AR6202

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE &CULTURE –II

LECTURE 1 UNIT – II

ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE DELHI

SULTANATE

Hindu & Islamic Architecture

Let's have a recap of the history of Indian architecture timeline so what we saw
in our previous semesters was about ancient India and early India, the Indus
valley,the Aryan culture, the Buddhist period, the Dravidian culture, then we
came to the mediaeval India period where we started saying about Chola
architecture, Nayak architecture, right now we are in this part of the timeline
that is the Islamic period,we are in the medievalIndian time period.

Let's see how Islamic architecture had its impact in Indian subcontinent,let's
have a recap of how Islam as a religion was spread from Arabia to various parts
of the world so as you can see Islam was obviously spread in India. If you see
the time period from 7 century there were influences of Islamic rulers in India.
The first Muslim ruler who came to India came from Iraq and Persia they first
landed in Northwest India in a region called Sindh right now this place is part of
Pakistan but that is where the first Islamic impact happened in India. This is the
place called Sindh this was part of India before independence, in this southern
part of Sindh there is a place called Debal was actually a Hindu region,there
were Muslims merchants who came for trading and apparently during that
period those Muslims merchants were captured and held as captives so once
they released they complain to their rulers and they started attacking the
Hindu region of Debal however they did not succeed in the first two attempts.
In the third attempt what happened was Muhammad bin Qasim was a ruler
and this Islamic ruler defeated Debal and that was when the first mosque was
built in the city. This present Debal is actually remindsof the first mosque that
was built in India,till then what was happening in India was Indians were only
aware of Hindu architecture and temple architecture. Hence in terms of
architecture this was completely a new thing for them so how did India
managed to deal with it so what happened in the scenario.

Let’s first take a look at two images and see what is the contrasting differences
between these images, on your screen you see a temple image a typical South
Indian temple you can see the striking features of temples you have the
Gopuram and various decorative figures on it you have the temple tanks
orated pillars etc, This is typical image of a Mosque if you can see there is no
paramedical kind of Towers, inside you have a domethen you don't have much
of ornamentation in terms of sculptures very plain exterior look alsoin terms of
planning. If you see this is a typical plan of a Mosque and this is a typical plan
of a temple if you start comparing these two you will find many contracting
differences. Firstlythis is more square plan and very open in nature this whole
open courtyard in the centre, where as in the temple if you see it is very
rectangular (oblong) in nature and also the main part of the temple is very
close that is Garbagriha it is not an open planning very introverted kind of
planning.

If we start comparing the Hindu architecture and Islamic architecture we can

list down certain key aspects.Hindu architecture beganreligiously, there were
only religious buildings, whereas in Islamic architecture civic building for public
use palaces fortresses, royal complexes, pavilions gardens were also built has
we saw in a previous lecture the palaces and public buildings were also built.
Ifwe take the orientation, Hindu temples always face the east and Mosque
orientation was towards Mecca which was west for India. In terms of
stylethere is always a mystery related to a Hindu temple architecture there
was not much of a clarity when you enter the temple you were not sure what
of what to expect they were very dark and narrow passage whereas in the
mosque you go there and it is very simple and clear, so temples very dark an
introverted whereas Islamic architecture open to light andair. In Hindu
architecture we saw various sculptures of human figures animals etchere
sculptures were totally prohibited only decorative lettering and inlaywork was
done. In Hindu architecture we saw pyramidical spires of the Gopuramhere it
was replaced by the domes and Minarets and then the main shrine Garbagriha
was small and narrow and the Mihrabwas surrounded by and large enclosures
where people use to gather for prayers. Hindus believe in cremation whereas
Islam was based on burial so concept of domes started evolving.

As you can see their were many differences basically in terms of the religious
principles also in terms of social and cultural aspects so this automatically
reflected in their architectural styles also, but though there were this wide
disparity between these two style it still manage to combine together and form
a very unique style in India so that style of architecture called the Indo Islamic
architecture. In spite of this wide gulf over the years a certain symbiosis did
come into being between the Muslim designers and master Builders and the
Hindu craftsman who carried out the building, both benefited from the others
knowledge and what slowly evolved was distinct new style of architecture –
‘Persian in inspiration but very Indian in execution’. What happened was the
principles and the ideas that Islamic architecture was based on was Persian in
origin because it came from Central Asia but the people who executed here in
India were basically at least to begin with where Hindu craftsman, therefore
they have their own ideologies and principles so these two ideas combined
together formed a whole new style of architecture called the Indo Islamic
architecture.

If you take the Indo Islamic architecture in India it can be broadly classified into
three time period that was the Delhi or the imperial style, the Provincial style
and the Mughal style.

