Great Mahniud is unknown to us except by name/ notwith- 
 standing- tlie celebrity it ac(|uired from the removal of its gates to 
 India at the termination of our disastrous campaigns in that country. 
 
 The gates are of Deodar pine,'^ and the carved ornaments on them 
 are so similar to those found at Cairo, on the mosque of Ebn Touloun 
 and other buildings of that age, as not only to prove that they are 
 of the same date, but also to show how similar were the modes of 
 decoration at these two extremities of the Moslem empii-e at the time 
 of their execution. 
 
 At the same time there is nothing in their style of ornamentation 
 that at all resembles anything found in any Hindu temple, either of 
 their age or at any other time. There is, in fact, no reason for doubt- 
 ing that these gates were made for the place where they were found.^ 
 If any other parts of the tomb are ornamented in the same style, it 
 
 276. Ornameiits from the Tomb of Mahmud at Ghazni. 
 
 would be of great interest to have them drawn. It probably is, how- 
 ever, from the Jumma Musjid that we shall obtain the best picture 
 of the arts of that day, when any one will take the trouble of 
 examining it. 
 
 Two minars still adorn the plain outside the city, and form, if not 
 the most striking, at least the most prominent of the ruins of that 
 
 1 The sketch of tlie tomb published I of sandal -wood, and brought from Som- 
 by Mr. Vigne in his ' Travels in Afghan- | uath, is entirely disproved by the fact of 
 istan,' gives too confined a portion of it i their being of the local pine-wood, as 
 to enable us to judge either of its form ^ well as by the style of decoration, which 
 or detail. The gate in front is probably ^ has no resemblance to Hindu work, 
 modern, and the foiled arches in the ^ An excellent representation of the 
 background appear to be the only parts gates will be found in the second edition 
 that belong to the Uth century. of ' Maroo Polo's Travels,' by Col. Yule, 
 
 2 The tradition that these gates were vol. ii. p. 390. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 GHAZNI. 
 
 497 
 
 city. Neither of them was ever attached to a mosque ; they are, 
 indeed, pillars of victory, or Jaija Stamhhas, like those at Chittore and 
 elsewhere in India, and are such as we might expect to find in a 
 country so long Buddhist. One of them was erected by Mahmiid 
 himself ; the other was built, or at least finished, by Masiid, one of his 
 immediate successors.^ 
 
 The lower part of these towers is of a star-like form — the plan being 
 apparently formed by placing two squares diagonally the one over the 
 other. The upper part, rising to the height of about 140 ft. from the 
 ground, is circular ; both are of brickwork, covered with ornaments 
 of terra-cotta of extreme elaboration and beauty, and retaining their 
 sharpness to the present day. 
 
 Several other minars of the same class are found further west, 
 even as far as the roots of the Caucasus,^ which, like these, were 
 pillars of victory, erected by the conquerors on their battle-fields. 
 None of them have the same architectural merit as those of Ghazni, 
 at least in their present state, though it may be that their orna- 
 ments, having been in stucco or some perishable material, have dis- 
 appeared, leaving us now only the skeleton of what they were. 
 
 The weakness of Mahmiid's successors left the Indians in repose 
 for more than a century and a half ; and, like all Eastern dynasties, 
 the Ghaznavides were gradually sinking to inevitable decay, when 
 their fall was precipitated by the crimes of one of them, which were 
 fearfully avenged by the destruction of their empire and capital by 
 Ala ud-din, and their race was at length superseded by that of the 
 Ghori, in the person of Shahab ud-din, in the year 1183. 
 
 Though centuries of misrule have weighed on this country since 
 the time of the Ghaznavides, it is scarcely probable that all traces 
 of their magnificence have passed away ; but till their cities are 
 examined by some one competent to discriminate between what is 
 good or bad, or old or new, we must be content merely to indicate the 
 position of the style, leaving this chapter to be written hereafter 
 when the requisite information shall have been obtained. In the 
 meanwhile it is satisfactory to know that between Herat and the 
 Indus there do exist a sufficient number of monuments to enable us to 
 connect the styles of the West with those in the East. They have 
 been casually described by travellers, but not in such a manner as to 
 render them available for our purposes ; and in the present unsettled 
 state of the country it may be some time yet before their elucidation 
 can be accomplished. 
 
 * See translation of the inscription on I ^ Xwo are represented by Dubois dc 
 these minars, ' Journal of the Asiatic Montpe'reux,' Voyage autourduCaucasc.' 
 Society of Bengal,' No. 134, for 1843. ) 
 
 2 K 
 
498 
 
 INDIAN SxVHACENIC AKCHITECTURE. 
 
 Jk)OK vir. 
 
 CHAPTEll III. 
 
 PA THAN STYLE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Mosque at Old Delhi — Kutub Minar — Tomb of Ala uJ-din — Pathan Toiiibs — 
 Ornamentation of Pathan Tombs. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Shahab nd-dm Ghoii . 
 Ktitub ud-din Ibek. . 
 Sbum ud-dni Altumsb 
 Ala ud-din Khiiji . 
 Tugluck Shah . . . 
 
 1192 
 1006 
 1210 
 1295 
 1321 
 
 Nasar ud-din last of tbe Kbiljis 
 Kbyer Kban under Tamerlane . 
 
 Bebloli Lodi 
 
 Sbere Shab 
 
 Sekunder defeated by Akbar. 
 
 1393 
 1414 
 1450 
 1510 
 1554 
 
 With all the vigour of a new race, the Ghorians set about the con- 
 quest of India. After sustaining a defeat in the year 1191, Shahab 
 Tid-din again entered India in a.d. 1193, when he attacked and 
 defeated Prithiraj of Delhi. TMs success was followed by the con- 
 quest of Canouge in a.d. 1194 ; and after the fall of these two, the 
 capitals of the greatest empires in the peninsula, India may be 
 said to have been conquered before his death, which happened in 
 A.D. 120G. 
 
 At his death his great empire fell to pieces, and India fell to the 
 share of Kutub ud-din Ibek. This prince was originally a Turkish 
 slave, who afterwards became one of Shahab ud-din's generals and 
 contributed greatly by his talents and military skill to the success of 
 his master. He and his successor, Altumsh, continued nobly the work 
 so successfully begun, and before the death of the latter, in a.d. 1235, 
 the empire of northern India had permanently passed from the hands 
 of the Hindus to those of their Mahomedan conquerors. 
 
 For a century and a half after the conquest the empire continued 
 a united whole, under Turkish, or, as they are usually called, Patlian 
 dynasties. These monarchs exhibited a continued vigour and energy 
 very unusual in the East, and not only sustained and consolidated, 
 but increased by successive conquests from the infidels, that newly- 
 acquired accession to the dominions of the faithful, and during that 
 time Delhi continued practically the capital of this great empire. In 
 the latter half, however, of the 14th century, symptoms of disintegra- 
 tion manifested themselves. One after another the governors of distant 
 provinces reared the standard of revolt, and successfully established 
 
ClIAP. III. 
 
 PATHAN STYLE. 
 
 499 
 
 independent kingdoms, rivalling the parent state in power and in the 
 splendour of their capitals. Still Delhi remained the nominal head at 
 least of this confederation of states — if it may be so called — till the 
 time when Baber (a.d. 1494), the fourth in descent from Tamerlane, 
 invaded Hindustan. He put an end to the Pathan sway, after it had 
 lasted for three centuries and a half, and finally succeeded in esta- 
 blishing the celebrated dynasty of the Moguls, which during six suc- 
 cessive reigns, extending over the extraordinary period of more than 
 two centuries (a.d. 1494-1707), reconsolidated the Moslem empire 
 into one great whole, which reached a degree of splendour and of 
 power almost unknown in the East. 
 
 Nothing could be more brilliant, and at the same time more 
 characteristic, than the commencement of the architectural career of 
 these Pathans in India. So soon as they felt themselves at all sure of 
 their conquest, they set to work to erect two great mosques in their 
 two principal capitals of Ajmir and Delhi, of such magnificence as 
 should redound to the glory of their religion and mark their triumph 
 over the idolatoi*s. A nation of soldiers equipped for conquest, and 
 that only, they had of course brought with them neither artists nor 
 architects, but, like all nations of Turanian origin, they had strong 
 architectural instincts, and having a style of their own, they could 
 hardly go wrong in any architectural project they might attempt. 
 At the same time, they found among their new subjects an infinite 
 number of artists quite capable of carrying out any design that might 
 be propounded to them. 
 
 In the first place, they found in the colonnaded courts of the 
 Jaina temples nearly all that was wanted for a ready-made mosque. 
 All that was required was the removal of the temple in its centre, and 
 the erection of a new wall on the west side, adorned with niches — 
 mihrabs — to point out to the faithful the direction in which Mecca lay, 
 towards which, as is well known, they were commanded in the Koran 
 to turn when they prayed. It is not certain, however, that they were 
 ever in India content with this only. In the two instances at least to 
 w^hich we are now referring, they determined in addition to erect a 
 screen of arches in front of the Jaina pillars, and to adorn it with all 
 the richness and elaboration of carving w^hich their Indian subjects 
 were capable of executing. Nothing could be more successful than 
 the results. There is a largeness and grandeur about the plain simple 
 outline of the Mahomedan arches which quite overshadows the smaller 
 parts of the Hindu fanes, and at the same time the ornamentation, 
 though applied to a greater extent than in any other known examples, 
 is kept so flat as never to interfere with or break the simple outlines 
 of the architectural construction. There may be other examples of 
 surface-decoration as elaborate as this, but hardly anywhere on such 
 a scale. Some parts of the interior of Sta. Sophia at Constantinople 
 
 2 K 2 
 
500 
 
 INDIAN SAKACENIC AKCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 are as beautiful, ^ bufc they are only a few square yards. The ])alacc 
 at Meshita, if completed, might have rivalled it, but it is a fragment ; ^ 
 and there may be — certainly were — examples in Persia between the 
 times of Chosroes and Haran al-Rashid, which may have e(|ualled 
 these, but they have perished, or at least are not known to us now ; 
 and even if they ever existed, must have been unlike these mosques. 
 In them we find a curious exemplification of some of the best qualities 
 of the art, as exhibited previously by the Hindus, and practised after- 
 wards by their conquerors. 
 
 Delhi. 
 
 Of the two mosques at Delhi and at Ajmir, the first named is the 
 earlier, having been begun some seven or eight years before the other, 
 and is also very much the larger.^ It is, besides, associated with the 
 Kutub Minar, and some of the most beautiful tombs of the age, which 
 altogether make up a group with which nothing at Ajmir can compare. 
 The situation, too, of the Delhi ruins is singularly beautiful, for they 
 stand on the gentle slope of a hill, overlooking a plain that had once 
 apparently been a lake, but which afterwards becaine the site of three 
 successive capitals of the East. In front are the ruins of Tugluck- 
 abad, the gigantic fort of an old Pathan chief ; and further north the 
 plain is still covered with the ruins of Old Delhi, the capital of the 
 later Pathans and earlier Moguls. Beyond that, at the distance of 
 nine or ten miles, are seen the towers of Shahjehanabad, the modern 
 capital, and till recently the seat of the nominal monarchy of the 
 Great Mogul. Still further north are situated the civil stations and 
 cantonments of the British rulers of the country. It is a fortunate 
 circumstance that the British station was not, as at Agra, placed in 
 the midst of the ruins, since it is to this that we owe their preserva- 
 tion. But for the distance, marble columns w^ould doubtless have 
 been taken for all purposes for which they might have been available, 
 with a total disregard to their beauty, and the interest of the ruins 
 thereby annihilated. Even as it is, the buildings belonging to the 
 celebrated Shahlimar gardens, which were the only buildings of 
 importance in the neighbourhood of the English station, have 
 
 ^ Vide ante, vol. ii. p. 444, et seqq. 
 
 2 Vide ante, vol. i. p. 387, et seqq. 
 
 ^ I do not know why Gen. Cunning- 
 ham should go out of his way to prove 
 that the Ajmir mosque is larger than that 
 at Delhi (' Arehjeological Eeports,' vol. ii. 
 p. 260). His remarks apply only to the 
 inner court at Delhi, which may have 
 been the whole mosque as originally de- 
 
 signed; but before the death of Altumsb, 
 who was the real builder of bolh, the 
 screen of arches at Delhi had been ex- 
 tended to 380 ft. as compared with the 
 200 ft. at Ajmir, and the courtyards 
 of the two mosques are nearly in the 
 same proportion, their whole superficial 
 area being 72,000 ft. at Ajmir, as com- 
 pared with 152,000 ft. at Delhi. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 501 
 
 disappeared ; but these are of slight importance as compared with 
 the ruins further south. 
 
 The general arrangement of the principal ruins will be understood 
 from the ])lan (Woodcut No. 277), which was taken with great care, 
 though the scale to which it has been necessaiy to reduce it prevents 
 
 277. Plan of Ruins in Old Delhi. (From a Plan by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 all its peculiarities from being seen. To understand it, it is necessary 
 to bear in mind that all the pillars are of Hindu, and all the walls of 
 Mahomedan, architecture. 
 
 It is a little difficult to determine to w^hat extent the pillars now 
 stand as originally arranged by the Hindus, or how far they have 
 been taken down and re-arranged by the conquerors. Even supposing 
 
502 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VIL 
 
 them to be undisturbed, it is quite evident that the enclosing walls 
 were erected by the Moslems, since all the stringcourses are covered 
 with ornaments in their style, and all the openings possess pointed 
 arches, w^hich the Hindus never used. On the whole the probability 
 seems to be that the entire structure was re-arranged in the form we 
 now^ see it by the Mahomedans. The celebrated mosque at Canouge is 
 undoubtedly a Jaina temple, re-arranged on a plan precisely similar to 
 that of the mosque of Amrou at Old Cairo (Woodcut No. 921, vol. ii.). 
 The roof and domes are all of Jaina architecture, so that no trace of the 
 Moorish style is to be seen internally ; but the exterior is as purely 
 of Mahomedan architecture. There is another mosque at Dhar, near 
 Mandu, of more modern date, and, without doubt, a re-arrangement 
 of a Jaina temple. Another, in the fort at Jaunpore, as well as many 
 other mosques at Ahmedabad and elsewhere, all show the same system 
 of taking down and re-arranging the materials on a different plan. 
 If, therefore, the pillars at the Kutub were in situ, the case would be 
 exceptional ;^ but I cannot, nevertheless, help suspecting that the two- 
 storeyed pavilions in the angles, and those behind the screen may be 
 as originally erected, and some of the others may be so also ; but to 
 this we will return when speaking of the Ajniir mosque, where the 
 Jaina pillars are almost certainly as first arranged. It is quite 
 certain, however, that some of the pillare at the Kutub are made up 
 of dissimilar fragments, and w^ere placed where they now stand by 
 the builders of the mosque. The only question — and it is not a very 
 important one — is, how many were so treated ? It may, however, be 
 necessary to explain that there could be no difficulty in taking down 
 and rebuilding these erections, because the joints of the pillars are all 
 fitted with the precision that Hindu patience alone could give. Each 
 compartment of the roof is composed of nine stones — four architraves, 
 four angular and one central slab (as explained in diagram No. 114, 
 p. 214), all so exactly fitted, and so independent of cement, as easily 
 to be taken down and put up again. The same is true of the domes, 
 all which being honestly and fairly fitted, would suffer no damage 
 from the process of removal and re-erection. 
 
 The section (Woodcut No. 278), of one half of the principal 
 colonnade (the one facing the great series of arches) will explain its 
 
 ' Gen. OunuiiigLam found an inscrip- 
 tion on the wall recording that twenty- 
 seven temples of the Hindus had been 
 pulled down to provide materials for this 
 mosque (' Archasological Reports,' vol. i. 
 p. 17G). Tliis, however, proves little, 
 unless we know what the temples were 
 like which were destroyed for this pur- 
 pose. Twenty-seven temples like those 
 
 at Khajuiaho, excepting the Ganthai, 
 would not provide pillars for one half 
 the inner court. One temple like that at 
 Sadri would supply a sufficiency for the 
 whole mosque, and though the latter is 
 more modern, we have no reason for sup- 
 posing that similar temples may not have 
 existed before Mahomedan times. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 503 
 
 form better than words can do. It is so purely Jaina, that it should, 
 perhaps, have been mentioned in speaking of that style ; but as 
 
 278. Section of part of East Colonnada at tlie Kutub, Old Delhi. Scale 25 (t. to 1 in. 
 
 forming a part of the earliest mosqne in India, it is more appropri- 
 ately introduced in this place. The pillars are of the same order as 
 those used on Mount Abu (Woodcut No. 130), except that those at 
 Delhi are much richer and more elaborate. Most of them probably 
 belong to the 11th or 12th century, and are among 'the few specimens 
 to be found in India that seem to be overloaded with ornament. 
 There is not one inch of plain surface from the capital to the base, 
 except the pillars behind the screen and some others which may 
 belong to older buildings. Still the ornament is so shai-p and so 
 cleverly executed, and the effect, in their present state of decay and 
 ruin so picturesque, that it is very difficult to find fault with what 
 is so beautiful. In some instances the figures that were on the shafts 
 of the pillars have been cut off, as offensive to Mahomedan strictness 
 with regard to idolatrous images ; but on the roof and less seen parts, 
 the cross-legged figures of the Jaina saints, and other emblems of that 
 religion, may still be detected. 
 
 The glory of the mosque, however, is not in these Hindu remains, 
 but in the great range of arches on the western side, extending north 
 and south for about 385 ft., and consisting of three greater and eight 
 smaller arches ; the central one 22 ft. wide and 53 ft. high ; the larger 
 side-arches 21 ft. -1 in., and about the same height as the central 
 arch ; the smaller arches, which are unfortunately much ruined, are 
 about half these dimensions (Woodcut No. 279). Behind this, at the 
 distance of 32 ft., are the foundations of another wall ; but only in- 
 tended, apparently, to be carried as high as the roof of the Hindu 
 pillars it encloses. It seems probable that the Hindu pillars between 
 the two screens were the only part proposed to be roofed, since some 
 of them are built into the back part of the great arches, and all above 
 them is quite plain and smooth, without the least trace of any inten- 
 tion to construct a vault or roof of any sort. Indeed, a roof is by no 
 means an essential part of a mosque ; a wall facing Mecca is all that 
 
50i 
 
 INDIAN SAI^ACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book Yll. 
 
 is required, and in India is frequently all that is built, though an 
 enclosure is often added in front to protect the worshippers from in- 
 teri-nption. Roofed colomiades are, of course, convenient and orna- 
 mental accompaniments, yet far from being indispensable. 
 
 The history of this mosque, as told in its constmction, is as 
 curious as anything- about it. It seems that the Afghan conquerors 
 had a tolerably distinct idea that pointed arches were the true form 
 for architectural openings ; but, being without science sufficient to 
 
 2^9, Central Rango of Arches at the Kiitub. (From a Ski-tch by the Author.) 
 
 construct them, they left tlie Hindu architects and builders whom 
 they employed to follow their own devices as to the mode of carrying 
 out the form. The Hindus up to this time had never built arches — 
 nor, indeed, did they for centuries afterwards. Accordingly, they 
 proceeded to make the pointed openings on the same principle upon 
 which they built their domes. They carried them up in horizontal 
 courses as far as they could, and then closed them by long slabs 
 meeting at the top, the construction being, in fact, that of the arch of 
 the aqueduct at Tnsculum, shown in Woodcut No. 178, vol. i.^ The 
 
 * This mode of constrnction is only feasible when much larger stones are used 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 505 
 
 same architects were employed by their masters to ornament the faces 
 of these arches ; and this they did by copying- and repeating the orna- 
 ments on the pillars and friezes on the opposite sides of the court, 
 covering the whole with a lace-work of intricate and delicate carving, 
 such as no other mosque except that 
 at Ajmir ever received before or 
 since ; and which — though perhaps 
 in a great measure thrown away 
 when used on such a scale — is, with- 
 out exception, the most exquisite spe- 
 cimen of its class known to exist any- 
 where. The stone being particularly 
 hard and good, the carving retains 
 its freshness to the present day, and 
 is only destroyed above the arches, 
 where the faulty Hindu construction 
 has superinduced premature decay. 
 
 The Kutub Minar, or great mina- 
 ret, is 48 ft. 4 in. in diameter at the 
 base, and, when measured in 1794, 
 was 242 ft. in height. ^ Even then, 
 however, its capital was ruined, so 
 that some 10 ft., or perhaps 20 ft., 
 must be added to this to complete its 
 original elevation. It is ornamented 
 by four boldly-projecting balconies ; 
 one at 97 ft., the second at 148 ft., 
 the third at 188 ft., and the fourth at 
 214 ft. from the ground ; between 
 which are richly-sculptured raised 
 belts containing inscriptions. In the 
 low^er storey the projecting ribs which 
 form the flutes are alternately angular 
 and circular ; in the second circular 
 and in the third angular only. Above this the minar is plain, and 
 principally of white marble, with belts of the same red sandstone of 
 which the three lower storeys are composed (Woodcut No. 280). 
 
 280. Minar of Kutub. 
 
 (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 than were here employed. The conse- 
 quence was that the arch had become seri- 
 ously crippled when I saw and sketched 
 it. It has since been carefully restored by 
 Government under efficient superintend- 
 ence, and is now as sound and complete 
 as when first erected. The two great 
 side arches either were never completed, i 
 
 or have fallen down in consequence of 
 the false mode of construction. 
 
 ^ 'Asiatic Eesearches,' vol. iv. p. 313. 
 Its present height, according to Gen. 
 Cunningham, is (after the removal of the 
 modern pavilion) 238 ft. 1 in. (' Archjc- 
 ological Reports,' vol i. p. 19G). 
 
 i 
 
506 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 It is not clear whether the angular flutings are copied from some 
 peculiarity found in the minarets at Khorasan and further westward, 
 or whether they are derived from the forms of the temples of the 
 Jains. The forms of the bases of the minarets at Ghazni appear 
 to lend probability to the first hypothesis ; but the star-like form of 
 many temples — principally Jaina — in Mysore and elseAvhere {ante^ 
 p. 394, et seqq.) would seem to countenance the idea of their being of 
 Hindu origin. No star-like forms have yet, however, been found so 
 far north, and their destruction has been too complete for us to hope 
 that they may be found now. Be this as it may, it is probably not 
 too much to assert that the Kutub Minar is the most beautiful example 
 of its class known to exist anywhere. The rival that will occur at 
 once to most people is the campanile at Florence, built by Giotto. 
 • That is, it is true, 30 ft. taller, but it is crushed by the mass 
 of the cathedral alongside ; and, beautiful though it is, it wants 
 that poetry of design and exquisite finish of detail which marks 
 every moulding of the minar. It might have been better if the slope 
 of the sides had been at a higher angle, but that is only apparent 
 when seen at a distance ; when viewed from the court of the mosque 
 its form is perfect, and, under any aspect, is preferable to the prosaic 
 squareness of the outline of the Italian example. 
 
 The only Mahomedan building known to be taller than this is 
 the minaret of the mosque of Hassan, at Cairo (p. 389 and Woodcut 
 No. 928, vol. ii.) ; but as the pillar at Old Delhi is a wholly independent 
 building, it has a far nobler appearance, and both in design and finish 
 far surpasses not only its Egyptian rival, but any building of its 
 class known to me in the whole w^orld. This, however, must not be 
 lookedfat as if erected for the same purposes as those usually attached 
 to mosques elsewhere. It was not designed as a place from which the 
 miieddin should call the j^rayers, though its lower gallery may have 
 been used for that purpose also, but as a Tower of Victory — a Jaya 
 Stambha, in fact — an emblem of conquest, which the Hindus could 
 only too easily understand and appreciate. 
 
 At the distance of 470 ft. north of this one a second minar was 
 commenced, by Ala ud-diu, of twice its dimensions, or 297 ft. in 
 circumference. It was only carried up to the height of 40 ft., and 
 abandoned probably in consequence of the removal of the seat of 
 government to the new capital of Tugluckabad. 
 
 The date of all these buildings is known with sufficient exactness 
 from the inscriptions which they bear,^ from which it appears that 
 the inner court was enclosed by Shahab ud-din. The central range 
 of arches (Woodcut No. 279) was built by Kutub ud-din ; the wings 
 
 ^ Translated by Walter Ewer, ' Asiatic [ Cuuniugliam, ' Arch{Bologieal Reports/ 
 Roscarehcs,' vol. xiv. p. 480. See al80 | vol. i. p. 182, et seqq. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 507 
 
 by Altumsh, whose tomb is behind the iiorthern range, and the Kutub 
 Minar Avas either built or finished by the same monarcli ; they extend, 
 therefore, from a.d. 1196-1235, at which date they were left incom- 
 plete in consequence of the death of the last-named king. 
 
 231. Iron rill.ir at Kulul). (From a Photograpli.) 
 
 The (lotted line shows the extent below the gioiinil. 
 
 One of the most interesting objects connected with this mosque is 
 the iron pillar which stands — -and apparently always has stood — in 
 the centre of its courtyard (Woodcut Xo. 281). It now stands 22 ft. 
 above the ground, and as the depth under the pavement is now ascer- 
 
508 
 
 INDIAN SAllACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 tained to be only 20 in., the total heii^ht is 28 ft. 8 iii.^ Its diameter at 
 the base is IG'4 in,, at the capital 12*0.5 in. The capital is 3 J ft. hii^'h, 
 and is sharply and clearly wrought into the Persian form that 
 makes it look as if it belonged to an earlier period than it does ; 
 and it has the amalaka moulding, which is indicative of consider- 
 able antiquity. It has not, however, been yet correctly ascertained 
 wiiat its age really is. There is an inscription upon it, but without 
 a date. From the form of its alphabet, Prinsep ascribed it to the 
 8rd or 4th century ; ^ Bhau Daji, on the same evidence, to the end of 
 the 5th or beginning of the 6th century.^ The truth probably lies 
 between the two. My own conviction is that it belongs to one of the 
 Chandra Rajas of the Gupta dynasty, either consequently to a.d. 3G:-5 
 or A.D. 400. 
 
 Taking a.d 400 as a mean date — and it certainly is not far from 
 the truth — it opens our eyes to an unsuspected state of affairs to find 
 the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron larger than 
 any that have been forged even in Europe up to a very late date, and 
 not frequently even now. As we find them, however, a few centuries 
 afterwards using bars as long as this hit in roofing the porch of the 
 temple at Kanaruc {ante, p. 222), we must now believe that they were 
 much more familiar with the use of this metal than they afterwards 
 became. It is almost equally startling to find that, after an exposure 
 to wind and rain for fourteen centuries, it is um-usted, and the capital 
 and inscription are as clear and as sharp now as when put up fourteen 
 centuries ago.* 
 
 As the inscription informs us the pillar was dedicated to Vishnu, 
 
 * It is a curious illustration how diffi- 
 cult it sometimes is to obtain correct 
 information in India, that when Gen. 
 Cunningham published his ' Reports ' in 
 1871, he stated, apparently on the 
 authority of Mr. Cooper, Deputy Com- 
 missioner, that an excavation had been 
 carried down to a depth of 26 ft., but 
 without reaching the bottom. " The man 
 ia charge, however" — temoin oculaire 
 — "assured him that the actual depth 
 reached was 35 ft."— Vol. i. p. 169. He 
 consequently estimated the whole length 
 at 60 ft., but fortunately ordered a new 
 excavation, determined to reach the 
 bottom— cow^e qui coute — and found it at 
 20 inches below the surface. — Vol. iv. 
 p. 28, pi. 5. At a distance of a few 
 inchts below the surface it expands in 
 a bulbous form to a diameter of 2 ft. 
 4 in., and rests on a gridiron of iron bars, 
 whicli arc lastcned witli lead into the 
 
 stone pavement. 
 
 2 ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 629. 
 
 ^ ' Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society,' vol. x. p. 61. These 
 two translations .arc painfully discrepant 
 in detail, though agreeing sufficiently as 
 to the main facts. On the whole, I am 
 inclined to think Bhau Daji's the most 
 correct, though I agree with Prinsep 
 in believing that the more archaic form 
 of the letters is owing to their being 
 punched with a cold chisel on the in-n, 
 instead of being engraved as those on 
 stone always were. 
 
 * There is no mistake about the pillar 
 being of pure iron. Gen. Cunningham 
 had a bit of it analysed in India by Dr. 
 Murray, and another portion was ana- 
 lysed in the School of Mines here by 
 Dr. Percy. Both found it pure malleable 
 iron without any alloy. 
 
Chap. llf. 
 
 DELHI. 
 
 509 
 
 there is little doubt that it originally sap23orte:l a figure of Garuda on 
 the summit Avhich the Mahomedans of course removed ; but the real 
 object of its erection was as a pillar of victory to record the " defeat of 
 the Balhikas/ near the seven mouths of the Sindhu," or Indus. It is, 
 to say the least of it, a curious coincidence, that eight centuries after- 
 wards men from that same Bactrian country should have erected a 
 Jaya Stambha ten times as tall as this one, in the same courtyard, to 
 celebrate their victory over the descendants of those Hindus who so 
 long before had expelled their ancestors from the country. 
 
 Immediately behind the north-west corner of the mosque stands the 
 tomb of Altumsh, the founder. Though small, it is one of the richest 
 examples of Hindu 
 art applied to Maho- 
 medan purposes that 
 Old Delhi affords, and 
 is extremely beautiful, 
 though the builders 
 still display a certain 
 degree of inaptness in 
 fitting the details to 
 their new purposes. 
 The effect at present 
 is injured by the want 
 of a roof, which, judg- 
 ing from appearance, 
 was never completed, 
 if ever commenced. In 
 addition to the beauty 
 of its details it is in- 
 teresting as being the 
 oldest tomb known to 
 exist in India. He 
 died A.D. 1236. 
 
 A more beautiful 
 example than even this 
 is the other, shown on 
 the left hand of the 
 
 plan (Woodcut No. 277). It was erected by Ala ud-din Khilji, and 
 the date 1310 is found among its inscriptions. It is therefore about 
 
 282. 
 
 Interior of a Tomb at Oid D<4ui. (From 
 a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 * Can these Balhikas be the dynasty 
 we have hitherto known as the Sah kings 
 of Saurastra? They certainly were settled 
 on the lower Indus from about the year 
 A.D. 79, and were expelled, accordiug to 
 their own dates, a.d. 261 or 371. (See 
 
 'Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 28.) My 
 impression is, that this may ultimately 
 prove to be the true solution of the 
 riddle. 
 
510 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 a century more modern than the other buildings of the place, and 
 displays the Pathan style at its period of greatest perfection, when 
 the Hindu masons had learned to fit their exquisite style of decora- 
 tion to the forms of their foreign masters. Its walls are decorated 
 internally with a diaper pattern of unrivalled excellence, and the 
 mode in which the square is changed into an octagon is more simply 
 elegant and appropriate than any other example I am acquainted 
 with in India. The pendentives accord perfectly with the pointed 
 openings in the four other faces, and are in every respect appropriately 
 constructive. 1 True, there are defects. For instance, they are rather 
 too plain for the elaborate diapering which covers the whole of the 
 lower part of the building both internally and externally ; but orna- 
 ment might easily have been added ; and their plainness accords with 
 the simplicity of the dome, which is indeed by no means worthy of 
 the substructure. Not being pierced with windows, it seems as if 
 the architect assumed that its plainness would not be detected in the 
 gloom that in consequence prevails. 
 
 This building, though small — it is only 53 ft. square externally, 
 and with an internal apartment only 34 ft. 6 in. in plan — marks the 
 culminating point of the Pathan style in Delhi. Nothing so complete 
 had been done before, nothing so ornate w^as attempted by them after- 
 wards. In the provinces wonderful buildings were erected between this 
 period and the Mogul conquest, but in the capital their edifices were 
 more marked by solemn gloom and nakedness than by ornamentation 
 or any of the higher graces of architectural art. Externally it is a 
 good deal damaged, but its effect is still equal to that of any building 
 of its class in India. 
 
 Ajmir. 
 
 The mosque at Ajmir (Woodcut No. 283) was commenced appa- 
 rently in the year 1200 and was certainly completed during the reign 
 of Altumsh, A.D. 1211-1236.^ According to tradition, it was finished in 
 two days and a half ; hence the only name by which it is now known 
 ■ — the " Arhai din ka Jhompra," which, if it means anything, can only 
 apply to the clearing away of the Pagan temples and symbols, and 
 the dedication of a heathen shrine to purposes of the Faithful. In 
 this instance it seems almost certain, whatever may be the case at 
 Delhi, that the pillars are in situ. At all events, if they were taken 
 down by the Mahomedans, they certainly have been re-erected exactly 
 as they were originally designed to stand.^ The pillars, their archi- 
 
 ^ The same form of pendeutivo is found 
 at Serbistan (Woodcut No. 946, vol. ii.), 
 nearly ten centuries before this time. 
 
 * Cuuningham, ' Archsc logical Re- 
 
 ports,' vol. ii. p. 261. 
 
 ^ I am sorry to differ from Gen. Cun- 
 ningham on this matter. He has seen 
 the mosque — I have not ; but I have 
 
ClIAP. III. 
 
 AJMIR. 
 
 511 
 
 traves, the roofing' stones, and the domes, are all of a piece, and so 
 exactly what we find at Abu and Girnar as to leave no doubt that we 
 see before us a part of the courtyard of a Jaina Temple, which probably 
 had been used by the followers of that religion for a couple of 
 centuries at least before it was appropriated by the conquerors. It 
 is only the west side, with its nine domes, that is now standing. 
 The cloisters on the other three sides are in ruins, though their plan 
 can easily be traced even now. What remains, however, is sufficient 
 to show that it must originally have been a singularly elegant spe- 
 cimen of its class. The pillars are taller and more slender than those 
 of the mosque at Delhi, but purer and more elegant in design. 
 
 The glory, however, of this mosque, as of that of the Kutub, is the 
 
 283, Mosque at Ajmir. (Compiled from a Plan by Gen. Cunningham.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 screen of seven arches with which Altumsh adorned the courtyard 
 (Woodcut 'No. 284). Its dimensions are very similar to those of its 
 rival. The central arch is 22 ft. 3 in. wide ; the two on either side 
 13 ft. 6 in., and the outer one at each end 10 ft. 4 in. In the centre 
 the screen rises to a height of 5G ft., and on it are the ruins of two 
 small minarets 10 J ft. in diameter, ornamented with alternate circular 
 and angular flutes, as in the lower storey of the Kutub. It is not clear 
 
 photographs and drawings of it, and 
 directed Mr. Burgess's attention espe- 
 cially to this point when he visited it, 
 and the result is a conviction on my 
 mind that the pillars now standing arc 
 unaltered in arrangement. 
 
 Tod, in his ' Annals,' treats it simply 
 as a Jaina temple, without referring to 
 any possible alterations, except additions 
 made by Moslem architects, vol. i. p. 779, 
 sec also his plate, which is singularly 
 correct. 
 
512 
 
 INDIAN SAKACENIC AECHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 whether unything of the same sort existed at Delhi — probably not, 
 "as the great ni'iiar may have served for that purpose, and their 
 introduction here looks like an afterthought, and the production of an 
 unpractised hand working in an unfamiliar style. Wherever and 
 whenever minars were afterwards introduced, preparations for them 
 
 284. Great Arch in Mos'jue ut Ajiiiir. (From a Pbotograpb.) 
 
 were always made from the foundations, and their lines are always 
 carried down to the ground, in some shape or other, as in true art 
 they ought to be. This solecism, if it may be so called, evidently 
 arose from the architects being Hindus, unfamiliar Avith the style ; 
 and to this also is due the fact that all the arches are constructed 
 on the horizontal principle. There is not a true arch in the place ; 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 AJMIR. 
 
 513 
 
 but, owing to their having- the command of larger stones than were 
 available at Delhi, the arches are not here crippled, as they were 
 there before the late repairs. 
 
 It is neither, however, its dimensions nor design that makes this 
 screen one of the most remarkable architectural objects in India, but 
 the mode in which it is decorated. Nothing can exceed the taste 
 with which the Cufic and Togra inscriptions are interwoven with the 
 more purely architectural decorations, or the manner in which they 
 give life and variety to the whole, without ever interfering with the 
 constructive lines of the design. As before remarked, as examples of 
 surface-decoration, these two mosques of Altumsh at Delhi and Ajmir 
 are probably unrivalled. Nothing in Cairo or in Persia is so exqui- 
 site in detail, and nothing in Spain or Syria can approach them 
 for beauty of surface-decoration. Besides this, they are unique. 
 Nowhere else would it be possible to find Mahomedan largeness of 
 conception, combined with Hindu delicacy of ornamentation, carried 
 out to the same extent and in the same manner. If to this we add 
 their historical value as the first mosques erected in India, and their 
 ethnographic importance as bringing out the leading characteristics 
 of the two races in so distinct and marked a manner, there are cer- 
 tainly no two buildings in India that better deserve the protecting care 
 of Government ; the one has received its fair share of attention; 
 the other has been most shamefully neglected, and latterly most 
 barbarously ill-treated.^ 
 
 * Owing to the Hindu part being un- 
 disturbed, and the Maliomedan part 
 better built and with largi r materials, 
 the mosque is not in the same ruinous 
 condition as that at the Kutub was 
 before the late repairs. It is, however, 
 in a filthy and neglected state, and 
 might at a very slight outlay be pre- 
 served from further dilapidation, and its 
 beauties very much enhanced. There 
 is, so far as I can judge, no building 
 in India more worthy of the attention 
 of Government than this. The kind of 
 care, however, that is bestowed upon it 
 may be gathered from the following ex- 
 tract from a private letter from a gentle- 
 man high in the Government service in 
 Ind'a, and one perfectly well informed 
 as to what he was writing about : " Have 
 you ever heard that some of the Hindu 
 pillars of the great mosque at Ajmir 
 were dragged from their places (I pre- 
 
 sume they were fallen pillars), and set 
 up as a triumphal arch on the occasion 
 of Lord Muyo's visit ? and have you heard 
 that they were so insecurely converted 
 that nobody dared to go under them, and 
 
 that Lord Mayo and the inspired 
 
 of architects went round it ? " Tiiis is 
 more than confirmed in a public letter by 
 Sir John Strachey, Lieut.-Governor of 
 the North-West Provinces, addressed to 
 Lord Northbrook, on 25th August last. 
 In this he speaks of "an over zealous 
 district officer who, not long ngn, actually 
 pulled down the sculptured columns of a 
 well-known temj^le of great antiquity " 
 — the Arhai din ka Jhompra — " with the 
 object of decorating a temporary trium- 
 phal arch tlirough which the Viceroy was 
 to pass." He then proceeds to quote 
 what Kousselet says regarding our neg- 
 lect of such monuments, which is not 
 one whit too severe. 
 
614 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTUHE. Book VII. 
 
 Later Pathan Style. 
 
 After the death of Ala ud-diii (a.d. 13IG) a change seems to have 
 come over the spirit of the Pathan architects, and all their subse- 
 quent buildings, doAvn to the time of Shere Shah, a.d. 1539, exhibit a 
 stern simplicity of design, in marked contrast to the elaborate orna- 
 mentation with which they began. It is not clear whether this arose 
 from any puritanical reaction against the quasi-Hinduism of the 
 earlier examples, or from any political causes, the effect of which it 
 is now difficult to trace : but, certain it is, that when that stern old 
 warrior Tugluck Shah, a.d. 1321, founded the New Delhi, which still 
 bears his name — ^Tugiuckabad — all his buildings are characterised 
 by a severe simplicity, in marked contrast with those which his 
 predecessors erected in the capital that overlooks the plain in w^hich 
 his citadel is situated. His tomb, which was finished at least, if 
 not built, by his successor, instead of being situated in a garden, 
 as is usually the case, stands by itself in a strongly-fortified citadel 
 of its own, surrounded by an artificial lake. The sloping walls 
 and almost Egyptian solidity of this mausoleum, combined with 
 the bold and massive toAvers of the fortifications that surround it, 
 form a model of a warrior's tomb hardly to be rivalled anywhere, and 
 in singular contrast with the elegant and luxuriant garden-tombs of 
 the more settled and peaceful dynasties that succeeded. 
 
 The change, however, of most interest from a historical point of 
 view is, that by the time of Tugluck Sliah's reign, the Moslems 
 had worked themselves entirely free from Hindu influence. In his 
 buildings all the arches are true arches ; all the details invented 
 for the place where they are found. His tomb, in fact, would be as 
 appropriate — more so, indeed — if found in the valley of the Nile than 
 on the banks of the Jumna ; and from that time forward Maho- 
 medan architecture in India was a new and complete style in itself, 
 and developed according to the natural and inevitable sequences of 
 true styles in all parts of the world. 
 
 It is true, nevertheless, that in their tombs, as well as in their 
 mosques, they frequently, to save themseh'es trouble, used Hindu 
 materials when they w^ere available, and often with the most pic- 
 turesque effect. Many of these compound edifices are composed of 
 four pillars only, surmounted by a small dome ; but frequently they 
 adopt with the pillars the Jaina arrangement of twelve pillars, so 
 placed as to supi^ort an octagonal framework, easily moulded into 
 a circular basement for a dome. This, as before observed, is the 
 arrangement of the tomb at Mylassa, and the formative idea of all 
 that is beautiful in the plans of Jaina buildings in India. 
 
 One example must suffice to explain the effect of these buildings 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 LATER PATHAN STYLE. 
 
 515 
 
 (Woodcut No. 285). At first sight the dome looks rather heavy for 
 the substracture ; but the effect of the whole is so picturesque that it 
 is difficult to find fault with it. If all the materials were original, 
 the design would be ojDcn to criticism ; but, when a portion is 
 avowedly borrowed, a slight want of balance between the parts may 
 be excused. 
 
 There are several examples of tombs of this sort at the Bakaraya 
 Kund in Benares, evidently made up from Jaina materials ;^ and, 
 indeed, wherever the Mahomedans fairly settled themselves on a site 
 previously occupied by the Jains, such combinations are frequent ; but 
 no attempt is ever made to assimilate the parts that are Mahomedan with 
 
 285. Pathan Tomb at Shepree, near Gualior. (From a Sketch by the Author. 
 
 those belonging to the Hindu style which they are employing ; they 
 are of the age in which the tomb or mosque was built, and that age, 
 consequently, easily recognisable by any one familiar with the style. 
 
 The usual form of a Pathan tomb will be better understood from 
 the following woodcut (No. 286), representing a nameless sepulchre 
 among the hundreds that still strew the plains of Old Delhi. It con- 
 sists of an octagonal apartment, about 50 ft. in diameter, surrounded 
 by a verandah following the same form, each face being ornamented 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of plans, pis. 7 and 8, can see anything in 
 Bengal,' vol. xxxiv. p. 1, et seqq., pis. 1-8. them but the usual tomb of a Mahomedan 
 It is to me inconceivable that any one noble of the 15th century with its accom- 
 looking at these plates, especially the panying mosque. 
 
 2 L '> 
 
516 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 by three arches of tlie stilted pointed form generally adopted by the 
 Pathans, and it is supported by double square columns, which are 
 almost as universal with them as this form of arch. 
 
 It is a form evidently borrowed from the square pier of the Jains, but 
 so altered and so simplified, that it requires some ingenuity to recognise 
 
 287. Tomb of Sliere Shah at Sasserain. 
 No scale. 
 
 its origin in its new combination. 
 
 The series of Pathan tombs closes 
 with that of Shere Shah (Woodcut 
 No. 287), the last but one and the 
 most illustrious of his race. It is 
 situated on a square terrace in the 
 middle of a large tank, near Sasseram, 
 in Shahabad, and, from its locality 
 and its design, is now a singularly 
 ])icturesquc object (Woodcut No. 288). 
 Its dimensions too are considerable.^ 
 Its base is an octagon, 5-1 ft. on each 
 side externally. In the interior a 
 
 gallery, 10 ft. wide, surrounds the central apartment, which is sur- 
 
 * These diuicDslous are tukcu from the text and a plan of the building in Mont- 
 
Chap. Ill 
 
 LATER PATHAN STYLE. 
 
 517 
 
 mounted by a dome G5 ft. in diameter, beneath which stands the 
 tomb of tlie founder and of some of his favourite companions in 
 arms. 
 
 On the exterior, the terrace on which it stands is ornamented by 
 bold octagonal pavilions in the angles, which support appropriately 
 the central dome, and the little bracketed kiosks between them break 
 pleasingly the outline. In the same manner the octagonal kiosks that 
 cluster round the drum of the dome, and the dome itself, relieve the 
 
 monotony of the composition Avithout detracting from its solidity or 
 apparent solemnity. Altogether, as a royal tomb of the second class, 
 there are few that surpass it in India, either for beauty of outline 
 or appropriateness of detail. Originally it was connected with the 
 mainland by a bridge, which fortunately was broken down before the 
 
 gomery Martin's edition of Buchanan | ever, so badly drawn that it can hardly 
 Hamilton's ' Statistical Account of Shah- I be reproduced. 
 al)ad,' vol. i. p. 425. Tlic plan is, how- 
 
518 
 
 INDIAN SAKACP:NIC ARCHITECTURE, 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 grand trunk road passed near. But for this, it would probably have 
 been utilised before now. 
 
 The mosques of the Pathans bore the same aspect as their tombs. 
 The so-called Kala Musjid in the present city of Delhi, and finished, 
 according to an inscription on its walls, in a.d. ];->89, is in a style not 
 unlike the tomb (Woodcut No. 28G), but more massive, and even less 
 ornamented. This severe simplicity seems to have been the charac- 
 teristic of the latter part of the 14th century, and may have been a 
 protest of the more puritanical Moslem spirit against the Hindu exu- 
 berance which characterised both the 13th and the loth centuries. A 
 reaction, however, took place, and the late Pathan style of Delhi was 
 hardly less rich, and certainly far more appropriate for the purposes 
 to which it was devoted than the first style, as exhibited in the 
 buildings at the Kutub. 
 
 This, however, was principally owing to the exceptional splendour 
 of the reign of Shere Shah, who, however, is so mixed up both in date 
 and in association with the earlier Moguls, that it is difficult to dis- 
 criminate between them. Though Baber practically conquered India 
 in A.D. 1494, his successor, Humayun, was defeated and driven from 
 the throne by Shere Shah in a.d. 1540, and it was only in a.d. 1554 
 that the Mogul dynasty was finally and securely established at Delhi. 
 The style consequently of the first half of the 16th century may be 
 considered as the last expiring effort of the Pathans, or the first dawn 
 of that of the great Moguls, and it was w^ell w^orthy of either. 
 
 At this age the fa9ades of these mosques became far more orna- 
 mental, and more frequently encrusted with marbles, and always 
 adorned with sculpture of a rich and beautiful character ; the angles 
 of the buildings were also relieved by little kiosks, supported by four 
 richly bracketed pillars, but never with minarets, which, so far as I 
 know, were not attached to mosques during the Pathan period. The 
 call to prayer was made from the roof ; and, except the first rude 
 attempt at Ajmir, I do not know a single instance of a minaret built 
 for such a purpose, though they were, as we know, universal in Egypt 
 and elsewhere long before this time, and Avere considered nearly 
 indispensable in the buildings of the Moguls very shortly afterwards. 
 The Pathans seem to have regarded the minar as the Italians viewed 
 the Campanile, more as a symbol of power and of victory than as an 
 adjunct to a house of worship. 
 
 The body of the mosque became generally an oblong hall, with a 
 central dome flanked by two others of the same horizontal dimensions, 
 but not so lofty, and separated from it by a broad bold arch, the 
 mouldings and decorations of Avhich formed one of the principal orna- 
 ments of the building. 
 
 The pendentives were even more remarkable than the arches for 
 elaborateness of detail. Their forms are so various that it is impossible 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 LATER PATHAN STYLE. 
 
 519 
 
 to classify or describe them ; perhaps the most usual is that represented 
 in Woodcut No. 289, where the angle is filled up with a number of 
 small imitations of arches, bracketing out one beyond the other. It 
 was this form that was afterwards converted into the honeycomb work 
 of the Arabs in Spain. 
 
 mm 
 
 289. 
 
 Penclcntive from Mosque at OUl Delh'. (From a Sketch by tlie Author.) 
 
 If it were not that the buildings of the Pathans are so completely 
 eclipsed by the greater splendour of those of the Mogul dynasty, which 
 succeeded them in their own capitals, their style would have attracted 
 more attention than has hitherto been bestowed upon it ; and its 
 monograph would be as interesting as any that the Indian-Saracenic 
 affords. In its first period the style w^as characterised by all the 
 richness which Hindu elaboration could bestow ; in the second by a 
 stern simplicity and grandeur much more appropriate, according to 
 our ideas, to the spirit of the people ; and during the latter part of its 
 existence, by a return to the elaborateness of the past ; but at this 
 period every detail was fitted to its place and its purpose. We forget 
 the Hindu except in his delicacy, and we recognise in this last 
 development one of the completed architectural styles of the world. 
 
520 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 CfJAPTEK IV. 
 
 JAUNPORE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Mosques of Junima Musjid nnd Lall Dui-waza. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Khoja Jeban assiimos independence at 
 
 Mahmud 
 
 Husain Shah 
 
 deposed arnl seeks rifuge at Gaur. 
 
 ,D. 1441 
 1451 
 1478 
 
 Jaunpore 
 
 Mubarick, his son . . . . 
 Shems ud din -Ibrahim Shah 
 
 A.D. 1397 
 1400 
 1401 
 
 It was just two centuries after the conquest of India by the Moslems 
 that Khoja Jehan, the Soubahdar or governor of the province in 
 which Jaunpore is situated, assumed independence, and established a 
 dynasty which maintained itself for nearly a century, from a.d. 1397 
 to about 1478, and though then reconquered by the sovereign of 
 Delhi, still retained a sort of semi-independence till finally incor- 
 porated in the Mogul empire by the great Akbar. During this period 
 Jaunpore was adorned by several large mosques, three of which still 
 remain tolerably entire, and a considerable number of tombs, palaces, 
 and other buildings, besides a fort and bridge, all of which are as 
 remarkable specimens of their class of architecture as are to be found 
 anywhere in India. 
 
 Although so long after the time when under Ala ud-din and Tugluck 
 Shah the architecture of the capital had assumed something like com- 
 pleteness, it is curious to observe how imperfect the amalgamation 
 was in the provinces at the time when the principal buildings at Jaun- 
 pore were erected. The principal parts of the mosques, such as the 
 gateways, the great halls, and the western parts generally, are in a 
 complete arcuate style. Wherever indeed wide openings and large 
 internal spaces were wanted, arches and domes and radiating vaults 
 were employed, and there is little in those parts to distinguish this 
 architecture from that of the capitals. Bat in the cloisters that sur- 
 round the courts, and in the galleries in the interior, short square 
 pillars are as generally employed, with bracket capitals, horizontal 
 architraves, and roofs formed of flat slabs, as was invariably the case 
 in Hindu and Jaina temples. Instead of being fused together, as 
 they afterwards became, the arcuate style of the Moslems stands here, 
 though in juxtaposition, in such marked contrast to the trabeate style 
 
Chap. 1Y. 
 
 JAUNPORE. 
 
 521 
 
 of the Hindus, that some authors have been led to suppose that the 
 pillared parts belonged to ancient Jaina or Buddhist monuments^ which 
 had been appropriated by the Mahomedans and converted to their 
 purposes.^ The truth of the matter appears to be, that the greater 
 part of the Mahomedans in the province at the time the mosques were 
 built were Hindus converted to that religion, and who still clung to 
 their native forms when these did not clash with their new faith ; and 
 the masons were almost certainly those whose traditions and whose 
 taste inclined them much more to the old trabeate forms than to the 
 newly-introduced arched style. 
 
 As we shall presently see at Gaur, on the one hand, the arched 
 style prevailed from the first, because the builders had no other ma- 
 terial than brick, and large openings were then impossible without 
 arches. At Ahmedabad, on the other hand, in an essentially Jaina 
 country, and where stone was abundant, the pillared forms were not 
 only as commonly employed, as at Jaunpore, but were used for so 
 long a time, that before the country was absorbed in the Mogul 
 empire, the amalgamation between the trabeate and arcuate forms 
 was complete. 
 
 The oldest mosque at Jaunpore is that in the fort, which we learn 
 from an inscription on it, w^as completed in a.d. 1398. It is not large 
 — barely 100 ft. north and south — and consists of a central block of 
 masonry, with a large archway, of the usual style of the Mahomedan 
 architecture of the period, and five openings between pillars on either 
 hand. The front rows of these pillars are richly sculptured, and 
 were evidently taken from some temple that existed there, or in the 
 neighbourhood, before the Moslem occupation, but they seem to have 
 exhausted the stock, as no other such are found in any of the mosques 
 built subsequently.^ 
 
 There are three great mosques still standing in the city ; of these 
 the grandest is the Jumma Musjid (Woodcuts Nos. 200, 291), or Friday 
 
 ^ The first to sug:gest this was the 
 Baron Hiigel, though his knowledge of 
 the subject was so flight that his opinion 
 would not have hud much weight. The 
 idea was, however, taken up afterwards 
 and warmly advocated by the late Mr. 
 Home, B.C.S., and the Rev. Mr. Sberring, 
 in a series of papers in the 'Journal of 
 the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxxiv. 
 p. 1, et seqq., and by the latter in Lis 
 work on ' The sacred city of the Hindus,' 
 p. 283, and elsewhere. They have 
 hitherto failed to adduce a single ex- 
 ample of similar pillars existing in any 
 authentic Buddhist or Jaina building 
 
 — they mean Jaina, thougli they say 
 Buddliist— or any historical or other 
 evidence that will bear a moment's ex- 
 amination. There may have been some 
 Jaina or Hindu buildings at Jaunpore 
 of the 13th or 14th centuries that may 
 have been utilised by the Mahomedans, 
 but certainly nine-tenths at least of the 
 pillars in these mosques were made at 
 the time they were required for the 
 places they now occupy. 
 
 ^ A view of this mosque will be found 
 in Kittoe's ' Indian Architecture,' but, 
 unfortunately, no plan or dimensions. 
 That quoted in the text is from memory. 
 
522 
 
 INDIAN SAEACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 Mosque, which was commenced by Shah Ibrahim, a.u. 1410, but uot 
 com23leted till the reign of Husaiu, a.d. 1451-1478. It consists of a 
 
 293. Plan of Western Half of Courtyard of Jumma Musjid, Jaunpore. (From a I'Uu by the Author.) 
 
 Scale 100 It. to 1 in. 
 
 291. View of lateral Gateway of Jumma Mutijid, Jaunpore. {hvom a Drawing uy ihe Author.) 
 
 courtyard 220 ft. by 214 ft., on the western side of which is situated a 
 range of buildings, the central one covered by a dome 40 ft. in dia- 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 JAUNPORE. 
 
 523 
 
 meter, in front of Avhich stands a gate pyramid or propylon^ of almost 
 Egyptian mass and outline, rising to the height of 8G ft. This gate 
 pyramid by its elevation supplied the place of a minaret, which is 
 a feature as little known at Jaunpore, as it was, at the same age, in 
 the capital city of Delhi. On each side of the dome is a com- 
 partment divided into two storeys by a stone floor supported on 
 pillars ; and beyond this, on each side, is an apartment 40 ft. by 50 ft.. 
 
 292. Lall Durwaza ilcsque, Jaunpore. (From a Drawing by the Author.; 
 
 covered by a bold pointed vault with ribs, so constructed that its 
 upper surface forms the external roof of the building, which in Gothic 
 vaults is scarcely ever the case. The tlu'ee sides of the courtyard were 
 surrounded by double colonnades, two storeys in height internally, 
 but with three on the exterior, the floor of the courtyard being raised 
 to the height of the lower storey. On each face Avas a handsome gate- 
 way ; one of Avhich is represented in Woodcut Xo. 291, which gives 
 
 ^ A view of it, but not a good one, is givcu in Dauiell's plates. It is partially 
 seen in \yoo<leut No. 291. 
 
524 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC AKCHITECTUllE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 a fair idea of the style : the greater part of the eastern side of the 
 court has been taken down and removed by the English to repair 
 station-roads and bridges, for which in their estimation these pillars 
 are admirably adapted. 
 
 The smallest of the mosques in the city is the Lall Durwaza or 
 Red Gate. It is in the same style as the others ; and its propylon — 
 represented in Woodcut No. 292 — displays not only the bold massive- 
 ness with which these mosques were erected, but shows also that 
 strange admixture of Hindu and Mahomedan architecture which per- 
 vaded the style during the whole period of its continuance. 
 
 Of all the mosques remaining at Jaunpore, the Atala Musjid is 
 the most ornate and the most beautiful. The colonnades surrounding 
 its court are four aisles in depth, the outer columns, as well as those 
 next the court, being double square pillars. The three intermediate 
 rows are single square columns, supporting a flat roof of slabs, 
 arranged as in Jaina temples. Externally, too, it is two storeys in 
 height, the lower storey being occupied by a series of cells opening 
 outwardly. All this is so like a Hindu arrangement that one might 
 almost at first sight be tempted, like Baron Hugel, to fancy it was 
 originally a Buddhist monastery. He failed to remark, however, that 
 both here and in the Jumma Musjid the cells open outwardly, and 
 are below the level of the courtyard of the mosque — an arrange- 
 ment common enough in Mahomedan, but never found in Buddhist, 
 buildings. Its gateways, however, which are the principal ornaments 
 of the outer court, are purely Saracenic, and the western face is 
 adorned by three propylons similar to that represented in the last 
 woodcut, but richer and more beautiful, while its interior domes and 
 roofs are superior to any other specimen of Mahomedan art I am 
 acquainted with of so early an age. They are, too, perhaps, more 
 striking here, because, though in juxtaposition with the .quasi-Hindu- 
 ism of the court, they exhibit the arched style of the Saracenic 
 architects in as great a degree of completeness as it exhibited at 
 any subsequent period. 
 
 The other buildings hardly require particular mention, though, as 
 transition specimens between the two styles, these Jaunpore examples 
 are well worthy of illustration, and in themselves possess a simplicity 
 and grandeur not often met with in this style. An appearance of 
 strength, moreover, is imparted to them by their sloping walls, Avhich 
 is foreign to our general conception of Saracenic art, though at Tug- 
 luckabad and elsewhere it is carried even further than at Jaunpore. 
 Among the Pathans of India the expression of strength is as charac- 
 teristic of the style as massiveness is of that of the Normans in 
 England. In India it is found conjoined with a degree of refinement 
 seldom met with e^.sew^here, and totally free from the coarseness which 
 in other countries usually besets vigour and boldness of design. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 JAUNPORE. 
 
 525 
 
 The peculiarities of this style are by no means confined to the 
 capital ; they prevail at Gazeepore, and as far north as Canonge, while 
 at Benares the examples are frequent. In the suburbs of that city, 
 at a place called the Bakaraya Kund,^ there is a group of tombs, as 
 mentioned above, and other buildings belonging to the Moslems, 
 which are singularly pleasing specimens of the Jaunpore style, and 
 certainly belong to the same age as those just described. 
 
 The kingdom of Jaunpore is also rich in little tombs and shrines 
 in which the Moslems have used up Hindu and Jaina pillars, merely 
 rearranging them after their oAvn fashion. These, of course, will not 
 bear criticism as architectural designs, but there is always something 
 so indescribably picturesque about them as fairly to extort admira- 
 tion. The principal example of this compound style is a mosque at 
 Canouge, known popularly as " Sita ka Rasui," " Sita's kitchen." It 
 is a Jaina temple, rearranged as a mosque, in the manner described 
 at pp. 263-4. It measures externally 133 ft. by 120 ft. The mosque 
 itself has four rows of fifteen columns each, and three domes. The 
 cloisters surrounding the court are only two rows in depth, and 
 had originally sixty-eight pillars, smaller t'han those of the mosque. 
 Externally it has no great beauty, but its pillared court is very 
 picturesque and pleasing. According to an inscription over its prin- 
 cipal gateway, its conversion was effected by Ibrahim Shah, of 
 Jaunpore, a.d. 1406.^ 
 
 At a later age, and even after it had lost its independence, several 
 important buildings were erected in the capital and in other towns 
 of the kingdom in the style of the day ; but none of these, so far as 
 is now known, are of sufficient importance to require notice in such a 
 work as the present. 
 
 ' If the buildings of the Bakaraya 
 Kund had been found M'ithin twenty 
 miles of Ahmedabad, where there are 
 dozens exactly like them, they would 
 hardly have deserved a passing remark. 
 Any one familiar with the style would 
 have assigned them a date — a.d. 1450, or 
 thereabouts — and would hardly have 
 troubled himself to inquire who built 
 
 them, they are so like all others of the 
 same age. 
 
 2 General Cunningham's 'Reports' for 
 1862-63, vol. i. p. 287. From this I learn 
 tiiat the pillars surrounding the court 
 on three sides have been removed since 
 I saw them in 1836 — this time, however, 
 not by the English. 
 
5-0 INDIAN SAKACENIC ARC HITECTUHE. Book VII. 
 
 CHAPTEll V. 
 
 GUJERAT. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Jiimma Musjid aiul other Mosques at Ahmedabad — Tombs and Mosques at Sirkej 
 aud Butwa — Buildings in the Provinces. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 MuzafFar Shah, a ll.ijput, appointed 
 Viceroy a.d. 139i 
 
 Ahmed Shah, his grandson, founds Ah- 
 medabad 1411 
 
 Mohammed Shah the Merciful . . . 1443 
 
 Kutub Shah ; war with Rana Khumbo. 1454 
 
 Mahmiul Shah Begurra a.d. 1459 
 
 Muzaffar Shah II. 1511 
 
 Bahadur Shah murdered by Portuguese 1526 
 
 Muzaffar Shah III 1561 
 
 Gujerat becomes a province of Akbar's 
 
 kingdom 1583 
 
 Of the various forms which the Saracenic architecture assumed in 
 India, that of Ahmedabad may probably be considered as the most 
 elegant, as it certainly is the most characteristic of all. No other 
 form is so essentially Indian, and no one tells its tale with the same 
 unmistakable distinctness. 
 
 As mentioned above, the Mahomedans, in the first century of the 
 Hejira, made a brilliant attempt to conquer Scinde and Gujerat, and 
 apparently succeeded ; but the country was so populous, and its civiliza- 
 tion so great, that the invaders were absorbed, and soon disappeared from 
 the scene. 
 
 Mahmud of Ghazni next overran the province, but left no per- 
 manent mark ; and even after the fall of Delhi (a.d. 11 9 G) Gujerat 
 maintained the struggle for independence for nearly two centuries 
 longer, till Feroze Tugluck, in a.d. 1801, appointed Muzaffar, a con- 
 verted Rajput, of the Tak clan, to be his viceroy. This, however, 
 was only on the eve of the troubles caused by the invasion of Tamer- 
 lane, and, mutato domino, Gujerat remained as independent as before. 
 
 The next two centuries — during which the Ahmed Shahi dynasty 
 occupied the throne — were spent in continual wars and struggles 
 with their refractory vassals and the neighbouring chiefs. On the 
 whole, however, their power may be said to have been gradually on 
 the increase till the death of Bahadur, a.d. 1536, but they never 
 wholly subdued the rebellious spirit of their subjects, and certainly 
 never converted the bulk of them to their faith. As a consequence of 
 this, the princijial buildings with which this chapter is concerned are 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GUJERAT. 
 
 527 
 
 to be found in the capital and its immediate proximity. Beyond 
 that the Hindus followed their old faith and built temples as before ; 
 though in such large cities as Cambay or Baroach the Mahomedans, 
 of course, possessed places of worship, some of them of considerable 
 importance, and generally made up from pillars borrowed from Hindu 
 buildings. 
 
 In Ahmedabad itself, however, the Hindu influence continued to 
 be felt throughout.. Even the mosques are Hindu, or rather Jaina, in 
 every detail ; only here and there an arch is inserted, not because it 
 was wanted constructively, but because it was a symbol of the faith, 
 while in their tombs and palaces even this is generally w^anting. The 
 truth of the matter is, the Mahomedans had forced themselves upon 
 the most civilized and most essentially building race at that time 
 in India, and the Chalukyas conquered their conquerors, and forced 
 them to adopt forms and ornaments w^liich were superior to any the 
 invaders knew or could have introduced. The result is a style which 
 combines all the elegance and finish of Jaina or Chalukyan art, with 
 a certain largeness of conception which the Hindu never quite 
 attained, but which is characteristic of the people who at this time 
 Avere subjecting all India to their sway. 
 
 The first seat of the Mahomedan power was Anhilwarra, the old 
 capital of the Rajputs, and which, at the time it fell into their power, 
 must have been one of the most splendid cities of the East. Little 
 now remains of all its magnificence, if we may trust what is said by 
 recent travellers who have visited its deserted palaces. Ahmed, the 
 second king, removed the seat of power to a town called Kurna- 
 wutti, afterwards known as Ahmedabad, from the name of its second 
 founder, and which, with characteristic activity, he set about adorning 
 with splendid edifices. Of these the principal was the Jumma Musjid, 
 which, though not remarkable for its size, is one of the most beautiful 
 mosques in the East. Its arrangement will be understood from the 
 next plan (Woodcut No. 293). Its dimensions are 382 ft. by 258 ft. 
 over all externally ; the mosque itself being 210 ft. by 95 ft., covering 
 consequently about 20,000 sq. ft. Within the mosque itself are 200 
 pillars, supporting fifteen domes arranged symmetrically, the centre 
 three alone being somewhat larger and considerably higher than the 
 others. If the plan is compared with that of the temple at Sadri 
 (Woodcut No. 133), which was being erected at the same time by 
 Khumbo Rana within 160 miles of Ahmedabad, it will afford a fair 
 means of comparison between the Jaina and Mahomedan arrange- 
 ments of that day. The form of the pillars and the details generally 
 are practically the same in both buildings, the Hindu being somewhat 
 richer and more elaborate. In plan, the mosque looks monotonous as 
 compared with the temple ; but this is redeemed, to some extent, by 
 the different heights of the domes, as shown in the elevation (Wood- 
 
528 
 
 INDIAN SAKACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book Vil. 
 
 cut No. 294), and by the elevation of each division being studiously 
 varied. My own feeling is in favour of the poetry of the temple, but 
 there is a sobriety about the plan of the mosque which, after all, may 
 be in better taste. Both plans, it need hardly be remarked, are in- 
 
 Di 
 
 293. rian of Jmunia Mu!^jid, AhineJabad. S ale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 '29-t. Elevation of tliLi Jumniu Mu-jid. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 finitely superior to the monotony of the southern halls of 1000 pillars. 
 The latter are remarkable for their size and the amount of labour 
 bestowed u])on them, but it retpiircs more than this to constitute 
 good architecture. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GUJEEAT. 
 
 529 
 
 The general character of the elevation will be understood from the 
 woodcut No. 294, bat unfortunately its minarets -are gone. When 
 Forbes ^ drew it, they were still standing, and Avere celebrated in 
 Eastern story as the shaking minarets of Ahmedabad ; an earthquake 
 in A.D. 1818 shook them 
 too much, but there are 
 several others still stand- 
 ing in the city from which 
 their form can easily be 
 restored. 
 
 The plan and lateral 
 extension of the Jumma 
 Musjid are exceptional. 
 The usual form taken by 
 the mosques at Ahmed- 
 abad w^as that of the 
 Queen's Mosque at Mirza- 
 pore, and consists of three 
 domes standing on twelve 
 pillars each, with the 
 central part so raised as 
 to admit light to the in- 
 terior. The mode in which this was effected will be understood from 
 the annexed diagram (Woodcut No. 297). The pillars wliich support 
 
 Flan of the Queen's Mosque, Mirzapore. 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 •Z9o. Elevation of the Qne' ii's Mosque, Mirzapore. 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 297. 
 
 Section of Diagram exp anatory of the Mosques at Ahmedabad. 
 
 the central domes are twice as high as those of the side domes, and 
 two rows of dwarf columns stand on the roof to make up the height. 
 
 * See plate in Forbes' ' Oriental Memoirs,' vol iii. cli. xxx. 
 
 2 M 
 
630 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 In front of these internally is a solid balustrade, which is generally 
 most richly ornamented by carving. Thus arranged, it Avill be per- 
 ceived that the necessary amount of light is introduced, as in the 
 drum of a Byzantine dome, but in a more artistic manner. The 
 sun's rays can never fall on the floor, or even so low as the head of 
 any one standing there. The light is reflected from the external 
 roof into the dome, and perfect ventilation is obtained, with the 
 most pleasing effect of illumination without glare. In order further 
 to guard against the last dreaded contingency, in most of these 
 mosques a screen of perforated stonework was introduced between 
 the outer dwarf columns. These screens were frequently of the 
 most exquisite beauty, and in consequence have very generally been 
 removed. 
 
 There are three or four mosques at Ahmedabad, built on the same 
 pattern as that last described, but as the style progressed it became 
 more and more Indian. The arches in front were frequently omitted, 
 and only a screen of columns appeared, supported by two minarets, 
 one at each angle. This system was carried to its greatest extent at 
 Sirkej, about five miles from the city. Mohammed Shah, in a.d. 1445, 
 commenced erecting a tomb (A on Woodcut No. 208) here, in honour 
 of Ahmed Gunj Buksh, the friend and adviser of his father. The 
 style of these buildings may be judged of from the w^oodcut (No.' 299, 
 page 532), representing the pavilion of sixteen pillars in front of 
 this tomb (I in Woodcut No. 298). They are of the usual simple out- 
 line of the style — a tall, square base ; the shafts square, and with no 
 ornament except a countersinking on the angles, and crowned wdth 
 a moderately projecting bracket-capital. The building is roofed with 
 nine small domes, insignificant in themselves, but both internally 
 and externally forming as pleasing a mode of roofing as ever was 
 applied to such a small detached building of this class. The mosque 
 (D) was completed in a.d. 1451, and Mahnuid Begurra added after- 
 wards a tomb for himself (B) and one for his wife Bajbaie (C). AYith 
 their accompanying palaces and tombs these make up one of the most 
 important groups in the neighbourhood. The Avholc are constructed 
 without a single arch ; all the pillars have the usual bracket capitals 
 of the Hindus, and all the domes are on the horizontal principle. In 
 the large tomb an attempt has been made to get a larger dome than 
 the usual octagonal arrangement would admit of, but not quite suc- 
 cessfully. The octagon does not accord with the substructure, and 
 either wider spaces ought to have been introduced or a polygon of a 
 greater number of sides employed. The moscjue is the perfection of 
 elegant simplicity, and is an improvement on the plan of the Jumma 
 Musjid. There are five domes in a line, as there, but they are placed 
 nearer to one another, and though of greater diameter the width of 
 the whole is less, and they are only two ranges in depth. Except the 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GUJERAT. 
 
