Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/191

 CHAP. IV. TEMPLE OF SINDHIA'S MOTHER, GWALIAR. 153 din Ghuri, and the duty of the governor was to dispense Muhammadan law, and specially to repress idolatry. We can understand what this meant for the old shrines ; and during the next 350 years, the city was repeatedly subjected to pillage. In the 1 5th century it was under the rule of the Sharqi rulers of Jaunpur, and in the later struggles between the Mughals and Afghans it frequently suffered severely, and, in fact, till the time of Akbar the ostensible support of Hinduism was forcibly restrained. The city, as rebuilt after each disaster, apparently shifted its site in a south-westerly direction, probably helped to some extent by changes of the course of the river. And after such a history one could hardly expect to find many traces of its ancient architecture, though much may still be buried between the present city and Sarnath. Even the temple of Kirtti Vi.yve.rwar, which Aurangzib destroyed, was not a very ancient structure. When desecrated it was the principal, and probably the most splendid, edifice of its class in the city. Now there is no material evidence that any important building now remaining was erected there before the time of Akbar (A.D. 1556-1605). The present temple is a double one : two towers or spires almost exactly duplicates of each other. One of these is represented in the preceding woodcut (No. 348), and they are connected by a porch, crowned by a dome borrowed from the Muhammadan style, which, though graceful and pleasing in design, hardly harmonises with the architecture of the rest of the temple. The spires are each 51 ft. in height, and covered with ornament to an extent quite sufficient even in this style. The details too are all elegant, and sharply and cleanly cut, and without any evidence of vulgarity or bad taste ; but they are feeble as compared with the more ancient examples, and the forms of the pyramidal parts have lost that expression of power and of constructive propriety which were so evident in the earlier stages of the art. It is, however, curiously characteristic of the style and place, that a building, barely 50 ft. in length, and the same in height, should be the principal temple in the most sacred city of the Hindus, and equally so that one hardly 200 years old should be considered as the most ancient, while it is only that which marks this most holy spot in the religious cosmogony of the Hindus. TEMPLE OF SINDHIA'S MOTHER, GWALIAR. One more example must suffice to explain the ultimate form which the ancient towers of the Orissan temples had reached in the ipth century. It was erected about forty years ago by the mother of Jayaji Rao Sindhia, Maharaja of Gwaliar