Atlas of Lost Cities by Aude de Tocqueville & Karin Doering-Froger

Author:Aude de Tocqueville & Karin Doering-Froger [Unknown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016-04-04T22:00:00+00:00

INDIA · 27°06´N, 77°40´E

FATEHPUR SIKRI

EPHEMERAL CAPITAL

Its pink domes standing out against a milky white sky, the ancient Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri rises above an immense plain dotted with mustard fields. Emperor Akbar, having reached twenty-six years of age, was worried about not having an heir. He consulted a hermit reputed to be wise, who predicted that a son would be born to him. One year later the prediction came true. Wanting to keep the holy man by his side, Akbar decided to move his capital to the exact spot where the sage lived, on the Sikri Ridge, a rocky plateau southwest of Agra. Work began on the construction of the city in 1572.

Subtly blending Arab, Persian, and Hindu influences, the capital reflects the interests of Akbar, an enlightened and deeply pious monarch with an interest in the arts. And if the austerity of the bare stone causes visitors to forget the time when these palaces resounded with the clatter of arms and the buzz of the court, the architectural fantasies of this inspired place underline the sophistication of Mughal culture. Protected by an encircling wall and dispersed around a vast esplanade are winter and summer residences, the palace of Akbar’s wives (the first was Christian, the second Hindu, and the third Muslim), mosques, terraces, labyrinthine passages, and pavilions and kiosks shaded by awnings—and all this graced by columns, capitals, and elaborate windows whose pink stone is worked as finely as wood. The organization of space is so ingenious that Fatehpur Sikri was to have a major influence on Indian urban planning, notably that of Old Delhi.

For a period of twelve years, from 1573 to 1585, Akbar lived here with his court and harem before leaving to confront the Afghan tribes, at which time he moved his residence to Lahore. For a few months in 1619, Fatehpur Sikri became the seat of the court once again when Jahangir, Akbar’s son, took refuge here in order to escape an epidemic of the plague in Agra. However, several years of drought had got the better of the artificial lake and reservoirs created decades before. Without enough water to satisfy its needs, the court abandoned the city for good, leaving it to slowly fall into ruins. After a long period of neglect, the former capital was eventually rediscovered at the very end of the nineteenth century. Inhabited by monkeys, squirrels, and crows alone, the phantom city extends in all directions around the tomb of the hermit, a masterpiece of carved marble. This has pride of place in the empty court of the great mosque, and rightly so, because had it not been for the holy man, Fatehpur Sikri would never have been built.

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