A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c19.s2.3

c19.s2.3

In India the examples of sculpture in the round or in high relief, executed to the order of Muhammadan princes, but probably by the hands of Hindu artists, are extremely few; the most notable of which any remains exist being the elephants, sometimes with riders, set up at the gateways of fortresses, in continuance of Hindu custom. Nearly every stronghold of importance had its Elephant Gate (*Hāthīpōl*). The portal of that name at Akbar's city of Fathpur-Sīkrī is still guarded by the mutilated figures of two colossal elephants, perched on supports 12½ feet high, whose trunks originally were interlocked across the entrance. Aurangzēb caused the heads to be knocked off. The elephants, being clumsily made up of large blocks of hewn stone laid in mortar and joined by iron cramps, are of no account as works of art.¹