Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/310

 266 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. and admitted of far freer ventilation than was attainable in the enclosed courts, while the requisite privacy could easily have been obtained by a low enclosing wall at some distance from the mosque itself. On the whole, my impression is that the Kulbarga plan is the preferable one of the two, both for con- venience and for architectural effect, so much so indeed, that it is very difficult to understand why, when once tried, it was never afterwards repeated. Probably the cause of its being abandoned was the difficulty of draining so extensive a flat roof during the rains. Any settlement or any crack must have been fatal ; yet this mosque stands in seemingly good repair, after four centuries of comparative neglect. Whichever way the question is decided, it must be admitted that this is one of the finest of the old mosques of India, at least among those which are built wholly of original materials and in the arcuate style of Muhammadan art. Those at Delhi and Ajmir are more interesting of course, but it is from adventitious circum- stances. This owes its greatness only to its own original merits of design. 1 Besides the mosque, there is in Kulbarga a bazar, 570 ft. long by 60 ft. wide, over all, adorned by a range of sixty-one arches on either hand, supported by pillars of a quasi-Hindu character, and with a block of buildings of a very ornamental character at either end. I am not aware of anything of its class more striking in any part of India. The arcades that most resemble this are those that line the street called the Street of the Pilgrims, at Vijayanagar, which may be contemporary with this bazar. There are other buildings, especially one gigantic gateway, in the city of Kulbarga, in front of the shrine or Dargah of Banda Nawaz, built about 1640; and in the east of the town are some very grand old tombs of seven of the Bahmani kings massive square domed structures, with sloping walls, and with some handsome stone tracery on the outer surfaces, but otherwise of little architectural merit; inside they are elaborately finished, but have been, and are still, used as Government offices and residences. After the seat of government was removed to Bidar, a little over sixty miles to the north-east of Kulbarga, by Ahmad 1 For the plan and section of this mosque I am indebted to my friend the Hon. Sir Arthur Gordon (now Lord Stanmore). He made the plans himself, and most liberally placed them at my disposal. i up afresh. The mosque is now in a dilapidated condition. In an attempt to repair it at one time, an old powder magazine close by was exploded and the work was stopped. But it has since been taken