History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s3: Akbar, 1556-1605.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s3
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Akbar, 1556-1605.
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It would require a volume to describe all the buildings erected by this remarkable man during his long reign of forty-nine years, and a hundred plates would hardly suffice to make known all their peculiarities. Had Akbar been content to follow in the lines of the style invented by the Pathâns and perfected under Sher Shâh, it might be easy enough to follow the sequence, but nothing in his character is so remarkable as the spirit of tolerance that pervaded all his acts. He seems to have had as sincere a love and admiration for his Hindû subjects as he had for those of his own creed, and whether from policy or inclination, to have cherished their arts as much as he did those that belonged exclusively to his own people. The consequence is a mixture throughout all his works of two styles, often more picturesque than correct, which might, in the course of another half century, have been blended into a completely new style if persevered in. The spirit of tolerance, however, died with him. There is no trace of Hinduism in the works of Jahângîr or Shâh Jahân, and Aurangzîb would have been horrified at the suggestion that arts of the infidels could influence anything he did.
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One probably of his earliest works was the mausoleum, which he erected over the remains of his father, Humâyûn, at Delhi. Though it certainly was finished by Akbar, it was commenced by his widow, Hâjî Begam Maryam-makânî, and completed in 1565, at a cost of fifteen lâkhs of rupees; for, as frequently remarked in the previous pages of this work, the great architectural peculiarity of the Tartar or Mongolian races is their tomb-building propensity, in which they are so strongly distinguished from the Aryan, and also from the great Semitic families, with whom they divide the greater part of the habitable globe. Nowhere is this more forcibly illustrated than in India—where the tombs of the Pathâns and Mughals form a complete and unbroken series of architectural monuments from the first years of the Moslim invasion to the present hour.
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The tombs of the Pathâns are less splendid than those of the Mughals; but nevertheless the whole series is singularly interesting, the tombs being far more numerous than the mosques. Generally speaking, also, they are more artistic in design, and frequently not only larger but more splendidly decorated than the buildings exclusively devoted to prayer.
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The princes of the Tartar races, in carrying out their love of tombs, made it the practice to build their own in their lifetime, as all people must who are really desirous of sepulchral magnificence. In doing this they rejected the Egyptian mode of preparing dark and deep chambers in the heart of the rock, or of the massive pyramid. The Tartars, on the other hand, built their sepulchres of such a character as to serve for places of enjoyment for themselves and their friends during their lifetime, and only when they could enjoy them no longer they became the solemn resting-places of their mortal remains.
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The usual process for the erection of these structures is for the king or noble who intends to provide himself a tomb to enclose a garden outside the city walls, generally with high crenellated walls, and with one or more splendid gateways; and in the centre of this he erects a square or octagonal building, crowned by a dome, and in the more splendid examples with smaller and dome-roofed apartments on four of the sides or angles, the other four being devoted to entrances. This building is generally situated on a lofty square terrace, from which radiate four broad alleys, generally with marble-paved canals, ornamented with fountains; a mosque is an essential adjunct; the angular spaces are planted with cypresses and other evergreens and fruit-trees, making up one of those formal but beautiful gardens so characteristic of the East. During the lifetime of the founder, the central building is called a Bâra-darî, summer house or festal hall, and is used as a place of recreation and feasting by him and his friends.
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At his death its destination is changed—the founder’s remains are interred beneath the central dome. Sometimes his favourite wife lies beside him; but more generally his family and relations are buried beneath the collateral domes. When once used as a place of burial, its vaults never again resound with festive mirth. The care of the building is handed over to priests and faqîrs, who gain a scanty subsistence by the sale of the fruits of the garden, or the alms of those who come to visit the last resting-place of their friend or master. Perfect silence takes the place of festivity and mirth. The beauty of the surrounding objects combines with the repose of the place to produce an effect as graceful as it is solemn and appropriate.
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Though the tombs, with the remains of their enclosures, are so numerous throughout all India, the Tâj Mahall, at Agra, is almost the only tomb that retains its garden in anything like its pristine beauty, and there is not perhaps in the whole world a scene where nature and art so successfully combine to produce a perfect work of art as within the precincts of this far-famed mausoleum.
