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Indian Culture Society Biography
The Indian History and Culture Society was formed in 1978 and it is functioning since then from the premises of the Indian Archaeological Society, B-17, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi-16. The Society launched a journal of its own called HISTORY TODAY, the first number of which was published in the year 2000. Since then it is regularly published once every year and released in the month of Nov-Dec at the time of its annual conference.
The History Today is not based on any particular line of thought or bias. The vision of this journal had in fact emerged after long deliberations amongst the founding-fathers of the Indian History and Culture Society. It is an organisation of well meaning people who want to study and understand human history with the vision of a true historian. History is neither just a dead account of the past, nor an account of political events, kings and lords but one can listen the throbbing of people's heart in it. One should try to listen to those throbs, thrills, tension, challenges, achievements and performances through the sources of history. History resides in literature, manuscripts, archaeological remains, buildings and folklore, keeping in view the conditions and environment.Our endeavour is to provide a forum to historians and scholars to express their views and perceptions freely and fearlessly against all misleading, distorted and personal opinions which are very often passed on to unsuspected readership of this country as true history. We call upon every one to adhere to the rigours of our discipline in order to earn respect from our colleagues in particular and public in general. Ours is a very sacred and responsible duty because distorted history can kill a society, culture, nation and immensly harm its existence.
The Society has also published two books by Prof. R. Nath, namely, Mughal Inlay Art and Indigenous Characteristics of Mughal Architecture Babur (AD 1526-30) not only founded the Mughal rule in India, he also made a modest beginning of the architectural style which was later developed, on a massive scale, by his grandson Akbar (1556-1605), and Akbar's grandson Shah Jehan (1628-58). This dynasty is popularly called Mughal, though Babur descended as a Miranshahi-Timurid and, racially, he was a Chaghtai-Turk. Their architectural style also bears the dynastic nomenclature: Mughal.
With its own constructional and ornamental techniques, norms and concepts, grown from a sound historico-cultural and geophysical background, and a transparent evolutionary process, Mughal Architecture was a fully developed style and a perfect discipline, as none was prior to it in medieval India. It had a time-span of 132 years, practically from 1526 to 1658, and Agra-Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore-Kashmir-Kabul, Delhi, Allahabad, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Mandu and Burhanpur are its major centres. Nearly 400 first class monuments of this style have survived, including forts, palaces, tombs, mosques, gates, minarets, tanks, step-wells, sarais, bridges, kos-minars and, of course, the Taj Mahal which marks that zenith of an art from where it could only decline. A scientific historical appraisal of this art, in the context of the country's vast cultural heritage, over and above the romantic tales largely coined by film story-writers; fanciful anecdotes circulated
by over-zealous guides and guide-books; and popular misnomers which are at present associated with it and which have much blurred its real significance and historical importance, is much needed
This is study of the INLAY art as it developed in Mughal Architecture, from Humayun to Shah Jehan (c. AD 1535-1658) indigenously, and independent of any extraneous inspiration or influence, landmark examples whereof have been cited with illustrations (64 b&w and 16 colour plates). It is wrong to brand it: pietra-dura or pietre-dure which misnomer was pasted upon it by nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial historians who suffered by a sense of inherent superiority of European culture and art, and who could not believe that the Indian people, whom Macaulay fondly called 'semi-savage,' could develop such a fine and exquisite art as this, which even the classical Greeks and the Romans, who also worked in marbles, could not do!
The claim that Mughal inlay had a Florentine origin was based on the Orpheus Plaques which are the solitary example of Florentine pietra-dura in Mughal Architecture. As has been discussed in this work, these plaques were imported ready-made and placed in the Throne-Balcony (Jharokha) of the Diwan-i-Am of Red Fort Delhi, between 1707, after the death of Aurangzeb, and 1824, when Bishop Heber saw them there for the first time, and mentioned them in his travelogue.
Florentine pietra-dura had different material, different technique, different motifs and, above all, different background on which it was used. Pietra-dura was a picture-art used on wooden cabinets and other furniture, and it could exist without its background. In contra-distinction, Mughal inlay was exclusively an architectural ornament used on plinths, pavements and water-basins; on dados, spandrels or arches and other mural surface; pillars, brackets and lintels; and minars, domes and other architectural members, without which it cannot exist. Mughal inlay is integral to the architectural space it covers, while pietra-dura plaques are, more or less, pictures which can be used independent of any architecture, e.g., on wooden furniture.
