The local styles of buildings which the
Muhammadans
encountered
more
## p.
more
## p.
Cambridge History of India - v3 - Turks and Afghans
xc,
83.
3 My, xc, 79.
## p. 563 (#613) ############################################
xxii)
BHUVANEK A-BAHU V
563
Jaya-Bāhu, and in Sinhalese works Savulu Vijaya-Bāhu, hardly
anything is known. They seem to have reigned in Kurunagala for
about twenty years, one after the other, from A. D. 1326 to 1346.
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV then ascended the throne. His capital was
Gangācripura (Gampola). The Lankātilaka inscription (British
Museum copy) of this king's minister, Senālankādhikāra, gives Saka
1264 (A. D. 1342) as the date of his accession, but according to the
Mahāvamsa and other historical works he succeeded in A. B. 1890
(A. D. 1346). The difference of four years may be explained by
assuming that the first was the year of his accession to the rank of
sub-king, and the second that of his assumption of sovereign power.
The Vāgiri-devāle inscription is dated in the tenth regnal year, so
that Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV must have reigned for at least ten years,
four years (1342—46) as Apā, and six years (1346—52) as king.
The next king was Parakkama-Bāhu V, called in Sinhalese
Savulu Parakum-raja, probably a son of Vijaya-Bāhu V. From
inscriptions and other sources it appears that he ruled at Gampola
and Dadigama for at least eleven years— four years (1348—52) as
Apā, and seven years (1352-59) as king. He was succeeded at
Gampola by his nephew, Vikkama-Bāhu III, who reigned, according
to inscriptions, for about eighteen years. He was sub-king for about
three years (A. D. 1356—59), and paramount sovereign for fifteen years
(1359-74). During his reign Niccanka Alagakkonāra of Amaragiri,
otherwise called Alakecvara, an intrepid warrior of the Girivamsa
lineage', who was allied by marriage to Senālankādhikāra Senevirat,
a minister of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV, came into prominence, rose to
the rank of minister and Prabhu-rāja, and dwelt in Perādeniya. With
a view to checking the ever-growing domination of the Tamils
under their ruler, Ārya Chakravarti of Jaffna, he prepared for war,
and built strong fortresses at Rayigama, and Kõtte, near Colombo.
In 1912 A. B. (A. D. 1368-69) he summoned a convocation of Buddhist
priests under the presidency of the Elder Dhammakitti I, and inau-
gurated reforms in religion. Towards the end of Vikkama-Bāhu's reign
Alakecvara reviewed his army and, finding himself strong enough to
cope with the Tamil king, defied him by hanging his tax-collectors.
Ārya Chakravarti replied by sending his army in two divisions, one
by land and the other by sea, against the Sinhalese. Bhuvaneka-Bāhu
V, who had succeeded Vikkama-Bāhu III on the throne of Gampola,
was struck with panic, fled from Gampola, and took refuge in the
fortress of Rayigama. In the battles which ensued Arya Chakravarti's
i For a fuller account see Perera's contribution to the 3. C. B. R. A. S. , 1904.
>
.
>
a
36-2
## p. 564 (#614) ############################################
564
(CH
CEYLON A. D. 1215-1527
power was crushed. Bhuvaneka-Bāhu returned to Gampola, but his
cowardly behaviour had made him so unpopular that the retired
to Kötte, and left the management of public affairs in the hands
of his powerful minister, Alakecvara, who in Saka 1304 (A. D. 1382)
was still in power, and Alakecvara's brother, Atthanāyaka, was also
a minister of state (Attanagaluvamsa). Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V seems to
have ruled as Apa both at Gampola and at Kötte from A. D. 1359 to
1370, as Yuva-rāja from a d. 1370 to 1374, and as king from A. D. 1374
to 1390-about thirty years in all. The Mahavamsa gives the
duration of his reign as twenty years.
After the Tamil war the Prabhu-raja, Niccanka Alakecvara, and
his brother, Atthanāyaka, lived for a while at Rayigama, but after-
wards the Prabhu-rāja settled for the remainder of his life at Kotte,
the city which he had himself built, where Bhuvaneka Bāhu V also
held his court, for the reason already explained. At Rayigama,
the family seat of the clan, the Prabhu-raja's son, Kumāra Alakecvara,
probably assumed the reins of government in the usual course, and
shortly afterwards, perhaps on the death of the Prabhu rāja and his
son (c. A. D. 1381—86), his sister's son, Vira Alakecvara, became
governor of Rayigama, and another nephew, Vira-Bāhu, who had
distinguished himself as a soldier, succeeded him as Apā of Bhu-
vaneka-Bāhu V, and lived at Gampola, but Vira Alakecvara being
the elder of the two nephews, challenged Vira-Bāhu's right to the
throne of Kötte, and a civil war ensued, in which Vīra Alakecvara
was vanquished and driven from the country. It may be added that
Senālankādhikāra Senevirat, of the Mehenavara clan, a close
relation of the royal family, probably married the Prabhu-raja's
sister. The two nephews were the issue of this marriage, and
hence are referred to as scions of the Mehenavara clan, and Vira.
Bāhu is styled saleko (Sinh. suhurubadu) of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V. It
is this last reference that lends some colour to the statement in the
Maharamsa and in the Raja-ratnakara that Niecanka Alagakkonāra
became King Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V, but contemporary records, which
are to be preferred, controvert this statement. On the death of this
king, Vira-Bāhu II ascended the throne of Gampola and Kotte, and
reigned for about six years, from A. D. 1390 to 1396. Under his
patronage another convocation of Buddhist priests, presided over by
the Mahāthera Dhammakitti II, author of the Nikayasangraha and
other treatises, was held in A. D. 1395. Vira-Bāhu had two sons,
Vijaya Apā and Tunayesaya, but neither his fate nor theirs is
wknon.
Vira Alakecvara, probably called also Vijaya-Bāhu VI, having
>
## p. 565 (#615) ############################################
XXII)
CHINESE INVASION
565
been defeated by his younger brother, Vira-Bāhu II, fled into
Southern India, but returned in about A. D. 1397 with a large army,
and, having ousted his brother from Kötte, ascended the throne
there, and reigned for twelve years from A. D. 1397 to 1409. At
this period the kings of Kötte, owing, probably, to the great mili-
tary achievements of the late Prabhu-rāja, were recognised as
paramount sovereigns of the Island, and it is possible that Vira
Alakecvara, like many another Sinhalese sovereign, took the biruda
Vira-Vijaya-Bāhu, but the evidence at our disposal is insufficient
to prove that he assumed this name, and neither the inscriptions
nor the Sinhalese works of the period throw much light on the
matter.
In A. D. 1405 the Chinese eunuch Tcheng Houo arrived in Ceylon,
apparently for the purpose of carrying away the Tooth-relic, but
his designs were frustrated and he was plundered by Alagakkönāra,
who may be identified with Vīra Alakecvara. Four years later, in
A. D. 1409, he came again, this time with an army, and succeeded
in capturing the king, with his queen and family? He returned to
China with his captives in A. D. 1411, and from 1409 to about 1414
Ceylon was without a king; but according to Saddharma-ratnākara,
a grandson of Senālankādbikāra Senevirad, Parakkama-Bāhu by
name, who held the rank of Āpā, ruled the Island during the inter-
regnum. If this was so Parakkama-Bāhu was a member of the
Alakecvara family, perhaps a son of the captive king, or of his
brother, Vīra-Bāhu II. He may therefore be identified with the
ruler appointed by the Chinese as their vassal, and also with the
Alakecvarayā of the Rājāvaliya, who made several attempts to
kill the young Lambakanna prince, a grandson of Parakkama-
Bāhu V, whom Visidāgama had arranged to place on the throne
as Parakkama-Bahu VI. Vīra Alakecvara and the other captives
were released about A. D. 1411-12 by the Chinese, but on the night
after their return to Ceylon Vira Alakecvara is said to have been
murdered in his capital? .
The Lambakanna prince, although he had been elected to the
throne, could not venture within reach of Parakkama-Bāhu Āpā,
but he established himself at Rayigama, and was at war with the
Apā until 1414, when he ascended the throne at Kõtte as Parak-
kama-Bāhu VI. These vicissitudes of the early years of his reign
explain discrepancies between the various authorities as to the date
of his accession. He reigned for nearly fifty-seven years from his
1 Spolia Zeylanica, June 1912.
2 Şee Perera on Alakecvara in J. C. B. R. A. S. for 1994,
## p. 566 (#616) ############################################
566
(CH.
CEYLON A. D. 1215–1527
>
election as king in. A. D. 1409 until his death in A. D. 1466. His long
reign, during which Tot agamuve Cri Rāhula Thera and his learned
colleagues and pupils flourished, was a period of great literary
activity and brilliancy. Cri Rāhula, who was the abbot of Vijaya.
Bāhu Parivena, and belonged to the Uttaramūlanikāya, was the
greatest scholar of the age, and was patronised and encouraged by
the king, himself the author of a metrical vocabulary of Elu words
entitled Ruvanmal-nighantu. Cri Rāhula's devotion to the royal
family is exhibited in many affectionate references to members of
it in his writings. He was an accomplished linguist, being master
of six languages, and was also a poet of the first rank.
The king had two sons and one daughter, the Princess Uluku-
dava Devi. His elder son was Senānāyaka Sapumal Kumāra, who
invaded the kingdom of Jaffna, killed its Tamil king, Ārya Chakra:
varti, and established himself as its ruler. The second son was the
Prince of Ambulugala, who led a punitive expedition into the Kanda
Uda-rata (the Kandyan district), which was then a subordinate
principality, subdued its refractory ruler, and appointed another,
a solar prince of the Gampola royal family, to rule over the district.
On the death of the king in A. D. 1466 his grandson, Jaya-Bāhu II,
called also Jaya Vīra Parakkama-Bāhu, son of Ulukudaya Devī,
ascended the throne in Kötte, but did not long retain the sceptre,
for in A. D. 1468 Prince Sapumal, the rightful heir, came from Jaffna
with a large army, put his nephew to death, and ascended the throne
under the title of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu VI. His brother, the prince of
Ambulugala, quelled a rebellion in the south raised by Crīvardhana
Pratirāja and Kūragama Himi. The Kalyāni Upasampadā ordi-
nation was held in this king's reign, and is recorded in the Kalyāni
Inscription?
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu VI died in A. D. 1476 after a reign of seven
years, and was succeeded by his adopted son, Parakkama-Bāhu VII,
called also Pandita Parakkama-Bāhu, who reigned for about eight
years (A. D. 1476—84). The Prince of Ambulugala then rose against
him, defeated his army, and slew his principal officers in battle, and,
entering Kötte, slew him at midnight. The next morning the prince
ascended the throne under the title of Vira Parakkama-Bāhu, or
Parakkama-Bāhu VIII. He had one daughter and six sons, namely,
(1) Dhamma Parakkama-Bāhu, (2) Cri Rājasimha, (3, Sakkāyudha,
(4) Rayigam Bandāra, (5) Taniyān Vallabha, and (6) Sakalakalā
Vallabha. Of these the second and third lived at Manikkadavara,
as associated husbands of a Kīravalle princess; the fourth at Rayi-
1 See Indian Antiquary, Vol. xxii, 1893.
## p. 567 (#617) ############################################
XXI )
ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE
567
gama ; and of the fifth and sixth, who were sons by a second wife,
the former lived at Mādampe, where his daughter had two sons,
Vidya-Kumāra and Tammita-Bandāra by a Malabar prince, and
the latter settled at Udugampola. All these princes played an im-
portant part in the history of the Island.