 531 
 
 208. Plan of Tombs and Mosque at Sirkej. (From a Sketch by T. C, Hope, Esq.) 
 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 2 M 2 
 
532 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book YIF. 
 
 299. Pavilion in front of Tomb at Sirkej. 
 
 Mootee Musjid at Agra, to be described hereafter, there is no mosque 
 in India more remarkable for simple elegance than this. 
 
 Besides these larger mosques 
 there are several smaller ones of 
 great beauty, of Avhich two — those 
 of Moohafiz Khan and the Rani 
 Sipri — are pre-eminent. The ele- 
 vation of the first is by no means 
 happy, but its details are exquisite, 
 and it retains its minarets, which 
 is too seldom the case. As will be 
 seen from the woodcut, as well as 
 from those of the Jumma and 
 Queen's Mosques (Nos. 294, 296), 
 the lower part of the minarets is 
 of pure Hindu architecture ; all the 
 bases at Ahmedabad are neither 
 more nor less than the perpendicular 
 parts of the basement of Hindu or 
 Jaina temples elongated. Every 
 form and every detail may be found 
 at Chandravati or Abu, except in one particular— on the angles of 
 all Hindu temples are niches containing images. This the Moslem 
 
 .■500, Mosque at Moohafiz Khan. 
 
 Scale 25 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 OUJERAT. 
 
 533 
 
 could not tolerate, so he filled them with tracery. We can follow 
 the 2^rogress of the development of this form, from the first rude 
 attempt in the Jumma Musjid, through all its stages to the exquisite 
 patterns of the Queen's Mosque at Mirzapore. After a century's expe- 
 rience they produced forms which as architectural ornaments will, in 
 their own class, stand comparison with any employed in any age or in 
 any part of the world ; and in doing this they invented a class of 
 window-tracery in which they were also unrivalled. The specimen 
 below (Woodcut No. 301), from a window in a desecrated mosque 
 in the palace (the Bhudder) will C3nvey an idea of its elaborateness 
 
 Wiuilow in Bhudder at Abm.dab^d. (From a Piiotogiaph by Colouel Biggs.) 
 
 and grace. It would be difficult to excel the skill with which the 
 vegetable forms are conventionalised just to the extent required for 
 the purpose. The equal spacing also of the subject by the three ordi- 
 nary trees and four palms, takes it out of the category of direct imita- 
 tion of nature, and renders it sufficiently structural for its situation ; 
 but perhaps the greatest skill is shown in the even manner in which 
 the pattern is spread over the whole surface. There are some exqui- 
 site specimens of tracery in precious marbles at Agra and Delhi, but 
 none quite equal to this. 
 
 Above the roof of the mosques the minarets are always round 
 towers slightly tapering, as in the mosque of Moohafiz Khan (Wood- 
 cut No. 300), relieved by galleries displaying great richness in the 
 
534 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VIL 
 
 brackets which support them as well as in the balustrades which 
 protect them. The tower always terminates in a conical top relieved 
 by various disks. They are, so far as I know, the only minarets 
 belonging to mosques which surpass those of Cairo in beauty of outline 
 or richness of detail, excepting those of the Eani Sipri mosque, 
 which are still more beautiful. Indeed, that mosque is the most 
 exquisite gem at Ahmedabad, both in plan and detail. It is without 
 arches, and every part is such as only a Hindu queen could order, and 
 only Hindu artists could carve.^ 
 
 Tombs. 
 
 Knowing the style, it would not be difficult to predicate the form 
 of the tombs. The simplest would be that of Abu Tourab ; an octa- 
 
 T3 131 E] ET 
 
 m p n n 
 
 FT 
 
 JJL 
 
 Tomb of Meer Abu T. urab. 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 r/ M 
 
 i i 
 
 303. Plan and Eleva ion of Tomb of Syad 
 Osnitlii. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 gonal dome supported on twelve 
 pillars, and this extended on every 
 side, but always remaining a 
 square, and the entrances being 
 in the centre of the faces. The 
 difference between this and the 
 Jaina arrangement is that the 
 latter is diagonal (Woodcut No. 
 119), while these are square. The 
 superiority of the Hindu mode is 
 
 apparent at a glance. Not, it is true, in so small an arrangement as 
 that last quoted, but in the tombs at Sirkej (Woodcut No. 298), the 
 effect is so monotonous as almost to become unpleasing. With the 
 Jains this never is the case, however numerous the pillars may be. 
 
 Besides the monotony of the square plan, it was felt at Sirkej — 
 as already pointed out — that the octagonal dome fitted aAvkwardly on 
 to its supports. This was remedied, to a great extent, in the tomb of 
 Syad Osmiln, built in a.d. 4G0 by Mahmud Begurra. In this instance 
 
 ' As it is inipos.siblo by a woodcut to 
 convey an impression of tlie beauty of 
 tliefcc mosques, Ihe reader is referred 
 
 to the photographs of 'Architecture of 
 Ahmedabad,' &c. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GUJEKAT: TOMBS. 
 
 535 
 
 the base of the dome is a dodecagon, and a very considerable amount 
 of variety is obtained by grouping the pillars in twos and fours, 
 and by the different spacing. In elevation the dome looks heavy for 
 the substructure, but not so in perspective ; and when the screens 
 were added to inclose the central square, it was altogether the 
 most successful sepulchral design carried out in the pillared style at 
 Ahmedabad. 
 
 Towards the end of their career, the architects of Ahmedabad 
 evinced a strong tendency to revert to the arched forms generally 
 used by their brethren in other countries. Mahmiid Begurra built 
 -himself a tomb near Kaira, which is w^iolly in the arched style, and 
 remains one of the most splendid sepulchres in India. ^ He also 
 erected at Butwa, near Ahmedabad, a tomb over the grave of a saint, 
 which is in every respect in the same style. So little, how-ever, were 
 the builders accustomed to arched forms, that, though the plan is 
 judiciously disposed by placing smaller arches outside the larger, so 
 as to abut them, still all those of the outer range have fallen down, 
 and the whole is very much crippled, w^hile the tomb without arches, 
 that stands within a few yards of it, remains entire. The scale of the 
 two, however (Plan No. 305), reveals the secret of the preference 
 accorded to the arch as a constructive expedient. The larger piers, 
 the wider spacing, the whole dimensions, w^ere on a grander scale 
 than could be attained wdth beams only, as the Hindus used them. 
 As the Greeks and Romans employed these features, any dimensions 
 that were feasible with arches could be attained by pillars ; but 
 the Hindus worked to a smaller modulus, and do not -seem to have 
 known how to increase it. It must, however, be remarked that they 
 generally used pillars only in courts, w'here there w^as nothing to 
 compare them wath but the spectator's own height ; and there 
 the forms employed by them were large enough. It was only 
 when the Moslems came to use them externally, and in conjunction 
 with arches and other larger features, that their diminutive scale 
 became apparent. 
 
 It is perhaps the evidence of a declining age to find size becoming 
 the principal aim. But it is certainly one great and important 
 ingredient in architectural design, and so thought the later architects 
 of Ahmedabad. In their later mosques and buildings they attained 
 greater dimensions, but it was at the expense of all that renders their 
 earlier style so beautiful and so interesting.^ 
 
 ^ Described further on, p. 538, Wood- 
 cuts Nos. 306 and 307. 
 
 - I understand from Mr. Burgess that, 
 during his recent visit to Ahmedabad, 
 he copied a number of inscriptions from 
 the mosques there which prove that some 
 
 of the names given to the buildings arc 
 erroneous. When these are published 
 new names and dates must in some 
 instances be given to several of the 
 buildings, but the alterations, as I 
 understand it, are not very important. 
 
536 
 
 INDIAN SAEACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 Besides the buildings of the classes above enumerated, there are 
 several smaller objects of art at Ahmedabad which are of extraordinary 
 beauty. Among these are se\eral bowlees, or deep wells, with broad 
 fliglits of steps leading down to them, and ornamented with pillars and 
 galleries to as great an extent as some of the largest buildings above 
 
 Tomb of Kutub-ul-Alum, Butwa. Scale 50 ft. to 1 ii 
 
 jj Q B---3) 
 
 — a -- 
 
 Plans ot Tombs of Kutub-ul-Alum liiid his Sun, Buivva. Scale about 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 ground. It requires a personal experience of the grateful coolness of 
 a subterranean apartment in a hot climate to appreciate such a class 
 of buildings, and in the rainy West we hardly know how valuable 
 water may become. 
 
 Another object of architectural beauty is found in the inflow and 
 outflow sluices of the great tanks which abound everywhere around 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GUJERAT; PROVINCIAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 537 
 
 the city. Nowhere did the inhabitants of Ahmedabad show how 
 essentially they were an architectural people, as in these utilitarian 
 works. It was a necessity of their nature that every object should be 
 made ornamental, and their success was as great in these as in their 
 mosques or palaces. 
 
 Buildings in the Provinces. 
 
 In addition to the numerous edifices that adorn the capital, there 
 are, as hinted above, several in the provincial capitals that are well 
 worthy of notice. Among these the Jumma Musjid at Cambay is 
 perhaps the most splendid. It was erected in a.d. 1325, in the time of 
 Mohammed Shah Gori, and is only inferior to that of the capital in 
 size. It measures over all 200 ft. by 210 ft., and its internal court 
 120 ft. by 135 ft. Except being somewhat smaller in scale, its plan and 
 arrangements are almost identical with those of the Altumsh Mosque 
 (Woodcut No. 283) at Ajmir : but, when it is looked into, it yvould 
 be difficult to conceive two buildings more essentially different than 
 these two are. The screen of arches at Cambay, only three in number, 
 are plain even to baldness, and low, in order to fit the dimensions 
 of the Jaina pillars of the interior. These latter are all borrowed 
 from desecrated temples, and in this instance certainly rearranged 
 without much attention to congruity or architectural effect. Still the 
 effect is picturesque, and the parts being employed for the purposes 
 for which they were designed, there is no offensive incongruity any- 
 where. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features in this mosque is the tomb, 
 which its founder, Imrar ben Ahmed Kajerani erected for himself. 
 It is wholly composed of Hindu remains," and is two storeys in height, 
 and was crowned with a dome 28 ft. in diameter. The parts, how- 
 ever — borrowed, apparently, from different buildings — were so badly 
 fitted together that, after standing some three centuries, it fell in, 
 and has since remained a ruin, singularly picturesque in form and 
 exquisite in detail, but a monument of the folly of employing building 
 materials for any purpose but that for which they were designed.^ 
 
 There is another mosque at Baroach, not unlike this one in design 
 but smaller, being only 135 ft. over all north and south, and it has — 
 now, at least — no courtyard ; but some of its details, borrowed from 
 Hindu temples, are very beautiful. 
 
 There are also two very beautiful mosques at Dolka, a city twenty- 
 two miles south-west from Ahmedabad, almost identical in size and 
 
 * All the particulars above quoted Cities of Goojerat.' By T. C. Hope, 
 regarding that mosque are derived from j B.C.S. Illustrated by photographs, 
 a work publislied in Bombay in 1868, plans, and with descriptive text, 
 entitled, 'Surat, Baroacli, and other old i 
 
538 
 
 INDIAN SAEACENIC ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 Book VII 
 
 plan, being- each of them squares of about 150 ft., and the mosque- 
 front covered with fixe domes 
 and the screen-wall with three 
 arches each.^ 
 
 The most beautiful, however, 
 of these provincial examples is 
 the tomb at Mahmiidabad, of its 
 class one of the most beautiful 
 in India (Woodcut No. 306). It 
 was erected by the same Mah- 
 miid Begurra, a.d. 148J:, who 
 erected the tomb of Kutub-ul- 
 Alum at Butwa, described above 
 (Woodcut No. 304), and is said 
 to have been designed by the 
 same architect. This is, how- 
 ever, a far more successful ex- 
 ample, and though small — it 
 is only 94 ft. square, exclusive 
 of the porch — there is a sim- 
 
 307. Tuiiib of iVlaljiiu'id liegurra, near Kaira. (From a I'botugrapli ) 
 
 ' rians of these arc in Mr. Hope's work. 
 
 SB^llllKlligj 
 
 306. Plan of Tomb of M ihnn'id Regurra, near 
 Kaira. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 GUJEKAT: PROVINCIAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 539 
 
 plicitj about its plan, a solidity and balance of parts in the design, 
 which is not always found in these tombs, and has rarely, if ever, 
 been surpassed in any tomb in India. The details, too, are all ele- 
 gant and appropriate, so that it only wants somewhat increased 
 dimensions to rank among the very first of its class. Its construc- 
 tive arrangements, too, are so perfect that no alterations in them 
 would be required, if the scale had been very much increased. 
 
 The tomb itself is surrounded by a screen of perforated stone- 
 work, of the very finest tracery, and with its double verandah aids in 
 giving the sepulchral chamber that seclu ion and repose so indis- 
 pensable in a mausoleum.^ 
 
 * There is a very good view of the I East'; but the plan aud details here 
 tomb in Mr. Grindlay's * Views of the j given are from Mr. Hope's work, sup. cit. 
 
540 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 M AL W A. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Great Mo^que at Maiulu. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Sultan Dilawar Ghori 
 
 Sultan Hosliang Ghori 
 
 <ihazni Khan 
 
 Mahniud Khan, cotemp. lima Khumby 
 of Cilittore 
 
 A.u 1:01 
 U' 5 
 1432 
 
 1435 
 
 Sultan Ghir.s u 1-din .... 
 
 Sultan Mahmiid II 
 
 Malvva incorporati-d with (jujerat 
 annexed by Akbar . . . 
 
 1469 
 1512 
 
 1534 
 15G8 
 
 The Ghori dynasty of Mandu attained independence about the 
 same time as the Sharkis of Jamipore — Sultan Dilawar, who governed 
 the province from a.d. 1887, having assumed the title of Shah in 
 A.D. 1401. It is, however, to his successor Hoshang, that Mandu 
 owes its greatness and all the finest of its buildings. The state 
 continued to prosper as one of the independent Moslem principali- 
 ties till A.D. 1584, when it was incorporated with Gujerat, and was 
 finally annexed to Akbar's dominion in A.D. 15G8. 
 
 The original capital of the state was Dhar, an old Hindu city, 
 twenty miles northward of Mandu, to which the seat of government 
 was transferred after it became independent. Though an old and 
 venerated city of the Hindus, Dhar contains no evidence of its former 
 greatness, except two mosques erected wholly of Jaina remains. The 
 principal of these, the Jumma Musjid, has a courtyard measuring 
 102 ft. north and south, by 131 ft. in the other direction. The 
 mosque itself is 119 ft. by 40 ft. 6 in., and its roof is supported by 
 sixty-four pillars of Jaina architecture, 12 ft. 6 in. in height, and all 
 of them more or less richly carved, and the three domes that adorn it 
 are also of purely Hindu form. The court is surrounded by an arcade 
 containing forty-four columns, 10 ft. in height, but equally rich in 
 carving. There is here no screen of arches, as at the Kutub or at 
 Ajmir. Internally nothing is visible but Hindu pillars, and, except 
 for their disposition and the prayer-niches that adorn the western 
 wall, it might be taken for a Hindu building. In this instance, 
 however, there seems no doubt that there is nothing in situ. The 
 pillars have been brought from desecrated temples in the town, and 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 MALWA. 
 
 541 
 
 arranged here by the Mahomedans as we now find them, probably 
 before the transference of the capital to Mandn. 
 
 The other mosque is similar to this one, and only slightly smaller. 
 It has long, however, ceased to be used as a place of prayer, and is 
 sadly out of repair. It is called the Lat Musjid, from an iron pillar 
 now lying half -buried in front of its gateway. This is generally 
 supposed to have been a pillar of victory, like that at the Kutub ; 
 but this can hardly be the case. If it were intended for an orna- 
 mental purpose, it would have been either round or octagonal, and 
 had some ornamental form. As it is, it is only a square bar of iron, 
 some 20 ft. or 25 ft. in height, and 9 in. section, without any orna- 
 mental form whatever. My impression is, that it w^as used for some 
 useful constructive purpose, like those which supported the false 
 roof in the Pagoda at Kanaruc {ante, page 428). There are some 
 holes through it, which tend further to make this view of its origin 
 probable. But, be this as it may, it is another curious proof of 
 the employment of large masses of wrought-iron by the Hindus 
 at a time when they were supposed to be incapable of any such 
 mechanical exertion. Its date is probably that of the pillars of the 
 mosques where it is found, and from their style they probably belong 
 to the 10th or 11th centuries. 
 
 The site on which the city of Mandu is j^laced is one of the 
 noblest occupied by any capital in India. It is an extensive plateau, 
 detached from the mainland of Malwa by a deep ravine about 300 
 to 400 yards across, where narrowest, and nowhere less than 200 ft. 
 in depth. This is crossed by a noble causeway, defended by three 
 gateways, and flanked by tombs on either hand. The plateau is 
 surrounded by w^alls erected on the brink of the cliff — it is said 
 28 miles in extent. This, however, conveys a very erroneous idea 
 of the size of the place, unless qualified by the information that the 
 walls follow the sinuosities of the ravines wherever they occur, and 
 many of these cut into the hill a mile or two, and are only half a 
 mile across. The p^.ateau may be four or five miles east and west, 
 and three miles north and south, most pleasingly diversified in surface, 
 abounding in water, and fertile in the highest degree, as is too plainly 
 evidenced by the rank vegetation, which is tearing the buildings of 
 the city to pieces or obscuring them so that they can hardly be seen. 
 
 The finest building in the city is the Jumma Musjid, commenced 
 and nearly completed by Hoshang, the second king, who reigned from 
 A.D. 1405 to A.D. 1432, which, though not very large, is so simple and 
 grand in outline and details, that it ranks high among the monu- 
 ments of its class. Its dimensions are externally 290 ft. by 275 ft., 
 exclusive of the porch. 
 
 Internally, the courtyard is almost an exact square of 102 ft., and 
 
542 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book YII. 
 
 would l)e quite so, were it not tliat two of the piers on the east and 
 west faces are doubled. In other respects the four sides of the court 
 are exactly similar, each being ornamented by eleven great arches 
 of precisely the same dimensions and height, supported by piers or 
 pillars, each of one single block of red sandstone. The only variety 
 attempted is, that the east side has two arcades in depth, the north 
 and south three : while the west side, or that facing Mecca, has five, 
 besides being ornamented by three great domes, each 42 ft. in 
 diameter. 
 
 As will be seen on the plan (Woodcut No. 308), these large domes 
 are supported each by twelve pillars. The pillars are all equally 
 
 spaced, the architect 
 having omitted, for the 
 sake of uniformity, to 
 widen the central ave- 
 nues on the intersec- 
 tion of which the domes 
 stand. It follows from 
 this that the four sides 
 of the octagon support- 
 ing the dome, which 
 are parallel to the sides 
 of the court, are shorter 
 than the four diagonal 
 sides. Internally, this 
 produces a very awk- 
 w^ard appearance ; but 
 it could not have been 
 avoided except by run- 
 ning into another diffi- 
 culty — that of having 
 oblong spaces at the 
 
 308. riaii of Mosque at Maiidii. No scale. iuterSectioUS of the 
 
 wider aisles with the 
 narrower, to which the smaller domes must have been fitted. Perhaps, 
 on the whole, the architect took the less inconvenient course of the 
 two. 
 
 The interior of the court is represented in Woodcut No. 309, and 
 for simple grandeur and expression of power it may, perhaps, be 
 taken as one of the very best specimens now to be found in India. 
 It is, however, fast falling to decay, and a few years more may 
 deprive it of most of that beauty which so impressed me when I 
 visited it in 1839. 
 
 The tomb of the founder, which stands behind the mosque, though 
 not remarkable for size, is a very grand specimen of the last resting- 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 MALWA. 
 
 543 
 
 309. Courtyard of Great Mosque at Mandu. (From a Sketch by tbe Author.) 
 
 place of a stern old Pathan king. Both internally and externally it 
 is reveted with white marble, artistically, but not constructively, 
 applied, and consequently in many places peeling off The light is 
 only admitted by the doorway and two small windoAvs, so that the 
 interior is gloomy, but not more so than seems suitable to its 
 destination. 
 
 On one side of the mosque is a splendid Dharmsala, or hall, 230 ft. 
 long, supported by three ranges of pillars, twenty-eight in each row. 
 These are either borrowed from a Hindu edifice, or formed by some 
 native architect from stones originally Hnidu, and on the north side 
 is a porch, which is avowedly only a re-erection of the pillars of a 
 Jaina dome. 
 
 The palaces of Mandu are, howe^'er, perhaps even more remark- 
 able than its mosques. Of these the principal is called Jehaj Mehal, 
 from its being situated between two great tanks — almost literally in 
 the water, like a "ship." It is so covered with vegetation that it is 
 almost impossible to sketch or photograph it,^ but its mass and pic- 
 turesque outline make it one of the most remarkable edifices of its 
 date ; very unlike the refined elegance afterwards introduced by the 
 Moguls, but well worthy of being the residence of an independent 
 Pathan chief of a warrior state. 
 
 The principal apartment is a vaulted hall, some 24 ft. wide by 
 
 ' A view of this palace, but not from the best point of view, will be found in 
 Elliot's ' Views in the East.' 
 
544 
 
 INDIAN SAKACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 twice that length, and 24 ft. in height, flanked by buttresses 
 massive enough to support a vault four times its section. Across the 
 end of the hall is a range of apartments three storeys in height, and 
 the upper ones adorned with rude, bold, balconied windows. Beyond 
 this is a long range of vaulted halls, standing in the water, which 
 were appareutly the living apartments of the palace. Like the rest 
 of the palace they are bold, and massive to a degree seldom found in 
 Indian edifices, and produce a corresponding effect. 
 
 On the brink of the precipice overlooking the valley of the Ner- 
 budda is another palace, called that of Baz Bahadur, of a lighter and 
 more elegant character, but even more ruined than the northern 
 palace, and scattered over the whole plateau are ruins of tombs and 
 buildings of every c^.ass and so varied as almost to defy description. 
 In their solitude, in a vast uninhabited jungle, they convey as vivid 
 an impression of the ephemeral splendour of these Mahomedan 
 dynasties as anything in India, and, if illustrated, would alone suffice 
 to prove how wonderfully their builders had grasped the true elements 
 of architectural desi2:n. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 BENGAL. 
 
 645 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 BENGAL. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Kmlam iil Roussoul Mosque, Gaur — Adinali Mosque, Maldah. 
 
 Capital — Gauk. 
 
 It is not very easy to understand why the architects of Malwa 
 should have adopted a style so essentially arcuate as that which we 
 find in the capital, while their brethren, on either hand, at Jaunpore 
 and Ahmedabad, clung so fondly to a trabeate form wherever they 
 had an opportunity of employing it. The Mandu architects had the 
 same initiation to the Hindu forms in the mosques at Dhar ; and there 
 must have been innumerable Jaina temples to furnish materials to 
 a far greater extent than we find them utilised, but we neither find 
 them borrowing nor imitating, but adhering steadily to the pointed- 
 arch style, which is the essential characteristic of their art in foreign 
 countries. It is easy to understand, on the other hand, why in Bengal 
 the trabeate style never was in vogue. The country is practically 
 without stone, or any suitable material for forming either pillars or 
 beams. Having nothing but brick, it was almost of necessity that 
 they employed arches everywhere, and in every building that had any 
 pretensions to permanency. The Bengal style being, however, the only 
 one wholly of brick in India Proper, has a local individuality of its 
 own, which is curious and interesting, though, from the nature of the 
 material, deficient in many of the higher qualities of art which cha- 
 racterise the buildings constructed with larger and better materials. 
 Besides elaborating a pointed-arched brick style of their own, the 
 Bengalis introduced a new form of roof, which has had a most im- 
 portant influence on both the Mahomcdan and Hindu styles in more 
 modern times. As already mentioned in describing the chuttrie at 
 Alwar {a7ite, p. 474), the Bengalis, taking advantage of the elasticity 
 of the bambu, universally employ in their dwellings a curvilinear 
 form of roof, which has become so familiar to their eyes, that they 
 consider it beautiful (Woodcut No. 310). It is so in fact when 
 bambu and thatch are the materials employed, but when translated 
 into stone or brick architecture, its taste is more questionable. There 
 
 2 N 
 
546 
 
 INDIAN SAEACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 is, however, so much that is conventional in architecture, and beauty 
 depends to such an extent on association, that strangers are hardly 
 
 fair judges in a case of this sort. Be 
 this as it may, certain it is, at all events, 
 that after being elaborated into a feature 
 of pei'manent architecture in Bengal, this 
 curvilinear form found its way in the 
 17th century to Delhi, and in the 18th 
 to Lahore, and all the intermediate build- 
 ings from, say a.d. 1650, betray its pre- 
 sence to a greater or less extent. 
 
 It is a curious illustration, however, 
 of how much there is in architecture 
 310. Modern^vn-ved Form of that is Conventional and how far fami- 
 liarity may render that beautiful which 
 is not so abstractedly, that while to the European eye this form 
 always remains unpleasing, to the native eye — Hindu or Mahomedan 
 — it is the most elegant of modern inventions.^ 
 
 Even irrespective, however, of its local peculiarities, the archi- 
 tecture of Gaur, the Mahomedan capital of Bengal, deserves attention 
 for its extent and the immense variety of detail which it displays. 
 Bengal, apparently because it was so distant from the capital, was 
 erected into a separate kingdom almost simultaneously with Delhi itself. 
 Mahommad Bakhtiar Khilji, governor of Berar under Kutub ud-din, 
 became first king of the dynasty in a.d. 1203, and was succeeded by a 
 long line of forty-eight kings, till the state was absorbed into Akbar's 
 vast kingdom in a.d. 1573, under Daud Khan ben Suleiman. Though 
 none of these kings did anything that entitles them to a place in 
 general history, they possessed one of the richest portions of India, 
 and employed their wealth in adorning their capital with buildings, 
 which, when in a state of repair, must have been gorgeous, even if not 
 always in the best taste. The climate of Bengal is, however, singu- 
 larly inimical to the preservation of architectural remains. If the 
 roots of a tree of the fig kind once find a resting-place in any crevice 
 of a building, its destruction is inevitable ; and even without this, 
 the luxuriant growth of the jungle hides the building so completely, 
 that it is sometimes difficult to discover it — always to explore it. 
 Add to this that Gaur is singularly well suited to facilitate the 
 removal of materials by water-carriage. During the summer inun- 
 dation, boats can float up to any of the ruins, and after embarking 
 
 ^ In this respect it is something like 
 the curvilinear pediments which Roman 
 and Italian arcliitects employed as win- 
 
 dow heads. Though detestable in them- 
 selves, yet we use and admire them 
 because we arc accustomed to them. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 BENGAL. 
 
 547 
 
 stones or bricks, drop down the stream to any new capital that may 
 be rising. It thus happens that Moorshedabad, Hoogly, and even 
 Calcutta, are rich in spoils of the old Pathan capital of Bengal, 
 while it has itself become only a mass of picturesque but almost 
 indistinguishable ruins. 
 
 The city of Gaur was a famous capital of the Hindus long before 
 it was taken possession of by the Mahomedans. The Sen and 
 Bellala dynasties of Bengal seem to have resided here, and no doubt 
 adorned it with temples and edifices worthy of their fame and wealth. 
 These, however, were probably principally in brick, though adorned 
 with pillars and details in what used to be called black marble, but 
 seems to be an indurated potstone of very fine grain, and which takes 
 a beautiful polish. Many fragments of Hindu art in this material 
 are found among the ruins ; and if carefully examined might enable 
 us to restore the style. Its interest, however, principally lies in the 
 influence it had on the Mahomedan style that succeeded it. It is 
 neither like that of Delhi, nor Jaunpore, nor any other style, but one 
 purely local, and not without considerable merit in itself ; its principal 
 characteristic being heavy short pillars of stone supporting pointed 
 arches and vaults, in brick — whereas at Jaunpore, for instance, light 
 pillars carried horizontal ai'chitraves and flat ceilings. 
 
 The general character of the style will be seen in the example 
 from a mosque called the Kudam ul Roussoul at Gaur, and is by no 
 means devoid of architectural merit (Woodcut No. 311). The solidity 
 of the supports go far to redeem the inherent weakness of brick archi- 
 tecture, and by giving the arches a firm base to start from, prevents 
 the smallness of their parts from injuring the general effect. It also 
 presents, though in a very subdued form, the curvilinear form of the 
 roof, which is so characteristic of the style. 
 
 In Gaur itself there are two very handsome mosques — the Golden 
 and the Barah Durwaza, or twelve-doored. Both their fa9ades are in 
 stone, and covered with foliaged patterns in low-relief, borrowed evi- 
 dently from the terra-cotta ornaments which were more frequently 
 employed, and continued a favourite mode of adorning fa9ades down 
 to the time of the erection of the Kantonuggur temple illustrated 
 above (Woodcut No. 263). In the interior their pillars have gene- 
 rally been removed, and the vaults consequently fallen in, so that it 
 is not easy to judge of their effect, even if the jungle would admit of 
 the whole area being grasped at once. Their general disposition may 
 be judged of, however, by the plan on page 549 (Woodcut No. 312) 
 of the Adinah mosque at Maldah, which formed at the time it was 
 erected the northern suburb of the capital. From inscriptions upon it, 
 it appears that this mosque was erected by Sikander Shah, one of the 
 most illustrious of his race (a.d. 1358-1367), with the intention of 
 being himself buried within its precincts, or in its immediate neigh- 
 
 2 N 2 
 
548 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 boiirhood. Its dimensions are considerable, being nearly 500 ft. north 
 and south, and nearly 300 ft, east and west. In the centre it contains 
 a courtyard, surrounded on all sides by a thick wall of brick, divided 
 by eighty-eight similar arched openings, only one of which, that in 
 the centre of the west side acing Mecca, is wider and more dignified 
 than the rest. The roof in like manner is supported by 266 pillai*s of 
 black hornblende, similar in design to those represented in Woodcut 
 No. 311. They are bold and pleasing in design, but it must be con- 
 fessed wanting in variety. These with the walls support no less than 
 
 311. Kudam ul Koussoul Mosque, Gaur. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 3<S5 domes, all similar in design and construction. The only varia- 
 tion that is made is where a platform, called the Padshah ka 
 Takht, or King's Throne, divides a 2)art of the building into two 
 storeys.^ 
 
 A design, such as that of the Adinah mosque, w^ould be appropriate 
 
 ^ These prirtieiilars are taken prin- j gomeiy Martin in liis ' Eastern India,' 
 cipally from Buchanan Hamilton's ' Sta- | 1838, vol. ii. p. G49, et seqq. 
 tistics of Dinajepore,' published by Mont- \ 
 
Chap. VIL BENGAL. 549 
 
 for a caravanserai ; but in an edifice where expression and beauty were 
 absolutely required it is far too monotonous. The same defect runs 
 through the whole group ; and though their size and elegance of 
 details, joined with the picturesque state of richly foliaged ruin in 
 which they are now found, make them charming subjects for the 
 
 312. Plan of Adinah Mosque, Maldah. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in, 
 
 pencil, they possess all the defects of design we remarked in the great 
 halls of a thousand columns in the south of this country.^ It seems, 
 indeed, almost as if here we had again got among the Tamil race, 
 
 ' Page 347, et seqq. 
 
550 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VIL 
 
 and that their peculiarities were reappearing on the surface, though 
 dressed in the garb of a foreign race. 
 
 One of the most interesting of the antiquities of the place is a 
 minar, standing in the fort (Woodcut No. 313). For two-thirds of 
 
 the height it is a poly- 
 gon of twelve sides ; 
 above that circular, till 
 it attains the height of 
 84 ft. The door is at 
 some distance from the 
 ground, and altogether 
 it looks more like an 
 Irish round-tower than 
 any other example known, 
 though it is most impro- 
 bable that there should 
 be any connexion between 
 the two forms. It is 
 evidently a pillar of vic- 
 tory — a Jaya Stambha — 
 such as the Kutub Minar 
 at Delhi, and those at 
 Coel, Dowlutabad, and 
 elsewhere. There is, or 
 was, an inscription on 
 this monument which 
 ascribed its erection to 
 Feroze Shah. If this is so, it must be the king of that province 
 who reigned in Gaur a.h. 702-715, or a.d. 1302-1315,^ and the cha- 
 racter of the architecture fully bears out tliis adscription.^ The 
 native tradition is, that a saint. Peer Asa, lived, like Simon Stylites, 
 on its summit ! 
 
 Besides these, there are several of the gateways of Gaur which are 
 of considerable magnificence. The finest is that called Dhakhal, 
 which, though of brick, and adorned only with terra-cotta ornaments, 
 is as grand an object of its class as is to be found anywhere. The 
 gate of the citadel, and the southern gate of the city, are very noble 
 examples of what can be done with bricks, and bricks only. It is not, 
 however, in the dimensions of its buildings or the beauty of their 
 
 313. 
 
 Minar at Gaur. (From a Photograph by J. H. 
 Eavenshaw, B.C.S.) 
 
 ' Initial coinage of Bengal, by Edward 
 Thomas, B.C.S. 1866. 
 
 2 In the woodcut, though not so clearly 
 as in the photograph, will be observed 
 the long jicndcnt root of the tree which 
 has been planted hy some bird in the 
 
 upper gallery. In another year or two 
 it will reach the ground, and then 
 down comes the minar. Any one with 
 a pocket-knife might save it by five 
 minutes' work. But Cut bono ? says the 
 Saxon, 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 BENGAL. 
 
 551 
 
 details that the glory of Gaur resides ; it is in the wonderful mass of 
 ruins stretching along what was once the high bank of the Ganges, 
 for nearly twenty miles, from Maldah to Maddapore — mosques still in" 
 use, mixed with mounds covering ruins — tombs, temples, tanks and 
 towers, scattered without order over an immense distance, and half 
 buried in a luxuriance of vegetation which only this part of India 
 can exhibit. What looks poor, and may be in indifferent taste, drawn 
 on paper and reduced to scale, may give an idea of splendour in decay 
 when seen as it is, and in this respect there are none of the ancient 
 capitals of India which produce a more striking, and at the same 
 time a more profoundly melancholy, impression than these ruins of 
 the old Patlian capital of Bengal. 
 
552 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VIL 
 
 OHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 KALBURGAH. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Mosque at Kiilburgah. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Ala ud-din Balimaui, a servant in Ma- 
 
 Nlzam Shah 
 
 KuUam UUah, last of Bahmaiii dynasty 
 
 A.u. 1461 
 1525 
 
 hamud Tugluck's court 
 
 Muhammad Shah. Ghazi .... 
 
 Mujahid Shah 
 
 MahmudShah 
 
 Feroze Shah married daughter of Vija- 
 
 A.D. 1347 
 
 1358 
 1375 
 1378 
 
 Kasin Berid, founder of Berid Shahi 
 
 dynasty 
 
 Ala Rena Shah assumes royalty . 
 Amir Berid Shah, last of his race 
 
 1492 
 1549 
 1609 
 
 yauagar raja 
 
 Ahmad Shah, capital Bidar . 
 
 1397 
 1422 
 
 The campaigns of Ala ud-din and of Tuginck Shah in the beginning 
 of the 14th century extended the fame and fear of the Moslem power 
 over the whole peninsula of India, as far as Cape Comorin and the 
 Straits of Manaar. It was almost impossible, however, that a state 
 in the semi-barbarous condition of the Pathans of that day could so 
 organise a government as to rule so extensive and varied an empire 
 from one central point, and that as remote as Delhi. Tugluck Shah 
 felt this, and proposed to establish the capital at Dowlutabad. If he 
 had been able to accomplish this, the whole of the south might have 
 been permanently conquered. As it was, the Bellala dynasty of 
 Hullabid was destroyed in a.d. 1311,^ and that of Worangul crippled 
 but not finally conquered till some time afterwards,^ while the rising 
 power of Yijayanagar formed a barrier which shielded the southern 
 states — the Chera, Chola, Pandya — against Mahomedan encroach- 
 ment for some centuries after that time ; and but for the establishment 
 of Mahomedan kingdoms independent of the central power at Delhi, 
 the Dekhan might have been lost to the Moslems, and the Hindus 
 held their own for a long time, perhaps for ever, to the south of the 
 Yindhya range. 
 
 The first of those dynasties that successfully established its inde- 
 pendence was that called the Bahmani, from its founder, Hasan 
 Ganju, being the servant of a Brahman in Mahamud Tugluck's 
 court, and owing his rise to his master, ho adopted his name as a 
 title in gratitude. He established himself at Kalburgah, an ancient 
 
 * Ante, p. 393. ^ Elpliinstoiie's 'India,' vol. ii. p. 57. 
 
Chap. VI 11. 
 
 KALBURGAH. 
 
 553 
 
 Hindu city of the Dekhan, and with his immediate successors not only 
 held in check the Hindu sovereigns of Worangul and Vijayanagar, 
 but actually forced them to pay him tribute. This prosperous state 
 of affairs lasted for nearly a century, when Ahmad Shah I. (a.d. 
 1422-1425), for some reason not explained, transferred the seat 
 of power to Bidar. They lingered on for another century or more, 
 latterly known as the Berid Shahis, till they were absorbed in the 
 great Mogul empire in a.d. 1609. Long before that, however, their 
 place in the Dekhan had been taken by the Bijapur Adil Shahis, who 
 established themselves there a.d. 1489. 
 
 During the short supremacy of Kalburgah as capital of the Dekhan 
 (a.d. 1347-1435), it was adorned with several important buildings, 
 among wliich was a mosque, one of the most remarkable of its class 
 in India (Woodcuts Nos. 314, 315). Its dimensions are considerable, 
 though not excessive : it measures 216 ft. east and west, and 176 ft. 
 north and south; and consequently covers 38,016 sq. ft. Its great 
 pecuharity, however, is that, alone of all the great mosques in India, 
 the whole of the area is covered over. Comparing it, for instance, with 
 the mosque at Mandu, which is the one in other respects most like it, 
 it will be observed that the greater part of its area is occupied by a 
 courtyard surrounded by arcades. At Kalburgah there is no court, 
 the whole is roofed over, and the light is admitted through the side 
 walls, which are pierced with great arches for this purpose on all sides 
 except the west (Woodcut No. 316). 
 
 Having only one example of the class, it is not easy to form an 
 opinion which of the two systems of building is the better. There is a 
 repose and a solemnity which is singularly suited to a place of prayer, 
 in a courtyard enclosed by cloisters on all sides, and only pierced by 
 two or three doors ; but, on the other hand, the heat and glare arising 
 from reflection of the sun's rays in these open courts is sometimes 
 most painful in such a climate as India, and nowhere, so far as I know, 
 was it ever even attempted to modify this by awnings. On the 
 Kalburgah plan, on the contrary, the solid roof covering the whole 
 space afforded protection from the sun's rays to all worshippers, and 
 every aisle being open at one or both ends, prevented anything like 
 gloom, and admitted of far freer ventilation than was attainable in 
 the enclosed courts, while the requisite privacy could easily have been 
 obtained by a low enclosing wall at some distance from the mosque 
 itself. On the whole, my impression is that the Kalburgah plan is 
 the preferable one of the two, both for convenience and for architec- 
 tural effect, so much so indeed, that it is very difficult to understand 
 why, when once tried, it was never afterwards repeated. Probably 
 the cause of its being abandoned was the difficulty of draining so 
 extensive a flat roof during the rains. Any settlement or any crack 
 must have been fatal ; yet this mosque stands in seemingly good 
 
554 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 repair, after four centuries of comparative neglect. Whichever way 
 the question is decided, it must be admitted that this is one of the 
 finest of the old Pathan mosques of India, at least among those which 
 
 : 'i 
 
 """" w''^r^\ 
 
 \\. l\ ^ 
 
 -4 
 
 7^ 
 
 J 
 
 7^ 
 
 7- 
 
 'I 
 
 'S 
 
 1 
 
 7^ 
 
 J: 
 
 J 
 
 314. 
 
 Mosque at Kalburgah. (From a Plan by the Hon. Sir Arthur Gordon.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 are built wholly of original materials — and in the arcuate style — of 
 Mahomedan art. Those at Delhi and Ajmir are more interesting of 
 course, but it is from adventitious circumstances. This owes its 
 greatness only to its own original merits of design.^ 
 
 ^ For the plan and section of this 
 mosque, and all indeed I know about it, 
 I am indebted to my friend the Hon. 
 Sir Arthur Gordon, at present governor 
 
 of the Fiji Islands. He made the plans 
 himself, and most liberally placed them 
 at my disposal. 
 
Chap. VIII. KALBURGAH. 555 
 
 Besides the mosque, there is in Kalburgah a bazaar, 570 ft. long- 
 by 60 ft. wide, over all, adorned by a range of sixty-one arches on 
 cither hand, supported by pillars of a quasi-Hindu character, and 
 
 315. Half elevation half section of the Mosque at Kalburgah. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 316. View of the Mosque at Kalburgah. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 with a block of buildings of a very ornamental character at either end. 
 I am not aware of anything of its class more striking in any part of 
 India. The arcades that most resemble this arc those that line the 
 
55G 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC AUCIIITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 street called the Street of the Pilgrims, at Yijayanagar, which may- 
 be contemporary with this bazaar.^ 
 
 There are other buildings, especially one gigantic archway, in the 
 city of Kalburgah, the use of w-hich is not apparent, and some very 
 grand old tombs, with sloping walls ; but we must wait for further 
 information before they can be utilised in a history of Indian 
 architecture. 
 
 After the seat of government was removed to Bidar by Ahmad 
 Shah, A.D. 1422-1435, the new capital was adorned by edifices worthy 
 of the greatness of the dynasty, but now all apparently ruined. 
 Among these the most magnificent appears to be the madrissa 
 erected by Mahomet Gaun, the faithful but unfortunate minister of 
 the tryant Mahmiid II. It appears to have been finished two yeai*s 
 before his death, in a.d. 1481, and in Ferishta's time was one of the 
 most complete and flourishing establishments of its class in India.'^ 
 Unfortunately, when the place was besieged by Aurungzebe, a quan- 
 tity of gunpowder was stored in its vaults, and exploded, either acci- 
 dentally or by design, so as to ruin one wing. Since then the building 
 has been disused, but so far as can be judged from such imperfect 
 information as is available, it must have been one of the most splendid 
 buildings of its day.^ The tombs too of the Berid Shahi dynasty, 
 which reigned in Bidar from a.d. 1492-1609, are of considerable 
 splendour, and rival those of Golcondah in extent. Bidar, however, 
 has not yet been visited by anyone who has had the power or oppor- 
 tunity of drawing or describing its monuments in such a manner as 
 to enable another to utilise them for historical purposes, and till this 
 is done, a knowledge of them must remain among the many desiderata 
 in Indian art. 
 
 ' I have photographs, but no measure- 
 ments, of this street. 
 
 2 Brigg'g 
 p. 510. 
 
 translation of Ferishta, vol. 
 
 ^ There is a view of it from a sketch 
 by Col. Meadows Taylor, in the ' Oriental 
 Annual ' for 1840. 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 BIJAPUK. 
 
 557 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 BIJAPUR. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Jumma Musjid — Tombs of Ibrahim and Mahmud — The Audience Hall — 
 Tomb of Nawab Amir Khan, near Tatta. 
 
 CHKONOLOGY. 
 
 Yusaf Khan Adil Shah 
 Ismail Adil Shah . , 
 Muliu Adil Shah . . 
 Ibrahim Adil Shah I. . 
 
 1511 
 1534 
 1535 
 
 Ali Adil Shah . . 
 Ibrahim Adil Shah II. 
 Muhammad . . . 
 Ali Adil Shah II. . 
 
 ,D. 1557 
 1579 
 1626 
 1660 
 
 If the materials existed for the purpose, it would be extremely 
 interesting, from a historical point of view, to trace the various 
 styles that grew out of each other as the later dynasties of the 
 Dekhan succeeded one another and strove to surpass their prede- 
 cessors in architectural magnificence in their successive capitals. 
 With the exception, however, of Bijapur, none of the Dekhani cities 
 produced any edifices that, taken by themselves irrespective of their 
 surroundings and historical importance, seem to be of any very great 
 value in an artistic sense. 
 
 Burhampur, which was the capital of the Faruki dynasty of 
 Kandeish, from a.d. 1370-1596, does possess some buildings re- 
 markable for their extent and picturesque in their decay, but of 
 very little artistic value, and many of them — especially the later 
 ones — in very questionable taste. Ahmednugger, the capital of the 
 Nizam Shahi dynasty, a.d. 1490-1607, is singularly deficient in archi- 
 tectural grandeur, considering how long it was the capital of an 
 important dynasty ; while if Golcondah, the chosen seat of the Kutub 
 Shahi dynasty, a.d. 1512-1672, has any buildings that are remark- 
 able, all that can be said is that they have not yet been drawn or 
 described. The tombs of the kings of this dynasty, and of their 
 nobles and families, do form as extensive and as picturesque a group 
 as is to be found anywhere ; but individually they are in singularly 
 bad taste. Their bases are poor and w^eak, their domes tall and 
 exaggerated, showing all the faults of the age in which they were 
 executed, but still not unworthy of a place in history if the materials 
 existed for illustrating them properly. 
 
 As mentioned above, the Bahmani dynasty of Kalburgah main- 
 
558 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 taincd the struggle against the Hindu principalities of the south for 
 nearly a century and a half, with very little assistance from either 
 the central power at Delhi or their cognate states in the Dekhan, 
 Before the end of the 15th century, however, they began to feel that 
 decay inherent in all Eastern dynasties ; and the Hindus might have 
 recovered their original possessions, up to the Yindhya at least, but 
 for the appearance of a new and more vigorous competitor in the 
 field in the person of Yusaf Khan, a son of Amurath II. of Anatolia. 
 He was thus a Turk of pure blood, and, as it happens, born in Con- 
 stantinople, though his mother was forced to fly thence while he 
 was still an infant. After a varied career he was purchased for the 
 body-guard at Bidar, and soon raised himself to such pre-eminence 
 that on the defeat of Dustur Dinar, in 1501, he was enabled to 
 proclaim his independence and establish himself as the founder of 
 the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur. 
 
 For the first sixty or seventy years after their accession, the 
 struggle for existence was too severe to admit of the Adil Shahis 
 devoting much attention to architecture. The real building epoch 
 of the city commences with Ali, a.d. 1557, and all the important 
 buildings are crowded into the 100 years which elapsed between his 
 accession and the wars with Aurungzebe, which ended in the final 
 destruction of the dynasty. 
 
 During that period, however, their capital was adorned with a 
 series of buildings as remarkable as those of any of the Mahomedan 
 capitals of India, hardly excepting even Agra and Delhi, and showing 
 a wonderful originality of design not surpassed by those of such 
 capitals as Jaunpore or Ahmedabad, though differing from them in 
 a most marked degree. 
 
 It is not easy now to determine how far this originality arose 
 from the European descent of the Adil Shahis and their avowed 
 hatred of everything that belonged to the Hindus, or whether it 
 arose from any local circumstances, the value of which we can now 
 hardly appreciate. My impression is, that the former is the true 
 cause, and that the largeness and grandeur of the Bijapur style 
 is owing to its quasi- Western origin, and to reminiscences of the 
 great works of the Roman and Byzantine architects. 
 
 Like most Mahomedan dynasties, the Adil Shahis commenced 
 their architectural career by building a mosque and madrissa in 
 the fort at Bijapur out of Hindu remains. How far the pillars used 
 there by them are in situ, or torn from other buildings, we are not 
 informed. From photographs, it would appear that considerable 
 portions of them are used at least for the purposes for which they 
 were intended ; but this is not incompatible with the idea that they 
 were removed from their original positions and readapted to their 
 present purposes. Be this as it may, as soon as the dynasty had 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 BIJAPUR. 
 
 559 
 
 leisure to think really about the matter, they abandoned entirely all 
 tendency to copy Hindu forms or Hindu details, but set to work to 
 carry out a pointed-arched, or domical style of their own, and did 
 it with singular success.^ 
 
 The Jumma Musjid, which is one of the earlier regular buildings 
 of the city, was commenced by Ali Adil Shah (a.d. 1557-1579), and, 
 though continued by his successors on the same plan, was never 
 completely finished, the fourth side of the courtyard with its great 
 
 Plan of Jumma Mupjid, Bijapur. (From a Draw ing by A. Gumming, C.E.) 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 gateway not having been even commenced when the dynasty was 
 overthrown. Even as it is, it is one of the finest mosques in India. 
 As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 317), it would have 
 
 ^ Bijapur has been singularly for- 
 tunate, not only in the extent, but in the 
 mode in which it has been illustrated. 
 A set of drawings— plans, elevations, and 
 details — were made by a Mr. A. Gumming, 
 C.E., under the superintendence of Capt. 
 Hart, Bombay Engineers, which, for 
 beauty of drawing and accuracy of de- 
 tail, are unsurpassed by any architectural 
 
 drawings yet made in India. These were 
 reduced by photography, and published 
 by me at the expense of the Government 
 in 1859, in a folio volume with seventy- 
 four plates, and afterwards in 1866 at the 
 expense of the Committee for the Publi- 
 cation of the Antiquities of Western India, 
 illustrated further by photographic views 
 taken on the spot by Col. Biggs, R.A. 
 
560 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 been, if completed, a rectangle of 881 ft. by 257 ft. The mosque 
 itself is perfect, and measures 257 ft. by 145 ft., and consequently 
 covers about 37,000 sq. ft. It consequently is in itself only a 
 very little less than the mosque at Kalburgah ; but this is irre- 
 spective of the wings, which extend 186 ft. beyond, so that if com- 
 plete it would have covered about 50,000 sq. ft. to 55,000 sq. ft., 
 or about the usual size of a mediaeval cathedral. It is more re- 
 markable, however, for the beauty of its details than either the 
 arrangement or extent of its plan. Each 
 of the squares into which it is divided is 
 roofed by a dome of very beautiful form, 
 but so flat (Woodcut No. 318) as to b'j 
 concealed externally in the thickness of 
 the roof. Twelve of these squares are 
 occupied in the centre by the great dome, 
 57 ft. in diameter in the circular part, but 
 standing on a square measuring 70 ft. each 
 way. The dimensions of this dome were 
 immensely exceeded afterwards by that 
 
 318. Plan and section of smaller 
 Domes of Jumnia Mupjid. 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 which covers the tomb of Mahmud, con- 
 
 structed on the same plan and 124 ft. in 
 diameter ; but the smaller dimensions here employed enabled the 
 architect to use taller and more graceful outlines, and if he had had 
 the courage to pierce the niches at the base of his dome, and make 
 
 innnm 
 
 n 
 
 319. Section on the line A B through the Great Dome of the Jnmma Musjid. (From a Drawing 
 by Mr. Gumming.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 them into windows, he would probably have had the credit of design- 
 ing the most graceful building of its class in existence. 
 
 If the plan of this mosque is compared with that of Kalburgah 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 BIJAPUR. 
 
 561 
 
 (Woodcut No. 314), it will be seen what immense strides the Indian 
 architects had made in constructive skill and elegance of detail 
 during the century and a half that elapsed between the erection of 
 these two buildings. If they were drawn to the same scale this 
 would be more apparent than it is at first sight ; but on half the 
 present scale the details of the Kalburgah mosque could hardly be 
 expressed, while the largeness of the parts, and regularity of arrange- 
 ment can, in the scale adopted, be made perfectly clear in the Bijapur 
 example. The latter is, undoubtedly, the more perfect of the two, 
 but there is a picturesqueness about the earlier building, and a poetry 
 about its arrangements, that go far to make up for the want of the 
 skill and the elegance exhibited in its more modern rival. 
 
 The tomb w^hich Ali Adil Shah commenced for himself was a 
 square, measuring about 200 ft. each way, and had it been completed 
 as designed would have rivalled any tomb in India. It is one of the 
 disadvantages, how^ever, of the Turanian system of each king building 
 his own tomb, that if he dies early his work remains unfinished. 
 This defect is more than compensated in practice by the fact that 
 unless a man builds his own sepulchre, the chances are very much 
 against anything worthy of admiration being dedicated to his memory 
 by his surviving relatives. 
 
 His successor Ibrahim, warned by the fate of his predecessor's 
 tomb, commenced his own on so small a plan — 116 ft. square — that 
 as he w^as blessed by 
 a long and prosperous 
 reign, it w^as only by 
 ornament that he could 
 render it worthy of him- 
 self. This, however, he 
 accomplished by cover- 
 ing every part with the 
 most exquisite and ela- 
 borate carvings. The 
 ornamental inscriptions 
 are so numerous that it 
 is said the whole Koran 
 is engraved on its walls. 
 The cornices are sup- 
 ported by the most ela- Tomb or Rozah of I.,rahim. (From a Plan by 
 
 borate bracketing, the Mr. cumming.) scaie 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 windows filled with tra- 
 cery, and every part so richly ornamented that had his artists not 
 been Indians it might have become vulgar. The principal apart- 
 ment in the tomb is a square of 40 ft. each w^ay, covered by a stone 
 roof, perfectly flat in the centre, and supported only by a cove pro- 
 
 2 O 
 
 CD 
 
 i 0 i i 
 
 13 o 
 
 a a n m on 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
562 IKDJAN SAl^ACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 jecting lu ft. from the walls on every side. How the roof is sup- 
 ported is a mystery which can only be understood by those who are 
 familiar with the use the Indians make of masses of concrete, which, 
 with good mortar, seems capable of infinite applications unknown in 
 Europe. Above this apartment is another in the dome as ornamental 
 as the one below it, though its only object is to obtain externally the 
 height required for architectural effect, and access to its interior can 
 only be obtained by a dark narrow stair in the thickness of the wall. 
 
 Besides the tomb there is a mosque to correspond ; and the royal 
 garden, in which these are situated, is adorned, as usual, internally 
 with fountains and kiosks, and externally with colonnades and cara- 
 vansaries for strangers and pilgrims, the whole making up a group 
 as rich and as picturesque as' any in India, and far excelling anything 
 of the sort on this side of the Hellespont. 
 
 The tomb of his successor, Mahmiid, was in design as complete 
 a contrast to that just described as can well be conceived, and is as 
 remarkable for simple grandeur and constructive boldness as that of 
 
 Ibrahim was for excessive 
 I'ichness and contempt of 
 constructive proprieties. It 
 is constructed on the same 
 principle as that employed in 
 the design of the dome of 
 the great mosque (Woodcut 
 No. 819), but on so much 
 larger a scale as to convert 
 into a wonder of constructive 
 skill what, in that instance, 
 Avas only an elegant archi- 
 tectural design. 
 
 As will be seen from the 
 plan, it is internally a square 
 
 321. Plan of Tomb of Mahmud at Bijapur. p i 
 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. apartment, 135 it. each way; 
 
 its area consequently is 18,225 
 sq. ft., while that of the Pantheon at Rome is, within the walls, only 
 15,883 sq. ft. ; and even taking into account all the recesses in the 
 walls of both buildings, this is still the larger of the two. 
 
 At the height of 57 ft. from the floor-line the hall begins to 
 contract, by a series of pendentives as ingenious as they are beautiful, 
 to a circular opening 97 ft. in diameter. On the platform of these 
 pendentives the dome is erected, 124 ft. in diameter, thus leaving a 
 gallery more than 12 ft. wide all round the interior. Internally, 
 the dome is 175 ft. high, externally 198 ft., its general thickness 
 being about 10 ft. 
 
 The most ingenious and uovq] part of the construction of this 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 BTJAPUK. 
 
 5G8 
 
 dome is the mode in which its lateral or outward thrust is counter- 
 acted. This was accomplished by forming the pendentives so that 
 they not only cut off the angles, but that, as shown in the plan, their 
 arches intersect one another, and form a very considerable mass of 
 masonry perfectly stable in itself ; and, by its weight acting inwards, 
 counteracting any thrust that can possibly be brought to bear upon 
 it by the pressure of the dome. If the whole edifice thus balanced 
 has any tendency to move, it is to fall inwards, which from its 
 circular form is impossible ; while the action of the weight of the 
 pendentives being in the opposite direction to that of the dome, it 
 acts like a tie, and keeps the whole in equilibrium, without interfering 
 at all with the outline of the dome. 
 
 322. Pendentives of the Tomb of Mahmini, looking upwards. (From a Drawing by 
 Mr. Gumming.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 In the Pantheon and most European domes a great mass of masonry 
 is thrown on the haunches, which entirely hides the external form, 
 and is a singularly clumsy expedient in every respect compared with 
 the elegant mode of hanging the weight inside. 
 
 Notwithstanding that this expedient gives the dome a perfectly 
 stable basis to stand upon, which no thrust can move, still, looking 
 at the section (Woodcut No. 828), its form is such that it appears 
 almost paradoxical that such a building should stand. If the section 
 represented an arch or a vault, it is such as would not stand one hour ; 
 but the dome is itself so perfect as a constructive expedient, that it 
 is almost as difficult to build a dome that will fall as it is to build a 
 
 2 0 2 
 
564 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITPXTURE. 
 
 Book VI I. 
 
 vault that will stand. As the dome is also, artistically, the most 
 beautiful form of roof yet invented, it may be well, before passing 
 from the most extraordinary and complex example yet attempted 
 anywhere, to pause and examine a little more closely the theory of 
 its construction. 
 
 Let us suppose the diagram to represent the plan of a perfectly 
 flat dome 100 ft. in diameter, and each rim consequently 10 ft. wide. 
 Further assuming for convenience that the w^hole dome weighs 
 
 7850 tons, the outer rim will weigh 282G tons, or almost exactly as 
 much as the three inner rims put together ; the next will weigh 2204, 
 the next 15(38, the next 942, and the inner only 814 ; so that a con- 
 siderable extra thickness might be heaped on it, or on the two inner 
 ones, without their preponderance at all affecting the stability of the 
 dome ; but this is the most unfavourable view to take of the case. To 
 understand the problem more clearly, let us suppose the semicircle 
 A A A (AVoodcut No. 824) to represent the section of a hemispherical 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 BIJAPUK. 
 
 565 
 
 dome. The first segment of this, thougli only 10 ft. in width, will 
 be 30 ft. in height, and Avill weigh 9420 tons ; the next, 10 ft. high 
 and 10 ft. wide, will weigh 3140 ; the third, 10 ft. by G ft., will weigh 
 only 1884 ; the fourth will weigh 942 ; and the central portion, as 
 before, 31 G. 
 
 324. Diagram illustrative of Domical Construction. 
 
 Now it is evident that the first portion, A B, being the most per- 
 pendicular, is the one least liable to disturbance or thrust, and, being 
 also two-thirds of the whole weight of the dome, if steady and firmly 
 constructed, it is a more than sufficient abutment for the remaining 
 third, which is the whole of the rest of the dome. 
 
 It is evident from an inspection of the figure, or from any section 
 of the dome, how easy it must be to construct the first segment from 
 the springing ; and if this is very solidly built and placed on an 
 immoveable basis, the architect may play with the rest ; and he must 
 be clumsy indeed if he cannot make it perfectly stable. In the East 
 they did play with their domes, and made them of all sorts of 
 fantastic forms, seeking to please the eye more than to consult 
 the engineering necessities of the case, and yet it is the rarest possible 
 contingency to find a dome that has fallen through faults in the 
 construction. 
 
 In Europe architects have been timid and unskilled in dome- 
 building ; but with our present engineering knowledge it would be 
 easy to construct far larger and more daring domes than even this of 
 Mahmud's tomb, without the smallest fear of accident. 
 
 The external ordonnance of this building is as beautiful as that 
 of the interior. At each angle stands an octagonal tower eight 
 storeys high, simple and bold in its proportions, and crowned by a 
 dome of great elegance. The lower part of the building is plain and 
 solid, pierced only with such openings as are requisite to admit light 
 and air ; at the height of 83 ft. a cornice projects to the extent of 
 12 ft. from the wall, or nearly twice as much as the boldest European 
 architect ever attempted. Above this an open gallery gives lightness 
 
5GG INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 and finish to the whole, each face being further relieved by two small 
 minarets. 
 
 The same daring system of construction was carried out by the 
 architects of Bijapur in their civil buildings. The great x\udience 
 Hall, for instance (Wcodcut No. 825), opens in front with an arch 
 82 ft. wide, which, had it been sufficiently abutted, might have been 
 a grand architectural feature ; as it is, it is too like an engineering 
 work to be satisfactory. Its cornice was in wood, and some of its 
 supports are still in their places. Indeed, it is one of the pecu- 
 liarities of the architecture of this city that, like the English archi- 
 tects in their roofs, those of Bijapur clung to wood as a constructive 
 
 325. Audience Hall, Bijapur. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 expedient long after its use had been abandoned in other parts of 
 India. The Ashur Moobaruk, one of the most splendid palaces in the 
 city, is entirely open on one side, the roof behig supported only by 
 two wooden pillars w^ith immense bracket-capitals ; and the internal 
 ornaments are in the same material. The result of this practice was 
 the same at Bijapur as in England — far greater depth of framing 
 and greater richness in architectural ornamentation, and an into- 
 lerance of constructive awkwardness which led to the happiest results 
 in both countries. 
 
 Among the principal edifices in the city is one of those seven- 
 storeyed palaces which come across us so strangely in all out-of-the- 
 way corners of the world. Add to this that the Ashur Moobaruk 
 has been converted by the Mahomedans into a relic-shrine to contain 
 
Chap. IX. SCINDE. 5G7 
 
 some hairs of the Prophet's beard, and we have a picture of the 
 strange difficulty of weaning a Tartar from the innate prejudices of 
 his race. 
 
 Besides these two there are five other palaces within the walls, 
 some of them of great splendour, and numberless residences of the 
 nobles and attendants of the court. But perhaps the most remarkable 
 civil edifice is a little gateway, known as the Mehturi Mehal ("the 
 Gate of the Sweeper ") — with a legend attached to it too long to quote 
 here. It is in a mixed Hindu and Mahomedan style, every part and 
 every detail covered with ornament, but always equally appropriate and 
 elegant. Of its class it is perhaps the best example in the country, 
 though this class may not be the highest. 
 
 The gigantic walls of the city itself, Gj miles in circumference, 
 are a work of no mean magnitude, and, combined with the tombs of 
 those who built them, and with the ruins of the suburbs of this once 
 great city, they make up a scene of grandeur in desolation, equal to 
 anything else now to be found even in India. 
 
 SCINDE. 
 
 Among the minor styles of Mahomedan art in India there is 
 one that would be singularly interesting in a historical sense if a 
 sufficient number of examples existed to elucidate it, and they were 
 of sufficient antiquity to connect the style with those of the West. 
 From its situation, almost outside India, the province of Scinde must 
 always have had a certain affinity with Persia and the countries 
 lying to the westward of the Indus, and if we kncAV its architectural 
 liistory we might probably be able to trace to their source many 
 of the forms we cannot now explain, and join the styles of the 
 East with those of the West in a manner w^e cannot at present 
 pretend to accomplish. 
 
 It is doubtful, however, whether the materials are in existence for 
 doing this. The buildings in this province were always in brick, no 
 stone being available ; and though they are not exposed to the destruc- 
 tive agencies of vegetation like those of Bengal, the mortar is bad, 
 and the bricks are easily picked out and utilised by the natives to 
 build their huts or villages. 
 
 All we at present know be^.ong to a series of tombs in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Tatta, which were erected under the Mogul dynasty 
 by the governors or great men of the province, during their 
 sway. At least the oldest now known is that of Amir Khalleel Khan, 
 erected in or about a.d. 1572, the year in which Akbar deposed the 
 Jami dynasty and annexed Scinde to his empire. No tombs or mosques 
 of the earlier dynasties have yet been edited, though they may 
 exist. The known series extends from a.d. 1572-1640, and all show 
 
568 
 
 INDIAN SAEACENIC AKCHITECTUIIE. Book VII. 
 
 a strongly-marked affinity to the Persian style of the same or an 
 earlier age. One example must for the present suffice to explain 
 their general appearance, for they are all very much alike. It is the 
 tomb of the Nawab Amir Khan, who was governor of the province 
 in the reign of Shah Jehan, from a.d. 1G27-1G32, and afterwards a.d. 
 1641-1650. The tomb was built apparently about a.d. 1640 (Wood- 
 cut No. 326). It is of brick, but was, like all the others of its class, 
 ornamented with coloured tiles, like those of Persia generally, of 
 great beauty of pattern and exquisite harmony of colouring. It is 
 
 326. Tomb of Nawab Amir Khun, near Tatta, a.d. 1640. (From a I'hotograph ) 
 
 not a very monumental way of adorning a building, but, as carried 
 out on the dome of the Eock at Jerusalem, in the middle of the 16th 
 or in the mosque at Tabreez in the beginning of the 13th century,^ 
 and generally in Persian buildings, it is capable of producing the 
 most pleasing effects. 
 
 Like the other tombs in the province, it is so similar to Persian 
 buildings of the same age, and so unlike any other found at the same 
 age in India Proper, that we can have little doubt as to the nationality 
 of those who erected them. 
 
 * Ante, vol. ii. p. 553. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 569 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 DyDasties — Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus, Gualior — Mosque at Futtehpore Sikri— 
 Akbars Tomb, Secundra— Palace at Delhi— The Taje Mehal— The Muti 
 Musjid— Mosque at Delhi — The Imambara, Lucknow — Tomb of late Nawab, 
 Junaghur. 
 
 CHEONOLOGT. 
 
 Baber a. d. 1494 
 
 Humayun 1531 
 
 Shere Shab 1539 
 
 Selim 154i 
 
 dies 1553 
 
 Akbar a.d. 1556 
 
 Jehant;ir 1605 
 
 ShahJehan 1628 
 
 Aurungzebe )65S 
 
 Bahadur Shah 1707 
 
 Till very recently, a description of the style introduced by the 
 Mogul emperors would have been considered a complete history of 
 Mahomedan architecture in India. It is the style which was de- 
 scribed by Roe and Bernier, and all subsequent travellers. It was 
 rendered familiar to the public in Em'ope by the drawings of Daniell 
 in the beginning of this century, and, since Agra and Delhi became 
 practically British cities, their buildings have been described, drawn, 
 and photographed till they have become almost as well known as 
 any found in Europe. It will take a very long time before even 
 photography will render the mosques or tombs of such cities as 
 Ahmedabad or Bijapur as familiar or as easily understood. Yet it 
 is, perhaps, true to assert that the buildings of other dynasties, com- 
 mencing with the mosques at the Kutub and at Ajmir, and con- 
 tinuing till the last Dekhani dynasty was destroyed by Aurungzebe, 
 make up a whole as extensive and more interesting, in a historical 
 point of view, than even all that was done by the Moguls. On the 
 other hand, however, there is a unity in the works of that dynasty, 
 and a completeness in their history, which makes the study of their 
 art peculiarly fascinating, and some of their buildings will bear 
 comparison, in some respects, with any architectural productions in 
 any part of the world. Their buildings, however, are so original, 
 and so unlike any of the masterpieces of art that we are generally 
 acquainted with, that it is almost impossible to institute any com- 
 parison between them which shall be satisfactory. How, for instance, 
 can we compare the Parthenon with the Taje ? They are buildings 
 of nearly equal size and magnificence, both in white marble, both 
 
570 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book YII. 
 
 admirably adapted for the purposes for which they were built ; but 
 what else have they in common ? The one is simple in its outline, 
 and depending on pillars for its external adornment ; the other has no 
 pillars, and owes its greatest effects to its singularly varied outline 
 and the mode in which its various parts are disposed, many of them 
 wholly detached from the principal mass. The Parthenon belongs, it 
 is true, to a higher class of art, its sculptures raising it into the 
 region of the most intellectual branch of phonetic art ; but, on the 
 other hand, the exquisite inlay of precious stones at the Taje is so 
 aesthetically beautiful as, in a merely architectural estimate, almost 
 to bring it on a level with the Grecian masterpiece.^ 
 
 Though their value, consequently, may be nearly the same, their 
 forms are so essentially different that they hardly look like produc- 
 tions of the same art ; and in an art so essentially conventional as 
 architecture always is and must be, it requires long familiarity with 
 any new form, and a knowledge of its origin and use, that can only 
 be acquired by constant study, which makes it very difficult for a 
 stranger to realise the real beauty that often underlies even the 
 strangest forms. When, however, these difficulties are conquered, it 
 will probably be found that there are few among the Eastern styles 
 that deserve more attention, and would better repay any study that 
 might be bestowed upon them, than the architecture of the Moguls. 
 
