erected within the limits of the present century ([Woodcut No. 267]). To a European eye, perhaps the least pleasing part will be the Bengali curved cornices alluded to in the last chapter; but to any one familiar with the style, its employment gets over many difficulties that a straight line could hardly meet, and altogether it makes up with its domes and pavilions as pleasing a group of its class as is to be found in India, of its age at least. The tombs of the Bhurtpore Rajahs at Goverdhun are similar to this one, but on a larger scale, and some of them being older, are in better taste; but the more modern ones avoid most of the faults that are only too characteristic of the art in India at the present day, and some of them are very modern. One was in course of construction when I was there in 1839, and from its architect I learned more of the secrets of art as practised in the Middle Ages than I have learned from all the books I have since read. Another was commenced after the time of my visit, and it is far from being one of the worst buildings of its class. If one could only inspire the natives with a feeling of pride in their own style, there seems little doubt that even now they could rival the works of their forefathers.
Palaces.
Another feature by which the northern style is most pleasingly distinguished from the southern, is the number and beauty of the palaces, which are found in all the capitals of the native states, especially in Rajputana. These are seldom designed with much reference to architectural symmetry or effect, but are nevertheless always picturesque and generally most ornamental objects in the landscape where they are found. As a rule, they are situated on rocky eminences, jutting into or overhanging lakes or artificial pieces of water, which are always pleasing accompaniments to buildings of any sort in that climate; and the way they are fitted into the rocks, or seem to grow out of them, frequently leads to the most picturesque combinations. Sometimes their bases are fortified with round towers or bastions, on whose terraces the palace stands; and even when this is not the case, the basement is generally built up solid to a considerable height, in a manner that gives a most pleasing effect of solidity to the whole, however light the superstructure may be, and often is. If to these natural advantages you add the fact that the high caste Hindu is almost incapable of bad taste, and that all these palaces are exactly what they profess to be, without any affectation of pretending to be what they are not, or of copying any style, ancient or modern, but that best suited for their purposes—it will not be difficult to realise what pleasing objects of study these Rajput palaces really are. At the same time it will be easily understood how difficult it must be in such a work as this to convey any adequate idea of their beauty; without plans explaining their arrangements, and architectural details of their interior, neither their elegance nor appropriateness can be judged of. A palace is not like a temple—a simple edifice of one or two halls or cells, almost identical with hundreds of others; but a vast congeries of public and private apartments grouped as a whole more for convenience than effect.
Few of the palaces of India have escaped the fate of that class of edifice all the world over. Either they must be deserted and left to decay, which in India means rapid obliteration, or they must be altered and modified to suit the requirements of subsequent occupants, till little if anything remains of the original structure. This fate, so far as is known, has overtaken all the royal abodes that may have existed before the dark ages; so much so, indeed, that no trace of them has been found anywhere. Even after that we look in vain for anything important before the 13th century. At Chittore, for instance, where one of the earliest Rajput dynasties was established, there are buildings that bear the name of the Palace of the Mori, but so altered and remodelled as to be unrecognisable as such; nor can the palace of the Khengar at Girnar exhibit any feature that belongs to the date to which it is assigned.
At Chittore the oldest building of this class which can with certainty be said to have existed anterior to the sack of the place by Alla-u-dîn in 1305, is the palace of Bhîm and Pudmandi, which remains unaltered, and is, though small, a very pleasing example of the style.[475] The palace of Khumbo Rana (A.D. 1418-1468) in the same place is far more grandiose, and shows all that beauty of detail which characterises his buildings in general.
The palaces at Chittore belonging to this dynasty were however far surpassed, in extent at least, by those which Udya Sing commenced at Udyapur or Oudeypore, to which place he removed his capital after the third sack of Chittore by Akbar in 1580. It has not unfrequently been compared with the Castle at Windsor, and not inaptly, for both in outline and extent it is not unlike that palace, though differing so wonderfully in detail and in situation. In this latter respect the Eastern has the advantage of the Western palace, as it stands on the verge of an extensive lake, surrounded by hills of great beauty of outline, and in the lake are two island palaces, the Jug Newas and Jug Mundir, which are more beautiful in their class than any similar objects I know of elsewhere.[476] It would be difficult to find any scene where art and nature are so happily blended together and produce so fairy-like an effect. Certainly nothing I know of so modern a date equals it.
The palace at Boondi is of about the same modern age as that at Oudeypore, and almost equals it in architectural effect. It is smaller however, and its lake is less in extent, and has only temples standing on its islets, instead of palaces with their pavilions and gardens. Still, the mode in which it is placed on its hill, and the way in which its buildings gradually fade into the bastions of the hill above, are singularly picturesque even for this country, and the hills being higher, and the valleys narrower, the effect of this palace is in some respects even more imposing than that at Oudeypore.
268. Palace at Duttiah. (From a Photograph.)