History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s7: Tâj Mahall.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s7
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Tâj Mahall.
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It is a pleasure to turn from this destroyed and desecrated palace to the Tâj Mahall, which even more, perhaps, than the palace, was always the chef-d'œuvre of Shâh Jahân's reign (Woodcut No. 432). It, too, has been fortunate in attracting the attention of the English, who have paid sedulous attention to it for some time past, and keep it now, with its gardens, in a perfect state of substantial repair.
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No building in India has been so often drawn and photographed as this, or more frequently described; but, with all this, it is almost impossible to convey an idea of it to those who have not seen it, not only because of its extreme delicacy, and beauty of material employed in its construction, but from the complexity of its design. If the Tâj were only the tomb itself, it might be described, but the platform on which it stands, with its tall minarets, is a work of art in itself. Beyond this are the two wings, one of which is a mosque, which anywhere else would be considered an important building. This group of buildings forms one side of a garden court 880 ft. square; and beyond this again an outer court, of the same width but only half the depth. This is entered by three gateways of its own, and contains in the centre of its inner wall the great gateway of the garden court, a worthy pendant to the Tâj itself.¹ Beautiful as it is in itself, the Tâj would lose half its charm if it stood alone. It is the combination of so many beauties, and the perfect manner in which each is subordinated to the other, that makes up a whole which the world cannot match, and which never fails to impress even those who are most indifferent to the effects produced by architectural objects in general.
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¹ A plan of this garden, with the Tâj and all the surrounding buildings, will be found in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. vii. p. 42.
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The plan and section (Woodcuts Nos. 433, 434) explain sufficiently the general arrangement and structural peculiarities of the tomb or principal building of the group. The raised platform on which it stands is 18 ft. high, faced with white marble, and exactly 313 ft. square. At each corner of this terrace stands a minaret 133 ft. in height, and of the most exquisite proportions, more beautiful, perhaps, than any other in India. In the centre of this marble platform stands the mausoleum, a square of 186 ft., with the corners cut off to the extent of 33 ft. 9 in., the façade rising 92 ft. 3 in. from the platform. The centre of this is
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The engineers, it would seem, perceived that by gutting the palace they could provide at no trouble or expense a wall round their barrack-yard, and for this or some such wretched motive of economy the palace was sacrificed!
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432. View of Tâj Mahall. (From a Photograph.)
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433. Plan of Tâj Mahall, Agra. (From a Plan by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
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434. Section of Tâj Mahall, Agra. Scale 110 ft. to 1 in.
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occupied by the principal dome, 58 ft. in diameter and rising 74 ft. above the roof or 191 from the platform, under which is an enclosure formed by a screen of trellis-work of white marble, a chef-d'œuvre of elegance in Indian art.¹ Within this stand the tombs—that of Arjumand Bâno Begam, styled Mumtâz Mahall, in the centre, and that of her husband Shâh Jahân on one side. These, however, as is usual in Indian supulchres, are not the true tombs—the bodies rest in a vault, level with the surface of the ground (as seen in the section) beneath plainer tombstones, placed exactly underneath those in the hall above.
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¹ From its design I cannot help fancying that this screen was erected after Shâh Jahân's death. It is not mentioned in Bernier's account ('Travels,' Constable's ed. p. 298). It certainly looks more modern, and is reported to be so. It is said that the sarcophagus of the empress was originally surrounded by a screen of gold, studded with gems. The apartment had two silver doors, said to have cost 127,000 rupees, which were carried off and melted by Sûrajmall's Jâts when they sacked Agra in 1761.
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In every angle of the building is a small domical apartment of two storeys in height, 26 ft. 8 in. in diameter, and these are connected, as shown in the plan, by various passages and halls.
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The light to the central apartment is admitted only through double screens of white marble trellis-work of the most exquisite design, one on the outer, and one on the inner face of the walls. In our climate this would produce nearly complete darkness; but in India, and in a building wholly composed of white marble, this was required to temper the glare that otherwise would have been intolerable. As it is, no words can express the chastened beauty of that central chamber, seen in the soft gloom of the subdued light that reaches it through the distant and half-closed openings that surround it. When used as a Bârahdarî, or pleasure palace, it must always have been the coolest and loveliest of garden retreats, and now that it is sacred to the dead it is the most graceful and the most impressive of the sepulchres of the world.