 Some little interruptions are experienced at the beginning of the 
 narrative from the interpolation of the reigns of Shere Shah and his 
 son Selim in the reign of Humayun. He was an Afghan by descent 
 and an Indian by birth, and, had he been left to follow his own 
 devices, would, no doubt, have built in the style of architecture used 
 at Agra and Delhi before his countrymen were disturbed by the 
 Mogul invasion. We have, it is true, very little to tell us what that 
 style was during the 170 years that elapsed between the death of 
 Tugluck Shah and the first invasion of Baber, but it seems to have 
 been singularly plain and solid, and very unlike the florid art intro- 
 duced by the Moguls, and practised by Shere Shah and his son 
 apparently in rivalry to the new master of Hindustan. So little 
 difference is there, how^ever, between the architecture of Shere Shah 
 
 ^ Adopting the numerical scale de- 
 scribed in the introduction to the ' True 
 Principles of Beauty in Art,' p. 140, I 
 estimated the Parthenon as possessing 
 4 parts of technic value, 4 of aesthetic, 
 and 4 phonetic, or 24 as its index num- 
 ber, being the higl'est known. The 
 Taje I should on the contrary estimate 
 as possessing 4 technic, 5 {esthetic, and 
 
 2 phonetic, not that it has any direct 
 phonetic mode of utterance, but from the 
 singular a d pathetic distinctness \Nith 
 which every part of it gives utterance to 
 the sorrow and affection it was erected 
 to express. Its index number would con- 
 sequently be 20, which is certainly as high 
 as it can be brought, and near enough to 
 the Parthenon for comparison at least. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 571 
 
 and of Akbar that they must be treated as one style, beginning 
 in great sobriety and elegance, and ending in something nearly 
 approaching to wildness and exuberance of decoration, but still very 
 beautiful — in some respects superior to the chaste but feeble elegance 
 of the later Mogul style that succeeded it. 
 
 There is, again, a little difficulty and confusion in our having 
 no examples of the style as practised by Baber and Humayun. The 
 well-known tomb of the latter king was certainly built by his son 
 Akbar ; Baber was buried near Cabul, and no buildiiig known to be 
 his has yet been identified in India. Yet that he did build is certain. 
 In his own ' Memoirs ' he tells us, " In Agra alone, and of the stone- 
 cutters belonging to that place only, I e^'ery day employed on my 
 palaces 680 persons : and in Agra, Sikri, Biana, Dhulpur, Gualior, 
 and Koel, there were every day employed on my works 1491 stone- 
 cutters." ^ In the following pages he describes some of these works, 
 and especially a Bowlee of great magnificence he excavated in the 
 fort of AgTa.2 This was in the year 152G, and he lived to carry on 
 these works for five years longer. During the ten years that his son 
 retained the empii'e, we learn from Ferishta and other sources that 
 he adorned his capital with many "splendid edifices : one, a palace 
 containing seven pavilions or audience-halls — one dedicated to each 
 of the planets, in which he gave audience on the day of the week 
 dedicated to the planet of the day.^ There are traditions of a mosque 
 he is said to have built on the banks of the Jumna, opposite where 
 the Taje now stands ; and his name is so frequently mentioned in 
 connexion with buildings both at Agra and Delhi that there can 
 be little doubt that he was a builder to as great an extent as the 
 troubled character of his reign would admit of. But his buildings 
 have perished, so that practically the history of Mogul architecture 
 commences with the buildings of an Afghan dynasty who occupied 
 the throne of India for sixteen years during the last part of 
 Humayun's reign. 
 
 It is probable that before long very considerable light will be 
 thrown upon the origin of the style which the Moguls introduced into 
 India, from an examination of the buildings erected at Samarcand by 
 Timur a hundred years before Baber's time (a.d. 1893-1404). Xow 
 that the city is in the hands of the Russians, it is accessible to 
 Em'opeans. Its buildings have been drawn and photographed, but 
 not yet described so as to be available for scientific purposes, but 
 sufficiently so to indicate the direction in which light may be ex- 
 pected. Though a frightful savage in most respects, Timur was 
 possessed of a true Turki love for noble architecture ; and though he 
 
 ^ ' Memoirs,' translated by Erskine, I ^ ' Loc. cit., pp. 311-2. 
 p. 331. I 3 Brigg's translation, vol. ii. p. 71. 
 
572 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 generally massacred the inhabitants of any town that resisted him, 
 he always spared the architects and artists, and sent them to work 
 on the embellishment of his capitals. Samarcand was consequently 
 filled with splendid edifices, but, so far as can be jndged from the 
 materials available, more resembling in style those of Persia than 
 anything now known to exist in India. The bulbous dome appears 
 everyw^here, and was not known at that time in India, unless it was 
 in the quasi-Persian province of Scinde. Coloured tiles were the 
 favourite mode of decoration, and altogether their style was gor- 
 geous in the extreme as compared with the sobriety of the later 
 Pathan buildings in India. A few years hence all this may be made 
 quite clear and intelligible, meanwhile Ave must pass on to 
 
 Sheee Shah, a.d. 15:59-1545. 
 
 Certainly one of the most remarkable men w^ho ever rnled in 
 northern India, though his reign was limited to only five years' dura- 
 tion ; and during that brief space, disturbed by all the troubles 
 incident to a usurpation, he left his impress on every branch of the 
 administration. The revenue system, the police, the army adminis- 
 tration, all the great reforms, in fact, which Akbar so successfully 
 carried out, were commenced, and to some extent perfected, by 
 this usurper, as the Moguls call him. In architecture, too, which 
 most concerns us here, he certainly pointed out the path by which 
 his successor reached such eminence. 
 
 The most perfect of his buildings that I am acquainted with is 
 the mosque in the Purana Kilah at Delhi. The w^alls of this place 
 were repaired by Humayun in a.d. 1533, and I do not feel quite sure 
 he had not something to do with the mosque. According to the 
 latest authorities, however, it is said to have been built — I have no 
 doubt it was finished — by Shere Shah in a.d. 1541.^ It is a single 
 hall, with five openings in front through pointed arches of what we 
 would call Tudor form, but beautifully varied in design, and arranged 
 in panels carved with the most exquisite designs and ornamented 
 with parti-coloured marbles. One important dome, pierced with twelve 
 small windows, crowns the centre ; it has, however, no minarets and 
 no courtyard, but even without these adjuncts it is one of the most 
 satisfactory buildings of its class in India.^ 
 
 In the citadel at Agra there stands — or at least stood when I was 
 
 * Cunningham, ' Reports,' vol. i. p. 222. ham's fourth volume, but like everything 
 
 2 A description of this mosque is given else most unsatisfactory. Neither plan 
 
 in Mr. Carllyle's ' Report on the Build- nor dimensions are given, mere verbiage 
 
 iiigs of Delhi,' forming part of Cunning- conveying no distinct meaning. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 573 
 
 there — a fragment of a palace built by Shere Shah, or his son Selim, 
 which was as exquisite a piece of decorative art as anything of its 
 class in India. Being one of the first to occupy the ground, this 
 palace was erected on the highest spot within the fort ; hence the 
 present Government, fancying this a favourable site for the erection 
 of a barrack, pulled it down, and replaced it by a more than 
 usually hideous brick erection ' of theii' own. This is now a ware- 
 house, and looms, in wliitewashed ugliness, over the marble palaces 
 of the Moguls — a fit standard of comparison of the tastes of the two 
 races.^ 
 
 Judging from the fragment that remains, and the accounts received 
 on the spot, this palace must have gone far to justify the eulogium 
 more than once passed on the works of these Pathans — that "they 
 built like giants, and finished like goldsmiths :" for the stones seem 
 to have been of enormous size, and the details of most exquisite finish. 
 It has passed away, however, like many another noble building of its 
 class, under the ruthless barbarism of our rule. Mosques we have 
 generally spared, and sometimes tombs, because they were unsuited to 
 our economic purposes, and it would not answer to offend the religious 
 feelings of the natives. But when we deposed the kings and appro- 
 priated their revenues, there was no one to claim their now useless 
 abodes of splendour. It was consequently found cheaper either to pull 
 them down, or use them as residences or arsenals, than to keep them 
 up, so that very few now remain for the admii'ation of posterity. 
 
 The tomb of Shere Shah has been already described (ante, p. 516), 
 as it is essentially Pathan in style. It was erected at his native place 
 in Behar, to the south of the Ganges, far from Mogul influence at that 
 time, and in the style of severe simplicity that characterised the works 
 of his race between the times of Tugluck and those of Behlol Lodi 
 (a.d. 1450-1488), the last really independent king of his line. 
 
 It is not quite clear how much of the tomb was built by himself, 
 or how much by his son Selim, Avho certainly finished it. Selim also 
 built the Selimghur on an island in the Jumna, to which Shah Jehan 
 afterwards added his palace in New Delhi. Whether, however, he 
 erected any buildings inside is not certain — nothing at least now 
 remains of any importance. Generally he seems to have carried on 
 and completed his father's buildings, and between them they have 
 left a group of architectural remains which, if collected together and 
 illustrated, would form an interesting chapter in the history of Inciian- 
 Mahomedan styles.^ 
 
 * As I cannot find any trace of this 
 building in Keeue's description of the 
 fort in his third book on Agra, I pre- 
 sume it must have been utilised since 
 my clay. Unless it is the building he 
 
 calls the Nobut Klianaof Akbar's palace 
 (26)> I have never seen it in any photo- 
 graph of the place. 
 
 2 It is not quite clear how much Rhotas- 
 gur owes its maguifictnce to Shere Shah, 
 
574 
 
 INDIAN SAllACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 Akbar, 1550-1005. 
 
 It would require a volume to describe all the buildings erected by 
 this remarkable man during his long reign of forty-nine years, and a 
 hundred plates would hardly suffice to make known all their pecu- 
 liarities. Had Akbar been content to follow in the lines of the style 
 invented by the Pathans and perfected by Shere Shah, it might be 
 easy enough to follow the sequence, but nothing in his character is so 
 remarkable as the spirit of tolerance that pervaded all his acts. He 
 seems to have had as sincere a love and admiration for his Hindu 
 subjects as he had for those of his own faith, and whether from policy 
 or inclination, to have cherished their arts as much as he did those that 
 belonged exclusively to his own people. The consequence is a mixture 
 throughout all his works of two styles, often more picturesque than 
 correct, which might, in the course of another half century, have been 
 blended into a completely new style if persevered in. The spirit of 
 tolerance, however, died with him. There is no trace of Hinduism in 
 the works of Jehangir or Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe w^ould have 
 been horrified at the suggestion that arts of the infidels could influence 
 anything he did. 
 
 One probably of his earliest works was the mausoleum, which he 
 erected over the remains of his father, Humayun, at Delhi. Though 
 it certainly was finished by Akbar, it most probably was designed 
 and commenced by his father ; for, as frequently remarked in the 
 previous pages of this work, the great architectural peculiarity of the 
 Tartar or Mongolian races is their tomb-building propensity, in which 
 they are so strongly distinguished from the Aryan, and also from the 
 great Semitic families, with whom they divide the greater part of 
 the habitable globe. Nowhere is this more forcibly illustrated than in 
 India — where the tombs of the Pathans and Moguls form a complete 
 and unbroken series of architectural monuments from the first yeai's 
 of the Moslem invasion to the present hour. 
 
 The tombs of the Pathans are less splendid than those of the 
 Moguls ; but nevertheless the whole series is singularly interesting, 
 the tombs being far more numerous than the mosques. Generally 
 speaking, also, they are more artistic in design, and frequently not 
 only larger but more splendidly decorated than the buildings exclu- 
 sively devoted to prayer. 
 
 The princes of the Tartar races, in carrying out their love of tombs, 
 made it the practice to build their own in their lifetime, as all people 
 
 how much to Akbar ; both certainly built 
 there, and on the spot it nii^ht easily 
 be ascertained how much belongs to each. 
 Unfortunately, the part tliat belongs to 
 the British is too easily ascertained. 
 
 "They converted the beautiful Dewan 
 Klumd, of which Daniell published a 
 drawing, into a stable for breeding 
 horses." — Hamilton's ' Gazetteer,' sub 
 voce. 
 
CHAr. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 575 
 
 must who are really desirous of sepulchral magnificeuce. In doiug 
 this they rejected the Egyptian mode of preparing dark and deep 
 chambers in the heart of the rock, or of the massive pyramid. The 
 Tartars, on the other hand, built their sepulchres of such a character 
 as to serve for places of enjoyment for themselves and their friends 
 during their lifetime, and only when they could enjoy them no longer 
 they became the solemn resting-places of their mortal remains. 
 
 The usual process for the erection of these structures is for the 
 king or noble who intends to provide himself a tomb to enclose a 
 garden outside the city walls, generally with high crenellated walls, 
 and with one or more splendid gateways ; and in the centre of this he 
 erects a square or octagonal building, crowned by a dome, and in the 
 more splendid examples with smaller and dome-roofed apartments on 
 four of the sides or angles, the other four being devoted to entrances. 
 This building is generally situated on a lofty square terrace, from 
 which radiate four broad alleys, generally with marble-paved canals 
 ornamented with fountains ; the angular spaces are planted with 
 cypresses and other evergreens and fruit-trees, making up one of those 
 formal but beautiful gardens so characteristic of the East. During the 
 lifetime of the founder, the central building is called a Barrah Durrie, 
 oi' festal hall, and is used as a place of recreation and feasting by him 
 and his friends. 
 
 At his death its destination is changed — the founder's remains are 
 interred beneath the central dome. Sometimes his favourite wife lies 
 beside him ; but more generally his family and relations are buried 
 beneath the collateral domes. When once used as a place of burial, 
 its vaults never again resound with festive mirth. The care of the 
 building is handed over to priests and cadis, who gain a scanty sub- 
 sistence by the sale of the fruits of the garden, or the alms of those 
 who come to visit the last resting-place of their friend or master. 
 Perfect silence takes the place of festivity and mirth. The beauty of 
 the surrounding objects combines with the repose of the place to 
 produce an effect as graceful as it is solemn and appropriate. 
 
 Though the tombs, with the remains of their enclosures, are so 
 numerous throughout all India, the Taje Mehal, at Agra, is almost 
 the only tomb that retains its garden in anything like its pristine 
 beauty, and there is not perhaps in the whole world a scene where 
 nature and art so successfully combine to produce a perfect work of 
 art as within the precincts of this far-famed mausoleum. 
 
 The tomb of Humayun Shah, the first of the Moguls who was 
 buried in India, still stands tolerably entire among the ruins of Old 
 Delhi, of which indeed it forms the principal and most striking object. 
 It stands well on a lofty square platform, adorned with arches, whose 
 piers are ornamented with an inlay of white marble. The tomb itself 
 is an octagonal apartment, of considerable dimensions, crowned by a 
 
576 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 dome of white marble, of very graceful contour externally. Four 
 sides of the octagon are occupied by the entrances ; to the other four 
 smaller octagonal apartments are attached, making up a building 
 nearly a square in j^lan, with only the angles slightly cut away.^ 
 Its plan is in fact that afterwards adopted at the Taje (Woodcut 
 No. 338), but used here without the depth and poetry of that cele- 
 brated building. Its most marked characteristic, however, is its 
 purity — it might almost be called poverty — of design. It is so very 
 unlike anything else that Akbar ever built, that it is hardly possible 
 it could have been designed by him. It has not even the picturesque 
 boldness of the earlier Pathan tombs, and in fact looks more like 
 buildings a century at least more modern than it really is. It 
 is, however, a noble tomb, aud anywhere else must be considered a 
 wonder. 
 
 Humayun's tomb, however, is so well know^n from drawings and 
 photographs, that, in order to illustrate the architecture of the day, it 
 may be preferable to take the contemporary tomb of Mohammad Ghaus 
 at Gualior, which certainly was erected during the early part of 
 
 Akbar 's reign, and is a 
 l^^l singularly interesting 
 
 example of the tombs 
 of the period. It is a 
 square, measuring 100 
 ft. each way, exclusive 
 of the hexagonal towers, 
 which are attached to 
 the angles (Woodcut No. 
 327). The chamber of 
 the tomb itself is a hall 
 43 ft. square, with the 
 angles cut off by pointed 
 arches so as to form an 
 octagon, on which the 
 dome rests. Around 
 this square building is 
 a gallery, 20 ft. wide 
 between the piers, en- 
 closed on all sides by 
 pierced stone-work with 
 328).2 
 
 Plan of Tomb of Mohammad Ghaias, Gualiur. 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 a screen of the most exquisite tracery in 
 a projecting porch on each face (Woodcut No. 
 
 ^ I have mislaid the measurements and 
 plan I made of this building ; and, as 
 neither Gen. Cunningham nor his as- 
 sistants give either plan or dimensions, 
 
 I am unable to quote any figures in tlie 
 text. 
 
 ^ The plan is taken from one by Gen. 
 Cunningliam (' Reports,' vol. ii., plate 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 577 
 
 On comparing this with the tomb of Shere Shah at Sasseram, 
 which in many respects it resembles to a considerable extent, it will 
 be seen that it marks a considerable progress in tomb-building during 
 even the short period that elapsed between the erection of the two. 
 There is an inherent weakness in an octagonal form as compared with 
 the square, that even the Pathans never quite successfully conquered ; 
 and the outward screen of trellis-work is far more elegant than the 
 open arcade of the Sasseram tomb. Something may be due to the fact 
 
 328. Toiub of Mohammad Ghaus, Gualior. (From a Fhotcgraph.) 
 
 that Gualior was a city where building of an ornamental character 
 had long been going on, and where consequently a superior school of 
 masons and architects may always have existed, Avhile Sasseram was 
 a remote country village, where these advantages were unknown. 
 But be this as it may, the progress is such in so short a time, that we 
 can only ascribe it to the invigorating touch of Akbar's genius, which 
 was afterwards to work such wonders. 
 
 91). He omits, however, these square projections. I have added them from the 
 photographs. 
 
 2 P 
 
578 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC AECHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 One of the most remarkable and characteristic of Akbar's buiklings 
 is the old or Red Palace in the fort, so called from being constructed 
 entirely of red sandstone, unfortunately not a very good quality, and 
 consequently much of its ornament has peeled off. It is a square 
 building, measuring 249 ft. by 2G() ft. In the centre is a courtyard, 
 71 ft. by 72 ft., on either side of which are two halls facing one 
 another. The largest, 62 ft. by 37 ft., has a flat ceiling of stone, 
 divided into panels, and supported by struts of purely Hindu design, 
 very similar to those used in the palaces of Man Sing and Vicrama- 
 ditya at Gualior. Every feature around this court is indeed of pure 
 Hindu architecture. No arches appear anywhere, but the horizontal 
 style of construction everywhere. The ornamentation, too, which is 
 carved on all the flat surfaces, is of a class used by Akbar, but not 
 found in the buildings of others. Indeed, throughout this palace 
 arches are used so sparingly, and Hindu forms and Hindu construction 
 prevail to such an extent, that it would hardly be out of place at 
 Chittore or Gualior, though it still bears that impress of vigour and 
 originality that he and he only knew how^ to impress on all his 
 works. ^ 
 
 It is, however, at Futtehpore Sikri that Akbar must be judged 
 of as a builder. During the whole of his reign it was his favourite 
 residence. He apparently was the first to occupy the spot, and 
 apparently the last, at least, to build there, no single building being 
 identified as having been erected by any of his successors. 
 
 Akbar seems to have had no settled plan when he commenced 
 building there. The original part of the building seems to be the 
 Khas Mehal, a square block of building measuring about 260 ft. each 
 way, and therefore of about the same dimensions as the Red Palace 
 in the fort at Agra. Its courtyard, however, is larger, about 170 ft. 
 each way, and the buildings that surround it very inferior in richness 
 of design and ornamentation. This, however, is far more than com- 
 pensated for by the courts and pavilions that he added from time to 
 time. There is the Dewanni Khas, or throne-room, a square build- 
 ing with a throne consisting of an enormous flower-like bracket, 
 supported on a richly-carved pillar ; ^ a peristylar building, called 
 his office, very similar to one he erected at Allahabad, to be men- 
 tioned hereafter ; a five-storeyed open pavilion, all the pillars of 
 which are most richly carved, and long colonnades and walls con- 
 necting these with one another. The richest, the most beautiful. 
 
 ' An al tempt has lately been made by 
 Gen. Cunningham and his assistants 
 ('Reports,' vol. iv. p. 124), to ascribe this 
 palace to Jehangir. On what authority 
 is not stated ; but unless it is very clear 
 and distinct, I must decline to admit it. 
 
 The whole evidence, so far as I can 
 judge, is directly opposed to such an 
 hypothesis. There is a plan of this 
 palace, in his ' Reports,' vol. iv., plate 8. 
 
 2 A cast of tliis throne is in the South 
 Kensington Museum. 
 
(!iiAP. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 579 
 
 u,s well as the most characteristic of all his buildings here are three 
 small pavilions, said to have been erected to please and accommo- 
 date his three favourite sultanas : hence called Bir Bui ka Beti 
 ka Mehal, for his Hindu wife, the daughter of his favourite 
 minister, Bir Bui ; Miriam's House, appropriated to his Christian 
 consort ; and the palace of the Roumi Sultana. They are small, but 
 it is impossible to conceive anything so picturesque in outline, or 
 
 329. Carved Pillars in the Sultana's Kiosk, Fmtehpoie Sikri. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 any building carved and ornamented to such an extent, without the 
 smallest approach to being overdone or in bad taste. The two pillars 
 shown in the annexed woodcut, are from a cast from the last-named 
 pavilion, which is now in the South Kensington Museum. It is, 
 perhaps, the most elaborate of the three ; but the other two are 
 generally in better taste. 
 
 The glory, however, of Futtehpore Sikri is its mosque, which is 
 
 2 V 2 
 
C80 
 
 INDIAN SAIIACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 Jijirdly sni'passed by any in India (Woodcut No. ?>?>0). It measures 
 r)50 ft. cast and west, by 470 ft. north and south over all. Tlie 
 mosque itself, 290 ft. by 80 ft,, is crowned by three domes. In its 
 courtyard, Avhich measures 350 ft. by 440 ft., stand two tombs : 
 that of Selim Chisti, wholly in white marble, and the windows with 
 pierced tracery of the most exquisite geometrical patterns — flowing 
 tracery is a subsequent invention. It possesses besides a deep cornice of 
 marble supported by brackets of the most elaborate design, so much 
 so iTidced as to be almost fantastic — the only approach to bad taste 
 
 330. Mosque at Futtehpore Sikri. (From a Plan by Lieut. Cole, R.E.) 
 
 in the place ; the other toml), that of Islam Khan, is soberer and 
 in excellent taste, but (|uite eclipsed by its surroundings. Even 
 these parts, however, arc surpassed in magnificence by the southern 
 gateway, measuring 180 ft. by 85 ft. in plan, and of proportionate 
 dimensions in height (Woodcut No. 331). As it stands on a rising 
 ground, when looked at from below, its appearance is noble beyond 
 that of any portal attached to any mosque in India, perhaps in the 
 whole world. This gateway may also be quoted as a perfectly 
 satisfactory solution of a problem which has exercised the ingenuity 
 of architects in all ages, but was more successfully treated by the 
 Saracenic architects than by any others. 
 
CiiAP. X. MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 It was always manifest that to give a large building a door at 
 all in proportion to its dimensions was, to say the least of it, very 
 
 Southern Gateway of Mosque, Futtehpore Sikri. (From a Pliotograph.) 
 
 inconvenient. Men are only 6 ft. high, and they do not want portals 
 through which elephants might march. The Greeks never ventured, 
 
582; 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 rouK VII. 
 
 however, to reduce the proportionate size of their portals, though it 
 may he they only opened the lower half, and they covered them, in 
 almost all instances, with porticos to give them a dignity that even 
 their dimensions failed to impart. 
 
 The Gothic architects tried, by splaying their deeply-embowed 
 doorways, and by ornamenting them richly with carving and sculp- 
 ture, to give them the dignity that was indispensable for their 
 situation without unnecessarily increasing the size of the openings. 
 It was left, however, for the Saracenic architects completely to get 
 over the difficulty. They placed their portals — one, or three, or five, 
 of very moderate dimensions — at the back of a semi-dome. This 
 last feature thus became the porch or portico, and its dimensions 
 became those of the portal, wholly irrespective of the size of the 
 opening. No one, for instance, looking at this gateway can mistake 
 that it is a doorway and that only, and no one thinks of the size of 
 the openings which are provided at its base. The semi-dome is the 
 modulus of the design, and its scale that by which the imagination 
 measures its magnificence. 
 
 The same system pervades almost all the portals of the age and 
 style, and always with a perfectly satisfactory result — sometimes even 
 more satisfactory than in this instance, though it may be in less pro- 
 portionate dimensions. The principle seems the best that has yet been 
 hit upon, and, when that is right, failure is as difficult, as it is to 
 achieve success when the principle of the design is wrong. 
 
 Taking it altogether, this palace at Futtehpore Sikri is a romance 
 in stone, such as few — very few — are to be found anywhere ; and it 
 is a reflex of the mind of the great man who built it more distinct 
 than can easily be obtained from any other source.^ 
 
 Allahabad was a more favourite residence of this monarch than 
 Agra, perhaps as much so as even Futtehpore Sikri ; but the English 
 having appropriated the fort, its glories have been nearly obliterated. 
 The most beautiful thing was the pavilion of the Chalis Sitiin, or 
 forty pillars, so called from its having that number on the principal 
 floor, disposed in two concentric octagonal ranges, one internal of six- 
 teen pillars, the other outside of twenty-four. Above this, supported 
 by the inner colonnade, was an upper range of the same number of 
 pillars crowned by a dome. This building has entirely disappeared, 
 its materials being w^anted to repair the fortifications. The great 
 hall, however, still remains, represented in the annexed woodcut 
 (No. 332). It is now the ai'senal ; a brick wall has been run up 
 
 * Photographs of this palace arc now 
 common, and can be obtained anywhere ; 
 and recently Lieut. Cole s ' Eeport on 
 Buildings in tlic Neighl^ourliood of Agra ' 
 
 supplies some very interesting new ones 
 with plans, from which the diniensions in 
 the text arc quoted. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 583 
 
 between its outer colonnades with windows of English architecture, 
 and its curious pavilions and other accompaniments removed ; and 
 internally, whatever could not be conveniently cut away is carefully 
 covered up with plaster and whitewash, and hid by stands of arms 
 
 Hall in Palace at Allahabad. (From a Drawing by Diiniell.) 
 
 and deal fittings. Still its plan can be made out ; a square hall 
 supported by eight rows of columns, eight in each row, thus making 
 in all sixty-four, surrounded by a deep verandah of double columns, 
 with groups of four at the angles, all surmounted by bracket capitals 
 of the most elegant and richest design, and altogether as fine in style 
 and as rich in ornament as anything in India. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the most characteristic of Akbar's buildings is 
 the tomb he commenced to erect for himself at Secundra, near Agra, 
 which is quite unlike any other tomb built in India either before 
 or since, and of a design borrowed, as I believe, from a Hindu, or 
 more correctly, Buddhist, model. It stands in an extensive garden, 
 still kept up, approached by one noble gateway. In the centre of this 
 garden, on a raised platform, stands the tomb itself, of a pyramidal 
 form. The lower storey measures 820 ft. each way, exclusive of the 
 angle towers. It is 30 ft. in height, and pierced by ten great arches 
 on each face, and with a larger entrance adorned with a mosaic of 
 marble in the centre ("Woodcuts Nos. 333, 334).^ 
 
 On this terrace stands another far more ornate, measuring 186 ft. 
 on each side, and 14 ft. 9 in. in height. A third and fourth, of similar 
 design, and respectively 15 ft. 2 in. and 14 ft. 6 in. high, stand on 
 
 * No plan or section of this tomb has 
 ever, so far as I know, been published, 
 though it has been in our possession for 
 nearly a century. Those here given are 
 from my own mcasurcmentp, and, though 
 
 they may be correct as far as they go, are 
 not so detailed as those of such a monu- 
 ment ought to be, and would have been, 
 had it been in the hands of any other 
 European nation. 
 
584 
 
 INDIAN SAKACKNIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book YU. 
 
 this, all these behig" of red sandstone. Within and above the last is 
 a white marble enclosure 157 ft. each way, or externally just half 
 the length of the lowest terrace, its outer wall entirely composed of 
 marble trellis- work of the most beautiful patterns. Inside it is 
 surrounded l)y a colonnade or cloister of the same material, in the 
 centre of which, on a raised platform, is the tombstone of the founder, 
 a splendid piece of the most beautiful arabesque tracery. This, how- 
 ever, is not the true burial-place ; but the mortal remains of this great 
 king repose under a far plainer tombstone in a vaulted chamber in 
 
 333. Plan of A-kbar's Tomb at Secundra. (From a Plan by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 the basement 85 ft. square, exactly under the simulated tomb that 
 adorns the summit of the mausoleum. 
 
 At first sight it might appear that the design of this curious and 
 exceptional tomb was either a caprice of the monarch who built it, or 
 an importation from abroad (Woodcut No. 335). My impression, on 
 the contrary, is, that it is a direct imitation of some such building as 
 the old Buddhist viharas which may have existed, applied to other 
 purposes in Akbar's time. Turning back, for instance, to Woodcuts 
 Nos. GO and 18], representing the groat I'ath at Mahavellipore, it will 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 585 
 
 be seen that the number and proportion of the storeys is the same. The 
 pavilions that adorn the upper storeys of Akbar's tomb appear distinct 
 reminiscences of the cells that stand on the edge of each platform of 
 the rock-cut example. If the tomb had been crowned by a domical 
 chamber over the tombstone, the likeness would have been so great 
 that no one could mistake it, and my conviction is, that such a 
 chamber was part of the original design. No such royal tomb 
 remains exposed to the air in any Indian mausoleum ; and the 
 raised platform in the centre of the upper cloister, 38 ft. square, looks 
 so like its foundation that I cannot help believing it was intended 
 for that purpose. As the monument now stands, the pyramid has 
 
 / 
 
 331. Diagram Section ' of one-half of Akbir's Tomb at Secundra, explanatory of its Arrangements. 
 
 Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 a truncated and unmeaning aspect. The total height of the building 
 now is a little more than 100 ft. to the top of the angle pavilions ; 
 and a central dome 30 or 40 ft. higher, which is the proportion 
 that the base gives, seems just what is wanted to make this tomb 
 as beautiful in outline and in proportion as it is in detail. Had 
 it been so completed, it certainly would have ranked next the Taje 
 among Indian mausolea.^ 
 
 * The diagram is probably sufficient to 
 explain the text, but must not be taken 
 as pretending to be a correct architectural 
 drawing. Theic were parts, such as the 
 height of the lower dome and upper 
 
 angle kiosks, I had no means of mea- 
 suring, and after all, I was merely making 
 memoranda for my own satisfaction. 
 
 2 After the above was written, and tlie 
 diagram drawn (Woodcut No. 334), I was 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 587 
 
 Jehangir, a.d. 1605-1G28. 
 
 Wlieu wc consider how much was done by his father and his son, 
 it is rather startling to find how little Jehangir contributed to the 
 ai'chitectural magnificence of India. Partly this may be owing to 
 his not having the same passion for buildnig which characterised 
 these two great monarchs ; but partly = also to his having made Lahore 
 the capital during his reign, and to his having generally resided 
 there in preference to Agra or Delhi. The great mosque there, how- 
 ever, which was built by him, seems to be equal in magnificence to 
 that built by Shah Jehan at Delhi. This mosque, however, seems 
 to have been surpassed by one erected in the city of Lahore by his 
 vizir. It is in the Persian style, covered with enamelled tiles, and 
 resijlendent in colours, but not very graceful in form. His tomb, 
 in which he lies buried with his queen, the imperious Nurjehan, was 
 worthy of its builder, but has been used as a quarry by the Sikhs, 
 and half the splendour of the temple at Amritsir is due to marbles 
 plundered from this mausoleum. The palace, too, which he erected, 
 was worthy of his other buildings, but it has suffered as much as the 
 rest. It has been used as a habitation from that time to this, and 
 so altered, to adapt it to the wants of its successive occupants, that 
 little of its original form remains. 
 
 We have, however, no measurements and no information about 
 these monuments which would enable us to speak with any confi- 
 dence either regarding them, or the other buildings of that 
 city, which seems to owe its principal splendour to the reign of this 
 monarch. 
 
 At the other end of his dominions also he built a splendid new 
 capital at Dacca, in supersession to Gaur, and adorned it with several 
 buildings of considerable dimensions. These, however, were prin- 
 cipally in brick-work, covered with stucco, and with only pillars 
 and brackets in stone. Most of them, consequently, are in a state 
 of ruinous decay ; marvellously picturesque, it must be confessed, 
 peering through the luxuriant vegetation that is tearing them to 
 pieces, but hardly worthy to be placed in competition with the stone 
 and marble buildings of the more northern capitals. 
 
 There is one building — the tomb known as that of Eti-niad- 
 
 iiot a little pleased to find the following 
 entry in Mr. Finch's journal. He resided 
 in Agra fur some years, and visited the 
 tomb for the last time apparently in 1609, 
 and after describing most faithfully all its 
 peculiarities up to the upper floor, as it 
 now stands, adds : " At my last sight 
 
 thereof there was only overhead a rich 
 tent with a Semaine over the tomb. But 
 it is to bo inarched over with the most 
 curious white and speckled marble, and 
 to bo seeled all witliin with pure sheet 
 gold richly inwrought." — 'Purchas, his 
 I^ilgrims,' vol, i. p. 440. 
 
583 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 Doulah — at Agra, however, which certainly belongs to this reign, 
 and, though not erected by the monarch himself, cannot be passed 
 over, not only from its own beauty of design, but also because it 
 marks an epoch in the style to which it belongs. It is situated on 
 the left bank of the river, in the midst of a garden surrounded by 
 a wall measuring 540 ft. on each side. In the centre of this, on a 
 raised platform, stands the tomb itself, a square measuring G9 ft. 
 on each side. It is two storeys in height, and at each angle is 
 an octagonal tower, surmounted by an open pavilion. The towers, 
 however, are rather squat in proportion, and the general design of 
 the building very far from being so pleasing as that of many less 
 pretentious tombs in the neighbourhood. Had it, indeed, been built 
 in red sandstone, or even with an inlay of white marble like that 
 of Humayun, it would not have attracted much attention. Its real 
 merit consists in being wholly in white marble, and being covered 
 throughout with a mosaic in " pietro duro " — the first, apparently, 
 and certainly one of the most splendid, examples of that class of 
 ornamentation in India. 
 
 It seems now to be ascertained that in the early part of the 17th 
 century Italian artists, principally, apparently from Florence, were 
 introduced into India, and taught the Indians the art of inlaying 
 marble with precious stones.^ No instance of this mode of decoration 
 occurs, so far as I know, in the reign of Akbar ; but in that of Shah 
 
 ^ Although the fact seems hardly now 
 to he douhted, no very direct evidence has 
 yet been adduced to prove that it was to 
 foreign — Florentine— artists that the In- 
 dians owe the art of inlaying in precious 
 stones generally known as work in pietro 
 duro." Austin or Augustin de Bordeaux, 
 is the only European artist whose name 
 can positively be identified with any works 
 of the class. He certainly was employed 
 by Shah Jehan at Delhi, and executed 
 that mosaic of Orpheus or Apollo playing 
 to the beasts, after Eaphacl's picture, 
 which once adorned the throne there, 
 and is now in the Indian Museum at 
 South Kensington. 
 
 It is, however, hardly to be expected 
 that natives should record the names of 
 those who surpassed tlumin their own 
 arts ; and needy Italian adventurers were 
 even less likely to have an opportunity of 
 recording the works they executed in a 
 strange and foreign country. Had any 
 Italian who lived at the courts of Jehangir 
 or Shah Jehan written a book, he might 
 
 have recorded the artistic prowess of his 
 countrymen, but none such, so far as I am 
 aware, has yet seen light. 
 
 The internal evidence, however, seems 
 complete. Up to the erection of the 
 gates to Akbar's tomb at Secundra in the 
 first ten years of Jehan gir's reign, a.d 
 1605-1615, we have infinite mosaics of 
 coloured marble, but no specimen of in- 
 lay." In Eti-mad-Djulah's tomb, a.d. 
 1615-1628, we have both systems in 
 great perfection. In the Taje and pi- 
 laces at Agra and Delhi, built by Shah 
 Jehan, a.d. 1628-1668, the mosaic has 
 disappeared, being entirely supplanted 
 by the " inlay." It was just before that 
 time that the system of inlaying called 
 " pietro duro " was invented, and became 
 the rage at Florence and, in fact, all 
 throughout Europe ; and we know that 
 during the reign of the two last-named 
 monarchs many Italian artists were in 
 their service quite capable of giving in- 
 struction in the new art. 
 
ClIAP. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 589 
 
 Jchaji it became the leading' characteristic of the style, and both his 
 palaces and his tombs owe their principal distinction to the beanty 
 of the mode in which this new invention was employed. 
 
 It has been doubted whether this new art was really a foreign 
 introduction, or whether it had not been invented by the natives 
 of India themselves. The question never, probably, would have 
 arisen had one of the fundamental principles of architecture been 
 better understood. When we, for instance, having no art of our own, 
 copy a Grecian or Roman pillar, or an Italian medieeval arch in detail, 
 we do so literally, without any attempt to adapt it to our uses or 
 climate ; but when a people having a style of their own wish to 
 adopt any feature or process belonging to any other style, they do 
 not copy but adapt it to their uses ; and it is this distinction between 
 adopting and adapting that makes all the difference. We would have 
 allowed the Italians to introduce with their mosaics all the details 
 of their Cinque-cento architecture. The Indians set them to repro- 
 duce, with their new materials and processes, the patterns which the 
 architects of Akbar had been in the habit of carving in stone or of 
 inlaying in marble. Every form was adapted to the place where it 
 was to be used. The style remained the same, so did all the details ; 
 the materials only were changed, and the patterns only so far as was 
 necessary to adapt them to the smaller and more refined materials 
 that were to be used.^ 
 
 As one of the first, the tomb of Eti-mad-Doulah was certainly one 
 of the least successful specimens of its class. The patterns do not 
 quite fit the places where they are put, and the spaces are not always 
 those best suited for this style of decoration. Altogether I cannot 
 help fancying that the Italians had more to do with the design of 
 this building than was at all desirable, and they are to blame for its 
 w^ant of grace. But, on the other hand, the beautiful tracery of the 
 pierced marble slabs of its windows, which resemble those of Selim 
 Chisti's tomb at Futtehpore Sikri, the beauty of its white marble 
 walls, and the rich colour of its decorations, make up so beautiful a 
 whole, that it is only on comparing it with the w^orks of Shah Jehan 
 that we are justified in finding fault. 
 
 Shah Jehan, a.d. 1628-1658. 
 
 It would be difficult to point out in the whole history of archi- 
 tecture any change so sudden as that which took place between 
 the style of Akbar and that of his grandson Shah Jehan — nor any 
 
 ^ Something of the same sort occurred i Christians to their own purposes, but 
 when the Turks occupied Constantinople, without copying. Vide ante, vol. ii. p. 
 They adapted the architecture of the 528, et seqq. 
 
590 
 
 INDIAN SAI^ACENIC AKCHITEGTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 contrast so p'cat as that between the manly vigour and exnl)erant 
 originality of the first, as compared with the extreme but almost 
 effeminate elegance of the second. Certainly Avhen the same people, 
 following the same religion, built temples and palaces in the same 
 locality, nothing of the sort ever occurred in any country whose 
 history is now known to us. 
 
 Nowhere is the contrast between the two styles more strongly 
 marked than in the palace of Agra — from the red stone palace of 
 Akbar, with its rich sculptures and square Hindu construction, a door 
 opens into the white marble court of the hareem of Shah Jehan, with 
 all its feeble prettiness, but at the same time marked with that pecu- 
 liar elegance which is found only in the East. The court is not large, 
 170 ft. by 235 ft., but the whole is finished with the most elaborate care. 
 Three sides of this are occupied by the residences of the ladies, 
 not remarkable for size, nor, in their present state, for architectural 
 beauty ; but the fourth, overhanging the river, is occupied by three 
 white marble pavilions of singular elegance, though it is not easy now 
 to see them, some English officer having pitched upon the principal 
 one as a residence, and having in consequence covered the ix)lished 
 marble and elegant arabesques of flowers inlaid in precious stones 
 with thick coatings of that whitewash Avhich was indispensable to 
 his idea of comfort and elegant simplicity. 
 
 As in most Moorish palaces, the baths on one side of this court 
 were the most elegant and elaborately decorated apartments in the 
 palace. The baths have been destroyed, but the walls and roofs still 
 show the elegance with which they were adorned.^ 
 
 Behind this, in the centre of the palace, is a great court, 500 ft. 
 by 370 ft. surrounded by arcades, and approached at the opposite 
 ends through a succession of beautiful courts opening into one another 
 by gateways of great magnificence. One one side of this court is the 
 great hall of the palace — the Dewanni Aum — 208 ft. by 7G ft., sup- 
 ported by three ranges of arcades of exquisite beauty. It is open on 
 three sides, and with a niche for the throne at the back. This, like 
 the hall at Allahabad, is now an arsenal, and reduced to as near a 
 similarity as possible to those in our dockyards.^ Behind it are two 
 smaller courts, the one containing the Dewanni Khas, or private hall 
 
 ^ The great bath Avas torn up by the 
 Marquis of Hastings with the intention 
 of presenting it to George IV., an in- 
 tention apparently never carried out ; but 
 it is difficult to ascertain the facts now, 
 
 revenues of India in a manner most con- 
 genial to the spirit of its governors. 
 
 Since the appointment of Sir John 
 Strachey, the present enlightened Go- 
 vernor of the North West Provinces, I 
 
 as the whole of the marble flooring with understand that this state of affairs is 
 what remained of the bath was sold by I entirely altered. Both care and money 
 
 auction by Lord William Bentinck, and 
 fetched probably 1 per cent, of its ori- 
 ginal co.sit: but it hf li)ed to eke out the 
 
 are now expended liberally for the pro- 
 tection and maintenance of such old 
 buildings that remain in the province. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 591 
 
 of audience, the other the hareem. The hall in the former is one of 
 the most ele<?ant of Shah Jehan's buildings, being wholly of white 
 marble inlaid with precious stones, and the design of the whole being in 
 the best style of his reign. 
 
 One of the most picturesque features about this palace is a marl)le 
 pavilion, in two storeys, that surmounts one of the circular bastions 
 on the river face, between the hareem and the Dewanni Khas. It 
 looks of an earlier style than that of Shah Jehan, and if Jehangir 
 built anything here it is this. On a smaller scale, it occupies the 
 same place here that the Chalis Situn did in the palace at Allahabad ; 
 and exemplifies, even more than in their larger buildings, the extreme 
 elegance and refinement of those who designed these pala(;es.i 
 
 Palace at Delhi. 
 
 Though the palace at Agra is perhaps more picturesque, and his- 
 torically certainly more interesting, than that of Delhi, the latter had 
 the immense advantage of being built at once, on one uniform plan, 
 and by the mcsb magnificent, as a builder, of all the sovereigns of 
 India. It had, however, one little disadvantage, in being somewhat 
 later than Agra. All Shah Jehan's buildings there, seem to have been 
 finished before he commenced the erection of the new city of Shah 
 Jehanabad with its palace, and what he built at Agra is soberer, and 
 in somewhat better taste than at Delhi. Notwithstanding these 
 defects, the palace at Delhi is, or rather was, the most magnificent 
 palace in the East — perhaps in the world — and the only one, at 
 least in India, which enables us to understand what the arrangements 
 of a complete palace were when deliberately undertaken and carried 
 out on one uniform plan (Woodcut No. 336). 
 
 The palace at Delhi, which is situated like that at Agra close to 
 the edge of the Jumna, is a nearly regular parallelogram, with the 
 angles slightly canted off, and measures 1600 ft. east and west, by 
 3200 ft. north and south, exclusive of the gateways. It is surrounded 
 on all sides by a very noble wall of red sandstone, relieved at intervals 
 by towers surmounted by kiosks. The principal entrance faces the 
 Chandni Chowk, a noble wide street, nearly a mile long, planted with 
 two rows of trees, and with a stream of w\ater running down its 
 centre. Entering within its deeply-recessed porta,l, you find yourself 
 
 ' Perfect plans of this palace exist in 
 the War Department of India. It is a 
 ^reat pity the Government cannot aiFord 
 the very few rupees it would require to 
 lithograph and publish them. Without 
 such plans it is very difficult to make 
 
 I any description intelligible. That in 
 Keene's ' Handbook of Agra,' though 
 useful as far as it goes, is on too small 
 a scale and not sufficiently detailed for 
 purposes of architectural illustrati(;n. 
 
592 
 
 INDIAN SAEACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book YIL 
 
 beneath the vaulted hall, the sides of which are in two storeys, and 
 with an octagonal break in the centre. This hall, which is 375 ft. in 
 length over all, has very much the effect of the nave of a gigantic 
 Gothic cathedial, and forms the noblest entrance known to belong to 
 
 any existing palace. At its inner end this hall opened into a court- 
 yard, 850 ft. square, from the centre of which a noble bazaar extended 
 right and left, like the hall, tw^o storeys in height, but not vaulted. 
 One of these led to the Delhi gate, the other, which I believe was 
 never quite finished, to the garden. In front, at the entrance, was the 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL AKCHITECTURE. 
 
 593 
 
 Nobufc Kliana (A), or music hall, beneath which the ^'isitor entered the 
 second or great court of the palace, measuring 550 ft. north and south, 
 by 385 ft. east and west. In the centre of this stood the Dewanni 
 Aum (B), or great audience hall of the palace, very similar in design 
 to that at Agra, but more magnificent. Its dimensions are, as nearly 
 as I can ascertain, 200 ft. by 100 ft. over all. In its centre is a highly 
 ornamental niche, in which, on a platform of marble richly inlaid with 
 precious stones,^ and directly facing the entrance, once stood the cele- 
 brated peacock throne, the most gorgeous example of its class that 
 perhaps even the East could ever boast of. Behind this again was a 
 garden-court ; on its eastern side was the Rung Mehal (jC), or painted 
 hall, containing a bath and other apartments. 
 
 This range of buildings, extending 1600 ft. east and west, divided 
 the palace into two nearly equal halves. In the northern division of 
 it were a series of small courts, surrounded by buildings apparently 
 appropriated to the use of distinguished guests ; and in one of them 
 overhanging the river stood the celebrated Dewanni Khas (D), or 
 private audience hall — if not the most beautiful, certainly the most 
 highly ornamented of all Shah Jehan's buildings. It is larger cer- 
 tainly, and far richer in ornament than that at Agra, though hardly 
 so elegant in design ; but nothing can exceed the beauty of the inlay 
 of precious stones with which it is adorned, or the general poetry of 
 the design. It is round the roof of this hall that the famous inscrip- 
 tion runs : " If there is a heaven on earth it is this, it is this," which 
 may safely be rendered into the sober English assertion, that no 
 palace now existing in the world possesses an apartment of such 
 singular elegance as this. 
 
 Beyond this to the northward were the gardens of the palace, laid 
 out in the usual formal style of the East, but adorned with fountains 
 and little pavilions and kiosks of white marble, that render these so 
 beautiful and so appropriate to such a climate. 
 
 The whole of the area between the central range of buildings to 
 the south, and eastward from the bazaar, measuring about 1000 ft. 
 
 ^ When we took possession of the 
 palace every one seems to liave looted 
 after the most independent fashion. 
 Among others, a Captain (afterwards 
 Sir John) Jones tore up a great part of 
 this platform, but had the happy idea to 
 get his loot set in marble as table tops. 
 Two of these he brought home and 
 sold to the Government for £500, and 
 they are now in the India Museum. No 
 one can doubt that the one with the 
 birds was executed by Florentine, or at 
 least Italian artists ; while the other. 
 
 which was apparently at the back of the 
 platform, is a bad copy from Raphael's 
 picture of Orpheus cliarming the beasts. 
 As is well known, that again was a copy 
 of a picture in the Catacombs. There 
 Orpheus is playing on a lyre, in Raphael's 
 picture on a violin, and that is the in- 
 tetrument represented in the Delhi mosaic. 
 Even if other evidence vrere wanting, this 
 would be sufficient to set the question at 
 rest. It certainly was not put there by 
 I the bigot Aurungzebe, nor by any of his 
 I successors. 
 
 2 Q 
 
594- 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCIIITECTUllE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 each way, was occupied by the hareem and private apartments of 
 the palace, covering, consequently, more than twice the area of the 
 Escurial, or, in fact, of any palace in Europe. According to the 
 native plan I possess, which I see no reason for distrusting, it con- 
 tained three garden courts, and some thirteen or fourteen other 
 courts, arranged some for state, some for convenience ; but what they 
 were like we have no means of knowing. Not one vestige of them 
 now remains. Judging from the corresponding parts of the palace 
 at Agra, built by the same monarch, they must have vied with the 
 public apartments in richness and in beauty when originally erected, 
 but having continued to be used as an abode down to the time of the 
 mutiny, they were probably very much disfigured and debased. Taste 
 was, no doubt, at as low an ebb inside the walls of the palace durnig 
 the last hundred years as it was outside, or as we find it at Lucknow 
 and elsewhere ; but all the essential parts of the structure were there, 
 and could easily have been disencumbered from the accretions that had 
 been heaped upon it. The idea, however, of doing this was far from 
 entering into the heads of our governors. The whole of the hareem 
 courts of the palace were swept off the face of the earth to make 
 way for a hideous British barrack, without those who carried out this 
 fearful piece of Vandalism thinking it even worth while to make a 
 plan of what they were destroying, or preserving any record of the 
 most splendid palace in the world. 
 
 Of the public parts of the palace all that now remains is the 
 entrance hall, the Nobut Khana, the Dewanni Aum and Khas, and 
 the Rung Mehal — now used as a mess-room — and one or two small 
 pavilions. They are the gems of the palace, it is true, but without 
 the courts and corridors connecting them they lose all their meaning 
 and more than half their beauty.^ Being now situated in the middle 
 of a British barrack-yard, they look like precious stones torn from 
 their settings in some exquisite piece of Oriental jeweller's work and 
 set at random in a bed of the commonest plaster.^ 
 
 * It ought in fairness to be added that, 
 since they have been in our possession, 
 considerable sums have been expended 
 on the repair of these fragments. 
 
 2 The excuse for this deliberate act of 
 Vandalism was, of course, the military one, 
 tl)at it was necessary to place the garrison 
 of Delhi in security in the event of any 
 sudden emergency. Had it been correct 
 it would have been a valid one, but this 
 is not the case. Without touching a 
 single building of Shah Jehan's there was 
 ample space within the walls for all tlie 
 stores and materiel of the garrison of 
 Delhi, and in the palace and Selim Ghur 
 
 ample space for a garrison, more than 
 doubly ample to man their wails in the 
 event of an emeute. There was am]>le 
 space for larger and better ventilated 
 barracks just outside the palace walls, 
 where the Sepoy lines now are, for 
 the rest of the garrison, who could easily 
 have gained the shelter of the palace 
 walls in the event of any sudden rising 
 of the citizens. It is, liowever, ridiculous 
 to fancy that the diminished and un- 
 armed population of the city could ever 
 dream of such an attempt, while any 
 foreign enemy with artillery strong enough 
 to force the bastioned enceinte that sur- 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 TAJE ME HAL. 
 
 505 
 
 Taje Mehal. 
 
 It is a pleasure to turn from this destroyed and desecrated palace 
 to the Taje Mehal, which even more, perhaps, than the palace was 
 always the chef-d'oeuvre of Shah Jehan's reign (Woodcut No. 337). 
 It, too, has been fortunate in attracting the attention of the English, 
 who have paid sedulous attention to it for some time past, and keep 
 it now, with its gardens, in a perfect state of substantial repair. 
 
 No building in India has been so often drawn and photographed 
 as this, or more frequently described ; but, with all this, it is almost 
 impossible to convey an idea of it to those who have not seen it, not 
 only because of its extreme delicacy, and beauty of material employed 
 in its construction, but from the complexity of its design. If the 
 Taje were only the tomb itself, it might be described, but the plat- 
 form on which it stands, with its tall minarets, is a work of art in 
 itself. Beyond this are the two wings, one of which is a mosque, 
 which anywhere else would be considered an important building. 
 TMs group of buildings forms one side of a garden court 880 ft. 
 square ; and beyond this again an outer court, of the same width 
 but only half the depth. This is entered by three gateways of its 
 own, and contains in the centre of its inner wall the great gateway 
 of the garden court, a worthy pendant to the Taje itself.^ Beautiful 
 as it is in itself, the Taje would lose half its charm if it stood alone. 
 It is the combination of so many beauties, and the perfect manner 
 in which each is subordinated to the other, that makes up a whole 
 which the world cannot match, and which never fails to impress 
 even those who are most indifferent to the effects produced by 
 architectural objects in general. 
 
 The plan and section (Woodcuts Nos. 338, 339) explain suffi- 
 ciently the general arrangement and structural peculiarities of the 
 tomb or principal building of the group. The raised platform on 
 which it stands is 18 ft. high, faced with Avhite marble, and exactly 
 313 ft. square. At each corner of this terrace stands a minaret 133 ft. 
 
 rounds the town would in a very few- 
 hours knock the palace walls about the 
 ears of any garrison that might be caught 
 in such a trap. 
 
 The truth of the matter appears to be 
 this : the engineers perceived that by 
 gutting the palace they could piovide at 
 no trouble or expense a wall round their 
 barrack-yard, and one that no drunken 
 soldier could scale Avithout detection, and 
 for this or gome such wretched motive of 
 economy the palace was sacrificed ! 
 
 The only modern act to be compared 
 with this is the destruction of the summer 
 palace at Pekin. That, however, was an 
 act of red-handed war, and may have 
 been a political necessity. This was a 
 deliberate act of unnecessary Vandalism 
 — most discreditable to all concerned 
 in it. 
 
 ^ A plan of this garden, with the Taje 
 and all the surrounding buildings, will 
 be found in the ' Journal of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society,' vol. vii. p. 42. 
 
 2 Q 2 
 
CllAP. X. 
 
 TAJE MEHAL. 
 
 597 
 
 389. 
 
 Sfctiou of Taje Mehal, Agra. Scale 110 ft. to 1 iii. 
 
538 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 in height, and of the most exquisite proportions, more beautiful, 
 perhaps, than any other in India. In the centre of this marble 
 platform stands the mausoleum, a square of 18G ft., with the corners 
 cut off to the extent of 33 ft. 9 in. The centre of this is occupied by 
 the principal dome, 58 ft. in diameter and 80 ft. in height, under 
 which is an enclosure formed by a screen of trellis-work of white 
 marble, a chef-d'oeuvre of elegance in Indian art.^ Within this 
 stand the tombs — that of Mumtaz-i-Mehal in the centre, and that 
 of Shah Jehan on one side. These, however, as is usual in Indian 
 sepulchres, are not the true tombs — the bodies rest in a vault, level 
 with the surface of the ground (as seen in the section) beneath 
 plainer tombstones, placed exactly underneath those in the hall 
 above. 
 
 In every angle of the building is a small domical apartment of 
 two storeys in height, 26 ft. 8 in. in diameter, and these are con- 
 nected, as shown in the plan, by various passages and halls. 
 
 The light to the central apartment is admitted only through 
 double screens of white marble trellis-work of the most exquisite 
 design, one on the outer, and one on the inner face of the walls. In 
 our climate this would produce nearly complete darkness ; but in 
 India, and in a building wholly composed of white marble, this 
 was required to temper the glare that otherwise would have been 
 intolerable. As it is, no words can express the chastened beauty of 
 that central chamber, seen in the soft gloom of the subdued light 
 that reaches it through the distant and half -closed openings that 
 surround it. When used as a Barrah Durrie, or pleasure palace, it 
 must always have been the coolest and the loveliest of garden retreats, 
 and now that it is sacred to the dead it is the most graceful and the 
 most impressive of the sepulchres of the world. 
 
 This building, too, is an exquisite example of that system of 
 inlaying with precious stones which became the great characteristic 
 of the style of the Moguls after the death of Akbar. All the spandrils 
 of the Taje, all the angles and more important architectural details, 
 are heightened by being inlaid with precious stones, such as agates, 
 bloodstones, jaspers, and the like. These are combined in wreaths, 
 scrolls, and frets, as exquisite in design as beautiful in colour ; and, 
 relieved by the pure white marble in which they are inlaid, they 
 form the most beautiful and precious style of ornament ever adopted 
 in architecture ; though, of course, not to be compared with the in- 
 tellectual beauty of Greek ornament, it certainly stands first among 
 the purely decorative foi-ms of architectural design. This mode of 
 ornamentation is lavishly bestowed on the tombs themselves and the 
 
 ' From its design I cannot help fancy- j Shall Jelian's dcatli. It certainly looks 
 ing tiiat this screen was erected after I more modern. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MUTI MUSJID, AGllA. 
 
 599 
 
 screen that surrounds them, though sparingly introduced on the 
 mosque that forms one wing of the Taje, or on the fountains and 
 surrounding buildings. The judgment, indeed, with which this style 
 of ornament is apportioned to the various parts is almost as remark- 
 able as the ornament itself, and conveys a high idea of the taste and 
 skill of the Indian architects of that age. 
 
 The long rows of cypresses, which line the marble paths that 
 intersect the garden at right angles, are now of venerable age ; and, 
 backed up by masses of evergreen foliage, lend a charm to the whole 
 which the founder and his children could hardly have realised. 
 Each of the main avenues among these trees has a canal along its 
 centre studded with marble fountains, and each vista leads to some 
 beautiful architectural object. With the Jumna in front, and this 
 garden with its fountains and gateways behind ; with its own purity 
 of material and grace of forai, the Taje may challenge comparison 
 with any creation of the same sort in the whole world. Its beauty 
 may not be of the highest class, but in its class it is unsurpassed. 
 
 o o o 
 
 Though neither so magnificent nor so richly ornamented as some 
 of his other buildings, the Miiti Musjid, or Pearl Mosque, which 
 Shah Jehan erected in the fort 
 of Agra, is one of the purest 
 and most elegant buildings of 
 its class to be found anywhere 
 (Woodcut No. 340). It is not 
 large, measuring only 187 ft. by 
 234 ft. over all externally ; and 
 though raised on a lofty stylo- 
 bate, which ought to give it 
 dignity, it makes no pretentions 
 to architectural effect on the 
 outside ; but the moment you 
 enter by the eastern gateway 
 the effect of its courtyard is 
 surpassingly beautiful. The 
 whole is of white marble, and 
 the forms all graceful and ele- 
 gant. The only ornament intro- 
 duced which is not strictly 
 architectural, is an inscription 
 
 in black marble, inlaid in the frieze of the mosque itself. The court- 
 yard is nearly a square, 154 ft. by 158 ft. On three sides it is 
 surrounded by a low colonnade 10 ft. 10 in. deep ; but on the west, 
 by the mosque itself, 159 ft. by 56 ft. internally. It opens on the 
 court by seven arches of great beauty, and is surmounted by three 
 
 CATEW/rv 
 
 340. Plan of Mnti Musjid. 
 
 (From a Plan by Gen. Cunningham.) 
 Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
600 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 domes of the bulbous form that became universal about this time 
 (Woodcut No. 341). The woodcut cannot do it justice, it must be 
 seen to be appreciated ; but I hardly know, anywhere, of a building 
 so perfectly pure and elegant, or one that forms such a wonderful 
 contrast with the buildings of Akbar in the same palace. 
 
 The Jumma Musjid at Delhi is not unlike the Miiti Musjid in 
 plan, though built on a very much larger scale, and adorned with 
 two noble minarets, which are wanting in the Agra example ; while 
 from the somewhat capricious admixture of red sandstone with white 
 marble, it is far from possessing the same elegance and purity of 
 effect. It is, however, one of the few mosques, either in India or 
 
 341. View in Courtyard of Muti Musjid, Agra. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 elsewhere, that is designed to produce a pleasing effect externally. 
 As will be seen from the woodcut (No. 342), it is raised on a lofty 
 basement, and its three gateways, combined with the four angle- 
 towers and the frontispiece and domes of the mosque itself, make up 
 a design where all the parts are pleasingly subordinated to one 
 another, but at the same time produce a whole of great variety and 
 elegance. Its principal gateway cannot be compared with that at 
 Futtehpore Sikri (Woodcut No. 331) ; but it is a noble portal, and 
 from its smaller dimensions more in harmony with the objects by 
 which it is surrounded. 
 
 It is not a little singular, looking at the magnificent mosque 
 
602 
 
 INDIAN SAKACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII. 
 
 which Akbar built in his palace at Futtehporc Sikri, and the Muti 
 Musjid, with which Shah Jehan adorned the palace at Agra, that 
 he should have provided no place of worship in his palace at Delhi. 
 The little Muti mosque that is now found there was added by 
 Aurungzebe, and, though pretty enough in itself, is very small, only 
 60 ft. square over all, and utterly unworthy of such a palace. There 
 is no place of prayer, within the palace walls, of the time of Shah 
 Jehan, nor, apparently, any intention of providing one. The Jumma 
 Musjid was so near, and so apparently part of the same design, that 
 it seems to have been considered sutBcient to supply this apparently 
 anomalous deficiency. 
 
 Aurungzebe, a.d. 1658-1707. 
 
 There are few things more startling in the history of this style 
 than the rapid decline of taste that set in with the accession of 
 Aurungzebe. The power of the Mogul empire reached its culminating 
 point in liis reign, and there were at least no external signs of decay 
 visible before the end of his reign. Even if his morose disposition 
 did not lead him to spend much money on palaces or civil buildings, 
 his religious fanaticism might, one would think, have led him to 
 surpass his predecessors in the extent or splendour of their mosques 
 or religious establishments. This, however, is far from being the 
 case. He did, indeed, as mentioned above, pull down the temple of 
 Yishveshwar, at Benares, in order to erect a mosque, whose tall and 
 graceful minarets still form one of the most prominent features in 
 every view of the city. It was not, however, from any love of archi- 
 tectural magnificence that this was done, but to insult his Hindu 
 subjects and mark the triumph of Islam over Hinduism. The mosque 
 itself is of no great magnificence, but>none more important was 
 erected, so far as I know, during his reign. 
 
 Few things can show how steadily and rapidly the decline of 
 taste had set in than the fact that when that monarch was residing 
 at Aurungabad between the years 1650-70, having lost his favourite 
 daughter, Eabia Duranee, he ordered his architects to reproduce an 
 exact copy of his father's celebrated tomb, the Taje Mehal, in honour 
 of her memory. They believed they were doing so, but the difference 
 between the two monuments, even in so short an interval, is startling. 
 The first stands alone in the world for certain qualities all can 
 appreciate ; the second is by no means remarkable for any qualities 
 of elegance or design, and narrowly escapes vulgarity and bad taste. 
 In the beginning of the present century a more literal copy of the 
 Taje was erected in Lucknow over the tomb of one of its sovereigns. 
 In this last, however, bad taste and tawdriness reign supreme. It is 
 difficult to understand how a thing can be so like in form and so 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 AURUNGZEBE. 
 
 603 
 
 unlike in spirit ; but so it is, and these three Tajes form a very 
 perfect scale by which to measure the decline of art since the great 
 Mogul dynasty passed its zenith and began its rapid downward 
 career. 
 
 Aurungzebe himself lies buried in a small hamlet just above the 
 caves of Ellora. The spot is esteemed sacred, but the tomb is mean 
 and insignificant beyond what would have sufficed for any of his 
 nobles. He neglected, apparently, to provide for himself this ne- 
 cessary adjunct to a Tartar's glory, and his successors were too weak, 
 even had they been inclined, to supply the omission. Strange to 
 say, the sacred Tulsi-tree of the Hindus has taken root in a crevice 
 of the brickwork, and is flourishing there as if in derision of the most 
 bigoted persecutor the Hindus ever experienced. 
 
 We have scarcely any remains of Aurungzebe's own works, except, 
 as before observed, a few additions to the palace at Delhi ; but during 
 his reign many splendid palaces were erected, both in the capital and 
 elsewhere. The most extensive and splendid of these was that built 
 by his aspiring but unfortunate son Dara Shekoh. It, however, was 
 converted into the English residency ; and so completely have im- 
 provements, with plaster and whitewash, done their work, that it 
 requires some ingenuity to find out that it was not wholly the work 
 of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 In the town of Delhi many palaces of the age of Aurungzebe have 
 escaped this profanation, but generally they are either in ruins or 
 used as shops ; and with all their splendour show too clearly the 
 degradation of style which had then fairly set in, and which is even 
 more apparent in the modern capitals of Oude, Hydrabad, and other 
 cities which have risen into importance during the last hundred 
 years. 
 
 Even these capitals, however, are not without edifices of a palatial 
 class, which from their size and the picturesqueness of their forms 
 deserve attention, and to an eye educated among the plaster glories 
 of the Alhambra would seem objects of no small interest and beauty. 
 Few, however, are built of either marble or squared stone : most of 
 them are of brick or rubble-stone, and the ornaments in stucco, which, 
 coupled with the inferiority of their design, will always prevent their 
 being admired in immediate proximity with the glories of Agra and 
 Delhi. 
 
 In a history of Mahomedan art in India which had any pretensions 
 to be exhaustive, it would be necessary to describe before concluding 
 many minor buildings, especially tombs, which are found in every 
 corner of the land. For in addition to the Imperial tombs, mentioned 
 above, the neighbourhoods of Agra and Delhi are crowded with those 
 of the nobles of the court, some of them scarcely less magnificent 
 than the mausolea of their masters. 
 
60i 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 Besides the tombs, however, in the capitals of the empire, there is 
 scarcely a city of any importance in the whole course of the Ganges 
 or Jumna, even as far eastward as Dacca, that does not possess some 
 specimens of this form of architectural magnificence. Jaunpore and 
 AlLihabad are particularly rich in examples ; but Patna and Dacca 
 ])ossess two of the most pleasing of the smaller class of tombs that 
 are to be met with anywhere. 
 
 OUDE AND MySOKE. 
 
 If it were worth while to engrave a sufficient number of illus- 
 trations to make the subject intelligible, one or two chapters might 
 very easily be filled with the architecture of these two dynasties. 
 That of Mysore, though only lasting forty years — a.d. 17G0-1799 — 
 was sufficiently far removed from European influence to practise a 
 style retaining something of true architectural character. The 
 pavilion called the Deriah Doulut at Seringapatam resembles some- 
 what the nearly contemporary palace at Deeg in style, but is feebler 
 and of a much less ornamental character.^ The tomb, too, of the 
 founder of the dynasty, and the surrounding mausolea, retain a 
 reminiscence of former greatness, but will not stand comparison with 
 the Imperial tombs of Agra and Delhi. 
 
 On the other hand, the tomb of Saftar Jung, the founder of the 
 Lucknow dynasty, situated not far from the Kutub at Delhi, is not 
 quite unworthy of the locality in which it is found. Though so late 
 in date (a.d. 175G), it looks grand and imposing at a distance, but it 
 will not bear close inspection. Even this qualified praise can hardly 
 be awarded of any of the buildings in the capital in which his 
 dynasty was finally established. 
 
 If mass and richness of ornamentation were in themseh'es suffi- 
 cient to constitute architecture, few capitals in India could show so 
 much of it as Lucknow. It is, in fact, amazing to observe to what 
 an extent this dynasty filled its capitals with gorgeous buildings 
 during the one short century of its existence, but all — or with the 
 fewest possible exceptions — in the worst possible taste. Whatever 
 may be said of the Eenaissance, or revival of classical architecture 
 in Europe in the 16th century, in India it was an unmitigated mis- 
 fortune. The unintelligent vulgarity with which the "Orders" are 
 there used, by a people who were capable of such noble things in 
 their own styles, is one of the most startling phenomena in the history 
 of architecture. The subject hardly belongs to this work, and has 
 already been treated of in the ' History of Modern Architecture.'^ 
 
 Even at Lucknow, however, there are some buildings into which 
 
 ' There are eight pbotograplis of it iu Capt. Lyon's collection, and many also by 
 others. ^ Page 478, et seqq. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 IMAMBARA AT LUCKNOW. 
 
 605 
 
 the European leaven has not penetrated, and which are worthy of 
 being mentioned in the same volume as the works of their ancestors. 
 Among these is the great Imambara, which, though its details will 
 not bear too close an examination, is still conceived on so grand a 
 scale as to entitle it to rank with the buildings of an earlier age. 
 
 As seen by the plan of the Imambara (Woodcut No. 343), the 
 principal apartment is 162 ft. long by 53 ft. 6 in. wide. On the two 
 sides are verandahs, respectively 26 ft. 6 in. and 27 ft. 3 in. wide, 
 aud at each end an octagonal apartment, 53 ft. in diameter, the 
 whole interior dimensions being thus 263 ft. by 145 ft. This im- 
 mense building is covered with vaults of very simple form and still 
 simpler construction, being of a rubble or coarse concrete several feet 
 
 313. riaii of Imambara at Lucknow. (From Measurementi by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 in thickness, which is laid on a rude mould or centering of bricks 
 and mud, and allowed to stand a year or two to set and dry. The 
 centering is then removed, and the vault, being in one piece, stands 
 without abutment or thrust, apparently a better and more durable 
 form of roof than our most scientific Gothic vaulting ; certainly far 
 cheaper and far more easily made, since it is literally cast on a mud 
 form, which may be moulded into any shape the fancy of the architect 
 may dictate. 
 
 It would be a curious and instructive subject of speculation to try 
 to ascertain what would have been the fate of Mahomedan architecture 
 in India had no European influence been brought to bear upon it. The 
 materials for the inquiry are not abundant, but we can perceive that 
 the decadence had set in long before the death of Aurungzebe. It is 
 also evident that in such buildings as were erected at Agra or Delhi 
 during the lapse of the 18th century, even where no European in- 
 fluence can be traced, there is a feebleness and want of true perception, 
 though occasionally combined with a considerable degree of elegance. 
 There, however, the inquiry fails, because European influence made 
 itself felt before any actual change had developed itself, but in remote 
 
606 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book Yll. 
 
 corners the downward progress became apparent without any extra- 
 neous assistance. This is partially the case, as just mentioned, in the 
 Mysore ; but there is a cemetery at Junaghur, in Gujerat, where 
 there exists a group of tombs, all erected within this century, some 
 within the last tw^enty or thirty years, which exhibit more nearly 
 than any others I am acquainted with the forms towards which the 
 
 344. Tomb of the lato Nawab of Junaghur. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 style was tending. The style is not without a certain amount of 
 elegance in detail (Woodcut No. 344). The tracery of the windows 
 is frequently fascinating from its beauty, and all the carving is exe- 
 cuted with precision and appropriateness — but it is all wooden, or, in 
 other words, every detail would be more appropriate for a sideboard or 
 a bedstead, or any article of upholstery, than for a building in stone. 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 MOGUL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 607 
 
 The domes especially can hardly be traced back to their f^rand and 
 solemn form as used by the Pathan architects. The pinnacles arc 
 fanciful, and the brackets designed more for ornament than work. It 
 is a style, in fact, broken loose from the true principles of constructive 
 design, and when this is the case, no amount of ornament, however 
 elegant it may be, will redeem the want of propriety it inevitably 
 exhibits. 
 
