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OCTOBER, 1916]
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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the people of the present day bear a silent but eloquent testimony to the horrible degeneration which the country has witnessed in the realm of art since the days of Tirumal Nâik. Nevertheless, these tall and majestic columns give, in spite of their incomplete and unadorned nature, a true idea of Tirumal Naik's grand designs and grander resources. The actual remnant of the palace consists of a courtyard measuring 244 feet from east to west and 142 feet from north to south, and two beautiful halls connected with it by means of beautiful arcades. The courtyard was, it is evident, an arena for animal fights, gladiatorial contests, and other amusements. The arcades, twelve in number from east to west and seven from north to south, are supported by pillars of stone which are forty feet high, and joined by foliated brick arcades of great elegance and design. The whole of the ornamentation is worked out in the exquisitely fine stucco, called chunam or shell-lime, which is a characteristic of the Madras Presidency. The fine octagonal domes in the angles of these arcades are of an exceedingly beautiful design. On the western side of the court stands the celebrated Svargavilâsam, the throne room of Tirumal Naik. It is an arcaded octagon covered by a dome03 60 feet in diameter and 60 feet in height. On another side of the courtyard, that is, to the north of the Svargavilâsam, is a more spacious and splendid hall, the Durbar hall of the Naik sovereign. "This one in its glory must have been as fine as any, barring the materials. The hall itself is said to be 120 feet long by 67 feet wide, and its height to the centre of the roof is 70 feet; but what is more important than its dimensions, it possesses all the structural propriety and character of a Gothic building. It is evident that if the Hindus had persevered a little longer in this direction, they might have accomplished something that would have surpassed the works of their masters in this form of art. In the meanwhile it is curious to observe that the same king who built the choultries, built also this hall. "The style of the one is as different from that of the other as classic Italian from medieval Gothic; the one as much over-ornamented as the other is too plain for the purposes of a palace, but both among the best things of their class which have been built in the country where they are found." (Fergusson p. 382-3). The yali figures, and statues of sepoys in the corners, all worked in fine stucco, bear testimony to the fact that if the Hindus could imitate other races, thoy could nevertheless do so without losing their own Individuality.
In this description of Tirumal04 Naik's works a place should perhaps be given to a curious building called the Tamagam (a summer-house), which, according to some, was constructed by Tirumal, and according to others, by Mangammal. Built on a platform, fifteen feet high and faced with stone, it possesses in its arches and its manner of construction all the characteristics of the Nâik secular architecture. "Its roof is a masonry dome 21 feet across, supported on the crowns of crenulated arches sprung on to square pillars, with similar arching arranged in the form of a square and supporting separate small truncated roofs. Its existing walls are clearly a later addition. The ceiling of the dome is of painted chunam, is exactly similar in design to several of those in Tirumala Nâyakkan's palace, and represents an inverted lotus blossom. . . . . Rumour says that it was a kind of grand stand from which gladiatorial exhibitions and the like might be witnessed."
93 In 1908 two boys somehow or other got over the lofty roof of the palace and cut and stole the lightning conductor. They were caught and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment (Arch. Rep. 190.10, p. 28).
94 Madura. Gazr., p. 262., etc. The building is now the collector's residence and has been much changed and added to. For its vicissitudes, see Madura Gazr. 262-4.
