Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/358

 3 io DRAVIDIAN STYLE. BOOK III. CHAPTER II. HINDtJ CONSTRUCTION. CONTENTS. Arches Domes Plans 5ikharas. ARCHES. BEFORE proceeding to describe the arrangements of Hindu or Jaina temples, it may add to the clearness of what follows on the various styles if we first explain the peculiar modes of constructing arches and domes which they invariably employed. As remarked above, although we cannot assert that the Buddhists never employed a true arch, this at least is certain that, except in the roofs of one or two small chaityas recently discovered, no structural example has been found in India, and that all the arched or circular forms found in the caves are without exception copies of wooden forms, and nowhere even simulate stone construction. With the Hindus and Jains the case is different : they use stone arches and stone domes which are not copied from wooden forms at all ; but these are invariably horizontal arches, never formed or intended to be formed with radiating voussoirs. It has been explained, in speaking of Pelasgic art, 1 how prevalent these forms were in ancient Greece and Asia Minor, and how long they continued to be employed even after the principles of the true arch were perfectly understood. In India, however, the adherence to this form of construction is even more remarkable. As the Hindus quaintly express it, " an arch never sleeps " ; and it is true that a radiating arch does contain in itself a vis viva which is always tending to thrust its haunches outwards, and goes far to insure the ultimate destruction of every building where it is employed : while the horizontal forms employed by the Hindus are in stable equilibrium, and, unless disturbed by violence, might remain so for ever. 1 Fergusson's 'Ancient and Mediaeval Architecture' (3rd ed.), vol. i. pp. 243 et seqq.