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India : The Mughal |
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An
Introduction to the Mughal Dynasty and Mughal Agra
The Mughal Dynasty is a line of Muslim emperors who reigned
in India from 1526 to 1858. Babur, the first mughal emperor,
was a descendant of the Turkish conqueror Timur on his father's
side and of the Mongol (in Persian, mughal) conqueror Genghis
Khan on his mother's side, Invaded India from Afghanistan and
founded the Mughal Empire on the ruin of the Delhi Sultanate.
From 1526, when Babur defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the ruler
of Delhi and established himself in neighbouring Agra, until
1638, when his great-great-grandson Shah Jehan built a new capital
city in Delhi again, Agra was a repository for all the wealth
and talent of one of the most extensive empires in the medieval
world.
The many elements that led to the creation of the Taj Mahal
had their roots in the reigns of earlier monarchs : Babur, Humayun,
Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jehan, Aurangzeb, each of whom contributed
his particular aesthetic interests and endeavours to the establishment
of what we have subsequently called the Mughal Style, a style
which blended the Persian patterns brought by the Mughals with
the indigenous genius for fine craftsmanship.
The
amazing achievements in the Mughal architectural tradition owe
much to the great talent of Indian artisans and the wealth of
material found in India, including the abundance of stone. Each
emperor used local materials and indigenous forms and craftsmanship
to nurture and bring to fruition a unique enduringly beautiful
architectural tradition. The Mughal style found triumphant fulfilment
in the building of the Taj Mahal, the most splendid expression
of the centuries of Mughal rule in India. The Taj Mahal was
the last and greatest architectural flowering of the Mughal
period in Agra, before its builder, Shah Jehan (1592-1658) shifted
the imperial centre of power and administration to what is now
called Delhi.
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Babur
Although Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire, ruled only for
four brief years, he left his impress on all that was to follow.
His love for nature led him to create gardens of great beauty
on the formal charbagh (four quarters) plan. His Arambagh in Agra
set the pattern for the gardens which became an intrinsic part
of every Mughal fort, palace and tomb in the centuries that followed.
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Humayun
Babur's son Humayun succeeded him in 1530, but was defeated
by Sher Shah, an Afghan who ruled north India for 15 years,
in 1540. Humayun only just managed to regain his father's territories
before his death and the accession of his 13 year old son, Akbar,
whose 49 year reign laid the foundation of empire, and the development
of a new style of architecture
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Akbar
Humayun's son Akbar, who reigned from 1556 to 1605, decisively
defeated the Afghans and firmly established Mughal supremacy
in northern India. One of India's greatest rulers, he extended
a sound administrative system, and won the loyalty of his Hindu
subjects by abolishing the personal tax on them and by appointing
them to high civil and military posts. Akbar was receptive to
all creeds and doctrines, and he tried to found an eclectic
religion. Nine years after he became emperor, Akbar, ordered
the construction of a fort beside the river Yamuna in what is
now called Agra. The construction proceeded at a hectic pace
and within eight years, most of the five hundred buildings within
the fort were complete. By the time he was 26 years old, Akbar
had power, prestige and great wealth, but despite a large number
of wives, he had no heir. A mystic, by the name of Salim Chisti
prophesised that the emperor would have not one but three sons.
When the prophesy came true, Akbar decided to build a new capital
city (Fatehpur Sikri) on the rocky ridge outside Agra upon which
Salim Chisti had his hermitage, using the red sandstone of the
ridge itself. Fatehpur Sikri consists of a number of highly
individual structures united by the unvarying use of red sandstone
and the intricate ornamentation that characterises them. Akbar
employed local masons and craftsmen and allowed them the freedom
to use their traditional skills to create a style which has
been called Akbari. At the summit of the ridge, Emperor Akbar
built an enormous congregational mosque, the Jami Masjid. Later,
he added a massive triumphal gate, called the Buland Darwaza
at the southern entrance to the mosque. The dominant, aggressive
dimensions of the Buland Darwaza provide a perfect foil to the
other addition to the mosque; the single storeyed, daintily
decorated tomb built for Salim Chisti. Akbar's own palace was
a double storeyed structure located behind a pool of water.
Spectacular accompanying buildings include the Turkish Sultana
Begum's palace, the Diwan-i-khas, the Panch Mahal, the Hawa
Mahal, Mariam's palace and Birbal's house. The entire palace
complex is adorned with exquisite carvings, lattice and pierced
stone screens, wall paintings, canopied roofs, carved brackets
and pilasters. Akbar chose the site for his own tomb himself,
at a place called Sikandra, near Agra. Sikandra, in a sense,
marks the transition between the strong, square, earthbound
buildings that characterise the Akbari style and the delicate
airy marble structures that Shah Jehan built two generations
later. The beginning of inlay work that was so much a part of
Shah Jehan's buildings are visible at Sikandra in the bold patterns
that decorate the gateway.
