57. The most celebrated excavated temple is that of Elephanta (fig. 38.), near Bombay,

of whose interior composition the reader may obtain a faint idea from the subjoined representation (fig. 39.). It is 130 ft. long, 110 ft. wide, and 14 ft. high. The ceiling is flat, and is apparently supported by four ranks of columns, about 9 ft. high, and of a balustral form. These stand on pedestals, about two thirds the height of the columns themselves. A great portion of the walls is covered with colossal human figures, forty to fifty in number, in high relief, and distinguished by a variety of symbols, probably representing the attributes of the deities

whom they worshipped, or the actions of the heroes whom they represented. At the end of the cavern there is a dark recess, about 20 ft. square, entered by four doors, each flanked by gigantic figures. "These stupendous works," says Robertson," are of such high antiquity, that, as the natives cannot, either from history or tradition, give any information concerning the time in which they were executed, they universally ascribe the formation of them to the power of superior beings. From the extent and grandeur of these subterraneous mansions, which intelligent travellers compare to the most celebrated monuments of human power and art in any part of the earth, it is manifest that they could not have been formed in that stage of social life where men continue divided into small tribes, unaccustomed to the efforts of persevering industry." Excavations similar to those we have named are found at Canárah, in the Island of Salsette, near Bombay. In these there are four stories of galleries, leading in all to three hundred apartments. The front is formed by cutting away one side of the rock. The principal temple, 84 ft. long, and 40 ft. broad, is entered by a portico of columns. The roof is of the form of a vault, 40 ft. from the ground to its crown, and has the appearance of being supported by thirty pillars, octagonal in plan, whose capitals and bases are formed of elephants, tigers, and horses. The walls contain cavities for lamps, and are covered with sculptures of human figures of both sexes, elephants, horses, and lions. An altar, 27 ft. high and 20 ft. in diameter, stands at the further end, and over it is a dome shaped out of the rock. Though the sculptures in these caves are low in rank compared with the works of Greek and Etrurian artists, yet they are certainly in a style superior to the works of the Egyptians; and we infer from them a favourable opinion of the state of the arts in India at the period of their formation. "It is worthy of notice," observes the historian we have just quoted, "that although several of the figures in the caverns at Elephanta be so different from those now exhibited in the pagodas as objects of veneration, that some learned Europeans

have imagined they represent the rites of a religion more ancient than that now esta

Fig. 40.

blished in Hindostan ; yet by the Hindoos themselves the caverns are considered as hallowed places of their own worship, and they still resort thither to perform their devotions, and honour the figures there, in the NIIGIST II same manner with those in their own pagodas." Mr. Hunter, who in the year 1784 visited the place, considers the figures there as representing deities who are still objects of worship among the Hindoos. One circumstance justifying this opinion is, that several of the most conspicuous personages in the groups at Elephanta are decorated with the zennar, the sacred string or cord peculiar to the order of Brahmins, an authentic evidence of the distinction of casts having been established in India at the time when these works were finished.

