Sky, Water And Light

By Hemang Desai, *Sarkhej Roza finest flowering of medieval Gujarati architecture* - Daily News & Analysis - India
Thursday, November 25, 2010

“False pride invites ruin of a man. It is the worst among the vices of mankind."

These words are those of the Sufi Saint Ahmed Ganj Bakhsh Khattu, who had laid the foundation stone of the city of Ahmedabad.

His mausoleum is a part of the beautiful example of the Hindu-Muslim Gujarati style of architecture that constitutes the Sarkhej complex.

After the arrival of Muslims in India, the Sufi saints and their movement had entered India along with the Afghans, the Turks, and the Arabs. Known for their mystical ways of living, their customs had found a ready echo in the already existing philosophical and spiritual traditions in India, and, in no time, the Sufis had found a following in Sindh, Punjab, Gujarat and in the south of India.

Ganj Bakhsh Khattu was born in Delhi in 1338 AD and had come to Gujarat to be close to a pious saint. Revered in his own lifetime, a special grand mausoleum was ordered to be built after the saint's demise around his tomb at Sarkhej. A mausoleum was a grand hall, decorated with carvings and ornamentation. This mausoleum of Khattu at Sarkhej is charged with spiritual energy even today.

During the subsequent decades after the construction of Khattu's tomb, the Sultans of Gujarat built a large lake and a palace on its banks. Khattu's mausoleum is the largest of its kind in Gujarat and covers a plinth area of 31 square meters roofed by a 12 meters high dome.

Nearby are the tombs of Sultan Mahmud Begda and his queens. The complex also has a mosque that has no minarets but 120 pillars. Right in front of the domed mausoleum stands a lovely freestanding pavilion.

This mausoleum of the saint, near the tomb of the temporal ruler, is the centre of the entire Sarkhej complex. The palace, around the 210 meter [689 feet] wide and 249 meter [817 feet] long sheet of water, became the pleasure palace for the Sultans of Gujarat, especially during the summers. The water body, known as Ahmad Sar, was completed by Sultan Muzaffar II in 1514 AD. Also, Sarkhej quickly became an imperial necropolis.

The Sarkhej Roza complex is the finest flowering of the medieval Gujarati architecture known as the Sultanate architecture. Geometrical beauty drips from the sandstone walls of these structures. Its calmness facilitates dialogue between the sky, water and light. This is also a meditation on the meaning of life; this meditation is reflected in the very size, proportions, and colour of the stone used to make these buildings.

Herman Goetz has noted in his essay, The Contribution of Gujarat in the History of Indian Art, that "after Muslim takeover of Gujarat, there was a vacuum in the art of buildings. This vacuum was filled by Gujarati craftsmen as Muslim rulers showed willingness to include Hindu architectural elements in their frenzied construction activities. This glorious fusion of Hindu-Muslim architecture is seen in Sarkhej."

There is an exquisitely controlled riot of zarokhas, jalis, carvings, domes and ingenious engineering here.

As to the question of where all this delicate beauty in this building comes from, it is answered by the direction of the golden spire on Khattu's mausoleum which points in the direction of the sky.

Picture: Ahmedabad. Photo: Wiki.