No More Learning

XXI
4
homage to Āva, and Āva sometimes sent her nominee to rule as
governor.
Toungoo was usually on good terms with Pegū, and when she
went raiding it was to the north, especially to Kyaukse. She always
looked longingly on that prosperous hollow, growing three crops a
year when she could grow only one, and the stronger she grew the
more she encroached there. Her greatest chief, Minkyinyo (1486–
1531), finally secured it when the chief of Āva gave him a daughter,
and, as her dowry, Kyaukse itself together with the country leading
up to it from Toungoo, such as the Yamethin villages Taungnyo,
Pyagaung (Kyidaunggan), Shwemyo, Kintha, Talaingthe and
Petpaing. He deported
He deported the population of these to fill the new town
Dwayawadi (Myogyi near Toungoo) which he founded. In 1510
he moved and founded the present Toungoo, digging the lake within
the walls and laying out orchards. When the Shāns finally took Āva
in 1527 he sallied forth and deliberately devastated the country in the
central zone, filling in the walls and breaking down the channels so
as to place an impassable belt between himself and the Shāns.
While he was doing this, the last great influx of Burmans came
fleeing from the Shān terror ; the lords of Pyinya in Sagaing district,
Myittha in Kyaukse, and Hlaingdet in Meiktila, with many a
Burmese family, noble and commoner, fled south to take refuge at
his feet. In delight he exclaimed: "Now I know why the bees
swarmed on the gate of Toungoo : it meant that my city would be
populous'; it meant more than that, although he did not realise
it - it meant that Toungoo would see the re-birth of the Burmese
race.
+
Chiengmal as well as Pegū recognised Minkyinyo as an in-
dependent chief, and he was so strong that Karenni sent him
propitiatory homage. He was a great fighter, and once, when
taking Kyaungbya (south-east of Toungoo) from the Talaings,
he killed its Shān governor by jumping on to his elephant and
cutting him down. He could trace his descent indirectly through
forbears of rank to the Pagān dynasty, and dying at the age of
seventy-two he bequeathed a great name of Tabinshwehti, his son
by the daughter of the headman of Penwegon, six miles north of
Toungoo.


## p. 559 (#609) ############################################

CHAPTER XXII
CEYLON A, D. 1215–1527
The successive raids from Southern India, described in volume II
of this history, which had thrown Ceylon into confusion during the
first twelve years of the thirteenth century, reached their climax in
the irruption of the wicked Kālingo prince Māgha, who, with an
army of Keralas of Malabaris, overran the country, destroying all
that lay in his way. He entered the capital, polonnaruva, took its
ruler, Parakkama pandu, captive, and despoiled the city of its
treasures. He then ascended the throne under the title of Kālinga
Vijaya-Bāhu, and ruled over the north central part of the Island
for twenty-one years (A. D. 1213 to 1234).
His domination was characterised by wanton cruelty, and the
Sinhalese chronicles give a heartrending account of the destruction
of sacred edifices, the expulsion of priests, and other outrages, ex-
tending even to the destruction of the literature of the Island,
While Māgha and his confederate, Jaya-Bāhu, were thus
oppressing the inhabitants of Polonnaruva and the neighbouring
districts, a few Sinhalese chieftains successfully defended the
religion and liberties of the people in the less accessible highlands.
At Subha-pabbata (now Yāpavu in the North-Western province)
was the military commander Subha-senāpati; at Gangādoni.
pabbata in the Manimekhalā district was Sankha, another military
commander; in Rohana (Southern Ceylon) Bhuvaneka-Bāhu bore
sway; and Prince Vijaya-Bāhu, leading a Sinhalese army from
the Vanni district, drove the Tamils from the Māyā, or central
region of the Island, and, having built for himself a stronghold at
Jambudoni (Dambadeniya), reigned there, contemporaneously with
Māgha, for four years, from about A. D. 1227 to 1231. His chief work
was the restoration of the Buddhist church, the recovery of such
literature as remained, and the revival of letters. He invited to his
capital Vāchissara', and all other learned Buddhist monks who had
fled from the tyranny of Māgha, brought the Tooth and Bowl
relics of the Buddha from Kotmale, where they had been hidden,
to his capital, and afterwards enshrined them with great ceremony
1See Mv. Ixxxi, 18, B. M. Cat. of Sinh. Mss. , pp. xvi, xvii, and Katikāvat.
sangarā, p. 8.


