Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/418

Rh 394 ARCHITECTURE [INDIAN. Topes. monly called the tomb of the prophet Zechariah. This is surmounted by a simple pyramidal roof. Beneath it is a handsome doorway leading to a sepulchral chamber. Over the ordinary classic entablature is the regular Egyptian cornice or torus, surmounted by a bold quarter hollow and fillet exactly like those on the propylous of Egypt, which have been already described. The third building is entirely rock-cut, and consists of a large f^ade, about 90 feet wide and 100 feet high. This is reported to be the place to which the apostles retired before the siege of Jerusalem. Below is a plain face, about 45 feet high, on each side of which are wings with two pilasters, both running up to the top of the building. Between these is a species of portico, about 40 feet wide, with columns and pilasters, of nearly pure Grecian Doric. There are also several other rock-cut tombs or sepulchres scattered about in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, but none of them possess much architectural interest. One is called the sepulchre of Jehoshaphat. From the character of the architecture it is incredible that these buildings can have anything like the age as cribed to them. The Ionic capitals are evidently Roman, and therefore cannot date earlier than the conquests by that people; probably they are of the time of Herod; while the Egyptian cornices show that the traditional orna ments of that people had not been entirely forgotten. Besides this, the general plan of a temple, in antis, scarped into a rock, so entirely resembles the work at Beni Hassan, that it is impossible to deny that these very interesting remains strongly corroborate the views of Canina, that the architecture of the early temples was at least based on the architecture of the Egyptians. INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. Considerable light has been recently thrown upon the history of architecture in the East. The traditions as to the extremely remote antiquity of the rock-cut temples, the caves of Ellora, and the wonderful pagodas, have dis appeared before the searching eye of critical investigation. In the time of Herodotus the Persians had no temples ; and even in that of Tacitus, the great Indo-Germanic races &quot; would not confine their gods within walls.&quot; The early religion, which appears in the Vedas, was Brahniinism, but in the 6th century B.C., the first of the Buddhas seems to have commenced a perversion of the ancient faith. The struggle appears to have gone on for years, till three-quarters of a century after the time of Alexander the Great, about 250 years before the Christian era, when a powerful ruler named Asoka, a grandson of Chandragupta, who is supposed to be the Sandracottus of the Greek writers, abjured Brahminism, and made Buddhism the religion of the state. Certain Lats, or pillars, erected by him, and in scribed with his edicts, are the earliest extant architectural remains of India. The Buddhist topes are supposed to have been erected at first to com memorate some event, or to show that the spot FlG 24 - Plaa o. was sacred ; but after a time they were employed to contain 1 Figs. 24 to 38 are taken from Fergusson s History of Architecture, by the kind permission of the author. relics, such as. the tooth or collar-bone of one of tha Buddhas. The relics seem in some cases to have been preserved in a sort of box or case at the top of the tope, called a tee ; in others, in regular relic chambers. Where there were relics, the place was called dagoba, or relic shrine, of which, perhaps, our term pagoda is a corrup tion. A great number of these topes were built in the form of large towers, others in the form of hemispheres. One of these, the Sanchi tope, is described and figured by Mr Fergusson. The diameter is 106 feet. It has a curious species of gate entrance, and is surrounded by a stone fence. Others are partly cylindrical, and are finished with either a flat circle, or pointed terminals like a dome at the top. A fine example has recently been discovered at Bharhut by General Cunningham. Of the next two classes of Buddhist architecture, the Rock-cul temples (Chaityas) and monasteries (Viharas), no built temples. examples exist in India. They are, in fact, rock-cut caves. At least one thousand temples are known one-tenth pro bably Brahminical or Jain, the rest Buddhist. They are Fio. 25. Section of Tope at SancLi. said to form an uninterrupted series, from the first, iu Behar, by the grandson of Asoka, 200 years before Christ, to those at Ellora, which, instead of being of an almost diluvian antiquity, as has generally been reported, have been proved to date from the 7th or 8th century of our era, while the most recent is the work of Indra-dyumna, as late as the 12th century. One of these cave-temples at Karli, FIG. 26. Cave at Karli : section. BBflBBBBBBBBBaBBBQ ico/7 FIG. 27. Cave at Karli ; plan. near Bombay, presents exactly the features of a Roman basilica, or early Christian church. It has a circular end or apse, and is divided into three aisles by two rows of columns. Others are simple square buildings, with a circular or oval chamber at the end entered by a small door. The monasteries, which exceed the temples in num ber, seem generally to have been square caves supported