One of the first requirement of the rulers in India were Houses to Live in and place for worship. For place of worship they first converted temples and old building into mosques. They redecorated with scrolls of flowers and verse from Quran. Soon, the Turks started constructing their own houses and buildings, using indigenous craftsmen, stone-cutter and masons, etc. Later, some master architects were brought from West Asia.
In their buildings, The Turks used the arch and dome on wide scale which were borrowed from the Rome through the Byzantine Empire. The Muslims developed and made them their own. The arch and dome did away with the need for large pillars to support the roof and enabled the construction of large hall with clear view. The Turks used fine quality Lime Mortar in their buildings. Thus, new architectural forms and mortar of superior kind became wide spread in north India with the arrival of the Turks.
In sphere of decoration, the Turks used geometrical and floral designs, combining them with inscriptions of Quran. The combination of these decorative device is knows as Arabesque. They also free borrowed Hindu motifs. The skill of the Indian stone-cutters was fully used for this purpose. They also added colours to their buildings by using red sandstone. Yellow sandstone or marble were used in the building and to show off the colour of the red sandstone.
The most famous and most magnificent building built by the Turks was the minar tower adjacent to Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. It was started by Qutbuddin Aibak and completed bu Illtutmish and was called mazana. It was later known as Qutb Minar. Originally it was only four storey, Firuz Tughlaq added the fifth storey. The beauty of the minar lies in the skillful manner in which the balconies are contrasted by using a device called stalactite honey-combing.the
The growth of building activities under Illtutmish is shown by the wide range of buildings belonging to this period. His own tomb is an indication of a mixture of the Hindu and Muslim traditions of architecture. By the 13th century, we see the first true arch in the plain and simple tomb of Balban.
Alluddin Khalji built his capital at Siri,near Qutb site. Unfortunately, hardly any of the city survives now. He added an entrance door to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. This was the first time that the horse-shoe-arch was used.
Ghiyasuddin and Mohammad- bin Tughlaq built the huge palace fortress complex called Tughlaqabad. By blocking the passage of the Yamuna river they created a large artificial lake around it. The tomb of Ghiyasuddin marks a new trend in architecture. It was built on high platform and had marble dome. A striking features of the Tughlaq architecture was the sloping walls. This is called batter, and gives the effect of strength and solidity to the building. They used grey-stones which was cheaper and easily available instead of the costly red sandstones. Thick lime plaster was used, thus most Tughlaq building have minimum decoration. But the decorative device found in all the buildings of Firuz is the lotus. Most of their mosques were of undressed stone and lime plaster, the pillars were thick and heavy, hence not very elegant.
The Lodis continued the Tughlaq traditions of using rubble or undressed stone and lime plaster. A new devise which appear in India for the first time was the double dome as in the tomb of Sikandar Lodi. Another architectural devise which was used for the first time was the octagonal tomb. The Lodis placed their building especially tombs, on high platform, some in the mist of the garden.
By the time of the break up of the Delhi Sultanate, individual styles of architecture had also developed in the various kingdoms in different parts of India. The 15th century not only saw an outburst of architectural activity but coming together of the Muslim and Hindu traditions. Attempt were made to combine the style of architecture which had developed at Delhi with regional architectural traditions.
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