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The tomb of Humâyûn Shâh, the first of the Mughals who was buried in India, still stands tolerably entire among the ruins of Old Delhi, of which indeed it forms the principal and most striking object (Plate XXXIII.). It stands well on a large square platform, 22 ft. in height, adorned with arches, whose piers are ornamented with an inlay of white marble. The tomb itself is an octagonal apartment, 47 ft. 4 in. across, crowned by a dome of white marble, of very graceful contour externally. Four sides of the octagon are occupied by the entrances; the other four smaller octagonal apartments, 23 ft. wide, are attached; these project from the façades of the central bays on each face, and the amount of white marble on them, gives them prominence. In the corner rooms are the tombs of Hâjî Begam and some nine others of the royal race. These apartments make up a building nearly square in plan, about 155 ft. each way, with the angles slightly cut away.¹ Its plan is in fact that afterwards adopted at the Tâj (Woodcut No. 433), but used here without the depth and poetry of that celebrated building. Its most marked characteristic, however, is its purity—it might almost be called poverty—of design. It is so very unlike anything else that Akbar ever built, that it is hardly possible it could have been designed by him. It has not even the picturesque boldness of the earlier Pathân tombs, and in fact looks more like buildings a century at least more modern than it really is. It is, however, as will be seen from the photograph, a noble tomb, and anywhere else must be considered a wonder.
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¹ In the upper storey of the building round the drum supporting the dome, are rooms and pavilions once occupied by a college, long since deserted.
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To illustrate the architecture of the day, however, it may be preferable to take the contemporary tomb of Muhammad Ghaus¹ at Gwâliar, which was erected during the early part of Akbar's reign, and is a singularly interesting example of the tombs of the period.
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¹ Muhammad Ghaus al 'Âlam of Gwâliar, died in 1562.—Blochmann's ''Âîn-i-Akbari,' vol. i. pp. 457f.
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421. Plan of Tomb of Muhammad Ghaus, Gwâliar. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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It is a square, measuring 100 ft. each way, exclusive of the hexagonal towers, which are attached to the angles (Woodcut No. 421). The chamber of the tomb itself is a hall 43 ft. square, with the angles cut off by pointed arches so as to form an octagon, on which the dome rests. Around this square building is a gallery, 20 ft. wide between the piers, enclosed on all sides by a screen of the most exquisite tracery in pierced stone-work with a projecting porch on each face (Woodcut No. 422).²
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² The plan is taken from one by Gen. Cunningham ('Report,' vol. ii. plate 91). He omits, however, these square projections. I have added them from the photographs.
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On comparing this with the tomb of Sher Shâh at Sahsarâm, which in many respects it resembles to a considerable extent, it will be seen that it marks a considerable progress in tomb-building during even the short period that elapsed between the erection of the two. There is an inherent weakness in an octagonal form as compared with the square, that even the Pathâns never quite successfully conquered; and the outward screen of trellis work is far more elegant than the open arcade of the Sahsarâm tomb. Something may be due to the fact that Gwâliar was a city where building of an ornamental character had long been going on, and where consequently a superior school of masons and architects may always have existed, while Sahsarâm was a remote country village, where these advantages were unknown. But be this as it may, the progress is such in so short a time, that we can only ascribe it to the invigorating touch of Akbar's genius, which was afterwards to work such wonders.
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422. Tomb of Muhammad Ghaus, Gwâliar. (From a Photograph.)
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One of the most remarkable and characteristic of Akbar's buildings is the old or Red Palace in the Agra fort, so called from being constructed entirely of red sandstone, unfortunately not of very good quality, and consequently much of its ornament has peeled off. Though most probably erected by Akbar, it goes by the name of the Jahângîr Mahall, and lies on the south side of the Anguri Bâgh and the Khâss Mahall or Palace which is probably largely due to Shâh Jahân. The Red Palace is a square building, measuring 249 ft. by 260 ft. In the centre is a courtyard, 71 ft. by 72 ft., on either side of which are two halls facing one another. The largest, 62 ft. by 37 ft., has a flat ceiling of stone, divided into panels, and supported by struts of purely Hindû design, very similar to those used in the palaces of Mân Singh and Vikrama Shâhi at Gwâliar. Every feature around this court is indeed of pure Hindû architecture. No arches appear anywhere, but the horizontal style of construction everywhere. The ornamentation, too, which is carved on all the flat surfaces, is of a class used by Akbar, but not found in the buildings of others. Indeed, throughout this palace arches are used so sparingly, and Hindû forms and Hindû construction prevail to such an extent, that it would hardly be out of place at Chitor or Gwâliar, though it still bears that impress of vigour and originality that he and he only knew how to impress on all his works.¹
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¹ There is a plan of this palace, in General Cunningham's 'Reports,' vol. iv., plate 13.
