History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s11.11

v1.c19.s11.11

The general appearance of those corridors may be gathered from the annexed woodcut (No. 225), 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 690 ft. 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 almost 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 inner enclosure is adorned on one side by portraits of the Setupati râjas of Râmnâd in the 17th century, and opposite them, of their ministers. Even they, however, would be tolerable, were it not that within the last few years they have been painted with 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 disfigure and destroy its effect to an extent that must be seen to be believed. Nothing can more painfully prove the degradation to which the population is reduced than this profanity. No upper class, and no refinement, now remains, and the priesthood are sunk into a state of debasement.