CONTENTS.

Jumma Musjid and other Mosques at Ahmedabad—Tombs and Mosques at Sirkej and Butwa—Buildings in the Provinces.

---

CHRONOLOGY.

Muzaffar Shah, a Rajput, appointed Viceroy	A.D. 1391
Ahmed Shah, his grandson, founds Ahmedabad	1411
Mohammed Shah the Merciful	1443
Kutub Shah; war with Rana Khumbo	1454
MahmÚd Shah Begurra	1459
Muzaffar Shah II.	1511
Bahadur Shah murdered by Portuguese	1526
Muzaffar Shah III.	1561
Gujerat becomes a province of Akbar’s kingdom	1583

---

Of the various forms which the Saracenic architecture assumed in India, that of Ahmedabad may probably be considered as the most elegant, as it certainly is the most characteristic of all. No other form is so essentially Indian, and no one tells its tale with the same unmistakable distinctness.

As mentioned above, the Mahomedans, in the first century of the Hejira, made a brilliant attempt to conquer Scinde and Gujerat, and apparently succeeded; but the country was so populous, and its civilization so great, that the invaders were absorbed, and soon disappeared from the scene.

MahmÚd of Ghazni next overran the province, but left no permanent mark; and even after the fall of Delhi (A.D. 1196) Gujerat maintained the struggle for independence for nearly two centuries longer, till Feroze Tugluck, in A.D. 1391, appointed Muzaffar, a converted Rajput, of the Tak clan, to be his viceroy. This, however, was only on the eve of the troubles caused by the invasion of Tamerlane, and, mutato domino, Gujerat remained as independent as before.

The next two centuries—during which the Ahmed Shahi dynasty occupied the throne—were spent in continual wars and struggles with their refractory vassals and the neighbouring chiefs. On the whole, however, their power may be said to have been gradually on the increase till the death of Bahadur, A.D. 1536, but they never wholly subdued the rebellious spirit of their subjects, and certainly never converted the bulk of them to their faith. As a consequence of this, the principal buildings with which this chapter is concerned are to be found in the capital and its immediate proximity. Beyond that the Hindus followed their old faith and built temples as before; though in such large cities as Cambay or Baroach the Mahomedans, of course, possessed places of worship, some of them of considerable importance, and generally made up from pillars borrowed from Hindu buildings.

In Ahmedabad itself, however, the Hindu influence continued to be felt throughout. Even the mosques are Hindu, or rather Jaina, in every detail; only here and there an arch is inserted, not because it was wanted constructively, but because it was a symbol of the faith, while in their tombs and palaces even this is generally wanting. The truth of the matter is, the Mahomedans had forced themselves upon the most civilized and most essentially building race at that time in India, and the Chalukyas conquered their conquerors, and forced them to adopt forms and ornaments which were superior to any the invaders knew or could have introduced. The result is a style which combines all the elegance and finish of Jaina or Chalukyan art, with a certain largeness of conception which the Hindu never quite attained, but which is characteristic of the people who at this time were subjecting all India to their sway.

The first seat of the Mahomedan power was Anhilwarra, the old capital of the Rajputs, and which, at the time it fell into their power, must have been one of the most splendid cities of the East. Little now remains of all its magnificence, if we may trust what is said by recent travellers who have visited its deserted palaces. Ahmed, the second king, removed the seat of power to a town called Kurnawutti, afterwards known as Ahmedabad, from the name of its second founder, and which, with characteristic activity, he set about adorning with splendid edifices. Of these the principal was the Jumma Musjid, which, though not remarkable for its size, is one of the most beautiful mosques in the East. Its arrangement will be understood from the next plan (Woodcut No. 293). Its dimensions are 382 ft. by 258 ft. over all externally; the mosque itself being 210 ft. by 95 ft., covering consequently about 20,000 sq. ft. Within the mosque itself are 260 pillars, supporting fifteen domes arranged symmetrically, the centre three alone being somewhat larger and considerably higher than the others. If the plan is compared with that of the temple at Sadri (Woodcut No. 133), which was being erected at the same time by Khumbo Rana within 160 miles of Ahmedabad, it will afford a fair means of comparison between the Jaina and Mahomedan arrangements of that day. The form of the pillars and the details generally are practically the same in both buildings, the Hindu being somewhat richer and more elaborate. In plan, the mosque looks monotonous as compared with the temple; but this is redeemed, to some extent, by the different heights of the domes, as shown in the elevation (Woodcut No. 294), and by the elevation of each division being studiously varied. My own feeling is in favour of the poetry of the temple, but there is a sobriety about the plan of the mosque which, after all, may be in better taste. Both plans, it need hardly be remarked, are infinitely superior to the monotony of the southern halls of 1000 pillars. The latter are remarkable for their size and the amount of labour bestowed upon them, but it requires more than this to constitute good architecture.

