Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/245

 CHAP. III. DELHI. 203 specimens to be found in India that seem to be overloaded with ornament. There is not one inch of plain surface from the capital to the base, except the pillars behind the screen, and some others which may belong to older buildings. Still the ornament is so sharp and so cleverly executed, and the effect, in their present state of decay and ruin, so picturesque, that it is very difficult to find fault with what is so beautiful. In some instances the figures that were on the shafts of the pillars have been cut off, as offensive to Muhammadan strictness with regard to images ; but on the roof and less seen parts, the cross-legged figures of the Jaina saints, and other emblems of that religion, may still be detected. The glory of the mosque, however, is not in these Hindu remains, but in the great range of arches of the screen wall on the western side, extending north and south for about 385 ft, and consisting of three greater and eight smaller arches ; the central one 22 ft. wide and 53 ft. high ; the larger side-arches 24 ft. 4 in., and about the same height as the central arch ; the smaller arches, which are unfortunately much ruined, arc about half ttiese dimensions (Woodcut No. 371). The central part of this screen, 147 ft. in length, forming the mosque proper, is ascribed to Qutbu-d-Dm after his return from Ghazni. Behind this, at the distance of 32 ft, are the foundations of the wall that formed the back of the mosque, but was only intended, apparently, to be carried as high as the roof of the Hindu pillars it encloses. It seems probable that the Hindu pillars between the two screens were the only part proposed to be roofed in 1196, since some of them are built into the back part of the great arches, and all above them is quite plain and smooth, without the least trace of any intention to construct a vault or roof of any sort. Indeed, a roof is by no means an essential part of a place of prayer ; a wall facing Mecca is all that is required, and in India is frequently all that is built, though an enclosure is often added in front to protect the worshippers from interruption. Roofed colonnades are, of course, convenient and ornamental accom- paniments, yet far from being indispensable. The history of this mosque, as told in its construction, is as curious as anything about it. It seems that the Afghan conquerors had a tolerably distinct idea that pointed arches were the true form for architectural openings ; but they left the Hindu architects and builders whom they employed to follow their own devices as to the mode of carrying out the form. The Hindus up to this time had never built arches nor, indeed, did they for centuries afterwards. Accordingly, they proceeded to make the pointed openings on the same principle upon which they built their domes. They carried them up in horizontal