with no scale, therefore are disagreeable to the ear, and never used in INCREMENT and DECREMENT. When two quantities are con- INDEFINITE means "not given or defined in magnitude." Thus, a definite straight line is that of which the extremities are known; an indefinite straight line (in length) is one of which the direction is given, and which may be supposed to have any length, or which can be lengthened if necessary, without contravening any of the conditions of the problem. Thus, Euclid, in the first book, constructs an equilateral triangle upon a definite straight line, and shows how to draw two lines making with one another the same angle as that made by two given indefinite straight lines. There is, however, a reprehensible use of the word indefinite, which is found in many mathematical works; namely, the employment of it to avoid the odium which attaches to the word infinite. Thus we hear of making a magnitude indefinitely great, of an indefinitely small are being equal to its chord, of the circle being a polygon of an indefinitely great number of sides. In all these cases it would be better, with a proper definition, to use the word infinite at once. A want of proper distinction between definite and indefinite sometimes leads to confusion. For instance, it is said that if a straight line be halved, if its half be then halved, and if fresh portions be continually taken, each of which is the half of the preceding, the result will at last become less than "any line which can be named." This is not true if the line which is to be named be indefinite; that is, if we may at any part of the process make it as small as we please; for it is obvious that whatever a line may be, a smaller line can be named. But it is true of a definite line, made definite, or given in length, at the beginning of the process name any line, however small, but such as you name let it remain; then, by continually halving any other line, however great, you must at last arrive at a line which is less than the length you named. The phraseology of a line "less than any line which can be named" has often caused a difficulty by not specifying the time at which it is to be named. The language used by Euclid himself is as follows (book x., prop. 1), and is free from the ambiguity in question: "Two unequal magnitudes being given, if from the greater be taken away its half, and from what is left its half, and if this be done continually, a magnitude will at last be found which is less than the lesser of the two given magnitudes." INDELIBROME. [INDIGO.] INDENTURE. [DEED.] INDEPENDENTS, or CONGREGATIONALISTS, the name of a sect, class, or denomination of English Protestant Dissenters, one of the three who united form the Three Denominations, the other two being the Presbyterians and the Baptists. When the principle of resistance to the power which maintained at least an outward and specious uniformity of Christian practice and opinion had received encouragement and was successful, it was not to be expected that nations who recognised that principle would agree among themselves respecting what should be done in their new condition of religious freedom. In England the politicians of the time soon succeeded in establishing a national church with pastors and bishops, and the church has been maintained in that form and order from the time of the Reformation, with the slight exception of the period of the Commonwealth. But there were many people in England who objected to several things which made a part of the constitution of that church; and as their objections consisted very much in the desire of what they considered a greater degree of purity in its forms, they were called in derision Puritans and Precisians, in which allusion was also included to the greater strictness with which they observed their religious duties, and their supposed peculiar preciseness in respect at once to an exactness of conformity to scripture precedent and to the obligations of a severe morality. These persons were not all of one mind within themselves. Many uniting with these distinguishing characteristics the principle that, there being no scriptural authority for the Episcopal order, the government of the church or the superintendence of its ministers ought to be vested not in an individual, but in synods and presbyteries; these formed the Presbyterians. There were others who would have no union or government of the church, who regarded each congregation of faithful men as being in itself a church, and when properly constituted with deacons and a pastor forming a body which was independent of every other, and competent to its own direction and government without any interference from presbyteries, bishops, or from the state itself; this is the pure principle of English Independency. Robert Brown, a clergyman of the reign of Elizabeth, is generally reputed to be the first person in England who publicly avowed this opinion, and acted upon it by the establishment of various such separate churches, which however had no enduring existence. There is some question whether he retained his opinions to the last: but it is certain that after he had given no small trouble to the authorities in the church, he was presented to the living of Achurch in Northamptonshire. He closed a long and very troubled life in the jail at Northampton, or very soon after he had left it, in 1630. [BROWN, ROBERT, in BIOG. DIV.] Other persons, and some of them of celebrity in the history of the Puritans, adopted the opinion, but were restrained from acting upon it by the laws then in force for maintaining the Church of England as then established. But when Episcopacy was abolished and Monarchy had been overcome, there was a