The general character of the elevation will be understood from the woodcut No. 294, but unfortunately its minarets are gone. When Forbes[514] drew it, they were still standing, and were celebrated in Eastern story as the shaking minarets of Ahmedabad; an earthquake in A.D. 1818 shook them too much, but there are several others still standing in the city from which their form can easily be restored.

The plan and lateral extension of the Jumma Musjid are exceptional. The usual form taken by the mosques at Ahmedabad was that of the Queen’s Mosque at Mirzapore, and consists of three domes standing on twelve pillars each, with the central part so raised as to admit light to the interior. The mode in which this was effected will be understood from the annexed diagram (Woodcut No. 297). The pillars which support the central domes are twice as high as those of the side domes, and two rows of dwarf columns stand on the roof to make up the height. In front of these internally is a solid balustrade, which is generally most richly ornamented by carving. Thus arranged, it will be perceived that the necessary amount of light is introduced, as in the drum of a Byzantine dome, but in a more artistic manner. The sun’s rays can never fall on the floor, or even so low as the head of any one standing there. The light is reflected from the external roof into the dome, and perfect ventilation is obtained, with the most pleasing effect of illumination without glare. In order further to guard against the last dreaded contingency, in most of these mosques a screen of perforated stonework was introduced between the outer dwarf columns. These screens were frequently of the most exquisite beauty, and in consequence have very generally been removed.

There are three or four mosques at Ahmedabad, built on the same pattern as that last described, but as the style progressed it became more and more Indian. The arches in front were frequently omitted, and only a screen of columns appeared, supported by two minarets, one at each angle. This system was carried to its greatest extent at Sirkej, about five miles from the city. Mohammed Shah, in A.D. 1445, commenced erecting a tomb (A on Woodcut No. 298) here, in honour of Ahmed Gunj Buksh, the friend and adviser of his father. The style of these buildings may be judged of from the woodcut (No. 299, page 532), representing the pavilion of sixteen pillars in front of this tomb (I in Woodcut No. 298). They are of the usual simple outline of the style—a tall, square base; the shafts square, and with no ornament except a countersinking on the angles, and crowned with a moderately projecting bracket-capital. The building is roofed with nine small domes, insignificant in themselves, but both internally and externally forming as pleasing a mode of roofing as ever was applied to such a small detached building of this class. The mosque (D) was completed in A.D. 1451, and MahmÚd Begurra added afterwards a tomb for himself (B) and one for his wife Rajbaie (C). With their accompanying palaces and tombs these make up one of the most important groups in the neighbourhood. The whole are constructed without a single arch; all the pillars have the usual bracket capitals of the Hindus, and all the domes are on the horizontal principle. In the large tomb an attempt has been made to get a larger dome than the usual octagonal arrangement would admit of, but not quite successfully. The octagon does not accord with the substructure, and either wider spaces ought to have been introduced or a polygon of a greater number of sides employed. The mosque is the perfection of elegant simplicity, and is an improvement on the plan of the Jumma Musjid. There are five domes in a line, as there, but they are placed nearer to one another, and though of greater diameter the width of the whole is less, and they are only two ranges in depth. Except the

REFERENCES.

A. Tomb of Gunj Buksh. B. Tomb of MahmÚd Begurra and his Sons. C. Tomb of Beebee RÁjbaie, his Queen. D. The Mosque. E. Covered Gateway. F. Covered Hall overlooking the Tank. G. Well and Fountain. H. Portico leading to Terrace and Steps down to the Tank. I. Pavilion. J. Portions of the Steps surrounding the Tank.

Mootee Musjid at Agra, to be described hereafter, there is no mosque in India more remarkable for simple elegance than this.

