INDOSARCENIC

ARCHITECTURE

SUBMITTED BY:
AMAL S KUMAR
SREENATH
 INDOSARCENIC
ARCHITECTURE
The Indo-Saracenic Revival was an architectural style
movement by British architects in the late 19th century
in British India. It drew elements from native Indo-
Islamic and Indian architecture, and combined it with
the Gothic revival and Neo-Classical styles favored in
Victorian Britain. The style gained momentum in the
west with the publication of the various views of India
by William Hodges and the Daniel duo, from about
1795.
 Like the Mughal architecture, it
is indeed a mixture of Indian
and Islamic architecture but it
remained basically British in
siting, special organization and
composition. It is really very
Calcutta high court
different from the Mughal in
concept because it was not an
evolutionary synthesis but done
self consciously. It did however
evolve over time and its
examples are considerably
Central railway, chennai.
varied in degree of complexity,
homogeneity and consistency.
THE EVOLUTION
The term Saracenic was given
by the Greeks and Romans to
the tribes west of the
Euphrates. It was a term
applied by Christians to the
whole of the Islamic world
and its architecture. Hence
the reference to Islamic
architecture in India as
Indian Saracenic. The Indo-
Saracenic should not however
be confused with the Indian
Saracenic.

Bombay university
The Indo-Saracenic architectural movement began in the
1870’s although similar themes go back to the Chepauk
Palace (1768) in Madras designed by an East India company
engineer and later money lender Paul Benfield. The palace
was a mixture of tropical gothic and Muslim precedents.
While running into competing ideologies, the Indo-
Saracenic lasted in modified form, until independence and
thereafter in various revivalist modes, drawing more on
Hindu than Mughal precedents. Example – All Saints
Cathedral in Allahabad (1871) and Muir College, also in
Allahabad
Indo-Saracenic architecture was an effort to provide a
visible symbol of an aspect of British policy in India – to
show a sense of belonging to India. It was also supposed
to serve as an imperial gesture to revive Indian traditions;
but with some exceptions, all the designs were done by
British architects; the silpins and mistris simply executed
orders. The Indo-Saracenic also had political aspirations
as a symbol of the power that had displaced the Mughals.
It helped to obscure the exploitative nature of British
imperialism. The Indo-Saracenic tended to blind both
British and Indian people to social and political realities.
Characteristics
Indo-Saracenic designs were introduced by British imperialist
colonizers, promoting their own sense of “rightful self-
glorification”, which came to appeal to the aesthetic sensibilities
of continental Europeans and Americans, whose architects came
to astutely incorporate telling indigenous "Asian Exoticism"
elements, whilst implementing their own engineering
innovations supporting such elaborate construction, both in
India and abroad, evidence for which can be found to this day in
public, private and government owned buildings. Public and
Government buildings were often rendered on an intentionally
grand scale, reflecting and promoting a notion of an unassailable
and invincible British Empire.
Again, structures of this design sort, particularly those built
in India and England, were built in conformance to advanced
British structural engineering standards of the 1800s, which
came to include infrastructures composed of iron, steel and
poured concrete (the innovation of reinforced cement and
pre-cast cement elements, set with iron and/or steel rods,
developed much later); the same can be said for like
structures built elsewhere, making use of the same design
vocabulary, by local architects, that would come to be
constructed in continental Europe and the Americas: Indo-
Saracenic’s popularity flourished for a span of some 30-years.
Robert Fellowes Chisholm(1840 - 1915), Henry Irwin and Gilbert
Scott were among the leading practitioners of the time
The buildings built in India by Indo- Saracentic style of
architecture were built according to advanced British structural
engineering standards of the 1800's including infrastructures of
iron, steel and poured concrete. These type of buildings were
employed with domes, pinted archs, valuted roofs, pinnacles,
minarets, pierced open arcade, open pavilions etc.
 
