Rulers and Buildings of the Medieval Period

8/3/2019 Rulers and Buildings of the Medieval Period

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By Ayush Roy, Class 7-I

Chahar Bagh

Bulland Darwaza

Govind DevaTemple, Mathura Red Fort,Delhi

Throne Balcony,Diwan-I-Am


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Rulers of Medieval

India At the onset, let us start with the southern peninsula. The mostimportant dynasty to rise out of the southern India was that of theCholas. The first important ruler of this dynasty was RajarajaChola 1 {980-1014AD} followed by his son and successorRajendra Chola{1014-1035AD}.

Rajendra Chola was killed in 1052 AD fighting TheChalukyas, his successors were far too occupied with theirproblems within the peninsula to worry about over seas expansion

. By the middle of the 12th century Delhi emerged from obscurity,

then emerged early medieval period.

The Rajputs came into prominence. Places like Kanauj was underJai Chand, a bitter rival of Prithviraj Chauhan.

Prithviraj Chauhan was a Hindu Chauhan King who ruled

the kingdom of Ajmer and Delhi during the latter half of the12th century.

He controlled much of todays Rajasthan and Haryana and unifiedRajputs against the Muslim Invasions. His elopement in 1175

with Samyukta, the daughter of Jai Chand is a popularromantic tale of India.

Prithviraj Chauhan


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The Advent of Mahmud Ghazni In 1000AD Mahmud ofGhazni{Afghanistan} attacked theIndian Territories for the first timeand then made it an annual affair,looting Indias wealth. In all he invadedIndia 11 times.

An Afghan Ruler Muhammed Ghuriprepared to attack India. PrithvirajChauhan was able to defeat him inThe First Battle of Tarain in 1191,but was defeated and captured inthe second battle.

After this defeat Delhi came underMuslim Rulers.

MahmudGhazni

MohammedGhuri


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The Beginning of The Slave Dynasty After Mohammed Ghori returned to his owncountry leaving Qutbuddin Aibak as hisViceroy in Delhi, Ghori was assassinated,

Aibak became the Sultan of Delhi. Thismarked The Beginning of The SlaveDynasty.

The first to begin the consolidation of thedynasty was Illtutmish{1211-1236AD}, son inlaw of Aibak.

Then came the first Woman King- RaziaSultan{ 1237- 1240AD}, daughter of

Illtutmish.

Ghiyasuddin Balban {1266- 1286AD}, gaveThe Delhi Sultanate its character and

finished the consolidation work.

Qutbuddin Aibak

Razia Sultan

GhiyasuddinBalban


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Rise of Khaljis and Tughlaq Dynasty Now the Sultanate saw the rise of The Khaljis,together with Jalauddin Khalji {1290-1296AD} and

Alauddin Khalji {1296- 1316AD}.

Alauddin Khalji constructed a garrison town, Sirifor his soldiers. His administrative methods werequite successful.

The Khaljis were followed by the Tughlaqs whoproduced three strong rulers- GhiyasuddinTughlaq{1320-1324AD}, Muhammed Bin Tughlaq{1325-

1351AD},Firoz Shah Tughlaq{1351 -1388AD}.

Muhammed Bin Tughlaq was known as mixture ofopposites. He shifted the capital along with the

people from Delhi to Daulatabad and introducedToken currency.

After Firoz Shahs death, The Delhi Sultanate wassacked thoroughly by Tijmur the Lame, The famousPersian Ruler.

Mohammed BinTughlaq

Firoz ShahTughlaq

AlauddinKhalji


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The Lodi Dynasty The Last Dynasty of Delhi- Lodhis, the founder of

which was Balhul Lodi. The ruler was Ibrahim Lodi{1517to 1526AD} was a very unpopular King. His governor inPunjab Delawar Khan appealed to the latest runaway

from Samarkand for help. That very year, 1526Zahiruddin Muhammed Babur defeated IbrahimLodi in the Battle of Panipat.

Babur{1526-1530AD}, Humayun{1530-1540, 1555-1556}, Akbar{1556-1605},

Jahangir{1605-1627}, Shah Jahan{1627-1658}, Aurangzeb{1658-1707}NOW CAME THEMUGHALS!!

Ibrahim Lodi


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The Beginning of The Mughal Dynasty

In 1527 and 1528 Babur defeated Rana Sanga, the RajputRuler at Khaunna and Chanderis.

By the end of it all Babur had firmly establishedThe Mughals as the new order to salute in India.

His son Humayun succeeded him in 1530AD. He dividedhis inheritance according to his Fathers will, eachbrother was given a province.

Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan noble defeatedHumayun at Chausa{1539} and Kanauj {1540}focing him to flee to Iran. He recaptured Delhi in1555 but died , in the following year by

slipping from the staircase of his library.

Babur was a great man, soldier and poet and his son toowas a poet.

Babur

Humayun


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Akbar the Great

Akbar was undoubtedly the greatest ruler of India. Ascending thethrone at a tender age of 14, Jaluluddin Muhammed Akbar{1556-1605AD} started to prove why he earned the epithet of Akbar TheGreat.

1556-1576- Akbar became independent of his regent Bairam Khan.In 1556, Akbar led his first army to the Famous battlefield ofPanipat. The second battle of Panipat was fought between him

and Hemu, the prime minister of The Sultan of Bengal.

If The First Battle of Panipat signaled the arrival of theMughals, the second was of greater importance. With thisvictory, Akbar sent a clear signal all over India- he was doubtedlyTHE MUGHAL KING. He fought battles all over India and had anempire that stretched from the Present day Karnataka in the

south right upto the HinduKush in the north. Rajasthan in thewest, Bihar and Bengal in the east.

Akbar was not only a good military man, but also a gooddiplomat and statesman, famous for his Rajput Policy. Thisturned them from bitter enemies to staunch allies. His court wasfamous for The Nauratans, Abul Fazal, Raja Birbal the wit,legendary singer Miya Tan Sen. In 1581, he started a nationalreligion Din-i-Illahi, an amalgam of Hindu, Islam andZoroastrianisim.

Akbar TheGreat

The FamousAkbar TheGreat alongwith his one ofhis nine gems-The WiseBirbal


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Jahangir and his son Shah Jahan

In October 1605 Akbar fell ill, Jahangir was crowned emperorby his father on his deathbed. He continued the militarycampaigns started by Akbar. The Sisodiya, ruler of Mewar ,

Amar Singh accepted his supremacy.

Prince Khusro revolted against him.

Prince Khurram, The Future emperor, Shah Jahan revolted against

in the last years of his reign.

The single most person important person in Jahangirs lifewas his wife, the enigmatic, Nur Jahan , whom he married in1611. She was the real power behind Jahangir.

Shah Jahan ascended the throne in 1627. He was the greatestbuilder of the Mughal Dynasty.

In 1639, he decided to shift his capital to Delhi and construct a newcity on the banks of Yamuna, to be called ShahJahanabad.

His Greatest achievement was the breathtaking Taj Mahal,built in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The end of his rule saw one of the most bitter battle of succession .In 1657, he fell ill. Aurangzeb finally defeated all his brothers andhad Shah Jahan imprisoned in The Agra Fort.

Jahangir

Shah Jahan


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Aurangzeb Aurangzeb ruled India as a single largest state. He succeded

not because he was crueller butt because he was moreefficient and skilled. He was a firm and capableadministrator who retained his grip of power until his deathat the age of 88.

From 1681, he virtually transferred his capital to Deccan,superintending the overthrow of the two remaining Deccankingdoms in 1686-87 and fruitlessly trying to crush the

Maratha rebellion by Shivaji.

In his zealousness to promote Islam, he made many fatalblunders and needless enemies. He had the 9th Sikh Guru,Tegh Bahadur tortured and executed.

Aurangzeb ended his embittered life in Aurangabad in 1707.The gallery of The Great Mughals is completed by

Aurangzebs son Bahadur Shah whose reign lasted for only

for 5 years.

This was the time when a certain East India Company ofEngland suddenly realised they had stumbled upon a goldmine named India.

Shivaji


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Buildings of Medieval India The religious built in the reigns of the Cholas, Hoysalas, Chandela

e.t.c had their individual dynastic characteristics.

The Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, dedicated to Lord Shivawas constructed by King Dhangadeva of the ChandelaDynasty. An ornamenated gateway led to an entrance, andthe main hall where dances were dances were performed.

The Chief Deity was kept in The Main shrine{Gharbhagriha}, theplace for ritual worship where only the king, his immediate familyand the priest gathered.

The Khajuraho Temple Complex contained Royal Templeswhere commoners were not allowed and were and wereelaborately decorated with carved sculptures.

The Rajarajeshwara Temple at Thanjavur had the tallest

Shikhara of its time. As their were no cranes in those days,architects built an inclined path to the top of the temple,placed the boulder on rollers and rolled it to the top.

The largest temples were all constructed by kings. The lesserDeities in the Temple were the Gods and Goddesses of the allies.The Temple were the miniature model ruled by the king and hisallies.

