Captured in Miniature by Suhag Shirodkar

This paper deals with the utilization of water not only for the purpose of beautification of the site but also for studying the scientific utility of water. Water not only pleases the eye on a hot summer day, but also provides passive cooling. Water is an architectural element that is extensively used in our ancient buildings and in the garden of the Mughals. Water has had been an important element in Asian culture and architecture. Mughals showed the great skills in infusing the Islamic idea with local tradition. Mughal Architecture is the example of “Feeling of Wonder” that is the source of aesthetic experience. Hence, art is the soul and spirit of architecture. Without beauty, architecture would just be the combination and amalgamation of some material. Mughal Architects are legendary for their creativity. There is a need to study the traditional buildings because they are time-tested. Ancient monumental buildings and palaces are still a place to relax without fans, coolers and air conditioners. The present-day hardware and materials utilized as a part of building swallow noteworthy measure of our national vitality. Everything has its specific purpose and objectives with respect to its importance. It concludes by proposing that the definition of art historical fields-divided along religious lines between Islam and Hinduism-often impedes such inquiries. The essay looks at how typological forms were shared and adapted by the Mughals and Rajputs, and asks what such forms may have meant to their respective patrons. Some of these appear in Mughal sites too, typically inserted into a chahar bagh. While the Rajput chahar baghs are the only ones to have attracted the attention of historians, most likely because they fit neatly into a recognized architectural type, Rajput patrons also built other kinds of gardens with rectilinear and curving parterres, deep pools with “floating” pavilions, lotus gardens, and orchards resembling sacred groves. Just as the Mughals embraced and internalized Indic forms such as the chhatri, the Rajputs likewise appropriated forms such as the four-part garden known as the chahar bagh, not as a direct transfer but a reworking and renegotiation of form and expression. Although the Hindu Rajputs and Muslim Mughals were variously allies and foes, neither political relations nor religious faith prevented artistic exchanges from occurring between them.

The Rajput princes of South Asia in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries built beautiful palaces with gardens and commissioned manuscript paintings that rivaled those of their Mughal contemporaries.

Captured in Miniature by Suhag Shirodkar