The wonder that was india

After Timur's invasion, the Shi'is and Sunnis with Shi'i leanings moved from Iran to the provincial courts in India, particularly to the Deccan. A leading Iranian sufi, Sayyid Muhammad Ashraf Jahangir Simnani (d. c. 1436), in an attempt to convert the Shi'is, arranged several debates against them. Yusuf'Adil Shah of Bijapur (1490-1510) took the unprecedented step of making Isna' 'Ashari Shi'ism the official religion of the sultanate. He may have been encouraged to do so by Shah Isma'il Safavi of Iran's (1501-24) decision to make Isna' 'Ashari Shi'i faith the state religion. Although 'Adil Shah replaced the names of Muhammad's successors with those of the twelve imams in the khutba,93 he refused to allow the extremists to insult the Prophet's companions.

The Isna' 'Ashari Shi'i faith entered a new phase when Shah Tahir, son of Shah Raziu'd-Din, arrived in the Deccan from Iran. He converted Burhan Nizam Shah (1508-54) of Ahmadnagar to the Shi'I faith. Burhan sent Shah Tahir as an envoy to Bahadur

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doctrines served as a stage in the transition from Sunnism to Isna' 'Ashari Shi'ism.

Mulla Bada'unI incorrectly gives us the impression that all the Iranis in Akbar's reign were Shi'is.95 Among the leading nobles at Akbar's court who openly practised the Shi'i faith were Hakim Abu'l-Fath Gilani, Hakim Humam, and Hakim Fathu'llah Shirazi. All three were great scholars. Fathu'llah Shirazi's interest in mathematics and science has already been mentioned. Mulla Ahmad of Thatta, another famous Shi'i, was a historian and wrote a large portion of the Tarikh-i Alfi. He was assassinated in 1588 by a Sunni fanatic, Mirza Fawlad, in Lahore. After the Emperor Akbar had left for Kashmir, the Sunnis in Lahore exhumed his dead body and burnt it.96 It is interesting that an important Shi'i leader, Mulla Muhammad Yazdi, combined with the Sunni 'ulama' to spearhead the movement to overthrow Akbar because of those ordinances that were heretical to them.97

The most learned Shi'i of Akbar's reign was Qazi Nuru'llah Shustari. Mulla Bada'uni, who usually never mentions any Shi'i without abusing him, pays glowing tribute to the Qazi's piety and scholarship. As a qazi, Nuru'llah was impartial and just, and as a revenue administrator he was conscientious.99 Nevertheless in September 1610 he was flogged to death on Jahangir's orders. The contemporary authorities give different reasons for his execution.100 Since he had always been a well-known Shi'i, his faith could not have been the cause. The orthodox Sunni 'ulama' apparently claimed that his potential work, the Ihqaqu'l-Haqq, was subversive and posed a threat to Sunnism. The Qazi was undoubtedly executed solely to please the Sunni 'ulama'. Far more serious threats to Jahangir had been treated less drastically; Shaykh Nizam Thaneswari, who had blessed the rebel Prince Khusraw, was merely banished to Mecca.101 The Shi'is consider the Qazi a martyr and a victim of the Emperor's bigotry. However, Jahangir did not subsequently adopt any anti-Shi'i policy and never even mentions the tragic incident in his Memoirs. Neither the Qazi's family nor the Shi'is were persecuted by Jahangir. Shahjahan appointed 'Ala'u'1-Mulk Husayni, one of the Qazi's sons, as tutor to Prince Shah Shuja' and sent him to Bengal with the Prince.102 Shuja's Shi'i leanings may be ascribed to 'Ala'u'l-Mulk's teachings.

