DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0373
Chap. XI.
WOODEN ARCHITECTURE.
333
CHAPTER XI.
WOODEN ARCHITECTURE.
CONTENTS.
Mosque of Shah Hamadan, .Srinagar.
Kashmir.
TURNING for the nonce from this quasi-wooden style—which is
only an indication of decadence and decrepitude—it would be
pleasing if we could finish our narrative with the description
of a true wooden style as it exists in Kashmir. The Jami’
Masjid, in the city of .Srinagar, is a large and important building,
and if not so magnificent as some of those described in the
preceding pages, is of great interest from being designed to be
constructed in wood, and wood only. A knowledge of its
peculiarities would, consequently, help us much in understanding
many problems that arise in investigating the history of archi-
tecture in India. Unfortunately it is not a fashionable building,
and of the 1001 tourists who visit the valley no one mentions
it, and no photographer has yet set up his camera within its
precincts.1
Its plan is the usual one : a courtyard surrounded by
cloisters of three arcades wide on the east side and four on
the other three, its peculiarity being that all the pillars that
support its roofs are of Deodar pine—not used, of course, to
imitate stone or stone construction, but honest wooden forms,
as in Burmese monasteries and elsewhere. The carving on
them is, I believe, rich and beautiful, and though dilapidated,
the effect is said to be still singularly pleasing.
There is one other mosque in the same city, known as that
1 If Lieut. Cole, instead of repeating
plans and details of buildings which had
already been published by Gen. Cunning-
ham, had given us a plan and details of
this unknown building, he might have
rendered a service all would have been
grateful for. What I know of it is princi-
pally derived from verbal communication
with Col. Montgomerie, R.E.
WOODEN ARCHITECTURE.
333
CHAPTER XI.
WOODEN ARCHITECTURE.
CONTENTS.
Mosque of Shah Hamadan, .Srinagar.
Kashmir.
TURNING for the nonce from this quasi-wooden style—which is
only an indication of decadence and decrepitude—it would be
pleasing if we could finish our narrative with the description
of a true wooden style as it exists in Kashmir. The Jami’
Masjid, in the city of .Srinagar, is a large and important building,
and if not so magnificent as some of those described in the
preceding pages, is of great interest from being designed to be
constructed in wood, and wood only. A knowledge of its
peculiarities would, consequently, help us much in understanding
many problems that arise in investigating the history of archi-
tecture in India. Unfortunately it is not a fashionable building,
and of the 1001 tourists who visit the valley no one mentions
it, and no photographer has yet set up his camera within its
precincts.1
Its plan is the usual one : a courtyard surrounded by
cloisters of three arcades wide on the east side and four on
the other three, its peculiarity being that all the pillars that
support its roofs are of Deodar pine—not used, of course, to
imitate stone or stone construction, but honest wooden forms,
as in Burmese monasteries and elsewhere. The carving on
them is, I believe, rich and beautiful, and though dilapidated,
the effect is said to be still singularly pleasing.
There is one other mosque in the same city, known as that
1 If Lieut. Cole, instead of repeating
plans and details of buildings which had
already been published by Gen. Cunning-
ham, had given us a plan and details of
this unknown building, he might have
rendered a service all would have been
grateful for. What I know of it is princi-
pally derived from verbal communication
with Col. Montgomerie, R.E.