I simply love Fatehpur Sikri..... Have been there twice...... To me..... Its beyond just another example of Mughal architecture..... It has so many layers of sheer romanticism..... !

A beautiful inscription in Persian just inside the Buland Darwaza (next to the Jesus inscription quoted above) clearly states that the Gate was built to commemorate Emperor Jalaluddin Akbar's victory in the Deccan. A remarkable feature of this entire building (above) is that it is built on extremely rough and uneven terrain of rocks and boulders. Flat stone slabs have been placed on top of these rocks to level the floor.

i have been there once... i really liked the place wud love to go and explore the mughal buildings again i wont get bored of it...

I should make the correction that it was built to commemorate Akbar's victory in Gujarat (but I have the impression that the inscription said deccan).

Buland derwaza was commissioned by Akbar to commemorate Mughal victory over Gujarat.

Wasnt Buland Darwaza made from the fort door at Chittor? At least all local traditions strongly support that claim. He wanted to celebrate the complete sack of chittor and the consequent killing of its inhabitants (some 30000 women, children and old men were also killed)

30,000 civilians were indeed killed after the sack of Chittor.There isn't any written record that links Chittor with the Buland Derwaza.It was commissioned to commemorate Akbar's victory over prosperous Gujarat.The Buland Derwaza has Quranic inscriptions in relief and a vaulted design charesterstic of gateways to Iranian mosques.Red sandstone and marble have been used prolificly.Red sandstone is not found in 150 miles vicinty of Chittor.The gate is a marvel of medieval engineering and awes visitors today just as it was originally supposed to. It is an imposing gateway and a befitting entrance to a magical city. The high steps that lead to it add to it being even more imposing when approached from below.The main fort gate of Chittor is hardly used today as the opposite side one is more in usage.The main gates in Rajput citadels till then used to have two large brackets supporting a beam. Conical (converging on the top) arches had not found their way into Indian gateways till then and neither had scalloped ones.Both developed after the conquest of india by the Mughals and the period of renaissance that it ushered changing our country forever.

Wow. Digvijay being a product of Fatehpur Sikri knows the place well. Akbar never built anything by demolishing another. It is only in the minds of fanatics.

Digvijay, all Gazi's used material and basic architecture from the places of their sack, and modified the material to be more as per Islamic structures. This can be seen in multiple places. (Qutub Complex, Ramjanmbhooi structure) I am sure some one as learned as you must have read Sita Ram Goel's temples of ancient India and the massive accompanying set of photographs which chronicle this. Why do I say the above? To basically stress that *** presence of a design construct (such as vaulted archway or kornaic quotes) do not automatically mean that the underlying structure was not reused.**** In fact it often often to the contrary, since the new architectural elements are deliberately added on to change the basic characteristic. Heck the whole concept of "rubble architecture" is essentially a euphemism for the same. :-D In fact you say some thing, which is very interesting, but perhaps do not fully follow it through >> The main fort gate of Chittor is hardly used today as the opposite side one is more in usage. Indeed quite so. And why? Because the "main" fort door of Chittor is a "smaller and newer" construction than the other door. And why would the main door be smaller than the secondary one? Makes no sense what so ever doesn't it? It does when you add the data point (attested to by all Mewari historians) that the main door was ripped out and transported to Sikiri to be used in the construction of Buland Darwaza. Why would the entire set of Mewari historians lie -- especially considering that Rajputs would normally not seek to run down their honor by adding a dream t of insult. There were enough real ones. And of course Akbar was a Gazi, no doubt for the greatest part of his life.

There appears to be a amount of myth making around Akbar post 47.

