with high buildings; sometimes open, and sometimes shaded with the trees best adapted for that purpose. There is always a deep colonnade round each court. The great rooms of state are upstairs, closed round like ours, not running to the whole height of the house, and open at one side like Mahometan divans. The stairs are narrow and steep, and cut out of the thickness of the wall. The same remarks apply to the private houses, which are hardly entitled to come under the head of architecture. Those of rich people have a small court or two, with buildings round, almost always terraced, sometimes left in the full glare of the white stucco, sometimes coloured of a dusky red, and the walls sometimes painted with trees or mythological and other stories. All are as crowded and ill-arranged as can be imagined. Perhaps the greatest of all the Hindú works are the tanks, which are reservoirs for water, of which there are two kinds; one dug out of the earth, and the other formed by damming up the mouth of a valley. In the former case there are stone or other steps all round, down to the water, gene.. rally the whole length of each face, and in many instances temples round the edge, and little shrines down the steps. In the other sort these additions are confined to the embankment. The dug tanks are often near towns, for bathing, &c., but are also CHAP. VII. III. BOOK made use of for irrigation. The dams are always for the latter purpose. Many of them are of vast extent, and the embankments are magnificent works, both in respect to their elevation and solidity. Some of them form lakes, many miles in circumference, and water great tracts of country. One species of Hindú well is also remarkable. It is frequently of great depth, and of considerable breadth. The late ones are often round, but the more ancient, square. They are surrounded, for their whole depth, with galleries, in the rich and massy style of Hindú works, and have often a broad flight of steps, which commences at some distance from the well, and passes under part of the galleries down to the water. The most characteristic of the Hindú bridges are composed of stone posts, several of which form a pier, and which are connected by stone beams. Such bridges are common in the south of India. Others are on thick piers of masonry, with narrow Gothic arches; but their antiquity is doubtful, nor does it appear that the early Hindús knew the arch, or could construct vaults or domes, otherwise than by layers of stone, projecting beyond those beneath, as in the Treasury of Atreus in Mycenæ. Among other species of architecture must be mentioned the columns and arches, or rather gateways, erected in honour of victories. There is a highly wrought example of the former, 120 feet high, at Chitór, which is represented in Tod's "Ra jasthan."* of the triumphal arches (if that term may be applied to square openings), the finest example is at Barnagar, in the north of Guzerát. It is indeed among the richest specimens of Hindú art. * Vol. i. pp. 328. 761. СНАР. VII. CHAP. VIII. OTHER ARTS. BOOK OF the Indian manufactures, the most remarkable III. is that of cotton cloth, the beauty and delicacy of Weaving. which was so long admired, and which in fineness Dyeing. Working in gold. of texture has never yet been approached in any other country. Their silk manufactures were also excellent, and were probably known to them, as well as the art of obtaining the material, at a very early period.* Gold and silver brocade were also favourite, and perhaps original, manufactures of India. The brilliancy and permanency of many of their dyes have not yet been equalled in Europe. Their taste for minute ornament fitted them to excel in goldsmiths' work. Their fame for jewels originated more in the bounty of nature than in their own skill; for their taste is so bad that they give a preference to yellow pearls, and table diamonds; and their setting is comparatively rude, though they often combine their jewellery into very gorgeous ornaments. Their way of working at all trades is very simple, and their tools few and portable. A smith brings * Mr. Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 61. |