No More Learning

Another mausoleum of exceptional interest both on historic
and on architectural grounds is that of Khān-i-Jahān Tilangāni, the
Prime Minister of Fjūz Shāh, who died in 1368-69. It is situate a
little south of the Dargah of Nizām-ud-din, alongside the Kālī (or
Sanjar) Masjid, which Khān-i-Jahān Jauna Shāh built two years
after his father's death. The enclosure in which it stands is of the
1 The theory that this College was originally intended as a palace is supported
neither by the plan of the building, which is unsuited to a palace, nor by the
presence of the tomb, which would be out of place in a palace but to which the
College is a natural adjunct.


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( CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
usual fortress-like character. But the tomb itself marks an entirely
new departure. Instead of being square, like all its predecessors at
Delhi, the tomb chamber is octagonal surmounted by a single dome
and encompassed ay a low arched verandah. Thus its form generally
resembles that of the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat-us-Sakhra) at
Jerusalem, from which it may, indeed, have been ultimately derived.
But the very dissimilar materials of which it is built - grey granite
and red sandstone, white marble and plaster-and the essentially
Indian character of its component parts produce an effect widely
different from that of its tile-enamelled prototype. Being the first
attempt of its kind, it need hardly be said that its architecture is
far from being faultless. The domes, for example, both central and
subsidiary, are too squat, the verandah arches too low, and in other
respects the elevation Jacks symmetry and finish. These defects,
however, are not without interest, since they show us more clearly
than anything else could have done the difficulties which the archi-
tect had to face in essaying this novel type of funeral monument.
In the century following, the Tilangāni tomb became the standard
pattern for the royal tombs of the Sayyid and Afghān dynasties,
and one by one we shall trace the steps by which the initial defects
were removed and the design gradually improved upon and elabo-
rated until it reached its final consummation in the magnificent
mausoleum of Sher Shāh. The mosques of Firūz Shāh's reign are
for the most part remarkably uniform in style. Constructed of
rubble and plaster, with pillars, caves and brackets of local grey
granite, they are characterised by boldly projecting gateways,
multi-domed roofs, tapering turrets engaged at the quoins and
Hindu caves and brackets. But while these are factors common
to almost all buildings of this class, here and there may be found
an example distinguished by features of an exceptional kind. Thus
the Kāli Masjid which Jauna Shāh built in connexion with his
father's tomb is planned on quite unusual lines. Instead of the
area in front of the prayer chamber being an open court, it is
divided into four by arcades crossing it at right angles, one arcade
linking the eastern entrance with the middle bay of the prayer
chamber, the other linking the northern and southern entrances.
A still finer and better preser ved masjid designed on the same
cruciform plan and also attributed to Jauna Shāh is in the village
of Khirki in Jahānpanāh. But though this treatment of the court.
yard had the advantage of affording shelter to the worshippers and
incidentally of relieving the nakedness of the interior, it failed to
supplant the more orthodox plan, and was not repeated at the


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xxm )
TOMBS OF THE SAYYIDS
593
other mosques of this period such as the Begampuri mosque in
Jahānpanāh or the Kalān Masjid in Shahjahānābād, which Jauna
Shāh himself afterwards erected. Again, in the Kalān and Khirki
examples there is a lower takkhāna storey resembling that in the
Jāmi Masjid at Fīrūzābād ; and at the Begampuri mosque, which
was the principal place of worship in Jahānpanāh, there is a heavy
arched screen in front of the central liwān of the prayer chamber,
which in point of organic unity is as inappropriate as the screen in
front of the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque. Finally, in the mosque of
Shāh 'Alam at Tīmūrpur, there occurs the earliest example at Delhi
of a ladies' gallery in the rear corner of the prayer chamber, which
henceforth was to become the orthodox position for these galleries.
The only other monument of the Tughluq period that need be
mentioned is the tomb of the Saint, Kabir-ud-din Auliyā, locally
known as the Lāl Gumbad, which there is reason to believe was
erected in the reign of Nāsir-ud-din Mahmud Shāh (1389–92). In
general form as well as in materials it is clearly a copy, and a very
indifferent copy, of the tomb of Tughluq Shāh. Nevertheless it
possesses a certain interest if only because it indicates a reviving
sympathy for the more animated colouristic style of the Khalji and
early Tughluq periods, which had then been out of fashion for more
than half a century. Happily the new movement which this tomb
seems, as it were, to inaugurate, was destined to find expression in
something more than the slavish imitation of antique models. Out
of the universal chaos which followed on the invasion of Tīmūr,
there emerged a vigorous and catholic spirit of design-a spirit
replete with creative energy and imagination-which under the
Sayyid and Lodi dynasties gave encouragement once more to the
latent genius of Hindūstān and at the same time derived new
inspiration from the never failing source of Islamic art in Persia.
To revive again the fresh, spontaneous beauty of thirteenth-
century architecture was no longer feasible. Through mutual re-
action and other causes Muslim and Hindu ideals alike had
undergone too much change in the interval. However much the
new generation might strive to emulate the old models, however
much it might elaborate their form or improve upon their colour,
it could never hope to recapture their poetry. The prosaic for-
mality or Tughluq architecture, and the habit which had grown up
of designing buildings largely in accordance with set conventional
rules, had left an indelible mark on Indo-Saracenic architecture.
Henceforth, in spite of its returning animation, the style could not
escape being more or less laboured and self-conscious. It struggled
38
C. H. I. III.


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(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
a
hard to find scope for inventiveness and individuality, and in a large
measure it succeeded, but it could never wholly shake off the deaden-
ing effect of the Tughluq period.
In the shrunken empire to which the Sayyid and Lodi kings
succeeded the resources at their command were too limited to
permit of any vast and ambitious schemes of building, and we
shall find that, with few exceptions, the chief and best examples of
architecture during this period are the tombs of the kings and
noble. Of the royal tombs, all those that can now be identified
with certainty1 follow the model of the Tilangāni tomb described
above, but each successive structure marks an advance on the
design of its predecessor. The earliest of the series is the mausoleum
of Mubārak Shāh Sayyid situated in the village of Mubārakpur.
Here, the central dome was raised substantially higher than in the
original prototype, pinnacles (guldastas) were added at the angles
of the polygonal drum, and the summit was crowned with a novel
and striking feature in the form of an arched lantern in place of the
usual finial. The height of the verandah, too, was increased, and the
eight subsidiary domes, which in the Tilangāni tomb had proved
too low and insignificant, were replaced by pillared kiosks (chhatrīs).
In the next example, the tomb of Muhammad Shāh, which is
reputed to have been erected by his son and successor 'Alā-ud-din
'Alam Shāh-the architects went a step further, increasing still
more the height of the central dome and subordinate kiosks,
adding a second range of pinnacles on the angles of the verandah
cresting and in other ways developing the symmetry and cohesion
of the several parts. Many of the details of this Sayyid architecture,
both constructional and decorative, were, it need hardly be said,
inherited from the preceding age, and a few of them, like the
effective patterning of the pierced stone screens, can be traced as
far back as the early thirteenth century. On the other hand, some
of its distinctive traits—the use of blue enamelled tiling to give
emphasis to decorative features, the elaborate and highly refined
treatment of surface ornament incised on plaster and embellished
with colours, the lotus finials on the domes and certain other
Hindu or quasi-Hindu motifs-all these were innovations, and
destined to exert important influence on the subsequent
development of this school. In the mausoleum of Sikandar Lodi,
which is believed to have been erected by his son and successor
1 The tomb of Buhlūl Shah, the founder of the dynasty, is said to be a low
square building of somewhat mean appearance at Raushan Chiragh, Delhi; but its
identity is far from certain.
an
а


