Architecture of Delhi

The Architecture of Delhi consists of architecture in the Indian city and union territory of Delhi.

The entrance of the fortress presents nothing remarkable except two large elephants of stone, placed at either side of one of the principal gates. ~ Francois Bernier

One of the greatest curiosities of Delhi is the Coottub-Minar, which is fifteen miles from the city, and is a conspicuous object at a great distance. ~ Leopold von Orlic

Although constructed of destroyed Hindu temples, the Mosques at Old Delhi and Ajmer once and for all set the fashion to be followed by later mosques in Muslim India… ~ Syed Mahmudul Hasan

Harry Shattuck: Lal Qila, the massive 17th Century Red Fort, once was home to 5,000 residents. Built between 1639 and 1648 with red sandstone brought from Rajasthan by Mogul King Shah Jahan,...

Upinder Singh:...the stately layout and architecture of Lutyen’s Delhi bear the imposing imprint of British imperial rule.

Quotes

• About 2 c. without Dely is the remainder of an auncient mole [mahal?] or hunting house, built by Sultan Berusa [Sultan Firoz Shah, the pillar referred to is the Asoka lat brought by him from Meerut], a great Indian monarch, with much curiositie of stoneworke. With and above the rest is to be seen a stone pillar, which, passing through three stories, is higher then all twenty foure foot, having at the top a globe and a halfe moone over it. This stone, they say, stands as much under the earth, and is placed in the water, being all one entire stone; some say Naserdengady, a Potan king [probably Nasiruddin Tughlak, son of Firoz Shah], would have taken it up and was prohibited by multitude of scorpions, and that it hath inscriptions. In divers parts of India the like are to be seene, and of late was found buried in the ground about Fettipore a stone piller of an hundred cubits length, which the King commanded to bring to Agra, but was broken in the way, to his great griefe.
  • William Finch , Quoted in Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts.

• One of the greatest curiosities of Delhi is the Coottub-Minar, which is fifteen miles from the city, and is a conspicuous object at a great distance. This celebrated pillar was erected in 1193 by Coottubud-Deen, the founder of the Ghoorides, who overthrew the throne of the Brahmins in Delhi, in commemoration of the triumph of Mahometanism over Brahminism… About eight O’clock I stood before the lofty Coottub Minar: it is built of very fine, hard red sandstone, is 62 feet in diameter at the base, and rises to the height of 265 feet; it is divided into three stories, and the upper gallery is elevated 242 feet 6 inches above the ground. This column, which is the highest in the world, was intended by Coottub-ud-Deen to mark the entrance to a mosque which he purposed building. The lower story is about 90 feet high, and is built in alternate angular and concave channelings, on which sentences from the Koran are inscribed in raised Arabic characters; the other two stories consist of concave flutings only, and diminish gradually to the summit. The whole is crowned by a small dome, which is supported by eight square pillars: this dome was shattered by an earthquake in the year 1803, but has been restored by the English in its original form.
  • Leopold von Orlic. Quoted in Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts.

• We had admired the presidential palace and parliament houses, paused beside the striking India Gate, inspected the 16th Century Humayun's Tomb--a forerunner to the Taj Mahal--and cruised past scores of international embassies. Now, without crossing a border--or pausing at a stoplight--we were in a different world.
  • Harry Shattuck, in The old and the new of Delhi: Within city, it's a whole other world, Chicago Tribune1, 4 May 2006

• Delhi’s history is etched over its landscape in stone. Magnificent forts, mosques and tombs of the Sultanate and Mughal periods evoke the aura of the medieval world while the stately layout and architecture of Lutyen’s Delhi bear the imposing imprint of British imperial rule.
  • Upinder Singh, in Delhi: Ancient History, Berghahn Books, 1 August 2007, p. xi

• Lal Qila, the massive 17th Century Red Fort, once was home to 5,000 residents. Built between 1639 and 1648 with red sandstone brought from Rajasthan by Mogul King Shah Jahan, the Red Fort is surrounded by a 1.5 mile wall. It initially served as the capital of Shah Jahan's empire. The same king commissioned construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra as a monument to his wife... A shopping bazaar is within.
  • Harry Shattuck, in The old and the new of Delhi: Within city, it's a whole other world

• Old Delhi is bereft of splendor: Jama Masjid is the largest Muslim mosque in all of Asia. Dating to the 17th Century and commissioned by Shah Jahan, Asia's largest mosque was built of sandstone and black marble over six years by 5,000 laborers. Five gates remind Muslims that they are to pray five times daily, and up to 20,000 gather here--with women and men typically praying at different times. Climb the steps of a 130-foot-tall minaret for panoramic views of Old Delhi.
  • Harry Shattuck, in The old and the new of Delhi: Within city, it's a whole other world

• The Emperor’s palace is a good half league in circuit. The walls are of fine cut stone, with battlements, and at every tenth battlement there is a tower. The fosses are full of water and are lined with cut stone. The principal gate has nothing magnificent about it, nor has the first court, where the nobles are permitted to enter on their elephants... A little farther on, over the same gate is the place where the drums, trumpets, and hautboys are kept [the Naggar-Khana], which are heard some moments before the Emperor ascends his throne of justice, to give notice to the Omrahs, and again when the Emperor is about to rise. When entering this third court you face the Divan where the Emperor gives audience. It is a grand hall elevated some four feet above the ground floor, and open on three sides. Thirty-two marble columns sustain as many arches, and these columns are about four feet square, with their pedestals and some mouldings [the Chihal Situn, hall of forty pillars]. When Shahjahan commenced the building of this hall he intended that it should be enriched throughout by wonderful works in mosaic, like those in the chapel of the Grand Duke In Italy; but having made a trial upon two or three pillars to the height of two or three feet, he considered that it would be impossible to find enough stones for so considerable a design, and that moreover it would cost an enormous sum of money; this compelled him to stop the work, and content himself with a representation of different flowers.
  • Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Quoted in Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts.

