History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s8: Mysore and Oudh.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s8
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Mysore and Oudh.
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If it were worth while to engrave a sufficient number of illustrations to make the subject intelligible, one or two chapters might very easily be filled with the architecture of these two dynasties. That of Mysore, though only lasting forty years—a.d. 1760-1799—was sufficiently far removed from European influence to practise a style retaining something of true architectural character. The pavilion called the Darya Daulat at Seringapatam resembles somewhat the nearly contemporary palace at Dîg in style, but is feebler and of a much less ornamental character. The tomb, too, of the founder of the dynasty, and the surrounding mausolea, retain a reminiscence of former greatness, but will not stand comparison with the Imperial tombs of Agra and Delhi.
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On the other hand, the tomb of Abû-l Mansûr Khân Safdar Jang (1739-1754), the second of the Nawâb Vazîrs of Oudh, situated about 5 miles from the Qutb at Delhi, is not quite unworthy of the locality in which it is found. Though so late in date (A.D. 1756), it looks grand and imposing at a distance, but it will not bear close inspection (Plate XXXIV.). It stands in a large garden and is raised on a terrace, 10 ft. high and 110 ft. square, over arched cells. The tomb is about 60 ft. square, and in the general arrangements of the plan is not unlike that of Humâyûn. The central room, about 20 ft. square, contains the very handsome marble monument, highly polished though somewhat florid in design. The floor and lower portion of the walls are faced with marble, and it is roofed by a flattish dome at a height of about 40 ft. Round this apartment are four square and four octagonal rooms on the ground floor, with the like arrangement above.¹ Respecting the whole, Mr. Fanshawe remarks:² "If the decoration of the corner towers is not successful, the combination of white marble and fawn-coloured sandstone in the centre is pleasing. The plaster decoration of the interior is perhaps more degraded than anything else about the tomb." Even this qualified praise can hardly be awarded to any of the buildings in the capital in which his dynasty was finally established.
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¹ Carr Stephen, 'Archæology of Delhi,' p. 278.
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² 'Delhi Past and Present,' p. 246, from which the Plate XXXIV. is reproduced.
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If mass and richness of ornamentation were in themselves sufficient to constitute architecture, few capitals in India could show so much of it as Lucknow. It is, in fact, amazing to observe to what an extent this dynasty filled its capitals with gorgeous buildings during the one short century of its existence, but all—or with the fewest possible exceptions—in the worst possible taste. Whatever may be said of the Renaissance, or revival of classical architecture in Europe in the 16th century, in India it was an unmitigated misfortune. The unintelligent vulgarity with which the "Orders" are there used, by a people who were capable of such noble things in their own styles, is one of the most startling phenomena in the history of architecture.
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One of the earliest buildings of importance at Lucknow, in the Italian style, is the Mansion of Constantia,³ built by General Claude Martin, as a residence for himself, and only completed after his death.⁴
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³ So called apparently from the motto "Labore et Constantia," adopted by the General, and written up in front of his house.
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⁴ General Martin was born at Lyons in 1732, and died at Lucknow 1800. He commenced his career as a private soldier in the French army; but, in consequence of Lally's severity, deserted at the siege of Pondicherry, and joined the English service, in which he rose to the rank of Captain. He was transferred in 1776 to the service of the Nawâb of Oudh, and in 1796 was promoted to be Major-General. He left a considerable part of his immense fortune (of about £330,000) to found educational establishments at Lyons, Calcutta, and Lucknow; but, owing to the length of his will, and his having drawn it up himself, in bad English, the principal part of his money was wasted in law expenses.
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TOMB OF NAWÂB SAFDAR JANG, NEAR DELHI.
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The General was apparently his own architect, and has produced a design somewhat fantastic in arrangement, which sins against most of the rules of pure Palladian Art to an extent that would not be pardonable except in such a climate and under the peculiar circumstances in which it was erected. Notwithstanding this, there is something very striking in the great central tower, rising from a succession of terraced roofs one over the other, and under which are a series of halls grouped internally so as to produce the most pleasing effects, while their
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438. View of the Martinière, Lucknow. (From a Photograph.)
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arrangement was at the same time that most suitable to the climate. The sky-line is everywhere broken by little kiosks, not perhaps in the best taste, but pleasing from their situation, and appropriate in the vicinity of a town so full of such ornaments as the city in whose proximity it is situated. Taken altogether, it is a far more reasonable edifice than the rival *capriccio* of Beckford, at Fonthill; and if its details had been purer, and some of those solecisms avoided which an amateur architect is sure to fall into, it really does contain the germ of a very beautiful design (Woodcut No. 438).
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The founder was buried beneath in a dimly-lighted vaulted chamber in the basement of the great tower.¹ His tomb is a simple, plain sarcophagus, standing on the floor, and at each angle a grenadier in full uniform stands with arms reversed, in an attitude of grief, as if mourning over the fall of his master. The execution of the monument, like everything about the place, is bad, but the conception is one of the finest that has been hit upon for a soldier's grave.