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xxii)
TOMBS OF THE SAYYIDS
595
Ibrāhīm Lodi in 1517-18, the use of enamelled tiles was much
extended, the tiles of several colours-green, yellow, bright azure,
and dark blue-being disposed in a variety of patterns both inside
and outside the building, and in other respects also there was
a marked tendency towards a richer and more lavish display of
ornament. But a still more important feature of this tomb was the
use made in it of the double dome. This structural expedient,
which originated probably in Syria, and passed thence through
'Irāq to Persia and India, was invented in order to preserve the
symmetry and relative proportions of the interior as well as of the
exterior. So long as the dome was not hidden from view by the
sub-structure projecting in front of it, no difficulty was experienced
in fashioning it to suit the proportions of the body of the building.
Indeed, the single domes of some of the Khalji and Tughluq monu-
ments are as perfectly formed as any in the world. But when the
design of the structure was such as to necessitate the dome being
elevated on a lofty drum, the interior forthwith became stilted and
disproportionately high in comparison with its width. It was
with a view to correct this fault that the separate inner and outer
domes were devised. The invention, which at Delhi made its
appearance for the first time in the tomb of Shihāb-ud-din Tāj Khān
(A. D. 1501) and a little later was repeated in this tomb of Sikandar
Shāh, played, as we shall see later, an all-important part in the
evolution of Mughul architecture, which but for it could never
have achieved such wonderful symmetry.
While the royal tombs of this period thus follow an established
and more or less uniform pattern, the contemporary tombs of the
nobles branch out into a new and distinctive type, which, though
more common place and prosaic, is nevertheless not without much
dignity and strength. Among the host of monuments of this class
with which the plains of Delhi are bestrewn, the finest examples are
the tombs of Bare Khān and Chhote Khān, the Barā Gumbad (A. D.
1494), the Shīsh Gumbad, the tomb of Shihāb-ud-din Tāj Khān
(1501) and the two tombs known as the Dādi-ka-Gumbad and Poli
ka Gumbad. From the illustrations reproduced in Plate XIII the gen.
eral characteristics of the whole class can readily be gauged. They are
square solid looking buildings with domes carried on squinch arches
and an octagonal pillared kiosk rising from each corner of the roof.
1 Another noteworthy feature of Sikandar Lodi's tomb is the spacious and
quasi-ornamental character of its walled enclosure which occupies a place midway
between the fortified enclaves of the Tughluq tombs and the decorative gardens of
the Mughul, for which it seems clearly to be preparing the way.
38-2


## p. 596 (#646) ############################################

596
( CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
In the middle of each side is a high arched bay projecting slightly
from the body of the building and for the rest the facades are, as
a rule, divided into two or three storeys and further relieved by a
series of shallow arched recesses or of window openings pierced
through the thickness of the walls. In other respects they resemble
the octagonal tombs described above ; their grey granite walls
embellished with red sandstone and enamelled tilework, their
lofty drums and domes, their battlemented
parapets, their
pinnacles and lotus finials, their brackets and mouldings and
decorative designs incised on plaster and picked out in colours-
all these being similar in character and following the same course
of development as the corresponding features in the tombs of the
kings. It is to be observed, however, that unlike the royal mau-
solea, these square tombs possess no walled enclosures around them,
though on the other hand there are several instances of mosques
being appended. At the tomb of Tāj Khān, for example, there is
an open ‘Idgāh-a simple battlemented wall provided with a
mihrāb and flanked by turrets at the corners-though whether it
was erected along with the tomb is open to question, since the
tomb itself is furnished with its own mihrab, which takes the
place of the doorway on the western side. Attached to the Barā
Gumbad again was a walled court with a highly ornate mosque on
one side and a low arched structure corresponding to it on the
other. The mosque is particularly interesting ; for while its
tahkhāna basement and tapering turrets at the rear quoins are
strongly reminiscent of the Tughluq style, in other respects it
presents striking differences, notably in the diversified treatment
of the five arched bays into which the facade is divided, in the
increased size of its domes, in its effective balconied windows, and
above all in the exquisitely fine plaster ornament with which the
eastern facade and whole interior of the prayer chamber are
covered. Another and much more imposing masjid of the same
period is the Moth-ki-Masjid built by the Prime Minister of
Sikandar Shāh. Not only is it the largest structure of its class
erected during this period (the prayer chamber
124 ft. 6 in. from end to end), but it epitomises in itself all that
is best in the architecture of the Lodis. It cannot aspire to the
poetic refinement which characterised some of the Slave and
Khalji monuments ; nor can it pretend to the rhythmic perfection
1 The surface decoration in this mosque is of exceptional value for the reason
that there are so few buildings in which the plaster work has survived, though
many must once have been embellished in the same manner.
measures


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XXIII ]
MULTĀN
597
found in the later Mughul style ; but, if it lacks these qualities,
and if it betrays a certain organic looseness, it displays on the
other hand a freedom of imagination, a bold diversity of design, an
appreciation of contrasting light and shade and a sense of harmony
in line and colour, which combine to make it one of the most
spirited and picturesque buildings of its kind in the whole range
of Islamic art. The storeyed open towers at the rear corners of
the building are especially happy adjuncts in place of the usual
slender minarets; the interior of the prayer chamber, though
hardly spacious enough, is dignified; the domes are better spaced
and the arched openings of the facade are better proportioned
than in the Barā Gumbad mosque ; in addition to which the
surface decoration of both the mosque and gateway gains in
effectiveness by being more restrained, while the freer use of white
marble and coloured tiling in combination with red sandstone
imparts a more animated note to the whole.
PROVINCIAL STYLES
Multān.
When, in a subsequent volume of this history, we came to deal
with the sumptuous monuments of the Mughuls, we shall see what
a profound influence the work of the Lodīs exerted on the shaping
of their style. But before we follow up the further progress of this
architecture at the Imperial capital, we must hark back for a while
and consider how it had meanwhile been developing in the out-
lying provinces of the Empire and in the various independent
kingdoms that came into being between the thirteen and fifteenth
centuries. Of these lesser centres of Indo-Muslim power, the first
to claim attention is Multān ; not because its few surviving monu-
ments are either as ancient or as magnificent as many elsewhere,
but because it was one of the earliest cities to be occupied by the
Muhammadans and for this and other reasons was relatively little
under the influence of Hinduism.
Thrice conquered by the Arabs in the eighth and ninth
centuries, Multān never again reverted into Indian hands.
hundred years (A. D. 879-980) it was the capital of an independent
Arab State, and from the Arabs it passed in turn to the Karma-
tians, the Ghaznavids, a second time to the Karmatians, and then to
the Ghūrids ; after which it was incorporated in the principality of
Nāsir-ud-din Qubācha and was finally annexed by Iltutmish.
that time onwards it remained feudatory to Delhi, reasserting its
independence only between the years 1457 and 1525, when the
For a