 It is curious, however, and instructive, in concluding our history 
 of architecture as practised within the limits of India properly so 
 called, to observe how completely we have been walking in a circle. 
 We began by tracing how, two hundred years before Christ, a 
 wooden style was gradually assuming lithic forms, and by degrees 
 being elaborated into a style where hardly a reminiscence of wood 
 remained. We conclude with finding the style of Hullabid and 
 Bijapur, or Delhi, returning to forms as appropriate to carpentry 
 but as unsuited to masonry as the rails or gateways at Bharhut or 
 Sanchi. It might some time ago have been a question worth mooting 
 whether it was likely it would perish by persevering in this wrong 
 direction. That enquiry, however, seems idle now, as it is to be 
 feared that the death-blow will be given, as at Lucknow and else- 
 where, by the fatal imitation of a foreign style. 
 
608 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VU. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 WOODEN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 MosquG of Shah Humadan, Srinuggcr. 
 
 Kashmir. 
 
 Turning for the nonce from this quasi-wooden style — wliich is only 
 an indication of decadence and decrepitude — it would be pleasing if 
 we could finish our narrative with the description of a trae wooden 
 style as it exists in Kashmir. The Jumma Musjid, in the city of 
 Srinugger, is a large and important building, and if not so magni- 
 ficent as some of those described in the preceding pages, is of great 
 interest from being designed to be constructed in wood, and wood only. 
 A knowledge of its peculiarities would, consequently, help us much in 
 understanding many problems that arise in investigating the history 
 of architecture in India. Unfortunately it is not a fashionable build- 
 ing, and of the 1001 tourists who visit the valley no one mentions it, 
 and no photographer has yet set up his camera within its precincts.^ 
 
 Its plan apparently is the usual one : a courtyard surrounded by 
 cloisters, longer and loftier on the side towards Mecca, its peculiarity 
 being that all the pillars that support its roofs are of Deodar pine — 
 not used, of course, to imitate stone or stone construction, but honest 
 wooden forms, as in Burmese monasteries and elsewhere. The carving 
 on them is, I believe, rich and beautiful, and though dilapidated, the 
 effect is said to be still singularly pleasing. 
 
 There is one other mosque in the same city, known as that of 
 Shah Hamadan (Woodcut No. 345), which is equally erected wholly 
 in wood, and though very much smaller than the Jumma Musjid, is 
 interesting, in the first place, because its roof is probably very similar 
 to that which once covered the temple at Marttand (Woodcut No. 161)^ 
 and the crowning ornament is evidently a reminiscence of a Buddhist 
 
 ^ If Lieut. Cole, instead of repeating 
 plans and details of buildings which had 
 already been published by Gen. Cunning- 
 ham, had given us a plan and details of 
 this unknown building, he might have 
 
 rendere a service all would have been 
 grateful ior. What I know of it is prin- 
 cipally derived from verbal communica- 
 tion with Col. Montgomerie, R.E. 
 
Chap. XI. WOODEN AHCHTTECTUHE. G09 
 
 Tee, very much altered, it must be confessed, but still not so very 
 unlike some found in Nepal, as at Swayambunath (Woodcut No. 170), 
 for instance, and elsewhere. 
 
 The walls, too, are of interest to us, because the mode in which the 
 
 345. Mosque of Shah HaDiadan, vSrinngger. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 logs are disposed and ornamented resembles the ornamentation of the 
 Orissan temples more clearly than any stone forms Ave can call to mind. 
 The courses of the stone work in the tower of the great temple at 
 Bhuvaneswar (Woodcut No. 288), the Moitre Serai, and other temples 
 there, produce so nearly the same effect, that it does not seem 
 
 2 li 
 
GIO 
 
 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book VII. 
 
 improbable they may have been derived from some snob original. The 
 mode, too, in which the Orissan temples are carved, and the extent to 
 which that class of ornamentation is carried, is much more suggestive 
 of a wooden than of a lithic origin. 
 
 These, however, are questions that can only be profitably discussed 
 when we have more knowledge of this Kashmiri style than we now 
 possess. When the requisite materials are available for the pui-pose, 
 there are few chapters that will be of greater interest, or that will 
 more worthily conclude the Architectural History of India than those 
 that treat of the true and false styles of wooden art, with which the 
 narrative begins, and with which it also ends. 
 
( (ill ) 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 F U II T H E [{ I N D I A. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 BURMAH. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory — Ruins of Thatun, Prome, aud Pagan — Circular Dagobas — 
 Monasteries. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 The styles of architecture described in the preceding chapters of 
 this volume practically exhaust the enumeration of all those which 
 were practised in India Proper, with its adjacent island of Ceylon, 
 from the earliest dawn of our knowledge till the present day. It 
 might, therefore, be possible to treat their description as a work 
 complete in itself, and to conclude without reference to other styles 
 practised in neighbouring countries. It will add, however, immensely 
 not only to the interest but to the completeness of the work, if the 
 history is continued through the architectural forms of those countries 
 w^hich adopted religions originating in India, and borrowed with 
 them architectural forms which expressed, with more or less distinct- 
 ness, how far their religious beliefs differed from, or agreed Avith, 
 those of the country from which they were derived. 
 
 The first of these countries to which we naturally turn is Burmah, 
 which adopted the religion of Sakya Muni at a very early period, and 
 borrowed also many of the Indian forms of architecture, but with 
 differences we are now at a loss to account for. It may be, that, as 
 we know nothing practically of the architectural forms of the Lower 
 Bengal provinces before the beginning of the 6th century, these 
 forms may have been taken to Prome and Pegu before that time ; 
 or it may be that a northern or Thibetan element crept into Burmah 
 across the northern mountains by some route we cannot now follow. 
 These are intei'esting problems we shall not be able to solve till 
 
 R 2 
 
612 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 we have a more (critical knowledge than we now possess of Bnrmese 
 buildings. Thanks to the zeal and intelligence of some recent 
 English travellers, we do know a great deal abont Bnrmese art. 
 The works of Symes,^ Crawfnrd,^ and, above all, of Colonel Yule,-"* 
 are replete with information ; but what they did was done in the 
 intervals they were able to snatch from pressing public duties. 
 What is really wanted is, that some qualified person should take 
 up the subject specially, and travel through the country with no 
 other object than to investigate its antiquities. With the know- 
 ledge we now have, six months spent on such a mission ought to 
 tell us all, or nearly all, we now want to know.* Pending that 
 being done, we must be content to leave a good deal still to be 
 explained by future investigators. 
 
 Thatfx. 
 
 The earliest really authentic notice we have of these countries is 
 in the ' Mahawanso.' It is there related that, after the third con^'o- 
 cation — B.C. 240 — Asoka despatched two missionaries, Sono and Uttaro, 
 to Souverna Bhumi, the Golden Land, to carry the glad tidings of the 
 religion of the Vanquisher.^ It is now perfectly ascertained that this 
 place was almost certainly the Golden Chersonese of classical geo- 
 graphers, situated on the Sitang river, and now called Thatiin, about 
 forty miles' travelling distance north from Martaban.^ Since it ceased 
 to be a place of importance, either by the silting up from the river or 
 the elevation of the land, it is now no longer a port ; but there can be 
 little doubt that for some centuries before and after the Christian 
 Era it was the emporium through which a very considerable portion 
 of the trade between China and the western world was carried on. 
 The line of passage was apparently across the Bay of Bengal from 
 the delta of the Kistnah and Godavery ; and it was to this trade 
 route that we probably owe the rise and importance of Amravati 
 till it was superseded by the direct sea-voyage from Gujerat and 
 the west coast of India in the 6th century. The place was sacked 
 
 ' ' Embassy to Ava in 1795.' London, 
 3800, 4to., 27 plates. 
 
 ^ 'Journal of Embassy to Court of 
 Ava,' 1827. 4to., plates. 
 
 ^ 'Mission to Court of Ava in 1855.' 
 4to., numerous illustrations. 
 
 If any of our 1001 idle young men 
 who do not know what to do with them- 
 selves or their money would only qualify 
 themselves for, and carry out such a 
 ittission, it is wonderful how easily and 
 
 how pleasantly they might add to our 
 stores of knowledge. I am afraid it is 
 not in the nature of the Anglo-Saxon to 
 think of such a thing. Fox-hunting and 
 pheasant-shooting are more congenial 
 pursuits. 
 
 ^ ' Mahawanso,' p. 71 . 
 
 « R. F. St. John, in the 'Phoenix,' 
 vol. ii. p. 204, et seqq. Sir Arthur Phayre, 
 in 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. xlii. p. 2.S, et f^eqq. 
 
Cjiat. I. 
 
 PKOME. 
 
 G13 
 
 and entirely destroyed, according to Sir A. Phayre, in a.d. 1080, by 
 Aiiauratha, king of Pegu ; but long before that time it had been 
 dwindling, from the growing importance of Pegu, which was founded 
 in A.D. 517 or a.d. bl'S} 
 
 The only description of its ruins is by St. Andrew St. John, 
 in the second volume of the ' Phoenix ' above referred to ; but they 
 seem even now to be very extensive, in spite of neglect and conse- 
 quent decay. The w^alls can still be traced for 7700 ft. in one direc- 
 tion by 4000 ft. in another, enclosing a regular oblong of more than 
 700 acres. In this enclosure are several old pagodas, some, unfor- 
 tunately, recently repaired, but all of a form we have not yet met 
 with, though we shall presently when we come to speak of Java. 
 
 The principal pagoda here, like all the others, is built of hewn 
 laterite. Its base is a square, measuring 104 ft. each way, and 18 ft. 
 high ; the second storey is 70 ft. square and IGJ ft. high ; the third 
 48 ft. square and 12 ft. high. On this now stands a circular pagoda, 
 making up the whole height to 85 ft. Mr. St. John fancies this 
 circular part may be much more modern than the rest, but he adds, 
 " the whole face of the pagoda has been carved in patterns ; but the 
 most remarkable part is the second storey, to which access is given 
 by four flights of steps, one in the centre of each face. The whole was 
 apparently adorned with sculptures of the most elaborate character." 
 
 There seem to be no data to enable us to fix with certainty 
 the date of this or of Other similar pagodas in this place, and no 
 photographs to enable us to speak with certainty as to their details, 
 which is to be regretted, as it is just in such an old city as this that 
 we may expect to find those early forms which may explain so much 
 that is now unintelligible in subsequent examples. Thatiin was 
 coeval with Anuradhapura in Ceylon, and if examined with care, 
 might do as much for the square form of temple as the island 
 capital may do for the round form. Their greatest interest would, 
 how^ever, arise from the light they might throw on the square temples 
 of Pagan and other Burmese cities, whose origin it has hitherto been 
 impossible to explain. Meanwhile it is a fact worth bearing in 
 mind that we find here square three-storeyed pagodas, which cer- 
 tainly were erected before a.d. 1080, when the city was destroyed, 
 and probably before the 6th century, when it was practically super- 
 seded by the rise of the new city and kingdom of Pegu. 
 
 Prome. 
 
 If we might trust the Burmese annals, Prome was a capital city 
 as early as the year 101 of Faith, or after the Nirvana of Buddha.'-^ In 
 
 ' Sir A. PJi.iyrc, loc. cit. 
 
 - Cmwt'urd'.s 'Embassy to Ava,' vol. ii. p. "277. 
 
6U FURTHER INDIA. Book VII L 
 
 other words, it seems probable that Buddhist missionaries from the 
 second convocation held under Kalasoka, in the previous year (b.c. 483), 
 established themselves here, and introduced the new religion into 
 the country.^ The real political capital of the country at that time 
 seems to have been Tagoung, half-way between Ava and Bhamo, on 
 the Upper Irawaddi.^ Prome, however, seems to have continued the 
 religious capital till a.d. 107, when the two capitals were amal- 
 gamated, under the name of Old Pagan on the northern site, to be 
 again transferred to New Pagan, below Ava, about the year 847.^ 
 Upper Pagan seems to have been visited by Captain Hannay, in 
 A.D. 1835, and by others subsequently, and the remains are described 
 as extensive, but too much ruined and obscured by jungle to admit of 
 any scientific investigation. Those of Prome would probably be even 
 more interesting ; but I know of no description that enables us to 
 ascertain what they really are. I have photographs of some dagobas 
 — rather too tall to be very old — but, without some mouldings or 
 architectural details, it is impossible to guess even what their age 
 may be ; so that practically the architectural history of Burmah 
 begins with the foundation of Pagan in the middle of the 9th century, 
 and as it was destroyed by the Chinese, or rather the Tartar army 
 of Kublai Khan, in 1284,* its glory lasted little more than four cen- 
 turies. During that period, however, it was adorned by a very 
 extensive series of monuments, most of which still remain in a state 
 of very tolerable preservation. 
 
 It will thus be observed that the rise and fall of Pagan are, as 
 nearly as may be, coincident with that of Pollonarua, in Ceylon ; 
 but the Burmese city seems to have excelled the Ceylonese capital 
 both in the extent of its buildings and in their magnificence. Their 
 differences, too, both in form and detail, are very remarkable, but, 
 if properly investigated, would throw light on many religious and 
 ethnographical problems that are now very obscure. 
 
 Pagan. 
 
 The ruins of Pagan extend about eight miles in length along the 
 river, with an average breadth of about two miles, and within that 
 space Colonel Yule estimates there may still be traced the remains of 
 800 or 1000 temples. Several of these are of great magnificence, and 
 
 ^ It has recently become the fashion 
 to doubt the holding of this convocation 
 100 years after the death of Buddha ; but 
 this very pointed allusion to it, in the 
 early Burmese annals, so completely con- 
 firms what is said in the ' Mahawauso.' 
 
 that the fact of its being held docs not 
 appear to me doubtful. 
 
 2 Yule, ' Mission to Ava,' p. 30. 
 
 ^ Loc. cit., p. 32. 
 
 * Yule's 'Marco Polo,' vol. ii, p. 84, et 
 
 ' seqq. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PAGAN. 
 
 615 
 
 are kepfc in a state of repair ; but the bulk of them are in ruins, and 
 the forms of the greater part hardly distinguishable. 
 
 Plau of Ananda Temple. (From Yule.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 iu. 
 
 Of these, one of the most remarkable is that of Ananda. As will 
 be seen from the annexed plan (Woodcut No. 346), it is a square of 
 nearly 200 ft. on each 
 side, with projecting por- 
 ticos on each face, so that 
 it measures 280 ft. across 
 each way. Like all the 
 great pagodas of the city, 
 it is seven storeys in 
 height ; six of these are 
 square and flat, each di- 
 minishing in extent, so 
 as to give the whole a 
 pyramidal form ; the 
 seventh, which is or 
 simulates the cell of the 
 temple, takes the form 
 of a Hindu or Jaina 
 temple, the whole in this 
 
 instance rising to the 347. Plan of Xhapmya. (FromYule.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 height of 183 ft. 
 
 Internally, the building is extremely solid, being intersected only 
 
616 
 
 FUUTHKH INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 by two narrow concentric corridors ; but in rear of each projecting 
 transept is a niche most artificially lighted from above, in which 
 stands a statue of Buddha more than ;^>0 ft. in height. This is the 
 arrangement we find in the Chaumuk temple at Palitana and at 
 ►Sadri (Woodcut No. lo3), both Jaina temj^les of the loth century, 
 
 and which it is consequently rather surprising to find here as 
 early as the 11th century (a.d. 1066^) ; but the form and the whole 
 of the arrangement of these temples are so unlike what we find 
 elsewhere that we must be prepared for any amount of anomalies. 
 
 ^ Yule, ' Mission to Ava,' p. 3G. As 
 almost all the particulars here ineutioucd 
 arc taken from this work as the latest 
 
 and Lest, it will not be necessary to 
 repeat references on every page. 
 
Chap. T. 
 
 PAGAN. 
 
 617 
 
 Next in rank to this is the Thapiiiya — the Omniscient — erected 
 about the year 1100 by the grandson of the king who built the 
 Ananda. It is very similar to the Ananda both in dimensions and in 
 j)lan, except that it has only one porch instead of four, and consequently 
 only one great statue in its cell instead of four standing back to back. 
 Its height is '201 ft., and it is the highest in the place (Woodcuts Nos. 
 ;U7, US). 
 
 The third in importance is called the Gaudapalen, built in IKKi. 
 This temple is smaller than those just mentioned, but makes up in 
 richness and beauty of detail for its more diminutive dimensions. 
 
 The Dhamayaugyee, now in ruins, is quite equal in dimensions to 
 the Ananda, and very much resembles it in plan and design ; while one 
 called the Sem Byo Koo, is, in its details, the most beautiful of any. 
 
 349. View of the Temple of Gaudapalen. (From Yule.) 
 
 The general appearance of these temples will be understood from 
 the annexed view (Woodcut No. 849) of that called Gaudapalen, 
 and their general arrangements from the section of the Thapinya, of 
 which a plan is given (Woodcut No. 347). They are all so similar 
 that it is needless to multiply illustrations, the only real difference 
 being in the greater or less amount of ornament in stucco which has 
 been applied to each. 
 
 The first thing that strikes the inquirer on examining these 
 temples is their remarkable dissimilarity with anything on the con- 
 tinent of India. They are not topes in any sense of the term, nor are 
 they viharas. The one building we have hitherto met with which 
 they in any way resemble is the seven-storeyed Prasada at Pollo- 
 narua (Woodcut No. 106), which, no doubt, belongs to the same 
 
618 
 
 FUETHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIIL 
 
 class. It is possible that the square pagodas at Thatiin, when 
 properly examined, may contain the explanation we are searching 
 for. They evidently were not alone, and many other examples may 
 still be found when looked for. On the whole, however, I am inclined 
 to believe, improbable as it may at first sight appear, that their 
 real synonyms are to be found in Babylonia, not in India. The 
 Birs Nimroud is, like them, a seven-storeyed temple, with external 
 stairs, leading to a crowning cell or sanctuary. Of course, during 
 the seventeen centuries which elapsed between the erection of the 
 two buildings, considerable changes have taken place. The lowest 
 stairs in Burmah have become internal ; in Babylonia they were 
 apparently external. At the head of the third flight at the Birs, 
 Sir Henry Rawlinson found the remains of three recesses. At Pagan 
 these had been pushed into the centre of the third storey. The 
 external flights were continued on the upper three storeys at both 
 places ; but in Babylonia they lead to what seems to have been the 
 real sanctuary, in Burmah to a simulated one only, but of a form 
 wliich, in India, always contained a cell and an image of the deity 
 to whom the temple was dedicated. 
 
 It may be asked. How is it possible that a Babylonian form should 
 reach Burmah without leaving traces of its passage through India ? 
 It is hardly a sufficient answer to say it must have come via Thibet 
 and Central Asia ; because, in the present state of our knowledge, we 
 do not know of such a route being used. It is a more probable 
 explanation to say that such monuments may have existed in the 
 great Gangetic cities, but, like these Burmese examples, in brick 
 and plaster ; and have perished, as they would be sure to do in that 
 climate, and where hostile races succeeded the Buddhists. But, 
 however it may be eventually accounted for, it hardly appears to 
 me doubtful that these Burmese seven-storeyed temples are the lineal 
 descendants of the Babylonian examples, and that we shall some day 
 be able to supply the gaps which exist in their genealogy. 
 
 Meanwhile one thing must be borne in mind. The earliest capital 
 of the Burmese was Tagoung in the north, and their real affinities are 
 with the north. They got their religion by the southern route from 
 Bengal, but it was engrafted on a stem of which we know very little, 
 and all whose affinities have yet got to be traced to their source. 
 
 Before leaving these square temples, it may be well to point out 
 some peculiarities which are new to us. In the first place it is a 
 purely brick style, and, as such, using true radiating arches, not only 
 to si3an the openings but to roof their passages and halls. This is 
 so unlike what we find in any part of India Proper, that it seems 
 to point with certainty to some foreign — most probably a northern — 
 country for its origin. As frequently mentioned above, no Buddhist 
 
ClIAP. I. 
 
 CIRCULAR DAGOBAS. 
 
 619 
 
 arch is known to exist in India,^ and, except in the reign of Akbar, 
 hardly a Hindu one, in any temple down to the present day. It 
 could hardly, in consequence, be derived from that country, but there 
 is no reason for believing that the Chinese or Tartar nations ever 
 showed any aversion to these forms. We know, at all events, that 
 the Assyrians and Babylonians used brick arches long before the 
 Christian Era, and the art may have been communicated by them 
 to the nations of Northern Asia, and from them it may have come 
 down the Irawaddi. 
 
 It would be a curious speculation to try and find out what the 
 Jains in western India would have done had they been forced to use 
 brick instead of stone during the 11th and 12th centmies, which w^as 
 the great building epoch on the Irawaddi and in Gujerat. Possibly 
 they would have arrived at the same conclusion, in which case we 
 can only congratulate ourselves that the w-esterns were not tempted 
 with the fatal facility of bricks and mortar. 
 
 Another peculiarity is, that these square Burmese pagodas adopt 
 the curvilinear sikra of the Indo-Aryan style. This may be con- 
 sidered a sufficient indication that they derived some, at least, of 
 their architectural features, as well as their religion, from India ; but 
 as this form was adopted by both Jains and Hindus in the north of 
 India, from the mouths of the Indus to the Bay of Bengal in that age, 
 it hardly enables us to point out the particular locality from which 
 it was derived, or the time at which it was first introduced. It is, 
 however, so far as we at present know, the only instance of its being 
 found out of India Proper. 
 
 Cjecular Dagobas. 
 
 Leaving these square quasi-Jaina temples, which are clearly excep- 
 tional, the dagobas of Burmah are found to be generally much more 
 like those which are found in India and Ceylon, though many, having 
 been erected only in the present century, are of forms more complex 
 and attenuated than those in India Proper. 
 
 The one most like the Indian type is that known as the Kong 
 Madii, not far from Mengun, on the same side of the river. The 
 mass of the dome, according to Colonel Yule,^ is about 100 ft. diameter. 
 It is taller than a semicircle — which would indicate a modern date — 
 and stands on three concentric bases, each wider than the other. 
 Round the whole is a railing, consisting of 784 stone pillars, each 
 standing about 6 ft. out of the ground, and divided into four quadrants 
 
 * I of course except the arches in the in 1305. See ante, p. 69. 
 tower at Biiddh Gaya, which, I believe, ^ • Mission to Ava,' p. 66. 
 were introduced by these very Burmese 
 
r,(X)K YIH. 
 
 FURTHER 1NI)[A. 
 
 (>20 
 
 by four stone gateways (Woodcut No. i55U). An inscription, on a 
 white marble slab, records the erection of this pagoda between the 
 
 years 1686 and 1650. I, at one time, thouglit it must be older ; but 
 the evidence of recent explorations renders this date more probable 
 than it formerly appeared. If correct, it is curious as showing how 
 little real change had occurred during the sixteen centuries which 
 elapsed between the erection of the tope at Sanchi (Woodcuts Nos. 
 10-12) and the seventeenth century. 
 
 PerhajDS the most important pagoda in the Burmese empire is 
 the great Shoemadu ^ at Pegu, of which a plan and elevation are 
 given from those published by Colonel Symes in his account of his 
 embassy to Ava. As will be seen from the woodcuts (Nos. 351, 
 352), the plan deviates considerably from the circular form, which is 
 exclusively used in the edifices of this class hitherto described, and 
 approaches more nearly to those elaborately polygonal forms which are 
 affected by all the Hindu builders of modern date. It returns, how- 
 ever, to the circular form before terminating, and is crowned, like all 
 Burmese buildings of this class, by an iron spire or tee richly gilt. 
 
 Another peculiarity is strongly indicative of its modern date : 
 namely, that instead of a double or triple range of pillars surrounding 
 its base, we have a double range of minute i)agodas — a mode of orna- 
 mentation that subsequently became typical in Hindu architecture — 
 their temples and spires being covered, and, indeed, (X)mposed of in- 
 numerable models of themselves, clustered together so as to make 
 up a whole. As before remarked, something of the same sort occurs 
 in Eoman art, where every window and opening is surmounted by a 
 
 Literally " Golden great god." Madu is the Burmese for Maha Deva. 
 
C'HAP. T. SHOEMAPU PACxODA, PKGU. 621 
 
 pediment or iiiiiuatnre temple end, and in Gothic art, wliere a oi-eat 
 spire is snrronnded by pinnacles or spirelets : bnt in these styles it is 
 never carried to the same excess as in Hindu art. In the ])resent 
 
 351. Slioemadu Pagoda, Tegu. (From Col. Rj'mes' ' Kmbassy to Ava.') 
 
 352. Half-plan of Shoemadu Pagoda. (From Symes.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. 
 
 instance it is interesting:, as beino- one of the earliest attempts at this 
 class of decoration. 
 
 The bnildino- stands on two terraces, the lower one about 10 ft. 
 
G22 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 liigh, and 181)1 ft. square ; the upper one, 20 ft. in height, and ft. 
 square ; from the centre rises the pagoda, the diameter of whose base 
 is 395 ft. The small pagodas are 27 ft. high, and 108 or 110 in 
 number ; while the great pagoda itself rises to the height of 381 ft. 
 above its terrace, or 361 ft. above the country, thus reaching a height 
 nbout equal to that of St. Paul's Cathedral : while the side of the upper 
 terrace is only 83 ft. less than that of the great Pyramid. 
 
 Tradition ascribes its commencement to two merchants, who raised 
 it to the height of 12 cubits, at an age slightly subsequent to that of 
 Buddha himself. Successive kings of Pegu added to it from time to 
 time, till at last it assumed its present form, most probably about three 
 or four centuries ago. 
 
 The next in importance, so far as we know, is the more generally 
 known Shoedagong pagoda at Eangun, a building very similar in 
 dimensions to the last named, and by no means unlike it, except 
 that the outline of the base is cut up to even a greater extent, and 
 the spire more attenuated — both signs of a comparatively modern 
 date. The base is even more crowded by little temples than that 
 at Pegu, and its whole height is somewhat less. There is, however, 
 no essential difference between the two buildings, and this is prhicipally 
 interesting as leading us one step further in the series from the solid 
 hemispherical mound to the thin spire, which, both in Burmah and 
 Siam, is the modern form usually assumed by these edifices, till they 
 lose all but a traditional resemblance to the buildings from Avhich they 
 originally sprang. 
 
 The general appearance of their spires may be gathered from the 
 three shown on the left of the annexed woodcut (No. 353), which is 
 precisely that of the Great Pagoda. This illustration is also valuable 
 as showing the last lineal descendant of these great human-headed 
 winged lions that once adorned the portals of the palaces at Nineveh ; 
 but after nearly 3000 years of wandering and ill-treatment have 
 degenerated into these wretched caricatures of their former selves. 
 
 The Shoedagong pagoda, like all the more important ones, is 
 fabled to have been commenced about 2300 years ago, or about the 
 era of Buddha himself ; its sanctity, however, is owing to its con- 
 taining relics, not only of the last Buddha, but also of his three prede- 
 cessors — Buddha having vouchsafed eight hairs of his head to its two 
 founders, on the understanding that they were to be enshrined with 
 the relics of the three former Buddhas, where and when found.^ After 
 numerous miraculous indications, on this spot were discovered the staff 
 of Kakusanda, believed to have lived some 3000 years before Christ, 
 the Avater-dipper of Konagamma, and the bathing garment of Kasyapa, 
 which, with the eight hairs above mentioned, are enshrined within 
 
 ' See p. 58. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PAGODAS AT RANGUN. 
 
 623 
 
 this great pagoda.^ Originally, however, notwithstanding the valne 
 of its deposit, the building was small, and it is probably not more than 
 a century since it assumed its present form. 
 
 A crowd of smaller pagodas surrounds the larger one, of all sizes, 
 from 30 ft. to 200 ft. in height, and even more. There is scarcely a 
 
 353. View of Pagoda in Rangun. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 village in the country that does not possess one or two, and in all the 
 more important towns they are numbered by hundreds ; indeed, they 
 may almost be said to be innumerable. They are almost all quite 
 modern, and so much alike as not to merit any distinct or separate 
 
 ^ See account of the Great Bell at Eangim, by the Rev. G. H. Houj^h, 'Asiatic 
 Researches,' vol. xiv. p. 270. 
 
FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 mention. They indicate, however, a great degree of progressive wealth 
 and power in the nation, from the earliest times to the present day, 
 and an increasing prevalence of the Bnddhistical system. This is a 
 direct contrast to the history of Ceylon, whose glory was greatest in 
 the earliest centuries of the Christian Era, and was losing its purity 
 at the time when the architectural history of Burmah first dawns 
 upon us. Thus the buildings of one country supplement those of the 
 other, and present together a series of examples of the same class, 
 ranging over more than 2000 years, if we reckon from the oldest 
 topes in Ceylon to the most modern in Burmah. 
 
 At a place called Mengiin, about half-way between the former 
 capital of Amirapura and the present one at Mandale, are two pagodas, 
 which are not without considerable interest for our present purposes ; 
 if for no other reason, at least for this — that both were erected 
 within the limits of the present century, and show that neither 
 the forms nor aspirations of the art were wholly extinguished even 
 in our day. The first is circular in form, and was erected in the 
 year 1816, in the reign of a king of Burmah called Bodo Piyah, who 
 is also the author of the second. As will be seen from the woodcut 
 (No. 354), it is practically a dagoba, with five concentric procession- 
 paths. Each of these is ornamented by a curious serpent-like balus- 
 trade, interspersed with niches containing, or intended to contain, 
 statues of Buddha, and is accessible by four flights of steps facing 
 the four cardinal points. The Avhole is surrounded by a low cir- 
 cular wall, 750 ft. in diameter, said to represent the serpent Ananta. 
 Within this is a basement, measuring about 400 ft. across, and this, 
 with the procession-paths and dagoba on the summit, make up 
 seven storeys, intended, it is said, to symbolise the mythical Mount 
 Meru.i 
 
 It will be recollected that, when speaking of the great dagobas of 
 Anuradhapura in Ceylon, it was pointed out {ante^ p. 190) that they 
 had three procession-paths round their bases, ascended in like manner 
 by flights of steps opposite the four cardinal points of the compass. 
 It is interesting to observe here, after a lapse of 2000 years, and at a 
 distance of nearly 1500 miles, the changes have been so small. It is 
 true the number of procession-paths has increased from three to five, 
 and the terraces become relatively much more important than in the 
 older examples ; but, barring this and some changes in detail, the 
 
 * The above particulars are abstracted 
 from a paper by Col. Sladen in tlie 
 ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 
 vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 406, with remarks by 
 Gol. Yule and others. It is curious that 
 there is a discrepancy between the native 
 and tlie European authorities as to the 
 
 number of storeys — not mechanical, of 
 course, but symbolical ; wliether, in fact, 
 the basement should be counted as a 
 storey, or not. The above I believe to 
 be the correct enumeration. We shall 
 presently meet with the same difficulty 
 in describing Boro Buddor in Java. 
 
G26 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VriT. 
 
 monuments are practically the same, notwithstanding all the curious 
 varieties that have sprung up in the interval. 
 
 The other pagoda at this place was commenced by the same king, 
 called Mentara Gye, or Bodo Piyah, who died in 1819, and seems to 
 have been an attempt to revive the old square forms of Pagan, in the 
 same manner as the other was intended to recall memories of the 
 older forms of early Indian Buddhism. " It stands on a basement 
 of five successive terraces, of little height, the lower terrace forming 
 a square of 450 ft. From the upper terrace starts the vast cubical 
 pile of the pagoda, 230 ft. square in plan, and rishig, in a solid 
 mass, to the height of about 100 ft., with slightly sloping walls. 
 Above this it contracts in successive terraces, three of which had 
 been completed, raising the mass to a height of 165 ft., at the time 
 the work was abandoned." ^ From a model standing near, it is 
 inferred that, if completed, it would have risen to the height of 
 500 ft. ; it is even now a solid mass containing between 6,000,000 
 and 7,000,000 cubic feet of brickwork. Had it been carried out, it 
 would have been the tallest building in the world. It was, how- 
 ever, shattered by an earthquake in 1839 ; but, even in its ruined 
 state, is as large and imposing a mass of brickwork as is to be 
 found anywhere.2 Since the pyramids of Egypt, nothing so great 
 has been attempted, and it belongs to the 19th century ! 
 
 Monasteries. 
 
 As Burmah is a country in which the monastic system of Buddhism 
 flourishes at the present day to the fullest extent, if we had more 
 information regarding its monasteries, or Inoums as they are called, it 
 might enable us to understand the arrangement of the older ones. 
 The travellers who have visited the country have been silent on the 
 subject, principally because the monasteries are, in almost all instances, 
 less magnificent than the pagodas to which they are attached, and are, 
 with scarcely an exception, built of wood — a practice destructive of 
 their architectural character, and also depriving them wholly of that 
 monumental appearance of stability which is so essential to true 
 architectural expression. 
 
 This peculiarity is not confined to the monasteries ; all residences, 
 from that of the poorest peasant to the palace of the king, having been 
 constructed from time immemorial of this perishable material. The 
 custom has now passed into a law, that no one shall have the power 
 of erecting buildings of stone or brick, except it be the king himself, 
 or unless the edifices be of a purely religious character. Even this 
 exception is not always taken advantage of, for the king's palace 
 
 * • Mission to the Court of Ava,' p. 169. 
 
 2 A view of this ruin will be found in Yule's ' Mission to Ava,' plate 23. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 MONASTERIES. 
 
 627 
 
 itself is as essentially a wooden erection as the dwelling of any of 
 his subjects. It is, however, not the less magnificent on this account 
 —rather, perhaps, more so— immense sums being spent on the most 
 elaborate carvings, and the whole being lacquered, painted, and gilt, 
 
 355. FaQAde of the King's Palace, Burmah. (From a Sketch by Col. Yule.) 
 
 to an extent of which we have no conception in our more sober 
 clime. 
 
 The general appearance of the facade may be realised from the 
 annexed view (Woodcut No. :^>55) ; but its real magnificence consists 
 
 2 s 2 
 
628 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 ]i(H.K YIII. 
 
 in the profusion of gilding and curving with wliich every part is 
 covered, and to which it is impossible to do justice on so small a 
 scale. 
 
 The same profuse decorations are bestowed upon the monasteries, 
 one of which is represented in the annexed woodcut ^ (No. 356), 
 showing a building in which all the defects arising from the use of so 
 easily carved a material, are carried to excess. If the colouring and 
 gilding could be added, it would represent a building such as the West 
 never saAV, and, let us hope, never will see ; for, however dazzling 
 its splendour, such barbaric magnificence is worthy only of a half- 
 civilized race. 
 
 356. Burmese Kioiim. (From Col. Symes' ' Embassy to Ava.') 
 
 The naked form of these monasteries — if the expression may be 
 used — will be understood from the following woodcut (No. 857) of 
 one recently erected at Mandale, and, though inhabited, not (jnite 
 finished. It is five storeys in height, and, if I mistake not, as nearly 
 reproduces the Lowa Maha Paya of Anuradhapura, as the circular 
 Mengun pagoda does the Abhayagiri or Kuanwelli dagobas there. 
 Here, however, the storeys have lost their meaning ; only one storey 
 is used as a residence ^ — the first, or " piano nobile," as we would call 
 it. The upper storeys are only ornamental reminiscences of past 
 utilitarian forms, but which evidently once had a meaning. Had the 
 building been completed — perhaps it is now — it would have been 
 ornamented with carving as richly as that represented in the pre- 
 
 » Yule's ' Mission to Ava,' p. 1G3. 
 
Chap. 1. MONASTERIES. 629 
 
 ceding Avoodcut, for it is one of the advantages of wooden architec- 
 ture, that its decorative features may be added after the fabric is 
 practically complete in all essential points. 
 
 357. Monastery at Mandale. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 These many-storeyed kioums, with the tall seven- storeyed spires 
 (shown in Woodcuts Nos. 353 and 356), bring us back to the many- 
 storeyed temples in Nepal, which are in all essential respects so nearly 
 identical, that it can hardly be doubted they had a common origin. 
 We are not yet in a position to point out the connecting links which 
 will fuse the detached fragments of this style into a homogeneous 
 whole, but it is probibly in China that they must be looked for, only 
 we know so little of the architectural history of the western portion 
 of that great country, that we must wait for further information 
 before even venturing on this subject. 
 
 The fact that all the buildings of Burmah are of wood, except the 
 pagodas, may also explain how it is that India possesses no architec- 
 tural remahis anterior to the age of Asoka. Except the comparatively 
 few masonry pagodas, none of which existed prior to his era, there 
 is nothing in Burmah that a conflagration of a few hours would not 
 destroy, or the desertion of a few years entirely obliterate. That the 
 same was the practice of India is almost certain, from the essentially 
 wooden forms still found prevailing in all the earlier cave temples ; 
 and, if so, this fully accounts for the disappearance of all earlier 
 monuments. 
 
 AYe know that wooden architecture was the characteristic of Nin- 
 eveh, where all the constructive parts were formed in this perishable 
 material ; and from the Bible we learn that Solomon's edilices were 
 
630 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 chiefly so constructed. Persepolis presents us with the earliest instance 
 in Asia of this wooden architecture being petrified, as it were — appa- 
 rently in consequence of the intercourse its builders maintained with 
 Egypt and with Greece. 
 
 In Bnrraah these wooden types still exist in more completeness 
 than, perhaps, in any other country. Even if the student is not pre- 
 pared to admit the direct ethnographic connexion between the build- 
 ings of Burmah and Babylon — which seems hardly to admit of doubt 
 — he will at any rate best learn in this country to appreciate much 
 in ancient architecture, Avhich, without such a living illustration, 
 it is hard to understand. Solomon's House of the Cedars of Lebanon 
 is, with mere difference of detail, reproduced at Ava or Amirapnra ; 
 and the palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis are rendered infinitely 
 more intelligible by the study of these edifices. Burmah is almost 
 equally important in enabling us to understand what an active, 
 prosperous Buddhist community may have been in India at a time 
 when that religion flourished there ; and altogether, if means were 
 available for its full elucidation, it would form one of the most in- 
 teresting chapters in the History of Architecture in Asia. 
 
ClIAl'. 11. 
 
 vSIAM. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SIAM. 
 
 Piigodas at Ayuthia aud Bangkok — Hall of Audieucc at Bangkok — Geueral 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Although the architecture of Siam is very much less importaut than 
 that of Burmah on the one hand, or Cambodia on the other, it is still 
 sufficiently so to prevent its being passed over in a general summary 
 of styles. Its worst feature, as we now know it, is, that it is so ex- 
 tremely modern. Up to the 14th century the capital of the country 
 was Sokotay, a city on the Menam, 200 miles from the sea in a direct 
 line, and situated close to the hills. This city has not been visited 
 by any traveller in modern times, so we do not know what buildings 
 it may contain. About the year 1350 the Siamese were successful 
 in their wars with the Cambodians, and eventually succeeded in 
 capturing their capital, Intha patha puri, or Indra prestha (Delhi), 
 and practically annexing Cambodia to their kingdom. 
 
 Having accomplished this, they moved their capital down to 
 Ayuthia, a little more than fifty miles from the sea ; and three centuries 
 afterwards Bangkok succeeded it, and is now the capital. It is by 
 no means certain whether this migration downwards was caused by 
 political events and increasing commerce, or from the country gra- 
 dually becoming drier and more fit for human habitation. Judging 
 from what happened in Bengal in historical times, I should fancy it 
 was the latter. 
 
 In India we find civilized nations first established in the Punjab 
 and on the watershed between the Sutlej and the Jumna. Between 
 2000 and 3000 years B.C. Oude seems to have become dry enough for 
 human habitation, and Ayodhya ^ (from which the Siamese capital took 
 its name) became the chief city. Between 1000 and 500 B.C. Janak- 
 pore on the north, and Rajagriha on the south, were the capital cities 
 of Bengal ; but both being situated on the hills, it was not till Asoka's 
 time (250 B.C.) that Patna on the Soane and Vaisali on the Gunduck, 
 became capitals ; and still another 1000 years elapsed before Caur 
 and Dacca became important, while Moorshedabad, Hooghly, and 
 
 ' The Siamese invariably cliange the Indian d into tJi. 
 
032 
 
 FURTHER INDIA, 
 
 Rook Vlll. 
 
 ( Ulciitta, are cities of yesterday.^ The same phenomenon seems to have 
 occurred in Siam, and, what is of stiU more interest, as we shaU 
 presently see, in Cambodia. 
 
 As Ayuthia was for three centuries the flourishing capital of one 
 of the g-reat building races of the world, we should, of course, look for 
 considerable magnificence having been displayed in its architecture. 
 From the accounts of the early Portuguese and ])utch ti-avellers who 
 
 358. Ruins of a Pagoda at Ayuthia. 
 
 visited it in the days of its glory, it seems to have merited the title 
 they bestowed upon it of the " Venice of the East," and the remains 
 justify tlieir eulogiums. The buildings, however, seem to have been 
 l)rincipally constructed of brick and wood ; and as the city has now 
 been practically deserted for more than a century, the wild fig-trees 
 
 1 For the inirticularis of this deaicca- ' ' Journal of the Geological Society,' April, 
 tion of the VaUey of tlic Ganges, see the 1863. 
 
CiiAr. II. 
 
 PAGODA AT AYUTHIA. 
 
 G33 
 
 liave every wlicre inserted their roots into the masonry, and decay 
 has progressed rapidly among the wooden erections. As described 
 by recent visitors, nothing can be more wildly picturesque than this 
 once splendid city, now overgTown with jungle : but such a stage of 
 dec.iy is, of all conditions, the least favourable to the researches of 
 the antiquary. 
 
 The form which the older pagodas took at Ayuthia differs in 
 many essential respects from those which we find either in India or 
 in Burmah. The top or 
 upper part has a rounded 
 domical shape, which we 
 can easily fancy to be 
 derived from the tope, 
 but the upright part 
 looks more like the sikra 
 of a Hindu temple than 
 anything Buddhist. If 
 we had a few earlier ex- 
 amples, perhaps we might 
 trace the steps by which 
 the one passed into the 
 other ; at present the gaps 
 in the series are too great 
 to be bridged over w^ith 
 anything approaching cer- 
 tainty. One link, how- 
 ever, seems to be supplied 
 by the temples of Nakhon 
 Wat in Cambodia, of which 
 more hereafter. 
 
 The same outline is 
 found in the crowning 
 members of the pagodas of 
 Bangkok, but they are 
 
 covered with an elabora- l^uiusofaPagoduat Ayuthia. (From Muuhot.) 
 
 tion of detail and exuber- 
 ance of coloured ornament th.it has seldom been surpassed, nor is it 
 desirable it should be, for it is here carried to an extent truly 
 barbarous (Woodcut No. 3G0). 
 
 Notwithstanding the bad taste which they display, these Bangkok 
 pagodas are interesting in the history of architecture as exemplifying 
 the instinctive mode in which some races build, and the innate and 
 irrepressible love of architecture they display. But it also shows 
 how easily these higher aspii'ations degenerate into something vei*y 
 
3G ). 
 
 The Great I'owct of the P.igod.i \Vat-chiiig at Bangkok. (From Mouhot.) 
 
Chap. 11. HALL OF AUDIENCE AT BANGKOK. 635 
 
 like \^nlg:arity, when exercised by a people in so low a stage of 
 civilization as the modern Siamese. 
 
 The same remarks apply to their civie baildings : palaces and 
 porticos, and even dwelling-houses, are all as rich as carving and 
 
G3G 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 gilding, and painting, can make them ; but, as in the pagodas, it is 
 overdone, and fails to please, because it verges on vulgarity. 
 
 The typical design of all these halls and minor buildings will 
 be understood from the preceding woodcut, representing the Hall of 
 Audience at Bangkok. Like all the others, it has two roofs inter- 
 secting one another at right angles, and a spire of greater or less 
 elevation on the intersection. Sometimes one, two, or three smaller 
 gables are placed in front of the first, each lower than the one behind 
 it, so as to give a pyramidal effect to the whole. Generally, the sub- 
 ordinate gables are of the same width as those in the centre ; but 
 sometimes the outer one is smaller, forming a porch. In the audience 
 hall just quoted there are three gables each way. These may be seen 
 on the right and left of the central spire in the view, but the first and 
 second towards the front are hidden by the outer gable. The point 
 of sight being taken exactly in front, it looks in the view as if there 
 were only one in that direction. 
 
 The Burmese adopt the same arrangement in their civil buildings, 
 and in Siam and Burmah the varieties are infinite, from the simple 
 pavilion with four gables, supported on four pillars,^ to those with 
 twelve and sixteen gables, combined with a greater complication of 
 walls and pillars for their support. 
 
 As the Siamese are certainly advancing in civilization, it may be 
 asked. Will not their architecture be improved and purified by the 
 process ? The answer is, unfortunately, too easy. The new civiliza- 
 tion is not indigenous, but an importation. The men of progress wear 
 hats, the ladies crinolines, and they build palaces with Corinthian 
 porticos and sash-windows. It is the sort of civilization that is 
 found in the Bazar in Calcutta, and it is not desirable, in an archi- 
 tectural point of view, at all events, if, indeed, it is so in any other 
 respect. 
 
 ^ Tliis form is interesting to us as it is 
 that adopted for the Albert Memorial in 
 Hyde Park, the style of decoration of 
 
 wliicli is also much more like that em- 
 ployed in Siam than anything yet at- 
 tempted out of doors in Europe. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 G87 
 
 OHAPTER III. 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 History — Boro Buddor — Temples at Mcndoet and Brambanam — Tree and 
 Serpent Temples— Temples at Djeiug and Suku. 
 
 There is no chapter in the whole history of Eastern art so full of 
 apparent anomalies, or which so completely upsets our preconceived 
 ideas of things as they ought to be, as that which treats of the archi- 
 tectural history of the island of Java. In the Introduction, it was 
 stated that the leading phenomenon in the history of India was the 
 continued influx of race after race across the Indus into her fertile 
 plain, but that no reflex wave had ever returned to redress the 
 balance.^ This seems absolutely true as regards the west, and practi- 
 cally so in reference to the north, or the neighbouring countries on 
 the east. Thibet and Burmah received their religion from India, not, 
 however, either by conquest or colonisation, but by missionaries sent 
 to instruct and convert. This also is true of Ceylon, and partially so 
 at least of Cambodia. These countries being all easily accessible by 
 land, or a very short sea passage, it is there that we might look for 
 migrations, if any ever took place, but it is not so. The one country 
 to which they overflowed was Java, and there they colonised to such 
 an extent as for nearly 1000 years to obliterate the native arts 
 and civilization, and supplant it by their own. What is still more 
 singular is, that it was not from the nearest shores of India that these 
 emigrants departed, but from the western coast. We have always 
 been led to believe that the Indians hated the sea, and dreaded long 
 sea voyages, yet it seems almost certain that the colonists of Java 
 came not from the valley of the Ganges, but from that of the Indus, 
 and passed round Ceylon in thousands and tens of thousands on their 
 way to their distant sea-girt home. The solution of this difficulty 
 may perhaps be found in the suggestion that the colonists were not 
 Indians after all, in the sense in which we usually understand the 
 term, but nations from the north-west — the inhabitants in fact of 
 
 ^ " As for the Indian kings none of 
 Ihem ever letl an army out of India to 
 attempt the conquest of any other 
 
 country, lest they should le deemed 
 guilty of injustice."— Arrian, ' Indica,' 
 ch. ix. 
 
638 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 (xandham and Caml)odia, who, finding no room for new settlements 
 ill India Proper, tnrning to their right, passed down the Indus, and 
 sought a distant home on this Pearl of Islands. 
 
 Whoever they were, they carried with them the bad habit of all 
 their cognate races, of writing nothing, so that we have practically 
 no authentic written record of the settlement and of its subsequent 
 history, and were it not that they made up for this deficiency to a 
 great extent by their innate love of building, we should hardly know 
 of their existence in the island. They did, however, build and carve, 
 Avith an energy and to an extent nowhere surpassed in their native 
 lands, and have dignified their new home Avith imperishable records 
 of their art and civilization — records that will be easily read and 
 understood, so soon as any one will take the trouble to devote to them 
 the attention with which they deserve to be studied. 
 
 It has been said, and not without reason, that the English did 
 more for the elucidation of the arts and history of Java during the 
 live years they held the island (1811 to 1816) than the Dutch had 
 done daring the previous two centuries they had practically been in 
 possession. The work of the governor. Sir Stamford Eaffles, is a 
 model of zealous energy and critical acumen, such as is rarely to be 
 found of its class in the English language, and is the storehouse from 
 which the bulk of our knowledge of the subject must still be derived. 
 His efforts in this direction were well seconded by two Scotchmen, 
 who took up the cause with almost equal zeal. One of these, John 
 Crawfurd, noted down everything he came across Avith patient 
 industry, and accumulated vast stores of information — but he could 
 not draAV, and knew nothing of architecture or the other arts, with 
 which he had no sympathy. The other, Colin Mackenzie — afterwards 
 Surveyor-General of India — drew everything he found of any archi- 
 tectural importance, and was the most industrious and successful 
 collector of drawings and manuscripts that India has ever known ; 
 but he could not write. The few essays he attempted are meagre in 
 the extreme, and nine-tenths of his knowledge perished Avith him. 
 Had these tw^o men been able to Avork together to the end, they would 
 have left little for future investigation. There was, hoAvever, still a 
 fourth labourer in the field — Dr. John Leyden — Avho, had his life been 
 spared, could have easily assimilated the w^ork of his colleagues, and 
 Avith his OAvn marvellous genius for acquiring languages and know- 
 ledge of all sorts, Avould certainly have lifted the veil that now 
 shrouds so much of Javan history in darkness, and left very little to 
 be desired in this respect. He died, lioAvever, almost before his Avork 
 was begun, and the time was too short, and the task too ncAV, for 
 the others to do all that Avith more leisure and better preparation 
 they might haA^e accomplished. 
 
Chap. IJI. 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 639 
 
 During- the last sixty years the Dutch have done a good deal to 
 redeem the neglect of the previous centuries, but, as has happened in 
 the sister island of Ceylon, it has been without system, and no master 
 mind has arisen to give unity to the whole, or to extract from what 
 is done the essence, which is all the public care to possess. The 
 Dutch Government have, however, published, in four great folio 
 volumes, 400 plates, from Mr. Wilsen's drawings, of the architecture 
 and sculptures of Boro Buddor ; and the Batavian Society ^ have pub- 
 lished sixty-five photographic plates of the same monument ; and as 
 Dr. Leemans of Leyden has added a volume of text, historical and 
 descriptive, there is no monument in the East so fully and so well 
 illustrated as this one, and probably none that better deserves the 
 pains that have been bestowed upon it.^ The same Society have also 
 published 332 photographs of other Javan antiquities and temples, 
 l)ut, unfortunately, for the most part without any accompanying 
 text. A thoroughly well qualified antiquary, Heer Brumund, was 
 employed to visit the localities, and write descriptions, but unfor- 
 tunately he died before his task was half complete. A fragment 
 of his work is published in the 33rd volume of the ' Transactions ' 
 of the Society, but it is only a fragment, and just sufficient to make 
 us long for more. At the same time an Oriental scholar. Dr. 
 Friederich, Avas employed by G-overnment to translate the numerous 
 inscriptions that abound in the island, and which, without doubt, 
 Avould explain away all the difficulties in the history of the island 
 and its monuments. Some of these were published in the 2Gth 
 volume of the ' Verhandelingen ' in 1856, and more were promised, 
 but ill-health and accidents have hitherto prevented this being done, 
 and if he should happen to die before publishing the results, the 
 accumulations of half a century may perish with him. 
 
 From the above it may be gathered that a considerable amount of 
 information exists in English and Dutch publications regarding the 
 antiquities of Java, but it is rudis indlgestaque moles — descrip- 
 tions without illustration, and drawings and photographs without 
 description, very few plans, and, except for Boro Buddor, very few 
 architectural details ; no statistical account, and no maps on which all 
 the places can be recognised. It is provoking to think Avhen so much 
 has been done, how little more is required to bring order out of chaos, 
 and fuse the whole into one of the most interesting and most easily 
 intelligible chapters of architectural history. 
 
 ^ ' Bataviaasch Geuootscliap van 
 Kunsten en Wetenschappen.' They 
 have done me the honour of electing 
 me an honorary member of their Society 
 — an honour I feel all tlie more as it was 
 
 quite unsolicited and unexpected. 
 
 2 There are twelve plates illustrating- 
 the same monument in Sir Stamford 
 Raffles' ' History of Java.' 
 
G40 
 
 FUHTHEPv INDIA. 
 
 Book VrU. 
 
 History. 
 
 Amidst tlie (u)nfusioii of their annals, it is rather fortunate thai 
 the Javans make no claim to more remote political history than th() 
 fabled arrival in the island of Adji Saka, the founder of the Saka era 
 of the Buddhists, in a.d. 79. It is true that in the 8th or 9th cen- 
 tury they obtained an abridged translation of the ' Mahabharata,' and, 
 under the title of the ' Brata Yudha,' adopted it as a part of their 
 own history, assigning sites on the island for all the principal scenes 
 of that celebrated struggle which took place in the neighbourhood of 
 Delhi and Hastinapura, adding only their own favourite Gendara Desa 
 (Gandhara), to which they assigned a locality on the north of the 
 island.^ It is thus, unfortunately, that history is written in the East, 
 and because it is so written, the Javans next thought it necessary to 
 bring Salivahana, the founder of the Saka era, to their island also. 
 Having, as Buddhists, adopted his era, their childish vanity required 
 his presence there, but as it is certain he never saw the island, his 
 visit is fabled to have resulted in failure, and said to have left no traces 
 of his presence. 
 
 The next person who appears on the scene is one of the most mys- 
 terious in Indian history. In the annals of Siam,^ of Cambodia,^ of 
 Java,* and at Amravati,^ a prince of Rom, or Rum, coming from 
 Taxila, plays a most important part, but without apparently any very 
 permanent result. Nowhere is his name given, nor any particulars ; 
 most probably it is only a reminiscence of King Commerce. Nothing 
 is more likely than that the ships of the Roman or Byzantine em- 
 perors, with their disciplined crews, should have made an impression 
 on the semi-civilized communities of these remote lands, and the 
 memory be perpetuated in fabled exploits to modern times.^ 
 
 Leaving these fabulous ages, Ave at last come to a tradition that 
 seems to rest on a surer foundation. " In the year 525 (a.d. G08), it 
 being foretold to a king of Kuj'rat, or Gujerat, that his country would 
 decay and go to ruin, he resolved to send his son to Java. He em- 
 barked with about 5000 followers in six large and about 100 small 
 vessels, and after a voyage of four months, reached an island they 
 supposed to be Java ; but tinding themselves mistaken, re-embarked, 
 and finally settled at Matarem, in the centre of the island they were 
 
 1 Sir S. Raffles' ' History of Java/ pi. 
 24 ; text, vol. 1. p. 465, 8yo. edition. 
 
 2 'Journal of tlie Asiatic Society of 
 
 Society ' (N.S.), vol. iii. p. 153. 
 
 « There is little doubt that if the South 
 Sea Islanders had at some distant epoch 
 
 Bengal,' vol. xvii. pp. 80, 87. j become civilized without European as- 
 
 ^ Bastian, ' Die Volker dcr Oestlichcn | sistance, Captain Cook and the caily 
 
 Asieu,' vol. i. p. 393. j explorers would have figured in their 
 
 ^ Sir S. Raffle.*?, vol. ii. p. 73. j annals as English or French princes. 
 ^ ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
 
Chap. TII. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 641 
 
 seeking." " The prince now found that men alone were wanting to 
 make a great and flourishing state ; he accordingly applied to Gujerat 
 for assistance, when his father, delighted at his success, sent him a 
 reinforcement of 2000 people." " From this period," adds the chronicle, 
 " Java was known and celebrated as a kingdom ; an extensive commerce 
 was carried on with Gujerat and other countries, and the bay of 
 Matarem was filled with adventurers from all parts." 
 
 During the sovereignty of this prince and his two immediate 
 successors, "the country advanced in fame and prosperity. The city 
 of Mendang Kumulan, since called Brambanan, increased in size and 
 splendour : artists, particularly in stone and metals, arrived from dis- 
 tant countries, and temples, the ruins of which are still extant, were 
 constructed both at this place and at Boro Buddor, in Kedu, during 
 this period by artists invited from India." ^ 
 
 All this is fully confirmed by an inscription found at Menankabu, 
 in Sumatra, wherein a king, who styles himself Maha Raja Adiraja 
 Adityadharma King of Prathama — the first or greatest Java — boasts 
 of his conquests and prowess, and he proclaims himself a Buddhist, a 
 worshipper of the five Dyani Buddhas, and records his having erected 
 a great seven-storeyed vihara in honour of Buddha.^ This inscription 
 is dated fifty years later, or in a.d. 656, but its whole tone is so com- 
 pletely confirmatory of the traditions just quoted from Sir S. Raffles, 
 that there seems little doubt the two refer to events occurring about 
 the same time. 
 
 The only other event of importance in these early times bearing 
 on our subject is Fa Hian's visit to the island in a.d. 414, on his 
 way from Ceylon to China by sea. The more, however, I think of it, 
 the more convinced I am that Java the Less, or Sumatra, was really 
 the island he visited. It certainly was the labadius, or YavadAvipa, 
 of Ptolemy, and the Java the Less of the Arab geographers and of 
 Marco Polo ; ^ and all the circumstances of the voyage seem to point 
 rather to this island than to Java proper. His testimony is, how- 
 ever, valuable, as they seem to have been united under one emperor 
 in A.D. 656, and may have been so two centuries earlier. " In this 
 country," he says, " Heretics and Brahmans flourish ; but the Law of 
 Buddha is not much known." * As he resided there five months, and 
 had been fourteen years in India, he knew perfectly what he Avas 
 speaking about. 
 
 ' Sir S. Raffles' ' History of Java,' vol. 
 ii., 8vo. edition, p. 87, et seqq. 
 
 2 I am perfectly aware that this is not 
 borne out by the translation of this in- 
 scription given by Dr. Friedericli in vol. 
 xxvi. of the ' Verhandelingen;' but being 
 dissatisfied with its unmeaningness, I 
 
 took it to my friend, Profossor Eggeliiig, 
 who is perhaps a better Sanscrit scholar 
 than Friederich, and. he fully confirms my 
 view as above expressed. 
 
 3 Yule's 'Marco Polo,' vol. ii. p. 264, 
 et seqq. 
 
 * I3( al's translation, p. 1G9. 
 
 2 T 
 
642 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book YIll. 
 
 That there were Brahmans in these islands before the advent of 
 the Buddhist emigrants in the 7th century seems more than probable 
 from the traditions about Tritresta collected by Sir S. Raffles^ and 
 others ; but, if so, they were Aryan Brahmans, belonging to some of 
 the non-building races, who may have gone there as missionaries, 
 seeking converts, but hardly as colonists or conquerors. Indeed, all 
 over the island circles of stone are found, either wholly unfashioned 
 or carved into rude representations of Hindu deities — so rude that 
 even Ganesa can hardly sometimes be recognised ; and it frequently 
 requires an almost Hindu trustfulness to believe that these rude 
 stones sometimes represent even Siva and Vishnu and other gods 
 of the Hindu Pantheon.^ It seems as if the early Brahmans tried to 
 teach their native converts to fashion gods for themselves, but, 
 having no artistic knowledge of their own to communicate, failed 
 miserably in the attempt. The Buddhists, on the contrary, were 
 artists, and came in such numbers that they were able to dispense with 
 native assistance, nearly if not altogether. 
 
 The next recorded event that seems to bear on our investigations 
 is the mission of the children of Dewa Kusuma to Kling or India, 
 in order that they might be educated in the Brahmanical religion.^ 
 This event took place in a.d. 924, and seems to point distinctly to a 
 time when the Buddhist religion, as evidenced by the erection of 
 Boro Buddor, had died out, and the quasi-Hindu temples of Bram- 
 banam and Singa Sari had superseded those of the Buddhists. Those 
 at Brambanam are said to have been completed in a.d. 1097, which 
 seems an extremely probable date for the Chandi Sewa, or " 1000 
 temples," which, however, are much more Jaina than Hindu. From 
 that period till the beghining of the 15th century, the series of monu- 
 ments — many of them with dates upon them* — are tolerably com- 
 plete, and there will be no difficulty in classifying them whenever 
 the task is fairly undertaken. 
 
 At this time we find the island divided into two kingdoms ; one, 
 having its capital at Pajajaram, about forty miles east of Batavia, 
 occupied the whole of the western or Sunda part of the island. The 
 Sundas, however, were not a building race, and the portion occupied 
 
 ' Raffles, vol. ii. p. 77, et seqq. 
 
 ^ About half of tlie pliotographs of tho 
 Balavian Society are filled with reprc- 
 sejitations of these rude deities, which 
 resemble more the images of Easter 
 Island than anything Indian. 
 
 ^ Raffles, 'History of Java,' vol. ii. 
 p. 93. 
 
 * The compilers of the catalogue of 
 
 the photographs of the Batavian Society 
 use 53 instead of 78 or 79 as the factor 
 for converting Saka dates into those of 
 the Christian Era. As, however, they 
 give no reason for this, and Brumund, 
 Leemans and all the best modei n authors 
 use the Indian index, it is here adhered 
 to throughout. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 BORO BUDDOR. 
 
 043 
 
 by them need not be again referred to here. It contains no buildings 
 except the rude Hindu remains above referred to. 
 
 The eastern portion of the island was occupied by the kingdom 
 of Majapahit, founded, apparently, about the year 1300. It soon 
 rose to a higher pitch of power and splendour than any of the 
 preceding kingdoms, and the capital was adorned with edifices of 
 surpassing magnificence, but mostly in brick, so that now they are 
 little more than a mass of indistinguishable ruins. When, however, 
 it had lasted little more than a century, Mahomedan missionaries 
 appeared on the island, and gradually — not by conquest or the sword, 
 but by persuasion — induced the inhabitants of the island to forsake 
 the religion of their forefathers and adopt that of the Arabian Prophet. 
 In the year 1479 the Mahomedans had become so powerful that the 
 city of Majapahit was taken by them by storm, and the last Hindu 
 dynasty of the island overthrown, and those that remained of the 
 foreign race driven to take refuge in the island of Bali.^ 
 
 Then occurred what was, perhaps, the least-expected event in all 
 " this strange eventful history." It is as if the masons had thrown 
 away their tools, and the chisels had dropped from the hands of the 
 carvers. From that time forward no building was erected in Java, 
 and no image carved, that is worth even a passing notice. At a 
 time when the Mahomedans were adorning India with monuments of 
 surpassing magnificence no one in Java thought of building either 
 a mosque, or a tomb, or a palace that would be deemed respectable in 
 any second-class state in any part of the world. 
 
 For nearly nine centuries (a.d. 603-1479) foreign colonists had 
 persevered in adorning the island with edifices almost unrivalled 
 elsewhere of their class ; but at the end of that time, as happened so 
 often in India, their blood had become diluted, their race impure, 
 their energy effete, and, as if at the touch of a magician's wand, they 
 disappear. The inartistic native races resumed their sway, and art 
 vanished from the land, never, probably, again to reappear. 
 
 BORO BUDDOR. 
 
 There may be older monuments in the island of Java than Boro 
 Buddor, but, if so, they have not yet been brought to light. The 
 rude stone monuments of the western or Sunda end of the island may, 
 of course, be older, though I doubt it ; l)ut they are not architectural, 
 and of real native art we know nothing. 
 
 When Sir S. Raffles and J. Crawfard wrote their works, no 
 
 * These latter dates are taken from I perfectly well ascertained, no reference 
 Raffles and ('rawfnrd, but as they are 1 sccins needful. 
 
644 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book YIII. 
 
 means existed of verifying dates by comparison of styles, and it is, 
 therefore, little to be wondered at if the first gives a.d. 13G0,^ and 
 the second a.d. 1344,^ as the date of this building. The former, 
 however, was not deceived by this date, inasmuch as at page 67 
 he says, "The edifices at Singa Sari were probably executed in the 
 8th or 9th century. They nearly resemble those of Brambanam and 
 Boro Boddor. It is probable the whole were constructed about the 
 same period, or within the same century ; at any rate, between the 
 sixth and ninth century of the Christian Era." This, perhaps, errs 
 a little the other way. Heer Brumund, on historical grounds, places 
 Boro Buddor " in the ninth, perhaps even in the eighth century of 
 the Christian Era."^ On architectural grounds I would almost un- 
 hesitatingly place it a century earlier. The style and character of 
 its sculptures are so nearly identical with those of the latest caves at 
 Ajunta (No. 26, for instance), and in the western Ghats, that they 
 look as if they were executed by the same artists, and it is difficult to 
 conceive any great interval of time elapsing between the execution of 
 the two. If I am correct in placing the caves in the first half of the 7th 
 century, we can hardly be far wrong in assigning the commencement, 
 at least, of the Javan monument to the second half of that century. 
 This being so, I am very much inclined to believe that Boro Buddor 
 may be the identical seven-storeyed vihara, mentioned by Aditya 
 Dharma in his inscription at Menankabu.* Its being found in 
 Sumatra does not appear to me to militate against this view. Asoka's 
 inscriptions are found in Gandhara, Saurastra, and Orissa, but not in 
 Behar. At home he was known : but it may be that he desired to 
 place a permanent record of his greatness- in the remote portions 
 of his dominions. The date of the inscription, a.d. 656, accords so 
 exactly with the age I would assign to it from other sources, that it 
 may at least stand for the present. Of course, it was not completed 
 at once, or in a few years. The whole group, with Chandi Pawon 
 and Mendout, may probably extend over a century and a half— down, 
 say, to A.D. 800, or over the whole golden age of Buddhism in the 
 island. 
 
 It certainly is fortunate for the student of Buddhist art in India 
 that Boro Buddor (Woodcuts Nos. 362 and 363) has attracted so much 
 attention ; for, even now, the five folio volumes of plates recently 
 devoted to its illustration do not contain one figure too many for the 
 
 ' ' History of Java,' vol. ii. p, 85. 
 2 ' Dictionary of Indian Archipelago,' 
 p. 66. 
 
 ^ 'Boro Boudour,' par Dr. 0. Lee- 
 mans. Leydcn, 1874, p. 53G. I quote 
 from the Fieucli translation, having lent 
 niy original Dutch copy to Dr. Mayo 
 
 of New College, Oxford. It was inad- 
 vertently packed among his baggage 
 when he went to Fiji. 
 
 " Ante, -p. 6 il. Also ' Verhandelingen,' 
 &c., vol. xxvi. p. 31, et seqq. One of his 
 inscriptions — the fourth — was found in 
 Java proper. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 BORO BUDDOR. 
 
 643 
 
646 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 purpose of renderino' its peculiarities available for scientific purposes : 
 the fact being that this monument was erected just at the time when 
 the Buddhist system attained its greatest development, and just 
 before its fall. It thus contains within itself a complete epitome of 
 all we learn from other sources, and a perfect illustration of all we 
 know of Buddhist art or ritual. The 1000 years were complete, 
 and the story that opened upon us at Bharhut closes practically at 
 Boro Buddor. 
 
 The fundamental formative idea of the Boro Buddor monument 
 is that of a dagoba with five procession-paths. These, however, have 
 become square in plan instead of circular ; and instead of one great 
 domical building in the centre we have here seventy-two smaller 
 ones, each containing the statue of a Buddha (Woodcut No. 364), 
 
 visible through an open cage-like lattice-work ; and one larger one 
 in the centre, which was quite solid externally (Woodcut No. 365), 
 but had a cell in its centre, which may have contained a relic or some 
 precious object. There is, however, no record of anything being 
 found in it when it was broken into. All this is, of course, an immense 
 development beyond anything we have hitherto met with, and a sort 
 of half-way house between the majestic simplicity of the Abhayagiri 
 at Anuradhapura, and the somewhat tawdry complexity of the pagoda 
 at Mengun (Woodcut No. 354). 
 
 With the idea of a dagoba, however, Boro Buddor also combines 
 that of a vihara, such as that illustrated by Woodcuts Nos. 66, 67. 
 There the cells, though only copied solid in the rock, still simulated 
 the residences of the monks, and had not yet advanced to the stage 
 we find in the Gandhara monasteries, where the cells of monks had 
 become niches for statues. Here this is carried further than in any 
 example found in India. The cells of the Mahavellipore example 
 are here repeated on every face, but essentially as niches, and are 
 occupied by 436 statues of Buddha, seated in the usual cross-legged 
 attitude. In this respect Boro Buddor is in advance of the Takht-i- 
 Bahi, Avhich is the monument in India that most nearly approaches 
 
 364. Section of one of the smaller 
 Domes at Boro Buddor. 
 
 365. Elevation of principal Dome at Boro Buddor. 
 (From Sir S. Raffleb' ' History of Java.') 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 BORO BUDDOR. 
 
 6i7 
 
 to it ill mythological significance. So great, indeed, is the similarity 
 between the two, that whatever date we assign to the one drags with 
 it that of the other. It would, indeed, be impossible to understand 
 liow, in the 7th century, Buddhism had been so far developed towards 
 the modern Nepalese and Thibetan systems if we had not these Gand- 
 hara monasteries to fall back upon. On the other hand, having so 
 similar a Buddhist development in Java in the 7th century, it seems 
 difficult to separate the monuments of the north-west of India from it 
 by any very long interval of time. 
 
