SIDDAGANGA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, TUMKUR

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
SUBJECT: 3AR01-History of Architecture – III CLASS: III Sem.
TEACHER: Ar. Vivek C G

MODULE – 02 NOTES
Syllabus Outline:
Development of Provincial styles and their distinctive features.
 Jaunpur - Eg: Atala Masjid and Jami Masjid.
 Bengal style - Eg: Adina masjid, Eklakhi tomb, Chota sona and Bada sona Masjid
 Ahmedabad - Integration of Hindu and Muslim style in building features - exclusive
features. Eg: Jami masjid at Ahmedabad and wavs of Gujarat, recreational complex at
Sarkhej.

ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA - PROVINCIAL STYLE

PROVINCIAL STYLE IN ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

Certain manifestations of the Islamic architecture of India, distinct from the imperial and
classical style at Delhi, were produced in the more outlying portions of the country.
 It has been found convenient to designate such separate and self-contained developments
as provincial, some of which;, although subsidiary to the main style, were of great
importance, as their buildings were often had remarkable beauty and displayed original
qualities .

Factors influencing Provincial style:

 Parent art at Delhi
 Character of the indigenous arts which prevailed within the area of the province
concerned- Local Artisans had produced in the past the finest temples, there
developed the most elegant mosques and tombs.
 Provincial ruler himself generated their intellectual superiority- bringing their
architectural style and principles of their native land.
 Climatic conditions necessitated special treatment.
 Technical differences, one kind of building material being common in some regions
and rare in others.

The principal provincial styles are :

1. Punjab 1150-1325 2. Bengal 1203-1573
3. Gujarat 1300-1572 4. Jaunpur 1376-1479
5. Malwa 1405-1569 6. Deccan 1347-1617
7. Bijapur / 1490-1656
Khandesh 1425-1650 8. Kashmir 1410 Onwards

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JAUNPUR STYLE
(The Mosques of Jaunpur) 1376 TO 1479 AD

The most prominently distinctive style inspired by the

architecture of Delhi was that practiced in Jaunpur, located
just 58kms south-east of the Hindu holy city of Varanasi,
picturesquely located on a spur overlooking the banks of the
river Gomti, the city of Jaunpur is said to have been
established in A.D. 1360 by Firuz shah, the last great Tughlaq
emperor.

Legacy of the Sharqi Kingdom of Jaunpur:

Jaunpur, the seat of the Sharqi kingdom, is a great recluse of
medieval history.
• Dotted with early 15th century monuments, these lofty
buildings display an architectural class of its own that
has acquired a nomenclature for itself – the Jaunpur style.

Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq

• Standing halfway between Delhi and Bengal, it is an important halting point by the river
side.
• During his second invasion of Bengal in 1359, Firoz Shah Tughlaq camped here for six
months and founded this city, calling it Jaunpur after the original name Juna Khan, of his
patron Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• It was not until the political confusion of the late 14th century that Jaunpur became an
independent kingdom.
• It was a period of decline for the Tughlaqs and the violence of Timur had shattered the
Delhi Sultanate in 1398.
• The pendulum of fortune favoured four of the Tughlaq officers who declared their
independence and eked out their provincial sultanates.
• Malik Raja Farooqi, once a guardsman of Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, founded Khandesh in
1382.
• Dilawar Khan scooped out Malwa in 1392. Gujarat declared independence in 1396 under
Zafar Khan and the most prized province of Jaunpur was captured by Malik Sarwar, a
eunuch and custodian of the royal jewellery of Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq.

JAUNPUR STYLE
 It was the ‘militaristic’ aspects of the Tughlaq style that formed the essence or basis of the
Islamic architectural style of Jaunpur.
 These were progressively muted into an acceptable ‘civil’ style in Jaunpur under the rule of
the sharqi (eastern) dynasty.
 This process of mutation can be traced through three prominent mosques of Jaunpur,
namely
 Lal Darwaza Masjid
 Atala masjid, Jaunpur
 Jami masjid, Jaunpur
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ATALA MASJID, JAUNPUR
 The Atala Masjid takes its name from the fact that it was built on the site of the Hindu
temple of Atala Devi, the materials of which together with those of other temples in its
vicinity, were utilized in its construction.
 It consists of a square courtyard of 177ft side and around are disposed its various parts on
the three sides are the cloisters and on the fourth side is the sanctuary.
 Cloisters are spacious, being 42' across and divided into 5 aisles.
 The cloisters rise up to 2 storeys.
 Two aisles of the lower storey are formed into a series of cells with a pillared verandah
facing the street to provide accommodation to visitors and merchants.
 There are 3 entrance gateways, one in the centre of each cloister, with the northern and
southern ones surmounted by domes.