Parakkama-Bāhu VIII reigned for about twenty years, from
A. D. 1485 to 1505, and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son,
Dhamma Parakkama-Bāhu, or Parakkama. Bāhu IX, who reigned
for about twenty-two years, from A. D. 1505 to 1527. It was in his
reign, in September 1506, that the Portuguese, under Dom Lou-
renco de Almeida, son of the viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, first
reached Colombo. On hearing of their arrival the king summoned
to his presence his brothers and took counsel with them, and on
the advice of his brother Sakkāyudha, who had secretly seen the
strangers, he entered with the Portuguese, into a treaty of friendship
and commerce, undertaking to pay tribute in cinnamon and elephants
to the King of Portugal, who, in return, was to protect Ceylon from
all enemies.
## p. 568 (#618) ############################################
CHAPTER XXIII
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Seldom in the history of mankind has the spectacle been witnessed
of two civilisations, so vast and so strongly developed, yet so radically
dissimilar as the Muhammadan and Hindu meeting and mingling
together. The very contrasts which existed beween them, the wide
divergences in their culture and their religions, make the history of
their impact peculiarly instructive and lend an added interest to the
art and above all to the architecture which their united genius called
into being
How much precisely this Indo-Islamic art owed to India and
how much to Islam, has been a moot point. The majority of
writers, approaching the question from a western standpoint, have
treated Indo-Islamic art merely as a local variety of Islamic art ;
others, taking the opposite side and in sympathly with Indian rather
than with Muhammadan ideals, have seen in it nothing more than
a modified form of Hindu art. Much may be said in favour of
either point of view. On the one hand, examples might be adduced
of Muhammadan architecture so closely resembling the Hindu
as to be all but indistinguishable from it; or, on the other, of
monuments so entirely devoid of any indigenous influence that they
might almost equally well have been erected in Samarqand or
Damascus. Such examples, however, would be misleading and the
arguments based on them fallacious. Broadly speaking, Indo-
Islamic architecture derives its character from both sources, though
not always in an equal degree. In India, indeed, the history of
Muslim architecture is closely akin to what it was in other
countries. Wherever the Muhammadans established themselves,
whether in Asia or in Africa or Europe-they invariably adapted
to their own needs the indigenous architecture which they found
prevailing there. In the lands first conquered by them-in Pales-
1 Although the term 'Saracenic' as applied to the art of Islam has the advantage
of being consecrated by long usage, the term 'Islamic' seems preferable for two
reasons ; first, because it was mainly the religion of Islam which gave to the
Muhammadan world its common bonds of culture and art ; secondly, because to
the Muhammadans themselves the ‘Saracen' meant nothing more than the Arab
tribesmen who dwelt along the borders of the Syrian desert. Without, therefore,
altogether excluding the word 'Saracenic,' Islamic will be used generally in this
chapter.
## p. 569 (#619) ############################################
CH, XXII]
HINDU AND MUSLIM ART
569
tine, for example, or in Syria or in Egypt--this was inevitable, for
the reason, as we shall presently see, that the Arabs themselves
possessed little or no genius for the art of building, and, if their
places of worship were to be as attractive as those of rival creeds,
it was indispensable that they should impress into their service the
builders and artists of the newly conquered territories. Later on
this deficiency was made good by wholesale conversions among their
subject races, and in no long space of time the followers of the
Prophet found themselves heirs by blood as well as by the right of
conquest to the arts and learning not only of the vast Sasanian
Empire but of the greater part of the Graeco-Roman Orient as well
as of Northern Africa and Spain. Under the sway of the Muslims
the cultural development of all these countries received a powerful
stimulus and, thanks to the freer intercourse and increasingly closer
ties established between them, Islam was able to evolve for itself a
new culture, which rapidly became common to the whole Muslim
Empire, and at the same time to elaborate novel forms of architec-
ture especially adapted to its religious and social needs. But though
Islamic architecture thus acquired a fundamental character of its
own and found expression in standardised forms and concepts in
general use throughout the length and breadth of the empire, it still
remained true that almost every country within that empire-
from Spain in the West to Persia in the East--developed a local
Muslim style of its own based primarily on indigenous ideals and
stamped with a strong national individuality. Nowhere, for example,
but in Spain could the romantic gateway of Toledo, or the fairy-
like courts of the Alhambra have taken shape, and nowhere but in
India could the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque of Old Delhi or the chaste
and stately fabric of the Tāj Mahall have been designed.
By the close of the twelfth century, then, when the Muslims
established their power permanently in India, it was no longer a
case of their having to be tutored by their new subjects in the art
of building ; they themselves were already possessed of a highly-
developed architecture of their own, as varied and magnificent as
the contemporary architecture of Christian Europe ; and the
Muslims, moreover, who conquered India-men of Afghān, Persian
and Turki blood-were endowed with remarkably good taste and
a natural talent for building. The picture that some writers have
drawn of them as wild and semi-barbarous hill-men descending
on an ancient and vastly superior civilisation, is far from the
truth. That they were brutal fighters, without any of the chivarly,
## p. 570 (#620) ############################################
570
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
for example, of the Rājputs, and that they were capable of acts of
savagery and gross intemperance, may be conceded. But these
were vices common in those ages to most Asiatic nations and did
not preclude them any more than they had precluded the Ghaz-
navids from participating in the prevalent culture and arts of
Islam. Qutb-ud-din Aibak was ruthless enough to enslave en masse
the population of Kālinjar, but he also had the genius and imagi-
nation to create a mosque as superb as any in Islam ; and though
;
'Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī slaughtered thousands of Mongols in cold blood
at Delhi, he was the author of buildings of unexampled grace and
nobility. Doubtless, it was due in a great measure to this inborn
artistry, coupled with a natural catholicity of taste, that the new-
comers were so quick to appreciate the talent and adaptability of
the Indian craftsmen and to turn these qualities to account on
their own buildings. Few things in the history of architecture are
more remarkable than the skill with which, from the very outset,
the Muhammadans transformed Hindu and Jaina temples into
mosques for the Faithful, or the imagination which they displayed
in employing Indian sculptors to adorn their edifices with designs
incomparably more exquisite than their own. To create a success.
ful building out of such alien materials, to reconcile two styles
so characteristically opposed, without transgressing the standard
formulas of Islamic art, might well have been deemed an impossible
task. For the contrast between the Hindu temple and the Muslim
mosque could hardly have been more striking. The shrine of the
former was relatively small and constricted ; the prayer chamber
of the latter was broad and spacious. The one was gloomy and
mysterious ; the other light and open to the winds of heaven. The
Hindu system of construction was trabeate, based on column and
architrave ; the Muslim was arcuate, based on arch and vault. The
2
temple was crowned with slender spires or pyramidal towers; the
mosque with expansive domes. Hinduism found concrete expres-
sion in the worship of images, and its monuments were enriched
with countless idols of its deities; Islam rigidly forbade idolatry or
the portrayal of any living thing. Decorative ornament in Hindu
architecture delighted in plastic modelling ; it was naturalistic as
the Gothic and far more exuberant ; Islamic ornament, on the
other hand, inclined to colour and line or flat surface carving, and
took the form of conventional arabesques or ingenious geometric
patterning. Yet, with all these conspicuous contrasts (and there are
many more that might be added), there are certain factors common
to both forms of architecture which materially assisted towards
## p. 571 (#621) ############################################
XXI11 )
INFLUENCE OF HINDU ON MUSLIM ART
571
their amalgamation. Thus, a characteristic feature of many Hindu
temples, as well as of almost every Muslim mosque-a feature
derived from the traditional dwelling-house of the East and as
familiar in India as in other parts of Asia - was the open court
encompassed by chambers or colonnades, and such temples, as were
built on this plan naturally lent themselves, to conversion into
mosques and would be the first to be adapted for that purpose by
the conquerors. Again, a fundamental characteristic that supplied
a common link between the two styles, was the fact that both
Islamic and Hindu art were inherently decorative. Ornament was
as vital to the one as to the other ; both were dependent on it for
their very being. In the Indian architect this sense for the decora-
tive was innate ; it came to him as a legacy from the pre-Aryan
races and ran through the whole fabric of the art. The Muslim, on
the other hand, had inherited a vast wealth of rich and varied
designs particularly from the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, and
though his taste in the handling of ornament might not be so
exquisite as the Indian, the value he attached to it was in no way
less. Thus it came about that when the conquest of India opened
up new realms of art before his eyes, he at once gauged their
vast possibilities and set about taking the fullest advantage of
them.
In the fusion of the two styles which followed, Muhammadan
architecture absorbed or inherited
manifold ideas and concepts
from the Hindu-so many, indeed, that there is hardly a form or
motif of Indian architecture which in some guise or other did not
find its way into the buildings of the conquerors. But
important than these visible borrowings of outward and concrete
features is the debt which Indo-Islamic architecture owes to
the Hindu for two of its most vital qualities ; the qualities
of strength and grace. In other countries Islamic architecture
has other merits. There is nothing in India, for instance, to
match the green and gold mosaics of Jerusalem and Damascus,
or the superb colouring of Persian tilework, or the wonderful
fantasies of Spanish design ; but in no other country are strength
and grace united quite so perfectly as in India. These are the
two qualities which India may justly claim for her own, and they
are the two which in architecture count for more than all the
rest.
In a country as vast and diversified as India, it is not to be
supposed that architecture ever conformed to a
universal type.
The local styles of buildings which the Muhammadans encountered
more
## p. 572 (#622) ############################################
572
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
in different districts were almost as numerous and distinct une
from another, as the peoples themselves or the languages they
spoke. Some of the styles, as we have seen in the preceding
volume of this history, were determined by the ethnic character
of the population ; others were the outcome of differing religions ;
others, again, resulted from foreign inspiration ; and others were
conditioned by geographical surroundings or by the climate or
geology of the neighbourhood. Whatever the underlying causes,
each style represented a spontaneous development suited to the
religious or social needs of the inhabitants and reflecting their
specific habits and mentality. Out of these antecedent styles the
Muhammadans evolved their own particular forms of architecture,
adapting each to their requirements and modifying or transforming
it according to its character or to the facilities which they
possessed for giving expression to their own ideals. Thus, at
Delhi, they built their first mosques out of the spoils of Hindu and
Jaina temples, constructing them on Indian principles and enrich-
ing them with the handiwork of indigenous sculptors. At Delhi,
however, the Muslims were in preponderating strength and better
able, therefore, to maintain their own traditions. Hence at Delhi
they quickly began to assert their own individuality and allowed
Hindu craftsmanship only a very limited play. At Jaunpur, on the
other hand, and in the Deccan, the local styles enjoyed greater
ascendancy, while in Bengal the conquerors not only adopted the
established fashion of building in brick, but adorned their struc-
tures with chiselled and moulded enrichments frankly imitated
from Hindu prototypes. So, too, in western India they appropriated
to themselves almost en bloc the beautiful Gujarāti style, which
had yielded some of the finest buildings of mediaeval India ; and
in Kashmir they did the same with the striking wooden architec-
ture which must long have been prevalent in that part of the
Himālayas. But much as Muhammadan architecture owed to these
older schools, it owed much also to the Muhammadans themselves ;
for it was they who, in every case, endowed it with breadth and
spaciousness and enriched it with new beauties of form and colour.
