Indian Architecture: Problems in the Interpretation of 18th and 19th Century Architecture- A Study of Dilkusha Palace, Lucknow

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About the Book This book is unique in developing methodology for the study of the Nawabi Buildings and the same approach has been effectively used to study other 17th/18th century buildings of India. It attempts to weave a tapestry that can deal with the multi faceted nature of the court life of a Nawab and its manifestation in architecture. The Historiography confirms the need to re evaluate the architectural scholarship of the 17th/18th century architecture of Lucknow and India, not done till date.

It is the result of eight years of painstaking work by the Author. It is very pertinent and timely for scholars, students and general readers with an interest in the architectural and social history of Lucknow and India.

About the Author Neeta Das, holds a Diploma in Architecture from the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad. She obtained her Masters in Science in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati, USA. She is the author of the book The Architecture of Imambaras (1991). Her articles on Architecture have appeared in many magazines/newspapers. At present, she is engaged as a private consultant in Architecture and as a visiting lecturer.

Introduction I learnt my Western history of architecture from Sir Bannister Fletcher's, The History of Architecture on the Comparative Method, and Indian architecture from Percy Brown's two volumes entitled Indian Architecture They both dealt with architectural history in a similar fashion, encapsulated within a grid of time periods and styles. Each style is studied by tracing its birth, growth, classical period and decline. It was all very logical and precise and I was confident of situating any building within this grid.

Trained as an architect, I shifted to Lucknow. My love for the place and a curiosity to test my knowledge of architecture prompted me to the streets and monuments of Old Lucknow, most of which were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. I spent three years internalizing all I could about Lucknow, its people and its architecture. The narrow confining streets, giving no clue of the life world in the courtyards beyond; the towering mosques and the mourning Imambaras; the labyrinthine palaces and the grand kothis; the complexity inherent in their spatial sequences, planning, and use of both traditional and foreign (mainly European) architectural elements; or just the coexistence of the everyday and the monumental structures. Though fascinating. none of the structures merited a place within the formal historical grid of Fletcher or Brown. They were, in fact, in two pages of Brown's book, summed up as being 'debased' and the 'style (that) had no spiritual value." The reason for their neglect slowly became clear to me. Piece by piece I went through the scholarship on Lucknow, and not only did it not satisfy my need to know and understand the architecture of Lucknow but all it provided was a torrent of criticism.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages **Contents and Sample Pages**