A similar apsidal Jaina temple of vaulted roof is to be found dedicated to Puṣpadanta Nath near Conjeeveram.

The study of Indian Architecture would be incomplete if no reference were made to the Bengali style of temples which is rather a thing of recent growth. I have searched in vain for a very old temple of the Bengali type. There is none extant older than the beginning of the seventeenth century A.D. but there is no doubt that there bad been very old temples in Bengal for we find that the Darga at Pandua in the district of Hooghly of Zafar Khan Gazi, the contemporary of the first Muhammadan king Shamsuddin Firoz Shah, was built in the beginning of the fourteenth century A.D. out of the materials taken from Hindu temples. A reference to Banglaghar is found in the songs of Manikchand as follows

Bāndkilām Bārglā ghar nāhi päḍa Kāli |

Em in bayase chhāḍī jāyo amār bṛthā bhāva rāņi. || Though the Bengali style of temple building has not a very ancient pedigree it should not be dismissed with scorn. It has a peculiarity of its own not to be met with in any part of India. It is a thing confined to the province of Bengal, illustrating the influence on materials of architecture. This irregularity in origin and type bas lent a special charm to its study. The Bengali style with its sanctum having panelled mural decoration, cusped and pointed arches and short heavy pillars is divided into two classes based on the method of roofing, e.g. (1) hut-roofed and (2) doubled roofed. These two divisions again admit of various subdivisions as per the number of towers, sikharas or rathas as they are called, e.g. pañoharatna, navaratna, etc. It may be mentioned incidentally that the temples of this class are built in bricks, both thick and thin. We find in the Bengali temple an obvious construction of Hindu-Saracenic architec tural traditions that can be traced back to the Adina Masjid, or the Ekalakbi Mausoleum at Pandua, the Qudam-i-Rasul at Gaur. It may be mentioned here in the language of Sir John Marshall that the materials employed at the Adina Masjid consisted largely of the remains of Hindu temples, and many of

the carvings from the temples bave been used as facings of dome, arches and pillars. It seems probable that the architects who erected the monuments at Gaur and Pandua drew their architectural inspiration as well from the Hindu models of the preceding period when the kings of Sena and Pala dynasties ruled.

However exclusive and self-contained the traditions of a nation may be it is impossible to escape extraneous influence in some way or ther. This inherent nature of a thing to combine with another, the tendency of the homogeneous to be heterogeneous is a law that governs not only the physical and the physiological but also the psychological world. Hence the foreign ideas and ideals orcep in unnoticed, combine with the original and form a compound which may have a constancy of composition like a chemical compound or may merely be a mechanical mixture. This is well illustrated in architecture which manifests a particular phase of the human mind. If we examiue some Brahmanical or Jaina temples of the sixteenth or the seventeenth century, we shall invariably find in them an adaptation of Muhammadan decorative devices and even constructive peculiarities. The ornamentations noticed in the pilasters of the ruined Vishnuvite temple in the Nurpur Fort in "Kangra " show a marked similiarity in design to some of the early Mogul buildings in the Lahore Fort. The decorations round the panels on the outer face of the temple show both foliated and geometrical devices as noticed in the work of the Mogul buildings.

Those who look upon Indian Architecture in the light of technique, arrangement or mannerism only are wholly mistaken Without minimising the importance of the above method of study and criticism, it may be said that this does not acquaint us with the real nature of the thing.

There are three stand-points from which Indian Architecture may be studied: Technical or Scientific, Aesthetic and Ethical. These have been described by Ruskin as the three virtues of

Architecture. For instance, if we study the Renaissance Architecture, we cannot but be struck by a sense of worldliness or pride pervading the structures, but for all that no one fails to see the design elaborated by a process of aesthetic reasoning. This reasoning is so simple that it appeals even to a casual observer.

A pessimist as a philosopher, a Hindu is not so as an artist. As an artist he spiritualises matter and thus embodies architectural idealism in different forms which never oppress the imagination by its solid reality.

The architecture of the ancient Hindus is pervaded by a spirit of earnestness and self-sacrifice, the temple being as it were an offering, a gift to the deity, the Istam enshrined in the sanctum and as such we notice a profusion of decoration condemned by Fergusson as "over-decorated ugliness," a remark exemplifying the deadning effect of the idealisation of the principle of utility, for architecture is not construction, the beaver's art, but is according to Ruskin, "the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man, for whatsoever use, that the sight of these may contribute to his mental health, power and pleasure."