SANCTUARY
In the centre of the sanctuary facade, the entrance to the nave is articulated by a lofty pylon, 75'
high and 55' wide at the base.
• The pylon houses an 11' deep arched recess which contains the entrance doorway to the
sanctuary nave and the windows which light it.
• This arched pylon is the main theme of the structure (and the style as a whole), being
repeated by smaller pylons on either side of the central one and also on the gateways in the
cloisters.
• The interior of the sanctuary consists of a central nave of 35' X 30' with pillared transepts on
either side.
• The nave is roofed high up by a hemispherical dome.
• The dome is 57' high on the inside and constructed by means of circular courses of stone.
The exterior is covered with a layer of cement to give it a spherical curve.
• Each transept is a pillared hall with an octagonal bay in the centre roofed by a smaller
dome.
• The transept at both ends becomes two storied, the upper compartment surrounded by
perforated screens forming a zenana chamber for women.

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 The interior nave is vertically divided into three parts.
• The first level consists of 3 mihrabs and a high pulpit with arched openings to the transepts
forming the sides of the room.
• The second level consists of 8 decorated arches, out of which 4 are squinches, turning the
room into an octagon.
• The third level has a bracket in each corner turning the room into a 16 sided structure. Each
side contains an arch, thus creating an arcaded triforium which supports the dome.

• In the center raises a lofty commanding features shaped like a sloping sides. Its height being
75ft and its width at the base is 55ft. Within pylon is a great arched recess 11ft deep and
containing the entrances to the nave and arched window openings by which it is
illuminated.
• This arched pylon a most distinctive structure becomes the main theme of the composition,
being repeated to a smaller scale of it. And it is placed on either side of it.
• And it is again caught up by the three gateways in the cloisters, so that the whole effect is
one of the balance and rhythms. Skillfully adjusted.
• Moreover its recesses and projections, its solids and voids are so well disposed as to
accentuate these rhythms by means of alternating packages of strong lights and deep
shadows.
• The central pylons have rectangular turrets while retaining the inclined profile of the
original. Suspended between the two rectangular turrets is a huge spandrel led arch is more
purposeful and majestic in it’s from outlines.
• The typical Hindu bracketed openings as usual find their own place at the bottom of the
arch.
• Its upper portions being filled in with arched apertures, Jharokhas and jaalis.

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 • The silhouette of these various pylons of different sizes in the mosques sets up pulsating
rhythms that is not felt in any other mosques in India.
• The same feel of rhythm that prompted the Jaunpur builders to infuse liveliness ever into
the composition of the rear wall of the liwan.
• Thus, the rear wall of the Atala masjid is adorned with central and side projections, each
related in intent and size to the domes that crown the rectangular hall of the sanctuary
• Atala masjid was the work of Hindu architect, that Hindu artisans were largely employed
upon the works is only indicated of the fact that free from their age old indigenous
convections, they were more than capable of inventive formation and infusing fresh spirit
into such a notable architectural synthesis.

JAMI MASJID, JAUNPUR

 Jami masjid is the largest and most ambitious of the Jaunpur mosques.
 It was built by Hussian shah, who came to the throne in A.D. 1458.
 Jaunpur builders succeeded in their grand constructional concepts and also fared well in
achieving equally great architectural effects.
 This is apparent from the form and shape of the great Jami masjid of Jaunpur that took over
a generation (from AD 1438-1478) to complete.
 Of these mosques, the square inner courtyard alone, which is 200ft wide longer than the
entire mosques of Atala.
 It was built over a plat form that was raised to a height of 20ft. above ground level.
 This necessitated the building of imposing flights of steps.
 To reach platforms over which were erected lofty domed gateways leading to the courtyard.
 The sahn of the mosques was surrounded on three sides by an unusual two-stored cloister
in keeping with the scale of the entire concepts.
 This was erected in the usual trabeate Hindu system, by imposing column over column, and
was covered with a flat roof.
 The scheme of this mosque repeats in most respects, many of this essentials features of the
Atala masjid on a larger scale.
 The great central pylon which soars high above everything at the western end of the
quadrangle, being 85ft high and 77ft wide at this base.

