Examines the hundreds of secular and religious buildings, urban residential and commercial foundations, and public monuments commissioned in Lucknow and Oudh between 1722 and 1856 by the fabulously rich Nawabs of Oudh and their Court, the English East India Company, and others.
Designed not only in the Indo-Islamic and other native styles but also in a variety of English and European ones as well as in a hybrid Indo-European style, these buildings have often been reviled as being degenerate Mughal or mockeries of classicism. Although there is some truth in this charge, it is not the whole story. Many were grand edifices, some were attractive compositions, most fulfilled important private or public functions, they were invariably masterly expositions of native building technology, and all had been brilliantly adapted for the hot tropical climate and the Nawabi way of life.
The English compositions in the Neoclassical, Picturesque, Greek and Gothic Revival modes were especially fascinating, John Rennie's Iron Suspension Bridge having been a revolutionary example of civil engineering. Other notable European works were the domestic compositions of Antoine Polier and Claude Martin, such as Constantia, one of the greatest monuments of the colonial age, and a Vauban-type fort inspired by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Gentil.
Based on extensive field work and archival research in the English, French, and Oriental languages, the text is lavishly illustrated with rare photographs and line drawings, and is supplemented by appendices on the state of the building profession then and a brief account of the political and cultural background, copious bibliographical references, a glossary, maps, and a foreword by Dr Gordon Johnson, General Editor, New Cambridge History of India.
