Muhammadan Architecture of Gujarat: Bharoch, Cambay, Dholka, Champanir & Mahmudabad

The present volume is one-and the smaller one-of-two in which the Muhammadan architecture of what may be described as the more important provincial towns of Gujarat is illustrated. The larger one deals almost exclusively with the capital- Ahmadabad-and its suburbs. The two will thus, together, present a pretty comprehensive view of the Muslim remains in the British districts of Gujarat.

Among the many varieties in the style of Muhammadan architecture prevailing in different provinces of India, that which arose in Gujarat in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is one of the most instructive and deserving of study, as it is also the most beautiful. Like the Sharqi architecture of Jaunpur, it bears a markedly local impress, while the elements which compose it are of even a better and higher class than are to be found in any part of Gangetic India. Into any detailed examination of these elements, it is not intended here to enter; the other volume will present a more suitable opportunity for remarks on this subject. Though there are not to be found at Ahmedabad any such early examples as at Bharoch, Cambay, and Dholka, we have in that city a more consecutive series of buildings illustrative of the development of the style from the beginning of the fourteenth century when it began to take distinctive form and character till the seventeenth when it had begun to decay,-or, at least, when the erection of new buildings of importance architecturally had ceased to be undertaken by the Muhammadans.