CONTENTS.
Cenotaphs—Palaces at Gualior, Ambêr, Deeg—Ghâts—Reservoirs—Dams.
Cenotaphs.
As remarked above, one of the most unexpected peculiarities of the art, as practised by the inhabitants of southern India, is the absence of any attempt at sepulchral magnificence. As the Dravidians were undoubtedly of Turanian origin, and were essentially builders, we certainly would expect that they should show some respect for the memories of their great men. It is, however, even uncertain how far the cromlechs, dolmens, or sepulchral circles found all over the south of India can be said to belong to the Dravidians in a ruder stage of society, or whether they belong to some aboriginal tribes who may have adopted the language of the superior races without being able to change the instincts of their race. Even after they had seen how much respect the Mahomedans paid to departed greatness, they failed to imitate them in this peculiarity. It was otherwise in the north of India—not among the pure Aryans, of course; but in the Rajput states, where blood is less pure, they eagerly seized the suggestion offered by Mahomedan magnificence in this respect, and erected chuttries on the spots where their bodies had been burnt. Where, too, their widows, with that strange devotion which is the noblest trait in the Hindu female’s character, had sacrificed themselves to what they conceived to be their duty.
In Rajputana every native capital has its Maha Sâti, or place where the sovereigns of the state and their nearest relatives are buried with their wives. Most of these are appropriately situated in a secluded spot at some little distance from the town, and, the locality being generally chosen because it is rocky and well-wooded, it forms as picturesque a necropolis as is to be found anywhere. Of these, however, the most magnificent, and certainly among the most picturesque, is that of Oudeypore, the capital of Mewar and the chief of all the Rajput states still existing. Here the tombs exist literally in hundreds, of all sizes, from the little domical canopy supported by
265. Cenotaph of Singram Sing at Oudeypore. (From a Photograph.)
four columns to the splendid chuttry whose octagonal dome is supported by fifty-six, for it has been the burying-place of the race ever since they were expelled from the ancient capital at Chittore by Akbar in 1580. All are crowned by domes, and all make more or less pretensions to architectural beauty; while as they are grouped together as accident dictated, and interspersed with noble trees, it would be difficult to point out a more beautiful cemetery anywhere. Among the finest is that of Singram Sing, one of the most illustrious of his race, who was buried on this spot, with twenty-one of his wives, in A.D. 1733. As will be seen from the annexed Woodcut (No. [265]), it is a fifty-six pillared portico, with one octagonal dome in the centre (vide ante, Woodcut No. 119). The dome itself is supported on eight dwarf pillars, which, however, hardly seem sufficient for the purpose. The architect seems to have desired to avoid all appearances of that gloom or solemnity which characterise the contemporary tombs of the Moslems, but, in doing this, to have erred in the other direction. The base here is certainly not sufficiently solid for the mass it has to support; but the whole is so elegant, and the effect so pleasing, that it seems hypercritical to find fault with it, and difficult to find, even among Mahomedan tombs, anything more beautiful.