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  On each side of this dominating features are the arcaded wings of the side-aisles, above
which may be seen the roof of two large halls forming the transepts of the interior.
 It was in the construction of the prominent liwan side of the courtyard that the builders
experimented with the structural form of the vault.
 However, for congregational worship in a mosque, pillar less halls were undoubtedly a
desirable assets.
 Until the Muslim sanctuary or liwan had been spatially organized to consist of a central
domed compartment flanked by smaller domed spaces.
 The Jaunpur builders, in an attempt to create vast pillar less spaces on either side of 40ft
diameter span of the enclosure for the ladies, decided to roof over the halls with a
longitudinal vault rising to a height of 45ft.
 The vault was constructed over four pointed arches or ribs consisting of transverse ribs at
wide intervals in the middle, and two walls at each end.
 Over this permanent centering was erected, a solid stone shell built of longer blocks. The
building of this shell was truly a commendable structural feat, equally awesome being the
vast interior space so created.
 The load of such a vault was thrust entering on long eastern and western peripheries of the
sanctuary, which inevitably became massive supporting walls, as much as 10ft thick.
 Openings in the critical eastern wall had to be restricted to arched aperture rather than
generous doorways.
 The spatial link between the sanctuary and open courtyard was effectively diminished.
 This barrier between the liwan and the sahn was intolerable to Muslims.

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 BENGAL STYLE -1300 TO 1550 AD

• Bengal, humid deltaic regions of the Ganges fundamental changes in the every aspects
of life and all human activities, including the art of building construction.
• The architecture in Bengal assumed a succession of forms which were maintained for a
period of two hundred and fifty years.
• The great river Ganga afforded a direct means of communication right across the fertile
plains of northern India.
• These vast plains to reach the abundantly cultivable areas of Bengal and the mineral
wealth of Bihar have helped the Muslims in achieving their goal of capturing the new
cities in Bengal.

Background
 In the beginning of the 13th century, the Muslim governors of the slave dynasty founded
their earlier center of power at tribes in the Hoogly district, started building their
political power and mosques.
 It was not easier accomplishing mosques in the rain-deluged, flood devastated and
bamboo forested plains of Bengal, the building art in the Bengal remains a curious
mixture of stocky basalt column of Hindu temples, and a super structure of arched brick
vaults and domes with bricks as the chief building materials available.
 The typical basalt column planted in the interior of the buildings are supplemented
with voluminous quantities of new brickwork walls with small pointed arched
openings.
 The pointed arch which became typical of this style is “drop arch”.
 The lack of building stone in Bengal meant that most construction was carried out in
brick, of which there was an abundant supply, and this meant that no building was
possible using the usual column-beam construction so characteristic of early Islamic
structures.
 Instead, right from the beginning, arches were used to span spaces and to support the
weight above.
 Brick thus lends Bengal architecture a style which is distinct, with its pointed arches
and finishes so different from those in stone.
 Another remarkable feature which predominates is a curved roof form, no doubt
derived from its bamboo predecessor.

ADINA MASJID AT PANDUA

 In celebrating the self-proclaimed freedom of Bengal from the sovereign slave Dynasty
of Delhi, Sultan Sikandar Shah with great and outburst of energy decided to embellish
his new capital of Pandua with a huge Jami Masjid that came to be known as the Adina
Masjid.
 The entire edifice covers a rectangle of 507ftX285ft (155mX87m) and contains within it a
huge courtyard measuring 400ft X154ft (122mX47m).
 The layout of the courtyard in such a manner that the longer side of the court faced the
west marked a distinct departure from the conventional pattern of square courtyards.

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  It is the largest and most important mausoleum building in the whole of Bengal.
Original in design and construction confirming to their own individual ideas.
 Adina is the most capacious of its kind, and could readily accommodating several
thousand worshippers.
 Under the climatic conditions prevalent in Pandua, roofed halls were more
comfortable to worship
 The Adina Masjid is undoubtedly impressive.
 The three and five aisled liwans enclosed around the courtyard are supported over
about 260 pillars of basalt and when complete were roofed over with 378 brick domes.
 The central part of the liwan (sanctuary) was at one time a very impressive pointed
vault over 70ft deep, it spanned over a distance of 34ft and was supported at either end
on walls perforated with five arches each.
 The apex of the vault was at a height of over 50ft and is now in ruins the central vault,
has collapsed.
 Adina has the vastness of its courtyard which presents the appearance of the forum of
same ancient classical city.

