Art and Architecture
It is inaccurate to describe the architecture of the period as “Indo-Saracenic ” or ” Pathan “, as some scholars like Fergusson and others have done. Nor can it be regarded as entirely Indian in ” soul and body “, as Havell would ask us to believe. In fact, it represented a blending of Indian and Islamic styles, as did certain other aspects of the culture of the time. Sir John Marshall observed that ” Indo-Islamic art is not merely a local variety of Islamic art,” nor is it merely ” a, modified form of Hindu art. . . . Broadly speaking, Indo-Islamic architecture derives its character from both sources, though not always in an equal degree”. There is no doubt that there existed in India certain Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jaina styles, while Islamic influences were slowly entering into this land from the middle of the seventh century A.D. At the same time, we should note that what we generally call Islamic art was not of a homogeneous and single type; but the followers of Islam, like the Arabs, the Persians, or the Turks, brought in their train the art of different parts of Western and Central Asia, Northern Africa and South-Western Europe. The mingling of these with the different indigenous styles of old Indian art during this period, according to the needs of religion and personal taste, led to the growth of new “Indian” styles of architecture, distinct in every province, like Jaunpur, Bengal, Bijapur, Gujarat, etc. In Delhi architecture Islamic influences predominated owing to the numerical strength of the Muslims there. “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 fashion of building in brick, but adorned their structures with chiselled and moulded enrichments frankly imitated from Hindu prototypes. So, too, in Western India they appropriated to themselves almost en bloc the beautiful Gujrati style, which has yielded some of the finest buildings of medieval India; and in Kashmir they did the same with the striking wooden architecture which must have been long prevalent in that part of the Himalayas”.
This amalgamation of exotic and indigenous architectural styles was possible owing to certain factors. The Muslims had of necessity to employ Indian craftsmen and sculptors, who were naturally guided in their work by the existing art traditions of their country. Further, in the earlier period of Muslim invasions, mosques were constructed out of the materials of Hindu and Jaina temples, and sometimes the temples themselves were only modified to some extent to suit the requirements of the conquerors. Again, in spite of some striking contrasts between the Indian and Islamic styles, there were two points of resemblance between them which favoured their fusion. One characteristic feature of many Hindu temples, as well as of Muslim mosques, 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”.
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The best specimens of the Delhi style are offered by the Qutb group of mosques, the most famous of Qutub minar which is the Qutb Minar, marked by free-standing towers, calligraphic inscriptions and stalactite corbelling beneath the balconies. The two principal monuments, of ‘Ala-ud-din’s reign–the Jama’at Khana Masjid at the Dargah of Nizam-ud-din Auliya, and the ‘Alai Darwaza at the Qutb Minar -show the growing preponderance of Muslim ideas over those of the Tughluq architects. The architecture of the Tughluq period lost the splendour, luxuriance and variety which characterised that of the Slave and Khalji regimes; it became prosaic, simple, austere and formal. This was due to the religious ideas of the Tughluqs and to the comparatively poor condition of the State finances during their rule. Under the Sayyids and the Lodis, attempts were made to revive the animated style of the Khalji period. But these succeeded only to a limited extent, and the style could not “shake off the deadening effect of the Tughluq period’.
Between A.D. 1400 and 1478, during the reigns of lbrahim, Mahmud and Husain Sharqi, a new style of architecture developed in Jaunpur, which shows the indubitable influence of Hindu art. Its massive sloping walls, square pillars, smaller galleries and cloisters are clearly Hindu features, designed by Hindu masons; and the mosques of Jaunpur have no minarets of the usual type. In !act, many of the new buildings of Jaunpur were built out of the materials of old temples for a new purpose. The Atala Devi Masjid, founded in A.D. 1377, but completed in A.D. 1408, is one of the brilliant specimens of the Jaunpur style.a
In Bengal also there grew up a mixed style of architecture, characteristic by the use of bricks in the main, “the subsidiary use of stone, the use of pointed arches on short pillars, and the Muslim adaptation of the traditional Hindu temple style of curvilinear cornices copied from bamboo structures, and of beautifully carved Hindu symbolic decorative designs like the Lotus”. The Adina Masjid at Pandua of 400 domes, built by Sikandar in A.D. 1368, is renowned for its magnitude and beauty. The other famous mosques of this province are the Chhota Sona Masjid (Smaller Golden Mosque), built by Wali Muhammad during the reign of Husain Shah between A.D. 1493-1519; the Bara Sona Masjid (Greater Golden Mosque), completed by Nusrat Shah at Gaur in 1526; and the Qadam Rasul, built by the same Sultan in A.D. 1530.