Before their advent, concrete had been little used in India, and
mortar scarcely ever; by the Muhammadans these materials were
employed as freely as by the Romans and became two of the most
important factors of construction, Thanks to the strength of their
binding properties it was possible for the Muslim builders to span
wide spaces with their arches, to roof immense areas with their
domes and in other ways to achieve effects of grandeur such as the
## p. 573 (#623) ############################################
xxm]
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
$73
Indians had never dreamt of. Of the arch the Indian had not been
wholly ignorant; but without a cementing agent for the masonry,
his knowledge had been of little avail. With the Muhammadans,
on the contrary, the arch and dome had been from time immemorial
the key-notes of their construction, and, though in their newly-
adopted styles they frequently perpetuated the trabeate system, it
was the arch and dome that they always regarded as peculiarly
their own and as symbolic of their Faith. Other characteristic
features which they introduced were the minar and minaret, the
pendentive and squinch arch, stalactite, honey-combing and half-
domed double portal. Elaborate decoration and brightly coloured
ornament were at all times dear to the heart of the Muslim, and
in both these spheres he introduced striking innovations. The rich
floral designs of the Indian artists he supplemented with flowing
arabesque or intricate geometric devices of his own, or sometimes
interwove with them (as only a Muslim calligraphist could do) the
graceful lettering of his sacred texts and historic inscriptions. Nor
was it enough that his buildings should be beautified merely with
a wealth of carvings executed in stone or brick or plaster; the
Muslim required colour also and colour he supplied by painting
and gilding, or by employing stones of various hues to accentuate
the architectural features. Later on, by the more laborious pro-
cesses of tesselating and pietra dura, he reproduced the designs
themselves in coloured stones and marbles. Still more brilliant
were the effects he attained by encaustic tiling, which he used
at first sparingly and in a few colours only, but later without
restraint to embellish whole buildings with a glistening surface of
enamel.
Of the many and various groups into which the Islamic monu-
ments of India are divided, that of Delhi occupies the central and
pre-eminent place ; for it was at Delhi that the Muhammadans
erected their first splendid memorials, and it was at Delhi that
there afterwards arose a succession of buildings extending over the
whole six centuries of their rule. But before approaching Delhi we
must cast back for a moment to the older Muslim kingdoms of
Sind and Afghānistān and see what contribution, if any, they made
to the development of Islamic art in India. With the Arabs, who
in the beginning of the eighth century possessed themselves of
Sind, our concern is small. Like other Semitic peoples they showed
but little natural instinct for architecture or the formative arts.
Though the Caliphs retained Sind for more than a century and a
half and though Muslim rule endured there until the close of the
## p. 574 (#624) ############################################
574
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
tenth century, the sole surviving relics of it are the foundations of
some small mosques unearthed a few years ago in the buried city
of Marsūra', which, so far as can be judged from their remains,
possessed no artistic merit. But if the Arabs were negligible factor,
it was far otherwise with the Ghaznavids of Afghānistān, who
overran Northern India in the first quarter of the eleventh century.
At that time Persia occupied an all-important place in the world
of Islamic art. Her genius was of the mimetic rather than the
creative order, but she possessed a magic gift for absorbing the
artistic creations of other countries and refining them to her own
standard of perfection. Situated as she was in the heart of the
Middle East, she became the crucible in which the arts of Turkistān
and China on the one side, of Mesopotamia, Syria and the Byzan-
tine Empire on the other, were fused together and transmuted
into new forms and from which they issued afresh with the
indelible stamp of Persian beauty set upon them. And the
channel by which this stream of art flowed southward into India
was Ghazni. Glazni, however, was more than a mere medium for
the dissemination of Islamic art. All the culture and magnificence
which in the ninth and tenth centuries had belonged to the
Sāmānid dynasty of North-Eastern Persia, had passed, as if by the
natural right of inheritance, to the Ghaznavids, and under Mahmud
the Great and his immediate successors, Ghazni became famous
among all the cities of the Caliphate for the splendour of its
architecture. Most of its buildings, unfortunately, perished during
the ruthless burning of the city by "Alā-ud-din Husain Jahānsūz,
the Ghūrid, and others fell victims to the ravages of time or of
later vandals. To-day, the only monuments of note that are known
to survive are the tomb of Mahmūd the Great and two minars or
Towers of Victory, the one erected by Mahmūd himself and the
other by one of his successors, Masʼūd. For us the minars are
especially interesting as being the prototypes of the famous Qutb
minar at Delhi and analogous to the towers of Dāmghān in Persia
and at Mujdan and Tāūq in Mesopotamia. Up to half a century
1 A. S. R. , 1903-04, pp. 132 ff.
2 These remarks apply rather to the architecture of Eastern than Western Persia.
The former is distinguished by its essentially decorative character, the latter by its
constructional forms and motifs, which link it up with the Islamic architecture of
Mesopotamia and ultimately with the Hell 'nistic monuments of the Nearer East.
3 No architectural remains of the Sāmānid dynasty are known to exist, but of the
influence which its art and culture exerted on Ghazni there can be no doubt. The
architecture of Ghazni also owed a great debt to the currents of art which flowed
thither from Turkistān and from Central Asia generally.
4 Cf. Gertrude Bell, Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir, pp. 40-41.
## p. 575 (#625) ############################################
XXII )
DELHI
$75
ago they were standing to a height of about 140 feet, and at that
time consisted of two storeys, the lower star-shaped in plan, the
upper round, both built of brick and embellished with elaborate
designs in terra cottal. The tomb of Mahmud Yamin-ud-Daula
(999—1030 A. D. ) which was also of brick has been completely
modernised by restoration, the only feature preserved intact being
its richly carved doors which were brought from Ghazni by the
British in 1842 and are now in the Fort at Āgra. These doors are
of deodar wood, divided into panels and adorned with six pointed
stars and simple geometric figures ; the stars and figures, as well as
the vertical styles between the leaves, being carved into a variety
of interlacing designs or flowing arabesques, and the whole further
enriched with decorative hinges and bands of ironwork. Along the
lower edge of the lintel is an inscription in Kufic2 lettering invoking
the forgiveness of God and his blessings on 'Abu-l-Qāsim Mahmud,'
son of Sabuk-tigin, while round the framing of the doors is repeated
in the same script the formula, 'the sovereignty belongs to God. '
Assuming that these doors are of the same age as the tomb (and it is
prima facie improbable that a later generation would have lavished
so much care upon their carvings), they acquire a special interest
from the exceptionally developed character of their arabesques, and
interlaced designs, which resemble Cairens work of the later twelfth
rather than of the eleventh century. As more materials become
available for the study of this period of Islamic art, it may well
prove that in work of this kind, Afghānsitān, which was under the
immediate influence of Persia, was a century ahead of Egypt.
To return, however, to Delhi. The city which the armies of
Qutb-ud-din Aibak occupied in 1191 was the Qala-i-Rãi Pilhaura,
the oldest of the Seven Cities' of Delhi, within the perimeter of
which was included the strongly-fortified citadel known as the
Lāl Kot. ' Inside this citadel the conquerors erected one of the
most remarkable series of monuments of which Islam can boast.
a
1 The upper storeys have since fallen and square bases have been added to the
supports of the towers.
2 The inscription is to the following effect :
In the name of God who is most merciful and compassionate. May there be
forgiveness from God for the most exalted Amir, the dignified king, born to be.
come the chief of the state and the head of religion, Abū-l-Qāsim Mahmūd, the
son of Sabuk-tigin, upon whom be the mercy of God. . . His blessings for him.
3 E. g. the doors from the mosque of As-Sālih Telāye (circa 1160 A. D. ). Those
of the Al-Azhar mosque bearing a Kufic inscription of the Fatimite Al'Hākim
(circa 1010 A. D. ) are far more primitive in style, and so too are the doors from the
Fatimite palace at Cairo (circa 1057 A. D. ).
a
## p. 576 (#626) ############################################
576
(ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Its nucleus in the Jāmi' or Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque founded i
1191 A. D. by Qutb-ud-din Aibak to commemorate the capture of
Delhi and dedicated, as its name implies, 'to the Might of Islam. '
Raised on a lofty plinth and approached through gateways set in
three of its sides, its plan is typical of the majority of mosques ; it
consists, that is to say, of an open quadrangle enclosed by colon-
nades of which the western one constituted the prayer chamber,
the only unusual feature being the presence of entresol galleries
at the four corners of the colonnades instead of at the sides of the
prayer chamber. Seen from within or without, the building, as
originally designed, presented an essentially Hindu appearance.
Half of the plinth on which it stood had actually been the base-
ment of a Hindu temple and the rest of the structure-walls,
columns, capitals, architraves and ceilings-was composed of
materials stripped from the shrines of the unbelievers, twenty-seven
of which, so one of the inscriptions informs us, had gone to the
making of this one mosque. Indeed, save for the five mihrābs in
the back wall, there was scarcely a feature in the whole building
to proclaim its Muslim character. A design so alien to their own
traditions was hardly likely to satisfy the sentiments of the Muham-
madans, and within two years of its completion (i. e. in 1198 A. D. )
an arched screen of characteristically Muhammadan design was
thrown acros; the whole front of the prayer chamber. It is this
screen above all else that is the making of the Quwwat-ul-Islām
masjid. Simple as it is in form-it consists merely of a lofty
central arch (53 feet in height) flanked on either side by two lesser
arches which once supported smaller ones above-it would be hard
to imagine carvings more superbly ornate than these which enrich
its facade : band on band of sacred texts, their Tughrā characters
entwined with curling leaves, and sinuous tendrils, side by side
with floral scrolls and flowing arabesques or geometric traceries of
surpassing richness. No doubt it was a Muslim calligraphist who
set out the scheme and penned in the texts, but it was only an
Indian brain that could have devised such a wealth of ornament
and only Indian hands that could have carved it to such perfection.
In spite, however, of all its beauty it cannot be pretended that this
screen is an architectural success. It is too obviously an after.
thought, not an integral, organic part of the structure : too vast
and over-powering to harmonise with the relatively low colonnades
of the courtyard, and still more out of keeping with the slight
elegant pillars of the hall behind. The pity is that the precedent
set by this, the earliest mosque in Delhi, was destined to be
## p. 577 (#627) ############################################
XXII )
THE QUWWAT-UL-ISLAM
577
followed in many subsequent buildings and to exercise a baneful
influence on their style.
In 1230 A. D. the Emperor Iltutmish more than doubled the
area of the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque by throwing out wings to the
prayer chamber and screen and by adding an outer court large
enough to embrace within its surrounding colonnades the Great
Minar begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Whether of set purpose or
because there were no more temples to despoil, fresh materials
were specially quarried for these extensions, and it is significant
of the extent to which the Muhammadans were now asserting their
own ideas at Delhi, that the new work was fundamentally Islamic
in character and manifestly designed, if not executed, by Muslim
craftsmen. Shafts and capitals and architraves of a Hindu pattern
were still used for the liwān and colonnades, but in the screen
extensions, which were the outstanding features of the new addi-
tions, Indian influence is visible in little except the actual construc-
tion of the arches. In Qutb-ud-din's screen the inscriptions were
the only part of the surface ornament which were Muhammadan ;
all the rest was Indian and modelled with true Indian feeling for
plastic form. In Iltutmish's work, on the other hand, the reliefs are
flat and lifeless, stencilled as it were on the surface of the stone,
and their formal patterns are identical with those found on con.
temporary Muslim monuments in other countries. It is fair, how-
ever, to add that what this latter work loses in spontaneous charm
and vitality, it more than gains in organic unity and tectonic
propriety.
The last of the Delhi kings to enlarge the Quwwat-ul-Islām
mosque was 'Alā-ud-din Khalji. In the spirit of megalomania which
so often obsessed him he started reduplicating the prayer chamber
toward the north, adding yet a third court more than twice the
size of its predecessor, and erecting in it another minar as high
again as the existing one. Had these vast structures been com.
pleted, we may well believe that they would have transcended the
other monuments of Delhi as much in beauty as in size, but,
fortunately perhaps for the welfare of his subject, the death of the
king 1315 A. D. put an end to his grandiose schemes.
