JAUNPORE.
CONTENTS.
Mosques of Jumma Musjid and Lall Durwaza.
CHRONOLOGY.
Khoja Jehan assumes independence at Jaunpore A.D. 1397
Mubarick, his son 1400
Shems ud-dîn--Ibrahim Shah 1401
Mahmúd 1441
Husain Shah 1451
---- deposed and seeks refuge at Gaur 1478
It was just two centuries after the conquest of India by the Moslems
that Khoja Jehan, the Soubahdar or governor of the province in which
Jaunpore is situated, assumed independence, and established a dynasty
which maintained itself for nearly a century, from A.D. 1397 to about
1478, and though then reconquered by the sovereign of Delhi, still
retained a sort of semi-independence till finally incorporated in the
Mogul empire by the great Akbar. During this period Jaunpore was adorned
by several large mosques, three of which still remain tolerably entire,
and a considerable number of tombs, palaces, and other buildings,
besides a fort and bridge, all of which are as remarkable specimens of
their class of architecture as are to be found anywhere in India.
Although so long after the time when under Ala ud-dîn and Tugluck Shah
the architecture of the capital had assumed something like completeness,
it is curious to observe how imperfect the amalgamation was in the
provinces at the time when the principal buildings at Jaunpore were
erected. The principal parts of the mosques, such as the gateways, the
great halls, and the western parts generally, are in a complete arcuate
style. Wherever indeed wide openings and large internal spaces were
wanted, arches and domes and radiating vaults were employed, and there
is little in those parts to distinguish this architecture from that of
the capitals. But in the cloisters that surround the courts, and in the
galleries in the interior, short square pillars are as generally
employed, with bracket capitals, horizontal architraves, and roofs
formed of flat slabs, as was invariably the case in Hindu and Jaina
temples. Instead of being fused together, as they afterwards became, the
arcuate style of the Moslems stands here, though in juxtaposition, in
such marked contrast to the trabeate style of the Hindus, that some
authors have been led to suppose that the pillared parts belonged to
ancient Jaina or Buddhist monuments, which had been appropriated by the
Mahomedans and converted to their purposes.[509] The truth of the matter
appears to be, that the greater part of the Mahomedans in the province
at the time the mosques were built were Hindus converted to that
religion, and who still clung to their native forms when these did not
clash with their new faith; and the masons were almost certainly those
whose traditions and whose taste inclined them much more to the old
trabeate forms than to the newly-introduced arched style.
As we shall presently see at Gaur, on the one hand, the arched style
prevailed from the first, because the builders had no other material
than brick, and large openings were then impossible without arches. At
Ahmedabad, on the other hand, in an essentially Jaina country, and where
stone was abundant, the pillared forms were not only as commonly
employed, as at Jaunpore, but were used for so long a time, that before
the country was absorbed in the Mogul empire, the amalgamation between
the trabeate and arcuate forms was complete.
* * * * *
The oldest mosque at Jaunpore is that in the fort, which we learn from
an inscription on it, was completed in A.D. 1398. It is not
large--barely 100 ft. north and south--and consists of a central block
of masonry, with a large archway, of the usual style of the Mahomedan
architecture of the period, and five openings between pillars on either
hand. The front rows of these pillars are richly sculptured, and were
evidently taken from some temple that existed there, or in the
neighbourhood, before the Moslem occupation, but they seem to have
exhausted the stock, as no other such are found in any of the mosques
built subsequently.[510]
There are three great mosques still standing in the city; of these the
grandest is the Jumma Musjid (Woodcuts Nos. 290, 291), or Friday
[Illustration: 290. Plan of Western Half of Courtyard of Jumma Musjid,
Jaunpore. (From a Plan by the Author.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.]
[Illustration: 291. View of lateral Gateway of Jumma Musjid, Jaunpore.
(From a Drawing by the Author.)]
Mosque, which was commenced by Shah Ibrahim, A.D. 1419, but not
completed till the reign of Husain, A.D. 1451-1478. It consists of a
courtyard 220 ft. by 214 ft., on the western side of which is situated a
range of buildings, the central one covered by a dome 40 ft. in
diameter,
[Illustration: 292. Lall Durwaza Mosque, Jaunpore. (From a Drawing by
the Author.)]