Most of the Iranian mansabdars during the reigns of Jahangir, Shahjahan, and Aurangzib were Shi'is. However, they never exhibited their faith publicly and ran the Mughal administration on the basis of its recognized rules and traditions. Despite his Sunni orthodoxy and puritanism, even Aurangzlib did not appoint mansabdars or award promotions on sectarian or religious

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considerations.103 Shi'i and Sunni conflicts frequently arose in Kashmir, but in other parts of the Mughal empire there were no sectarian tensions or riots. It was only in the wake of the disintegration of the empire in the eighteenth century that Shi'i proselytiza-tion was stepped up, and Shi'i—Sunni polemics and tensions increased. Shah Waliu'llah and his son, Shah 'Abdu'l 'Aziz, played a leading role in fomenting such sectarian conflicts.

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VII FINE ARTS

PRE-MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE: THE FIRST PHASE

The excavations of Mansura—Brahmanabad and the ruins of Thatta in southern Sind tell us of the early mosque-building activity of the Arab rulers there. The palaces of Mahmud of Ghazni and of Mas'ud III (1099—1115) in Ghazni are largely Iranian in Style, but the lavish use of marble in Ghazni palaces indicates an Indian influence. Parts of a minaret named after Mas'ud III and another called after Bahram Shah (1118-52) still survive. In the tenth and early eleventh centuries similar minarets with a polygon base and cylindrical shaft were built with great skill in north-west Iran. Nothing built by the Ghaznavid rulers in the Panjab province survives; possibly everything was destroyed by the Mongols.

The literary sources tell us that a variety of arts flourished under the Delhi sultans, but only architectural monuments are extant. Even in this sphere, the palaces and houses were grossly neglected after their original owners died. Their descendants chose different sites for their houses and sometimes demolished the earlier edifices for building materials. Only the mosques and mausoleums have been preserved - mainly out of religious sentiment.

Muslims can pray individually, but congregational prayers are preferred. When the Prophet moved from Mecca to Medina he built a mosque consisting of a hall with pillars of palm tree trunks and a roof of branches. It was extended, renovated, and rebuilt many times. After conquering a country, therefore, the first step the Muslim rulers took was to build a mosque there. Besides congregational prayers, mosques were used as assembly halls for religious and social needs, also serving as schools. Their structural plan was radically different from the Hindu temples. Each mosque contained a mihrab or niche indicating the direction for prayers or qibla. In India it is west, towards the Ka'ba, the cube-like ancient sanctuary in Mecca. On the right-hand side of the mikrab is the stepped pulpit or minbar (or mimbar) from which the khutba (sermon) is recited. Unlike in Christian churches, the covered area or hall is wider than it is deep. It is preceded by an open area, containing a water tank for ablution, and enclosed by walls whose main entrance in India is

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Sultan.Ghari (Sultan of the Cave), for the cenotaph is in an underground chamber. The roof is an octagonal platform; no trace remains of the pillared pavilion which it might have contained. The material for its fluted pillars, capitals, architraves, and corbelled pyramidal roof was taken from Hindu monuments, but the process of remodelling them to suit Muslim needs had already begun.

In the north-west corner of the Quwwatu'l-Islam mosque stands Iltutmish's mausoleum, built by himself before his death in 1235. The most interesting innovation is the use of squinches to transform the square base into the circular diameter of the corbelled dome. As the dome no longer exists, the richly sculptured motifs of both Islamic and ancient Indian origin on its walls and polylobed arches can easily be seen - they are open to the full daylight. The mausoleum is built of red and grey sandstone, the cenotaph of marble.

Balban's tomb, not far from the Qutb Minar, is in ruins, but it deserves mention for its unusual arches. These are not constructed by using horizontal courses after the ancient Indian structural technique but were built by means of voussoirs. This development opened up a new era in Indo-Islamic architecture.

