3 Review(s)

About The Book : Text to Accompany the Folio Volume of Plates; When the paper which forms the principal part of this volume was read to the Royal Asiatic Society, it was not my intention to publish illustrations of the Rock-cut Temples apart from the other buildings of the same age and style. I, at that time, proposed to bring out, in a series of about one hundred plates, a complete set of illustrations of the Buddhist, Hindoo, and Mahomedan styles, including not only those cut in the rock, but also the structural buildings, from the earliest date to the present day. About The Author : James Fergusson FRS (1808 –1886) was a Scottish-born architectural historian, mainly remembered for his interest in Indian historical architecture and antiquities. He was an important figure in the 19th-century rediscovery of ancient India. He was originally a businessman, and though not formally trained as an architect, designed some buildings and decorative schemes. His observations on Indian architecture were first published in his book on The Rock-cut Temples of India, published in 1845. The task of analysing the historic and aesthetic relations of this type of ancient buildings led him further to undertake a historical and critical comparative survey of the whole subject of architecture in The Illustrated Handbook of Architecture, being a Concise and Popular Account of the different Styles of Architecture prevailing in all Ages and Countries, a work which first appeared in 1855 in two volumes. It was followed in 1862 by one entitled A History of the Modern Styles of Architecture, being a sequel to the Handbook of Architecture. Fergusson died in London on 9 January 1886 and is buried with his father on the west side of Highgate Cemetery.