The style is distinctly of wooden origin, and of this the very
attenuated pilasters on the outer walls and the square pillars of small
section are evidences. As the contemporary northern styles are
characterized by the prevalence of vertical lines, the Dravidian is
marked by horizontal mouldings and shadows, and the towers and
_gopurams_ are storeyed. The more important temples are also surrounded
by courts enclosing great corridors and pillared halls.
One of the best examples of this style is the great temple at Tanjore.
It would appear to have been begun on a definite plan, and not as a
series of extensions of some small temple which, by accident, had grown
famous and acquired wealth by which successively to enlarge its courts,
as that at Tiruvallur seems to have grown by a series of accretions. The
body of the Tanjore temple is of two storeys and fully 80 ft. high,
whilst the sikhara or pyramidal tower rises in eleven storeys to a total
height of 190 ft. This dominates the _gopurams_ over the entrances to
the court in which it stands, and to an outer court, added in front of
the first, but which does not, as in other cases, surround it. The
central shrine, so far as we know, was erected about A.D. 1025.
The Srirangam temple in Trichinopoly, the largest in India, is
architecturally the converse of this: it is one of the latest in date,
the fifth court having been left unfinished in the middle of the 18th
century. The shrine is quite insignificant and distinguished only by a
gilt dome, whilst proceeding outwards, the _gopurams_ to each court are
each larger and more decorative than the preceding. The successive
independent additions, however, proved incompatible with any considered
design or arrangement of parts.
Most of the Deccan was ruled by the Chalukya dynasty from early in the
6th century, and the style prevailing over this area, from the
Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers to the Tapti and Mahanadi, may be styled,
from them, as Chalukyan.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Temple at Tanjore.]
The earliest temples in this style, however, are not very clearly marked
off from the Dravidian and the more northern styles. Some of them have
distinctly northern spires, others are closely allied to the southern
style; and it was perhaps only gradually that the type acquired its
distinctive characteristics. Till a late date we find temples with
towers differing so little in form from Dravidian _vimanas_ that, other
details apart, they might readily be ascribed to that order.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Temple at Tiruvallur, near Tanjore.]
Among Chalukyan temples a prevalent form is that of three shrines round
one central hall. The support of the roofs of these halls is almost
always after the Dravidian plan of four pillars, or multiples of four,
in squares, so that larger domes were never attempted. Both in Dravidian
and northern temples the projections on the walls are generally formed
by increments of slight thickness added flatly to their faces, and,
however thick, they are so placed as to leave the true corners of the
shrines, &c., more or less recessed. In the Chalukyan temples the sides
are often made prominent by increments placed over them, or the whole
plan is star-shaped, the projecting angles having equal adjacent faces
lying in a circle, as in the temple of Belur in Mysore, built about A.D.
1120, and in others. The roofs are stepped and more or less pyramidal
in form, with breaks corresponding to the minor angles made on the
walls.
Some of the details of this style are very elaborate; in fact, many of
the finer temples were completely overlaid with sculptural ornament. The
pillars are markedly different from the earlier Dravidian forms: they
are massive, richly carved, often circular and highly polished. Their
capitals are usually spread out, with a number of circular mouldings
immediately below; and under these is a square block, while the middle
section of the shaft is richly carved with mouldings in the round. In
many cases the capitals and circular mouldings have been actually turned
in a sort of lathe. They are almost always in pairs of the same design,
the whole effect being singularly varied and elegant.
The great temple at Halebid (see Plate II. fig. 11), begun about A.D.
1250, was left unfinished at the Mahommedan conquest in 1310. It is a
double temple, measuring 160 ft. by 122 ft., and is covered with an
amazing amount of the richest sculpture. But the spires were never
raised over the shrines. The Kedaresvara temple at Balagamvi is perhaps
one of the oldest of the style in Mysore, and there are other good
examples at Kubattur, Harnhalli, Arsikere, Harihar, Koravangala and
elsewhere; but their plans vary greatly.
Coming now to Northern India, we find the Hindu architectural style more
widely spread and more varied than in the south, but wanting somewhat in
individuality. Examples of the same order, however, are to be found also
far to the south in the Chalukyan area. The characteristic that first
appeals to our notice is the curvilinear spires of the temples, and the
absence of that exuberance of sculpture seen in the great Chalukyan
temples of the South; whilst in many cases, as in the Jain temples, a
greater central area has been obtained in the halls by arranging twelve
columns so as to support a dome on an octagonal disposition of lintels.