large party of these Independents which suddenly presented itself, who had a great share in the struggle then being made, and who were the means of preventing the establishment of a Presbyterian church in England, which it was the object of by far the larger portion of the Puritan body taking part in the contest to form. Cromwell belonged to the Independents. Dr. John Owen, dean of Christ Church, who was also for a time vicechancellor of the University of Oxford, is considered as the chief ornament of this denomination at the time (the Commonwealth) when it first became considerable. [OWEN, DR. JOHN, in BIOG. DIV.] What the issue might have been of the struggle between the principle of Independency and the principle of Presbyterianism cannot now be told, the king being soon restored, and with him the Episcopal church. In 1662 the Act of Uniformity was passed, the object of it being to exclude from the ministerial office in the Church of England divines of either of those opinions. The act required a direct acknowledgment of the principle of Episcopacy. The effect of it was, that about 1900 ministers retired from the places they held in the church. Some make them 2000. These are the ministers whom Dissenters mean when they speak of "the illustrious two thousand," 'the ejected ministers," or "the Bartholomew worthies." During the reign of Charles II. every effort was made to prevent these persons continuing to exercise their ministry. But it was all in vain. They, or at least the greater part of them, persisted in preaching, notwithstanding the certain penalties of imprisonment and fine. However, the Revolution of 1688 freed them from these penalties; one of the first acts of the new government being to grant toleration to them, that is, to allow them to open meeting-houses, or chapels, and to conduct the services under the protection of the law. 66 The Independents were inconsiderable at that time as compared with the Presbyterians. Both however (and the Baptists also) built chapels for themselves and formed themselves into congregations, called the Presbyterian congregations and the Independent congregations; and each denomination had its own board or fund. The Act of Toleration' was passed in 1689, and for the seventy years succeeding that date the Independent denomination dwindled (as indeed did the whole body of Dissenters), and it was in a very low condition when the state of things arose which we have now to describe. About the middle of the 18th century there was an extraordinary revival of religious zeal under the influence created especially by the Wesleys and Whitefield. The Dissenters, like the Church, had adopted pretty generally the principle that to inculcate the moral duties, to present the paternal government of God as a source of consolation and of hope, to hold out the prospect of future accountableness and of eternal life, to show the evidence on which we receive Jesus Christ as the minister and messenger of his heavenly Father, were the principal subjects on which it was the duty of Christian, ministers to insist. This it was easy to represent as an abandonment of the distinctive truths, as they are sometimes regarded, of Christianity; and many persons, under the preaching above alluded to, were disposed so to regard it, and to seek à ministry by whom these distinctive truths would be made more prominent. Most of these persons joined themselves to the Wesleyan Methodists, or to the Whitefieldian Methodists (since better known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion); but there were many who declined to unite themselves with any of these bodies, and formed themselves into separate churches upon the Independent principle. These new societies incorporating with themselves the small remains of the old Independents of England,-who, in some instances had, throughout the period by some called the period of Religious Indifference, adhered to the original opinions of the Puritan body at large, which were Calvinistic, and had continued to make those opinions prominent in the public services, or joining themselves to such decayed and decaying churches, gradually increased in numbers and influence, and constitute at the present day the large body of Dissenters called Independents or Congregationalists. From the accession of George I., in 1714, when the London dissenting ministers of the three denominations (Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist) presented an address to the king [WILLIAMS, DANIEL, D.D., in BIOG. DIV.], the three bodies have been accustomed to act together, by their appointed deputies, in reference to great public questions. Most of the old Presbyterian denomination in England having in the course of time adopted Unitarian sentiments, their representatives at length withdrew from the board. The distinctive appellation of "The Three Denominations" is however still kept up, the The Congregationalists have numerous chapels in London and in various parts of the country. They have also several institutions for the education of their ministers. They still maintain the principle of Independency; are in general strongly opposed to a national establishment, whether Episcopal or Presbyterian; and in doctrine vary, from the high Calvinism of the Savoy Confession, which exhibits the doctrines held by the Independents of the time of the Commonwealth, to the most moderate form of orthodoxy. The number of Independent ministers is about the same as the number of chapels. The following is a list of the colleges and academies which are exclusively confined to the education of ministers for the Congregationalist denomination. Some of them have valuable endowments; others depend upon annual subscriptions