GREAT CAPITAL CREATED

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1931, Page 6

GREAT CAPITAL CREATED

NEW DELHI. lALMENSE A RCHTTECT URAL PLAN. By Hasan Mohi-Uddiu Abbasi, 8.A., L.L.B. The new capital of India, compared with its prototypes, may not he as beautifully located amidst lovely natural surroundings as Canlierra, or Dar-ul-Ainan, the new capital of Afghanistan, or as luxuriously built as Washington, or as scientifically executed as Angora, or as ambitiously designed as Nanking—the proposed capital of the nationalist China-.hut th e romance of antiquity, which it ill lingers around R-aisina is perhaps denied to any of its competitors.

Delhi, with its 45 square miles of suburban territory, teems with relics of Empires and footprints of events dating hack to several centuries before the Christian era.

A BATTLE GROUND OF HISTORY

Lord Cmzon described Delhi as “the deserted cities of dreary and disconsolate tombs.” “Jn the above area of seven castles and fifty-two gates,” says Mr Finch, a European merchant, who visited India in 1011, “thirteen capital cities have appeared atid disappeared, the sites of which with hut

one are either marked by ruins or indicated by tradition. The eye can still trace the proud forts, spacious streets, minareted mosques and beautiful tombs.

Probably more battles, sieges, massacres and murders crowd the annals of this metropolis than those of ai;y oilier similar area throughout tin; world. Its central location, the facility of obtaining good building materials from the rocky ridges with quartzite cores, which abound in the vicinity, perhaps account for the. pre-eminent position Delhi has enjoyed since hisloric times.

‘‘lt is my desire that the planning and designing of the public buildings to be erected will be considered with the greatest deliberation and care su that the new creation may he in every way worthy of this ancient and beautiful city,” said his Alajestv King George V. the Emperor of India, when he laid the foundation stonelgOf the new capital, the outcome of the official transfer of the capital from Calcutta, the second city in the British Empire, announced by him three days earlier. How far (lie creators (Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker) have been successful in their attempts is the theme of ' t his, store.

The local point of the new city ' is located on Rajsimi Hill—a large mass of rock 50 feet high, 20 feet of which was blasted away, and filled into the depressions to form a uniform' 30 fed platform, with a red stone wall Iniill round it. “comparable to tiie great platform base of Persepoljs, on which Darius lifted up the privileged Royal enclosure in enjoyment of the view and air above the city below.

i A SYMMETRICAL PLAN. 'Fhe Government buildings arc ar- ! ranged symmetrically about what is ! practically the cast and west axis con- ! necting tin l local point with the northwestern gate of the old tort of Indraprnstlp the legendary Hindu city, whose half-ruined iorts and castellated mansions are still the wonder of the tourists. 'File two great blocks of the Secretariat buildings are situated to the north and south of this, focal point, with the- Government Court between them. Westward from the Government Court the forum connectRaisina Hill with the high ground o the .southern ridge, so that the whole Govern men l centre appears to b ImiiL; on a spur of tlie ridge itself. I The Viceroy's House, built at a cost | of a million pounds, is approached both from the north and south along avenues, which touch oil the wes the .spacious Vice-regal -estate with its lovely gardens and well-kept parks, wherein are located the bungalows of the Viceroy's numerous pilaff. The Vie ( j roy’s House and the two blocks of the • Secretariat have been planned as one | group of the capital facing eastward, j silhouetted oil the 'vest by the afforested southern ridge. THE PROCESSIONAL WAY.

Below the eastern facade of the Secretariat where cross-roads meet, a forecourt known as the Great Place "is laid out. This is partially enclosed by beautiful pieced railings, like those oi the Buddisli shrines, in red sandstone, and is adorned with six water basins and fountains. From the above focus the main road of the Capital—the Processional Way—leads eastward, on either side of which lie rows oi lemon, rennet and orange trees, lawns flower beds and palatial residences of the members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Two waterways run all along the Processional Way. This place, called the Central Vista, at its' eastern' end opens out into a park,, hexagonal in shape, wherein has been erected the War Alemorial, a monument in tin* form of a triumphal arch. Built jn white stone upon a ■ red sandstone base, rising to a height <>t 162 feet, the structure ""nsksts o! a base pierced through from east to west by the groat arch,B7.l feOf high and 35 feet wide, which spans the Processional Way. The piers thus formed j arp pierced by smaller arches, wliich j run through at right angles to the main arch. Above the great cornice’ jn inscribed “India’’ flanked bv ‘‘1914 and “1919.” It is headed by a flare: so that on’ occasions of eommeinora-, tion a column of smoke by day nod J flame by night rise?. Simple of do- |

void of intricate ornamentations dignified iii appearance, tile monument is perhaps the most imposing edifice of the new capital. A BATTLE OF STYLES. A prolonged “battle of styles’' ha: been waged over new Delhi, elearl' showing a ceaseless effort to apply with due regard for Indian sentiment the spirit of the great traditions o tier auchitentnre to the solvitio 1 o structural problems, of course conditioned by Indian climate and requirements. The inspiration of these dosigns is manifestly Western, but \vr find blended with them such distinctive features of Indian life and thought not calculated to mar the universal manciple,s of structural fitness and artistic unity. Thus, with the creation of the new city after a continuous labour of seventeen years under the aegis of Pax Tiritannica, at a cost of over fourteen million pounds, Delhi’s lost heritage, ivs once the Imperial capital of the “Great Moghuls,” has been restored to her.