[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911) › c8.21 # A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.21 A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.21 - **Language:** English ### [c8.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c8.21) Curved roofs, as Fergusson observed, while very rare in the rest of the world, are common in India. We have not only the dome of the \*stūpa\*, but the barrel roof of the ‘chaitya-hall’ or church, the Bengal cornice, and the curvilinear steeple of the ‘Indo-Aryan’ or Āryāvarta style of temple. Every form of curved roof used in India can, I venture to think, be explained by assuming its derivation from a prototype constructed with elastic bamboos. The late Mr. William Simpson, who successfully applied this explanation to the Bengal cornice, the barrel roof of the ‘chaitya-hall’, and the ‘Indo-Aryan’ steeple, truly remarked that the claims of bamboo to supply a theory of origins for Indian architecture had been insufficiently considered, but did not proceed to apply his theory to the case of the \*stūpa\*.¹ Fergusson's belief in the sepulchral descent of the domed \*stūpa\* alone prevented him from definitely recognizing the true origin of the external form. ‘If one can fancy,’ he wrote, ‘a circular chamber with a domical roof—not in stone, of course—as the original receptacle of the relic, we may imagine that the form was derived from this’; and he proceeds to cite from the Bharhut sculptures an instance of ‘just such a domical roof’.² In the Sāñchī reliefs (\*post\* Chap. III) we actually find a shrine with a domical roof represented on one pillar along with a \*stūpa\* of the same form. - [Previous: c8.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c8.20) - [Next: c8.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c8.22) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c8) ## Linked texts (2) - [Sāñcī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sanchi) - [Bharhut](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.bharhut) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c8.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.smith-1911.c8.21) · Pramāṇa