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 • The design and construction of the mosques displays several notable features, as the
upper storey is supported on a range of arches carried by pillars of remarkable type.
• They are very short ponderous piers, abnormally thick square above and below and
surrounded by massive bracket capitals.
• The treatment on the western wall surface consists of carvings in relief is a large rosette
or full blown lotus, standing out shape from the plain surface of the wall.
• Underneath this decoration are a central Mihrab, to the side of it, is a Mimbar or pulpit.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE FAILURE OF THE ADINA MASJID

• Subsequent builders of Bengal have learned two constructional lessons from this Adina
mosques’ venture / structural failures.

• The tropical and climate conditions of Bengal, would not permit the mere assembly of
arches and domes on the conventional pattern to result in durable construction.
• Influences of local building traditions art of terracotta decoration of building surfaces.
• Subsequent examples are built and decorated following the traditions of bamboo nuts /
constructions and terracotta decorations.

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ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TYPICAL BENGAL MOSQUES
• Discarding of the traditional courtyard, buildings of the closed-in or covered hall was
adopted a change necessitated by heavy and continuous reasons.
• The sanctuaries are rectangular in plan. Their exteriors consist of long and low height
façade with a curved cornice above and a range of pointed arches below.
• The pointed arches on facade are as many as ten or twelve extending along the front
side and two or three on the shorter side.
• Octagonal turrets are placed at each corner of the sanctuary which terminates in a final
form.
• Exterior wall surfaces are filled with rectangular panels, enclosing ornaments niches.
• Filigree patterns are carved in terracotta, around the doorways and in the spandrels.
• Arcades of pointed arches, divide the interior into a number of aisles.
• The supports in the sanctuary hall are either brick piers or stone pillars recovered from
Hindu temples.
• The arched aisles extended the whole length of the building. The intersection of these
form square bays, each one being roofed over by a small hemispherical dome.
• The circular base of the domes is supported on a pendant of bricks coursed at an angle,
resembling a simplified form of stalactite vaulting.
• A series of arched Mihrabs are sunk on the inner surface of the western walls of the
mosques.
• The largest and most important Mihrab being opposite to the central bay, and all are
elaborately decorated with carving.

The important mosques and tombs of Bengal style having above characteristics
• Tantipura mosques at Gaur. (1475AD)
• Satha gumbaz at Gaur(1440 AD)
• Chamkhan masjid, Gaur(AD 1475)
• Daras bari masjid, Gaur(AD 1480)
• Lotan masjid, Gaur(1480 AD)
• The Gummant masjid, Gaur (AD 1484)
• The Chota sona masjid, Gaur(AD 1510)
• The Bara sona masjid, Gaur(AD 1526)
• The Qadam rasul masjid, Gaur(AD 1530)
• Satha gumbaz at Gaur
• Daras bari masjid, Gaur

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THE EKLAKHI TOMB

• Eklakhi tomb is the earlier monuments of Bengal that can be said to have originality. It
is a tomb building of Sultan Jalal-ud-din Mohmmud shah (AD 1414 – 31).
• For the first time, the Muslim builders derived their inspiration from the immediate
environment and experiences with inimical climate conditions.
• To combat the continuous rain of Bengal, the traditional Bengal villagers built their roof
with bamboo and thatch, the flexible quality of the bamboo producing the typical
chamber of the Bengali roofs.
• The buildings of the Eklakhi tomb, taking their crew from folk architecture of Bengal.
• The cube and hemispherical traditional Muslim tomb is modified to the roof having
slope (curved form) to throw off the rain water.
• This slope of the roof expressed elegantly bow like formation of the parapets, became
the outstanding features of the Islamic architecture of Bengal.
• The surfaces of the bricks masonry below the parapets of the tomb consists of a mixture
of expressed brick fixed in bands to define door jambs and architecture.