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It is, however, at Fathpur-Sîkrî, 22½ miles south-west from Agra, that Akbar must be judged of as a builder. During the whole of his reign it was his favourite residence. He apparently was the first to occupy the spot, and apparently the last, at least, to build there, no single building being identified as having been erected by any of his successors.
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Akbar seems to have had no settled plan when he commenced building there. The original part of the building seems to be the Mahall-î-Khâss, a block of building measuring about 270 ft. by 390 ft. and therefore of larger dimensions than the Red Palace in the fort of Agra. It has two large courtyards, however, and the buildings that surround it are very inferior in richness of design and ornamentation. This, however, is far more than compensated for by the courts and pavilions that he added from time to time. There is the Dîwân-î-Khâss, or private audience-room, a square building with a throne consisting of an enormous flower-like bracket, supported on a richly-carved pillar;² a peristylar building, called his office (Daftar-Khâna), very similar to one he erected at Allahâbâd, to be mentioned hereafter; a five-storeyed open pavilion, all the pillars of which are most richly carved; and long colonnades and walls connecting these with one another. The richest, the most beautiful, as well as the most characteristic of all his buildings here are three small pavilions, said to have been erected to please and accommodate his three favourite sultânas: hence called Bîrbal's daughter's Mahall;³ Maryam-zamânî's House, appropriated to the daughter of Râja Bihârî Mall and mother of Jahângîr, which was known as Sonahlâ Makân or "Golden House" as having been entirely gilt; and the palace of the Rûmî or Turkish Sultâna—Akbar's first wife—Sultâna Ruqayyah Begam, a daughter of Mîrzâ Hindâl, the emperor's uncle: it is miscalled by the guides Jodh-Bâî's.¹ They are small, but it is impossible to conceive anything so picturesque in outline, or any building carved and ornamented to such an extent, without the smallest approach to being overdone or in bad
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² A cast of this throne is in the South Kensington Museum.
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³ Bîrbal was a favourite wit and court bard, but no mention is found of his having a daughter, and the house is usually spoken of simply as Bîrbal's palace.
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¹ Jodh-Bâî was the daughter of Udayasimha of Jodhpur and wife of Jahângîr.
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423. Carved Pillars in the Sultâna's Kiosk, Fathpur-Sîkrî. (From a Photograph.)
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taste. The two pillars shown in the annexed woodcut, are from a cast from the last-named pavilion, which is now in the South Kensington and other Museums. It is, perhaps, the most elaborate of the three; but the other two are generally in better taste.
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The glory, however, of Fathpur-Sîkrî is its mosque, which is hardly surpassed by any in India (Woodcut No. 424). It measures about 544 ft. east and west, by 474 ft. north and south over all. The mosque itself, 288 ft. by 66 ft., is crowned by three domes. In its courtyard, which measures 359 ft. 10 in. by 438 ft. 9 in., stand two tombs: that of Salîm Chishtî, wholly in white marble, and the windows with pierced tracery of the most exquisite geometrical patterns—flowing tracery is a subsequent invention. It possesses besides a deep cornice of marble supported by brackets of the most elaborate design, so much
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424. Mosque at Fathpur-Sîkrî. (From a Plan by Lieut. Cole, R.E.)
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so indeed as to be almost fantastic—the only approach to bad taste in the place; the other tomb, that of Islâm Khân, is soberer and in excellent taste, but quite eclipsed by its surroundings.¹ Even these parts, however, are surpassed in magnificence by the southern or Buland (“Lofty”) gateway (A),² measuring 130 ft. by 88 ft. in plan, and of proportionate dimensions in height (Woodcut No. 425). It was completed in 1575. As it stands on a rising ground, when looked at from below, its appearance is noble beyond that of any portal attached to any mosque in India, perhaps in the whole world. This gateway may also be quoted as a perfectly satisfactory solution of a problem which has exercised the ingenuity of architects in all ages, but was more successfully treated by the Saracenic architects than by any others.
