Moghul domes: 1564-1674Thepaintingscommissioned by the Moghul emperors are superb, but it is their architecture which has most astonished the world - and in particular the white marble domes characteristic of the reign of Shah Jahan.There is a long tradition of large Muslim domes in central Asia, going as far back as a tomb inBukharain the 10th century.But the Moghuls develop a style which isvery much their own - allowing the dome to rise from the building in a swelling curve which somehow implies lightness, especially when the material ofthe dome is white marble.
The first dome of this kind surmounts the tomb ofHumayunin Delhi, built between 1564 and 1573. The style is then overlooked for a while - no doubt because of Akbar's" 6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="5,301,476,335"preference for Hindu architecture, as inFatehpur Sikri- until Shah Jahan, the greatest builder of the dynasty, developsit in the 17th century with vigour and sophistication.His first attempt in this line is also his masterpiece - a building which has become the most famous in the world, for its beauty and for the romantic story behind its creation.
Throughout his early career, much of it spent in rebellion against his father,Shah Jahan's greatest support has been his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. But four years after he succeeds to the throne this much loved companion dies, in 1631, giving birth to their fourteenth child. TheTaj Mahal, her tomb in Agra, is the expression of Shah Jahan's grief. Such "romantic gestures are rare among monarchs (theEleanor Crossescome to mind as another), and certainly none hasever achieved its commemorative purpose so brilliantly.There is no known architect for the Taj. Itseems probable that Shah Jahan himself takes a leading role in directing his masons - particularly since his numerous other buildings evolve within a related style.
The Taj Mahal is built between 1632 and 1643. In 1644 the emperor commissions the vast Friday Mosque for his new city in Delhi. In 1646 he begins the more intimate Pearl Mosque in the Red Fort in Agra. Meanwhile he is building a new Red Fort in Delhi, with white marble pavilions for his own lodgings above massive red sandstone walls. At FatehpurSikri he provides a new shrine for the Sufi saint to whom his grandfather,Akbar, was so devoted.All these buildings contain variations on the theme of white and subtly curving domes, though none can rival Shah Jahan's first great example in the Taj." 6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="6,588,427,622"Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan's son, does not "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="221,667,472,701"inherit his father's "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="221,706,433,740"passionate interest in architecture. But he commissions two admirable buildings inthe same tradition. One is the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, begun in 1673; even larger than his father's" 6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="221,1096,306,1130"Friday Mosquein Delhi, it rivals it in the beauty of its domes. The other, begun in1662, goes to the other extreme; the tinyPearl Mosque in the Red Fort in Delhi, begun in 1662 for Aurangzeb's private "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,1295,449,1329"worship, is a small miracle of white marble.It is these marble highlights which catch the eye. But the Red Forts containing thetwo Pearl Mosques are themselves extraordinary examples of 17th centurycastles.
The Moghuls after Aurangzeb: 18th centuryWhen the Moghul emperor Aurangzeb is in his eighties, and the empire in disarray, an Italian living in India (Niccolao Manucci)Predicts appalling bloodshedon the old man's death, worse even than that which" 6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,399,473,433"disfigured thestart of Aurangzeb's reign" 6c="4278216396" 6f="26" 6r="174,438,470,472". The Italian is right. In the war of succession which begins in 1707, two of Aurangzeb's sons and three of his "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,555,399,589"grandsons are killed.Violence and disruption is the pattern of the future. The first six Moghul emperorshave ruled for a span of nearly 200 years.In the 58 years after Aurangzeb's death, "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,750,468,784"there are eight emperors - four of whom are murdered and one deposed.
This degree of chaos has a disastrous effect on the empire built up byAkbar. The stability of Moghul India depends onthe loyalty of those ruling its many regions. Some are administered on the emperor's behalf by governors, who are "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,197,466,231"members of the military hierarchy. Others are ruled by princely families, who through treaty or marriage have become allies of the emperor.In the 18th century rulers of each kind continue to profess loyalty to the Moghul emperor in Delhi, but in practice they behave with increasing independence. The empire fragments into the many small principalities whose existence will greatly help theBritish in Indiato gain control, by playing rival neighbours off against each other.
