Agra field trip - On stone and past

ON STONE AND PAST

AG RA SHIKHAR BHARDWAJ

HMA SEMESTER 5TH

CHAND BAORI

Thousands of exquisitely carved stone water storage wells, hundreds of stone steps fill this exquisite medieval stepwell.

In the northern Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the problem of water is a profound one.

At the edge of the Thar desert, the area sees torrential seasonal monsoons, and then watches the water disappear almost immediately. With summers routinely over 100 degrees, and silty soil that would not hold water in ponds, a practical solution was needed for locals and travelers along the local trade routes.

The earliest stepwells most likely date to about 550, but the most famous were built in medieval times. It is estimated that over 3,000 stepwells were built in the two northern states. Although many have fallen into disrepair, were silted in at some point in antiquity, or were filled in with trash in the modern era, hundreds of wells still exist. In New Delhi alone, there are more than 30.

Chand Baori is a deep four-sided structure with an immense temple on one face. Some 3,500 Escher-esqe terraced steps march down the other three sides 13 stories to a depth of 100 feet. The construction dates to the 10th century, and is dedicated to Harshat Mata, goddess of joy and happiness.

Water plays a special part in Hindu mythology, as a boundary between heaven and earth known as tirtha. As manmade tirtha, the stepwells became not only sources of drinking water, but cool sanctuaries for bathing, prayer, and meditation. The wells are called by many names.

In Hindu they are baori, baoli, baudi, bawdi, or bavadi. In Gujarati, spoken in Gujarat, they are commonly called vav.

Temples and resting areas with beautiful carvings are built into many of the wells. In their prime, many of them were painted in bright colors of lime-based paint, and now traces of ancient colors cling to dark corners.

FATEHPUR SIKRI Akbar's impassioned interests also included architecture, and this led him to build a royal city at Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra, and a fort and palace in Agra itself. In these structures Islamic and Hindu elements were deliberately blended, reflecting the emperor's desire to integrate culturally his diverse nation.

Humayun's tomb had a new style in design; low dome and use of red sandstone, ornamented with inlaid white marble decoration, this masculine synthesis of Persian and Indian design probably formed the basic model for a later Mughal architectural wonder, the Taj Mahal.

Inspired by the fulfilled prophecy of a Muslim saint who had predicted the birth of his son and heir Salim, the future emperor Jahangir, Akbar undertook the construction of a completely new city - Fatehpur Sikri - on the remote site of the holyman's retreat, 26 miles west of Agra.

For a period of about fifteen years, starting in 1571, a ceremonial capital, including elaborate palaces, formal courtyards, reflecting pools, harems, tombs, and a great mosque, was erected. Over an area two miles long and a mile wide the city rose to completion out of the feverish activity of an army of masons and stone-carvers. They had hardly completed their labours when, due to royal distractions and a lack of an adequate water-supply, the pristine stone palaces were abandoned.

The Jahangiri Mahal in the Agra fort is the only surviving monument there from Akbar's reign. It is an uneasy blending of the design of the Man Mandir with a Muslim palace, and the halls and rooms are irregular and confused. The carvings on the red sandstone brackets and balconies are largely patterned after wood chiselling. The brackets on the oblong topstorey chamber, which is surrounded by verandas, passages, and staircases and stands to the west of the central quadrangle, are, however, exquisitely carved with peacock and serpent motifs.

The repetitions of geese, flamingos, and lotuses in the carvings throughout this storey make it a predominantly Hindu living-room.

TAJ MAHAL

which were finished with red sandstone, the Taj has pure white marble facades. The fabric Architecture seems to have held the contributes to the over-all effect of delicacy and denies the existence of attention of Shah Jahan more than the heavy rubble construction inside anything else. The central masterpiece inspired by his interest it, translucent whiteness of the marble is subtly contrasted with a is without question the mausoleum tracery of black stone, inlaid in for his queen, Mumtaz Mahal, at geometric pattern and Islamic Agra - the Taj Mahal (1632-54).

Situated in a formal garden, backed inscriptions. Add1itionally grace is given by the dome, which rises on a by the Jumna river, its formal white marble facades and minarets float in high drum over a lower internal the shimmering Indian sunlight and dome, as in the tomb of Tamerlane at Samarkand. Ultimately the Taj project a vision of beauty and Mahal must be experienced in grandeur which is remote from the person, not in two-dimensional realities of the world. photographs. Photography consorts with the building's formal geometry The Taj's basic plan of a faceted to deny its mammoth size and cube is thought to have originated simultaneous lightness. One can with the tomb of Humayun and the now-ruined mausoleum for the Khan only agree with a contemporary Mughal reaction that the Taj defies I-Khanan, both at Delhi. But unlike an 'ocean of descriptions.' these Akbar period structures,

In 1628 Nur Jahan, Emperor Jahangir's wife, completed a tomb for her father, I'timadu'd-Dawla, by the Jamuna at Agra.

In form it is not unlike a Turkish kiosk, being a double-storeyed and square marble structure. The central chamber, containing the cenotaph, is surrounded by a series of rooms and passages corresponding to an enclosed veranda. It is finished with four short but elegant minarets, standing on each corner of the mausoleum platform. Earlier Mughal monuments were adorned with white and black marble, but the art called pietra dura, the technique of inlaying mosaic with hard and precious stones such as lapis, onyx, jasper, topaz, and cornelian, commenced with I'timadu'd-Dawla's mausoleum. The profusion of wine-vessels, cups, flower vases, and scent bottles depicted on the walls offered many opportunities to the designer to display his ingenuity. The handles of some wine-vessels are serpents with birds' beaks, some are dragonshaped, others depict a lion motif, and some are plain. Animal motifs on the inlays of flower vases include dancing peacocks, peacocks accompanied by peahens, fish, and even mice. Geometrical patterns and floral designs, however, predominate. The excessive decoration on the dados in the interior reflects the designer's immaturity in planning. Later on the Mughal designers learned to restrain themselves. Indeed, I'timadu'd-Dawla's tomb marks the transition from Jahangir's ornamental extravagance to Shahjahan's finesse.

TOMB OF I'TIMĀDUD-DAULAH