INDIAN ARCHITECTURE, the style which was prac tised by the inhabitants of India. Although what relates to India was anciently but very imperfectly known to the western world, yet such is the change in human fdliiirs, and the eagerness with which every matter relating to India has of late been investigated, that we are now furnished with accounts fully as ample as those relating to Egypt or Persia. In the following brief relations we shall be guided by some excellent papers, by Sir William Jones and others, in the Asiatic Researches ; Robertson's Disquisitions respecting An cient India ; the learned and laborious work of Maurice on Indian Antiquities; and several other authorities quoted for particular descriptions.
In India, the cities and palaces were on a scale with its great wealth and population. They were generally indebted for their origin to the favour of powerful princes, and succes sively became the centre of the riches and traffic of the East. In the historical poem, called the ifabahbarit (or History of the Great War) translated by Abul Fazed, the secretary or minister of the great Akbar, it is said, that Dude, the capital of a province of that name, to the north-east of Bengal, was the first regular imperial city of Ilindoo.:tan, and that it was built in the reign of Erishen, one of the most ancient rajahs. The Aycen Akbery (vol. ii. p. 41) represents Onde to have anciently been laS cuss (or about 259 miles) in length, and 36 cuss (or about 53 miles) in breadth ; but this bears more resemblance to a province than a city. "This city," says Si. W. Jones, "extended, if we may believe the brahmins, over a line of tell yojans (or 40 miles.) It is supposed to have been the birth-place of Rama." According to the Alahabbarit, Oude continued the imperial city- 1,500 years, until about the year 1,000 before the Christian era, when a prince of the dynasty of the Surajas, who boasted their descent from the sun, erected Canouge upon the banks of the Games, and made the eireumference of its walls 50 coss, or about ST miles. Strabo, from Megasthenes, who had seen Canouge, says it was situated at the confluence of another stream with the Gauges ; that its form was quadrangular, the length SO stadia, breadth 15, or, taking the mean stadium of the ancients, about S miles by 1,1; that it had wooden fortifications, with turrets for archers to shoot from, and was surrounded by a vast diteh.—Straho, lib. xv. p. 667. Arrian calls it the
greatest city amongst the Indians; he says that it was situ ated at the junction of the Erannaboa with the Ganges: he gives the same dimensions as Strabo; and says, that there were 570 towers on the walls, and 65 gates. Diodorus Sieulus, lib, xvii. says, that when Alexander passed Hyphasis, he was intlirmed, that on the banks of the Ganges, he would meet the most formidable sovereign of hidia, called Xambranes, king of the Gangarides, at the heal of 20,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 2,000 war-chariots, and 4,000 fighting elephants. The ..11uhablarit states that Sinkol, a native of Canouge, brought into the field, against Air•asiah, king of Persia, 4,000 elephants, 100,000 horse, and 400 000 foot. But that after Delu had founded Delhi, and established his court there, Canouge declined, and was involved in discord ;—still we learn from the same authority, that Sinsar ehand, or Sandroeottus, the successor of Porus, restored Canouge to its ancient splendour ; and that here, about the year 300 before Christ, he entertained the ambassadors from Seleueus, the successor of Alexander, and that Megasthenes was amongst the number. In the beginning of the fifth cen tury-, Ramdeo 1:hator (or the Mahratta) entered Canouge in triumph. and reigned there 5.t years. The last king under whom this city may be considered as the metropolis of a great empire, was Maldeo, who, about the beginning of the sixth century, added Delhi to his dominions. At this ti rite, Canouge was said to contain 30,000 shops in which areca was sold. Although not the metropolis, it long after continued of great consequence. About the year 1,000, when Sultan Mahmed invested it, it is represented as a city which, in strength, has no equal. It became an appendage to the empire established by Mahmed.—Feriskta, vol. i. p. 27.