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Fatehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district
in the state of Uttar
Pradesh, India. The historical city was constructed by Mughal
emperor Akbar
beginning in 1570 and served as the empire's capital from 1571
until 1585. Though
the court took 15 years to build, it was abandoned after only 14
years because the
water supply was unable to sustain the growing population . The
surviving palace and
mosque are a tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. The site itself is a
ghost town. date 1569-1574
Sikri an extension of the upper Vindhyan ranges is situated on
the bank of a largenatural lake, which has now mostly dried up. It
is a pre -historic site and, withabundant water, forest and raw
material, it was ideal for primitive mans habitation.Rock shelters
with paintings exist on the periphery of the lake. Stone age tools
havebeen found in this area. Ochre Coloured Pottery (c. 2nd
millennium B.C.) andPainted Grey Ware (c.1200-800 B.C.) have also
been discovered from here.
Fatehpur Sikri is located in Uttar Pradesh , about 40km ( 25
miles) west of Agra , the
city famous for the Taj Mahal.
During the days of Akbar, the most prominent of the Mughal
emperors, Fatehpur
Sikri was the capital of Mughal India. Houwere after his death
the city had been
abandoned. Though very unlikely, the most popular reason told
for this is some kind
of water shortage or drought in the capital region.
Fatehpur Sikri is now a ghost city, popular among both tourists
and archeologists.
What you can see is magnificent ruins of the bygone era, some
are in excellent statepf preservation, and some are literally
covered by shrubs and bushes.
The entire complex has been built with red sandstone, a typical
material
used in many of the mughul buildings. Marble has also been
liberal ly used
in the more elegant buildings inside the complex. The entire
complex is
very spacious and has an informal feel to it. The architecture
is an
interesting mix of Hindu and Jain traditions interspersed with
Islamic
features. The complex gives an impression that it was built more
as a
place of relaxation than a capital city.
Although the palace and city of Fatehpur Sikri are remarkably
well preserved,the design and decoration present a problem of
interpretation. First it should be
pointed out that, although the city was not inhabited for very
long, at least two
phases of construction can be discerned. The period during which
FatehpurSikri was built coincided with two important events, the
conquest of Gujarat in1573 and the convening of an inter -faith
conference in 1575. The conquest of
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Gujarat was one of Akbar's major achievements marking the
Mughaldomination of all northern India; it is commemorated in the
gate of the mosque
and in the name of the city. It seems likely that this victory
may have been theimpetus which changed the city from religious
shrine to imperial capital. The
conference of 1575 involved participants from the major
religions in India at the
time and included several Muslim sects, Hindus, Jains,
Zoroastrians andCatholic Christians from Goa (Jesuits). The debates
took place in a part of thepalace known as the Ibadat Khana which
is now thought to have disappeared.The end result of the conference
was the formulation of a controversial new
religion called Din Ilahi of which Akbar was the head. Akbar's
interest in otherreligions may explain why he was prepared to have
so much Hindu -style
architecture in his palace, in particular the enigmatic form of
the Diwan -i-Khass. The design of Fatehpur Sikri is unusual in
Mughal architecture as a
whole but may be regarded as characteristic of Akbar's reign.
Other examples of
Akbar's Hindu-style architecture are the Jahangari Mahal in Agra
fort, the
Ajmer fort in Rajasthan and Akbar's tomb at Sikandara near
Agra.
