Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c31.45

c31.45

At both the towns of Jhinjuwada and Dabhoi the gateways appear to have been built originally in the twelfth century, but some alterations or renovations may have taken place in the thirteenth century, while under the Moslem governors parts of these were reconstructed, and their shapes changed. Yet in spite of vicissitudes several of them still retain much of their indigenous appearance signifying a time when the lintel was the accepted method of bridging a space, and the arch was unused because it was unknown The finest examples are the four at Dabhoi, one being in the centre of each of the four walls of the city, three of them being, of the type above described, while the Hīra or Diamond gate, the main entrance to the town, is a far more ambitious production and therefore in a class by itself. (Plate CXIII). This gateway is thirty-seven feet through, with a clear roadway twelve feet wide between its walls, and a large structure having several rooms for guards and custodians in the wings. On each side of the actual gateway, and within the thickness of the walls, a temple is inserted, the one towards the north being a fairly spacious compartment in the form of a Greek cross, and known as the Kalika Mata, as it was dedicated to the goddess Kali. On the exterior face of this composition the masonry is severely plain, as this was the outer wall but on the inner face, within the city, there can have been few buildings more ornamentally conceived. No regulated plan seems to have been followed, nor symmetry contemplated, as bays alternate with projections, balconies on voluted struts hang from available places, while windows and canopied niches are introduced wherever fancy dictated. In the plastic decoration which runs riot over every one of the architectural features, all the motifs stored in the imagination of the Indian artist have been released to add their share to the tumult of the effect. As a picture of the spirit of the time, fundamentally religious, yet unrestrained by any particular conventions, the Hīra Gate at Dabhoi stands almost by itself.