this is done by triangular stones placed in each angle of the square (see Fig. 2), thus employing five stones instead of one. By this means, the size of the central stone remaining the same, the size of the square space roofed is increased in the ratio of seven to ten, the actual space being doubled. The next step in the process (Fig. 3) is by employing three tiers and nine stones, instead of two tiers and five stones, which quadruples the area roofed. Thus if the central stone is four feet by the second process, the space roofed will be about five feet eight inches; by the third, eight feet square; by a fourth process (Fig. 4), four tiers and thirteen stones are used, and the extent roofed may be nine or ten feet, always assuming the central stone to remain four feet square. With four pillars the process is seldom carried further than this, but with another tier and eight pillars (Fig. 5) it may be carried on a step further; but instead of the octagonal form being left as such, there are always four external pillars at the angles, so that the square shape is retained with twelve pillars, of which the eight internal pillars may be taken as mere insertions to support the long architrave between the four angular pillars.

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It is evident that here again we come to a limit, beyond which we cannot progress without using large and long stones. This was sometimes met by making the lower course of sixteen sides, by cutting off the corners of the octagon. When this has been done, an awkwardness arises in getting back to the square form. This was escaped in all the instances I am acquainted with, by adopting circular courses for all above that, with sixteen sides."

Let our readers now conceive the chutree we have described, carried on according to this system to a twelve-columned building, square externally, but passing into an octagon within, and he will have before him the simplest form of the Guzerat dome. The roof thus arrived at, it will be perceived, is constructed, not upon the radiating principle of the Roman or Byzantine dome, but on that of laying successive courses of stones horizontally, which at length converge to a point, and are closed by one large stone at the apex.. Internally, this roof has all the appearance of being curvilinear in section, and Mr. Fergusson thinks that it takes almost always a form more or less pointed, though he admits that it never can be made circular except when used on the smallest scale. Our own observation, however, and the information we have derived from native architects accustomed to use this form of construction, leads us to the conclusion that the Guzerat dome is in reality never curvilinear, but always rectilinear and pyramidal in section, internally as well as externally.

The great advantage to be derived from this mode of con

VOL. V.-NO. II.

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structing domes," says our author, was the power it gave the architect of placing them on pillars without having anything to fear from the lateral thrust of the vault. The Romans never even attempted this, but always, so to speak, brought their vaults down to the ground, or at least could only erect them on great cylinders, which confined the space on every side. The Byzantine architects, it is true, cut away a great deal of this substructure, but nevertheless, they never could get rid of the great heavy piers they were forced to employ to support their domes, and in all ages were forced to use either heavy abutments externally, or to crowd their interiors with masses of masonry, so as in a great measure to sacrifice either the external effect or internal convenience of their buildings to the constructive exigencies of their domes. This in India never was the case; all the pressure was vertical, and it only required sufficient strength in the support to bear the downward pressure of the mass, and stability was insured,—an advantage, the importance of which is not easily over-estimated.

One of the consequences of this mode of construction was, that all the decoration of the Indian domes was horizontal, or in other words, the ornaments were arranged in concentric rings one above the other, instead of being disposed in vertical ribs as in Roman or Gothic vaults. This arrangement allows of far more variety being introduced, without any offence to good taste, and practically has rendered some of these Jain domes the most exquisite specimens of elaborate roofing that can anywhere be seen. Another consequence deduced from this mode of construction was the employment of pendants from the centres of the domes, which are used to an extent that would have surprised even the Tudor architects of our own country. With them, however, the pendant was an architectural tour de force,' requiring great constructive ingenuity and large masses to counterbalance, and is always tending to destroy the building it ornaments; while the Indian pendant, on the contrary, only adds its own weight to that of the dome, and has no other prejudicial tendency. Its forms, too, generally have a lightness and elegance never even imagined in Gothic art; it hangs from the centre of a dome more like a lustre of crystal drops, than a solid mass of marble or of stone.' appears," says the annalist of the Rajpoot clans, speaking of one of these pendants, "like a cluster of the half-disclosed lotus, whose cups are so thin, so transparent, and so accurately wrought, that it fixes the eye in admiration."

"It

Our third plate will give the reader a general idea of one of the smallest of these domes, though a far larger and more elaborate drawing would be necessary to convey with anything like accuracy their gorgeousness of detail. The exterior is probably a refinement upon the last-mentioned rath of Muhavellipoor; to the whole of the