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After a thunderstorm recently damaged the finial of the 17th century Jama Masjid dome in Delhi, the Delhi Wakf Board, which manages the mosque, wrote to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) requesting removal of the dangling part of the crown and repair of the ornamental structure that has topped the grand mosque since its construction.
The finial, measuring about 12-15 ft, is also from the same period as the mosque, the Wakf Board said. Conservation experts are now working on a plan to remove the dangling part of the finial so that it doesn’t cause any incidental damage to visitors.
Crowning glory
Most commonly seen in monumental architecture, finials are decorative devices used to emphasise the top of a dome, tower or spire.
“Architecturally speaking, the way a building touched the sky was given a lot of importance. That’s how finials became important eventually,” says Conservation architect Ratish Nanda, CEO of the India arm of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC).
Mughal-era finials
In May 2014, a storm knocked down the 18-ft finial — made of Sal wood encased in nine copper utensils with a brass finish — above the dome of the Humayun’s Tomb in the Capital. It took the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) more than a year to restore the finial back on the dome of the 16th century mausoleum.
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Since the original was not in a condition to withstand repairs, AKTC, while working with the ASI, had to replace it with an exactly same one to restore the monument’s crowning glory, a statement by the Trust says.
The access to the finial vessels at Humayun’s Tomb allowed heritage experts an opportunity to analyse and document “the remarkable scientific achievement of the Mughal builders and the immense art-history value,” adds the AKTC.
Several inscriptions were found on the finial mentioning past repairs as well as artwork depicting a bearded man praying.
Scientific analysis revealed 99.42 per cent pure copper sheets had been used here by the Mughals – in eight-inch strips – embedded into one another.
Copper of such purity is not commercially available even today, some 450 years after it was used at Humayun’s Tomb, says Nanda.
Finally, the use of pure gold to finish the finial was revealed during repetitive lab analysis of the metal fragments– underlying the significance of the finial as well as continuity of Indian craft traditions by the Mughals.
About the grandeur of Mughal-era finials, Nanda adds, “Though stone finials, no more that 3-5 feet in height can be seen on tombs built during the Sultanate period in Delhi, there is no precedent — before the Humayun’s Tomb — for a finial of this grandeur on any structure, anywhere in the world.”
Just as the chattris or canopies on the roof of Humayun’s Tomb are inspired from Rajput architecture, its copper-gold finial seems to have been inspired by temple architecture. Later, the Taj Mahal also used a similar copper finial, Nanda says.
The part of Jama Masjid’s finial, which is still hanging from the main dome, would weigh around 350 kg say experts, so the entire ensemble weight would be about 500 kg.
Architectural traditions
The finials on Mughal tombs all over India represent the pluralistic architectural traditions employed by them by adopting elements from monuments pre-dating their arrival in India.
In her book The Complete Taj Mahal, Austrian architecture historian Ebba Koch says: “At its top is a crowning element formed of lotus leaves, which had become a standard motif for Indian Islamic architecture. From this rises a finial (kalash) formed of superimposed gilded bulbs topped by a crescent. The pinnacle was regilded in 1874 by JW Alexander, Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department. He found, cut into it, an inscription by the first British restorer of the Taj Mahal – ‘Joseph Taylor 1811’. A silhouette of the pinnacle can be found in the paving of the riverfront terrace below, in front of the Mihman Khana.”
Decorative roof finials are also a common feature of Malaysian religious and residential architecture. In Malacca, there are 38 mosques with traditional roof finials, with layered and crown-shaped designs, known as Makhota Atap Masjid.
On mosques built after the 20th century, these finials have been replaced by bulbous domes.
In Japanese architecture, chigi are finials that were used atop Shinto shrines in Ise and Izumo and the imperial palace.
In Java and Bali, a rooftop finial is known as mustaka or kemuncak. In Thailand, there are finials on domestic and religious buildings.
Hti is a finial found on Burmese Buddhist temples and pagodas.
