History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c1: Front matter
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c1
- Language
- English
Front matter
v1.c1.1
INDIAN AND EASTERN
v1.c1.2
Lieut. Colonel Spiller.
v1.c1.4
Wm H Spiller Lieut Col.
v1.c1.5
HISTORY
v1.c1.6
THE MONUMENTS OF INDIA
v1.c1.7
TEMPLES, MOSQUES, AND PALACES
v1.c1.8
TOMBS OF THE PRINCES
v1.c1.9
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT)
v1.c1.10
Every one who thinks of travelling in India looks forward to a sight of the temples, mosques, tombs, and palaces in which much of her history is written; but though some of the best of these are to be found in the big cities, which are easily reached in a few weeks’ cold-weather tour, there are many others lying off the beaten track to which a special pilgrimage is necessary.
v1.c1.11
The buried cities which excavators’ spades are bringing to light in the Sind Valley have a special interest for the archæologist and race-historian, and may be expected to illuminate some region of the darkness in which the antiquity of India’s civilization is hidden. But of the standing monuments which primarily interest the tourist, none dates later than about 260 B.C., when the great King Asoka carved on rocks and pillars the main precepts of the Buddhist faith. Two of the Asoka pillars are to be seen at Delhi—one in the ruined palace of Feroz Shah, and one on the Ridge near Hindu Rao’s house. A better pillar, which also bears later Gupta and Moghul inscriptions, rises in the Fort at Allahabad.
v1.c1.12
BUDDHIST STUPAS
v1.c1.13
The finest specimens of Buddhist building, however, are the topes (*stupas*) which mark some spot sacred to Buddha, or were meant to contain some relics of his, the rails which surrounded these and other holy places, the *chaityas* or churches, and the *viharas* or monasteries. Far the most impressive group that survives is that at Sanchi in the Bhopal State, on the railway between Bombay and Agra. Topes, rails, monasteries, and some later temples are nobly set on a hill commanding wide and beautiful views, and the visitor will indeed be dull of imagination who does not feel the sanctity and grandeur of a place that is almost comparable with the Acropolis. Less impressive than Sanchi, but not less interesting, is the tope at Sarnath, near Benares, which marks the beginning of Buddha’s mission as teacher. The work of the Archæological Department, described by Mr. Hargreaves on this page, has made the purpose of the several buildings very clear, and an admirable little museum houses some famous pieces of Buddhist sculpture. Holier than either of these in Buddhist eyes is the temple at Buddh-Gaya, near by the bodhi-tree where Buddha attained enlightenment, a lofty pyramid-like building said to have been built by a Brahman in the days of religious tolerance about A.D. 500, before Buddhism was swept out of India by the Brahmanic revival. The later development of the characteristic Buddhist railing can be studied best at Amraoti and Bherhut, but the best specimens of *chaityas* are the rock-hewn caves of the Bombay Presidency, of which the most famous are those at Karli, Bedda, Nassik, Ajanta, and Ellora. Some of these in plan are curiously like an early Christian church, with nave, aisles, and apse. Karli is architecturally the finest, but the cave pictures of Ajanta have a nobility which the art of painting never again attained in India, and from them some of the best Indian artists of to-day draw inspiration.
v1.c1.14
JAIN AND HINDU
v1.c1.15
Buddhist architecture, as the rail conspicuously shows, was derived from building in timber. To the Jains belongs the credit for the introduction of the dome. It is characteristic of the Jains that they mass their temples together on hill-tops, as at Palitana in Gujarat, or Mount Abu in Rajputana, where the temple of Vimala Sah is one of the noblest examples of the style. There are notable groups also at Khajuraho in Central India, and at Deoghar in the Jhansi district. Later Jain work is to be seen at Sunagir, near Datia, but by this time the bulbous Moghul dome has mingled with the pyramidal spire of earlier days.
v1.c1.16
Fergusson lays it down that all that is intellectually great in India pertains to the Aryas, and all that is artistically great belongs to other races, either aboriginal, or earlier or later immigrants than those from the north. The great Hindu temples are to be found in the Dravidian country of the south in amazing numbers and variety. They are remarkable less for their beauty than for their cathedral-like size, and for a profusion of ornament which to many Western observers is unpleasing. Often they are enclosed within high walls with towering doorways in each face. The general impression is one of colossal labour and effort which somehow fails. A journey from Madras through Tiruvallur, Conjeevarum, Vellore, Polur, and Chilambaram to Tanjore and Srirangam, and thence on to Madura and Rameswaram on its island, enables all the finest examples to be seen, even at the risk of satiety.
