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Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiJUSTIFICATION FOR INSCRIPTIONCriterion (iv) be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensembleor landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;Delhi’s Medieval and Colonial Capitals illustrate through their respective urban morphologies two significant stagesin human history:o Peak and glory of the Mughal Empireo Apogee of the British Colonial RuleThe Medieval and Colonial Capital Cities of Delhi, represent at a single site, two distinct planning principles that wereoutstanding examples in ideologies of town planning of their respective times.o Shahjahanabad is the largest planned Mughal city. It is an exemplar of the sovereign city model of premoderncities, conceived as axis mundi. It was contemporaneous to several other capital cities of Asianempires, like Istanbul, Isfahan, Edo (Tokyo) and Peking, but was distinguished from them as the product ofits distinct cultural milieu;o Colonial Delhi is the only fully planned and built modern city between the two World Wars combining inone city two dominant town planning principles of the time, the Garden City Concept and the CityBeautiful Movement.Imperial Capital city of ShahjahanabadShahjahanabad was the first planned capital city of the Mughal Empire, laid out at a time when the monumentalarts had reached their apogee in India. It is therefore the supreme example of the Mughal city. Moreover, theconcept of the Mughal city implies not only a certain style of the decorative arts and architecture, but moreimportantly, it epitomises the essence of Mughal rule, which sought to incorporate a wide mix of religious,cultural and ethnic identities. Diverse cultural identities were given political space within the Mughal empire. Forinstance the Rajputs who formed an important part of the Mughal nobility and enjoyed considerableindependence within their homelands, and into whose families the Mughal emperors frequently married. Theywere given cultural space, not only through freedom to practice their own religions, but by the assimilation ofindigenous practices into Mughal court ritual – such as celebration of Hindu festivals by the royal family.Shahjahanabad, built at the height of the Mughal empire, is a supreme expression of the essentials of Mughal rule.Its centralized layout, broad avenues and monumental buildings represent the most sophisticated stage ofdevelopment of art and architecture under the Mughals, and of the empire’s pomp and splendour. On the otherhand the role of influential merchants and the nobility in determining land use at a local level, is in keeping withthe Mughal ethos of accommodation, created a city which must be understood on its own terms rather thanrestrictive concepts such as ‘Islamic city’In the mid 17 th century (1638‐ 1857). Shahjahan the Mughal Emperor, modelled the walled city he built in 1643,on the Quranic concept of Paradise. His other inspiration was the Islamic cities (what we know today as themiddle east). Representing the apogee of town‐ planning in medieval India, Shahjahanabad, reflects both Hinduand Islamic influences, i.e. influences from the Vastu Shastras (ancient Hindu texts) 1 and Persian traditions.Imperial planning of the city was restricted to the broad outlines and major landmarks. Shahjahan readilycombined the beautiful with the canonical and the auspicious.In his attempt at recreating the Islamic Paradise on earth he did not hesitate to include a sprinkling of the HinduVastu shastras thrown in for good luck. As with most of the Mughal emperors, Shahjahan too was highlyaccommodative and encouraged cultural integration and religious tolerance and was looked upon as a fatherfigure by both the Hindus and the Muslims.The Vastu Shastras contain directions for constructing buildings and for laying out settlements of different kinds.The location and siting of this imperial city was guided by the Vastu Shastras. The Manasara text of the VastuShastaras, dating to about AD 400‐600, the section specifying the plans of Towns and Forts states that, ‘A city withthe king(i.e. royal palace) in the centre and inhabited by numerous wealthy( lit meritorious) people should1 As described by Stephen Blake.31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 8
Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiJUSTIFICATION FOR INSCRIPTIONpreferably b laid out within the kingdom on the banks of a river, and its is always given by the learned the nameof Rajdhani (capital or metropolis) if there be (built) a temple of God (Visnu) at the entrance or in the centre of it’ 2 .The Manasara, advises that a semi‐elliptical shape called a karmuka or bow be used for a site fronting a river orseashore. This text seems to have influenced Shahjahan’s architects. The north‐south road that connectedAkbarabadi Gate of the city with the Kashmiri gate of the city and included Faiz bazaar, represents the bow string.The street running along the periphery of the city from south to north‐west and connecting Turkmani Gate andAjmeri gate with Lahore Gate and running further north east to connect Mori Gate and Kashmiri gate, representsthe curved shaft of the bow. Chandni Chowk which ran from the Lahori Gate of the Fort to the Lahori Gate of thecity represented the arm of the archer.Further, the street plan and siting of important buildings also seems to have followed a design from the sameancient Hindu texts on architecture, the vastu shastras ( rules for architecture) For in the Karmuka plan the mostauspicious spot is the junction of two main thoroughfares. In a Hindu settlement this pride of position would betaken up by a temple dedicated to Vishnu or Shiva. In Shhajahanabad the palace fortress is located near thejunction of the two main thoroughfares.The influence of Islamic ideas are also seen in the plan of Shahjahanabad. Perhaps the source for these ideas aswith all the other arts of the Indo‐Islamic style was Iran. In the architecture and town planning as with poetry,painting, music and dance, the Persian influence was predominant.Emperor Humayun spent twelve years in exile in Iran( 1543‐55) and was heavily exposed to Shi’ism and theSafavid court. In addition, the five Islamic kingdoms of the Deccan had all been Shi’I from the time of Akbar andmaintained close diplomatic and cultural ties with Iran right through the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries.Their conquest by the Mughals in the seventeenth century, only served to increase the Persian Shi’I influence atcourt.For the rest of the Islamic world, Mughal India was a land of great wealth( it had two harvests a year) and theMughal court was the richest and most generous of the time. Delhi saw a steady influx of Iranis seeking to make afortune and gain fame. Iranis were the largest of the foreign contingents during the Mughal period. InShahjahanas court many of the great men were from Iran‐Shaista Khan, Asaf Khan, Jafar Khan, Makaramat Khanand most importantly Ali Mardhan Khanwho as commander of the fort of Khandahar, defected to the Mughalcourt in 1638.In addition to Safavid nobles, administrators and soldiers, there were also poets, painters, architects musicians,philosophers and physicians who immigrated to Delhi right through the 16 th , 17 th & 18 th centuries. Immigrantarchitects and engineers influenced the design of the palaces, mansions, mosques, tombs, and gardens inShahjahanabad . Abd‐al Rahim Khan‐i‐Khanan had in his household, an Iranian architect named Baruli who hadworked for the rulers before fleeing to India. He used the building technology and architectural styles that wereused in he buildings in Iran, Iraq and Khurasan.Iranian architects of Shahjahana’s court worked in the cosmological context of the Rasail(Epistles of the Ikhwanal‐Safa (Brothers of Purity). There are two cosmological principles central to the Rasail: the analogy between themicrocosm and the macrocosm (man and the universe and the great chain of being). These ideas are reflected inother Asian traditions as well: Sufi concept of the universal man is paralleled by the Hindu idea of the Purusha andthe Chinese notion of the Chen‐jen. This traditional relationship between man and the universe is the basis oftraditional Islamic architecture. Within the ordered world of traditional society, man moves between themacrocosmic conception of the universe and the microcosmic conception of self. The concept of city lies betweenthe two poles, incorporating the symbolic principles of both. Using numerological and cosmological principles, theauthors of the rasail drew fourteen parallels between man and the cosmos. As man and the universe weredefined so was the city.2 Taken from Chapter 10, The Towns and Forts, page 69, verses44-47.31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 9
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