Of the disposition of the mosque and other buildings composing
this group a clear and graphic idea can be obtained from the
skilful reconstruction drawn by Mr J. A. Page (Plate III). The
Qutb minar seems to have been intended as a ma’zina or tower
from which the mu’azzin could summon the Faithful to prayer,
though it soon came to be regarded as a tower of Victory, akin to
37
C. H. I. III
## p. 578 (#628) ############################################
578
(CH
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
as
those afterwards erected at Chitor and Māndū. As originally
designed it stood some 225 feet in height and comprised four
storeys divided one from another by richly decorated balconies and
further embellished by vertical Autings and horizontal bands of
inscriptions inwoven with foliate designs. Many of the inscriptions
are Quranic texts and demonstrate the essentially sacred character
of the fabric ; others contain panegyrics of the kings who built or
repaired the minar, and from these as well from architec-
tural considerations it is evident that only a portion of the
first storey
was the work of Qutb-ud-din Aibak and that the
rest was completed by his successor Iltutmish'. In an inscrip-
tion on the lowest band of the first storey Qutb-ud-din is
referred to under his usual viceregal titles of 'The Amir, The
Commander of the Army, The Glorious, The Great,' and on
the adjacent bands are eulogies of his overlord Mu'izz-ud-din
Muhammad Ghūrī and of the latter's brother Ghiyās-ud-din, which
leave no room for doubt that Qutb-ud-din was still Viceroy at
Delhi when the minar was begun. [ltutmish's own inscriptions are
engraved on the second and third storeys only, but there is another
record concerning him on the fourth storey, which dates from the
time of Firūz Shāh Tughluq. In the reign of that Emperor the
minar was struck by lightning and the fourth storey being then
apparently dismantled and replaced by two smaller ones, its height
by this means was raised to 234 feet. This rebuilding is chronicled
in an inscription on the fifth storcy and is clearly apparent in the
novel style of decoration as well as in the different materials
employed in the new work ; for, whereas the three lower storeys
are constructed of grey quartzite faced throughout with red sand.
stone, the fourth and fifth storeys are constructed of red sandstone
faced largely with white marble. Finally, in 1503 A. D. , during the
reign of Sikandar Shāh Lodī, the minar was again restored and its
upper storeys repaired, though what measures precisely were
carried out on that occasion cannot easily be determined. On the
strength of certain short Nāgari records in the interior attempts
have been made to prove that the minar was of Hindu origin and
that the Muhainmadans merely re-carved the outer surface. But
the only Nāgarī record of a date earlier than 1199 A. D, is one on
the soffit of a window lintel, in a position which leaves no doubt
that this particular stone came from some older structure.
fact, the whole conception of the minar and almost every detail of
1 Two short Någari records of 1199 A. D, carved on the lowest storey indicate that
the minar was founded in or before that year.
As a
## p. 579 (#629) ############################################
XXIII ]
THE QUTB MINAR
579
its construction and decoration is essentially Islamic. Towers of
this kind were unknown to the Indians, but to the Muhammadans
they had long been familiar, whether as ma'zinas attached to
mosque or as free-standing towers like those at Ghaznī. Equally
distinctive also of Muslim art are the calligraphic inscriptions and
the elaborate stalactite corbelling beneath the balconies, both of
which can be traced back to kindred features in the antecedent
architecture of Western Asia and Egypt. Fergusson, who was no
mean judge, regarded the Qutb minar as the most perfect example
of a tower known to exist anywhere, and there is much to be said
in favour of his view. Nothing certainly, could be more imposing
or more fittingly symbolic of Muslim power than this stern and
stupendous fabric; nor could anything be more exquisite than its
rich but restrained carvings. Nevertheless, with all its overwhelm-
ing strength, with all its perſection of symmetry and ornament-
nay, by reason perhaps of this very perfection-it seems to
miss the romance, the indefinable quality of mystery that clings
around some of its rivals : round the Campanile of Giotto, for
example, at Florence or round the towers of Victory and Fame at
Chitor.
The reaction against Indianisation which is so marked a feature
of the minarl is noticeable also in Iltutmish's extensions of the
Quwwat-ul-Islām screen and of the little tomb--said to be that of
Iltutmish--which stands behind the north-west corner of the
mosque. Here, however, the Muslim elements have been less
successful in dominating the Hindu, with the result that the style
is vacillating and nerveless, possessing neither the tectonic strength
and purposefulness of the former, nor the picturesque artistry of
the latter. In its form and dimensions the tomb is quite unpre-
tentious; a simple square chamber, less than 30 ft. across, of red
sandstone within and of grey quartzite relieved by red sandstone
without. In three of its sides are arched entrances, and on the
fourth a mihrāb flanked by two smaller ones, while thrown across
the corners are squinch arches supporting a domical roof, which
like many Syrian and Egyptian domes was probably constructed
in part of wood. But if the structure was simple, its decoration
could scarcely have been more elaborate. The lofty entrance bays
without and almost the entire surface of the walls within
covered from floor to ceiling with Quranic texts in Naskh and
1 Whether Qutb-ud-din or Ilutmisli was mainly responsible for the design of
the minar as originally built, is uncertain. The style suggests that Iltutmish may
have modified Qutb-ud-din's design.
37 ---2
were
## p. 580 (#630) ############################################
580
ích.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Tughrā and Kufic characters, or with formal arabesques and
geometric diapers as bewildering as they were varied, and the
ornate effect of the whole was further increased by picking out the
background of the white marble reliefs in colours. Predominantly
the ornamentation was Islamic. Only here and there are Indian
features observable, but we cannot doubt that the craftsmen
employed were Indian or that they were working with designs to
which they were little accustomed. That this tomb is the resting-
place of Iltutmish is the common belief to which colour is lent by
its location immediately behind Iltutmish's extension of the
mosque. On the other hand, some doubt as to its identity is cast
by a passage in the Futūhāt-i-Firuz Shāhi, where the Emperor
speaks of having restored some fallen pillars and four towers at the
Mausoleum of Iltutinish'-a description which manifestly does
not apply to this tomb. Probably the writer of the memoir is at
fault, the building to which he refers being not the tomb of
Iltutmish himself, but one about two miles distant, now known as
'Sultān Ghāri,' which the Emperor built in 1231-32 for his son and
which there is good reason, therefore, for regarding as the oldest
building of its class in India. In this earlier tomb the pillars,
capitals, architraves and most of the decorative motifs are purely
Hindu, and though arches and domes figure prominently in its
design, they are constructed, like all the arches and domes of this
period, on the Hindu corbel principle. The plan, too, of the Sultā.
Ghāri is quite unlike that of Iltutmish's tomb and, indeed, unlike
that of any other tomb in India. It stands in the middle of a
square fortress-like enclosure with round turrets at the four
corners and an arched entrance, approached by a flight of steps,
on its eastern side. Walls and turrets alike are pierced by arched
openings. At the back of the gateway is a pillared portico carried
on Hindu pillars; and opposite to it on the west is a second portico
flanked by colonnades extending from side to side of the enclosure
This second portico, which is square and covered by a dome,
served as a mosque and was provided with a mihrāb in its back
wall embellished with inscriptions in Naskh and Kufic characters.
The tomb in the centre-an octagonal chamber with flat roof sup-
ported on pillars-is sunk to about two-thirds of its height below
the ground level, a fact to which it owes its name of 'Sultan of the
Cave. Most of the enclosure, let it be added, is of grey granite,
but the mosque and entrance portico as well as the exterior facing
of the tomb are of white marble.
Among other buildings associated with the name of Iltutmish,
a
-
## p. 581 (#631) ############################################
XXII ]
APPEARANCE OF THE TRUE ARCH
581
the most celebrated is the Arhāi-din-ka-Jhompra at Ajmer, which
Qutb-ud-din Aibak had built in 1200 A. D. and which Iltutmish sub-
sequently beautified with a screen. The story goes that Qutb-ud-
din finished the original building in two-and-a-half days, whence
its singular name of 'Two-and-a-half days hut, but a more
plausible explanation is that the name dates from Marāthā times,
when an annual melā or fair was held there, lasting two-and-a-half
days. Whatever the origin of the name, the mosque of Qutb-ud-din
is more likely to have taken two-and-a-half years than two-and-a-
half days to erect. In style and construction it closely resembles
its older rival at Delhi, but its area is more than double as large
and the several parts of the edifice are correspondingly more
spacious and dignified. At Delhi, the planning of the prayer
chamber had been done on makeshift lines, the colonnades being
too constricted and the pillars in them too low and crowded. At
Ajmer, these defects were remedied. A single broad aisle on three
sides of the open court took the place of the two or three narrow
ones at Delhi and the arrangement of domes and pillars in the
prayer chamber was made strictly uniform and symmetrical. Both
mosques were built out of the spoils of Hindu temples, but at
Ajmer the architect went to work more boldly and, despite the
multiplicity of his materials and their strange fantastic forms, he
succeeded nevertheless in creating out of them a hall of really
solemn beauty-fit setting for the exquisitely carved mihrāb of
white marble set in its western wall (Pl. VI). A further note of
distinction was given to this mosque by the addition of circular
bastions, fluted and banded like the Qutb minar, at the two corners
of its eastern facade. But if Qutb-ud-din's mosque at Ajmer was
an improvement on its predecessor at Delhi, the same cannot be
said of the screen, magnificent as it undoubtedly was, which
Iltutmish threw across the front of the prayer chamber. It had the
advantage of being a third again as broad as Qutb-ud-din's screen
and vastly more massive ; its engrailed arches were a pleasing
;
novelty, its decorative reliefs admirable of their kind, and its
workmanship beyond reproach. Yet, with all its grandeur and
perfection of technique, it missed the delicate and subtle beauty
of its rival. Mathematically it was correct to the minutest detail,
but mathematical precision is not architecture and no amount of
accuracy with compass and ruler can make up for lack of natural
artistry. The two minarets set meaninglessly on the top of the
central archway, the inappropriate niches and tiny medallions in
the spandrels, and the abrupt determination of the base mouldings
## p. 582 (#632) ############################################
582
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
sufficiently betray the limitations of the designer, who produced
in this screen rather a tour de force of technical excellence than
an artistic triumph.
Between the death of Iltutmish in 1236 and the accession of
'Alā-ud-din Khaljī the story of architecture at Delhi is all but a
blank. The only monument of note that throws light on its
progress in the interval is the tomb of Balban' (1266-86) which
stands in the south-east quarter of the Qal'a-i-Rāi Pilhaura. It is
a simple structure comprising a square domed chamber, 38 inches
across, with an arched entrance in each of its sides and a smaller
chamber to the east and west, in one of which was the grave of
Khān Shahīd, the son of the Emperor, who fell in battle against
the Mongols (1285-86). Unfortunately, every trace of decoration
has perished from the tomb and what is left of it is a mere shell,
but the presence of arches built on true scientific principles is an
innovation that deserves notice. In every building of Qutb-ud-din
and Iltutmish that has been described, the arches were constructed
not with youssoirs, as they ordinarily are, but in corbelled horizontal
courses, the fact being that, in their ignorance of arch construc-
tion, the Hindu craftsmen engaged on these structures had to
resort to their own traditional methods of dome building. The
appearance, then of the true arch in the tomb of Balban marks a
definite advance in construction and at the same time is sympto-
matic of a general reaction against Hindu influences. This reaction
had already made itself felt during the reign of Iltutmish and,
though we have no means of following it stage by stage, it is
evident that it must have gathered considerable strength in the
half century succeeding his death. For by the time the Khaljīs
came upon the scene Muslim building traditions had already
become firmly established on Indian soil, with the result that not
only had methods of construction been revolutionised but ornament
had come to be treated more as an integral factor and less as
quasi-independent accessory of architecture.
The effect of these developments upon the style of the Khalji
period is clearly evidenced in the two principal monuments of
'Alā-ud-din's reign : the Jama'at Khāna Masjid at the Dargah of
Nizām-ud-din Auliyā and the 'Alāi Darwāza at the Qutb. The
former is the earliest example in India of a mosque built wholly in
accordance with Muhammadan ideas and with materials specially
quarried for the purpose.
