Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/298

 ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. BOOK II. In this instance, however, there is no incongruity, no borrowed features ; every stone was carved for the place where it is found. There are niches, it is true, on each side of the gateway, like those found at Martand and other pagan temples ; but like those at Ahmadabad they are without images, and the arch in brick which surmounts this gateway is a radiating arch, which appears certainly to be integral, but, if so, could not possibly be erected by a Hindu. 1 With the knowledge we now possess, it is not likely that any one can mistake the fact, that this enclosure was erected in its present form, by the prince whose name it bears, to surround his tomb, in the Muhammadan cemetery of the city in which it is found. Assuming this for the present, it gives us a hint as to the age of the other anomalous building in Kashmir the temple that crowns the hill, called the Takht-i-Sulaiman, near the capital. Inside the octagonal enclosure that surrounds the platform on which the temple stands is a range of arches (Woodcut No. 140), similar to those of the tomb of Zainu-l-'Abidin (Woodcut No. 139), not so distinctly pointed, nor so Saracenic in detail, but still very nearly resembling them, only a little more debased in style. At the bottom of the steps is a round-headed doorway, not, it is true, surmounted by a true arch, but by a curved lintel of one stone, such as are universal in the Hindu imitations of Muhammadan architecture in the i/th and i8th centuries. The same is the case in the small temples alongside, which are evidently of the same age. 2 The temple too, itself, is far from having an ancient look. The one most like it, that I am acquainted with, is that erected by Chait Singh of Benares (17701781) at Ramnagar, at the end of the i8th century. I know of no straight-lined pyramid of a much older date than that, and no temple with a polygonal plan, combined with a circular cell, as is the case here, that is of ancient date. 3 The cell itself with the Linga is undoubtedly quite modern ; and the four pillars in the cell, with the Persian inscriptions upon them, are avowedly of the 1 7th century. It is suggested, moreover, that they belong to a repair ; my conviction, however, is, from a review of the whole evidence, that the temple, as it now stands, was 140. Takht-i-Sulaimin. Elevation of Arches. (From a Drawing by Lieut. Cole.) 1 I cannot make out the span of this arch. According to the rods laid across the photograph (No. 4) it appears to be 15 ft. ; according to the scale on the plan, only half that amount. 2 Lieut. Cole's plates, 1-4. 3 The polygonal basement, however, is constructed of remarkably massive blocks and without mortar, and must thus be relegated to an earlier period. Stein's ' Rajatarangini, ' vol. ii. p. 290.