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This building, too, is an exquisite example of that system of inlaying with precious stones which became the great characteristic of the style of the Mughals after the death of Akbar. All the spandrils of the Tâj, all the angles and more important architectural details, are heightened by being inlaid with precious stones, such as agates, bloodstones, jaspers, and the like. These are combined in wreaths, scrolls, and frets, as exquisite in design as beautiful in colour; and, relieved by the pure white marble in which they are inlaid, they form the most beautiful and precious style of ornament ever adopted in architecture; though, of course, not to be compared with the intellectual beauty of Greek ornament, it certainly stands first among the purely decorative forms of architectural design. This mode of ornamentation is lavishly bestowed on the tombs themselves and the screen that surrounds them, though sparingly introduced on the mosque that stands to the west of the Tâj, or on the fountains and surrounding buildings. The judgment, indeed, with which this style of ornament is apportioned to the various parts is almost as remarkable as the ornament itself, and conveys a high idea of the taste and skill of the Indian architects of that age.
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The long rows of cypresses, which line the marble paths that intersect the garden at right angles, and are backed up by masses of evergreen foliage, lend a charm to the whole which the founder and his children could hardly have realised. Each of the main avenues among these trees has a canal along its centre studded with marble fountains, and each vista leads to some beautiful architectural object. With the Jamnâ in front, and this garden with its fountains and gateway behind; with its own purity of material and grace of form, the Tâj may challenge comparison with any creation of the same sort in the whole world. Its beauty may not be of the highest class, but in its class it is unsurpassed.
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[Figure: 435. Plan of Motî Masjid. (From a Plan by Gen. Cunningham.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
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Though neither so magnificent nor so richly ornamented as some of his other buildings, the Motî Masjid or Pearl Mosque, which Shâh Jahân erected in the fort of Agra, 1646-1653, is one of the purest and most elegant buildings of its class to be found anywhere (Woodcut No. 435). It is not large, measuring only 187 ft. by 234 ft. over all externally; and though raised on a lofty stylobate, which ought to give it dignity, it makes no pretensions to architectural effect on the outside; but the moment you enter by the eastern gateway the effect of its courtyard is surpassingly beautiful. The whole is of white marble, and the forms all graceful and elegant. The only ornament introduced which is not strictly architectural, is an inscription in black marble, inlaid in the frieze of the mosque itself. The courtyard is nearly a square, 154 ft. by 158 ft. On three sides it is surrounded by a low colonnade 10 ft. 10 in. deep; but on the west, by the mosque itself, 159 ft. by 56 ft. internally, which was accessible at both ends from the private apartments of the palace. It opens on the court by seven arches of great beauty, and is surmounted by three domes of the bulbous form that became universal about this time (Woodcut No. 436). The
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436. View in Courtyard of Moti Masjid, Agra. (From a Photograph.)
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woodcut cannot do it justice, it must be seen to be appreciated; but I hardly know, anywhere, of a building so perfectly pure and elegant, or one that forms such a wonderful contrast with the buildings of Akbar in the same place.
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The Jâmi' Masjid at Delhi begun in 1644 but not finally completed till 1658, is not unlike the Motî Masjid in plan, though built on a very much larger scale, and adorned with two noble minarets, which are wanting in the Agra example; while from the somewhat capricious admixture of red sandstone with white marble and domes of the mosque itself, make up a design where all the parts are pleasingly subordinated to one another, but at the same time produce a whole of great variety and elegance. The mosque itself is 201 ft. in length by 120 ft., and is flanked by two minars 130 ft. high, formed in alternate vertical stripes of sandstone and white marble, and crowned by light marble pavilions. Its principal gateway cannot be compared with that at Fathpur Sîkrî (Woodcut No. 425); but it is a noble portal, and from its smaller dimensions more in harmony with the objects by which it is surrounded.
