Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/316

 272 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. (Woodcut No. 408), it will be seen what immense strides the Indian architects had made in constructive skill and elegance of detail during the century and a half that elapsed between the erection of these two buildings. If they were drawn to the same scale this would be more apparent than it is at first sight ; but on half the present scale the details of the Kulbarga mosque could hardly be expressed, while the largeness of the parts, and regularity of arrangement can, in the scale adopted, be made perfectly clear in the Bijapur example. The latter is, undoubtedly, the more perfect of the two, but there is a picturesqueness about the earlier building, and a poetry about its arrangements, that go far to make up for the want of the skill and the elegance exhibited in its more modern rival. The tomb which 'Alt 'Adil Shah II. (1656-1672) commenced for himself was placed on a high square basement, measuring 215 ft. each way, and had it been completed as designed would have rivalled any tomb in India. The central apartment is 79 ft. square, and is surrounded by a double arcade, the arches of which resemble the Gothic form being struck from two centres, and the curves reaching the crown. It is one of the disadvantages of the Turanian system of each king building his own tomb, that if he dies early his work remains unfinished. This defect is more than compensated in practice by the fact o that unless a man builds his own sepulchre, the chances are very much against anything worthy of admirationbeing dedi- cated to his memory by his surviving relatives. His grandfather, Ibrahim II. (1579-1626), had commenced his mausoleum on so small a plan 116 ft. square that, as he enjoyed a long and prosperous reign, it was only by ornament that he could by d ; { ^ rf h ; m _ self, his favourite wife, and other members of his family. 1 This, however, he accomplished 1 Zohra Sultana, his favourite daughter, and his mother occupy the graves on each side of Ibrahim's ; his wife Taj Sultana's is next her mother-in-law's, of whom an inscription states that the Rauza is a memorial ; and the graves of two sons complete the series.