for their support: place of the retiring Presbyterians being occupied by representatives latter. In the article on Egyptian Architecture we referred rather to of those Presbyterians in England who hold the views of the Presby-points of difference and contrast between that style and the Grecian, terian churches of Scotland. than to anything of positive similitude, they being separated from each other by an exceedingly wide interval as to all that regards feeling and taste. The Egyptian and Indian styles, on the contrary, seem to come in contact with each other, agreeing most in those points wherein they most differ from Grecian and from modern taste. If there existed no other resemblance between the architecture of the two regions, there would be a decidedly strong one in their hypogæa, or subterraneous cavern-structures hewn out of solid rock, works therefore more properly of exstruction than of construction, and to which, no doubt, ought to be ascribed the chief peculiarities of the styles originating in them, namely, extraordinary massiveness of bulk and proportions coupled with no less singular capriciousness of form. Where the forms are produced by cutting away instead of putting together and building up, they may be shaped quite arbitrarily, moulded according to fancy alone, because they still belong to one naturally coherent mass: whereas were the same forms worked out of separate pieces of material, not only would they frequently be at variance with security and stability, but they would occasion an enormous waste both of material and labour; the difference between the process of exstruction and that of construction being, that in the former the solids are only left after the operation of taking away, while in the latter they are produced by what is built up. This, in our opinion, goes far towards accounting for the various capricious, not to say unmeaning shapes we meet with in many of the columns of the cavern-temples of India; and these again, account for the similar taste which was manifested in later works of construction, a taste so remote from our own that the two can hardly be said to have any sympathies in common. Western college, Plymouth, founded about 1752; number of students, 21. Rotherham college, Masborough, Yorkshire, founded in 1756; number of students, 17. Brecon college, founded in 1760; number of students, 25. Hackney seminary, Middlesex, founded in 1796; number of students, 13. Lancashire college, founded in 1806; number of students, 20. Spring Hill college, Moretey, Birmingham; founded in 1838; number of students, 21. New college, St. John's-wood, London, founded in 1850, by the union of the Coward, Homerton, and Highbury colleges; number of students, 55. Connected with the Independent body there are also the Board of Congregational Ministers of London and the vicinity; the Congregational Board of Education, which maintains at Homerton a Normal school for the training of day school teachers; the Congregational Library in Bloomfield Street, London; and other institutions of an educational character. The Congregational Union of England and Wales, and the Congregational Union of Scotland, are voluntary asso-stituting a striking point of difference from the practice of the ciations of ministers and members of the Independent churches, which hold assemblies or conferences yearly, or half yearly, as circumstances may require, for mutual consultation; but not claiming any ecclesiastical authority over their members or churches. The managers and missionaries of the London Missionary Society chiefly belong to the Independent denomination. There are also a Theological Hall of Congregational Churches at Edinburgh, founded in 1811; with 13 students; and a Presbyterian college at Caermarthen, founded in 1719; with 23 students. The foregoing statistics are taken from the Congregational Year Book,' for 1860; which also states that there are 1600 churches of this connexion in England, 636 in Wales, 147 in Scotland and the Channel Islands, and 208 in the colonies. The ministers and missionaries throughout the British empire are estimated at 2734. In the United States there are said to be 2369 Congregationalist churches, and 2408 ministers. INDETERMINATE, a word which is mostly applied in mathematics, not to the character of a magnitude, but of a problem. A question is said to be indeterminate when it admits of an infinite number of solutions: if the number of solutions, few or many, be finite, the problem is sometimes, but rarely, called indeterminate. The word indeterminate is also applied to the co-efficients of an assumed form of expansion, and the investigation by which they are then found is called the "method of indeterminate co-efficients." But when thus used the word means nothing more than unknown, and the coefficients are unknown or undetermined quantities. In the French mathematical writings, the word indeterminé should sometimes be translated by indeterminate, sometimes by arbitrary, and sometimes by undetermined or unknown. INDEX OF REFRACTION. [LIGHT; REFRACTION.] INDEX EXPONENT. [BINOMIAL THEOREM; POWER.] INDIA, ARCHITECTURE OF. The architecture of India does not extend back to a very remote period. Not only are there no architectural remains of the aboriginal races of Hindustan, but none are known to exist which can be assigned to the Aryan occupants. The earliest known buildings are of Buddhist origin, and are now considered by the best authorities to belong to the 3rd century B.C. When Buddhism was replaced by Brahmanism as the dominant form of religion, architecture underwent a considerable change; and it was again greatly modified by the Mohammedan invasion: but the original Buddhistic type or