The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.49

v3.c30.49

In the middle of each side is a high arched bay projecting slightly from the body of the building and for the rest the façades are, as a rule, divided into two or three storeys and further relieved by a series of shallow arched recesses or of window openings pierced through the thickness of the walls. In other respects they resemble the octagonal tombs described above; their grey granite walls embellished with red sandstone and enamelled tilework, their lofty drums and domes, their battlemented parapets, their pinnacles and lotus finials, their brackets and mouldings and decorative designs incised on plaster and picked out in colours—all these being similar in character and following the same course of development as the corresponding features in the tombs of the kings. It is to be observed, however, that unlike the royal mausolea, these square tombs possess no walled enclosures around them, though on the other hand there are several instances of mosques being appended. At the tomb of Tāj Khān, for example, there is an open *‘Īdgāh*—a simple battlemented wall provided with a mihrāb and flanked by turrets at the corners—though whether it was erected along with the tomb is open to question, since the tomb itself is furnished with its own mihrāb, which takes the place of the doorway on the western side. Attached to the Barā Gumbad again was a walled court with a highly ornate mosque on one side and a low arched structure corresponding to it on the other. The mosque is particularly interesting; for while its *tahkhāna* basement and tapering turrets at the rear quoins are strongly reminiscent of the Tughluq style, in other respects it presents striking differences, notably in the diversified treatment of the five arched bays into which the façade is divided, in the increased size of its domes, in its effective balconied windows, and above all in the exquisitely fine plaster ornament with which the eastern façade and whole interior of the prayer chamber are covered¹. Another and much more imposing masjid of the same period is the Moth-kī-Masjid built by the Prime Minister of Sikandar Shāh. Not only is it the largest structure of its class erected during this period (the prayer chamber measures 124 ft. 6 in. from end to end), but it epitomises in itself all that is best in the architecture of the Lodīs. It cannot aspire to the poetic refinement which characterised some of the Slave and Khaljī monuments; nor can it pretend to the rhythmic perfection found in the later Mughul style; but, if it lacks these qualities, and if it betrays a certain organic looseness, it displays on the other hand a freedom of imagination, a bold diversity of design, an appreciation of contrasting light and shade and a sense of harmony in line and colour, which combine to make it one of the most spirited and picturesque buildings of its kind in the whole range of Islamic art. The storeyed open towers at the rear corners of the building are especially happy adjuncts in place of the usual slender minarets; the interior of the prayer chamber, though hardly spacious enough, is dignified; the domes are better spaced and the arched openings of the façade are better proportioned than in the Barā Gumbad mosque; in addition to which the surface decoration of both the mosque and gateway gains in effectiveness by being more restrained, while the freer use of white marble and coloured tiling in combination with red sandstone imparts a more animated note to the whole.