• Panels of cut and embossed brick depicting

blind windows planted one over the other in
tiers.
• These panels give to the building from
outside, the appearance of a three storied
structure.
• The entire surface treatment of the Eklakhi
tomb is in fact, suggestive of the framework
of the traditional wood and wattle hut.

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 • The entire structural concept of this 75ft square mausoleum is done very continuously.
• The interior space between the square of 75ft side is a massive concentric octagon of
masonry to support the modest plain hemispherical dome of the same diameter.
• The height of the tomb, with dome is 25ft up to its triple curved cornice.
• The whole tomb is surrounded by a plain hemispherical dome of 46ft diameter.
Octagonal turrets project from each corner.
• A horizontal string-course carried across the middle of the façade gives an appearance
of the two stories.
• These are an opening in the center of each side, formed of a stone doorway torn bodily
from a Hindu temple, but with a pointed arch inserted above the lintel.

CHOTA SONA MASJID

• The mosque was built during the reign of the Sultan of Bengal Alauddin Husain
Shah, between 1493 and 1519.
• The fifteen domes of the mosque were once gilded, giving the mosque the name
of Chota Shona Masjid (Small Golden Mosque).
• The mosque is one of the best-preserved sultana monuments under protection by the
Department of Archaeology and Museums, Governments of Bangladesh.
• The gilding that gave the building its name does not exist anymore.
• The mosque premise, which covers an area of 42 m from east to west by 43.5 m from
north to south, was originally surrounded by an outer wall (now restored) with a
gateway in the middle of the east side.
• Built of brick and stone, the mosque proper forms a rectangle having outside
dimensions of 25.1 meters (82 ft) from north to south and 15.9 meters (52 ft) from
east to west.

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 • All the four walls are veneered externally and to some extent also internally with
granite stone blocks. These stones have disappeared from the southern side of the
west wall because of conservation works after the destruction by the earthquake of
1897.
• The four exterior angles of the building are strengthened with polygonal towers.
• The cornices are curvilinear and have stone gutters to drain off the rain water from
the roof.
• There are five arched doorways in the eastern facade and three each on the north
and south walls. Corresponding to the five archways in the east wall there are five
semi-circular mihrabs inside the west wall. The stones of most of these miharbs have
disappeared.
• The interior of the mosque, measuring 21.2 by 12.2 metres (70 by 40 ft), is divided
into three aisles by two rows of stone pillars, four in each row.
• A wide central nave has cut the aisles into halves, each half showing six equal
square units with a side of 3.5 m.
• The nave has three rectangular units, each measuring 3.5 by 4.5 m.
• The interior of the mosque has therefore a total of fifteen units, of which the three
rectangular units are covered with chauchala vaults, and the remaining twelve square
units each by an inverted tumbler-shaped dome.

• They are all carried on radiating arches springing from the free-standing stone
pillars and the engaged pilasters.

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 • The upper corners in between the arches of the square units are filled with corbelled
brick pendentive to make up the phase of transition for the domes.
• At the northwest corner of the mosque there is a royal gallery forming an upper
floor, which is still standing in a dilapidated condition.
• It was approached from the northwest corner of the mosque through a stepped
platform connected with a doorway. The gallery has a mihrab in front.
• Stone carving, brick-setting, terracotta, gilding, and glazed tiles were used in
decorating the building, and of them the former played the dominant role.
• The subject matters of the stone carving were chosen according to the demand of the
spaces, e.g., the borders of the panels with creepers and their interior with various
forms of stylized hanging patterns adapted from the chain-and-bell of the Bauddha
and Jaina period.
• The spandrels of arches and the spaces above the frames are always dotted with
rosettes, an attractive form of designs, but are all carved differently. The interior of
the domes and vaults are decorated with terracotta, those of the vaults being copies
of the bamboo frames of local huts.

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BARO SONA / BADA SONA MASJID
• Baro Shona Masjid (The Great Golden Mosque) also known as Baroduari (12-gate
mosque), is located in Gour, India.
• Completed in 1526, it is situated half a kilometer to the south of Ramkeli, 12 km south
from Malda in West Bengal.
• Baro Shona Masjid of Gour, its ruins can be found in Malda, West Bengal, India, very
close to the India-Bangladesh border.
• A gigantic rectangular structure of brick and stone, this mosque is the largest
monument in Gour. Though the name means Twelve Doors, this monument actually
has eleven.
• The construction of Baro Shona Masjid, measuring 50.4 m by 22.8 m, and 12 m. in
height, was started by the Sultan of Bengal Alauddin Husain Shah and was completed
in 1526 AD by his son Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah.

