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Akbar's tomb is a medley of architectural styles, displaying more interest in experimentation than harmony of design. The sloping dripstones, finials surmounting all the domes, balcony windows and pierced screens are all indigenous Hindu elements of architecture. Based on the pillar and beam principle, the tomb is built like a wedding cake in tiers, using the carved columns and brackets typical of Hindu construction to create the openings on the upper levels. But the pointed arches surrounding the base are Islamic, as are the inlaid geometric designs around the archways.
India's craftsmen were masters of stone-carving and the art of inlay, preferring graceful organic motifs from nature to the more formal geometric and stylized floral designs of Persian origin. Built by Jahangir, the tomb shows far less of the deep figurative stone-carving employed so prolifically at Akbar's Red Fort in Agra, but several of the domes and the arched ceiling of the tomb give a spectacular display of colorful patterns created with the exuberant fluidity that is the mark of Hindu craftsmanship.
"Akbar was a very eccentric king," says art historian Shobita Punja, "and a very great emperor of course, and he chose to synthesize a lot of Indian culture into his own culture and philosophy. He had very eclectic taste. The predominance of Hindu elements on Akbar's tomb reflects the liberalism of the patron who had allowed these craftsmen to implement their own ideas and personifies the wise emperor who had fostered cooperation among all his subjects."
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