Kandariya Temple

RajarajeshwaraTemple

KhajurahoTemple


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Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was a contemporary of Rajendra 1,destroyed temples specially the one at Somnath. Constructing places of worship provided rulers of each dynastyto proclaim their relationship with God. Sultan Illtutmish wonuniversal respect for constructiong a large reservoir outside,called Hauz-I Sultani{Kings Reservoir}.

Sometimes these tanks and reservoirs were part of the temple,mosque, e.g- At Golden Temple with Holy Sarovar , and Jami

Masjid[built by Shah Jahan} at Shahjhanabad.

The main goal of Islamic art was to express beauty as anaspect of God,realised in the Mosque whose pointed

arch,dome,tall minaret, lofty portal e.t.c fulllfilled theaspiration of a devoured Muslim.

In Delhi, the Quwwatul Islam Mosque was built by QutbuddinAibak in 1192. True Arch, the Keystone at the center of the archtranferred the weight of the superstructure to the base of thearch{Alai Darwaza at Quwwatul Islam Mosque}. In thesoutheast corner of the mosque, Aibak built the world famousRed Sandstone Minaret, Qutb Minar completed by Illtutmish

in 1229 and subsiquently repaired by Alauddin Khalji,Muhammed Tuglaq, Firoz Shah Tughlaq.

Golden TempleJami Masjid

QutbMinar,Quwwatul

Mosque

SomnathTemple


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Medieval Structures under Khaljis and Tughlaqs andThe Beginning of The Mughals.

By the time of Alauddin Khalji, Indian Muslim architecture hadcome under the influence of Saljuk techniques and styles ofwhich Ala Darwaza is the most beautiful.

Under the Tughlaqs, ornamentations was replaced by lineamentsand masses. The Khirki and Kalan Masjid are distinguished bytheir fortress like appearance. The palace fort of Firoz, known asKotla Firuz Shah set the pattern for later day palaces.

Under the Mughals, architecture became more complex. The firstMughal monument of significance is the Humayuns Tomb {Builtby his widow}. It is the central feature of a large enclosed gardenwith channels for running water {Chahar Bagh, four gardens}and built in the tradition known as Hasht Bihisht- A central hallsurrounded by 8 rooms.

Akbars buildings are almost entirely in Red Sandstone,occasional marble inlay eg- The interior of Jami Masjid inFatehpir Sikri and his mausoleum in Sikandra.

The Jahingiri Mahal shows the adaptation of Hindu style ofarchitecture to the Muslim style off living.

Fatehpur Sikri consists of the Diwan-I-Am, Diwan-I-Khass, Queens Apartment, courtyards, Mosque where a

hundred thousand men could pray at the same time.

Humayuns Tombwith Chahar Bagh

Jahangiri Mahal


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The Mughals liked Bangla Dome{ thatched hut} so much that they used it intheir archtecture.

Akbars Mausoleum was built in Jahangirs time. With the reign of Shah Jahan began architectural activity distinguished by a high

regard for tradition and also innovative. The Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan was the tomb of his beloved queen, Mumtaz

Mahal, standing on the Banks of Yamuna. We have a square garden{Chahar Bagh

Format}gh with a long pool in the centre in which the Taj is constantly reflected.Today we stand in complete awe and is mesmerised by beauty of the Taj. Shah Jahan constructed a new city, mosque a palace fort know as ShahJahanabad.

The Red Fort at Delhi is enclosed by lofty wall of Red Sandstone and its publicentrance is called LahoriGate.

Behind the emperors throne at thr Red Fort were a series of Pietra Dura inlaysdepicting The legendary Greek God, Orpheus playing the lute. It was believed thatOrpheuss music could calm ferocious beasts until they peacefully co existed.

The Jami Masjid at Delhi, the largest mosque in India represents theconsummation of Mosque architecture.

Lahori Gate at Red Fort Grandeur of The Taj at night Jama Masjid, Delhi


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With the end of Shah Jahans rule, the creativeimpulse of Indian Muslim architecture wasexhausted. The Badshahi Mosque at The Red Fortin Delhi, built by Aurangzeb has no outstandingarchitectural merit.

As construction activity increased between the 8th 18th century there was considerable sharing ofideas. In Vrindavan, near Mathura, Temples wereconstructed in architectural styles similar toFatehpur Sikri.

The creation of large empires helped in the crossfertilisation of artistic forms and architecturalstyles .

Even though The Mughal waned in the 18thcentury, architectural styles developed underthem were constantly adapted by other rulers

whenever they tried to establish their kingdom.

Bangla Dome

Badshahi Mosque

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Rulers and Buildings of the Medieval Period