The shrines are square in plan and only slightly modified by additions
to the walls of parallel projections; the walls were raised on a moulded
plinth of some height, over which was a deep base, the two together
rising, roughly, to about half the height of the walls. Over this is the
panelled face devoted to figure sculptures in compartments, but the
tall, thin pilasters of the southern style have disappeared. Above is
the many-membered architrave and cornice supporting the roof and spire.
The latter follow the vertical lines of the walls, presenting no trace
of divisions into storeys or steps, but they vary in other details with
the age.
In Rajputana and Western India a variety of this northern style has been
known as the Jain order. Though used by the Hindus and Jains alike, it
was employed in its most ornate form by the Jains in their famous
temples on Mount Abu and elsewhere. A striking feature of this style is
the elaborately carved roofs over their corridors and the domes of their
porches and halls (see Plate II. fig. 12). Nothing can exceed the
delicacy and elaboration of details in these sculptured roofs and
vaults. Combined with the diversified arrangement of the variously
spaced and highly sculptured pillars supporting them, these convey an
impression of symmetry and beauty that is highly pleasing.
Gujarat must have been rich in splendid temples before the 12th century,
but it was devastated so often by the Moslems that the more notable have
all perished, though the once magnificent Sun Temple at Mudhera still
witnesses, in its ruins, to the architectural style and grandeur of the
period--the early part of the 11th century--when it was erected. A
notable group of between thirty and forty temples in this style exists
at Khajuraho in Bundelkhand. They belong to both the Hindu and the Jain
cults, and mostly date from the 10th and 11th centuries. Many of them
are covered, inside and out, with the richest sculpture, and may be
regarded architecturally as "the most beautiful in form as well as the
most elegant in detail" of the temples of Northern India. With these,
the temples at Bhuvaneswar in Orissa exhibit this style at its best. The
latter have the earlier form of spire, nearly perpendicular below, but
curving inwards near the summit.
The temple of Kanarak, known as the "Black Pagoda" (see Plate III. fig.
13), which for its size is, externally at least, the most richly
ornamented building in the world. It has lately been filled up with
stones and sand, as the only method the Archaeological Survey could
devise to prevent its threatened collapse.
In the later examples of the style the spire is still a square
curvilinear pyramid, to the faces of which are added smaller copies of
the same form, carrying up the offsets of the walls; and in some
examples these are multiplied to an extraordinary extent.
The Mahommedan architecture, also known as Indian Saracenic, begins in
India with the 13th century and varied much at different periods and
under the various dynasties, imperial and local. The imperial rulers at
Delhi, for the first three centuries, were Pathans, and were succeeded
in 1526 by Baber, who founded the Mogul dynasty. Under the earlier
Pathan emperors the style of building was massive but profusely
ornamented and of extreme beauty in its details. Among the examples of
this style may be instanced the Qutb Minar at Delhi (see Plate I. fig.
9), one of the finest pillars in the world, built in the first quarter
of the 13th century. It is still 240 ft. high and ornamented by
projecting balconies and richly carved belts between; the three lower
storeys are cut up by projecting vertical ribs that add to its beauty.
Beside it the tomb of Altamsh is also profusely sculptured and of
extreme beauty of detail, and other examples are seen in the eastern
portion of the adjoining mosque, the tomb of Ala-ud-din Khilji, and the
Alai Darwaza. After about 1320 the Pathan architecture is marked by a
stern simplicity of design and a solemn gloom and nakedness, in marked
contrast to the elaborate richness of ornamentation of the preceding
period. The tomb of Ghiyas-ud din Tughlak at New Delhi, with its sloping
walls and massive solidity, is a typical example of this period, as is
also the Kalan mosque at Delhi completed in 1386.
Early in the 15th century, however, a reaction had set in, and the later
style was hardly less rich and much more appropriate for its purposes
than the earlier in the end of the 12th and early 13th century. The
façades of the mosques became more ornamental, were often encrusted with
marble, and usually adorned with rich and beautiful sculpture. This was
clearly a return to the elaborateness of the past, but with every detail
fitted to its place and purpose and presenting one of the completest
architectural styles of the world.
