History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c27: Chapter VI.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c27

Language: English

v2.c27.s1 Chronology. — 25 parts

Chapter VI.

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CONTENTS. Dhâr—The Great Mosque at Mandû—The Palaces.

Chronology.

| Sultân Dilâwar Ghûrî | A.D. 1401 | Sultân Ghiyâs Shâh Khaljî | A.D. 1475 |
| Sultân Hûshang Ghûrî | „ 1405 | Sultân Nâsir Shâh | „ 1500 |
| Muhammad Ghaznî Khân | „ 1434 | Sultân Mahmûd II. | „ 1510 |
| Mahmûd Shâh I. Khaljî, cotemp. Rânâ Kumbha of Chitor | „ 1436 | Mâlwâ incorporated with Gujarât —— annexed by Akbar | „ 1530 „ 1569 |

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THE Ghûrî dynasty of Mandû attained independence about the same time as the Sharqîs of Jaunpur,—Sultân Dilâwar, who governed the province of Mâlwâ from A.D 1387, having assumed the title of Shâh in A.D. 1401. It is, however, to his successor Hûshang, that Mandû owes its greatness and all the finest of its buildings. The state continued to prosper as one of the independent Moslim principalities till A.D. 1530, when it was incorporated with Gujarât, and was finally annexed to Akbar's dominion in A.D. 1569.

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The original capital of the state was Dhâr, an old Hindû city, about 24 miles northward of Mandû, to which the seat of government was transferred after it became independent. Though an old and venerated city of the Hindûs, Dhâr contains no evidence of its former greatness, except two mosques erected wholly of Hindû remains. The principal of these, the Jâmi' Masjid, has a courtyard measuring 102 ft. north and south, by 131 ft. in the other direction. The mosque itself is 119 ft. by 40 ft. 6 in., and its roof is supported by sixty-four pillars of Hindû architecture, 12 ft. 6 in. in height, and all of them more or less richly carved, and the three domes that adorn it are also of purely Hindû form. The court is surrounded by an arcade containing forty-four columns, 10 ft. in height, but equally rich in carving. There is here no screen of arches, as at the Qutb or at Ajmîr. Internally nothing is visible but Hindû pillars, and, except for their disposition and the prayer-niches that adorn the western wall, it might be taken for a Hindû building. In this instance, however, there seems no doubt that there is nothing *in situ*. The pillars have been brought from desecrated temples in the town, and arranged here by the Muhammadans as we now find them, probably before the transference of the capital to Mandû.

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The other mosque is similar to this one, and only slightly smaller. It has long, however, ceased to be used as a place of prayer, and is sadly out of repair. It is called the Lât Masjid, from an iron pillar which lay half-buried in front of its gateway. This is sometimes supposed to have been a *jayastambha* or pillar of victory, like that at the Qutb; but this can hardly be the case. If it were intended for an ornamental purpose, it would have been either round or octagonal, and had some ornamental form. As it is, it is broken into three pieces, the longest measuring 24 ft. 3 in., the end being about 11 in. square, but above 2 ft. from it, is about 10⅜ in. square; the second section is 11 ft. 7 in. long, about three-fourths of which is square and the remainder octagonal; and the third piece is of 7 ft. 6 in. and octagonal with the exception of a circular collar at the end.¹ My impression is, that it was used for some useful constructive purpose, like those which supported the false roof in the Sun-temple at Kanârak (*ante*, page 107). There are some holes into it, which might tend to make this view of its origin probable. But, be this as it may, it is another curious proof of the employment of large masses of iron by the Hindûs at a time when they were supposed to be incapable of any such mechanical exertion. Its date is probably that of the pillars of the mosques where it is found, and from their style they probably belong to the 10th or 11th century.

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¹ H. Cousens in ‘Archæological Survey Annual Report, 1902-1903,’ pp. 205ff.

