Fort is quoted by Mr. Fergusson as a specimen of Jain architecture and is said to be dedicated to Padma-náth, the sixth Tirthankar. A very slight amount of research has proved it to be dedicated to the Brahmanical Divinity, Vishnu, under his title of Padma-páni; whence the mistake.[1]
As the oldest Hindu architecture of which we have any remains shows clear traces of Greek influence, and as the longer predominance of the Muhammadan power has still more thoroughly subdued the indigenous art of medieval India, so it must be expected that English fashions will be largely represented in the artistic development of the immediate future, The change is inevitable, and, in so far as it is a witness to historical facts, its avoidance would not be absolutely desirable, even if it were possible; for all ultra purism is unnatural, unhealthy, and bad. "When the assimilation of new matter ceases, decay must begin." Still, the amalgamation to be complete, must be gradual. Most assuredly the interests of art will not be furthered by the hasty adoption of the Italian style in its supposed entirety, but too often without much knowledge of it, except in a very debased form, as exhibited in some of the new palaces of our greatest feudatories; nor yet by adding pseudo-Gothic tracery and pinnacles to a barrack shell, as in the Agra College; but rather by an assimilation, which is suggestive of foreign culture, but translates it into Indian language, instead of literally repeating it. That this can be done by the best of our native masons, if they are allowed to work out their own ideas without too minute instructions, is, I think, sufficiently attested by the very pleasing facade of a house built last year at Khurja for Lálá Jánaki Prasád, a rich banker of that town, and a member of the Municipal Committee. The correctness of the design is impaired by the insertion of some false stone doors on the ground floor, which are treated exactly as if made of wood.
- ↑ Mr. Fergusson speaks of this temple as 'the Sás Bahu,' which is an impossible designation. There are two temples close together on the Gwalior rock, and as one of them is a miniature of the other, natives call the two 'the Sás Bahu,' i. e. the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. But neither of the two can separately bear the double name. The expression that he required to meet his meaning would be 'the larger of the Sás Bahu temples,' or simply 'the Sás.' This eminent art critic boasts of having spent ten years in India, but he does not seem to have taken the trouble to learn a single Indian language, ancient or modern. Yet a smattering of Philology would have been of considerable service to him in his archaeological researches. Such a solecism as the above would then have been impossible, as also his misconception with regard to the title of the great Mártand temple in Kashmir.
