The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.99

v4.c23.s4.99

It was not until Akbar had occupied the throne for eight years that the country became sufficiently settled to enable any large building projects to be contemplated. Then the encouragement of the arts began in real earnest. About the year 1564 at least five building schemes of varying importance were commenced in different parts of the empire, three of them of the first rank, and the others illustrating in a marked manner certain developments that were then taking place. Of the larger schemes, Humāyūn’s tomb at Delhi is the most noteworthy, although Akbar’s fortress-palaces at Āgra and Lahore were stupendous undertakings. Compared with these imperial enterprises the tomb of Muhammad Ghaus at Gwālior appears a small affair, but the peculiarities of its design are of some interest, while the tomb of Adham Khān at Delhi, previously described, is significant because it rings down the curtain on the “Lodī” style, a mode which had persisted for nearly two centuries. It is a coincidence that at practically the same time that this final example of the puritanism originated by Fīrūz Tughluq was being constructed, four miles away, in the building of Humāyūn’s tomb, an entirely new movement was being begun. In other words Adham Khān’s tomb marks the death of one tradition, and Humāyūn’s tomb the birth of another. The latter, besides being a composition of more than ordinary breadth and power, introduces a new era into the history of architecture in northern India. Some of its parts, notably the shape and construction of its dome, are clearly adaptations of somewhat similar buildings in the cities of the Timurids in Persia. This attribution is readily explained. The tomb was built by Humāyūn’s widow, Hājī Begam, who shared his long exile at the court of the Safavids. Moreover, as architect she employed Mīrāk Mīrzā Ghiyās, almost certainly of Persian extraction and therefore trained in the Timurid tradition. He, with others having somewhat similar affinities, formed part of a small colony of the Begam’s retainers who had settled in Delhi. The influence of their culture shows itself in the character of Humāyūn’s tomb. But in the process of transforming the style of one country to suit the conditions of another, certain changes became necessary. Some of these changes are due to the differences of material; the Persians built almost entirely of brick with decorations of terra-cotta and glaze, and the Indian masons had to translate these fictile forms into chiselled marble and stone. But the design of Humāyūn’s tomb did something more than introduce other elements into the architecture of Hindūstān; it suggested new principles, wider possibilities, greater flexibility, and generally infused the building art with fresh life. There were subsequent occasions when the Mughul artizans received inspiration from the same source, but the main Persian incentive came to the building art of the Mughuls through Hājī Begam’s conception of her royal consort’s mausoleum.