58. The structure of the earliest Indian temples was extremely simple. Pyramidal, and of large dimensions, they had no light but that which the door afforded; and, indeed, the gloom of the cavern seems to have led them to consider the solemn darkness of such a mansion sacred. There are ruins of this sort at Deogur and at a spot near Tanjore, in the Carnatic. In proportion, however, to the progress of the country in opulence and refinement, their sacred buildings became highly ornamented, and must be considered as monuments exhibiting a high degree of civilisation of the people by whom they were erected. Very highly finished pagodas, of great antiquity, are found in different parts of Hindostan, and particularly in its southern districts, where they were not subjected to the destructive fury of Mahometan zeal. To assist the reader in forming a notion of the style of the architecture whereof we are treating, we here place before him a diagram (fig. 40.) of part of the pagoda at Chillambaram, near Porto Novo, on the Coromandel coast; one which is, on account of its antiquity, held in great veneration. The monument would be perhaps more properly described as a cluster of pagodas, enclosed in a rectangular space 1332 ft. in length, and 936 ft. in width, whose walls are 30 ft. in height, and 7 ft. in thickness, each side being provided with a highly decorated frustum of a pyramid over an entrance gateway. The large enclosure is subdivided into four subordinate ones, whereof the central one, surrounded by a colonnade and steps, contains a piscina or basin for purification. That on the southern side forms a cloister enclosing three contiguous temples called Chabei, lighted only by their doors and by lamps. The court on the west is also claustral, having in the middle an open portico, consisting of one hundred columns, whose roof is formed by large blocks of stone. The last is a square court with a temple and piscina, to which is given the name of the Stream of Eternal Joy. To the temple is attached a portico of thirty-six columns, in four parallel ranks, whose central intercolumniation is twice the width of those at the sides, and in the centre, on a platform, is the statue of the Bull Nundu. It is lighted artificially with lamps, which are kept constantly burning, and is much decorated with sculpture. The central inclosure, on its eastern side, has a temple raised on a platform, in length 224 ft., and in width 64 ft., having a portico in front, consisting of a vast number of columns 30 ft. high; at the end of it a square vestibule is constructed with four portals, one whereof in the middle leads to the sanctuary, named Nerta Chabei, or Temple of Joy and Eternity, the altar being at the end of it. The temple is much decorated with sculpture, representing the divinities of India. The pilaster fig. 41. is placed at the sides of the door of the Nerta Chabei, and is extremely curious; but the most singular object about the building is a chain of Fig. 41. PILASTER FROM THE granite carved out of the rock, attached to the pilasters, and supported at four other points in the face of the rock so as to form festoons. The links are about 3ft. long, and the whole length of the chain is 146 ft. The pyramids

NERTA CHABEL

above mentioned, which stand over the entrances of the outer enclosure, rise from rectangular

Fig. 43.

bases, and consist of several floors. The passage through them is level with the ground.

59. A very beautiful example of the Indian pagoda exists at Tanjore, which we here insert (fig. 42.).

60. One of the largest temples known is that on the small island Seringham, near Trichinopoly, on the Coromandel coast. It is situate about a mile from the western extremity of the island, and is thus described by Sonnerat. It is composed of seven square enclosures, one within the other, the walls These enclosures are 350 ft. distant from one another, and each has four large gates with a high tower; which are placed, one in the middle of each side of the enclosure, and opposite to the four cardinal points. The outward wall is near four miles in circumference, and its gateway to the south is ornamented with pillars, several of which are simple stones, 33 ft. long, and nearly 5 ft. in diameter; and those which form the roof are still larger. In the inmost inclosures are the chapels. About half a mile to the east of Seringham, and nearer to the river Caveri than the Coleroon, is another large pagoda, called Jembikisma, but this has only one enclosure. extreme veneration in which Seringham is held arises from a belief that it contains that identical image of the god Vishnu which used to be worshipped by Brahma.

The

61. We shall conclude this section with some observations on Tchoultry (or Iun) at Madurah (fig. 43.). Its effect is quite theatrical, and its perfect symmetry gives it the appearance of a work of great art, and of greater skill in composition than most other Indian works. Yet an examination of the details, and particularly of the system of corbelling over, destroys the charm which a first glance at it creates. In it, the ornaments which in Grecian architecture are so well applied and balanced, seem more the work of chance than of We here insert an external view consideration.

of the temple at this place (fig. 44.). The essential differences between Indian and Egyp

tian architecture, in connection with the sculpture applied to them, have been well given in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, and we shall here subjoin them. In Egypt, the principal forms of the building and its parts preponderate, inasmuch as the hieroglyphics with which they are covered never interfere with the general forms, nor injure the effect of the whole; in India, the principal form is lost in the ornaments which divide and decompose it. In Egypt, that which is essential predominates; in India, you are lost in the multitude of

accessories. In the Egyptian architecture, even the smallest edifices are grand; in that of India, the infinite subdivision into parts gives an air of littleness to the largest buildings. In Egypt, solidity is carried to the extreme; in India, there is not the slightest appearance of it.

