MEHRDAD SHOKOOHY AND

NATALIE H. SHOKOOHY

THE SOURCES OFMUGHAL ARCHITECTURE

BAYANA

The first lavishly illustrated and comprehensive record of the historic Bayana region

Bayana in Rajasthan, and its monuments, challenge the perceived but established view of the development of Muslim architecture and urban form in India. At the end of the 12th century, early conquerors took the mighty Hindu fort, building the first Muslim city below on virgin ground. They later reconfigured the fort and constructed another town within it. These two towns were the centre of an autonomous region during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Going beyond a simple study of the historic, architectural and archaeological remains, this book takes on the wider issues of how far the artistic traditions of Bayana, which developed independently from those of Delhi, later influenced north Indian architecture. It shows how these traditions were the forerunners of the Mughal architectural style, which drew many of its features from innovations developed first in Bayana.

Key Features• The first comprehensive account of this historic region• Offers a broad reinvestigation of North Indian Muslim architecture

through a case study of a desert fortress• Includes detailed maps of the sites: Bayana Town, the Garden City of

Sikandra and the Vijayamandargarh or Tahangar Fort with detailed survey of its fortifications and its elaborate gate systems

• Features photographs and measured surveys of 140 monuments and epigraphic records from the 13th to the end of the 16th century – including mosques, minarets, waterworks, domestic dwellings, mansions, ‘īdgāhs (prayer walls) and funerary edifices

• Introduces historic outlying towns and their monuments in the region such as Barambad, Dholpur, Khanwa and Nagar-Sikri (later to become Fathpur Sikri)

• Demonstrates Bayana’s cultural and historic importance in spite of its present obscurity and neglect

• Adds to the record of India’s disappearing historic heritage in the wake of modernisation.

Mehrdad Shokoohy is Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies of the University of Greenwich. Natalie H. Shokoohy is an architectural historian. Together they have published numerous books including Street Shrines of Kirtipur: As Long as the Sun and Moon Endure (2014), Tughluqabad: A Paradigm for Indo-Islamic Urban Planning and its Architectural Components (2007) and Muslim Architecture of South India: The Sultanate of Ma’bar and the Traditions of the Maritime Settlers on the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts (2003).

Front cover image: the prayer wall of Bayana, the earliest surviving specimen of its kind in India and probably the world. Back cover images: bastions of the Bayana Citadel, the ‘impregnable fortress’; the Ukhā Masjid, the extension of 1320 to the Bayana Jāmi, praised by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa; ribbed dome in the fifteenth-century ‘Īdgāh Masjid at Barambad; the step-well built by Khān-i Khānān Farmūlī in 1496 in the Fort of Bayana for the Hindu population. All images by Mehrdad Shokoohy. Cover design: Rebecca Mackenzie and Stuart Dalziel

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BAYANA

Le plus mauvais parti que les princes d’Asie aient pu prendre, c’est de se cacher comme ils font. Ils veulent se rendre plus respectables; mais ils font respecter la Royauté, et non pas le Roi, et attachent l’esprit des sujets à un certain trône, et non pas à une certaine personne.

Cette puissance invisible qui gouverne est toujours la même pour le Peuple. Quoique dix rois, qu’il ne connaît que de nom, se soient égorgés l’un après l’autre, il ne sent aucune différence; c’est comme s’il avait été gouverné successivement par des Esprits.

(Asian kings could have taken no worse course than to hide themselves as they do. They intend to inspire greater respect, but they inspire respect for royalty, not for the king, and fix their subjects’ mind on a particular throne, not on a particular person.

This invisible ruling power always remains identical for the people. Even if a dozen kings, whom they know only by name, were to slaughter each other in turn, they would not be aware of any difference: it would be as if they had been governed by a succession of phantoms.)

Montesquieu, Lettres Persanes, Letter 103

BAYANATHE SOURCES OF MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE

MEHRDAD SHOKOOHYand

NATALIE H. SHOKOOHY

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

© Mehrdad Shokoohy and Natalie H. Shokoohy, 2020

Edinburgh University Press LtdThe Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

Typeset in Trump Mediaeval LT 11/14pt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4744 6072 9 (hardback)ISBN 978 1 4744 6075 0 (webready PDF)ISBN 978 1 4744 6074 3 (epub)

The right of Mehrdad Shokoohy and Natalie H. Shokoohy to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

Published with the support of the University of Edinburgh Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund.

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Contents

Method of Transliteration viiAbbreviations viii

CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1

CHAPTER 2 History 14 The conquest of Bayana 16 The extent of the region of Bayana 28 Thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 31 TÈmËr’s invasion and the rise of the Au˙adÈs 49 The LodÈ dominance 71 Båbur and the rise of the Mughals 82 The decline: the SËrÈ episode 89 The Mahdi 92 Akbar and the later Mughals 96

CHAPTER 3 The Three Towns 101 Bayana Town: Sul†ånkËt and the later town 104 The Tahangar or Vijayamandargarh fort and its town 113 Sikandra 156

CHAPTER 4 Early Monuments: Twelfth–Fourteenth Centuries 163 The Ghurid period: the buildings of Bahå al-dÈn Êughrul 166 The KhaljÈ and Tughluq periods: 1290–1320, 1320–1413 220

CHAPTER 5 Mosques and Minarets 239 Mosques with traditional plans 242 Small neighbourhood mosques 280 Emergence of a new mosque plan 292 Minarets 320

vi BAYANA

CHAPTER 6 The Chatrī : its Origin, its Basic Forms and its Variants in Bayana 330 Typology 334

CHAPTER 7 Waterworks 369 Wells 372 Reservoirs: Typology 374 1: Natural depressions made into reservoirs 376 2: Large reservoirs with steps on all sides 383 3: Step-wells 396

CHAPTER 8 Domestic Architecture 415 Structure and methods of construction 418 Typology 420