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Jehangir
Thanks to Akbar's organising genius, the Mughal administration
functioned well under his son Jehangir from 1605 to 1627. There
was not a great deal of architectural activity during Jehangir's
reign, with one exception. This was the tomb Jehangir and his
wife Nur Jahan built for Nur Jahan's father, Itimad-ud-Daulah,
who was Jehangir's most important courtier. While the structure
itself is fairly simple, the manner in which it has been carved
and inlaid with semi-precious stones demonstrates the mastery
over this craft which was to find such perfect expression in
the Taj Mahal. Lapis lazuli, onyx, jasper, topaz, and carnelian
have been combined with marble of various hues to create designs
of unsurpassed elegance, interspread with finely carved screens.
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Shah
Jehan
Jehangir's son and successor, Shah Jehan ruled from 1628 to
1658. He was a great patrons of the arts, and Mughal painting
and architecture, blending Persian and Indian traditions, reached
their zenith at this time.
With the accession of Shah Jehan to the throne, came a flowering
of architecture both in Agra and Delhi. The profusion of white
marble buildings raised during the period of Shah Jehan, led
one scholar to characterise it as the reign of marble. Red sandstone
and brick remained major building materials, but the use of
marble is expressive of the very high standards of elegance
and luxury that governed all aspects of an architectural project
throughout Shah Jehan's reign. The innovations seen in the buildings
created during Shah Jehan's reign are striking demonstrations
of the effect of particular aesthetic and political concerns.
In addition to a greater use of marble, which was a textural
quality quite distinct from the red sandstone favoured by his
predecessors, there was refinement of the architectural vocabulary.
Among specific changes were the introduction of cusped arches
and of pillars with tapering shafts and baluster detailing.
Many developments can be directly related to a desire to articulate
more forcefully paradisiacal and imperial theme, drawing on
sources that included European motifs.
Shah
Jehan had many earlier structures in the Agra Fort dismantled
in order to make room for his own marble pavilions. It seems
that immediately upon his accession in 1628, Shah Jehan ordered
palace additions to the existing forts at Agra and Lahore. The
most notable complex of white marble palace structures is situated
on the eastern edge of the fortified walls built by Akbar bordering
the Yamuna river. Among these is Muthamman Burg (Jasmine Tower),
built at a point where the main north-south wall of the fort
takes a turn towards the east. The octagonal room, which offers
an exceptional view of the Taj Mahal, is supposed to be the
place where Shah Jehan died in 1666. The Muthamman Burg is connected
with a series of other marble pavilions forming the east side
of a large courtyard that once contained a garden. Only the
structure and not the flora survives today. To the north of
the palace quarters bordering the garden are additional rooms
including the Hall of Private Audience, which is a marble pillared
hall decorated with profuse inlay. The Shish mahal which is
located close to the royal apartments, has hundreds of small
mirrors embedded in stucco decorations, in intricate floral
and geometrical designs. Some distance away is the magnificent
Moti Masjid, the Pearl Mosque built at an elevation so that
its ethereal domes and kiosks are visible above the walls of
the fort.
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Aurangzeb
Shah Jehan's son Aurangzeb was the last Great Mughal. Reigning
from 1658 to 1707, he was a stern puritan and a religious bigot
who sought to impose orthodox Islam on all of India. He dismissed
Hindus from public service, reimposed tax on them, and destroyed
their temples. Aurangzeb spent the latter half of the reign
trying to conquer southern India. Although he brought the Mughal
Empire to its greatest extent, his wars helped weld the Marathas
into a powerful enemy and exhausted imperial resources. Although
patronage declined after the reign of Shah Jehan, elaborate
architectural projects were undertaken for later Mughal rulers.
The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and the Pearl Mosque in the Delhi
fort are but two examples built for Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb chose
to be buried in a simple open-air grave, but the tomb of his
wife (Bibi-ka-Maqbara) at Aurangabad, is quite elaborate. Although
small, the Pearl Mosque in particular, represents a continuation
not only of the architectural vocabulary established during
the reign of Shah Jehan but also of the use of expensive building
materials such as white marble, though the elongated shape of
domes and arches signals a change in taste. Soon after Aurangzeb's
death the empire broke up. The 19th. and last Mughal ruler,
Bahadur Shah II was deposed by the British in 1858.
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