Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c30.3

c30.3

Some idea of the amount and quality of the temple architecture produced in these parts may be obtained from an examination of the remains built into those two famous Islamic monuments, the Qutb Mosque at Delhi, and the Arhai din ki Jhompra at Ajmer, the earliest architectural efforts of the Afghan invaders From inscriptional evidence it is known that twenty-six temples were dismantled to provide materials for the Delhi mosque, the number of pillars in which amounts to 240. Each single mosque pillar however is made up of two pillars of the temple type, one being placed above the other, thus giving a total of 480 in all, or an average of rather more than eighteen pillars from each temple. But the Ajmer mosque is a much larger structural compilation containing some 235 pillars, and in this instance instead of two, three of the temple examples are superimposed, so that nearly a thousand pillars were used, representing the spoils of at least 50 temples. These calculations may be served to explain the scarcity of indigenous architectural remains within the vicinity of the cities of Delhi or Ajmer. Most of the temples thus demolished appear to have been of moderate proportions, and notably peristylar, their numerous pillars and capitals, with the carved ceiling they supported, being their principal architectural feature. In the mosque at Delhi these temples appear to have been mainly those of the eighth and ninth centuries, the beauty of some of the capitals being remarkable, indicating that they were excellent examples of the post-Gupta style. On the other hand the components of the Ajmer mosque seem to have been derived from structures of a rather later date, probably of the tenth and eleventh centuries, as the vase and foliage capital signifying the Gupta order is rare, and the shafts of the pillars are not fluted but octagonal in section. Although torn from the buildings they were designed to embellish, these beautiful examples of Hindu workmanship are probably seen to better advantage in their present position than in the obscurity of the temple mandapa. (Plate XCVI).