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The site on which the city of Mandû is placed is one of the noblest occupied by any capital in India. It is an extensive plateau, detached from the mainland of Mâlwâ by a deep ravine about 300 to 400 yards across, where narrowest, and nowhere less than 200 ft. in depth. This is crossed by a noble causeway, defended by three gateways, and flanked by tombs on either hand. The plateau is surrounded by walls erected on the brink of the cliff—it is said 28 miles in extent. This, however, conveys a very erroneous idea of the size of the place, unless qualified by the information that the walls follow the sinuosities of the ravines wherever they occur, and many of these cut into the hill a mile or two, and are only half a mile across. The plateau may be 4 or 5 miles east and west, and 3 miles north and south, most pleasingly diversified in surface, abounding in water, and fertile in the highest degree, as is too plainly evidenced by the rank vegetation, which was tearing the buildings of the city to pieces or obscuring them so that, till quite lately, they could hardly be seen.

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The Delhi gate on the north of the fortifications by which they are entered, has been a fine lofty structure, though now much ruined: it also is purely Pathân in style, but unusually elegant in proportions and decoration.

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The finest building in the city is the Jâmi' Masjid, commenced by Hûshang Shâh, the second king, who reigned from A.D. 1405 to A.D. 1434, but it was only finished by Mahmûd Shâh I. in 1454. Though not very large, it is so simple and grand in outline and details, that it ranks high among the monuments of its class. Its dimensions are externally 290 ft. from east to west, exclusive of the porch on the east—which projects about 55 ft.—by 271 ft. from north to south.

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402. Sketch plan of Mosque at Mandû. Scale 114 ft. to 1 in.

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Internally, the courtyard is almost an exact square of 162 ft., and in other respects the four sides of the court are exactly similar, each being ornamented by eleven great arches of precisely the same dimensions and height, supported by piers or pillars, each 10 ft. high, of one single block of red sandstone. The only variety attempted is, that the east side has two arcades in depth, the north and south three: while the west side, or that facing Mecca, has five, besides being ornamented by three great domes, each 42 ft. in diameter.

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As will be seen on the plan (Woodcut No. 402), these large domes are supported each by twelve pillars. The pillars are all equally spaced, the architect having omitted, for the sake of uniformity, to widen the central avenues on the intersection of which the domes stand. It follows from this that the four sides of the octagon supporting the dome, which are parallel to the sides of the court, are shorter than the four diagonal sides. Internally, this produces a very awkward appearance; but it could not have been avoided except by running into another difficulty—that of having oblong spaces at the intersections of the wider aisles with the narrower, to which the smaller domes must have been fitted. Perhaps, on the whole, the architect took the less inconvenient course of the two.

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The interior of the court is represented in Woodcut No. 403, and for simple grandeur and expression of power it may, perhaps,

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403. Courtyard of Great Mosque at Mandû. (From a Sketch by the Author.)

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be taken as one of the very best specimens now to be found in India. It was, however, fast falling to decay, and a few years ago considerable repairs were executed on it and others of the Mandû monuments at the expense of the Dhâr state.

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The tomb of the founder, which stands behind the mosque, though not remarkable for size, is a very grand specimen of the last resting-place of a stern old Pathân king. Both internally and externally it is reveted with white marble, artistically, but not constructively, applied, and consequently was in many places peeling off. The light is admitted by the doorway and two small windows by the sides of it, and by three perforated marble screens on the north side, so that the interior is not more gloomy than seems suitable to its destination.

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On one side of the mosque is a splendid Dharmasâla or hall, 230 ft. long, supported by three ranges of pillars, twenty-eight in each row. These are of a pattern purely Hindû; only on the capitals the *kîrttimukh* or horned gorgon face, so frequent in Hindû decoration, has been hewn into a group of leaves of the same outline; and on the north side is a porch, of which the pillars and style are purely Hindû.

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The palaces of Mandû are, however, perhaps even more remarkable than its mosques. Of these the principal is called Jahâz Mahall or "water palace," from its being situated between two great tanks—almost literally in the water, like a "ship." It is a massive structure, the eastern façade being about 360 ft. long and 40 ft. in height, in the centre of which is the arched entrance, faced with marble, and still in fair preservation; over it is a projecting cornice supported on brackets, above which is a bracketed balcony under an oblong pavilion. In the front of the lower storey on each side are five arches under a deep overhanging cornice, and over each end of the façade is a domed pavilion. On one side is a ruined wing of the palace branching off from it; and on the opposite side were other apartments and a stair leading up to the roof. Seen from the west, where it overhangs the lake, this is altogether a striking building. Its mass and picturesque outline make it one of the most remarkable edifices of its date; very unlike the refined elegance afterwards introduced by the Mughals, but well worthy of being the residence of an independent Pathân chief of a warrior state.