character was never wholly lost. Minor varieties and local modifications might easily be pointed out, but it will suffice for a broad view of the architecture of India to regard it as Buddhistic, Brahmanic, and Mohammedan. In looking at the architecture of India most inquirers have been struck with its obvious affinity to that of Egypt; and perhaps a comparison of some of the resemblances and distinctions existing between Egyptian and Indian architecture, will facilitate our explanation of the But in looking at even these rock-caves in detail, we find marked distinctions as well as broad resemblances. Thus while the shafts of the supporting columns have in the Egyptian examples no pedestals, and scarcely anything amounting to a distinct base,-and however much the column itself may be ornamented, the capital is plainly distinguishable from the other parts,--in the Indian cave-temples the columns often appear composed of fragments capriciously put together, it being nearly impossible to determine where their pedestals terminate and their shafts commence, or how much of these latter belong to the capitals. Another circumstance to be noticed, as in this instance conEgyptians, is, that the columns are placed so far apart, and so stragglingly, as to resemble only occasional props, instead of a continued colonnade. In this respect however there appears to have been no fixed system, for in other examples the columns are placed so close together that parts of their capitals almost touch. Again the Indian cave-temples present a marked difference from those of the Egyptians in making in many of them an approximation to a regular vaulted ceiling, while the Egyptian edifices are all covered with flat horizontal ceilings. On the other hand, the affinity between the architectural taste of the two people is strongly marked by the prevalent use we observe, in the edifices of both, of colossal statues placed against piers or walls, sometimes quite attached to or sculptured on them; and which may therefore be considered quite as much to constitute part of the general embellishment, as to be specific objects of worship. In both too we find frequent use of Caryatid figures, or such as serve as columns; and either entire figures or the upper parts of them, both human and animal, enter abundantly into the composition of Indian columns and capitals in this latter respect, however, as in some others, the architecture of India has more resemblance to that of Assyria than even to that of Egypt. A strong similarity also observable in the general disposition of the sacred buildings of the Indians and Egyptians is, that the former, like the latter, have generally an open or unroofed court before them (sometimes formed by clearing away the rock itself), leading to a vestibule, nave, and sanctuary, progressively diminishing in size. Neither is it uncommon in the excavated temples to meet with a series of small chambers along their sides, increasing their otherwise strong similarity of plan to those of Egypt. The profusion of inscriptions and symbolic sculptures on the walls affords also another characteristic point of resemblance. Again in looking at constructive works, or edifices erected above ground, we can hardly avoid being struck by the prevalence of pyramidal masses and forms, as exhibited in pagodas, or towers, however great may be the difference in all except the general forms. One broad distinction however is, that, however highly enriched many Egyptian buildings may be, the mode of decoration employed in them is not of a kind to interrupt the simplicity of the outline, it being almost entirely superficial, that is, merely enriching surfaces, as a pattern wrought upon them would do; whereas the Hindus seem frequently to have affected the extreme both of massiveness and lightness in the same design, attaching very slender and merely ornamental pillars to enormous piers, which are the real supports. Buddhist Architecture. Of constructed Buddhist temples proper there are unfortunately no examples left. Topes or relique-houses, some of them of large size, are indeed frequent but the only true Buddhist temples remaining in India are those excavated out of the solid rock. These subterraneous edifices, combining often, like our own mediaval cathedrals and monastic establishments, a temple with an establishment for the attendant ecclesiastics, occur in surprising numbers, and, considering their age and the fact of their having belonged to a per- "Fifteen pillars on each side separate the nave from the aisles; each rally a man and a woman, but sometimes two females, all very much better executed than such ornaments usually are. The seven pillars behind the altar are plain octagonal piers, without either base or capital, and the four under the entrance gallery differ considerably from those at the sides. These sculptures on the capitals supply the place usually occupied by frieze and cornice in Grecian architecture; and in other examples plain painted surfaces occupy the same space. Above this springs the roof, semicircular in general section but somewhat stilted at the sides, so as to make its height greater than the semi-diameter. It is ornamented even at this day by a series of wooden ribs, probably coeval with the excavation, which prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the roof is not a copy of a masonry arch, but of some sort of timber construction which we cannot now very well understand." The shrine of the deity, a plain cupola on a circular drum, stands "immediately under the semi-dome of the apse, and nearly where the altar stands in Christian churches." At the opposite end under a gallery is the entrance, consisting of a central door, and