Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/285

 CHAP. V. GUJARAT: PROVINCIAL BUILDINGS. 241 Another object of architectural beauty is found in the inflow and outflow sluices of the great tanks which abound everywhere around the city. Nowhere did the inhabitants of Ahmadabad show how essentially they were an architectural people, as in these utilitarian works. It was a necessity of their nature that every object should be made ornamental, and their success was as great in these as in their mosques or palaces. BUILDINGS IN THE PROVINCES. In addition to the numerous edifices that adorn the capital, there are, as hinted above, several in the provincial capitals that are well worthy of notice. Among these the Jami' Masjid at Cambay or Kambhat, is one of the most splendid. It was erected in A.D. 1325, in the time of Muhammad II. ibn Tughlaq, and is only inferior to that of the capital in size. It measures over all 200 ft. by 210 ft., and its internal court 120 ft. by 135 ft. Except being somewhat smaller in scale, its plan and arrange- ments are almost identical with those of the Altamsh Mosque (Woodcuts Nos. 375, 376) at Ajmir : but, when it is looked into, it would be difficult to conceive two buildings more essentially different than these two are. The screen of arches at Cambay, only three in number, are plain even to baldness, and low, in order to fit the dimensions of the Hindu or Jaina pillars of the interior. These latter are all borrowed from desecrated temples, and in this instance certainly rearranged without much attention to congruity or architectural effect. Still the effect is picturesque, and the parts being employed for the purposes for which they were designed, there is no offensive incongruity anywhere. One of the most remarkable features in this mosque is the tomb, which its founder, 'Umar bin-Ahmad al Kazarunt, in 1333, erected for himself. It stands in an enclosure about 49 ft. wide along the south end of the court, is wholly composed of Hindu remains, and is two storeys in height, and was crowned with a dome 37 ft. in diameter. The parts, however borrowed, apparently, from different buildings were so badly fitted together that, after standing some three centuries, it fell in, and has since remained a ruin, singularly picturesque in form and exquisite in detail, but a monument of the folly of employing building materials for any purpose but that for which they were designed. 1 There is another mosque at Bharoch, not unlike this one in design but smaller, being only 135 ft. over all north and south, 1 For an account and drawings of the Cambay Mosque, etc., see ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. vi. pp. 23-29 and plate 17 to 24. VOL. II. Q