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598
( cu!
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
1
Langāhs were in power. During these several centuries of con-
tinuous Muslim rule, many monuments of note must have been
erected in the city. As early, indeed, as A. D. 712 a mosque with
minarets is said to have been built by Muhammad ibn Qāsim, and
in 985 we hear of the far-famed temple of Aditya, the Sun-God,
being demolished by the Karmatians and of another mosque being
reared on its ruins. But of these early structures no vestige is now
left, and, strangely enough, Multān does not possess a single mosque
that can be referred to pre-Mughul times. Such monuments -
they are only five in number-as are reputed to have been founded
before 1526, are all tombs of saints, and two out of the five have
been so extensively renovated as to be little more than mere
semblances of their former selves, while a third-the shrine of
Shāh Yusuf Gardīzi, said to date from A. D. 1152-has been wholly
reconstructed and modernised. Yet in spite of their renovations
the two tombs in question are not devoid of interest. One is the
resting-place of Bahāu-l-Haqq, who died in 1262, and according to
popular belief was built by the saint himself, but it was seriously
damaged during the siege of 1849 and since then has been com-
pletely restored. The other is the tomb of Shams-ud-din (dec.
1276), who is locally known as Shams-i-Tabrizi, but is not to be
confused with the more famous Persian saint of that name. The
original structure is said to have been erected by his grandson a
generation or more after his death, but having fallen into ruin it was
rebuilt in A. D. 1780 by one Seth Mihr 'Ali, a disciple of the family.
Both monuments are designed on the same lines and consist of a
square tomb chamber, with walls battering on the outside , sur-
mounted by a lofty octagon and crowned by a hemispherical dome.
Concealed as their fabrics are beneath modern plaster and glazed
tilework , it is not possible to determine how much of them has
been restored, but comparing them one with the other, and also
with other tombs in the neighbourhood, it can hardly be doubted
that their present form is substantially that of the originals and
that they represent an earlier stage than the tomb of Shāh Rukn-
i-'Alam in the development of the local Multān style. In this con-
nexion, the tomb of Shādnā Shahid, who died a martyr's death in
1270, is particularly instructive ; for though relatively insignificant
( it is only 18 ft. 6 in. square inside), its original fabric has not been
greatly interfered with, and, denuded as it now is of its plaster
facing, it affords an excellent illustration of the methods of con-
struction then in vogue.
Here also the form of the structure is
identical with that of the two tombs already described, though the
9


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XXIII ]
BENGAL
599
.
dome, be it noted, is somewhat lower and more in accord with
what we should expect at this period. On the other hand, the
tomb of Rukn-i-Alam, the grandson of Bahāu-l-Haqq, which
Ghiyās-ud-din Tughluq caused to be built between the years 1320
and 1324, exhibits a marked advance on its predecessors. Taken
all in all, indeed, this tomb of Rukn-i-'Ālam is one of the most
splendid memorials ever erected in honour of the dead. Its height,
measured to the top of its crowning finial, is 115, its diameter 90
feet. Instead of being square, however as the earlier examples
were, the body of the tomb is an octagon-a feature which vastly
enhances the symmetry of the whole, while any suggestion of weak-
ness, to which the octagonal form might have giving rise, is cleverly
avoided by buttressing the outer quoins with engaged and tapering
minarets. The superb surface decorations which distinguish this
building have been widely renovated in the course of the centuries,
but though many of the details have undoubtedly been changed,
there is no reason to suppose that their general character—the
bands of carved timbering let into the walls, the elaborately
chiselled brickwork, and the richly coloured tilling-is markedly
different from the original. Compared with the memorials of the
Sayyid and Lodī kings at Delhi, or with the still more magnificent
tomb of Sher Shāh at Sahsarām, it must be conceded that in the
matter of surface ornament and particularly of brilliant colour
effects, the tomb of Rukn-i-'Alam has the advantage. On the other
hand, what it gains in these respects it loses in rhythmic grace and
in the poetry of composition. The difference between these monu-
ments-is the difference largely between the Persian and the Indian
ideals. For despite the presence of many obviously Indian features
in the tomb of Rukn-i-'Ālam, and despite the local character of
much of its craftsmanship, based on pre-Muslim traditions the
spirit underlying its design is largely Persian, while that of Sher
Shāh's tomb has gone far to becoming Indian.
Bengal.
In India, as in Persia and 'Irāq, brick had been used as a
building material almost from time immemorial, and even as early
as the Gupta period the art of chiselling wall surfaces and of
beautifying them with carvings in relief had reached a high state
of perfection. We need not wonder, therefore, at the exquisite
craftsmanship which the early Muhammadan buildings of India
exhibit in their brickwork. But there is one all-important feature,
as we have already seen, in which the indigenous architecture of


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600
[ ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
a
the Peninsula, whether of brick or stone, differed fundamentally
from Islamic. Save on the rarest occasions it made no use of any
other binding material for its masonry but, mud, and as a conse-
quence found itself unable to aspire to any of those spacious effects
which the arch and vault and dome subsequently made possible.
In Multān and Delhi, fortunately, and wherever else Islamic tradi-
tions established themselves in sufficient strength, these limitations
of indigenous building made little or no impression upon the suc-
ceeding styles of the Muslims. But in the more distant parts of the
Empire, where the conquerors were relatively few in number and
little in touch with the outer world of Islam, their architecture took
its character largely from the pre-existing monuments of the locality.
This is a fact that comes out prominently if we turn our eyes from
the plains of the Punjab to the far-off Province of Bengal which
was annexed by Muhammad Bakhtyār Khān as early as 1198-99,
within five years, that is to say, of the conquest of Delhi itself. In
this low-lying and tropical country, the destructive forces of nature
and the still more destructive agency of man have spared few
monuments of the Hindu period, but on the strength of such scanty
remains as have survived and from the indications afforded by
later examples it may safely be inferred that, although stone was
freely employed wherever it could be procured, brick, timber and bam-
boo were the principal building materials in use ; and that among
the most salient features of this older Bengal architecture were a
peculiar form of curvilinear roof, commonly known as Bengali,
square brick pillars of stunted proportions as well as more slender
ones of stone, and carved or moulded surface decorations of almost
ultra-refined elegance. It is safe to infer also that pointed arches
of small dimensions constructed on the corbel system were not
unknown to the Bengalis in the pre-Muslim days. These were the
main characteristcis of the style which the Muhammadans found
prevalent on their arrival, and which, with the help of their own
traditions, they proceeded forthwith to develop and expand.
Considering the almost unexampled opportunities which the
riches of Bengal opened out to the conquerors, the inborn artistry
and adaptability of its craftsmen, and the immense superiority of
Islamic methods of construction, it might well have been thought
that the resulting school of architecture would have been second to
none in India. As a fact, it proved one of the least successful.
Seen in the mass the wide-flung ruins of Gaur and Pāndua, where
the Muhammadans successively established their capital, make an
imposing array and convey an impressive idea of the wealth and