## p. 560 (#610) ############################################

560
[cit.
CEYLON A D. 1215—1527
on the top of the Beligala Rock. He convened a Council of Elders
consisting of the well-known author Saingha-rakkhita, the
Theras named Medhankara, and other representatives of Buddhist
fraternities, who sat in his own temple, Vijayārāma, and, aſter
rehearsing the Buddhist canon, issued an ecclesiastical rescript
(Katikāvata) for the
the guidance
guidance of the clergy. He also caused
copies of important Buddhist works to be made, to replenish the
temple libraries rifled by the invaders.
Vijaya-Bāhu III had one daughter and two sons, Parakkama-
Bāhu and Bhuvaneka-Bāhu. The first son under the tutorship of
the renowned Sangha-rakkhita Thera, made such progress in learn-
ing that he received the title Kalikāla Sähichcha Sabbanna Pandita
('the Omniscient Pandit of the Kaliyuga epoch of Literature').
He succeeded his father on the throne at Dambadeniya as
Parakkama-Bāhu II, probably in A D. 1231, while the usurpers
Māgha and Jaya-Bāhu were ruling over pihiti-rata at Polonnaruva.
As soon as he ascended the throne he set hiinself to restore order
in the kingdom. He appointed his younger brother, Bhuvaneka-
nu, to the office of sub-king, and held a great festival in honour
of the Tooth-relic. He then led a large army against the strong.
holds of the invaders and in the course of about three years
succeeded in expelling them from Ceylon. With his nephew, Vira-
Bāhu, he repulsed a raid led by Chandrabhānu, a Jāvaka, of Malay
chieſtain, and, as soon as peace and order were restored to the
land, turned his attention to the purification of the Buddhist
church. He held a convocation of elders, and the canon
rehearsed, sinful priests were excommunicated, and a new rescript
or Katikāvala was issued for the use of the clergy. He gave every
encouragement to art and learning, and it appears from the glowing
accounts of him in the Dambadeni asna and the Räjaratnākara
that his own accomplishments were many. His Visuddhi-magga-
sannaya
and Vinaya-vinichchhaya-sannaya (Sinh. Vanavinisa-
sanne) which he entitled Nissandeha
entitled Nissandeha are remarkable for their
comprehensiveness, and his Kavsilumina is a masterpiece of
Sinhalese poetry, which has furnished the author of the Sinhalese
grammar, Sidatsangarā, with an exemple establishing the existence
in the Sinhalese language of the semi-nasal sannaka. His just rule
and the facilities for study afforded by him, by Devapratirājā, his
chief minister, and by his other ministers, resulted in the produc-
tion of many important works. Dhammakitti Thera continued the
compilation of the Mahāvamsa, under the title Chūlavamsa, from
the date on which Mahānāma had relinquished it to the end of the
was


## p. 561 (#611) ############################################

XXit)
PARAKKAMA BĂHU II
561
reign of Parakkama-Bāhu I (A. D. 1153—86), and was probably pre-
vented only by death, or by political disorders, from continuing
the chronicle to his own times (A. D. 1235—65). Among other con-
temporary writers may be mentioned Mayūrapāda Thera, the
author of the well-known Pūjāvaliya, and of a medical work
named Yogārniva, both in Sinhalese prose.
Parakkama-Bāhu II had five sons, (1) Vijaya-Bāhu, (2) Bhu-
vaneka-Bāhu (3) Tiloka-Malla, (4) Parakkama-Bāhu, and (5) Jaya-
Bāhu, called Siri Vijaya-Bāhu in the Rājāvaliya, and the nephew,
Vira-Bāhu, mentioned above. They were all skilful and experienced
soldiers, and the eldest, Vijaya-Bāhu, was entrusted with the
government of the country while his royal father was devoting his
time to literature.
This prince was a master of strategy and a great organiser. He
placed his two youngest brothers, Parakkama-Bāhu and Jaya-
Bāhu, with their father, sent Tiloka-Malla to command the
Sinhalese army of the south, and placed Bhuvaneka-Bāhu in the
fortress of Sundara Pabbata (Yāpavu) in order that he might
defend the northern district of the Island. He himself, with his
cousin Vira-Bāhu, journeyed through the length and breadth of
the country, put down evil-doers, and freed the Island of enemies.
among those whom they vanquished being Chandrabhānu, who was
making a second attempt to gain the sovereignty of Ceylon. After
visiting many places of importance, including Vāta. giri, Adam's
Peak, Gampola, Kurunagala, and Yāpavu, and restoring peace
and prosperity to all, they remained for a time in Anurādhapura,
where they restored the sacred buildings. They conciliated the
Vanni princes, and went on to Polonnaruva, which they com-
pletely restored. Vijaya-Bāhu then invited his father from Dam.
badeniya to Polonnaruva, and in 1779 A. B (A. D. 123. 5) held in great
splendour the second coronation festival, a record of which is
contained in the Atlanagaluvamsa, and in the Mahāvamsa
(1xxxix, 10). The Pūjāvaliya which is a contemporary work,
gives the duration of Parakkama-Bāhu's reign as thirty-three
years, while the Mahāvamsa gives it as thirty-five. According to
the Nikāyasangraha and the Rājaratnākara he appears to have
died in 1809 A. B. (A. D. 1265).
His eldest son, Vijaya-Bāhu IV, also known as Bosat Vijaya.
Bāhu, then ascended the throne at Dambadeniya, but had reigned
for barely two years (A. D. 1266–68) when he was slain at the
instigation of an officer named Mitta, who attempted to usurp the
throne, but was put to death by the troops, who placed the murdered
C. H. I. III.
36


