The Washington times., 1901-10-20
GRANITE IN ANCIENT INDIA.
The Art of Cutting and Polishing
Highly DPyeIoned.

| Long centuries before the Western
world had awakened at the trumpet call
of civiliZation-when the ancient empires
Of Greece and Rome were yet unknown
when the stones that form the Pyramids
were still embedded in the granite hills
, of Egypt, the deft fingers of Indian work
/ men were hewiRg with marvellous skill
and dexterity massive blocks of Eastern
| granite. Here, in the cradle of the hui
man race, the arts of granite cutting and
polishing first were mastered, and even
yet human ingenuity has improved but
| little the handiwork of those ancient
craftsmen. So wonderful was their skill
that many centuries afterward. when the
older civilizations had passed away. not
only the native tribesmen, but visitors
from foreign lands regarded those gran
lite temples and statues as the handiwork
of the gods. In the early years of the
Christian era Fa Hian, a Christian pill
grim, visited India 'In the city" he
says, ''is the Royal Palace, the different
parts of which Asoka commissioned the
geni to construct by piling up the stones.
The walls, doorways, and the sculptured
designs are no human work" Another
Christian pilgrim of the same period
Houen Ts-ang-describes, not without a
touch of awe, the sculptured stones Of
the land. and also what can only have
been pillar of polished granite. He saw.
he says. "a stone pillar, bright and shin
ing as a mirror its surface glistening and
smooth as ice"
Oldest of all those ancient buildings are
fortresses and pagodas. The earlier pa
godas, however. We're not the stone built
towers and mansions with thousand pill
lars" mentioned in the Rig Veda," but
underground temples hewn from the solid
rock, under the shadow of some lofty
Eastern mountain. To this period land
perhaps most ancient of alp belongs the
famous pagoda in the island of Ele-
phante, near Bombay. Halfway toward
the mountaintop a spacious hall. 12o feet
square. hewn out of the heart of the
mountain. Massive pillars, finely carved.
are left here and there at regular inter
walls for the purpose of supporting the
roof and the weight of the great hill
above 1.-THE whole forming a striking
picture of rugged strength and beauty.
Coeval with those underground temples
are the famous fortresses of Dowletabad
and Asseergur, two gigantic granite
strongholds situated so advantageously
that even in these latter days 1t would be
no mean feat of arms to capture them by
force. DIR. Kennedy, who has given life
time study TO these matters, says the
only tools the Hindoo artisan used in
those gigantic undertakings were a small
chisel and an iron maliet. The chisel ta-
pered to a fine round point. and the face
of the mallet had a deep hollow. lined
with lead. with such simple TOOLS he
adds, they formed, fashioned, and
scooped the granite rock which forms the
tremendous fortress of Dowletabad. and
excavated the wonderful caverns of
Flora, for it seems by no means probable
that the Hindoo stone cutters worked
with any other tools
Granite. agates. bookstores, and crys-
tails are fashioned with such primitive in
strumerts into cups and other hollow ar
ticles as delicately shaped as those of
the most plastic porcelain. King Solo
mon, it will be remembered, received
from the East a ruby cup containing the
elixir Of life. So at least runs the leg
end In forming the cavity of the cup
small holes, a quarter of an inch in
depth, were bored all over the surface
with a diamond-tipped drill The remain
ing portions around the holes We're then
away and the process repeated
time after time, until the desired form
and depth were obtained. Infinite labor
bestowed on every detail characterized all
the products Of ancient Indian art With
the fall OF the ancient HindoO kingdoms
the art and craft Of masonry died grsdu-
ally away Whether it will be again re
suscitated, one hesitates to say, yet none
the less, in centuries vet to come, the
architects and artisans of the West will
turn with wonder and delight to view those
enduring monuments of human industry
reared long ages ago hy the builders and
Of the patient East-Stone
Trades Journal