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¹ Shaikh Islâm Khân was a grandson of Shaikh Salîm Chishtî and married a sister of Abûl-Fazl. He was made governor of Bengal in 1608 and died in 1613.
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² The gateway B on the east side, is called the Badshâhi or Royal gateway; it is much smaller, though it faces the mosque.
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425. Buland or Southern Gateway of Mosque, Fathpur-Sikrî. (From a Photograph.)
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It was always manifest that to give a large building a door at all in proportion to its dimensions was, to say the least of it, very inconvenient. Men are only 6 ft. high, and they do not want portals through which elephants might march. The Greeks never ventured, however, to reduce the proportionate size of their portals, though it may be they only opened the lower half, and they covered them, in almost all instances, with porticos to give them a dignity that even their dimensions failed to impart.
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The Gothic architects tried, by splaying their deeply-embowed doorways, and by ornamenting them richly with carving and sculpture, to give them the dignity that was indispensable for their situation without unnecessarily increasing the size of the openings. It was left, however, for the Saracenic architects completely to get over the difficulty. They placed their portals—one, or three, or five, of very moderate dimensions—at the back of a semi-dome. This last feature thus became the porch or portico, and its dimensions became those of the portal, wholly irrespective of the size of the opening. No one, for instance, looking at this gateway can mistake that it is a doorway and that only, and no one thinks of the size of the openings which are provided at its base. The semi-dome is the modulus of the design, and its scale that by which the imagination measures its magnificence.
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The same system pervades almost all the portals of the age and style, and always with a perfectly satisfactory result—sometimes even more satisfactory than in this instance, though it may be in less proportionate dimensions. The principle seems the best that has yet been hit upon, and, when that is right, failure is as difficult as it is to achieve success when the principle of the design is wrong.
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Taking it altogether, this palace at Fathpur-Sîkrî is a romance in stone, such as few—very few—are to be found anywhere; and it is a reflex of the mind of the great man who built it more distinct than can easily be obtained from any other source.¹
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¹ The architecture of Fathpur-Sîkrî has been admirably surveyed and illustrated by the late Mr. Edmund W. Smith,—in four "parts" or volumes, with over 400 plates and photographs, of which about 320 are excellent architectural drawings,—published by the Government of the North-Western Provinces, Allahabad, 1894-97. Conf. G. Le Bon, 'Les Monuments de l'Inde,' pp. 213-218, figs. 341-355.
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Allahâbâd was a more favourite residence of this monarch than Agra, perhaps as much so as even Fathpur-Sîkrî; but the English having appropriated the fort, its glories have been nearly obliterated. The most beautiful thing was the pavilion of the Châlîs Sitûn, or forty pillars, so called from its having that number on the principal floor, disposed in two concentric octagonal ranges, one internal of sixteen pillars, the other outside of twenty-four. Above this, supported by the inner colonnade, was an upper range of the same number of pillars crowned by a dome. This building has entirely disappeared, its materials being wanted to repair the fortifications. The great hall, however, still remains, represented in the annexed woodcut (No. 426). It was turned into an arsenal; a brick wall was run
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426. Hall in Palace at Allahâbâd. (From a Drawing by Daniell.)
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up between its outer colonnades with windows of English architecture, and its curious pavilions and other accompaniments removed; and internally, whatever could not be conveniently cut away was carefully covered up with plaster and whitewash, and hid by stands of arms and deal fittings. Still its plan can be made out: a square hall supported by eight rows of columns, eight in each row, thus making in all sixty-four, surrounded by a deep verandah of double columns, with groups of four at the angles, all surmounted by bracket capitals of the most elegant and richest design, and altogether as fine in style and as rich in ornament as anything in India.
