ROCK-CUT RATHS. All the above temples were built subsequently to the 12th century. The rock-cut shrines date in some cases as far back as the 7th century; they are called kylas and raths, and are not caves, but isolated edifices, imitating structural designs, but hewn bodily from the rock. Those at Mahavellipore are of diminutive size; but at Purudkul there is an extensive temple with shrine, choultrie, and gopura surrounded by a court enclosure measuring 250 × 150 feet (9th century). More famous still is the elaborate Kylas at Ellora, of about the same size as the above, but more complex and complete in its details.
PALACES. At Madura, Tanjore, and Vijayanagar are Dravidian palaces, built after the Mohammedan conquest and in a mixed style. The domical octagonal throne-room and the Great Hall at Madura (17th century), the most famous edifices of the kind, were evidently inspired from Gothic models, but how this came about is not known. The Great Hall with its pointed arched barrel vault of 67 feet span, its cusped arches, round piers, vaulting shafts, and triforium, appears strangely foreign to its surroundings.
CAMBODIA. The subject of Indian architecture cannot be dismissed without at least brief mention of the immense temple of Nakhon Wat in Cambodia. This stupendous creation covers an area of a full square mile, with its concentric courts, its encircling moat or lake, its causeways, porches, and shrines, dominated by a central structure 200 feet square with nine pagoda-like towers. The corridors around the inner court have square piers of almost classic Roman type. The rich carving, the perfect masonry, and the admirable composition of the whole leading up to the central mass, indicate architectural ability of a high order.
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. No purely Mongolian nation appears ever to have erected buildings of first-rate importance. It cannot be denied, however, that the Chinese are possessed of considerable decorative skill and mechanical ingenuity; and these qualities are the most prominent elements in their buildings. Great size and splendor, massiveness and originality of construction, they do not possess. Built in large measure of wood, cleverly framed and decorated with a certain richness of color and ornament, with a large element of the grotesque in the decoration, the Chinese temples, pagodas, and palaces are interesting rather than impressive. There is not a single architectural monument of imposing size or of great antiquity, so far as we know. The celebrated Porcelain Tower of Nankin is no longer extant, having been destroyed in the Tæping rebellion in 1850. It was a nine-storied polygonal pagoda 236 feet high, revetted with porcelain tiles, and was built in 1412. The largest of Chinese temples, that of the Great Dragon at Pekin, is a circular structure of moderate size, though its enclosure is nearly a mile square. Pagodas with diminishing stories, elaborately carved entrance gates and successive terraces are mainly relied upon for effect. They show little structural art, but much clever ornament. Like the monasteries and the vast lamaseries of Thibet, they belong to the Buddhist religion.
Aside from the ingenious framing and bracketing of the carpentry, the most striking peculiarity of Chinese buildings is their broad-spreading tiled roofs. These invariably slope downward in a curve, and the tiling, with its hip-ridges, crestings, and finials in terra-cotta or metal, adds materially to the picturesqueness of the general effect. Color and gilding are freely used, and in some cases—as in a summer pavilion at Pekin—porcelain tiling covers the walls, with brilliant effect. The chief wonder is that this resource of the architectural decorator has not been further developed in China, where porcelain and earthenware are otherwise treated with such remarkable skill.
JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. Apparently associated in race with the Chinese and Koreans, the Japanese are far more artistic in temperament than either of their neighbors. The refinement and originality of their decorative art have given it a wide reputation. Unfortunately the prevalence of earthquakes has combined with the influence of the traditional habits of the people to prevent the maturing of a truly monumental architecture. Except for the terraces, gates, and enclosures of their palaces and temples, wood is the predominant building material. It is used substantially as in China, the framing, dovetailing, bracketing, broad eaves and tiled roofs of Japan closely resembling those of China. The chief difference is in the greater refinement and delicacy of the Japanese details and the more monumental disposition of the temple terraces, the beauty of which is greatly enhanced by skillful landscape gardening. The gateways recall somewhat those of the Sanchi Tope in India ([p. 403]), but are commonly of wood. Owing to the danger from earthquakes, lofty towers and pagodas are rarely seen.
The domestic architecture of Japan, though interesting for its arrangements, and for its sensible and artistic use of the most flimsy materials, is too trivial in scale, detail, and construction to receive more than passing reference. Even the great palace at Tokio,[28] covering an immense area, is almost entirely composed of one-storied buildings of wood, with little of splendor or architectural dignity.
MONUMENTS (additional to those in text). BUDDHIST: Topes at Sanchi, Sonari, Satdara, Andher, in Central India; at Sarnath, near Benares; at Jelalabad and Salsette; in Ceylon at Anuradhapura, Tuparamaya, Lankaramaya.—Grotto temples (chaityas), mainly in Bombay and Bengal Presidencies; at Behar, especially the Lomash Rishi, and Cuttack; at Bhaja, Bedsa, Ajunta, and Ellora (Wiswakarma Cave); in Salsette, the Kenheri Cave.—Viharas: Structural at Nalanda and Sarnath, demolished; rock-cut in Bengal, at Cuttack, Udayagiri (the Ganesa); in the west, many at Ajunta, also at Bagh, Bedsa, Bhaja, Nassick (the Nahapana, Vadnya Sri, etc.), Salsette, Ellora (the Dekrivaria, etc.). In Nepâl, stupas of Swayanbunath and Bouddhama.
JAINA: Temples at Aiwulli, Kanaruc (Black Pagoda), and Purudkul; groups of temples at Palitana, Gimar, Mount Abu, Somnath, Parisnath; the Sas Bahu at Gwalior, 1093; Parswanatha and Ganthai (650) at Khajuraho; temple at Gyraspore, 7th century; modern temples at Ahmedabad (Huttising), Delhi, and Sonaghur; in the south at Moodbidri, Sravana Belgula; towers at Chittore.
NORTHERN BRAHMAN: Temples, Parasumareswara (500 A.D.), Mukteswara, and Great Temple (600–650), all at Bhuwaneswar, among many others; of Papanatha at Purudkul; grotto temples at Dhumnar, Ellora, and Poonah; temples at Chandravati, Udaipur, and Amritsur (the last modern); tombs of Singram Sing and others at Oudeypore; of Rajah Baktawar at Ulwar, and others at Goverdhun; ghâts or landings at Benares and elsewhere.