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¹ Âsafu-d-daulâ had wished to buy the building for 100 lâkhs of rupees, and to prevent its confiscation by the native court after his death, General Martin had his tomb prepared in it. The mutineers in 1857-58 occupied the building, and they opened his tomb and scattered the bones. The tomb was restored in 1865.
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When new, this mansion must have been very striking. At all events, its effect on the Oudh sovereigns was most remarkable. For although their tombs, their mosques, and imâmbâras were still erected in the debased Saracenic style then prevalent, all the palaces of Lucknow were henceforth erected in this pseudo-Italian style. The Farhat Bakhsh built by Sa'âdat 'Alî Khân, the Chattar Manzil of Nasîru-d-Dîn Haidar, and numerous other buildings, display all the quaint, picturesque irregularity of the age of Francis I., combined with more strange details than are to be found in the buildings of Henry IV. These were far surpassed in grotesqueness by the Qaisar Bâgh of Wâjid 'Alî Shâh. This consisted of a great square of buildings surrounding an immense courtyard: the whole palace being in extent and arrangement by no means unlike the Louvre and Tuileries as joined together by Napoleon III. But instead of the beautiful stone of Paris, all was brick and plaster; and instead of the appropriate details of that palace, the buildings surrounding the great court at Lucknow are generally two storeys in height and singularly various in design, generally with pilasters of the most attenuated forms running through both storeys, between which Italian windows with Venetian blinds alternate with Saracenic arcades, or openings of no style whatever. These are surmounted by Saracenic battlements, and crowned by domes such as Rome or Italy never saw, and the whole painted with colours as crude as they are glaring. Inside there are several large and handsome halls, but all in the same bad taste as the exterior.
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A detached building called the Begam Kothî is a better specimen of the style than anything perhaps in the Qaisar Bâgh itself, but it cannot either be called a favourable specimen of Italian Art, or a successful adaptation of the style to Oriental purposes, though it has a certain amount of picturesqueness which to some extent redeems its other defects (Woodcut No. 439). Like all the other specimens of Oriental Italian Architecture, it offends painfully, though less than most others, from the misapplication of the details of the Classical Orders.
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439. Begam Kothi, Lucknow. (From a Photograph.)
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Of course no native of India can well understand either the origin or motive of the various parts of our Orders—why the entablature should be divided in architrave, frieze, and cornice—why the shafts should be a certain number of diameters in height, and so on. It is, in fact, like a man trying to copy an inscription in a language he does not understand, and of which he does not even know the alphabet. With the most correct eye and the greatest pains he cannot do it accurately. In India, besides this ignorance of the grammar of the art, the natives cannot help feeling that the projection of the cornices is too small if meant to produce a shadow, and too deep to be of easy construction in plaster in a climate subject to monsoons. They feel that brick pillars ought to be thicker than the Italian Orders generally are, and that wooden architraves are the worst possible mode of construction in a climate where wood decays so rapidly, even if spared by the white ants. The consequence is, that, between his ignorance of the principles of Classic Art on the one hand, and his knowledge of what is suited to his wants and his climate on the other, he makes a sad jumble of the Orders. But fashion supplies the Indian with those incentives to copying which we derive from association and education; and, in the vain attempt to imitate his superiors, he has abandoned his own beautiful art to produce the strange jumble of vulgarity and bad taste we find at Lucknow and elsewhere.
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The great caravansarais which the Calcutta Bâbus and the native Râjâs have erected for their residences in Lower Bengal are generally in this style, but with an additional taint of vulgarity. But perhaps the most striking example of it all is a pavilion which was erected within the palace at Delhi by the last king. It stood behind, and was seen above, the great audience hall of Shâh Jahân, in which once stood the celebrated peacock throne, and is one of the noblest and most beautiful apartments of its class in any palace in the world. Over this, on entering the palace, you saw a little pavilion of brick and plaster, which its builder assumed to be the Doric Order, with Italian windows and Venetian blinds. The building was painted green, the frieze red, and the ornaments yellow!—the whole in worse taste than the summer-house of a Dutch skipper, as seen overhanging a canal in Holland. Contrasted with the simplicity and elegance of the white marble palace beneath, it told, in a language not to be mistaken, how deeply fallen and how contemptible were the late occupants of the throne, as compared with their great ancestors of the house of Timur, who ruled that mighty empire, and adorned its cities with those faultless edifices described in the previous part of this work.¹
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¹ 'History of the Modern Styles of Architecture,' 3rd ed., vol. ii. pp. 301f.
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Even at Lucknow, however, there are some buildings into which the European leaven has not penetrated, and which are worthy of being mentioned in the same volume as the works of their ancestors. Among these is the great Imâmbâra,² which, though its details will not bear too close an examination, is still conceived on so grand a scale as to entitle it to rank with the buildings of an earlier age. It was built by Âsafu-d-daulâ, the fourth Nawâb, as a relief work during the famine of 1784.
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² Or Imâmbârî, a building in which the Moharram festival is celebrated and commemorative services of the deaths of 'Alî and his sons Hasan and Husain are held; and their Ta'zias or shrines are preserved in it. Under this Imâmbâra its founder was buried. It now serves as an arsenal for the British garrison.
