Ibrahim Rouza

Two buildings of nearly identical silhouette face each other across a fountain on a raised stone platform: a tomb and a mosque, each crowned by a bulbous dome set on a ring of lotus petals and ringed by slender minarets and clusters of miniature domed turrets. The Ibrahim Rauza in Vijayapura (formerly Bijapur) in Karnataka is one of the finest achievements of the Adil Shahi sultans, and its graceful skyline earned it the nicknames "the Black Taj Mahal" and "the Taj of the South".

The complex was completed in 1036 AH (1626–27) after more than eight years of work. It is named after Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II, the great patron under whom Bijapur reached its artistic and economic peak, and he is buried here, but Persian inscriptions on the walls show that it was commissioned by his wife, Taj Sultana, perhaps originally as her own tomb. The work was overseen by Malik Sandal, an Abyssinian courtier, and the calligrapher Sayyid Naqi al-Din al-Husaini signed his work repeatedly on the walls. The burial chamber holds six cenotaphs, of the sultan, Taj Sultana and other members of the family.

The mausoleum, slightly larger than the mosque, is where the stone-carving reaches its height. A double veranda surrounds the burial chamber; the inner ceilings are carved with floral medallions, and the windows are filled with pierced stone screens made of calligraphy, an unusual twist on the Indian jali. The volume of carved inscriptions across the complex is exceptional among Islamic monuments of the subcontinent. Lotus motifs, hanging stone bosses and repeated miniature versions of the main dome blend Islamic and Indian traditions. Inside, the chamber is almost bare, a room some 13 metres square and 10 metres high whose plainness contrasts with the richly worked façades. The mosque, decorated mainly in stucco, keeps a carved stone chain with a lotus medallion hanging from its ceiling.

Vijayapura was the capital of the Adil Shahi sultanate, founded in the fifteenth century, which ruled from here for almost two hundred years. The complex stands just outside the Mecca Darwaza, the western gate of the old walled city, on the road that once led to the sultan's new city of Nauraspur. It is a Monument of National Importance under the Archaeological Survey of India.

Getting there

Ibrahim Rauza is on the western edge of the old city of Vijayapura, about 1.5 km from the centre; Vijayapura railway station serves the city. The nearest airports are Kalaburagi Airport (GBI), about 144 km away, and Kolhapur Airport (KLH), about 152 km away in a straight line.