one on each side leading into the aisles. Above the gallery the hall is entirely open, the opening looking like a great window with a horse-shoe arch; and through this window the whole of the light enters. A porch outside is seven feet wider than the body of the temple. It is closed in front by two thick octagonal pillars which support a plain mass of rock, but which Mr. Fergusson thinks was formerly ornamented by a wooden gallery, and surmounted by a dwarf colonnade or attic, and crowned with a cornice or some other ornament. In front of the porch stands the låt or lion-pillar (which appears always to have stood in front of the sacred buildings), which bears four seated lions, instead of the usual solitary animal. Of the effect of the exterior it is now difficult to form an adequate conception, but, says Mr. Fergusson, "the proportions of such parts as remain are so good, and the effect of the whole so pleasing, that there can be little hesitation in ascribing to such a design a tolerably high rank among architectural compositions. Of the interior we can judge perfectly, and it certainly is as solemn and grand as any interior can well be, and the mode of lighting the most perfect-one undivided volume of light coming through a single opening overhead at a very favourable angle, and falling directly on the altar or principal object in the building, leaving the rest in comparative obscurity. The effect is considerably heightened by the closely set and thick columns that divide the three aisles from one another, as they suffice to prevent the boundary walls from ever being seen, and, as there are no openings in the walls, the view between the pillars is practically unlimited." The better known rock temple of Elephanta, or Goripura (the Mountain city), as it is called by the natives, is of later date and larger dimensions. It is magnificently situated, being excavated about half way up the side of a mountain, and in the midst of scenery of more than ordinary grandeur. The entrance, which is hewn out of a stone resembling porphyry, is by a spacious front, which is supported by two massive pillars (one of which has fallen), and two pilasters, forming three openings, under a thick and steep rock overhung by brushwood and wild shrubs. "The whole excavation consists of three principal parts: the great temple itself, which is in the centre, and two smaller chapels, one on each side of the great temple. These two chapels do not come forward into a straight line with the front of the chief temple, are not perceived on approaching the temple, and are considerably in recess, being approached by two narrow passes in the hill, one on each side of the grand entrance, but at some distance from it. After advancing to some distance up these confined passes, we find each of them conduct to another front of the grand excavation, exactly like the principal front which is first seen; all the three fronts being hollowed out of the solid rock, and each consisting of two huge pillars with two pilasters. The two side fronts are precisely opposite to each other on the east and west, the grand entrance facing the north. The two wings of the temple are at the upper end of these passages, and are close by the grand excavation, but have no covered passage to connect them with it." (Erskine.) From the northern entrance to the extremity of this cave is about 130 feet, and from the east to the west side 133 feet. Twenty-six pillars, of which 8 are broken, and 16 pilasters, support the roof. Neither the floor nor the roof is in the same plane, and consequently the height varies, being in some parts 17 feet, in others 15 feet. Two rows of pillars run parallel to one another from the northern entrance, and at right angles to it, to the extremity of the cave; and the pilasters, one of which we have described as standing on each side of the two front pillars, are followed by other pilasters and pillars also, forming, on each side of the two rows already described, another row running parallel to them up to the southern extremity of the cave. The pillars on the east and west front, which have been described as like those on the north side, are also continued across the temple from east to west. Thus the ranges of pillars form a number of parallel lines intersecting one another at right angles, the pillars of the central parts being considered as common to the two sets of intersecting lines. The pillars vary both in their size and decorations, though the difference is not sufficient to strike the eye at first. Each column stands upon a square pedestal and is fluted, but instead of being cylindrical is gradually enlarged towards the middle. The capitals exhibit that bulbous form which is one of the most distinctive characteristics of Indian architecture. Above the tops of the columns a kind of ridge has been cut to resemble a beam about 12 inches square, and this is richly carved. Along the sides of the temple are cut between 40 and 50 colossal figures, varying in height from 12 to 15 feet; none of them are entirely detached from the wall. Some of these figures have on their heads a kind of helmet; others wear crowns with rich devices; and others, again, are without any other covering than curled or flowing hair. Some of them have four and others six hands, holding sceptres, shields, symbols of justice, ensigns of religion, weapons of war, and trophies of peace. On the south side, facing the main entrance, is an enormous bust with three faces; of which the central face measures 5 feet in length; the width from the ear to the middle of the nose is 3 feet 4 inches; the breadth of the whole figure is near 20 feet. To the left of this bust, amid a group of uncouth figures, is one (a female figure with four arms) to which Niebuhr has given the name of Amazon, from the fact of its being without the right breast. At the west side of the temple is a recess, 20 feet square, having in the centre an altar, upon which are placed symbols of the worship once practised here. The entrance to this recess is guarded by eight naked figures, each 13 feet high, sculptured in a manner which shows that the people by whom they were executed must have made considerable progress in the statuary's art. The cave is not at present used as a temple, nor has it any establishment of priests connected with it, although it is frequently visited by devotees for the purpose of offering prayers and oblations. The roof of the temple at Elephanta is flat; in others it is hollowed out so as to resemble more or less a regular vaulting. Of this last-mentioned kind is the temple of Kennareh, or Canarah, in Salsette, which is exactly on the same plan as that at Carli, and the principal object or idol is alike in both, consisting, as Moor describes it," of a vast hemisphere of stone resting on a round pedestal of greater diameter having its convexity surrounded by a sort of canopy or umbrella of peculiar construction." The ground-plan of an arched temple of Buddha at Ellora is exactly similar, but there is here a figure of Buddha himself in front of the cylindrical pedestal and characteristic umbrella ornament just mentioned. The temple at Salsette Mr. Fergusson is inclined to reckon among the latest of the Buddhist edifices of this class, regarding it as a copy of the temple at Carli, and as late in date as the 9th or 10th century of the Christian era. The Buddhist rock-cut monasteries are much less rich in detail than the temples. They consist of a central hall, around which are numerous plain cells for the priests of various grades. There were places for private devotion; the public worship and more imposing ceremonies were performed in the temples. The oldest of these caves occur at Behar, in the Bengal presidency, but they are quite unornamented. At Cuttack is one known as the Tiger Cave, from the exterior being carved into the form of a tiger's head, the entrance being through the animal's open mouth. Another in the same neighbourhood is distinguished by being two stories in height, and having a verandah carved along the whole extent of its front. Dr. Impey has published a full account of a series of Buddhistic caves at Koolvee, in Central India, which are 66 cut literally round the circumference" of a hill, and are in all about fifty in number. Among them are six dagobas (or relicchambers), connected with each of which is a shala, or hall of assembly, and a larger cell for a superior priest. Two only of the caves are supported by pillars, and these are each 32 feet by 24 feet. "One of these caves is subordinate to a dagoba, which stands in a court-yard in front of it, flanked by an erect colossal figure of Budh, in the attitude of expounding; and the other to a seated image of Budh, which is in a cell opposite the porch flanked on either side by diminutive dagobas in relief." The figures are of rude execution, and much defaced and weatherworn. The inferior cells are all small in size and quite simple in plan. The walls of the larger chambers of some of these rock-monasteries are profusely decorated with paintings of religious and historical subjects, executed in fresco or distemper, portraits of Buddha and Buddhist saints covering the pillars, and the roofs being at the same time painted with scrolls and other architectural designs. In many places these paintings have been destroyed by the effects of damp, or by the hand of man, but at the Ajunta and elsewhere they " remain nearly complete, and as fresh as the day they were painted. A competent artist, Capt. Gill, of the Company's Service, has been employed for some years in copying these." Their publication would doubtless, as Mr. Fergusson remarks, throw light not only on the" manners and customs of India more than a thousand years ago, but illustrate also to a considerable extent the form and ordinance of the buildings they adorn." Dr. Impey (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' Bombay Branch, July, 1856,) describes a series of historical and mythological paintings on the famous caves of Bágh in Rath, on the Nerbudda, which still extend above 220 feet in length. The paintings are in a double row, one set above the other, the figures being about the natural height. The designs are very varied, and display no little skill. "The surface extent of the work thus elaborately depicted must have been at least 3000 feet." They appear to be not later in date than the 5th century, A.D. The other Buddhist religious edifices have been all classed under the general term Topes. They consist of detached pillars and towers, and of buildings, usually circular in form but always surmounted with a dome. The pillars are the oldest. All that remain in India proper are monoliths, but there appears to be little doubt that built pillars did formerly exist; and Mr. Fergusson, who adduces two such pillars as still standing among the topes of Cabul, thinks that their destruction is "sufficiently accounted for by the ease with which they could be thrown down and their materials removed, when they had lost the sanctity by which alone they had been protected." Of these monoliths, or lâts, the oldest known were erected by Asoka about 250 B.C., and bore inscribed on them the Buddhist creed. Three of them are still standing near the river in Tirhut, and are each surmounted by a seated lion. One which has been removed and set up on a pedestal at Allahabad, is 47 feet high, and the shaft is 3 feet in diameter