It is true, nevertheless, that in their tombs, as well as in their mosques, they frequently, to save themselves trouble, used Hindu materials when they were available, and often with the most picturesque effect. Many of these compound edifices are composed of four pillars only, surmounted by a small dome; but frequently they adopt with the pillars the Jaina arrangement of twelve pillars, so placed as to support an octagonal framework, easily moulded into a circular basement for a dome. This, as before observed, is the arrangement of the tomb at Mylassa, and the formative idea of all that is beautiful in the plans of Jaina buildings in India.
One example must suffice to explain the effect of these buildings ([Woodcut No. 285]). At first sight the dome looks rather heavy for the substructure; but the effect of the whole is so picturesque that it is difficult to find fault with it. If all the materials were original, the design would be open to criticism; but, when a portion is avowedly borrowed, a slight want of balance between the parts may be excused.
285. Pathan Tomb at Shepree, near Gualior. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
There are several examples of tombs of this sort at the Bakaraya Kund in Benares, evidently made up from Jaina materials;[507] and, indeed, wherever the Mahomedans fairly settled themselves on a site previously occupied by the Jains, such combinations are frequent; but no attempt is ever made to assimilate the parts that are Mahomedan with those belonging to the Hindu style which they are employing; they are of the age in which the tomb or mosque was built, and that age, consequently, easily recognisable by any one familiar with the style.
The usual form of a Pathan tomb will be better understood from the following woodcut (No. [286]), representing a nameless sepulchre among the hundreds that still strew the plains of Old Delhi. It consists of an octagonal apartment, about 50 ft. in diameter, surrounded by a verandah following the same form, each face being ornamented by three arches of the stilted pointed form generally adopted by the Pathans, and it is supported by double square columns, which are almost as universal with them as this form of arch.
286. Tomb at Old Delhi. (From a Sketch by the Author.)