Page:The Architecture of Ancient Delhi Especially the Buildings Around the Kutb Minar 1872 by Henry Hardy Cole.djvu/83

 Masjid-i-Kutb-ul-Isldm. 5 7 Photograph IV. PILLARS IN THE SANCTUARY OF THE MOSQUE. HE principal aim of my visit to the Kutb ruins was to obtain facsimiles of the best pillars in the Colonnade. They have a beauty and variety of ornament unequalled, so far as is known, in the whole of the northern part of India, and are some of the best samples of a style of architecture, evidently one suggested by that of the Jams, of which specimens abound in Rajputana and Bandelkhand. In the present Jain style of architecture. instance it would appear that the temples from which the pillars and materials had been taken to build the Mosque were Brahminical. Those emblems of the very few which can be recognised do not readily identify themselves with any of the twenty-four Jain hierarchs ; there is, however, some uncertainty as to this. The pillars shown in the photograph stand in the Masjid, or Mosque, at a place marked G on the plan, and support carved stone architraves; they are arranged at a distance of 6' h" from centre to centre ; the roof is closed in by slabs of stone placed over the corners of the architraves, the opening in the centre being covered with one large slab, which is carved. The architraves in some places have remains of figure carvings, but, through the innate antipathy of the Muhammadans to figure ornament, all the heads have been knocked off. The column in the foreground is the best specimen of the kind in this portion of the budding and court ; the upper bell ornament is singularly elegant and owes its application as a decorative detail to the bells commonly used in all ages in Hindu temples, where they are rung by the officiating Brahmin to summon the people to prayer and to drive away demons and evd thoughts. The bell has, from the earliest times, been a sacred utensil in Asia ; and the Kings of Persia used bells, made of gold, to adorn the fringes of their skirts. Lower down, and in the centre of the shaft, is a broad band of very elaborate foliated sculpture, consisting of i