83.
3 My, xc, 79.
## p. 563 (#613) ############################################
xxii)
BHUVANEK A-BAHU V
563
Jaya-Bāhu, and in Sinhalese works Savulu Vijaya-Bāhu, hardly
anything is known. They seem to have reigned in Kurunagala for
about twenty years, one after the other, from A. D. 1326 to 1346.
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV then ascended the throne. His capital was
Gangācripura (Gampola). The Lankātilaka inscription (British
Museum copy) of this king's minister, Senālankādhikāra, gives Saka
1264 (A. D. 1342) as the date of his accession, but according to the
Mahāvamsa and other historical works he succeeded in A. B. 1890
(A. D. 1346). The difference of four years may be explained by
assuming that the first was the year of his accession to the rank of
sub-king, and the second that of his assumption of sovereign power.
The Vāgiri-devāle inscription is dated in the tenth regnal year, so
that Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV must have reigned for at least ten years,
four years (1342—46) as Apā, and six years (1346—52) as king.
The next king was Parakkama-Bāhu V, called in Sinhalese
Savulu Parakum-raja, probably a son of Vijaya-Bāhu V. From
inscriptions and other sources it appears that he ruled at Gampola
and Dadigama for at least eleven years— four years (1348—52) as
Apā, and seven years (1352-59) as king. He was succeeded at
Gampola by his nephew, Vikkama-Bāhu III, who reigned, according
to inscriptions, for about eighteen years. He was sub-king for about
three years (A. D. 1356—59), and paramount sovereign for fifteen years
(1359-74). During his reign Niccanka Alagakkonāra of Amaragiri,
otherwise called Alakecvara, an intrepid warrior of the Girivamsa
lineage', who was allied by marriage to Senālankādhikāra Senevirat,
a minister of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu IV, came into prominence, rose to
the rank of minister and Prabhu-rāja, and dwelt in Perādeniya. With
a view to checking the ever-growing domination of the Tamils
under their ruler, Ārya Chakravarti of Jaffna, he prepared for war,
and built strong fortresses at Rayigama, and Kõtte, near Colombo.
In 1912 A. B. (A. D. 1368-69) he summoned a convocation of Buddhist
priests under the presidency of the Elder Dhammakitti I, and inau-
gurated reforms in religion. Towards the end of Vikkama-Bāhu's reign
Alakecvara reviewed his army and, finding himself strong enough to
cope with the Tamil king, defied him by hanging his tax-collectors.
Ārya Chakravarti replied by sending his army in two divisions, one
by land and the other by sea, against the Sinhalese. Bhuvaneka-Bāhu
V, who had succeeded Vikkama-Bāhu III on the throne of Gampola,
was struck with panic, fled from Gampola, and took refuge in the
fortress of Rayigama. In the battles which ensued Arya Chakravarti's
i For a fuller account see Perera's contribution to the 3. C. B. R. A. S. , 1904.
>
.
>
a
36-2
## p. 564 (#614) ############################################
564
(CH
CEYLON A. D. 1215-1527
power was crushed. Bhuvaneka-Bāhu returned to Gampola, but his
cowardly behaviour had made him so unpopular that the retired
to Kötte, and left the management of public affairs in the hands
of his powerful minister, Alakecvara, who in Saka 1304 (A. D. 1382)
was still in power, and Alakecvara's brother, Atthanāyaka, was also
a minister of state (Attanagaluvamsa). Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V seems to
have ruled as Apa both at Gampola and at Kötte from A. D. 1359 to
1370, as Yuva-rāja from a d. 1370 to 1374, and as king from A. D. 1374
to 1390-about thirty years in all. The Mahavamsa gives the
duration of his reign as twenty years.
After the Tamil war the Prabhu-raja, Niccanka Alakecvara, and
his brother, Atthanāyaka, lived for a while at Rayigama, but after-
wards the Prabhu-rāja settled for the remainder of his life at Kotte,
the city which he had himself built, where Bhuvaneka Bāhu V also
held his court, for the reason already explained. At Rayigama,
the family seat of the clan, the Prabhu-raja's son, Kumāra Alakecvara,
probably assumed the reins of government in the usual course, and
shortly afterwards, perhaps on the death of the Prabhu rāja and his
son (c. A. D. 1381—86), his sister's son, Vira Alakecvara, became
governor of Rayigama, and another nephew, Vira-Bāhu, who had
distinguished himself as a soldier, succeeded him as Apā of Bhu-
vaneka-Bāhu V, and lived at Gampola, but Vira Alakecvara being
the elder of the two nephews, challenged Vira-Bāhu's right to the
throne of Kötte, and a civil war ensued, in which Vīra Alakecvara
was vanquished and driven from the country. It may be added that
Senālankādhikāra Senevirat, of the Mehenavara clan, a close
relation of the royal family, probably married the Prabhu-raja's
sister. The two nephews were the issue of this marriage, and
hence are referred to as scions of the Mehenavara clan, and Vira.
Bāhu is styled saleko (Sinh. suhurubadu) of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V. It
is this last reference that lends some colour to the statement in the
Maharamsa and in the Raja-ratnakara that Niecanka Alagakkonāra
became King Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V, but contemporary records, which
are to be preferred, controvert this statement. On the death of this
king, Vira-Bāhu II ascended the throne of Gampola and Kotte, and
reigned for about six years, from A. D. 1390 to 1396. Under his
patronage another convocation of Buddhist priests, presided over by
the Mahāthera Dhammakitti II, author of the Nikayasangraha and
other treatises, was held in A. D. 1395. Vira-Bāhu had two sons,
Vijaya Apā and Tunayesaya, but neither his fate nor theirs is
wknon.
Vira Alakecvara, probably called also Vijaya-Bāhu VI, having
>
## p. 565 (#615) ############################################
XXII)
CHINESE INVASION
565
been defeated by his younger brother, Vira-Bāhu II, fled into
Southern India, but returned in about A. D. 1397 with a large army,
and, having ousted his brother from Kötte, ascended the throne
there, and reigned for twelve years from A. D. 1397 to 1409. At
this period the kings of Kötte, owing, probably, to the great mili-
tary achievements of the late Prabhu-rāja, were recognised as
paramount sovereigns of the Island, and it is possible that Vira
Alakecvara, like many another Sinhalese sovereign, took the biruda
Vira-Vijaya-Bāhu, but the evidence at our disposal is insufficient
to prove that he assumed this name, and neither the inscriptions
nor the Sinhalese works of the period throw much light on the
matter.
In A. D. 1405 the Chinese eunuch Tcheng Houo arrived in Ceylon,
apparently for the purpose of carrying away the Tooth-relic, but
his designs were frustrated and he was plundered by Alagakkönāra,
who may be identified with Vīra Alakecvara. Four years later, in
A. D. 1409, he came again, this time with an army, and succeeded
in capturing the king, with his queen and family? He returned to
China with his captives in A. D. 1411, and from 1409 to about 1414
Ceylon was without a king; but according to Saddharma-ratnākara,
a grandson of Senālankādbikāra Senevirad, Parakkama-Bāhu by
name, who held the rank of Āpā, ruled the Island during the inter-
regnum. If this was so Parakkama-Bāhu was a member of the
Alakecvara family, perhaps a son of the captive king, or of his
brother, Vīra-Bāhu II. He may therefore be identified with the
ruler appointed by the Chinese as their vassal, and also with the
Alakecvarayā of the Rājāvaliya, who made several attempts to
kill the young Lambakanna prince, a grandson of Parakkama-
Bāhu V, whom Visidāgama had arranged to place on the throne
as Parakkama-Bahu VI. Vīra Alakecvara and the other captives
were released about A. D. 1411-12 by the Chinese, but on the night
after their return to Ceylon Vira Alakecvara is said to have been
murdered in his capital? .
The Lambakanna prince, although he had been elected to the
throne, could not venture within reach of Parakkama-Bāhu Āpā,
but he established himself at Rayigama, and was at war with the
Apā until 1414, when he ascended the throne at Kõtte as Parak-
kama-Bāhu VI. These vicissitudes of the early years of his reign
explain discrepancies between the various authorities as to the date
of his accession. He reigned for nearly fifty-seven years from his
1 Spolia Zeylanica, June 1912.
2 Şee Perera on Alakecvara in J. C. B. R. A. S. for 1994,
## p. 566 (#616) ############################################
566
(CH.
CEYLON A. D. 1215–1527
>
election as king in. A. D. 1409 until his death in A. D. 1466. His long
reign, during which Tot agamuve Cri Rāhula Thera and his learned
colleagues and pupils flourished, was a period of great literary
activity and brilliancy. Cri Rāhula, who was the abbot of Vijaya.
Bāhu Parivena, and belonged to the Uttaramūlanikāya, was the
greatest scholar of the age, and was patronised and encouraged by
the king, himself the author of a metrical vocabulary of Elu words
entitled Ruvanmal-nighantu. Cri Rāhula's devotion to the royal
family is exhibited in many affectionate references to members of
it in his writings. He was an accomplished linguist, being master
of six languages, and was also a poet of the first rank.
The king had two sons and one daughter, the Princess Uluku-
dava Devi. His elder son was Senānāyaka Sapumal Kumāra, who
invaded the kingdom of Jaffna, killed its Tamil king, Ārya Chakra:
varti, and established himself as its ruler. The second son was the
Prince of Ambulugala, who led a punitive expedition into the Kanda
Uda-rata (the Kandyan district), which was then a subordinate
principality, subdued its refractory ruler, and appointed another,
a solar prince of the Gampola royal family, to rule over the district.
On the death of the king in A. D. 1466 his grandson, Jaya-Bāhu II,
called also Jaya Vīra Parakkama-Bāhu, son of Ulukudaya Devī,
ascended the throne in Kötte, but did not long retain the sceptre,
for in A. D. 1468 Prince Sapumal, the rightful heir, came from Jaffna
with a large army, put his nephew to death, and ascended the throne
under the title of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu VI. His brother, the prince of
Ambulugala, quelled a rebellion in the south raised by Crīvardhana
Pratirāja and Kūragama Himi. The Kalyāni Upasampadā ordi-
nation was held in this king's reign, and is recorded in the Kalyāni
Inscription?
Bhuvaneka-Bāhu VI died in A. D. 1476 after a reign of seven
years, and was succeeded by his adopted son, Parakkama-Bāhu VII,
called also Pandita Parakkama-Bāhu, who reigned for about eight
years (A. D. 1476—84). The Prince of Ambulugala then rose against
him, defeated his army, and slew his principal officers in battle, and,
entering Kötte, slew him at midnight. The next morning the prince
ascended the throne under the title of Vira Parakkama-Bāhu, or
Parakkama-Bāhu VIII. He had one daughter and six sons, namely,
(1) Dhamma Parakkama-Bāhu, (2) Cri Rājasimha, (3, Sakkāyudha,
(4) Rayigam Bandāra, (5) Taniyān Vallabha, and (6) Sakalakalā
Vallabha. Of these the second and third lived at Manikkadavara,
as associated husbands of a Kīravalle princess; the fourth at Rayi-
1 See Indian Antiquary, Vol. xxii, 1893.
## p. 567 (#617) ############################################
XXI )
ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE
567
gama ; and of the fifth and sixth, who were sons by a second wife,
the former lived at Mādampe, where his daughter had two sons,
Vidya-Kumāra and Tammita-Bandāra by a Malabar prince, and
the latter settled at Udugampola. All these princes played an im-
portant part in the history of the Island.
