Page:The Architecture of Ancient Delhi Especially the Buildings Around the Kutb Minar 1872 by Henry Hardy Cole.djvu/84

58 ornamental forms so thoroughly conventionalised as to defy their identification with the original foliage which suggested them. The twisted ornament at the bottom is rendered by serpent-like tails springing from human bodies placed at the corners. These tails are intertwined, right and left, with the tails of adjacent figures and are made to terminate in the shape of a snake's head over the figures at each corner.

The pillars have the appearance of having been pieced together and erected in accordance with the intention of the original Hindu design, and most probably were all taken from one temple. The Sanctuary of the Mosque, as pre-eminent in importance, would have been doubtless commenced before the Court and Colonnade, and from the overturned temples of the conquered Hindus the best materials were selected for its construction.

A cast composed of sixteen pieces was made of the pillar in plaster, and had it not been for the use of elastic gelatine moulds, the centre carving would have been an almost endless work, on account of the depth and "under-cut" of the ornament. But by the use of this process the middle band was moulded in two pieces instead of in several hundred pieces, which would have been necessary had the ordinary process of piece moulding in plaster been employed.

The wall to be seen on the left is at the back of the mosque, and faces the great arches of Kutb-ud-din. It appears to have been quite plain, and composed of blocks of from one to two feet broad.