Surkhej, a pleasure, religious and mortuary complex, was originally used "as a royal retreat from the heat and bustle of the city—in part for contemplation, in part for pleasure. Upon the death of the monarch it became a religious and mortuary complex."

The concept of formal structure consisted of "a ring system for the collection of the dissimilar and to some extent indeterminate elements."

—Deborah Fritz from Klaus Herdeg. Formal Structure in Indian Architecture. p23, 25.

"According to one historian, the Saint's Tomb was erected first (in 1446), followed by the mosque. Later, the reservoir was excavated and the palaces and royal tombs added (finished in 1451)."

"The style of building is categorized by historians as 'purely Hindu.'"

"All superstructures (are of) post-and-lintel construction, in brownish-gray sandstone, which imitated the idiom of wood construction."

"Ornamentation is limited to local areas such as pillars and capitals, prayer niches, horizontal bands on walls, cornices, and platform edges. The use of perforated stone screens was extensive."

"The layout of the entire complex was generated by a system of proportions and axes which is based on a square... The religious complex is structured by a hierarchical progression of levels. The entrance is located on the lowest and the mosque on the highest level."

—Klaus Herdeg. Formal Structure in Indian Architecture. p23, 25.