all roofed by domes built up in Indian fashion by concentric rings, and carved internally to represent the mystic lotus, the roof of the world, while the exterior assumes a pyramidal form, and, like the sikharas, is crowned with a finial in the shape of the amrita jar, and with a colossal cap representing the lotus fruit. It is to be regretted that the material provided by the Archæological Survey of India seldom does justice to the beauty of Indian domes, some of which, as Fergusson remarks, are "the most exquisite specimens of elaborate roofing that can anywhere be seen."[1]
The famous Rajput fortress of Chitor, the capture of which by Akbar in 1568, after a prolonged siege, was one of the most memorable military events of his reign, contains many memorials of the great Rānā of Mewār, Kumbha (1428-68), among them the magnificent nine-storied tower of victory, 122 feet high,[2] built to celebrate his defeat of the Sultan of Mālwā in 1440. In the fifteenth century Mewār, whose dynasty proudly claimed descent from the Sūryavamsa of ancient Aryāvarta, was the chief of the Rajput States, and at constant war with the three Musalmān kingdoms, Gujerat, Mālwā, and Khandēsh, which had thrown off their allegiance to the Sultanate of Delhi. Kumbha Rānā's most powerful antagonist, Ahmad Shah of Gujerat, was also a great builder, and the splendid royal mosque which the latter built at Ahmadābād resembled very closely the great temple which was built in Kumbha's reign at Rānpur, in honour of
- ↑ For an explanation of the Indian method of dome construction, see Fergusson's History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. 2nd Edition. Vol. i, pp. 312-9.
- ↑ These Hindu towers of victory are the lineal descendants of the pillars, or royal ensigns of Asoka and other Indo-Aryan kings. Converted to the service of Islam in later times, they became the models for the minarets of Muhammadan mosques.
