The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.5.2

v3.c30.5.2

Doubtless, it was due in a great measure to this inborn artistry, coupled with a natural catholicity of taste, that the newcomers were so quick to appreciate the talent and adaptability of the Indian craftsmen and to turn these qualities to account on their own buildings. Few things in the history of architecture are more remarkable than the skill with which, from the very outset, the Muhammadans transformed Hindu and Jaina temples into mosques for the Faithful, or the imagination which they displayed in employing Indian sculptors to adorn their edifices with designs incomparably more exquisite than their own. To create a successful building out of such alien materials, to reconcile two styles so characteristically opposed, without transgressing the standard formulas of Islamic art, might well have been deemed an impossible task. For the contrast between the Hindu temple and the Muslim mosque could hardly have been more striking. The shrine of the former was relatively small and constricted; the prayer chamber of the latter was broad and spacious. The one was gloomy and mysterious; the other light and open to the winds of heaven. The Hindu system of construction was trabeate, based on column and architrave; the Muslim was arcuate, based on arch and vault. The temple was crowned with slender spires or pyramidal towers; the mosque with expansive domes.