'Ala'u'd-DIn Khalji made some ambitious plans for enlarging the Qutb area. He wished to extend the mosque enclosure towards the north and east. He started building a rival Qutb Minar whose inner diameter was 27.43 metres; it was intended to rise to 145 metres, but he died before it was completed. The southern gateway to the Quwwatu'l-Islam mosque, known as 'Ala'i Darwaza (Gateway of'Ala'u'd-DIn), built in 1311, is a real monument to his glory. Undoubtedly he had heard of the celebrated Taq-i Kisra, the archway built by the Sasanid King Kisra Nushirwan at Ctesiphon in Iraq, and apparently some Iranian architects, who had moved to Delhi, translated his dreams into stone with the aid of Hindu stone-cutters and masons. The material used is red sandstone and white marble, with inlays of black marble and blue schist, indicating the contributions of Gujarat artisans.

The gateway is a cubical structure of 15.25 metres each side, covered by a flat dome. The three large pointed horseshoe arches supporting the dome are of dressed stone. They are true arches. On each side of the doorway there are two windows containing marble grilles one-third of their size. The facade on the north contains a semi-circular doorway of an ancient Indian pattern. The penden-tives in the interior, which consist of simple inset arches, are remarkably beautiful. The adaptation of different styles in the 'Ala'i Darwaza has in no way undermined the proportion and harmony of the structure.

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During the reign of the Tughluqs, ornamentation was replaced by lineaments and masses. The immense walls of Tughluqabad, built by Ghiyasu'd-DIn Tughluq, are protected by circular bastions and crenellated parapets. The rough-hewn boulders used in the city's construction seem to have been quarried on the site. The Sultan's mausoleum, built in an artificial lake and connected with the citadel by an elevated causeway, looks like a fortress. Its plan is square, the walls rise upwards at acute angles, and lintels are set across the base of the three entrance archways to strengthen them. The hemispherical marble dome and the marble inlays running in broad bands around the building relieve the monotony of the grey and red sandstone structure.

The tomb was built by the Sultan himself, the angled walls inspired by the Perso-Arabian traditions of the Multan tombs. When Ghiyasu'd-DIn Tughluq was governor of Dipalpur, or shortly after his accession to the throne of Delhi, he ordered the construction of a tomb for the remains of his patron sufi saint, Shaykh Ruknu'd-Din. This octagonal, double-storeyed brick structure stands on a terrace. The first storey is 15.25 metres high, and the second is 7.62 metres, while the dome rises 15.25 metres inside. Sunk into its walls are bricks inlaid with glazed tiles. Chiselled coloured bricks, carved timber, and terracotta make the walls shimmer and shine.

Many fulsome panegyrics praising Muhammad bin Tughluq's monuments were written, but because his edifices have not survived no comments can now be made. Firuz Tughluq's madrasa (seminary) reflects his scholarly ideals. The combination of Hindu columns, arch and lintel arcades, and kiosks is most striking. Sultan Firuz's tomb, however, has lost all its stucco and glazed tiles. On the whole, the structure is unpretentious and dignified.

Sultan Firuz was an indefatigable builder. Many of his citadels, mosques, and towns still stand, although now derelict. Most of them were built of rubble and plaster, with pillars, architraves, and brackets of local grey granite. The vigour and simplicity of these monuments with their tapering buttresses are a legacy from the early Tughluq architecture. Nevertheless, they are not entirely devoid of innovation. For example, the machicolations in the fortification at Kotla Firuz Shah and the pyramidal structure crowning the Asokan pillar demonstrate the Sultan's ingenuity. The mausoleum for Khan-i Jahan Maqbul, built by his son Jauna Shah in 1368, deserves mention for its structural innovations. Its outer enclosure contains the usual Tughluq strong walls and corner towers, but it is built on an octagonal plan instead of the usual square. Although the tomb at Sultan Ghari, already discussed, is

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architecture. Sultan Hushang commenced the Jami' mosque in Mandu which his successor, Sultan Mahmud I, completed in 1440. It is built on a high plinth; the front is composed of rows of arched chambers. These arcades, the sculptured mihrab, and the imposing minbar with canopy in the columned hall of the prayer chamber create a majestic aura.

