History of domes in South Asia

Domes first appeared in

Ancient India, and was used at the base of domes for hoop reinforcement. The synthesis of styles created by this introduction of new forms to the Hindu tradition of trabeate construction created a distinctive architecture.^[1]

Domes in pre-Mughal India have a standard squat circular shape with a lotus design and bulbous finial at the top, derived from Hindu architecture. Because the Hindu architectural tradition did not include arches extensively, flat corbels were used to transition from the corners of the room to the dome, rather than squinches.[2] In contrast to Persian and Ottoman domes, the domes of Indian tombs tend to be more bulbous.^[3]

Medieval period

Alai Dawarza

in Delhi.

The earliest examples include the half-domes of the late 13th century

Seljuk Empire.^[4]

Domes from the late 14th century use roughly shaped stones covered in render, due to the dispersal of skilled masons following the movement of the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and back again. Examples include the

Zafar Khan.^[5]

Under the

Sikander Lodi was built from 1517 to 1518 and is cited, but is predated by the brick tomb of Zain-ul-Abidin's mother, built around 1465 in Zaina Kadal, Srinagar. The Sabz Burj in Delhi may be earlier still, but is dated to 1530-40 by written sources.^[6] Although the tomb of Sikander Loki clearly has a double dome, with a distinct space between inner and outer shells, the earlier tomb of Shihab-ud-din Taj Khan (1501) has "an attempt in this direction". Although double domes had long been used in Persia, Iraq, and western Asia, Indian domes prior to this time domes had a single shell of stonework. Afterward, most of the large domes were built with two shells in order to preserve good proportions in both the interior and exterior.^[7] Mosques with three domes and one aisle were developed by the end of the Lodi period and were further developed under the Mughals.^[8]

Sufi complex in South Asia.^[9]

According to Anna Suvorova, author of Muslim Saints in South Asia: The Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries:[10]

The domed cupola design of
Data Durbar
is typical of the pre-Mughal Muslim architecture of South Asia: while erecting the cupolas topping a square building, an intermediate form of squinches or arched transitional supports was used. These squinches are the arches built diagonally across the corners of a square to create this transition from the square to the spherical base of the dome. However, the technique of erecting domes on squinches did not prove strong enough when the domes were excessively high or had too large a radius: such structures could not withstand natural calamities.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

of Makli Hills in Thatta, Sindh Province, Pakistan.

The

Sindh province is described in the Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial as:^[11]

The most common form of Muslim funerary monument is a square cube-like building covered with a dome. The origin of this architectural form is a matter of debate, though it may relate either to pre-Islamic Iranian or to Byzantine forms. There are a vast number of variations on this basic theme, including tall honeycomb-like domes seen in Iraq (e.g. Sitt Zubayda), polygonal tent-shaped domes in Turkey and Iran, and bulbous domes, as seen in India and South Asia. ... One of the largest collections of mausolea is located in the Makli hills near Thatta in And province, Pakistan, in a vast cemetery with a circumference of 8 kilometres. Many of these medieval mausolea are decorated with Islamic and Hindu motifs, whilst the later mausolea resemble the domed constructions of Central Asia.

Early modern period

The first major

Khan-i-Khanan. The central dome is faced with marble blocks in attached to the core by alternating wide and narrow layers and there is evidence of the use of iron cramps to secure them. Iron cramps may also help form a tension ring at the base of the dome. The central double dome covers an octagonal central chamber about 15 meters wide and is accompanied by small domed chattri made of brick and faced with stone. Smaller domes were widely made with rectangular bricks beginning in the 16th century, the necessary curvature being created by tapering the mortar joints.^[12] Chatris, the domed kiosks on pillars characteristic of Mughal roofs, were adopted from their Hindu use as cenotaphs.^[13]

The

Mumtaz Mahal, a wife of emperor Shah Jahan, after her death in 1631. The central double dome covers a diameter of 22 meters. The inner dome is three meters thick and over 30 meters below the outer dome. The outer dome rests upon drum walls five metes thick.^[14] The drum acts as an optical correction for the view from ground level. The height of the dome, half the total height, is consistent with early Timurid architecture, but against the trend of Mughal architecture up to that point.^[15] The fusion of Persian and Indian architecture can be seen in the dome's shape: the bulbous shape derives from Persian Timurid domes, and the finial with lotus leaf base is derived from Hindu temples.^[2] The inner dome has a decorative triangulated pattern modeled after plaster mold work, but here carved in marble. The entire complex is highly symmetrical. On the western side of the tomb is a red sandstone mosque with three bulbous domes faced with marble, and on the eastern side is mirror-image assembly hall that likewise has three marble domes.^[16] At the center of the tomb hall lies the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal, with her husband's off-center to the west. The actual sarcophagi lie directly below, in the crypt, but in the same arrangement.^[17]

The last major Islamic tomb built in India was the

Khan-i-Khanan (d. 1627). Shallow brick domes cover the perimeter chambers of the building, and the central dome is reportedly triple-shelled, with two relatively flat inner brick domes and an outer bulbous marble dome, although it may actually be that the marble and second brick domes are joined everywhere but under the lotus leaf finial at the top.^[18]

The tomb of

Jama Masjid, a 57-foot wide dome also at Bijapur, are above distinctive transition zones consisting of eight intersecting arches that narrow the openings to be covered.^[22]

Mughal mosques, such as

Aurengzeb in 1673,^[25] is described by historian Catherine B. Asher as:^[23]

The prayer chamber adheres generally to the plan of Shah Jahan's Delhi mosque constructed about two decades earlier, although it is considerably larger. While closely modeled on Shah Jahan-period congregational mosques, the Badshahi mosque reveals a greater sense of spatial tension in keeping with the new aesthetic established early in Aurangzeb's reign. This is achieved, in part, by the sheer scale of the complex and by the facade's arched openings that are small in comparison to the building's overall massive size. Further underscoring this spatial tension are the bulbous domes and the minarets at the compound corners that emphasize the sense of verticality.

Domes appear frequently in Sikh architecture, which was greatly influenced by Mughal architecture. Most of Historical Sikh buildings were built towards the end of 18th century. Domes in Sikh architecture are mostly ribbed with lotus design at the top and floral motifs at the bottom. These domes start with wide base and reach maximum circumference when they are less than halfway up.^[27]

Later modern period

Victoria Memorial in Kolkata

, West Bengal

After the fall of the Mughal Empire, a new form of revivalist architecture developed under the British, known as Indo-Saracenic architecture. It draws heavily from Gothic, Rajput, and Mughal architectural forms, and extensively used domes.^{[citation needed]}