SECT. VII.

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE.

62. We propose to consider the architecture of Egypt — First, in respect of the physical, political, and moral causes which affected it. Secondly, in respect of its analysis and development. Thirdly, and lastly, in respect of the taste, style, and character which it exhibits. 63. I. In our introduction, we have alluded to the three states of life which even in the present day distinguish different nations of the earth-hunters, shepherds, and agriculturists; in the second class whereof are included those whose subsistence is on the produce of the waters, which was most probably the principal food of the earliest inhabitants of Egypt. Seated on the banks of a river whose name almost implies fertility, they would have been able to live on the supply it afforded for a long period before it was necessary to resort to the labours of agriculture. In such a state of existence nothing appears more probable than that they should have availed themselves of the most obvious shelter which nature afforded against the extremes of heat and cold, namely, the cavern ; which, consisting of tufo and a species of white soft stone, was easily enlarged or formed to meet their wants. Certain it is, that at a very early period the Egyptians were extremely skilful in working stone, an art which at a later time they carried to a perfection which has never been surpassed. As the Tyrians, Sidonians, and other inhabitants of Palestine were, owing to the material which their cedar forests afforded, dexterous in joinery, so the Egyptians received an impulse in the style of their works from an abundance of the stone of all sorts which their quarries produced. Subterranean apartments, it will be said, are found in other countries; but they will mostly, India excepted, be found to be the remains of abandoned quarrries, exhibiting no traces of architecture, nor places for dwelling. Egypt, on the contrary, from time immemorial, was accustomed to hollow out rocks for habitation. Pliny (lib. xxxvi. c. 13.) tells us, that the great Labyrinth consisted of immense excavations of this sort. Such were the subterranean chambers of Biban el Melook, those which have in the present day received the name of the Labyrinth, and many others, which were not likely to have been tombs. When the finished and later monuments of a people resemble their first essays, it is easy to recognise the influential causes from which they result. Thus, in Egyptian architecture, every thing points to its origin. Its simplicity, not to say monotony, its extreme solidity, almost heaviness, form its principal characters. Then the want of profile and paucity of members, the small projection of its mouldings, the absence of apertures, the enormous diameter of the columns employed, much resembling the pillars left in quarries for support, the pyramidal form of the doors, the omission of roofs and pediments, the ignorance of the arch (which we believe to have been unknown, though we are aware that a late traveller of great intelligence is of a different opinion),—all enable us to recur to the type with which we have set out. If we pursue this investigation, we do not discover timber as an element in Egyptian compositions, whilst in Grecian architecture, the types certainly do point to that material. It is not necessary to inquire whether the people had or had not tents or houses in which timber was used for beams or for support, since the character of their architecture is specially influenced by the exclusive use of stone as a material; and however the form of some of their columns may not seem to bear out the hypothesis (such, for instance, as are shaped into bundles of reeds with imitations of plants in the capitals), all the upper parts are constructed without reference to any other than stone construction. It is, moreover, well known that Egypt was extremely bare of wood, and especially of such as was suited for building.

64. The climate of Egypt was, doubtless, one great cause of the subterranean style, as it must be in the original architecture of every nation. Materials so well adapted to the construction it induced, furnishing supports incapable of being crushed, and single blocks of stone which dispensed with all carpentry in roofs or coverings, a purity of air and evenness of temperature which admitted the greatest simplicity of construction from the absence of all necessity to provide against the inclemency of seasons, and which permitted the inscription of hieroglyphics even on soft stone without the fear of their disappearance, — all these concurred in forming the character of their stupendous edifices, and stimulated them in the development of the art.

65. The monarchical government, certainly the most favourable to the construction of great monuments, appears to have existed in Egypt from time immemorial. The most

important edifices with which history or their ruins have made us acquainted, were raised under monarchies; and we scarcely need cite any other than the ruins of Persepolis, of which an account is given in a previous section, to prove the assertion: these, in point of extent, exceed all that Egypt or Greece produced. Indeed, the latter nation sought beauty of form rather than immense edifices; and Rome, until its citizens equalled kings in their wealth, had no monuments worthy to be remembered by the historian, or transmitted as models to the artist.