About the beginning of the 15th century several local dynasties arose,
each of which developed a style more or less their own. Of the Sharki
dynasty of Jaunpur only three great mosques in that city have come down
to us, with several tombs. The cloisters surrounding the open courts of
the mosques and the galleries within are closely allied to the Hindu
style, being constructed with short square pillars having bracket
capitals supporting lintels and roof of flat slabs. But the gateways and
main features of the mosques are arched. The mosque itself consists of a
central square hall covered by a lofty dome of the whole width of it, in
front of which stands the great propylon or gate, of massive outline and
rising to the full height of the central dome. This propylon had a large
recessed arch between the two piers, in the lower portion of which was
the entrance to the mosque, whilst the upper formed a pierced screen. On
each side of the dome is a compartment divided into two storeys by a
stone floor supported on pillars, and beyond this, on each side, is a
larger apartment covered by a pointed ribbed vault. The ornamental work
is bold and striking rather than delicate, and the _mihrabs_ or _qiblas_
are marked by severe simplicity, and form a link in the evolution of the
later form under Mogul rule. These buildings afford a marked expression
of strength combined with a degree of refinement that is rare in other
styles. Other examples of this style are met with at Benares, Kanauj and
places within the Jaunpur kingdom.
In 1401 Dilawar Khan assumed independence in Malwa, of which Mandu
became the capital, and his son Hoshang adorned it with important
buildings. They are of a modified form of the Pathan style of the 14th
century. Among them the finest is the great Jama Masjid, which was
finished by Mahmud Shah I. in 1454. It covers a nearly square area, 290
ft. from east to west by 275 ft. from north to south, exclusive of the
porch on the east, which projects about 56 ft. Inside, the court is an
almost exact square, surrounded by arches on each side, standing on
plain square piers 10 ft. high, each of a single block of red sandstone;
behind these are triple arcades on the north and south, a double one on
the east, and on the west the mosque, having three great domes on its
west side. This court, in its simple grandeur and expression of power,
may be regarded as one of the very best specimens of this style to be
found in India. The tombs and palaces of Mandu, mostly much ruined, it
would occupy too much space to describe. But here, as elsewhere, the
available materials have exercised a marked influence upon the
architecture; the prevalence of a red sandstone is emphasized in the
piers of the Jama Masjid, more than 300 of them being each of a single
block of this material; and for more decorative purposes marble, both
white and coloured, was freely used to revet the walls and piers. The
style is strictly arcuate, without admixture of the general trabeate
structural methods followed by the native Hindus; and while at Jaunpur
and Ahmedabad, at the same period, we find the strong influence of
native methods copied in the Mahommedan architecture, at Mandu the
builders clung steadily to the pointed arch style, without any attempt,
however, at groining.
The capital of the Bengal kingdom was at Gaur, which had been the
metropolis of a native kingdom probably since the 9th century. As the
country is practically without stone, the Hindu buildings would be
chiefly of brick, but pillars, images and details were of hard potstone
or hornblende; and these would afford materials for the Moslem
conquerors. The construction of large buildings of brick required heavy
piers for the arches and thicker walls than those constructed of stone.
Then such piers and walls, when enriched by a facing of moulded or
glazed tiles, would appear still heavier; and sometimes for tiles a
casing of carved stone was substituted. Hence this style is a purely
local one with short, heavy pillars faced with stone and supporting
pointed brick arches and vaults. The use of brick further forced the
builders to employ an arched style of their own and a mode of roofing in
which a curvilinear form was given to the eaves descending at the
corners of the structures. This form spread later up through Hindustan
as far as the Punjab.
The capital at one time was moved to Pandua, north of Gaur, and there
was built (1358-1368) the great Adina mosque, 500 ft. in length by 285
in depth containing a large court surrounded by a thick wall of brick.
The roof was supported by 266 stone pillars and covered by 378 domes,
all of one form. Such a design has little architectural merit, but its
size and the richness of its details make it an interesting study, and
the same character belongs to most of the works of the Bengal Moslem
rulers.
The Bahmani dynasty, founded in 1347, had its capital at Gulbarga till
1428, when it was moved to Bidar. During this period the city was
adorned with important buildings of which the most notable now remaining
is the great mosque, one of the most striking in India. It measures over
all 216 ft. from east to west by 176 from north to south. It differs
from all the great mosques in India in having the whole central area
covered over as in the great mosque at Cordova--what in others would be
an open court being roofed by sixty-three small domes. The light is
admitted through the side-walls, which are pierced by great arches on
all sides except the west. The study is plain and substantial, with but
little ornament. The tombs of the kings are massive square-domed
buildings, with handsome stone tracery on their outer walls, and are
elaborately finished inside. At Bidar, mosques, palaces and tombs were
also erected, but most of them have perished, the great mosque in the
fort being the only one fairly entire. The ten tombs of the later
Bahmani kings, 5 m. from the city, are of like pattern with those of
Gulbarga and of considerable splendour. They are not much ornamented,
but are structurally good and impressive by their massive proportions.
[Illustration: PLATE III.