A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s5.t1.59

c13.s5.t1.59

‘One of the big halls is in general design something after the fashion of Tirumal Nāik’s famous hall in Madura; but the spandrels of the arches are one mass of carving of birds, flowers, &c., showing extraordinary fancy and spirit, while the arches themselves are worked out in the most exquisite tracery, with a niche above each column containing some god or saint. Above the level of the spandrels is a deep colonnade running round the whole hall, corresponding to the clerestory of an English cathedral—also a mass of spirited carving in relief. The effect of the whole is, so far as the writer’s experience goes, absolutely unique so far as an Indian building is concerned; but it is very suggestive of Northern European Gothic, say the porches of Chartres Cathedral.’¹