The wonder that was india

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Kalyana mandapa at Vellore is the richest and most beautiful structure of its kind. Its piers not only exhibit the exuberance and ingenuity of the sculpture but also demonstrate the vigour and forcefulness of the kingdom.

THE LODI AND SUR MONUMENTS

Returning again to north India, we find that Khan-i Jahan Maqbul's tomb inspired the Sayyid rulers (Mubarak and Muhammad) and Sikandar Lodi to build octagonal tombs for their earthly remains. Sikandar's tomb stands in an extensive walled enclosure with an ornamental gateway. The inner and outer shell of the masonry, with a space left between the two in the dome of Sikandar's tomb, marks the beginning of the double dome. The technique was perfected by the Mughals. During the reigns of the Sayyids and Lodis also many square-plan tombs were erected, but the Sur family tombs at Sahasram in the Shahabad district of Bihar are all octagonal. The architectural defects in early Sur tombs were remedied in Sher Shah's own mausoleum, which was built on a large lake and connected by a causeway to the guard rooms on the northern shore. The high plinth over which the massive octagonal tomb rises in three diminishing levels contains double stairways framed by corner pavilions and recessed windows. The crenellated parapet continuing the projecting eave of the arched first stage of the mausoleum has pillared kiosks of open pavilions in the corners. This serves to balance the magnitude and dimensions of the structure. The second storey is a plain wall with a pillared kiosk in each right angle, and the sixteen-sided drum of the dome forms the third level. The imposing dome and artistic finial give this ponderous structure a unique fascination. The interior of the mausoleum is simple; the ascending rows of arches diminish in height but increase in number, and the decoration is confined to the inscriptions on the western wall.

Sher Shah died before he could complete the capital he planned at Delhi, now known as the Purana Qal'a (Old Fort). The gateways of the bastioned walls are built of red sandstone, picked out with white marble and tastefully embellished with blue glaze. Only the mosque built by Sher Shah and the bastion-type structure known as the Sher Mandal survive. The flatness in the curve towards the crown of the arches in the mosque's facade and the co-ordination of the archway's members are very artistic and pleasing.

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THE MUGHAL MONUMENTS

Babur mentions his continued interest in erecting mosques and planting gardens in his autobiography. He built a mosque at Panipat and another at Sambhal, east of Delhi, but he was dissatisfied with the one he built in the old Lodi fort at Agra.3 Humayun, in the first years of his reign, also erected many new buildings, but Sher Shah destroyed Humayun's monuments.

The history of Mughal architecture therefore starts with Akbar. In 1564 Humayun's widow, Hajji Begum, settled in Delhi. There she built a tomb for her husband, under the supervision of Iranian architects, which synthesized Iranian and Indian architectural characteristics. In a large square garden, protected by high walls, an extensive sandstone square terrace, 6.71 metres in height, with arcaded sides, was built. In its centre stands Humayun's tomb, square in plan and faced with red sandstone picked out with marble. In the middle, facing each side, are four great arches, behind which open the tomb entrances. The space between each arch and the wall behind it is filled with Iranian conventional dappled work. Inside the tomb each corner is cut off and provided with an arch; and over all rises a magnificent dome, clad in white marble, dipping sharply to culminate in a delicate point. The vaulted ceiling of the main hall is covered by a second marble shell, making it a double dome. This device allows the ceiling to be hemispherical, whatever the outer shape of the dome.

In 1565 Akbar ordered the construction of a fort at Agra, containing several palaces. The north-western escarpment of the Sikri ridge was quarried for these works. Two massive octagonal towers flank the main entrance of the fort's walls on the west. It is known as the Delhi Gate. The front consists of an archway; at the back are arcaded terraces. The guard rooms are inside the gate. It is an improved model of the Elephant Gateway in Gwalior fort. Unfortunately the two free-standing stone elephants, which Akbar installed at the gate, were removed by Aurangzib in 1669. He was unable, however, to interfere with the inlay panels above the second storey depicting fabulous animals - partly lion, partly horse, partly elephant, and some partly bird and duck. Other animal motifs were too prominent to be ignored but were also not destroyed. In fact, in previous centuries, a large number of monuments in Iraq and Iran were adorned with animal and human figures, yet the orthodox Muslims did not object. Aurangzlb finally bowed before cultural realities and left the animal forms in decorations untouched.