## p. 562 (#612) ############################################

$62
(CH.
CEYLON A. D.
1215- 1527
king's brother, Bhuvaneka-Bāhu I of Yāpavu on the throne of
Dambadeniya. He ruled for about eleven years (A. D. 1268-79), and
was sedulous in promoting the interests of the Buddhist church.
Shortly after his death Ceylon was visited by a famine. Āryachakra-
varti, who was then reigning in Jaffna, invaded the country, and
succeeded in carrying away from Yāpavu the Tooth-relic, which he
delivered to his king, Kulacekhara, who has been identified with
tho Pāndyan king, Māravarman Tribhuvana-chakravartin Kula.
cekhara-deva (c. 1268—1308). For nearly a year after this incident
the land was in confusion, until Parakkama-Bāhu III, a son of
Vijaya-Bāhu IV, assumed sovereignty at Polonnaruva. He made
peace with Kulacekhara, and recovered the Tooth-relic, which he
afterwards deposited in a temple at Polonnaruva. He seems to have
reigned for about seven years (A. D. 1281-88) before Bhuvaneka-
Bāhu II, son of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu I, deposed him and reigned for
two years at Kurunagala. According to the Daladāsirita these
two kings reigned contemporaneously at their respective capitals
until the latter, for some reason or other, deposed the former, and
brought the Tooth-relic from Polonnaruva to Kurunagala.
Parakkama-Bāhu IV, called also Pandita Parakkama-Bāhu II
(c. A. D. 1291 --- 1326), son of the preceding king, then ascended the
throne at Kurunagala. The duration of his reign is not given in
any known historical work, but it may be gathered from the colo-
phon to the Daladāsirita that he was reiging in A. D. 1325 (Saka
1246 expired 1869 A. B. ), and in the inscription at Kitsirimevan-
Kalani-Vihāra it is stated that Vilgammüla Mahāthera, who trans-
lated the Bodhivamsa into Sinhalese at the request of this king,
was in A. B. 1876 (A. D. 1322, seven years after the compilation of the
Daladāsirila) still holding the position of Māhimi. The king's
death seems to have taken place between A. D. 1325 and 1332,
probably in 1326, after a reign of thirty-five years. He was a patron
of learning, and during his reign many religious and historical
works were composed. To the king himself is ascribed the author-
ship of the Sinhalese Jātaka book? , a monumental work, and
the Daladāsirita? . The second section of the Chūlavamsa, from
Vijaya-Bāhu II to Parakkama- Bāhu IV (A. D. 1186–1326), also was
probably compiled during this period.
Oſ the next two kings, Bhuvaneka-Bāhu III, called also Vanni
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu, and Vijaya-Bāhu V, called in the Mahāvamsa
1 See Madras Epigraphy, Report for 1907, p. 70, and Hultzsch, J. R. A. S. , 1913,
p. 531.
2 Mv. xc,
83.
3 My, xc, 79.


## p. 563 (#613) ############################################

xxii)
BHUVANEK A-BAHU V
563
Jaya-Bāhu, and in Sinhalese works Savulu Vijaya-Bāhu, hardly
anything is known. They seem to have reigned in Kurunagala for
about twenty years, one after the other, from A. D. 1326 to 1346.
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV then ascended the throne. His capital was
Gangācripura (Gampola). The Lankātilaka inscription (British
Museum copy) of this king's minister, Senālankādhikāra, gives Saka
1264 (A. D. 1342) as the date of his accession, but according to the
Mahāvamsa and other historical works he succeeded in A. B. 1890
(A. D. 1346). The difference of four years may be explained by
assuming that the first was the year of his accession to the rank of
sub-king, and the second that of his assumption of sovereign power.
The Vāgiri-devāle inscription is dated in the tenth regnal year, so
that Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV must have reigned for at least ten years,
four years (1342—46) as Apā, and six years (1346—52) as king.
The next king was Parakkama-Bāhu V, called in Sinhalese
Savulu Parakum-raja, probably a son of Vijaya-Bāhu V. From
inscriptions and other sources it appears that he ruled at Gampola
and Dadigama for at least eleven years— four years (1348—52) as
Apā, and seven years (1352-59) as king. He was succeeded at
Gampola by his nephew, Vikkama-Bāhu III, who reigned, according
to inscriptions, for about eighteen years. He was sub-king for about
three years (A. D. 1356—59), and paramount sovereign for fifteen years
(1359-74). During his reign Niccanka Alagakkonāra of Amaragiri,
otherwise called Alakecvara, an intrepid warrior of the Girivamsa
lineage', who was allied by marriage to Senālankādhikāra Senevirat,
a minister of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV, came into prominence, rose to
the rank of minister and Prabhu-rāja, and dwelt in Perādeniya. With
a view to checking the ever-growing domination of the Tamils
under their ruler, Ārya Chakravarti of Jaffna, he prepared for war,
and built strong fortresses at Rayigama, and Kõtte, near Colombo.
In 1912 A. B. (A. D. 1368-69) he summoned a convocation of Buddhist
priests under the presidency of the Elder Dhammakitti I, and inau-
gurated reforms in religion. Towards the end of Vikkama-Bāhu's reign
Alakecvara reviewed his army and, finding himself strong enough to
cope with the Tamil king, defied him by hanging his tax-collectors.
Ārya Chakravarti replied by sending his army in two divisions, one
by land and the other by sea, against the Sinhalese. Bhuvaneka-Bāhu
V, who had succeeded Vikkama-Bāhu III on the throne of Gampola,
was struck with panic, fled from Gampola, and took refuge in the
fortress of Rayigama. In the battles which ensued Arya Chakravarti's
i For a fuller account see Perera's contribution to the 3. C. B. R. A. S. , 1904.
>
.
>
a
36-2


