Islamic Influences in Indian Art

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Islamic Influencesin Indian Art Architecture
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1. Persian Sufi Art Architecture

• Within a few centuries after the death of
  the prophet Muhammad, the center of Islamic power
  had shifted from Arabia to Persia (roughly
  corresponding to the present day regions of Iran
  but including parts of Iraq Turkey) with the
  capital of the Muslim empire located in Baghdad.
  Thus Persian culture language became an
  integral part of Islamic civilization,
  influencing both the developing system of Islamic
  law and the spiritual movements led by Sufi
  masters. One of the most famous of such masters
  was the twelfth century Jalaluddin Rumi, whose
  worship of God through whirling dance has become
  perhaps the most vivid symbol of Persian Sufi
  Islam. This first section presents a few images
  of the shrine that grew up around Rumis shrine
  in Konya (in present day Turkey), which reflect
  the much broader trends and patterns of art
  architecture inspired by Persian Sufi Islam.

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Outside of Rumis Shrine
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Rumis tomb decorative surroudings
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domed ceiling over the tomb
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2. Mughal Art Architecture

• In line with the points made in the
  introduction to the previous section, the Muslim
  generals who began increasingly to claim
  territory in the Indian subcontinent in the
  eleventh and twelfth centuries were products of
  Persian Islam. When the first major Islamic
  state was established with its capital at Delhi
  in 1206 CE, the political stability of the
  Persian empire was in decline thus many Persian
  Muslims (including Sufis) began to migrate to
  North Indian, bringing with them the art,
  literary styles, and architecture of their
  homeland. This Persian influence continued with
  the Mughal dynasty established by Babar in the
  sixteenth century, by which time Indian artists
  and builders had developed distinctive variations
  on earlier Persian forms. The buildings and
  paintings in this section show examples of the
  ongoing traditions of Islamic art architecture,
  particularly during and after the renaissance
  sponsored by the third Mughal emperor Akbar.

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Akbars audience hall at Fatehpur (late 16th CE)
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Akbars tomb (finished 1613)
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Dome inside Akbars tomb
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Court of Emperor Akbar (1566-1605)
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Muslim Pilgrim Brahman (1597-8 CE manuscript)
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Mughal emperor with visiting Persian Shah (early
17th CE)
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Portrait of a Sufi (early 17th CE)
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3. Hindu Buddhist Icons

• Developments in Islamic art architecture
  were preceded by over a thousand years of intense
  artistic activity on the part of traditions
  indigenous to India i.e., Buddhists,
  Vaishnavates, Shaivites, Jains. It is
  important, then, to look briefly at a few
  examples of the way such art forms contrasted
  with the immigrant art culture of Islam, which
  almost without exception avoided depicting divine
  power(s) in human form. Non-Muslim traditions,
  on the other hand, dedicated significant artistic
  talent and material resources toward depicting
  various gods in human form, often as coupled
  pairs that represented the dynamic relationship
  between a particular divine entity and its power.
  Such indigenous artists, furthermore, explored
  without restraint the way that variations on the
  human form could be used as symbols of divine
  power many deities, for example, were portrayed
  with multiple eyes, heads, limbs, even animal
  forms. This section presents a few striking
  examples of the way major Hindu Buddhist
  deities were portrayed using icons. The Hindu
  icons were made during the early period of Muslim
  rule over North India, under the patronage of one
  of several Hindu kingdoms of South India that
  managed to preserve their independence. The
  Buddhist icons are later, from Tibet Nepal, but
  reflect earlier styles of north Indian Buddhists
  in the regions of Bengal Bihar.

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• Vishnu (11th CE) Krishna (12th CE)

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Brahma Brahmani(11th 9th CE)
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Shiva his consort (12th-13th CE)
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• stone Ganesha
• (9th CE)

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Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara (Tibetan
Vajrayana,18th CE)
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Avalokiteshvara as Mother of Planets (17th CE?)
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Wrathful Avalokiteshvara (w/local deities)
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Nepalese Mandala w/Goddess(part of pilgrims
box, 17th-18th CE)