Structures built in Indo-Saracenic style in India were mainly
grand public buildings like clock towers, courthouses, colleges,
town halls, offices, railway stations.
Sir Swinton Jacob
Sir Swinton Jacob was one of the chief exponents of Indo-Saracenic
architecture with his designs for Jaipur’s Albert hall, Mayo college in
Ajmer , the Senate house of the University of Allahabad and his
competition winning scheme for the State Bank of Madras (1895). In
Lucknow Jacob designed a building for Lucknow University and the
king George medical college (1912). In most Indo-Saracenic work,
every detail was dictated by the architect. Jacob revived the
traditional working role for the silpins and mistris.
The other major exponents of this style were Major Charles Mant of
the Royal Engineers, Robert Fellowes Chisholm, Henry Irwin, John
Begg who designed Bombay’s general post office (1909) and George
Wittet who designed the Prince of Whales Museum (1904) and the
Gateway of India (1922) in Bombay.
Chisholm
Chisholm, one of the most gifted English architects working in India and a
vehement supporter of Indian craftsmen
Chisholm was one of the prolific practitioners of this style. His early work
was primarily in Gothic and Romanesque: The Government Arts and
Crafts college (1855), PWD headquarters (1864) both in Madras , the
Nilgiri library (1865) in Ooty and Madras University’s Presidency College
(1867). These works show Chisholms great versatility despite his
consistency in thought. This versatility is exemplified by his design for the
Napier Museum in Thiruvananthapuram (1872) and much later (1897) the
Victoria Jubilee town hall.
In the Napier museum Chisholm was influenced by the roof forms,
projecting eaves, balconies and brackets of Padmanabhapuram palace in
southern TamilNadu and the Keralite vernacular. The museum has these
forms amalgamated into what is essentially a British building in massing.
Chisholm was largely responsible for transforming Madras from
a classical city into an Indo-Saracenic metropolis. The unity of
the whole area along the sea front remains an outstanding
example of civic design where the similarity of the parts creates a
whole that transcends the quality of individual buildings-
something respected by most later architects who designed
additional buildings for the site.
Chisholm left Madras for Vadodara in 1881. He was responsible
for the design of the Lakshmi Vilas palace, The Nyaya Mandir
(Law courts), the Baroda museum and art gallery , the
Khanderao market and the faculty of arts of M.S.University
Baroda. These buildings have elements from Buddhist, Islamic
and Gujarati architecture. In all his work Chisholm was not
simply copying elements but seeking to translate them into a
harmonious whole.
The most imposing of all is the Law Courts building
designed by J.W.Brassington and modified by Henry
Irwin. Henry Irwin was also the designed of the
Victoria Memorial hall (1909, now the national art
gallery). A well orchestrated combination of Mughal ,
Hindu and classical elements.
Examples
While Madras and Baroda may be the two centres most closely
associated with the Indo-Saracenic, there are many examples elsewhere
like Hyderabad, Mysore, Bombay, Lucknow and Lahore.
Hyderabad : The High Court, the City College, The Osmania General
Hospital, The Railway station , the Town hall and the State Archelogical
museum.
Mysore : The pubic offices, the Modern Hindu Hotel, The Landsdowne
market, the Janata Bazaar, the Silver Jubilee clock tower and the
Rajendra Vilas palace.
Lahore: Mayo College of Art, the high court, the general post office , the
town hall and King Edward medical college.
Calcutta : Chartered Bank building and the Victoria memorial
Lucknow : The Colvin Taluqdar’s college and the judicial court
 The taj hotel,mumbai

Victoria memorial

Mysore palace

Gateway of india
Features of the Confluence of Indian and
Persian styles
The architects of Indo Saracenic failed to consider the full range of qualities of
Indian architectural traditions. The whole process of designing building had,
however, become different from that in the past. One sees the increasing
division of labour characteristic of the modernizing world. The craftsmen were
employed as skilled workers but the choice of what to do was made by the
architect.
The first two decades of the twentieth century, the Edwardian era saw the
continuation of Indo Saracenic architecture but also a revival of the classical as
the architecture of Imperialism.
Examples of Indo Saracenic buildings built during this period are the Egmore
station (1905) in Madras, the Central Calcutta College(1924), the Patna museum
(1927) , the palace at Chhota Udaipur (1935).
Despite the erection of all these buildings the commitment to the Indo
Saracenic began to wane. European classical buildings began to be built again in
India after 50 years of comparative neglect
The cost involved in the construction of buildings of this
style was high, including all their inherent customization,
ornament and minutia decoration, the artisans' ingenuous
skills (stone and wood carving, as well as the exquisite
lapidary/inlaid work) and usual accessibility to requisite raw
materials, hence the style was executed only on buildings of a
grand scale. However the occasional residential structure of
this sort, (its being built in part or whole with Indo-Saracenic
design elements/motifs) did appear quite often, and such
buildings have grown ever more valuable and highly prized
by local and foreign populations for their exuberant beauty
today.