Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/354

 302 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. back, for instance, to Woodcuts Nos. 89 and 193, representing the great rath at Mamallapuram, it will be seen that the number and proportion of the storeys is the same. The pavilions that adorn the upper storeys of Akbar's tomb appear distinct remini- scences of the cells that stand on the edge of each platform of the rock-cut example. If the tomb had been crowned by a domical chamber over the tombstone, the likeness would have been so great that no one could mistake it, and my conviction is that such a chamber was part of the original design. No such royal tomb remains exposed to the air in any Indian mausoleum ; and the raised platform in the centre of the upper cloister, 38 ft. square, looks so like its foundation that I cannot help believing it was intended for that purpose. As the monu- ment now stands, the pyramid has a truncated and unmeaning aspect. The total height of the building now is a little more than 100 ft. to the top of the angle pavilions ; and a central dome 30 or 40 ft. higher, which is the proportion that the base gives, seems just what is wanted to make this tomb as beautiful in outline and in proportion as it is in detail. 1 Had it been so completed, it certainly would have ranked next the Taj among Indian mausolea. 2 JAIIANGIR, A.D. 1605-1628. When we consider how much was done by his father and his son, it is rather startling to find how little Jahangir con- tributed to the architectural magnificence of India. Partly this may be owing to his not having the same passion for building which characterised these two great monarchs ; but partly also to his having made Lahor the capital during his reign, and to his having held his court there in preference to Agra or Delhi, from 1622 till his death in i628. 3 Among the buildings of Jahangir's reign, the Jahangtri Mahall, already mentioned, in the fort at Agra, is ascribed to 1 Eleven plates of the beautiful coloured work are published in ' Photographs and Drawings of Historical Buildings' (Griggs, 1896). 2 After the above was written, and the diagram drawn (Woodcut No. 428), I was not a little pleased to find the following entry in Mr. Finch's journal. He resided in Agra for some years, and visited the tomb for the last time apparently in 1609, and after describing most faithfully all its peculiarities up to the upper floor, as it now stands, adds : " At my last sight thereof there was only overhead a rich tent with a Semaine over the tomb. But it is to be inarched over with the most curious white and speckled marble, and to be seeled all within with pure sheet gold richly inwrought." ' Purchas, his Pilgrims,' vol. i. p. 440. 3 His father, Akbar, had also kept his court here for fourteen years, from 1584 to 1 598 : and had repaired the fort and built the Akbari Mahall in the east end of it, and a Diwan - i - 'Amm, now de- molished, also the Akbari Gate as the principal entrance. Examples may still be seen at Lahor of the architecture of his time, though defaced by subsequent alterations.