Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/279

 CHAP. V. GUJARAT. 235 the shafts square, and with no ornament except a countersink- ing on the angles, and crowned with a moderately projecting bracket-capital. The building is roofed with nine small domes, 392. Pavilion in tront of Tomb at Sarkhej. insignificant in themselves, but both internally and externally forming as pleasing a mode of roofing as ever was applied to such a small detached building of this class. The mosque (D), 141 ft. by 65 ft. inside, was completed in A.D. 1451, and Mahmud Begarah added afterwards a tomb for himself (B), 74 ft. square, and one for his wife Rajabai (C). With their accompanying palaces and tombs these make up one of the most important groups in the neighbourhood. The whole are constructed with- out a single arch ; all the pillars have the usual bracket capitals of the Hindus, and all the domes are on the horizontal principle. In the large tomb an attempt has been made to get a larger dome than the usual octagonal arrangement would admit of, by placing it on twelve pillars, but not quite successfully. The duodecagon does not accord with the substructure, and either wider spaces ought to have been introduced or a polygon of a greater number of sides employed. The mosque is the perfection of elegant simplicity, and is an improvement on the plan of the Jami' Masjid. There are five domes in a line,