History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s2: Sher Shâh, A.D. 1539-1545.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s2
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- English
Sher Shâh, A.D. 1539-1545.
v2.c31.s2.1
Certainly one of the most remarkable men who ever ruled in northern India, though his reign was limited to only five years' duration; and during that brief space, disturbed by all the troubles incident to a usurpation, Sher Shâh left his impress on every branch of the administration. The revenue system, the police, the army administration, all the great reforms, in fact, which Akbar so successfully carried out, were commenced, and to some extent perfected, by this usurper, as the Mughals call him. In architecture, too, which most concerns us here, he certainly pointed out the path by which his successor reached such eminence.
v2.c31.s2.2
The most perfect of his buildings that I am acquainted with is the mosque in the Purânâ Kìlâ or Kilâ Kohnâ at Delhi. The walls of this place were repaired by Humâyûn in A.D. 1533, and, according to the latest authorities, it is said to have been built by Sher Shâh in A.D. 1541 (Plate XXXII.).¹ It is a single hall, with five openings in front through pointed arches of what we would call Tudor form, but beautifully varied in design, and arranged in panels carved with the most exquisite designs and ornamented with parti-coloured marbles. It is 168 ft. long by 44 ft. 6 in. wide, and about 44 ft. high. The brackets under the balconies are the precursors of the type so marked in the red sandstone palace in the fort at Agra; and the pendentives inside, below the dome, are effective. One important dome, pierced with twelve small windows, crowns the centre; it has, however, no minarets and no courtyard, but even without these adjuncts it is one of the most satisfactory buildings of its class in India.
v2.c31.s2.3
¹ Cunningham, 'Reports,' vol. i. p. 222; vol. iv. p. 74; Carr Stephen's 'Archæology of Delhi,' p. 190; Fanshawe's 'Delhi,' p. 228, from which the plate is taken.
v2.c31.s2.5
In the citadel at Agra there stood when I was there, a fragment of a palace built by Sher Shâh, or his son Salîm, which was as exquisite a piece of decorative art as anything of its class in India. Being one of the first to occupy the ground, this palace was erected on the highest spot within the fort; hence our Government, fancying this a favourable site for the erection of a barrack, pulled it down, and replaced it by a more than usually hideous brick erection of their own. This afterwards became a warehouse, and looms, in whitewashed ugliness, over the marble palaces of the Mughals—a fit standard of comparison of the tastes of the two races.¹
v2.c31.s2.6
¹ As I cannot find any trace of this building in Keene's description of the fort in his book on Agra, I presume it must have been utilised since my day. Unless it is the building he calls the Nobut Khana of Akbar's palace (26). I have never seen it in any photograph of the place.
v2.c31.s2.7
Judging from the fragment that remains, and the accounts received on the spot, this palace must have gone far to justify the eulogium more than once passed on the works of these Pathâns—that "they built like giants, and finished like goldsmiths:" for the stones seem to have been of enormous size, and the details of most exquisite finish. It has passed away, however, like many another noble building of its class, under the ruthless barbarism of our rule. Mosques we have generally spared, and sometimes tombs, because they were unsuited to our economic purposes, and it would not answer to offend the religious feelings of the natives. But when we deposed the kings, and appropriated their revenues, there was no one to claim their now useless abodes of splendour. It was consequently found cheaper either to pull them down, or use them as residences or arsenals, than to keep them up, so that very few now remain for the admiration of posterity.
v2.c31.s2.8
The tomb of Sher Shâh has been already described (*ante*, p. 218), as it is essentially Pathân in style. It was erected at his native place in Bihâr, to the south of the Ganges, far from Mughal influence at that time, and in the style of severe simplicity that characterised the works of his race between the times of Tughlaq and those of Bahlol Lodî (a.d. 1451-1489), the last really independent king of his line.
v2.c31.s2.9
It is not quite clear how much of the tomb was built by himself, or how much by his son Salîm, who certainly finished it. Salîm also built the Salîmgarh on an island in the Jamnâ, which Shâh Jahân afterwards connected by a bridge with his palace in New Delhi. Whether, however, he erected any buildings inside is not certain—nothing at least now remains of any importance. Generally he seems to have carried on and completed his father’s buildings, and between them they have left a group of architectural remains which, if collected together and illustrated, would form an interesting chapter in the history of Indian-Muhammadan styles.¹
v2.c31.s2.10
¹ It is not quite clear how much Rhotâsgarh owes its magnificence to Sher Shâh, how much to Akbar; both certainly built there, and on the spot it might easily be ascertained how much belongs to each. Unfortunately the British “converted the beautiful Dîwân Khâna, of which Daniell published a drawing, into a stable for breeding horses.”—Hamilton’s ‘Gazetteer,’ *sub voce*.