The Majesty of Ibrahim Rauza : A Monument that inspired Taj Mahal.

The Majesty of Ibrahim Rauza : A Monument that inspired Taj Mahal.

Every year, the world over, 18th April is celebrated as the ‘International Day for Monuments and Sites’ with an objective of educating people about the existence of old monuments and sites. Incidentally this day is also commonly known as World Heritage Day. When one speaks of world heritage, it is common for people to associate with the famed World Heritage sites, which are declared by UNESCO. However, the World Heritage day is not just about the listed sites, but all cultural heritage places and landscapes of international, national and local significance. And therefore my post today is on one of the most beautiful, artistically and architecturally majestic yet the most neglected monument - The Ibrahim Rauza’, in Bijapur now (Vijaypura) Karnataka. The art, style and architecture of this majestic monument, also called the back Taj Mahal, is believed to have been an inspiration for the creation of the Taj Mahal - befittingly one of the seven wonders of the world.

This year is also a period of Covid-19 crisis and it is that time of the year when most people try and plan for holidays, which unfortunately is not possible because of the Covid pandemic. Hopefully it will pass and soon you will have an opportunity to plan for your holiday and through this post of mine I am making an attempt to showcase the city of Bijapur in general and the majestic Ibrahim Rauza in particular as one of the possible sites, which you may plan for your next visit. 

Bijapur is mostly known for the highly famed Gol Gumbuz, a monument of extraordinary aesthetics and arguably the second largest dome in the world, next to St Peters Bascilica in Vatican City. The city is also home to several other monuments and places of historical significance like the Upli Burz, Bara Kaman, Mulik I Miadan, Hardar Burz, Taj Bauri, Asar Mahal, Jama Masjid etc. and to top it all, as far as I am concerned, it is also the city, which is home to the Sainik School, Bijapur my proud alma mater. The city of Bijapur (now Vijayapur) will remain etched in my memory because it was in this very city that I spent 7 best years of my life ( from age 9 to 16) from 1970 - 77.

A visit to Taj Mahal is one constant that is integral to every head of state, who visits  India. This was evidenced during the recent visit of President Trump to India, who had just 36 hours to spend in India. Yet he took time to visit the Taj Mahal with his family and shared the images from that famous photo spot in the precincts of the Taj Mahal. The architectural beauty, the white marble used in its construction and so also the art that is embellished in Taj Mahal with its associated legendary stories, makes Taj Mahal what it is today - one among the seven wonders of the world. But then very few people may know that it was the Ibraahim Rauza in Bijapur, which inspired Shah Jahan to create Taj Mahal. When Emperor Shah Jahan set out to build a monument for his beloved wife Mumtaz, he commissioned his best-in-class architects to study the design of the finest and celebrated monuments across the country and abroad. Fortuitously it so happened that down south in Bijapur, under another Islamic kingdom, Aadil Shah, Ibrahim Aadil shah II, had just completed the famed Ibrahim Rauza in 1626, whose fame had reached far and wide including the Mughal King, Shah Jahan. The architects commissioned by Shah Jahan after their arduous exercise of analysing the best of monuments, presented few of their choices to the emperor Shah Jahan and the designs that fascinated the emperor were the Tomb of Mandu in Madhya Pradesh and the Ibrahim Rauza in Bijapur. The artistic elegance and its splendour and the sacred scriptures from the Quran that adored the ceilings of the Ibrahim Rauza, sealed the deal and Shah Jahan chose Ibrahim Roza as the model for the design of his creation, the Taj Mahal and the rest is now history.

The Ibrahim Rauza - a group of buildings, which are collectively known as the Ibrahim Rauza that -  is situated in the west of the city of Bijapur and very close to the Sainik School, beyond the Makka gate. It was designed by the Persian architect Malik Sandal. The Ibrahim Rauza was built by Ibrahim Adil Shah II and it took around 46 years to construct it. The construction  began in 1580 and was completed in 1626. The entire campus of the Ibrahim Rauza consists of very large square area with a high platform, which has a length of 360 feet and a width of 160 feet. On this high platform are built two large buildings, the Tomb on the east  and the Mosque on the west, which are facing one another and are separated with a reservoir and fountain between them. Ibrahim Adil Shah II was a magnanimous ruler and a patron of culture and arts. He was from the Ottoman dynasty that had its origin in Turkey. The Ibrahim Rauza is a masterpiece of distinct culture that was created for Ibrahim’s resting place. 

