History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c26.s7: Tombs.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c26.s7
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Tombs.
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Knowing the style, it would not be difficult to predicate the form of the tombs. The simplest would be that of Abû Turâb—an octagonal dome supported on twelve pillars, and this extended on every side, but always remaining a square, and the entrances being in the centre of the faces (Woodcut No. 395). The difference between this and the Jaina arrangement is that the latter is diagonal (Woodcut No. 179, vol. i.), while these are square. The superiority of the Hindû mode is apparent at a glance. Not, it is true, in so small an arrangement as that last quoted, but in the tombs at Sarkhej (Woodcut No. 391), the effect is so monotonous as almost to become unpleasing. With the Jains this never is the case, however numerous the pillars may be.
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395. Tomb of Mîr Abû Turâb. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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396. Plan and Elevation of Tomb of Sayyid 'Usmân. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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Besides the monotony of the square plan, it was felt at Sarkhej—as already pointed out—that the octagonal dome fitted awkwardly on to its supports. This was remedied, to a great extent, in the tomb of Sayyid 'Usmân, built in A.D. 1460 by Mahmûd Begarah. In this instance the base of the dome is a dodecagon, and a very considerable amount of variety is obtained by grouping the pillars in twos and fours, and by the different spacing (Woodcut No. 396). In elevation the dome looks heavy for the substructure, but not so in perspective;
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and when the screens were added to enclose the central square, it was altogether the most successful sepulchral design carried out in the pillared style at Ahmadâbâd.
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Towards the end of their career, the architects of Ahmadâbâd evinced a strong tendency to revert to the arched forms generally used by their brethren in other countries. For Sayyid Mubârak, one of Mahmûd Begarah's ministers, a tomb was built in 1484, near Mahmûdâbâd, which is wholly in the arched style, and remains one of the most splendid sepulchres in India.¹ He also erected at Batwâ, near Ahmadâbâd, a tomb over the grave of a saint, which is in every respect in the same style. So little, however, were the builders accustomed to arched forms, that, though the plan is judiciously disposed by placing smaller arches outside the larger, so as to abut them, still all those of the outer range have either fallen down, or, as has been suggested, were never erected, and the whole is very much crippled, while the tomb without arches, that stands within a few yards of it, remains entire. The scale of the two, however (Plan, No. 398), reveals the secret of the preference accorded to the arch as a constructive expedient. The larger piers, the wider spacing, the whole dimensions, were on a grander scale than could be attained with beams only, as the Hindûs used them. As the Greeks and Romans employed these features, any dimensions that were feasible with arches could be attained by pillars; but the Hindûs worked to a smaller modulus, and do not seem to have known how to increase it. It must, however, be remarked that they generally used pillars only in courts, where there was nothing to compare them with but the spectator's own height; and there the forms employed by them were large enough. It was only when the Moslims came to use them externally, and in conjunction with arches and other larger features, that their diminutive scale became apparent.
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¹ Described further on, p. 244, Woodcuts Nos. 400 and 401.
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It is perhaps the evidence of a declining age to find size becoming the principal aim. But it is certainly one great and important ingredient in architectural design, and so thought the later architects of Ahmadâbâd. In their later mosques and buildings they attained greater dimensions, but it was at the expense of all that renders their earlier style so beautiful and so interesting.
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Besides the buildings of the classes above enumerated, there are several smaller objects of art at Ahmadâbâd which are of extraordinary beauty. Among these are several *baolîs*, *wâvs*, or deep wells, with broad flights of steps leading down to them, and ornamented with pillars and galleries to as great an extent as some of the largest buildings above ground. It requires a personal experience of the grateful coolness of a subterranean
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397. Tomb of Qutbu-l ‘Âlam, Batwâ. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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398. Plans of Tombs of Qutbu-l ‘Âlam and his Son at Batwâ. Scale about 50 ft. to 1 in.
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apartment in a hot climate to appreciate such a class of buildings, and in the rainy West we hardly know how valuable water may become.¹
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¹ For an illustrated account of some of the Wâvs at or near Ahmadâbâd, *see* ‘Archæological Survey of Western India,’ vol. viii. pp. 1-6 and 10-14; at Mahmûdâbâd, vol. vi. pp. 46, 47; and in North Gujarât, vol. ix. pp. 37f. and 112f.
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Another object of architectural beauty is found in the inflow and outflow sluices of the great tanks which abound everywhere around the city. Nowhere did the inhabitants of Ahmadâbâd show how essentially they were an architectural people, as in these utilitarian works. It was a necessity of their nature that every object should be made ornamental, and their success was as great in these as in their mosques or palaces.