History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c26.s8.8

v2.c26.s8.8

his new capital. Here he erected a Jâmi' Masjid, which was finished in 1508 and may fairly be regarded as architecturally the finest in Gujarât. It measures outside 178 ft. from north to south by 216 ft. from west to east. The court in front had open arcades on three sides, now much ruined, and was entered from minor porches on the north and south with a larger and richly carved one on the east front. The mosque itself is in tolerable preservation and of large size, being 169 ft. 6 in. in length by 81 ft. inside the walls, and, like that at Ahmadâbâd, it has three rows of domes but quite differently arranged. There are, as will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 399), four domes in the front and back rows and in the middle only three, but disposed opposite the spaces separating the domes in the other rows. By this peculiar arrangement these eleven domes, each 20 ft. 6 in. in diameter, provide for seven mihrâbs or qiblas in the west wall. There are five arched entrances—the central one, as usual, being the loftiest and double the width of the others. On each side of it rise the minârs to a height of 100 ft., and the façade wall, for a width of 51 ft., is raised to a height of nearly 50 ft. The central dome, with the area within the entrance, rises behind this to a height of three storeys with their two galleries. At the four corners of the mosque are turrets 50 ft. high, carved up to the roof level, but above they are plain and have a rather clumsy appearance.¹