66. Not the least important of the causes that combined in the erection of their monuments was the extraordinary population of Egypt: and though we may not perhaps entirely rely on the wonderful number of twenty thousand cities, which old historians have said were seated within its boundaries, it is past question that the country was favourable to the rearing and maintenance of an immense population. As in China at the present day, there appears in Egypt to have been a redundant population, which was doubtless employed in the public works of the country, in which the workman received no other remuneration than his food.

67. The Egyptian monarchs appear to have gratified their ambition as much in the provision for their own reception after this life as during their continuance in it. If we except the Memnonium, and what is called the Labyrinth at Memphis, temples and tombs are all that remain of their architectural works. Diodorus says, that the kings of Egypt spent those enormous sums on their sepulchres which other kings expend on palaces. They considered that the frailty of the body during life ought not to be provided with more than necessary protection from the seasons, and that the palace was nothing more than an inn, which at their death the successor would in his turn inhabit, but that the tomb was their eternal dwelling, and sacred to themselves alone. Hence they spared no expense in erecting indestructible edifices for their reception after death. Against the violation of the tomb it seems to have been a great object with them to provide, and doubts have existed on the minds of some whether the body was, after all, deposited in the pyramids, which have been thought to be enormous cenotaphs, and that the body was in some subterraneous and neighbouring spot. Other writers pretend that the pyramids were not tombs, assigning to them certain mystic or astronomical destinations. There are, however, too many circumstances contradictory of such an assumption to allow us to give it the least credit; and there is little impropriety in calling them sepulchral monuments, whether or not the bodies of the monarchs were ever deposited in them. The religion of Egypt, though not so fruitful, perhaps, as that of Greece in the production of a great number of temples, did not fail to engender an abundant supply. The priesthood was powerful and the rites unchangeable: a mysterious authority prevailed in its ceremonies and outward forms. The temples of the country are impressed with mystery, on which the religion was based. Here, indeed, Secresy was deified in the person of Harpocrates; and, according to Plutarch (De Iside), the sphinx, which decorated the entrances of their temples, signified that mystery and emblem were engrafted on their theology. Numerous doors closed the succession of apartments in the temples, leaving the holy place itself to be seen only at a great distance. This was of little extent, containing merely a living idol, or the representation of one. The larger portion of the temple was laid out for the reception of the priests, and disposed in galleries, porticoes, and vestibules. With few and unimportant variations, the greatest similarity and uniformity is observable in their temples, in plan, in elevation, and in general form, as well as in the details of their ornaments. In no country was the connection between religion and architecture closer than in Egypt, and as the conceptions and execution in architecture are dependent on the other arts, we will here briefly examine the influence which the religion of the country had upon them.

68. Painting and sculpture are not only intimately connected with architecture through the embellishments they are capable of affording to it, but are handmaids at her service in what depends upon taste, upon the principles of beauty, upon the laws of proportion, upon the preservation of character, and in various other respects. Nature, in one sense, is the model upon which architecture is founded; not as a subject of imitation, but as presenting for imitation principles of the harmony, proportion, effect, and beauty, for which the arts generally are indebted to nature. We think it was Madame de Staël who said that architecture was frozen music. Now, though in architecture, as in the other arts, there is no sensible imitation of nature, yet by a study of her mode of operating, it may be tempered and modified so as to give it the power of language and the sublimity of poetry. In respect of the connection of the art with sculpture, little need be said: in a material light, architecture is but a sculptured production, and its beauty in every country is in an exact ratio with the skill which is exhibited in the use of the chisel. Facts, however, which are worth more than arguments, prove that as is the state of architecture in a country, so is that of the other arts. Two things prevented the arts of imitation being carried beyond a certain point in the country under our consideration; the first was political, the other religious. The first essays of art are subjects of veneration in all societies; and when, as in Egypt, all change was forbidden, and a constant and inviolable respect was entertained for that which had existed be