History Of Indian And Eastern Architecture - free ebook by James Fergusson

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History Of Indian And Eastern Architecture

James Fergusson

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WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ROCK-CUT TEMPLES OF INDIA. 18 Plates in Tinted Lithography, folio: with an 8vo. volume of Text, Plans, &amp;c. 2 l. 7 s. 6 d. London, Weale, 1845. PICTURESQUE ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE IN HINDOSTAN. 24 Plates in Coloured Lithography, with Plans, Woodcuts, and explanatory Text, &amp;c. 4 l. 4 s. London, Hogarth, 1847. AN HISTORICAL INQUIRY INTO THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY IN ART, more especially with reference to Architecture. Royal 8vo. 31 s. 6 d. Londo

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

During the nine years that have elapsed since I last wrote on this subject, [1] very considerable progress has been made in the elucidation of many of the problems that still perplex the student of the History of Indian Architecture. The publication of the five volumes of General Cunningham’s ‘Archæological Reports’ has thrown new light on many obscure points, but generally from an archæological rather than from an architectural point of view; and Mr. Burgess’s researches among the western caves

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NOTE.

NOTE.

One of the great difficulties that meets every one attempting to write on Indian subjects at the present day is to know how to spell Indian proper names. The Gilchristian mode of using double vowels, which was fashionable fifty years ago, has now been entirely done away with, as contrary to the spirit of Indian orthography, though it certainly is the mode which enables the ordinary Englishman to pronounce Indian names with the greatest readiness and certainty. On the other hand, an attempt is no

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INTRODUCTION.

INTRODUCTION.

It is in vain, perhaps, to expect that the Literature or the Arts of any other people can be so interesting to even the best educated Europeans as those of their own country. Until it is forced on their attention, few are aware how much education does to concentrate attention within a very narrow field of observation. We become familiar in the nursery with the names of the heroes of Greek and Roman history. In every school their history and their arts are taught, memorials of their greatness mee

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BOOK I. BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND CLASSIFICATION.

BOOK I. BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND CLASSIFICATION.

It may create a feeling of disappointment in some minds when they are told that there is no stone architecture in India older than two and a half centuries before the Christian Era; but, on the other hand, it adds immensely to the clearness of what follows to be able to assert that India owes the introduction of the use of stone for architectural purposes, as she does that of Buddhism as a state religion, to the great Asoka, who reigned from B.C. 272 to 236. It is not, of course, meant to insinu

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CHAPTER II. STAMBHAS OR LÂTS.

CHAPTER II. STAMBHAS OR LÂTS.

It is not clear whether we ought to claim a wooden origin for these, as we can for all the other objects of Buddhist architecture. Certain it is, however, that the lâts of Asoka, with shafts averaging twelve diameters in height, are much more like wooden posts than any forms derived from stone architecture, and in an age when wooden pillars were certainly employed to support the roofs of halls, it is much more likely that the same material should be employed for the purposes to which these stamb

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CHAPTER III. STUPAS.

CHAPTER III. STUPAS.

CONTENTS. Bhilsa Topes—Topes at Sarnath and in Behar—Amravati Tope—Gandhara Topes—Jelalabad Topes—Manikyala Tope. There are few subjects of like nature that would better reward the labour of some competent student than an investigation into the origin of Relic Worship and its subsequent diffusion over the greater part of the old world. So far as is at present known, it did not exist in Egypt, nor in Greece or Rome in classical times, nor in Babylon or Assyria. In some of these countries the grea

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CHAPTER IV. RAILS.

CHAPTER IV. RAILS.

CONTENTS. Rails at Bharhut, Muttra, Sanchi, and Amravati. It is only recently that our rapidly-increasing knowledge has enabled us to appreciate the important part which Rails play in the history of Buddhist architecture. The rail of the great Tope at Sanchi has, it is true, been long known; but it is the plainest of those yet discovered, and without the inscriptions which are found on it, and the gateways that were subsequently added to it, presents few features to interest any one. There is a

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CHAPTER V. CHAITYA HALLS.

CHAPTER V. CHAITYA HALLS.

