History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
When we turn from these few scattered rock-cut examples to the great
structural temples of the style, we find their number is so great, their
extent so vast, and their variety so perplexing, that it is extremely
difficult to formulate any distinct ideas regarding them, and still more
so, as a matter of course, to convey to others any clear idea on the
subject. To any one at all familiar with the present status of the
population of the province, the greatest wonder is how such a people
could ever have conceived, much less carried out, such vast undertakings
as these, and that so recently that some of the greatest and boldest
were only interrupted by our wars with the French little more than a
century ago. The cause of this, however, is not far to seek. Ever since
we took possession of the country, our countrymen have been actuated by
the most beneficent intentions of protecting the poor against the
oppression of the rich. By every means we have sought to secure the ryot
in his holding, and that he should not be called on to pay more than his
fair share of the produce of his land; while to the landowner we have
offered a secure title to what belonged to him, and a fixed income in
money in lieu of his portion of the produce. To a people, however, in
the state of civilization to which India has reached, a secure title and
a fixed income only means the power of borrowing on the occasion of a
marriage, a funeral, or some great family festival, ten times more than
the borrower can ever pay, and our courts as inevitably give the lender
the power of foreclosing his mortgage and selling the property. During
the century in which this communistic process has been going on the
landed aristocracy have gradually disappeared. All the wealth of the
country has passed into the hands of the money-lenders of the cities,
and by them dissipated in frivolities. If the aim of the government is
to reduce the whole population to the condition of peasant proprietors,
occupying the land without capital, and consequently on the verge of
starvation, they have certainly succeeded. It may be beneficent, and
may produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number; but in such a
community neither science, nor literature, nor art have any place, and
religion itself becomes degraded by the status of its votaries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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