Aurangzeb Carpet Architecture
Aurangzeb was a staunch Sunni Muslim. He did not like that his father Shah Jahan and the three brothers were interested in painting, music and architecture. In his view all these were anti-Islamic acts.
Aurangzeb's construction work: During the reign of Aurangzeb, the tomb of Aurangzeb's late Begum Rabia-ud-Daurani alias Dilras Bano Begum was built near Aurangabad city of Maharashtra. It is called 'Bibi Ka Maqbara' and Taj of Deccan' Also called. In this an unsuccessful attempt was made to copy the Taj Mahal, but due to the lack of balance in the minarets, the harmony of the whole building was shattered.
It is a modest building and has no special features in its decorated arches and other decorations. The dome of the tomb is made of marble stone and the rest of the construction is covered with white plaster. Aurangzeb built a mosque in the Red Fort of Delhi, which shows its simplicity. It is also known as Moti Masjid. This mosque has been built with high quality marble.
Aurangzeb also built a mosque in Lahore which is called Badshahi Masjid. It has a circular Bengali roof and inflated domes. The main building and minarets of the mosque are made of red sandstone while the dome above the building and the bastions above the minarets are made of white marble. It is the third largest mosque in the Indian subcontinent.
It is the last of the congregational mosques made of red stone. After this the Mughals never built such a mosque again. The Badshahi Masjid of Lahore, built by Auranzeb, is modeled on the Jama Masjid built by Shah Jahan in Delhi but it is much larger than the Jama Masjid of Delhi.
Zeenat-Unnisa, the second daughter of Aurangzeb, built Zeenat-al-Masjid near Khairati Darwaza in Shahjahanabad, Delhi in AD 1707. It is also called the mini-Jama-Masjid of Delhi due to its resemblance to the Jama Masjid built by Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan's daughter Roshanara died in AD 1671. His tomb was built in Delhi.
There was a large garden around this tomb, some part of which still survives. The Alamgiri Darwaza of Lahore Fort was built during the period of Aurangzeb in AD 1673. Aurangzeb's brother-in-law Muzaffar Hussain built Pinjore Garden, 22 km from Chandigarh. This garden is built on the style of Shalimar Bagh of Srinagar and is situated in seven terrace-beds.
The main gate of the garden opens into the highest terrace of the garden. There is a palace built here, which is built in the Rajasthani-Mughal style. It is called Sheesh Mahal. It looks like Hawa Mahal. On the second terrace is the Rang Mahal with arched doors.
Post-Aurangzeb Mughal Architecture:After the death of Aurangzeb in AD 1707, no remarkable buildings were built during the time of the later Mughal emperors. Due to the weakening of the central authority during this period, the architectural style also began to acquire regional influence like the local authority, because the construction work of the buildings was transferred from the hands of the Mughal princes to the Nawab of Awadh and other regional chiefs.
Some buildings were also built in Khandesh and other parts of the south but they failed to achieve the level of architecture of Shah Jahan's time. Dr. Ashirdilal Srivastava has written- 'The buildings built in the latter half of the eighteenth century reflect the hollowness and bankruptcy of the design of Mughal architecture.'
In AD 1753-54, the tomb of Wazir Safdar Jung was built in Delhi. The vertical proportion of this tomb is much more than the requirement, yet it is considered a masterpiece of Mughal architecture. The tomb contains the tomb of Safdarjung and his wife. In the central building there is a big dome made of white marble. The rest of the building is made of red sandstone.
Its architecture is based on the design of Humayun's tomb. There are also pavilions named Moti Mahal, Junglee Mahal and Badshah Pasand. There are four canals of water all around, which lead to four buildings. There are four octagonal minarets attached to the main building.
Located in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi, the Zafar Mahal is the last historical building of the Mughal period. Its inner structure was built by the Mughal emperor Akbar (II) and the outer part and the door were built by Bahadur Shah (II). Made of marble and red sandstone, the entrance of this three-storey building is 50 feet high and 15 meters wide.
This gate was built by Bahadur Shah Zafar. Curved Bengali domes and small jharokhas have been constructed at the entrance. In the upper part of the arch of the main gate of Zafar Mahal, two stone lotuses have been installed on both sides.
Architecture of British rule
British officials built many huge buildings in India, which included European architectural styles along with Indian and Muslim architectural styles. In AD 1911, the British made New Delhi the capital. He built several state office buildings, churches and Christian cemeteries in New Delhi, in which the impression of European architecture is clearly visible.
The Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, the Churchgate Railway Station building in Bombay, the Viceroy's House in Delhi (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), the Parliament House are the gifts of the British. The British built the Gateway of India in Bombay and the India Gate in Delhi.
During the British rule, the temple architecture also developed with a new form. The Laxminarayan Temple in Delhi, the Hindu University buildings of Banaras, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, the Bharat Mata Temple in Varanasi are the temple architectural masterpieces of the twentieth century.
Buddhist art has been revived in Nirvana Bihar, Buddha Temple and Government Rest House built in Kushinagar. There is also a Buddha temple in Delhi along with the Laxminarayan temple. During this period, the palaces and school buildings of the kings also gave a new form to architecture and Indian architecture was completely transformed into a new form due to the combination of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian architectural systems.