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None of the 'five hundred buildings of masonry, after the beautiful designs of Bengal and Gujarat', which according to Abu'1-Fazl were built in the fort, survive.4 They were doubtless swept away by Shahjahan, when he too altered the Delhi gate. The early Turkic conquerors had resorted to the trabeate style for want of master-masons trained in constructing arches and domes, but Akbar deliberately chose it, hoping to inject a Hindu atmosphere into his architectural enterprises. The Jahangiri Mahal in the Agra fort is the only surviving monument there from Akbar's reign. It is an uneasy blending of the design of the Man Mandir with a Muslim palace, and the halls and rooms are irregular and confused. The carvings on the red sandstone brackets and balconies are largely patterned after wood chiselling. The brackets on the oblong top-storey chamber, which is surrounded by verandas, passages, and staircases and stands to the west of the central quadrangle, are, however, exquisitely carved with peacock and serpent motifs. The repetitions of geese, flamingos, and lotuses in the carvings throughout this storey make it a predominantly Hindu living-room. Early in his reign Akbar built a palace fortress at Lahore. In 1570 he constructed another at Ajmir and in 1583 he completed a massive fort at Allahabad. In Fathpur-Sikri, where Akbar lived for about twelve years, most of his important buildings have survived. The Jami' mosque there was completed in 1571—2. It was supervised by Akbar's patron saint, Shaykh Salim Chishti, and it took five years to build. It is the principal and largest monument at Fathpur. Towards the rear of the vast courtyard is the majestic arch of the central prayer chamber with three mirhabs in each of its seven bays. In 1580—1 Shaykh Salim Chishti's tomb was completed, constructed on the spot where the Shaykh had prayed. The tomb was partly faced with marble. In the early years of Jahangir's reign, the outer marble screens were added, and the Walkway was paved also with marble. In the south-east corner is a particularly fine marble screen, offering a sober yet delicate pattern of hexagons enclosed within an interlacing eight-foil ornament and, in turn, enclosing elaborate eight-pointed stars. The hollow brackets supporting the steeply sloping stone eaves are so finely worked that they suggest a supple yet stylized snake, a rare achievement in stonework. Over the cenotaph in the interior rises a most remarkable and beautiful catafalque. It has a framework made of- or, at any rate, veneered thickly with - ebony, supported at the four corners by elaborate capitals and surmounted by a domed roof.

In 1573 Akbar added the Buland Darwaza (Lofty Gateway) to the mosque, to commemorate his Gujarat conquests. It was completed two years later. From the pavement in front of it, to the

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apex of the central pinnacle screening it, the arch of the Buland Darwaza is 40.84 metres high. The pavement itself is raised on vaulting 13.52 metres above the level of the road below; so the total height of the Buland Darwaza from the ground is 53.63 metres. It has few equals in size in Islamic architecture. Its large arched recesses in the centre, and its range of kiosks and cupolas, partly screened by perforated parapets, ensure the archway's artistic success, even from the decorational viewpoint.

The complex of palaces, offices, and halls of audience in Fathpur-Sikri also contains innumerable gems of structural and decorational ingenuity. The Anup Talao (Peerless Pool) was completed in 1575. At its north-east angle is a small but very decorative structure. Unfortunately, only the principal room and the 'lean-to' stone roof of the veranda survive. It has often been described as a 'superb casket'; the elaborate carvings on its brackets, friezes, coupled columns, pillars, pilasters, and piers make it appear the work of woodcarvers from Kashmir rather than of stone-cutters. The luxuriant vegetation and the Chinese cloud forms on the dado panels were inspired by miniature paintings. In fact many stone-cutters at Akbar's court were also accomplished miniature artists. The structure itself is popularly known as the Turkish Sultana's palace, but no lady could ever live in the neighbourhood of the halls meant for imperial use, since they were so public. Most of the identifications at Fathpur-Sikri, as at other palaces, are figments of the ignorant guide's imagination. Although many structures towards the end of the vast courtyard have disappeared, two elegant chambers survive. One of the chambers is dominated by a massive and richly carved pillar which supports one of the most fantastic red stone capitals ever conceived. Possibly it was one of the treasuries built, according to Abu'l-Fazl, by Akbar, and not the Ibadat-Khana or the Diwan-i khass.5

