III.

BOOK works at Mahá Balipúram, south of Madras, have been carried back to the remotest æra; but the accounts on the spot assign their construction to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries after Christ, and the sculptures on the walls afford a perfect confirmation of the tradition.*

Some of the most celebrated built temples are of very modern date. modern date. The pagoda of Jagannát (of which we have heard so much), and the Black Pagoda, in the same district, have been mentioned as among the most ancient of Hindú temples; yet the first is well known to have been completed in A. D. 1198, and the second in A. D. 1241.† Many of the other great temples are doubtless much older than this; but there are no proofs of the great antiquity of any of them, and some presumptions to the contrary.

The palaces are more likely to adopt innovations than the temples; but many retain the Hindú character, though constructed in comparatively recent times.

The oldest of these show little plan, or else have been so often added to that the original plan is lost. Being generally of solid construction, and with terraced roofs, the facility is great of building one house on the roof of another; so that, besides spreading towards the sides, they are piled upwards to a great height, and with great irregularity.

They generally contain small courts surrounded * Professor Wilson, Mackenzie Papers, Introduction, p. lxxi. + Stirling's Orissa, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. pp. 315. 327.

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, generally 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.

BOOK
III.

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 Mycena.

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

VII.

jasthan."* Of the triumphal arches (if that term CHAP. 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.

CHAP. VIII.

OTHER ARTS.

BOOK
III.

Of the Indian manufactures, the most remarkable is that of cotton cloth, the beauty and delicacy of Weaving. which was so long admired, and which in fineness of texture has never yet been approached in any other country.

Dyeing.

Working

in gold.

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.