History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c26.s2.41

v2.c26.s2.41

A more beautiful example than even this is the ’Alâî-Darwâza, shown on the left hand of the plan (Woodcut No. 369). It was erected by ’Alâu-d-Dîn Khalji, and the date 1310 is found among its inscriptions. It is, therefore, about a century more modern than the other buildings of the place, and displays the so-called Pathân¹ style at its period of greatest perfection, when the Hindû masons had learned to fit their exquisite style of decoration to the forms of their foreign masters. Its walls are decorated internally with a diaper pattern of unrivalled excellence, and the mode in which the square is changed into an octagon is more simply elegant and appropriate than any other example I am acquainted with in India (Plate XXIX.).² The pendentives accord perfectly with the pointed openings in the four other faces, and are in every respect appropriately constructive.³ True there are defects. For instance, they are rather too plain for the elaborate diapering which covers the whole of the lower part of the building both internally and externally; but ornament might easily have been added; and their plainness accords with the simplicity of the dome, which is indeed by no means worthy of the substructure. Not being pierced with windows, it seems as if the architect assumed that its plainness would not be detected in the gloom that in consequence prevails.