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XXII ]
BENGAL
601
-
luxury of their authors. But, with few exceptions, the individual
buildings are disappointing. They lack the imagination necessary
to adapt the form to the size; their component parts are often out
of proportion; their pillars sometimes too cumbersome, sometimes
unduly slight; and the form of their Bengali roofs, originally
intended for bamboo and timber construction, shows less appro-
priately in brick or stone. The low relief work of their wall surfaces,
too, though exquisite in itself and admirably adapted to interior
details, is generally too delicate and hyper-refined for the decora-
tion of exterior facades, while the designs and application of their
enamelled tiles betray a singular poverty of imagination. Yet, in
spite of its manifest shortcomings, there is an originality about
this Bengal school-a certain spontaneous artistry and freedom
from convention which can hardly fail to command admiration;
and, though the style as a whole does not rise to the same high
level as some other local styles, nevertheless it was capable
on rare occasions of producing results, such as the Dākhil Dar-
wāza, which are unsurpassed by anything of their kind in the
East.
It was at Gaur, or Lakhnāuti, the former capital of the rich
Pāla and Sena dynasts, where the Muslims established their seat
of government, that their first building operations in Bengal were
started. Mosques, palaces and the like they must have provided
for themselves immediately after their arrival, doubtless by appro-
priating and, if necessary, ruthlessly despoiling the buildings of the
Hindus; and before twenty years had elapsed we hear of the Sultān
Ghiyās-ud-din (Hisām-ud-din 'Iwaz) constructing raised causeways
across the low marshy country to serve as military roads and erect-
ing a madrasah, caravansarais and other edifices at his capital.
Curiously enough, however, it is not at Gaur, but at Tribeni in the
Hughli District, that the oldest remains of Muslim buildings have
survived. These are the tomb and mosque of Zafar Khān Ghāzi.
The former is built largely out of the materials taken from a
temple of Krishna, which formerly stood on the same spot but
is now so mutilated as to have lost most of its architectural value.
The neighbouring mosque is reputed to have been built, at any
rate in its present form, during the reign of Sultān 'Alā-ud-din
Husain Shāh (1493–1518). Be this date correct or not, the mosque
is certainly much later than the neighbouring tomb; but framing
the central mihrāb, and obviously transferred here from some older
1 The mosque has been wrongly thought by some writers to be contemporary
with the inscription of A. D. 1298; cf. J. A. S. B. vol. vi, 1910, p. 23.


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602
[ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
one
monument, is a stone border bearing an Arabic inscription which
records the conquest of Southern Bengal by Zafar Khān in A. D. 1298
during the reign of Sultān Rukn-ud-din Kai-kāūs. Slightly later
than these remains at Tribeni is the Sālik mosque at Basīrhāt in
the Twenty Four Parganas, which was founded originally in A. D. 1305,
but has been completely renovated in modern times. With these
unimportant exceptions, however, the history of this Bengal style
is a blank until we come to the reign of Sikandar Shāh (1358–89),
and by a strange concidence the first monument that we then meet
-the far-famed Ādina Masjid which the Emperor erected in the
new capital of Pāndua-was also the most ambitious structure of
its kind ever essayed in Eastern India. In area, this masjid was
almost as big as the Great Mosque of Damascus': 507} feet from
north to south by 285} from east to west. But though it was
regarded in Bengal as one of the 'Wonders of the World,' its design
was far from being worthy of its size. Imagine an immense open
quadrangle, more than twice as long as it was broad, bounded on
its four sides by arched screens, every archway (and there were 88
in all visible from the court) identical with its fellows and every
surmounted by an identical dome, with nothing to relieve
the monotony of the whole save a single archway which, rising higher
and wider than the rest, fronted the vaulted liwān in the middle
of the western side. Even the domed gateways, which usually
interrupt the long lines of cloisters, are absent, the only entrances
into this remarkable masjid being two small doorways in the back
wall for the use of the king, a small arched opening for the public
in the middle of the east side, and another public entrance, probably
added as an afterthought, at the south-east corner. Imagine, too,
the interior of the cloisters divided into 375 bays—five deep on the
western and three deep on the other sides-each a replica of its
neighbour and each roofed by a precisely similar dome, with no
variation whatsoever except where a royal gallery (bädshāh-kā.
takht) extending over eighteen bays in the northern wing of the
prayer chamber is carried on ponderous pillars of Hindu pattern.
Surely no place of worship was ever devised of such magnitude
and with so little sense for the beautiful ! Considered by themselves,
the several parts and the details are admirable enough : the arcaded
aisles, for instance, are dignified; the vaulted liwān is well pro-
portioned and pleasing and the mihrāb is as exquisite a piece of
carving as can be found in India. But no amount of perfection
1 Fergusson was incorrect in stating that the dimensions and ground plan of the
two mosques were identical,


## p. 603 (#653) ############################################

XXIII ]
THE EKLĀKHI TOMB AT PANDUA
603
in its parts can compensate for the lack of organic composition
and due proportion in the economy of the whole. Its design, as
Cunningham rightly observed, is more suitable for a caravansarai
than a mosque. It is monotonous and commonplace. Fortunately
for the Bengal school, the experiment of building on so gigantic
a scale was not afterwards · repeated, and though the charge of
monotony could legitimately be brought against some other mem-
bers of the same group, the defect is never so glaringly apparent as
it is in the Ādina Masjid.
To the reign of Sikandar Shāh are also ascribed several other
monuments including the mosque and minar at Chhotā Pāndua
in the Hughli District and the mosque and tomb of Akhi Sirāj-
ud-din at Gaur. But though the two former are supposed to have
been erected by Shāh Saif-ud-din, a nephew of Firüz Shāh Tughluq,
it is obvious that their style belongs to the fifteenth rather than
the fourteenth century; while the two latter were so extensively
restored in 1510 as to have lost practically all value as examples
of fourteenth-century work.
Whatever buildings may have been erected under the short-
lived dynasty of Rāja Kāns, which interrupted the Iliyās Shāh
succession between the years 1409 and 1438, the only one of note
now generally assigned to it is the Eklākhi tomb at Pāndua.
According to tradition, as recorded in the Riyāz-us-Salātin, this
is the tomb of Jalāl-ud-dīn Muhammad Shāh, the proselyte son of
Rāja Kāns, who was converted to Islam by the Saint Nür Qutb-i-
'Ālam. Be this tradition correct or not, the tomb is one of the
finest in Bengal and peculiarly interesting as the prototype on
which, strange to say, many mosques in this part of India were
subsequently modelled. Its design is simple : a square, rather low
structure 75 feet each way, with gently curving cornice and octa-
gonal turret at each corner— the whole surmounted by a single
domes, which is carried on squinch arches and supported besides by
pillars. The fabric is of brick, helped out with slabs of dark horn-
blende taken from Hindu temples ; and, as usual, the decoration of
the exterior is executed in moulded terracotta or carved brick,
glazed tiles being employed only in the overhanging cornices. The
interior was originally decorated with painted flowers and other
devices, but only faint traces of this ornamentation are now visible.
Compared with the tomb of Rukn-i-'Alam at Multān, or the con-
temporay monuments of the Sayyid kings of Delhi, the Eklākhi
tomb connot be pronounced a great achievement. Its general lines
are not unpleasing; there is merit in the treatment of the curved,