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As seen by the plan of the Imâmbâra (Woodcut No. 440), the principal apartment is 162 ft. long by 53 ft. 6 in. wide. On the two sides are verandahs, respectively 26 ft. 6 in. and 27 ft. 3 in. wide, and at each end an octagonal apartment, 53 ft. in diameter, the whole interior dimensions being thus 263 ft. by 145 ft. This immense building is covered with vaults of very simple form and still simpler construction, being of a rubble or coarse concrete several feet in thickness, which is laid on a rude mould or centering of bricks and mud, and allowed to stand a year or two to set and dry. The centering is then removed,
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440. Plan of Imâmbâra at Lucknow. (From Measurements by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
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and the vault, being in one piece, stands without abutment or thrust, apparently a better and more durable form of roof than our most scientific Gothic vaulting ; certainly far cheaper and far more easily made, since it is literally cast on a mud form, which may be moulded into any shape the fancy of the architect may dictate.
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The earlier settlers in India felt themselves so completely expatriated and cut off from intercourse with Europe, that they adopted many of the habits and feelings of the people among whom they were dwelling. Among other peculiarities they seem to have been seized with a mania for sepulchral magnificence ; and at Surat, Ahmadâbâd, and other early settlements on the West Coast, we find Dutch and English tombs of the 17th century which rival in dimensions and are similar in form to those of the Muhammadan princes of the day. It is true, when closely looked into, their details will not bear examination. Their builders had a notion that pillars should be round, and arches circular, and a hazy reminiscence of the Orders ; but they could not draw them, and the natives could not realise what was wanted from imperfect verbal instructions. The consequence is, we find domes supported on twelve pillars of no style whatever, and native details mixed with something which has no name, in a manner that is perplexing, though often picturesque. Being all in brickwork and stucco, most of them are now falling to ruin ; but that of Sir George Oxenden (died 1669) and his brother Christopher at Surat is still kept in repair, and would make a sensation in Kensal Green. It consists of a cupola in memory of Christopher within the loftier and larger mausoleum of his distinguished brother, which is of two storeys, with a
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441. English Tombs, Surat. Sir Geo. Oxenden’s on the left. (From a Photograph.)
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height of 40 ft. and diameter 25 ft.¹ (Woodcut No. 441). Some of the others, especially the older ones, are in better taste, and approach more nearly the native models from which they were all more or less copied.²
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¹ Anderson’s ‘English in Western India,’ p. 196; ‘Journal Bombay Br. R. Asiatic Society,’ vol. vi. pp. 146ff. The tomb of Baron H. A. van Reede, in the Dutch cemetery at Surat, is said to have exceeded the others in magnificence.
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² ‘History of Modern Architecture,’ 3rd ed. vol. ii. p. 289.
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It would be a curious and instructive subject of speculation to try to ascertain what would have been the fate of Muhammadan architecture in India had no European influence been brought to bear upon it. The materials for the enquiry are not abundant, but we can perceive that the decadence had set in long before the death of Aurangzîb. It is also evident that in such buildings as were erected at Agra or Delhi during the lapse of the 18th century, even where no European influence can be traced, there is a feebleness and want of true perception, though occasionally combined with a considerable degree of elegance. There, however, the enquiry fails, because European
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442. Tomb of Maiji Sâhiba at Junâgadh. (From a Photograph.)
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influence made itself felt before any actual change had developed itself, but in remote corners the downward progress became apparent without any extraneous assistance. This is partially the case, as just mentioned, in Mysore; but there is a cemetery at Junâgadh, in Gujarât, where there exists a group of tombs, all erected within last century, some within the last forty or fifty years, which exhibit more nearly than any others I am acquainted with the forms toward which the style was tending. This style is not without a certain amount of elegance in detail (Woodcut No. 442).¹ The tracery of the windows is frequently fascinating from its beauty, and all the carving is executed with precision and appropriateness — but it is all wooden, or, in other words, every detail would be more appropriate for a sideboard or a bedstead, or any article of upholstery, than for a building in stone. The domes especially can hardly be traced back to their grand and solemn form as used by the Pathân architects. The pinnacles are fanciful, and the brackets designed more for ornament than work. It is a style, in fact, broken loose from the true principles of constructive design, and when this is the case, no amount of ornament, however elegant it may be, will redeem the want of propriety it inevitably exhibits.
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¹ 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. ii. pp. 176-177, and plates 37-39.
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It is curious, however, and instructive, in concluding our history of architecture as practised within the limits of India properly so called, to observe how completely we have been walking in a circle. We began by tracing how, two hundred years before Christ, a wooden style was gradually assuming lithic forms, and by degrees being elaborated into a style where hardly a reminiscence of wood remained. We conclude with finding the style of Halebîd and Bijâpûr, or Delhi, returning to forms as appropriate to carpentry but as unsuited to masonry as the rails or gateways at Bharaut or Sânchi. It might some time ago have been a question worth mooting whether it was likely it would perish by persevering in this wrong direction. That enquiry, however, seems idle now, as it is to be feared that the death-blow will be given, as at Lucknow and elsewhere, by the fatal imitation of a foreign style.