DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0228
i94
INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII.
the place where they were found.1 If any other parts of the
tomb are ornamented in the same style, it would be of great
interest to have them drawn. It probably is, however, from
the Jami’ Masjid that we shall obtain the best picture of the
arts of that day, when any one will take the trouble of
examining it.
Two minars still adorn the plain outside the city, and form,
if not the most striking, at least the most prominent of the
ruins of that city. Neither of them was ever attached to a
mosque ; they are, indeed, pillars of victory, or Jaya Stambhas,
like those at Chitor and elsewhere in India, and are such as
we might expect to find in a country so long Buddhist. One
of them was erected by Mahmud himself; the other was built,
or at least finished, by Mas’ud, one of his immediate successors.2
The lower part of these towers is of a star-like form-—
the plan being apparently formed by placing two squares
diagonally the one over the other. The upper part, rising
to the height of about 140 ft. from the ground, is circular;
both are of brickwork, covered with ornaments of terra-cotta
of extreme elaboration and beauty, and retaining their sharp-
ness to the present day.
Several other minars of the same class are found further
west, even as far as the roots of the Caucasus,3 which, like
these, were pillars of victory, erected by the conquerors on
their battle-fields. None of them have the same architectural
merit as those of Ghazni, at least in their present state, though
it may be that their ornaments, having been in stucco or some
perishable material, have disappeared, leaving us now only the
skeleton of what they were.
The weakness of Mahmud’s successors left the Indians in
repose for more than a century and a half; and, like all
Eastern dynasties, the Ghaznavides were gradually sinking to
inevitable decay, when their fall was precipitated by the crimes
of one of them, which were fearfully avenged by the destruction
of their empire and capital by ’Alau-d-Din Hasan, and their race
was at length superseded by that of the Ghuri, in the person of
Shihabu-d-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, in the year 1186.
Though centuries of misrule have weighed on this country
since the time of the Ghaznavides, it is scarcely probable that
all traces of their magnificence have passed away ; but till their
1 An excellent representation of these
gates will be found in the second edition
of ‘ Marco Polo’s Travels,’ by Col. Yule,
vol. ii. p. 390.
- See translation of the inscription on
these minars, ‘Journal the Asiatic
Society of Bengal,’ vol. xii. (1843), pp.
77, 7Sl
3 Two are represented by Dubois de
Montpereux, ‘Voyage autourdu Caucase,’
INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Book VII.
the place where they were found.1 If any other parts of the
tomb are ornamented in the same style, it would be of great
interest to have them drawn. It probably is, however, from
the Jami’ Masjid that we shall obtain the best picture of the
arts of that day, when any one will take the trouble of
examining it.
Two minars still adorn the plain outside the city, and form,
if not the most striking, at least the most prominent of the
ruins of that city. Neither of them was ever attached to a
mosque ; they are, indeed, pillars of victory, or Jaya Stambhas,
like those at Chitor and elsewhere in India, and are such as
we might expect to find in a country so long Buddhist. One
of them was erected by Mahmud himself; the other was built,
or at least finished, by Mas’ud, one of his immediate successors.2
The lower part of these towers is of a star-like form-—
the plan being apparently formed by placing two squares
diagonally the one over the other. The upper part, rising
to the height of about 140 ft. from the ground, is circular;
both are of brickwork, covered with ornaments of terra-cotta
of extreme elaboration and beauty, and retaining their sharp-
ness to the present day.
Several other minars of the same class are found further
west, even as far as the roots of the Caucasus,3 which, like
these, were pillars of victory, erected by the conquerors on
their battle-fields. None of them have the same architectural
merit as those of Ghazni, at least in their present state, though
it may be that their ornaments, having been in stucco or some
perishable material, have disappeared, leaving us now only the
skeleton of what they were.
The weakness of Mahmud’s successors left the Indians in
repose for more than a century and a half; and, like all
Eastern dynasties, the Ghaznavides were gradually sinking to
inevitable decay, when their fall was precipitated by the crimes
of one of them, which were fearfully avenged by the destruction
of their empire and capital by ’Alau-d-Din Hasan, and their race
was at length superseded by that of the Ghuri, in the person of
Shihabu-d-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, in the year 1186.
Though centuries of misrule have weighed on this country
since the time of the Ghaznavides, it is scarcely probable that
all traces of their magnificence have passed away ; but till their
1 An excellent representation of these
gates will be found in the second edition
of ‘ Marco Polo’s Travels,’ by Col. Yule,
vol. ii. p. 390.
- See translation of the inscription on
these minars, ‘Journal the Asiatic
Society of Bengal,’ vol. xii. (1843), pp.
77, 7Sl
3 Two are represented by Dubois de
Montpereux, ‘Voyage autourdu Caucase,’