These five imperial cities seem, with regard to extent, splendour, and wealth, to have exceeded the greatest cities of the western world ; and, besides these, many others were almost of equal magnificence : fiur Chundery is said to have contained 334 markets, and 360 caravanseras ; and Ahme dabad was once so large as to require to be divided into 360 quarters.—Maurice, lad. Antiq. vol. i. p. 118-124.
These extensive and proud cities were evidently the sym bols of temporary policy and power, and have passed away, like so many splendid scenes on the great theatre of the East. But as the religion of India has been more permanent than their political relations, it is from the sacred edifices we are to trace most distinctly the characters of Indian architecture, and be enabled to judge how far they have any affinity with those of other nations. Of their large temples, (pagodas) we find accounts of five different forms.
1. Simple pyramids constructed of large stories, and di minished by regular recesses or steps, as at Deogur and Tanjore; the exterior rude, and the interior having only light from without by a small entrance door ; illuminated by a profusion of lamps, with the exception of a chamber in the middle, which has only a single lamp. Aquetil says, that to him one of the mountains of Carrara seemed hewn to a point by human art.
2. The second kind were formed by excavations in the sides of rocky mountains. Abel Fazul (Ayeen Akbery, vol. ii. p. 208) says, that in the soobah of Cashmere, in the middle of the mountains, 12,000 recesses were cut out of the solid rock. From Captain Wilford's paper on Caucasus, inserted in the sixth volume of the Asiatic Researches, we learn that an extensive branch of the Caucasus was called by the Greeks Parapamis, obviously derived from Para Vami, the pure and excellent city of Vami, commonly called Bamiyan. it is situated on the road between Balkh and Cabul, and like Thebes in Egypt, insists of vast numbers of apartments and recesses cut out of the rock ; some of which, on account of their extraordinary dimensions, are supposed to be temples. There are also, at that place, two colossal statues, one of a man eighty ells high, and another of a woman fifty ells high, erect and adhering to the mountain from which they are cut.
At Salsette, Elephanta, and Vellore or Ellora, the excava tions were nut only extensive, but were divided into separate apartments, with regular ranges of sculptured pillars and entablatures, and the walls and ceilings covered with multi tudes of figures of their genii, deutah, men, and women; and various animals, such as elephants, horses, lions, Sze. all of the most excellent workmanship. See Plates I. and II.
3. A third set was composed of square or oblong courts of vast extent. The circumference of the outward wall of that in the island of Seringhain, adjacent to Trichinopoly, is said to extend nearly four miles. The whole edifice consists or seven square enclosures, the walls being 350 feet distant from each other. In the innermost spacious square are the chapels. In the middle of each side of each enclosure-wall there is a gateway under a lofty tower : that in the outward wall, fitces the south, is ornamented with pillars of single stones, thirty-three feet long, and five in diameter.— Voyages de Sunnerat, torn. i. p. 217; and Robertson's India, p.268. Tavernier describes the pagoda of Santidos, in the Guzerat, as consisting of three courts paved with marble, and surrounded with a portico supported by marble columns; the inside of the roof and walls formed of mosaic, work and agates, and all the portico covered with female figures east in marble. Aurungzebe this temple by killing a cow within its precincts, and converting it into a Turkish mosque. At Chittambrum, on the coast of Coromandel, there is only one court, 1,332 feet in one direction, and 036 in another, with an entrance gateway under a pyramid 120 feet high, and the ornamental parts finished with great deli eacy.—J ohn Call, Phil. Trans. vol. lxii. p. 354. Orme's Hist. vol. i. p. 178.
4. A fourth sort, as Benares pagoda, in the city of Casi, which from the earliest tunes was devoted to Indian religion and science. The temple is in the form of a cross, with a cupola terminated by a pyramid in the centre, and having also a tower at each extremity of the cross. From the gate of the pagoda to the Ganges, there is a flight of steps.— Tavernier, tom. iv. p. 149. Rouen edit.