Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/350

 298 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. Allahabad was a more favourite residence of this monarch than Agra, perhaps as much so as even Fathpur-Sikri ; but the English having appropriated the fort, its glories have been nearly obliterated. The most beautiful thing was the pavilion of the Chalis Situn, or forty pillars, so called from its having that number on the principal floor, disposed in two concentric octagonal ranges, one internal of sixteen pillars, the other out- side of twenty - four. Above this, supported by the inner colonnade, was an upper range of the same number of pillars crowned by a dome. This building has entirely disappeared, its materials being wanted to repair the fortifications. The great hall, however, still remains, represented in the annexed woodcut (No. 426). It was turned into an arsenal ; a brick wall was run 426. Hall in Palace at Allahabad. (From a Drawing by Daniell.) up between its outer colonnades with windows of English architecture, and its curious pavilions and other accompaniments removed ; and internally, whatever could not be conveniently cut away was carefully covered up with plaster and whitewash, and hid by stands of arms and deal fittings. Still its plan can be made out : a square hall suppprted by eight rows of columns, eight in each row, thus making in all sixty-four, surrounded by a deep verandah of double columns, with groups of four at the angles, all surmounted by bracket capitals of the most elegant and richest design, and altogether as fine in style and as rich in ornament as anything in India. Perhaps, however, the most characteristic of Akbar's build- ings is the tomb he commenced to erect for himself at Sikandara, about 5 miles north-west from Agra, which is quite unlike any other tomb built in India either before or since, and of a design borrowed, as I believe, from a Hindu, or more correctly, Buddhist, model. It was completed in 1613, and is said to have