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604
(ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
more
numerous.
overhanging cornice the corner turrets are effective ; and there is
great beauty and variety in the low terracotta relief work. It fails,
however, because it lacks the height and dignity so essential to
monuments of this kind, and-more important still — because too
much thought has been given to surface decoration, too little to
structural formative beauty. This is a weakness common to most
buildings of the Bengal school, and one which they share with the
generality of the monuments of Eastern Persia. In both places the
architects were apt to regard the fabric of a structure rather as
a vehicle for ornament than as a thing of beauty in itself ; and
as often as not they seem incapable of thinking freely of three
dimensions. In the few rare instances in Bengal, such as the
Dakhil Darwāza at Gaur, where structural and decorative beauty
went hand in hand, the result was as perfect an example of brick
architecture as can be found anywhere in the world.
After the expulsion of Rāja Kāns's House in 1438, the buildings
of the restored Iliyās Shāh dynasty become
Besides other monuments of lesser note, there are the Sath Gum-
bad mosque and tomb of Khān-i-Jahān 'Ali at Bagerhāt, both
dating from about 1459; while at Gaur there is the Dākhil Gate-
way, believed to have been built by Bārbak Shāh (1459–74), the
Tāntīpāra, Daras Bāri and Lotan masjids ascribed to his son,
Yusuf Shāh (1474-81), and the Gunmant mosque erected probably
a few years later. Of these the first mentioned - the Sath Gumbad
mosque-is noteworthy for its cornet turrets, which are strongly
reminiscent of Tughluq architecture, and for the unusual treatment
of its frontal cornice, which instead of being curvilinear, slopes
away in straight lines from a small triangular pediment over the
central bay. The interior is a fine spacious apartment albeit some-
what marred by the exaggerated slenderness of its stone pillars.
The Dākhil Darwāza--the most striking of several gateways at
Gaur-is a superb example of what can be achieved in brick and
terracotta. Sixty feet in height by 113 feet from back to front, it
consists of a central arched passage with guard rooms on either side.
At each of its four corners is a five-storeyed tapering turret, once
crowned by a dome. Walls and turrets alike are relieved by string
courses and mouldings, and adorned further with sunk panels,
niches and rosettes and other motifs of Hindu origin, among which
the chain and bell, battlement and quatrefoil are conspicuous.
But the outstanding merit of this gateway is the surprising bold-
ness of its design and the masterly skill with which its facades have
been broken up and diversified by alternating effects of light and
a


## p. 605 (#655) ############################################

a
XXII ) THE DAKHIL DARWĀZA AT GAUR
605
shade. Between the Dākhil Gateway and the Tāntipāra masjid
erected (if we may accept the traditional dates) only ten years
later, there is a marked divergence of style. The latter-an oblong
brick structure of two aisles divided by stone pillars down the
centre-has suffered sadly from the effects of time. Its roof has
gone entirely and large sections of its walls have collapsed. Yet,
even in its ruin, it is still an object of beauty. Cunningham con-
sidered it the finest edifice of all in Gaur, and if perfection of
detail were the criterion of good architecture, his opinion would
be fully justified. In the matter of superficial ornament, indeed,
the Tāntīpāra masjid marks the zenith of the Bengal school. In
other respects, however, it shows signs of incipient decadence.
Where the Dākhil Gateway is virile, the masjid is effeminate ;
where the former is free and spontaneous, the latter is mannered
and formal; and even its lace-like ornamentation, beautiful as it is
in itself, must be admitted to be verging on the meretricious. The
same remarks apply also to the decoration of the Daras Bāri mosque
which belongs to about the same age but is even more sorely
battered than the Tāntipära, The Lotan masjid which is another
of the monuments ascribed to Yūsuf Shāh is the best surviving
example of type of mosque peculiar to Bengal. It is said to take
its name (otherwise Lattan or Nattan) from Nattu, a favourite
dancing girl of the Emperor. Like the Chamkhan masjid, which
appears from its style to be somewhat older but is neither so large
nor so well preserved, it is constructed of brick and consists of a
square prayer chamber-manifestly built on the model of the
Eklākhi tomb-with an arched verandah added on to its eastern
side, the whole structure measuring 721 feet long by 52 feet wide.
Inside and out, the brickwork was once covered with glazed tiles
of blue, white yellow, and green. Much of this tilework has now
perished, but what remains it does not suggest that it could ever
have been very attractive. Here and there were a few effective
ornaments, such as blue and white lotus medallions in the spandrels,
but most of the decoration took the form of narrow alternating
bands of colour, which are merely restless and bewildering to
the eye. Such decoration has little to commend it. It misses the
picturesque and imaginative colouring of the tile-enamelled build.
ings of Persia and equally it misses the charm of reticence and
restraint which characterise the use of coloured tilework at Multān
and Delhi. That it could have appealed much to taste of artists
who were capable of desiging the Dākhil Gateway or the Tānti-
pāra masjid is prima facie unlikely, and its presence can only be
-


## p. 606 (#656) ############################################

606
| CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
accounted for on the supposition that coloured tiling was considered
the fashionable thing at the moment for mosques, and that no
better tiles than these were obtainable in Bengal. Glazed tilework
was used also in the the Gunmant mosque at Gaur, but here the
coloured decoration was supplemented by reliefs on stone or plaster,
and it is significant that the latter was employed in the most con-
spicuous part of the building, i. e. , in the main hall of the prayer
chamber, whereas the tilework was relegated to a subordinate
position in the wings. The ground plan of this masjid is not unlike
that of Ādina. It consists, that is to say, of a central vaulted
hall (51 x 17 feet) flanked to right and leſt by an arcaded wing,
each wing divided into twelve bays (viz. three aisles with four
openings to the front) and roofed with as many domes. The wings
are in no way remarkable, but the central hall, with its stone masonry
and decorative reliefs embossed on the soffit of the vaulted roof, is
a fresh departure inaugurating, as we shall see, a new phase in the
history of this school. Both stonework and reliefs, to be sure, had
long before been anticipated in the Ādina masjid ; but in those early
days the stone had been stripped from Hindu temples, and when the
supply from this source had failed, its place had been taken by
brick. From now onwards stone again comes into fashion, being
specially quarried in the distant Balasore and Rājmahal Hills and
conveyed to Gaur by water. Although, too, the reliefs in the
Gunmant mosque were doubtless inspired by those in the Adina, the
new work was very different from the old. This will be apparent at
a glance if the reader will compare the illustrations of the Ādina
masjid carvings (Figs. 33 and 34) with those of the Gunmant and
Chhotā Sonā masjid (Figs. 38 and 41). Technically and artistically
the former are far superior. They exhibit all the refinement and
natural spontaneity of the old Hindu school of Eastern India which
for five centuries and more had been producing carving of this
kind in stone. The latter are careful, painstaking efforts and by no
means unattractive, but in a great measure imitative of the terra-
cotta relief work which for some generations had supplanted stone
sculpture and which being moulded out of soft clay was little
adapted for reproduction in the harder material.
The obscurity which envelops the authorship of most of the
buildings described above extends also to the single important
monument, which the authority of the Riyāz-us-Salātin is
commonly accredited to the short-lived Habashi dynasty (1487–
93). This is the Firūza (or Chirāgh) minar at Gaur, which,
like the minars at the Qutb and at Daulatābād, was designed
on


## p. 607 (#657) ############################################

XXIII 1
THE FİRÓŻA MINAR AT GAUR
604
perhaps to do duty both as a Tower of Victory and the ma’zina of
a mosque that has since disappeared. It was a five-storeyed tower
about 84 feet in height-excluding a high masonry plinth on which
it formerly stood-and ascended by a spiral staircase within. The
three lower storeys were twelve-sided and of equal dimensions,
separated one from the other by bands of simple ornament. Then
came a projecting balcony and above it two circular storeys dimin-
ishing in size, the topmost being pierced with four arched openings
and surmounted by a dome, like the crowning cupolas of Tughluq
buildings. Besides its surface decorations in brick and terracotta,
the body of the tower was also embellished with blue and white
tiles, many of which were found in the debris at its foot. According
to the Riyāz-us Salātin, the author of the minar was Saif-ud-din
Firūz Shāh (A. D. 1487-89) and this date is probably correct. On
grounds of style Cunningham was in favour of placing it nearly a
century earlier, ascribing it to Saif-ud-din Hamza Shāh (1396-
1406). As a fact, however, the style of the minar accords far better
with the close of the fifteenth rather than of the fourteenth century,
and this date is confirmed both by other details of its decoration
and by the presence of the glazed and coloured tiling referred to
above which had not been introduced into Bengal at the time pro-
posed by Cunningham.
With the monuments of the Husain Shāh period (1493–1552)
we are on firmer ground, the dates of the most important among
them being established by the presence of inscriptions. These
monuments include the Chhotā Sonā Masjid (Small Golden mosque)
at Gaur, built by Wali Muhammad during the reign of Husain
Shāh (A. D. 1493–1519); a mosque at Bāghā in the Rājshāhi district
dating from 1523 ; the Barā Sonā Masjid (Great Golden mosque)
at Gaur, completed by Nusrat Shāh in 1526 ; and the Qadam
Rasul mosque, completed by the same Emperor in 1530. Of these
the mosque at Bāghā and the Qadam Rasul are of brick and
terracotta, and mainly interesting as illustrating the progressive
decadence of buildings of that class, which become more and more
flamboyant as time goes on, until eventually they are smothered in
a medley of mechanical and tasteless patterns. The other two
monuments are of brick, faced on the outside entirely, and on the
inside partially with stone. Both derive their name of 'golden'
from the gilding which once enriched their domes, and they re-
semble one another in other features too ; notably, in the half
stone, half brick arcading of the interior, in their multi-domed roofs,
and in the schematic treatment of the mouldings on their exterior