CHAPTER 9 Mansions, Semi-public Buildings and Later Monuments 461

CHAPTER 10 Historic Edifices in the Towns and Villages of the Bayana Region 490 Dholpur 490 Khanwa 505 Nagar–Sikri 515 Sikri 529

CHAPTER 11 Epilogue 533

Appendix I Historical Inscriptions of Bayana and its Region 537Appendix II The Genealogy of the Auh

˙adıs of Bayana 610

Appendix III Funerary Chatrıs and Other Tombs 611Bibliography 706Index 720

Method of Transliteration

ء å آ a ا u ا b ب p پ t ت th ث j ج ch چ ˙ ح kh خ d د

dh ذ r ر z ز zh ژ s س sh ش ß ص ∂ ض † ط Ω ظ ع gh غ f ف

q ق k ک g گ l ل m م n ن w و Ë و au aw و h هـ È ي ai ay ی y ی

Abbreviations

A ın-i Akbarı (Pers.): Abul-fa∂l AllåmÈ FahhåmÈ b. Mubårak NågËrÈ, ÅÈn-i AkbarÈ (Pers.), H. Blochmann (ed.) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Biblioteca Indica, No. 58, 1872–7), I, 1872; II, 1877.

A ın-i Akbarı (tr.): The Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl-i-Allami, 3 vols, I, H. Blochmann (tr.); II and III, H. S. Jarrett (tr.) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 61, 1868–94); 2nd edn, A Gazetteer and Administrative Manual of Akbar’s Empire and Past History of India, corrected and annotated by Jadu-Nath Sarkar (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 270, II, 1949).

Akbar na ma (Pers.): Shaikh Abul-Fa∂l AllåmÈ, FahhåmÈ, b. (Shaikh) Mubårak NågËrÈ, Akbar nåma (Pers.), Maulvi Abdu’r-Rahim (ed.), 3 vols (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 79, 1877–86), I, 1877; II, 1879; III, 1886.

Akbar na ma (tr.): Abul-Fazl ibn Mubarak, called AllåmÈ, The Akbar Nama of Abu-l-Fazl: (History of the Reign of Akbar including an Account of His Predecessors), H. Beveridge (tr.), 3 vols (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 138, 1897–1939).

Arberry: Arberry, A. J., The Koran Interpreted, 2 vols (London and New York: Allen & Unwin and Macmillan, 1955).

ARIE: Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy.ASI: Archaeological Survey of India.ASINC: Annual Progress Report of the Superintendent, Muhammadan and British

Monuments, Northern Circle. ASIR: Archaeological Survey of India Reports (Cunningham series).ASWI: Archaeological Survey of Western India.BAI: Bulletin of the Asia Institute (Bloomfield Hills, MI).Barnı (Pers.): Îiyå al-dÈn BarnÈ, TårÈkh-i FÈrËz ShåhÈ, W. N. Lees, S. Ahmad Khan

and Kabiru’d-Din (eds) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 33, 1862).

Barnı (tr.): in Elliot, III (London, 1872), chapter 15, ‘TårÈkh-i FÈroz ShåhÈ, of Ziyåu-d dÈn, BarnÈ’, pp. 93–268.

ABBREVIATIONS ix

CII: M. Shokoohy, Rajasthan I, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Part IV, Persian Inscriptions down to the Safavid Period, vol. XLIX, India: State of Rajasthan (London: Lund Humphries, distribution: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1986).

EIAPS: Epigraphia Indica, Arabic and Persian Supplement.EIM: Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica.Elliot: Henry Miers and Dowson, John, The History of India as Told by its Own

Historians: the Muhammadan Period, 8 vols (London, 1867–77).Firishta (Pers.): Mu˙ammad Qåsim b. HindË Shåh, known as Firishta, Gulshan-i

IbråhÈmÈ known as TårÈkh-i Firishta (Pers.), 2 vols (with addenda bound together) (Lucknow: Nevil Kishore, 1864).

Firishta (tr.): John Briggs (tr.), History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India till the year a.d. 1612 translated from the Original Persian of Mahomed Kasim Ferishta, 4 vols (London, 1829).

H˙

is˙ a r-i Fıru za: M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, Óißår-i FÈrËza, Sultanate and

Early Mughal Architecture in the District of Hisar, India (London: Monographs on Art Archaeology and Architecture, 1988).

HL: Horovitz, Josef, ‘A list of the published Mohammadan inscriptions of India’, EIM, 1909–10, pp. 30–144.

Ibn Bat˙t u t

˙ a (Ar.): Mu˙ammad b. Abd’ullåh called Ibn Ba††Ë†a, Tu˙fat al-nuΩΩår

fÈ gharåib al-amßår wa ajåib al-asfår, known as Ra˙la (Ar.), Talal Harb (ed.) (Beirut, 1987).

Ibn Bat˙t u t

˙ a (tr.): The Travels of Ibn Ba††Ë†a a.d. 1325–1354, 5 vols, I–III, H. A.

R. Gibb (tr.), C. Defrémery and B. R. Sanguinetti (eds); IV, H. A. R. Gibb (tr.), completed by C. F. Beckingham (tr.); V index, A. D. H. Bivar (compiler) (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1958–2000) I, 1958; II, 1962; III, 1971; IV, 1994; V, 2000.

Jaha ngır na ma (Pers.): NËr al-dÈn Mu˙ammad JahångÈr GËrkånÈ (emperor), JahångÈr nåma or TËzuk-i JahångÈrÈ (Pers.), Muhammad Hashim (ed.) (Tehran, hs 1359/1980).

Jaha ngır na ma (tr.): The TËzuk-i-JahångÈrÈ or Memoirs of JahångÈr, Alexander Rogers (tr.), Henry Beveridge (ed.), 2 vols (London: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund, New Series, vols XIX and XXII) I, 1909; II, 1914.

MHJ: Medieval History Journal (New Delhi: Sage Publications India). Muhammad Ali: Muhammad Ali, Maulana, The Holy Qu’ran Containing Arabic

Text with English Translation and Commentary, 2nd edn (Lahore, Punjab, India: Ahmadiyya anjuman-i-ishaåt-i-Islåm, 1934).