The structures of the present day illustrate a violation of this fundamental canon of architecture by allowing the constructive element to override the aesthetic side, indicating the nemesis of the decorative principle forming a vital part of ancient and medieval Indian Architecture.

However hampered by tradition or fettered by conventionality ancient Indian Architecture may be, we find evident and clear indications stamping it with originality, vigour and genius. Ours of the present day appears as one badly imitated, unsuited to the climate and the traditions of the past.

IV-Zibunnisa Begum and Diwan-i-Mukhfi

By Hafiz Shamsuddin Ahmad, M.A., B.L.

Zibunnisa was Aurangzeb's first child by his wife Dileas Banu. She was born in the year 1048 A. H. When she was old enough to begin learning, she was placed under the charge of Hafiza Maryam, a highly educated lady and mother of a great noble, Inayatullah Khan. She first learnt the Quan and got it by heart. She also learnt Persian and Arabic from some of the best scholars of the day, notably among them, Mulla Sai'd Ashraf Mazandrani. He was a Persian, came to India at the beginning of Aurangzeb's reign and was appointed a tutor to Zibunnisa. Mulla Ashraf was a great poet. It was through his contact that Zibunnisa cultivated a taste for poetry and probably herself became a good poetess.

The historians are agreed that Zibunnisa Begum passed the greater part of her life in literary pursuits and was a great patron of letters. Her court was a sort of Literary Academy in which flourished the best geniuses of the time. She had established a department for the translation of classical books and for writing original works. To this department was attached a splendid library "the like of which was," in the words of Maasir-i-Alamgiri, "never seen before." It was owing to her literary taste that her father's austerity and apatby to fine arts could not much tell on the growth of those arts in the country during his reign.

Many books are popularly believed to have beer written by Zibuunisa, the most famous of them being Diwan i-Mukhfi, Zibut-Tafasir and Zibul Munshaat. The last of these, no doubt, belongs to the Begum, and according to the testimony of Tazkirat-ul-Gharáib, is a collection of her letters. The authorship of Zibut-Tafasir has been wrongly imputed to her by some writers. It is a Persian translation of the well-known Tafsir-iKabir of Imam Rázi, and was made by Mulla Saif-ud-din

Ardbeli in obedience to the Begum's order and was named after her. Controversy has, however, been raging of late over the authorship of Diwán-i-Mukhfi. The popular opinion has tended to attribute it to Zibunnisa, and many authors, both Indian and European, including Dr. Springer, have held the same view. But a thoughtful section of the scholars has preferred to dissent from this view owing to absence of any positive evidence to that effect. An attempt has been made in the present article to decide the question by the collection of internal evidence as afforded by Diwán-i-Mukhfi itself, and this evidence points unmistakably to the fact that the author of the book, whoever else he might be, was certainly not Zibunnisa Begum. As to the real author, we have not sufficient material to establish his identity, though there are passages in the Diwán which throw some light on the subject and will be discussed in their proper places. It may, however, be mentioned in passing that several memoirs of Persian poets speak of a certain Mukhfi of Risht who flourished about the same time as the Mukhfi in question and may be the same man.

But before I proceed to lay the internal evidence before the readers, I propose to give a résumé of the very meagre external evidence on which Diwán-i-Mukhfi may be inferred to be the work of some one other than Zibunnisa Begum.

(1) In the first place, it cannot be asserted with certainty whether Zibunnisa was a poet or not. Contemporary historians, e.g. Sher Khan Lodi, Afzal-ud-din Sarkush, Kháfi Khan, etc. are entirely silent on the point. And though the Begum has enjoyed a wide reputation of being a poet, and it may be conceded that she was one, yet no chronologist ever mentions to have seen her Diwán (collection of poems). Maulavi Ghulám Ali Azad quotes only two of her couplets in his Yad-i-Baiza. Ahmad Ali Sandilwi, the author of Makhzanul-Gharáib, declares that he nowhere saw her Diwán, though he saw in a book a select collection of her poems. This was not, however, at all authentic, as many a line which he knew to belong to other poets were therein written under her name.