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Perhaps, however, the most characteristic of Akbar's buildings is the tomb he commenced to erect for himself at Sikandara, about 5 miles north-west from Agra, which is quite unlike any other tomb built in India either before or since, and of a design borrowed, as I believe, from a Hindû, or more correctly, Buddhist, model. It was completed in 1613, and is said to have been twenty years in building. It stands in an extensive garden, approached by one noble gateway. In the centre of this garden, on a raised platform, stands the tomb itself, of a pyramidal form. The lower storey measures 320 ft. each way, exclusive of the angle towers. It is 30 ft. in height, and pierced by ten great arches on each face, and with a larger entrance adorned with a mosaic of marble in the centre (Woodcuts Nos. 427, 428).¹
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¹ No plan or section of this tomb has ever, so far as I know, been published, though it has been in our possession for nearly a century. Those here given are from my own measurements, and, though they may be correct as far as they go, are not so detailed as those of such a monument ought to be, and would have been, had it been in the hands of any other European nation.
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427. Plan of Akbar's Tomb at Sikandara. (From a Plan by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
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On this terrace stands another far more ornate, measuring 186 ft. on each side, and 14 ft. 9 in. in height. A third and fourth, of similar design, and respectively 15 ft. 2 in. and 14 ft.
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6 in. high, stand on this, all these being of red sandstone. Within and above the last is a white marble enclosure 157 ft. each way, or externally just half the length of the lowest terrace, its outer wall entirely composed of marble trellis-work of the most beautiful patterns. Inside it is surrounded by a colonnade or cloister of the same material, in the centre of which, on a raised platform, is the tombstone of the founder, a splendid piece of the most beautiful arabesque tracery. This, however,
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428. Diagram section [^1] of one half of Akbar’s Tomb at Sikandara, explanatory of its arrangements. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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is not the true burial-place; but the mortal remains of this great king repose under a far plainer tombstone in a vaulted chamber in the basement 35 ft. square, exactly under the simulated tomb that adorns the summit of the mausoleum.
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At first sight it might appear that the design of this curious and exceptional tomb was either a caprice of the monarch who built it, or an importation from abroad (Woodcut No. 429). My impression, on the contrary, is, that it is a direct imitation of some such building as the old Buddhist vihâras which may have existed, applied to other purposes in Akbar’s time. Turning back, for instance, to Woodcuts Nos. 89 and 193, representing the great rath at Mâmallapuram, it will be seen that the number and proportion of the storeys is the same. The pavilions that adorn the upper storeys of Akbar's tomb appear distinct reminiscences of the cells that stand on the edge of each platform of the rock-cut example. If the tomb had been crowned by a domical chamber over the tombstone, the likeness would have been so great that no one could mistake it, and my conviction is that such a chamber was part of the original design. No such royal tomb remains exposed to the air in any Indian mausoleum; and the raised platform in the centre of the upper cloister, 38 ft. square, looks so like its foundation that I cannot help believing it was intended for that purpose. As the monument now stands, the pyramid has a truncated and unmeaning aspect. The total height of the building now is a little more than 100 ft. to the top of the angle pavilions; and a central dome 30 or 40 ft. higher, which is the proportion that the base gives, seems just what is wanted to make this tomb as beautiful in outline and in proportion as it is in detail.¹ Had it been so completed, it certainly would have ranked next the Tâj among Indian mausolea.²
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¹ The diagram is probably sufficient to explain the text, but must not be taken as pretending to be a correct architectural drawing. There were parts, such as the height of the lower dome and upper angle kiosks, I had no means of measuring, and after all, I was merely making memoranda for my own satisfaction.
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¹ Eleven plates of the beautiful coloured work are published in 'Photographs and Drawings of Historical Buildings' (Griggs, 1896).
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² After the above was written, and the diagram drawn (Woodcut No. 428), I was not a little pleased to find the following entry in Mr. Finch's journal. He resided in Agra for some years, and visited the tomb for the last time apparently in 1609, and after describing most faithfully all its peculiarities up to the upper floor, as it now stands, adds: "At my last sight thereof there was only overhead a rich tent with a Semaine over the tomb. But it is to be *inarched* over with the most curious white and speckled marble, and to be seeled all within with pure sheet gold richly inwrought."—'Purchas, his Pilgrims,' vol. i. p. 440.
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429. View of Akbar's Tomb, Sikandara. (From a Photograph.)