Society

Lutyens' Bungalow!

Viceroy's House was not just an "Englishman dressed for the climate". Nor were the Indian craftsmen tailors from Agra or Benares.

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Lutyens' Bungalow!
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But Viceroy’s House was not just an "Englishman dressed for the climate". Nor were the Indian craftsmen tailors from Agra or Benares. It was indeed the patchwork of mixed periods and styles—"something really funny"—as viewed on the building’s southern façade, which history has finally come to accept on the Indian horizon. A third-century Buddhist stupa-dome and railings from Sanchi sit atop a drum, appended with four octagonal Islamic-Rajput kiosks. Below this sits a Palladian-Renaissance floor with round arched gateways, shaded by wide Rajasthani eaves, or chhajjas. And, as if this potpourri were not enough, the service entrance goes completely ‘native’ inspired from indigenous cave architecture at Ellora and Elephanta. Here, elephant legs and overhanging sandstone bells presumably create the Delhi Order in their capitals.

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