CONTENTS. Behar Caves—Western Chaitya Halls, &amp;c. Although , if looked at from a merely artistic point of view, it will probably be found that the rails are the most interesting Buddhist remains that have come down to our time, still, in an historical or architectural sense, they are certainly surpassed by the chaitya halls. These are the temples of the religion, properly so called, and the exact counterpart of the churches of the Christians, not only in form, but in use. Some twenty or t

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CHAPTER VI. VIHARAS,[158] OR MONASTERIES.

CHAPTER VI. VIHARAS,[158] OR MONASTERIES.

CONTENTS. Structural Viharas—Bengal and Western Vihara Caves—Nassick, Ajunta, Bagh, Dhumnar, Kholvi, and Ellora Viharas—Circular Cave at Junir. Structural Viharas. We are almost more dependent on rock-cut examples for our knowledge of the Viharas or monasteries of the Buddhists than we are for that of their Chaityas or churches: a circumstance more to be regretted in this instance than in the other. In a chaitya hall the interior is naturally the principal object, and where the art of the archit

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CHAPTER VII. GANDHARA MONASTERIES.

CHAPTER VII. GANDHARA MONASTERIES.

CONTENTS. Monasteries at Jamalgiri, Takht-i-Bahi, and Shah Dehri. Few of the recent discoveries in India promise to be more fruitful of important results for the elucidation of the archæology of India than those obtained from the recent excavations of ruined monasteries in the neighbourhood of Peshawur. A great deal still remains to be done before we can speak with certainty with regard either to their age or origin, but enough is known of them to make it certain that the materials there exist f

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CHAPTER VIII. CEYLON.

CHAPTER VIII. CEYLON.

CONTENTS. Introductory—Anuradhapura—Pollonarua. Introductory. If the materials existed for writing it in anything like a complete and satisfactory manner, there are few chapters in this history that ought to be so interesting or instructive as that which treats of the architecture of Ceylon. It alone, of all known countries, contains a complete series of Buddhist monuments extending from the time of Asoka to the present day, and in the ‘Mahawanso’ it alone possesses a history so detailed and so

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BOOK II. JAINA ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

BOOK II. JAINA ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

There are few of the problems connected with this branch of our subject so obscure and so puzzling as those connected with the early history of the Architecture of the Jains. When we first practically meet with it in the early part of the 11th century at Abu, or at Girnar, it is a style complete and perfect in all its parts, evidently the result of long experience and continuous artistic development. From that point it progresses during one or two centuries towards greater richness, but in doing

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CHAPTER II. CONSTRUCTION.

CHAPTER II. CONSTRUCTION.

CONTENTS. Arches—Domes—Plans—Sikras. Arches. Before proceeding to describe the arrangements of Jaina or Hindu temples, it may add to the clearness of what follows if we first explain the peculiar modes of constructing arches and domes which they invariably employed. As remarked above, although we cannot assert with absolute certainty that the Buddhists never employed a true arch, this at least is certain—that no structural example has yet been found in India, and that all the arched or circular

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CHAPTER III. NORTHERN JAINA STYLE.

CHAPTER III. NORTHERN JAINA STYLE.

CONTENTS. Palitana—Girnar—Mount Abu—Parisnath—Gualior—Khajurâho. Palitana. The grouping together of their temples into what may be called “Cities of Temples” is a peculiarity which the Jains practised to a greater extent than the followers of any other religion in India. The Buddhists grouped their stupas and viharas near and around sacred spots, as at Sanchi, Manikyala, or in Peshawur, and elsewhere; but they were scattered, and each was supposed to have a special meaning, or to mark some sacre

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CHAPTER IV. MODERN JAINA STYLE.

CHAPTER IV. MODERN JAINA STYLE.