Muntakhab al-tawa rıkh (Pers.): Abd’ul-Qådir b. MulËk Shåh BadåwunÈ, known as al-BadåonÈ, Muntakhab al-tawårÈkh (Pers.), 3 vols, Maulawi Ahmad Ali; Kabir al-dÈn Ahmad and William Nassau Lees (eds) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 51, 1968–9), I, 1868; II, 1864; III, 1869.

Muntakhab al-tawa rıkh (tr.): Muntakhabu-t-tawårÈkh (tr.), 3 vols, I, George G. A. Ranking (ed., tr.); II, W. H. Lowe (tr.); III, T.W. Haig (tr.) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Biblioteca Indica, No. 97, 1884–1925).

x BAYANA

Nagaur: M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, Nagaur, Sultanate and Early Mughal History and Architecture of the District of Nagaur, India (London: Royal Asiatic Society Monograph XXVIII, distribution: Routledge, 1993).

PMIR: Z. A. Desai, Published Muslim Inscriptions of Rajasthan (Jaipur: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Rajasthan, 1971).

Shams-i Sira j (Pers.): Shams-i Siråj AfÈf, TårÈkh-i FÈrËz ShåhÈ (Pers.), Vilayat Husayn (ed.) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 119, 1891).

Shams-i Sira j (tr.): in Elliot, III (London: 1871), chapter 16, ‘Tarikh-i-Firoz ShahÈ of Shams-i Siråj AfÈf’, pp. 269–373.

T˙ abaqa t-i Akbarı (Pers.): Khwåja NiΩåm al-dÈn A˙mad b. Mu˙ammad MuqÈm HirawÈ, Êabaqåt-i AkbarÈ (Pers.), 3 vols (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 223, 1927–35), I (1927) and II (1931), B. De (ed.); III, B. De and M. Hidayat Hosain (eds), 1935.

T˙ abaqa t-i Akbarı (tr.): Êabaqåt-i AkbarÈ (tr.), Brajendranath De (tr.) and Beni Pradashad (ed.), 3 vols (vol. II in two parts) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 225, 1927–39), I, 1927; II, 1936; III, i –ii, 1939.

T˙ abaqa t-i Na s

˙ irı (Pers.): Minhåj-i Siråj JauzjånÈ, Êabaqåt-i NåßirÈ (Pers.), Abd’ul-

Hai Habibi (ed.), 2 vols (bound together) (Tehran, 1984).T˙ abaqa t-i Na s

˙ irı (tr.): Maulånå Minhåj-ud-dÈn AbË Umar i-Uthmån, Êabaqåt-i

NåßirÈ a General History of the Mu˙ammadan Dynasties of Asia including Hindustån from a.h. 194 (810 a.d.) to a.h. 658 (1260 a.d.) and the Irruption of the Infidel Mughals into Islåm, H. G. Raverty (tr.), 2 vols (London: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Biblioteca Indica, No. 78, 1881).

Ta rıkh-i Da wudı (Pers.): Abd’ullåh, TårÈkh-i DåwudÈ (TårÈkh-i-Daudi), Shaikh Abdur Rasheed (ed.) (Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University [1954], Persian text offset repr. with additional English introduction by Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi, 1969).

Ta rıkh-i Da wudı (tr.): in Elliot, IV (London, 1872), chapter 33, ‘TårÈkh-i DåËdÈ, of Abdu-lla’, pp. 434–513.

Ta rıkh-i Kha n Jaha nı (Pers.): Khwåja Nimat’ullåh b. Khwåja ÓabÈb’ullåh al-HirawÈ, TårÈkh-i Khån JahånÈ wa makhzan-i AfghånÈ (Pers.), Sayyid Muhammad Imam al-din (ed.), 2 vols (Dacca: I, Asiatic Society of Pakistan, No. 4, 1960; II, Asiatic Society of Pakistan, No. 10, 1962).

Ta rıkh-i Kha n Jaha nı (tr.): in Elliot, V (London, 1873), chapter 35, ‘Makhzan-i AfghånÈ and TårÈkh-i Khån Jahån LodÈ, of Niamatu-lla’, pp. 67–115.

Ta rıkh-i Muba rak Sha hı (Pers.): Ya˙yå b. A˙mad b. Abd’ullåh al-SihrindÈ, TårÈkh-i Mubårak ShåhÈ of Ya˙yå b. A˙mad b. Abdullåh as-SihrindÈ, M. Hidayat Hosain (ed.) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 254, 1931).

Ta rıkh-i Muba rak Sha hı (tr.): in Elliot, IV (London, 1872), chapter 21, ‘TårÈkh-i Mubårak ShåhÈ of Ya˙yå bin A˙mad’, pp. 6–88.

Ta rıkh-i Sha hı (Pers.): A˙mad Yådgår, TårÈkh-i ShåhÈ also known as TårÈkh-i salå†Èn-i Afåghina a History of the Sul†åns of Delhi from the Time of BahlËl

ABBREVIATIONS xi

LËdÈ (a.h. 855–894) to the Entry of Emperor Akbar into Delhi in a.h. 964, M. Hidayat Hosain (ed.) (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, No. 257, 1939).

Ta rıkh-i Sha hı (tr.): in Elliot, V (London, 1873), chapter 34, ‘TårÈkh-i salå†Èn-i Afåghana, of Ahmad Yådgår’, pp. 1–66.

Ta rıkh-i Shır Sha hı (Pers.): Abbås Khån SarwånÈ, TårÈkh-i ShÈr ShåhÈ (TårÈkh-i-Sher ShåhÈ) (titled originally by author Tu˙fa-yi Akbar ShåhÈ) Sayyid Muhammad Imam al-din (ed.), 2 vols (Dacca: University of Dacca, Pakistan, 1964), I, Persian text; II, English translation.

