266. Cenotaph in Maha Sâti at Oudeypore. (From a Photograph.)
He it was, apparently, who erected the cenotaph to the memory of his predecessor Amera Sing II., for the Hindus do not appear to have gone so far in their imitation of the Moslems as to erect their own tombs. In style it is very similar to that last described, except that it possesses only thirty-two columns instead of fifty-six. It has, however, the same lofty stylobate, which adds so much to the effect of these tombs, but has also the same defect—that the dome is raised on eight dwarf columns, which do not seem sufficient for the purpose.[473]
Woodcut No. 266 represents a cenotaph in this cemetery with only twelve columns, which, mutatis mutandis, is identical with the celebrated tomb at Halicarnassus.[474] The lofty stylobate, the twelve columns, the octagonal dome, and the general mode of construction are the same; but the twelve or thirteen centuries that have elapsed between the construction of the two, and the difference of locality, have so altered the details that the likeness is not at first sight easily recognisable. From the form of its dome it is evidently considerably more modern than that last described; it may, indeed, have been erected within the limits of the present century.
To the right of the same woodcut is another cenotaph with only eight pillars, but the effect is so weak and unpleasing that it is hardly to be wondered at that the arrangement is so rare. The angle columns seem indispensable to give the design that accentuation and firmness which are indispensable in all good architecture.
These last two illustrations, it will be observed, are practically in the Jaina style of architecture; for, though adopting a Mahomedan form, the Ranas of Oudeypore clung to the style of architecture which their ancestors had practised, and which Khumbo Rana had only recently rendered so famous. This gives them a look of greater antiquity than they are entitled to, for it is quite certain that Oudeypore was not the capital of the kingdom before the sack of Chittore in 1580; and nearly equally so that the Hindus never thought of this mode of commemorating their dead till the tolerant reign of Akbar. He did more than all that had been done before or since to fuse together the antagonistic feelings of the two religions into at least a superficial similarity.
Further north, where the Jaina style never had been used to the same extent at least as in the south-west, the Hindus adopted quite a different style in their palaces and cenotaphs. It was much more of an arched style, and though never, so far as I know, using a true arch, they adopted the form of the foliated arch, which is so common in the palaces of Agra and Delhi, and all the Mogul buildings. In the palace at Deeg, and in the cenotaphs of Goverdhun, this style is seen in great perfection. It is well illustrated, with all its peculiarities, in the next view of the tomb of Baktawar Sing at Ulwar,
267. Tomb of Rajah Baktawar at Ulwar. (From a Photograph.)