Enfilade

From Yale UP:

Chanchal Dadlani, From Stone to Paper: Architecture as History in the Late Mughal Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019), 232 pages, ISBN: 978-0300233179, $65.

By the 18th century, the Mughal Empire was well beyond its so-called golden age. Its control of the Indian subcontinent was increasingly threatened by regional Indian states, as well as by the encroaching British Empire. In response to a rapidly changing sociopolitical landscape, the Mughal emperors used architecture to harness their illustrious past and stage cultural authority for contemporary audiences. Chanchal Dadlani provides the first in-depth look at this crucial period of architectural history. Discussing a rich array of built forms and urban spaces—from grand imperial mosques to Delhi’s bustling thoroughfares—the volume sheds light on long-overlooked buildings. It also explores representations of architectural monuments that circulated in the form of building plans, manuscript paintings, and postcards. Ultimately, the book reveals how Mughal architects, artists, and patrons built on the cultural legacy of their imperial predecessors to create the very concept of a historical style identifiable as Mughal.

Chanchal B. Dadlani is associate professor of art and architectural history at Wake Forest University.

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments
Note on Translation and Transliteration

Introduction: The Mughal Eighteenth Century
1  Between Experimentation and Regulation: The Foundation of an Eighteenth-Century Style
2  The Urban Culture of Mughal Delhi
3  ‘The Last Flicker in the Lamp of Mughal Architecture’: Transforming the Imperial Capital
4  Codifying Mughal Architecture on Paper
5  Mughal Architecture between Manuscript and Print Culture
Conclusion: From Historicization to Abstraction

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Illustration Credits