A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c18.25

c18.25

The Kings or Sultans of the Tughlak dynasty of Delhi in the fourteenth century introduced a new style of architecture marked by massiveness and extreme simplicity, qualities which have suggested a comparison with the early Norman work in England. The most characteristic example of this severe style is the tomb of Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughlak, who was killed by a carefully devised ‘accident’ in 1324 (Fig. 234). The plan is a square measuring 38½ feet inside and 61½ feet outside, and the height to the top of the dome is 70 feet. The enormously thick walls slope inwards. The exterior decoration is effected in an austere manner by the free use of bands and borders of white marble, varied with a few panels of black marble, showing against the large surfaces of red sandstone.¹ No trace of Hindu tradition is retained. The style has nothing Persian about it, and I am not able to point out any exactly similar Asiatic model. The suggestion has been made that buildings in Mecca may have supplied the prototype.