OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Although what rela-es to India was anciently but ve ry imperfectly known to the western world, yet such is the change in human affairs, and the eagerness with which every matter relating to India has of late been in vestigated, that we are now furnished with accounts ful ly as ample as those relating to Egypt or Persia. In the following brief relations we shall be guided by same ex cellent papers. by Sir William Jones and others. in the .4siaric Rest-arches; Robertson's Disgzisiti:ne rcslitc:ing ./Incient India ; t..e learned and laborious work of :Viva rice on incEan ; and the several other autho rities 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 prin ces, and successively became the centre of the riches and traffic of the East. In the historical poem, called the Mahabbarit, (or History of the Great NVar,) trans lated by Abul Faze!, the secretary or minister of the great Akbar, it is said, that Oudc, the capital of a pro vince of that name, to the north east of Bengal, was the first regular imperial city of Ilindostan, and that it was built in the reign of Krishen, one of the most an cient rajahs. The Ayecn Akbery (vol. ii, p 41.) re presents °uric to have anciently been 148 coss (oi about 2,59 miles) in length, and 36 coss (or about 53 miles) in breadth ; but this bears more a resemblance to a pro vince than a city. This city, says Sir W. Jones, " ex tended, if we may believe the Bramins, over a line of ten yojans, (or 40 miles.) It is supposed to have been the birth-place of Rama." According to the Mahab barit, Oude continued the imperial city 1500 years, un til about the year 1000 before the Christian xra, when a prince of the dynasty of the Surajas, Nvho boasted their descent from the Sun, erected Canouge upon the banks of the Ganges, and made the circumference of its walls 50 coss, or about 87 miles. Strabo, from Me gasthenes, who had seen Canougc, says it was situated at the confluence of another stream with the Ganges ; that its form was quadrangular, the length 80 stadia, breadth 15, or, taking the mean stadium of the ancients, about 8 miles by 1 a ; that it had wooden fortifications, with turrets for archers to shoot from, and was surround ed by a vast ditch, (Strabo, lib. xv. p. 667.) Arrian calls
it the greatest city amongst the Indians ; he says, that it was situated 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 Siculus, lib. xvii. p. 678, says, that when Alexander passed the Hyphasis, he was informed, that, on the banks of the Ganges, he would meet the most formidable sovereign of India, called Xambranes, king of the Gangarides, at the head of 20,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 2000 war chariots, and 4000 fighting elephants. The Mahabbarit states, that Sinkol, a native of Ca nouge, brought into the field, against Affrasiah, king of Persia, 4000 elephants, 100,000 horse, and 400,000 foot. But that after Delu had founded Delhi, and es tablished his court there, Canouge declined, and was involved in civil discord ;—still we learn from the same authority, that Sinsarchand, or Sandrocottus, the suc cessor of Porus, restored Canouge to its ancient splen dour; and that here, about the year 300 before Christ, he entertained the ambassadors from Selcucus, the suc cessor of Alexander, and that Megasthenes was amongst the number. In the beginning of the 5th century, Ram deo Rhator (or the Mahratta) entered Canougc in tri umph, and reigned there 54 years. The last king under whom this city may be considered as the metropolis of a great empire was Maiden, who, about the beginning of the 6th century, added Delhi to his dominions. At this time, Canouge was said to contain 30,000 shops, in which arcca was sold. Although not the metropolis, it long after continued of great consequence. About the year 1000, when Sultan Alahmed invested it, it is represented as a city which, in strength, had no equal. It became an appendage to the empire established by Mahmed. Ferishta, vol. i. p. 27.