 As will be observed from the plan and elevation (Woodcuts Nos. 362, 
 363, page 645), the monument may be described either as a seven or 
 a nine-storeyed vihara, according as we reckon the platform on which 
 the seventy-two small dagobas stand as one or three storeys. Its 
 basement measures over 400 ft. across, but the real temple is only 
 300 ft. from angle to angle either way. It is not, however, either 
 for its dimensions or the beauty of its architectural design that Boro 
 Buddor is so remarkable, as for the sculptures that line its galleries. 
 These extend to nearly 5000 ft. — almost an English mile — and as 
 there are sculptures on both faces, we have nearly 10,000 lineal ft. 
 of bas-reliefs ; or, if we like to add those which are in two storeys, 
 we have a series of sculptures, which, if arranged consecutively in 
 a row, would extend over nearly three miles of ground. Most of 
 them, too, are singularly well preserved ; for when the Javans were 
 converted to Mahomedanism it was not in anger, and they were not 
 urged to destroy what they had before reverenced ; they merely 
 neglected them, and, except for earthquakes, these monuments would 
 now be nearly as perfect as when first erected. 
 
 The outer face of the basement, though extremely rich in archi- 
 tectural ornaments and figure-sculptures, is of comparatively little 
 historical importance. The first enclosed — or, as the Dutch call it, 
 the second — gallery is, of all the five, the most interesting historically. 
 On its inner wall the whole life of Sakya Muni is pourtrayed in 
 120 bas-reliefs of the most elaborate character. The first twenty- 
 four of these are occupied with scenes in the Tusita heavens, or 
 events that took place before the birth. In the twenty-fifth we have 
 Maya's dream, depicted exactly as it is at Bharhut or Sanchi, 700 or 
 800 years earlier. In the following sculptures it is easy to recognise 
 all the familiar scenes of his life, his marriage, and domestic happi- 
 ness, till he meets the four predictive signs ; his subsequent de- 
 parture from home, and assumption of the ascetic garb ; his life in 
 the forest ; his preaching in the Deer-garden at Benares — the whole 
 Lalita Vestara, in short, pourtrayed, with very few variations from 
 the pictures we already possess from Gandhara to Amravati, with 
 this singular exception : in all Indian examples the birth and the 
 Nirvana are more frequently repeated than any other events ; for 
 
648 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 some reason, not easily guessed, they are omitted liere, though all 
 the events that preceded and followed them are minutely detailed. ^ 
 Below these bas-reliefs depicting the life of Buddha is an equally 
 extensive series of 120 bas-reliefs of subjects taken from the Jataka, 
 all of which might, no doubt, be easily identified, though this has not 
 yet been attempted. 
 
 In the three galleries above this Buddhism is represented as a 
 religion. Groups of Buddhas — three, five or nine — are repeated 
 over and over again, mixed with Bodhisatwas and saints of all sorts. 
 Among these, the five Dhyani Buddhas are conspicuous in all, perhaps 
 more than all, the variety of manifestations which are known in 
 Nepal and Thibet,^ which, as Lassen points out, almost inevitably 
 leads to the conclusion that this form of faith was introduced from 
 Nepal or Western Thibet.^ 
 
 Whether this is exactly so or not, no one probably who is familiar 
 with Buddhist art in its latest age on the Avestern side of India will 
 probably doubt that it was from these parts that the builders of Boro 
 Buddor migrated. The character of the sculptures, and the details of 
 the ornamentation in cave 26 at Ajunta, and 17 at Nassick, and more 
 especially in the later caves at Salsette, at Kondoty, Montpezir, and 
 other places in that neighbourhood, are so nearly identical with what 
 is found in the Javan monument, that the identity of the workmen 
 and workmanship is unmistakeable. It is true we have no monument 
 in that part of India to which we can point that at all resembles 
 Boro Buddor in design, but then it must be borne in mind that there 
 is not a single structural Buddhist buikUng now existing within the 
 limits of the cave region of Western India. It seems absurd, how- 
 ever, to suppose that so vast a community confined themselves to caves, 
 and caves only. They must have had structural buildings of some 
 sort in their towns and elsewhere, but not one fragment of any such 
 now exists, and we are forced to go to Gandhara, in the extreme north- 
 west, for our nearest examples. As already pointed out, there are 
 many points of similarity between Jamalgiri, and more especially 
 between Takht-i-Bahi and Boro Buddor ; and if any architect, who was 
 accustomed to such work, would (Carefully draw and restore these 
 northern monasteries, many more might become apparent.* We know 
 
 • All these, or nearly all, have been 
 identified by Dr. Leemans in the text 
 that accompanies tlie plates. 
 
 2 If Brian Hodgson would attempt it, 
 he perhaps alone could explain all this 
 vast and bewildering mythology. At 
 present our means of identification is 
 almost wholly confined to his rei:)resenta- 
 tion in the second volume of the ' Trans- 
 actions ' of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
 
 plates 1-4, and to the very inferior work 
 of Sclilagintweit, 'Buddhismus in Thi- 
 bet.' 
 
 ^ ' Indisclie Altertliuniskundc, vol. iv. 
 p. 4G7. 
 
 * General Cunningham's drawings, 
 though nearly sufficient for anyone as 
 familiar with all the styles as I have 
 become, are not enough for anyone who 
 is a stranger to the subject. I do not, 
 
Chap. III. BORO BUDDOK. 649 
 
 enough even now to render this morally certain, though hardly suffi- 
 cient to prove it in the face of much that may be brought forward 
 by those who care to doubt it. Meanwhile, my impression is, that if 
 we knew as much of these Gandhara monasteries as we know of Boro 
 
 366. View of Central Entrance and Stairs at Boro Buddor. (From a Lithographic I'late.) 
 
 Buddor, we could tell the interval of time that separated them, probably 
 within half a century at least. 
 
 indeed, know any Englishman who has 
 the knowledg-c, combined with the powers 
 of drawing, to be entrusted with this task. 
 
 A Frenchman might be found who couhl 
 do it, if he wonld be content to restrain 
 his imagination. 
 
G50 
 
 I'URTllER INDIA. 
 
 Book Vlll. 
 
 Strotclung sucli evidence us we at present liiive, as far as it will 
 bear, we can hardly bring the Takht-i-Bahi monastery within one cen- 
 tnry of Boro Buddor. It may be two — and Jamalgiri is still one or 
 two centuries more distant in time. But, on the other hand, if we had 
 not these Gandhara monasteries to refer to, it would be difficult to 
 believe that the northern system of Buddhism could have been so 
 completely developed, even in the 8th century, as we find it at 
 Boro Buddor. It is this wonderful progress that has hitherto made 
 the more modern date of that monument probable — it looks so much 
 in advance of anything we know of in Indian Buddhism. But all 
 this we must now revise by the light these Javan monuments throw 
 on the subject. 
 
 Being merely a pyramid, situated on the summit of a hill, there 
 were no constructive difficulties encountered in the erection of Boro 
 Buddor, and it is consequently no wonder that it now remains so 
 entire, in spite of its being,, like all Javan buildings, erected 
 wholly without mortar. It is curious to observe, however, how faith- 
 fully its architects adhered to the Indian superstition regarding 
 arches. They did not even think it necessary to cut off the angles 
 of the corbel-stones, so as to simulate an arch, though using the 
 pointed-arched forms of the old chaitya caves of the west. The two 
 systems are well exemplified in the preceding Woodcut (No. 366), but 
 it runs throughout. All the niches are surmounted by arch forms — 
 circular, elliptical, or pointed — but all are constructed horizontally, 
 and it may be added that, in nine cases out of ten, the keystones are 
 adorned with a mask, as in this last example. 
 
 Mendoet. 
 
 At a place called Mendoet, about two and a half miles from Boro 
 Buddor, there is a temple of a very different class, which, though 
 small, is of extreme interest for the history of Javan architecture. It 
 stands on a basement 70 ft. square, and 15 ft. to 16 ft. high. The 
 temple itself is about 45 ft. square, including a projection on each face, 
 which gives it a slightly cruciform shape. Inside is a cell, about 
 20 ft. square, roofed by an inverted pyramid of steps, in which are 
 three colossal images seated, and about 11 ft. high each. The central 
 one is Buddha, curly headed of course, and clad in a diaphanous robe.^ 
 The two other colossi, though having only two arms each, are almost 
 certainly intended for Vishnu and Siva. On one of the faces, exter- 
 
 * Col. Yiilc, from whose account most 
 of these particulars arc taken (' Journal 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 18G2), 
 calls it "nearly naked ; " but a drawing 
 
 by Wilsen (' Veihandelingen,' vol. xix. 
 p. IGG) I think settles the question, that 
 he is intended to be represented as 
 clothed. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 BRAMBANAM. 
 
 651 
 
 nally, is Laksmi, eight-armed, seated on a lotus, with attendants. 
 On another face is a figure, four-armed, seated cross-legged on a lotus, 
 the stem of which is supported by two figures with seven-headed 
 snake-hoods. It is in fact a shghtly altered repetition of a group 
 inserted among the older sculptures on the fagade of the cave at 
 Karli.^ That insertion I have always believed to be of the 6th or 7th 
 century ; this group is certainly slightly more modern. The curious 
 part of the matter is, that the Mendoet example is so very much more 
 refined and perfect than that at Karli. The one seems the feeble 
 effort of an expiring art ; the Javan example is as refined and elegant 
 as anything in the best ages of Indian sculpture. The same remarks 
 apply to the sacred tree under which the figure is seated. Like 
 all the similar conventional trees at Boro Buddor, they are compli- 
 cated and refined beyond any examples known in India. 
 
 The great interest, however, of this little temple arises from the 
 fact that it almost certainly succeeded immediately to Boro Buddor. 
 If it is correct to assume a.d. 650-750 as the period during which 
 that temple was erected, this one must have been built between a.d. 
 7 50 and a.d. 800. It shows, too, a progress in design at a time w^hen 
 Buddhist art in India was marked by decay ; and it exhibits such pro- 
 gress in mythology, that though there can be no doubt as to the purity 
 of the Buddhism of Boro Buddor, anyone might fairly argue that this 
 temple belonged either to that religion or to Hinduism. It is in fact 
 one of those compromises that in India would be called Jaina ; in other 
 words, one of those transitional examples of which we have many in 
 Java, but the want of which leaves such a gap in our history of 
 architecture in India. 
 
 Brambanam. 
 
 At a distance of twenty miles south-east from Boro Buddor is a 
 group of temples, marking the site of the old Hindu capital of the 
 island, which are almost as interesting as that great temple itself. 
 They are unfortunately much less known, or, at all events, have not 
 been illustrated to anything like the same extent. They are, how- 
 ever, so much more ruined, that it may be owing to this that their 
 details have not been so completely made out ; but from whatever 
 cause, we cannot speak of them with the same confidence as of Boro 
 Buddor. 
 
 The oldest group at Brambanam seems to be that known as Loro 
 Jongram, consisting of six larger temples, enclosed in a wall, and sur- 
 rounded by fourteen smaller cells.^ They may be of the age of Deva 
 
 ^ An impei-fect representation of this 
 sculpture will be found in the ' Journal 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. 
 
 plate 53. 
 
 2 Sir S. Eaffles' 'History of Java,' vol. 
 ii. plate 32. 
 
C52 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book YIll. 
 
 Kosuma, or of the beginning of the 9th century, and possibly are not 
 the earUest Hindu temples here, but till we have more illustrations it 
 is impossible to speak of this with confidence. 
 
 The great interest of the place centres in a temple known as the 
 Chandi Sivva, or, " thousand temples," which is, or was, when complete, 
 only second to Boro Buddor in interest. The general character of the 
 great temple will be understood from the annexed plan of a smaller 
 one at the same place (Woodcut No. 367). Both consist of a central 
 
 temple, surrounded by a number 
 of smaller detached cells. In 
 this instance there are only 
 sixteen such, each of which is 
 supposed to have contained an 
 image — Buddha — Jaina, or 
 Saiva, according to the dedica- 
 tion of the central cell. 
 
 In the great temple the cen- 
 tral cell measured 45 ft. each 
 way, and with the four at- 
 tached cells, one of which served 
 as an entrance porch, it formed 
 a cross 90 ft. each way, the 
 whole being raised on a richly 
 ornamented square base. This 
 building is richly and elaborately ornamented with carving, but 
 with a singular absence of figure-sculpture, which renders its dedi- 
 cation not easy to be made out ; but the most remarkable feature 
 of the whole group is the multitude of smaller temples which 
 surround the central one, 238 in number. Immediately beyond 
 the square terrace which supports the central temple stand twenty- 
 eight of these — a square of eight on each side, counting the 
 angular ones both ways. Beyond these, at a distance of 35 ft., is 
 the second square, forty-four in number ; between this and the next 
 row is a wide space of above 80 ft., in which there are only six 
 temples, two in the centre of the north and south faces, and one on 
 each of the others. The two outer rows of temples are situated close 
 to one another, back to back, and are IGO in number, and form a 
 square, each face of which is about 525 ft. All these 238 temples are 
 similar to one another, about 12 ft. square at the base, and 22 ft. high,^ 
 
 * The information here given is taken mistake arising, I believe, from the 
 
 from Sir Stamford. Raffles' 'History of scales in the original drawings — now 
 
 Java,' second edition, vol. ii. p. 17, et seqq. before me — being in Rhcinland roods, 
 
 His i)lans, liowevor, do not quite agree which are not always converted into 
 
 with tlic measurements in the text, a English feet. 
 
 367. Smill Temple at Brambanam. 
 
 (From a Drawing at the India Office.) 
 No scale. 
 
Chap. 111. 
 
 TREE AND SERPENT TEMPLES. 
 
 653 
 
 all richly carved and ornamented, and in every one is a small sqnare 
 cell, in which was originally placed a cross-legged figure, probably of 
 one of the Jaina saints, though the drawings which have been hitherto 
 published do not enable us to determine whom they represent — the 
 draughtsmen not being aware of the distinction between Buddhist 
 and Jaina images. 
 
 AVhen looked a little closely into, it is evident that the Chandi 
 Siwa is neither more nor less than Boro Buddor taken to pieces, and 
 spread out, with such modifications as were necessary to adapt it to 
 that compromise between Buddhism and Brahmanism which we call 
 Jaina. 
 
 Instead of a central dagoba, with its seventy-two subordinate ones, 
 and its five procession-paths, with their 436 niches containing figures 
 of Buddha, we have here a central cell, with four subordinate ones, 
 each containing no doubt similar images, and surrounding these 236 
 cells, containing images arranged in five rows, with paths between, 
 but not joined together with sculpture-bearing screens, as in the earlier 
 examples, nor joined side by side with the sculpture on their fronts, 
 or inside, as was invariably the case in similar temples in Gujerat of 
 the same age. 
 
 Sir Stamford Raffles states a.d. 1098 ^ for the completion of this 
 temple which, from the internal evidence, I fancy cannot be far 
 from the truth. It would, however, be extremely interesting if it 
 could be fixed with certainty, as these Javan monuments will probably 
 be found to be the only means we have of bridging over the dark 
 ages in India. Already we can see that Takht-i-Bahi, Boro Buddor, 
 and Chandi Siwa form landmarks in a series extending over at least 
 500 years, w^hich we may hope some day to fill up, though the materials 
 for it do not at present exist. We have not even correct drawings 
 of the pickle-bottle-like cells of the Gandhara monasteries, and those 
 at Chandi Siwa are so ruined, that it is difficult to make out their 
 form. It seems, however, quite clear that they, with the domes and 
 spires that crown the cells of the Boro Buddor fayade, form parts of 
 one connected series. They are, in fact, merely developments of one 
 form which, with a little information, it would be very easy to trace 
 back to its original source. 
 
 Tree and Serpent Temples. 
 
 There is still another class of temples in Java which, when properly 
 investigated, promises to throw great light on some vexed questions 
 of Indian mythology and art. They are found principally in the 
 
 * 'History of Java,' vol. ii. p. 85. Craw- I fidence can be placed on his dates for 
 furd makes it 12G6 to 1296; but no con- | buildings. 
 
654 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 EooK VIII. 
 
 provinces of Kediri and Malang, in the eastern part of tlie island, 
 and, from dates on some of them, seem to be among the most modern 
 examples of Javan art, all hitherto known being dated in the centmy 
 preceding the overthrow of Majapahit in a.u. 1479. 
 
 Four of these are described by Heer Brumund,^ but only one, so 
 far as I know% that of Panataram in Kediri, has been photographed, 
 and. no plans or architectural details of any have yet been published. 
 It is consequently difficult to speak with certainty regarding them, 
 but they are too interesting to be passed over in silence. The annexed 
 woodcut will convey some idea of that at Panataram, though neces- 
 sarily on too small a scale to render all its details recognisable. Gene- 
 rally they may be described as three-storeyed pyramids, having a flat 
 platform on the top, with a wxll-hole in its centre open to the sky. 
 In 'this instance the lower platfoi'm, so far as I can make out, is about 
 100 ft. square, with a projection or bastion on each face, behind 
 which the stairs leading to its summit are arranged, as in the great 
 Ceylonese dagobas (ante, p. 190). From this a flight of sixteen steps 
 leads direct to the platform of the second, and a similar flight to that 
 of the third storey. The basement here is ornamented with numerous 
 bas-reliefs on panels, representing subjects, taken principally from the 
 ' Ramayana,' but many also from local legends. Each of these is 
 separated from that next it, by a panel, with a circular medallion, con- 
 taining a conventional animal, or a foliaged ornament. The bas-reliefs 
 of the second storey are better executed, and, from their extent, more 
 interesting ; their subjects, however, seem to be all taken from local 
 legends not yet identified. The third is ornamented by panels, with 
 winged figures, griffons, Garudas, and flying monsters, more spirited 
 and better executed than any similar figures are in any examples of 
 Hindu art I am acquainted with. 
 
 According to Heer Brumund, the temple of Toempang is quite 
 equal to this. " It is," he says, " the most beautiful in Melang. It 
 leaves those of Singa Sari far behind, and may be called the Boro 
 Buddor of Melang." ^ Unfortunately we have nothing but verbal 
 descriptions of these temples, and of those on the mountain of Sangra- 
 ham, so it is impossible to feel quite sure about their arrangement or 
 appearance ; but as those who have seen them, all describe them as 
 similar, we must be content with this assurance till some photographer 
 visits the place, or, what would be better, till some one goes there 
 who is capable of making a plan and drawing and a few architec- 
 tural details. 
 
 The most remarkable peculiarity of these terraced temples is that 
 all have a well-hole in the centre of their upper platform, extending 
 apparently to their basement. Sometimes it appears to be square, at 
 
 ' 'Boro Booddoer,' ]>. 438. - ' Vcrlmndelinj^cn,' kc, vol. xxxiii. p. 222. 
 
G56 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 others circular, and cnlargiTig as it descends, being 7 ft. or lu ft. wide 
 at top. 
 
 Both Heer Brumund and Dr. Leemans expend a considerable 
 amount of ingenuity in trying to explain the mystery of these well- 
 temples.^ Both assume that the wells were covered with pavilions 
 or cell-temples (Kamer tempels), but without any Avarrant, so far as 
 I can make out. At Panataram, for instance, the parapet of the 
 upper terrace is a frail structure, that any man with a crowbar might 
 destroy in a morning, or any earthquake w^ould certainly shake down ; 
 yet neither it nor a single stone elsewhere in this temple has been 
 displaced ; but of this central pavilion not one vestige now remains, 
 either in situ or strewn around. Besides this, a temple without a floor, 
 and with nothing inside but a facilis descensus of 20 ft. or 30 ft., and 
 no means revocare gradum, does not seem likely to have been popular 
 either with priests or people, and in fact no form of worship can be 
 suggested that would be suitable to them. Neither here nor else- 
 where does there seem anything to controvert the theory that these 
 wells were always open to the upper air. 
 
 The only suggestion that occurs to me as at all likely to meet 
 the case is that they were Tree-temples ; that a sacred tree was 
 planted in these w^ell-holes, either on the virgin soil, or that they 
 were wholly or partially filled with earth and the tree planted in 
 them. The Bo-tree at Buddh Gaya is planted on a terrace, and 
 raised 30 ft. above the plain, ascended on one side by steps ; but no 
 excavations have been made, or at least published, which would 
 show whether or not there were three storeys on the three other 
 sides. The Naha Yihara at Ceylon, or the temple of the Bo-tree, 
 is, in reality, just such a temple as that at Panataram. It is ap- 
 parently in five — practically, in three — storeys, with the tree planted 
 in a well-hole on its summit. "VYe have, unfortunately, no plan of 
 it or of the Javan temples ; but if any one will read Captain 
 Chapman's description of the Maha Vihara,^ and compare it with 
 Heer Brumund's of temples in Malang and Kediri, abstracted by 
 Dr. Leemans,^ I do not think he can fail to see the resemblance. 
 No plan has yet been made of the Ceylonese vihara, and such photo- 
 graphs as exist have been taken with no higher aim than to make 
 pretty pictures ; so that it is extremely difficult to arrive at any 
 correct notions as to its form. Meanwhile the folloAving woodcut 
 (No. 3()9), copied literally from one in Sir Emerson Tennent's 
 book, will convey an idea of its general appearance. The structure 
 is wholly in brick, and its ornamentation was consequently painted 
 
 * ' Boro Boeddocr,' p. 439. ' Verliamle- | ciety,' vol. xiii. p. 1G6. 
 lingcn,' vol. xxxiii. p. 222. I ^ ' Boro Boccklocr,' pp. 433-439. 
 
 2 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- j 
 
Chap. IIL 
 
 TREE AND SERPENT TEMPLES. 
 
 057 
 
 on plaster, which has wholly^ disappeared, so that no means of 
 comparison exist between the two modes of decoration. With regard 
 to the Javanese sculptm'es on these temples, it is safe to assert 
 that not one of them shows any trace of Buddhism — none even that 
 
 369. View of the Maha Vihara, Anuradhapura. (From Sir E. Tennent's ' Ceylon.') 
 
 could be called Jainism — nor any trace of the Hindu religion as now 
 known to us. We are, for instance, perfectlylfamiliar with the Hindu 
 Pantheon, as illustrated by the sculptures of the nearly contemporary 
 temple of Hullabid p. 402) ; but not a trace of these gods or 
 
 goddesses, nor of any of the myths there pourtrayed, is to be found 
 in these well-temples. Whatever they are, they belong to a religion 
 different from any whose temples we have hitherto met with in this 
 volume, but one whose myths pervade the whole story of Indian 
 mythology. The worship of trees seems to have been taken up in 
 succession by the Buddhists, Jainas, and Vaishnavas, but may be 
 earlier than either, and may, in like manner, have survived all three. 
 
 In India, at the present day, there is nothing so common as to 
 see in the villages of Bengal little three-storeyed pyramids of mud 
 — exact models of these Javan temples — on the top of which is 
 planted the Tulsi shrub, the sacred plant of the Vaishnavas {Ocymum 
 sanctum, or Sweet Basil), which succeeded the Ficus religiosa in the 
 affections of the Hindus. Frequently, however, this emblem is planted 
 in vases, or little models of ordinary temples, the top of which is 
 hollowed out for the purpose. Numbers of these exist also in Java ; 
 but no one — at least in recent times — having visited the island wiio 
 was familiar with the ordinary domestic religion of the Hindus, the 
 
 ' This is by no means so certain ; Lut till some one capalle of observing visits tlie 
 place, we must assume it. 
 
 2 U 
 
058 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 Dutch anti(iuariaiis have mistaken every model of a dagoba — of which 
 thousands exist in India — and described it as a lingam, and every 
 Tulsi vase as a Yoni. In most cases they are neither the one nor the 
 otlier. Even this mistake, however, is instructive, as it shoAVS how 
 much of their emblems, at least, these religions interchanged in the 
 ages of toleration. They are distinct enough now, but before a.d. 750 
 it is difficult to draw a line anywhere. 
 
 At Panataram there is another temple, which, if any one in the 
 island is entitled to be called a Serpent temple, certainly merits 
 that appellation. The Batavian Society have devoted twenty-two 
 photographs to the illustration of its sculptures, but have given no 
 plan and not one syllable of description. There is not even a general 
 view from which its outline might be gathered, and no figure is 
 introduced from which a scale might be guessed. Its date appears 
 to be A.D. 1416. The figures, however, from which this is inferred are 
 not on the temple itself but on a bath or tank attached to it, though, 
 from the character of its sculptures, it is almost certainly coeval. 
 
 The reason why it is called a Serpent temple is, that the whole of 
 the basement-moulding is made up of eight great serpents, two on 
 each face, whose upraised heads in the centre form the side pieces of 
 tlie steps that lead up to the central building, whatever that was. 
 These serpents are not, however, our familiar seven-headed Nagas 
 tliat we meet with everywhere in India and Cambodia, but more like 
 the fierce crested serpents of Central America. The seven-headed 
 serpent does occur very frequently among the sculptures at Boro 
 Buddor — never independently, however, nor as an object to be wor- 
 shipped, but as adorning the heads of a Naga people who come to 
 worship Buddha or to take a part in the various scenes represented 
 there. Even then they are very unlike the Indian Naga, whose hood 
 is unmistakably that of an expanded cobra. Those at Boro Buddor 
 and Panataram are crested snakes, like that represented in the Japanese 
 Avoodcut in * Tree and Serpent Worship,' page 56. 
 
 The sculptures on these monuments are not of a religious or 
 mythological character, but either historical or domestic. What they 
 represent may easily be ascertained, for above each scene is a short 
 descriptive inscription, quite perfect, and in a character so modern 
 that I fancy any scholar on the spot might easily read them. It, 
 probably, has been done, but our good friends the Dutch are never in 
 a hurry, and we must, consequently, wait. 
 
 Meanwhile it is curious to observe that we know of only two 
 monuments in our whole history which are so treated, and these the 
 earliest and the last of the great school : ^ that at Bharhut, so often 
 fdluded to above, erected two centuries before Christ ; and this one, 
 
 ' Nol however, of tlie more modern class of teinplcH, iuasmuch as when John 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 DJEING PLATEAU. 
 
 659 
 
 erected in the 15th century, while the struggle with the Mahomed an 
 religion was gathering around it that strength, which, within half a 
 century from that time, finally extinguished the faith to which it 
 belonged. 
 
 There is one other temple of this class at a place called Matjan- 
 pontih, regarding which some more information Avould be interesting. 
 It is described by Heer Brumund as partly of brick, partly of stone, 
 but singularly rich in ornamentation. "The sub-basement," he says, 
 " is composed of a tortoise and two serpents ; the heads of these three 
 animals unite on the west face and form the entrance." ^ 
 
 This and many others of the description are nearly unintelli- 
 gible without illustrations, but many of them seem to point to a class 
 of Serpent temples, which, if better known, might throw considerable 
 light on the mystery that still shrouds that form of faith in India. 
 
 Djeing Plateau. 
 
 On an elevated plateau, near the centre of the island, on the back 
 of Mount Prahu, there exists a group of some five or six small temples. 
 They are not remarkable either for the size or the beauty of their 
 details, when compared with those of the buildings we have just been 
 describing ; but they are interesting to the Indian antiquary, because 
 they are Indian temples pure and simple and dedicated to Indian 
 gods. So far, we feel at home again ; but what these temples tell 
 us further is, that if Java got her Buddhism from Gujerat and the 
 mouths of the Indus, she got her Hinduism from Telingana and the 
 mouths of the Kistnah. These Djeing temples do not show a trace of 
 the curved-lined sikras of Orissa or of the Indo-Aryan style. Had the 
 Hindus gone to Java from the valley of the Ganges, it is almost im- 
 possible they should not have carried with them some examples of 
 this favourite form. It is found in Burmah and Siam, but no trace 
 of it is found anywhere in Java. 
 
 Nor are these temples Dravidian in any proper sense of the word. 
 They are in storeys, but not with cells, nor any reminiscences of such ; 
 but they are Chalukyan, in a clear and direct meaning of the term. 
 The building most like these Javan temples illustrated in the preceding 
 pages is that at Buchropully (Woodcut No. 216), which would pass 
 
 Crawfurd visited Ava in 1826, he de- 
 scribes (p. 162, 2nd ed.) his visit to a 
 temple just finished by the reigning 
 monarch, which was adorned with a 
 series of paintings on plaster represent- 
 ing scenes from the life of Buddha. 
 Each of these had a legend in the 
 modern Burmese character written over 
 it; and it is curious to observe how 
 
 nearly identical the descriptions are 
 with those which might be written over 
 any Buddhist series. All the scenes 
 there depicted are not perhaps to be 
 found at Bharhut or Sanchi, but all are 
 at Amravati, and in the Gandhara mo- 
 nasteries, or are to be found among the 
 sculptures at Boro Buddor. 
 » ' Boro Boeddoer,' p. 483. 
 
 2 u 2 
 
cr.o 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 without remark in Java if deprived of its portico. It, however, like 
 all the Chalukjan temples we know of in India, especially in the 
 Nizam's territory, is subsequent to the 10th century. Most of them 
 belong to the 13th century, and pillars may probably have been 
 less frequently used at the time of Deva Kosuma's visit in a.d. 816. 
 Be this as it may, it is a remarkable fact that there is not a single 
 pillar in Java: at least no book I have had access to, no drawing, 
 and no photograph gives a hint of the existence of even one pillar in 
 the island. AYhen we think of the thousands that were employed by 
 the Dra vidians in the south of India, and the Jains in the north-^^'est, 
 it is curious they escaped being introduced here. The early style of 
 Orissa, as mentioned above, is nearly astylar ; but in Java this is 
 absolutely so, and, so far as I know, is the only important style in 
 the world of which this can be predicated. What is not so curious, 
 but is also interesting, is, that there is not a true arch in the whole 
 island. In the previous pages, the Hindu horror of an arch has often 
 been alluded to ; but then they frequently got out of the difficulty 
 by the use of wood or iron. There is no trace of the use of these 
 materials in the island, and no peculiarly Javan feature can be traced 
 to a w^ooden original. All is in stone, but without either the pillars 
 or the arches which make up nine-tenths of the constructive expe- 
 dients of the mediaeval architects, and figure so largely in all the 
 western styles of architectural art. 
 
 It may also be mentioned here, while describing the negative 
 characteristics of Javan art, that no mortar is ever used as a cement 
 in these temples. It is not that they were ignorant of the use of lime, 
 for many of their buildings are plastered and painted on the plaster, 
 but it was never employed to give strength to construction. It is owing 
 to this that so many of their buildings are in so ruinous a state. In 
 an island where earthquakes are frequent, a very little shake reduces 
 a tall temple to a formless heap in a few seconds. If cemented, they 
 might have been cracked, but not so utterly ruined as they now are.^ 
 
 Be this as it may, the Javan style of architecture is probably the 
 only one of which it can be said that it reached a high degree of 
 perfection without using either pillars, or arches, or mortar in any of 
 its buildings. 
 
 SUKU. 
 
 At a place called Suku, not far from Mount Lawu near the centre 
 of the island, there is a group of temples, which, when properly illus- 
 trated, promises to be of great importance to the history of architecture 
 in Java.^ They are among the most modern examples of the style, 
 
 ^ Col. Yule's visit to Java, ' Journal of 
 tlie Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 1861-1862, 
 p. 3. 
 
 ^ Sir S. Raffles' 'History of Java,' 
 plates 31 and 61, vol. ii. p. 49, et seqq. 
 
CiiAr. III. 
 
 SUKU. 
 
 661 
 
 having dates upon them of a.d. 1435 and a.d. 1440,^ or less than forty 
 years before the destruction of Majapahit and the abolition of the 
 Hindu religion of Java. So far as can be made out, they are coarser 
 and more vulgar in execution than any of those hitherto described, 
 and belonged to a degraded form of the Vaishnava religion. Garuda is 
 the most prominent figure among the sculptures ; but there is also 
 the tortoise, the boar, and other figures that belong to that religion. 
 The sculptures, too, are said, many of them, to be indecent, which is 
 only too characteristic a feature of Yishnuism.^ 
 
 The most interesting feature connected with the remains at Suku, 
 as well as of all the later buildings in Java, is their extraordinary 
 likeness to the contemporary edifices in Yucatan, and Mexico. It may 
 be only accidental, but it is unmistakable. No one, probably, who is at 
 all familiar with the remains found in the two provinces, can fail to 
 observe it, though no one has yet suggested any hypothesis to account 
 for it. When we look at the vast expanse of ocean that stretches 
 between Java and Central America, it seems impossible to conceive 
 that any migration can have taken place eastward — say after the 
 10th century — that could have influenced the arts of the Americans ; 
 or, if it had taken place, that the Javans would not have taught them 
 the use of alphabetical writing, and of many arts they cultivated, 
 but of which the Americans were ignorant when discovered by the 
 Spaniards. It seems equally improbable or impossible that any 
 colonists from America could have planted themselves in Java so as 
 to influence the arts of the people. But there is a third supposition 
 that may be possible, and, if so, may account for the observed facts. 
 It is possible that the building races of Central America are of the 
 same family as the native inhabitants of Java. Many circumstances 
 lead to the belief that the inhabitants of Easter Island belong to the 
 same stock,^ and, if this is so, it is evident that distance is no bar 
 to the connexion. If this hypothesis may be admitted, the history 
 of the connexion would be this : — The Javans were first taught to 
 build monumental edifices by immigrants from India, and we know 
 that their first were their finest and also the most purely Indian. 
 During the next five centuries (a.d. 650-1150) we can watch the 
 Indian influence dying out ; and during the next three (a.d. 1150- 
 
 ' Crawfurd, ' Diet, Indian Archipelago,' 
 sub voce. 
 
 2 Both Sir S. Raffles and Crawfurd seem 
 to be mistaken in ascribing them to the 
 Saivites ; they seem to have been misled 
 by the appearance of a Phallus, but 
 there is no lingam. 
 
 * In the firdt three volumes of the 
 photographs published by the Batavian 
 Society are numerous examples of rude 
 
 sculptures, which are indistinguishablb 
 from those of Easter Island. Crawfurd 
 and other ethnologists do not seem to 
 feel the least difficulty in extending the 
 Malay race from Easter Island to Mada- 
 gascar; and if this is so, it diminishes 
 the improbabilities of another nearly 
 allied family, extending through the 
 Pacific Islands from Java to the Ameri- 
 can continent. 
 
662 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 1450) a native local style developing itself, which resulted at last 
 in the quasi-American examples at Panataram and Suku. It may- 
 have been that it was the blood and the old faith and feelings of 
 these two long dissevered branches of one original race that came 
 again to the sm'face, and produced like effects in far distant lands. 
 If this or something like it were not the cause of the similarity, it 
 must have been accidental, and, if so, is almost the only instance 
 of its class known to exist anywhere ; and, strangely enough, the only 
 other example that occurs is in respect to the likeness that is unmis- 
 takable between certain Peruvian buildings and the Pelasgic remains 
 of Italy and Greece. These, however, are even more remote in date 
 and locality, so the subject must remain in its present uncertainty 
 till some fresh discovery throws new light upon it. 
 
 This, however, is not the place, even if space were available, to 
 attempt to investigate and settle such questions ; but it is well to 
 broach them even here, for, unless attention is directed to the subject, 
 the phaenomena are not observed with that intelligent care which is 
 indispensable for the elucidation of so difficult a problem. 
 
 The above is, it must be confessed, only a meagre outline of what 
 might be made one of the most interesting and important chapters 
 in the History of Indian Architecture. To do it justice, however, 
 it would require at least 100 illustrations and 200 pages of text, 
 which would swell this work beyond the dimensions within which it 
 seems at present expedient to restrict it. Even, however, were it 
 determined to attempt this, the materials do not exist in Europe for 
 performing it in a satisfactory manner. We know all we want, or 
 are ever likely to know, about Boro Buddor and one or two other 
 monuments, but with regard to most of the others our information is 
 most fragmentary, and in respect to some, absolutely deficient. Any 
 qualified person might, by a six months' tour in the island, so co- 
 ordinate all this as to supply the deficiencies to such an extent as to 
 be able to write a full and satisfactory History of Architecture in Java. 
 But it is not probable that the necessary information for this purpose 
 will be available in Europe for some years to come, and it may be 
 many — very many — unless the work is undertaken on a more sys- 
 tematic plan than has hitherto been the case. Both in this island 
 and in Ceylon the intentions have been good, but the performance 
 disappointing and unsatisfactory. The Dutch have, however, far 
 outstripped our colonial authorities, not only in the care of their 
 monuments, but in the extent to which they have published them. 
 It is only to be hoped that a wholesome rivalry will, before long, 
 render the architectural productions of both islands available for the 
 purposes of scientific rcscarcli. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CAMBODIA. 
 
 063 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAMBODIA. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 lutioJuctory — Temples of Nakhou Wat, On^cor Thorn, Paten ta riirohiu, &c. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 Since fchc cxhiimifcion of tho buried cities of Assyri i by Mons. Botta 
 and Mr. Layard nothing has occurred so startling, or which has 
 thrown so much light on Eastern art, as the discovery of the ruined 
 cities of Cambodia. Historically, they are infinitely less important 
 to us than the ruins of Nimroud and Nineveh ; but, in an archi- 
 tectural point of view, they are more astonishing ; and, for the eluci- 
 dation of certain Indian problems, it seems impossible to overrate 
 their importance. 
 
 The first European who visited these ruins in modern times was 
 M. Mouhot, a French naturalist, who devoted the last four years of his 
 life (1858-18G1) to the exploration of the valleys of the Mekong and 
 Menam rivers. Though the primary object of his travels was to 
 investigate the natural productions of the country, he seems to have 
 been so struck with the ruins of Ongcor Wat that he not only sketched 
 and made plans of them, but wrote descriptions of all the principal 
 buildings. Unfortunately for science and art he never returned to 
 Europe, being struck down by fever while prosecuting his researches 
 in the northern part of the country ; and, though his notes have been 
 published both in this country ^ and in France, they were not pre- 
 pared for publication by himself, and want the explanatory touches 
 which only an author can give to his own work. Though his melan- 
 choly death prevented M. Mouhot from obtaining all the credit he was 
 entitled to for his discovery, it has borne rich fruit as far as the 
 public are concerned. 
 
 The next person who visited these ruins was the very learned 
 Dr. Adolph Bastian ; ^ who has Avritten a most recondite but most 
 unsatisfactory work on the Indo-Chinese nations, in five volumes. 
 
 * * Travels in Intlo-Cliina, Cambodia, 
 a>id Laos,' by Henri Mouhot. 2 vols. 
 Svo. Murray, 1864. 
 
 2 ' Die Volker der Oeatlichcu Asicn,* 
 von Dr. A. Bustian. Leipzig, 186G. 
 
GG4 
 
 FURTHEK INDI2V. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 lie lias also written an account of the ruins in the ' Journal of the 
 Royal Geographical Society' (Vol. xxxv.), and four papers in the 
 'Ausland' (Nos. 47-50). It is impossible to find out from all these 
 whether Dr. Bastian has satisfied himself who built these temples, 
 what their age is, or to what worship they are dedicated. If he docs 
 know anything about these matters, he has carefully concealed it from 
 the uninitiated, under a confused mass of undigested learning that it 
 is impossible to fathom. 
 
 His visit to these ruins was followed by that of Mr. J. Thomson, 
 a professional photographer at Singapore, who, at considerable expense 
 and risk, carried his photographic apparatus to the spot, and brought 
 away a plan of the great temple of Nakhon \yat, with some thirty 
 photographs of it, besides views of other places in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Since that time the French have sent two thoroughly well equipped 
 expeditions to the place : the first under a Captain Doudart de la Gree 
 in 1866, the second in 1873. As the main object of the first w^as the 
 exploration of the Mekong river, they were able to devote only a por- 
 tion of their time to antiquarian researches, and the unfortunate death 
 of their chief on the frontiers of China prevented his ever working out 
 his results to the extent he no doubt would have done had he lived to 
 return home. They were, however, published as he left them, by 
 Lieutenant J. Garnier, the second in command of the expedition, with 
 notes and additions of his own.^ 
 
 As they, however, could not complete the investigation, a second 
 expedition was fitted out, under Captain Delaporte, who had taken 
 part in the previous expedition. 
 
 They retuj-ned to France in 1874, bringing with them not only 
 detailed plans of most of the temples, but copies of nearly all the 
 inscriptions they could find, and a large collection of antiquities and 
 casts. The latter are now arranged in the Chateau of Compiegne, 
 and accessible to the public. The drawings and inscriptions are in 
 course of publication, and, when available, they will supply materials 
 from which we may reason wdth confidence, not only as to the arts 
 but as to the history of this wonderful people.^ At present we are 
 
 ' 'Voytige d'Exploration cn Iiido- 
 Chine,' 2 vols, quarto and folio, Atlas of 
 plates. Paris, 1873. 
 
 ^ Few thiugs arc more humiliating to 
 an Englishman than to compare the in- 
 telligent interest and liberality the 
 French display in these researches, con- 
 tiasted with the stolid indifference and 
 parsimony of the English in like matters. 
 Had we exercised a tithe of the energy 
 and intelligence in the investigation of 
 Indian antiquities or history, during the 
 
 100 years we have possessed the country, 
 that the French displayed in Egypt 
 during their short occupation of the 
 valley of the Nile, or now in Cambodia, 
 which they do not possess at all, we 
 should long ago have known all that 
 can be known regarding that country. 
 Something, it is true, has been done of 
 late years to make up for past neglect. 
 General Cunningham's appointment to 
 the post of Archaeological Surveyor of 
 India, and that of Mr. Burgess to a 
 
ClIAP. IV. 
 
 CAMBODIA. 
 
 GG5 
 
 ]icirdly in a position to do so. What has hitherto been collected has 
 been got together in too fragmentary a manner, and it has not yet 
 gone through the sifting process which is indispensable before it is 
 possible to separate the wheat from the chaff. 
 
 In addition to these sources of information there is a most inte- 
 resting account, written by a Chinese traveller, who spent two years 
 in the country when the kingdom was in its most flourishing state, 
 between the years 1295-97. He was a Buddhist, and, like his pre- 
 decessors in India, Fa Hian and Hiouen Thsang, sees things a little 
 too much through Buddhist spectacles ; but, with this slight defect, 
 nothing can be more graphic than his account of the country and the 
 people.^ 
 
 There are also two papers, by Col. James Low, in the * Jom*nal of 
 the Asiatic Society of Bengal ' (Vol. xvii.), which are replete with 
 traditional information extracted from Siamese books. 
 
 The first assertion in the traditions of the Cambodians, as gathered 
 by Dr. Bastian, is sufficiently startling. " In the country of Rome or 
 Romaveisei, not far from Takkhasinla (Taxila), reigned a great and 
 wise king. His son, the Vice King — Phra Thong by name — having 
 done wrong, was banished, and, after many adventures, settled in 
 Cambodia," &c.2 The time is not indicated, but we gather from the 
 context that it must have been about the 4th century. It may, at 
 first sight, look like catching at a nominal similarity, but the troubles 
 which took place in Kashmir in the reign of Tungina, and generally 
 in western India about the year 319, look so like what is recorded 
 further east, that, at present, that seems the most probable date for the 
 migration, assuming it to have taken place. Many would be inclined 
 to doubt the possibility of any comnnmication between the two coun- 
 tries ; but it must be borne in mind, that the country around Taxila 
 in ancient times was called Camboja ; that it was the head-quarters 
 of Serpent-worship ; that the architecture of Kashmir bears very 
 considerable resemblance to that of Cambodia ; while there is a general 
 consent that the Cambodians came from India. If this w^ere so, it 
 seems certain that it was not from the east coast that they migrated. 
 As pointed out above, the Indians who introduced Buddhism and 
 Buddhist architecture into Java went there from Gujerat or the 
 countries on the west coast. This hardly seems doubtful, and there is 
 
 similar office in the Bombay Presidency, 
 are steps in the right direction, which, 
 if persevered in, may lead to most satis- 
 factory results. Many years must, how- 
 ever, elapse before the good work can be 
 brought up to the position in which it 
 ought to have been long ago, and mean- 
 
 while much that was most important for 
 the purpose has perished, and no record 
 of it now remains. 
 
 * The work is translated in extenso in 
 Abel Rimusat's * Nouvcaux Melanges 
 Asiatiques,' vol. i. p. 78, et seqq. 
 
 - Bastian, loo cit., vol. i. p. 393. 
 
66G 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book YIII. 
 
 no greater improbability of a migration from the Indus to Cambodia 
 than of one from Gujerat to Java. 
 
 Ceylon was always addicted to Snake- worship, and may have 
 formed a half-way house. On the other hand, it is by no means 
 improbable that the communication may have taken place behind the 
 Himalayas ; in fact, that the religion of the two countries was 
 derived from some common centre in Northern Asia. 
 
 All this will require careful elaboration hereafter, in some place 
 where it can be more fully treated than is possible here. All that is 
 wanted now is to insist on the fact that there must have been a 
 connexion between the two countries, and that the traditions of 
 Cambodia point to Taxila as their parent seat. 
 
 For six centuries from this time we have nothing but stories of 
 dragon-kings and their beautiful but troublesome daughters ; of the 
 treasures and relics they guarded ; and of the spells and enchantments 
 which were had recourse to to vanquish and rob them. All this is 
 common to all the nations between Cambodia and the North Cape of 
 Norway, but does not concern us here. 
 
 At last we come to a fact. " In the year 957 Inthapathapuri was 
 founded by King Pathummasurivong." ^ In the same manner as the 
 name of the old capital of Siam was the mispronunciation of Ayodhya, 
 so this is only the Cambodian way of spelling Indraprastha, or the 
 old Delhi of the ' Mahabharata.' 
 
 Leaping over the intermediate space from this initial date we have 
 a final one in the conquest of the country by the Siamese (a.d. 1851- 
 1374), after which time the old capital was deserted, and no more 
 temples were erected there. Our architectural history is thus con- 
 fined to the four centuries which elapsed between 951 and 1357. For 
 the first three of these, at least, Nakhon^ Thom — the Great City — 
 was the capital. About the middle, however, of the 13th century, the 
 king was afflicted with leprosy "because he had forsaken the Snake- 
 worship of his forefathers," and taken to the Brahmanical or Buddhist 
 heresy, it is not quite clear which ; and the capital was then trans- 
 ferred to a site some fifteen miles further east, and a city built, known 
 as Paten ta Phrohm (the City of Brahma ?). 
 
 Meanwhile we have at least three centuries during which Naga- 
 worship prevailed — giving rise to the erection of a series of temples as 
 large and as richly ornamented as any to be found in any other part 
 of the world. The last of these — that known as Nakhon Wat — was, 
 if not the greatest, at least the best from an architectural point of 
 view, and is the only one of which we have at present sufficient 
 information to speak with confidence. 
 
 ' Bastiau, vol. i. p. 429. I ciation of tlic Imliau Nagara, Nngj^ur, 
 
 2 Nakhon is only the Siamese pi'oiuiu- | Thom means " <?rcat." 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 TEMPLE OF NAKHON WAT. 
 
 667 
 
 From the little we know of the others it does not seem that there 
 would be any difficulty in arranging them all in a chronological series, 
 from the gradations of style they exhibit ; nor of ascertaining their 
 datei, since they are covered with inscriptions in a character that could 
 be read without serious trouble ; and these probably contain the names 
 of the kings, which would enable this to be done, approximatively at 
 least, even if there should be no dates. 
 
 The buildings of Paten ta Phrohm (the Brahmanical) are of a much 
 more varied but less perfect style. They seem, from the descriptions 
 of M. Mouhot and Dr. Bastian, to be Buddhist, Jaina, or Hindu, or all 
 these styles mixed up together as in Java. In fact, they seem very 
 much to resemble the buildings in that island, and their date is about 
 the same, omitting only the Buddhist series, which does not seem 
 to occur here ; but, as no detailed drawings or good photographs 
 of them have yet been published, there is very little to be said about 
 them now. For the present our attention must be principally con- 
 fined to the city of Ongcor — or Ongou, as it is popularly named, 
 but more correctly known as Nakhon Thom — the great city — and 
 especially to the suburban monastery of Nakhon Wat. 
 
 It is now not difficult to point out the situation of this city, as 
 the lake near which it is situated and the hills that approach it have 
 generally now found their way into most atlases. Generally it may 
 be said that about half-way between the great rivers of Siam and 
 Cambodia is a lake, the Tali Sab, about 120 miles long, and varying 
 in width from 30 to 60. In the dry weather its average depth is only 
 4 ft., but in the rains it is fed by the Mekong, of which it is a back- 
 water, and rises 80 ft. or 40 ft. more, so that it is easily navigable for 
 large boats. At a little distance from the northern shore of this lake, 
 in 103° 50' East longitude and 13° 30' North latitude, the ruins are to 
 be found, situated in a great plain extending some fifty miles in width 
 between the lake and the hills on its northern boundary. ^ 
 
 Temple of Nakhon Wat. 
 
 The temple of Nakhon Wat, literally " the temple of the city," or 
 " of the capital," as it is now called by the Siamese, is situated in a 
 sandy plain, about four miles to the southward of the city of Ongcor 
 itself, and between it and the lake Tali Sab. As will be seen from 
 the small plan (figure 2, Woodcut No. 370) it is almost an exact 
 square, and measures nearly a.n English mile each way. The walled 
 
 * The French have navigated the lake 
 in a large steamer, and published detailed 
 charts of the river. Maps are also found 
 
 in Mouhot's ' Tmvels ; ' but the best are 
 those which are found in the Atlas of 
 Lieut. Garnier's work above referred to. 
 
GG8 
 
 FURTHliK INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 370. I'laii of Tcu)i)lo uf Nakhon Wat. (From a Survey by Mr. J. Thomson.)- ^Mle 155 ft. to 1 in. 
 
Chap. 
 
 TEMPLE OF NAKHON WAT. 
 
 G69 
 
 enclosure of the temple measures lOSO yards by 1100, and is sur- 
 rounded by a moat or ditch 230 yards wide. The moat is crossed on 
 the west by a splendid causeway, adorned by pillars on either side. 
 This leads to the great gateway, not unlike the gopura of a Dravidian 
 temple, five storeys in height, but extended by lateral galleries and 
 towers to a fa9ade more than 600 ft. in extent. Within this a second 
 raised causeway, 370 yards long, leads to a cruciform platform in 
 front of the temple (shown in figure 1, Woodcut No. 370). On either 
 side of this, about half-way down, is a detached temple, which any- 
 where else would be considered of importance, but here may be passed 
 over. 
 
 The general plan of the temple will . be understood from the 
 woodcut (No. 370). It consists of three enclosures, one within the 
 other, each raised from 15 ft. to 20 ft. above the level of that outside 
 it, so as to give the whole a pyramidal form. The outer enclosure 
 measures 570 ft. by 650 ft., and covers, therefore, about 370,000 sq. ft. 
 The great temple at Karnac (Thebes) covers 430,000 sq. ft. There 
 are three portals, adorned with towers on each face, and on either 
 side of these are open galleries or verandahs, which, with their bas- 
 reliefs, are probably the most remarkable features of this temple. 
 Their external appearance will be understood from the Woodcut 
 No. 373 ; that of the interior from Woodcut No. 374 ; though 
 these illustrations are on too small a scale to do justice to their 
 magnificence. 
 
 Its appearance in elevation may be gathered from "Woodcut No. 
 371, which shows it to be a pyramid more than 600 ft. in breadth 
 across its shortest width north and south, and rising to 180 ft. at the 
 summit of the central tower. It is, consequently, both larger and 
 higher than Boro Buddor, and notwithstanding the extraordinary ela- 
 boration of that temple it is probably surpassed by this one, both in the 
 extent of its ornamentation as well as in the delicacy of its carvings. 
 There may have been as much, or nearly as much, labour bestoAved on 
 the colonnades at Ramisseram as on this temple ; but otherwise the 
 Indian example cannot compare with either of these two. It has 
 literally no outline, and practically no design ; while both Nakhon 
 Wat and Boro Buddor are as remarkable for their architectural 
 designs as for their sculptural decorations. 
 
 The mechanical arrangements of the galleries or colonnades above 
 referred to are as perfect as their artistic design. These will be under- 
 stood from the diagram. Woodcut No. 372. On one side is a solid wall 
 of the most exquisite masonry, supporting the inner teiTace of the 
 temple. It is built of large stones without cement, and so beautifully 
 fitted that it is difficult to detect the joints between two stones. At 
 a distance of 10 ft. 6 in. in front of this stands a range of square 
 piers, very much in the proportion of the Roman Doric oixler, with 
 
670 
 
 FUrtTIIEK INDIA. 
 
 Book YIII. 
 
 capitals also similar to the classical examples, but more ornamented. 
 
 These pillars have no 
 J^:^| bases, but on each face 
 
 -il l' is carved a figure of a 
 
 devotee or worshipper, 
 surmounted by a canopy 
 of incised ornament, 
 which is also carried 
 along the edge of the 
 shafts. The pillars carry 
 an architrave and a deep 
 frieze, which, in the 
 inner part of the temple, 
 is ornamented with bas- 
 reliefs of the most ela- 
 borate character, and 
 above this is a cornice 
 of very classical outline. 
 Above the cornices is a 
 pointed arch, not formed 
 with voussoirs, but of 
 stones projecting one 
 beyond the other, as 
 with the old Pelasgi 
 and the Indians to the 
 present day. This is 
 quite plain, and was 
 probably originally in- 
 tended to be hidden by 
 a wooden ceiling, as 
 indicated in the dia- 
 gram ; at least, Mr. 
 Thomson discovered the 
 mortises which were 
 intended to secure some 
 such adornment, and 
 in one place the re- 
 mains of a teak-Avood 
 ceiling beautifully and 
 elaborately carved. 
 
 Outside this gallery, 
 as shown in the Wood- 
 cuts Nos. 372, 373, 
 is a second, supported 
 by shorter pillars, with 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 TEMPLE OF NAKHON WAT. 
 
 071 
 
 both base and capital. This outer range supports what may be called 
 a tie-beam, the one end of which is 
 inserted into the inner column just 
 below the capital. So beautifully, how- 
 ever, is this fitted that M. Mouhot as- 
 serts the inner columns are monoliths, 
 and, like the other joints of the masonry, 
 the junction cannot be detected even in 
 the photograph unless pointed out. The 
 beauty of this arrangement will at once 
 strike anyone who knows how difficult 
 it is to keep the sun out and let in the 
 light and air, so indispensable in that 
 climate. The British have tried to 
 effect it in India for 100 years, but 
 never hit on anything either so artistic 
 or convenient as this. It is, in fact, the 
 
 372. 
 
 Diagram Section of Corridor, 
 Nakhon Wat. 
 
672 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 solution of fi problem over which we might have puzzled for centuries, 
 but which the Cambodians resolved instinctively. The exterior cor- 
 nice here, as throughout the temple, is composed of infinite repetitions 
 of the seven-headed snake. 
 
 The most wonderful parts, however, of these colonnades of Nakhon 
 Wat, are the sculptures that adorn their walls, rather than the archi- 
 tecture tliat shelters them. These are distributed in eight compart- 
 
 374. View of Interior of Corrido)-, Nakhoii Wat. (From a rbotograpli by Mr. J. Thomson.) 
 
 ments, one on each side of the four central groups of entrances, mea- 
 suring each from 250 ft. to 300 ft. in length, with a height of about 
 ft. Their aggregate length is thus at least 2000 ft., and assuming 
 the parts photographed to be a fair average, the number of men and 
 animals represented extends from 18,000 to 20,000. The relief is 
 so low that in the photograph it looks at first sight as if incised 
 — infaijlinto—Yxka the Egyptian sculptures ; but this is not the case. 
 Generally speaking, these reliefs represent battle-scenes of the most 
 
Cjiap. IV. 
 
 TEMPLE OF NAKHON WAT. 
 
 673 
 
 iiiiimated description, taken from the ' Ramayaiui,' or ' Maliabbarata,' 
 which the immigrants either brought with them, or, as the Siamese 
 annals say, received from India in the 4th or 5th century. These, 
 Pathammasurivong, the founder of the city, caused to be translated 
 into Cambodian, Avith considerable variations, and here they are sculp- 
 tured almost in exteiiso} 
 
 One bas-relief, however, is occupied by a different subject — popu- 
 larly supposed to represent heaven, earth, and hell. Above is a 
 procession so closely resembling those in Egyptian temples as to be 
 startling. The king is borne in a palanquin very like those seen in 
 the sculptures on the banks of the Nile, and accompanied by standards 
 and emblems which go far to complete the illusion. In the middle 
 row sits a judge, with a numerous body of assessors, and the con- 
 demned are thrown down to a lower region, where they are repre- 
 sented as tortured in all the modes which Eastern ingenuity has 
 devised. It is not clear, however, that this is a theological hell ; it 
 seems more probable that it represents the mode in which the Indian 
 immigrants " improved " the natives. One subject alone can be called 
 mythological, and it wears an old familiar face ; it represents the 
 second Avatar of Vishnu, the world-supporting tortoise, and the 
 churning of the m.^ n with,- tbj great snake Naga. No legend in 
 Hindu mythology' could^'be more appropriate for a snake-temple ; but, 
 notwithstanding this, it is out of place, and I cannot help fancying 
 that it was his choice of this subject that gave rise to the tradition 
 that the king was afflicted with leprosy because he had deserted the 
 faith of his forefathers. This relief is evidently the last attempted, 
 and still remains unfinished. 
 
 The only other temples that I am aware of where sculpture is used 
 in anything like the same profusion are those at Boro Buddor in Java 
 and that at Hullabid, described above, page 401. In the Indian 
 example, however, the principles on which it is employed are 
 diametrically opposed to those in vogue in Cambodia. There all the 
 sculptures are in high relief, many of the figures standing free, and 
 all are essential parts of the architecture — are, in fact, the architecture 
 itself. Here, however, the two arts are kept quite distinct and 
 independent, each mutually aiding the other, but each perfect by 
 itself, and separate in its aim. The Gothic architects attempted to 
 incorporate their sculpture with the architecture in the same manner 
 as the Indian architects. The Greeks, on the contrary, kept them 
 distinct ; they provided a plain wall outside the cclla of the temple 
 for their paintings and sculpture, and protected it by screens of 
 columns precisely as the Cambodians did ; and it is difficult to say 
 which was the best principle. A critic imbued with the feelings of 
 
 1 Bastiau, vol. i. p. 402. 
 
 2 X 
 
674 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book YIII. 
 
 mediagval art would side with the Indians ; but if the Greeks were 
 correct in their principle, so certainly were the Cambodians. 
 
 Leaving these outer peristyles for the present, and entering by 
 the west door, we find ourselves in an ante-naos measuring 180 ft. by 
 150 ft., supported by more than 100 columns, and lighted by four 
 small courts open to the sky above ; but the floors, as in all Naga 
 temples, are tanks or reservoirs for water. The whole of this part is 
 arranged most artistically, so as to obtain the most varied and pic- 
 turesque effects, and is as well worthy of study as any part of the 
 temple. Beyond this, on either hand, is a detached temple, similar 
 in plan to those that stand on either side of the causeway, half-way 
 between the entrance and the temple. 
 
 Ascending from this we enter the middle court, in the centre 
 of which stands what may be considered as the temple itself. It 
 measures 200 ft. by 213 ft., and is crowned by five towers or spires, 
 one on each angle, and one, taller than the others, in the centre, 
 rising to a height of 180 ft. The central tower has four cells, like 
 that at Sadri, one facing each way. The general appearance of 
 these towers may be gathered from the elevation (Woodcut No. 371), 
 and from Woodcut No. 375. They are very Indian in character and 
 outline, but, when looked closely into, are unlike anything known in 
 that country. The building which resembles the inner temple most, 
 so far as at present known, is that at Sadri (Woodcut No. 133). 
 Its dimensions are nearly the same, 200 ft. by 225 ft. ; like this, it 
 has five spires similarly disposed, and four open courts ; and at Sadri, 
 as here, there are a certain number of snake-images, which suggest 
 a connexion between the two. But there the similarity ceases. The 
 extraordinary amount of richness and exuberance of detail in the 
 Cambodian temple far surpasses that of the Indian example ; and 
 the courts at Nakhon Wat are not courts but water-tanks. How far 
 the lower courts were also capable of being floodef- is not clear, nor 
 whether the whole area, 1100 yards square, in which the temple 
 stands, was not also capable of being turned into a lake.^ Judging 
 from the analogy of the Kashmiri temples, it would seem probable 
 that this may have been the case. If it were, it is difficult to conceive 
 a more fairy-like scene than this temple would have presented, rising 
 from the lake which reflected its forms in the calm stillness of a 
 tropical sunset. 
 
 One of the most curious circumstances connected with the archi- 
 tecture of this temple is, that all its pillars are as essentially of the 
 Roman Doric order, as those of Kashmir are of the Grecian Doric ^ 
 
 ^ Mr. Thomson was informed that 1 and the temple could be reached in 
 during the rains the whole was flooded, I boats. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 TEMPLE OP NAKHON WAT. 
 
 G75 
 
 Even if this is disputed, one thing at least is certain, that no such 
 pillars occur anywhere in India. At Nakhon Wat there is not a single 
 bracket-capital nor an Indian base. The pillars nowhere change into 
 
 375. General View of Temple of Nakhon Wat. (From a Photograph by Mr. J. Thomson.) 
 
 octagons or polygons of sixteen or thirty-two sides,i and all the en- 
 tablatures are as unlike Indian forms as can well be conceived. At 
 
 * Outside the temple the sides of the 
 causeways are in places ornamented with 
 dwarf columns of circular form. They 
 
 seem to simulate a bundle of eight reeds, 
 and have tall capitals. 
 
 2x2 
 
076 
 
 FURTHER IKDIA. 
 
 Xaklioii Wat, also, there are iiitersectiiifi; vaults and iii<i:enions roofing- 
 contrivances of all sorts, but no dome, and no hint that the architects 
 were aware of the existence of such a form. 
 
 f ^-^p^..^. On the contrary, take snch a pillar as that 
 
 shown in Woodcut No. 376 : the proportion of 
 diameter to height ; the entasis ; the propor- 
 "'^^^ tion between the upper and lower diameter ; 
 the capital with its abacus ; the base with its 
 plinth ; the architrave, &c., are so like the 
 Roman order that it is difficult to conceive 
 the likeness being accidental. 
 
 But whoever gave the design for these 
 pillars — and, according to M. Mouhot, there 
 are 1582 of them in this single building — we 
 have abundant evidence to show that the 
 people for whom it was erected were of pure 
 Turanian blood. Without insisting on other 
 facts, there are in every part of the building 
 groups of female figures in alto-relievo. Thev 
 are sometimes in niches or in pairs, as in the 
 AVoodcut No. 377, attached to pilasters, or in 
 groups of four or more. There are a hundred 
 or more in various parts of the building, and 
 aU have the thick lips and the flat noses of 
 true Tartars, their eyes forming an angle with 
 one another like those of the Egyptians, or 
 any other of the true building-races of the 
 world. Unfortunately, no statues of men are 
 so attached, though there are several free- 
 standing figures which tell the same tale. 
 The bas-reliefs do not help in the inquiry, 
 as the artist has taken pains to distinguish 
 carefully the ethnographic peculiarities of all 
 the nations represented, and, till the inscriptions are read, and we 
 know who are intended for Indians or who for Chinese or Cambo- 
 dians, we cannot use the evidence they supply. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that, wherever Serpent-worship prevailed 
 in any part of the w^orld, it w^as the custom to devote the most beau- 
 tiful young girls to the service of the temple. This Avould not only 
 account for these numerous female statues, but their presence affords 
 a hint of the worship to which it was dedicated. This, however, is 
 not required ; for, though the god is gone, and the Buddhists have 
 taken possession of the temple, everywhere the Snake-god appears. 
 Every angle of every roof is adorned with an image of the seven- 
 headed snake, and there are hundreds of them ; everv cornice is 
 
 37G. Pillar of Porch, 
 
 Naklion Wat. 
 CFrnm a Photograph by 
 Mr. J. Thomson.) 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 TEMPLE AT NAKHON WAT. 
 
 G77 
 
 composed of snakes' heads ; every convolution of the roofs, and 
 are thousands, terminates 
 in a five or seven-headed 
 snake. The balustrades 
 are snakes, and the ridge 
 of every roof was appa- 
 rently adorned with gilt 
 dragons. These being in 
 metal, have disappeared, 
 but the holes into w^hich 
 they were fixed can still 
 be seen on every ridge. 
 
 There is no image in 
 the sanctuary, of course, 
 because it is the peculi- 
 arity of this religion that 
 the god is a living god, 
 and dies, or is eaten up 
 by his fellow divinities, 
 so that no trace of him 
 remains. But, beyond all 
 this, the water - arrange- 
 ments which pervade every 
 part of the great temple 
 are such as belong to the 
 worship of the Serpent, 
 and to that only. 
 
 At present this temple 
 has been taken possession 
 of by Siamese bonzes, who 
 have dedicated it to the 
 worship of Buddha. They 
 have introduced images of 
 him into the sanctuaries 
 and other places, and, with 
 the usual incur iousness of 
 people of their class, assert 
 that it Avas always so ; 
 while, unfortunately, no 
 one who has yet visited 
 the place has been so fami- 
 liar with Buddhist archi- 
 tecture as to be able to 
 contradict them. If, how- 
 ever, there is one thing 
 
 , ^, ' 377. Lower i'ari ol I'lliister, Nakhon Wat. C*-"'^'" 
 
 more certain than anotiier rhotograph by Mr. f. j. Tbou-son.) 
 
678 
 
 FUKTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIIL 
 
 ill this history, it is that Nakhon Wat was not originally erected 
 by Buddhists or for Buddhist purposes. In the first place, there 
 is no sign of a dagoba or of a vihara, or of a chaitya hall in the 
 whole building, nor anything that can be called a reminiscence of 
 any feature of Buddhist architecture. More than this, there is no 
 trace of Buddha, of any scene from his life, or from the jatakas to be 
 found among the sculptures. In former days it might be excusable 
 to doubt this ; but it is not so now that any man may make himself 
 familiar with the sculptures at Bharhut, at Sanchi, or Amravati, or 
 with those from the Gandhara monasteries or at Boro Buddor. It is 
 just as easy to recognise a Buddhist scene or legend in these repre- 
 sentations, as it is to identify a Christian scene in the Arena chapel 
 at Padua, or at Monreale near Palermo. What may hereafter turn up 
 I do not know, but meanwhile I most unhesitatingly assert that there 
 is not a trace of Buddhism in any of the bas-reliefs yet brought to 
 light from Nakhon Wat, nor an integral statue of Buddha or of any 
 Buddhist saint about the place. 
 
 I am, of course, aware that there are traditions of Asoka having 
 sent missionaries there, and of Buddhaghosha having visited the place,^ 
 but they are the merest of traditions, imported, apparently, from 
 Siam, and resting on no authenticated basis. Had Buddhists ever 
 come here eyi masse, or the country ever been converted to that re- 
 ligion, as was the case in Java, it seems impossible the fact should 
 not be observable in the buildings. But there seems no trace of it 
 there. There is no Eastern country, in fact, where that religion 
 seems to have been so little known in ancient times. The testimony 
 of the Chinese traveller, who visited the country in a.d. 1295,^ is 
 sufficient to prove it did exist in his time ; but, like his predecessors 
 Fa Hian and Hiouen Thsang, he saw his own faith everywhere, and, 
 with true Chinese superciliousness, saw no other religion anywhere. 
 
 So far as can be at present ascertained, it seems as if the migra- 
 tions of the Indians to Java and to Cambodia took place about the 
 same time and from the same quarter ; but with tliis remarkable 
 difi^erence : they went en masse to Java, and found a tabula rasa 
 — a people, it may be, numerous, but without arts or religion, and 
 they implanted there their own with very slight modifications. 
 In Cambodia the country must have been more civilized, and had 
 a religion, if not an art. The Indians seem sloAvly, and only to a 
 limited extent, to have been able to modify their religion towards 
 
 ^ Gamier, loc. cit., vol. i. p. 120. Bas- 
 tian, vol. 1. pp. 400, 415, 438, &c. 
 
 2 In the extracts from the 'Chinese 
 Annals,' translated by Abel Kemusat, in 
 the first volume of the 'Nouveaux Me- 
 
 langes Asiatiques,' he finds the earliest 
 mention of the Cambodian kingdom in 
 A.D. 616. From that period the accounts 
 are tolerably consecutive to a.d. 1295, 
 but before that nothing. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 BAION. 
 
 679 
 
 Hinduism, probably because it was identical, or at least sympathetic ; 
 but they certainly endowed the Cambodians with an art which we 
 have no reason to suppose they before possessed. Now that we know 
 to what an extent classical art prevailed in the country these Indians 
 are reputed to have come from, and to how late a date that art 
 continued to be practised in the north-west, we are no longer puzzled 
 to understand the prevalence of classical details in this temple ; but to 
 work out the connexion in all its variations is one of the most interest- 
 ing problems that remain to exercise the ingenuity of future explorers. 
 
 Baion. 
 
 There is a temple within the city walls which, when as well 
 known, may prove to be a grander and more splendid temple than 
 Nakhon Wat itself. When Mr. Thomson visited the place, it was so 
 overgrown with jungle that he could not make out its plan or 
 even count its towers. Grarnier could only form a diagram of its 
 plan (plate 21), but he gave two view^s — one a woodcut in the text 
 (page 67), the other a lithograph in his atlas. It is understood, 
 however, that M. Delaporte has cleared out the place, and made 
 careful plans and drawings of the whole, so that in a short time 
 we may expect to know all about it. It is a rectangle, measuring 
 about 400 ft. by 433 ft., and its general appearance may be gathered 
 by imagining the effect of Nakhon Wat with fifty-two towers 
 instead of nine, and the whole perhaps more richly and elaborately 
 ornamented than even that temple. It certainly appears to be 
 older — probably it belongs to the 11th or 12th century ; and its 
 sculptures are consequently better in execution, though whether they 
 are equal in design w^e have yet to learn. 
 
