RT Article
T1 Building Burhanpur: The Process of Constructing a Mughal City
JF Muqarnas
VO 39
IS 1
SP 79
OP 108
A1 Hirsch, Rachel
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1819845214
AB When Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) conquered Burhanpur, the capital of the Khandesh sultanate, in 1601, he catalyzed a decades-long process of transforming the city into a regional capital of the Mughal empire. In this essay, I argue that Mughal Burhanpur was constructed in three stages of spatial and architectural developments over the course of three decades. In the first stage, Akbar symbolically appropriated Burhanpur’s preexisting monumental architecture to demonstrate his conquest over the city. In the second stage, subimperial officers expanded the city through prolific patronage of civic architecture, most notably an underground canal system that carried fresh water several kilometers into the city. Lastly, when Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58) moved to the city in 1629, he implemented a new program of architectural construction that transformed Burhanpur from a provincial capital into an imperial one in just over two years. From symbolic appropriation to urban expansion and then to the implementation of an imperial architectural program, this three-part construction process ultimately transformed a town on the edge of an empire into a legible Mughal city.
K1 South Asia
K1 India
K1 Sufi
K1 garden
K1 Architecture
K1 Urbanization
K1 Urbanism
K1 City
K1 Deccan
K1 Khandesh
K1 Mughal
K1 Burhanpur
DO 10.1163/22118993-00391P06