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Ancient Vadnagar Toran |
Gujarat
had evolved a very rich and unique tradition of architecture
and sculpture that had attained fame all over
the country and attracted notice from foreign visitors.
Hindu and lain architecture had reached the pinnacle of
perfection and artistic excellence between the 11th and
13th centuries as evidenced by some of the finest
and most exquisite specimens of Gujarati architecture that
flourished during the Solanki and Vaghela period.
The beginning of all the
flourished in Gujarat is to be traced to temple architecture,
which developed under the patronage of successive rulers
who constructed some of the magnificent shrines of the time.
Rudramahalaya at Siddhpur, Maha Meru Prasad at Somnath,
Surya Mandir or the Sun Temple at Modhera and the marble
temples at Mount Abu and Kumbharia were constructed and
adorned by the same motif of ornamentation in design and
form. Later, when Gujarat came to be ruled by the sultans,
moghuls and viceroys, the saracenic influence came to be
powerfully felt. While the Muslims in India adopted all
the forms of art and architecture that were basically indigenous,
certain innovations to suit the tenets of Islam were introduced
in the structure they erected through the local craftsmen.
The process of assimilation
which was, thus, at work evolved in Gujarat a truly synthetic
style of architecture unique in details of ornamentation
and decorative art.
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The style of architecture
which developed in Gujarat during the Muslim period was
unquestionably the most beautiful of the provincial styles
of Mohammedan architecture in northern and western India.
It differed largely from that evolved in northern India,
where large and majestic structures were erected by the
moghuls on a vast and extensive scale. Though Gujarat was
content with structures of modest dimensions they were marked
by a high degree of perfection in their execution and artistic
excellence. The device of introducing light and air through
perforated screen and window tracery with panels ornamented
by a rich variety of geometrical and floral designs were
unique. The subdued light and coolness in the entire atmosphere,
it produced, were at once pleasing and soothing. Ornamentation
of various parts, minarets, balconies, domes and niches
was superb and matchless in richness of details and artistic
elegance. The shaking towers of Ahmedabad are still the
wonders of the world. Forts, palaces, temples, mansions,
mosques, mausoleums, Artistic Carving of Idols on Stone
gateways and stepwells which exist to-day in and around
Ahmedabad are the vivid memories of the skill and dexterity
of those who executed them
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