Besides these larger mosques there are several smaller ones of great beauty, of which two—those of MoohÁfiz Khan and the Rani SÎpri—are pre-eminent. The elevation of the first is by no means happy, but its details are exquisite, and it retains its minarets, which is too seldom the case. As will be seen from the woodcut, as well as from those of the Jumma and Queen’s Mosques (Nos. 294, 296), the lower part of the minarets is of pure Hindu architecture; all the bases at Ahmedabad are neither more nor less than the perpendicular parts of the basement of Hindu or Jaina temples elongated. Every form and every detail may be found at Chandravati or Abu, except in one particular—on the angles of all Hindu temples are niches containing images. This the Moslem could not tolerate, so he filled them with tracery. We can follow the progress of the development of this form, from the first rude attempt in the Jumma Musjid, through all its stages to the exquisite patterns of the Queen’s Mosque at Mirzapore. After a century’s experience they produced forms which as architectural ornaments will, in their own class, stand comparison with any employed in any age or in any part of the world; and in doing this they invented a class of window-tracery in which they were also unrivalled. The specimen below (Woodcut No. 301), from a window in a desecrated mosque in the palace (the Bhudder) will convey an idea of its elaborateness and grace. It would be difficult to excel the skill with which the vegetable forms are conventionalised just to the extent required for the purpose. The equal spacing also of the subject by the three ordinary trees and four palms, takes it out of the category of direct imitation of nature, and renders it sufficiently structural for its situation; but perhaps the greatest skill is shown in the even manner in which the pattern is spread over the whole surface. There are some exquisite specimens of tracery in precious marbles at Agra and Delhi, but none quite equal to this.

Above the roof of the mosques the minarets are always round towers slightly tapering, as in the mosque of MoohÁfiz Khan (Woodcut No. 300), relieved by galleries displaying great richness in the brackets which support them as well as in the balustrades which protect them. The tower always terminates in a conical top relieved by various disks. They are, so far as I know, the only minarets belonging to mosques which surpass those of Cairo in beauty of outline or richness of detail, excepting those of the Rani SÎpri mosque, which are still more beautiful. Indeed, that mosque is the most exquisite gem at Ahmedabad, both in plan and detail. It is without arches, and every part is such as only a Hindu queen could order, and only Hindu artists could carve.[515]

Tombs.

Knowing the style, it would not be difficult to predicate the form of the tombs. The simplest would be that of Abu TourÁb; an octagonal dome supported on twelve pillars, and this extended on every side, but always remaining a square, and the entrances being in the centre of the faces. The difference between this and the Jaina arrangement is that the latter is diagonal (Woodcut No. 119), while these are square. The superiority of the Hindu mode is apparent at a glance. Not, it is true, in so small an arrangement as that last quoted, but in the tombs at Sirkej (Woodcut No. 298), the effect is so monotonous as almost to become unpleasing. With the Jains this never is the case, however numerous the pillars may be.

Besides the monotony of the square plan, it was felt at Sirkej—as already pointed out—that the octagonal dome fitted awkwardly on to its supports. This was remedied, to a great extent, in the tomb of Syad OsmÁn, built in A.D. 460 by MahmÚd Begurra. In this instance the base of the dome is a dodecagon, and a very considerable amount of variety is obtained by grouping the pillars in twos and fours, and by the different spacing. In elevation the dome looks heavy for the substructure, but not so in perspective; and when the screens were added to inclose the central square, it was altogether the most successful sepulchral design carried out in the pillared style at Ahmedabad.

Towards the end of their career, the architects of Ahmedabad evinced a strong tendency to revert to the arched forms generally used by their brethren in other countries. MahmÚd Begurra built himself a tomb near Kaira, which is wholly in the arched style, and remains one of the most splendid sepulchres in India.[516] He also erected at Butwa, near Ahmedabad, a tomb over the grave of a saint, which is in every respect in the same style. So little, however, were the builders accustomed to arched forms, that, though the plan is judiciously disposed by placing smaller arches outside the larger, so as to abut them, still all those of the outer range have fallen down, and the whole is very much crippled, while the tomb without arches, that stands within a few yards of it, remains entire. The scale of the two, however (Plan No. 305), reveals the secret of the preference accorded to the arch as a constructive expedient. The larger piers, the wider spacing, the whole dimensions, were on a grander scale than could be attained with beams only, as the Hindus used them. As the Greeks and Romans employed these features, any dimensions that were feasible with arches could be attained by pillars; but the Hindus worked to a smaller modulus, and do not seem to have known how to increase it. It must, however, be remarked that they generally used pillars only in courts, where there was nothing to compare them with but the spectator’s own height; and there the forms employed by them were large enough. It was only when the Moslems came to use them externally, and in conjunction with arches and other larger features, that their diminutive scale became apparent.

