Indo-Saracenic Architecture

Indo-Saracenic architecture, also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic or Neo-Mughal, is a revivalist architectural style used chiefly by British architects for public and government buildings in India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, under the British Raj and in the palaces of allied princely states. Its buildings generally follow the underlying plans of contemporary Western revival styles such as Gothic Revival and Neoclassicism while applying decorative elements drawn from native Indo-Islamic architecture, above all the Mughal tradition, which British architects regarded as India's definitive historic style, producing features such as onion domes, cusped and horseshoe arches, chhatri rooftop kiosks, minarets, and pierced jali screens. European interest in Indian building forms dates to around 1795, spread through the work of artists such as William Hodges and the Daniell family, and the Chepauk Palace in Madras, completed in 1768, is often identified as the earliest Indo-Saracenic building; construction peaked between 1880 and 1947. Bombay and Calcutta became the style's principal centers under Raj administration, and its influence also reached Sri Lanka, Malaysia and, in a handful of examples such as the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, completed between 1787 and 1823, Britain itself.