Bijapur-A different experience
A couple of weeks back I had been to north Karnataka, specifically Gulbarga and Bijapur. We did not spend much time travelling in Gulbarga, Bijapur was where most of the time was spent. Though I am not much of an architecture or monument loving guy, this was quite an experience.
Firstly, the road from Gulbarga to Bijapur is a brilliant, a straight road for almost 4-5 Kms, it was like a picture which we see in some posters. On reaching there, we first went to Gol Gumbaz,(nothing new). I was still not very excited, but it was just the beginning.
Unlike most of the Govt maintained places Ive been to, the Gol Gumbaz is maintained is a much better manner. The road leading to the monument has gardens mirroring each other on either side, as in most of the mogal/old architecture(forgive me, my history and architecture knowledge is horrible). The road directly leads to the museum, initially this was the entrance for the king, on the other side stands the colossal building,welcoming everyone through the Huge door. Though the building felt incomplete without its gold jewellery but it still had its very own charm.
View from the entrance
The inside of the Gumbaz is not very aesthetically pleasing, and for a moment it was disappointing, but once inside i learnt a few things about the building. This instantly reminded me of Ayn Rands- FountainHead, not for the philosophy but about architecture. At one point she happens to mention that a building need to have everything for a purpose, and here I could see it. The brilliance was in the placement of windows, As we know that part of Karnataka is very hot, and when you are in buildings like these, the heat starts becoming irritating, but the windows are placed such that in each season there is one window allowing the inflow of breeze, this was not noticeable on the lower floor. It was only when i went up I understood this.
climb to the Top
Next was the climb, to reach the top we had to climb 7 floors, the amazing part was these stairs are present only in the four minarets of the monument, and main gumbaz does not have these floors, which means the 7 floor high roof is supported by nothing but the four walls enclosing it.
On reaching the Top another beautiful phenomenon was noticed, "Echos" We all read about it in school and may be experience it near mountainous area's and sometimes in empty houses. But Here there was a difference, this building was designed to make use of the phenomenon of ECHO for military communication back then. Apparently what you talk in this building can be heard in 7 different building around this one.(I couldn’t test it out, but so they say) and these 7 buildings are placed strategically around the city.
The famous Dome
Here was where i understood the window system. around this dome are windows(openings to be more clear), in particular seasons beautiful breeze blows through one opening and this changes season to season.
One of the openings
Next we went to Ibrahim Roza, a tomb of another wealthy king who like the others did not do anything much for his people and just used most of the money for his death bed!
On the other hand, quite well maintained, and the symmetry of design is excellent.
Well, one thought which definitely crossed my mind after this trip was: why dont we get to see such buildings these days. in the sense of application of basic sciences. We see buildings getting taller and taller and more aesthetically pleasing but this kind of application of physics?
Isaac Asimov in his book prelude to foundation explains how his fictional universe keeps disintegrating, and he gives a very beautiful description of this disintegration. I am unable to find the explanation given by him, but here is the summary: Asimov says that: Though we may improve in science and technology but this knowledge keeps dying down within us, for example when a system is first made it is perfect, ans slowly over the years when trouble creeps in the person fixing it has half knowledge of the system and does not fix it well, and over time this knowledge is limited only to the top few and soon fades out.
This is what I see has happened in the world around us. Knowledge kept out from the public domain keeps dying down.
Another important point which crossed my mind was, the fact that these kings did nothing but make more money for themselves. This trend has continued even in a democratic government, but the only difference I see is, these kings made some monument which is atleast architecturally good, and gives us a glimpse of the past, what do our politicians do with the money is their Swiss banks??let it rot?
At the end of it, this was a brilliant trip which made me a quite a fan of architecture.
A beautiful design on the wall