Fatehpur sikri (FPS) - Victory city

Elephant Gate of Fatehpur sikri, Agra

This citadel of India has so many stories. Some are funny and some are really stupid.
I did a deep study of this mysteries monument of India and found interesting facts about it.

Hiran Minar

How come it is possible that a large citadel was built over here when the architects knew that there was lack of water ?

Why did Akbar choose this place to make a citadel ?

Why did he leave this place ?

How did this palace was built and which architecture was used ?

Victory gate of Fatehpur sikri

Ancestors of Akbar

 Ancestors of Akbar were Mughals who were mercenaries of central Asia. They were not proficient in making large palaces like such, they used to live in walled garden under tents of clothes. Their kingdoms were small and economy was based on plundering to neighbor villages, states and kingdoms. Akbar's grandfather Babur was the first Mughal invader. He stayed in India for only Four years and passed away. Babur was given poison by the mother of Ibrahim lodhi(previous Indian Muslim King).  Before the Babur(First Mughal Invader) no other mughal tribal chief lived for more than 40 years because they were always on war and died in the battle.

But Akbar established a strong empire in India on basis of secular policies and matrimonial relationships among Mughals and Rajputs (Hindu ruling classes of north west). The reason why Akbar's mentality was different than his ancestors because he born and brought up among Hindu ruling families. So neither he was alien for Hindus nor Hindu tradition and culture were uncommon for him.

Major challenge for Akbar was, how to construct a royal palace which is grand as his position and at the same time secure from attacks ?

In this situation of architectural  ignorance, Akbar got the benefit of ancient Hindu art and architecture called Shilpshashtra. This rich text was written 300 years before common era during Mauryan period  to construct the house and palaces in India.  Hindu Kings were making large and huge wooden palaces 300 years before common era and this tradition was followed in Medieval period also (Muslim Rule era).

Akbar invited Indian architects and artisans to make such palaces for him too. The art of Fatehpur sikri has a definite all India character. Mughals did not know much about Palace & Fort architecture. So Mughal Emperor Akbar merged two different architectures  Hindu(Indian) architecture and Islamic Architecture. So all Buildings built during Akbar's time have used Indo-Islamic Architecture. According to me calling it Mughal architecture is wrong, it must be called Indo-Islamic Architecture.


Indian Forts before the invasion of Mughals 


The pictures of following forts clearly proves that Mughals learnt art and architecture from Hindu Shilpshastra(Architecture texts). Mughals never constructed such large and huge Forts and palaces in their homeland like Uzbekistan and ruling land like Afghanistan.

Such examples are ;

Gwalior fort in Gwalior 
Chittorgargh fort in Rajasthan, 
Fort of Chanderi, 
Agra fort (Brick fort). 

Current pictures of these Forts -

Gwalior Fort

Chittorgargh Fort, Rajasthan

Fort of Chanderi

Practice of Johar during  Muslim attacks

Need of new Palace 


Akbar became Emperor of India in 1556. That time Delhi was the capital. But where Akbar lived in Delhi has not been documented. He might be living by old fashion way of his ancestors in walled garden in tents of clothes for 9 years.

Later due to the strategic importance of Agra's location, Akbar ordered to reconstruct the Agra brick fort into red sandstone in 1565.

At the existing Agra fort earlier there was a jail During the Mauryan period(300 bce). Originally this Agra fort was constructed by an Hindu King  in 10th century . So Akbar demolished the old brick fort and recommissioned the Red fort in red sandstone.

In 1565, construction started, 4,000 artisans worked for eight years and completed  Agra Fort. He ruled north India from here for another 6 years.

In 1571, Akbar moved his royal residence again from here to Fatehpur sikri(City of victory). There were three reasons which forced Akbar to move his royal residence from Agra to Fatehpur Sikri.

One - Akbar was 30 years old by that time and he had no son. Akbar got a son in 1569  by the blessings of a Sufi saint who was living on a hill at Fatehpur sikri. So Akbar wanted to blend his royalty with divinity. He wanted to live near by to this mystical and charismatic saint. Akbar found this saint lucky for his family and ruler-ship.

Second - Fatehpur Sikri is the gateway to Rajasthan. From here he could move continually to Ajmer (a previous important capital of Rajputs) . And he could keep an eye on his Rajput generals for fighting other wars in the west of India like Gujarat(an important sea trade route).

Third - Already this was an established state of an Hindu ruling class called Sikarwar.

Architecture of Fatehpur Sikri

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