INDIA, ARCHITECTURE OF. 



INDICATOR. 



hat door on ach uf the four ridm, and a pyramidal roof, l>ut much 

 lower than the rool of the temple, unsupported by pillan, ;uid without 



Tnnplf nt Tanjorc. 



a crowning ornament. Placed against the door of the colla, the mantapa 

 effectually excludes the light of day from the sacred chamber, which 

 consequently is lighted only by lamps. 



The Gopuras, or gate-pyramid*, which give entrance to the rect- 

 angular court which encloses the temple, are usually proportioned in 

 sue and number to the length of wall which surrounds the court. 

 Some of these gateways are much larger than the temples to which 

 they are appended, and the entire surface of many of them is covered 

 with ornament. One at Combaconum is 12 stories high. In form 

 they are similar to the vimanas, except that they are not so deep as 

 they are wide, and they are always pierced with a doorway occupying 

 from a fourth to a seventh of the whole width. 



" By far the most extraordinary buildings connected with these fanes 

 are the pillared ' colonnades or Choultries, which occupy the spaces 

 between the various enclosures of the temples. They are of all shapes 

 and sue*, from the little pavilion supported on four pillars up to the 

 magnificent hall numbering a thousand. Their uses too are most 

 various ; in ancient times they served as porches to temples ; some- 

 times as halls of ceremony, where the dancing girls attached to the 

 seminary dance and ring ; sometimes they are cloisters, surrounding 

 the whole area of the temple ; at others swinging porches, win 

 gods enjoy at stated seasons that intellectual amusement. But by far 

 their most important application is when used as nuptial halls, in which 

 the mystic union of the male and female divinities is celebrated once a 

 year. Those dedicated to these festivals sometimes attain an extent of 

 1000 columns, and are called in consequence halls of 1000 column*. 

 though they do not in all instances make up this complement." 

 guason.) The pillars are in most instances composed of granite, and 

 covered with sculpture from the base to the capital, every pillar being 

 usually unlike the others in the details, though similar in general 

 character and dimensions. The effect of many of these halls is very 

 impressive. 



As an example of the style of southern Hindustan we may refer to 

 the small but very elegant temple at Bareilly, as a structure of most 

 complicate and exquisite workmanship. Although placed within an 

 area about 260 yards square, the body of the temple, or sanctuary 

 tmiWra), over which rises a pyramidal titr, or roof, is only 21 feet 

 square, but the addition of the domed vestibule (.mtutduf) and the pro- 

 jecting portico composed of four superb columns makes the whole 

 44 feet by 21. The ceilings are elaborately worked, and that of the 



portico consists of a single block. Facing this temple is another 

 nplendid edifice, called the Sengsr-chaori, or Nuptial Hall, a square of 

 about 40 feet, with a double range of pillars on each side forming open 

 colonnades. Its ntr is the frustum of a pyramid, each stone of which 

 is elegantly carved, and gradually decreasing in sue to the kullut 



After the introduction of the Saracenic architecture by the Moham- 

 medan invaders, the Hindu architects adopted in their secular buildings 

 many of the features of the new style. Some of the palaces con- 

 structed under this foreign influence are extremely picturesque, as 

 the palace of Madura, commenced in the early part of the 17th 

 century. But the decline of Hindu architecture was thenceforth rapid ; 

 innovations of all kinds were introduced, and the native barbaric 

 magnificence, originality, and piquancy were lost, without being re- 

 placed by western purity, simplicity, or taste. 