In the short term, though, there is a more immediate danger. During the 1730s a conqueror in the classic mould ofGenghis KhanorTimuremerges in Persia. He seizes the Persian throne in 1736, taking the titleNadir Shah.Later that year he captures the stronghold of Kandahar. The next major fortress on the route east, that ofKabul, is still in Moghul hands - a treasured possession since the time of Babur. NadirShah takes it in 1738, giving him control of the territory up to the Khyber Pass. Beyond the Khyber lies the fabulous wealth of India. Like Genghis Khan in 1221, and Timur in 1398, Nadir Shah moves on.
In December 1738 Nadir Shah crosses the Indus at Attock. Two months later hedefeats the army of the Moghul emperor, Mohammed Shah. In March he enters Delhi. The conqueror has iron control over his troops and at first the city is calm. It is broken when an argument between citizens and some Persian soldiers escalates into a riot in which 900 Persians are killed. Even now Nadir Shah forbids reprisals until he has inspected the scene. But when he rides through the city, stones are thrown at him. Someone fires a musket which kills an officer close to the shah.In reprisal he orders a massacre. The killing lasts for a day. The number of the dead is more than 30,000.
Amazingly, when the Moghul emperor begs for mercy for his people, the Persian conqueror is able to grant it. The killing stops, for the collection of Delhi's "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,119,466,153"valuables to begin.Untold wealth travels west with the Persians. The booty includes the two most spectacular possessions of the Moghul emperors - the Peacock Throne, commissioned by Shah Jahan, and the Koh-i-Nur diamond. Nadir Shah is able tosend a decree home from Delhi remittingall taxes in Persia for three years. In addition to the jewels and the gold, he takes with him 1000 elephants, 100 masons and 200 carpenters. The parallel with the visit ofTimur, 341 years previously, is almost exact.
Europeans in the fragmenting empire: 1746-1760The raid by Nadir Shah is the greatest single disaster to have struck the Moghulempire, but a more serious long-term threat soon becomes evident. In 1746 open warfare breaks out between European nations on Indian soil, when a French force seizesMadrasfrom the British.In the south, where Aurangzeb spent hislast yearstrying to impose imperial control, French and British armies now march against each other in shifting alliances with local potentates. India begins a new role as a place of importance to the European powers, andin particular to Britain. The development does not bode well for the Moghul emperors in Delhi.
Both the French and the English East India Companies, to advance their commercial interests, offer military support in dynastic struggles within powerful Indian states. Helping a candidate to the throne opens a new region of influence, a new market.The death in 1748 of the Moghul viceroyin Hyderabad is followed by French and English assistance for rival sons of the dead ruler. Soon the two European nations are also fighting on opposite sides in a war of succession in the Carnatic (the coastal strip north and south of Madras).The French candidate succeeds in Hyderabad, and the English favourite prevails in the Carnatic. But the most striking event in either campaign is a dramatic intervention by Robert Clive in 1751. With 200 British and 300 Indian soldiers he seizes Arcot (the capital of the Carnatic) and holds it through a seven-week siege.His action, and his subsequent defeat of a French and Indian force in battle, wins the throne for his candidate. It also has the effect of diminishing the prestige in Indian eyes of the French army. Until now the French have had the better of the British in India (most notably in their capture ofMadrasin 1746).
France and Britain remain rivals in southern India for the rest of the century. It is in the north that the balance changes significantly in Britain's "6c="1" 6f="26" 6r="4,119,468,153"favour, after a disaster of 1756. In that year the nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula, overwhelms the British settlement in Calcutta and locks some of his captives overnight in a room of the fort. The details of precisely what happened that night are obscure, but the event becomes known to the British as theBlack Hole of Calcutta.To recover Calcutta, Clive sails north from Madras in October 1756. The fort is back in British hands by January 1757. But Clive now decides to intervene further in the politics of Bengal.
He aims to place a more compliant nawab, Mir Jafar, on the throne of Bengal, and he achieves his purpose after defeating Siraj-ud-Daula at Plassey in June 1757. For the next three years Clive virtually rules the rich province of Bengal, using Mir Jafar as his political puppet. In doing so he establishes the pattern by which British control will gradually spread through India, in a patchwork of separate alliances with local rulers.In 1760 Clive returns to England, the possessor of vast and rapidly acquired wealth. Here too he sets a pattern, this time an unmistakably bad one. He is the first of the 'nabobs, whose fortunes derive from jobbery and bribes while administering Indian affairs.
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