Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/125

Rh GAUR inscriptions. The MS. purports to have been accompanied by maps and drawings, but these are not now forthcoming. Dr Francis Buchanan has described the remains, with his usual somewhat dry precision, in his statistical survey of northern Bengal and Behar, executed between 1809 and 1816, but only published, with a title-page that bears the name of Montgomery Martin, and no reference to the real _author, in 1838 (Eastern India, &c., vol. iii. pp. 68 sq.). IIrJames Fergusson has a short chapter, containing the only critical account of the architecture of Gaur, in his Ilistory of Imliruz, iirc/Litecture. Lastly, since the greater part of this article was compiled, there has been published a splendid volume (G'azu'.- its It’m'ns and I nscr2'pt[on.s-, 4to) from the photographs and notes of the late J. A. Raven- sliaw of the Bengal Civil Service. Before concluding we may indicate a few of the most notable remaining buildings. 1. 011:: of the iuost pleasing remains, as regards arcliitectural designr, is a minaret or tower of stone and brick, standing imme- diatcly west of the citadel. It is 84 feet in height and 21 in diameter at the base. For two-tliirds of the height the form is that of a 1:2-sided polygon, and above that circular, the two forms being divided by a bold cornice. There is now no inscription attaclied, but tradition assigns it to Firoz Shah, and a native history of Bengal compiled in the last century attributes it speciﬁcally to a king of that name, who reigned 1488-1490. Mr Fcrgusson indeed considers the architecture to belong to an earlier period; and it is remarkable that the researches of Mr E. Thomas in coins, and of the late Mr Henry Blochmann in lapidary inscriptions, have recently cstablislied the existence of a King Sliamsuddin F iroz, whose coinage at Laklmaoti shows his reign to have extended from 1302 to 1318. If the work be really due to this prince, it is by much the oldest building of importance now remaining at Gaur. But the point is very doubtful. ‘Z. The D¢i7.'Iu'l Dwrwciza, or Gate of Entrance, is the northern gate of the citadel. It is a noble structure, though entirely built of small bricks. The tunnel under the rampart is 112 feet long by 14 wide, and the height of the archway is 34 feet. An inscription copied by F ranckliii ascribes the work to Barbak Shah, and the ('l‘Ci'tl0I1 to 1466. The grandiose palace wall is believed to be of the same period. 3. The Latt¢uL(?), or the Painted Jlusiizl, a quadrangular ediﬁce in the southern part of the city, cased inside and out with bricks beautifully cnanicllcd in blue, green, and white. It is covered by one large dome. The work is ascribed to 1470-1481. 4. The Tcinfi-Pu'm .l[usji<l, or Mosque of the Weaver's Quarter. This is now much dilapidated, but llavenshaw’s photograph in-licates it to have been one of the most beautiful buildings in Gaur. The lllI‘llL-Ll panels in carved brickwork which adorn its piers are very rich and delicate. It is also, if an inscription given by F raiuklin lc justly assigned to it, the work of Yiisuf Shah, 1475-76. 5. The .S'ona- .l[a.vjL'cl, or Golden Mosque. This is probably the most important structure remaining at Gaur. It stands in the city to the north of the citadel, within a spacious court enclosed by a stone wall. The material is described as a dark grey stone, approaching to black, with sculpture in beautiful ﬂower-work. The mosque measures 180 feet by 80, and the interior architecture consists of massive intersecting arcades, each intersection being covered by a dome, of which denies there were 44 altogether. In spite of the extraordinary solidity of the building it appears to have sutfered greatly since Francklin described it in 1810. The date is ﬁxed by .zni1i.-.ci-iptimi which existed in his time to 1525. 6. Tu. I bs of Shali llusain (d. 1521), and of his son N asrat Shah, the b'=i‘ l~r of No. 5 (ml. 1533-34). Of the tombs themselves nothin_rv_ rt-niains, and their materials are said to have been carried to l"«,rt. William in the last century. In Creighton’s time, though the tomb of l-Iusain Shah was already gone, there remained a beautiful ediﬁce. which had fornied the gateway of the enclosure, faced with brick-ivork richly iiionlded, and glazed with blue and white. f Slnli Husain (reigned 1494-1521) Dr Blochmann says, “ Whilst the names of other Bengal kings scarcely ever occur in legends, and remain even unrecognized iii the geographical names of the country, the name of ‘ Husain Shah the Good’ is still remembered from the frontier of Orisa. to the Brahmaputra ” (Pr0c. As‘. Soc. Bengal, 1873, p. 291). 