History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s17.18

v1.c19.s17.18

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)—picturesque 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 gopurams, they employ wooden beams, supported by pillars, as lintels, to cover the central openings in the upper pyramidal part, and these 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 gopurams erected within the limits of last century, 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.