CONTENTS. Jaina Temple, Delhi—Jaina Caves—Converted Mosques. The two places in northern India where the most modern styles of Jaina architecture can probably be studied to most advantage are Sonaghur, near Dutteah, in Bundelcund, and Muktagiri, near Gawelghur, in Berar. The former is a granite hill, covered with large loose masses of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to one hundred temples of various shapes and sizes ( Woodcut No. 144 , p. 256). So far as can be made out from photogr

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CHAPTER V. JAINA STYLE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

CHAPTER V. JAINA STYLE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

CONTENTS. Bettus—Bastis. A good deal has been done lately in the way of photographing the monuments of the Jains in southern India, but nothing, so far as I am aware, has recently been written that gives any statistical account of their present position in the country, nor any information when their establishments were first formed in Mysore and Canara. [291] What is even more to be regretted for our present purposes is, that no plans have been made of their buildings and no architectural detail

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BOOK III. ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. CHAPTER I. KASHMIR.

BOOK III. ARCHITECTURE IN THE HIMALAYAS. CHAPTER I. KASHMIR.

CONTENTS. Temples—Marttand—Avantipore—Bhaniyar. Although neither so beautiful in itself, nor so interesting either from an artistic or historical point of view as many others, the architecture of the valley of Kashmir has attracted more attention in modern times than that of any other styles in India, and a greater number of special treatises have been written regarding it than are devoted to all the other styles put together. This arises partly from the beauty of the valley in which the Kashmir

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CHAPTER II. NEPAL.

CHAPTER II. NEPAL.

CONTENTS. Stupas or Chaityas—Wooden Temples—Thibet—Temples at Kangra. Any one looking at the map, and the map only, would probably be inclined to fancy that, from their similarity of situation and surroundings, the arts and archæology of Nepal must resemble those of Kashmir. It would not, however, be easy to make a greater mistake, for there are no two provinces of India which are more diametrically opposed to one another in these respects than these two Himalayan states. Partly this is due to l

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BOOK IV. DRAVIDIAN STYLE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

BOOK IV. DRAVIDIAN STYLE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

The limits within which the Dravidian style of architecture prevailed in India are not difficult to define or understand. Practically they are those of the Madras Presidency, or, to speak more correctly, they are identical with the spread of the people speaking Tamil, or any of the cognate tongues. Dr. Caldwell, in his ‘Grammar,’ estimates these at forty-five or forty-six millions, [347] but he includes among them a number of tribes, such as the Tudas and Gonds, who, it is true, speak dialects c

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CHAPTER II. DRAVIDIAN ROCK-CUT TEMPLES.

CHAPTER II. DRAVIDIAN ROCK-CUT TEMPLES.

CONTENTS. Mahavellipore—Kylas, Ellora. Although it may not be possible to point out the origin of the Dravidian style, and trace its early history with the same precision as we can that of Buddhist architecture, there is nothing so mysterious about it, as there is regarding the styles of northern India, nor does it burst on us full blown at once as is the case with the architecture of the Chalukyas. Hitherto, the great difficulty in the case has been, that all the temples of southern India have

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CHAPTER III. DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES.

CHAPTER III. DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES.

CONTENTS. Tanjore—Tiruvalur—Seringham—Chillambaram—Ramisseram—Mádura—Tinnevelly—Combaconum—Conjeveram—Vellore and Peroor—Vijayanagar. When we turn from these few scattered rock-cut examples to the great structural temples of the style, we find their number is so great, their extent so vast, and their variety so perplexing, that it is extremely difficult to formulate any distinct ideas regarding them, and still more so, as a matter of course, to convey to others any clear idea on the subject. To

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CHAPTER IV. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.

CHAPTER IV. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.

CONTENTS. Palaces at Mádura and Tanjore—Garden Pavilion at Vijayanagar. Although , like all nations of Turanian race, the Dravidians were extensive and enthusiastic builders, it is somewhat singular that till they came in contact with the Mahomedans all their efforts in this direction should have been devoted to the service of religion. No trace of any civil or municipal building is to be found anywhere, though from the stage of civilization that they had attained it might be expected that such

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BOOK V. CHALUKYAN STYLE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

BOOK V. CHALUKYAN STYLE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

CONTENTS. Temple at Buchropully—Kirti Stambha at Worangul—Temples at Somnathpûr and Baillûr—The Kait Iswara at Hullabîd—Temple at Hullabîd. Of the three styles into which Hindu architecture naturally divides itself, the Chalukyan is neither the least extensive nor the least beautiful, but it certainly is the least known. The very name of the people was hardly recognised by early writers on Indian subjects, and the first clear ideas regarding them were put forward, in 1826, in a paper by Sir Walt

