CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS

The Mughal period saw remarkable cultural developme in which Indian and Islamic traditions were fused into composite style.

ARCHITECTURE The Mughals were prolific builde The buildings of Babur have perished by now except rn one at Kabuli Bagh at Panipat and the other, the Jami Masj at Sambhal. Humayun's troubled reign left him little opportunity to ind~ge in artistic taste. Only one mosque of his time still stands-at Fatehabad in Punjab.

Sher Shah Suri who dispossessed Humayun was a great builder. The most remarkable buildings of his time are the mosque in the Purana Quila near Delhi and his own tomb at Sasaram in Bihar. The new style of architecture tiegun by Sher Shah was greatly developed by Akbar who was the first Mughal emperor who had the time to under­take construction on a large scale. Most of the buildings built during his reign were of red sandstone. One of his earliest buildings was the tomb of Humayun at Delhi, amidst a welliaid-out garden. He adorned his capital, Agra, with magnificent buildings such as the fort, the Diwan-i­Am, the DiiiJan-i-Khas and the palace known as Jahangiri Mahal. But his most important buildings are to be found at Fatehpur Sikri, the capital township he founded. The most impressive buildings of Fatehpur Sikri are the tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti and the Buland Darwaza, the Panch Mahal and Jodha Bai's palace. Akbar combined Persian, Indian and central Asian styles. His mausoleum at Sikandara is a unique building modelled on the Buddhist viharas of India. It was planned by Akbar but built by Jahangir.

Jahangir had fine artistic sense but his taste lay more in painting. The two most important buildings of his reign are the tomb of Akbar and the tomb of ltimad-ud-daulah. The latter was built by Nur Jahan over the grave of her
father. It was built in white marble and is one of the earliest buildings to be decorated with pietra dura or inlaying of semi-precious stones of different colours.
Shah Jahan was a most prolific and magnificent builder. In exquisite beauty of form, in symmetry of design and in skilful decoration Shah Jahan's buildings are unequalled. Of his buildings the most important are the tomb of Jahangir
, at Lahore, the Diwan-i-Am, the Diwan-i-Khas at Red Fort and the Jama Masjid in Delhi. The Moti Masjid in Agra Fort is remarkable for its purity and unadorned beauty. But the finest of Mughal art is the famous Taj Mahal, a noble mausoleum erected by Shah Jahan over the grave of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The master-architect under whose guidance the building was designed and completed was Ustad lsa. The construction of this building was completed in 22 years. Pietra dura work, delicate marble screens and chhatris are special artistic features in this monument. With Shah Jahan's death, Mughal art began to decline. His puritanical son Aurangzeb 'cared little for architecture. His only building worth mentioning is the Badshahi Mosque.

The special contribution of the Mughals was the laying out of beautiful gardens. Babur laid the first such garden in Agra-the Nur-i-Afshan. All the Mughal buildings gen­erally incorporate gardens. Jahangir, perhaps, is most fa­mous for his gardens-Shalimar at Srinagar and the garden in Lahore. Asaf Khan, Nur Jahan's brother laid out the famous Nishat Bagh in Srinagar.Scientifically planned, these gardens made a careful selection of plants and had well laid-out waterways and fountains.