Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/131

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MATHURÁ.
7

done in rescuing from utter ruin and oblivion many of the interesting remnants of native art and architecture with which the Mathurá district—the classic land of the Hindu—abounds. Of his labours in this direction we have already spoken at some length in Vol. IX. of the Indo-European Correspondence (pp. 130 and 148), in our notice of the first edition of Mr. Growse's work. The work now appears much enlarged and enriched—among other things—by upwards of thirty handsome illustrations.

"One of Mr. Growse's acts while he was at Mathurá was the erection of a Catholic chapel, a work which it can hardly be contested is valuable if only as an experiment of a very sound principle—namely, the utilising of native art to form an appropriate and characteristic style of Christian architecture in India. The Mathurá chapel, Mr. Growse says, is intended as 'a protest against the standard plans and other stereo-typed conventionalities,' of the Public Works Department; but it seems to us to be, at all events, implicitly a protest as well against the unfortunate tendency there is among Europeans in India to Europeanize whatever falls under the influence of Christianity. We call this tendency unfortunate, because it not only unnecessarily widens the already wide chasm between Christianity and paganism; not only because it practically ignores the existence of native art as if it were an essentially unholy barbarism, but because the tendency aims at what is really impracticable.

"Mr. Growse's lines had fallen on a nursery of Hindu art which survives in Mathurá to the present day. That art, though pagan, contains much that is really great and noble in conception and in workmanship, and he has essayed to show how it may be made the handmaid of Christian gothic art in the construction of the Mathurá chapel. It is both religious and picturesque in effect. The roof of the nave is vaulted, and the clerestory is lighted by circular windows. It is the pillars, however, which arrest one's attention, the capitals and shafts being of purely oriental design. The effect is, to our mind, most graceful. The exterior, though complete in essentials, is architecturally unfinished. We regret that it is likely to remain so, became this incompleteness detracts considerably from the general effect. In spite, however, of drawbacks the exterior of the Mathurá chapel is singularly pleasing. We fear we speak somewhat vaguely when we say that there is a peculiar mellowness about it—an effect which we doubt not is the result of good proportions and an absence of mere meretricious ornament."—Indo-European Correspondence.


"We do not hesitate to affirm that Mr. Growse's work is decidedly the best and most interesting of the local histories yet published. He is an accomplished scholar and a well-known archæologist and antiquarian; his long residence at Mathurá gave him ample opportunities for collecting valuable materials. This edition is adorned with beautiful illustrations, the cost of which, Mr. Growse tells us in his preface, has been defrayed by the millionaire and public-spirited Seths of Mathurá."—Hindu Patriot.


"These two historical and archeological chapters are unquestionably among the best and most interesting of the Memoir; though, indeed, it is difficult to single out any particular chapters for special praise, as the subject of almost every chapter has its own interest, and every one is treated by the author with a fulness and thoroughness which seemingly leaves nothing to be desired. One chapter, however, must not be passed over without special mention. It is the twelfth or last of the first part, and treats of 'the etymology of local names in Northern India, as exemplified in the district of Mathurá'. The subject is not altogether new; on the contrary it has given rise to a vast number of speculations, but most of those hitherto put forth have been of the most haphazard description. The present is the first attempt, on a larger scale, to attack the problem in a scientific spirit and on consistent and well-founded historical and grammatical principles. The general position that the author maintains is that 'local names in Upper India are, as a rule, of no very remote antiquity, and are, primá facie, referable to Sanskrit and Hindi rather than to any other language. Mr. Growse very clearly proves this; and there can be no doubt that his view is perfectly correct. One thing impresses itself very clearly upon the mind in reading this chapter—that no one is competent to pronounce an opinion on the subject unless he possesses an intimate and minute knowledge of the history of the locality, added to thorough acquaintance with the phonetic laws that regulate the development of the modern Indian languages from the Prakrit and Sanskrit. Mr. Growse is one of the few that possess both these qualifications.

"It would be impossible within the space of a short review to do justice to the great mass of information distributed in the various chapters. The Memoir is a large quarto volume of upwards of 500 pages,