Near the Jami' mosque is the complex known as the Ashrafi Mahal (Gold Mohur Palace). It was hurriedly built of roughly prepared rubble, and a royal mausoleum was built projecting from the front of the seminary near the palace. Some time after 1443 Sultan Mahmud (1436-69) built a tower at Mandu to commemorate his victory over the Rana of Chitor. The Rana had earlier erected the Jaya Stambha (Victory Column) at Chitor to celebrate his defeat of Mahmud. The Rana's Jaya Stambha still stands, but only the basement of Mahmud's tower survives.

Hushang's (1405-35) mausoleum, which he had begun to build before he died, was finished by Sultan Mahmud (1436-69) around 1440. This square structure stands on a high plinth of about 30 metres and is faced with white marble. A cupola rests on each corner, and the roof is formed by a large central dome. Of all the monuments in Malwa the most bizarre is the Hindola Mahal. It consists of a long hall whose arches are supported by sloping buttresses. The resulting optical illusion led to its being called the 'Swinging Palace'. A marked contrast to it is the double-storeyed Jahaz Mahal (Ship Palace), which has an arcaded front, pillared inner rooms, and luxurious bathing-halls. The open pavilions, kiosks, and corridors shed their reflection in two lakes near the palace. The palaces and pavilions associated with the romance of Baz Bahadur and Rupmati are delicately built, but they do not have any architectural or ornamental importance. The monuments in Chanderi broadly follow the Mandu traditions. The stilted domes and arches of the Jami' mosque there repeat the Mandu pattern, but the convoluted brackets supporting the eaves are predominantly local Hindu.

Raja Man Singh (1486-1517) built a famous palace in his capital, Gwalior. The entrance, or Elephant Gateway, is protected by two rounded bastions and consists of a circular archway surmounted by a guard room with a projecting balcony. The main palace has two storeys, but the rooms are small and dark with only low openings for light. The intricately moulded pillars, finely perforated lattices, and profuse carvings, however, make it a piece of decorative architecture.

The Gujarat monuments are known for their distinctive decorative features. The fourteenth-century edifices in Gujarat were built

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from materials from Hindu and Jain monuments. Shaykh Farid's mausoleum at Patan is simply a Hindu temple with some additions and alterations. In Broach the pillared halls of three temples were rearranged to make a mosque. Beneath the lintel a pointed Islamic arch has been introduced. Its arched windows were fretted with stone tracery.

In the Jami' mosque in Cambay some structural improvements were made. As in the Arha'i Din Ka Jhunpra of Ajmir, the cloisters and entrance porches are relics from sacked Hindu shrines. The alternating narrow and broad courses of masonry seem to have been contributed by the Delhi architect. The mosque was built in 1235. The Jami' mosque built at Dholka eight years later is similar to the Cambay, but its turrets are the precursors of the tall slender minarets of the later Gujarat mosques.

The Cambay mosque also served as a model for that built by Ahmad Shah (1411—42) in the citadel of his newly founded capital, Ahmadabad. Here the mosque of Haybat Khan contains bastions similar to those in Sultan Firuz Tughluq's monuments, and the Sayyid 'Alam mosque anticipates some features of the celebrated Jami' mosque built in 1423 in Ahmadabad. On either side of the central arch of the latter stand lesser pointed arches flanked by colonnades, supported by round arches. The great pillars immediately within the central arch reach up to the massive architrave from which the central dome springs. The stylized trees on the niches, the hanging lamp and bell ornament, and the semi-geometrical decoration of the pierced and relief panels harmoniously blend Hindu and Jain features with Islamic ones.

