and policy on the part of the Government or that the Government had no definite opinion in the matter at all and that "the policy was simply forced on the department by the artistic and architectural ignorance of its officers." The matter seems to have evoked some discussion at its inception, and so far back as 1867 Fergusson protested against the proposal of adopting the Doric style of architecture for the University of Calcutta. It is interesting to recapitulate the reasons assigned for the employment of the European style in public buildings. It has been said that principles and designs which govern the ancient architecture of India are specially suited for temples and mosques and other ecclesiastical buildings and they are worse than useless meet the requirements of modern India. with its growing commerce and industry, which have displaced the faith and enthusiasm which went to build the temple cities of India. In the illustrations given. here it will be indicated that the Public Works Department has itself proved the fallacy of the proposition. Among the officers of the same Department Mr. Chisholm and Mr. Brassington in Madras and Sir Swinton Jacob in Jaipur have successfully adapted Indian styles to "departmental requirements."

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The discussion of the question on its theoretical side by the advocates of the classic style, is still more amusing and is in the face of it too absurd to call for a refutation. To quote Mr. Roger Smith, F. R. I. B. A.

"First it is said that it (the Indian style and design) is suited to the climate, secondly that the natives can do it, and lastly that it is, and can be very beautiful. But the sufficient answer of course is that it may be all these but that it is not European, far less British".

Mr. Roger Smith admits that of the three reasons alluded to by far the most powerful is the one placed first, namely, that Indian Architecture whether Mahomedan or Hindu is the offspring of the climate and as such better fitted "than anything he could import to the circumstances of the country." It is curious to note that even after the lapse of forty years Mr. Smith's utterances are still taken by all art experts as the last word on such an important question. Mr. Roger's opinion

accords more with the Imperialistic ideas of Lord Curzon, who, by the way, inspite of his splendid services to Indian art and archæology evaded the problem with characteristic subtlety. He was faced with the question with reference to the erection of the Memorial Hall to Queen Victoria in Calcutta, but he shirked to express a definite opinion either way. In the course of his lengthy address on the Victoria Memorial he said, "It is too early as yet. to speak about the style of the building, when the money has not yet been subscribed with which it is to be raised. That will have to be settled later on". At the first inception of the scheme for the memorial Mr. Havell proposed to Lord Curzon that as a preliminary measure a competent architect should make a survey of the buildings in Northern India constructed by living Indian master builders who still carry on the traditions of Indian architecture, and that after this was done the design for the memorial should be made in a living Indian style in consultation with the best native master builders that were found. Lord Curzon engaged a competent architect, but did not carry out the suggestion to investigate thoroughly the living traditions of Indian architecture for the reason that "Calcutta was a European city and that an Indian style of building would

be unsuitable there."

So the truth had to be told at last; it was on considerations other than that of expense that the decision was made. But it is impossible to conceive that this state of things should continue for ever. Truth will out and the Public Works Department has condemned its own policy. In December, 1902, the Government for the first time appointed Mr. James Ransome as the consulting architect to the Government of India. He held his office for five years and was succeeded by Mr. Begg. In a paper which Mr. Ransome read before the Royal Institute of British Architects in January, 1905, he condemned the tendency to transport European styles to India without regard to climatic considerations. He also expressed the opinion that neither the classic nor the Gothic style could be used to advantage. Apart from the reasons given by him, he pointed out, that

"Any European with the slightest pretension to taste

who has visited India must have been shocked by the incongruity of Doric pillars and pediments with the native environment and by the equally offensive incongruity of Gothic spires rising from amidst banana aud palm trees. The offence amounts to an outrage when in one and the same building we find a medley of three different styles hailing from three different parts and periods of the world and all mixed together with nothing in common except a total antagonism to their Eastern environment. Nor is this sin against good taste and common sense anywhere insulted at every turn by exotic monstrosities which suggest a virulent epidemic of aesthetic callousness and perhaps also, the deplorable influence of the Public Works Department. Nor can the importers of these foreign styles plead as an excuse the absence of domestic models for imitation. Native Hindu or Saracenic architecture is close at hand and it offers what the alien import so conspicuously lack, an aesthetic harmony with the surroundings and a practical correspondence with the climatic conditions of the country."*

The examples of the Indo-Saracenic style

of architecture which have been carried

out in India during the last the last 50 years afford convincing proofs that the living

* Quoted from the Statesman, 19th February, 1905.

traditions of Indian architecture in spite of all efforts to destroy it, are still lingering and are quite competent to carry out the requirements of the present day whenever a chance is given to them. I have specially selected examples of those buildings which come within the scope of official or semi-official work. And many of such buildings in the Madras Presidency, especially those in the presidency town itself, claim special notice. The building of the High Court of Madras (illus. 1.) was designed by Messrs. J. Brassington and H. Irwin, C.I.E. and was completed about 1892. Some of the other important buildings executed in the same style are the Y. M. C. A. building in red sandstone designed by Mr. Harris, Government Architect. The New Law College designed by Mr. Irwin, the Egmore Station building and the Moore Market are some of the striking edifices that testify the fact that India under favourable conditons is still capable of reproducing her great architectural past. Of these the latest

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example and by far the finest specimen is the Victoria Memorial Hall (illustration 2 and 3) designed also by Mr. Irwin and completed in 1908. The entire building is faced with pink sandstone and in many places sculptured in intricate geometrical design, the front elevation (illus. 3) being in this respect especially richly decorated. The ornamentation of the interior is in the same style carried out in the white polished plaster for which Madras is celebrated. The Memorial Hall is a very appropriate emporium of the artistic industry of the Southern India, at the same time it is a building building architecturally worthy to perpetuate the memory of the Great Queen. It is a noteworthy fact that while the splendid architectural monuments of the Mogul period now preserved at Delhi and Agra have inspired no modern buildings in the same style in any of the

important towns of the United Provinces, the Presidency of Madras has turned to the North West for designs of its public edifices in spite of the fact that a quite different style had prevailed in the province for centuries. In Tanjore the Collectorate Building is a beautiful Indo-Saracenic edifice designed in white and red (illus. 4). Similarly in the Municipal Markets and one or two other public buildings in Madura the style of the Mogul period has been adopted. Of the modern buildings in the north of India the best example is perhaps the Indo-Saracenic design of the Albert Hall in Jaipur illustration 5) for which Colonel (now Sir) Swinton Jacob is responsible. The building was commenced in 1880 and completed in 1885. It is a fitting receptacle of the treasures of art forming the collection of the Museum which deserves to be called the South Kensigton of India. It is executed

Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are illustrated a few of the specimens of these public buildings which were all executed by the native talent of the district under the inspiration and patronage of its district officer. The small wicket gate of the Municipal garden (illus. 10) and the main gate of the market are noteworthy designs. Mr. Purdon Clarke of the South Kensington Museum in a paper read before the Society of Arts called special attention to these buildings "as illustrating