The Design Development of Indian Architecture

The collection of measured drawings and details presented in this publication represents an endeavour to meet a need which everyone who has set out to study the elements of Indian architecture must have felt. In the histories dealing with that subject, such as the excellent one written by Fergusson, the illustrations must need be small, while the plates contained in the various volumes published by the Archaeological Survey Department of the Government of India, in the well-known Bijapur Portfolio and in other cognate works, are found to deal each with some particular locality or style, and many of them are, if obtainable at all, beyond the means of the average student of architecture. Again, they illustrate, for the most part, only the more monumental and ornate examples in the district with which they each deal, omitting all reference to its smaller domestic architecture, from which, perhaps, the most useful inspiration may be gleaned by architects in connection with their practice in the India of to day. Moreover the works referred to naturally treat architecture rather from the archaeological than from the architectural or constructional viewpoint. There are certainly several works illustrating Indian architecture by means of photographs, but however good a photograph may be, it can not take the place of a measured drawing for the student or architect. The plates now presented have all been drawn by my Indian students, for the most part from measured drawings, Prepared either by themselves or their fellow-students, while the Remainder have been re-drawn, in a some what more architectural manner, from various publications issued under the aegis of the Archaeological department of the Government, of India with the kind permission of Sir John Marshall, Kt., C.I.E., Litt.D., M.A., F.S.A., until recently Director-General of Archaeology in India. The origin of each measured drawing and the name of the delineator are to be found tat the foot of each plate, and I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to all those who have thus made the production of the book possible, as well as to Mr. Robert W. Cable, F.R.I.B.A., Mr. Alexander G. bond, M.A.(Oxon.), F.R.I.B.A., for their kindness in reading the proofs and for other assistance rendered in connection with its publication.