IN publishing the following examples of Indian Architecture, my object is to interest all who care for art, and particularly to bring to their notice the industries of wood and stone carving as applied to buildings. It rests with us, both here and in Europe, to decide whether we are going to allow arts to die out which have taken centuries, with all the advantages of the caste system of the East, to bring to perfection. There is but one way of saving them and that is, by giving employment to the best men in making the finest things. My work in this direction, which has been going on for more than four years, is no longer an experiment, and I can say with perfect confidence that better carving has never been made there, than I can have done at the present time.
The first three and the twenty-first and twenty-second plates give examples of the Hindu houses of the north-western part of the Bombay Presidency. The others show the Mahomedan influence in Rajaputana and northern India, though the details and ornament are in some cases decidedly Hindu.
Lockwood De Forest.
Indian Domestic Architecture. Heliotype Printing Company, 1885.