This, however, was principally owing to the exceptional splendour of the reign of Shere Shah, who, however, is so mixed up both in date and in association with the earlier Moguls, that it is difficult to discriminate between them. Though Baber practically conquered India in A.D. 1494, his successor, Humayun, was defeated and driven from the throne by Shere Shah in A.D. 1540, and it was only in A.D. 1554 that the Mogul dynasty was finally and securely established at Delhi. The style consequently of the first half of the 16th century may be considered as the last expiring effort of the Pathans, or the first dawn of that of the great Moguls, and it was well worthy of either.
At this age the façades of these mosques became far more ornamental, and more frequently encrusted with marbles, and always adorned with sculpture of a rich and beautiful character; the angles of the buildings were also relieved by little kiosks, supported by four richly bracketed pillars, but never with minarets, which, so far as I know, were not attached to mosques during the Pathan period. The call to prayer was made from the roof; and, except the first rude attempt at Ajmir, I do not know a single instance of a minaret built for such a purpose, though they were, as we know, universal in Egypt and elsewhere long before this time, and were considered nearly indispensable in the buildings of the Moguls very shortly afterwards. The Pathans seem to have regarded the minar as the Italians viewed the Campanile, more as a symbol of power and of victory than as an adjunct to a house of worship.
The body of the mosque became generally an oblong hall, with a central dome flanked by two others of the same horizontal dimensions, but not so lofty, and separated from it by a broad bold arch, the mouldings and decorations of which formed one of the principal ornaments of the building.
The pendentives were even more remarkable than the arches for elaborateness of detail. Their forms are so various that it is impossible to classify or describe them; perhaps the most usual is that represented in Woodcut No. 289, where the angle is filled up with a number of small imitations of arches, bracketing out one beyond the other. It was this form that was afterwards converted into the honeycomb work of the Arabs in Spain.
289. Pendentive from Mosque at Old Delhi. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
If it were not that the buildings of the Pathans are so completely eclipsed by the greater splendour of those of the Mogul dynasty, which succeeded them in their own capitals, their style would have attracted more attention than has hitherto been bestowed upon it; and its monograph would be as interesting as any that the Indian-Saracenic affords. In its first period the style was characterised by all the richness which Hindu elaboration could bestow; in the second by a stern simplicity and grandeur much more appropriate, according to our ideas, to the spirit of the people; and during the latter part of its existence, by a return to the elaborateness of the past; but at this period every detail was fitted to its place and its purpose. We forget the Hindu except in his delicacy, and we recognise in this last development one of the completed architectural styles of the world.
CHAPTER IV.
JAUNPORE.
CONTENTS.