Shah Jahan and His Architectural Contribution to India
Contents Introduction 3 Chapter 1 7 Taj Mahal: Shah Jahan’s symbolism of his eternal love 7 1.1 Who Built It? 9 1.2 Features 10 1.3 The Judgment Day 11 1.4 Conclusion 12 Chapter 2 13 Shah Jahan and his Empire 13 2.1 Religious Changes 14 2.2 Political Changes 15 Conclusion 17 Bibliography 18
Introduction
Shahanshah Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Shah Jahan I, Shah Jahan was the 5th emperor of the Mughal Empire after Babur, Humayun, Akbar, and Jahangir. He reigned from 8th November 1627 to 2nd August 1658 (30 years, 267 days). Shah Jahan was the favorite of Akbar the great.He is also called Shahjahan the Magnificent. He is a descendant of Genghis Khan, Emperor of Mongol Empire and Tamerlane, Emperor Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and the Emperor of the Romans.
Although Shah Jahan is best known for the creation of Mughals’ most magnificent creation, the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan is also credited for building some of the most renowned Mughal structures such as Delhi Red Fort, Pearl Mosque, Jama Masjid, Diwan-I-Am & Diwan-I-Khas etc. Shah Jahan was a very different character compared to Akbar. He was more orthodox in religion, so much so that he ordered the demolition of several Hindu temples. An extremely able ruler, he was also a notably ruthless. He rebelled against his father and murdered his two elder brothers, their children and two male cousins in order to achieve the throne. Yet while Shah Jahan was capable of such cold-blooded brutal actions, there is no doubt that he was the most aesthetically sensitive of all the Mughals. As a boy of 15, he had impressed both his father and his grandfather with the taste he demonstrated in re-designing the Imperial apartments in Kabul and buildings within Agra fort. He had precocious talent for building and he had the most refined of the tastes in arts and architecture.
His thirty year reign is dominated by an outward sense of prosperity and stability unmatched even during Akbar's rule. At the
Introduction
Shahanshah Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Shah Jahan I, Shah Jahan was the 5th emperor of the Mughal Empire after Babur, Humayun, Akbar, and Jahangir. He reigned from 8th November 1627 to 2nd August 1658 (30 years, 267 days). Shah Jahan was the favorite of Akbar the great.He is also called Shahjahan the Magnificent. He is a descendant of Genghis Khan, Emperor of Mongol Empire and Tamerlane, Emperor Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and the Emperor of the Romans.
Although Shah Jahan is best known for the creation of Mughals’ most magnificent creation, the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan is also credited for building some of the most renowned Mughal structures such as Delhi Red Fort, Pearl Mosque, Jama Masjid, Diwan-I-Am & Diwan-I-Khas etc. Shah Jahan was a very different character compared to Akbar. He was more orthodox in religion, so much so that he ordered the demolition of several Hindu temples. An extremely able ruler, he was also a notably ruthless. He rebelled against his father and murdered his two elder brothers, their children and two male cousins in order to achieve the throne. Yet while Shah Jahan was capable of such cold-blooded brutal actions, there is no doubt that he was the most aesthetically sensitive of all the Mughals. As a boy of 15, he had impressed both his father and his grandfather with the taste he demonstrated in re-designing the Imperial apartments in Kabul and buildings within Agra fort. He had precocious talent for building and he had the most refined of the tastes in arts and architecture.
His thirty year reign is dominated by an outward sense of prosperity and stability unmatched even during Akbar's rule. At the
Bibliography: 1. Oak, Purushottam Nagesh. The Taj Mahal Is A Temple Palace. New Delhi. Vedic Books, 1993. 2. Lancaster, Clay. A Critique on the Taj Mahal. Oakland, University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians, 1956 3 4. John F. Richards. The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, Part 5: The Mughal Empire. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1996 5 6. Eraly, Abraham. The Mughal World, Life in India’s Last Golden Age. New Delhi. Penguin Books, 2007 7 8. MacAulay, D. Mughal Art. Burlington. The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. 1925 9 [ 12 ]. M. Abdullah Chaghtai, "A Family of Great Mughal Architects," Islamic Culture, xi, 1937, 200-09. [ 15 ]. W. E. Begley, "Amanat Khan and the Calligraphy of the Taj Mahal," Kunst des Orients, xn, 1978-79, 5-39. [ 16 ]. Begley, "Amanat Khan," and his "The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New Theory of its Symbolic Meaning," Art Bulletin, LVI, i, 1979. [ 17 ]. E. Bedley and Z. A. Desai, eds., The Shah Jahan Nama of ‘Inayat Khan, (Delhi, 1990), p. 154 [ 18 ]