The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c7.369.1

v1.c7.369.1

Mr. Fergusson is startled to find at Bijapur, some fifteen centuries after the Christian era, “a recurrence to the same principle. The balconies with their hoods, and the brackets which support these, are the principal ornaments in the four faces of this little monument” (Mehtari Mahal), “yet every part of their construction, every detail of their ornament, is evidently copied from a wooden original. We find the same balconies used at the present day; and in any city between Benares, and Boorhanpur similar objects might be found with almost identical details, but always constructed in wood. From the remains of Hindu temples we know that stone architecture did exist in the Deccan for centuries before Beejapoor was founded.”⁴⁸ To account for this anomaly the learned author continues: “It is clear, however, that the Moslims could have had very little experience in building in stone when this work was undertaken, and as little knowledge of their own style as then practised at Agra and Delhi. They must also have been actuated by a wonderful aversion to anything savouring of Hinduism, when they designed a building so original as this, and one so manifestly unlike anything to be found in the country in which they had settled.”⁴⁹ Bearing in mind, however, that the Moslim population of the south was formed of a miscellaneous collection of foreigners, Pathāns, Moghals, Abyssinians, and others, the bulk proceeding from the north;