History of Mughal Architecture (R. Nath)

History of Mughal Architecture is a four-volume series by R. Nath; its first volume (Abhinav, New Delhi, 1982) is a stylistic study of Mughal architecture in its formative period: the mosques, tombs, gardens and palaces of Babur and Humayun, and the buildings raised at Delhi in the same tradition during the first two decades of Akbar's reign, from AH 933/1526 to 978/1570. ¹ The plan of the series gives the second volume to Akbar's buildings at Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, the third to the transitional phase under Jahangir and the fourth to the golden age of Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal. ²

The author provides a detailed background on the Tomara monuments of Gwalior to gauge Mughal architecture's debt to its predecessors, and says he examined contemporary and near-contemporary sources in Persian, Sanskrit and Hindi, travel accounts, memoirs and inscriptions. ¹ He regrets that not a single architectural text survives in Arabic or Persian and attempts to write down a "theory" of the art at its first stages. ¹ The book is illustrated with 4 maps, 55 figures and 169 plates. ¹

After the historical background come "Babur's Innovations" (the gardens at Agra and Dholpur, the cold bath, the Chauburj), "Architectural Projects of Humayun" (Din-panah, the Sher Mandal, the Qila-i-Kuhna mosque), "Sepulchres of the Grand Necropolis of Delhi", "Tomb of Sheikh Muhammad Ghauth at Gwalior", "Trimukhi Mosques of Delhi" and "Tomb of Humayun", then an epilogue. ^{3 4} Among its distinctive arguments are the attribution of the Purana Qila and its buildings to Humayun rather than Sher Shah, and the suggestion that the Chauburj at Agra was Babur's first tomb. ^{5 6}