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

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.