BSOAS: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Cambridge University Press)

ISSN: 0041-977X EISSN: 1474-0699

Available by subscription from Cambridge Journals Online

EI3: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition (E. J. Brill, Leiden-Boston)
ISSN: 1873-9830
Available on the Encyclopaedia of Islam website, http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3

           Architectural Diversity in South Asian Islam (Natalie H. Shokoohy), Chapter 8
           in South Asian Islam, A Spectrum of Integration and Indigenization, Nasr M. Arif
           and Abbas Panakkal (eds), Routledge, Oxford – New York, 2024 pp. 187- 213 and
           figs. 8.1-8.15,ISBN 978-1-032-45170-1 (Hardback), 978-1-032-57475-2 (Paperback)
           978-1-003-43953-0 (e-Book)

     Indo-Muslim architecture is striking for its combination of techniques and styles, stemming from the association
     of the subcontinent with other lands through trade, invasion and settlement. The early maritime traders used
     indigenous beam and bracket methods and a restrained local ornamentation, employing Jain and Hindu
     craftsmen for their religious structures. The earliest surviving buildings of one of these trading communities are at Bhadreśvar, where an ancient Jain temple and centre of pilgrimage exists to this day. Bhadreśvar, on the coast of Kachchh (Kutch) in Gujarat, was once a magnificent ancient port. It was known to Ptolemy in the second century as Bardaxema and to al-Bīrūnī, writing in the eleventh century as Bhadra. The overseas traders dealt with the council of Jain merchants of the town, and a local Sanskrit chronicle mentions the Muslim community as “foreigners” of the Ismāʿīlī sect. The Jains gave the Muslims permission to build, and the most important Muslim building there is the shrine of Ibrāhīm, with its inscription of 554/1159-1160, the earliest date in situ on a monument in India. The environs of the shrine include two mosques: the Solahkhambī Masjid, and the Chhoṭī Masjid, all erected by local artisans.



The shrine consists of a square chamber with a corbelled dome, using the local technology, and on a plan which can be seen as a synthesis between Jain and Muslim architectural traditions. The miḥrāb, however, with its semi-circular plan and semi-circular arch, is in the style associated with Syria, Egypt and North Africa. A portico fronts the entrance featuring a flat ceiling decorated with a grid of squares with lotus patterns, which could be seen as a direct borrowing from temple architecture. The building, like all the Muslim buildings on the site, is constructed of large blocks of stone, a well-known method in India from ancient times, wiyh components including monolithic column shafts surmounted by brackets supporting lintels, roofed with flat slabs and corbelled domes.













                                   Bhadreśvar, Kachh, Gujarat, above: Shrine of Ibrahim, the earliest standing Muslim building in
                                   India. The concept of burial with a monument would have been unprecedented to the Jain host
                                   community. Below: the Chhoṭī Masjid, a small mosque built by Muslim maritime traders with the
                                   trabeate technology of a Jain or Hindu temple, but on a plan in accordance with the liturgical
                                   requirements of a mosque. The porches in front of both buildings can be seen as a borrowing
                                   from the concept of the maṇḍapa or open hall in front of a temple, and is a feature of the
                                   mosques of Indian littoral

                             South India: shared technology of tiered wooden structures over stone walls. Left: the Mithqālpaḷḷi, a mosque built by merchants at Calicut.
                             Right: Bhagavati Temple at Cochin (Kochi). In spite of a superficial resemblance, the mosque’s planning makes it permeable and open from
                             the outside (the additions in the foreground are modern) while the temple interior is exclusive sacred space and out of sight.



          Section of the west end of the Mithqālpaḷḷi showing its roof
          structure with an example of its ancient antecedents, an
          early fifth-century Buddhist wall painting from Cave 17 at
          Ajanta depicting the roof space of a timber structure,
          probably a monastery.




Travelling south, the architecture of the maritime traders in settlements all down the western and southern coasts of India again incorporates local building techniques and materials with the religious and social requirements of the traders. On the tropical coasts the traders would have found the main building material to be timber, and tiered structures the norm, from simple houses ‒ with the upper tiers providing airy lofts and at ground level patios protected from the sun and rain by deep overhanging eaves ‒ to elaborate multi-tiered temples.

The outer walls of the structures may be stone, but the joinery of the wooden superstructure employs pegs rather than nails and has ancient precedents and a wide geographic scope, being seen throughout South-East Asia and as far as China and Japan. The system used for laying beams and rafters is depicted in wall paintings in the Buddhist cave temples of Ajanta, and imitations of timberwork and joinery are also realised in the megalithic caves, although no actual timber structures of such an early period remain.

When it came to the conquerors of North India ‒ the Delhi Sultans ‒ the standing temples were objects of idolatry, but at the same time their stone elements were seen as instantly available building materials which could be taken down and reassembled into an approximation of the forms required. To demonstrate the establishment of the new power, the first act of dominance would be to demolish the towering temples, the symbol and centre of the old order, and build the place of worship for the new faith. A Muslim army’s key requirement was a place of prayer, and open areas known as namāzgāh, with a wall indicating the direction of Mecca would be set up ‒ large enough for the whole army ‒ some of which still survive. The sight of thousands of troops praying simultaneously would have been startling to the local population. The next move would be to build a mosque, as impressive, if not more so, than the standing temples.  The components of these buildings ‒ built on the trabeate system based on beams resting on columns ‒ were held together not by mortar, but by the downward pressure of the weight of the stone components: all these could be used to build mosques, adopting the same system, but on a new plan. Careful reassembly on an entirely different layout resulted in decorative schemes that retained indigenous floral and geometric carved patterns, but human and divine images were defaced, or the stones turned back to front to use the plain surface, although carvings of animals were sometimes retained.