at the base, diminishing to 2 feet 2 inches at the summit. It is noteworthy that "the necking immediately below the capital represents, with considerable purity, the honeysuckle ornament of the Assyrians." (Fergusson). They were most probably always erected in front of temples and sanctuaries, where some are still found. The topes properly so called are spacious circular domical buildings, erected as reliquaries of Buddha or some of the more eminent Buddhist saints. They occur in groups near the Indus and the Ganges, at Behar and Tirhut, around Bhilsa in Central India, and in Afghanistan. These topes will be found fully described in the valuable works of Mr. Fergusson, and in the elaborate treatise of Major Alexander Cunningham, The Bhilsa Topes; or Buddhist Monuments of India,' Svo. 1854. The oldest of these topes are little more than tumuli; later the hemispherical cupola was supported on a cylindrical basement; and eventually they assumed the character of a tower surmounted with a cupola. In size they vary from a few feet up to 150 or 200 feet in diameter. The great Sanchi Tope, near Bhilsa, the finest and most perfect in India, will serve as an example of this class of buildings. It is situated on the western side of a lofty hill, and is inclosed within a great court-yard which averages 150 yards in length, and is 100 yards broad. The great tope itself is a solid dome of stone and brick, 106 feet in diameter and 42 feet in height, springing from a plinth of 14 feet, with a projection of 54 feet from the base of the building, and a slope of 24 feet. The plinth or basement formed a terrace for the perambulation of worshippers of the enshrined relic; for on the right pillar of the North Gateway there is a representation of a tope, and of two worshippers walking round it with garlands in their hands. The terrace was reached by a double flight of steps to the south, connected by a landing ten feet square. The apex of the dome was flattened into a terrace 34 feet in diameter, surrounded by a stone railing of that style so peculiar to Buddha monuments, that I will venture to call it the Buddhist Railing." This terrace formed the basis of the tee or capital (a square box-like ornament probably intended to serve as a relique-case or a symbol of one) with which these structures were always crowned. The total height of the building, including the cupolas," continues Major Cunningham, "must have been upwards of 100 feet. The base of the tope is surrounded by a massive colonnade, 1444 feet in diameter from east to west, and 151 from north to south." The entrance is by four gateways, each formed by two square pillars, 18 feet high, covered with carvings, and crowned with elephant capitals. These support three elaborately carved lintels slightly curved upwards in the centre, and terminating in Ionic scrolls and surmounted with emblems: in all the gateways are 33 feet high. On all sides are ruined temples, fallen columns, and broken sculptures; while 30 or 40 smaller topes combine to form the group of which the great tope is the centre. With respect to the character and arrangement of the topes, it will be enough to quote what Major Cunningham says of those of Bhojpur: "The topes occupy four distinct stages or platforms of the hill. The largest topes, six in number, occupy the uppermost stage, and were, I believe, dedicated to Buddha; that is, either to the celestial Buddha, Adináth, or to the relics of the mortal Buddha, Sákya. This view is borne out by the facts that the largest tope contained no deposit; and that the second and third sized Topes yielded crystal boxes, one of which, shaped like a tope, contained only a minute portion of human bone smaller than a pea! The second rate topes, sixteen in number, stand on the second stage. According to my view, these topes contain the ashes of those who had reached the rank of Bodhisatwa. We discovered relics in five of these topes, but there were no inscriptions of any historical value. The third stage of the hill is occupied by seven small topes, all of which I suppose to have been built over the remains of the third grade of Pratyeka Buddhas. Of the eight topes which stand on the lowest stage of the hill, one is m ich larger than any of those on the third stage. These topes were, I believe, built over the ashes of the lowest grade of the Buddha community, the Sráwaka Buddhas." Very splendid examples of Buddhist temples, topes, an ddagobas occur, at Anuradhapoora, the ancient capital, and in several ther places in the island of Ceylon. These, from their having escaped the destructive hand of adverse religious bodies, serve to elucidate n any interesting points in the history of Buddhist architecture which the remaining monuments of the peninsula leave in obscurity. Our space will not, however, allow us to notice them here: they will be found described in the works of Mr. Fergusson and Sir Emerson Tennent. In Burmah also occur numerous costly Buddhist edifices, some of them on a scale of great magnitude, as the great pagoda of Pegu-a comparatively modern structure-the diameter of whose base is 395 feet, while its height is 331 feet above the artificial terrace on which it stands. At Java again are several vast Buddhist temples, as that of Boro Buddor, which is a square nine-storied many-pinnacled pyramid, the base of which is 400 feet across. In style, however, these last are far more barbaric than the older buildings of Hindustan. Based on the Buddhist style, but much more highly ornamented, are the temples erected by the Jainas, the great sect which sprang up at the decline of the Buddhists. [JAINAS.] Some of these temples are distinguished alike by chasteness, symmetry, and beauty of design, and