It is perhaps the evidence of a declining age to find size becoming the principal aim. But it is certainly one great and important ingredient in architectural design, and so thought the later architects of Ahmedabad. In their later mosques and buildings they attained greater dimensions, but it was at the expense of all that renders their earlier style so beautiful and so interesting.[517]

Besides the buildings of the classes above enumerated, there are several smaller objects of art at Ahmedabad which are of extraordinary beauty. Among these are several bowlees, or deep wells, with broad flights of steps leading down to them, and ornamented with pillars and galleries to as great an extent as some of the largest buildings above ground. It requires a personal experience of the grateful coolness of a subterranean apartment in a hot climate to appreciate such a class of buildings, and in the rainy West we hardly know how valuable water may become.

Another object of architectural beauty is found in the inflow and outflow sluices of the great tanks which abound everywhere around the city. Nowhere did the inhabitants of Ahmedabad show how essentially they were an architectural people, as in these utilitarian works. It was a necessity of their nature that every object should be made ornamental, and their success was as great in these as in their mosques or palaces.

Buildings in the Provinces.

In addition to the numerous edifices that adorn the capital, there are, as hinted above, several in the provincial capitals that are well worthy of notice. Among these the Jumma Musjid at Cambay is perhaps the most splendid. It was erected in A.D. 1325, in the time of Mohammed Shah Gori, and is only inferior to that of the capital in size. It measures over all 200 ft. by 210 ft., and its internal court 120 ft. by 135 ft. Except being somewhat smaller in scale, its plan and arrangements are almost identical with those of the Altumsh Mosque (Woodcut No. 283) at Ajmir: but, when it is looked into, it would be difficult to conceive two buildings more essentially different than these two are. The screen of arches at Cambay, only three in number, are plain even to baldness, and low, in order to fit the dimensions of the Jaina pillars of the interior. These latter are all borrowed from desecrated temples, and in this instance certainly rearranged without much attention to congruity or architectural effect. Still the effect is picturesque, and the parts being employed for the purposes for which they were designed, there is no offensive incongruity anywhere.

One of the most remarkable features in this mosque is the tomb, which its founder, Imrar ben Ahmed Kajerani erected for himself. It is wholly composed of Hindu remains, and is two storeys in height, and was crowned with a dome 28 ft. in diameter. The parts, however—borrowed, apparently, from different buildings—were so badly fitted together that, after standing some three centuries, it fell in, and has since remained a ruin, singularly picturesque in form and exquisite in detail, but a monument of the folly of employing building materials for any purpose but that for which they were designed.[518]

There is another mosque at Baroach, not unlike this one in design but smaller, being only 135 ft. over all north and south, and it has—now, at least—no courtyard; but some of its details, borrowed from Hindu temples, are very beautiful.

There are also two very beautiful mosques at Dolka, a city twenty-two miles south-west from Ahmedabad, almost identical in size and plan, being each of them squares of about 150 ft., and the mosque-front covered with five domes and the screen-wall with three arches each.[519]

The most beautiful, however, of these provincial examples is the tomb at MahmÚdabad, of its class one of the most beautiful in India (Woodcut No. 306). It was erected by the same MahmÚd Begurra, A.D. 1484, who erected the tomb of Kutub-ul-Alum at Butwa, described above (Woodcut No. 304), and is said to have been designed by the same architect. This is, however, a far more successful example, and though small—it is only 94 ft. square, exclusive of the porch—there is a simplicity about its plan, a solidity and balance of parts in the design, which is not always found in these tombs, and has rarely, if ever, been surpassed in any tomb in India. The details, too, are all elegant and appropriate, so that it only wants somewhat increased dimensions to rank among the very first of its class. Its constructive arrangements, too, are so perfect that no alterations in them would be required, if the scale had been very much increased.

The tomb itself is surrounded by a screen of perforated stonework, of the very finest tracery, and with its double verandah aids in giving the sepulchral chamber that seclusion and repose so indispensable in a mausoleum.[520]