Hindustan, back in the 16th century was conquered by the descendants of one of the most accomplished military forces of Asia, The Mongols, or The Mughals. These dynasts, like every other great ruler, yearned to live through time. And what better way was there than to commission work for buildings of monumental value. Religious sanctuaries, palaces, forts, step-wells, and even mausoleums, most of which served the royal family more than the locals.
Mughal’s checklist of architectural delicacies, that their very own tombs should have, was very innate. Therefore, it led to the curation of a new building typology with a subjective planning system in itself. They called them Maqbara or Mausoleums. A wonderment of a blockade where they wished to rest after their demise.
This reflected the intervention of a completely new culture, with a foreign religion and even new techniques of construction. Such things weren’t an everyday groove. Indian artists and sculptors were now forced to work on a new language of architecture. A style migrating from Persia, their new masters’ homeland. The finest of the artisans and the brightest of the stones were used. There was no such thing as an excess decoration or rather a costly construction. After all, everything was an expensive affair in love and war!
Mughal tomb planning evolved over the reigns of the rulers, some elements kept on being added, while some got modified. The resultant of all this mental imagery resonated in great structures with highly specific workmanship. Here lie the list-down entities that made them funerary houses of these rulers.
MULTIAXIAL PLANS
These tombs were inspired by mausoleums built during Delhi Sultanate. Originally standing on a simple square plan, architects and mathematicians started experimenting with complex geometry. The plan to be cast out was drawn in a 1:2 aspect ratio of two recurring squares one above the other. The plinth, stationed at a considerable height served as the base square holding the entire building on it. It made the base built-up geometry of the monument. Inside plans were an amalgamation of squares and polygons. This served as a multi-axial layout conceptualized by the Panch ratan combination. Crowned with domes and supporting arches, they were systematically highlighted as five chambers of spatial importance.
GEOMETRY
Design in their contemporary times heavily rested on Balance and Symmetry. Builders evolved designs within the boundary of triangulation, scale, and proportions. Each level was marked, and crafted with special articulation to make it either stand out or seamlessly blend in. Symmetry being their chief ingredient, they outshone themselves as and when they were meant to.
The structural morphology was a result of the placement of architectural elements like arcades and pavilions in repetition. A rhythm was seen with an array of niches, brackets, and inlay motifs.
DOUBLE DOMES WITH FINIALS
The interplay of levels and height of buildings dated back to the construction of some Lodhi tombs. The scale of the building was considered directly proportional to the command or grandeur of the built structure or even the Emperor for say. So to cast an elevation that could be appreciated from a distance far off and do well when experiencing the enclosure, architects came up with solutions: a rectilinear and raised plinth and Doble Domes.
A dome, more than the height of double-storeyed interiors did not provide the kind of theatrics which was intended. While placed as per the levels it set well with the indoors, the dome could not be seen as a quality to the entire built mass from the outside. This is where the Double dome came in. The outer onion dome, which was to be visible from the outside was nothing but a shell. Volumetrically empty and supported by the dome below it.
A finial was placed on its tip, shaped in from copper or brass. They were made to be 18 to 25 ft tall pointing towards the sky with symbols and patterns from Islam.
MUQARNAS AND DOUBLE HEIGHT SPACES
Used primarily to form smooth visual transitions between straight walls and domed rooms, Muqarnas add half the fandangles to the interiors. The surface richness embellished in every motif on these grace more of cosmetic purposes rather than structural. They are the surface covers to niches, squinches, and pendentives supporting arched framing of the interiors. Stationed at the dual height tiers of the building, they can be glanced at in their entirety and can witness how such forms fill in the volume of the space.
MINARETS
Minarets are vertical structures of height that are meant to call out Prayer in Islamic Architecture. Although these towers were introduced in the later developments of such monuments, it holds a stance of value in religious buildings like Mosques. However, in Mausoleums, they act as the most prominent sleek and upended members in elevation. They are capped with balconies or jharokhas with a spire on top, stacked on with three or four tiers of marble course-work on their cylindrical shaft that cased spiral staircase. Each tier is tapering and has visible separations with intricate brackets.
These towers were sometimes placed at the ends ( in Imtiad-ud-Daula’s Tomb ) or mesially ( as in Akbar’s Tomb). Taj Mahal, inspired by these two, detached its minars and shifted them to rest on the edge of the plinth to counterweight the otherwise built block of the tomb. They were also inclined outside to correct visual illusion. This bent, in the case of earthquakes, would fall outside the plinth, leaving the resting sanctuary unharmed.
CHAR BAGH
The square Charbagh concept is interpreted as the four gardens of Paradise mentioned in the Quran. The two perpendicular partitions intersected in the center of the large square where the mausoleum was situated. Otherwise, a fountain sat in the middle. These gardens had run-across water channels as they were symbolic to the ‘Gardens underneath which rivers flow’. A complementing arrangement of plantations through-out the grass cover acted as guides to the path to the wonder that awaited the visitors’ appearance. They act as a built-up walkway offering views of the building, tier-by-tier, as its mammoth scale rises significantly for a person to endure. These garden complexes therefore also naturalize the scale of the buildings and weave a surrounding such that the building gets the highlight while not looking out of context with neighboring settlements of commoners.
Apart from robust battle endeavors, The Mughals reposited to being called The Great Mughals majorly because of their artistic achievements. They considered these edified megaliths to speak of their grandeur and fame through time. No stone was left unturned or rather unfinished. Mughal emperors were ardent builders and halting at their crematorial building-scape on our Highway to Beyond made the journey all the more ceremonial.
REFERENCES
- Uplekar Krusche, Krupali & Danny, Aijian & Anders, Selena & Iva, Dokonal & Jill, Kapadia. (2010). History, Morphology and Perfect Proportions of Mughal Tombs: The Secret to Creation of Taj Mahal. Archnet-IJAR : International Journal of Architectural Research. 4. 10.26687/archnet-ijar.v4i1.69.
- Uplekar Krusche, Krupali & Danny, Aijian & Anders, Selena & Iva, Dokonal & Jill, Kapadia. (2010). History, Morphology and Perfect Proportions of Mughal Tombs: The Secret to Creation of Taj Mahal. Archnet-IJAR : International Journal of Architectural Research. 4. 10.26687/archnet-ijar.v4i1.69.
- Nangia, Ashish. “The Mughal Empire: Mosques and Tombs – I by Ashish Nangia.” Boloji.com, http://www.boloji.com/articles/989/the-mughal-empire-mosques-and-tombs–i.
HIGHWAY TO BEYOND 