Parakkama-Bāhu VIII reigned for about twenty years, from
A. D. 1485 to 1505, and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son,
Dhamma Parakkama-Bāhu, or Parakkama. Bāhu IX, who reigned
for about twenty-two years, from A. D. 1505 to 1527. It was in his
reign, in September 1506, that the Portuguese, under Dom Lou-
renco de Almeida, son of the viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, first
reached Colombo. On hearing of their arrival the king summoned
to his presence his brothers and took counsel with them, and on
the advice of his brother Sakkāyudha, who had secretly seen the
strangers, he entered with the Portuguese, into a treaty of friendship
and commerce, undertaking to pay tribute in cinnamon and elephants
to the King of Portugal, who, in return, was to protect Ceylon from
all enemies.
## p. 568 (#618) ############################################
CHAPTER XXIII
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Seldom in the history of mankind has the spectacle been witnessed
of two civilisations, so vast and so strongly developed, yet so radically
dissimilar as the Muhammadan and Hindu meeting and mingling
together. The very contrasts which existed beween them, the wide
divergences in their culture and their religions, make the history of
their impact peculiarly instructive and lend an added interest to the
art and above all to the architecture which their united genius called
into being
How much precisely this Indo-Islamic art owed to India and
how much to Islam, has been a moot point. The majority of
writers, approaching the question from a western standpoint, have
treated Indo-Islamic art merely as a local variety of Islamic art ;
others, taking the opposite side and in sympathly with Indian rather
than with Muhammadan ideals, have seen in it nothing more than
a modified form of Hindu art. Much may be said in favour of
either point of view. On the one hand, examples might be adduced
of Muhammadan architecture so closely resembling the Hindu
as to be all but indistinguishable from it; or, on the other, of
monuments so entirely devoid of any indigenous influence that they
might almost equally well have been erected in Samarqand or
Damascus. Such examples, however, would be misleading and the
arguments based on them fallacious. Broadly speaking, Indo-
Islamic architecture derives its character from both sources, though
not always in an equal degree. In India, indeed, the history of
Muslim architecture is closely akin to what it was in other
countries. Wherever the Muhammadans established themselves,
whether in Asia or in Africa or Europe-they invariably adapted
to their own needs the indigenous architecture which they found
prevailing there. In the lands first conquered by them-in Pales-
1 Although the term 'Saracenic' as applied to the art of Islam has the advantage
of being consecrated by long usage, the term 'Islamic' seems preferable for two
reasons ; first, because it was mainly the religion of Islam which gave to the
Muhammadan world its common bonds of culture and art ; secondly, because to
the Muhammadans themselves the ‘Saracen' meant nothing more than the Arab
tribesmen who dwelt along the borders of the Syrian desert. Without, therefore,
altogether excluding the word 'Saracenic,' Islamic will be used generally in this
chapter.
## p. 569 (#619) ############################################
CH, XXII]
HINDU AND MUSLIM ART
569
tine, for example, or in Syria or in Egypt--this was inevitable, for
the reason, as we shall presently see, that the Arabs themselves
possessed little or no genius for the art of building, and, if their
places of worship were to be as attractive as those of rival creeds,
it was indispensable that they should impress into their service the
builders and artists of the newly conquered territories. Later on
this deficiency was made good by wholesale conversions among their
subject races, and in no long space of time the followers of the
Prophet found themselves heirs by blood as well as by the right of
conquest to the arts and learning not only of the vast Sasanian
Empire but of the greater part of the Graeco-Roman Orient as well
as of Northern Africa and Spain. Under the sway of the Muslims
the cultural development of all these countries received a powerful
stimulus and, thanks to the freer intercourse and increasingly closer
ties established between them, Islam was able to evolve for itself a
new culture, which rapidly became common to the whole Muslim
Empire, and at the same time to elaborate novel forms of architec-
ture especially adapted to its religious and social needs. But though
Islamic architecture thus acquired a fundamental character of its
own and found expression in standardised forms and concepts in
general use throughout the length and breadth of the empire, it still
remained true that almost every country within that empire-
from Spain in the West to Persia in the East--developed a local
Muslim style of its own based primarily on indigenous ideals and
stamped with a strong national individuality. Nowhere, for example,
but in Spain could the romantic gateway of Toledo, or the fairy-
like courts of the Alhambra have taken shape, and nowhere but in
India could the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque of Old Delhi or the chaste
and stately fabric of the Tāj Mahall have been designed.
By the close of the twelfth century, then, when the Muslims
established their power permanently in India, it was no longer a
case of their having to be tutored by their new subjects in the art
of building ; they themselves were already possessed of a highly-
developed architecture of their own, as varied and magnificent as
the contemporary architecture of Christian Europe ; and the
Muslims, moreover, who conquered India-men of Afghān, Persian
and Turki blood-were endowed with remarkably good taste and
a natural talent for building. The picture that some writers have
drawn of them as wild and semi-barbarous hill-men descending
on an ancient and vastly superior civilisation, is far from the
truth. That they were brutal fighters, without any of the chivarly,
## p. 570 (#620) ############################################
570
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
for example, of the Rājputs, and that they were capable of acts of
savagery and gross intemperance, may be conceded. But these
were vices common in those ages to most Asiatic nations and did
not preclude them any more than they had precluded the Ghaz-
navids from participating in the prevalent culture and arts of
Islam. Qutb-ud-din Aibak was ruthless enough to enslave en masse
the population of Kālinjar, but he also had the genius and imagi-
nation to create a mosque as superb as any in Islam ; and though
;
'Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī slaughtered thousands of Mongols in cold blood
at Delhi, he was the author of buildings of unexampled grace and
nobility. Doubtless, it was due in a great measure to this inborn
artistry, coupled with a natural catholicity of taste, that the new-
comers were so quick to appreciate the talent and adaptability of
the Indian craftsmen and to turn these qualities to account on
their own buildings. Few things in the history of architecture are
more remarkable than the skill with which, from the very outset,
the Muhammadans transformed Hindu and Jaina temples into
mosques for the Faithful, or the imagination which they displayed
in employing Indian sculptors to adorn their edifices with designs
incomparably more exquisite than their own. To create a success.
ful building out of such alien materials, to reconcile two styles
so characteristically opposed, without transgressing the standard
formulas of Islamic art, might well have been deemed an impossible
task. For the contrast between the Hindu temple and the Muslim
mosque could hardly have been more striking. The shrine of the
former was relatively small and constricted ; the prayer chamber
of the latter was broad and spacious. The one was gloomy and
mysterious ; the other light and open to the winds of heaven. The
Hindu system of construction was trabeate, based on column and
architrave ; the Muslim was arcuate, based on arch and vault. The
2
temple was crowned with slender spires or pyramidal towers; the
mosque with expansive domes. Hinduism found concrete expres-
sion in the worship of images, and its monuments were enriched
with countless idols of its deities; Islam rigidly forbade idolatry or
the portrayal of any living thing. Decorative ornament in Hindu
architecture delighted in plastic modelling ; it was naturalistic as
the Gothic and far more exuberant ; Islamic ornament, on the
other hand, inclined to colour and line or flat surface carving, and
took the form of conventional arabesques or ingenious geometric
patterning. Yet, with all these conspicuous contrasts (and there are
many more that might be added), there are certain factors common
to both forms of architecture which materially assisted towards
## p. 571 (#621) ############################################
XXI11 )
INFLUENCE OF HINDU ON MUSLIM ART
571
their amalgamation. Thus, a characteristic feature of many Hindu
temples, as well as of almost every Muslim mosque-a feature
derived from the traditional dwelling-house of the East and as
familiar in India as in other parts of Asia - was the open court
encompassed by chambers or colonnades, and such temples, as were
built on this plan naturally lent themselves, to conversion into
mosques and would be the first to be adapted for that purpose by
the conquerors. Again, a fundamental characteristic that supplied
a common link between the two styles, was the fact that both
Islamic and Hindu art were inherently decorative. Ornament was
as vital to the one as to the other ; both were dependent on it for
their very being. In the Indian architect this sense for the decora-
tive was innate ; it came to him as a legacy from the pre-Aryan
races and ran through the whole fabric of the art. The Muslim, on
the other hand, had inherited a vast wealth of rich and varied
designs particularly from the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, and
though his taste in the handling of ornament might not be so
exquisite as the Indian, the value he attached to it was in no way
less. Thus it came about that when the conquest of India opened
up new realms of art before his eyes, he at once gauged their
vast possibilities and set about taking the fullest advantage of
them.
In the fusion of the two styles which followed, Muhammadan
architecture absorbed or inherited
manifold ideas and concepts
from the Hindu-so many, indeed, that there is hardly a form or
motif of Indian architecture which in some guise or other did not
find its way into the buildings of the conquerors. But
important than these visible borrowings of outward and concrete
features is the debt which Indo-Islamic architecture owes to
the Hindu for two of its most vital qualities ; the qualities
of strength and grace. In other countries Islamic architecture
has other merits. There is nothing in India, for instance, to
match the green and gold mosaics of Jerusalem and Damascus,
or the superb colouring of Persian tilework, or the wonderful
fantasies of Spanish design ; but in no other country are strength
and grace united quite so perfectly as in India. These are the
two qualities which India may justly claim for her own, and they
are the two which in architecture count for more than all the
rest.
In a country as vast and diversified as India, it is not to be
supposed that architecture ever conformed to a
universal type.
The local styles of buildings which the Muhammadans encountered
more
## p. 572 (#622) ############################################
572
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
in different districts were almost as numerous and distinct une
from another, as the peoples themselves or the languages they
spoke. Some of the styles, as we have seen in the preceding
volume of this history, were determined by the ethnic character
of the population ; others were the outcome of differing religions ;
others, again, resulted from foreign inspiration ; and others were
conditioned by geographical surroundings or by the climate or
geology of the neighbourhood. Whatever the underlying causes,
each style represented a spontaneous development suited to the
religious or social needs of the inhabitants and reflecting their
specific habits and mentality. Out of these antecedent styles the
Muhammadans evolved their own particular forms of architecture,
adapting each to their requirements and modifying or transforming
it according to its character or to the facilities which they
possessed for giving expression to their own ideals. Thus, at
Delhi, they built their first mosques out of the spoils of Hindu and
Jaina temples, constructing them on Indian principles and enrich-
ing them with the handiwork of indigenous sculptors. At Delhi,
however, the Muslims were in preponderating strength and better
able, therefore, to maintain their own traditions. Hence at Delhi
they quickly began to assert their own individuality and allowed
Hindu craftsmanship only a very limited play. At Jaunpur, on the
other hand, and in the Deccan, the local styles enjoyed greater
ascendancy, while in Bengal the conquerors not only adopted the
established fashion of building in brick, but adorned their struc-
tures with chiselled and moulded enrichments frankly imitated
from Hindu prototypes. So, too, in western India they appropriated
to themselves almost en bloc the beautiful Gujarāti style, which
had yielded some of the finest buildings of mediaeval India ; and
in Kashmir they did the same with the striking wooden architec-
ture which must long have been prevalent in that part of the
Himālayas. But much as Muhammadan architecture owed to these
older schools, it owed much also to the Muhammadans themselves ;
for it was they who, in every case, endowed it with breadth and
spaciousness and enriched it with new beauties of form and colour.
