The Lotus Blooms

In part one and two in this three part mini-series on the Lotus we talked about the probable sequence of events that could have led to the Lotus emerging as a symbol of purity and then much later, because it was considered pure, turning into the throne for Gods. We also discussed how the veneration of the Lotus could have travelled out of the sub-continent and spread across South Asia and beyond with the spread of Buddhism.

In this last piece we look at another trajectory through which the Lotus finds a pride of place in the architectural forms that began to emerge in the sub-continent from about the late 12th and early 13th centuries to evolve, by the 17th century, into a new style of architecture based on the synthesis of the South-Asian and the Central Asian building techniques and architectural styles.

One of the earliest examples, perhaps, of this synthesis can be seen at the Ja’ma Masjid commissioned by Qutub-ud-Din Aibak. The mosque primarily reuses material from almost two dozen Jain temples.

Most visitors to the Qutub throw a cursory look towards the arches, use them as the backdrop for a group photo or a selfie and then move on. But we are inviting you to inspect them a little closely; you will see that the arches are covered in Quranic verses that have been carved into the stone. One would normally expect Arabic calligraphy on the face of the arch that the devout would face while praying and so there is nothing out of the ordinary here.

Things that do not deserve a second look, because they are routine, every day occurrences, at times deserve more than a second look because within them hide, in plain sight, remarkable details that would make you change the way you have seen the world till then.

Take a second look. The Arabic calligraphy has been embellished, decorated or ornamented with delicate branches that look like intertwining tendrils; there are buds and flowers spread across the entire length of the arch starting at the base, climbing up the curve of the arch and climbing down the other side. Can you identify the flower, yes, it is the Lotus! The Lotus on the arch in a mosque! The Lotus considered holy by the Hindus, used as embellishment for text considered holy by the Muslims! What probably happened was perhaps the following:

The architect and the calligrapher together decided that the arches should be inscribed with verses from the Quran, the architect drew the arch and the calligrapher wrote the text on the drawing. The masons who had to carve the stone pieces for the arch did not know Arabic, in fact most of them, probably did not know any script. The text was therefore written down for them on the block of stones and it is then that the calligrapher and the architect realised that there was a lot of empty space all around and they asked the masons to embellish the text. The masons were drawn from among the local workforce, they know that these new people followed a different set of rituals and what they had been asked to embellish was the holy text of the new arrivals. It does not take very long for the masons to realise that holy text can only be embellished with the holiest of all flowers, the Lotus!

And this is what happens, not only at the Juma Masjid of Qutub-ud-din Aibak, but at the Al’ai Darwaza -Lotus flowers and lotus buds, cover both the interior and the exterior of the massive gate, built as the grand entrance to the extended mosque, by Al’a ud Din Khilji. The Lotus then travelled and is to be found as embellishment throughout the Sultanate, Tughlaq, Lodi and Mughal period on mosques, masoleums palaces and minarets, in fountains, on top of domes, as finials and on dome interiors as incised plaster work, on the spandrels of arches, flowering as petals that support minaret balconies or atop minarets as buds from which sprout little domes, as minaret finials.

The new arrivals too had no hesitation in accepting this symbol that was universally recognised as pious and pure in the new land that they had come to inhabit. This is how civilisations grow, through give and take, through absorption, adaption, accommodation and appropriation. 

The author is a historian, and organises the Delhi Heritage Walk for children and adults