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437. Great Mosque at Delhi from the N.E. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
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It is not a little singular, looking at the magnificent mosque which Akbar built in his palace at Fathpur Sîkrî, and the Motî Masjid, with which Shâh Jahân adorned the palace at Agra, that he should have provided no place of worship in his palace at Delhi. The little Motî mosque that is now found there was added by Aurangzîb, and, though pretty enough in itself, is very small, only 60 ft. square over all, and utterly unworthy of such a palace. There is no place of prayer, within the palace walls, of the time of Shâh Jahân, nor, apparently, any intention of providing one. The Jâmi’ Masjid was so near, and so apparently part of the same design, that it seems to have been considered sufficient to supply this apparently anomalous deficiency. It stands in the market place facing the Delhi gate of the fort on a platform about 11 ft. high, reached by steps in front and on the south side, but the great gateway in front was pulled down by the British during the Mutiny. It occupies but a small area—130 ft. by 100 ft.—and has five entrances. Its three domes, without necks, are a sort of compromise between the earlier flat dome and the tall form, subsequently introduced. They are of red sandstone with zigzag bands of white marble circling round them, not without beauty, if appropriate to the building on which they are placed. The mosque was built for, or in honour of, Jahân Ârâ Begam, the noble and accomplished daughter of Shâh Jahân, in 1644-48.
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AURANGZÎB, OR ’ÂLAMGÎR, A.D. 1658-1707.
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There are few things more startling in the history of this style than the rapid decline of taste that set in with the accession of Aurangzîb. The power of the Mughal empire reached its culminating point in his reign, and there were at least no external signs of decay visible before the end of his reign. Even if his morose disposition did not lead him to spend much money on palaces or civil buildings, his religious fanaticism might, one would think, have led him to surpass his predecessors in the extent or splendour of their mosques or religious establishments.
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This, however, is far from being the case. He did, indeed, as mentioned above, pull down the temple of Visvesvar, at Benares, in order to erect a mosque, whose tall and graceful minarets still form one of the most prominent features in every view of the city. After the shrine of Siva at Benares, the great temple of Kesava Deva or Krishna at Mathurâ was the most sacred in Hindustan. It had been erected, or rebuilt, by the famous Bîr-Singh Bundelâ during the reign of Jahângîr at a cost of thirty-three lâkhs of rupees;¹ and immediately after the destruction of the Visvesvar temple in 1669, "his religious Majesty" ordered this also to be levelled to the ground and a vast mosque, about 170 ft. in length, to be erected on the platform.²
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¹ It was described in some detail by Tavernier, who saw it in 1650.—Ball's translation of Tavernier's 'Travels,' vol. ii. pp. 240ff. Bernier also mentions it in 1663.—'Travels' (ed. 1891), p. 284.
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² Elliot's 'History of India,' vol. vii. p. 184. The idol—an image of Krishna—had just been removed by Râjasimha Rânâ of Udaypur, and is now at Nâthdwâra.
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It was not, however, from any love of architectural magnificence that this was done, but to insult his Hindû subjects and mark the triumph of Islâm over Hinduism. The mosques themselves are of no great magnificence, but, except that at Lâhor, none more important was erected, so far as I know, during his reign.
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The Jâmi' or Bâdshâhi mosque at Lâhor, which is entered from the west side of the Hazûri Bâgh (Woodcut No. 430), was erected in 1674 from the proceeds of the estates of his eldest brother Dârâ Shikoh, whom he had put to death in 1659. The gateway from the Hazûri Bâgh, raised on a lofty platform set on arches, is an imposing structure of red sandstone and marble. In a chamber above this archway are preserved certain "relics" of Muhammad and his family. The mosque itself, erected under the supervision of Fidâî Khân Koka, the emperor's foster-brother, is a building of considerable merit and the latest specimen of the Mughal architectural style. It has three domes of white marble and very pleasing form, and in this and the general arrangements of the façade it is almost a copy of the Jâmi' Masjid at Delhi, but the marble ornamentation of the great central arch and the front arcade is very inferior in detail³; and the minarets, instead of terminating the façade, are quite plain octagonal towers, placed at the corners of the court about 175 yards apart. They are, as usual, of three storeys, but their cupolas had to be removed after an earthquake in 1840.