The ladies' palaces also occupy a vast area. The principal haram sard, or ladies' palace, is known as Jodh Ba'i's palace. Its exterior is solemn and massive, and the entrance, once guarded by eunuchs, is double-storeyed. The passage leading to the harem passes through a dark vestibule, and turns sharply to the right, and then left, to prevent anyone seeing straight into the spacious quadrangle. The bases, columns, and capitals of the pillars in the central rooms are carved in the Hindu manner with small lozenges, pellets, semi-lotus rosettes, and bell-and-chain ornaments; the columns, first square in section, become octagonal, then sixteen-sided, and finally circular. However, there are marked differences in style and execution, despite a strong family resemblance in all of them.

A five-storeyed structure known as Panch Mahal (Five-Storeyed Palace)

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was originally connected with the principal ladies' palace. It seems to have been designed to allow the ladies to take the cool air unseen. It is also a unique structure, entirely columnar, consisting of four storeys of decreasing size disposed asymmetrically upon a ground floor, which contains eighty-four columns. The carvings on each of these columns, representing different mythological stories, are still unexplained. To the north-east of the principal ladies' palace stands an elegant house which was splendidly decorated throughout with paintings glowing with gold. It is now known as Maryam's Palace, after Akbar's mother, Maryam Makani, but the golden paintings are commemorated in its other name - the Golden Palace. The carvings on the north side bracket show Rama being worshipped by Hanuman; another shows a pair of fat geese, while yet others depict elephants, geese, and rosettes.6 Although many other structures in the complex are also attractive, they cannot match the double-storeyed northern palace for the imperial harem, wrongly called Birbal's house. Its central core consists of four square rooms, of which the north-western and south-eastern ones have a domed upper room above, placed corner to corner. Each pilaster is finely carved in low relief with a pleasant geometrical pattern. The bases are cut with a deep double semicircle enclosed in a fan-like halo. A Hindi inscription on a pier at the western side of the house says that the building was erected in Samvat 1629 to 1572. Few visitors notice this Hindu mason's pride in his work.

Before his death Akbar began to build his own tomb at Sikan-dara, near Agra. In 1607 Jahangir visited the site and decided that the work was not 'unique in the world'.7 He therefore ordered some experienced architects to make a new plan, which he finally approved. It was finished in 1613 and, out of respect for Akbar's cultural ideals, it deliberately departed from the prevalent domed structures. Upon a high foundation rests an edifice of three diminishing arcaded galleries furnished with small pavilions, some of which are roofed with oblong pyramids. The fourth storey is open to the air and paved with white marble; in the middle stands the Emperor's cenotaph. The enclosure is walled with perforated marble screens surmounted by a frieze upon which the ninety-nine names of Allah are carved. The Emperor's corpse was buried in a vault deep in the ground. The inlay on the main gateway contained Christian motifs, but Aurangzib had them plastered over. The present gateway is an early twentieth-century structure.

In 1628 Nur Jahan, Emperor Jahangir's wife, completed a tomb for her father, I'timadu'd-Dawla, by the Jamuna at Agra. In form it is not unlike a Turkish kiosk, being a double-storeyed and square

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marble structure. The central chamber, containing the cenotaph, is surrounded by a series of rooms and passages corresponding to an enclosed veranda. It is finished with four short but elegant minarets, standing on each corner of the mausoleum platform. Earlier Mughal monuments were adorned with white and black marble, but the art called pietra dura, the technique of inlaying mosaic with hard and precious stones such as lapis, onyx, jasper, topaz, and cornelian, commenced with I'timadu'd-Dawla's mausoleum. The profusion of wine-vessels, cups, flower vases, and scent bottles depicted on the walls offered many opportunities to the designer to display his ingenuity. The handles of some wine-vessels are serpents with birds' beaks, some are dragon-shaped, others depict a lion motif, and some are plain. Animal motifs on the inlays of flower vases include dancing peacocks, peacocks accompanied by peahens, fish, and even mice. Geometrical patterns and floral designs, however, predominate. The excessive decoration on the dados in the interior reflects the designer's immaturity in planning. Later on the Mughal designers learned to restrain themselves. Indeed, I'timadu'd-Dawla's tomb marks the transition from Jahangir's ornamental extravagance to Shahjahan's finesse.

