Code-Switching to Cosmopolitanism: An Architectural Analysis of the Mughal–Kachhwaha Transculturation, c. 1562–1707

For this project, tentatively titled Code-Switching to Cosmopolitanism: An Architectural Analysis of the Mughal–Kachhwaha Transculturation, c. 1562–1707, I will investigate the structures that emerged from 150 years of matrimonial, military, and political alliances between the Hindu-Rajput house of the Kachhwahas and the Sunni Islamic dynasty of the Mughals.

This corpus includes temples patronised by Mughals, mosques erected by Kachhwahas, fort-palaces constructed against common enemies, and tombs responding to sulh-i-kul (the religio-political policy of universal peace developed under Emperor Akbar, which recognised Hindu-Muslim cooperation as a conditio sine qua non for the survival of the Mughal Empire) all of which defy the teleological narratives of colonial architectural histories. Resisting the current masculinist and gender-normative character of the field, I will also examine the charitable structures — travel shelters, water structures, and gardens — commissioned by women and khwajaseras (the eunuch administrators and diplomatic intermediaries of the harem), who connected the two dynasties through matrimonial alliances and political missions. Moving beyond patronage-led inquiries, my research will foreground labour-led and eco-critical analyses. The interventions of craftspeople will be studied through masons’ marks, multilingual epigraphic records of multicultural labour forces, and the transfer of material and structural systems across Mughal and Kachhwaha sites, while the agency of the environment will be examined through architectural responses to the material, climatic, and physiographic conditions of these structures. The afterlives of these sites will also be considered in light of contemporary eco-cultural crises, particularly in relation to the drastic transformation of both their physical settings and the politicisation of their management and interpretation.

As architecture is embedded with political messaging, I will adapt the conceptual framework of code-switching from linguistics to identify deviations in these structures from Mughal and Kachhwaha architectural vocabularies prior to their first sustained contact, map these departures and their agents against contemporary political developments, and assess the reception and broader social implications of these architectural switches within Mughal–Kachhwaha society.

Ultimately, the project seeks to address the question: Across spectrums of culture, religion, geography, gender, and skill sets, how do various agents negotiate with socio-political shifts and contribute to the construction of stable societies and their cosmopolitan architectural traditions?