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The principal apartment is a vaulted hall, some 24 ft. wide by twice that length, and 24 ft. in height, flanked by buttresses massive enough to support a vault four times its section. Across the end of the hall is a range of apartments three storeys in height, and the upper ones adorned with rude, bold, balconied windows. Beyond this is a long range of vaulted halls, standing in the water, which were apparently the living apartments of the palace. Like the rest of the palace they are bold, and massive to a degree seldom found in Indian edifices, and produce a corresponding effect.

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On the brink of the precipice overlooking the valley of the Narbadâ is another palace, called that of Bâz Bahâdur, of a lighter and more elegant character—built apparently by Nâsiru-d-Dîn Khaljî in 1509, but even more ruined than the northern palace—some portions of the courtyards and the cupolas over the colonnades are almost the only parts that remain. On the hill above is what is known as Rûpamatî's Chhatri, still in fair preservation.

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North of the Jâmi' Masjid stands the Hindola Mahall or Palace, which, with its massive masonry, is in rather better preservation than the others. The sloping, buttressed walls, projecting balconies and deep-set windows of this fine building present an appearance of great strength; and the great hall within, 88 ft. 6 in. long by 24 ft. wide and 38 ft. high, its roof supported on arches, was a splendid apartment. To the north of this were store-rooms below, and above the Zanâna apartments: and at some distance to the west are the large underground cisterns and *tah-khânas*, or hot-weather retreats of the Champâ well or *baulî*. These indicate the care and taste bestowed on such appendages of a Muhammadan palace 500 years ago.

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The Nahâr Jharokhâ Palace is to the north of the Hindola Mahall, and also within the walled enclosure; and outside is Dilâwar Khân Ghûrî's mosque, the oldest in Mandû (1405), constructed of materials taken from Hindû shrines. It has, however, a simplicity of structure about it characterising it as a typical Pathân work.

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About 80 yards to the south of the Jahâz Mahall is the Tawilî Mahall, a three-storeyed building, with its rows of lofty Saracenic arches below deep stone eaves and heavy windowless upper storeys. It lies across a beautiful foreground of water and ruins.

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Scattered over the whole plateau are ruins of tombs and buildings of every class and so varied as almost to defy description. In their solitude, in a vast uninhabited jungle, they convey as vivid an impression of the ephemeral splendour of these Muhammadan dynasties as anything in India, and, if properly illustrated, would alone suffice to prove how wonderfully their builders had grasped the true elements of architectural design.

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Here, as elsewhere, the available materials have exercised a marked influence upon the architecture; the prevalence of a red sandstone is emphasised in the piers of the Jâmi' Masjid—more than 300 of them being each of a single block of this material; and for more decorative purposes marble, both white and coloured, was freely used to revet the walls and piers. We have here a strictly arcuate style, without admixture of the general trabeate structural methods followed by the native Hindûs; and while at Jaunpur and Ahmadâbâd, at the same period, we find the strong influence of native methods copied in the Muhammadan architecture, at Mandû the borrowing or imitating of such forms seems to have been suppressed, and the builders clung steadily to the pointed arch style, without any attempt, however, at groining—so successfully employed at a later period by the Mughal architects.¹

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¹ 'History of Mandu, by a Bombay Subaltern' (Lieut. Blake), Bombay reprint, 1875; Capt. C. Harris, 'Ruins of Mandoo,' fol. (1860); 'Journal of the Bombay Br. R. Asiatic Society,' vol. xix. (1895), pp. 154-201; vol. xxi. (1902), pp. 378-391; 'Archæological Survey Annual Report, 1903-1904,' pp. 30-45.