DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0598
574
INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Hook VII.
Akbah, 155G-16U5.
It would require a volume to describe all the buildings erected
by this remarkable man during his long reign of forty-nine years,
and a hundred plates would hardly suffice to make known all their
peculiarities. Had Akbar been content to follow in the lines of the
style invented hy the Pathans and perfected by Shere Shah, it might
be easy enough to follow the sequence, but nothing in his character
is so remarkable as the spirit of tolerance that pervaded all his acts.
He seems to have had as sincere a love and admiration for his Hindu
subjects as he had for those of his own faith, and whether from policy
or inclination, to have cherished their arts as much as he did those that
belonged exclusively to his own people. The consequence is a mixture
throughout all his works of two styles, often more picturesque than
correct, which might, in the course of another half century, have been
blended into a completely new style if persevered in. The spirit of
tolerance, however, died with him. There is no trace of Hinduism in
the works of .Tehangir or Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe would have
been horrified at the suggestion that arts of the infidels could influence
anything he did.
One probably of his earliest works was the mausoleum, which he
erected over the remains of his father, Humayun, at Delhi. Though
it certainly was finished by Akbar, it most probably was designed
and commenced by his father; for, as frequently remarked in the
previous pages of this work, the great architectural peculiarity of the
Tartar or Mongolian races is their tomb-building propensity, in which
they are so strongly distinguished from the Aryan, and also from the
great Semitic families, with whom they divide the greater part of
the habitable globe. Nowhere is this more forcibly illustrated than in
India—where the tombs of the Pathans and Moguls form a complete
and unbroken series of architectural monuments from the first years
of the Moslem invasion to the present hour.
The tombs of the Pathans are less splendid than those of the
Moguls; but nevertheless the whole series is singularly interesting,
the tombs being far more numerous than the mosques. Generally
speaking, also, they are more artistic in design, and frequently not
only larger but more splendidly decorated than the buildings ex-
clusively devoted to prayer.
The princes of the Tartar races, in carrying out their love of tombs,
made it the practice to build their own in their lifetime, as all people
how much to Akbar; both certainly built
there, and on the spot it might easily
be ascertained how much belongs to each.
Unfortunately, the part that belongs to
the British is too easily ascertained.
''They converted the beautiful Dewan
Ehand, of which Daniell published a
drawing, into a stable for breeding
horses." — Hamilton's 'Gazetteer,' sub
voce.
INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Hook VII.
Akbah, 155G-16U5.
It would require a volume to describe all the buildings erected
by this remarkable man during his long reign of forty-nine years,
and a hundred plates would hardly suffice to make known all their
peculiarities. Had Akbar been content to follow in the lines of the
style invented hy the Pathans and perfected by Shere Shah, it might
be easy enough to follow the sequence, but nothing in his character
is so remarkable as the spirit of tolerance that pervaded all his acts.
He seems to have had as sincere a love and admiration for his Hindu
subjects as he had for those of his own faith, and whether from policy
or inclination, to have cherished their arts as much as he did those that
belonged exclusively to his own people. The consequence is a mixture
throughout all his works of two styles, often more picturesque than
correct, which might, in the course of another half century, have been
blended into a completely new style if persevered in. The spirit of
tolerance, however, died with him. There is no trace of Hinduism in
the works of .Tehangir or Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe would have
been horrified at the suggestion that arts of the infidels could influence
anything he did.
One probably of his earliest works was the mausoleum, which he
erected over the remains of his father, Humayun, at Delhi. Though
it certainly was finished by Akbar, it most probably was designed
and commenced by his father; for, as frequently remarked in the
previous pages of this work, the great architectural peculiarity of the
Tartar or Mongolian races is their tomb-building propensity, in which
they are so strongly distinguished from the Aryan, and also from the
great Semitic families, with whom they divide the greater part of
the habitable globe. Nowhere is this more forcibly illustrated than in
India—where the tombs of the Pathans and Moguls form a complete
and unbroken series of architectural monuments from the first years
of the Moslem invasion to the present hour.
The tombs of the Pathans are less splendid than those of the
Moguls; but nevertheless the whole series is singularly interesting,
the tombs being far more numerous than the mosques. Generally
speaking, also, they are more artistic in design, and frequently not
only larger but more splendidly decorated than the buildings ex-
clusively devoted to prayer.
The princes of the Tartar races, in carrying out their love of tombs,
made it the practice to build their own in their lifetime, as all people
how much to Akbar; both certainly built
there, and on the spot it might easily
be ascertained how much belongs to each.
Unfortunately, the part that belongs to
the British is too easily ascertained.
''They converted the beautiful Dewan
Ehand, of which Daniell published a
drawing, into a stable for breeding
horses." — Hamilton's 'Gazetteer,' sub
voce.