Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/265

 CHAP. III. LATER PATH AN STYLE. 221 filled up with a number of small imitations of arches, bracketing out one beyond the other. It might seem probable that this scheme of decoration was based on the honeycomb or stalactite vault used by the Arabs in Spain ; but here the pendentive is differently constructed from the Arab pendentives, which are curved in plan, whilst this is simply a corner bracket. 1 If it were not that the buildings of the earlier Sultans are so completely eclipsed by the greater splendour of those of the Mughal dynasty, which succeeded them in their own capitals, their style would have attracted more attention than has hitherto been bestowed upon it ; and its monograph would be as interesting as any that the Indian-Saracenic affords. In its first period the style was characterised by all the richness which Hindu elaboration could bestow ; in the second by a stern simplicity and grandeur much more appropriate, according to our ideas, to the spirit of the people ; and during the latter part of its existence, by a return to the elaborateness of the past ; but at this period every detail was fitted to its place and its purpose. We forget the Hindu except in his delicacy, and we recognise in this last development one of the completed architectural styles of the world. 1 R. Phene Spiers, ' Architecture East and West,' pp. 34-35.