7. The mosque of the Qadam Rasiil, or Footstcp of the Prophet, so named from a representation of Malionict’s footiiiark in stone p'_li3iE-li was formerly enshrined there. The work of Nasrat Shah, U? . Ve thus see that all the buildings, with the very doubtful exception of the iniuarct, go back no further than the last half 115 of the 15th century. If the age of the architecture is dis- appointing, the better knowledge of details which we derive from M r Ravenshaw’s book enhances our appreciation of it. The buildings are in brick, in stone, and in both combined. Excepting the great gateways, they lack height enough for stateliness ; the character is rather decorated solidity. The facades generally present a series of pointed arches, with very massive piers between, which are sometimes compli- cated polygons, but more usually rectangular; the mould- ings have little relief, but the surfaces are adorned with panels ﬁlled with beautiful “ embossed brick-work.” These seem to be rich ﬂoral patterns moulded in terra cotta, and probably ﬁnished with the chisel. The curvilinear roof, imitated from the use of the bamboo, of which M r Fergusson speaks as an unpleasing characteristic of architecture in Bengal, is little seen in Gaur,—almost the only indication of it being a slight upward camber in the upper lines of the facade, in which the versed—sine is about 316th of the chord. In some of the buildings great brilliance has been produced by the profuse use of encaustic tiles in bright colours. The art of making these exists now in India nowhere nearer than in Sind; but indeed the manufacture of terra cotta, or of ordinary brick of the superior character which Rennell attributes to Gaur, is equally a lost art in Bengal. Where the facing is entirely of stone, as in the Great Golden Mosque, and in a smaller one bearing the same name, the ornamentation seems imitated from the terra-cotta work; the relief, however, is much less, owing probably to the hardness of the material. What this material is, or whence, is not quite clear. The older accounts speak of black and other marbles ; Buchanan and later writers of “ black hornblende,” “ potstone,” and what not ; Mr Bavenshaw, in the case of one building, of “granite and marbles.” The black stone is probably basalt from the Rajmahl hills, but more precise information is desirable. In conclusion, we may notice brieﬂy the other neighbour- ing sites occupied as capitals, which may be regarded as appendages of Gaur. Pamlua, commonly called Parruah or Porruah, was so occupied, with occasional intervals, for nearly a century. Its ruins and tanks extend over a narrow area of nearly 6 miles in length, which is new more of a wilderness than even the site of Gaur. The high road from Malda to Dinajporc passes through it from end to end, but the forest which besets the ruins is so dense on both sides, and so infested with tigers, that single travellers shun the road by night. Mr Bavenshaw employed a gang of 200 men to clear the jungle for his photographs, but even then could only get partial views. The buildings exhibit the same general character as at Gaur, but most of them are older, and seem (for most of them are absolutely overgrown and penetrated by jun gle-growth) to show the style in afrecr and purer foriii. Many of them also contain fragments of older Hindu build- ings, very probably pillaged freni old Laklinaoti. By far the ﬁnest and most important building in the whole Gaur group of cities, and indeed in Bengal, is the Adina mosque at Pandua, standing close to the high road. It is a quadrangular cloister of two stories, measur- ing externally 500 feet by 300, of brickwork faced throughout with “ black hornblende. ” The cloisters are divided by pillars into inter- secting aisles, and each intersection has been covered by a dome. Of these domes there have been originally 375, but most have fallen. According to Bucliaiian’s description the carved windows have been borrowed from Buddhist structures, but judging from the poor draw- in gswhich he gives,and from the photographsof Mr Ra venshawmade under great ditﬁculties, the combination has been carried out with good artistic effect. The ediﬁce must no doubt be monotonous, but from what we can see is far from deserving the condemnation which Buchanan passes on it. The Adina is the work of Sikandar Shah, the son of lliyas (1358-1390), and his tomb is in an adjunct of the mosque. There is a Cl11‘l011S notice of it in Valcntijn‘s (Dutch) East Indies (v. . 169). Ekdcilahl,’ which was the fortiﬁed retreat of the kings who rulcd at Pandua, has been lately identified by Mr E. V. W0Stma€0ll?_ 83 still bearing the name, near Chiramon, in the Diiiajpore district, about 20 miles north of Pandua. It stands on high ground rising like an island out of the inundated plain ; it exhibits traces ut cmbankments and buildings, and is about 5 miles distant {F0111 0110 of the ancient embaiiked reads running towards Pandua and Gaur. Tcmcla, the last city of the Gaur group occupied as a capital, Stood