v1.c1.17
Hindu temples in Northern India are generally smaller, simpler, and more scattered, except where they are multiplied to serve the pilgrims at a place of special sanctity. There are few pleasanter sights in the Northern plains than that of the flame-like spike of the *shivala* peeping over the village trees like some country church spire in England. But the pulse of Hindu worship at its strongest is to be felt at a few famous places along the holy rivers; notably at Hardwar (the gate of Hari), where the Ganges breaks into the plain through the outer hills; at Muttra, on the Jumna, where Rama sported with the milkmaids; and, above all, at most holy Benares, where, if he could, every Hindu would come to die.
v1.c1.18
THE KUTB MINAR
v1.c1.19
High above the crest of the Benares river-bank and on the site of an old Hindu temple soars the Mosque of Aurangzeb, a striking reminder that in later days a new race and a new religion had entered India. The main development of Muslim building in India can be observed at Delhi and Agra. Nearly 800 years ago Kutb-uddin proclaimed himself Emperor and built the Kutb Minar; "beyond comparison," says Sir Valentine Chirol, "the loftiest and noblest form in which the Musalman call to prayer has ever gone forth"; and with it the mosque known as the "Power of Islam," on the site of Hindu temples and constructed of materials torn from them. To this time belongs also the finely decorated tomb of Altamsh, Kutb’s successor. The Alai Darwaza close by pertains to the next dynasty. A few miles south are the titanic ruins of Tughlakabad, and the soldierly tomb of Tughlak Shah, the outstanding figure of the 14th century. Closer to New Delhi rise the tombs of the Lodi kings, with their low strong domes and buttressed octagonal walls. Akin to these is the severe and massive Black Mosque in Delhi City. But meanwhile under Moghul governors who had assumed independence as the Sharqi kings, were built the Jama Masjid and the Atala Masjid at Jampur, splendid virile creations with massive propylons screening small domes or barrel vaults and with no minarets. At Mandu, too, in Central India, Hushang, the founder of the Ghori kings, built himself a capital, which till to-day is majestic in ruin; and at Gujarat Ahmad Shah and his successors have left notable monuments, only surpassed by those of Bijapur when Vijianagar, the last Hindu kingdom in the south, had fallen before the Muslim conqueror.
v1.c1.20
With the coming of the Moghuls the great age of Muslim building was reached. Baber certainly built, though no work of his has been identified. His son Humayun’s tomb stands out prominently south of Delhi; and to the usurper Sher Shah is attributed a beautiful mosque in the fort of Purana Kila. Akbar has left us not merely the great forts of Agra, Delhi, and Allahabad, but the old palace in the Agra Fort and the immortal city of Fathpur Sikri, and his own stately tomb at Sikandra. Less known than these, but still worthy of a visit, is his hall of audience in the Allahabad Fort. Jahangir built himself a mosque and tomb in Lahore, as well as a tomb for his minister Itimad-uddaula in a garden by the Jumna at Agra.
v1.c1.21
THE TAJ
v1.c1.22
But the greatest of builders was Shah Jahan, who has given us not only the unequalled Taj and the great mosques both at Delhi and Agra, but also the imperial palaces within the forts at both capitals, which, after suffering many evil things during a utilitarian usurpation, have been partly restored to their ancient beauty by the Archæological Department which India owes to Lord Curzon. Upon these world-famous creations there is here neither need nor space to dwell.
v1.c1.23
Nor is it possible to enumerate the tombs of the princes and nobles of the Moghul Court which are to be found throughout the country. Worthy examples are those in the Khusru Bagh, at Allahabad, or the tomb of Safdar Jang, at Delhi. The decay of Moghul building is best exemplified in Lucknow, where, with the possible exception of the great Imambara, the sheer size and long horizontal lines of which redeem its other weaknesses, there is hardly a palace, tomb, or mosque that escapes banality, at least of a later date than the little mosque on the Lachmantila hillock by the Goomtee, with slim white minarets rising against a blue sky and wind-sown vegetation sprouting from its dome.
v1.c1.25
OLD SOUTHERN TEMPLE AT MÂMALLAPURAM (SEVEN PAGODAS)
v1.c1.26
HISTORY OF INDIAN AND EASTERN ARCHITECTURE
v1.c1.27
By the late JAMES FERGUSSON C.I.E., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.I.B.A. Member of the Society of Dilettanti, etc., etc.
v1.c1.28
REVISED AND EDITED, WITH ADDITIONS
v1.c1.29
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
v1.c1.30
By JAMES BURGESS, C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.S.E. Hon. A.R.I.B.A.; Hon. Member of the Imperial Russian Archæological Society; Corresponding Member Batavian Society;