Building Burhanpur: The Process of Constructing a Mughal City

Abstract

When Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) conquered Burhanpur, the capital of the Khandesh sultanate, in 1601, he catalyzed a decades-long process of transforming the city into a regional capital of the Mughal empire. In this essay, I argue that Mughal Burhanpur was constructed in three stages of spatial and architectural developments over the course of three decades. In the first stage, Akbar symbolically appropriated Burhanpur’s preexisting monumental architecture to demonstrate his conquest over the city. In the second stage, subimperial officers expanded the city through prolific patronage of civic architecture, most notably an underground canal system that carried fresh water several kilometers into the city. Lastly, when Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58) moved to the city in 1629, he implemented a new program of architectural construction that transformed Burhanpur from a provincial capital into an imperial one in just over two years. From symbolic appropriation to urban expansion and then to the implementation of an imperial architectural program, this three-part construction process ultimately transformed a town on the edge of an empire into a legible Mughal city.