I agree few mosques were constructed using the rubble of devastated temples . Arguably the Dhai din ka jhopra in Ajmer and the Qutub Minar are cases in point. Similarly few Hindu temples have also used the rubble of Buddhist Chaityas and Viharas . Hinduism and Buddhism have had a series of bloody conflicts in which the former emerged victorious re-establishing its sway over the Indian sub-continent in the first millennium after Christ. The Maithali Brahmins developed ‘navya nyaya’ challenging the Buddhist monks/ scholars into shaastraath (religious debates) defeating them and asking them to retreat.They sought refuge in the Himalayas which is where Mahayana Buddhism thrived and survives to this day. Sabrimala in Kerela was a very famous Buddhist shrine in the south to which the Namboodri Brahmins used to go singing abuses. Over time the legend of Ayappa swami grew and the Hindus eventually took it over.There are Namboodri Brahmins alive to whom I have spoken. Interestingly the priests of the celebrated grand temples of Tamil Nadu have also been Namboodris and not Aiyers or Aiyengars The landscape of Southern Europe is replete with structures which have variously served as churches and mosques throughout the middle ages. The Semitic (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) religions have had a bloodier conflict among themselves ( which continues to this day) than they have had with the Indic ( Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism ) with the exception of Sikhism. The main gate of Chittor is not in usage because the new city of Chittor today stands spread under the western gates. Chittor had been abandoned in favour of the new capital Udaipur, which nestles in a delightful valley, after it was sacked and devastated by the Mughal armies forever.The discovery of zinc in the 20th century led to it getting populated again. The Vijay Sttambh and the Kirti Sttambh stand proudly even today in the Chittor fort from the times of Rana Kumbha (arguably Mewar’s most celebrated warrior and her most prolific builder ,who never lost a single battle in his life) and Rana Sanga under whom all north Indian Rajput rulers had thrown in their lot against Babur .I consider them both Mewar’s most celebrated and worthy Kings. Have you noticed that Mirabai’s temple ,Shiv and even Jain temples still stand in Chittor alogwith the aforementioned victory towers ? The Krishna Idol that Mirabai worshipped is today housed in the Jagat Shiromani temple in Amber. None of the successive rulers of Mewar installed SriKrishna’s idol in Mirabai’s temple but the one inside has been donated by the Birlas. Now why weren’t these religious structures reduced to rubble ? As for transporting the ruins of the principal gateway / entrance from Chittor to Fatehpur may sound plausible if the gateway had any notable features which could not be excelled by the masons and stone carvers which does not appear to be possible as gateway architecture from that period is hardly noteworthy. Do you think this may have been undertaken just to humiliate ? A Mughal (Muslim /Sunni) monarch : Who used to offer water to Surya Narayan in the morning. Who abolished the jeziyah ( pilgrimage tax imposed on Hindus) Who banned cow slaughter throughout his realm Who drank only Ganges water (holy to the Hindus) a tradition that continued till Bahadur Shah Zafar. Who prostrated himself in supplication before the oil painting of mother Mary presented to him by Portuguese missionaries baffling the Christian priests. Who gave the first generous grant for the construction of the Harimandir Sahib (The golden temple) in Amritsar alongwith similar grants to Hindu and Jain temples throughout his reign. Whose principal wife’s (who bore him a son and heir) palace walls in Fatehpur are adorned with temple bells in relief. The courtyard of that building has a huge carved pot in red sand-stone with Persian dadoes for the Holy Hindu Tulsi (basil) plant. Who allowed his several wives to follow their respective religions and even participated in them. Navroze ( Iranian /shiite ) celebrations and durbar being amongst the grandest. Who discontinued the practice of male circumcision among royal children and no Mughal child was circumcised after prince Salim. Who commissioned his own mausoleum at Sikandra within his own reign (which was later completed by his son Jehangir) and its principal southern gateway has huge swastikas in pietra dura . Whose syncretic architecture borrows heavily from Persian, Rajput , Bangla, Jain and Gujarati styles and delights in its originality eventually culminating in his master-piece at Fatehpur Sikri.. Tibaras, Chaubaras, bara-daris, jharokhas, chhatris and exuberant Gujarati carving in brackets and jaalis (trellis) and the preference fo multi-storyed structures often domed pavilions looking inwards to a court in imitation of Rajput mardana palaces are charaterstic features of his style which was further embellished by three of his successors. Who made severa

Actually Digvijay, there is a lot of myth making in what you said, most of it is incorrect and was added by Marxist historian post 47 to do a equal equal there is no real historical evidence for the same. However in interests of time, I will not go into those. Frankly it does not have a bearing on the specific topic here. Let us for now stick to the topic of Buland Darwaza -- Why are you discounting historical sources from Mewar which talk of the main fort door of Chittor being carted and used in Buland Darwaza. They are all contemprory (at the time of happening sources and so on) And indeed temples were desecrated in the great sack and as much damage to those as can be done, was done, as you have yourself mentioned at one point on RBSI before.

