The world famous Taj Mahal is but one of the many magnificent buildings erected by the Mughal emperors who ruled India from the early sixteenth century through to the middle of the nineteenth. To date scholars have considered the most splendid of these works built by the rulers, while the lesser known or remotely situated structures have been ignored altogether. In this volume, Professor Catherine Asher considers the entire scope of architecture built under the auspices of the imperial Mughals and their subjects. Professor Asher covers the precedents of Mughal style and traces the architectural development of each monarchical reign. She shows that the evolution of imperial Mughal architectural taste and idiom was directly related to political and cultural ideology. This was the case from the planting of an ordered and regular garden, symbolic of paradise, and the building of state mosques, to the construction of an entire planned city, indicative of the emperor's role as father to his people. Construction outside the center, which was often carried out by the nobility, was as important as developments within the major cities. Catherine Asher demonstrates how these agents of the emperor curried favor with their rulers by building large and permanent edifices in the imperial Mughal style. Even though Mughal authority diminished considerably in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the imperial Mughal architectural style and taste served as a model for that in developing splinter states. This book shows how it represented the cultural and social values of the Mughals, which were cherished by Muslims living increasingly under western colonial rule. In Architecture of Mughal India Catherine Asher presents the first comprehensive study of Mughal architectural achievements. The work is lavishly illustrated and will be widely read by students and specialists of South Asian history and architecture as well as by anyone interested in the magnificent buildings of the Mughal empire.

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA

Architecture of Mughal India

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIAGeneral editor GORDON JOHNSON Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Selwyn CollegeAssociate editors C. A. BAYLY Professor of Modern Indian History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St Catharine's College and J O H N F. RICHARDS Professor of History, Duke University

Although the original Cambridge History of India, published between 1922 and 1937, did much to formulate a chronology for Indian history and describe the administrative structures of government in India, it has inevitably been overtaken by the mass of new research published over the last fifty years. Designed to take full account of recent scholarship and changing conceptions of South Asia's historical development, The New Cambridge History of India will be published as a series of short, self-contained volumes, each dealing with a separate theme and written by a single person, within an overall four-part structure. As before, each will conclude with a substantial bibliographical essay designed to lead nonspecialists further into the literature. The four parts are as follows: I The Mughals and their Contemporaries. II Indian States and the Transition to Colonialism. Ill The Indian Empire and the Beginnings of Modern Society. IV The Evolution of Contemporary South Asia. A list of individual titles already published and those in preparation will be found at the end of the volume.

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THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIAI :4 Architecture of Mughal India CATHERINE B. ASHERASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITY PRESS

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PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United KingdomCAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY IOOI 1-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vie 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://wwTv.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 1992 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1992 Reprinted 2001, 2003

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, CambridgeA catalogue record for this hook is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard. Architecture of Mughal India / Catherine B. Asher. p. cm. - (The New Cambridge history of India) Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN o 521 26728 5

1. Architecture, Mogul. 2. Architecture, Islamic - India. 1. Title. 11. Series. DS436.N47 1992 [NA1502] 954 s dc20 [72O'.954] 91-31572 CIP ISBN 0521 26728 5 hardback

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CONTENTS

List ofplates page viii General editor's preface xvii Preface xix XXlll List of abbreviations XXV Glossary Map of major pre-Mughal and Mughal sites xxx 1 Precedents for Mughal architecture 2 The beginnings of Mughal architecture 3 The age of Akbar 4 Jahangir: an age of transition 5 Shah Jahan and the crystallization of Mughal style 6 Aurangzeb and the Islamization of the Mughal style 7 Architecture and the struggle for authority under the later Mughals and their successor states Bibliographical essays Index i 19 39 99 169 252

292 335 357

Vll

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PLATES

1 Plan of Aibek's Jamic mosque (the Quwwat al-Islam 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 mosque), Delhi. After J. A. Page Screen of Aibek's Jami c mosque c Alai Darwaza, Q u w w a t al-Islam mosque, Delhi Plan of Jami c mosque, Lodi Gardens, Delhi Qal c a-i Kuhna mosque, Delhi Pool, Bagh-i Nilufar (Lotus garden), Dholpur Plan of Babur's mosque (Kabuli Bagh mosque), Panipat Babur's mosque, Panipat Mir H i n d u Beg's mosque, Sambhal Mir Baqi's mosque (the Baburi mosque), Ayodhya Sher Mandal, Delhi H u m a y u n ' s mosque (the Kachpura mosque), Agra Mihrab o n screen around Amir Khusrau's tomb, Delhi H u m a y u n i mosque, Fatehabad Gate, Khair al-Manazil mosque, Delhi Partial facade, t o m b of Ataga Khan, Delhi T o m b of A d h a m Khan, Delhi H u m a y u n ' s tomb, Delhi Plan of H u m a y u n ' s tomb. After A . Volwahsen Akbar's palace, Ajmer Jahangiri Mahal, Agra fort, Agra Plan of major structures at Akbar's palace, Fatehpur Sikri. After Attilio Petruccioli Buland Darwaza, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology Plan of the Jami c mosque, Fatehpur Sikrivin

PaSe 3 5 7 12 13 23 26 27 29 31 33 35 36 37 42 43 44 45 47 48 49 53 54 55

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LIST OF PLATES 25 Jami mosque, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology 26 T o m b of Shaikh Salim Chishti, Fatehpur Sikri 27 28 29 Hiran Minar, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology Akbar's throne, Public Audience Hall, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology Carved panel, Turkish Sultana's House, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute Archaeology 30 Akbar's jharoka, exterior facade, Daftar Khana, Fatehpur Sikri. American and Archaeology 31 32 33 34 Diwan-i Khass, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology Interior pillar, Diwan-i Khass, Fatehpur Sikri. American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology Panch Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri Govind Deva temple, Brindavan 64 65 69 70 71 73 75 yj 78 j .Achiball Delhi, Agra Patna Allahabad* Ahmadabad/ Sarkhei

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