Built on a single rock bed, this palatial structure is noted for the symmetry of its features. The word ‘Rauza’ literally means a garden. It is a square garden that consists of two buildings — on the left, a tomb containing the remains of Ibrahim Adil Shah and his wife and on the right, a mausoleum with a mosque and four minarets. The tomb, built on the east side of the high platform, contains a sepulchral chamber, which houses the tomb of Ibrahim (II) Adil Shah, the king responsible for the construction of this masterpiece Ibrahim Rauza, and his queen Taj Sultana, and four other members of his family. In order from east to west the graves are that of Taj Sultana wife of Ibrahim (II), Haji Badi Sahiba his mother, Ibrahim  himself, Zohra Sultana his daughter, Darvesh Padshah his son, and Sultan Salaman another son. The tomb has a main chamber with a verandah, four minarets (one at each corner), and an orbiculate dome at the top of the structure. The tomb is efficiently planned and beautifully decorated with intricate details. Though the mosque is more compact and smaller than the tomb, however; it stands out due to the harmonious architecture and splendour. The entrance of the mosque is adorned with elaborated ornamentation with two minars at each of the corners. Both the tomb and the mosque are noted for their deep rich cornices and graceful minarets.

The six tombs inside the building on the East side of the high platform are placed in a row from east to west, the tombs themselves are lying north and south. In the middle of each of its four sides is a doorway and on either side of these is a fanlight window. One can see beautiful specimens of perforated stone work. The windows are filled with interlaced Arabic writing, and the perforations are the blank spaces in and around the letters.  Unfortunately due to inadequate inner lighting one cannot see the intricate details of the famed and most remarkable flat stone ceilings inside the building.  The cornices and cupolas, the minarets and parapets, the decorated walls and the beautiful stone windows have become old and worn out, yet they are so beautiful and captivating. The entire high platform structure has been built over a basement, which is believed to  house several secret passages, some of which were rumoured to have contained valuable treasures. 

The beauty and elegance of the Ibrahim Rauza can be appreciated from one of the inscriptions, which is seen over one of the door, which says " Heaven'stood astonished at the elevation of this building, and it might be said, when its head rose from the earth that another heaven was erected. The garden of paradise has borrowed its beauty from this garden and every column here is graceful as the Cyprus tree in the garden of purity. An angel from heaven announced the date of the structure by saying, ‘This building which makes the heart glad is the memorial of Taj Sultana.'  The last sentence gives the date A. H. 1036 (A. D. 1626). From the inscription it appears that the building was built as Taj Sultana's tomb. 

The Adil Shahi dynasty ruled parts of southern India from the late 15th to the late 17th centuries, with their capital in Bijapur. The dynasty was founded by the Persian governor of Bijapur, Yusuf Adil Shah, who declared his independence from the declining Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan. Rulers of the dynasty such as Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1579-1627) were great patrons of art and architecture. With Mughal rule expanding to the Deccan, Bijapur was no longer able to evade confrontation with the Mughals and fell to Aurangzeb, after which its importance faded. 

The history of the city of Bijapur, however predates the Adil Shahi’s  and goes back to the Palaeolithic times the evidence of which is seen from archaeological findings, which shows human settlements. However the legendary founding of the city of Bijapur started in the late tenth century (900s) under Tailapa II, who had been the Governor of the Rashtrakutas of Tardavadi. The city was then destroyed by the invasion of the Paramara of Malwa, who declared his independence and went on to found the empire of the Chalukyas of Kalyani. It was during this period that the city came to be referred to as Vijayapura ("City of Victory").  By the late 13th century, the city had come under the influence of the Khilji Sultanate. In 1347, the area was conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga (now Kalaburgi) and the city was referred as Vijapur or Bijapur. In 1518, the Bahmani Sultanate split into five splinter states known as the Deccan sultanates, one of which was Bijapur, ruled by the kings of the AdilShahi dynasty (1490– 1686). The city of Bijapur owes much of its greatness to Yusuf Adil Shah, the founder of the independent Bijapur Sultanate. The rule of this dynasty ended in 1686, when Bijapur was conquered by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. 

Almost every building of note in Bijapur has some remarkable feature peculiar to itself either in constructive skill or decoration. The Gol Gumbaz has its large famed dome, the Jama Masjid its glittering mehrab, the Mehta Mahal its exceedingly delicate chiselling, the Asar Mahal its wall paintings, and the Gagan Mahal its great arch. And in the case of Ibrahim Rauza it is said that inner ceiling and its artistic embellishments are quite unique and were specially commissioned by the architects to create some kind of a decorative hanging ceiling. The structural aspect of the monument,  it is said,  is also quite unique and is one of the most daring piece of construction work carried out during this period. The architect not only foresaw the structural aspects of the building, which exactly he wanted but was also able  to accomplish it with his confidence in his materials. Even after nearly four hundred years the building is standing tall and will continue to last for several centuries more. On the occasion of this years  World Heritage day, I earnestly hope that the city of Bijapur will be more prominently visible on the tourists map of India and hopefully it will be visited by more and more tourists not just Indians but foreign tourists as well. I had an opportunity to visit the Ibrahim Rauza in the month of January 2020 and this time I was also accompanied by wife. 

Wishing you all a very happy World Heritage Day and hope that innumerable number of Heritage sites, which are spread all across our country that has a rich 5000 plus years of history, will be remembered and cherished on this occasion. 

Images taken during my recent visit to Bijapur