• The mosque is composed of eleven entrances, two buttresses, four corner towers and a
spacious courtyard which is almost seventy meters in diameter.
• The building is faced in plain stone and the doors would originally have been framed
by mosaics of glazed colored tiles in floral patterns.
• The roof was strewn with 44 hemispherical domes, of which 11 on the corridor still
remain. These domes were originally gilded, and, hence, gave the mosque its name.
From the interior, these domes are arcaded, half in brick and half in stone.
• The mosque is a rectangular building; brick faced with stone, and measures 51.20m by
23.15m with the usual octagonal towers at the corners. In front there is a spacious
veranda, running north south, with eleven pointed arched doorways in front, and one
on each of the sides for entrance.

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 • The mosque is composed of eleven entrances, two buttresses, four corner towers and a
spacious courtyard which is almost seventy meters in diameter.
• The building is faced in plain stone and the doors would originally have been framed
by mosaics of glazed colored tiles in floral patterns.
• The roof was strewn with 44 hemispherical domes, of which 11 on the corridor still
remain. These domes were originally gilded, and, hence, gave the mosque its name.
From the interior, these domes are arcaded, half in brick and half in stone.
• The mosque is a rectangular building; brick faced with stone, and measures 51.20m by
23.15m with the usual octagonal towers at the corners. In front there is a spacious
veranda, running north south, with eleven pointed arched doorways in front, and one
on each of the sides for entrance.

GUJARAT PROVINCIAL STYLE

INTRODUCTION
 Gujarat style is the largest and most important of all the provincial styles.

 It was the Hindu architecture of the Gujarat regions in India that completely entered the
provincial Muslim builders.
 This style best represents the fusion of both Hindu and Islamic styles or eventually
evolved the Indo- Islamic style.
 The rulers were powerful potentates, desirous of surrounding themselves, and spirited
to impress others with their sumptuous architectural environment.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
 The highly evolved Hindu art of the local guilds of buildings craftsmen prevailed for
centuries, resisting Muslim rule.
 The tradition of these guilds of Gujarat, through ancient, was so vibrantly alive that the
Muslim rulers had no choice but to appropriate to themselves.
 These accomplished artisans of their regions, for generations these guilds of craftsmen
had been employed in building, the Brahmanical and Jain temples which so profusely
adorn arts associated with it had become parts of their racial consciousness.
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  Not a single ruler was willing to exercise personal influence over the style of
architecture practice, thus the Hindu or Jain craftsmen of Gujarat was left to deploy
structural methods to him.
 The builders of Gujarat had been well equipped by their ancient traditions of
construction; preeminent among these was a propensity for building the most lavish
mandapas or front halls for their temples.
 Some of these Mandapas had fairly large halls, roofed by a pyramidical corbelled dome
held up over a ring of columns.
 The plan of such a mandapa could easily constitute a multipliable unit.
 A number of such conjoined units assembled together with minor design variations
would easily produce large rectangular spaces or hypostyle halls necessary for the
liwans of the mosques.
 The traditional Gujarati builder was capable of inducing dramatic spatial qualities into
his temple mandapas, roofed with domes, cupolas and profusely carved horizontal
ceiling panels situated at varying heights.

CLASSIFICATION

First Period (First half of the 14th Century A.D.)

 Consisted of the customary phase of demolition of temples followed by reconversion of
the building materials.
 The buildings of this period have the appearance of being formative and experimental.
 Many buildings were built using materials from Hindu temples. Most often, the pillars
would be used as they were, while the walls would be built of original masonry,
sometimes using stones taken from the temples and recut to suit the requirements.

Second Period (First half of the 15th Century A.D.)

 In this period, we see the art approaching an early consummation, with slightly
tentative qualities.
 There is more directional authority in the buildings and increased assurance in the
design.
 This can also be called the Ahmed Shahi period, after the Sultan Ahmed Shah.

Third Period (Second half of 15th Century A.D.)

 This is the most magnificent aspect of the style.
 Most of the development in this phase happened under Sultan Mahmud I Begarha
(1458-1511).

THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD

 The second period of Gujrat style flourished during the first half of the 15 th cent.AD
owed its remarkable development to the forceful personality of Ahmed shah-I.
 The ruler began his long and prosperous regions by founding in AD 1411, the capital
city of his kingdom named it as “Ahmedabad”, with its construction he also
inaugurated an era of unparalleled architectural activities.
 A large scale building projects was undertaken by the officials of his court, which
consists of many mosques and tombs etc,. Within the precincts of the capital.
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  Many mosques large and small, irrespective of tombs are built within its walls, the
whole forming rich expositions of Indo-Islamic art.
 Ahmedabad stands on the left bank of the Sabarmati river and the citadel with its
palace, as was the custom occupied a prominent position within a rectangular enclosure
on the river front.
 Away from the citadel and towards the
center of the city, Ahmed shah began
building the great Jami masjid.
 Connecting the mosques by means of
wide through fare to the main gate of his
fortified palace, thus, creating a grand
processional path.
 The scheme of the mosques was
extended by an area in front of the
mosques being made into an enclosure to
contain his own royal tomb while
beyond, another court was proposed for
the “Tombs of the Queen”.
 The whole forming an imperial
necropolis conjoined to the Jami masjid.
On king’s way a triumphal arch by name,
Tin Darwaza was erected.
 So disposed has to constitute the main
entrance to the outer courtyard or royal
square of the citadel.
 The entire conception was an effort at town planning of a highly spectacular order, one
of its objects being to produce an appropriate architectural environment to the imperial
ceremonials.
 Chief buildings erected in Ahmadabad during the first half of 15th cent AD of its
founder’s reign are four mosques, each illustrating a phase in the development of the
style.
1. Ahmed shah’s mosque within citadel
2. The mosques of the Haibat khan
3. The mosques of Sayyid Alam
4. Jami masjid
 All of which were, completed within the first quarters of the 15th cent. A.D.

JAMI MASJID, AHMEDABAD

 The Jami Masjid of Ahmedabad which was

finished in AD 1423 is generally considered the
high water marks of mosques design in the
western India.
 It represents a definitely logical development from
the earlier structures.

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  The design is inventive; all its parts contribute to the whole.
 The building art takes a decisive step forward; it rises to a higher plane from the
previous stage of hesitation approaching a completeness and perfect realization of the
ideal.
 The design speaks of the silent fusion in stone of
the souls of two religions that were apparently
very contradictory to each other.
 The fusion was not of the one entity dissolving
into the other, but meeting on equal terms, tending
and borrowing in a truly democratic spirit.
 Jami masjid in essence followed the scheme of
constructing a temple building and introducing it
into the mosque sanctuary as a central
compartment.
 The architecture theme that enlivens the entire
design scheme of the Jami Masjid is of contrast.
 This is apparent in its every part, particularly in its
façade which as a composition of solids and voids
is superb.
 The solid, walled and buttressed central triple
arched composition is flanked by the airy lightness
of peristylar verandahs.
 Then, through the graceful Islamic arches of the
central portions, one can see the dark interiors in
depth with the alteration and interplay of light,
shade and shadow over frontal columns.
 Again there is a contrast between solid arched maqsura screen wall with the light,
delicate engrafted torana arch springing fancifully from its slender shafts.
 As a composition of solids and voids, this façade is superb with its three main openings
well balanced and in front of the sanctuary measures 255ft by 220ft. its broad and
simple spaciousness is a means of emphasizing the richness of its structural formation.
 The interior of this mosques sanctuary takes the form of a hypostyle hall measuring
210ft long and 95ft deep and consists of some 300 tall slender pillars.

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  The arrangements of these pillars are carefully planned and symmetrically disposed
into a series of square bags connected by columned interspaces and each covered by a
dome. The central compartment of nave rises up into three stories.
 The side aisles being is two stories, while the remaining of the interior is one storey in
height. There is a hanging gallery or mezzanine in the north transept for the zenana.
Much of the varied effect of the interior is obtained by the structural configuration of
the three stories nave in the center.
 The nave is composed of the two pillared
galleries one above the other. The whole
structure being supported on the tall
column of the hall below. These galleries
enclosed a wide central shaft of space
called as “rotunda”.
 The lower galleries are square in plan and
upper is in the octagonal shape. This
rotunda is carried up through two stories
and is covered by a dome. At each stage is a platform with a balcony overlooking the
rotunda and provided with a sloping backed seat.
 Around the exterior of these galleries are pillared verandahs or loggias and in the
arched between the pillars are perforated stone screens. Through these screens, the
galleries are illuminated; they are so arranged that no direct light can penetrate.