Near by stands a gateway of three elegant arches of equal height: the Tin Darwaza, built in Ahmad Shah's reign. The buttresses projecting from the piers are richly carved. The tomb of Ahmad Shah is in an enclosure to the east of the Jami' mosque, and the contours of its arches are similar to those of the Tin Darwaza. The arrangement of its parapets is most elegant. Farther east is the Rani Ka Hujra, or the Tomb of the Queens, consisting of an open court enclosed by an arched screen with columned cloisters both inside and out. The marble cenotaphs are richly carved and inlaid with metal and mother-of-pearl. Some nine kilometres south-west in Sarkhij are the mausoleum and mosque built in memory of the great sufi Shaykh Ahmad-i Khattu Maghribi (d. 1446). The complex was completed in about five years, and many palaces, a pavilion, and gateways were subsequently added by various religious people. The earlier mosque is marked by elegant pillars arranged in groups of unending variety. The central chamber is surmounted by an imposing dome.

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The greatest builder in Gujarat was Sultan Mahmud Begarha (1459-1511). He founded three major cities: Batwa, Mahmudabad, and Champanir. He adorned all of them, and Ahmadabad as well, with mosques, tombs, and palaces. The arrangement of arches in the mausoleums of the period make them distinctive monuments. The Rani Sipri mosque, built in Ahmadabad in 1514, is an exquisite gem in both plan and detail. Although not large, its matchless beauty lies in its symmetry and decorative rhythm. The most famous of all the Gujarat monuments are the perforated screens which fill in the tympanums of the arches of the small mosque of Sidi Sayyid. The mosque has a unique feature - pierced stonework depicting patterns of natural trees and foliage, normally found only on brass and silver.

The Muslims built mosques and tombs out of the rubble, brick, and stone from Hindu temples in Kashmir also. From time immemorial, however, wood was the principal building material in Kashmir, which it still is. The Muslims in Kashmir, as in other places, also incorporated many ancient Hindu architectural features into their monuments. The double-storeyed wooden mosque of Mir Sayyid 'All Hamadani stands on the masonry foundation of an ancient temple on the right bank of the Jhelam river in Srinagar. Its low pyramidal roof is surmounted by an open pavilion from where the faithful are still called to prayer and over which rises the steeple with its finial. The Jami' mosque, founded by Sultan Sikandar, was built three times - in 1479, 1620, and 1674. It was rebuilt each time without changing the plan. The lofty colonnades around the court are screened by an arched facade, and each of the 378 pillars in the colonnades is made from a single deodar trunk.

The buildings in the Deccan are equally impressive. The Daula-tabad mosque, built in 1318, is the earliest surviving specimen of its kind in the region. Its prayer chamber stands on 106 pillars and is roofed by a flattish corbelled dome. A few Irani architects moved to Gulbarga and in collaboration with some Delhi and local architects created the Bahmanid school of architecture, which concentrated on mass and ornamentation. The remains of Gulbarga fort show that it was a massive structure. The Jami' mosque in the fort, which has escaped destruction, is unique in many respects. In it the Indian and Iranian elements are so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. Unlike other Indian mosques, the whole structure is a vast pillared hall covered by a roof. There is no open courtyard. Large domes overhang each corner, while a central dome, raised on a clerestory, covers the mirhab on the west side. The entire roof is covered by small domes arranged in seven rows. The tombs of the

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Bahmanid kings largely follow the Tughluq style. Many mosques built in the Bahmanid region are still intact.

The fort and palaces in Bidar were built on the edge of the lateral scarp, overlooking the plain. They are also in a dilapidated condition, and only the rough cast remains; but they were finished in lime plaster and polished. The Iranian frescoes and the gold, red, and blue inscriptions, painted by Ahmad Shah Wali (d. 1436), are most elegant. The most prominent monument is the madrasa (seminary) of Mahmud Gawan, built in 1472. It contains four three-storeyed wings enclosing an open court; at each corner of the facade stood two imposing minarets in three stages. Despite the magnitude of the elevation, the homogeneity and proportion of the structure is remarkable. The surface was decorated with brightly coloured encaustic tiles of geometrical, floral, and calligraphic patterns, only a few of which now survive.

The chevron patterning on the encaustic tilework and bold bands of Qur'anic verses in the Chand Minar, built at Daulatabad in 1435, make it a typically Iranian monument. It is slightly tapered and rises in four stages to 30.50 metres.

