Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s1.10

c16.s1.10

The tombs of Saiyyad Mubārak and Saiyyad Muhammad are now more or less isolated structures, any supplementary features that may have surrounded them having disappeared. On the other hand the tomb of Sikandar Lodī,⁵ constructed by his son and successor Ibrāhīm in 1518, is better preserved and is more finished in form. It is similar in design and dimensions to that of Muhammad Shāh, but in this mausoleum the use of enamelled tiles has been much extended; tiles of several colours—green, yellow, azure and dark blue—are disposed in a variety of patterns. There is a marked tendency towards more lavish ornamentation. A significant structural deviation is also noticeable. In the tombs of the two preceding monarchs the dome is solely of uniform thickness of stonework, but in the present instance the dome is composed of an inner and outer shell of masonry, with a distinct space between the two. Such a device was quite well known in Iraq, Persia, and other parts of western Asia, but in India, Sikandar’s tomb provides the first “successful” example in the application of the “double dome”.⁶ It imparted a loftier and more imposing exterior, and provided the interior with larger space. Since later on, the larger domes of India were constructed on this same principle, the emergence of the device in the Lodī period is of special significance.⁷ Another noteworthy feature of Sikandar Lodī’s mausoleum was its walled enclosure “which occupies a place midway between the fortified enclaves of the Tughlaq tombs and the decorative garden of the Mughals”.⁸