Indian Culture Society Biography
The Indian History and Culture Society was formed in 1978 and it is functioning since then from the premises of the Indian Archaeological Society, B-17, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi-16. The Society launched a journal of its own called HISTORY TODAY, the first number of which was published in the year 2000. Since then it is regularly published once every year and released in the month of Nov-Dec at the time of its annual conference.
The History Today is not based on any particular line of thought or bias. The vision of this journal had in fact emerged after long deliberations amongst the founding-fathers of the Indian History and Culture Society. It is an organisation of well meaning people who want to study and understand human history with the vision of a true historian. History is neither just a dead account of the past, nor an account of political events, kings and lords but one can listen the throbbing of people's heart in it. One should try to listen to those throbs, thrills, tension, challenges, achievements and performances through the sources of history. History resides in literature, manuscripts, archaeological remains, buildings and folklore, keeping in view the conditions and environment.Our endeavour is to provide a forum to historians and scholars to express their views and perceptions freely and fearlessly against all misleading, distorted and personal opinions which are very often passed on to unsuspected readership of this country as true history. We call upon every one to adhere to the rigours of our discipline in order to earn respect from our colleagues in particular and public in general. Ours is a very sacred and responsible duty because distorted history can kill a society, culture, nation and immensly harm its existence.
The Society has also published two books by Prof. R. Nath, namely, Mughal Inlay Art and Indigenous Characteristics of Mughal Architecture Babur (AD 1526-30) not only founded the Mughal rule in India, he also made a modest beginning of the architectural style which was later developed, on a massive scale, by his grandson Akbar (1556-1605), and Akbar's grandson Shah Jehan (1628-58). This dynasty is popularly called Mughal, though Babur descended as a Miranshahi-Timurid and, racially, he was a Chaghtai-Turk. Their architectural style also bears the dynastic nomenclature: Mughal.
With its own constructional and ornamental techniques, norms and concepts, grown from a sound historico-cultural and geophysical background, and a transparent evolutionary process, Mughal Architecture was a fully developed style and a perfect discipline, as none was prior to it in medieval India. It had a time-span of 132 years, practically from 1526 to 1658, and Agra-Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore-Kashmir-Kabul, Delhi, Allahabad, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Mandu and Burhanpur are its major centres. Nearly 400 first class monuments of this style have survived, including forts, palaces, tombs, mosques, gates, minarets, tanks, step-wells, sarais, bridges, kos-minars and, of course, the Taj Mahal which marks that zenith of an art from where it could only decline. A scientific historical appraisal of this art, in the context of the country's vast cultural heritage, over and above the romantic tales largely coined by film story-writers; fanciful anecdotes circulated
by over-zealous guides and guide-books; and popular misnomers which are at present associated with it and which have much blurred its real significance and historical importance, is much needed
This is study of the INLAY art as it developed in Mughal Architecture, from Humayun to Shah Jehan (c. AD 1535-1658) indigenously, and independent of any extraneous inspiration or influence, landmark examples whereof have been cited with illustrations (64 b&w and 16 colour plates). It is wrong to brand it: pietra-dura or pietre-dure which misnomer was pasted upon it by nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial historians who suffered by a sense of inherent superiority of European culture and art, and who could not believe that the Indian people, whom Macaulay fondly called 'semi-savage,' could develop such a fine and exquisite art as this, which even the classical Greeks and the Romans, who also worked in marbles, could not do!
The claim that Mughal inlay had a Florentine origin was based on the Orpheus Plaques which are the solitary example of Florentine pietra-dura in Mughal Architecture. As has been discussed in this work, these plaques were imported ready-made and placed in the Throne-Balcony (Jharokha) of the Diwan-i-Am of Red Fort Delhi, between 1707, after the death of Aurangzeb, and 1824, when Bishop Heber saw them there for the first time, and mentioned them in his travelogue.
Florentine pietra-dura had different material, different technique, different motifs and, above all, different background on which it was used. Pietra-dura was a picture-art used on wooden cabinets and other furniture, and it could exist without its background. In contra-distinction, Mughal inlay was exclusively an architectural ornament used on plinths, pavements and water-basins; on dados, spandrels or arches and other mural surface; pillars, brackets and lintels; and minars, domes and other architectural members, without which it cannot exist. Mughal inlay is integral to the architectural space it covers, while pietra-dura plaques are, more or less, pictures which can be used independent of any architecture, e.g., on wooden furniture.
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
Indian Culture Society