At Shahadra near Lahore, the elegant octagonal minarets in five stages, on the corners of the lofty platform of Jahangir's tomb, hide the mausoleum's structural defects. The marble pavilion in the middle of its terraced roof was a graceful addition but it no longer survives. Near Jahangir's tomb stands the mausoleum of Shahjahan's father-in-law, Asaf Khan, who died in 1641. Its marble facing has disappeared, but the surviving ornamentation of tile-work on the exterior walls indicates the intended contrast with the marble. The grandeur of the monument has not waned.

Shahjahan greatly admired white marble and he destroyed earlier buildings in Agra fort to make way for his own monuments, which used it more extensively. He built a broad marble-paved embankment between some rocky hills at Ajmir to hold an artificial lake which he decorated with a series of elegant kiosks. He also constructed various palaces at Ajmir and Delhi. The Diwan-i 'Amm (Hall of Public Audience), which he built in Agra fort on his accession in 1627, set a model for posterity, and his own subsequent buildings are also derived from it. Its square pillars support ornate arches edged with small projections which incline into small ogees. The surface of the pillars and the walls is panelled with shallow arches in the same style. The hall itself has elegant double columns and a Bengal-style curved roof covered in copper. The roof is finished, rather artificially, with bronze finials projecting at right angles from the curve. The design was repeated in the curved

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overhanging eaves on the pavilion on the top of the Musamman Burj or 'Eight-Sided Bastion'. The Burj's dados are framed by inlays which resemble the Mughal painted borders. On the dados themselves the carved plants merge naturally with each other. The effect of a stylized garden is reinforced by the fountain in the lotus basin on one of the verandas.

Shahjahan's most celebrated building is the Taj Mahal on the left bank of the Jamuna in Agra. Built as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal (d. 1631), it marks the culmination of the evolving garden tombs. The three-storeyed gate of the Taj, opening to the south, has a massive archway. The upper lines in the ornamental inscriptions decorating the archway, which one would expect to appear smaller, seem just the same size as the lower ones.

The tomb itself, set in a lovely garden and clad in glistening white marble from Makran in Jodhpur, is reflected in a long narrow pool of water in front. On the other side it overlooks the flowing river Jamuna. To the west rises a contrasting red sandstone mosque, and opposite stands its duplicate, a hall known as a jawab (answer). Framing the tomb are four graceful minarets crowned with eight-windowed cupolas, their white marble revetment picked out with black stone in imitation of mortar. The dome, bulging gently before dipping towards its gilded bronze flnial and rising from a plain broad band fringed with conventional petals, dominates the tomb. The square tomb has chamfered corners, framed by two broad arches. The Taj's magnificent recessed central arch leads into a smaller arch containing an entrance door and filled with marble screens. This opens into the dark octagonal tomb chamber, lit only by the light filtering through the screens and the high glazed windows. Another elegant marble screen encloses the finely cut marble cenotaphs of the Emperor and Empress. The chamber's hemispherical ceiling is the low face of the second dome enclosed within the outer shell. The conventional foliage on the outer walls of the cenotaph and their surrounding screen is depicted in the finest pietra dura work and bas-relief. The impression of richness, surpassing that of I'timadu'd-Dawla's tomb, derives from the increased use of semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and cornelian, although the work is in fact not so ornate.

This is the most famous building in India and is known throughout the world. Its glory springs from a perfection of balance and proportion such as few other buildings anywhere possess. On passing through the gateway the first sight of this great white tomb, reflected in the pool and surrounded by a beautiful garden, produces an intense aesthetic thrill that no other building can give. This is not the ordinary world; rather, it reflects the heaven of the

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Islamic mystic, a perfection and security beyond space and time. Most other tombs are earthbound by comparison.

Shahjahan next concentrated on devising the palace buildings which would overlook the Jamuna and run along the eastern wall of his new fort at Shahjahanabad (Delhi). He built an elegant Diwan-i 'Amm which contains a two-storeyed pavilion studded with semi-precious stones. The Peacock Throne stood on its upper storey. The restrained decoration was intended to create an atmosphere of awe and grandeur so that the mansabdars, standing, with bated breath, would concentrate their gaze on the glittering throne and the pietra dura glowing in the alcove above it.