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BOOK VI. NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

BOOK VI. NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

CONTENTS. Introductory—Dravidian and Indo-Aryan Temples at Badami—Modern Temple at Benares. Of the three styles into which Hindu architecture naturally divides itself, the northern is found spread over a far larger portion of the country than either of the other two. It wants, however, the compactness and strongly-marked individuality of the Dravidian, and never was developed with that exuberance which characterised the southern style from the 15th to the 18th century. In many respects it resemb

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CHAPTER II. ORISSA.

CHAPTER II. ORISSA.

CONTENTS. History—Temples at Bhuvaneswar, Kanaruc, Puri, Jajepur, and Cuttack. The two provinces of India, where the Indo-Aryan style can be studied with the greatest advantage, are Dharwar on the west, and Orissa on the east coast. The former has the advantage of being mixed up with the Dravidian style, so as to admit of synonyms and contrasts that are singularly interesting, both from an ethnological and historical point of view. In Orissa, on the contrary, the style is perfectly pure, being u

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CHAPTER III. WESTERN INDIA.

CHAPTER III. WESTERN INDIA.

CONTENTS. Dharwar—Brahmanical Rock-cut Temples. Dharwar. If the province of Orissa is interesting from the completeness and uniformity of its style of Indo-Aryan architecture, that of Dharwar, or, more correctly speaking of Maharastra, is almost equally so from exactly the opposite conditions. In the western province, the Dravidian style struggles with the northern for supremacy during all the earlier stages of their growth, and the mode in which the one influenced the other will be one of the m

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CHAPTER IV. CENTRAL AND NORTHERN INDIA.

CHAPTER IV. CENTRAL AND NORTHERN INDIA.

CONTENTS. Temples at Gualior, Khajurâho, Udaipur, Benares, Bindrabun, Kantonuggur, Amritsur. There are certainly more than one hundred temples in Central and Northern India which are well worthy of being described in detail, and, if described and illustrated, would convey a wonderful impression of the fertility in invention of the Hindu mind and of the elegance with which it was capable of expressing itself. None of these temples can make the smallest pretension to rival the great southern examp

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CHAPTER V. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.

CHAPTER V. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.

CONTENTS. Cenotaphs—Palaces at Gualior, Ambêr, Deeg—Ghâts—Reservoirs—Dams. Cenotaphs. As remarked above, one of the most unexpected peculiarities of the art, as practised by the inhabitants of southern India, is the absence of any attempt at sepulchral magnificence. As the Dravidians were undoubtedly of Turanian origin, and were essentially builders, we certainly would expect that they should show some respect for the memories of their great men. It is, however, even uncertain how far the cromle

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BOOK VII. INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

BOOK VII. INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

From a very early period in the world’s history a great group of civilized nations existed in Central Asia between the Mediterranean and the Indus. They lived apart, having few relations with their neighbours, except of war and hatred, and served rather to separate than to bring together the Indian and European communities which flourished beyond them on either hand. Alexander’s great raid was the first attempt to break through this barrier, and to join the East and West by commercial or social

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CHAPTER II. GHAZNI.

CHAPTER II. GHAZNI.

CONTENTS. Tomb of Mahmúd—Gates of Somnath—Minars on the Plain. CHRONOLOGY. Towards the latter part of the 9th century the power of the Khalifs of Bagdad was sinking into that state of rapid decline which is the fate of all Eastern dynasties. During the reign of Al Motamed, A.D. 870-891, Egypt became independent, and the northern province of Bokhara threw off the yoke under the governor appointed by the Khalif, Nasr ben Ahmed, a descendant of Saman, a robber chief, who declared and maintained h

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CHAPTER III. PATHAN STYLE.

CHAPTER III. PATHAN STYLE.

