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Sidi Saiyed's Mosque

Gujarat had evolved a very rich and unique tradition of architecture and sculpture that had attained fame all over the country and attracted notice from foreign visitors. Hindu and lain architecture had reached the pinnacle of perfection and artistic excellence between the 11th and 13^th centuries as evidenced by some of the finest and most exquisite specimens of Gujarati architecture that flourished during the Solanki and Vaghela period.

The beginning of all the flourished in Gujarat is to be traced to temple architecture, which developed under the patronage of successive rulers who constructed some of the magnificent shrines of the time. Rudramahalaya at Siddhpur, Maha Meru Prasad at Somnath, Surya Mandir or the Sun Temple at Modhera and the marble temples at Mount Abu and Kumbharia were constructed and adorned by the same motif of ornamentation in design and form. Later, when Gujarat came to be ruled by the sultans, moghuls and viceroys, the saracenic influence came to be powerfully felt. While the Muslims in India adopted all the forms of art and architecture that were basically indigenous, certain innovations to suit the tenets of Islam were introduced in the structure they erected through the local craftsmen.

An Ancient Vadnagar Toran

The process of assimilation which was, thus, at work evolved in Gujarat a truly synthetic style of architecture unique in details of ornamentation and decorative art.

The style of architecture which developed in Gujarat during the Muslim period was unquestionably the most beautiful of the provincial styles of Mohammedan architecture in northern and western India. It differed largely from that evolved in northern India, where large and majestic structures were erected by the moghuls on a vast and extensive scale. Though Gujarat was content with structures of modest dimensions they were marked by a high degree of perfection in their execution and artistic excellence. The device of introducing light and air through perforated screen and window tracery with panels ornamented by a rich variety of geometrical and floral designs were unique. The subdued light and coolness in the entire atmosphere, it produced, were at once pleasing and soothing. Ornamentation of various parts, minarets, balconies, domes and niches was superb and matchless in richness of details and artistic elegance. The shaking towers of Ahmedabad are still the wonders of the world. Forts, palaces, temples, mansions, mosques, mausoleums, Artistic Carving of Idols on Stone gateways and stepwells which exist to-day in and around Ahmedabad are the vivid memories of the skill and dexterity of those who executed them.