## p. 608 (#658) ############################################

608
( c.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM IVDIA
facades. There, however, the correspondence between them ends.
The older mosque, though far the smaller, is the more elaborate of
the two.
Its length is less than half that of the other, and it pos.
sesses only five arched openings in front against the other's eleven ;
but the mouldings of its cornice are duplicated and enriched, the
monotony of the domes is broken by the insertion of a Bengali
roof in their middle and the bareness of the stone walls is relieved
by a wealth of foliate patterns carved in low relief. It must be
confessed, however, that the effect produced by the addition of the
Bengali roof is not a happy one, and the rich relief work, albeit in
itself exquisitely executed, is too flat and characterless to redeem
the design from mediocrity. The Barā Sonă Masjid has the merit
of greater simplicity and impressiveness (Fergusson, indeed, calls it
'perhaps the finest memorial now left in Gaur') but the architect has
made the mistake so commonly met with in Dravidian architecture
of supposing that increased grandeur in a fabric can be produced
by the mere reiteration of its parts; and, though the interior is not
lacking in dignity, the building as a whole will not bear comparison
with the great mosques in Hindūstān and Western India. Let it be
added that the quadrangle in front of this mosque was some 200 feet
square and was entered through arched gateways on its north,
south and east sides, the stone facing of which was sparingly
adorned, as was the masjid proper, with glazed tiles of various
colours-green and blue, white and yellow and orange.
Gujarāt.
It will help us better to appreciate the merits and faults of this
Bengal architecture, if we betake ourselves directly from the eastern
to the western side of India, and consider the instructive analogies
and contrasts presented by the provincial architecture of Gujarāt,
where traditions of a pre-existing school were equally strong but
strikingly dissimilar from those prevailing in Bengal. When the
armies of 'Alā-ud-din Khalji overran Gujarāt and annexed it to
the Delhi Sultanate, they found still flourishing there a singularly
beautiful style of architecture. The history of this style-con-
veniently designated 'the style of Western India'-has already
been told in the second volume of this history. Its zenith had been
reached some two centuries before the coming of the Muhamma-
dans, but at the close of the thirteenth century the school of
Western India was still full of vitality and the Indian architects
and craftsmen whom the conquerors pressed into their service
were hardly less gifted than their forefathers who designed the


## p. 609 (#659) ############################################

XXII )
GUJARAT
609
far-famed temples at Somnāth and Siddhāpur, at Modhera and
Mount Ābū. The particular style which they favoured was distin-
guished by a breadth and spaciousness unusual in pre-Muhammadan
India, and with these qualities it combined a chaste and graceful
elegance that could not fail to appeal strongly to Muslim taste.
Fortunately for the future of this school the annexation of Gujarāt
took place at the very moment when the Imperial architecture of
Delhi had reached its highest expression under 'Alā-ud-din Khalji,
and the builders who came from Delhi to the new province must
have been deeply imbued with the spirit of that architecture ;
indeed it is more than likely that some of them had personally
articipated in the building of the splendid structures erected by
‘Alā-ud-din at the Dargāh of Nizām-ud-din and the Qutb. This point
which has hitherto escaped notice, had an intimate bearing on the
subsequent development of the Gujarāt school. It meant that the
sense for symmetry and proportion and the almost faultless taste
which had characterised Khalji architecture became, from the out-
set, the key-notes of the Gujarāt style also. The effect of this
influence from Delhi is well evidenced in the noble facade of the
Jami' Masjid at Cambay, which was erected as early as 1325, i. e.
within fifteen or twenty years of the Jamā'at Khāna at Nizām-ud-
din ; and it is also evident a little later (1333) in the mosque of
Hilāl (or Buhlūl) Khān Qāzi at Dholka, which in spite of its insig.
nificant minarets and other shortcomings, is imbued nevertheless
with the same breadth of conception and purity of taste. Although'
however, the foundations of this Gujarāti style were thus well and
truly laid in the fourteenth century, the times were altogether too
unsettled, and conditions under the provincial Government of Delhi
in other respects too unpropitious for architecture to make much
headway; and it was not until the establishment of independence
under the Ahmad Shāhi dynasty that the greatness of this school
really began. Like most Indian potentates the Ahmad Shāhi rulers
sought to display their wealth and power in the magnificence of
their buildings, each in turn endeavouring to outdo the efforts
of his predecessors. Ahmad Shāh, from whom the dynasty takes
its name, commemorated his accession by founding the city of
Ahmadābād, and later on in his reign he built the forts of Songarh,
Dohad and Ahmadnagar. Among the monuments with which he
beautified his new capital were the Ahmad Shāh and jāmi Masjids,
and to his reign also belong the fine gateway known as the Tin
Darwāza and the mosques of Haibat Khān and Sayyid Alam. Each
and every one of these buildings, as well as a multitude of others
C. H. I. III.
39
6


## p. 610 (#660) ############################################

610 THE MOVUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA | CH.
erected by succeeding kings, is distinguished by some particular
traits of its own. Space, however, would fail to tell of them all, and
we must be content, therefore, to pick out a few of the most typical
examples. Of Ahmad Shāh's buildings, the two most instructive are
the Tin Darwāza (Triple Gateway) and the Jāmi' Masjid. The
ſormer (Pl. XXIV) was the principal entrance to the outer court-
yard of the palace, where feudatories and foreign ambassadors
assembled before making their way to the Royal presence.
37 feet in thickness and pierced by three openings (the central
one 174 feet wide), connected one with the other by three cross
passages. The charm of this gateway springs from its perfectly
proportioned and delicately framed archways set off against highly
ornate buttresses on the faces of the intervening piers, though the
latter, be it said, are not entirely homogeneous in feeling with the
rest of the design. The Jāmi Masjid is a far more magnificent
creation. By the collapse of its two minars in the earthquake of
1819 it has been shorn of a prominent feature, but it is question-
able whether the minars ever added materially to its beauty. As it
now stands, it is one of the most superb, as it is also one of the
most imposing structures of its class, in the world. The defect of
most mosques planned on a large scale is, as we have seen in con-
nexion with the Adina Masjid at Pāndua, the dull monotony of
their composition. In the Jāmi Masjid at Ahmadābād there is
no such weakness. The prayer chamber is 210 feet in width by
95 feet in depth, but its facade is so admirably composed, so broken
up and diversified, and so well proportioned in its parts, that its
vastness only serves to enhance the beauty and impressiveness
of the whole. The low flanking wings on either side with their
pseudo-arched fronts are unusual adjuncts, but the other features
of the facade-its shapely expansive arches, its engaged minars
blended more harmoniously than in the foregoing example with
the rest of the design, its carved mouldings and string courses and
battlements, all these are familiar characteristics of the Gujarāti
style. The same is true also of the interior with its 260 graceful
columns, now energing into an established architectural order, its
narrow aisles, its clerestory galleries, its symmetrically arranged
domes built on the Hindu corbel system its traceried windows and
its rich arabesques. Most of these features are derived from the
old pre-Muslim school, and all are repeated time and again in sub-
sequent buildings, though seldom with better effect than here. The
mode of lighting and ventilating the interior, which was an inven.
tion of the Gujarāt architects, is a specially happy solution of a