 The most remarkable feature in the design is, that each of the towers 
 is adorned by four great masks. One of the smaller of these is shown 
 in the next woodcut (No. 378), and gives an idea of the style of 
 their decorations, but cannot of the larger towers, nor of the effect of 
 a great number of them grouped together, and dominated by one in 
 the centre 60 ft. in diameter, and of proportionate height. 
 
 The question still remains, to what deity, or for what form of 
 worship, was this strange temple erected ? We know of nothing like it 
 elsewhere. It certainly is not Buddhist, nor Jaina, nor, so far as 
 known, is it Hindu. Neither Siva nor Yishnu, nor any of the familar 
 gods of that Pantheon, appear anywhere. It may turn out to be other- 
 wise, but at present there seems no escape from the hypothesis that it 
 was dedicated to Brahma. We have no temple belonging to this god 
 in India Proper, but he does appear with the other two in sculptures 
 at HuUabid, and in other places, completing the trinity. His images 
 are found much more frequently in Java than in India, thou^'h I am 
 
680 
 
 FUKTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book Yill. 
 
 not aware that any temple has yet been found in the island dedicated 
 to hini. In Cambodia, however, he plays a most important part in all 
 the local traditions. When, for instance, the sovereign who married 
 the Snake-king's daughter got tired of his father-in-law, he set up an 
 image of the four-faced Brahma over the gates of the city, which so 
 terrified the old man that he fled to his dark abode cursing his un- 
 grateful children. Such an image does still exist over the principal 
 
 378. One of the Towers of the Ttmple at Oiigcor I'hora. 
 
 (From a Photograph by Mr. J. Tliomson.) 
 
 gate of the city ; but the Chinese traveller, who visited the place 
 in 1295,1 calls it a five-faced image of Buddha ! The traveller was 
 a Buddhist, and, as before mentioned, saw his own religion every- 
 where, and that only in every temple and in every place. 
 
 All the traditions collected by Bastian, and the numerous images 
 of Ta Phrohm or Brahma found by the French at Mount Kromi and 
 elsewhere, fully bear out this assignment of the temple to I)rahma, 
 
 ' ' Nouvcaiix Melanges Asiatiques,' vol. i, p. 10;i. 
 
ClIAP. IV. 
 
 BAION. 
 
 681 
 
 But if it should eventually prove to be correct, what a wide door it 
 opens for speculation, and what a flood of light it would throw on 
 many questions that are now perplexing us. Is it that a worship of 
 Brahma really existed in the north-west, in the original seats of the 
 immigrant races before they passed into India, and that it was left 
 to vegetate there while the settlers adopted the more fashionable 
 religions of Siva and Vishnu in the countries of their adoption ? If 
 this were so, a later migration may have taken place by a northern 
 route through Yunan, taking with them the older form of the faith 
 and planting it in this far-off land. 
 
 It was not by accident that the knowledge either of Brahma or of 
 these strangely classical forms of art were imported into this country. 
 We cannot yet explain how all this happened, but we see enough to 
 feel sure that in a very few years the solution will be possible — per- 
 haps easy. It would indeed be a triumph if we could track Brahma 
 back to the cave where he has been so long hidden, and connect his 
 worship Avith some of the known religions of the world. 
 
 Rather more than a mile to the eastward of the city is another 
 first-class temple, called Ta Proum, or Paten ta Phrohm, the resi- 
 dence of Phrohm or Brahma.^ It is a square, measuring about 400 ft. 
 each way, and, so far as can be made out from M. Mouhot's plan, was 
 of the same class as Nakhon Wat ; but, as Lieutenant Garnier says, it 
 is so ruined that its plan can hardly be made out,^ and it is so choked 
 with vegetation, that in a few years not one stone of it will remain 
 upon another. 
 
 About twenty miles further eastward is another temple of the 
 same class, but much more perfect, called Melea, and at seventy miles 
 a third, called Preacan. These were only imperfectly explored by the 
 first French expedition, but have been thoroughly investigated by the 
 second,^ and we may hope soon to have plans and all the details 
 necessary to enable us to speak with confidence with regard to this 
 curious but most interesting group of temples. They are evidently 
 very numerous, and all most elaborately adorned, and, it need hardly 
 be added, very unlike anything we have met with in any j)art of 
 India described in the previous chapters of this work. They cer- 
 tainly are neither Buddhist, Jaina, nor Hindu, in any sense in which 
 we have hitherto understood these terms, and they as certainly are 
 not residences or buildings used for any civil purposes. It is j)ossible 
 that, when we become acquainted with the ancient architecture of 
 Yunan, or the provinces of Central and AVestern China, we may get 
 some hints as to their origin. At present I am inclined to look 
 
 * Bastiaii, vol. i. p. 404. ^ Garnier, 'Voyage,' &c., vol. i. p. 74. 
 
 ' L'Art Khmer,' i>. 38. 
 
682 
 
 FURTHER INDIA. 
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 further north and further west for the sohition of the riddle; but, till 
 we are in possession of the results of the French expedition, it is 
 premature to speculate. 
 
 These great galleried temples may be considered as the most 
 typical, as they certainly are the most magnificent, of the temples of 
 the Cambodians ; but, besides these, there are ten or twelve great 
 temples in Ongcor Thorn and its neighbourhood, which anywhere else 
 would be considered worthy of attention. Of these, one at Mount 
 Bakeng, to the south of the city, is a five-storeyed pyramid, with 
 sixty small pavilions on its steps, and a platform on its summit, which 
 is now only encumbered with some debris ; but whether they are the 
 remains of a Sikra, or whether it was a well-temple like those in 
 Java, is by no means clear. 
 
 To the east of the city is another somewhat similar — a pyramid, 
 with three storeys, rising to a height of about 50 ft. It, however, is 
 enclosed in a gallery, measuring 250 ft. each way, and seems to have 
 had five pavilions on its summit.^ 
 
 The other temples are not of such magnificence as to justify their 
 being described here ; their interest would be great in a monograph 
 of the style, but, without illustrations, their dimensions, coupled with 
 their unfamiliar namas, would convey very little information to the 
 reader.^ 
 
 Civil Architectuee. 
 
 The palaces and public buildings of Ongcor seem to be quite worthy 
 of its temples, either as regards extent or richness of decoration. 
 They are, however, as might be expected, in a more ruinous state ; 
 being less monumental in their mode of construction, and, what is 
 more to our present purpose, they have neither been drawn nor pho- 
 tographed to such an extent as to render them intelligible. 
 
 A view of one of the gates of Ongcor Thom is given by Lieutenant 
 Garnier, Plate 8 ; and as it is as remarkable as anything about the 
 place, it is to be hoped that full details will be brought home by 
 the present expedition. Fortunately, it is the gateway described by 
 
 ^ It would be interesting if among these 
 we could identify that one of which the 
 Chinese traveller gives the following de- 
 scription : — " A Test de la ville est un 
 autre temple de I'esprit nomme Pho-to-U, 
 auquel on sacrifie des hommes. Chaque 
 annee le roi va dans ce temple faire lui- 
 meme un sacrifice humain pendant la 
 nuit." — ' Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiqucs,' 
 vol. i. p. 83. 
 
 ^ At Buribun, on the other side of the 
 lake, Dr. Bastian informs me there is a 
 complete copy of the Nakhon Wat sculp- 
 tures, carved in wood in the 16th century. 
 The place was the residence of the kings 
 of Cambodia after the fall of the capital, 
 and as original art had then perished, 
 they took this mode of adorning their 
 palace. What a prize for any European 
 museum ! 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 683 
 
 the Chinese visitor, in 1295,^ as at the end of the great bridge, which 
 was, and is, adorned by fifty-two giants, bearing on their arms the 
 great seven-headed Naga that formed the parapet of the bridge. 
 
 On each side of the gate are three elephants, and on each angle 
 the head of a great seven-headed Naga. Above these are figures of 
 men and women, but the great feature is the four-faced misk of 
 Brahma, as on the spires of the Baion (Woodcut No. 878). The 
 details of the upper part also so far resemble those of that temple 
 that they must be nearly the same age. This, therefore, cannot well 
 be the four-faced figure of Brahma, which his ungrateful children 
 set up to frighten then' parent when they were tired of him (ante, 
 page 680) ; but it is curious to find the legend repeated in stone and 
 standing at this day. It may, however, be that the stone gave rise 
 to the legend ; but, whichever way it arose, it is equally interesting 
 as material evidences of a history and of a religion of which, up to 
 this time, we know little or nothing. 
 
 The walls of the cities were also of very great extent, and of 
 dimensions commensurate with their importance. They seem generally 
 to have been constructed of a coarse ferruginous stone in large blocks, 
 and only the gates and ornamental parts were of the fine-grained 
 sandstone of which the temples and palaces are built. Wonderful as 
 these temples and palaces are, the circumstance that, perhaps, after 
 all gives the highest idea of the civilization of these ancient Cam- 
 bodians is the perfection of their roads and bridges. One great trunk 
 road seems to have stretched for 300 miles across the country from 
 Korat, in a south-easterly direction, to the Mekong river. It was a 
 raised causeway, paved throughout like a Roman road, and every 
 stream that it crossed was spanned by a bridge, many of which re- 
 main perfect to the present day. Dr. Bastian describes two of these : 
 one, 400 ft. in length, and 50 ft. in breadth, richly ornamented by 
 balustrades and cornices, and representations of snakes and the Snake 
 king.2 The extraordinary thing is, that it is constructed without 
 radiating arches, but like every structure in the place, by a system 
 of bracketing or horizontal arches, and without cement. Yet it has 
 withstood, for five centuries at least, the violence of the tropical 
 torrent which it spans. 
 
 Even if no vestiges of these roads or bridges remained, the sculp- 
 tures of Nakhon Wat are sufficient to prove the state of perfection 
 which the art of transport had reached in this community. In these 
 there are numerous representations of chariots, all with wheels from 
 3 ft. to 5 ft. in height, and with sixteen spokes, which must be of 
 
 ' ' Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques,' I ^ ' Journal of the Royal Geographical 
 vol. i. p. 103. Gamier, woodcuts pp. 61 \ Society,' vol. xxxv. p. 75. 
 and G2. 1 
 
(184 
 
 FURTHKE INDIA. 
 
 \l00K VI II. 
 
 metiil, for no Loudon cociclnnaker at the present day could frame 
 anything so delicate in wood. The rims, too, are in metal, and, 
 apparently, the wheel turns on the axle. Those who are aware how 
 difficult a problem it is to make a perfect wheel will appreciate how 
 much is involved in such a perfect solution of the problem as is here 
 found. But it requires a knowledg'e of the clumsiness of the Eomans 
 and our media3val forefathers in this respect, and the utter barbarism 
 of the wheels represented in Indian sculptures and still nsed in India, 
 to feel fully its importance as an index of high civilization. 
 
 If, however, the Cambodians were the only people who before the 
 18th century made such wheels as these, it is also probably true that 
 their architects were the only ones who had sufficient mechanical skill 
 to construct their roofs wholly of hewn stone, without the aid either of 
 wood or concrete, and who could dovetail and join them so beautifully 
 that they remain watertight and perfect after five centuries of neglect 
 in a tropical climate. Nothing can exceed the skill and ingenuity 
 with which the stones of the roofs are joggled and fitted into one 
 another, unless it is the skill with which the joints of their plain 
 walls are so polished and so evenly laid without cement of any kind. 
 It is difficult to detect their joints even in a sun-picture, which 
 generally reveals flaws not to be detected by the eye. Except in the 
 works of the old pyramid- building Egyptians, I know of nothing to 
 compare with it. 
 
 When we put all these things together, it is difficult to decide 
 whether we ought most to admire the mechanical skill which the 
 Cambodian architects displayed in construction or the largeness of 
 conception and artistic merit which pervades every part of their 
 designs. These alone ought to be more than sufficient to recommend 
 their study to every architect. To the historian of art the wonder is 
 to find temples with such a singular combination of styles in such 
 a locality — Indian temples constructed with pillars almost purely 
 classical in design, and ornamented with bas-reliefs so strangely 
 Egyptian in character. To the ethnologist they are almost equally 
 interesting, in consequence of the religion to which they are dedi- 
 cated. Taken together, these circumstances render their complete 
 investigation so important that it is hoped it will not now be long 
 delayed. 
 
( G85 ) 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Period of Hea 
 
 Woo Wong period of Cliow .... 
 
 Confucius died 
 
 Chy hoang-ty built Great Wall . . . 
 
 Han dynasty 
 
 Hoty, seventeenth king ; Buddhism in- 
 
 r..('. 2100 
 
 1100 
 477 
 240 
 201 
 
 kingdoms a.d. 416 
 
 China reunited, capital Honan . . . 585 
 
 Tang dynasty 897 
 
 Northern China conquered by Mongols . 1234 
 
 Kublai Khan 1281 
 
 Ming dynasty ; Mongol expelled . . 1366 
 Manchow Tartar dynasty ; now on the throne 1644 
 
 Wootae dynasty ; Chinadividcd into two 
 
 troduced . 
 Tsin dynasty 
 
 90 
 260 
 
 It is extremely difficult, in the present state of our knowledge, to write 
 anything, either conclusive or satisfactory, about the architecture of 
 China. This may arise partly from the incuriousness of travellers, 
 and partly because there really are no buildings in the country 
 worthy of the people or their civilization. Till very recently, the 
 latter would have appeared to be the true cause of our ignorance ; 
 but lately the photographic camera has penetrated even within the 
 walls of the imperial city of Pekin, and has brought away impres- 
 sions which go some way to modify this opinion. Unfortunately, the 
 camera has not been accompanied by the measuring-tape or the note- 
 book, and our information is therefore, in some respects, vague ; but 
 it seems certain that there are buildings worthy of more attention 
 than has hitherto been bestowed upon them. Even these, however, 
 are not such as we might expect to find among a people whose 
 history and whose civilization seems so exact a counterpart of that 
 of Egypt. In both countries w^e have the same long succession of 
 dynasties with dates, extending through 8000 or 4000 years, inter- 
 rupted only by shepherd invasions which in both countries lasted 
 about five centuries, when the w^ords of Manetho are as literally 
 applicable to the Taeping rebellion as they are to the overthroAV of 
 
686 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IK. 
 
 the Hyksos by the uprising of the native Egyptian races. During 
 all this long period the same patriarchal form of government pre- 
 vailed in both countries — the king being not only the head of the 
 secular government, but the chief priest of the people. Both people 
 early attained a certain stage of civilization, and maintained it with- 
 out change or progress during the whole period of their existence. 
 The syllabic symbols of the Chinese are the exact counterpart of the 
 hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, as clumsy and as unlike that 
 of any other contemporary nation, and as symbolic of their exclusive 
 segregation from the rest of mankind. In both countries there was 
 always the same calm contemplation of death, the same desire for 
 an honourable funeral and a splendid tomb, and the same reverence 
 for the dead. In these and fifty other particulars, the manners 
 and customs of the two peoples seem identical, and the perfect paral- 
 lelism only breaks down when we come to speak of their buildings. 
 There are no tombs in China to be compared with the Pyramids, 
 and no temples that approach those of Thebes in dimensions or in 
 splendour. 
 
 If the Chinese were as closely allied to the Tartar or Mongolian 
 tribes on their north-eastern frontier as is generally supposed, this 
 difference could not have existed. It may therefore be, as has been 
 suspected, that the true Chinese are more closely allied to the 
 Polynesian races, especially on the sea-board, which is the only 
 part of the country we are really acquainted with. When the inner 
 country has been more carefully examined, it is probable that Ave may 
 see cause to modify our opinion as to the architectural character 
 of the Chinese people. 
 
 This will be especially the case if, as is highly probable, the so- 
 called Indo-Chinese inhabitants of Cambodia are very much more 
 closely allied in blood to the Chinese than they are to any of the 
 races inhabiting India ; since, by the erection of the buildings described 
 in the last division of this work, the Cambodians have nobly vindi- 
 cated their title to be considered as one of the great building races 
 of the world. Considering the short time of their existence and the 
 limited area they occupied, they may in fact lay claim to having 
 surpassed even the Egyptians in this respect. 
 
 It will be strange if in Honan and Quang-si we do not eventually 
 find the links which will confirm the connexion of the two races of 
 Cambodia and China, and explain what at present can only be regarded 
 as one of the unsolved problems of architectural history. 
 
 A little well-directed industry on the spot would very soon clear all 
 this doubt away. Meanwhile there are other minor causes which may 
 have contributed to the absence of monumental buildings in China, 
 and which it may be as well to allude to before proceeding further. 
 In the first place, the Chinese never had either a dominant priesthood 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 687 
 
 or a hereditary nobility. The absence of the former class is a very 
 important consideration, because, in all countries where architecture 
 has been carried to anything like perfection, it is to sacred art that it 
 has owed its highest inspiration, and sacred art is never so strongly 
 developed as under the influence of a powerful and splendid hierarchy. 
 Again, religious and sectarian zeal is often a strong stimulus to sacred 
 architecture, and this is entirely wanting in this remarkable people. 
 Though the Chinese are bigoted to a greater extent than we can well 
 conceive in all political matters, they are more tolerant than any 
 other nation we know of in all that concerns religion. At the 
 present moment three great religious sects divide the empire nearly 
 equally between them. For though Buddhism is the religion of the 
 reigning family, and perhaps numbers more followers than either of 
 the other two, still the followers of the doctrines of Confucius — the 
 contemporary and rival of Sakya Sinha — are a more purely Chinese 
 sect than the other, and hold an equal place in public estimation ; 
 while, at the present time, the sect of Laou Tse, or the Doctors of 
 Reason, is more fashionable, and certainly more progressive, than 
 the others.^ Christianity, too, might at one time have encroached 
 largely on either of these, and become a very prevalent religion in 
 this tolerant empire, had the Jesuits and Dominicans understood that 
 the condition of religious tolerance here is a total abstinence from 
 interference in political matters. This, however, the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood never coald be brought to understand ; hence their expul- 
 sion from the realm, and the proscription of their faith, which other- 
 wise would not only have been tolerated like all others, but bid fair 
 to find more extensive favour than any. Such toleration is highly 
 laudable in one point of view ; but the want of fervour and energy 
 from which it arises is fatal to any great exertions for the honour of 
 religion. 
 
 In the same manner the want of an hereditary nobility, and indeed 
 of any strong family pride, is equally unfavourable to domestic 
 architecture of a durable description. At a man's death his property 
 is generally divided equally among his children. Consequently the 
 wealthiest men do not build residences calculated to last longer than 
 their own lives. The royal palaces are merely somewhat larger and 
 
 ' The population of China is generally 
 estimated at 400 millions of souls. This 
 I believe to be a gross exaggeration, and 
 would feel very much more inclined to 
 put it at SCO millions, and of that number 
 to estimate the Buddhists at 100 millions 
 of souls. This, however, in the present 
 state of our knowledge, is, and must be, 
 mere guess-work. If we put down 50 
 
 millions for the Buddhist population of 
 Thibet, Manchuria, Burmah, Siam, Cam- 
 bodia, and Ceylon, we shall probably not 
 err on the side of underestimating them, 
 making 150 millions the total number of 
 followers of this religion in the whole 
 world, or one-eiglith or one-tenth of the 
 human race — not one-third or one-fourth, 
 at which they are usually estimated. 
 
G88 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTUHE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 more spleiulid tliau those of the niaiidarins, l)ut the same in character, 
 and erected with the same ends. 
 
 There is no country where property has hitherto been considered 
 so secure as China. Private feuds and private wars were till lately 
 unknown ; foreign invasion was practically impossible, and little 
 dreaded. Hence they have none of those fortalices, or fortified man- 
 sions, which by their mass and solidity give such a marked character 
 to a certain class of domestic edifices in the western world. Equality, 
 peace, and toleration, are blessings whose value it would be difficult 
 to overestimate ; but on the dead though pleasing level where they 
 exist, it is in vain to look for the rugged sublimity of the mountain, 
 or the terrific grandeur of the storm. The Chinese have chosen the 
 humbler path of life, and with singular success. There is not perhaps 
 a more industrious or, till the late wars, happier people on the face of 
 the globe ; but they are at the same time singularly deficient in every 
 element of greatness, either political or artistic. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, it certainly is curious to find the oldest 
 civilized people noAv existing on the face of the globe almost wholly 
 without monuments to record the past, or any desire to convey to pos- 
 terity a worthy idea of their present greatness. It is no less remark- 
 able to find the most populous of nations, a nation in which millions 
 are always seeking employment, never thinking of any of those higher 
 modes of expression w^hich w^ould serve as a means of multiplying 
 occupation, and which elevate while feeding the masses ; and still more 
 startling to find wealth, such as the Chinese possess, never invested in 
 self-glorification, by individuals erecting for themselves monuments 
 which shall astonish their contemporaries, and hand down their names 
 to posterity. 
 
 From these causes it may be that Chinese architecture is not 
 w^orthy of much attention. In one respect, however, it is instructive, 
 since the Chinese are the only people w^ho now employ polychromy as 
 an essential part of their architecture : indeed, with them, colour is far 
 more essential than form ; and certainly the result is so far pleasing 
 and satisfactory, that for the lower grades of art it is hardly doubtful 
 that it should always be so. For the higher grades, however, it is 
 hardly less certain that colour, though most valuable as an accessary, 
 is incapable of that lofty pow^er of expression which form conveys to 
 the human mind. 
 
CUAI'. II. 
 
 PAGODAS. 
 
 689 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PAGODAS. 
 
 COXTENTS. 
 
 Temple of the Great Dragon — Buddhist Temples — Taas — Tombs — Pailoos 
 Domestic Architecture. 
 
 If we had the requisite knowledge, or if the known examples of Chinese 
 temples were sufficiently numerous, we ought, before describing them, 
 to classify the buildings, apportioning each to that one of the three 
 religions to which it belongs. For the present this must be left 
 to some one on the spot. Meanwhile there is no difficulty in recog- 
 nising those which belong to the religion of Fo or Buddha. These 
 are generally the nine-storeyed towers or taas, which, as will be ex- 
 plained hereafter, are merely exaggerated tees of the Indian dagobas. 
 The temples, properly so-called, of this religion, are not very magni- 
 ffcent, nor are they generally built in a permanent style of architecture. 
 This is still more the case, apparently, with the temples of Confucius. 
 The only one that has been carefully described and photographed is 
 that at Pekin, which is also probably the most magnificent. Judging 
 from our present information, it more resembles a university than a 
 temple. There are neither images nor altars, but great halls, on which 
 are hung up the names of the emperors and of the most distinguished 
 literates of the kingdom. There are no priests ; and though cere- 
 monies are there performed annually by the emperor in honour of the 
 great philosopher, these scarcely can be called worship, or the hall a 
 temple. 
 
 Temple of the Great Dragox. 
 
 The most magnificent temple in the capital, so far as Ave know in 
 the empire, is that known as the Temple of Heaven, or the Great 
 Dragon.^ It is situated close to the southern wall of the city in a square 
 
 ' The following description is abridged 
 from that by Mr. A. Michie in his work 
 entitled ' The Siberian Overland Koute,' 
 Murray, 1864. It is by far the most dis- 
 tinct I have met with. The larger wood- 
 cuts in this chapter are generally bor- 
 
 current in European books, which were 
 generally derived from the accounts of 
 the Jesuits, who probably obtained their 
 information from Chinese sources. It is 
 generally safer to trust to the account of 
 an educ.ited gentleman describing what 
 
 rowed from his work. It must, however, he saw, than to the essay of a mere 
 be observed that his descriptions differ I scholar compiling from information cou- 
 sometimcs essentially from those hitherto vcyed in a foreign tongue. 
 
690 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 BUDDHIST TEMPLES. 
 
 691 
 
 enclosure measuring about a mile each way. From the outer gate 
 a raised causeway leads to the temple, on either side of which are 
 numerous buildings for the accommodation of the priests, which are 
 approached by frequent flights of steps leading down to a park beau- 
 tifully planted. At its inner extremity stands the temple itself, a 
 circular building, three storeys in height, with broad projecting roofs, 
 the upper terminating in a gilt ball, directly under which stands the 
 altar. 
 
 The temple is raised on a circular pyramid, the three terraces of 
 which are seen in the woodcut. There are several handsome gateways 
 at intervals across the causeway, so arranged that from the entrance 
 the circular temple itself can be seen through the long vista, framed 
 as it were by them ; and as the whole of the upper part is covered with 
 blue tiles and gilding, the effect is said to be very pleasing. 
 
 In the same enclosure is another temple called that of the Earth, 
 where sacrifices of animals are annually offered to the gods, whoever 
 they may be, to whom this temple is dedicated. 
 
 These temples are said to have been erected about the year 1420, 
 and, if so old, seem to be in a very fair state of preservation, con- 
 sidering the manner in which they are now neglected. 
 
 In reading Mr. Michie's, or any other description of the Dragon 
 Temple of Pekin, it seems impossible to avoid feeling that there are 
 so many points of resemblance between it and the Serpent Temple of 
 Nakhon Wat, that the coincidence can hardly be accidental. The 
 variations are hardly greater than might be expected from differ- 
 ence of age, and the fact that the one was erected by Chinese at the 
 northern extremity of their empire, the other by Cambodians near the 
 southern limit of theirs. All the links, however, which connect the 
 two temples are still wanting ; yet, as we have the assertion of the 
 Chinese traveller in 1295 that the Tao-tze religion ^ existed in Cam- 
 bodia while he was there, we should not feel surprise at any similarity 
 that may be traced between the temples of the two countries. 
 
 Buddhist Temples. 
 
 The only Buddhist temple in China of which any plans have been 
 made, or which I have myself had an opportunity of inspecting, is that 
 at Honan, opposite Canton. Unfortunately it is very modern, and by 
 no means monumental. It is a parallelogram enclosed by a high wall, 
 measuring 306 ft. by 174 ft. In the shorter front facing the river is a 
 gateway of some pretension. This leads to a series of halls opening 
 into each other, and occupying the whole of the longer axis of the 
 internal court. The first and second of these are porches or ante- 
 
 ' 'Nouvcaux Melauges Asiatitiucs,' vol. i. p. 110. 
 
692 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 chapels. The central one is the largest, and practically the choir of 
 the bnilding. It contains the altar, adorned by gilt images of the 
 three precious Buddhas, with stalls for the monks and all arrange- 
 ments necessary for the daily service. Behind this, in the next com- 
 partment, is a dagoba, and in its rear another apartment devoted to 
 the goddess Kuan yin, principally worshipped by A\'omen — in fact, the 
 Lady Chapel of the church. Around the court are arranged the cells 
 of the monks, their kitchen, refectory, and all the necessary offices of 
 the convent. These are generally placed against the outer wall, and 
 open into the court. 
 
 Any person familiar with the rock-cut examples in India will 
 easily recognise in this temple all the features he is accustomed to in 
 the earlier Chaityas and Yiharas, though strangely altered by their 
 Chinese disguise. The figure which stood in front of the dagoba 
 (Woodcut No. 61) is moved forward and placed on an altar by itself, 
 with two companions added, in accordance with modern Chinese 
 theology ; but the general arrangements rem.ain the same. The most 
 interesting part, however, is the arrangement of the cells, &c., rela- 
 tively to the temple. In one of the caves at Dhumnar (Bhim ka 
 Bazar) something like this has been attempted, but it is evidently so 
 difficult of execution in the rock, that we are not surprised to find it 
 not repeated. It is evidently what was intended to be represented on 
 the central rath of Mahavellipore (Woodcut No. 181), and must 
 indeed have been the general arrangement of Buddhist ecclesiastical 
 establishments. What is now wanted is, that some one should supply 
 information regarding the earlier temples of the Chinese, say of the 
 12th to the 16th centuries. They no doubt exist, and would throw 
 great light on the earlier Indian examples. In the meanwhile, how- 
 ever, it is curious to refer back to the Woodcut No. 129. From it it 
 will be perceived that as early as the 11th century the Buddhist 
 Chaitya in India, standing in the centre of its Vihara, had already 
 been sublimated into an idol temple, surrounded by a series of idol 
 niches, since there cannot be a doubt that the Jaina temple of Vimala 
 Sah is a reproduction for another purpose of an old Buddhist monas- 
 tery. The curious point is, that the 18th-century temple of Honan 
 reproduces, for their original purpose, forms which in India had, 
 seven centuries earlier, passed away to another faith, and became 
 wholly conventional. It is still more strange that, if we leap over 
 the intermediate period, and go seven centuries further back, we shall 
 find in India the same ceremonies performed in the same form of 
 temples as those at which any one may assist in China at the present 
 day. 
 
 At Pekin there are several liamaseries or Buddhist monasteries, 
 of a much more monumental character than that at Honan, but it is 
 very difficult indeed to guess at their arrangement from mere verbal 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 BUDDfllST TEMPLES. 
 
 6<)3 
 
 descriptions without dimensions. The gateway of one, represented in 
 Woodcut No. ;-}80, g-ives a fair idea of the usual mode of constructino- 
 gateways in China. ^ 
 It has three openings of pleasing proportions, and is as wel' 
 designed as any to be found in China. Behind it is to be seen the 
 dagoba, to which it leads : a tall form, with a reverse slope, and an 
 
 Muiiumeutal Gateway of Buddhist Monastery, Pekiii. (From a Photograph by Beato.) 
 
 exaggerated tee, so altered from those we are accustomed to in the 
 earlier days of Indian architecture, that it requires some familiarity 
 with the intermediate forms in Nepal and Burmah to feel sure that it 
 IS the direct lineal descendant of the topes at Sanchi or Manikyala. 
 Around it are minarets, with a cross-legged seated figure of Buddha 
 
004 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 lioOK IX. 
 
 on each face. But without a plan or description it is impossible to 
 say whether they come clown to the gronnd, or on what kind of 
 basement they rest. 
 
 The ordinary form of a temple, as seen in the villages or towns 
 in China, is extremely simple, and seems to be the same, whether 
 dedicated to Buddha, or to the Qneen of Heaven, or to any other deity 
 of the strange pantheon of the Celestial Empire. It generally consists 
 of a square apartment with a highly ornamented roof, and with one 
 of the side-walls removed. The entrance is never at the end, nor the 
 end wall ever removed, as would be the case in the West, but always 
 the side ; and it is by no means clear that this is not the right and 
 
 381. Temple at Macao. (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 reasonable way of arranging matters. In very small temples a single 
 beam supports the eaves, and a screen inside forms the back of the 
 porch and the front of the temple. In larger temples two or more 
 pillars are introduced, but the other arrangements remain the same. 
 Both these may be seen in the annexed woodcut (No. 381), and when 
 arranged as picturesquely as in this group, and with their gateways 
 and subsidiary adjuncts, they become very pleasing features in the 
 landscape. As architectural objects, they depend for their effect 
 principally on colour, which is applied with an unsparing hand in 
 the form of glazed tiles, painted ornaments, and frequently also 
 paintings, such as landscapes and figure subjects. Gilding is also 
 employed to a great extent, and with good effect. 
 
Chap II. 
 
 TAAS. 
 
 695 
 
 Taas. 
 
 Tlio objects of Chinese architecture with which the European eye 
 is most familiar are the taas, or nine-storeyed pagodas, as they are 
 usually called. In the south they generally have that number of 
 storeys, but not always, and in the north it ranges from three to 
 thirteen. As before hinted, these are nothing but exaggerated tees 
 of dagobas, and it is easy to trace them through all the stages of the 
 change. In India we can easily trace the single wooden chattah or 
 umbrella of Karli (Woodcut No. 56) to the nine-storeyed tower at 
 Chittore (Woodcut No. 143), and from that the transition is easy to 
 the Chinese examples, although the elaboration of the two Avas simul- 
 taneous, and the Chinese had probably erected tall towei's as early as 
 the Jains. 
 
 Of those which existed in China in our own time the best known is 
 the celebrated porcelain 
 tower at Nankin. ^ Com- 
 menced in the year 1412, 
 and finished in 1431, 
 it was erected as a mo- 
 nument of gratitude to 
 an empress of the Ming 
 family, and was, in 
 consequence, generally 
 called the Temple of 
 Gratitude. It was oc- 
 tagonal in form, 236 ft. 
 in height, of which, 
 however, about 30 ft? 
 must be deducted for 
 the iron spire that sur- 
 mounted it, leaving 
 little more than 200 ft. 
 for the elevation of the 
 building, or about the 
 height of the Monument 
 of London. From the 
 summit of the spire 
 eight chains depended, 
 to each of w^hich were 
 attached nine bells, and 
 a bell was also attached 
 
 to each angle of the lower roofs, making 144 bells in all, which, 
 
 Porcelain Tower, Nankin. 
 
 ^ The tower was destroyed in the rcccut Taeping rebellion. 
 
696 
 
 chinp:se architecture. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 when tinkling in harmony to the evening breeze, must have pro- 
 duced an effect as singular as pleasing. It was not, however, either 
 to its dimensions or its bells that the tower owed its celebrity, but 
 to the coating of porcelain wliich clothed its brick walls, as well as 
 the upper and under sides of the projecting roofs, which mark the 
 division of each storey. The porcelain produced a brilliancy of effect 
 which is totally lost in all the representations of it yet published, but 
 which was, in fact, that on Avhich the architect almost wholly relied 
 for producing the effect he desired, and without which his design is 
 a mere skeleton. 
 
 Another celebrated pagoda is that known as " Second Bar Pagoda," 
 on the Canton river. It is a pillar of victory, erected to commemorate 
 a naval battle which the Chinese claim to have gained near the spot. 
 
ClIAP. 11. 
 
 TAAS. 
 
 697 
 
 It is, in design, nearly identical with that of Nankin, bnt of smaller 
 dimensions, and is now fast falling to ruin. 
 
 These two are of the usual and most typical form, and so like 
 hundreds of others, that it is impossible to deduce any sequence from 
 them with such representations as we now possess. Though pleasing 
 and purposelike, as well as original, they are somewhat monotonous 
 
 384. Tung Chow Pagoda. (From a Photograph by Beato.) 
 
 in design. A tower divided into nine equal and similar storeys is a 
 very inferior design to that of the minars of the Mahomedans, or the 
 ordinary spires of Christian churches ; and, if all were like these, we 
 should be forced to deny the Chinese the faculty of invention in 
 architecture. In the north, however, the forms seem much more 
 various. One in the Summer Palace (Woodcut No. 383) is divided 
 into either three or seven storeys, as you choose to count them. Four 
 
098 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 of the sides of tlie octagon are longer than the other fonr, and alto- 
 gether there is a play of light and shade, and a variety about the 
 ornaments in this tower, which is extremely pleasing. It is much 
 more like an Indian design than any other known m China, and 
 with the circle of pillars round its base, and the Lat or Stambha, 
 which usually accompany these objects further west, it recalls the 
 original forms as completely as any other object in this country. 
 
 In direct contrast to this is the Pagoda of Tung Chow (Woodcut 
 No. 384). Its thirteen storeys are almost more monotonous than 
 those of the Nankin Pagoda ; but they are merely architectural orna- 
 ments, string-courses, in fact ; and as the tower is not pierced with 
 windows above the base, it becomes, like an Orissan temple, an im- 
 posing object of architectural art without any apparent utilitarian 
 object. It thus escapes the charge of littleness in design, which only 
 too justly applies to most of its compeers. 
 
 It is extremely difficult to form a correct estimate of the artistic 
 merits of these towers. Edifices so original and so national must be 
 interesting from that circumstance alone, and it seems almost impos- 
 sible to build anything in a tower-like form of great height, whether 
 as a steeple, a minar, or a pagoda, which shall not form a pleasing 
 object from its salience and aspiring character alone, even without any 
 real artistic merit in itself. Besides these qualifications, I cannot but 
 think that the tapering octagonal form, the boldly-marked divisions, 
 the domical roof, and general consistence in design and ornament of 
 these towers, entitle them to rank tolerably high among the tower- 
 like buildings of the world. 
 
 Tombs. 
 
 Like all people of Tartar origin, one of the most remarkable 
 characteristics of the Chinese is their reverence for the dead, or as it 
 is usually called, their ancestral worship. In consequence of this, their 
 tombs are not only objects of care, but have frequently more orna- 
 ment bestoAved upon them than graces the dwellings of the living. 
 
 Their tombs are of different kinds ; often merely conical mounds 
 of earth, with a circle of stones round their base, like those of the 
 Etruscans or ancient Greeks, as may be seen from the woodcut 
 (No. 385) borrowed from Fortune's ' China ' — which would serve 
 equally well for a restoration of those of Tarquinia or Yulci. More 
 generally they are of a hemispherical shape, surmounted with a spire, 
 not unlike the Indian and Ceylonese examples, but still with a phy- 
 siognomy peculiarly Chinese. The most common arrangement is that 
 of a horseshoe-shaped platform, cut out of the side of a hill. It con- 
 sequently has a high back, in which is the entrance to the tomb, and 
 slopes off to nothing at the entrance to the horseshoe, where the 
 
Chap. TI. 
 
 TOMBS. 
 
 099 
 
 wall generally terminates with two lions or dragons, or some fan- 
 tastic ornament common to Chinese architecture. When the tomb 
 is situated, as is 
 generally the case, 
 on a hillside, this 
 arrangement is not 
 only appropriate, 
 but elegant. When 
 the same thing is 
 imitated on a plain, 
 it is singularly mis • 
 placed and unintel- 
 ligible. Many of 
 the tombs are built 
 of granite, finely 
 polished, and carved with a profusion of labour that makes us 
 regret that the people who can employ the most durable materials 
 with such facility should have so great a predilection for ephemeral 
 wooden structures. 
 
 When the rock is suitable for the purpose, which, however, seems 
 to be rarely the case in China, their tombs are cut in the rock, as in 
 Etruria and elsewhere ; and tombs of the class just described seem to 
 be a device for converting an ordinary hillside into a substitute for 
 the more appropriate situation. 
 
 Occasionally, however, the Chinese do erect tombs, which, though 
 ornamental, are far from being in such good taste as the two forms 
 just quoted. A tumulus is considered appropriate for this purpose all 
 
 386. Chinese Tomb. (From Fortune s ' Wunaenngs in China. ) 
 
700 
 
 CHINESP] ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 tlie world over, and so is tlie horseslioe form under the circumstances in 
 which the Cliinese employ it ; but what can be said in favour of such 
 an array of objects as those shown in the Woodcut No. 387 ? Judged 
 by the standard of taste which prevails in China at the present day, 
 
 387. Group of Tombs near Pekiu. (From a Pliotograph by Beato.) 
 
 they may be considered by the natives as both elegant and ornamental, 
 but it would be difficult to conceive anything which spoke less of the 
 sepulchre, even from a Chinaman's point of view ; while, on the other 
 hand, their dimensions are such as to dei:)rive them of all dignity as 
 architectural objects. 
 
 Pailoos. 
 
 The Pailoos, or " triumphal gateways," as they are most improperly 
 called, are another class of monument almost as frequently met with 
 in Chinese scenery as the nine-storeyed pagodas, and consequently 
 nearly as familiar to the European eye. Their origin is as distinctly 
 Indian as the other, though, from their nature, being easily over- 
 thrown, but few examples can be found in a country that has so long 
 ceased to be Buddhist. Fortunately, however, we still possess in the 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 PAILOOS. 
 
 701 
 
 o-iiteway of Saiichi (Woodcut Xo. 10) the typical example of the 
 whole class ; and we find them afterwards represented in bas-reliefs 
 and in frescos in a manner to leave no doubt of the frequency of 
 their application. 
 
 In China they seem almost uni^•ersally to be employed as honorific 
 monuments of deceased j^ersons — either men of distinction, or widows 
 Avho have not married a.ii'ain, or virgins who have died unmarried. 
 
 in Avood, and when stone is 
 
 Frequently they are still constructed 
 used they retain to this 
 hour the forms and de- 
 tails of wooden construc- 
 tion. Whatever the ma- 
 terial, they consist of 
 either two or four posts, 
 set either on the g-round, 
 so as to allow a passage 
 through, or on a platform, 
 as in Woodcut No. 388. 
 This is as usual a form 
 as the other, and shows 
 how inapplicable the term 
 gatcAvay is to these monu- 
 ments. The posts always 
 carry a rail or frieze, bear- 
 ing an inscription, Avhich 
 
 is, in fact, the object for 333 Palloo near Canton. (From a Sketch by the Author.) 
 
 which the monument was 
 
 erected. Above this are various architectural details, which complete 
 the design in a manner both original and artistic. 
 
 One serving as the portal to a dagoba has already been given 
 (AVoodcut No. 380), and though rich, can hardly be considered as 
 superior to that in Woodcut No. 389, which spans a street in Amoy. 
 Instead of leading to a dagoba, as was the case at Sanchi, and 
 generally in India, we have, in this instance, what appears to be a 
 simulated coffin placed under a canopy, and above the principal 
 cornice, which is an essentially Chinese idea. With them a hand- 
 some coffin is an object of the highest ambition, and is, consequently, 
 a luxury which the rich take care to provide themselves with dm'ing 
 their lifetime. So far as we know, no great structural dagobas ever 
 existed in China, so that their form is generally unfamiliar to the 
 people. 
 
 Probably the Chinese would have spent more pains on their tombs 
 had they not hit on the happy device of separating the monument from 
 the sepulchre. We do so in exceptional cases, when we erect statues 
 and pillars or other monuments to our great men on hill-tojis or in 
 
702 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 markct-pliices ; but as a rule, a man's nionunicnt is placed where 
 his body is laid, though it would probably be difficult to assign a 
 good logical reason for the practice. The great peculiarity of China 
 is that in nine cases out of ten they effect these objects by processes 
 
 3si9. Pailoo at Amoy. (From Fisher's ' Cliiua Ulustrated.') 
 
 which are exactly the reverse of those of Europe, and in most cases it 
 is not easy to decide which is best. In erecting the Pailoo, or monu- 
 ment, in a conspicuous place apart from the sepulchre, they seem to 
 have shown their usual common sense, though an architect must 
 regret that the designs of their tombs suffered in consequence, and 
 have none of that magnificence which we should expect among a 
 people at all times so addicted to ancestral worship as the Chinese. 
 
 In an historical point of view, the most curious thing connected 
 with these Pailoos seems to ba, that at Sanchi, about the Christian 
 Era, we find them used as gateways to a simulated tomb. In India 
 both the tumulus and the Pailoo had at that time passed away from 
 their original sepulchral meaning ; the one had become a relic-shrine, 
 the other an iconostasis. Two thousand years afterwards in China 
 we find them both still used for the purposes for which they were 
 originally designed. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. 
 
 It is in their domestic architecture, if in any, that the Chinese 
 excel ; there we do not look either for monumental grandeur or for 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 durability, and it is almost impossible to resist being captivated by 
 the gaiety and brilliancy of a Chinese dwelling of the first class, and 
 the exuberant richness and beauty of the carvings and ornaments that 
 are heaped on every part of it. 
 
 One of the most remarkable peculiarities of their houses is the 
 almost universal concave form of roof, which writers on the subject 
 have generally referred to as a reminiscence of the tent of the 
 Tartars, who are supposed to have introduced it. The authors of 
 this theory, however, forgot that the Chinese have been longer out of 
 tents, and know less of them, than any other people now on the face 
 of the globe. The Tartar conquest, like our Norman one, has long 
 been a fusion rather than a subjection, and does not seem to have pro- 
 duced any visible effect on the manners or customs of the original 
 inhabitants of China. It may also be observed that the typical form 
 of the roof of a Tartar tent was and is domical, like those represented 
 in the Assyrian sculptures, and seldom, if ever, constructed with a 
 hollow curve ; so that the argument tells the other way. Be this 
 as it may, the form of roof in question arose from a constructive 
 exigence, which others would do Avell to imitate. In a country like 
 China, where very heavy rains fall at one season of the year, tiled 
 roofs, such as they almost univei*sally use, require a high pitch to 
 carry off the Avater ; but the glaring sunshine of another season renders 
 shade to walls and win- 
 dows absolutely neces- 
 sary. If (as on the left 
 of the annexed dia- 
 gram) the slope of the 
 roof is continued so far 
 out as to be effective for 
 the last purpose, the 
 upper windows are too 
 much darkened, and it 
 is impossible to see out 
 of them. To remedy 
 
 this defect, the Chinese 390. Diagram of Chinese construction. 
 
 carry out their eaves 
 
 almost horizontally from the face of the walls, whera a leak becomes 
 of slight importance ; and then, to break the awkward angle caused 
 by the meeting of these two slopes, they ease it oft' with a hollow 
 cur^'e, which not only answers the double purpose of the roof more 
 effectually, but produces what the Chinese tliink — and perhaps rightly 
 — the most pleasing form of roof. 
 
 The only parts of such a roof that admit of decoration by carving- 
 are evidently either the central or angular ridges ; and here they 
 exaggerate their favourite hollow curve to an extent unpleasing to a 
 
704 
 
 CHINESE AllCHITECTUllE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 European eye — the ani^'les beinu", in some instances, actually turned 
 back, and the ridge being also ornamented by uptnriied ornaments 
 at its ends, to an extent we cannot reconcile with our notions ; nor 
 indeed is it possible we should, when they are overloaded with gro- 
 tesque ornaments to the extent too often found. 
 
 Another peculiarity that gives a very local character to their 
 architecture is their mode of framing a roof, so nnlike that of any 
 other people. This arises from the timber most easily available for 
 the purpose being a small pine, which has the peculiarity of being 
 soft and spongy in the inside, while the outer rims of wood, just 
 under the bark, retain their hardness and strength ; it is thus 
 practically a hollow wooden cylinder, which, if squared to form a 
 framing as we do, would fall to pieces ; but merely cleaned and 
 used whole, it is a very strong and durable building-material, though 
 one which requires all a Chinaman's ingenuity and neatness to 
 frame together with sufficient rigidity for the purposes of a roof. 
 
 The uprights which support these roofs are generally formed of 
 the same w^ood, though not unfrequently they are granite posts — they 
 cannot be called pillars — of the same dimensions, and strengthened, 
 or rather steadied, by transverse pieces of wood, the space between 
 which and the roof is generally filled with open-work carving, so as 
 to form a species of frieze. 
 
 The roof is usually constructed (as shoAvn in diagram No. 800) by 
 using three or four transverse pieces or tie-beams, one over the other, 
 the ends of each beam being supported on that below it by means of 
 a framed piece of a different class of wood. By this method, though 
 to us it may look unscientific, they make up a framing that resists 
 the strongest winds uninjured. Sometimes, as shown in the dotted 
 lines of the same woodcut, they carry the curve across the top of the 
 roof ; but, when this is done, they are obliged to have recourse to 
 metal roofing, or to tiles of a greater length than are usually found or 
 easily made. 
 
 As before remarked, however, it is not so much on its forms that 
 Chinese architecture depends as on its colours — the pillars being 
 generally painted red, the friezes and open work green ; blue marks 
 the floors and stronger lines, and gilding is used profusely everywhere. 
 Whether this would improve a finer or more solid style of art may 
 admit of doubt ; but it is certainly remarkably pleasing in China, and 
 singularly appropriate to the architecture we have been describing ; 
 and grouped as these buildings usually are around garden courts, 
 tilled with the gayest flowers, and adorned with rock-work and 
 fountains more fantastic than the buildings themselves, the fancy 
 may easily be charmed with the result, though taste forbids us to 
 approve of the details. 
 
 The same ephemeral system of construction which prevailed in 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 705 
 
 dwellings of the rich merchants and mandarins was carried ont in 
 the royal palaces without any increase of monumental character, but, 
 of course, with greater richness of ornament, and upon a larger scale. 
 Like most Oriental palaces, however, those at Pekin consist of a 
 number of detached pavilions, rather than of numerous suites of 
 apartments grouped under one roof, as is usually the case in Europe ; 
 
 391. Pavilion in the Summer Palace, Pekin. (_From a Photograph by Beato.) 
 
 and they consequently never attain the magnitude essential to archi- 
 tectural dignity. In the Summer Palace at Pekin there were many 
 detached pavilions similar to that represented in Woodcut No. 391, 
 which, when interspersed with trees and w^ater and rocky scenery, 
 aid in making up a very fairy-like landscape, but in themselves can 
 hardly be considered as objects of dignified architecture. 
 
 2 z 
 
700 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 Occasionally, however, the Chinese attempted something more 
 monumental, but without much success. Where glass is not available 
 of sufficient size and in sufficient quantities to glaze the windows, there 
 is a difficulty in so arranging them that the room shall not be utterly 
 dark when the shutters are closed, and that the rain shall not pene- 
 trate when they are open. In wooden construction these difficulties 
 
 are much more easily avoided ; deep projecting eaves, and light screens, 
 open at the top, obviate most of them : at least, so the Chinese always 
 thought, and they have consequently so little practice, that when they 
 tried solid architecture in a palace they could only produce such a 
 pavilion as that figured in Woodcut No. 892, which, though charac- 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTUEE. 
 
 707 
 
 teristic of the style, cannot be praised either for the elegance of its 
 form or the appropriateness of its ornamentation. 
 
 Perhaps their most successfnl efforts in this direction were when 
 they combined a solid basement of masonry with a light superstructure 
 of Avood, as in the Winter Palace at Pekin (Woodcut No. 393). In 
 this instance the height and solidity of the basement give sufficient 
 dignity to the mass, and the light superstructure is an appropriate 
 termination upwards. 
 
 393. 
 
 View in the Winter Palace, Pekin. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 This last illustration is interesting, because it enables us to realise 
 more distinctly than any other example yet known, what inust have 
 been the effect of the palaces of Nineveh and Khorsabad in the days of 
 their splendour. Like this palace, they were raised on a solid base- 
 ment of masonry, and were themselves composed of pavilions of light 
 and ornamental woodwork ; the great difference being that they had 
 flat-terraced roofs instead of those covered with tiles, as in snowy 
 Pekin ; but the resemblance is curious, and examples even more nearly 
 akin might probably be found if looked for. 
 
 The engineering works of the Chinese have been much extolled by 
 some writers, but have less claim to praise as works of science than 
 their buildings have as works of art. Their canals, it is true, are 
 extensive ; but with 300 millions of inhabitants this is small praise, 
 and their construction is most unscientific. Their bridges, too, are 
 sometimes of great length, but generally made up of a series of small 
 arches constructed on the horizontal -bracket principle, as nine-tenths 
 of the bridges in China arc, and consequently iiarrow and unstable. 
 
 2 z 2 
 
708 
 
 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 When they do use the true arch, it is timidly, and without much 
 knowledge of its principles. 
 
 Their most remarkable engineering work is certainly the Great 
 Wall, which defends the whole northern frontier of the country, 
 extending over hill and dale for more than 1200 miles as the crow 
 flies. It is, however, of very varying strength in different places, and 
 seems to be strongest and highest in the neighbourhood of Pekin, 
 where it has generally been seen by Europeans. There it is 20 ft. in 
 height, and its average thickness is 25 ft. at the base, tapering to 
 15 ft. at the summit. There are also towers at short distances 
 w^hose dimensions are generally about double those just quoted for 
 the wall. 
 
 However absurd such a wall may be as a defensive expedient, it 
 proves that 200 years B.C. the Chinese were capable of conceiving and 
 executing works on as great a scale as any ever undertaken in Egypt. 
 The wonder is, that a people who 2000 years ago w^ere competent to 
 such undertakings should have attempted nothing on the same scale 
 since that time. With their increasing population and accumulating 
 wealth we might have expected their subsequent w^orks to have far 
 surpassed those of the Egyptians. It, however, remains a problem 
 to be solved, why nothing on so grand a scale w^as ever afterwards 
 attempted. 
 
 In the rear of the Great Wall, in the Nankau Pass, there is an arch- 
 way of some architectural pretension, and which is interesting as having 
 a well -ascertained date, a.d. 1345.^ Its dimensions are considerable, 
 and it is erected in a bold style of masonry (Woodcut No. 394). 
 The upper part is a true arch, though it was thought necessary to 
 disguise this by converting its form into that of a semi -octagon, or 
 three-sided arch. On the keystone is a figure of Garuda, and on either 
 side of him a Naga figure, with a seven-headed snake hood, and 
 beyond that a class of flowing tracery we are very familiar with in 
 India about the period of its erection. Its similarity to the Nepalese 
 gateway at Bhatgaon (Woodcut No. 174) has already been remarked 
 upon, and altogether it is interesting, as exemplifying a class of Indian 
 ornamentation that came into China from the North. If we had a few 
 specimens of art penetrating from the south, we might find out the 
 secret of the history of Buddhist art in China. 
 
 A few years hence it may be possible to attempt to write a history 
 .of architecture in China. At present, all that can be done is to 
 describe the style as practised at the present day, and to point out in 
 what respect it differs from the styles prevailing in neighbouring 
 countries. Beyond this we shall not be able to advance till some 
 
 ^ 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. vii. p. 331 (N.S.), vol. v. p. 14, et. seqq. 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTUKE. 
 
 709 
 
 39J. Archway ill the Nankau PasF. (From a Photograph.) 
 
 qualified person, accompanied by a photographer, is enabled to visit 
 the central and western provinces of the empire. Even then his visit 
 will be of very little use, unless he is sufficiently familiar with the 
 style as now known, to be able to discriminate between what is new 
 and what is old, and by an extended series of inductions to check the 
 absurdities of native tradition, and form his own opinion on the facts 
 presented to him. Assuming all this, it is still doubtful whether the 
 materials exist in China for any extended history of the art. Such 
 facts as have come to light are not encouraging. Wood has been far 
 too extensively used throughout for any very permanent style of 
 architecture ever having been employed. But there are things in 
 Cambodia, and other neighbouring states, which seem to have come 
 neither from India, nor from any other country we are acquainted 
 with, but are nevertheless of foreign origin, and must have been 
 imported from some extraneous land ; and it is difficult to say where 
 we are to look for their originals if not in central or western China. 
 
 The same remarks apply to Japan. So far as our knowledge at 
 present extends, there is not a single permanent building in the 
 
710 
 
 CHINESE AKCHITECTUKE. 
 
 Book IX. 
 
 island of so monumental a character to deserve being dignified by 
 being classed among the true architectural examples of other countries. 
 It may be that the dread of earthquakes has prevented them raising 
 their buildings to more than one or two storeys in height, or con- 
 structing them of more solid materials than wood. It may be, how- 
 ever, that the Japanese do not belong to one of the building races of 
 mankind, and have no taste for this mode of magnificence. It is the 
 same story as in China ; we shall not know whether it is true that 
 there are no objects worthy to be styled architecture in Japan till the 
 island is more scientifically explored than it has been ; nor, if they do 
 not exist, shall we till then be able to say to which of the two above 
 causes their absence is to be ascribed. Such information as we have is 
 very discouraging ; and it is to be feared that, though quaint and 
 curious in itself, and so far worthy of attention, it is of little 
 interest beyond the shores of the islands themselves. On the other 
 hand, it is to be feared that the extent of our knowledge is suffi- 
 cient to make it only too clear that the art, as practised in Japan, 
 has no title to rank with that already described in the preceding 
 pages, and consequently no claim to a place in a general history of 
 architectural art. 
 
 However admirable and ingenious the modern Chinese may be, it 
 is in the minor arts — such as carving in wood and ivory, the manu- 
 facture of vessels of porcelain and bronze, and all that relates to silk 
 and cotton manufactures. In these they certainly excel, and reached 
 a high degree of perfection while Europe was still barbarous, but in 
 all the higher branches of art they take a very low position, and seem 
 utterly unprogressive. 
 
 They have no poetry, properly so called, and no literature worthy 
 of the name. Their painting never rose much above the scale of deco- 
 ration, their sculpture is more carving than anything we know by 
 the higher name, and their architecture stands on the same low level 
 as their other arts. It is rich, ornamental, and appropriate for 
 domestic purposes, but ephemeral and totally wanting in dignity and 
 grandeur of conception. Still it is pleasing, because truthful ; but 
 after all, its great merit in the eyes of the student of architecture will 
 probably turn out to rest on the light it throws on the earlier styles, 
 and on the ethnographic relations of China to the surrounding nations 
 of Eastern Asia. 
 
( Til ) 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 ON SOME DISPUTED POINTS OF INDIAN CHKONOLOGY. 
 
 Throughout the preceding* pages the dates of kings' reigns, where 
 quoted, have been assumed as known, and the eras from which they 
 are calculated as ascertained. This has been done in order not to 
 interrupt the narrative of events by introducing a chronological dis- 
 quisition at every point where a date occurs ; but no one at all familiar 
 with the subject needs to be told that the dates of mediaeval dynasties 
 in India are far from settled, and that few are universally acquiesced 
 in. Great progress has, it is true, been made in the last ten or twenty 
 years in clearing away the difficulties that surround the subject. So 
 much is this the case, that there are only one or two dates of sufficient 
 importance to affect our reasoning which still remain in doubt ; but 
 though this may be true, there are many others about which the 
 world in general feel considerable hesitation. It consequently becomes 
 almost indispensable to state briefly the grounds on which the chrono- 
 logy used throughout this work is based, in order that the correctness 
 of most of the inductions stated in it may be estimated at their 
 true value. 1 
 
 The earliest reasonable statement bearing on the subject which we 
 possess is in the 9th chapter of Arrian's ' Indica.' It is there stated 
 — quoting from Megasthenes — " That from Bacchus (Ixwaku) to San- 
 di'ocottus (Chandragupta), the Indians reckon one hundred and fifty- 
 
 ^ In the year 1870 I published iu the 
 ' Journal of the Koyal Asiatic Society ' 
 (N.S.), vol. iv. p. 81, et seqq., an article 
 on Indian chronology, in which my views 
 on the subject were stated at greater 
 length and more detail than it is pro- 
 posed to do here. Being addressed to 
 those who were supposed to be more or 
 less familiar wiUi the subject, the paper 
 took the form of an argument, rather 
 than of a statement, and is, consequently, 
 
 difficult to follow by those to whom the 
 subject is new. The following is au 
 abstract of that paper, with such correc- 
 tions as have occurred to me in the 
 meanwhile, and stated in a consecutive 
 form, and with only those details that 
 seem necessary to render it intelligible. 
 For further particulars on special points 
 the reader is referred to the article 
 itself. 
 
712 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 three moiiarclis, who reigned during the space of six thousand and 
 forty-two years." 
 
 The first part of this statement is eminently satisfactory, as it 
 seems clear from it that we possess in the Pnranas the same lists as 
 were submitted to the Greeks in the fourth century B.C. In the Solar 
 lists, we have in the Treta Yug sixty-tw^o reigns, from Ixwaku to 
 Eama.^ There is no complete Lunar list in that age. For the Dwapar 
 age w^e have three Solar lists : one for Kusha to Vrihadsana, thirty- 
 five reigns ; another from Dishta to Janamejaya, tliirty-three reigns ; 
 and a third, from the son ef Swadhaja, the father of Sita, wife of 
 Rama, to Mahabasi, thirty-four reigns. In the Kali Yug we have no 
 complete Solar list, but the Lunar list gives fifty descents from Jara- 
 sandha to the last Nanda. This gives 145 or 140 reigns, or rather too 
 few. But the Lunar lists, from the Dwapar Yug, give forty-four 
 from Puru to Yudhishihira, and fifty from Yadu to Krishna, so that 
 the average is as nearly as may be that stated by Megasthenes. 
 
 The second part of the statement, giving these kings' reigns an 
 average duration of nearly forty years, must of course be rejected, but 
 it is satisfactory to find that, at that early age, the falsification of the 
 chronology had only gone to the extent of duplication, and that the 
 monstrous system of Yugs, with all their attendant absurdities, had 
 not then been invented. 
 
 Though it may not at present be capable of direct proof, I have 
 myself no doubt that the date assigned by the Hindus for the Kali 
 Yug (3101 B.C.) is a true date, though misapplied. It either was the 
 date when the Aryans assumed that their ancestors had first crossed 
 the Indus, or when they had first settled on the banks of the Saraswati 
 or the Ghoghra. It forms no part of any subsequently invented system, 
 and seems the only one fixed point in a sea of falsification. Assuming 
 it for the present, and deducting Chandragupta's date from it, we 
 have 3101 — 325 = 277G years from Ixw^aku to Chandragupta, which, 
 divided by 153, gives the reasonable number of eighteen years 
 for the duration of each king's reign. Of course it is not contended 
 that these lists are absolutely to be depended upon— many names may 
 be lost, and many misj)laced, from the carelessness of copyists, or 
 from other causes ; but, on the whole, when treated in this maimer, 
 they afford a reasonable framework for the reconstruction of the 
 ancient history of India, and one that accords perfectly with all we 
 at present know about the ancient history of the immigrant Aryans. 
 
 ^ The lists used for this statement of 
 pre-Buddhist chronology are those com- 
 piled by James Priusep, and published 
 in his 'Useful Tables' in 18^6. They were 
 afterwards revised and republished by 
 Ed. Thomas, in his edition of Prinscp's 
 
 works, in 1858. In a regular treatise on 
 chronology it would be indispensable to 
 refer to the Purauas themselves; in a 
 mere statement ef results these tables 
 are amply sufficient. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 713 
 
 If this view can be sustained, the events which are described in 
 the Ramayana — not of course the poem, which is comparatively mo- 
 dern — took place about 2000 years before Christ. Adhering to the 
 above average, we gather that the events described in the ' Mahabha- 
 rata,' in like manner, occurred 900 years before Chandragupta, or 1225, 
 or more precisely, according to the Puranic chronology, thus — 
 
 wliich may probably be taken as very near the true date. 
 
 It must for the present remain an open question whether the dates 
 just quoted can be so established as to stand the test of the exigencies of 
 modern critical acumen. It would be very satisfactory if this could 
 be so accomplished. In the first place, because it would afford a firm 
 basis for all our reasoning regarding the ancient history and ethno- 
 graphy of India, but also because it would prove that the Puranas do 
 contain the germs of truths which, when properly investigated, may 
 lead to the most important deductions. My own imjDression is entirely 
 in favour of the existence of the requisite materials for the purpose ; 
 but the fashion has been lately to pooh-pooh the whole thing, and no 
 attempt has been made — so far as I know — by any competent scholai*, 
 to investigate the matter on scientific principles. 
 
 Be this as it may, when we come to the Anjana era, 691 b.c.,^ and 
 the life of Buddha, we tread on surer ground ; and it is fortnate for 
 om' purposes that it so, as with the life of Buddha the mediaeval 
 history of India may be said to commence, and unless his date and 
 that of his successors can be established with at least approximate 
 certainty, the history of architecture in India must remain unintel- 
 ligible. In this instance, however, the materials, I believe, exist in 
 abundance. They have not, it is true, been as yet investigated to 
 such an extent as to render any point certain, but the difficulties 
 are daily disappearing, and as every point gained adds materially 
 in tlirowing light on others that have hitherto been considered 
 unsettled, we may hope before long to see the wliole satisfactorily 
 resolved. 
 
 There is perhaps no single point in the whole early history of 
 India on which the chronicles of Ceylon and Further India are so 
 distinct and unanimous than that Buddha died — as they express it, 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Chandragupta . . . . . . . 
 
 Sisunagas, 360 years . . . . . 
 
 Sunakas ....... 
 
 Saliadeva to Ripunjaya, 23 i-cigus at 18 years 
 
 325 
 360 
 128 
 414 
 
 1227 
 
 ' Crawfiird's ' Embassy to Ava,' vol. ii. p. 274. 
 
714 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 attained Nirvana — at the age of eigiity years, in the year 548 B.C., or 
 in the year 148 of the Eetzana^ or Anjana epoch. ^ 
 
 Attempts have recently been made, it appears to me on the most 
 illogical and insufficient data, to invalidate this conclusion. There is 
 an admitted falsification in the Ceylonese annals, as set forth in the 
 ' Mahawanso,' of sixty years about this date ; but as Turnour, who first 
 pointed it out, explained also the reason for it,^ the rectification is 
 easy, and the result clear. It seems that Vijaya, the first Indian im- 
 migrant or conqueror of Ceylon, landed in the island 483 years B.C., or 
 thereabout ; and the reigns of his successors, down to Devenampiya- 
 tisso, the contemporary of Asoka, when added together, amount to 
 only 286 years. When the annals came to be expounded in the ' Maha- 
 wanso,' it was thought expedient, for the good of religion, that the 
 coming of Yijaya should be coincident with the death of Buddha ; and 
 as the sacred era could not be disturbed, Asoka's reign was carried 
 back so as to admit of the adjustment. This was effected principally 
 by reducing the epoch of the nine Nandas from 100 years, at which 
 the Puranas place them, to forty-four, and by other slight alterations. 
 The sixty years was afterwards recovered by small increments to 
 subsequent reigns, not of much consequence, but injuriously affecting 
 the coiTCctness of the whole chronology of the ' Mahawanso,' down to 
 about A.D. 400, when it was compiled in its present form. As 
 the date of Asako's reign is perfectly well known (272-23G B.C.), 
 Ave have only to reject the most improbable coincidence of Vijaya 
 landing on the day of Buddha's Nirvana, which there is nothing 
 to support, and the whole becomes clear, and everything falls into 
 its place.* 
 
 Besides the Ceylonese lists, and those quoted by Crawfurd from the 
 Burmese annals,^ the Puranas afford us two, quoted below, which are 
 of great interest to us, and the whole are so marvellously coincident, 
 that there seems very little doubt of their general authenticity. 
 
 ' Bigaudet's ' Life of Gaudama,' p. 323. 
 
 2 ' Embassy to Ava,' loc. cit. 
 
 ^ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 715. 
 
 Unfortunately the Chinese annals, to 
 which we generally look for assistance in 
 our diflficulties, are not likely to afford us 
 any in this. Confucius was born 551 b.c , 
 and died 478 ; he was consequently only 
 eight years old when Buddha died, and 
 in order to give Buddha the necessary 
 precedence in date, the Buddhists boldly 
 added five centuries to this, placing him 
 about 1000 B.C. This struggle between 
 truth and falsehood led to sucii confusion 
 
 that in the 7tli century Hiouen Thsaug 
 wrote : " Depuis le Nirvana jusqu'aujour- 
 d' hui les uns comptent 1200 ans,lcs autrcs 
 1500 ans : il y en a qui aflfirment qu'il 
 s'est ecoule plus do 900, mais que lo 
 nombre de 1000 n'est pas encore com- 
 plet." (' Histoire,' p. 131. 'Vie et Voyages,' 
 i, 335.) The first is the nearest, ac- 
 cording to our ideas. He v^&a writing 
 apparently in 1190 a.b. It may be 1200, 
 if it was written after his return to China ; 
 but from this confusion it is evident no 
 reliance can be placed on any dates he 
 may quote from the Nirvana. 
 
 ^ ' Embassy to Ava.' Appendix. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 715 
 
 SOLAU 1. 1ST. 
 
 15. C. 
 
 Kritanjaya (1)1 
 
 Rynanjaya — 
 
 Sanjaya — 
 
 Sakja — 
 
 Suddhodaua — 
 
 Ratnla — 
 
 Prasennjit — 
 
 KsliuJraka — 
 
 Kundaka — 
 
 Suratlia — 
 
 Suinitra 451? 
 
 Lunar List, 
 Saifumuja Dyiiaatij reUjned oGO years. 
 
 B. o. 
 
 Sisunnga 685 
 
 Kakavai-na ... ... — 
 
 Ksl.eraadharmau — 
 
 Kshetruujas — 
 
 Bimlisara .... . . 603 
 
 Kanwopana, 9. 
 Bhumiputra, 14. 
 
 Ajatasatru ....... 551 
 
 Udayaswa 519 
 
 Uasaka 503 
 
 Nagadasoka 495 
 
 Sisuuaga 471 
 
 Kalasoka 453 
 
 MahaNanda . ... 425 
 
 Sumalya — 
 
 7 Nandas — 
 
 Interregnum KauHlya ending 325 
 
 With regard to the first or Solar list, Professor Wilson remarks, 
 that " Sakya is no doubt the name of the author or reviver of Budd- 
 hism, but is out of place, as he was the son and not the father of 
 Suddhodana." ^ This, however, is only one of the numerous instances 
 in which the grandson takes his grandfather's name, and which is an 
 interminable cause of confusion in Indian chronological inquiries.^ 
 Gautama, as we know, never ascended the throne, but devoted himself 
 to his religious duties, but his son Ratula succeeded his grandfather. 
 In like manner, the Prasenajit in the list is not the cousin and com- 
 panion of Buddha, but the grandson, or grand-nephew of that earlier 
 king of the same name. Sumitra, the last name mentioned in the 
 Bhagavat Purana, seems to have ascended the throne about 451. 
 There are no exact dates for fixing this event, and with him perished 
 the long line of Solar monarchs, who for more than twenty-six cen- 
 turies — if our chronology is correct — had influenced in so marked a 
 manner the destinies of India. 
 
 It was during the reign of Kalasoka, the eleventh king of this 
 dynasty, that the second convocation was held, 100 years after the 
 Nirvana. This, too, it has recently become the fashion to doubt. The 
 accounts, however, in the ' Mahawanso,' and the pointed mode in which 
 it is referred to in the Burmese annals, seem sufficient to settle the 
 point. Ijike Vijaya's landing in Ceylon on the day of Buddha's 
 Nirvana, Prome is said to have been founded -143, the year of 
 
 * Vishnu Puiana, p. 463. 
 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 85. 
 
716 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 this convocation.^ They must have believed strongly, or they would 
 not have attempted the adjustment. 
 
 As before mentioned, we have neither buildings, nor coins, nor 
 inscriptions belonging to this period, nor indeed any material facts that 
 would enable us to verify the chronological data. It is, however, so 
 near the time when these became abundant, that it does not seem 
 unreasonable to hope that some such evidences may turn up. Till 
 something is found, the absence of all such materials must remain as a 
 curious piece of evidence regarding the important influence that the 
 contact of the nations of the West had on the arts and civilization of 
 India at the time. 
 
 Maurya, Sunga, and 
 Chronology. 
 Maurya Dynasty, 130 years. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Chaudragupta .... . 325 
 
 Bimbisara 30 1 
 
 Asoka 276 
 
 Suyasas 240 
 
 Dasaratha 230 ? 
 