The fun thing is, all this is also attested to by Fatahnama-i-chittor and many other sources on the Mughal side, so Akbar was not only Gazi, but a proud one at that and the chronicles of genocide and destruction are mentioned with substantial glee. Pity that he has since then been made into a hero figure, he was a typical Mughal, just a more successful one. Rest of his non-typical mughal behavior was too late and too little to be of note.

It amuses me that although Akbar is the only other Indian emperor other than Ashoka who has been bestowed with the title/epithet of 'the great' and who was amongst the most enlightened and was far far ahead of his times is today hated intensely by a section of both Hindus and Muslims.Orthodox Muslims detest him on account of Din-e-Ilahi and allege that he attempted to play God while indoctrinated RSS wallahs would have us believe that he was a religious fanatic or a Ghazi at best. Interestingly in Pakistan he is termed an apostate and understandably Aurangzeb is hailed as the greatest Mughal for reasons which are only too obvious. "Sling mud enough and some will stick" as the Shakespearen adage goes if I have to defend Akbar and Nehru in the 21st century then we are in a really sorry state of affairs. I rest my case.( There are enough archirectural , numismatic and indeed written records which are both Mughal and of provincial courts including shahi firmans (royal correspondence) and travelogues of European travellers and biographers that survive from the Mughal period from which what all I have mentioned above can be corroborated. Akbar had started the practice of getting recorded chronicling everyday happenings in his court just as the parliament proceedings of today. As per William Dalrymple there exists such a wealth of information that it will take twenty years at least before he shall be able to come out with a treatise on Mughals and he has a section of empanelled historians who are working with him on this gargantuan exercise)

I am glad that you find it amusing Digvijay, to me, the murder of history at the hand of vested interests is nothing short of tragic (who at the first question of their sources and correctness, raise the fundamentalism bogey) Who bestowed the Great title on Akbar? The same people who think AIT is real. :D So just because some politically motivated, tenure seeking, intellectually dishonest folks decided to label "A", "B" or "C" great -- that person does not become great. At least not in my mind -- the foundation of Indian heritage is questioning, and question I shall --- meanwhile: I am happy to note that you have ceased to defend the untenable line that Buland Darwaza was not made from the Main fort gates at Chittor. In this way, one piece at a time, we will deconstruct, the lies which are the foundation of the myth of Akbar. One book at a time, one page at a time, one chronicle from his own writings. We shall see how much truth there is in the post 47 construct. I hope a few readers of RBSI could find the brutally suppressed narrative of the local people of India -- and find out what they dont say in "officially sanctioned" history books :-D

A compelling discussion gentlemen ! You are indeed presenting both sides of the story on this extremely controversial and inflammatory issue. Thats what we readers look forward on RBSI. Both of you are veterans on RBSI...and I only wish we restrain ourselves at this stage and not let it deteriorate once it hits the 'danger zone'. We value both of your opinions...since they reflect two sides of history...which is being propagated today for reasons other than history...as we all know. Your discussion and facts can only helps us see the layers of this historical topic. Lets end as friends when we run out of arguments...since there will always be another bout. In the meantime...many of us readers will have got that much wiser.

Honestly...this is is the only place where I can witness an academic discussion on this subject where both sides are equally represented !

RBSI, Digvijay Singh Kushwaha and I are now also "friends" on Facebook and I have learnt much from him, particularly rare known nuggets of history in Rajputana and various thought processes and dynamics that I had not much insight into. I do disagree with him at times, and so does he, and I think both of us are comfortable in the fact that our disagreements wont get nasty. I will on my part, continue to get Digvijay on my "side", and spare no efforts for the same :-D

Digvijay Singh Kushwaha: No hard feelings I hope, none for me for sure.

Thanks gentlemen. Miracles do happen... ! : )

