Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/252

 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. A more beautiful example than even this is the 'Alai- Darwaza, shown on the left hand of the plan (Woodcut No. 369). It was erected by 'Alau-d-Din Khalji, and the date 1310 is found among its inscriptions. It is, therefore, about a century more modern than the other buildings of the place, and displays the so-called Pathan l style at its period of greatest perfection, when the Hindu masons had learned to fit their exquisite style of decoration to the forms of their foreign masters. Its walls are decorated internally with a diaper pattern of unrivalled excellence, and the mode in which the square is changed into an octagon is more simply elegant and appropriate than any other example I am acquainted with in India (Plate XXIX.). 2 The pendentives accord perfectly with the pointed openings in the four other faces, and are in every respect appropriately con- structive. 3 True there are defects. For instance, they are rather too plain for the elaborate diapering which covers the whole of the lower part of the building both internally and externally ; but ornament might easily have been added ; and their plainness accords with the simplicity of the dome, which is indeed by no means worthy of the substructure. Not being pierced with windows, it seems as if the architect assumed that its plainness would not be detected in the gloom that in consequence prevails. This building, though small it is only 56 ft. 9 in. square externally, and with an internal apartment only 34 ft. 6 in. in plan marks the culminating point of this Pathan style in Delhi. Nothing so complete had been done before, nothing so ornate was attempted by them afterwards. In the provinces wonderful buildings were erected between this period and the Mughal conquest, but in the capital their edifices were more marked by solemn gloom and nakedness than by ornamentation or any of the higher graces of architectural art. Externally it is a good deal damaged, but its effect is still equal to that of any building of its class in India. It was copied, with some modifications, in the gateway to the fine Khairpur Mosque, near Safdar Khan's tomb, erected under Sikandar Lodi in 1494. AjMfR. The mosque at Ajmir (Woodcut No. 375) was commenced apparently in the year 1200, and was certainly completed during 1 Major Raver ty has shown that the name of ' ' Pathans " does not apply to the first six dynasties of Sultans of Delhi, 2 From Fanshawe's ' Delhi,' p. 270. 3 The same form of pendentive is found at Serbistan, nearly nine centuries who were " Turkish slaves, Khaljis, Jats, before this time. ' History of Ancient low caste Hindus and Sayyids." We owe the blunder to the translators of and Medieval Architecture,' 3rd ed. vol. i. p. 396, Woodcut No. 259. Conf. R. Firishta. 'Journal of the Asiatic Society Phene" Spiers, 'Architecture East and of Bengal,' vol. xliv. pp. 24 et seqq. West,' pp. 65 et seqq.