Ta rıkh-i Shır Sha hı (tr.): in Elliot, IV (London, 1872), chapter 32, ‘TårÈkh-i Sher ShåhÈ or Tu˙fat-i Akbar ShåhÈ, of Abbås Khån, SarwånÈ’, pp. 301–433.

Tughluqabad: M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, Tughluqabad: a Paradigm for Indo-Islamic Urban Planning and its Architectural Components (London: Araxus Books, Monograph of the Society of South Asian Studies, British Academy, 2007).

Wetzel: Wetzel, Friedrich, Islamische Grabbauten in Indien ([Leipzig, 1918] Osnabrück: Zeller, repr. 1970).

Yamamoto: Yamamoto, Tatsuro, Matsuo Ara and Tokifusa Tsukinowa, Delhi: Architectural Remains of the Delhi Sultanate Period, 3 vols (Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 1967–70), I, 1967; II, 1968; III, 1970.

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

The first stage that we arrived was Tilbat (or Tilbut), which was two leagues and a third from the capital Delhi, from there we travelled to Au and to HÈlau and then to Bayana. It is a great city and has fine buildings and attractive bazaars, and its Jåmi is one of the finest mosques, with walls and ceilings all of stone.

Ibn Ba††Ë†a1

Bayana, were it not for its shortage of water, might have been the capital of India. Situated in south-eastern Rajasthan, Bayana held a strategic position on the ancient route from Delhi to Gwalior and the Deccan, which combined with an almost impregnable fort and natural and agricultural resources made it a prized possession of its mediaeval Hindu rulers, and attracted the attention of the Muslim conquerors of India, who took over the region in the last decade of the twelfth century and created some of the finest Ghurid monuments in their new centre of power. Ibn Ba††Ë†a, who had seen many fine mosques and great cities of the world from Cordoba to Cairo, Delhi and Khanbaliq (Beijing) visited Bayana in 1342 and found the built area so impressive that he called Bayana a ‘great city’ and its congregational mosque ‘one of the finest’. The mosque still stands, along with many outstanding monuments in the city itself, near the formidable fort (Plate 1.1) and the garden city of Sikandra founded by Sikandar LodÈ, both with many fine monuments, which attest to the Bayana builders’ skills.

The town in the fort also preserves its street layout, gates and markets. The fort is exceptional in India, retaining not only palatial dwellings, but also ordinary houses of the fifteenth to early sixteenth century, which were built of standardised stone components. To tackle the question of water supply in this desert region, the builders and their patrons manipulated the available water to the utmost for prac-tical purposes, but also embellished their reservoirs and step-wells to provide

1 Ibn Ba††Ë†a (Ar.), p. 545; (tr.), IV, p. 775. Our translation is given for:

ل مرحلة بمنزل تلبت علی مسافة فرسخین وثلث من حضرة دهلي و رحلنا منه إلی منزل أو و رحلنا منه إلی منزل هیلو و فکان نزولنا في أو رحلنا منه إلی مدینة بیانه مدینة کبیرة حسنة البناء ملیحة الأسواق و مسجدها الجامع من أبدع المساجد و حیطانه و سقفه حجارة.

2 BAYANA

private and public places of resort. One should bear in mind that the great cities of the Mughals, Agra and Fathpur Sikri were once merely villages under the territory of Bayana.

Bayana was historically a key player among the independent states and princi-palities that flourished between TÈmËr’s (Tamerlane’s) invasion of Delhi in 1398, which terminated the empire of the Delhi sultanate, and the rise of the Mughal Empire in the third decade of the sixteenth century. The region was controlled in the fifteenth century by the Au˙adÈ family who bore the title of khån and while not claiming to be sultans, ruled independently from Delhi and occasionally took sides with the SharqÈ sultans of Jaunpur. In architecture, in addition to the mosque from the very first years of the Islamic conquest (end of the twelfth century), Bayana has a range of mosques, shrines and waterworks of the fourteenth to sev-enteenth centuries demonstrating that in style Bayana did not conform to that of Delhi – which dominated the architecture of the northern regions – but developed its own repertoire that later paved the way for the early Mughal architecture, best seen in Fathpur Sikri.

Yet in spite of the many historical references to Bayana, epigraphic records and numerous archaeological and architectural remains, until the presentation of

Plate 1.1 Bayana Fort, view from inside the fort looking west towards the fortifications of the citadel which stand on a rampart of solid rock, with a buffer of bare red sandstone in the foreground separating it from the inhabited areas. Anyone who approached the citadel would be exposed to the watchers guarding the towers.

ONE: INTRODuCTION 3

Natalie H. Shokoohy’s doctoral thesis2 and the publication of a number of articles by the present authors in academic periodicals3 there had been virtually no serious study of the region and its history, mainly due to the obscurity into which the town had sunk after the centre of power moved to Agra.

Bayana’s location, 50 km south of Bharatpur, 70 km south-west of Agra and 160 km south of Delhi (Figures 1.1–1.2) places it in the Delhi –Agra–Fathpur Sikri triangle, now the hub of modern development in northern India. The historic town is on the eastern foot of a hill, while the fort stands 6 km to the west of the town, on the summit of the hill at a height of between 250 and 350 m. In the last decade of the fifteenth century and during the reign of Sikandar LodÈ a new town, known as Sikandra, was planned in the fields between the fort and the old town but was probably never completed (Plate 1.2). The terrain is dry and inhospitable, with agriculture depending on sometimes insufficient seasonal rainfall and irriga-tion from wells, the water of which is often brackish. The River GambhÈr, which passes about 1 km to the east of the town, irrigates some of the fields, but the river is seasonal and has little or no water in the dryer years. In spite of the arid climate, Bayana was the centre of a relatively prosperous province well known for its products, including superior mangoes,4 refined white sugar exported to all regions of India, and high quality indigo, exported as far as the Middle East and Europe.5 The most important product of Bayana was not, however, agricultural,

2 N. H. Shokoohy, ‘Au˙adÈ and LodÈ architecture of Bayana, Rajasthan (1400–1526)’, London Metropolitan University, 2005 (supervised by Robert Harbison and George Michell).

