Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/295

 CHAP. VI. MALWA MANDU. 251 remain. On the hill above is what is known as Rupamati's Chhatri, still in fair preservation. North of the Jami' Masjid stands the Hindola Mahall or Palace, which, with its massive masonry, is in rather better preservation than the others. The sloping, buttressed walls, projecting balconies and deep-set windows of this fine building present an appearance of great strength ; and the great hall within, 88 ft. 6 in. long by 24 ft. wide and 38 ft. high, its roof supported on arches, was a splendid apartment. To the north of this were store-rooms below, and above the Zanana apart- ments : and at some distance to the west are the large under- ground cisterns and tah-khdnas, or hot-weather retreats of the Champa well or bault. These indicate the care and taste bestowed on such appendages of a Muhammadan palace 500 years ago. The Nahar Jharokha Palace is to the north of the Hindola Mahall, and also within the walled enclosure ; and outside is Dilawar Khan Ghuri's mosque, the oldest in Mandu (1405), constructed of materials taken from Hindu shrines. It has, however, a simplicity of structure about it characterising it as a typical Pathan work. About 80 yards to the south of the Jahaz Mahall is the Tawili Mahall, a three-storeyed building, with its rows of lofty Saracenic arches below deep stone eaves and heavy windowless upper storeys. It lies across a beautiful foreground of water and ruins. Scattered over the whole plateau are ruins of tombs and buildings of every class and so varied as almost to defy descrip- tion. In their solitude, in a vast uninhabited jungle, they convey as vivid an impression of the ephemeral splendour of these Muhammadan dynasties as anything in India, and, if properly illustrated, would alone suffice to prove how wonderfully their builders had grasped the true elements of architectural design. Here, as elsewhere, the available materials have exercised a marked influence upon the architecture ; the prevalence of a red sandstone is emphasised in the piers of the Jami' Masjid more than 300 of them being each of a single block of this material ; and for more decorative purposes marble, both white and coloured, was freely used to revet the walls and piers. We have here a strictly arcuate style, without admixture of the general trabeate structural methods followed by the native Hindus ; and while at Jaunpur and Ahmadabad, at the same period, we find the strong influence of native methods copied in the Muhammadan architecture, at Mandu the borrowing or imitating of such forms seems to have been suppressed, and