Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/319

 CHAP. IX. BIJAPUR. by covering every part with the most exquisite and elaborate carvings. The ornamental inscriptions are so numerous that it is said the whole Qoran is engraved on its walls. The cornices are supported by the most elaborate bracketing, the windows filled with tracery, and every part so richly ornamented that had his artists not been Indians it might have become vulgar. Plate XXX. shows the eastern facade of this fine mausoleum. The principal apartment in the tomb is a square of 39 ft. 10 in. each way, covered by a stone roof, perfectly flat in the centre, formed of stone slabs set edge to edge, and supported only by a cove projecting 7 ft. 7 in. from the walls on every side. How the roof is supported is a mystery which can only be understood by those who are familiar with the use the Indians make of masses of concrete, and with exceedingly good mortar, which seem capable of infinite applications. Above this apartment is another in the dome as ornamental as the one below it, though its only object is to obtain externally the height required for architectural effect, and access to its interior can only be obtained by a dark narrow stair in the thickness of the wall. Beside the tomb there is an equally fine mosque to corre- spond ; and the royal garden, in which these are situated, was adorned, as usual, internally with fountains and kiosks, and externally with colonnades and caravansarais for strangers and pilgrims, the whole making up a group as rich and as pictur- esque as any in India, and far excelling anything of the sort on this side of the Hellespont. The tomb of his successor, Muhammad (1636- 1660) was in design as complete a con- trast to that just described as can well be conceived, and is as remarkable for simple gran- deur and constructive boldness as that of Ibrahim was for ex- cessive richness and contempt of constructive proprieties. It is constructed on the same principle as that employed in the design of the dome of the great mosque (Woodcut No. 413), but on so much larger a 415. Plan of Tomb of Muhammad at Bijaptir. Scale 100 ft to i in. scale as to convert into a wonder of constructive skill, what, in that instance, was only an elegant architectural design. As will be seen from the plan, it is internally a square VOL. II. S