Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/313

 CHAR IX. BIJAPUR. 269 years which elapsed between his accession and the wars with Aurangzib, which ended in the final destruction of the dynasty. During that period, however, their capital was adorned with a series of buildings as remarkable as those of any of the Muhammadan capitals of India, hardly excepting even Agra and Delhi, and showing a wonderful originality of design not surpassed by those of such capitals as Jaunpur or Ahmadabad, though differing from them in a most marked degree. It is not easy now to determine how far this originality arose from the European descent of the 'Adil Shahis and their avowed hatred of everything that belonged to the Hindus, or whether it arose from any local circumstances, the value of which we can now hardly appreciate. The foreign origin of the 'Adil Shahi dynasty and their partiality for the Shiah form of Islam prevailing in Persia, rather than the Sunni, together with their ready employment of Persian officers, may probably have influenced their architecture, and led to that largeness and grandeur which characterised the Bijapur style. Earlier Muhammadan invaders, before the 'Adil Shahis under Kanmu-d-Din, about 1316 had built a mosque in the fort at Bijapur, constructed out of Hindu remains. How far the pillars used there by them are torn from other buildings, we are not informed. It would appear, however, that it consists partly of the portico of a Hindu temple; but this is not incompatible with the idea that other portions were removed from their original positions and re-adapted to their present purposes. Another mosque, known as Khwaja Jahdn's, dating from about the end of the I5th century, resembles a Hindu temple, and was evidently erected also from materials taken from earlier fanes. But as soon as the new dynasty had leisure to think, really about the matter, they abandoned entirely all tendency to copy Hindu forms or Hindu details, but set to work to carry out a pointed-arched, or domical style of their own, and did it with singular success. 1 The Jami' Masjid, which is one of the earlier regular buildings of the city, was commenced by 'Alt 'Adil Shah (A.D. 1557-1579), and though continued by his successors on the same plan, was never completely finished, the fourth side 1 Bijapur has been singularly fortunate, not only in the extent, but in the mode in which it has been illustrated. A set of drawings plans, elevations, and de- tailswere made by Mr A. Gumming, C.E., under the superintendence of Capt. Hart, Bombay Engineers, which, for beauty of drawing and accuracy of detail, are unsurpassed. These were reduced and published by me at the expense of the Government in 1859, in a folio volume with seventy-four plates, and afterwards in 1866 at the expense of the Committee for the Publication of the Antiquities of Western India, illustrated further by photographic views taken on the spot by Col. Biggs, R.A.