CONTENTS. Mosque at Old Delhi—Kutub Minar—Tomb of Ala ud-dîn—Pathan Tombs—Ornamentation of Pathan Tombs. CHRONOLOGY. With all the vigour of a new race, the Ghorians set about the conquest of India. After sustaining a defeat in the year 1191, Shahab ud-dîn again entered India in A.D. 1193, when he attacked and defeated Prithiraj of Delhi. This success was followed by the conquest of Canouge in A.D. 1194; and after the fall of these two, the capitals of the greatest empires in the peninsula, Ind

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CHAPTER IV. JAUNPORE.

CHAPTER IV. JAUNPORE.

CONTENTS. Mosques of Jumma Musjid and Lall Durwaza. CHRONOLOGY. It was just two centuries after the conquest of India by the Moslems that Khoja Jehan, the Soubahdar or governor of the province in which Jaunpore is situated, assumed independence, and established a dynasty which maintained itself for nearly a century, from A.D. 1397 to about 1478, and though then reconquered by the sovereign of Delhi, still retained a sort of semi-independence till finally incorporated in the Mogul empire by the g

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CHAPTER V. GUJERAT.

CHAPTER V. GUJERAT.

CONTENTS. Jumma Musjid and other Mosques at Ahmedabad—Tombs and Mosques at Sirkej and Butwa—Buildings in the Provinces. CHRONOLOGY. Of the various forms which the Saracenic architecture assumed in India, that of Ahmedabad may probably be considered as the most elegant, as it certainly is the most characteristic of all. No other form is so essentially Indian, and no one tells its tale with the same unmistakable distinctness. As mentioned above, the Mahomedans, in the first century of the Hejira

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CHAPTER VI. MALWA.

CHAPTER VI. MALWA.

CONTENTS. The Great Mosque at Mandu. CHRONOLOGY. The Ghori dynasty of Mandu attained independence about the same time as the Sharkis of Jaunpore—Sultan Dilawar, who governed the province from A.D. 1387, having assumed the title of Shah in A.D. 1401. It is, however, to his successor Hoshang, that Mandu owes its greatness and all the finest of its buildings. The state continued to prosper as one of the independent Moslem principalities till A.D. 1534, when it was incorporated with Gujerat, and w

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CHAPTER VII. BENGAL.

CHAPTER VII. BENGAL.

CONTENTS. Kudam ul Roussoul Mosque, Gaur—Adinah Mosque, Maldah. Capital—Gaur. It is not very easy to understand why the architects of Malwa should have adopted a style so essentially arcuate as that which we find in the capital, while their brethren, on either hand, at Jaunpore and Ahmedabad, clung so fondly to a trabeate form wherever they had an opportunity of employing it. The Mandu architects had the same initiation to the Hindu forms in the mosques at Dhar; and there must have been innumera

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CHAPTER VIII. KALBURGAH.

CHAPTER VIII. KALBURGAH.

CONTENTS. The Mosque at Kalburgah. CHRONOLOGY. The campaigns of Ala ud-dîn and of Tugluck Shah in the beginning of the 14th century extended the fame and fear of the Moslem power over the whole peninsula of India, as far as Cape Comorin and the Straits of Manaar. It was almost impossible, however, that a state in the semi-barbarous condition of the Pathans of that day could so organise a government as to rule so extensive and varied an empire from one central point, and that as remote as Delhi

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CHAPTER IX. BIJAPUR.

CHAPTER IX. BIJAPUR.

CONTENTS. The Jumma Musjid—Tombs of Ibrahim and Mahmúd—The Audience Hall—Tomb of Nawab Amir Khan, near Tatta. CHRONOLOGY. If the materials existed for the purpose, it would be extremely interesting, from a historical point of view, to trace the various styles that grew out of each other as the later dynasties of the Dekhan succeeded one another and strove to surpass their predecessors in architectural magnificence in their successive capitals. With the exception, however, of Bijapur, none of the

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CHAPTER X. MOGUL ARCHITECTURE.

CHAPTER X. MOGUL ARCHITECTURE.