The adjacent Diwan-i Khass (Hall of Private Audience) has an arcaded facade of five arches. It contains an exquisite marble screen surmounted by a black inlay depiction of the scales of justice. It is extremely well proportioned, and its massive piers, supporting foliated arches, harmonize with the flat roof they carry. Both the walls and ceilings were decorated with gold, and pietra dura inlays added to the brilliance of its walls. This unique structure, where gold ran riot, was nevertheless relegated to the background by the Rang Mahal (Delightful Palace), the Emperor's private apartment. Unfortunately all traces of the beautiful ornamentation in the Rang Mahal have long since disappeared. A marble water-channel connected with the Nahr-i Bihisht (Canal of Paradise), which entered the fort through a sluice, runs through the central apartment of the Rang Mahal. Its dry fountains, enclosed in lotus-shaped basins, earlier sprinkled water in the shape of a flower. Little remains of this lost glory, but the literary sources pay glowing tribute to the splendour of the Rang Mahal.

In 1644 work commenced on the Jami' Masjid. It dominates the landscape, rising on a lofty terraced base on sloping ground, with three majestic flights of steps leading to the gates of its great courtyard. A row of little kiosks, finished with white marble cupolas, edge the gateway parapets. The prayer chamber rests on massive piers and is covered by three large white domes. Although they look most impressive from behind, rising above the plain red wall with engrailed arches in low relief, from the front they become confused with the surrounding parapets, because the band at their base is too narrow.

The Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) in Agra fort, built in white marble by Shahjahan in 1654, is also disproportionate, and so is Aurangzib's marble mosque built in Delhi fort in 1659, although it is a charming miniature. Its slightly exaggerated round domes and the awkward disparity between height and breadth hint at an impending decline in aesthetic standards. The Badshahi mosque at

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Lahore, despite its grandeur, illustrates the final degeneration of Mughal architecture. The row of foliated arches seems too small to support the vast facade of the prayer chamber, while the three mediocre bulbous domes hover uncertainly, too small to be ignored and not large enough to merit attention. The corner minarets, recently restored, however, have helped to integrate the building.

MUGHAL GARDENS

Gardens were very popular in Iran, and Babur transplanted his love for them into Indian soil. Remnants of his Aram Bagh, or Garden of Repose, can still be seen in Agra. The Mughal formal square garden is divided into quarters by paved paths radiating from a central square on which a pavilion usually stood; hence the name 'fourfold plot' or char bagh. Gardens were included in all Mughal palaces and tombs, and many were laid out purely for enjoyment. Shahjahan completed the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore in 1637, and Jahangir cultivated many in his favourite summer retreat, the Vale of Kashmir. Fountains normally featured in these gardens; one can imagine how delightful and fresh they must have appeared to the Mughals seeking shelter from the heat and dust of Hindustan.

PAINTING

The art of painting was condemned by orthodox Muslim opinion, which considered that it blasphemously imitated God's creativity. It was therefore not fostered by religion, but depended upon royal patronage. In Iran, which had a long artistic heritage in this sphere, it developed rapidly.

The invasion of Iran by the nomadic Mongols, in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, resulted in the introduction of a strong Chinese influence. In the fourteenth century Iranian painters merely imitated the Chinese landscapes and confined their art to illustrating history, epic, and romance. They had no sense of perspective or depth. Their figures were two-dimensional stereotypes, and their settings were formal and stylized.

Shiraz (in southern Iran) was an important artistic centre in the fifteenth century. Many painters moved first there and then on to the Indian Muslim courts in Gujarat, Malwa, Jaunpur, and the

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Deccan. This movement brought about the cross-fertilization of ShlrazI and Indian art techniques which upset the rigid application of theoretical rules to contemporary Indian painting. A major watershed in Perso-Islamic painting is the Ni'mat-nama, or Cookery Book, illustrated in Malwa in the early sixteenth century. In it the Indian rounded body contours are displayed against a background of Shirazi formalized leaves and luxuriant vegetation.