Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/85

 CHAP. III. AMWA. 57 Yet we must not forget that the Hindus also have shown that they could, and did frequently employ the dome very successfully. Among examples of their use of it few are more pleasing than the little temple at Amwa or Amvar, near Ajanta (Woodcut No. 294). It is only a fragment. The sanctuary with its spire are gone, only the portico remaining; and its roof externally is so ruined, that its design can with difficulty be made out. Yet it stands so well on its stylobate, and the thirty small columns that support the roof externally are so well propor- tioned and so artistically arranged, as to leave little to be desired. The great feature of the interior is a dome 21 ft. in diameter, supported on twelve richly carved pillars, with eight smaller ones interspersed. Like all Indian domes, it is horizontal in construction, and consequently also in ornamentation, but as that is done here, it is as elegant or more so than the ribbed domes of western art. This one is plain in the centre, having no pendant which, however, is one of the most marked and pleasing features of such domes, as may be gathered from the example in the temple of Vimala at Mount Abu (Wood- cut No. 284 and Plate XIX.). A larger and perhaps better example might be cited in the case of the great sun-temple at Modhera in Gujarat, when entire, but only the lower courses of its domes now remain. 1 One of the most interesting Jaina monuments of the age is the tower, formerly known as Sri Allata's, 2 which still adorns the head of Chitor (Woodcut No. 295, next page), and is one probably of a great number of similar monuments that may at one time have existed. From their form, however, they are frail, and trees and human violence so easily overthrow them, that we ought not to wonder that so few remain. This one is a singularly elegant specimen of its class, about 75 ft. in height, and adorned with sculpture and mouldings from the base to the summit. 3 It stands on a basement 20 ft. square and 9 ft. high, with a stair on the south side, leading to the doorway, which is 6 ft. 2 in. above the platform. The shaft of the tower is 12 ft. 10 in. square below, and is four storeys high to the open canopy of twelve pillars, the floor of which is 64 ft. 2 in. from the ground. An inscription once existed lying near its base, which is said to have given its date as A.D. 895,* though 1 'Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. ix. pp, 75ff. and plates 49, 50. z Allata, to whom the erection of this tower was ascribed, ruled between 953 and 972, as we gather from inscriptions, and is the I2th king, mentioned in Tod's Aitpur inscription. Rajasthan,' vol. i. p. 802, Madras ed. p. 706. 3 ' Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindostan,' by the Author, plate 8, p. 38. 4 Tod, ' Rajasthan,' vol. ii. p. 763. (Madras ed. p. 699). This would be before the time of Allata. The tower is also locally known as Kaitan Rent's but who she was is unknown.