## p. 564 (#614) ############################################

564
(CH
CEYLON A. D. 1215-1527
power was crushed. Bhuvaneka-Bāhu returned to Gampola, but his
cowardly behaviour had made him so unpopular that the retired
to Kötte, and left the management of public affairs in the hands
of his powerful minister, Alakecvara, who in Saka 1304 (A. D. 1382)
was still in power, and Alakecvara's brother, Atthanāyaka, was also
a minister of state (Attanagaluvamsa). Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V seems to
have ruled as Apa both at Gampola and at Kötte from A. D. 1359 to
1370, as Yuva-rāja from a d. 1370 to 1374, and as king from A. D. 1374
to 1390-about thirty years in all. The Mahavamsa gives the
duration of his reign as twenty years.
After the Tamil war the Prabhu-raja, Niccanka Alakecvara, and
his brother, Atthanāyaka, lived for a while at Rayigama, but after-
wards the Prabhu-rāja settled for the remainder of his life at Kotte,
the city which he had himself built, where Bhuvaneka Bāhu V also
held his court, for the reason already explained. At Rayigama,
the family seat of the clan, the Prabhu-raja's son, Kumāra Alakecvara,
probably assumed the reins of government in the usual course, and
shortly afterwards, perhaps on the death of the Prabhu rāja and his
son (c. A. D. 1381—86), his sister's son, Vira Alakecvara, became
governor of Rayigama, and another nephew, Vira-Bāhu, who had
distinguished himself as a soldier, succeeded him as Apā of Bhu-
vaneka-Bāhu V, and lived at Gampola, but Vira Alakecvara being
the elder of the two nephews, challenged Vira-Bāhu's right to the
throne of Kötte, and a civil war ensued, in which Vīra Alakecvara
was vanquished and driven from the country.
It may be added that
Senālankādhikāra Senevirat, of the Mehenavara clan, a close
relation of the royal family, probably married the Prabhu-raja's
sister. The two nephews were the issue of this marriage, and
hence are referred to as scions of the Mehenavara clan, and Vira.
Bāhu is styled saleko (Sinh. suhurubadu) of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V. It
is this last reference that lends some colour to the statement in the
Maharamsa and in the Raja-ratnakara that Niecanka Alagakkonāra
became King Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V, but contemporary records, which
are to be preferred, controvert this statement. On the death of this
king, Vira-Bāhu II ascended the throne of Gampola and Kotte, and
reigned for about six years, from A. D. 1390 to 1396. Under his
patronage another convocation of Buddhist priests, presided over by
the Mahāthera Dhammakitti II, author of the Nikayasangraha and
other treatises, was held in A. D. 1395. Vira-Bāhu had two sons,
Vijaya Apā and Tunayesaya, but neither his fate nor theirs is
wknon.
Vira Alakecvara, probably called also Vijaya-Bāhu VI, having
>


## p. 565 (#615) ############################################

XXII)
CHINESE INVASION
565
been defeated by his younger brother, Vira-Bāhu II, fled into
Southern India, but returned in about A. D. 1397 with a large army,
and, having ousted his brother from Kötte, ascended the throne
there, and reigned for twelve years from A. D. 1397 to 1409. At
this period the kings of Kötte, owing, probably, to the great mili-
tary achievements of the late Prabhu-rāja, were recognised as
paramount sovereigns of the Island, and it is possible that Vira
Alakecvara, like many another Sinhalese sovereign, took the biruda
Vira-Vijaya-Bāhu, but the evidence at our disposal is insufficient
to prove that he assumed this name, and neither the inscriptions
nor the Sinhalese works of the period throw much light on the
matter.
In A. D. 1405 the Chinese eunuch Tcheng Houo arrived in Ceylon,
apparently for the purpose of carrying away the Tooth-relic, but
his designs were frustrated and he was plundered by Alagakkönāra,
who may be identified with Vīra Alakecvara. Four years later, in
A. D. 1409, he came again, this time with an army, and succeeded
in capturing the king, with his queen and family? He returned to
China with his captives in A. D. 1411, and from 1409 to about 1414
Ceylon was without a king; but according to Saddharma-ratnākara,
a grandson of Senālankādbikāra Senevirad, Parakkama-Bāhu by
name, who held the rank of Āpā, ruled the Island during the inter-
regnum. If this was so Parakkama-Bāhu was a member of the
Alakecvara family, perhaps a son of the captive king, or of his
brother, Vīra-Bāhu II. He may therefore be identified with the
ruler appointed by the Chinese as their vassal, and also with the
Alakecvarayā of the Rājāvaliya, who made several attempts to
kill the young Lambakanna prince, a grandson of Parakkama-
Bāhu V, whom Visidāgama had arranged to place on the throne
as Parakkama-Bahu VI. Vīra Alakecvara and the other captives
were released about A. D. 1411-12 by the Chinese, but on the night
after their return to Ceylon Vira Alakecvara is said to have been
murdered in his capital? .
The Lambakanna prince, although he had been elected to the
throne, could not venture within reach of Parakkama-Bāhu Āpā,
but he established himself at Rayigama, and was at war with the
Apā until 1414, when he ascended the throne at Kõtte as Parak-
kama-Bāhu VI. These vicissitudes of the early years of his reign
explain discrepancies between the various authorities as to the date
of his accession. He reigned for nearly fifty-seven years from his
1 Spolia Zeylanica, June 1912.
2 Şee Perera on Alakecvara in J. C. B. R. A. S. for 1994,