3 M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, ‘The Architecture of Baha al-din Tughrul in the region of Bayana, Rajasthan’, Muqarnas IV (1987): 114–32 (reprinted in Architecture of Mediaeval India: Forms, Contexts, Histories (New Delhi, 2001), pp. 413–28; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘Indian Subcontinent, 11th–16th Century, (b) North India (Sultanates)’, The Grove Dictionary of Art (London/New York: 1996), XV, pp. 338–46; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘A history of Bayana – Part 1: from the Muslim conquest to the end of the Tughluq period’, MHJ VII, ii (2004): 279–324; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘A history of Bayana – Part 2: from the rise of the Au˙adÈs to the early Mughal period (fifteenth– seventeenth centuries)’, MHJ, VIII, ii (2005): 323–400; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘Bayana’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three (Leiden/Boston, 2017), pp. 47–52, figs 1–3; N. Shokoohy: ‘Waterworks of mediaeval Bayana, Rajasthan’, BAI, XVIII ([2004] 2008: 19–42. The following papers by M. and N. H. Shokoohy also consider the monuments of Bayana in the wider context of the history and development of Indian architecture: Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘Domestic dwellings in Muslim India; mediaeval house plans’, BAI, XIV ([2000] 2003): 89–110; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘The chatrÈ in Indian architecture: Persian wooden canopies materialised in stone’, BAI, XV ([2001] 2005): 129–50; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘The Indian Èdgåh and its Persian prototype the namåzgåh or mußallå’, in Patricia L. Baker and Barbara Brend (eds), Sifting Sands, Reading Signs: Studies in Honour of Professor Géza Fehérvári (London, 2006), pp. 105–19; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, ‘The mosques of Bayana, Rajasthan, and the emergence of a prototype for the mosques of the Mughals’, MHJ, XIII, ii (2010): 153–97. A few phrases or sentences from these articles sometimes appear on websites, not always properly digested, and often jumbled in with local stories.

4 Muntakhab al-tawårÈkh (Pers.), I, pp. 409–10; (tr.), p. 1526; ÅÈn-i AkbarÈ (Pers.), I, p. 442, (tr.), II, pp. 191–2.

5 K. K. Trivedi, ‘Innovation and change in indigo production in Bayana, Eastern Rajasthan’, Studies in History, X, i (1994): 69; Jenny Balfour-Paul, Indigo (London, 1998), pp. 45–6. For an archaeologi-cal report on the surviving indigo vats, see Iqtidar Alam Khan, ‘Pre-modern indigo vats of Bayana’, Journal of Islamic Environmental Design, Rome (1986): pt ii, pp. 92–8.

4 BAYANA

but the red sandstone that formed the rocky hills rising out of the plain through-out the terrain. The quarries of the region provided stone for forts, cities and some of the most elegant edifices of northern India, including Fathpur Sikri6 (Plate 1.3), built almost entirely of stone from a quarry at Garh a few miles south of Bayana. In the construction boom of today’s India, Bayana – after many years of neglect – has once again become a centre of export of sandstone, and stone-cutting yards have mushroomed outside the town, with many newcomers being employed in

6 Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi and Vincent John Adams Flynn, Fat˙pur SÈkrÈ (Bombay, 1975), p. 14.

Figure 1.1 Map of the Indian subcontinent and part of Greater Khuråsån (north-eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), showing major historic towns.

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Plate 1.3 The public palaces of Fathpur Sikri seen from the top of the multistoreyed colonnade known as the ‘Hawå Ma˙al’. The palaces, together with all other monuments, including the mosque of Shaikh SalÈm, the private pavilions and the fortifications, are all built with the red sandstone of the Bayana region, but Bayana’s influence on Fathpur Sikri goes far beyond building materials.

Plate 1.2 Bayana Fort and the unfinished town of Sikandra; a mosaic satellite image from Google Earth images, 2011.Key: A citadel or upper fort; B west gate system of citadel; C fortified buffer area of citadel’s west gate system; D unbuilt fortified area of citadel’s east gate system; E East Enclosure; F fortified buffer area of citadel’s east gate; G North Enclosure; H fields between Mor Tålåb and Sikandra; I partly built site of the LodÈ town of Sikandra; J fortified buffer of the citadel’s postern gate.

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the industry, resulting in the sudden expansion of the town, which had remained virtually within its centuries-old boundaries until a few decades ago.7

Bayana’s historic significance and propensity for expansion stem from its loca-tion on the ancient route from Delhi to Gwalior and the Deccan,8 and the posi-tion of its fort which was regarded as the most important staging-post between Delhi and Gwalior. Between these towns there were no other strongholds as large and well defended, and almost all the sultans of Delhi tried to gain control of Bayana at the beginning of their reigns. Many of them also used the fort as their base for campaigns against other neighbouring states, most of which were in the hands of local Hindu warlords. Several passages in the historical sources indicate that control of Bayana was the key to control of Delhi and eastern Rajasthan, but one of the best descriptions of the continuous local struggles is given by Ibn Ba††Ë†a,9 who was entangled in one of these conflicts at the beginning of his journey towards China as the ambassador of the court of Delhi in 743/1342–3:

ثم رحلنا من بیانة فوصلنا إلی مدینة کول ... و لما بلغنا إلی مدینة کول بلغنا أن بعض کفار الهنود حاصروا بلدة الجلالي و أحاطوا بها و هي علی مسافة سبعة أمیال من کول فقصدنا )الجلالي( و الکفار یقاتلون أهلها و قد أشرفوا علی التلف و لم یعلم الکفار بنا حتی صدقنا الحملة علیهم و هم في نحو ألف فارس و ثلاثة آلاف راجل فقتلناهم عن

آخرهم و احتوینا علی خیلهم و أسلحتهم ... فکتبنا إلی السلطان بخبره و أقمنا في انتظار الجواب و کان الکفار في أثناء ذلک ینزلون من جبل هنالک منیع فیغیرون علی نواحي بلدة الجلالي و کان أصحابنا یرکبون کل یوم مع أمیر تلک

الناحیة لیعینوه علی مدافعتهم.

