History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.15

v2.c25.15

The most crucial instance, however, is the city of Benares, so long the sacred city, *par excellence*, of the Hindûs, yet, so far as is known, no vestige of an ancient Hindû temple exists within its present precincts. James Prinsep resided there for ten years, and Major Kittoe, who had a keener eye than even his great master for an architectural form, lived long there as an archæologist and architect. They drew and measured everything, yet neither of them ever thought that they had found anything that was ancient; and it was not till Messrs. Horne and Sherring² started the theory that the buildings around the Bakarîyâ Kund were ancient Buddhist or Hindû remains, that any one had discovered any traces of antiquity in that city. But the buildings about the Bakarîyâ Kund were erected by Muhammadans, and the pillars and roofing-stones, with a few possible exceptions, were carved by them for the purposes for which they were applied. They may have used the stones of deserted monasteries, or other Buddhist or Hindû buildings, in the foundations or on their terraces, or for little detached pavilions; but all the architecture, properly so called, is in a style invented, or at least introduced by the Pathâns, and brought to perfection under Akbar.