In Amhadnagar the octagonal tomb of Salabat Khan, a minister under Sultan Murtaza I (1565-88), known as Chand Bibi's palace, stands at the centre of an octagonal terrace on a picturesque hill site. The grandeur and elegance of the later Bahmanid style were also repeated in the 'Adil Shahi monuments in Bijapur. Their arches are flattened, like those of the Tudor style in England, and their domes emerge from a band of conventional petals, bulging slightly as they rise. The most remarkable is the Gol Gumbad (Round Dome) built by Muhammad 'Adil Shah (1627-56) for his mausoleum. The plain outlines of the square structure, which supports the gigantic central dome, are broken by an enclosing row of small arches all around. Crowned with crenellations at the corners, and attached to the structure, stand six-sided towers with seven storeys of little arches, surmounted by bulbous domes. All these elements, however, are relegated to the background by the enormous hemispherical dome whose external diameter is about 44 metres - the largest dome in India.

The Qubt-Shahi monuments in Golkonda also incorporate Indo-Iranian features from the Bahmani and Bijapuri kingdoms. They are distinguished by large arches, ornamental fagades, corner minarets, and bulbous domes. They are generally built of ashlar stone and brick-and-lime masonry. The foliage and entwining creepers of the Qutb-Shahi stucco decorations exhibit considerable ingenuity, while the encaustic tiles and mother-of-pearl inlay in the stones are exquisite. Some of the Golkonda tombs are double-

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storeyed; 'Abdu'llah Qutb Shah's (d. 1672) mausoleum is a huge two-storeyed monument. The profusion of little minarets and cupolas suggests Hindu influence. The archway in Hyderabad called the Char Minar (Four Minarets), however, is designed to symbolize the Shi'i faith of the Qutb-Shahi rulers. The four stately minarets, about 49 metres high, balance the four archways, one on each side of the square structure. A double screen of arcades of diminishing size helps to make the Char Minar more a piece of sculpture than of architecture. The mosque on the western end of the open roof is the embodiment of tranquillity and repose; it was completed about 1595. To the north of the Char Minar are four monumental portals measuring double the height of its arches. They are known as Char Kaman.

Vijayanagara, on the south bank of the river Tungabhadra, is now in ruins, but the literary descriptions from both Irani and European visitors are impressive. It was 'as large as Rome'; the king's palace enclosed 'a greater space than all the castles of Lisbon'. The city was surrounded by seven fortifications. The hall of audience comprised three spacious stages at different levels and was reached by elaborate flights of steps. Although the halls and palaces no longer survive, some palace remains suggest the architectural glory of Vijayanagara. In a building known as the Elephant Stables, the Hindu and Muslim styles blend harmoniously. Its Islamic arches and facades are attractively balanced by the projected balconies on brackets. The Hindu resurgence of the period is reflected in the large number of temples that are built. The continuous panels of sculpture on the walls illustrate various myths and legends, while the carved pillars constitute a major architectural scheme in the temple complex. In many pillars the shafts are merely the central core of involved groups of statues, chiselled entirely in the round, with a horse as the most conspicuous element. Varieties of lotuses wtih large seed-pods dominate the ceiling slab. The temple of Hazara Rama is an exquisitely carved small building and seems to have been the private chapel of the Vijayanagara kings. A group of exuberantly carved and highly polished squat stone pillars support the roof. Even the brackets, beams, and undersides of the ceilings are elaborately ornamented. In 1513 the Vitthalasvami temple was planned on a grandiose scale of about three times the size of Hazara Rama but it could not be completed. The main complex of this unfinished temple is a long rectangular structure, and the entire scheme, raised over a profusely ornamented stylobate, ends in deep roll cornices surmounted by parapets and pyramidal rooflets in brick and plaster. The mandapas or the halls in some of the Vijayanagara temples are very large. The