Before their advent, concrete had been little used in India, and
mortar scarcely ever; by the Muhammadans these materials were
employed as freely as by the Romans and became two of the most
important factors of construction, Thanks to the strength of their
binding properties it was possible for the Muslim builders to span
wide spaces with their arches, to roof immense areas with their
domes and in other ways to achieve effects of grandeur such as the
## p. 573 (#623) ############################################
xxm]
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
$73
Indians had never dreamt of. Of the arch the Indian had not been
wholly ignorant; but without a cementing agent for the masonry,
his knowledge had been of little avail. With the Muhammadans,
on the contrary, the arch and dome had been from time immemorial
the key-notes of their construction, and, though in their newly-
adopted styles they frequently perpetuated the trabeate system, it
was the arch and dome that they always regarded as peculiarly
their own and as symbolic of their Faith. Other characteristic
features which they introduced were the minar and minaret, the
pendentive and squinch arch, stalactite, honey-combing and half-
domed double portal. Elaborate decoration and brightly coloured
ornament were at all times dear to the heart of the Muslim, and
in both these spheres he introduced striking innovations. The rich
floral designs of the Indian artists he supplemented with flowing
arabesque or intricate geometric devices of his own, or sometimes
interwove with them (as only a Muslim calligraphist could do) the
graceful lettering of his sacred texts and historic inscriptions. Nor
was it enough that his buildings should be beautified merely with
a wealth of carvings executed in stone or brick or plaster; the
Muslim required colour also and colour he supplied by painting
and gilding, or by employing stones of various hues to accentuate
the architectural features. Later on, by the more laborious pro-
cesses of tesselating and pietra dura, he reproduced the designs
themselves in coloured stones and marbles. Still more brilliant
were the effects he attained by encaustic tiling, which he used
at first sparingly and in a few colours only, but later without
restraint to embellish whole buildings with a glistening surface of
enamel.
Of the many and various groups into which the Islamic monu-
ments of India are divided, that of Delhi occupies the central and
pre-eminent place ; for it was at Delhi that the Muhammadans
erected their first splendid memorials, and it was at Delhi that
there afterwards arose a succession of buildings extending over the
whole six centuries of their rule. But before approaching Delhi we
must cast back for a moment to the older Muslim kingdoms of
Sind and Afghānistān and see what contribution, if any, they made
to the development of Islamic art in India. With the Arabs, who
in the beginning of the eighth century possessed themselves of
Sind, our concern is small. Like other Semitic peoples they showed
but little natural instinct for architecture or the formative arts.
Though the Caliphs retained Sind for more than a century and a
half and though Muslim rule endured there until the close of the
## p. 574 (#624) ############################################
574
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
tenth century, the sole surviving relics of it are the foundations of
some small mosques unearthed a few years ago in the buried city
of Marsūra', which, so far as can be judged from their remains,
possessed no artistic merit. But if the Arabs were negligible factor,
it was far otherwise with the Ghaznavids of Afghānistān, who
overran Northern India in the first quarter of the eleventh century.
At that time Persia occupied an all-important place in the world
of Islamic art. Her genius was of the mimetic rather than the
creative order, but she possessed a magic gift for absorbing the
artistic creations of other countries and refining them to her own
standard of perfection. Situated as she was in the heart of the
Middle East, she became the crucible in which the arts of Turkistān
and China on the one side, of Mesopotamia, Syria and the Byzan-
tine Empire on the other, were fused together and transmuted
into new forms and from which they issued afresh with the
indelible stamp of Persian beauty set upon them. And the
channel by which this stream of art flowed southward into India
was Ghazni. Glazni, however, was more than a mere medium for
the dissemination of Islamic art. All the culture and magnificence
which in the ninth and tenth centuries had belonged to the
Sāmānid dynasty of North-Eastern Persia, had passed, as if by the
natural right of inheritance, to the Ghaznavids, and under Mahmud
the Great and his immediate successors, Ghazni became famous
among all the cities of the Caliphate for the splendour of its
architecture. Most of its buildings, unfortunately, perished during
the ruthless burning of the city by "Alā-ud-din Husain Jahānsūz,
the Ghūrid, and others fell victims to the ravages of time or of
later vandals. To-day, the only monuments of note that are known
to survive are the tomb of Mahmūd the Great and two minars or
Towers of Victory, the one erected by Mahmūd himself and the
other by one of his successors, Masʼūd. For us the minars are
especially interesting as being the prototypes of the famous Qutb
minar at Delhi and analogous to the towers of Dāmghān in Persia
and at Mujdan and Tāūq in Mesopotamia. Up to half a century
1 A. S. R. , 1903-04, pp. 132 ff.
2 These remarks apply rather to the architecture of Eastern than Western Persia.
The former is distinguished by its essentially decorative character, the latter by its
constructional forms and motifs, which link it up with the Islamic architecture of
Mesopotamia and ultimately with the Hell 'nistic monuments of the Nearer East.
3 No architectural remains of the Sāmānid dynasty are known to exist, but of the
influence which its art and culture exerted on Ghazni there can be no doubt. The
architecture of Ghazni also owed a great debt to the currents of art which flowed
thither from Turkistān and from Central Asia generally.
4 Cf. Gertrude Bell, Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir, pp. 40-41.
## p. 575 (#625) ############################################
XXII )
DELHI
$75
ago they were standing to a height of about 140 feet, and at that
time consisted of two storeys, the lower star-shaped in plan, the
upper round, both built of brick and embellished with elaborate
designs in terra cottal. The tomb of Mahmud Yamin-ud-Daula
(999—1030 A. D. ) which was also of brick has been completely
modernised by restoration, the only feature preserved intact being
its richly carved doors which were brought from Ghazni by the
British in 1842 and are now in the Fort at Āgra. These doors are
of deodar wood, divided into panels and adorned with six pointed
stars and simple geometric figures ; the stars and figures, as well as
the vertical styles between the leaves, being carved into a variety
of interlacing designs or flowing arabesques, and the whole further
enriched with decorative hinges and bands of ironwork. Along the
lower edge of the lintel is an inscription in Kufic2 lettering invoking
the forgiveness of God and his blessings on 'Abu-l-Qāsim Mahmud,'
son of Sabuk-tigin, while round the framing of the doors is repeated
in the same script the formula, 'the sovereignty belongs to God. '
Assuming that these doors are of the same age as the tomb (and it is
prima facie improbable that a later generation would have lavished
so much care upon their carvings), they acquire a special interest
from the exceptionally developed character of their arabesques, and
interlaced designs, which resemble Cairens work of the later twelfth
rather than of the eleventh century. As more materials become
available for the study of this period of Islamic art, it may well
prove that in work of this kind, Afghānsitān, which was under the
immediate influence of Persia, was a century ahead of Egypt.
To return, however, to Delhi. The city which the armies of
Qutb-ud-din Aibak occupied in 1191 was the Qala-i-Rãi Pilhaura,
the oldest of the Seven Cities' of Delhi, within the perimeter of
which was included the strongly-fortified citadel known as the
Lāl Kot. ' Inside this citadel the conquerors erected one of the
most remarkable series of monuments of which Islam can boast.
a
1 The upper storeys have since fallen and square bases have been added to the
supports of the towers.
2 The inscription is to the following effect :
In the name of God who is most merciful and compassionate. May there be
forgiveness from God for the most exalted Amir, the dignified king, born to be.
come the chief of the state and the head of religion, Abū-l-Qāsim Mahmūd, the
son of Sabuk-tigin, upon whom be the mercy of God. . . His blessings for him.
3 E. g. the doors from the mosque of As-Sālih Telāye (circa 1160 A. D. ). Those
of the Al-Azhar mosque bearing a Kufic inscription of the Fatimite Al'Hākim
(circa 1010 A. D. ) are far more primitive in style, and so too are the doors from the
Fatimite palace at Cairo (circa 1057 A. D. ).
a
## p. 576 (#626) ############################################
576
(ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Its nucleus in the Jāmi' or Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque founded i
1191 A. D. by Qutb-ud-din Aibak to commemorate the capture of
Delhi and dedicated, as its name implies, 'to the Might of Islam. '
Raised on a lofty plinth and approached through gateways set in
three of its sides, its plan is typical of the majority of mosques ; it
consists, that is to say, of an open quadrangle enclosed by colon-
nades of which the western one constituted the prayer chamber,
the only unusual feature being the presence of entresol galleries
at the four corners of the colonnades instead of at the sides of the
prayer chamber. Seen from within or without, the building, as
originally designed, presented an essentially Hindu appearance.
Half of the plinth on which it stood had actually been the base-
ment of a Hindu temple and the rest of the structure-walls,
columns, capitals, architraves and ceilings-was composed of
materials stripped from the shrines of the unbelievers, twenty-seven
of which, so one of the inscriptions informs us, had gone to the
making of this one mosque. Indeed, save for the five mihrābs in
the back wall, there was scarcely a feature in the whole building
to proclaim its Muslim character. A design so alien to their own
traditions was hardly likely to satisfy the sentiments of the Muham-
madans, and within two years of its completion (i. e. in 1198 A. D. )
an arched screen of characteristically Muhammadan design was
thrown acros; the whole front of the prayer chamber. It is this
screen above all else that is the making of the Quwwat-ul-Islām
masjid. Simple as it is in form-it consists merely of a lofty
central arch (53 feet in height) flanked on either side by two lesser
arches which once supported smaller ones above-it would be hard
to imagine carvings more superbly ornate than these which enrich
its facade : band on band of sacred texts, their Tughrā characters
entwined with curling leaves, and sinuous tendrils, side by side
with floral scrolls and flowing arabesques or geometric traceries of
surpassing richness. No doubt it was a Muslim calligraphist who
set out the scheme and penned in the texts, but it was only an
Indian brain that could have devised such a wealth of ornament
and only Indian hands that could have carved it to such perfection.
In spite, however, of all its beauty it cannot be pretended that this
screen is an architectural success. It is too obviously an after.
thought, not an integral, organic part of the structure : too vast
and over-powering to harmonise with the relatively low colonnades
of the courtyard, and still more out of keeping with the slight
elegant pillars of the hall behind. The pity is that the precedent
set by this, the earliest mosque in Delhi, was destined to be
## p. 577 (#627) ############################################
XXII )
THE QUWWAT-UL-ISLAM
577
followed in many subsequent buildings and to exercise a baneful
influence on their style.
In 1230 A. D. the Emperor Iltutmish more than doubled the
area of the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque by throwing out wings to the
prayer chamber and screen and by adding an outer court large
enough to embrace within its surrounding colonnades the Great
Minar begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Whether of set purpose or
because there were no more temples to despoil, fresh materials
were specially quarried for these extensions, and it is significant
of the extent to which the Muhammadans were now asserting their
own ideas at Delhi, that the new work was fundamentally Islamic
in character and manifestly designed, if not executed, by Muslim
craftsmen. Shafts and capitals and architraves of a Hindu pattern
were still used for the liwān and colonnades, but in the screen
extensions, which were the outstanding features of the new addi-
tions, Indian influence is visible in little except the actual construc-
tion of the arches. In Qutb-ud-din's screen the inscriptions were
the only part of the surface ornament which were Muhammadan ;
all the rest was Indian and modelled with true Indian feeling for
plastic form. In Iltutmish's work, on the other hand, the reliefs are
flat and lifeless, stencilled as it were on the surface of the stone,
and their formal patterns are identical with those found on con.
temporary Muslim monuments in other countries. It is fair, how-
ever, to add that what this latter work loses in spontaneous charm
and vitality, it more than gains in organic unity and tectonic
propriety.
The last of the Delhi kings to enlarge the Quwwat-ul-Islām
mosque was 'Alā-ud-din Khalji. In the spirit of megalomania which
so often obsessed him he started reduplicating the prayer chamber
toward the north, adding yet a third court more than twice the
size of its predecessor, and erecting in it another minar as high
again as the existing one. Had these vast structures been com.
pleted, we may well believe that they would have transcended the
other monuments of Delhi as much in beauty as in size, but,
fortunately perhaps for the welfare of his subject, the death of the
king 1315 A. D. put an end to his grandiose schemes.