## p. 566 (#616) ############################################

566
(CH.
CEYLON A. D. 1215–1527
>
election as king in. A. D. 1409 until his death in A. D. 1466. His long
reign, during which Tot agamuve Cri Rāhula Thera and his learned
colleagues and pupils flourished, was a period of great literary
activity and brilliancy. Cri Rāhula, who was the abbot of Vijaya.
Bāhu Parivena, and belonged to the Uttaramūlanikāya, was the
greatest scholar of the age, and was patronised and encouraged by
the king, himself the author of a metrical vocabulary of Elu words
entitled Ruvanmal-nighantu. Cri Rāhula's devotion to the royal
family is exhibited in many affectionate references to members of
it in his writings. He was an accomplished linguist, being master
of six languages, and was also a poet of the first rank.
The king had two sons and one daughter, the Princess Uluku-
dava Devi. His elder son was Senānāyaka Sapumal Kumāra, who
invaded the kingdom of Jaffna, killed its Tamil king, Ārya Chakra:
varti, and established himself as its ruler. The second son was the
Prince of Ambulugala, who led a punitive expedition into the Kanda
Uda-rata (the Kandyan district), which was then a subordinate
principality, subdued its refractory ruler, and appointed another,
a solar prince of the Gampola royal family, to rule over the district.
On the death of the king in A. D. 1466 his grandson, Jaya-Bāhu II,
called also Jaya Vīra Parakkama-Bāhu, son of Ulukudaya Devī,
ascended the throne in Kötte, but did not long retain the sceptre,
for in A. D. 1468 Prince Sapumal, the rightful heir, came from Jaffna
with a large army, put his nephew to death, and ascended the throne
under the title of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu VI. His brother, the prince of
Ambulugala, quelled a rebellion in the south raised by Crīvardhana
Pratirāja and Kūragama Himi. The Kalyāni Upasampadā ordi-
nation was held in this king's reign, and is recorded in the Kalyāni
Inscription?
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu VI died in A. D. 1476 after a reign of seven
years, and was succeeded by his adopted son, Parakkama-Bāhu VII,
called also Pandita Parakkama-Bāhu, who reigned for about eight
years (A. D. 1476—84). The Prince of Ambulugala then rose against
him, defeated his army, and slew his principal officers in battle, and,
entering Kötte, slew him at midnight. The next morning the prince
ascended the throne under the title of Vira Parakkama-Bāhu, or
Parakkama-Bāhu VIII. He had one daughter and six sons, namely,
(1) Dhamma Parakkama-Bāhu, (2) Cri Rājasimha, (3, Sakkāyudha,
(4) Rayigam Bandāra, (5) Taniyān Vallabha, and (6) Sakalakalā
Vallabha. Of these the second and third lived at Manikkadavara,
as associated husbands of a Kīravalle princess; the fourth at Rayi-
1 See Indian Antiquary, Vol. xxii, 1893.


## p. 567 (#617) ############################################

XXI )
ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE
567
gama ; and of the fifth and sixth, who were sons by a second wife,
the former lived at Mādampe, where his daughter had two sons,
Vidya-Kumāra and Tammita-Bandāra by a Malabar prince, and
the latter settled at Udugampola. All these princes played an im-
portant part in the history of the Island.
Parakkama-Bāhu VIII reigned for about twenty years, from
A. D. 1485 to 1505, and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son,
Dhamma Parakkama-Bāhu, or Parakkama. Bāhu IX, who reigned
for about twenty-two years, from A. D. 1505 to 1527. It was in his
reign, in September 1506, that the Portuguese, under Dom Lou-
renco de Almeida, son of the viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, first
reached Colombo. On hearing of their arrival the king summoned
to his presence his brothers and took counsel with them, and on
the advice of his brother Sakkāyudha, who had secretly seen the
strangers, he entered with the Portuguese, into a treaty of friendship
and commerce, undertaking to pay tribute in cinnamon and elephants
to the King of Portugal, who, in return, was to protect Ceylon from
all enemies.


## p. 568 (#618) ############################################

CHAPTER XXIII
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Seldom in the history of mankind has the spectacle been witnessed
of two civilisations, so vast and so strongly developed, yet so radically
dissimilar as the Muhammadan and Hindu meeting and mingling
together. The very contrasts which existed beween them, the wide
divergences in their culture and their religions, make the history of
their impact peculiarly instructive and lend an added interest to the
art and above all to the architecture which their united genius called
into being
How much precisely this Indo-Islamic art owed to India and
how much to Islam, has been a moot point. The majority of
writers, approaching the question from a western standpoint, have
treated Indo-Islamic art merely as a local variety of Islamic art ;
others, taking the opposite side and in sympathly with Indian rather
than with Muhammadan ideals, have seen in it nothing more than
a modified form of Hindu art. Much may be said in favour of
either point of view. On the one hand, examples might be adduced
of Muhammadan architecture so closely resembling the Hindu
as to be all but indistinguishable from it; or, on the other, of
monuments so entirely devoid of any indigenous influence that they
might almost equally well have been erected in Samarqand or
Damascus. Such examples, however, would be misleading and the
arguments based on them fallacious. Broadly speaking, Indo-
Islamic architecture derives its character from both sources, though
not always in an equal degree. In India, indeed, the history of
Muslim architecture is closely akin to what it was in other
countries. Wherever the Muhammadans established themselves,
whether in Asia or in Africa or Europe-they invariably adapted
to their own needs the indigenous architecture which they found
prevailing there. In the lands first conquered by them-in Pales-
1 Although the term 'Saracenic' as applied to the art of Islam has the advantage
of being consecrated by long usage, the term 'Islamic' seems preferable for two
reasons ; first, because it was mainly the religion of Islam which gave to the
Muhammadan world its common bonds of culture and art ; secondly, because to
the Muhammadans themselves the ‘Saracen' meant nothing more than the Arab
tribesmen who dwelt along the borders of the Syrian desert. Without, therefore,
altogether excluding the word 'Saracenic,' Islamic will be used generally in this
chapter.


