Bayana
The Sources of Mughal Architecture
Mehrdad Shokoohy, Natalie H. Shokoohy
- Offers a broad reinvestigation of North Indian Muslim architecture through a case study of a desert fortress
- Includes detailed maps of the sites: Bayana Town, the Garden City of Sikandra and the Vijayamandargarh or Tahangar Fort with detailed survey of its fortifications and its elaborate gate systems
- Features photographs and measured surveys of 140 monuments and epigraphic records from the 13th to the end of the 16th century including mosques, minarets, waterworks, domestic dwellings, mansions, ‘idgahs (prayer walls) and funerary edifices
- Introduces historic outlying towns and their monuments in the region such as Barambad, Dholpur, Khanwa and Nagar-Sikri (later to become Fathpur Sikri)
- Demonstrates Bayana’s cultural and historic importance in spite of its present obscurity and neglect and adds to the record of India’s disappearing historic heritage in the wake of modernisation
Bayana in Rajasthan, and its monuments, challenge the established view of the development of Muslim architecture and urban form in India. At the end of the 12th century, early conquerors took the mighty Hindu fort, building the first Muslim city below on virgin ground. They later reconfigured the fort and constructed another town within it. These two towns were the centre of an autonomous region during the 15th and 16th centuries.
1. Introduction
2. HistoryThe conquest of BayanaThe extent of the region of Bayana13th and 14th centuriesTīmūr’s invasion and the rise of the AuḥadīsThe Lodī dominanceBābur and the rise of the MughalsThe decline: the Sūrī episodeThe MahdīAkbar and the later Mughals
3. The Three TownsBayana Town: Sultānkūt and the later town The late mediaeval town, its street pattern and town gates The historic graveyard, tombstones and their stylistic traits Modern developments
The Tahangar or Vijayamandargarh Fort and its town The fortification walls and land features Separate fortified areas East Enclosure East gate of the fort opening to Area E East Enclosure (area E) its topography and other features The monumental gateway Citadel or Upper Fort The Citadel’s East Gate System (F. 18) The Citadel (Area A) its topography and urban form The ancient column Other features of Area A The Citadel’s West Gate System (Area B) Area C Gate F. 5 Gate F. 43 North Enclosure (Area G) Bazaar Street and Shops (F.40) Gate F. 42 and postern gate F. 41 Taletī Darwāza (F.1) and built up part of Area G The fortification walls and their age
Sikandra Town walls and gates The urban layout and its components
4. Early Monuments (12th–14th Century)The Ghurid Period: The Buildings Of Bahāʾ Al-Dīn Tughluq The Chaurasī Khamba Mosque at Kaman The Ukhā Mandīr Mosque The ‘īdgāh The Persian namāzgāh or musallā Bayana and the Indian ‘īdgāh
The Khaljī And Tughluq Periods (1290–1320, 1320–1413) The Ukhā Masjid The Tughluq period
5. Mosques and MinaretsMosques with Traditional Plans The Auhadī Jāmi‘ of the Fort Muftīyun kī Masjid Tālakīnī Masjid Pīr Mastān Masjid or Pahārī Masjid Ruinous structure in the Fort Jāt Mosque The Jāmiʿ of Sikandra
Small Neighbourhood Mosques Mosque converted to a house Small mosque in the citadel Mosque with three domes in Sikandra: ("Mosque of Niẓām Khān”) Mosque with flat roof in Sikandra 'Mughal' Mosque
Emergence of a New Mosque Plan Tāletī Masjid ‘Īdgāh Masjid Mosques at Sikandra
Minarets The minaret of Dāwūd Khān The Ukhā Minār or the minaret of Nizām Khān Minaret in the North Enclosure of the Fort
6. The Chatrī Its Origin, Its Basic Form and Its Variants in Bayana Typology
Indian prototypes
Persian canopies
Wooden canopies in India
Early stone chatrīs
Experimental designs in Bayana
The Kaman chatrī over the minbar: a statement
7. Waterworks
Wells
Reservoirs
Reservoirs – Typology Lake-size reservoirs Stepped tanks Step-wells
I: Natural Depressions Made Into Reservoirs Mor Tālāb Sikandra Reservoir Dammed reservoirs Main reservoir in the east enclosure of the fort
II: Large Reservoirs with Steps at All Sides Bayana Town, Reservoir in the Abū Qandahār Graveyard Bayana Town, the Jhālar Bā’olī Hindaun: Jachchaw (Jachchā)kī Ba’olī Bā’olī at the south of Bayana Town
III: Step-Wells The Bā’olī of Khān-i Khānān The Bā’olī of Nizām Khān, outside Bayana Sikandra – step-well west of the modern village Barambad, bā’olī in the garden of Maryam Zamānī
8. Domestic Architecture Structure and Methods Of Construction Typology Single room dwellings Multi-room dwellings Courtyard plan houses Houses with an open-fronted hall (īwān) and flanking chambers
9. Mansions, Semi-Public Buildings And Later Monuments The Governor’s Mansion in the fort A religious structure in Bayana town La‘l Darwāza at Sikandra Imārat-i Bādgīr in the fort (the Pavilion of Muhammad Bakhshī) The Jāt mansions
10. Historic Edifices In The Towns And Villages Of The Bayana RegionDholpur Bībī Zarrīna: Sikandar Lodī’s mother The Tomb and Mosque of Bībī Zarrīna
Khanwa Karbalā Masjid Dare or Khalī Masjid Jāmi‘ Masjid
Nagar-Sikri Ambiyawālī Masjid Jāmi‘ (Pathān) Masjid Purāna Masjid
Sikri Mīwātiyun kī Masjid
11. Epilogue
Appendix I: Historical Inscriptions Of Bayana And Its Region
Appendix II: The Genealogy Of The Auḥadīs Of Bayana
Appendix III: Funerary Chatrīs and Other TombsBayana builders and funerary architecture
Funerary Chatrīs
Standard Forms Chatrīs with four columns and corbelled or true domes Chatrīs with twelve columns and corbelled domes Octagonal chatrīs Hexagonal chatrī Rectangular canopies or joined chatrīs
Experimental Forms Walled chatrīs Chatrīs with ribbed domes Chatrī with a double-shelled dome
Departures From Norms Four columned chatrīs with flat roofs and false domes Chatrīs with eight columns and true or corbelled domes Canopies with nine columns, flat roofs and probable false domes
Other Tombs Square domed chambers Late or post-Mughal tombs
Bibliography
Index
