CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Kabul Museum, Afghanistan

The Kabuli Bagh Mosque was among those very few buildings that were constructed in India by Babur himself. It was built to commemorate Babur’s victory over Delhi’s Sultan Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat, thus marking his conquest of India. The mosque was in a complex that contained a walled gated enclosure, a well, and a garden known as the Kabuli Bagh, recalling Babur’s homeland in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Although Babur would have liked to build a magnificent Timurid type mosque, he lacked the resources to do so. The mosque was clearly designed by an Indian architect who lacked the knowledge of Timurid architectural principles. The stucco was probably originally painted to emulate the richness of tile-work found on Timurid monuments. The whole of this complex of which only the mosque survives was erected about two km. to the north-east of Panipat.

Kadamattom, Baroque Architecture, Kerala

Kadambavanesvara temple, Erumbur, Tamil NaduThe Kadambavanesvara temple at Erumbur is a rather small structure that can be definitely dated. The presiding deity of the temple is called Perumanadigal of Urumur Siru Tirukkoyil (Erumbur in the early Chola period was known as Urumur) and in later times as Kadambavanesvaram. The temple is datable by inscriptions of Parantaka I (907 - 954 CE) and was converted to stone in Parantaka I’s twenty-eighth regnal year (935 CE) by Kunvan Aparajitan with permission from the king. The temple does not reflect the same achievements as the Brahmapurisvara and Nagesvarasvami. As in the case of most Early Chola Temples, the central shrine of the original stone-temple was made up of only two parts, the sanctum and the front half hall (ardhamandapa). The present dome-shaped cupola (sikhara) over the sanctum is a later structure of brick. There are eight subsidiary shrines around the main shrine for the eight parivara-devatas. The main interest of this simple temple lies in the three images of the superstructure (vimana) that are of fine quality and metropolitan style. References: M.W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky, 1963, p. 172, S.R. Balasubrahmanyam, 1971, pp. 67-70, D. Barrett, 1973, pp. 75-76.

Kaduthuruthy, Baroque Architecture, Kerala

The queen Sembiyan Mahadevi built the Kailasanathaswami temple at Sembiyan Mahadevi Pattinam. She also established in the town a set of brahmins learned in the four vedas consequently called chaturvedi bhattas. A select body of elders were chosen to administer temple affairs and utilisation of funds and gifts for the temple. This temple was a new edifice and the inscriptions range from the time of Uttama Chola (971 – 988 CE) to that of Rajaraja III (1216–1246 CE). The temple village lies desolate today and the temple has suffered in appearance due to the liberal coats of whitewash applied to its walls and layers of painted stucco on the temple tower. There are nine divinity niches (devakoshtas), a feature characteristic of the time of Sembiyan Mahadevi. References: Venkataraman, 1976, pp. 27-30, M.W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky, 1963, p. 185.