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CH, XXII]
HINDU AND MUSLIM ART
569
tine, for example, or in Syria or in Egypt--this was inevitable, for
the reason, as we shall presently see, that the Arabs themselves
possessed little or no genius for the art of building, and, if their
places of worship were to be as attractive as those of rival creeds,
it was indispensable that they should impress into their service the
builders and artists of the newly conquered territories. Later on
this deficiency was made good by wholesale conversions among their
subject races, and in no long space of time the followers of the
Prophet found themselves heirs by blood as well as by the right of
conquest to the arts and learning not only of the vast Sasanian
Empire but of the greater part of the Graeco-Roman Orient as well
as of Northern Africa and Spain. Under the sway of the Muslims
the cultural development of all these countries received a powerful
stimulus and, thanks to the freer intercourse and increasingly closer
ties established between them, Islam was able to evolve for itself a
new culture, which rapidly became common to the whole Muslim
Empire, and at the same time to elaborate novel forms of architec-
ture especially adapted to its religious and social needs. But though
Islamic architecture thus acquired a fundamental character of its
own and found expression in standardised forms and concepts in
general use throughout the length and breadth of the empire, it still
remained true that almost every country within that empire-
from Spain in the West to Persia in the East--developed a local
Muslim style of its own based primarily on indigenous ideals and
stamped with a strong national individuality. Nowhere, for example,
but in Spain could the romantic gateway of Toledo, or the fairy-
like courts of the Alhambra have taken shape, and nowhere but in
India could the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque of Old Delhi or the chaste
and stately fabric of the Tāj Mahall have been designed.
By the close of the twelfth century, then, when the Muslims
established their power permanently in India, it was no longer a
case of their having to be tutored by their new subjects in the art
of building ; they themselves were already possessed of a highly-
developed architecture of their own, as varied and magnificent as
the contemporary architecture of Christian Europe ; and the
Muslims, moreover, who conquered India-men of Afghān, Persian
and Turki blood-were endowed with remarkably good taste and
a natural talent for building. The picture that some writers have
drawn of them as wild and semi-barbarous hill-men descending
on an ancient and vastly superior civilisation, is far from the
truth. That they were brutal fighters, without any of the chivarly,


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570
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
for example, of the Rājputs, and that they were capable of acts of
savagery and gross intemperance, may be conceded. But these
were vices common in those ages to most Asiatic nations and did
not preclude them any more than they had precluded the Ghaz-
navids from participating in the prevalent culture and arts of
Islam. Qutb-ud-din Aibak was ruthless enough to enslave en masse
the population of Kālinjar, but he also had the genius and imagi-
nation to create a mosque as superb as any in Islam ; and though
;
'Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī slaughtered thousands of Mongols in cold blood
at Delhi, he was the author of buildings of unexampled grace and
nobility. Doubtless, it was due in a great measure to this inborn
artistry, coupled with a natural catholicity of taste, that the new-
comers were so quick to appreciate the talent and adaptability of
the Indian craftsmen and to turn these qualities to account on
their own buildings. Few things in the history of architecture are
more remarkable than the skill with which, from the very outset,
the Muhammadans transformed Hindu and Jaina temples into
mosques for the Faithful, or the imagination which they displayed
in employing Indian sculptors to adorn their edifices with designs
incomparably more exquisite than their own. To create a success.
ful building out of such alien materials, to reconcile two styles
so characteristically opposed, without transgressing the standard
formulas of Islamic art, might well have been deemed an impossible
task. For the contrast between the Hindu temple and the Muslim
mosque could hardly have been more striking. The shrine of the
former was relatively small and constricted ; the prayer chamber
of the latter was broad and spacious. The one was gloomy and
mysterious ; the other light and open to the winds of heaven. The
Hindu system of construction was trabeate, based on column and
architrave ; the Muslim was arcuate, based on arch and vault. The
2
temple was crowned with slender spires or pyramidal towers; the
mosque with expansive domes. Hinduism found concrete expres-
sion in the worship of images, and its monuments were enriched
with countless idols of its deities; Islam rigidly forbade idolatry or
the portrayal of any living thing. Decorative ornament in Hindu
architecture delighted in plastic modelling ; it was naturalistic as
the Gothic and far more exuberant ; Islamic ornament, on the
other hand, inclined to colour and line or flat surface carving, and
took the form of conventional arabesques or ingenious geometric
patterning. Yet, with all these conspicuous contrasts (and there are
many more that might be added), there are certain factors common
to both forms of architecture which materially assisted towards


