There are, however, some twenty or thirty similar royal residences in Central India, all of which have points of interest and beauty: some for their extent, others for their locality, and some for their beauty in detail, but every one of which would require a volume to describe in detail. Two examples, though among the least known, must at present suffice to illustrate their general appearance.
That at Duttiah ([Woodcut No. 268]), in Bundelcund, is a large square block of building, more regular than such buildings generally are, but still sufficiently relieved both in outline, and in the variety of detail applied to the various storeys, to avoid monotony, and with its gardens leading down to the lake, and its tombs opposite, combine to make up an architectural scene of a singularly pleasing character.
The other is even less known, as it belongs to the little Bundelcund
269. Palace at Ourtcha Bundelcund. (From a Photograph.)
state of Ourtcha ([Woodcut No. 269]), but is of a much more varied outline than that at Duttiah, and with its domes and gateways makes up as picturesque a combination as can well be found anywhere. It is too modern for much purity of detail, but that in a residence is less objectionable than it would be in a temple, or in an edifice devoted to any higher purpose.
Gualior.
Perhaps the most historically interesting of these Central Indian palaces is that of Gualior. The rock on which that fortress stands is of so peculiar a formation, and by nature so strong, that it must always have been occupied by the chiefs of the state in which it is situated. Its temples have already been described, but its older palaces have undergone the fate of all similar edifices; it, however, possesses, or possessed, in that built by Mân Sing (A.D. 1486-1516), the most remarkable and interesting example of a Hindu palace of an early age in India. The external dimensions of this palace are 300 ft. by 160 ft., and on the east side it is 100 ft. high, having two underground storeys looking over the country. On all its faces the flat surface is relieved by tall towers of singularly pleasing design, crowned by cupolas that were covered with domes of gilt copper when Baber saw them in 1527.[477] His successor, Vicramaditya, added another palace, of even greater extent, to this one in 1516;[478] and Jehangir and Shah Jehan added palaces to these two, the whole making up a group of edifices unequalled for picturesqueness and interest by anything of their class that exists in Central India.[479] Among the apartments in the palace was one called the Baradurri, supported on twelve columns, and 45 ft. square, with a stone roof, which was one of the most beautiful apartments of its class anywhere to be found. It was, besides, singularly interesting from the expedients to which the Hindu architect was forced to resort to imitate the vaults of the Moslems. They had not then learned to copy them, as they did at the end of that century, at Bindrabun and elsewhere, under the guidance of the tolerant Akbar.