Delhi Sultanate

In this lecture will be seeing about the Delhi or the imperial style, if you take
the Delhi sultanate you can see the map of the Delhi sultanate in various time
period there were five dynasty that ruled over Delhi sultanate. The first four
dynasties were origin from turkey and the fifth one from Afghan; they were
the Slave dynasty, the Khilji dynasty, the Tughlaq dynasty, the Sayyid and Lodhi
Dynasty.

The slave dynasty were the ones that started establishing the Delhi sultanate
so they covered around this region the slave and the Khiljidynasty is covered
mostly the northern part surrounds Delhi, it was during the Tughlaq dynasty
that the extent became more and it almost reached South India so it was
during the rule of the Tughlaq’s that the Delhi sultanate had higher power over
India and again it started declining towards the sayyid and Lodhi Dynasty time
period it was again concentrated in and around Delhi, l so during these five
dynasty is Indo Islamic architecture also evolved in various stages based on the
rulers who ruled them. Let’s start with the first the slave and the Khilji dynasty
one of the very first architectural monuments that they built was the Qutb
complex in Delhi. If you see, this is the plan of the complex the portion marked
in red was the one that was started initially it is the Mosque called the
quwwat-ul Islam Mosque this was built by qutb-ud-din aibak he built the
mosque and also a victory tower called Qutubminar. Later the king Iltumish
and AlauddinKhilji expanded the complex into a very big Complex and added
other structures like domes and other towers. The parts named this is the
quwwat-ul Islam Mosque there is an Iron Pillar here and these are the other
domes that were built. Alai Darwaza is a Gateway that was built for the
Mosque this is an overall view of the Qutub complex, this is the Mosque-
quwwat-ul Islam Mosque, QutubMinar, various domes in the background, you
can see some quarters. Alai Darwazathat served as a gateway to the mosque
this is an unfinished tower called the Alaiminar.

First let's see about the Mosque as I told earlier this was the first part that was
built by qutb-ud-din aibak and then these portions were later expansion. This
was the one of the oldest mosque in Delhi, the mosque was actually built by
destroying Hindu temple so Indo Islamic architecture when it started evolving
in India they needed some base to begin with so what they did was they
destroyed existing Hindu temples and use those materials to recreate their
own building. This is what exactly happened in the oldest mosque in Delhi you
can see in those image the pillars they are all typical pillars that are located in a
Hindu temple so what they did they reused the pillars they stacked one pillar
above the other two achieve the height that they wanted. However what
happened was they did not have the perfection what usually you see in an
Islamic architecture because these were Hindu craftsmen and workers they
had no idea how to build a dome that was a very new thing to them and this
reflected in the building you can see the dome was actually built by corbeling
and you can see the Imperfection in the kind of finish that you see here and
also this series of arches was built to highlight the kibla the axis of Mecca.
What they did was they build 5 arches the central one being the tallest even in
the way they built the arches you can find that the Hindu craft men were
struggling to find perfection in these new style of architecture so instead of
having wedge shaped stones to achieve the arch they actually did corbelling
and achieve these Ogee shaped arches. The images of the interior of the
hypostyle Hall of the mosque, this is another view of the mosque with the arch
screens. This is an Iron Pillar that is located in the complex in the courtyard of
the Mask this is almost 23 feet and 8 inches in height this metal is still not
corrode and its more than 1,600 years because of their pure composition of
Iron, this Pillar still stands pure without rusting. There is a tomb within the
complex build for the iltumish the ruler so this was a period when the concept
of tombs came into existence again this was a new concept for Indian
subcontinent there were no tombs build till then, this building is important
because this was the first time when they tried to tackle the problem of
constructing the dome as we saw in the previous image they tried to build a
dome by corbelling but it didn't give the satisfactory result so in this tomb of
iltumish building they tried the new system of building a dome that is the
squinch system though they adopted this method but in execution they failed
because the spare of the dome was very huge that it caved in them but at least
they started adopting the particular method. It is a square building with the
opening on the three sides and the Western side having the mihrab so what is
the squinches system is basically they have a square base from which it is
tapered to form an octagon again the octagon is tapered to form of circular
base from which the dome was constructed, This squinch system for the first
time adopted in the tomb of iltumish building.

