Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/297

 CHAP. I. TOMB OF ZAINU-L-'ABIDIN. 253 ledge of Indian antiquities in general, and had not qualified himself by any special study for the investigation he was deputed to undertake. All, therefore, he could do was to adopt blindly General Cunningham's dates, and in this there would have been no great harm, but, when he came across a temple which had escaped his predecessor's attention, he arbitrarily interpolated it into the General's series with a date of his own. As all these dates are given as if perfectly ascertained, without any of the reasoning on which they are based, they would, if accepted, lead to the most erroneous conclusions. Putting these, however, aside, Lieutenant Cole's plans and architectural details were a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the subject, and with his photographs and those now available by others, enable those who have not had an opportunity of visiting the valley to form an opinion of their own, and with all these lights there seems little difficulty in ascertaining all the really important facts connected with this style. The first and most misleading mistake that has been made with reference to Kashmiri architecture, was the assumption by General Cunningham that the enclosure to Zainu-l-'Abidin's tomb in 5rinagar originally belonged to an ancient Kashmiri temple. Lieutenant Cole boldly printed on his plates " probable date A.D. 400 to 500," a mistake as nearly as may be of 1000 years, as it is hardly doubtful that it was erected for or by the prince whose name it bears, and who in A.D. 1417 succeeded his brother their father being Sikandar, who bore the ill-omened nickname of Bhutshikan, the idol-breaker. 1 As will be seen from the woodcut (No. 139), it consists of a series of small pointed arches in rectangular frames, such as are very frequently found in Muhammadan art, and, though it occupies ,~;, ,..,,., HII IMI the site of an early temple, and parts may be much older, the peculiarities of the gateway and other parts are just such as are found in all contemporary Moslim art I in India. All the mosques and tombs for |f; instance at Ahmadabad, A.D. 1400-1 S72, are f ,..,, i / ,11- T 39- TombofZamu-l-'Abidin. made up of details borrowed from the archi- Elevation of Arches. tecture of the Hindus and Jains, and the ( bases of their minarets and their internal pillars can only be distinguished from those of the heathen by their position, and by the substitution of foliage for human figures in the niches or places where the Hindus would have introduced images of their gods. 1 He boasted of having demolished all the temples in Kashmir. The tomb of his queen is constructed on a base, and with materials of Hindu shrines. 'Calcutta Review,' vol. liv. (1872), p. 27.