We left Bayana for the town of Kuwil10 … when we arrived at Kuwil we heard that a company of Hindu infidels had put the town of JalålÈ11 under siege. JalålÈ is only seven miles from Kuwil and we went towards it (JalålÈ). The infidels were killing the townspeople and the rest were near to death. The infidels, about one thousand cavalry and three thousand infantry in strength, were unaware of us advancing and we abruptly made a surprise attack and killed them to the last man, taking their horses and arms … We reported the events to the sultan and remained there for his reply. During this time the infidels regularly descended from a neighbouring high mountain and attacked the surroundings of the town of JalålÈ, and every day members of our company were on horseback helping the governor of the town in repelling them.

Ibn Ba††Ë†a continues his tale at some length, narrating his eventual capture by

7 The town has now expanded in all directions and to the east the built-up area is now close to the river.

8 Shams-i Siråj (Pers.), p. 185; (tr.), III, p. 317. 9 Ibn Ba††Ë†a (Ar.), pp. 547–51; (tr.), IV, p. 776. Our translation is given.10 Kuwil or KËl, now Koel, Koelo or Koil near modern Aligarh, north-east of Bayana. Gibb notes

Aligarh as originally the name of its fort, now applied to the whole town.11 A small town about 17 km east of Aligarh.

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the Hindus and his escape in an area populated by ‘infidels’. After many days of fear, hunger and thirst he eventually arrived at a Hindu village, which was obedient to the Muslim governor of the small town of TåjpËra, two leagues from Kuwil. His account illustrates vividly the social condition of the Bayana region, where the key towns were in Muslim hands but the rest of the area and in par-ticular the villages were populated by Hindus, more inclined to support the local Hindu warlords, who were still in command of their own armies and controlled many of the smaller towns and forts. Under such circumstances Bayana devel-oped as a Muslim city and today a large number of Muslim monuments can be found there, but of Hindu remains there are only fragments, some re-used in later buildings.

The earliest archaeological study of Bayana was in 1871 when Carlleyle12 visited the area and studied the history of Bayana, in particular the pre-Islamic era. Carlleyle had little interest in the Islamic period, so in spite of Bayana being essentially a Muslim city he aimed to discover its pre-Islamic roots. A large portion of his report concerns the hypothetical origin of the old name of the city through local Hindu legends. He identifies Bayana with the name of Båñåsur, the son of Raja Bal, a descendant of Krishna. He also mentions the two early mosques, now known as Ukhå MandÈr and Ukhå Masjid and relates their name to Usha, the daughter of Raja Bal and the sister of Båñåsur. How far ancient Hindu legends are useful for tracing the origin of mosques – which according to the Muslim historians were built in a town founded by Muslims – is doubtful, but at the time archaeological exploration in India was still in its infancy. Carlleyle also identi-fies these mosques – which are built out of temple spoil – as temples converted to mosques. Although he gives a sketch plan of one of the buildings, he does not point out that there are fundamental differences between the layout and planning organisation of a mosque and a temple. The rest of his report is concerned with the fort, which is indeed of pre-Islamic origin. Again, on the basis of local tradi-tions, he gives its name as Vijayamandargarh (Fort of the Temple of Victory) or Vijayagarh (Fort of Victory) and identifies it with the ancient town of SantipËr. While the name Vijayamandargarh does appear in a fifteenth-century inscription, there is no evidence in historical and inscriptional records for the name SantipËr (Plate 1.4).

In spite of his Hindu preferences, Carlleyle reported numerous Islamic monu-ments, both in the fort and in the town, as well as many more scattered in the plain. Ten years later Cunningham13 visited the site with a particular interest in the Islamic history of the town. He provided a map of the region (Figure 1.2), studied a number of the inscriptions and was the first to note the rise of

12 A. C. L. Carlleyle, Report of a Tour in Eastern Rajputana in 1871–2 and 1872–3, ASIR, VI (Calcutta, 1878), pp. 40–77, pls 4–8.

13 A. Cunningham, Report of a Tour in Eastern Rajputana in 1882–83, ASIR, XX (Calcutta, 1885): 60–93, pls 13–19.

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the Au˙adÈ rulers. Cunningham also noted the two old mosques and identified them as such:14

One of the largest buildings in Bayana is an old masjid now called Nohara, or the ‘cattle yard’, because cattle are now tethered in it. It is also used for storing bhËsa, or straw. I have ventured to call it Ukha Masjid for the sake of distinc-tion, as the adjoining building which touches it, and is about the same size is called Ukha MandÈr, or ‘Temple of Ukha’ although it also was originally a masjid. Both buildings are chiefly made of old Hindu materials and now that time has restored them to a Hindu government, one has been turned into a temple and the other into a cattle-pen.

Cunningham studied the inscription of the Ukha Masjid and gave its plan – which, incidentally, is incorrect – and also gave the plan of an early fourteenth-century reservoir known as the Jhålar BåolÈ. He mentioned many more buildings, describ-ing briefly only a few that he considered to be more important, but leaving out

14 Ibid., p. 71.

Plate 1.4 Minaret of DåwËd Khån in the Bayana Fort and its sketch by Carlleyle on the left. Although a pioneer in the field and the first to describe the site, a century and a half ago, this illustration is an example of the inaccuracies in his report.

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a large number of the monuments, including, for example, one of the earliest mosques of the Au˙adÈ family in the fort. Since then, there has been no serious archaeological study of the site,15 but many of the inscriptions of Bayana have been published. In addition there have been two historical papers on the Au˙adÈ

15 The only other study concerned with Bayana is Rajeev Bargoti, Bayana; a Concept of Historical Archaeology: the Pre-modern Urban Centre (Jaipur: Publication Scheme, 2003), but its historical outline, descriptions and the sketch drawings of some monuments could at best be called inaccu-rate. Nevertheless, among his drawings he includes a sketch plan of a post-Mughal mansion (the study of which is outside the scope of the present work) and he also mentions a step-well which will be referred to in its appropriate place.