Then Qutubminar is the victory Tower was actually started by qutb-ud-din

aibak who built only the base and the first storey and then later parts were
completed by Iltumish. If you see the plan of QutubMinar there were Flutes all
along the surfaces if you see the lowermost surface semicircular and angular
flutes alternated like this and above that you had only semicircle flutes and the
storey above it had only angular flute and the 4th one was very plain in nature.
There was a spiral staircase and at every level there was a projecting balcony
and exteriors surface was very richly carved with geometrical design and
inscriptions from Quran. You can see the richly decorated balcony here with
floral patterns and bell motives you can see the floral patterns and bell motives
are actually again influence from Hindu architecture so even though it is an
Islamic building you can see traces of influence from the Hindu architecture.
This is Alai minar the unfinished Tower this was started by Ala ud din Khilji and
this was supposed to be twice the height of QutubMinar but this was stopped
after his death right now only the base remains in the complex.

This is Alai Darwaza this was built as a gateway to quwwat-ul Islam Mosque it
was built by ala-ud-din-khilji. It has four gateways it has a square base square
in plan covered by dome and all these archesare horseshoe shaped arches
was built in red sandstone and wherever the horseshoe shaped arches were
provided white marble was used for highlighting it and their recessed windows
on the surfaces which were decorated with jalli works or lattice screen works.
This is one tomb which is a very important in history of Indian architecture
because this tomb of balban is made completely of rubble masonry and this
was the first time that the true arch came into existence. You can see for the
first time they have tried wedged shaped in constructing the arch instead of
corbeling they used wedged shaped stones. This was the first building in which
the true arch came into existence in India which was built in 1280 AD.

Now you are coming to the Tughlaq dynasty one of the most important
examples is tomb of ghiyas-ud-din in Delhi. It was during this time that various
rulers in the Delhi Sultan they started establishing their own cities and named
it after them, so some examples are Mehrauli, QilaRaipithora, siri,
tughlakabad, Firazabad, Shergarh, Shahjehanabad so these cities were built by
king and those cities were named after them they were actually fortified cities
and had various complexes with them like Mosque, tombs etc. Ghiyas-ud-din
also build a city called as tughlakabad so it was so fortified City again it was
meant for mainly defence purpose you can see these huge massive walls
around 10 to 15 metres in height and there were eyelets for arches for
shooting and these semi-circular bastions at regular intervals. You can see the
scale of the fortified walls how huge the city walls must have been at those
times. This is the plan of the Tomb of the ghiyas-ud-din it is a very interesting
building structure in terms of the intonation, but has 7 degrees slope and very
square in plan, around 550 feet in square plan. It is built of red sandstone with
the Dome on top if you see the fennel on top of the dome again it has an
influence of Indoarchitecture these horseshoe shaped arches are highlighted
with white marble on red sandstone it has openings on 3 side and on the
Western side has the mihrab. Hence these marble base runs all around the
building.

Next example of the Tughlaq dynasty is KhirkiMasjid in Delhi it is a very

interesting mosque when compared to the other Mosque that we have seen
till now and the plan itself is very unique instead of having one single
courtyard this particular Mosque has four open courts surrounded by
colonnaded structure and if you see the roof of the Dome against it alternates
with dome roofs and Flat roof structure. This dome has this bastion kind of
structures on all the corner which is very unique because usually for religious
structures these kinds of bastion are not provided it is only for defensive
structure, but in this mosque this can be seen. On these three side you have
these huge flight of steps this entire Mosque built on this strong base of arches
which you can see here and on the Western side you have the mihrab you can
see the one of the 4 courts here, 52 metre square in plan and the plinth 3
metres in height and 4 open courtyards each are 9 metres on a side, these
courtyard service as the source of light and ventilation for the prayers
conducted within the Mosque. You can see the interior images.

What happened during the Sayyid and Lodhi Dynasty is that the state treasure
started to weaken so they did not build much of monuments but they did
build monuments for the dead, that is the tomb architecture was the one that
was thriving during the sayyid and Lodhi Dynasty period. They were the most
significant monuments that were built and mostly they were built in a
necropolis now known as the Lodhi Gardens out of these tombs there were
two different forms one was octagonal in plan mostly it was meant for rulers
they had surrounded arched, walkways and one square in height and other
type square in plan that was resort for nobles of the court. They did not have
any walk ways but it was two or three storey in height but on both cases it was
taught by a dome. We will see one example of a tomb, this is the Tomb of
Bahlul lodhi he was the ruler of the Lodhi Dynasty this is located in Delhi if you
see this structure it is again constructor in rubble masonry it is roof by 5 domes
the central one is alone fluted. As you can see in this particular image you have
5 domes the centre one is alone fluted surrounded by archways on all sides it
has an assembly hall in the Northwest corner and all the brackets and freeze
work is being done above the lintel level so again if you see the interior it is
very plain when compared to exteriors surface.