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XXI11 )
INFLUENCE OF HINDU ON MUSLIM ART
571
their amalgamation. Thus, a characteristic feature of many Hindu
temples, as well as of almost every Muslim mosque-a feature
derived from the traditional dwelling-house of the East and as
familiar in India as in other parts of Asia - was the open court
encompassed by chambers or colonnades, and such temples, as were
built on this plan naturally lent themselves, to conversion into
mosques and would be the first to be adapted for that purpose by
the conquerors. Again, a fundamental characteristic that supplied
a common link between the two styles, was the fact that both
Islamic and Hindu art were inherently decorative. Ornament was
as vital to the one as to the other ; both were dependent on it for
their very being. In the Indian architect this sense for the decora-
tive was innate ; it came to him as a legacy from the pre-Aryan
races and ran through the whole fabric of the art. The Muslim, on
the other hand, had inherited a vast wealth of rich and varied
designs particularly from the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, and
though his taste in the handling of ornament might not be so
exquisite as the Indian, the value he attached to it was in no way
less. Thus it came about that when the conquest of India opened
up new realms of art before his eyes, he at once gauged their
vast possibilities and set about taking the fullest advantage of
them.
In the fusion of the two styles which followed, Muhammadan
architecture absorbed or inherited
manifold ideas and concepts
from the Hindu-so many, indeed, that there is hardly a form or
motif of Indian architecture which in some guise or other did not
find its way into the buildings of the conquerors. But
important than these visible borrowings of outward and concrete
features is the debt which Indo-Islamic architecture owes to
the Hindu for two of its most vital qualities ; the qualities
of strength and grace. In other countries Islamic architecture
has other merits. There is nothing in India, for instance, to
match the green and gold mosaics of Jerusalem and Damascus,
or the superb colouring of Persian tilework, or the wonderful
fantasies of Spanish design ; but in no other country are strength
and grace united quite so perfectly as in India. These are the
two qualities which India may justly claim for her own, and they
are the two which in architecture count for more than all the
rest.
In a country as vast and diversified as India, it is not to be
supposed that architecture ever conformed to a
universal type.
The local styles of buildings which the Muhammadans encountered
more


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[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
in different districts were almost as numerous and distinct une
from another, as the peoples themselves or the languages they
spoke. Some of the styles, as we have seen in the preceding
volume of this history, were determined by the ethnic character
of the population ; others were the outcome of differing religions ;
others, again, resulted from foreign inspiration ; and others were
conditioned by geographical surroundings or by the climate or
geology of the neighbourhood. Whatever the underlying causes,
each style represented a spontaneous development suited to the
religious or social needs of the inhabitants and reflecting their
specific habits and mentality. Out of these antecedent styles the
Muhammadans evolved their own particular forms of architecture,
adapting each to their requirements and modifying or transforming
it according to its character or to the facilities which they
possessed for giving expression to their own ideals. Thus, at
Delhi, they built their first mosques out of the spoils of Hindu and
Jaina temples, constructing them on Indian principles and enrich-
ing them with the handiwork of indigenous sculptors. At Delhi,
however, the Muslims were in preponderating strength and better
able, therefore, to maintain their own traditions. Hence at Delhi
they quickly began to assert their own individuality and allowed
Hindu craftsmanship only a very limited play. At Jaunpur, on the
other hand, and in the Deccan, the local styles enjoyed greater
ascendancy, while in Bengal the conquerors not only adopted the
established fashion of building in brick, but adorned their struc-
tures with chiselled and moulded enrichments frankly imitated
from Hindu prototypes. So, too, in western India they appropriated
to themselves almost en bloc the beautiful Gujarāti style, which
had yielded some of the finest buildings of mediaeval India ; and
in Kashmir they did the same with the striking wooden architec-
ture which must long have been prevalent in that part of the
Himālayas. But much as Muhammadan architecture owed to these
older schools, it owed much also to the Muhammadans themselves ;
for it was they who, in every case, endowed it with breadth and
spaciousness and enriched it with new beauties of form and colour.
Before their advent, concrete had been little used in India, and
mortar scarcely ever; by the Muhammadans these materials were
employed as freely as by the Romans and became two of the most
important factors of construction, Thanks to the strength of their
binding properties it was possible for the Muslim builders to span
wide spaces with their arches, to roof immense areas with their
domes and in other ways to achieve effects of grandeur such as the


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xxm]
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
$73
Indians had never dreamt of. Of the arch the Indian had not been
wholly ignorant; but without a cementing agent for the masonry,
his knowledge had been of little avail. With the Muhammadans,
on the contrary, the arch and dome had been from time immemorial
the key-notes of their construction, and, though in their newly-
adopted styles they frequently perpetuated the trabeate system, it
was the arch and dome that they always regarded as peculiarly
their own and as symbolic of their Faith. Other characteristic
features which they introduced were the minar and minaret, the
pendentive and squinch arch, stalactite, honey-combing and half-
domed double portal. Elaborate decoration and brightly coloured
ornament were at all times dear to the heart of the Muslim, and
in both these spheres he introduced striking innovations. The rich
floral designs of the Indian artists he supplemented with flowing
arabesque or intricate geometric devices of his own, or sometimes
interwove with them (as only a Muslim calligraphist could do) the
graceful lettering of his sacred texts and historic inscriptions. Nor
was it enough that his buildings should be beautified merely with
a wealth of carvings executed in stone or brick or plaster; the
Muslim required colour also and colour he supplied by painting
and gilding, or by employing stones of various hues to accentuate
the architectural features. Later on, by the more laborious pro-
cesses of tesselating and pietra dura, he reproduced the designs
themselves in coloured stones and marbles. Still more brilliant
were the effects he attained by encaustic tiling, which he used
at first sparingly and in a few colours only, but later without
restraint to embellish whole buildings with a glistening surface of
enamel.
Of the many and various groups into which the Islamic monu-
ments of India are divided, that of Delhi occupies the central and
pre-eminent place ; for it was at Delhi that the Muhammadans
erected their first splendid memorials, and it was at Delhi that
there afterwards arose a succession of buildings extending over the
whole six centuries of their rule. But before approaching Delhi we
must cast back for a moment to the older Muslim kingdoms of
Sind and Afghānistān and see what contribution, if any, they made
to the development of Islamic art in India. With the Arabs, who
in the beginning of the eighth century possessed themselves of
Sind, our concern is small. Like other Semitic peoples they showed
but little natural instinct for architecture or the formative arts.
Though the Caliphs retained Sind for more than a century and a
half and though Muslim rule endured there until the close of the