Figure 1.2 Map of the region of Bayana (after Cunningham). The fort of Garh is given as Tahangarh.

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family16 and occasionally a brief description of some buildings and their pictures have been included in general books.17

The entire work of Cunningham and his assistants was criticised and its sci-entific and archaeological value dismissed even during his own time. In 1887, F. S. Growes reported to the Public Service Commission that ‘the unrevised lucubrations of General Cunningham’s assistants are a tissue of trivial narrative and the crudest theories’,18 and the Quarterly Review, July 1889, noted that ‘we trust that all future Reports issued by the Archaeological Department of the Government of India will be free from the defects which mar the usefulness and impair the authority of Sir Alexander Cunningham’s Series’.19 James Burgess sums up the period of Cunningham’s leadership of the Archaeological Survey of India as:

General Cunningham[’s] … appointment was only for five years, but he con-tinued to hold it for fifteen, and retired in 1885 in his seventy-second year. He formed no central establishment to collect results, but toured much himself and sent his assistants out to survey different places – all over India North of the Narmadå and in the Central Provinces, without reference apparently to styles or age. In the twenty-two volumes of his reports, including re-prints of those prepared in 1862–65, there are no proper monographs upon individual groups of remains or styles of art. They are essentially the reports of unconnected tours – half of them were the work of his assistants, were printed without revision, and are not scientific or reliable.20

Nevertheless, and in spite of shortcomings, the Cunningham series of reports are pioneering work and, in most cases, the first representation of important

16 A. Halim, ‘Some minor dynasties of Northern India during the 15th Century’, Journal of Indian History, XXVI, iii (1948) no. 78 (Trivandrum, 1949), pp. 223–48; Sh. D. P. Sharma, ‘The Auhadi and the Jalwani dynasties of Bayana’, Indian History Congress, 19th Session (Agra, 1956), pp. 434–44.

17 See M. Shokoohy’s contribution on Indian architecture, ‘Az iszlám müvészet Indiában a korai isz-lámtól a Nagy-Mughalok bukásáig’, in Géza Fehérvári, Az iszlám müvészet története (Budapest, 1987), pp. 215–17, colour pl. 182 and monochrome pls 163, 183. Also see works by (or edited by) Flood detailed in Chapter 4, notes 5, 12 and 41. Photographs, some in colour, are provided in Bianca Maria Alfieri, photographs by Federico Borromeo, Islamic Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent (London, 2000), pp. 23–5, 33–4, 44, 58. These include images of the ChaurasÈ Khamba mosque in Kaman, the Ukhå Masjid, the minaret of DåwËd Khån, a general view of the fort and two Mughal tombs: the JhåjhrÈ and the Tomb of Gulåb Khån or KalÈ Khan, but the text – mainly relying on the report of Carlleyle – is confused, often inaccurate, and sometimes misleading. The Bayana Fort is referred to by the recently invented name ‘Banasur Kila’.

18 James Burgess, ‘Sketch of archaeological research’, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Extra Number, The Centenary Memorial Volume (1905), p. 141, quoting Proceedings of the Sub-Committee, Public Service Commission, Scientific Departments, 1887, p. 52.

19 Ibid.20 Ibid., pp. 140–1.

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archaeological remains in India, and they are often the only available reports until our times. While we should be aware of the deficiencies of these earlier reports, by no means should we undermine this ground-breaking work as we stand on the shoulders of pioneers such as Cunningham, Burgess, Führer21 and Cousens.

The present work investigates Bayana’s history, and explores the archaeological and architectural remains of Bayana and its environs from the time of the Muslim conquest of the region up to the early Mughal period. As far as the sources are concerned, most of the published translations omit details which are important for the understanding of the history of Bayana, and some works have only been translated by Elliot and Dowson, who selected the passages that they regarded as important for the history of India in general, but often omitted detailed accounts such as are given by BarnÈ22 and Shams-i Siråj, as well as passages about notable

21 Alois Anton Führer’s contributions are mainly on the Buddhist and early Hindu period, but the authenticity of his work has been seriously questioned, some even alleging that many of his findings were forgeries. See Andrew Huxley, ‘Dr. Führer’s Wanderjahr: the Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd Series XX, iv (2004): 489–502; Charles Allen, The Buddha and Dr. Führer: an Archaeological Scandal (London, 2008). Führer’s only work on the Islamic architecture of India is on Jaunpur, carried out jointly with Edmund W. Smith, which is not just thorough and accurate, but the only authoritative report on the archaeol-ogy of the town to this day. See A. A. Führer and E. W. Smith, The Sharqi Architecture of Jaunpur (Calcutta: ASI, New Imperial Series, XI, 1889).

22 Some scholars spell the name of Îiyå al-dÈn BarnÈ as BaranÈ, while others, including Saiyid Ahmad Khan, editor of the Persian text of the TårÈkh-i FÈrËz ShåhÈ, and Elliot, translator of part of this work, prefer the spelling BarnÈ. It is not certain that the historian was from the town now pronounced Baran, as Îiyå al-dÈn mentions that his father, Muayid al-Mulk, who was the agent of ArkalÈ Khån, a son of Sultan Jalål al-dÈn KhaljÈ ‘had a grand and lofty house at KÈlËgharÈ’ (Pers., p. 209) and our historian was apparently brought up there, as he mentions (Pers., p. 127) that at the time of Sultan Kaiqubåd (r. 686–9/1287–90) he was still a small child. His maternal grandfather, who apparently provided much information about the reign of Balban, was agent of the chamberlain of the sultan, residing in Delhi (Pers., p. 61). On the few occasions (Pers., pp. 170, 244, 480) that Îiyå al-dÈn mentions Barn or Baran, he makes no reference to it being the town of his family’s origin. However, late in the year 695/1296 when Alå al-dÈn KhaljÈ sat on the throne of Delhi he made the historian’s father in charge of Barn or Baran, and his uncle Alå al-Mulk in charge of Kara and Auda (Awadh) (Pers., p. 248). Îiyå al-dÈn might have linked his name to that of the town to which they moved, although by this time he would have been an adolescent.

