These five imperial cities seem, with regard to extent, splendour, and wealth, to have exceeded the greatest cities of the western world : And, beside these, many others were almost of equal magnificence ; for Chundery is said to have contained 384 markets, and 360 caravan serahs; and Ahmedabad was once so large as to require to be divided into 360 quarters. Maurice, Ind. Antiq vol. i. pp. 118, 124.
'These extensive and proud cities were evidently the symbols of temporary policy and power, and have passed away, like so many splendid scenes on the great theatre of the East. From the particulars which will be detail ed under the Practice of Architecture, we shall be able to form some notion of the eastern manner of building ; 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 stones, and diminished by regular recesses or steps, as at Deogur and Tanjore ; the exterior rude, and the interior having only lights from without by a small entrance door ; illu minated 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 Ca nara seemed hewn to a point by human art.
2. The second kind were formed by excavations in the sides of rocky mountains. Abul Fazel (Ayeen .4kbery, 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 Paraparnis, obvious ly derived from Para Vami, the pure and excellent city of Vami, commonly called Barniyan. It is situated on the road between Balkh and Cabul, and, like Thebes in Egypt, consists of vast numbers of apartments and re cesses 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 sta tues, one of a man eighty ells high, and another of a woman fifty ells high, erect, and adhering to the moon.
taro from which they are cut. At Saltette, Elephanta. and Vellore or Ellora, the excavations were not only ex tensive, but were divided into separate apartments, with regular ranges of sculptured pillars and entablatures, and the walls and ceilings covered with multitudes of figures of their genii, deutahs, men, and women ; and various animals, such as elephants, horses, lions, &-.c. all of the most excellent workmanship. See Plates CLI, and CLII.
3. A third set were comfiosed of square or oblong courts of vast extent. The circumference of the out ward wall of that in the island of Seringham, adjacent to Trichinopoly, is said to extend nearly four miles. The whole edifice consists of seven square inclosures, the walls being 350 feet distant from each other. In the in nermost spacious square are the chapels. In the middle of each side of each inclosure wall there is a gateway under a lofty tower : That in the outward wall, which faces the south, is ornamented with pillars of single stones, thirty-three feet long, and five diameter, (Voy ages de ill. Sonnerat, torn. i. p. 217 ; and Robertson's India, p. 268.) Tavernier describes the Pagoda of San tidas, in the Guzzerat, as consisting of three courts paved with marble, and surrounded with a portico sup ported by marble columns : the inside of roof and walls formed of mosaic work and agates, and all the portico covered with female figures cut in marble. Aurengzebe profaned this temple by killing a cow within its precincts, and converting it into a Turkish mosque. At Chittam bruin, on the coast of Coromandel, there is only one court, 1332 feet in one direction, and 936 in another, with an entrance gateway under a pyramid 120 feet high, and the ornamental parts finished with great delicacy. John 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 times was devoted to In dian 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.