DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0574
550
INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book V11.
and that their peculiarities were reappearing on the surface, though
dressed in the garb of a foreign race.
One of the most interesting of the antiquities of the place is a
miliar, standing in the fort (Woodcut No. 313). For two-thirds of
the height it is a poly-
gon of twelve sides;
ahove that circular, till
it attains the height of
84 ft. The door is at
some distance from the
ground, and altogether
it looks more like an
Irish round-tower than
any other example known,
though it is most impro-
bable that there should
lie any connexion between
the two forms. It is
evidently a pillar of vic-
tory—a Jaya Stambha—
such as the Kutub Miliar
at Delhi, and those at
Coel, Dowlutabad, and
elsewhere. There is, or
was, an inscription on
this monument which
ascribed its erection to
the king of that province
:ii3. Ulnar at Gear. (From a Photograph by J. H.
Kavrnshaw, Ii.C.S.)
ii must In
Feroze Shah. If this is
who reigned in Gram a.m. 702-715, or a.d. 1302-1315,1 and the cha-
racter of the architecture fully hears out this adscription.- The
native tradition is, that a saint, Peer Asa, lived, like Simon Stylites,
on its summit!
Besides these, there are several of the gateways of Gaur which are
of considerable magnificence. The finest is that called DhakhaL
which, though of brick, and adorned only with terra-eotta ornaments,
is as grand an object of its class as is to be found anywhere. The
gate of the citadel, and the southern gate of the city, are very noble
examples of what can be done with bricks, and bricks only. It is not,
however, in the dimensions of its buildings or the beauty of their
1 Initial coinage of Bengal, by Edward
Thomas, B.C.S. 1866.
2 In the woodcut, though not so clearly
as in the photograph, will ho ohserved
the long pendent root of the tree which
has heen planted by some bird in the
upper gallery. In another year or two
it will reach the ground, and then
down comes the miliar. Any one with
a pocket-knife might save it by five
minutes' work. Hut Oui bono! says the
Saxon.
INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book V11.
and that their peculiarities were reappearing on the surface, though
dressed in the garb of a foreign race.
One of the most interesting of the antiquities of the place is a
miliar, standing in the fort (Woodcut No. 313). For two-thirds of
the height it is a poly-
gon of twelve sides;
ahove that circular, till
it attains the height of
84 ft. The door is at
some distance from the
ground, and altogether
it looks more like an
Irish round-tower than
any other example known,
though it is most impro-
bable that there should
lie any connexion between
the two forms. It is
evidently a pillar of vic-
tory—a Jaya Stambha—
such as the Kutub Miliar
at Delhi, and those at
Coel, Dowlutabad, and
elsewhere. There is, or
was, an inscription on
this monument which
ascribed its erection to
the king of that province
:ii3. Ulnar at Gear. (From a Photograph by J. H.
Kavrnshaw, Ii.C.S.)
ii must In
Feroze Shah. If this is
who reigned in Gram a.m. 702-715, or a.d. 1302-1315,1 and the cha-
racter of the architecture fully hears out this adscription.- The
native tradition is, that a saint, Peer Asa, lived, like Simon Stylites,
on its summit!
Besides these, there are several of the gateways of Gaur which are
of considerable magnificence. The finest is that called DhakhaL
which, though of brick, and adorned only with terra-eotta ornaments,
is as grand an object of its class as is to be found anywhere. The
gate of the citadel, and the southern gate of the city, are very noble
examples of what can be done with bricks, and bricks only. It is not,
however, in the dimensions of its buildings or the beauty of their
1 Initial coinage of Bengal, by Edward
Thomas, B.C.S. 1866.
2 In the woodcut, though not so clearly
as in the photograph, will ho ohserved
the long pendent root of the tree which
has heen planted by some bird in the
upper gallery. In another year or two
it will reach the ground, and then
down comes the miliar. Any one with
a pocket-knife might save it by five
minutes' work. Hut Oui bono! says the
Saxon.