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574
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
tenth century, the sole surviving relics of it are the foundations of
some small mosques unearthed a few years ago in the buried city
of Marsūra', which, so far as can be judged from their remains,
possessed no artistic merit. But if the Arabs were negligible factor,
it was far otherwise with the Ghaznavids of Afghānistān, who
overran Northern India in the first quarter of the eleventh century.
At that time Persia occupied an all-important place in the world
of Islamic art. Her genius was of the mimetic rather than the
creative order, but she possessed a magic gift for absorbing the
artistic creations of other countries and refining them to her own
standard of perfection. Situated as she was in the heart of the
Middle East, she became the crucible in which the arts of Turkistān
and China on the one side, of Mesopotamia, Syria and the Byzan-
tine Empire on the other, were fused together and transmuted
into new forms and from which they issued afresh with the
indelible stamp of Persian beauty set upon them. And the
channel by which this stream of art flowed southward into India
was Ghazni. Glazni, however, was more than a mere medium for
the dissemination of Islamic art. All the culture and magnificence
which in the ninth and tenth centuries had belonged to the
Sāmānid dynasty of North-Eastern Persia, had passed, as if by the
natural right of inheritance, to the Ghaznavids, and under Mahmud
the Great and his immediate successors, Ghazni became famous
among all the cities of the Caliphate for the splendour of its
architecture. Most of its buildings, unfortunately, perished during
the ruthless burning of the city by "Alā-ud-din Husain Jahānsūz,
the Ghūrid, and others fell victims to the ravages of time or of
later vandals. To-day, the only monuments of note that are known
to survive are the tomb of Mahmūd the Great and two minars or
Towers of Victory, the one erected by Mahmūd himself and the
other by one of his successors, Masʼūd. For us the minars are
especially interesting as being the prototypes of the famous Qutb
minar at Delhi and analogous to the towers of Dāmghān in Persia
and at Mujdan and Tāūq in Mesopotamia. Up to half a century
1 A. S. R. , 1903-04, pp. 132 ff.
2 These remarks apply rather to the architecture of Eastern than Western Persia.
The former is distinguished by its essentially decorative character, the latter by its
constructional forms and motifs, which link it up with the Islamic architecture of
Mesopotamia and ultimately with the Hell 'nistic monuments of the Nearer East.
3 No architectural remains of the Sāmānid dynasty are known to exist, but of the
influence which its art and culture exerted on Ghazni there can be no doubt. The
architecture of Ghazni also owed a great debt to the currents of art which flowed
thither from Turkistān and from Central Asia generally.
4 Cf. Gertrude Bell, Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir, pp. 40-41.


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XXII )
DELHI
$75
ago they were standing to a height of about 140 feet, and at that
time consisted of two storeys, the lower star-shaped in plan, the
upper round, both built of brick and embellished with elaborate
designs in terra cottal. The tomb of Mahmud Yamin-ud-Daula
(999—1030 A. D. ) which was also of brick has been completely
modernised by restoration, the only feature preserved intact being
its richly carved doors which were brought from Ghazni by the
British in 1842 and are now in the Fort at Āgra. These doors are
of deodar wood, divided into panels and adorned with six pointed
stars and simple geometric figures ; the stars and figures, as well as
the vertical styles between the leaves, being carved into a variety
of interlacing designs or flowing arabesques, and the whole further
enriched with decorative hinges and bands of ironwork. Along the
lower edge of the lintel is an inscription in Kufic2 lettering invoking
the forgiveness of God and his blessings on 'Abu-l-Qāsim Mahmud,'
son of Sabuk-tigin, while round the framing of the doors is repeated
in the same script the formula, 'the sovereignty belongs to God. '
Assuming that these doors are of the same age as the tomb (and it is
prima facie improbable that a later generation would have lavished
so much care upon their carvings), they acquire a special interest
from the exceptionally developed character of their arabesques, and
interlaced designs, which resemble Cairens work of the later twelfth
rather than of the eleventh century. As more materials become
available for the study of this period of Islamic art, it may well
prove that in work of this kind, Afghānsitān, which was under the
immediate influence of Persia, was a century ahead of Egypt.
To return, however, to Delhi. The city which the armies of
Qutb-ud-din Aibak occupied in 1191 was the Qala-i-Rãi Pilhaura,
the oldest of the Seven Cities' of Delhi, within the perimeter of
which was included the strongly-fortified citadel known as the
Lāl Kot.