 Sangata 220? 
 
 Indrapalita 212? 
 
 Somasarman. ... . . 210 
 
 Sasadharman 203 
 
 Vrihadratha 195 
 
 Sunga Dynasty, 112 ysars. 
 
 Pushpamitia ]88 
 
 Agnimitra 152 
 
 Sujyeshtha 144 
 
 Vasumitra 137 
 
 Badraka, or Ardraka .... 129 
 
 Pulindaka 127 
 
 Ghoshavasu 124 
 
 Viijramitra 121 
 
 Bhagavata 112 
 
 Dcvabhuti 86 
 
 Kanwa Dynasty, 45 years. 
 
 Vasudeva 76 
 
 Blmmimitra 67 
 
 Narayana 53 
 
 Susarmau 41 
 
 „ died 31 
 
 Kanwa Dynasties. 
 
 Buildings, 
 
 Hathi Guniplia, Udayagiri. 
 
 Caves at Barabhar, luscriptious, Lats, &c. 
 
 Cave at Barabhar. 
 
 Cave at Bhaja ? 
 
 Caves at Udayagiri. 
 Rail at Bharhut. 
 
 Cave at Bedsa. 
 
 Caves 9 and 12, Ajuuta. 
 
 Chaitya Cave, Nassick. 
 
 Cave at Karli. 
 
 Raj Rani cave, Udayagiri ? 
 
 The chronology of these three dynasties, as recorded in the Puranas, 
 may admit of some adjustment in detail ; but the whole is so rea- 
 
 ^ Crawfiird's ' Embassy to Ava,' vol. ii. p. 277. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 717 
 
 sonable and consistent that it can hardly be to any great extent. 
 The whole, too, is now found to be so perfectly in accord with the 
 architecture of their age, and with such inscriptions as have been 
 found, that I see no reason whatever for doubting its general 
 correctness. 
 
 The cardinal point on which the whole hinges is the twelfth 
 year of Asoka's reign after his consecration — the sixteenth from his 
 inauguration. In that year he published his rock-cut edicts, in which 
 he mentions his allies, Antiochus and Antigonus, Ptolemy (Phila- 
 delphus), Magas (of Cyrene), and Alexander (of Macedonia).^ As it 
 happens, all these five names are mentioned together in Justin's 
 abridgment of Trogus Pompeius (xxvi. 2, 3 and xxvii. 1), though 
 without giving any date. As Magas, however, died B.C. 257, and the 
 only year in which all five were aUve together was either that year or 
 the preceding, we may safely assume that the sixteenth of Asoka 
 was B.C. 256 or B.C. 257. If that is so it seems impossible to bring 
 down the date of the accession of Chandragupta to a time more 
 modern than one or two years after B.C. 325. The Ceylonese annals 
 allow him tliirty-four years,^ but our knowledge of what happened in 
 India in Alexander's time forbids any such extension. On the other 
 hand, his accession happening in the year, or the year after, the 
 defeat of Porus, is not exactly what we would expect from the 
 context ; but there is nothing, so far as I know, to controvert it. 
 
 Even if it were not so certain as it appears to be from the state- 
 ments just quoted, there can be no doubt that the chronology of this 
 period can easily be settled from the numerous inscriptions found in 
 the rock-cut excavations quoted in the table, as well as from coins 
 and other materials that exist. These dynasties thus become a fixed 
 starting-point for all our inquiries, either backwards or forwards. 
 
 Andra, oe Andrabritya Dynasty. 
 Chronology. Buildings. 
 
 Sipraka 31 
 
 Krishna a.d. 8 
 
 Satakarni 1 10 
 
 Purnotsanga 28 
 
 Srivaswami 46 
 
 Cave at Nassick. 
 South gatewaj^ Sanchi, 
 Caves 10 and 11 Ajunta. 
 
 * •Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 261 ; 'Journal of the 
 Koyal Asiatic Society,' vol. xii. p. 232 ; 
 Cunningham's 'Archaeological Reports,' 
 
 vol. v. p. 20, &c., &c. 
 
 2 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 714. 
 
718 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Andra, cm Andrabritya Dynasty — continued. 
 
 Chronology. 
 
 Buildings. 
 
 Saiakarni II. 
 
 LaniLodara 
 
 Apitaka . 
 
 Saiigha 
 
 Satakarni III. 
 
 Skandliaswati 
 
 Mrij^endra . 
 
 Kuntalnswati , 
 
 Svvatikarna 
 
 ruloniavit 
 
 Goraksliaswasri 
 
 Ilala . . . 
 
 Mautalaka 
 
 Piirindra sena 
 
 Sindara 
 
 Rajadaswati 
 
 Sivaswati . 
 
 Gaiitamiputia 
 
 Vasith i putm 
 Puloinat . 
 Sivasri 
 
 Skandaswali . 
 Yajuasri . 
 Vijaya . . . 
 Cliandrasri 
 Pulomat , 
 „ died 
 
 Saka Era established a.d. 79. 
 Nahapana cave, Nasiick. 
 
 ■D. 61 
 120 
 138 
 
 1G8 [ Rudra Dama, bridge inscription, a.d. 151 
 186 
 193 
 196 
 204 
 205 
 241 
 266 
 271 
 276 
 381 
 6 ms. 
 281 
 312 
 
 333 
 335 
 363 
 370 
 377 
 406 
 412 
 422 
 429 
 436 
 
 Gupta Era established a.d. 319 ; cave at 
 Nassick, outer rail Amiavati. 
 
 Cave at Nnssiok. 
 Great cave Keniuri. 
 
 Caves 16, 17, and 19 Ajiinta. 
 
 For this dynasty, as for the preceding three, we are dependent on 
 the Puranas ; but its chronology, like theirs, is so reasonable and so 
 consistent with what we learn from other sources that I see no 
 reason whatever for doubting its general correctness. There are 
 slight discrepancies of course, not only as to names but as to the 
 duration of this dynasty in the different Puranas. Thus the Vishnu 
 Purana, according to Wilson, enumerates thirty kings, reigning 4.50 
 years ; the Yayu and Bhagavat the same. The Matsya gives only 
 twenty-nine kings, but makes them reign 4G0 years ; but none of 
 them give all the names, nor does the addition of the longest list 
 extend beyond 435 years.^ The whole, from Chandragupta to the 
 last, are also added together (p. 232), and make up 751 years, or 
 l)ringing the last of the Andras down to a.d. 42G. The actual fixation 
 of these dates will probably be found in Nassick cave inscriptions. 
 Two of these bear dates : one, apparently in the reign of Pulomavi, 
 
 ' Wilson's ' Vishnu Purana,' Second Edition, vol. iv. p. 200 ; see also p. 232. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 719 
 
 or Padma, is dated nineteen from an unspecified era ; the other is in 
 the twenty-fourth year of the " modern era," and the act recorded is, 
 apparently, by order of Gautamiputra.^ As it is, however, almost 
 certain that the Gupta era, a.d. 319, was established in the reign of 
 the last-named king, it seems probable that when these inscriptions 
 are more carefully examined than they hitherto have been, they will 
 fix these reigns with even greater certainty than we obtain from 
 the Puranic dates ; the one element of uncertainty being that the 
 new era does not seem to be dated either from the accession of the 
 king or from any great event, but four cycles of sixty years, or 240 
 years from the Saka era it was intended to supersede. ^ 
 
 However this may be settled, it cannot disturb either the initial 
 or the final dates of this dynasty, nor affect to a greater extent than 
 say ten or twelve years the period of 751, which extended from the 
 accession of Chandragupta to the final overthrow of the Andras in or 
 about A.D. 426. 
 
 This being so, it is evident that these four dynasties form the 
 backbone of our mediaeval chronology of India to which all minor 
 events must be fitted, and fortunately most of them do so without 
 any difficulty. It was the great period of Buddhist supremacy in 
 India. There wxre, it is true, Buddhists in India before Asoka, but 
 they were then only a sect, and Buddhism w^as a religion for two 
 centuries after the fall of the Andras. It was then, however, a 
 struggling faction. The modern Hindu religion was gradually 
 raising its head under the Gupta and Ujjain princes, and in the 8th 
 century it superseded Buddhism in most parts of India. 
 
 A great part of the uncertainty that of late years has crept into 
 the chronology of this period is owing to the neglect with which 
 these dynasties have been treated by modern investigators. This 
 has arisen principally from the extreme rarity of their coins, while it 
 has been principally from numismatic researches that progress has 
 been made in the elucidation of many dark passages of Indian 
 history. Coinage Was, however, a most distinctly foreign importa- 
 tion into India. The Bactrian Greeks were the coiners imr excellence^ 
 and it is through their coins, and those only, that complete lists of 
 their kings down to 130 B.C. have been compiled. It is only from 
 their coins also that we know the names of the barbarian kings who 
 succeeded them, or those of the Sah kings, w^ho appear next in our 
 
 ^ 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Eoyal Asiatic Society,' vol. v. p. 42 and 
 47. 
 
 2 As the commencement of this era is 
 not coincident with the years we employ, 
 but about half-way between 78 and 79, 
 
 either of these figures may be employed 
 in converting years of the Christiiin Era 
 into those of the Saka or Ballabhi, or 
 Gupta Sanivats. Tliroughout this work 
 I have used the latter figure as that more 
 generally in use. 
 
720 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 list. But the four dynasties from Chandragupta to Chaudrasri were 
 of native kings, who had only indirectly, if at all, come in contact 
 with the Greeks, and had never learnt the art of coining, or, at least, 
 used it to a sufficient extent to enable us to identify their names or 
 succession from their coins. Their caves, and the inscriptions with 
 which they covered their walls, are fast supplyhig the information 
 their coins, if they had existed, would have afforded ; but the investi- 
 gation has not been taken up by those who have the ear of the public 
 to the same extent as the numismatists. Enough, however, has been 
 done to show that the materials exist for establishing the history of 
 these dynasties on a sure basis ; and when this is done from inscrip- 
 tions combined with architecture, the results are more satisfactory 
 than when dependent on numismatic evidence alone. 
 
 Sah Kings of Saueastea. 
 
 Naliapana . 
 Ushavadata . 
 Swami Chastana 
 Jaya Dama . 
 Jiva Dama . 
 Rudra Daman . 
 Rudra Sinha 
 Rudra Sah . 
 Sri Sah . . . 
 Sangha Daman . 
 Daman Sali . 
 Yasa Daman 
 Damajata Sri 
 
 Coin Dates, a.d. 
 79 — 
 
 72 
 102 
 104 
 
 144 
 
 151 
 181 
 183 
 
 223 
 
 Coin Dates, a.d. 
 
 Vira Daman . 
 Isvara Datta. 
 Vijaya Sah . 
 Damajata Sri 
 Rudra Sah . 
 Visva Sinha . 
 Atri Daman . 
 Visva Sah 
 22. Rudra Sinha 
 Asa Daman . 
 Swami Rudra Sah 
 Swami Rudra Sah IF. 
 
 170 
 
 197 
 
 200 
 270 
 271 
 
 292 
 
 The evidence on which the dates in the above list are founded is 
 in curious contrast with that on which those of the previous dynasties 
 rest. It is almost wholly numismatic. The founder of the dynasty, 
 Nahapana, describes himself as the viceroy or satrap of King Kshah- 
 arata,^ certainly a foreigner, who conquered the country and held it 
 in subjection for nearly 800 years. 
 
 The one point that interests us here is to ascertain from what 
 era the dates on the coins are to be calculated. When I previously 
 wrote on the subject,^ I felt inclined to adopt a suggestion that 
 Nahapana was the founder of the era known afterwards as that of 
 
 ^ This list is abstracted principally 
 from one in vol. viii. p. 27, 'Journal 
 Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society,' quoting only such dates as ap- 
 pear certain. The earlier names are taken 
 from a paper by Bhau Daji, vol. ix. p. 243 
 
 of the same journal. 
 
 ^ 'Journal Bombay Brancli of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. v. p. 49. 
 
 ^ 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 129. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 721 
 
 Vicramaditya, B.C. 56. I did this principally because I felt certain 
 that no king of that name reigned in the first century B.C., and I 
 could discover no event occurring about that time so important as 
 to deserve to be commemorated by an era. 
 
 On the other hand, a foreign conquest and the foundation of a 
 new dynasty were jast such events as would be so celebrated ; and, 
 pending further evidence, this assumption seemed to account for 
 what was otherwise inexplicable in the foundation of this era. Since 
 then, however, a more careful study of Rudra Daman's Bridge in- 
 scription,^ and the architectural evidence detailed in the preceding 
 pages, have convinced me that such a theory was untenable. The 
 Bridge inscription is dated in the year 72, from the same era from 
 which all the coins of these kings are dated. In it he boasts " that, 
 after twice conquering the Sata Karni, Lord of Dakshinapatha, he 
 did not completely destroy him on account of their near con- 
 nexion, and thus obtained glory." And he boasts of conquering, 
 among other countries, Anupa, Saurastra, Asva Kutcha, Kukura, 
 Aparanta, &c.2 
 
 A little further on in our history, Gautamiputra, in whose 
 reign the era was established which was afterwards adopted by the 
 Guptas and Ballabhis, boasts, in an inscription in a cave at Nassick, 
 that he had conquered, among others, all the countries above enu- 
 merated, and as having re-established the glory of the Satavahana 
 dynasty, and destroyed the race of Khagarata.^ All this reveals a 
 state of matters that will not accord with the Vicramaditya era, but 
 does perfectly agree with that of Salivahana. 
 
 Assuming that the Sata Karni dynasty is correctly represented 
 in the Puranas, as enumerated above, Rudra Dama would, on the 
 assumption that the dates were Sam vat, have been reigning a.d. 16 
 (72-56), immediately after the establishment of the dynasty, and 
 before the long and prosperous reign of Sata Karni II., which could 
 hardly have taken place had his family been smitten so early in their 
 career. But if we assume that it was a.d. 151 (79-j-72), it would 
 coincide with the reign of the third king of that name, and at a 
 time when, so far as we can judge from the length of the reigns, and 
 the careless way they are enumerated in the Puranas, the fortunes 
 of the family were considerably depressed ; and it is little more than 
 a century and a half after this time that Gautamiputra restored the 
 fortunes of his family. Had 300 years elapsed between these two 
 events, the family could hardly ever have attained the position it did. 
 
 Another point of more importance is, that the dates on the Sah 
 
 * ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 119. 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. ix. p. 238; see also Blisn- 
 darkar, MS. translation. 
 
 } A 
 
722 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 coins — from whatever era calculated — extend only to 270-271, or 
 doubtfully to 292.^ If these are calculated from the Vicrama- 
 ditya Sam vat, they must have ceased to reign in a.d. 214, or at the 
 latest A.D. 236, and there would have been no Khagaratas for Gauta- 
 miputra to humble after a.d. 312. On the other hand, if calculated 
 from A.D. 79, their final extinction would have been in a.d. 349, or at 
 latest A.D. 371. So that, though humbled by Gautamiputra, they 
 overlap the Gupta era to some extent, which it seems is almost indis- 
 pensable to account for the mode in which the Sah coins overlap and 
 run into those of the Gupta series, on which Mr. Thomas so strongly 
 and, it appears to me, so correctly insists.^ 
 
 One of two things seems necessary : either that the Guptas shall 
 be carried back so as to overlap the Sahs, dating either from the 
 Yicramadityan or Selucidan eras, or that the Sahs be brought down 
 so as to overlap them, if dating from the era bearing their name. 
 Mr. Thomas and General Cunningham prefer the former hypothesis. 
 For the reasons just stated, and others to be given further on, I feel 
 convinced that the latter hypothesis is the only one that is in 
 accordance with the facts of the case as we now know them. 
 
 This substitution of the Saka era for the Samvat brings w^hat we 
 know of the history, with what we learn from the inscriptions, and 
 gather from the coins, so completely into accordance, that I can hardly 
 doubt now that it is the correct view of the matter, and certainly 
 more in accordance with the facts than that I previously adopted. 
 
 Guptas. 
 
 Although the Puranas conduct us in so reasonable and satis- 
 factory a manner to the end of the Andrabritya dynasty, their 
 guidance forsakes us there. After that, all the subsequent con- 
 temporary dynasties were thrown into hotch-pot — to use a legal 
 expression — and a system of fraud and falsification commenced which 
 is the reproach of Indian history. It is not, however, difficult to see 
 the causes of this new and monstrous invention. For six centuries 
 and a half Buddhism had reigned supreme in India, and the system 
 of the Brahmans, though probably never extinct, was at least sub- 
 dued and subordinate. With the decline of the Andras this state of 
 affairs was altered. The Guptas, who immediately succeeded them, 
 are shown, both by their coins and inscriptions, to have been followers 
 
 * * Journal Bombay Brancli of the 
 Eoyal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 28. 
 
 ^ Essay on the Sah Kings of Saurastra, 
 ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.' 
 
 vol. xii. p. 16; and 'Journal of the 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxiv, p. 
 503 ; see also Thomas'is ' Prinsep,' vol. ii. 
 p. 95. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 723 
 
 of Vishnu and Siva,^ and their buildings at Erun tell the same 
 story. 2 
 
 Though the Guptas may have inaugurated the new system, it was 
 by the great Yicramaditya of Ujjain that it was established, a.d. 515- 
 550. He did for the new religion what Asoka had done for Buddhism 
 some seven and a half centuries before his time. He made a state 
 religion in India, and established it so firmly that little more than 
 a century after his death it seems to have superseded Buddhism 
 altogether. It is in his reign, apparently, that the Puranic system 
 was invented — not that the Puranas were written or all the falsifica- 
 tions of history invented in his day, but a commencement was then 
 made, and by the 10th or 11th century of our era it was brought 
 to the complete perfection of fraud in which it is now found. 
 
 One of the first necessities of the new system was to throw back 
 the period when India was Buddhist, and to place a gulf between 
 them and their successors. To effect this, the Puranas enumerate 
 the following: — "After these" (the Andrabrityas) "various races will 
 reign — seven A^liiras, ten Gardabhilas, sixteen Sakas, eight Yavanas, 
 fourteen Tusharas, thirteen Mandas, eleven Mannas or Hunas"* — 
 seventy-nine princes will be sovereigns of the earth for 1399 years. 
 Then eleven Pauras will be kings for 300 years ; when they are 
 destroyed, Kailakila Yavanas will be kings, the chiefs of whom will 
 be Yindhya Sacti, &c. — 106 years." After various others : " The 
 nine Nagas will reign in Padmavati, Kantipura, and Mathura ; and 
 the Guptas of Magadha along the Ganges to Pryaga." * Although 
 we cannot identify all these dynasties with certainty, we know, at 
 all events, that, instead of succeeding one another during more than 
 2000 years, they were all more or less contemporary — certainly that 
 none were earlier than the Gupta era (a.d. 319) — and that none of 
 them survived Yicramaditya (a.d. 550). The Sakas and Mannas, 
 or Hunas, may be those destroyed by him, but of this hereafter. 
 The Yindhya Sactis were contemporary with the Guptas, and the 
 Gardabhilas are somehow connected with Bahram Gaur the Sassanian ; 
 and others we recognise dimly, but they are not sufficiently important 
 to be discussed here. 
 
 Of all these the most important are the Guptas, and fortunately 
 their date is one of the most clearly established facts in mediaeval 
 Indian chronology.^ 
 
 ' Thomas's edition of ' Prinsep,' vol. 1. 
 p. 242, et seqq. ; see also p. 365, et seqq. 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 634. 
 
 ^ The Vishnu Purana has Maunas, the 
 Vayu and Matsya, Hunas. Wilson's 
 
 ' Vishnu Purana,' vol. iv. p. 209. 
 
 * Wilson's 'Vishnu Purana,' vol. iv. 
 pp. 201-218. 
 
 ^ I need hardly say that this is not 
 universally admitted by Indian archaeolo- 
 gists. Some indeed of the most eminent 
 3 A 2 
 
724 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Sri or Kaja Gupta 
 
 Mabaraja Gliatotkacha 
 
 M. R. adhiraja Chandra Gupta I. 
 
 „ Samudra „ 
 
 „ Chandra Gu^ita II. 
 
 „ Kumara „ 
 
 „ Skanda „ 
 
 Mahendra a minor 
 
 Maharaja Sri Hastina .... 
 
 Kaja Buddha 
 
 M. R. adhiraja Toramana . 
 
 Coins and 
 Dates on Inscriptions. 
 
 82, 93+319 = 
 
 130,1.37,141 
 
 124 + 
 14G + 
 
 1G3 + 
 1G5 + 
 182 + 
 
 401,412. C.ivoslGto 
 20 Ajuuta. Build- 
 ings at Eruu. 
 
 443 
 449, 45G, 4G0, 
 
 482 
 484 
 501 
 
 46.') 
 
 The three last named cin hardly be considered as belonging to the 
 great dynasty, though they date from the sam3 era, and the two first 
 were comparatively insignificant characters. It was ohly Chandra 
 Grupta I., A.D. 401, who assumed the title of Maharaja adhiraja, 
 and founded the greatness of his race on the ruin^ of that of the 
 Andrabrityas. 
 
 In addition to the above chronology, compiled from coins and dated 
 inscriptions. Major Watson has recently supplied a most important 
 item to their history from written records existing in Gujerat. 
 
 From this we learn that Chandra Gupta II. reigned twenty-three 
 years after the conquest of Saurastra by his son ; that Kumara Pal 
 Gupta reigned twenty years ; and that Skanda Gupta succeeded him, 
 but lost Saurastra by the rebellion of his Senapati Bhatarka, the 
 founder of the Ballabhi family. Two years after this event Skanda 
 
 among them place the Guptas consider- 
 ably earlier. My conviction, however, is 
 that they never would have done so, had 
 it not been that they place a mistaken 
 confidence on a passage in a foreign 
 author of the 11th century, translated by 
 Re'musat to tlie following effect : " Quant 
 au Goupta Kala (ere des Gouptas), on 
 cntend par le mot Goupta des gens qui, 
 dit-on, etaieut mechants et puissants, et 
 1 ere qui jiorte leur nom est I'epoque de 
 leur extermination. Apparemmeut Bal- 
 labha suivit imme'diatement les Gouptas, 
 car 1 ere des Gouptas conimence aussi I'an 
 241 de I'ere de Saca." (' Journal Asia- 
 tique,' 4me se'rie, tom. iv. p. 28G.) 
 
 Albiruni, from whom this passage is 
 taken, lived at the court of Mahmud of 
 Ghazni, in the 11th century, and was 
 learned beyond his compeers in the 
 learning of the Hindus. He collected 
 
 facts and dates with industry, and re- 
 corded them faitlifully. But he would 
 have been a magician if he could have 
 unravelled the tangled meshes with which 
 the Hindus had purposely obscured their 
 chronology, and could have seen through 
 all the falsifications invented six centu- 
 ries earlier. We could not do so now 
 witiiout the aid of coins, dated inscrip- 
 tions, and buildings. None of these were 
 available in his day, and without their 
 aid, the wonder is, not that he blundered 
 in his inductions, but that he went so 
 near the truth as he did. His facts and 
 figures are valuable, and may generally 
 be relied upon. His mode of putting 
 them together and his inductions are, as 
 generally, worthless — not from any fault 
 of his, but because they had been pur- 
 posely falsified by those who presented 
 tliem to him. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 725 
 
 Gupta died, and, as we are informed, "at this time the Gupta race 
 were dethroned by foreign invaders." ^ 
 
 The era from which these dates are taken never appeared to me 
 doubtful ; and this confirms more and more the conviction that it 
 was from the era that bears their name, a.d. 319. It could not be 
 from the Saka era, as has generally been assumed, from the fact that 
 Albiruni asserts that the era that bears their name, was " apparently " 
 that of their destruction, ^ because in that case Skanda Gupta must 
 have lived and reigned for ninety-four years in addition to the sixteen 
 we already know, from inscriptions, he occupied the throne. A reign 
 of 110 years seems impossible ; and, if it is not so, it seems certain, 
 for the reasons stated in my previous paper, that the Gupta era, 319, 
 is that from which their coins and inscriptions are dated. 
 
 Besides this, there is an inscription on the rock at Junaghar, en- 
 graved by the same Skanda, the last of the great Guptas. This was 
 not translated by Prinsep, though a copy of it was in his hands before 
 his last illness.^ Had he lived to translate it, my impression is that 
 the controversy as to the age of the Guptas never would have arisen 
 — its evidence seems so absolute. Be this as it may, it never appeared, 
 so far as I know, in a complete form and translated, till this was 
 accomplished by the late Bhau Daji in the sixth volume of the Bom- 
 bay Journal of 1862.' In it we have three dates — the Sadarsana lake is 
 said to have burst its banks in 130, to have been repaired in 137, and 
 a temple to Vishnu built in 138, and twice it is repeated " counting 
 from the era of the Guptas " (Guptasya Kala). The stone is worn where 
 the middle date occurs, but there is just space enough for these words. 
 The same king, on the Kuhaon pillar, dates his inscription in 141,* 
 but without mentioning the era, which seems to have been so usual 
 in Bengal as not to require being specified. 
 
 Besides this, the 146^ years from 319, which we know from their 
 dated inscriptions that they reigned, is just the interval that is 
 required to fill up the gap between the Ballabhis and their era which 
 they adopted on usurping the inheritance of the Guptas, two years 
 before Skanda Gupta's death.^ 
 
 One other point of considerable importance to Indian history which 
 arises from the fixation of this date (a;D. 465-70) for the destruction 
 of the Guptas is, that it was almost certainly the White Huns who 
 were the " foreign invaders " that struck the blow that stopped their 
 
 * 'Indian Antiquary,' Vol. ii. p. 312. 
 
 2 ' Journal Asiatique,' series iv. vol. iv. 
 p. 285. 
 
 3 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 634. 
 
 * Thomas's ' Prinsep,' i. p. 250. 
 
 ^ This date is from an unpublished 
 
 copper-plate grant, in the possession of 
 Gen. Cunningham, and is in addition to 
 the three others of the same reign quoted 
 in my previous paper, p. 112. 
 
 ^ 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. ii, p. 312; 
 see also vol. iii. p. 344. 
 
72G 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 career. At least, we learn from Cosmas Indicopleustes, writing seventy 
 years after this time, that the Huns were a powerful nation in the 
 north of India in his day, and we may infer, from what he says of 
 them, had been settled there some time.^ 
 
 On the Bhitari Lat, Bhau Daji reads — somewhat doubtfully, it 
 must be confessed — the fact that Skanda Gupta had fought, apparently 
 with success, against the Hunas.^ But the great point is that it was 
 just about this time that the White Huns broke loose and extended 
 their incursions east and west, so that there is not only no improba- 
 bility of their being the " foreign invaders " alluded to, but every 
 likelihood they were so. No one, indeed, can, I believe, with the 
 knowledge we now possess, read De Guignes' chapter on the White 
 Huns,^ without perceiving that it contains the key to the solution of 
 many mysterious passages in Indian history. It is true India is not 
 mentioned there ; but from the time of Bahram Gaur in 420, till the 
 defeat of Feroze in 475, the Persians were waging an internecine 
 Avar with these Huns, and nothing can be more likely than that 
 the varying fortunes ot that struggle should force them to seek the 
 alliance of the then powerful Guptas, to assist them against their 
 common foe. 
 
 Precisely the same impression is conveyed by what is said by 
 Ferishta and the Persian historians * of the history of that time. 
 Nothing can now, however, be more easily intelligible than the visit 
 of Bahram Gaur to India when first attacked by the White Huns. 
 His marriage with an Indian ( ? Gupta) princess of Canouge ; the tri- 
 bute or assistance claimed by Feroze and his successors on the Persian 
 throne, are all easily explicable, on the assumption that the two nations 
 were at that time engaged in a struggle against a common enemy. 
 This, too, explains the mention of the Shah in Shahi on Samudra 
 Gupta's Allahabad inscription.^ Hence, too, the decided Persian 
 influence on the gold coinage of the Canouge Guptas,® and the innu- 
 merable Sassanian coins of that period found in all parts of the north 
 of India. ^ In all this the Sassanians seem inseparably mixed with 
 the Guptas. The Persians, however, came eventually victorious out 
 of the war. The great Guptas were struck down at some date between 
 465-70, or very shortly afterwards. The struggle, however, was 
 apparently continued for some time longer by a subordinate branch of 
 
 ^ * Topograpliia Christiana,' lib. xi. p. 
 338, edit. Paris, 1707. 
 
 ^ ' Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. x. p. GO. 
 
 ^ 'Histoirc dcs Huns,' vol. i. part ii. 
 lib. iv. pp. 325, et seqq. 
 
 * ]Maleolm's 'Persia,' vol. 1. p. 118. 
 Briggs's translation of FcrL-ilita. introd. 
 
 Ixxvii. et seqq. : Dow's translation, p. 13. 
 
 * 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vi. 1837, p. 963; also 
 Thomas's ' Prinsep,' vol. i. p. 234. 
 
 « Ibid., vol. V. plates 36 and 37 ; also 
 Thomas's ' Prinsep,' vol. i. p. 277, plate 23. 
 
 ^ Thomas's ' Prinsep,' vol. i. p. 407, et 
 passim. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 727 
 
 their successors ; iuasmuch as we learn from an inscription found at 
 Aphsar in Behar,^ that the fourth of that dynasty, Damodara Gupta, 
 " successfully eucountered, at the battle of Maushari, the fierce army 
 of the Western Huns." This event may have stopped the career of 
 the Huns in India, in which case it could not well have taken place 
 before the year 535, when Cosmas Indicopleustes is supposed to have 
 wi'itten his ' Topogi-aphia Christiana ; ' but it is by no means clear 
 that he was not describing events that took place when he was himself 
 in India some time previously. But be this as it may, it brings us to 
 the time when the battles of Konii* — of which more hereafter — and 
 Maushari freed India from the Sakas and Hunas, who had long held her 
 in hated subjection. As I shall presently attempt to show, it appears 
 to me hardly doubtful that these two battles were fought between 524 
 and 54:4 ; and they thus fix one of the most important epochs in me- 
 diieval Indian liistory. Indeed, so near each other are these two events 
 in date, that I sometimes feel almost inclined to fancy they may be 
 only different names for the same battle. At all events, they almost 
 certainly represent parts of the same campaign which freed India in 
 that age from the Yavanas ; and that it was to commemorate the 
 glories of these struggles that the Yicramaditya Samvat was insti- 
 tuted. This expulsion of the Yavanas was, too, the first serious blow 
 that was struck at Buddhist supremacy, and from the effects of which 
 it never afterwards completely recovered. 
 
 Ballabhi Dynasty. 
 
 Dates on Ixsckiptioxs. a.d. 
 
 Bhatarka Seuapati — 465 or 470 
 
 Dharasena „ — — 
 
 Dronasinha — — 
 
 Dhruvasena Mabaraja .... — . Cotem. Vicramaditya 
 
 Dharapatta — I Dynasty 
 
 Grihasena — | ofUjjaiii, 
 
 Sridliara Sena — J 470 to 550. 
 
 Siladitya I — — 
 
 Charagriha I — — 
 
 Sridhai-a Sena II 272 591 
 
 Dhravasena II — Cotem. Hiouen Thsang 
 
 Sridharasena III — — 
 
 Siladitya II 356 675 
 
 Charagriha II. — — 
 
 Siladitya IH — — 
 
 Siladitya Musalli 400 71S 
 
 * 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of j ningham's * Arcbfeological Reports.' vul. 
 Bengal,' 1866, p. 273. Sec also Cun- 1 iii. p. 186. 
 
728 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 However mistaken Albiruiii may be in his dates, there is little 
 doubt that he is quite correct in his statement to the effect that 
 " L'ere de Ballabha est posterieure a celle de Saca de 241 ans. Appa- 
 remment Ballabha suivit immediatement les Gouptas, car Tere des 
 Gouptas commence aussi 241 de l'ere de Saca." ^ This we learn also, 
 with the particulars how it happened, from Colonel Watson's account 
 of the transaction ; while Colonel Tod's celebrated Puttun Somnath 
 inscription makes it also certain that the Ballabhi era commenced a.d. 
 319.2 This being so, it seems difficult to understand why the era should 
 have been called that of Ballabhi as well as that of the Guptas, 
 unless it were that it was adopted by the first-named dynasty, and 
 that they dated from it their acts and inscriptions, which are ex- 
 tremely numerous. There may be reasons why this should be other- 
 wise ; but, though the point has been generally and fiercely contested 
 by eminent Indian chronologists, I fail to appreciate the arguments 
 brought forward in favour of either the Vicramaditya or Saka eras,^ 
 and look upon their own era (a.d. 819) as certainly the one from which 
 all the Gupta inscriptions are dated. 
 
 My impression is, that this would never have been considered 
 doubtful but for an incautious statement by Colonel Tod that Bal- 
 labhi was destroyed by the Parthians a.d. 524,* in the reign of a 
 Siladitya, its last king. Its inhabitants were, according to this 
 account, slaughtered with the usual romantic incidents ; but after a 
 while a remnant established themselves in Sidhapore, and finally 
 built a new capital, which they called Anhilwarra. 
 
 The utter falsity of the information so supplied to Colonel Tod 
 is proved by the fact that when Ballabhi was visited by Hiouen 
 Thsang, 115 years after its reputed destruction, he found it not only 
 standing, and neither Sidhapore nor Anhilwarra thought of, but the 
 old capital still remaining one of the richest and most prosperous 
 cities of India, and its king one of the three greatest kings of northern 
 India. The king's name was Dhruvapatou, and he was a nephew or 
 grand-nephew of Siladitya of Malwa, and the son-in-law of Siladitya, 
 the reigning king of Canouge.^ Lastly, we have the dates in copper- 
 plates of a Dhruvasena, one in 310 + 319 = 629; the other 322 -f 
 
 • ' Journal Asiatique,' 4me serie, torn, 
 iv. p. 286. 
 
 2 Tod's ' Annals of Rajputana,' vol. i. 
 p. 801. 
 
 3 Lasseu's ' Ind. Alt.', vol. ii. p. 752, et 
 seqq. to 987; Dowsoii 'Journal of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society ' (N.S.), vol. i. p. 
 247, et seqq. ; Thomas's ' Priiisep,' vol. i. p. 
 270-276 ; Cunuiiigliaiu's ' Archaeological 
 Reports ' vol. iii. p. 56 ; Babu Rajendra 
 Mittra, ' Journal of the Asiatic Society 
 
 of Bengal,' vol. xliii. p. 372, &c., &c. 
 
 * ' Annals,' vol. i. p. 216, et seqq. At 
 p. 230 he quotes another account, which 
 places the destruction of the Ballabhi 
 era at 305, instead of 205, as iu the pre- 
 vious statement. These are evidently 
 clerical errors. If he had found another 
 405, it would probably have been correct 
 within a year or so — 405 + 319 = 724. 
 
 5 'Vie et Voyages,' pp. 206,254, 260; 
 ' Relations,' &e., vol. ii. p. 163. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 729 
 
 :-il9, or 641,^ the very year that Hioueii Thsang met him at Allahabad, 
 if we assume them dated from the Ballabhi Samvat. 
 
 It would be satisfactory if we could determine the date of the 
 destruction of Ballabhi with precision, as it is one of these events 
 that mark an epoch in Indian history. It was one of the concluding 
 acts of the old drama that closed the medieval period of Indian 
 history, and ushered in the dark ages which lasted more than two 
 centuries from that time. 
 
 The materials for this hardly exist at present, though it may be 
 approximated. We have numerous inscriptions of this dynasty, dated 
 810, 326, 338, 348, &c.,2 or a.d. G29, 645, 657, 667 respectively, if the 
 figures are all correctly read, which is not quite clear ; and lastly, 
 Mr. Burgess reports one dated 400, or a.d. 719, belonging to the last 
 Siladitya, and consequently approaching very nearly to the event. 
 Two accounts are current as to the mode in which the destruction 
 was effected : one, that it was caused by an earthquake, which may 
 have happened at any time ; ^ the other (by Tod), that the city was 
 destroyed by the Parthians. If it was by a foreign foe, it could only 
 have been by the Mahomedans. They were on the Indus in strength 
 in 22 Hegira,* or a.d. 644, or before Hiouen Thsang had left India, 
 and no foreigner could have crossed the Indus or attacked Ballabhi 
 after that time, or for some years before it, without being noticed by 
 Mahomedan historians. They remained there in strength till after 
 Mahomed Kasim, 711-715,^ and it was to him that I was at one time 
 inclined to ascribe the destruction. If, however, Mr. Burgess's date 
 is correct, his death was three years too early. But I do not think 
 it at all improbable that Ballabhi is one of the cities — Barus and 
 Uzain — said to be plundered by Junaid in a.d. 725 or 726.^ Barus 
 looks very like Baroach, and Uzain is almost certainly Ujjain — but 
 whether Maliba is Ballabhi, I must leave others to determine. 
 
 All the accounts agrea that Anhilwarra Puttun was founded 
 Samvat 802, or A.D. 746,' which may be correct within a year or two ; 
 but from the accounts we have, it is clear that an interval of from 
 twenty to thirty years must have elapsed between the two events, 
 during which the inhabitants of the destroyed city sought refuge at 
 Punchasur and Sidhapore before they undertook the building of their 
 new capital. If, therefore, we assume 725 as the date of the destruc- 
 tion of Ballabhi, we shall probably not err more than a year or two 
 either way. 
 
 The earliest date of this family yet discovered is one on a copper- 
 
 * 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 245. 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. viii. p. 245. 
 
 3 Forbes' 'Ras Mala,' vol. i. p. 18; 
 Tod, ' Aunala,' vol. i. p. 230. 
 
 * Elliot, ' Historians of India,' vol. 1. 
 p. 417. * Loc. cit., 432, et seqq. 
 
 « Loc. cit., 441-42. 
 
 ^ ' Ras Mala,' vol. i. p. 24 ; Tod's 
 ' Travels,' p. 149. 
 
730 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 plate of Dharasena II., which has been read by Professor Bhan- 
 darkar as 272,^ or, according to the views here adopted, 591. It is 
 hardly probable that any much earlier will be found ; for it must be 
 borne in mind that though the Ballabhis wrested the sovereignty of 
 Gujerat from the Guptas two years before Skanda's death {ante, p. 
 724), neither the first nor second of the race ventured to assume even 
 the modest title of Eaja ; they Avere content to remain Senapatis, or 
 Generals. The third calls himself Maharaja ; but their greatness 
 only culminated in or about a.d. 650, Avhen one of them, Sri Dhara- 
 sena III., became Maharaja Adhiraja — King of kings or Emperor of 
 Northern India. ^ The reason of this, as we shall presently see, was 
 that the family that really succeeded the Guptas in the place of 
 supreme authority in India was that of Ujjain, the second or third 
 monarch of this race being the celebrated Yicramaditya, whose date, 
 for reasons to be given hereafter, seems almost certainly to have been 
 from 515 to 550. Be this as it may, as we shall presently see, it 
 seems quite certain that a great Brahmanical revival took place in 
 the beginning of the 6th century, which quite overshadowed all 
 the Buddhist dynasties in northern India. For a while these were 
 again eclipsed by a reflex wave of Buddhism, which for a century — 
 A.D. 550-650 — again illumined India. It was a last expiring effort, 
 however, and after the last-named date it was only a struggle for 
 existence on the part of the Buddhists, and in another century they 
 are known no longer in those central countries where they had so 
 long reigned supreme. 
 
 ^ 'Journal Bombay Branch of the I ^ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. x. p. 70. I Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 972. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 731 
 
 Chalukya Dynasties. 
 
 Western Branch. 
 Capital Kalyan. 
 
 1. Jaya Sinba Vijayaditya. 
 
 2. Kaja Sinha, Kana K:iga, Vislmu 
 
 Vardhana. 
 
 3. Vijayaditya II. 
 
 4. Pulakesi/A.D. 489 ? 
 
 5. Kirtti Vaima I. 
 
 6. Mangalisa. 
 
 7. Satyasraya began to reign 609. 
 
 8. Amara. 
 
 9. Aditya. 
 
 10. Vikraraadiya I. 
 
 11. Vinay aditya, Yuddha Malla, began 
 
 to reign a.d. 680. 
 
 12. Vijayaditya III. began to reign a.d. 
 
 695. 
 
 13. Vikiamaditya II. began to reign 
 
 A.D. 733. 
 
 14. Kirtti Varraa II. 
 
 15. Kirtti Vavma III., cousin of the 
 
 last, A.D. 799. 
 
 16. Tailapa. 
 
 17. Bhima Kaja. 
 
 18. Ayya, or Kirtti Varma IV. 
 
 19. Vijayaditya IV. 
 
 20. Taila Bhnpall. or Vikram aditya III., 
 
 in A.D. 973 restored the monarchy 
 •which had been for some time 
 usurped by the Ratta Kula. He 
 died A.D. 997. 
 
 21. Satyasraya II. Irivi Bhujanga Deva, 
 
 A.D. 997. 
 
 22. Vikramaditya V. began to reign 
 
 about A.D. 1008 (?) 
 
 23. Jaya Sinha Deva, Jagadeka Malla, 
 
 about A.D. 1018 (?) 
 
 24. Someswara Deva I., Trailokya 
 
 Malla Ahawa Malla, about a.d. 
 1040. 
 
 25. Someswara Deva II., Bhuneka Malla 
 
 A.D. 1099, expelled by his brother. 
 
 26. Vikramaditya VI., Kali Vikrama, 
 
 Tribhuvana Malla, in a.d. 1076. 
 
 27. Someswara Deva III., Bhuloka 
 
 Malla, a.d. 1127. 
 
 28. Jagadeka Malla, a.d. 1138. 
 
 29. Tailapa Ddva III., Trailokya Malla, 
 
 A.D. 1150. 
 
 30. Someswara Deva IV., Tribhuvana 
 
 Malla, A.D. 1182. Dethroned by Bij- 
 jala Deva of the Kalabhuriya line. 
 
 After this the southern part of these dominions 
 fell under the sway of the Hoisala Bellalas, whose 
 rise in the Mysore dates from a.d. 984 ; their 
 destruction by the Mahomedans in 1310. 
 
 Eastern Branch. 
 Capital Rajmehendri. 
 
 1. Vishnu Vardhana II., or Kubja 
 
 Vi&hnu Vardhana, conquered 
 Vengi A.D. 605. 
 
 2. Jaya Sinha I. 
 
 3. Indra Raja, his brother. 
 
 4. Vishnu Vardhana III. 
 
 5. Manga Yuva Raja. 
 
 6. Jaya Sinha III. 1 
 
 7. Kokkili. > brothers. 
 
 8. Vishnu Vardhana IV. ) 
 
 9. Vijayaditya I. 
 
 10. Vishnu Vardhana V. 
 
 11. Narendra Mriga Raja. 
 
 12. Vishnu Vardhana VI., or Kali 
 
 Vishnu Vardhana. 
 
 13. Vijayaditya II., or Guna Gunanka 
 
 Vijayaditya, conquered Kalinga. 
 
 14. Chalukya Bhima I., Ids brother. 
 
 15. Vijayaditya III., or KoUabhiganda 
 
 Vijaya. 
 
 16. Amma Raja. 
 
 17. Vijayaditya IV., or Kaudagachita 
 
 Vijaya. 
 
 18. Talapa. Usurper. 
 
 19. Vikramaditya V., the sou of a brother 
 
 of Am ma Raja I. 
 
 20. Yuddha Malla. 
 
 21. Raja Bhima II. 
 
 22. Amma Raja II. 
 
 23. Dhanarnava. Interregnum of 
 
 twenty-seven years. 
 
 24. Kirtti Varma, son of Dlianarnava. 
 
 25. Vimaladitya, his brother. 
 
 26. Raja Raja Narendra. 
 
 27. Rajendra Chela. 
 
 28. Vikrama Deva Kulottunga Chola. 
 
 29. Raja Raja Chola, viceroy for one 
 
 year. 
 
 30. Vira Deva Kulottunga Chola, ojr 
 
 Saptama Vishnu Vardhana. Vice- 
 roy from A.D. 1079 to 1135. 
 
 After Vira Deva Kulottunga Chola the country 
 fell under the sway of the Kakatya dynasty of 
 Worangul, of whom Pratapa Rudra was the chief 
 (a.d. ll(i"2). The latest of their inscriptions is 
 dated A.D. 1336. 
 
732 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The two lists in the preceding page are among the most inte- 
 resting and most important of those we possess, inasmuch as they 
 contain the backbone of all we know regarding the Chalukyas, and 
 are, in fact, what justify us, historically, in erecting their style into 
 a separate division, different from the other forms of architecture 
 known in India. 
 
 What we know of these dynasties is almost wholly due to the 
 intelligent zeal of Sir Walter Elliot, who, during his residence in 
 India, made a collection of 595 inscriptions from various parts of the 
 Dekhan. From these he abstracted the lists he first published in 
 the fourth volume of the Royal Asiatic Society ; but afterwards 
 much more in detail in the 'Madras Journal,' in 1858, from w^hich 
 these lists are copied verbatim.^ Some of the inscriptions were trans- 
 lated and published with those papers, and others by Major — now 
 General— Le Grand Jacob, in the Bombay Journal (vol. iii. p. 206, et 
 seqq.), and other notices of them are found among Mr. Wathen's inscrip- 
 tions in various volumes of the ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.' 
 But we shall not know more than a fraction of what Ave ought to, 
 and might know, till Sir Walter Elliot's inscriptions are translated 
 and published.^ When this is done, and the architecture of the 
 Mzam's territory explored, the Chalukyan style will take its place 
 worthily between the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan styles, and will, if 
 I mistake not, be found equal to either, both in importance and in 
 artistic merit. 
 
 Fortunately there is no mistake or doubt about the era from which 
 the Chalukyan inscriptions are dated : the Ballabhi branch succeeding 
 to the possessions of the Guptas in Gujerat, natm'ally adopted their 
 
 * These lists were republished by 
 Professor Dowson in the new series 
 of the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
 Socieiy,' vol. 1. p. 253, et seqq., but with 
 chronological additions that are by no 
 means improvements. 
 
 ^ The advantage of their publication 
 was fco strongly felt by the Council of the 
 Eoyal Asiatic Society that in 1873 they, 
 backed by a letter from Sir Walter, ap- 
 pealed to Her Majesty's Secretary of 
 State for India in Council, to sanction an 
 expenditure not exceeding £200 for the 
 purpose. It seems, however, that the 
 finances of India could not bear tlie 
 strain, for in August last a reply was re- 
 ceived to the effect that " His Lordship 
 regrets that he cannot consent to charge 
 the public revenues of India with the 
 cost of such an undertaking." As the 
 
 Indian Council are responsible, and know 
 best what should be done and what re- 
 fused, there is no more to be said about 
 the matter, though to outsiders this seems 
 slightly inconsistent with their grant of 
 £2000 to Max Miiller for doing nothing 
 that he had not been well paid for doing 
 beforehand. As no other means are 
 available in this country, it is to be 
 hoped that either the French or German 
 Governments will take it up. They have 
 always abundance of funds for such pur- 
 poses ; and had these inscriptions been 
 collected by one of their countrymen, 
 they would have been published without 
 a year's delay after having been brought 
 home, although they have no inteiest in 
 India that can for one moment be com- 
 pared with ours. 
 
APPRNDTX. 
 
 7:38 
 
 era, but the southern branch being entirely detached from any such 
 association, adopted the Saka era (a.d. 79), which was then, so far as 
 is known, the only other era at that time in use in India. What 
 is equally important is, that there seems only one doubtful date 
 among all those quoted in the lists — that of 411 Saka (a.d. 490), 
 attached to the name of Pulakesi I. In his first paper,^ Sir Walter 
 Elliot thought it so improbable, that he rejected it altogether ; and 
 Professor Eggeling tells me he has strong reasons for suspecting the 
 copperplate on which it is found to be a forgery. 
 
 As an initial date it does not appear impossible, if my views are 
 correct, though certainly improbable. If Bhatarka Senapati wrested 
 Gujerat from Skanda Gupta two years before his death, or in 463 
 or 4G8, it is by no means impossible that the fourth from him 
 may have been reigning in a.d. 490, but the difficulty is the other 
 way. There seems no doubt, from Mr. Burgess's Badami inscriptions,^ 
 that Mangalisa succeeded his brother Kirtti Yarma in 567, and it 
 does seem impossible that he should have been the son of one who was 
 reigning in 490, especially if he continued to reign till 609. If Man- 
 galisa was the son of Pulakesi, which there seems no reason for doubt- 
 ing, it is evident that the central figure of his date must be altered 
 to a higher number ; but to what extent we shall not know till it is 
 ascertained whether Yijaya was the son or grandson of Bhatarka 
 Senapati. In the meanwhile, however, if we, as an hypothesis, add 
 fifty years to the date of 411, and make it 461, or a.d. 540, it will 
 allow Pulakesi a reign of twenty-seven years before the accession 
 of Mangalisa in 567, which will bring the whole within the limits 
 of probability, and seems perfectly consistent with the context. 
 
 With the seventh king we tread on surer ground. He was the 
 king who, when bearing his grandfather's name, Pulakesi, Hiouen 
 Thsang visited in 640,^ and was, as his inscriptions tell us,^ the 
 hero of those wars with Harsha Yerddhana, or Siladitya of Malwa, 
 which Ma-twan-lin so graphically describes as occurring in 618 to 
 627. From that time the dynasty seems to have flourished till 
 the death of Yicramaditya II. He ascended the throne 733, and 
 died about 750, or twenty-five years more or less after the destruction 
 of the Ballabhi branch. After this, as Sir Walter Elliot expresses it, 
 " the power of the Chalukyas was alienated for a time, or had 
 sufi'ered a partial obscuration, till the time of Teila, who is described 
 as restoring the monarchy in 973." ^ After this it enjoyed two 
 
 * 'Journal of the Koyal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. iv. p. 12. 
 
 2 ' Keport on Belgam and Kuladgi,' p. 
 24. 
 
 ^ ' Memoires des Contrecs,' &c., vol. ii. 
 p. 150. 
 
 * 'Journal Bombay Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iii. p. 206, et 
 seqq. 
 
 ^ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 68. 
 
734 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 centimes of prosperity, till it was finally extinguished — their northern 
 possessions passing to the Kalabhuryas —their southern to the Hoisala 
 Bellalas of Dwarasamudra or Hullabid. 
 
 The history of the younger branch of this family will be more 
 interesting to some future historian of Indian architecture than it is 
 to us at the present day. Their possessions lay principally below the 
 Eastern Ghats, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, in what are gene- 
 rally known as the three Circars, extending from Gangam — in their 
 day I believe — to Mahavellipuram ; but of their architecture we know 
 nothing. No traveller educated in architectural matters has yet 
 visited that country ; and though it sounds like a paradox to say so, 
 what we do know of it we learn from buildings not erected by them, 
 and in a country they never seem to have possessed. It is only from 
 the buildings of Pratapa Rudra at Worangul and elsewhere above the 
 Ghats that we can appreciate the perfection to which they had brought 
 their style. 
 
 From the meagre extracts from the inscriptions of Pulakesi I., 
 which Sir Walter Elliot gives in his first essay on this subject,^ there 
 seems little doubt that he was the king who, 100 years before Hiouen 
 Thsang's time, harried the monastery at Amravati,^ and abolished 
 Buddhism in those parts. It seems also more than probable, as he 
 conquered the Chola, and burnt Conjeveram, that he also expelled 
 the Pallavas, and commenced the works at Mahavellipur. If the 
 rock-cut monastery mentioned by Fa Hian and Hiouen Thsang, and 
 so often referred to above, existed at all, it was in his territories, and 
 may still exist in the Nizam's. If it did so, nothing seems more probable 
 than that he should seek to mark the boundary of his southern conquest 
 by similar works. Knowing all this, we see also why there should be 
 so much similarity between Mangalisa's cave at Badami, and the nearly 
 contemporary caves at Mahavellipur. We know, too, that there is a 
 vast tract of country in Central India, extending east and west from 
 shore to shore, and north and south from Sadras to Ellora, which is 
 covered with buildings of great beauty and interest, but which nobody 
 cares to explore. We know also that there exists in the Asiatic Society's 
 rooms a volume which contains their history, and that of the dynasties 
 who built them, but which nobody cares to read. Knowing how easily 
 all this could be remedied, it is tantalising to close this history with so 
 meagre a sketch of the Chalukyan style as that contained in the pre- 
 ceding pages, but as the principles of the Indian Council seem fixed, 
 its description must in all probability be relegated to a subsequent 
 generation. 
 
 * 'Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Sccietv,' vol. iv. p. 9. 
 2 ' Yic ct Voyages,' p. 188. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 735 
 
 Ujjain and Canouge Dynasties. 
 
 
 Eeign. 
 
 Date. 
 
 
 
 
 Vicramaditya I. of Ujjain 
 
 zO 
 
 A ~A n 
 
 4 /U r 
 
 
 9ft 
 
 rr<'t> r 
 
 
 35 
 
 £15 
 
 Siladitya I. of Malwa . 
 
 
 oou 
 
 
 25 
 
 580 
 
 
 5 
 
 605 
 
 
 40 
 
 610 
 
 Died and troubles commenced . 
 
 
 648-650 
 
 Although the Ballabhis wrested the province of Gujerat from the 
 failing hands of Skanda, the last of the Great Guptas, two years before 
 his death, in or about 470, they remained long in a subordinate posi- 
 tion. Their earliest inscription yet found dates only in 593, and their 
 one Emperor or Kaja Adhiraja, Sri Dharasena III., only ascended 
 the throne after the Canouge dynasty were struck down in 648-50. 
 
 The interval between these two events we are now happily able to 
 fill up with two of the most illustrious dynasties of India — the first 
 including the reign of the great Vicramaditya of Ujjain, who is to the 
 Hindus what Solomon is to the Jews, or Asoka to the Buddhists. 
 The last-named religion, as mentioned above, was becoming effete 
 about the middle of the 5th century, and the Guptas were introducing 
 the modern Brahmanical faith in its place. What, however, they were 
 only feebly attempting, the Ujjain dynasty accomplished with a bril- 
 liancy that has eclipsed everything that happened before or since in 
 India, in the eyes of the Hindus at least. All that is great in science, 
 or in poetry, or the arts, shone forth around his wonderful throne — 
 the exact counterpart of Solomon's — and all that subsequently took 
 place in India bears the stamp of his greatness. It seems, however, 
 to have been too bright to last. The four succeeding monarchs were 
 Buddhists — of a singularly tolerant type it is true — but still certainly 
 favourers of that religion. The last of them, Siladitya, was the king 
 at whose court Hiouen Thsang sojourned in 636, and afterwards in 
 642, and where he witnessed the festival of the distribution of alms so 
 often alluded to above. Hiouen Thsang gives the date of his death 
 categorically, 650, and adds, though in the form of a prophecy, that 
 after that, " I'lnde entiere sera en proie a des troubles affreux — et des 
 hommes pervers se feront une guerre acharnee." ^ This is more than 
 confirmed by Ma-twan-lin, but with an apparent discrepancy of date, 
 to the extent, it may be, of two years.^ It was in fact the commence- 
 
 ^ ' Vie et Voyages,' p. 215. 
 
 2 ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,* vol. vi. p. 69. 
 
736 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 meiit of those troubles which extinguished Buddhism, then in Central 
 India, and a century later abolished it wholly, except in some remote 
 corners of the land. 
 
 Whether he died in G48 or 650, there is no doubt, from the nume- 
 rous incidents our Chinese traveller recounts, that this Siladitya 
 ascended the throne 610, one year after his great rival, Pulakesi 11. , of 
 Kalyan, who, as pointed out above, began to reign in 609, and fought 
 with him with varying success in 618-627. 
 
 For the chronology of the four preceding reigns we have nothing 
 but the assertion of Hiouen Thsang, that " snivant la tradition " ^ — nnd 
 in another place, " on lit dans I'histoire de ce royaume,^ que le tione 
 etait occupe il y a soixante ans par un roi nomme Siladitya ; " and 
 further, that he reigned fifty years, which would carry us back 
 to 530 for the accession of this king, supposing the passage was written 
 in 640. 
 
 Notwithstanding the confidence with which it is stated, I have no 
 hesitation in rejecting as excessive 110 for the length of the reign of 
 three kings, two of whom were brothers. I do so with the more con- 
 fidence, as our author, though so exact a geographer, and recorder of 
 things he saw, is in no one instance to be depended upon for his dates. 
 He resided, for instance, for five years at Nalanda, and must have had 
 access to its records, yet he tells us that the convent existed for 700 
 years,^ and then gives the names of the five kings by whom the 
 various parts were built from that time to his day, but sees no 
 absurdity in representing these in all instances as the son of the one 
 next named previously. Each, according to his account, must have 
 reigned more than 100 years ! To what extent this date of the 
 accession of Siladitya must be curtailed can only be ascertained from 
 subsequent discoveries or investigations. For the present it will 
 suffice to abridge it by twenty years, which will bring it in accord 
 with all that we at present know from other sources.'^ 
 
 When we turn to the other end of our list, we have certainly three 
 — probably four kings — for whom we must find room in eighty years 
 and one of the three, the great Yicramaditya, must have had a long 
 reign. Professor Wilson ascribes to him thirty-five years,^ and I 
 kuow of no authority better than his, especially for the history or 
 chronology of this period. The Hindus themselves, with their usual 
 
 ' ' Vic et Voyi.ges,' p. 204. 
 
 2 'Relations,' &c., vol. ii. p. 150. 
 
 ^ Loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 42. 
 
 * When I wrote last on the subject 
 ('Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 
 vol. iv. N.S.) I assumed the figures as 
 they stand, as it did not then appear to 
 me of much importance, and as this in 
 
 the only arbitrary adjustment I have had 
 occasion to make in the chronology, 1 
 have let tliis stand in the text, leaving 
 the correction to be made when authority 
 is found for it. The twenty years, more 
 or less, do not affect any architectural 
 quest icm mooted in the preceding pages. 
 ^ ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. 87. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 737 
 
 carelessness, have forgotten to record it ; and though there are certain 
 dates in the Puranas and elsewhere, there are no means of testing their 
 accuracy ; for his accession, however, there are one or two that are 
 worth recording. Thus, Wilford reports that this Vicramaditya 
 ascended the throne of Malwa 441,^ reckoning from the first of Saliva- 
 hana, or, 520 ; or, according to the Agni Purana, 437 years after the 
 same epoch, or 51 6,^ which, I believe, may be the exact year ; and there 
 are several other dates which might be used to confirm this assump- 
 tion, but there are no means of testing the genuineness. 
 
 Assuming this for the present, it leaves only forty-five years for 
 the tw^o or three preceding reigns ; and it seems hardly sufficient for 
 the purpose, for, as we shall presently see from the ' Raja Tarangini,' 
 there were nine descents between Pratapaditya, the friend of the first 
 Vicramaditya, and Matrigupta, the protege of the second. Of course 
 there may be considerable overlapping among the first and last of 
 these nine kings, but it seems impossible to compress the whole within 
 a shorter period than has been allowed. 
 
 However the small discrepancies of this dynasty may hereafter be 
 adjusted, it is satisfactory to know that there is probably no date that 
 will admit of a greater correction than say ten years, if so much, and 
 the age of the last king, Hiouen Thsang's friend, enables us to feel 
 perfectly certain as to the dates of his son-in-law, Dhruvasena, of 
 Ballabhi, of Sasanka, of Pundra Yerddhana, of Kumara, of Kama- 
 rupa, and of Pulakesi II. of Kalyan. We have thus at least one fixed 
 point in our mediaeval history which is quite certain, and from which 
 we can calculate backwards and forwards without difficulty, and is 
 also an interesting one, as its final date, 650, is the beginning of the 
 end which was consummated, as we shall see in the next section, by 
 Laladitya just one century later. 
 
 Kashmir. 
 
 Asoka, 27G to 240 B.C. 
 Jaloka. 
 Damodara. 
 Hushka 
 Jushka 
 Kanislika j 
 Abliimanu, 79 a.d. ? 
 
 Tartar Princes established 
 Buddhism. 
 
 GoNARDYA Dynasty. 
 Gonarda. Naga ivorship restored. 
 Vibhishana. 
 
 Indrajita. 
 
 Ravana. 
 
 Vibhishana. 
 
 Nara. 
 
 Siddha. 
 
 Utpalaksha. 
 
 Hiranyaksha. 
 
 Hiranyakula. 
 
 Vasukulo. 
 
 Mihirakula, invaded Ceylon 250 ? 
 I Vaka. 
 
 ' ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. ix. p. 150. 
 
 2 Loc. cit. p. 161, 
 3 B 
 
738 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 KASirMiR — continued. 
 
 Ksliilinanda. 
 Vasunauda. 
 Nara. 
 Akslia. 
 
 Gopaditya, 830? 
 Gokarna. 
 Narendraditya. 
 Yudliislithira. 
 
 Aditya Dynasty. 
 
 Pratapadit.ya, kinsman of Yicramadilya 
 
 I., 890. 
 Jalaukas. 
 Tnnjina. 
 Vijaya. 
 Jayendra. 
 Arya Raja. 
 
 GoNARDYA Line restored. 
 
 Megliavahana invaded Ceylon, 472. 
 Pravarasena 1. 
 
 Hiranya \ Contemporaries of 
 Toramana / Vicrain aditya. 
 
 Matrigiipta, viceroy under Yicramadiiya 
 II., 515. 
 
 Pravarasena II., invaded Siladitya of 
 
 Gnjerat, 560. 
 Yudliislithira II. 
 Nandravat. 
 Rnnaditya. 
 Vikramaditya. 
 Baladitya. 
 
 Naga or Karkota Dynasty. 
 
 Dnrlabhaverddliana, 027. 
 Pratapaditya, 663. 
 Chandrapira, 713. 
 Parapira, 721. 
 
 Lalataditya, 725; died 761. Conquered 
 Yasoverna of Kanoujo, and overran 
 India. 
 
 When the ' Raja Tarangini ' is spoken of, in a real Indian history, 
 it is only in the sense of the Frencli proverb — " Parmi les avengles Ics 
 borgnes sont rois." It may be the best, bnt it is a very indifferent 
 specimen of its class. Some of the few events it narrates are interest- 
 ing and important, but they lose much of their value from the 
 chronology to wliich they are attached being wilfully and systemati- 
 cally falsified. Even they, however, may become more valuable than 
 they now appear, when the work is better edited than it has been 
 hitherto. The earliest and best account we have of it is that of Pro- 
 fessor Wilson, in the fifteenth volume of the ^ Asiatic Researches.' 
 The translation, afterwards published by Troyer in French, is fuller, 
 no doubt, but is made from a less perfect manuscript, and is far less 
 critical. Dr. Geo. Biihler, who is now in the valley, is said to have 
 collected several additional and more complete MSS., from which it 
 is understood he is preparing a new edition of the work. When 
 this is done, we may be able to use it more profitably ; mean- 
 while, for chronological purposes, we can only try and find an initial 
 and final date, and with one or two intermediate synchronisms, try to 
 bring the whole into an intelligible sequence ; but so hopelessly is the 
 chronology confused by its author, that this at present can only be 
 effected by the application of a system of averages, which is, and 
 always must be, a most unsatisfactory mode of procedure. 
 
 Rejecting at once as worthless or hopelessly lost all those parts of 
 the history before the third century B.C., the first name we come to is 
 the familiar one of Asoka, but here placed 1894 B.C., or more than 1000 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 739 
 
 years too early. It was in order to recover what was lost by this first 
 error that Kalhana Pandit was forced to falsify all the dates np to the 
 accession of the Karkota dynasty (a.d. 627), when they were known, 
 even in his day, as certain within ten or twenty years. To efi'ect 
 this, he added ten, twenty, or thirty years here and there, as caprice 
 dictated, till at last, losing patience, he gave one king, Eanaditya, in 
 the 6th century, 300 years, instead of a possible thirty, and so made 
 both ends meet ! So history is written in the East ! 
 
 After Asoka's, the next name we meet in the lists with which we 
 are familiar is that of Kanishka, and he plays so important a part in 
 the history of Kashmir and Gandhara, that it would be of extreme 
 interest if his date could be fixed with even approximate certainty. 
 The ' Raja Tarangini ' gives us no help in this matter. Generally, it 
 has been assumed, principally on numismatic evidence, that he reigned 
 cither immediately before or immediately after the Christian Era ;^ 
 but between him and Asoka our lists afford only two names. If, 
 therefore, we are to apply to this history the same logic the very 
 learned have attempted to apply to dates of the Nirvana in the ' Maha- 
 wanso,' we must either bring down Asoka to the first century B.C., or 
 take back Kanishka to the third. As neither process is admissible, 
 nothing remains to be done but to admit that the record is imperfect, 
 and that it is only from external evidence that these dates can be 
 fixed with anything like certainty. 
 
 Even admitting that Hushka and Jushka were the father and 
 grandfather of Kanishka, which I am inclined to think may be the 
 case, instead of his brothers, as is usually supposed, it will hardly help 
 us much — four reigns of insignificant princes in 200 years is nearly 
 equally inadmissible, and will not help us to fix Kanishka's date from 
 Asoka's. 
 
 Eecently the question has been very much narrowed by the dis- 
 covery of a number of dated inscriptions at Muttra and elsewhere, in 
 which the name of Kanishka and his successor Huvishka frequently 
 occur — the latter always following, never preceding, the former name. 
 It is this that makes me believe that the Hushka of the chronicle was 
 the father of Kanishka, and nothing in that case is so probable as that 
 his successor should take his grandfather's name. It is almost im- 
 possible he should take his uncle's, and as the name of Jushka appears 
 nowhere in the inscriptions, it is natural to assume that he had passed 
 away some time before they were written. 
 
 Be this as it may, the following table gives the inscriptions as 
 they were found by General Cunningham : ^ — 
 
 ^ General Cunningham hesitates be- 
 tween 17 and 24 a.d. for his death 
 (' Nuniis. Chron.,' vol. viii. p. 175) ; Las- 
 sen brings him down to 40 a.d. ('Ind. 
 
 Alt.,' vol. ii. p. xxiv). 
 
 2 ' Arch geological Reports,' vol. iii. p. 
 29, et seqq. Ed. Thomas's In trod actio u. 
 to ' Marsden,' p. 4G, ct sexfq. 
 
 B 2 
 
740 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Kanishka. 
 huvishka. 
 
 Vasudeva. 
 
 In the Indo-Fali Alphabet. 
 
 Maharuja Kanishka. Samvat 9. 
 Maliaraja Devapiitra Huvishka. Samvat 39. 
 Maharaja Rajatiraja Devapiitra Huvishka. Samvat 47. 
 Maharaja Huvishka. Samvat 48. 
 
 Maharaja Rajatiraja Devaputra Vasu (deva). Samvat 44. 
 Maharaja Vasudeva. Samvat 83. 
 Maharaja Rajatiraja, Shahi, Vasudeva. Samvat 87. 
 Raja Vasudeva. Samvat 98. 
 
 In the Badrian-Pali Alphabet. 
 
 » / Bahawalpur. Maharaja Rajadiraja Devaputra Kanislika. 
 
 I Samvat 11, on the 28th of the (Greek) month of Dcesius. 
 
 § I Manikyala Tope. Maharaja Kaneshka, Gushana vasa samvardliaka. 
 
 \ Increaser of the dominion of the Gushans " (Kushans). Samvat 18. 
 
 ^ I Wardak Vase. Maharaja rajatiraja Huveshka. Samvat 51, 15th of Arte- 
 O V misius. 
 
 In addition to these Bactrian-Pali inscriptions, we have a record of a king called 
 Moga (Moa?), on a copper plate from Taxila, wherein the Satrap Liako Ku>uluko 
 (Kozola ?) speaks of the 78th year of the " great king, the great Moga," on the 5tli 
 of the month of Pangemus. 
 
 In addition to the inscriptions bearing these names, General Cun- 
 nigham quotes a great number of others, with dates in the same 
 Samvat era, extending from the year 5 to the year 281, but without 
 any kings' names in them. Their purport, however, and the form of 
 the characters used, he considers sufficient to show that they form a 
 connected series dating from one and the same era, whatever that 
 may be. 
 
 Here, therefore, we have an era, which we may safely assume was 
 established by Kanishka, either from the beginning of his reign, or 
 to mark some important event in it, and which was used after his 
 time for two or three centuries at least. The question is, was that 
 the era since known as that of Vicramaditya, dating from 56 B.C., or 
 was it the Saka era of King Salivahana, dating 135 years after that ? 
 General Cunningham unhesitatingly adopts the former ; and though 
 it is not a subject to dogmatise upon, I am much more inclined to 
 adopt the latter. 
 
 In the first place, because I can find no trace of any such era being 
 in use before the cataclysm in a.d. 750. Bhau Daji states that he 
 knows no inscription dated in it before the 11th century.^ General 
 Cunningham says it was not used as early as 82 6, ^ but, in another 
 place, quotes an inscription in 754,^ I know of none earlier ; and 
 can trace no allusion to any king of the name of Yicramaditya in the 
 first century B.C., and no events that could have given rise to an era 
 
 ^ ' Journal Bombay Branch of the I ^ ' Archaeological Reports,' vol. ii. p. 
 Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. ix. p. 242. I 266. ^ Loc. cit. p. 68. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 741 
 
 ill 56 B.C. Xo trace of it is found in Thibet, in Bui-mah, or Cambodia, 
 and it never was heard of in Cevlon or Java. In all these countries 
 the Saka era is known and was used, and it seems strange that an 
 era established bv so powerful a Buddhist king as Kanishka should 
 have endured for two or three centuries, and then perished, without 
 leaving a trace in any Buddhist country, and then, after the 8th 
 century, been revived and adopted by the Brahmans for their chro- 
 nology. It may be so ; but it is so strange, it seems to require some 
 strong evidence to make it credible, and none such has yet been 
 advanced. 
 