## p. 611 (#661) ############################################

XXIII 1
GUJARAT
611
well-known problem but one, strangely enough, that has never
found favour in other parts of India. It consists in carrying the
upper roof well beyond the one below it, the overlapping portion
being supported on dwarf columns and the outside of the gallery
thus formed being closed with perforated screens, the advantage
of this arrangement being that all the light and air required can be
admitted, while the direct rays of the sun and the rain are effectually
excluded.
The excellent taste and originality displayed by the architects
of Ahmad Shāh are equally evident in the few monuments left by
his successor Muhammad Shāh II (1442—57), notably in the
mausoleum of Sultan Ahmad, where he himself and his son Qutb.
ud-din are interred, in the 'Tombs of the Queens' (Rāni-kā.
Hujra), and in the mosque and tomb of Shaikh Ahmad Khattri
at Sarkhej. Of these the two last mentioned are by far the most
important, not only because of their own intrinsic merit, but
because the style they ushered in was subsequently adopted for
the whole of this admirable group of monuments at Sarkhej. Both
buildings were begun in 1446 by Muhammad Shāh and finished
five years later by Qutb-ud-din. The mausoleum (101 feet square)
is the largest of its kind in Gujarāt. It comprises a square central
a
chamber, surmounted by a single large dome with four aisles of
slender columns on each face, roofed by smaller domes. The aisles
are closed from without by perforated screens of slone, and the
central chamber is separated from the verandahs by panels of
brass, fretted and chased and tooled into an infinite variety of
patterns. The mosque, which has an area of rather less that half
that of the Jāmi' Masjid at Ahmadābād, differs from its predeces.
sors in that it possesses neither arched facade nor minars and that
its roof is of the same uniform height throughout. Its beauty, like
that of the tomb and of the exquisite little pavilion in front of it,
is due to its chaste simplicity and classic restraint ; and indeed,
considered on its merits as a pillared hall, it is difficult to imagine
how it could have been improved upon. But whether a hall such
as this, constructed on purely Hindu principles, fulfils the Muslim
ideal of a masjid, is open to question. Such a design may perhaps
be admissible in a quasi-private mosque, such as this, attached to a
Dargah ; it would certainly not be suitable, for a public place of
worship.
Qutb-ud-din (1451-59) did not add much to the beauties or
amenities of the capital. He built the Hauz-i-Qutb Tank
Kankariyā as well as the Qutb-ud-din mosque in Ahmadābād
at
39-2


## p. 612 (#662) ############################################

612
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
ch.
and he is said also to have been the author of the mosque and
tomb in Rājāpur which was erected to the memory of the wife of
Sayyid Buddhā bin Sayyid Yāqūt. The mosque which bears his
name and which was completed in 1449 before his father's death, is
a dull soulless affair without any claim to distinction; and the
Rājāpur mosque also, though one of the largest in the suburbs (it
is 150 feet in length by 531 feet in depth), is not in the best of
taste, the central bay with its two heavy flanking minarets being
out of all proportion to the long low wings, and the facade in other
respects lacking unity and cohesion. If, however, the buildings
associated with the name of the king are of little merit, there is
one, erected by one of his nobles, that furnishes an important
landmark in the history of the Gujarāti style. This is the tomb of
Daryā Khān (1453) which, like the somewhat later mosque of Ala
Khān at Dholka, is permeated with a strong Persian spirit. It is
an imposing square structure with a lofty central dome and lower
domed verandahs on its four sides, and is constructed throughout
on the arcuate principle, which was destined to play an increase
ingly prominent part in Gujarāt, the arch henceforth being
employed not merely as a characteristic symbol of the Faith, but
as a structural expedient more practicable than the horizontal
beam in districts where stone was not easily procurable.
With the accession of Mahmūd Begarha, the architecture of
Gujarāt entered upon its most magnificent stage. In the course of
his long reign, which lasted for more than half a century (1459—
1511), this powerful Sultan founded the new cities of Mustafābād
at Junāgadh, of Mahmūdābåd near Khedā and of Muhammadābād
at Chāmpānir. Ahmadābād, his capital, he enclosed with additional
lines of fortification and beautified with broad streets and a
multitude of splendid edifices. For Chāmpānir, which he captured
in 1484, the Sultan seems to have conceived an especial fondness
;
ſor on the spot where his camp had stood he afterwards caused a
city and a palace citadel to be built; and up to the time of his
death this remained his favourite place of residence. Of the outer
city, which once reached almost to Halol, 3} miles away, little is
now left; but the strong walls of the citadel with their bastions
and happily proportioned gateways (Pl. XXV), the fine custom
house, the imposing mosques and richly carved tombs—all bear
eloquent witness to the grandeur of Mahmûd Begarha's new
capital, which at one time threatened almost to rival Ahmadābād
itself. Outstanding amid these monuments of Chāmpānir is the
great Jami' Masjid (completed only two years before the death of
a


## p. 613 (#663) ############################################

XXI )
MAHMOD BEGARHA
613
as
the Sultan). It has been described second to none of the
mosques of Gujarāt, and undoubtedly it is a most striking edifice,
a particularly fine effect being produced in the interior of the
prayer chamber by three tiers of columns rising one above the
other and supporting the dome, with richly carved balconies
between the tiers and an equally rich frieze beneath the ribbed
soffit of the ceiling. But, considered as an organic whole, it will
not bear comparison with its older namesake in Ahmadābād. Its
parts are neither so well proportioned nor so successfully
co-ordinated. The elevation of the prayer chamber is too cramped ;
the minarets flanking the main archway overpoweringly heavy ;
and the transition from the side wings to the central hall altogether
too abrupt. The truth is that by the end of the fifteenth century
the faculty for composition on a grand scale which distinguished
the architecture of Ahmad Shāh and which had come down as a
legacy from Khalji times had all but exhausted itself. For con-
structional purposes, it is true, the arch and dome were now play-
ing an increasingly important part ; but though the architects of
Mahmūd Begarha and his successors made free use of these
features, and could handle them, on occasion, with consummate
skill and taste, still they were never so much at home with them
as they were with their own traditional pillar and lintel system ;
nor could they bring themselves, as their predecessors had done, to
design in the broader and bolder manner that the arch and dome
rendered possible. For perfection of detail and sheer decorative
beauty the Jāmi' Masjid and other mosques at Chāmpānīr can
challenge comparison with almost any Muhammadan building in
the East, but they fail conspicuously in point of synthetic unity.
The same phenomenon is equally observable among the contem-
porary monuments at Ahmadābād as well as at Dholka, Mahmūdā.
bād, and other less known centres ; for though Chāmpānir had
become the favourite residence of Mahmûd Begarha, and though
its population must have been largely recruited from Ahmadābād,
its growing popularity does not seem to have greatly diminished
the importance of the older capital, which at this period was
reckoned among the foremost and wealthiest cities in Asia. If we
consider, for example, the remains of the palace (it is but a skeleton
now) which Mahmūd erected for himself on the banks of his great
reservoir at Sarkhej,
at Sarkhej, with its stepped ghāts and terraces, its
pillared verandahs and balconied windows, we cannot but be struck
by its uniform excellence. It is less pure in style, less elegant in its
proportions than the earlier buildings of Muhammad Shāh II, but


