Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/282

 238 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. arches, and every part is such as only a Hindu queen could order, and only Hindu artists could carve. 1 TOMBS. Knowing the style, it would not be difficult to predicate the form of the tombs. The simplest would be that of Abu Turab an octagonal dome supported on twelve pillars, and this extended on every side, but always remaining a square, and the entrances being in the centre of the faces (Woodcut No. 395). The differ- ence between this and the Jaina arrangement is that the latter is diagonal (Woodcut No. 179, vol. i.), while these are square. The 1 I 1 i 395. Tomb of Mir Abu Turab. Scale 50 ft. to i in. superiority of the Hindu mode is apparent at a glance. Not, it is true, in so small an arrange- ment as that last quoted, but in the tombs at Sarkhej (Wood- cut No. 391), the effect is so monotonous as almost to become unpleasing. With the Jains 4-V.i'o ti/^r^t- ic fh<* mc^ Vinwfvfr 39 6 - Plan and Elevation of Tomb of this never is the case, nowever ^ Sayyid ' Usman. scale 50 ft. to i in. numerous the pillars may be. Besides the monotony of the square plan, it was felt at Sarkhej as already pointed out that the octagonal dome fitted awkwardly on to its supports. This was remedied, to a great extent, in the tomb of Sayyid 'Usman, built in A.D. 1460 by Mahmud Begarah. In this instance the base of the dome is a dodecagon, and a very considerable amount of variety is obtained by grouping the pillars in twos and fours, and by the different spacing (Woodcut No. 396). In elevation the dome looks heavy for the substructure, but not so in perspective; 1 As it is impossible by a woodcut to convey an impression of the beauty of these mosques, the reader is referred to the drawings and photographs in vols. vii. and viii. of the ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' and the photographs in Fergusson and Hope's 'Architecture of Ahmedabad,' etc. (1866).