Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/227

 CHAP. V. DAMS. 185 makes may become beautiful, provided the hand of taste be guided by sound judgment, and that the architect never forgets what the object is, and never conceals the constructive exigencies of the building itself. 1 It is simply this inherent taste and love of beauty, which the Hindus seem always to have possessed, directed by unaffected honesty of purpose, which enables them to erect, even at the present day, buildings that will bear comparison with the best of those erected in Europe during the Middle Ages. It must be confessed that it would require far more comprehensive illustration than the preceding slight sketch of so extensive a subject can pretend to be, to make this apparent to others. But no one who has personally visited the objects of interest with which India abounds can fail to be struck with the extraordinary elegance of detail and propriety of design which pervades all the architectural achievements of the Hindus ; and this not only in buildings erected in former days, but in those now in course of construction in those parts of the country to which the bad taste of their European rulers has not yet penetrated. 1 Even sluices were made artistic, as at Ahmadibad and elsewhere. 1 Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. vii. pp. 50-53, and plates 63 and 65.