Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/375

 CHAP. X. MYSORE AND OUDH. 323 Oudh, Haidarabad, and other cities which have risen into importance during the last hundred years. Even these capitals, however, are not without edifices of a palatial class, which from their size and the picturesqueness of their forms deserve attention, and to an eye educated among the plaster glories of the Alhambra would seem objects of no small interest and beauty. Few, however, are built of either marble or squared stone : most of them are of brick or rubble- stone, and the ornaments in stucco, which, coupled with the inferiority of their design, will always prevent their being admired in immediate proximity with the glories of Agra and Delhi. In a history of Muhammadan art in India which had any pretensions to be exhaustive, it would be necessary to describe before concluding many minor buildings, especially tombs, which are found in every corner of the land. For, in addition to the Imperial tombs mentioned above, the neighbourhoods of Agra and Delhi are crowded with those of the nobles of the court, some of them scarcely less magnificent than the mausolea of their masters. Besides the tombs, however, in the capitals of the empire, there is scarcely a city of any importance in the whole course of the Ganges or Jamna, even as far eastward as Dacca, that does not possess some specimens of this form of architectural magnificence. Jaunpur and Allahabad are particularly rich in examples ; but Patna and Dacca possess two of the most pleasing of the smaller class of tombs that are to be met with anywhere. MYSORE AND OUDH. If it were worth while to engrave a sufficient number of illustrations to make the subject intelligible, one or two chapters might very easily be filled with the architecture of these two dynasties. That of Mysore, though only lasting forty years A.D. 1760-1799 was sufficiently far removed from European influence to practise a style retaining something of true architectural character. The pavilion called the Darya Daulat at Seringapatam resembles somewhat the nearly contemporary palace at Dig in style, but is feebler and of a much less ornamental character. The tomb, too, of the founder of the dynasty, and the surrounding mausolea, retain a reminiscence of former greatness, but will not stand comparison with the Imperial tombs of Agra and Delhi. On the other hand, the tomb of Abu-1 Mansur Khan Safdar Jang (1739-1754), the second of the Nawab Vazirs of Oudh,