FATEH PUR SIKRI

FATEH PUR SIKRI

a. Stables for camel and

horses
b. House of Rajaj Birbal
c. Jodh Bai’s palace
d. Maryams house
e. Mayams bath
q
f. Hospital and garden
g Panch mahal
g.
h. Emperor’s study
i. Diwn-e-khas
j. Pachsi court
k. Tarkish Sultana’s garden
l. Chachaman court
m. Khawab gah
n. Tarkish sultana’s palace
o. Daftar khana
Administration and archive
p. Diwan-e-am
q. Court of public audience
r. Entrance
s. Entrance for Imperial family
 FATEH PUR SIKRI

Buland darwaza

Girls’ school
Panch mahal

Khawab gah

Ch chamman
Char h courtt

Fatehpur Sikri, the tiew capital city of Akbar near Agra

 FATEH PUR SIKRI
. Tarkish sultana’s palace
Dewan-e -khas

Girls school Char chamman court

terraces and courtyards surrounded by pavilions and palaces

DESIGNING THE “ TOWN OF VICTORY, SIKRI”
UNITY THROUGH MATERIAL
Though the aesthetics of the building project were left largely to the individual groups of
craftsmen employed in a particular structure visual unity was ensured through various
simple strategies_
strategies
• Red sand stone_ used for floor, walls, roofs, beams and lintels.
• The rich red sandstone again used with bands of expansive white marble
or blue tiles.
tiles
• Rest of the embellishment was left to the interior decorator of the individual
occupants.
• Covered the floor with rich carpets, elaborate silken bolsters,
bolsters screen
and the alcoves were filled with colored bottled of perfumes.
• Sandstone cut to shape the form of lintel, brackets, columns and roofing tiles,
used much like precast concrete beams panels or even timber in modern
building constructuon.
• The buildings of Akbar’s Fatehpur Sikri appear to be ‘Wooden houses made of
stone
stone’
FATEH PUR SIKRI
FATEH PUR SIKRI_ZONING
• Service areas__,
such as the waterworks, guards' quarters, were located on the outskirts.

• Public areas_
courts the Diwan
like the courts, Diwan-i-Am
i Am, and the Jami Masjid formed a ring around the
private audience chambers of the King and Queens' residences,

• Private areas_
were located at the very heart, astride the top of the ridge.
ridge
FATEH PUR SIKRI

THE BUILDINGS COMPRISING AKBAR'S CAPITAL

Resolved into two classes,
01. a religious,
01 religious
02. a secular character.

RELIGIOUS__ parts of a large structural composition consisting primarily of the Great

Mosque but including its "Triumphal Gateway" or Buland Darwaza, and also within
its courtyard the tomb of Salim Chisti.

SECULAR__ 3 kinds,
a. the palaces: such as that of Jodh Bai, and the houses of
Maryam’s,
a ya s, the
e Turkish
u s Sultana,
Su a a, and
a d Birbal,
ba , a
all four
ou oof these
ese be
being
g representative
ep ese a e of o the
e regal
ega
residential type of structure of the period.
b. those for administrative purposes, and
c. the structures of a miscellaneous order.
FATEH PUR SIKRI
PALACE OF JODH BAI
_ most important buildings are the palaces
of this series the palace of Jodh Bai
_ most complete in its design and
arrangements.
PLAN
• Measures 320’ X215’
Enclosure wall is of 32’ high are
interrupted externally on three sides,
sides
__ on the east by the gatehouse,
__on the north by a hanging pavilion
or Hawa
Ha a Mahall (Place
(Pl off Ai
Air)) or
Winter Palace.
__on the south by Summer Palace
and bathing apartments in lower level
__on the West by Service.
• Interior court 180’X162’ surrounded
by a symmetrical range of buildings.
• Conventional courtyard concept and entirely introvert in design.
PALACE OF JODH BAI
OTHER FEATURES
• There is the high
and almost
forbiddingly plain outside wall,
• entrance only being allowed through a
guarded gatehouse having "staggered"
doorways,
• sstrict
c sec
seclusion
us o [ p
privacy].
y]
• Within this enclosure every portion is self-
contained, with a private chapel for devotions
and roof terraces screened by parapet for
promenade [walk way].
• All the arrangements are remarkably
compact, each part is readily accessible both
for the convenience of its occupants and for the
purposes of service,
• in a word this palace building presents us
with a close view of what was considered
necessary for the comfort as well as for the
pleasure of Akbar's favorite queen.
PALACE OF JODH BAI
PALACE OF JODH BAI