by rich and exquisite finishing. That at Ajmeer, in Rajpootana, is remarkable for the elegance and slenderness of its columns, so very different in their character from those in the excavated works, and which seem therefore to indicate a totally different period of art. They are about forty in number, and partake somewhat of a candelabrum shape, although no two are exactly alike. The ceiling is highly enriched with square panels or coffers, containing others in the form of lozenges, enriched with foliage and sculpture, in style not very much unlike the cinquecento of the Italians. This temple is surrounded by a superb screen of Saracenic architecture, assigned by Tod to the first dynasty of the Ghorian Sultans. The same writer dwells upon the analogy observable between the details of the columns in this temple and the ornaments of Gothic buildings; and it would hardly be fanciful to designate Jaina architecture the Decorated Buddhist style. Some of the oldest and finest examples of the style are found about Mount Abu in Gujerat, but they occur over a wide space, though often altered, like the temple at Ajmeer, by Mohammedan additions. The temples appear always to include a sanctuary, lighted only from the door, and terminated upwards by a pyramidal spire-like roof. In this chamber is placed a seated figure of the saint to whom the temple is dedicated; and attached to it is a spacious portico, which is sometimes surmounted by a cupola. These porches are often extremely rich in ornamentation: that of the temple of Vimalah Sah at Abu (described and figured by Mr. Fergusson) has 48 elaborately carved columns; yet the exterior of the temple is perfectly plain. The Jainas were the first to erect hollow cupolas in India, those in the Buddhist topes being all solid. The cupolas of the Jaina temples are formed by placing the stones so as gradually to project one beyond the other, the apex being closed by a circular key-stone. The principle therefore is that of a horizontal or vertical instead of a radiating pressure, and the edges of all these projections being rounded off, the spectator sees, on looking up, a vault composed of gradually diminishing circles or annular courses of masonry. Brackets and struts are occasionally employed with great skill to assist in bearing the superstructures. According to Mr. Fergusson, some of these Jaina cupolas are "the most exquisite specimens of elaborate roofing that can anywhere be seen.' Usually the octagonal cupolas are carried on eight thick pillars; but the base is always made square by the addition of four other pillars at the angles; while in smaller buildings two more are added on each face, making twenty in all. "Sometimes, however, the same system of aggregation is carried on till the number reaches fifty-six, which is the largest number I ever saw surrounding one dome; but any number of these domes may surround one temple, or central dome, and the number of pillars consequently be multiplied ad infinitum." (Fergusson.) The variety, picturesqueness, and splendour of effect, and the rich play of light and shade, thus produced, however impure the style of architecture may be in itself, can readily be imagined. Many of the most superb of the Jaina temples have been converted into Mohammedan mosques. The Jainas appear to have also wrought out cave-temples; among others the Subba caves of Ellora have been attributed to them; but there is nothing in their works of this class sufficiently distinctive to call for a particular description. Following their Buddhist predecessors, the Jainas showed a great partiality for erecting towers; and their towers, though less substantial, were little less rich than their temples. Few of them however are left now. Two of them still stand within the fort of Chittore. The older and smaller is of the 10th century, A.D.; the larger is of the 15th. This last is 30 feet wide at the base; 120 feet high; and is formed in nine stories, the whole being covered with architectural and sculptural ornament. The body, or shaft, of the tower is smaller than the base, but it swells out again towards the summit, which is surmounted with a small dome, and which was probably crowned with a tee. It is fully described and figured in Mr. Fergusson's 'Illustrations of Indian Architecture,' and ' Handbook of Architecture.' This class of dagoba is the immediate prototype of the Chinese ninestoried pagoda. Brahman Architecture is best studied in the temples of Southern India. In Northern India the style is a good deal varied and less pure. What may be considered as the normal type of a Brahman temple consists of the vimana, a tower square in plan and pyramidal in form, built over the sanctuary or cell in which is the image or emblem of the god; a mantapa, or porch, placed before the principal entrance to the sanctuary; gopuras, or pyramidal gate towers, which serve as entrances to the enclosures in which the vimanas are placed; and a choultrie, or spacious pillared hall. The Vimana, or inner temple, has a perpendicular base of granite or stone, which is always decorated with pilasters, niches, and other architectural ornaments. From this rises in distinct stages the pyramidal roof, usually constructed of brick and covered with stucco, and crowned with a small dome-like termination, evidently borrowed from the older Buddhist builders. The most splendid example of one of these buildings is the great temple at Tanjore, from the annexed representation of which their general character may be understood. The base of this temple is 82 feet each way, and the pyramidal roof rises in 14 stories to a height of about 200 feet. The porch, or Mantapa, is in plan usually similar to the temple itself, |