 Hitherto Kanishka's date has been assmned almost wholly on 
 numismatic evidence, but it seems to me without sufficient grounds. 
 In all the lists hitherto published,^ there are at least a dozen barbarian 
 kings, several of whom, from the extent of their mintages, must have 
 had long and prosperous reigns. To compress the whole into the 
 sixty-four years that elapsed for the destruction of the Bactrian king- 
 dom (120 B.C.), and the era of Yicramaditya (56 B.C.), seems to me a 
 very strong measure, for which I can see no justification. To allow 
 each, on an average, sixteen years' reign, seems very much more prob- 
 able, especially as many more names may yet be discovered — and 
 even without them this would take us on to the Saka era (a.d. 79) 
 without difficulty. One of them, Gondophares, as we shall presently 
 see, reigned for twenty-six years at least. 
 
 The Roman consular coins found by M. Court, above referred to 
 {ante, p. 79), were so worn as to be hardly legible, and though, there- 
 fore, they limit the antiquity of his reign certainly to this side of 
 44 B.C., they by no means prove that he was so early. On the con- 
 trary, the coins being worn, seems to prove that they were old before 
 being bmied ; the probability is that they may have belonged to 
 some pilgrim, or missionary, in the West, and had become sacred relics 
 before they were enshrined. If Kanishka had merely wanted foreign 
 coins, Greek or Roman, he might have had hundi-eds of perfect ones 
 at his command. There must have been some other and holier motive 
 for their deposit than merely to mai'k a date. 
 
 Every one has heard of the legend of St. Thomas the Apostle 
 visiting the court of Gondophares, and, some add, being beheaded by 
 his order. It may be a legend, and not one word of truth in it, but 
 those who invented it in the second or third century must at least have 
 had the means of knowing what was the name of the king who was 
 on the throne of Gandhara at, or immediately afi/cr, the time of the 
 Crucifixion. This name appears frequently on coins and inscriptions, 
 and, from the numismatic evidence, has been placed by all as anterior 
 
 * They are all given in Thomas's edition of ' Prinaep,* vol. ii. p. 173, et seqq., to 
 which the reader is referred. 
 
742 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 to Kanishka, and I fancy tliat no one looking at the coins can well 
 arrive at any other conclusion. If this is so, and he was reigning at 
 any time between a.d. 83 and 50, Kanishka certainly belongs to the 
 latter half of that century. 
 
 Against this it must be stated that both General Cunningham and 
 Professor Dow^son read an inscription of this king found at Takht-i- 
 Bahi, as dated in his twenty-sixth year — one says in the lOSrd,^ the 
 other 100th,- of the same Samvat as the inscription of Kanishka — a date 
 which would answer perfectly for the legend. If this is so, there is 
 an end of the controversy ; but the stone is so worn, and the writing 
 so indistinct, that I cannot see in the photographs of it what these 
 gentlemen find there, and others are equally unable to do so ; and 
 besides this, it is such a wrench to all numismatic evidence to place 
 the coins of Gondophares 100 years after those of Kanishka, that we 
 must have more evidence than this imperfect inscription affords 
 before we adopt its epochal date. The regnal date seems quite clear. 
 
 There is one other point of view from which this question may be 
 regarded, but which it is difficult to express clearly without going to 
 a greater length than our limits will admit of. It is the date of the 
 third convocation, as the northern Buddhists call it — the fourth, ac- 
 cording to the southern. It was held certainly under Kanishka's 
 auspices, and I cannot help fancying about the year 70 or 80 a.d. At 
 that time, at least. Buddhism seems to have made a great stride in 
 Thibet, in Burmah, and the East generally. It was about this time 
 that it was fabled to have been first carried to Java, and about the 
 time when it was first introduced in China.^ It looks so like one of 
 those outbursts of missionary zeal that followed all the three previous 
 convocations, that I cannot help fancying that this one was held in 
 the latter half of the first century, and that the era of the king who 
 held it was allowed in all Buddhist countries to supersede that of 
 the Nirvana, which, as far as I can see, was the only one that had 
 existed previously in India. 
 
 To argue this out fully would require more space than its import- 
 ance for architectural purposes would justify ; but its bearing on the 
 age of the Gandhara monasteries is in some respects considerable. If 
 they are as modern as I suspect them to be, the more modern date for 
 Kanislika would accord better with the known facts than carrying his 
 date up before the Christian era. 
 
 Proceeding onward, the next name we come to of any importance 
 is Mahiracula, who is said to have invaded Ceylon. There is, how- 
 
 ' ' ArcLiGological Reports/ vol. v. p. 1 ciety,' vol. vii. (N.S.) p. 37G, serj'g. 
 59. I 3 Beal'a'Lifc of Fa Hian,' lutroduc- 
 
 ^ ' Journal of the lloyal Asiatic So- I tiou, p. xx. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 743 
 
 ever, no trace of any such invasion at that time, which, by the appli- 
 cation of averages would be about 180 a.d., if Kanishka ruled before, 
 and 250 if after, the Christian Era. His date would be interesting 
 if it could be ascertained from his connexion with Baladitya, the 
 king of Magadha, whose story Hiouen Thsang tells in such minute 
 detail.^ 
 
 The Aditya dynasty opens with a king who is said to have been 
 a kinsman of Vicramaditya, and is evidently the grandfather of the 
 great king of that name, who figures prominently in the next dynasty 
 as the patron of Matrigupta. The story of the latter is told in great 
 detail in the * Eaja Tarangini,' and is one of the most curious episodes 
 in the history. He was sent to Kashmir four years before the death 
 of Vicramaditya (550), and on hearing of his patron's decease, re- 
 signed his viceroyalty, and retired to Benares, leaving the throne to 
 his successor, Pravarasena. 
 
 In speaking of the dynasty of Malwa, only twenty or twenty- five 
 years were allowed for the reign of Sri Harsha, and only eighty for 
 the whole duration, from the fall of the Guptas, 470, to the death of 
 the great Vicramaditya, 550, a period, it seems from the evidence of 
 the 'Raja Tarangini,' it is impossible to contract. Pratapaditya, the 
 kinsman of the first, was, we are told, the great-grandfather of Mega- 
 vahana, the first king of the next dynasty, and then we have one more 
 king before we reach Hiranya, who is said to have been contemporary 
 with the second Vicramaditya. Of course there may have been con- 
 siderable overlapping at both ends, and the lives of the Kashmiri kings 
 may have been short ; but as we have six intermediate kings in the 
 one list between the two Vicramadityas, and only one in the other, it 
 seems that the last could hardly have ascended the tlii'one before 515, 
 if so early. 
 
 One of the acts of Pravarasena was to invade Siladitya, the first 
 Ballabhi king of that name ruling in Gujerat. We have not, it is 
 true, any dated coins or inscriptions belonging to Mm, but we have of 
 his next successor but one, Sri Dharasena II., 593 {cuite, p. 730), so 
 that any date between 550 and 570 would answer perfectly well for 
 this war, and the fact of its being so is in itself almost sufficient to 
 establish the correctness of the chronology we are now trying to 
 explain. 
 
 Since I wrote last on the subject, a passage has been pointed out 
 to me^ in R6musat's * Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques ' (vol. i. p. 197), 
 which enables us to fix the cln'onology of the Naga dynasty witliin a year 
 or two for extreme deviation. It seems that the thii'd king, Chandrapira, 
 applied to the Chinese Emperor for assistance against the Ai*abs in 
 
 * ' Relations des Contrecs,' &c., vol. i. I ^ j am indebted for this to Cunuiug- 
 p. 190, et seqq. I ham's ' Geography of India,' p. 91. 
 
744 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 713, and that the Emperor conferred the title of King on him in or 
 about 720. As he was on the throne only eight years and eight 
 months, there is no room for deviation in this date, and it carries with 
 it those of his predecessors and followers. It thus becomes clear that 
 Durlabha I. was the king who was on the throne when Hiouen Thsang 
 resided in the valley, 631-633, and also when he passed near it on 
 his return home in 643, all which is perfectly consonant with what 
 we find in his text ; and it also fixes the date of Lalitaditya, one of 
 the most important kings in the list, with almost absolute certainty, 
 as 725-762. 
 
 "Without placing implicit reliance on all that is said in the * Raja 
 Tarangini,' with regard to the exploits of this king, or of his having 
 overrun and conquered all India, from beyond the Himalayas to Cape 
 Comorin, still a sufficient residuum of fact must remain to enable us 
 to see that the troubles which had begun in 650, on the death of 
 Siladitya of Canouge, had laid India prostrate at the feet of any 
 daring adventurer. 
 
 From whatever side we approach it, we can hardly fail to perceive 
 that a great revolution took place in India about the year 750. All 
 the old dynasties are then swept away, and for 200 years we have 
 nothing but darkness, and when light again dawns, about two centuries 
 afterwards, the map is re-arranged, and new dynasties and new 
 religions have taken the place of the old. 
 
 This reign, too, forms a most appropriate termination to the prin- 
 cipal division of our architectural history. The coins of his rival, 
 Yasoverman of Canouge, found in the great Tope at Manikyala, 
 prove the completion of that great Buddhist monument, just 1000 
 years after the style had been inaugurated by the great Asoka, and in 
 that thousand years all that is important in Buddhist architecture 
 is included. The fact, too, of his being the builder of the great 
 Naga temple at Marttand, the earliest, so far as I know, in Kashmir, 
 marks the commencement of a new architectural era, the fruits 
 of which we see when the curtain again rises. The Jaina religion, 
 with its new style of temples, had entirely replaced Buddhist forms 
 over the greater part of India, and the Vaishnava and Saiva religions 
 reigned supreme everywhere else, in the forms in which we now find 
 them, after the lapse of nearly another 1000 years' duration. As, 
 however, there are no chronological difficulties with regard to these 
 later dynasties, the discussion of the dates of the kings' reigns who 
 built them has evidently no place in this Appendix.2 
 
 • Cunningham's ' Ancient Geography 
 of India,' p. 92. 
 
 One of the most useful manuals ever 
 published for the use of students of 
 Indian history and chronology was Prin- i 
 
 sep's ' Useful Tables of Indian Dynasties, 
 &c.' They were republished by Mr. 
 Thomas in his edition of ' Prinsep,' with 
 considerable additions and many im- 
 provements by himself, but the edition 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 745 
 
 Era of Vicramaditya. 
 
 Before concluding this Appendix, I would like to be allowed to 
 explain an hypothesis which, if it can be sustained, not only clears up 
 what has hitherto been a great mystery, but gets rid of a quantity 
 of rubbish which obscures the chronology of the period. It does not, 
 however, alter any date, nor affect them further than, if true, it 
 confirms some, wliich, if it prove groundless, are deprived of its 
 support. 
 
 No one has yet been able to point to the name of Vicramaditya as 
 belonging to any king in the grst century B.C., or to any event likely 
 to give rise to an era being dated from it.^ WJiat, then, was the 
 origin of the era dating from 56 B.C., and how did it arise and obtain 
 its name ? 
 
 My belief is that the solution of the mystery will be found in a 
 passage in Albiruni, the meaning of which he did not profess to under- 
 stand, combined with two or three passages in the ' Raja Tarangini.' 
 
 The passage in Albiruni is to the following effect : — " L'ere de 
 Saca, nommee par les Indiens Sacakala, est posterieure a celle de 
 Vicramaditya de 135 ans. Saca est le nom d'un prince qui a regne 
 sur les contrees situees entre I'lndus et la mer (le Golfe du Bengale). 
 Sa residence etait placee au centre de I'Empire (Muttra ?), dans la 
 contree nommee Aryavartha. Les Indiens le font naitre dans une 
 classe autre que celle des (Kchatrias ?) : quelques-uns pretendent qu'il 
 etait Soudra et oriiginare de la ville de Mansoura. II y en a meme 
 qui disent qu'il n 'etait pas de race indienne, et qu'il tirait son origine 
 des regions occidentales. Les peuples eurent beaucoup a souffrir de 
 son despotisme, jusqu'a ce qu'il leur vint du secours de I'Orient. 
 Vicramaditya marcha centre lui, mit son armee en d^route, et le tua 
 sur le territoire de Korour, situe entre Moultan et le Chateau de Louny. 
 Cette epoque devint celebre, a cause de la joie que les peuples res- 
 sentirent de la mort de Saca, et on la choisit pour ere, princxpalement 
 chez les astronomes." ^ 
 
 It seems impossible to apply this narrative to any events happen- 
 ing in the first century B.C., not to mention the inherent absurdity of 
 Vicramaditya establishing an era 56 B.C., and then 135 years after- 
 wards defeating the Saka king on the banks of the Indus. If it 
 meant anything, it might point to the origin of the Saka era, not that 
 of Vicramaditya. 
 
 is exhausted. There could hardly be 
 any better service done for the cause, 
 than if he or some one would republish 
 them in a separate form, so as to render 
 them generally available. It is a pity 
 Government has no funds available for 
 
 such a purpose, for I am afraid it would 
 hardly pay as a bookseller's speculation. 
 
 ' ' Journal of the Koyal Asiatic So- 
 ciety,' vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 131, et seqq. 
 
 2 * Journal Asiatique,' 4me se'ric, torn, 
 iv. p. 282. 
 
746 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Turning from this to the * Raja Tarangini,' wc find the following 
 passages in Troyer's translation : — 
 
 "Ayant fait venir ensuite, d'un autre pays, Pratapaditya, parent 
 du roi Yicramaditya, ils le sacrerent souvcrain de I'Empire. 
 
 *' D'autres induits en erreur ont ecrit que ce Yicramaditya fut le 
 memo qui combattit les Qakas ; mais cette version est rejetee." ^ 
 
 A little further on we have : " Dans le meme temps — the death 
 of Hiranya — Pheureux Yicramaditya, appele d'un autre nom Harcha, 
 reunit comme empereur a Udjdjayini I'Empire de PInde sous un seul 
 parasol. . . . 
 
 *' Employant la fortune comme moyen d'utilite, il fit fleurir les 
 talents : c'est ainsi qu'encore aujourd'hui les hommes de talent se 
 trouvent la tete haute au milieu des riches. 
 
 " Ayant d'abord detruit les ^akas, il rendit leger le fardeau de 
 Poeuvre de Hari, qui doit descendre sur la terre pour exterminer les 
 Mletchhas." ^ 
 
 Before going further, it may be as well to point out what appears 
 to be a fair inference from the above. That the first Yicramaditya, 
 the friend of Pratapaditya, was so near in date to the second^ — he, in 
 fact, appears to have been his grandfather — as to be confounded with 
 him, and to have the name of Sakari applied to him, which in fact 
 belonged to his grandson, the real destroyer of the Sakas. 
 
 My conviction is, that these paragraphs refer to one and the same 
 event ; and, assuming that the battle of Korur was fought 544 — the 
 year before Yicramaditya sent Matrignpta to be his viceroy in Kash- 
 mir — what I believe happened was this : Some time after 750, when 
 the Hindus were remodelling their history and their institutions, so 
 as to mark their victory over the Buddhists, they determined on 
 establishing two eras, which should be older than that of the Budd- 
 hists, A.D. 79, and for this purpose instituted one, ten cycles of sixty 
 years each, before the battle of Korur, and called it by the name of 
 the hero of that battle, the most illustrious of their history ; the 
 other ten centuries, or 1000 years before the same date, and called it 
 by the name of his father, Sri Harsha — a title he himself often bore 
 in conjunction with his own name — the first consequently dated for 
 56 B.C., the second from 456. It need hardly be added that no Sri 
 Harsha existed in the fifth century B.C., any more than a Yicramaditya 
 in the first. 
 
 The co-existence of these eras may be gathered from the following 
 passage in Albiruni : — 
 
 * Troyer's translation of the 'Raja 
 Tarangini,' vol. ii. p. 43. In Wilson's 
 translation it is said, "A dillcrcnt mon- 
 arch from the Saccari Yicramaditya, 
 
 thongh sometimes erroneously identified 
 with that prince." — ' Asiatic Researches, 
 vol. XV. p. 32. 
 ' Loc. cit. p. 70. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 747 
 
 " On emploie orclinairemenfc les eres de Sri Harscha, de Vicrama- 
 ditya, de Saca, de Ballabha, et des Gouptas." " D'apres cela, en s'en 
 tenant k I'an 400 de Fere de Yezderdjed, on se trouve sous Tannic 
 1488 de I'ere de Sri Harscha — I'an 1088 de I'ere de Yicramaditya — 
 Tan 953 de I'ere de Saca — I'an 712 de I'ere de Ballabha, et de celle 
 des Gouptas (a.d. 1032)." — ' Journal Asiatique,' series iv. vol. iv. 
 pp. 280, 286. 
 
 The Sri Harsha era, exactly 400 years before that of Yicramaditya, 
 was avowedly conventional, and seems never to have come into use, 
 and no further mention is made of it afterwards. 
 
 If this view of the matter can be sustained, the advantage will be 
 not only that the date of the battle of Korur, and of the expulsion of 
 the Sakas, Hunas, Yavanas, &c., from India will be fixed with mathe- 
 matical precision in 544, but that one of the greatest mysteries con- 
 nected with the history of the period will be cleared up, and the 
 revival of the Hindu religion relegated to a much later period. If, 
 on the other hand, it can be shown that this view of the matter is not 
 tenable, we shall lose these advantages, but it will require a great 
 deal more than that to prove that Yicramaditya, or any Hindu king, 
 reigned in the first century B.C. Buddhism was then in its palmiest 
 state, and there is no trace of the Hindu religion then existing, and 
 the expulsion of Sakas, Yavanas, and Hunas did not take place for 
 long afterwards. 
 
 Be this as it may, having now cursorily run through the whole 
 chronology, in so far as it admits of controversy, I feel very confident, 
 on a calm review of the whole, that none of the important dates quoted 
 above can be disturbed to a greater extent than say ten, or at the utmost 
 twenty years — except, perhaps, that of Kanishka. From the Anjana 
 epoch, 691 B.C., to the death of Lalitaditya, a.d. 761, all seems now 
 tolerably clear and fixed, and, with a very little industry, minor 
 blemishes might easily be swept away. If this were done, the chrono- 
 logy of mediaeval India for the Buddhist period might be considered 
 as fixed on a secure and immoveable basis of ascertained facts. 
 The advantages of this being done can hardly be over-estimated for 
 improving our knowledge of India generally, while, among other 
 things, it would give a precision and soHdity to all our speculations 
 about that country, which, for want of it, have hitherto been generally 
 so vague and unsatisfactory. 
 
748 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 TfiE following are the last of the twenty-four Buddhas, beginning 
 with Dipankara I., who appeared to instruct and enlighten mankind, 
 and to whom Sakya Muni succeeds in the present Kalpa : 
 
 22. Kakusanda, born at Khemawatinagara. His Bo-tree the Sirisia (Sirisa accasia). 
 
 23. Kanagamma, born at Sobhawatinagara. His Bo-tree the Udambara (Ficus 
 
 glomerata). 
 
 24. Kassyapn, born at Baranasi-nagara, Benares. His Bo-tree the Nigrodha (Ficus 
 
 Indica). 
 
 Gautama, born G23 B.C., at Kapilawasta. His Bo-tree Pipphala (Ficus 
 religiosaV 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 THE TWENTY-FOUR TIRTHANKARAS OF THE JAINS. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Distinctive Sign. 
 
 EOBN. 
 
 Died. 
 
 1 
 
 Adinatha or Vri- 
 
 
 
 
 
 shabha . 
 
 
 Ayodhya . 
 
 Gujerat 
 
 2 
 
 Ajitanatha 
 
 Elephant .... 
 
 
 Mt.Sikhar,Chodri 
 
 3 
 
 Sambhunatha 
 
 
 Sawanta . 
 
 „ Parisnath 
 
 4 
 
 Abhainandanatha 
 
 Monkey .... 
 
 Ayodhya . 
 
 »> 
 
 5 
 
 Suniatinatha . 
 
 Chakwa (Red Goose) 
 
 >, • • 
 
 Kausambhi . 
 
 »» 
 
 6 
 
 Supadmanatlia . 
 
 
 >» 
 
 7 
 
 Suparswanatha . 
 
 Swastika .... 
 
 Benares . 
 
 >> 
 
 8 
 
 Chandiaprabba . 
 
 Crescent Moon . 
 
 Cliandripur . 
 
 ») 
 
 9 
 
 Pushpadanta . 
 
 Crocodile .... 
 
 Kakendrapur 
 
 
 10 
 
 Sitalanatha . 
 
 Tree or Flower . 
 
 Bhadalpur . 
 
 
 11 
 
 Sri Ansanatha 
 
 Rhinuceros . 
 
 Sindh . . 
 
 
 12 
 
 Vasupadya 
 
 Buffalo .... 
 
 Champapuri. 
 
 Cbampapuii 
 
 13 
 
 Vimalanatha . 
 
 
 Kumpatapuri 
 
 Mt. Sikhar 
 
 14 
 
 Anantanatha . 
 
 Porcupine 
 
 Ayodhya . 
 
 
 15 
 
 Dharmmanatha . 
 
 Thunderbolt . . . 
 
 Ratanpuri . 
 
 »» 
 
 16 
 
 Santanetha 
 
 Antelope .... 
 
 Hastinapura 
 
 » 
 
 17 
 
 Kunthanatha . 
 
 
 '> 
 
 »» 
 
 18 
 
 Aranatha . 
 
 
 
 )> 
 
 19 
 
 Mallinatha 
 
 Pinnacle .... 
 
 Mithil'a . . 
 
 »» 
 
 20 
 
 Muiiisuvrata . 
 
 Tortoise .... 
 
 Rajgriha 
 
 J» 
 
 21 
 
 Nauiinatha 
 
 Lotus, with stalk 
 
 Mithila . . 
 
 9? 
 
 22 
 
 Neminatba 
 
 Shell 
 
 Dwarika 
 
 Mt. (^irnara 
 
 23 
 
 Parswa atha . 
 
 
 Benares . 
 
 Mt. Sikhar 
 
 24 
 
 Yardhamaua or 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mahavira . 
 
 
 Chitrakot 
 
 Pawapuri 
 
 ' From Introduction to Tumour's I places of birth, and Bo-trees of the whole 
 ' Mahawanso,' p. xxxiii., where the names, I twenty-four are given. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ABHAYAGIRI. AYODHYA. 
 
 Abhayagiki dagoba, 192. 
 
 Abu, Mount, aucient Juina temples on, 
 
 234. Temple of Vimala Sah, 235— 
 
 237. 
 
 Adinah mosque, Gaur, 547. 
 
 Afghanistan, topes at, 72. Caves, 107. 
 
 Agra, 572. The Taje Mehal, 596—599. 
 Akbar's mosque, 602. 
 
 Ahmedabad, temple of Shet Huttising 
 at, 257. Style and character of the 
 architecture, 527. 
 
 AiwuUi, old temple at, 218. Plan, 219. 
 View, 220. 
 
 Ajmir, temple at, 263. Mosque at, 510. 
 Plan, 512. Great arch, 512. 
 
 Ajunta, rock-cut Tee at, 64. Chaitya 
 cave, 122. View of interior, 123. Cross- 
 section, 123. Plan, 124. View of 
 fa9ade, 125. Rock-cut dagoba, 126. 
 Caves at, 145, 146. Viharas, 153— 
 159. 
 
 Akbar, architectural glories of, 574 — 
 586. 
 
 Alexander the Great, pillars ascribed to, 
 56. 
 
 Allahabad, lat or pillar at, 53. Palace 
 
 at, 583. 
 Altumsh, tomb of, 509. 
 Amara Deva, temple erected by, C9. 
 Amber, palace at, 480. 
 Amoy, pailoo at, 702. 
 Amravati, tope at, 71, 72. Rail at, 93, 
 
 99—101. Dagoba, 102. 
 Amritsur, golden temple at. 468. 
 Amwah, Jaina temple at, 250. View of 
 
 porch, 251. 
 Ananda, temple at, Pagan, 615. 
 Andher, topes at, 65. 
 Andra dynasty, the, 20. 
 Anuradhapura, ancient capital of Ceylon, 
 
 188. The sacred Bo-tree, 189. Founda- 
 tion and present state of the city, 188, 
 
 189. Topes, dagobas, &c., 189—195. 
 Great Brazen Monastery, 195. Pillars, 
 196. The Maha vihara, 657. 
 
 Arch, objection of the Hindus to the, 
 210. Indian examples, 211. See Gate- 
 ways. 
 
 Architecture, Buddhist, 44. Stambhas, 
 orlats, 52— 56. Stupas, 57— 60. 'J'opes, 
 60—83. Rails, 84—104. Chaitya 
 halls, caves, 105 — 144. Vihara caves, 
 144 — 168. Gandhara monasteries, 169 
 —184. Ceylon, 185—206. 
 
 Architecture, Chalukyan, 386. Temples 
 388—405. 
 
 Architecture, Civil : Dravidian, 880. 
 
 Northern, or Indo-Aryan, 470—475. 
 Architecture, domestic, in China, 702 — 
 
 710. 
 
 Architecture, Dravidian. 319. Rock-cut 
 temples, 326—339. Raths, 328—330. 
 Kylas, 334. Temples, 340. Palaces, 
 381—385. 
 
 Architecture in the Himalayas, 279. 
 Kashmiri temples, 283—318. 
 
 Architecture, Indian Saracenic : Ghazni, 
 494—500. Pathan, 498. Delhi, 500, 
 510—514. Later Pathan, 514—519. 
 Jaunpore, 520 — 525. Gujerat, 52 ^j — 
 539. Malwa, 540—544. Bengal, 545— 
 551. Kalburgah, 553—556. Bijapur, 
 557— 5K7. Scinde, 567, 568. Mogul, 
 569. Wooden, 608—610. 
 
 Archite(-ture, Further Indian : Burmah. 
 611—620. Siam 631—636. Java, 637 
 —662. Cambodia, 663— G84. 
 
 Architecture, Indo-Aryan, or Northern, 
 406. Temples, 411—436. Bralimanical 
 rock-cut temples, 437 — 447. Temples, 
 448—464. 
 
 Architecture, Jaina, 207. Arches, 210 — 
 212. Domes and roofing, 212—218. 
 Plans, 218—221. Sikras, 221—225. 
 Northern: temples, 226 — 251. Towers, 
 252—254. Modern: Temples, 255— 
 260. Caves, 261, 262. Converted 
 mosques, 263. Southern Indian: 
 colosoal statues, 267, 268. 
 
 Aryans, their migration into India, and 
 position among the Brahmans, 9 — 11. 
 The dominant people before the rise 
 of Buddhism, 48. 
 
 Asoka, Buddhist king, his connexion 
 with Indian architecture, 47, 52. His 
 missionaries into Ceylon, 199. His 
 edicts at Girnar, 229. His mission- 
 aries into Burmah, 612, see 61, 65. 
 
 Atala Musjid, the, 524. 
 
 Audience hall at Bijapur, 566. 
 
 Aurungabad, mosque at, 602. 
 
 Auruugzebe, 602. His copy of Iho 
 Taje Mehal, 602. His burial-place, 
 603. 
 
 Ava, modern temple at, 659, note. 
 Avantipore, temples at, 291. Fragment 
 
 of pillar at, 292. 
 Ayodhya, 631. 
 
750 
 
 AYUTHIA. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CAVES. 
 
 Ayuthia, ancient capital of Siam, ruins 
 of pagoda at, G32, G33. 
 
 BaViylonia, architectural synonyms in 
 Burmab, G18. Ethuograpliical con- 
 nexion, 630. 
 
 Badanii, in Dharwar, Jaina cave, 261. 
 Dravidian and ludo-Aryan temples 
 at, 411. Contrast of fetyle, 411. Cav( s 
 at, 439-441. Plan and section, 444. 
 
 Bagh, cave at, 146. Great vihara, 159. 
 Plan, 160. 
 
 Baillur, in Mysore, great temple at, 393. 
 Plan, 395. 'View of porch, 396. View 
 of pavilion, 397. 
 
 Bainn, Cambodia, temples at, 679 — 681. 
 
 Bukeng, Mount, ruined temple at, 682. 
 
 Bancorah, Hindu temple at, 14. 
 
 Bangkok, Great Tower, 134. Hall of 
 audience, 635. 
 
 Barabar, Behar caves at, 108. 
 
 Baroach, mosque at, 537. 
 
 Barrolli, temple at, 449. View and 
 plan, 450. Ornamented pillar, 451. 
 
 Bastian, Dr. Adolphe, Cambodian ex- 
 plorations of, 663. 
 
 Bayley, E. C, sculpture brought from 
 Jamalgiri by, 169. 
 
 Bedsa, Cbaitya cave, 112. Plan and 
 capital of pillar, 113. View on ve- 
 randah, 114. 
 
 Behar caves, 108. Bengal, 138—144. 
 
 Benares, view and diagram of temples 
 at, 412, 460, View of balcony at the 
 observatory, 481. 
 
 Bengal, caves, 138. Its architecture and 
 local individuality of its style, 491, 
 545. Type of the modern roof, 546. 
 
 Bettu temples, 267. 
 
 Bhaja, Cbaitya cave, plan, 110. Fa5ade, 
 111. 
 
 Bhaniyar, near Naoshera, temple at, 292. 
 View of court, 293. 
 
 Bharhut, rail at, 85 — 91. Square and 
 oblong cells, from a bas-relief at, 135. 
 Bound temple and part of palace, 168. 
 
 Bhatgaon, Devi Bhowani temple at, 304. 
 Doorway of Durbar, 307. 
 
 Bhilsa Topes, 60—65. 
 
 Bhojpur, Topes at, 65. 
 
 Bhuvaneswar, great temple af, 420 ; 
 plan, 421 ; view of, 422. Great Tower, 
 423. Raj Rani temple at, 424 ; door- 
 way in, 425. 
 
 Bijanagur, gateway, 211. 
 
 Bijiipur, 557 ; its architecture, 558. 
 Jumma Musjid at, 559. Seetions, 
 560. Tomb of Ibrahim, 561. Of Mah- 
 mud, 562. Ancient Hall, 566. 
 
 Bimeran, Tope at, 78. 
 
 Bindrabnn, 462. Plan of temple at, 463. 
 View, 464. Balcony in temple, 465. 
 
 Bintenne, relic of Buddha at, 58. 
 
 Bombay, number of caves at, 107. 
 
 Booudi, palace at, 476. 
 
 Boro Buddor, Java, 643. Plan, eleva- 
 tion, and section, 645. Sections of 
 
 domes, 646. View of central entrance 
 and stairs, 649. 
 Bo-tree, the sacred, 189. Branch of 
 it in Ceylon, 199. At Buddh Gaya, 
 656. 
 
 Buddha La Monastery, Thibet, 312. 
 
 Bowlees or Reservoirs, use and architec- 
 tural features of, 486. 
 
 Brahma, numerous images of, in Cambo- 
 dia, 680. 
 
 Brahmaui^m, 323. 
 
 Brambanam, Ja\ a, group of temples at, 
 651. 
 
 Brazen Monastery, Anuradl.apura, 195. 
 
 Buchropully, 388. View of temple, 389. 
 
 Buddh Gaya, stupa, 69, 70. Temple, 70. 
 Rail, 85. Bas-relief from, 111. The 
 Sa^'red Tree, 199. 
 
 Buddha, period of his biith, 14. Appor- 
 tionment of his remains, 57 — 59. 
 Relic of, at Bintenne, 58. Colossal 
 statue of, 200, note. His tooth, its 
 sanctity, shrines, migrations, .'"i8, 59, 
 161. Relics ot, at Ranguu, 622. 
 
 Buddhism, its founder, 15. Secret of 
 his success, 16. 
 
 Buddhist architecture, earliest traceable 
 date, 48 — 50. Religion dominated by 
 it, 49. Classification, 50. Temple in 
 China, 691. Monastery at Pekin, 693. 
 St 3 Architecture. 
 
 Bunds, or Dams, 486, 487. 
 
 Buribun, sculptures at, 682, note. 
 
 Burmah, architecture in, 611. Thatun, 
 612. Prome, 613. Pagan, 614. Cir- 
 cular dagobas, 619— 626. Monasteries, 
 626—630. Non-use of mortar, 660. 
 
 Butwa, tomb at, 536. 
 
 Cabul, topes near, 72. 
 
 Cambay, Jumma Musjid at, 537. 
 
 Cambodia, M. Mouhot's researclies in, 
 
 663. Labours of Dr. Bastian, 663 ; of 
 Mr. Thomson, 661 ; of Captains 
 Doudart de la Gree and Delaporte, 
 
 664. Traditions, original immigrants, 
 history, 665, 666. Temple of Nakhon 
 Wat, 666. Temple of Baion, 679 ; of 
 Ongcor Thorn, 680 ; other temples, 
 681. Civil architecture, 682. Re- 
 markable evidences of mechanical 
 skill and civilization, 684. 
 
 Canara, stambhas at, 263. 
 
 Canouge, Jaina temple at, 263. Mosque 
 
 at, 525. 
 Canton, pailoo near, 700. 
 Canton river, " Second Bar Pagoda " on 
 
 the, 696. 
 
 Capitals and columns, Tirhoot and San- 
 kissa, 54. Jamalgiri, 173, 176. 
 
 Caves, 106. Geographical distribution 
 of, 107. Ajunta, 122, 127, 153. Ba- 
 dami, 439. Bagh, 146, 159. Barabar, 
 108. Bedsa, 112. Behar, 108. Bengal, 
 138—144. Bhaja, 110. Dhumuar, 
 131. Ellora, 127. Junir, 166. Karli, 
 116. Kenheri, 129. Kholvi, 132. 
 
CENOTAPHS. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GATE. 
 
 751 
 
 Salsette, IGl. Satapanni, 108. Mode 
 of ornamentation, 133. 
 
 Cenotaphs, 470 — 475. 
 
 Ceylon : Buddhist relics in, 58. Its an- 
 cient architecture, 185 — 206. See 
 Anuradl'.apura. 
 
 Chaitya Halls : Buddhist temples, 105. 
 Examples, 109—132. See Caves. 
 . Chalukyans, the, 386. Early identity of 
 the Jains with the, 387. Peculiarity 
 of their style, 387. See Architecture. 
 
 Chandragupta, the Sandrocottus of the 
 Greeks, 17. 
 
 Chandravati, pillars at, 238. Temple or 
 porch, 448. Plan, 449. 
 
 Cheras, territory occupied by the, 322. 
 
 Chillambaram, temple at, 350. Plan, 
 351. Porch of hall, 353. Section of 
 porch, 353. View of ruined temple, 
 or pagoda, 354. 
 
 China, deficiency of information, 685. 
 Point of divergence between its people 
 and the Egyptians, 686. Causes of 
 the absence of certain clashes of build- 
 ings, 686—688. Pagodas : Temple of 
 the Great Dragon, 689. Buddhist 
 temples, 691. Taas, or towers. 695. 
 Tombs, 698. Pailoos, 700. Domestic 
 architecture, 702 — 710. 
 
 Chittore, diagram of Meera Baie's temple 
 at, 458. Temple of Vriji, 459. Palace 
 of Bhim and Pudmaucli, 476. 
 
 Chola, region forming the kingdom of, 
 322. 
 
 Clioultrie, Tirumulla Nayak's, 361. 
 
 Cliuttries, or Cenotaphs, 470. 
 
 Civil Architecture, 470. Cambodia, 682. 
 
 China, 702. 
 Cole, Lieut., explorations in Kashmir, 
 
 280. 
 
 Colombo, Hindu temple at, 332. 
 Combaconum, 367. Gopura or gate 
 
 pyramid at, 368. 
 Confucius, temples of, 689. 
 Conjeveram, temples and hall, 369. 
 Court, M., Topes opened by, 79. 
 Cowie, Rev. A., Kashmirian explorations 
 
 of, 280. 
 
 Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Gill's copies 
 of Indian frescoes, 158, note. Sculp- 
 tures, 169. 
 
 Cunningham, Gen., Eastern Archaeolo- 
 gical explorations of, 5 1, et seqq. 
 
 Cuttiick, caves at, 140, 143. Nine- 
 storeyed i)alace, 433. Hindu bridge 
 at, 434. 
 
 Dagobas : Amravati, 102. Rock-cut, at 
 Ajunta, 126. Anuradhapnra, 190 — 
 196. Circular,of Burmah, 619. Kong 
 Madu, 619. Shoemadu, 621. Ranguii, 
 623. Men gun, 624—626. 
 
 Dams, or bunds, 486—487. 
 
 Darunta, Jelalabad, topes at, 77. 
 
 Das Avatar, Buddhist vihara, EUora, 165. 
 
 Dasyus, the slave people, 12. Their 
 architecture, 13. 
 
 Decg, garden palace of, 481. Hall, 482. 
 
 Yiew from the Central Pavilion, 483. 
 Deepdans, or lamp pillars in the East, 
 
 336, 337. 
 
 Dehrwarra vihara, Ellora, plan of 163. 
 
 Delai Lama, worsliip paid to him, 312. 
 
 Delaporte, Captain, explorations in Cam- 
 bodia, 664. 
 
 Delhi, Lat at. 52. Jaina Temple, 259. 
 Palace, 591. Plan, 592. Jumma 
 Musjid, 601. 
 
 Delhi, Old, section, arches, and minar of 
 the Kutub, 503—509. Iron pillar, 
 507. Interior of t-.mb, 509. Yiew of 
 tomb, 516. Pendentive from mosque, 
 519. 
 
 Deriah Doulut, the pavilion of, at 
 
 Seringapatam, 604. 
 Dhar, mosque at, 540. 
 Dharwar, deepdans in, 337. Braiiman- 
 
 ical rock-cut temples, 437. 
 Dhumnar, caves at, 131, 162. 
 Dhumnar Lt na, Ellora, Rock-cut temple 
 
 at, 445. Plan, 446. 
 Disfgu Hublum, unfinished Mantapa at, 
 
 378. 
 
 Dimapur, monoliths at, 309. 
 
 Djeiug Plateau, Java, group of small 
 
 temples at, 659. 
 Do Tal, or Dookya Ghur, Ellora, a 
 
 Budilhist vihara, 165. 
 Dolka, mosque at, 537. 
 Domes : Hindu, 212. Indian Snracenic, 
 
 560. Constructive diagram, 565 ; 
 
 Boro Buddor, 6i6. 
 Domestic architecture, Chinese, 702. 
 Doorways: Nepal, 305. Hammoncon- 
 
 dah, 390. Bhuvantswar, 425. 
 Doudart de la Gre'e, Captain, explora- 
 tions in Cambodia, 664. 
 Draviiiian style, 319. Its extent, 319. 
 
 Historical notice, 320. Religious, 323. 
 
 See Architecture. 
 Dra vidians, the, 11. 
 Durbar, Bhatgaon, doorway of, 307. 
 Duttiah, palace at, 477. 
 
 Elaala, so-called tomb of, ] 89. 
 
 Ellora, caves at, 127. Alharas, 163, 
 Indra Subha Cave, 262. Kylas at:, 
 331 — 337. Dhumnar Lena Cave, 
 445. 
 
 Erun, lats at, 55. Pillar, 317. 
 
 Fa9ade3 : Behar, 109, 111. Burmah, 
 627. 
 
 Feroze Shah, lat rebuil t by, 52. 
 Futtehjiore Sikri, 578. Carved pillars 
 
 in, 579. Mosque at, 580. Southern 
 
 gateway, 581. 
 
 Gal Yihara sculptures, 200. Ganesa 
 Cave, Cuttack, 140. Pillar in, 140. 
 
 Gandhaia Topes, 72 — 76. Monasteries, 
 169—184. 
 
 Ganges, the, and its ghats, 484. 
 
 Gate-pyramid at Combaconum, 368. 
 
752 
 
 GATEWAYS. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KENHERI. 
 
 Gateways or Torans, 95. Sauolii, 96. 
 Bijanagur, 211. Jaun pore, 522. Gaur, 
 550. Futtelipore Sikri, 581. Pekiii, 
 693. 
 
 Gaudapaleu, temple at, Pagan, 617. 
 
 Gaur, peculiar form of roof in, 545, 
 516. Mosques, 547 ; their defects, 549. 
 Ancient Miliar, 550. Gateways, 550. 
 
 Gautamiputra Cave, Nassick, rail at, 94. 
 Pillar in, 150. 
 
 Ghats, or landing-places, 484. Ghoosla, 
 Beuares, 485. 
 
 Ghazni, buildings of Mahmu 1 and his 
 nobles, 494. Minar at, 495. Orna- 
 ments from the tomb of Mahmiid at, 
 496. 
 
 Ghoosla Ghat, the, Benares, 485. 
 Gill, Major, Oriental drawings by. 158, 
 note. 
 
 Girnar, the Hill of, shrine of the Jains, 
 228. Temple of Neminatha, 230. 
 
 Gopal Gunge, temple at, 467. 
 
 Gopura at Combaconum, 368. 
 
 Gualior, temple at, 244. Teli ka Mandir 
 temple, 452. View, 453. Temple of 
 Scindiah'a mother, 461. View, 462. 
 Palace, 479. Tomb of Mahommad 
 Ghaus, 576. View, 577. 
 
 Gujerat, 526. Historical account, 526, 
 527. 
 
 Gurusankerry, pavilion at, 274. Stim- 
 
 bhn, 276. 
 Gyraspore, temple at, 249. 
 
 Hammoncondah, Metropolitan temple 
 
 of, 389. View of great doorway, 390. 
 Himalayas, the, architecture in, 279. 
 Hindu temple at Bancorah, 1 
 Hiouen Thsang at Amravati, 103; at 
 
 Assam, 310. 
 Honan, China, Buddhist temple at, 691. 
 HuHabid, in Mysore, temple at, 397. 
 
 The Kait Iswara, 398. Plan, 399. 
 . Restored view of the temple, 400. Its 
 
 varied design, 401. View of central 
 
 pavilion, 402. Succession of animal 
 
 friezes, 403. 
 Humayun Shah, tomb of, at Old Delhi, 
 
 575. 
 
 Ibrahim Shah, Mosque of, at Bijapur, 
 559. 
 
 Imambara, the, at Lucknow, 605. 
 Immigrations, 25. 
 
 India, Northern, inducements to the 
 
 study of its architecture, 4. Its 
 
 history, 6—29. 
 India, Southern, unsatisfactory records, 
 
 29. Sculptures, 32. Mythology, 35. 
 
 Statistics, 42. 
 India, Western, its architecture, 437 — 
 
 447. 
 
 India, Central and Northern, 448. 
 
 India, Further, 611—684. 
 
 Indian Saracenic style, 489. Divisions 
 
 of styles and their boundaries, 491 — 
 
 493. See Architecture. 
 
 Indo-Aryau or Northern style, 406. 
 Keasons for the term, 406. See Ar- 
 chitecture. 
 
 Iron pillar at Kutub, 507. 
 
 Jaina Architecture, 207. Identical with 
 Buddhist, 207. Region dominated by 
 its style, 208. See Architecture. 
 
 Jajepur on tlie Byturni, pillar at, 432. 
 
 Jamalgiri, plan of monastery at, 17 J. 
 Corinthian cajjitals from, 173. 
 
 Jarasandha Ka Baithak tope, 68. 
 
 Jaunpore, style adopted at, 520. Plan 
 and view of the Jumma Musjid, 522. 
 The Lall Durwaza INIosque, 523. The 
 Atala Musjid, 524. Tombs and shrines, 
 525. 
 
 Java, 6:-7. Its history, 640. Boro Bud- 
 dor, 643—650. Mendoet, 650. Bram- 
 bauam, 651. Tree and Serpent temples, 
 653 — 659. Djeing plateau, 659. Suku, 
 660. 
 
 Jehangir, desecration of his tomb, 587. 
 
 Jelalabad topes, 77, 79. 
 
 Jinjuwarra, gateway, 211. 
 
 Juganat, temple of, 430. Tower, 431. 
 
 Jumma Musjid, Jaunpore, 521. Section 
 
 and view, 522. Ahmedabad, 527. 
 
 Plan and elevation, 528. Malwa, 541. 
 
 Plan, 542. Courtyard, 543. 
 Juiiaghur, tomb of the late Nawab of,606. 
 Junir, caves at, 167. Plan and section 
 
 of circular, 167. 
 
 Kait Iswara, temple at Hullabid, 397. 
 View, 398. 
 
 Kakusanda, one of the Buddhas, dis- 
 covery of a relic of, 622. 
 
 Kalbnrgah, 552. Mosque, 553. Plan, 
 554. Half elevation and view, 555. 
 
 Kaliian, in Bombay harbour, Ambernatli 
 temple, 457. 
 
 Kanaruc, Orissa, Black Pagoda at, 221. 
 Restored elevation, 22'Z. Diagram, 
 plan and section, 223. History, 426. 
 
 Kangra, 314. See Kote. 
 
 Kantonuggur, 465. View, 467. 
 
 Kanwa dynasty, 19. 
 
 Karkala, colossal statue at, 268. 
 
 Karli, cave at, 55, 116. Section and 
 plan, 117. View of exterior, 118. 
 View of interior, 120. Lion-pillar, 
 121. 
 
 Kama Chopar Cave, 108. 
 Kasachiel, temple of Bouddhama at, 
 302. 
 
 Kashmir, its architecture, 279. Writers 
 thereon, 280. Peculiar form of temples 
 and pillars, 283. Starting-point of its 
 architectural history, 285. Temple of 
 Marttand, 285—291. Other examples, 
 292—297. The ' Raja Taraugini,' or 
 native history, 297. 
 
 Kasyapa, one of the Buddhas, discovery 
 of a relic of, 622. 
 
 Kenheri Cave, the Great, near Bombay, 
 129. View of rail iu front, 130. 
 
KESERIAH. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 NAKHON. 
 
 753 
 
 Keseriah, Tirhoot, capital of, lat at, 71. 
 Kliajuiaho, temples at, 245 — 248, 452. 
 
 Kaudarya IMaliadeo, temple at, 454. 
 
 View, 455. Plan, 456. 
 Kholvi, caves at, 1H2, 162. 
 Kioums, Burmese, 628. 
 Kiragrama, 314. See Kote Kangra. 
 Kirti Stamblia at Woraugul, 392. 
 Kona gamma, one of the Baddba^, relic 
 
 of, 622. 
 
 K')ndooty, near Bombav, chaitya cave, 
 108, note. 
 
 Kong Madii Dagoba, details of the, 619. 
 
 View, 620. 
 Koisthakar, or Kepalese temple, 303. 
 Kote Kangrii, temples, 313. View of 
 
 temple at Kiragrama, ne ir, 314. 
 Kumululu, rock-c-nt temple at. 33'.). 
 Kutub, the. Old Delhi, 503. Section of 
 
 colonnade at, 503. Central ran>re of 
 
 arches, 504. Minar, 505, 506. Iron 
 
 pillar at, 507. 
 Kvlas at Ellora, 334—337. Pillar in, 
 
 443. 
 
 Lahore, Jehangir's buildings at, .'^87. 
 Lall Durwaza Mosque, Jaunpore, 523. 
 L:issa, monastery of Bouddha La at, 
 312. 
 
 Lats, or Buddhist in.-cription-pillars, 52. 
 
 Examples, 53, 54. 
 Lomas Kishi. Behar cave, 108. FaQade 
 
 and pUin, 109. 
 Lucknow, the Imambara at, 605. 
 
 Macao, temple at, 694. 
 
 Mackenzie, Col., Indian researches and 
 
 drawing.s by, 638. 
 Madras, temple on the hill of Tripetty 
 
 at, 378, note. Prevailing style in the 
 
 presidency of, 385. 
 Madura, Perumal pagoda at, 331. Plan 
 
 of Tirumulla Nayak's c-houltrie, 361. 
 
 Pillar in, 361. View of the hall, 363. 
 
 Great temple, 364. The Jumbukes- 
 
 ■\vara temple, 365. 
 Maha vihara, the, Anuradhapura, 657. 
 Mahavellipore, raths of, 134, 175, 326, 
 
 330. Pavilion at, 274. Tiger cave at 
 
 Saluvan Kuppan, 333. 
 Mahawunso, or Buddhist history of 
 
 Ceylon, accounts of Oriental structures 
 
 in the, 58, 185, 189, 195, 196, 612. 
 Maheswar, ghat at, 485. Malimud 
 
 Begurra, tomb of, near Kaira, 538. 
 Mahmud of GhMzni, temple of Soumath 
 
 destroyed by, 494. 
 Mahoniedanism, migration into, and 
 
 dealings with the architecture of Imlia, 
 
 380, 526, 527. 
 Malwa, 540. See Mandii. 
 IMandale, monastery at, 629. 
 Mandu, capital of Malwa. 540. The 
 
 Junima Mu>jid, 541. Palace, 543. 
 Manikyala topes, 79 — 83. Eelic casket, 
 
 80. 
 
 Marttand, temple of, 285. PJan 286. 
 
 View, 287. Central cell of court, 288. 
 
 Date, 289. Niche with Naga figure, 
 
 290. Soffit of arch, 291. 
 Masson, Mr., ex})loration of the Jelalabad 
 
 topes by, 77 — 79. 
 Matjanpontih, serpent-temple at, 659. 
 Maurya dynasty, 17. 
 Mechanical skill of the Cambodians, 684. 
 Mehturi Melial, "the Gate of the 
 
 Sweeper," 567. 
 Mendoet, Java, temple at, 650. 
 Mengun, circular pagoda at, 624. View, 
 
 625. 
 
 Michie, Mr. A., information derived 
 from, 689, note. 
 
 Milkmaid s Cave, Behar, 109. 
 
 Minars and minarets : Surkh and 
 Chakri, Cabul, 56. Ghazni, 495. 
 Kutub, 505. Gaur, 550. 
 
 Mirzapore, Queen's mosque at, 529. 
 
 M'lggalana, relic casket of, 62. 
 
 Mogul architecture, 569. Originality of 
 the buildings, 5')9. Works of Sh^re 
 Shah, 572. Akbar, 574—586. Je- 
 hangir, 587—589. Shah Jehan, 589. 
 Aurungzebe, 602 — 604. Oude and 
 Mysore, 604—607. 
 
 Mohammad Ghaus, tomb of, at Gualior, 
 576. Virw, 577. 
 
 Monasteries, or viharas, 133. Gandhara, 
 169. Burmese, 62'>— 630. Thibetan, 
 312. Pekin, 693. 
 
 Monoliths at Dimai^ur, 309. 
 
 Moodbidri, Jaina temple at, 271, 272. 
 Pillar, 273. Tomb of priests, 275. 
 
 Moohafiz Khan, mosque of, 532. 
 
 Mortar, non-users of, 660. 
 
 Mosques : Adinah, 549. Agra, 596. 
 Ahmedabad, 527. Ajmir, 511. Ba- 
 roach, 537. Bijapur, 559. Cambay, 
 537. Canouge, 525. Delhi, 601. 
 Dhar, 540. Dolka. 537. Futtehporo, 
 581. Gaur, 547. Kala Musjid, 518. 
 Kalburgah, 553. Kashmir, 609. Ku- 
 tub Minar (Old Delhi), 501. Jaun- 
 pore, 521. Mandu, 543. Mirzapwre, 
 529. Moohafiz K]ian, 532. Su-kej, 
 531. 
 
 Mosques, converted, 263, 264. 
 Mouhot, M., researches in Cambodia, 
 663. 
 
 Muktagiii, Jaina temples at, 240. 
 INlukteswara, Orissa, temple of, 419. 
 Miilot in the Salt Range, temple at, 296. 
 Muti Musjid, the, or pearl mosque, 599. 
 
 A^iew in courtyard, 600. 
 INIuttra, rail at, 91. 
 IMysore, 392, 604. 
 
 Mythology of the Hindus, 35—42. 
 
 Nagas, or Snake worshippers, 10. Head- 
 quarters, 297. See Kashmir, Cambodia, 
 Nakhon Wat, Ongcor Thorn. 
 
 Nahapana vihara, Nassick, 149. Pillar 
 in, 150. 
 
 Xakhon Thorn (the Great City), Cam- 
 bodia, 666. 
 
 ?. C 
 
754 
 
 NAKHOX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 RELIC. 
 
 Nakhou Wat (Cambodian temple), its 
 grand dimensions, 667. Plan, 6G8. 
 Uncemcnted masonry, 669. Elevation, 
 670. Corridors, 67i, 672. General 
 view, 675. Pillars, 676, 677. Multi- 
 plicity of snake-seulptures, 677. 
 
 Nankau Pass, archway in, near the 
 Great Wall, China, 709. 
 
 Nankin, porcelain tower at, 695. 
 
 Na^sifk, cliaitya cave at, 115. 
 
 Nat-mandir, or dancing-hall at Bhuva- 
 neswar, 423. 
 
 Neminatha, Gimar, temple of, 2.30. 
 
 Nepal, 298. Its architecture, 299. His- 
 tory, 300 — 302. Stupas or chaityas, 
 302. Kosthakar, 303. Temples, 304 
 —318. 
 
 Nigope Behar cave, 108. 
 
 Ongcor Thorn, temple of, 679. Tower 
 and sculptured masks, and tradition 
 relating thereto, 680. Palaces and 
 public buildings, 682. 
 
 Orissa, fragment of a column from a 
 temple in, 317. History, 415. Archi- 
 tecture, 417. Earliest authentic build- 
 ing, 417. Temples, 418—420. 
 
 Ornament, honeysuckle, at Allahabad, 
 53. From the tomb of Mahniud at 
 Ghazni, 496. 
 
 Oudeypore, cenotaph of Singram Sing, 
 471. In Maha Sati at, 473. 
 
 Ourtcha, Bundelcund, palace at, 478. 
 
 Pagan, ruins of, 614. Ananda temple, 
 
 615. Thapinya, plan, 615. Section, 
 
 616. Temple of Gaudapalen and Sem 
 Byo Koo, 617. 
 
 Pagodas, Hindu, 221, 344. Burmese, 
 
 619—626. Siamese, 632. Chinese, 697. 
 Pailoos, or " Triumphal Gateways " of 
 
 the Chinese, 700. Near Canton, 701. 
 
 At Amoy, 702. 
 Palaces, 475. Allahabad, 583. Amber, 
 
 480. Chittore,476. Deeg,481. Delhi, 
 
 591. Duttiah, 477. Gualior, 479. 
 
 Ourtcha, 478. Pekin, 705. 
 Palitana, the Sacred Hill of Sutrunjya, 
 
 near, 227. 
 
 Panataram, three-storeyed temple at, 654. 
 
 "View, 655. Serpent temple, 658. 
 Pandrethan, temple at, 294. 
 Pandyas, the, 321. 
 
 Parasurameswara, Orissa, temple of, 418. 
 Parisnath, 239. 
 
 Patau, temple of Mahadeo and Krishna, 
 306. 
 
 Paten ta Prohm, Cambodia, character of 
 the buildings of, 667. Temple, 681. 
 
 Pathau style, 498—513. Later Pathan, 
 514—519. 
 
 Pathans, the, 498. Historical summary, 
 498. Their architectural glories and 
 career, 499. Examples, 503—519. See 
 Delhi. 
 
 Pavilions: Ceylon, 167. Gurusankerry, 
 274. Bailiiir, 397. Vijayauagar, 
 
 385. Hullabid, 403. Sirkej, 632. 
 Pekin, 705. 
 Payech, Kashmiri temple at, 294. View, 
 295. 
 
 Pegu, Shoemadu pagoda at, 620. 
 
 Pekin, temple of Confucius, 689. Temple 
 of the Great Dragon, 689. Gateway 
 of monastery, 698. Tombs, 700. Sum- 
 mer palace, 705. Winter palace, 707. 
 
 Pemiongchi, Nepal, porch of temple at, 
 313. View, 314. 
 
 Pendants to domes, 216. At Vimala 
 Sah, 237. 
 
 Pendentive from mosque at Old Delhi, 
 519. Bijapur, 564. 
 
 Peroor, near Coimbatore, date of porch, 
 370. Compound pillar at, 372. 
 
 Perumal pagoda, Madura, 331. 
 
 Pillars : Ajunta, 156. Amravati, 101. 
 Avantipore, 293. Barrolli, 451. Ceylon, 
 196. Chandi-avati, 238. Cut'lack, 
 140. Delhi, 507. EUora, 443. Erun, 
 317. Futtehpore Sikri, 579. Gauta- 
 miputra, lr>0. Jajepur, 432. Kash- 
 mir, 283. Madum, 361. Moodbidri, 
 273. Nahapaua, 150. Peroor, 372. 
 Srinagar, 284. Vellore, 372. Yadnya 
 Sri, 152. 
 
 Pittadkul, plan of temple at, 221. 
 Temple of Papanatha at, ^37. View, 
 438. 
 
 Pollouarua, Ceylon, 199. Extent and 
 
 epoch of its temples, 200. Examples, 
 
 201—203. 
 Poonah, Saiva temple near. 447. 
 Porches: Anwah, 251. Chillambaram, 
 
 351. Delhi, 259. Jaina, 216. 
 Prome, early capital of Burmah, 613. 
 Provincial building, Gujerat, 537 — 539. 
 Purl, 428. Plan of Juganat, temple at, 
 
 430. View of tower, 431. 
 Purudkul, or Pittadkul, great temple of, 
 
 338. 
 
 Queen's mosque, Mirzapore, 529. 
 
 Ktiffles, Sir Stamford, 638. 
 
 Bails: Amravati, 93. Bharhut, 86. 
 Buddh Gaya, 85. Dhumnar, 131. 
 Gautamiputra, 91. Kenheri, 130. 
 Kholvi, 132. Muttra, 91. Sanchi, 92. 
 
 ' Eaja Tarangini,' the, or native His- 
 tory of Kashmir, 289, 297. 
 
 Rajputana, bund of, 486. 
 
 Rajsamundrii, bund of Lake, 487. 
 
 Ramisseram, great temple at, 355. Plan, 
 356. Its dimensions, 357. Corridors, 
 358. View of central corridor, 358. 
 
 Bangun, the Shoedagong pagoda at, 
 622. View, 623. 
 
 Rani Gumpha cave, the, 140. 
 
 Rath at Mahavellipore, 134, 175, 326, 
 328. 
 
 Relic worship, Buddhist, origin of, 57. 
 Distribution and depositaries of the 
 relics, 58, 59, 66, 189, 195. Disco- 
 veries of, 622. 
 
RESERVOIRS. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 TEMPLES. 
 
 755 
 
 Reservoirs!, or bowlees, scope for archi- 
 tectural display in, 48G. 
 
 Roads and bridges of the Cambodians, 
 683. 
 
 Rock-cut temples, 437—447. 
 
 Roofing, diagrams, 213 — 215. Modern 
 
 curved style, 546. Chinese, 703. 
 Ruanwelli dagoba, Anuradhapura, 190, 
 
 191. 
 
 Sadri, Khumbo Rana's temple at, 240. 
 
 View, 241. External view, beauty of 
 
 details, &c., 242. 
 Saftar Jung, tomb of, near the Kutub, 
 
 604. 
 
 Sakya Muni, founder of Buddhism, 15. 
 His early life and subsequent self- 
 mortification, 15. Result of his appeal 
 to liis countrymen, 16. 
 
 Salsette, Durbar cave at, 147. Kenheri 
 caves, 161. 
 
 Saluvan Kuppan Tiger Cave, 333, 
 
 Sanchi, great tope, 61, 63. View, plan, 
 section, and details, 63. Rails at, 
 92, 93. Gateways, 95—97. Small 
 tope, 98. Torans, 99. Chaitya hall, 
 105. 
 
 Sankissa, capital of a lat at, 54. 
 
 Sariputra, relic-casket of, 62. 
 
 Sarnath, tope at, 65—68. Vihara, 173. 
 
 Satapanni cave, 108. 
 
 Satdhara topes, 64. 
 
 Sat Ghurba cave, 108. 
 
 Scinde, tombs in, 567. 
 
 Sculptures, 32 — 35. In the Gandhara 
 
 monasteries, 176, 177. 
 Secundra, Akljar's tomb at, 583. Plan, 
 
 584. Diagram section, 585. View, 
 
 586. 
 
 Seringham, pillared hall at, 347. View 
 
 of temple, 319. 
 Serpent temples, 653. 
 Serpent-worship, 266. 
 Shah Dehri, plan of Ionic monastery at, 
 
 176. Ionic pillar, 176. 
 Shah Hamadan, mosque of, Srinugger, 
 
 608. 
 
 Shah Jehan, 589. Palace at Delhi, 591. 
 Taje Mehal, 595. The Muti Musjid, 
 599. 
 
 Shepree, near Gualior, Pathan tomb at, 
 515. 
 
 Sliere Shah, works of, 572. Tomb, 573. 
 
 Slioediigong Pagoda at Rangun, 622.j 
 
 Shoemadu, Pegu, the Great Pagoda at, 
 620. View and plan, 621. 
 
 Siain, eaily and present capitals?, 631. 
 Ayuthia, 632. Bangkok', 634. 
 
 SiUras, or Vimanas, 221—225. 
 
 Sirkej, tombs and mosque at, 531. Pa- 
 vilion, 532. 
 
 Sisuuaga dynasty, 14. 
 
 Siva, serpent of, 41, note. 
 
 Snake sculptures, 676, 677. 
 
 Somnath, Girnar, trmple, 232. 
 
 Somnathpur in Mysore, temple at, 393. 
 View, 394. 
 
 Sonaghur, Bundelcund, Jaina temple 
 
 at, 256. 
 Souari topes, 64. 
 
 Soubramanya, temple at Tanjore, 345. 
 
 Sravana Belgula, colossal statue at, 267. 
 Bastis, 269. View, 270. 
 
 Sri Allat, tower of, at Chittore, 251. 
 View, 252. 
 
 Srinagar, Kashmir, pillar at, 284. 
 
 Srinugger, Jumma Musjid at, 608. Shah 
 Hamadan Mosque, 608. View, 609. 
 
 Stambhas. 52. At Gurusankerry, 276. 
 They illustrate the rise and progress 
 of Indian architecture, 277. See Lats. 
 
 Statues : Seperawa, 200. Sravana Bel- 
 gula, 267. Karkala, 268. Yannur, 
 268. 
 
 St. Stephen's, Walbrook, resemblance to 
 
 Hindu plans, 218. 
 Stupas, or Topes, 57. See Topes. 
 Stupas, or Chaityas, Nepal, 302. 
 Sudama, or Nigope Cave, 108. 
 Suku, Java, group of temples, 660. 
 
 Their likeness to contemporary edifices 
 
 ia Yucatan and Mexico, 661. 
 Sultangunge, near Monghyr, vihara at, 
 
 137. 
 
 Sultanpore, tope at, 78. Small model 
 
 found in the tope, 126. 
 Sunga dynasty, 19. 
 Surkh Minar, Cabul, 56. 
 Swayambunath, Nepal, temple, 302. 
 
 Taas of the Chinese, 695. 
 
 Taje Mehal, the, 595. View, 596. Plan 
 
 and section, 597. Details, inlay ings 
 
 of precious stones, &c., 598. 
 Takht-i-Bahi, plan of monastery at, 171. 
 Takt-i-Suleiman, Kashmir, Hindu temple 
 
 at, 282. 
 
 Tanjore, diagram plan of pagoda at, 343. 
 
 View of Great Pagoda, 344. Temple 
 
 of Soubramanya, 345. 
 Tarputry, temples at, 375. Views of 
 
 gopurii, 376, 377. 
 Tassiding, doorway of Nepalese temple 
 
 at, 313. 
 
 Tatta, tomb of Nawab Amir Khan noar 
 568. 
 
 Teen Tal, a Buddhist vihara, at EUora, 
 165. 
 
 Tees in rock-cut temples, 64. At Ajunta, 
 61. 
 
 Tejpala atid Vustupala, triple temple at, 
 Girnar, 232. 
 
 Temples: Abu, 234. Ahmednbad, 257. 
 Aiwulli, 218. Ajmir,263. Amritsur, 
 468. Amwah, 250. Avantipore, 292. 
 Badami, 411. Bailiur, 393. Bakeng 
 (Mount), 682. Bancorah, 14. Bar- 
 rolli, 449. Benares, 412, 459. Blian- 
 ghur, 250. Bhaniyar, 292. Bharput, 
 168. Bhatgaon, 304. Bhuvaneswar, 
 418. Bindrabun, 464. Boro Buddor, 
 643. Brarabanam,651. BuchropuUy, 
 389. Cambodia, 666. Canouge, 263. 
 Chandra vati, 448. Chillambaram, 350. 
 
756 TENNENT. INDEX. 
 
 Cliincse, 689, 094. Cliittorc, 459. 
 Colombo, 832. Combaeouum, 367. 
 Delhi, 259. Djeing Plateau, 059. 
 Gaudapalen, 017. Gimar, 230. Gna- 
 lior, 244, 453, 402. Gyrasporo, 249. 
 Hiimmoticondah, 390. Hullabid, 397. 
 Java, 050. Kanaruc, 420. Kautouug- 
 gur, 407. Khninraho, 245, 455. Kira- 
 gram:i, 310. Maduia, 3.59. Mnrttand, 
 285. Meudoet, 050. Moodbidri, 271. 
 Mulot, 297. Nepal, 302. Pagau, 015. 
 Pandri than, 294. Pat;in, 300. Payech, 
 295. Peniiongchi, 314. Pittadkul, 
 221,438. Poouah, 440. Puii (Juganat), 
 431. Ram'sseiara, 355. Sadri, 240. 
 Seringliam, 347. Sonaghur, 250. Som- 
 natlipur, 394. Siavana Belgula, 270. 
 Suku, GOO. Tanjore, 344. Tassiding, 
 313. Tiunevelly, 300. Tiruvalur, 
 340. Udaipiir, 457. Vellore, 371. 
 Vijayanagar, 375. 
 
 Tcnnent, Sir Emerson, works on Ceylon 
 by, 185, 200. 
 
 Thapinya, temple of, at Pagan, 615. 
 Section, 616. 
 
 Thatun, pagoda at, 613. 
 
 Thibet, exclusion of travellers, number 
 and character of its monasteries, 311. 
 The Delai Lama, and the worship 
 paid to h'm, 312. See Nepal. 
 
 Thomson, Mr. J., his photographs of the 
 Great Temple of Nakhon Wat, 671, 
 672, 675—677. 
 
 Thuparamaya Tope, Buddhist relic- 
 shrine, 192. 
 
 Tiger-cave at Cuttack, 143. At SaUivan 
 Kuppan, 333. 
 
 Tmnevelly, temple at, 366. Dimensions, 
 details, &c., 367. 
 
 Tirhoot, lats, or inscribed pillars at, 53. 
 Capital, 54. 
 
 Tirthankars, Jaina Saints, 208, 331. 
 
 Tirumulla Nnyak's clioultrie, 301. Di- 
 mensions, cofct, and ornamentation, 
 302. View, 303. 
 
 Tombs : Bijapur, 501. Butwa, 530. 
 Chinese, 098. Delhi (Old), 509, 510. 
 Gualior, 577. Gujerat, 534. Luck- 
 now, 000. Moodbidri, 275. Secundra, 
 584. Shepree, near Gualior, 515. 
 Sirkej, 531. Tatta, 568. 
 
 Tooth of Buddha, its sanctity, shrines, 
 migrations, &c., 58, 59, 161. 
 
 Topes or stupus of the Budd] lists, their 
 form and purpose, 58. Bhilsa group, 
 61. E.Kample at Sanchi, 63. Invari- 
 able accompaniments to these htruc- 
 tures, 64. Sarnath and Behar, 66 — 
 68. The Jarasandha Ka Baithak, 08, 
 09. Buddh Gaya, 09, 70. Amruvati, 
 
 ZEIN. 
 
 71, 72. Gandl ara, 72—70. Jtlala- 
 bad group, 77. Bimeran, 78. Sultan- 
 pore, 78. Manikyala, 79 —83. 
 
 Torans, 95. See Gateways. 
 
 Towers : Bangkok, 653. Chittore, 253. 
 Nankin, 095. Ongcor Thorn, 080. 
 
 Tree and Serpent temples, 053. 
 
 Tree- worship, 200. 
 
 Trisul emblem at Amravati, 104. 
 
 Tung Chow p.igoda, 097. 
 
 Udaipur, temple at, 450. View, 457. 
 Udayagiri, Cuttaek, caves at, 138. 
 Ujjain dynasty, 22. 
 
 Illwar, tomb of Rajah Baktawar at, 474. 
 Umbrella ornaments on topes, 04, 80, 
 12.5, 120. 
 
 Vellore, near Coimbatore, 370. View of 
 portico of temple, 371. Compound 
 pillar, 372. 
 
 Ventura, General, topes opened by, 79, 
 81. 
 
 Victory, Tower of, at Chittore, 253. 
 Vigne's travels in Kashmir, 280. 
 Viharas, or monasteries, 133. Diagram, 
 
 134. Nalanda, 136. Sultangunge, 
 
 137. Sarnath, 137. 
 Viharai', 144—147. Nassick, 147—151. 
 
 Ajunta, 153—159. Bagh, 159, 160. 
 
 Eilora, 103. 
 Vijiiyanagar, 373. Destroyed by the 
 
 Mahomedans, 374. View of temple 
 
 of Vitoba at, 375. Garden pavilion, 
 
 384. Palace, 385. 
 Vimala Sah, temple of, 235. 
 Vimanas, or Sikras, 221—225. 
 Vii<hveshwar temple, Benares, 459. 
 
 View, 400. 
 Viswakarma Cave, Eilora, 128. 
 Vitoba, temple of, at Vijayanagar, 375. 
 
 Wall, Great, in China, 708. 
 Waniyat, Kashmir, group of temples at, 
 293. 
 
 Well-holes in temples, 054, 050. 
 
 Window at Ahmedabad, 533. 
 
 Wooden architecture, Kashmir, 008. 
 
 Mos(iues at Srinugger, 008. 
 Wooden temples, similarity to the 
 
 wooden aicliitecture of Sweden and 
 
 Norway, 308. 
 Woraugul, Kirti Stambhas in, 391. 
 
 View, 392. 
 
 Yadnya Sri cave, Nassick, 151. Pillar 
 in, 152. 
 
 Yannur, colossal statue at, 208. 
 Zein-ul-ab-ud-dm, tomb of, 281. 
 
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