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614
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
its parts nevertheless are entirely appropriate and in keeping with
their fellows, and the whole is not only pleasing to look upon but
admirably adapted to its purpose as a cool and refreshing dwelling
house. It is the same also with the exquisitely carved sluice heads
that emptied their waters into the lakes at Sarkhej and Kankariyā,
insignificant structures in themselves but finished with that per-
fection of taste which can make the commonest things beautiful ;
and it is the same also with the impressive step-wells or wāvs such
as that built in 1499-1500 by Bāi Harir, the Superintendent of the
royal haram, or the still more magnificent example in the village
of Adālaj. Though larger and more elaborate, these step-wells are
designed on essentially the same lines as the older step-wells of the
Hindus, of which the finest extant specimen is that of Mātā
Bhavāni, dating from about the eleventh century. They consist,
that is to say, of a circular or octagonal well-shaft approached on
one side by a broad stairway which descends flight upon flight
to the water's edge; on the landings between the flights are
pillared galleries, whose tiers are multiplied as the depth increases
and which serve at once as supports to counteract the inward
thrust of the long side walls and as cool resting-places in the heat
of summer. There are no other wells in the world that, structurally
and decoratively, can compare with these step-wells of Western
India, and it was because their builders were content to keep to
the established traditions of the country that they were able to
attain such perfection. So long as the Muslims could do this, the
ground was safe and their success assured. Their difficulties began
when the customs of Islam or other considerations necessitated the
introduction of alien and incongruous elements, a contingency
which inevitably happened over their tombs and mosques. To the
Muslim a tomb was indissolubly associated with the idea of dome
and arch construction, but in Gujarāt the old trabeate system was
much too deeply rooted in the soil to make way for the arcuate,
and hence the builders generally insisted on following their own
principles of design, modified by little more than the use of struc-
tural domes in place of the older corbelled roofs. Were it not for
these domes and the increased spaciousness which they facilitated
the tomb, for example, of Mahmud Begarha at Sarkhej, of Sayyid
'Usmān in Ahmadābād (1460), or of Bībí Acht Kūki (1472) would
show relatively little trace of Islamic influence. On the other
hand, there are a few tombs in which greater size and dignity
,
were achieved by adopting the arch and vault. Such are the
tombs of Shāh 'Ālam and of Mubārak Sayyid at Mahmūdābād ; but


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XXIII ]
MOSQUE OF MUHĀFIZ KHĀN
615
even in these cases it is manifest that the architects were still
working under the spell of their ancient tradition and still thinking
more in terms of trabeate than of arcuate construction, with the
result that their creations never attained the same sublimity and
grandeur as the great tombs of Northern India and the Deccan.
But if the difficulty of compromising with Islamic ideals was
felt over their tombs still more was it felt over the designing of
their mosques, where an added stumbling-block was provided by
the minaret-a feature which the Gujarāti architect never managed
to handle with complete success. Even at the JāmīMasjid of
Ahmad Shāh the minarets, when they existed, were in doubtful
taste, and half a century later these features had become still
heavier and more cumbersome in relation to the rest of the struc.
ture. This is a blemish that we have already noticed at Mahmud
Begarha's great masjid at Chāmpānir, but it is just as conspicuous
in contemporary mosques at Ahmadābād,' such as those of Miyān
Khān Chishti (1465), Bibi Achut Kūki (1472) or Bāi Harir (1500).
In all of these, as well as in most other mosques of this period, the
minarets were placed on either side of the central archway, as they
had been in earlier examples ; but in this position they so impaired
the symmetry of the facade that in some later examples they were
omitted altogether, while in others they were shifted from the
centre to the front corners of the building So long, however, as
their old dimensions were preserved, this last solution was no
better than the first ; for whether the mosque took the form of a
pillared hall like that of Sayyid 'Usmān (1460) or an arched and
vaulted one like that of Shāh 'Alam, the towering minars at the
corners were bound to overpower the rest of the structure. The
fact was that minars of such dimensions could not by any conceiv-
able means be brought into harmony with the design of the prayer
chamber, unless the latter was to be radically altered. This is the
reason why in some of the later mosques, such as that of Muhāfiz
Khān, we find the height of the minarets reduced and that of the
prayer chamber increased-much to the advantage of the composi-
tion as a whole. It was not, however, until the minaret was trans-
formed into a merely ornamental and symbolic appendage that the
problem from an aesthetic standpoint was successfully solved and
then only at the expense of utility. Mosques with this form of
ornamental minaret first made their appearance at Ahmadbād in
the opening years of the sixteenth century, the best example and
one of the earliest being that of Rāni Sīpari (1514) which belongs
to the reign of Muzaffar Shāh II, while another was the mosque of


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616
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THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Shāh Khūb Sayyid (1538). The former was judged by Fergusson
to be one of the most exquisite structures in the world, and his
judgement was not exaggerated. East or West, it would be
difficult to single out a building in which the parts are more
harmoniously blended or in which balance, symmetry and decora-
tive rhythm combine to produce a more perfect effect. The mosque
is a small one-only 48 feet by 191 feet-but this very smallness
is an asset in its favour, since the delicate traceries and jewel-like
carvings of Gujarāt, suggestive as they are of an almost feminine
grace, show to less advantage in bigger and more virile structures.
Another relatively small but equally famous monument of Mahmūd
Begarha's reign', in which these traceries are seen to perfection,
is the mosque of Sidi Sayyid. In form this mosque is unusually
plain and chaste : merely an inarched chamber, five bays wide and
three bays deep, its arches supported on squared pillars, or
pilasters ; plain octagonal minarets (now level with the roof) at
the two fore corners; and the interior lighted by demilune windows
of pierced stone work. Anything more simple and unassuming, or
more unlike the richly adorned mosque of Rāni Sīpari could
hardly be imagined. But though such simplicity is rare enough in
Gujarāt, there is no mistaking the Gujarāti genius in the graceful
well proportioned arches and superbly designed window screens
(Pl. XXIX). It is these screens that have made the mosque of Sidi
Sayyid world-famous. Ten of them, namely, three in each of the side
walls and two in the end bays of the rear wall, are divided into
small square panes, filled with ever varying foliate and geometric
patterns. The other two-one to the right and one to the left of
the central mihrāb-are adorned with free plant and floral designs,
the like of which does not exist in any other monument of India.
What makes these windows so supremely beautiful is the unerring
sense for rhythm with which the artist has filled his spaces and the
skill with which he has brought the natural forms of the trees into
harmony with their architectural setting. Such half conven-
tionalised designs, it is true, are familiar enough in India. They
are found commonly on textiles, silver and brass relief work and
the like, but this is the only instance of their elaboration in stone
and the wonder is that so exquisite a method of screening window
openings, having once
,
been hit upon,
never afterwards
repeated.
was
1 Local tradition assigns this mosque to Ahmad Shāh's reign, but its style is that
of the latter part of Mahmūd Shāh Begarha's reign.