History of Indian and Eastern Architecture

by James Fergusson

If the materials existed for the purpose, it would be extremely interesting, from a historical point of view, to trace the various styles that grew out of each other as the later dynasties of the Dekhan succeeded one another and strove to surpass their predecessors in architectural magnificence in their successive capitals. With the exception, however, of Bijapur, none of the Dekhani cities produced any edifices that, taken by themselves irrespective of their surroundings and historical importance, seem to be of any very great value in an artistic sense.

Burhampur, which was the capital of the Faruki dynasty of Kandeish, from A.D. 1370-1596, does possess some buildings remarkable for their extent and picturesque in their decay, but of very little artistic value, and many of them—especially the later ones—in very questionable taste. Ahmednugger, the capital of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, A.D. 1490-1607, is singularly deficient in architectural grandeur, considering how long it was the capital of an important dynasty; while if Golcondah, the chosen seat of the Kutub Shahi dynasty, A.D. 1512-1672, has any buildings that are remarkable, all that can be said is that they have not yet been drawn or described. The tombs of the kings of this dynasty, and of their nobles and families, do form as extensive and as picturesque a group as is to be found anywhere; but individually they are in singularly bad taste. Their bases are poor and weak, their domes tall and exaggerated, showing all the faults of the age in which they were executed, but still not unworthy of a place in history if the materials existed for illustrating them properly.

As mentioned above, the Bahmani dynasty of Kalburgah maintained the struggle against the Hindu principalities of the south for nearly a century and a half, with very little assistance from either the central power at Delhi or their cognate states in the Dekhan. Before the end of the 15th century, however, they began to feel that decay inherent in all Eastern dynasties; and the Hindus might have recovered their original possessions, up to the Vindhya at least, but for the appearance of a new and more vigorous competitor in the field in the person of Yusaf Khan, a son of Amurath II. of Anatolia. He was thus a Turk of pure blood, and, as it happens, born in Constantinople, though his mother was forced to fly thence while he was still an infant. After a varied career he was purchased for the body-guard at Bidar, and soon raised himself to such pre-eminence that on the defeat of Dustur Dinar, in 1501, he was enabled to proclaim his independence and establish himself as the founder of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur.

For the first sixty or seventy years after their accession, the struggle for existence was too severe to admit of the Adil Shahis devoting much attention to architecture. The real building epoch of the city commences with Ali, A.D. 1557, and all the important buildings are crowded into the 100 years which elapsed between his accession and the wars with Aurungzebe, which ended in the final destruction of the dynasty.

During that period, however, their capital was adorned with a series of buildings as remarkable as those of any of the Mahomedan capitals of India, hardly excepting even Agra and Delhi, and showing a wonderful originality of design not surpassed by those of such capitals as Jaunpore or Ahmedabad, though differing from them in a most marked degree.

It is not easy now to determine how far this originality arose from the European descent of the Adil Shahis and their avowed hatred of everything that belonged to the Hindus, or whether it arose from any local circumstances, the value of which we can now hardly appreciate. My impression is, that the former is the true cause, and that the largeness and grandeur of the Bijapur style is owing to its quasi-Western origin, and to reminiscences of the great works of the Roman and Byzantine architects.

Like most Mahomedan dynasties, the Adil Shahis commenced their architectural career by building a mosque and madrissa in the fort at Bijapur out of Hindu remains. How far the pillars used there by them are in situ, or torn from other buildings, we are not informed. From photographs, it would appear that considerable portions of them are used at least for the purposes for which they were intended; but this is not incompatible with the idea that they were removed from their original positions and readapted to their present purposes. Be this as it may, as soon as the dynasty had leisure to think really about the matter, they abandoned entirely all tendency to copy Hindu forms or Hindu details, but set to work to carry out a pointed-arched, or domical style of their own, and did it with singular success.[533]

The Jumma Musjid, which is one of the earlier regular buildings of the city, was commenced by Ali Adil Shah (A.D. 1557-1579), and, though continued by his successors on the same plan, was never completely finished, the fourth side of the courtyard with its great gateway not having been even commenced when the dynasty was overthrown. Even as it is, it is one of the finest mosques in India.