The name Barn or Baran seems to derive from Sanskrit Varu≥a, the deity of the sky or universe, king of gods (and also lord of the seas and rivers). Many towns in India are named after this deity, including Varanasi, called by the Muslims binaras or banaras. While we do not know how the name Baran was pronounced in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a clue to the pronunciation of the historian’s name appears in his own rhyming prose when he often refers to himself as: من که ضیاء برنی مولف تاریخ فیروزشاهی ام (man ki ∂iyå-i barnÈ mualif-i tårÈk-i firËz shåhÈ-am: I who am Îiyå BarnÈ, author of the TarÈkh-i FÈrËz ShahÈ) (Pers., pp. 20, 123, 168, 602), a phrase that scans better if we read the word as barnÈ (to scan with shåhÈ) rather than baranÈ. He always shortens his first name to Îiyå instead of Îiyå al-dÈn for the same reason. On one occasion he refers to himself as: داعی دولت سلطانی ضیاء برنی (dåÈ-yi daulat-i sul†ånÈ, ∂iya-i BarnÈ: ‘praying for the felicity of the King, Îiyå-i BarnÈ’) (Pers., p. 22), again rhyming the words sul†ånÈ and barnÈ; and on another: برنی ضیای For these .(’duå gËy ∂iyå-yi BarnÈ: ‘praying (for all), Îiyå-i BarnÈ) دعا گوی reasons we have opted for the spelling BarnÈ, the way that the historian seems to have preferred to be addressed. Much information about the historian’s life is scattered in his own history, but

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personages. In addition, the translators, in spite of their undoubted expertise, were sometimes unfamiliar with colloquial expressions or shades of meaning. For example, in a quotation of the TårÈkh-i ShåhÈ by Elliot and Dowson (IV, 485, note 2) regarding the treatment by Islåm Shåh of his father’s former commanders the expression kËknårÈ såkht is given as ‘squeezed them as poppy heads are squeezed’, while the word kËknårÈ is a common expression meaning addiction to opium, and the commanders’ influence was neutralised by them being forced into becoming addicts.23 For these reasons many of the original Persian and Arabic texts are given and the authors’ own fresh translations are provided.

The work is part of a larger project to investigate the many little-known or unstudied sultanate sites and monuments of northern and western India, initi-ated in 1980 and still continuing.24 Scholars are familiar with many books and articles on sites other than Bayana resulting from this project.25 Several papers have also been published regarding the history and the architectural significance of Bayana.26

In spite of its historical past, Bayana’s Muslim population is small, as the Muslims left the area during Partition and it has taken over half a century for the community to revive. During the infamous riots of 1947 that followed Partition in many areas of northern India, Bayana received its share of violence, vandalism and destruction. Many of the buildings, particularly tombs and shrines (some noted earlier by Cunningham), were devastated, and later their ruins were cleared away. Monuments or stones bearing Muslim inscriptions seem to have been particularly targeted. Many of the tombstones were smashed or thrown aside,

for more information on his intellectual life and his learned associates, see Shaikh Abd al-Óaqq b. Saif al-dÈn Mu˙addith DihlawÈ, Akhbår al-akhyår fÈ asrår al-abrår (Delhi: ah 1332/1914), pp. 103–5.

23 See Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, Loghat-náma (Encyclopedic Dictionary) (Tehran: Tehran University, 1993–4), under the word kËknårÈ.

24 The authors wish to express their gratitude for the support of many institutions that assisted the project in northern and western India with generous grants. These institutions include, but are not limited to, the British Academy, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, Society for South Asian Studies (British Academy), Spalding Trusts, Stein Arnold Fund and the Twenty-Seven Foundation (Institute of Historical Research, University of London).

25 For the books concerning sites in northern and western India, see M. Shokoohy, Rajasthan I, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Part IV, vol. XLIX (London, 1986); M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, Óißår-i FÈrËza, Sultanate and Early Mughal Architecture in the District of Hisar, India (London, 1988); M. Shokoohy, Haryana I: the Column of FÈrËz Shåh and other Islamic Inscriptions from the District of Hisar, Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Part IV, vol. XLVIII, (London, 1988); M. Shokoohy, Bhadreªvar: the Oldest Islamic Monuments in India (Leiden, 1988); M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, Nagaur, Sultanate and Early Mughal History and Architecture of the District of Nagaur, India (London, 1993); M. and N. H. Shokoohy, Tughluqabad: a Paradigm for Indo-Islamic Urban Planning and its Architectural Components (London, 2007). For the Shokoohys’ list of publications and abstracts of articles as well as books on other areas of South Asia, see at: www.Shokoohy.com. Offprints of most of the papers are also available as PDFs on request from this site.

26 See note 3, above.

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but left lying around on the site or nearby, while a number of important inscrip-tions, some already reported, were defaced and some were taken away from their original places. In the town of Bayana a number of the mosques reported by Cunningham could no longer be identified and we were told that they had been replaced by houses. Two such mosques – one of considerable importance, but which had escaped Cunningham’s attention, could be found and surveyed.

Since the beginning of our project many more historical edifices discussed in this work, particularly small funerary chatrÈs have been demolished, and his-toric tombstone and artefacts – many inscribed – have been removed. We have, however, included in this work all those monuments and features which were extant during our fieldwork.

In spite of the significant losses to Bayana’s architectural and cultural herit-age the area still preserves a large number of monuments, many having strong local characteristics peculiar to the region. But more significant is Bayana’s influ-ence on early Mughal architecture. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth century a particular type of mosque plan developed which later influenced the layout of Mughal mosques, and it will be demonstrated how many other elements of Bayana architecture appear later in the buildings of Fathpur Sikri and other early Mughal works.