Of the disposition of the mosque and other buildings composing
this group a clear and graphic idea can be obtained from the
skilful reconstruction drawn by Mr J. A. Page (Plate III). The
Qutb minar seems to have been intended as a ma’zina or tower
from which the mu’azzin could summon the Faithful to prayer,
though it soon came to be regarded as a tower of Victory, akin to
37
C. H. I. III
## p. 578 (#628) ############################################
578
(CH
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
as
those afterwards erected at Chitor and Māndū. As originally
designed it stood some 225 feet in height and comprised four
storeys divided one from another by richly decorated balconies and
further embellished by vertical Autings and horizontal bands of
inscriptions inwoven with foliate designs. Many of the inscriptions
are Quranic texts and demonstrate the essentially sacred character
of the fabric ; others contain panegyrics of the kings who built or
repaired the minar, and from these as well from architec-
tural considerations it is evident that only a portion of the
first storey
was the work of Qutb-ud-din Aibak and that the
rest was completed by his successor Iltutmish'. In an inscrip-
tion on the lowest band of the first storey Qutb-ud-din is
referred to under his usual viceregal titles of 'The Amir, The
Commander of the Army, The Glorious, The Great,' and on
the adjacent bands are eulogies of his overlord Mu'izz-ud-din
Muhammad Ghūrī and of the latter's brother Ghiyās-ud-din, which
leave no room for doubt that Qutb-ud-din was still Viceroy at
Delhi when the minar was begun. [ltutmish's own inscriptions are
engraved on the second and third storeys only, but there is another
record concerning him on the fourth storey, which dates from the
time of Firūz Shāh Tughluq. In the reign of that Emperor the
minar was struck by lightning and the fourth storey being then
apparently dismantled and replaced by two smaller ones, its height
by this means was raised to 234 feet. This rebuilding is chronicled
in an inscription on the fifth storcy and is clearly apparent in the
novel style of decoration as well as in the different materials
employed in the new work ; for, whereas the three lower storeys
are constructed of grey quartzite faced throughout with red sand.
stone, the fourth and fifth storeys are constructed of red sandstone
faced largely with white marble. Finally, in 1503 A. D. , during the
reign of Sikandar Shāh Lodī, the minar was again restored and its
upper storeys repaired, though what measures precisely were
carried out on that occasion cannot easily be determined. On the
strength of certain short Nāgari records in the interior attempts
have been made to prove that the minar was of Hindu origin and
that the Muhainmadans merely re-carved the outer surface. But
the only Nāgarī record of a date earlier than 1199 A. D, is one on
the soffit of a window lintel, in a position which leaves no doubt
that this particular stone came from some older structure.
fact, the whole conception of the minar and almost every detail of
1 Two short Någari records of 1199 A. D, carved on the lowest storey indicate that
the minar was founded in or before that year.
As a
## p. 579 (#629) ############################################
XXIII ]
THE QUTB MINAR
579
its construction and decoration is essentially Islamic. Towers of
this kind were unknown to the Indians, but to the Muhammadans
they had long been familiar, whether as ma'zinas attached to
mosque or as free-standing towers like those at Ghaznī. Equally
distinctive also of Muslim art are the calligraphic inscriptions and
the elaborate stalactite corbelling beneath the balconies, both of
which can be traced back to kindred features in the antecedent
architecture of Western Asia and Egypt. Fergusson, who was no
mean judge, regarded the Qutb minar as the most perfect example
of a tower known to exist anywhere, and there is much to be said
in favour of his view. Nothing certainly, could be more imposing
or more fittingly symbolic of Muslim power than this stern and
stupendous fabric; nor could anything be more exquisite than its
rich but restrained carvings. Nevertheless, with all its overwhelm-
ing strength, with all its perſection of symmetry and ornament-
nay, by reason perhaps of this very perfection-it seems to
miss the romance, the indefinable quality of mystery that clings
around some of its rivals : round the Campanile of Giotto, for
example, at Florence or round the towers of Victory and Fame at
Chitor.
The reaction against Indianisation which is so marked a feature
of the minarl is noticeable also in Iltutmish's extensions of the
Quwwat-ul-Islām screen and of the little tomb--said to be that of
Iltutmish--which stands behind the north-west corner of the
mosque. Here, however, the Muslim elements have been less
successful in dominating the Hindu, with the result that the style
is vacillating and nerveless, possessing neither the tectonic strength
and purposefulness of the former, nor the picturesque artistry of
the latter. In its form and dimensions the tomb is quite unpre-
tentious; a simple square chamber, less than 30 ft. across, of red
sandstone within and of grey quartzite relieved by red sandstone
without. In three of its sides are arched entrances, and on the
fourth a mihrāb flanked by two smaller ones, while thrown across
the corners are squinch arches supporting a domical roof, which
like many Syrian and Egyptian domes was probably constructed
in part of wood. But if the structure was simple, its decoration
could scarcely have been more elaborate. The lofty entrance bays
without and almost the entire surface of the walls within
covered from floor to ceiling with Quranic texts in Naskh and
1 Whether Qutb-ud-din or Ilutmisli was mainly responsible for the design of
the minar as originally built, is uncertain. The style suggests that Iltutmish may
have modified Qutb-ud-din's design.
37 ---2
were
## p. 580 (#630) ############################################
580
ích.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Tughrā and Kufic characters, or with formal arabesques and
geometric diapers as bewildering as they were varied, and the
ornate effect of the whole was further increased by picking out the
background of the white marble reliefs in colours. Predominantly
the ornamentation was Islamic. Only here and there are Indian
features observable, but we cannot doubt that the craftsmen
employed were Indian or that they were working with designs to
which they were little accustomed. That this tomb is the resting-
place of Iltutmish is the common belief to which colour is lent by
its location immediately behind Iltutmish's extension of the
mosque. On the other hand, some doubt as to its identity is cast
by a passage in the Futūhāt-i-Firuz Shāhi, where the Emperor
speaks of having restored some fallen pillars and four towers at the
Mausoleum of Iltutinish'-a description which manifestly does
not apply to this tomb. Probably the writer of the memoir is at
fault, the building to which he refers being not the tomb of
Iltutmish himself, but one about two miles distant, now known as
'Sultān Ghāri,' which the Emperor built in 1231-32 for his son and
which there is good reason, therefore, for regarding as the oldest
building of its class in India. In this earlier tomb the pillars,
capitals, architraves and most of the decorative motifs are purely
Hindu, and though arches and domes figure prominently in its
design, they are constructed, like all the arches and domes of this
period, on the Hindu corbel principle. The plan, too, of the Sultā.
Ghāri is quite unlike that of Iltutmish's tomb and, indeed, unlike
that of any other tomb in India. It stands in the middle of a
square fortress-like enclosure with round turrets at the four
corners and an arched entrance, approached by a flight of steps,
on its eastern side. Walls and turrets alike are pierced by arched
openings. At the back of the gateway is a pillared portico carried
on Hindu pillars; and opposite to it on the west is a second portico
flanked by colonnades extending from side to side of the enclosure
This second portico, which is square and covered by a dome,
served as a mosque and was provided with a mihrāb in its back
wall embellished with inscriptions in Naskh and Kufic characters.
The tomb in the centre-an octagonal chamber with flat roof sup-
ported on pillars-is sunk to about two-thirds of its height below
the ground level, a fact to which it owes its name of 'Sultan of the
Cave. Most of the enclosure, let it be added, is of grey granite,
but the mosque and entrance portico as well as the exterior facing
of the tomb are of white marble.
Among other buildings associated with the name of Iltutmish,
a
-
## p. 581 (#631) ############################################
XXII ]
APPEARANCE OF THE TRUE ARCH
581
the most celebrated is the Arhāi-din-ka-Jhompra at Ajmer, which
Qutb-ud-din Aibak had built in 1200 A. D. and which Iltutmish sub-
sequently beautified with a screen. The story goes that Qutb-ud-
din finished the original building in two-and-a-half days, whence
its singular name of 'Two-and-a-half days hut, but a more
plausible explanation is that the name dates from Marāthā times,
when an annual melā or fair was held there, lasting two-and-a-half
days. Whatever the origin of the name, the mosque of Qutb-ud-din
is more likely to have taken two-and-a-half years than two-and-a-
half days to erect. In style and construction it closely resembles
its older rival at Delhi, but its area is more than double as large
and the several parts of the edifice are correspondingly more
spacious and dignified. At Delhi, the planning of the prayer
chamber had been done on makeshift lines, the colonnades being
too constricted and the pillars in them too low and crowded. At
Ajmer, these defects were remedied. A single broad aisle on three
sides of the open court took the place of the two or three narrow
ones at Delhi and the arrangement of domes and pillars in the
prayer chamber was made strictly uniform and symmetrical. Both
mosques were built out of the spoils of Hindu temples, but at
Ajmer the architect went to work more boldly and, despite the
multiplicity of his materials and their strange fantastic forms, he
succeeded nevertheless in creating out of them a hall of really
solemn beauty-fit setting for the exquisitely carved mihrāb of
white marble set in its western wall (Pl. VI). A further note of
distinction was given to this mosque by the addition of circular
bastions, fluted and banded like the Qutb minar, at the two corners
of its eastern facade. But if Qutb-ud-din's mosque at Ajmer was
an improvement on its predecessor at Delhi, the same cannot be
said of the screen, magnificent as it undoubtedly was, which
Iltutmish threw across the front of the prayer chamber. It had the
advantage of being a third again as broad as Qutb-ud-din's screen
and vastly more massive ; its engrailed arches were a pleasing
;
novelty, its decorative reliefs admirable of their kind, and its
workmanship beyond reproach. Yet, with all its grandeur and
perfection of technique, it missed the delicate and subtle beauty
of its rival. Mathematically it was correct to the minutest detail,
but mathematical precision is not architecture and no amount of
accuracy with compass and ruler can make up for lack of natural
artistry. The two minarets set meaninglessly on the top of the
central archway, the inappropriate niches and tiny medallions in
the spandrels, and the abrupt determination of the base mouldings
## p. 582 (#632) ############################################
582
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
sufficiently betray the limitations of the designer, who produced
in this screen rather a tour de force of technical excellence than
an artistic triumph.
Between the death of Iltutmish in 1236 and the accession of
'Alā-ud-din Khaljī the story of architecture at Delhi is all but a
blank. The only monument of note that throws light on its
progress in the interval is the tomb of Balban' (1266-86) which
stands in the south-east quarter of the Qal'a-i-Rāi Pilhaura. It is
a simple structure comprising a square domed chamber, 38 inches
across, with an arched entrance in each of its sides and a smaller
chamber to the east and west, in one of which was the grave of
Khān Shahīd, the son of the Emperor, who fell in battle against
the Mongols (1285-86). Unfortunately, every trace of decoration
has perished from the tomb and what is left of it is a mere shell,
but the presence of arches built on true scientific principles is an
innovation that deserves notice. In every building of Qutb-ud-din
and Iltutmish that has been described, the arches were constructed
not with youssoirs, as they ordinarily are, but in corbelled horizontal
courses, the fact being that, in their ignorance of arch construc-
tion, the Hindu craftsmen engaged on these structures had to
resort to their own traditional methods of dome building. The
appearance, then of the true arch in the tomb of Balban marks a
definite advance in construction and at the same time is sympto-
matic of a general reaction against Hindu influences. This reaction
had already made itself felt during the reign of Iltutmish and,
though we have no means of following it stage by stage, it is
evident that it must have gathered considerable strength in the
half century succeeding his death. For by the time the Khaljīs
came upon the scene Muslim building traditions had already
become firmly established on Indian soil, with the result that not
only had methods of construction been revolutionised but ornament
had come to be treated more as an integral factor and less as
quasi-independent accessory of architecture.
The effect of these developments upon the style of the Khalji
period is clearly evidenced in the two principal monuments of
'Alā-ud-din's reign : the Jama'at Khāna Masjid at the Dargah of
Nizām-ud-din Auliyā and the 'Alāi Darwāza at the Qutb. The
former is the earliest example in India of a mosque built wholly in
accordance with Muhammadan ideas and with materials specially
quarried for the purpose.
