Photo 212/6(34)

Genre: Architectural Photography

General view of the long, multi-domed façade, with a double storeyed central pavilion, of the Elephant Stables. Lyon's 'Notes to accompany a series of photographs prepared to illustrate the ancient architecture of Southern India' (Marion and Co., London, 1870), edited by James Fergusson, gives the following description of this photograph: '484 - The first object of interest to which the visitor is conducted will be a group of buildings on the right of the Humpee road, about a mile from our abode. The first of these is represented in this Photograph. It is called by the natives the 'Elephants' Stables,' and though many persons are to be found who deny its ever having been built for that purpose, there seems no good reason for doubting it, the small rooms between those occupied by the elephants being used by the mahouts, as the men in charge of the elephants are called. The architecture is in that style of mixed Saracenic and Hindu which we noticed at Madura and Tanjore, but which were probably adopted earlier in this city than in those more to the South, owing to the proximity of the great Mohammetan city of Beejapore. These stables, as well as all the buildings in this quarter of the city, are in this style, and probably all belong to the century that preceded the fall of the city, say from 1465 to 1565.'