Customer Reviews

Architecture of Mughal India (The New Cambridge History of India, Vol. 1.4)

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Beginning with a brief discussion of the pre-Mughal Islamic kingdoms, Asher moves chronologically through Mughal architecture, including works patronized by the emperors and those patronized by others but directly implicated in Mughal architecture. This is an excellent volume that masterfully straddles the tasks of presenting a survey of this architecture while exploring the most accepted scholarly interpretations of the works. Well written and with good images (Cambridge volumes only include black and white, unfortunately), this is an excellent foundational text for the study of Mughal architecture. I highly recommend it.

This book provides a thorough, detailed, and thoughtful analysis of Mughal architecture; it is based on solid scholarly research, yet it is accessible not only to academics, but also to general readers. While many others who have written on this topic have limited themselves to discussions of architectural style, Catherine Asher's book considers Mughal monuments in their cultural and historical context and examines the socio-political roles of the works and their patrons. This book truly is an invaluable survey of Mughal architecture!

Still the only thorough examination on Mughal architecture out there!

A revisionist view of the architecture of Mughal India which R. Nath, the distinguished art-historian, has termed totally misguided (See his essay in PURATATTVA 25, 1994-5). Nath points out numerous errors of interpretation and fact.