CONTENTS. Dynasties—Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus, Gualior—Mosque at Futtehpore Sikri—Akbar’s Tomb, Secundra—Palace at Delhi—The Taje Mehal—The Mûti Musjid—Mosque at Delhi—The Imambara, Lucknow—Tomb of late Nawab, Junaghur. CHRONOLOGY. Till very recently, a description of the style introduced by the Mogul emperors would have been considered a complete history of Mahomedan architecture in India. It is the style which was described by Roe and Bernier, and all subsequent travellers. It was rendered fami

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CHAPTER XI. WOODEN ARCHITECTURE.

CHAPTER XI. WOODEN ARCHITECTURE.

CONTENTS. Mosque of Shah Hamadan, Srinugger. 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 Jumma Musjid, in the city of Srinugger, 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

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BOOK VIII. FURTHER INDIA. CHAPTER I. BURMAH.

BOOK VIII. FURTHER INDIA. CHAPTER I. BURMAH.

CONTENTS. Introductory—Ruins of Thatún, Prome, and Pagan—Circular Dagobas—Monasteries. Introductory. The styles of architecture described in the preceding chapters of this volume practically exhaust the enumeration of all those which were practised in India Proper, with its adjacent island of Ceylon, from the earliest dawn of our knowledge till the present day. It might, therefore, be possible to treat their description as a work complete in itself, and to conclude without reference to other sty

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CHAPTER II. SIAM.

CHAPTER II. SIAM.

CONTENTS. Pagodas at Ayuthia and Bangkok—Hall of Audience at Bangkok—General Remarks. Although the architecture of Siam is very much less important than that of Burmah on the one hand, or Cambodia on the other, it is still sufficiently so to prevent its being passed over in a general summary of styles. Its worst feature, as we now know it, is, that it is so extremely modern. Up to the 14th century the capital of the country was Sokotay, a city on the Menam, 200 miles from the sea in a direct lin

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CHAPTER III. JAVA.

CHAPTER III. JAVA.

CONTENTS. History—Boro Buddor—Temples at Mendoet and Brambanam—Tree and Serpent Temples—Temples at Djeing and Suku. There is no chapter in the whole history of Eastern art so full of apparent anomalies, or which so completely upsets our preconceived ideas of things as they ought to be, as that which treats of the architectural history of the island of Java. In the Introduction, it was stated that the leading phenomenon in the history of India was the continued influx of race after race across th

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CHAPTER IV. CAMBODIA.

CHAPTER IV. CAMBODIA.

CONTENTS. Introductory—Temples of Nakhon Wat, Ongcor Thom, Paten ta Phrohm, &amp;c. Introductory. Since the exhumation of the buried cities of Assyria by Mons. Botta and Mr. Layard nothing has occurred so startling, or which has thrown so much light on Eastern art, as the discovery of the ruined cities of Cambodia. Historically, they are infinitely less important to us than the ruins of Nimroud and Nineveh; but, in an architectural point of view, they are more astonishing; and, for the eluci

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BOOK IX. CHINA. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

BOOK IX. CHINA. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

CHRONOLOGY. It is extremely difficult, in the present state of our knowledge, to write anything, either conclusive or satisfactory, about the architecture of China. This may arise partly from the incuriousness of travellers, and partly because there really are no buildings in the country worthy of the people or their civilization. Till very recently, the latter would have appeared to be the true cause of our ignorance; but lately the photographic camera has penetrated even within the walls of

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CHAPTER II. PAGODAS.

CHAPTER II. PAGODAS.

CONTENTS. Temple of the Great Dragon—Buddhist Temples—Taas—Tombs—Pailoos—Domestic Architecture. If we had the requisite knowledge, or if the known examples of Chinese temples were sufficiently numerous, we ought, before describing them, to classify the buildings, apportioning each to that one of the three religions to which it belongs. For the present this must be left to some one on the spot. Meanwhile there is no difficulty in recognising those which belong to the religion of Fo or Buddha. The

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APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

Throughout the preceding pages the dates of kings’ reigns, where quoted, have been assumed as known, and the eras from which they are calculated as ascertained. This has been done in order not to interrupt the narrative of events by introducing a chronological disquisition at every point where a date occurs; but no one at all familiar with the subject needs to be told that the dates of mediæval dynasties in India are far from settled, and that few are universally acquiesced in. Great progress ha

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