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WAVS OR BAURIS OF GUJRAT
• In Ahmedabad, the builders were not only building mosques and
tombs in the city and its sub-urbs, but also numerous Baolis or well
retreats as shelters from the heat of the long summer months.
• These hot weather retreats were not just civil adjuncts to the
religious architecture, but veritable works of art in themselves.
• These wavs of Gujarat were not merely erections over the well shaft
but took the form of extensive subterranean galleries of a highly
architectural order.
• They generally consisted of a well shaft from which water was
drawn up by ropes in the usual manner, and also a flight of steps
which took one down to the water level.
• Around the shaft were arranged a series of underground
compartments one over the other.
• The pillars, capitals, wall surfaces and cornices, all being very
profusely sculptured as the temples and mosques of Gujarat.

 Two of the more prominent examples of such well retreats are the
Bai Hari at Ahmadabad (AD 1499) and the Bhamaria well just
outside the town of Mahmudabad.
 Bai hari’s wav is approached through a fine domed pavilion from
where one descends down an 18ft wide flight of steps.
 After passing through four levels of pillared loggias, each
exquisitely crafted one reaches the 24ft square central shaft from
where one is led to the variable water level by two spiral staircases.
 Four tiers of pillared galleries support the sides of the shaft and
provide cool resting places for the people using the well.
 The Gujarat craftsman, to whom the buildings of a well was as
sacred as that of building a temple or mosque, had thus erected a
fine treasure house of culture for those who came to draw water
daily from the well.

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GARDEN SUBURBS OF SARKHEJ
 The Sarkhej Roza is an graceful architectural creation amazing for the use of pierced
stone trellises and complete absence of arches.
 Sarkhej Roza, the tombs of Saint Ahmed Khattu Baksh and that of Emperor Mehmud
Shah Beguda and his queen. The diplomatic atmosphere makes it an ideal retreat.
 Sarkhej (about 10 kms. southwest of Ahmedabad) is noted for its stylish group of
buildings, including the Mausoleum of Azam and Mu'assam, who were responsible for
Sarkhej's architecture.
 The architecture here is attractive because the style is almost wholly Hindu, with little
of the Saracenic pressure so evident in Ahmedabad.
 The site to build a tomb as a homage to Shaikh Ahmad Khattri (1441 AD) at Sarkhej was
considerable picturesque one, the focal point of which was a large water tank.
 Sarkhej in due course became a suburban retreat for the Gujarat rulers and gradually
‘there arose palaces, gardens, pavillions, gateways and a large artificial lake, besides
other mausoleums’.
 However with the building of a tomb and a mosque in honour of the Shaikh.
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  The appeal of both these structures lies in their sumptuous largeness rather than fine
architectural detail.

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  In fact, the vast mosque, measuring some 225ftX157ft has a rather wild appeal in the
bunching together of Hindu columns of unending variety.
 The equally huge tomb consisting of a square hall of 104ft (32m) side is an unusually
large hypostyle hall forested with columns.
 The central domed portion of the hall has been enclosed within an unusual brass
framed screen to form the sepulcher .

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  Though later Mohammed Beghara decided to build his
own tomb amongst these picturesque surroundings, a
small pavilion in front of his tomb best represents the
architectural style of Sarkhej.
 This open pavilion is structured out of 16’ tall and
graceful shafts, devoid of any ornamentation except a
countersinking on the angles.
 It is roofed with nine small domes, which both internally
and externally form ‘as pleasing a mode of roofing as
ever was applied in such a small detached building of
this class’.
 In its architecture, Sarkhej Roza is an example of the
early Islamic architectural culture of the region, which
fused Islamic stylistic influences from Persia with
indigenous Hindu and Jain features to form a composite
“Indo-Saracenic” architectural style.
 The architectural style of Sarkhej Roza is a precursor to
the Mughal period in a true amalgamation of Hindu, Jain
and Islamic styles.
 Hindu craftsmanship and construction know-how was
overlaid on Islamic sense of geometry and scale.
 The Roza Complex at Sarkhej was built at the advent of
Sultanate era.

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