Page:The Architecture of Ancient Delhi Especially the Buildings Around the Kutb Minar 1872 by Henry Hardy Cole.djvu/76

 5 2 Masjid-i-Kutb-td- Islam. commonly represented as a comely young man of a dark azure colour, and his first out of the ten principal incarnations is that of a fish, a character assumed for the purpose of regaining the possession of the Holy " Vedas," a book supposed to have been borne away by a fiend in a deluge. His second incarnation was that of a boar, and on his tusks he is stated to have raised the world, which had sunk into the depths of the ocean. A third impersonation was that of a tortoise ; a fourth that of a man with head and paws like a lion. The fifth was that of a Brahmin dwarf; the sixth was " Parusa Kama," a Brahmin hero ; the seventh was Rama Chandra ; the eighth Krishna, a hero who delivered the earth from giants. The ninth incarnation was Buddha, a teacher, as is stated by Hindus, of a false religion, but which more probably was a clever device for explaining the Buddhist religion, that formerly had so powerful a sway over the greater portion of India and to which so large a number of Hindus became converted. Hindu Sculptures 1. A piece above and inside the North Gateway; subject, several figures seated. in the Masjid. 2. This piece consists of a stone measuring about four feet three inches long by seven inches deep, and is situated above one of the openings between the North Gateway and North-east Angle. See L on plan No. II. and Photograph III. a. The sculpture is some- what of a primitive character, but appears to have been chiselled by a native sculptor whose power of art delineation was not of a finished character, although possessing the elements of true art feeling and sentiment. In the centre of the carving is a half-open door, which re- sembles the rude doors commonly to be seen in many native dwellings of the present day. The subject of the sculpture is repeated in the two halves of the stone. A female figure is reclining on a bedstead of a rather classical shape, shaded by a canopy. She is guarded by two sentinels, and beside her on the bed lies a child. There is a slight variation in the grouping in the two compartments. In that to the left a female is seated on a low stool chafing her feet, and three women are carrying two infants towards the half-open door in the centre. In the right compartment there are three women carrying three children, two appear to be engaged in washing them round a " Gharra," (a vessel in common use for holding water). On the extreme right are two cows and a young calf. The heads of the figures have not all been defaced by the Muhammadans, but have suffered from the natural decay of the stone.