Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/360

 312 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. BOOK III. It is this horizontal or bracket mode of construction that is the formative principle of the Dravidian or Southern style of Hindu architecture, every form and every ornament depending almost wholly upon it. In the north, however, another development of the same principle is found in the horizontal dome, which is scarcely known in the south, but which has given a new character to the style, and, as one of its most beautiful features, de- mands a somewhat de- tailed explanation. DOMES. It is to be regretted that, while so much has been written on the history of the pointed arch, so little should have been said regarding the history of domes : the one being a mere constructive peculiarity that might very well have been dispensed with ; the other being the noblest feature in the styles in which it prevails, and perhaps the most important acquisition with which science has enriched the art of architecture. The so-called Treasuries of Mycenae and Orchomenos, as well as the chambers in Etruscan tombs, prove that as early as ten or twelve centuries before Christ the Pelasgic races had learned the art of roofing circular chambers with stone vaults, not constructed, as we construct them, with radiating vaults, on the principle of the common arch, but by successive layers of stones converging to a point, and closed by one large stone at the apex. Whoever invented the true or radiating arch, the Romans were the first who applied it as a regular and essential archi- tectural feature, and who at the same time introduced its com- plement, the radiating dome, into architectural construction ; 169. Gateway, Jhinjhuwada. (From Kinloch Forbes' Ras Mala.)