Sorry to butt in here so late. I am not as knowledgeable and as erudite as the two respectful worthies discussing about Akbar. But here are some thoughts about Akbar which I want to share on RBSI for whatever they are worth. Akbar incorporated various Hindu customs in his personal daily routine and in Mughal court like applying Tika, giving Darshan to the general public in the morning etc.I feel one of the reason behind this was that he was well aware of the fact that he was ruling over a country whose population was predominantly Hindu and he was sensible enough not to hurt there sensitivities. If majority of his subjects are feeling contented by adopting certain customs and practices then why not follow them? Surely sign of a sensible and practical ruler. Akbar cultivated relationship and friendship with Rajputs with strategic thinking. He surely appreciated and valued the valor and hardiness of Rajputs in battlefield early enough. He used them wisely to defend and expand his empire .Presence of Rajputs and other Hindu nobles like Bundelas was useful to Akbar to counter balance domination of Afgani/Persian and other nobles in Mughal court .This advantage of friendship of Rajputs to Akbar is not much commented upon. Regarding celebrating Navroze on grand scale in Mughal court. During medieval times Persia was considered to be fountainhead of civilization .Others used to look at various customs and practices of Persian society with high esteem. That is the reason for the Mughals to adopt and follow many customs and rituals practiced by Persian court. There is a dichotomy here as Persian King and Mughals were rivals and constantly wary of each other and trying to dominate each other in the area of present day Afghanistan. In spite of being rivals Mughals used to look up to Persia for cultural life and refine tastes. Akbar was a ruler in medieval settings .So he did carry out massacres and destruction of temples mandated by norms of those times .Today we feel such things abhorring but it was a normal practice at that time. Akbar's policy of religious tolerance paid him rich dividend in the form of relative calm and prosperity in his regime. If you contrast it with Aurangzeb’s disastrous regime it becomes all the more glaring.

Nitin Ashok Bhagawat : Your sagacious comment proves that you are no less a worthy too !

Europe endured the dreaded Inquisition, witch-hunting, book-burning and crusades throughout the medieval age to finally mature to Voltaire’s now legendary quote “ I may not agree with what you have to say but shall defend unto death your right to say so” When all agree unequivocally nobody is thinking too much. To have differences of opinion one needs to have an opinion in the first place and sadly in India most do not on important episodes from our history. To take a stand requires courage too. Satyakam, I respect your right to your opinion even though you have an entirely different viewpoint from mine. Do not however entertain the thought that I have accepted that the Buland Derwaza was constructed with rubble from Chittor’s principal gateway! ‘Veer Vinod’ is Mewar’s most celebrated magnum Opus from which Todd also borrowed heavily.But then he was honest in calling his work “Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan” It is most certainly not authentic history .Replete as it is with eulogies and encomiums pretty much like the Ramcharitmanas. Few historians like Jadunath Sircar were not really Marxist-Leninist as they were commissioned by India’s erstwhile royalty to write their dynasty’s history as well ( Late HH Man Singh 2nd of Jaipur had engaged him in this exercise) To Lord Curzon goes the credit of the formation of the august ASI and the preservation of quite a lot of our invaluable heritage from getting plundered especially in what was then ‘British India’ as distinguished from ‘Princely India’ . That includes the ghost town of Fatehpur at Sikri which was abandoned for want of water 410 years ago but is even today in a state of good repair. I am prepared to entertain the thought that there might be some element of truth in what you have to say about ‘officially sanctioned history books’. Indologists ,however, have existed in Europe: France, Germany and the UK for the last 150 years at least. They only chanced upon the ruins which led to the discovery of the Indus valley civilization in 1921. Surely those guys did not glean their information about the Mughals from Marxist-Leninist historians of post 1947 India. Akbar and Ashok were termed ‘the great’ in pre independence India as well the massive genocide that happened at the hands of their armies in Chittor and Kalinga respectively notwithstanding. Just as Catherine the great cannot become Ivan the terrible for me today, the present fate of the Hapsburgs and tales of her infidelity notwithstanding neither can you change Akbar’s perception in my mind much less dilute it as there exists compelling evidence in his favour. And why would there be any hard feelings ? Many thanks for your charitable words about what you could gather from me about Rajasthan. Cheers

Nitin Ashok Bhagwat : That was indeed a refreshing and balanced perspectice many thanks.

mr. Satyakam ..there is no evidence watsoever of Akbar's reign which might estb tht he got or ordered any demolition material used in his buildings...the chittor gates u r talking abt r in Agra fort , brought in by Jahangir's men...apart from tht Akbar has been accused of being HALF-HINDU,,,not hindu-kush..... i m a research student of his period,, i hv yet to find any communally offensive evidence against him,,, as to pre-47 history ...th Britishers delibrately twisted historical facts like our govts now go thru NCERT history syllabus--in congress reign --u will find no actual mention of any others' sacrifices except congress n gandhi--its almost as if Subhas Bose n Bhagat Singh werent even born in India...leave aside their mention or any creditto thm...

akbar as a person n ruler, was par excellence---in today's india, we NEED him...