The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-08-20


The vast populations of East India.
numbering in all some two hundred and
fifty million souls, are at the present
day chiefly adherents to one form or
another of Brahmanism, comprehended
under the general term of Hindus, or
they are Mussulmans OF these later
there are probably about thirty millions
in India. 1t is q mistake to suppose
that there are still any Buddhist COM
munities in the country, If we except
the Island of Ceylon and the extreme
northern territory of Nepaul. The
Buddhist movement arose about five
hundred years before Christ, and
expired, in all obalility, in the fourth
century of our era. Nevertheless, as
far as we can Judge, the Buddhists were
the first builders and hewers of stone
of whose work any traces remain, and
10 them is commonly attributed the
foundation of the Indian school OF
architecture With its ultimate origin
we have nothing to do, but for those
who are unfamiliar with the subject it
is sufficient to say that the first speci-
mems of Indian building bear a strong
resemblance to the Egyptian. The
arch is unknown, and the massive arch
itrave still holds its place, supported
by stout pillars and square door-posts.
The material in use, being more easily
worked by the chisel than the granite
of the Egyptians, has been everywhere
adorned with an amazing wealth of
carving, chiefly representing, in Hindu
places of worship, gods goddesses,
animals of all descriptions, real and
mythical, and battle scenes, or, In the
remains of Buddhist temples, figuring
endless professions of Buddhas, pago-
das, men, and animals, with elaborate
and highly ornamented symbols, such
as wheels, trees, ddgops or domes, and
the like. There are the deep porticos,
the broad colonnades, and the gloomy
inner shrines that continually remind
the observer of Egypt. Under the
religious domination of the Buddhistic
monastery system, and during the sub
sequent period which saw the revival
of Bramanic power, this style of build
ing grew to its massive perfection, and
its main points are found in every sort
of edifice, or ruin of an edifice, dating
from those times.
But India has in all ages been ex-
posed to the rapacious inroads of north
ern nations. more warlike. more mas
culine, and more fierce than herself.
The Turks and the Tartars, the At
ghans and the Persians, have all over
run Northern India since the tenth CEN
fury. Mahmoud, Mohammed of Ghor,
Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah, the Per-
sian conqueror of the last century, have
successfully conquered the Punjab,
plundered it, and gone their ways. The
power of the Mussulman faith in the
East has been second only to the
Mussulman arms, and in the successiv Q
expeditions of the Muslin con1uerors,
often ending in the foundation of new
cities in place of those destroyed, mill
ions of Hindus were converted to the
belief in one God, from their belief in
several hundred gods The dominat-
ing faith destroyed the sanctuaries of
Brahmanism and the remains of Bud
dhism, and It's theological offspring,
Jainism, and built mos ,ues and holy
places in their stead. Hence the intro
duction of the Mohammedan architec-
ture, which has now spread from one
end of the country to the other, and
exists side by side, and often in com
bination, with the earlier Hindu style.
There is no difficulty whatever in dis
tinguishing the handiwork of Hindus
and Mohammedans. The distinction
is, broadly speaking, the same as that
between Greek and Gothic building.
The one loves the horizontal, the mass
i've, and the heavy the other tends to
the perpendicular, the pointed, the
graceful, and the light. Greek and
Hindu temples look broad. Gothic and
Mohammedan churches look high.
Where the Hindu would place a couple
of large pilasters, thickly carved with
a redundant mass of idol-symbols, sup
porting a square stone cornice, the
Muslin builds a springing arch, twice
the height of the Hindu erection, and
tapering away to point. Where the
Indian carves rich confusion of gro
tesque figures, the Mohammedan gives
his chisel full freedom in the creation
of every species of tracery and So
called arabesque; for the Islamite is as
strictly forbidden to make to himself
images of living things as the Hebrew.
F. Marion Crawford, in Harper's
Magazine.