FEATURES_
• g reserved
The whole of the architectural effect being for the interior.
• The interior consists of an almost symmetrical range of buildings surrounding a
square quadrangle,
• most of these being in two stories although at regular intervals there are open
terraced roofs.
• In the middle of each side these interior structures rise up into separate blocks, with a
somewhat similar detached block at each angle, both in double stories.
• Each of these blocks is in effect a self-contained
lf t i d suite
it of living rooms like a modern
flat,
• on the ground floor there are corridors and passages communicating with each
part
• and it was also arranged that the chambers below in cold weather could be heated,
those above always remaining airy and cool.
• Compared with Jodh Bai's palace the remaining royal residences such as the
house of Mariyam and that of the Sultana are somewhat simple and unpretentious
structures
PALACE OF JODH BAI
PALACE OF JODH BAI
Interior court
FATEH PUR SIKRI
MARIAM’S HOUSE
Mariyam’s house

--In size is almost one sixteenth of

the palace of Jodha.
-- is a perfectlittle abode
-- arrangement of rooms in two
stories but with no central
courtyard or other extraneous
amenities.
-- large mural paintings,
apparently of Persian subjects and
executed in the manner of that
country, thus representing an early'
phase in the development of that
celebrated school of painting
which flourished under the
patronage
pa o age ofo the
e Mughul
ug u dy
dynasty.
as y.
FATEH PUR SIKRI
TARKISH SULTANA’S HOUSE
• The other residence
of the Sultana, is
even smaller and more modest in its
structural composition,
• as it is a single storied pavilion with
only one apartment contained within a
pillared verandah. But the simplicity of its
design is compensated by the richness and
quality of its carved decoration.
• In the character and technique of this
plastic ornateness(elaborately
plastic, ( l b t l adorned)
d d)
and also to a certain extent in the actual
construction of this little architectural gem, an
expression of a wooden derivation,
__It is more than likely that it was the handiwork
of a group of artizans from the Punjab
where the timber tradition in the building
g
art still lingered.
TARKISH SULTANA’S HOUSE
TARKISH SULTANA’S HOUSE
BIRBAL’S PALACE
__Birbal, the Prime Minister, is of much the same
character as that of Mariyam’s palace.
__It is more complex in its arrangements and in
some respects more elaborate in its architectural
ornamentation.
__This building is in two stories,
__ Ground floor: four rooms and two porches forming
the ground floor,
__ Upper floor : only two rooms above, as the
remainder of this story consists of open terraces enclosed
by screen.
__There are Domes over the upper rooms
__ pyramidal roofs over the porches, all of which are
constructed on a modified principle of the double
dome, as they have an inner and an outer shell with
an appreciable empty space between.
__ By these means the interior was kept cool and it is
evident that the whole structure was planned with this as
one of its principal objects.
BIRBAL’S PALACE
BIRBAL’S PALACE
__the building has been
architecturally treated, particularly
in the rich
character of the
eave brackets as these form
an out-standing
t t di feature
f t off its
it
elevational aspect.
__Supports of this nature
are common in i allll the
th
secular architecture of
Fatehpur Sikri,
___but in no other edifice has
this structural and decorative
element been so liberally
employed or so elaborately
designed and executed as in
this relatively small but lavishly
devised (carefully planed)
ministerial abode.
BIRBAL’S PALACE

Birbal’s house_ detail.

 FATEH PUR SIKRI
. Tarkish sultana’s palace
Dewan-e -khas

Girls school Char chamman court

terraces and courtyards surrounded by pavilions and palaces

 FATEH PUR SIKRI
Char chamman court
Dewan-e -khas

Buland darwaza

Girls’ school
P
Panch
h mahal
h l
Khawab gah