• …the principal Mosquee…is conspicuous at a great distance, being situated on the top of a rock in the centre of the town. The surface of the rock was previously levelled, and around it a space is cleared sufficiently large to form a handsome square, where four fine long streets terminate, opposite to the four sides of the Mosquee; one, opposite to the principal entrance, in front of the building; a second, at the back of the building; and the two others, to the gates that are in the middle of the two sides. The ascent to the three gates is by means of five-and-twenty or thirty steps of beautiful and large stones, which are continued the whole length of the front and sides. The back part is cased over, to the height of the rock, with large and handsome hewn stone, which hides its inequalities, and tends to give a noble appearance to the building. The three entrances, composed of marble, are magnificent, and their large doors are overlaid with finely wrought plates of copper. Above the principal gate, which greatly exceeds the others in grandeur of appearance, there are several small turrets of white marble that produce a fine effect; and at the back part of the Mosquee are seen three large domes, built also of white marble, within and without. The middle dome is much larger and loftier than the other two. The end of the Mosquee alone is covered: the space between the three domes and the principal entrance is without any roof; the extreme heat of the climate rendering such an opening absolutely necessary. The whole is paved with large slabs of marble. I grant that this building is not constructed according to those rules of architecture which we seem to think ought to be implicitly followed; yet I can perceive no fault that offends the taste; every part appears well contrived, properly executed, and correctly proportioned. I am satisfied that even in Paris a church erected after the model of this temple would be admired, were it only for its singular style of architecture, and its extra-ordinary appearance. With the exception of the three great domes, and the numerous turrets, which are all of white marble, the Mosquee is of a red colour, as if built with large slabs of red marble: although it consists of a species of stone, cut with great facility, but apt to peel off in flakes after a certain time.
  • Jama Masjid, Delhi, Francois Bernier quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 5

• The entrance of the fortress presents nothing remarkable except two large elephants of stone, placed at either side of one of the principal gates. On one of the elephants is seated the statue of Jemel, the renowned Raja of Chitor; on the other is the statue of Polta, his brother. These are the brave heroes who, with their still braver mother, immortalised their names by the extraordinary resistance which they opposed to the celebrated Ekbar… After passing into the citadel through this gate, there is seen a long and spacious street, divided in the midst by a canal of running water. . The street has a long divan, or raised way, on both sides, in the manner of the Pontneuf, five or six feet high and four broad. Bordering the divan are closed arcades, which run up the whole way in the form of gates. It is upon this long divan that all the collectors of market-dues and other petty officers exercise their functions without being incommoded by the horses and people that pass in the street below. The Mansebdars or inferior Omrahs mount guard on this raised way during the night. The water of the canal runs into the Seraglio; divides and intersects every part, and then falls into the ditches of the fortification. This water is brought from the river Gemna by means of a canal opened at a distance of five or six leagues above Dehly, and cut with great labour through fields and rocky ground.
  • Red Fort, Delhi, Francois Bernier. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. N

• I have resided in Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad (Deccan) for many years. In all these places I could hardly locate any temples left of the medieval period. Hindu learning was dependent on schools and Brahman teachers, and both were attached to temples mostly in urban areas. And all the three - schools, teachers and temples - were systematically destroyed.
  • Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 7

Dr. Syed Mahmudul Hasan, Mosque Architecture of Pre-Mughal Bengal

Dr. Syed Mahmudul Hasan, Mosque Architecture of Pre-Mughal Bengal, Dacca (Bangladesh)

• “Just as later Mughal painting is a harmonious blend of Persian and Indian artistic tradition, so the Indo-Muslim architecture of Delhi and Ajmer is a blend. In the Quwwat al-Islam at Delhi and the Arhai din-ka-Jhopra at Ajmer, existing remains bear unmistakable evidence that they were not merely compilations, but the distinctive, planned works of professional architects…
  • p. 34

• “Although constructed of destroyed Hindu temples, the Mosques at Old Delhi and Ajmer once and for all set the fashion to be followed by later mosques in Muslim India…
  • p. 38

• “The early formative phase of Indo-Muslim architecture, marked by the adaptation of Hindu, Buddhist or Jaina temples, is illustrated by the oldest Mosques at Delhi, Bengal, Jaunpur, Daulatabad, Patan, etc. In Malwa, also, spoils of Hindu temples were used…
  • p.43

• “…Delhi was the source of artistic inspiration for all the later provincial schools of Indo-Muslim architecture. Codrington remarks, ‘At Delhi, the Kutb-ul-Islam marks the beginning of Islamic architecture in India.’ This formative phase of Mosque architecture in India began with the random utilization of temple spoils, Hindu architraves, corbelled ceilings, kumbha pillars with hanging bell-and-chain motifs, which were organised to fulfil the needs of congregational prayer. It is said that the columns of twenty-seven Hindu and Jaina temples were utilized in the great Mosque, at Delhi, rightly called the ‘Might of Islam’. It was built by Qutb-al-Din Aybak in AH 587/AD 1191-92 on an ancient pre-Muslim plinth. …Originally there were five domes in the liwan all compiled of Hindu fragments, as is evident from their corbelled interiors…
  • p. 37

• …Incidentally, it may be recalled that Beglar carried out excavations at the Quwat-al-Islam Mosque at Old Delhi under the supervision of Cunningham and noticed the foundation of pre-Muslim temples there…
  • p. 64