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The Alwar Quartzite Built Architectural Heritage of North India: a Case for Global Heritage Stone Resource Designation

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Abstract

The ‘Alwar Quartzite’ has been extensively used in several stone-built monuments in Delhi (capital city of India) and states of North India. Several monuments of Delhi in particular, built during the ‘pre-Sultanate period’ (eleventh century or earlier) to the British Raj in the late nineteenth century, have extensively utilised the Alwar Quartzite as the main building material. The use of the Alwar Quartzite as rubble masonry in the fortification of famous forts, such as the Purana Qila and the Tughlaqabad Fort, to the ashlar masonry in the British Barracks is more than evident in Delhi. During the Islamic rule, the locally available Alwar Quartzite was commonly used for the construction of tombs, mosques, victory towers, etc. within the precincts of Qutb Complex and Humayun’s Tomb Complex, the well-known UNESCO World Heritage sites, and also in the form of scattered monuments in the erstwhile city of Delhi. The Alwar Quartzite was an equally preferred building material by several Hindu rulers for the fortification of Amer, Jaigarh, Nahargarh, Bhangarh, Moti Dungri and several other forts in the north-eastern part of the Rajasthan State. Local availability and abundant supply of the Alwar Quartzite, coupled with its strength and durability, have been the prime consideration in making it an automatic choice as the main masonry stone in several architectural monuments in North India through disparate cultures and kingdoms. The Alwar Quartzite is a compact and almost monomineralic rock, mainly comprising recrystallised quartz. It is resistant to physico-chemical weathering and has high shear and compressive strength and has remained almost undamaged for more than 1000 years, as seen in several monuments. Such characteristics of this unique building material, used in North India in different time frames and by different cultural groups, render it a likely candidate for the designation of a GHSR from India.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support and help extended by Mr. Mukul Rastogi, CEO, Centre for Development of Stones (CDOS), during the execution of the project. We are grateful to Sh. Alok Jain, Superintending Geologist, Department of Mines and Geology, Rajasthan, for help in the sample collection of Alwar Quartzite at some locations. The authors are thankful to Sh. Manish Gupta, Lab Technician, CDOS, who conducted the physical and chemical tests on the samples. GK wishes to acknowledge Vice-Chancellor (Panjab University) and Chairman (Geology Department) for granting duty leave and facilities to conduct studies on Heritage Stones of India. Mr. Rajeev, Senior Technician, Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, is thanked for preparing thin sections for petrographic studies. Help received from officers and staff of ASI, Delhi Circle, during the visit to UNESCO sites of Delhi, is sincerely acknowledged. We are thankful to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    Gurmeet Kaur, Sanchit Garg, Parminder Kaur, Jaspreet Saini, Amritpaul Singh & Om N. Bhargava

  2. Centre for Development of Stones (CDOS), SP-8, Sitapura Industrial Area, Phase-IV, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

    Pradeep Agarwal

  3. Department of Geology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India

    Manoj Pandit

  4. Vardan EnviroNet, Jaipur, India

    Kireet Acharya

  5. Heritageshaala, Delhi, India

    Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

  6. Archaeological Survey of India, Dehradun Circle, Dehradun, India

    Manoj Kumar

  7. American Embassy School, Chandragupta Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, India

    Anuvinder Ahuja

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  1. Gurmeet Kaur
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Kaur, G., Agarwal, P., Garg, S. et al. The Alwar Quartzite Built Architectural Heritage of North India: a Case for Global Heritage Stone Resource Designation. Geoheritage 13, 55 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-021-00574-8

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