George Michell
Dr George Michell is a researcher, with work ranging from surveys of town planning and Islamic buildings to detailed studies of temple architecture and sculpture, especially in southern India and the Deccan. During the 1980s and 1990s he and the American archaeologist Dr John M. Fritz co-directed a detailed survey of the medieval Hindu site of Hampi-Vijayanagara in Karnataka. He has published extensively and among his most recent volumes are Late Temple Architecture of India, 15th to 19th Centuries, and, with Helen Philon, Islamic Architecture of the Deccan, India.
Islamic Architecture of the Deccan: Bujapur and Golconda
From the 14th to the 18th centuries, rulers of the Muslim kingdoms of peninsular India were among the greatest builders of their time in the Islamic world. Their monuments endure to this day as testimony to vast power, immense wealth and cultural cosmopolitanism. This lecture will concentrate on those of Bijapur and Golconda, two of the most influential Deccan kingdoms. After vanquishing Vijayanagara in 1565 and seizing the treasury of this great Hindu capital, the Adil Shahis of Bijapur and Qutb Shahis of Golconda embarked upon a series of ambitious constructional projects. A selection of the citadels, tombs, mosques and palaces that they built forms the subject of this lecture, which will be illustrated with wonderful photographs by Antonio Martinelli.