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³ 'Transactions Royal Institute of British Architects,' N. Ser. vol. v. p. 66; G. Le Bon, 'Les Monuments de l'Inde,' p. 220 and fig. 358. This mosque was used by the Sikhs as a magazine, but was restored to the Muhammadans in 1856.
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Few things can show how steadily and rapidly the decline of taste had set in than the fact that when that monarch was residing at Aurangâbâd between the years 1660-70 having lost his favourite wife,¹ Rabia Daurâni, the tomb in honour of her memory—which is ascribed to her third son A'zam Shâh—was intended, it is said, to reproduce an exact copy of Shâh Jahân's celebrated tomb, the Tâj Mahall. But the difference between the two monuments, even in so short an interval, is startling. The first stands alone in the world for certain qualities all can appreciate; the second is by no means remarkable for any qualities of elegance or design, and narrowly escapes vulgarity and bad taste. In the beginning of the nineteenth century a more literal copy of the Tâj was erected in Lucknow over the tomb of one of its sovereigns. In this last, however, bad taste and tawdriness reign supreme. It is difficult to understand how a thing can be so like in form and so unlike in spirit; but so it is, and these three Tâjes form a very perfect scale by which to measure the decline of art after the great Mughal dynasty passed its zenith and began its rapid downward career.
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¹ Aurangzîb married Dilras Bânû Begam, a daughter of Shâhnawâz Khân Safawî, in 1637, who bore to him five sons and four daughters.
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Aurangzîb himself lies buried in the court of the tomb of Shaikh Zainu-d-Dîn, at Khuldâbâd, a small hamlet just above the caves of Elûrâ. The spot is esteemed sacred, but the tomb is mean and insignificant beyond what would have sufficed for any of his nobles. He neglected, apparently, to provide for himself this necessary adjunct to a Tartar's glory, and his successors were too weak, even had they been inclined, to supply the omission. Strange to say, the sacred Tulsi-tree of the Hindûs once took root in a crevice of the brickwork, and flourished there as if in derision of the most bigoted persecutor the Hindûs ever experienced.
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As before observed, Aurangzîb also made a few additions to the palace at Delhi; but during his reign many splendid palaces were erected, both in the capital and elsewhere. The most extensive and splendid of these was that built by his aspiring but unfortunate brother Dârâ Shikoh. It, however, was converted into the English residency; and so completely have improvements, with plaster and whitewash, done their work, that it requires some ingenuity to find out that it was not wholly the work of the Anglo-Saxons.
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In the town of Delhi many palaces of the age of Aurangzîb long escaped this profanation, but generally they are either in ruins or used as shops; and with all their splendour show too clearly the degradation of style which had then fairly set in, and which is even more apparent in the modern capitals of Oudh, Haidarâbâd, and other cities which have risen into importance during the last hundred years.
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Even these capitals, however, are not without edifices of a palatial class, which from their size and the picturesqueness of their forms deserve attention, and to an eye educated among the plaster glories of the Alhambra would seem objects of no small interest and beauty. Few, however, are built of either marble or squared stone: most of them are of brick or rubble-stone, and the ornaments in stucco, which, coupled with the inferiority of their design, will always prevent their being admired in immediate proximity with the glories of Agra and Delhi.
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In a history of Muhammadan art in India which had any pretensions to be exhaustive, it would be necessary to describe before concluding many minor buildings, especially tombs, which are found in every corner of the land. For, in addition to the Imperial tombs mentioned above, the neighbourhoods of Agra and Delhi are crowded with those of the nobles of the court, some of them scarcely less magnificent than the mausolea of their masters.
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Besides the tombs, however, in the capitals of the empire, there is scarcely a city of any importance in the whole course of the Ganges or Jamnâ, even as far eastward as Dacca, that does not possess some specimens of this form of architectural magnificence. Jaunpur and Allahâbâd are particularly rich in examples; but Patna and Dacca possess two of the most pleasing of the smaller class of tombs that are to be met with anywhere.