Mughals and Architecture
If Mughals were such great builders & recorded everything unlike us - how many manuals on architecture did they write? None. Not a single manual on architectural or building techniques by Mughals exists. In contrast Hindus have 140 + elaborate manuals on architecture alone!
So how did Mughals build such grand “Indo-Saracenic” architecture? The answer is clear - they built nothing. They just took over Hindu buildings & Islamicized them or forced Hindus to make them. Not a single one of the 30 most famous Mughal treatises is about building anything.
In contrast a mind-boggling 141+ Hindu treatises are completely or partially about the science of architecture & construction techniques - even after excluding the Puranas & manuscripts about decorating buildings. If we included those the list would be double the size!!
Many Hindu architectural treatises are 1000s of years old, & most were available when Mughals first entered India. Bharatiyas already had an ancient continuous tradition of grand architecture, gardens, engineering projects, palaces, forts, etc. centuries before Islam was born.
Long before the Mughals, Islamic savages like Mahmud Ghazni were dazzled by incomparable Hindu architecture when destroying the beautiful temples of Mathura. Ghazni enslaved thousands of Hindu craftsmen forcing them to imitate Hindu architecture to build a Jama Masjid in Ghazni. The myth of Persian craftsmen building grand Mughal architecture like the Taj Mahal is utter nonsense. At most they simply supervised construction by trained Hindu architects, engineers, sculptors, painters & artisans.
Not even one Mughal text elucidates the science of building, architecture, construction techniques, engineering, etc. yet we are supposed to believe that they built India’s greatest architecture. Islamic buildings with Hindu features are almost always usurped Hindu structures. If any Islamic structure in India is disputed & depicts Hindu architectural features, evidence inevitably proves it was a Hindu structure mutilated & usurped as a symbol of Islam’s victory over Hindus. The grandest Mughal structures were all built by Hindu architects & artisans.
- Acharya, Prasanna Kumar. - Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture, Volume VII, Appendix 1: A Sketch of Sanskrit Treatises on Architecture, Oxford University Press, 1946
- Koch, Ebba. Mughal Architecture, An Outline of its History and Development (1526-1858), Archaeological Survey of India, 1991. Rezavi, SA Nadeem. “Mughal Architecture: Organization, Inspiration and Design.” Presidential Address, Medieval India Section Indian History Congress. Vol. 75. 2014.
- Nath, R., Taj Mahal, The Evolution of the Tomb in Mughal Architecture. (1972) D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Private Ltd. Alfieri, Bianca Maria. “Architecture of Mughal India.” (1994): 558-561.
- Tabagqat I Nasiri - Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani Tarikh (Firishta - Firishta)
- https://twitter.com/MumukshuSavitri/status/1749646065396220162