in front of which stands a gate pyramid or _propylon_,[511] of almost
Egyptian mass and outline, rising to the height of 86 ft. This gate
pyramid by its elevation supplied the place of a minaret, which is a
feature as little known at Jaunpore, as it was, at the same age, in the
capital city of Delhi. On each side of the dome is a compartment divided
into two storeys by a stone floor supported on pillars; and beyond this,
on each side, is an apartment 40 ft. by 50 ft., covered by a bold
pointed vault with ribs, so constructed that its upper surface forms the
external roof of the building, which in Gothic vaults is scarcely ever
the case. The three sides of the courtyard were surrounded by double
colonnades, two storeys in height internally, but with three on the
exterior, the floor of the courtyard being raised to the height of the
lower storey. On each face was a handsome gateway; one of which is
represented in Woodcut No. 291, which gives a fair idea of the style:
the greater part of the eastern side of the court has been taken down
and removed by the English to repair station-roads and bridges, for
which in their estimation these pillars are admirably adapted.
The smallest of the mosques in the city is the Lall Durwaza or Red Gate.
It is in the same style as the others; and its propylon--represented in
Woodcut No. 292--displays not only the bold massiveness with which these
mosques were erected, but shows also that strange admixture of Hindu and
Mahomedan architecture which pervaded the style during the whole period
of its continuance.
Of all the mosques remaining at Jaunpore, the Atala Musjid is the most
ornate and the most beautiful. The colonnades surrounding its court are
four aisles in depth, the outer columns, as well as those next the
court, being double square pillars. The three intermediate rows are
single square columns, supporting a flat roof of slabs, arranged as in
Jaina temples. Externally, too, it is two storeys in height, the lower
storey being occupied by a series of cells opening outwardly. All this
is so like a Hindu arrangement that one might almost at first sight be
tempted, like Baron Hügel, to fancy it was originally a Buddhist
monastery. He failed to remark, however, that both here and in the Jumma
Musjid the cells open outwardly, and are below the level of the
courtyard of the mosque--an arrangement common enough in Mahomedan, but
never found in Buddhist buildings. Its gateways, however, which are the
principal ornaments of the outer court, are purely Saracenic, and the
western face is adorned by three propylons similar to that represented
in the last woodcut, but richer and more beautiful, while its interior
domes and roofs are superior to any other specimen of Mahomedan art I am
acquainted with of so early an age. They are, too, perhaps, more
striking here, because, though in juxtaposition with the quasi-Hinduism
of the court, they exhibit the arched style of the Saracenic architects
in as great a degree of completeness as it exhibited at any subsequent
period.
The other buildings hardly require particular mention, though, as
transition specimens between the two styles, these Jaunpore examples are
well worthy of illustration, and in themselves possess a simplicity and
grandeur not often met with in this style. An appearance of strength,
moreover, is imparted to them by their sloping walls, which is foreign
to our general conception of Saracenic art, though at Tugluckabad and
elsewhere it is carried even further than at Jaunpore. Among the Pathans
of India the expression of strength is as characteristic of the style as
massiveness is of that of the Normans in England. In India it is found
conjoined with a degree of refinement seldom met with elsewhere, and
totally free from the coarseness which in other countries usually besets
vigour and boldness of design.
The peculiarities of this style are by no means confined to the capital;
they prevail at Gazeepore, and as far north as Canouge, while at Benares
the examples are frequent. In the suburbs of that city, at a place
called the Bakaraya Kund,[512] there is a group of tombs, as mentioned
above, and other buildings belonging to the Moslems, which are
singularly pleasing specimens of the Jaunpore style, and certainly
belong to the same age as those just described.
The kingdom of Jaunpore is also rich in little tombs and shrines in
which the Moslems have used up Hindu and Jaina pillars, merely
rearranging them after their own fashion. These, of course, will not
bear criticism as architectural designs, but there is always something
so indescribably picturesque about them as fairly to extort admiration.
The principal example of this compound style is a mosque at Canouge,
known popularly as “Sita ka Rasui,” “Sita’s kitchen.” It is a Jaina
temple, rearranged as a mosque, in the manner described at pp. 263-4. It
measures externally 133 ft. by 120 ft. The mosque itself has four rows
of fifteen columns each, and three domes. The cloisters surrounding the
court are only two rows in depth, and had originally sixty-eight
pillars, smaller than those of the mosque. Externally it has no great
beauty, but its pillared court is very picturesque and pleasing.
According to an inscription over its principal gateway, its conversion
was effected by Ibrahim Shah, of Jaunpore, A.D. 1406.[513]
At a later age, and even after it had lost its independence, several
important buildings were erected in the capital and in other towns of
the kingdom in the style of the day; but none of these, so far as is now
known, are of sufficient importance to require notice in such a work as
the present.