DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0585
Chap. IX.
BIJAPUR.
561
(Woodcut No. 314), it will be seeu what immense strides the Indian
architects had made in constructive skill and elegance of detail
during the century and a half that elapsed between the erection of
these two buildings. If they were drawn to the same scale this
would be more apparent than it is at first sight ; but on half the
present scale the details of the Kalburgah mosque could hardly be
expressed, while the largeness of the parts, and regularity of arrange-
ment can, in the scale adopted, be made perfectly clear in the Bijapur
example. The latter is, undoubtedly, the more perfect of the two,
but there is a picturesqueness about the earlier building, and a poetry
about its arrangements, that go far to make up for the want of the
skill and the elegance exhibited in its more modern rival.
The tomb which Ali Adil Shah commenced for himself was a
square, measuring about 200 ft. each way, and had it been completed
as designed would have rivalled any tomb in India. It is one of the
disadvantages, however, of the Turanian system of each king building
his own tomb, that if he dies early his work remains unfinished.
This defect is more than compensated in practice by the fact that
unless a man builds his owii sepulchre, the chances are very much
against anything worthy of admiration being dedicated to his memory
by his surviving relatives.
His successor Ibrahim, warned by the fate of his predecessor's
tomb, commenced his own on so small a plan—11 (J ft. square—that
as he was blessed by
a long and prosperous
reign, it was only by
ornament that lie could
render it worthy of him-
self. This, however, he
accomplished by cover-
ing every part with the
most exquisite and ela-
borate carvings. The
ornamental inscriptions
are so numerous that it
is said the whole Koran
is engraved on its walls.
The cornices are sup-
ported by the most ela-
borate bracketing, the
windows filled with tra-
cery, and every part so richly ornamented that had his artists not
been Indians it might have become vulgar. The principal apart-
ment in the tomb is a square of 40 ft. each way, covered by a stone
roof, perfectly flat in the centre, and supported only by a cove pro-
2o
6 a
3
i -
O
0 0
0 . 6
820.
Tomb or Iinzah of Ibrahim. (From a Plan by
Mr dimming.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
BIJAPUR.
561
(Woodcut No. 314), it will be seeu what immense strides the Indian
architects had made in constructive skill and elegance of detail
during the century and a half that elapsed between the erection of
these two buildings. If they were drawn to the same scale this
would be more apparent than it is at first sight ; but on half the
present scale the details of the Kalburgah mosque could hardly be
expressed, while the largeness of the parts, and regularity of arrange-
ment can, in the scale adopted, be made perfectly clear in the Bijapur
example. The latter is, undoubtedly, the more perfect of the two,
but there is a picturesqueness about the earlier building, and a poetry
about its arrangements, that go far to make up for the want of the
skill and the elegance exhibited in its more modern rival.
The tomb which Ali Adil Shah commenced for himself was a
square, measuring about 200 ft. each way, and had it been completed
as designed would have rivalled any tomb in India. It is one of the
disadvantages, however, of the Turanian system of each king building
his own tomb, that if he dies early his work remains unfinished.
This defect is more than compensated in practice by the fact that
unless a man builds his owii sepulchre, the chances are very much
against anything worthy of admiration being dedicated to his memory
by his surviving relatives.
His successor Ibrahim, warned by the fate of his predecessor's
tomb, commenced his own on so small a plan—11 (J ft. square—that
as he was blessed by
a long and prosperous
reign, it was only by
ornament that lie could
render it worthy of him-
self. This, however, he
accomplished by cover-
ing every part with the
most exquisite and ela-
borate carvings. The
ornamental inscriptions
are so numerous that it
is said the whole Koran
is engraved on its walls.
The cornices are sup-
ported by the most ela-
borate bracketing, the
windows filled with tra-
cery, and every part so richly ornamented that had his artists not
been Indians it might have become vulgar. The principal apart-
ment in the tomb is a square of 40 ft. each way, covered by a stone
roof, perfectly flat in the centre, and supported only by a cove pro-
2o
6 a
3
i -
O
0 0
0 . 6
820.
Tomb or Iinzah of Ibrahim. (From a Plan by
Mr dimming.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.