The Mohammedans at first, it is evident, were led to imitate much 

 both of the general forms and the details of the ecclesiastical archi- 

 tecture of the people they had conquered. But they brought with 

 them the principle of the arch, and with it a different and more daring 

 style of construction. They never wholly abandoned the forms they 

 had adopted from the Hindus ; but they so modified and applied them 

 that ultimately their style became rather a variety of the true Saracenic 

 or Moorish style than of either of the styles of India. Hodges, who 

 has carefully studied the original buildings, indeed refers us to the 

 mosque at C'hunar Our, on the Ganges, as a proof of the " perfect 

 similarity of the architecture of India brought thither from Persia by 

 the descendants of Timur, and that brought into Europe by the Moors 

 of Spain." " All the minuter ornaments," he says, " are the same, the 

 lozenge square filled with roses, the ornaments in the spandrels of the 

 arches, the little panellings and their mouldings; so that a person 

 would almost be led to think that artiste had arrived from the same 

 school, at the same time, to erect similar buildings in India and in 

 Europe." This is, however, too strongly put, and is contradicted by 

 the details of his own plates. There are, in truth, many features in 

 the Mohammedan architecture of India which stamp it as distinct 

 from the Moorish style of Europe. [SARACENIC ARCHITECTVIU:.! 

 Among these are its numerous bulbous domes, which are frequently 

 applied even to minarets, and the projecting galleries given to these 

 latter, to which may be added the use of very projecting balconies, 

 supported on massive cantilevers or consoles. One of the most splendid 

 examples of this later style is the celebrated Taje Mahal, near Agra, 

 erected by Shah Jelian as a mausoleum for his wife in the 17th century. 

 " It stands," says Bishop Heber, " in a square area of about 40 English 

 acres, enclosed by an embattled wall with octagonal towers at the angles, 

 surmounted by open pavilions, and four very noble gateways of red 

 granite, the principal one of which is inlaid with white marble, and has 

 four high marble minarets. The space within is planted with trees and 

 divided into green alleys leading to the principal building, which is a 

 sort of solid pyramid surrounded entirely with cloisters, galleries, and 

 domes, diminishing gradually till it ends in a square platform of white 

 marble, surrounded by a most elaborate lattice-work of the same material, 

 in the centre of which is a small altar-tomb, also of white marble, 

 carved with astonishing delicacy and beauty." The cost of this tomb 

 is said to have been 750,0007. An equally celebrated but inferior work 

 of this class is the mausoleum of Hyder Ali at Seringapatam. 



Next to the tombs, perhaps, as characteristic of Mohammedan archi- 

 tecture in India, are the mosques, some of which are of considerable 

 magnitude and magnificence. In the gateways, which are made a 

 striking feature, the Moorish arch inclosed within a square-headed 

 janel is applied with excellent effect. In the mosques themselves 

 there is often a great multiplicity of hemispherical or bulbous domes. 

 The mosque at Mandu, the great mosque at Delhi, and the pearl 

 mosque of Shah Julian at Agra, are very beautiful examples of 

 Mohammedan temples. Some of the minarets are highly enriched and 

 of unusual dimensions ; that of Kootub is 48 feet at the base and 242 

 feet high, though it has lost its capital being only exceeded among 

 Mohammedan buildings by the minaret of the mosque of Hassan in 

 Cairo. 



.Still more splendid are, or were, the palaces, which are in some 

 instances of prodigious extent, finished in a style of unbounded luxu- 

 riance, full of fanciful and admirably-executed ornamental details, and 

 unquestionably picturesque in appearance. Among the most superb 

 <e of Agra, Allahabad, Lucknow, and Delhi. 



INDIAN FIRE. A brilliant white signal-light, produced by burn- 

 ing a mixture of 7 parts of sulphur, 2 of realgar [ARSENIC], and 24 of 

 nitre. 



INDIAN INK. [lHK.1 



INIHAN liriHiKli. |<'Aonviioro.] 



INDIAN YELLOW. [COLOURING MATTEHS.] 



INDIANS. [NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.] 



INIMCAN. [INDIOO.] 



1X1)1 CATOR. The word iWiVtif or w used, genetically, in mechanical 

 engineering, to designate any contrivance by means of which it is 

 possible to calculate the force exerted by the [ntomntion of a machine; 

 but it has of late years been almost exclusively applied to the instru- 

 ments by which the pressure of steam in the cylinder of a steam-engine 

 is registered throughout the whole of its duty, or by which the amount 

 of vacuum or exhaustion attained by the use of the air-pump and con- 



