Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/664

 6o6 COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE. Gandhara district, and thence over Northern India generally. On the east coast the country, being comparatively open, was accessible to the spread of civilization, and this being so, the ancient dynasties of Southern India fixed their capitals there. On the west coast, a narrow strip of lowland only intervening between the Ghats and the seaboard caused the inhabitants to remain to this day aloof from civilizing movements. The map (No. 265) taken from Choisy's " Histoire de I'Archi- tecture," indicates the different type of building characteristic of each portion of India. ii. Geological. — The centre of the Peninsula and the hill country generally abound in excellent building stone, which had considerable influence on Indian architecture from the earliest times. Mention should be made of the pink marble of Rajputana, with which the principal buildings at Delhi and Agra were con- structed, also the trap of the Deccan, the sandstone of the Godavari, and the Nardada, and the granite of Southern India. At Hullabid, an indurated potstone of volcanic origin is found, so close grained as to take a polish. In West India, the rock-cut " Chaityas " of the Buddhists were rendered possible by the geological formation, being composed of horizontal strata of trap formation, uniform in texture and of considerable thickness, rising from the ground as perpendicular cliffs, into the face of which the temples were cut. At Mahavellipore and Ellora, the Dravidian monolithic rock- cut free-standing temples, known as " Raths," were hewn out of the Indian amygdaloidal trap formations of these districts. Terra- cotta seems to have been employed in early times, and may have influenced later work in producing the exuberance of ornament, rendered easy by the pressing of plastic clay into moulds. A wooden origin is traceable to nearly all the Buddhist archi- tectural forms. Teak is the principal wood of the country, being found in large forests on the Eastern and Western Ghats, and in the Himalayas. Other woods are ebony, and the bamboo of the jungle. Palms (which afford food, drink, clothing and building material to the native) grow mostly on the lowlands of the coast. In the low-lying plains of Bengal, brick was used to some extent, but the alluvial soil of this district does not afford good material for brick-making. Lime for building is obtained by burning limestone and Kankar, a nodular form of impure lime found in most river valleys, and from shells plentifully found in the marshes. iii. Climate. — India lies mostly within the tropics. Two prin- cipal seasons, wet and dry, divide the year. Thus, the climate being tropical, flat terraced roofs, used for coolness, exercise, or sleeping, predominate, as in Egypt (page 29), Assyria and Persia, The general use of the great fan ov puuhali in the hot season i