Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.s3.43

c4.s3.43

The plan of the Grecian and Roman columns is always round; but the plan of the Hindú columns admits of every shape, and is frequently found in the quadrangular and octangular form, and richly adorned with sculptured ornaments. The form of the Egyptian pillars too, is circular, and their shafts are often fluted like the Corinthian, but the fluting of the Indian columns resembles neither the one nor the other. The decorations of the Egyptian columns often consist in representations " of a bundle of reeds" tied up with a cord on the top, having a square stone placed over it; in some specimens are also found bindings or fillets in various parts of the shaft, and in the interval between them, reeds and hieroglyphics are represented. But there is nothing like these ornaments in the Indian orders, except in the columns found in the excavated temple of Elephanta, and some other places, and which differ materially from those employed in other situations in Hindústan.