TUGHLAQ DYNASTY

• Tughlaqabad

• Tomb of Giyas-ud-din Tughlaq

• Feroz Shah Kotla

• Khirki Masjid

• Hauz Khas

• Tomb of Telangani

TUGHLAQABAD FORT

Tughlaqabad Fort is a ruined fort in Delhi, stretching across 6.5 km, built by Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, the founder of Tughlaq dynasty, of the Delhi Sultanate of India in 1321.Its a massive structure that lies along the Mehrauli-Badarpur road.

PLAN OF TUGHLAQABAD FORT

• The pentagon shaped like plan is guarded with parapet walls that support massive cone-shaped bastions at every intersection.• The borderline walls are inclined inward and stand tall at a height of 11.75 meters seen with continuous battlements furnish with crenels. •The arch shaped corridors and concave chambers stretch along the interiors of the courts borderline wall.

WHY IT IS CREATED?

• The massive fortifications of Tughlaqabad, with immense circular bastions, were raised by Ghiyas-ud-din to protect his subjects.

• One of the primary concerns of Ghiyas-ud-din was to build a capital that was strong enough to repulse Mongol attacks and provide security to its citizens. Hence, in a short period of four years, the massive Tughlaqabad Fort was constructed.

CONSTRUCTION

• The fort of Tughlaqabad was completed rapidly in a short span of four years (1321–25). The fort’s massive battlements and bastions (some as high as 15–30 m, built of enormous blocks of stone and walls 10 m thick in places)

• Within its sky-touching walls, double-storied bastions, and gigantic towers were housed grand palaces, splendid mosques, and audience halls

MILITARY STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE

• The crumbling ruins of the Tughlaqabad Fort convey a sense of lost grandeur. The massive ramparts, battlements, and the mammoth stonework of this fort speak highly of the engineering skills of the workers who constructed it. The fort served the dual purpose of a defensive structure as well as the imperial capital of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaqdynasty. There are a number of monuments within the precincts of this massive fort.

Rampart Leading to the Fort Entrance

WALLS

• the walls are thick, sloping and high, capable of withstanding Mongol attacks. Rubble masonry is used to make up the shape of the structure, with huge sandstone blocks, probably quarried from the surrounding hills, enveloping the rubble.

WALLS

Circular Bastion with Defensive Barbican-like Parapet

Pointy Barbicans Surround the Tomb Complex

PARTS• Tughlaqabad is divided into three parts :

1. a palace section

2. a citadel and

3. a residential city.

Ruins of the Palace Complex Arch within Palace Complex

• moving east from the main entrance to the fort brings one to the citadel. This is probably the best preserved area of the Fort, and houses a few interesting structures. Walking up the pathway to the citadel, there are several defensive parapets and circular bastions that are brought into close view.

• The most interesting structure within the fort is -an underground passageway

with chambers along the length linking to the palace area.

• There is a building with a roof – the only one in the fort that is still complete. It has been conjectured that it functioned as a house.

TOMB OF GHIYAS-UD-DIN TUGHLAQ

• is situated in the south of the fortress of Tughlaqabad

• built by Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq in AD 1325 within an unusual irregular pentagonal fortified enclosure

• The structure of this simple but elegant building

Tomb of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq (foreground) and Zafar Khan (small dome in background)

• The plan was dictated by the contours of the hillock just outside the southern gates of the fortress over which this barbican-like structure was planted.

• The tomb is connected to the fortress by a 228.6 m long causeway, that was supported by 26 piers and arches and crossed over the artificial lake connecting his Tomb with his Fort, but today lake or water reservoir is dry scrubland.

• Within the Court and diagonally placed is the Tomb of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq seen as a square shaped rubble like stonework structure with the absence of any decorations or carvings on its exterior portion, however, the interior is overlaid with red sandstone and a decorative white marble.

• Distinctive 75 degree camber of its outer walls,(20 sq metres ) area of tomb andHeight of tomb is 24 metres

• The interior diameter 10.41 metres while the exterior diameter measures 13.41 metres and it is dressed with a pointed dome that rests on the intersection of small arched corners.

THE ARCH AND LINTEL

• The most characteristic of these is the mixed attitude of the Hindu builder to the arched form of construction and the lintel and beam method.

• In spite of using true arch to span the openings,a redundant stone lintel was installed just below the springing of the arch.

KALASA OVER THE MUSLIM DOME

• The Dome is crowned with the KALASA pinnacle and hence depicts Hindu architectural influences as seen in Hindu Temples across Delhi.

GRAVE

• Here lie the remains of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, his wife , Begam MakhdimaJehan, and his son and later Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

FIROZ SHAH KOTLA

FIROZ SHAH KOTLA

• Built by the famous ruler, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughluq in the year 1354, it is a typical structure of that era.

• Sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaqestablished Ferozabad and FerozShah kotla.

• Feroz Shah Kotla was the grand and opulent royal citadel of the city.

Ruins of Palace

• The walls of the citadel are as high as 15 metres high and have a slight slope on the outside. The top parapets or merlons have now disappeared but the arrow slits can still be seen.

• The entrance has a huge iron gate with a board that bears the name of Feroz Shah Kotla.

• The boundary walls of the fort, built as a stone masonary, are as high as 15 metres.• Inside the fort you will find a number of ruined structures, of which the Mosque

and the Baoli (step well) are still recognizable. • The Ashoka Pillar which stands tall on the top of a pyramidal three-tiered structure.

The 13 metres high pillar, which was brought by Feroz Shah Tughlaq from Ambalato Delhi, bears the edicts of Ashoka’s principles.

PYRAMIDAL STRUCTURE

• It is a three-storey building which was specially commissioned by Feroz Shah to support the Ashoka pillar.

• The pillar had several edicts regarding Ashoka's principles of government inscribed on it.

ASHOK PILLAR

• This monolith pillar is 13 metreshigh, with a diameter of 65 centmetres at the top and 97 centimetres at the bottom.

• It was crowned by a capital of coloured stones and a golden globe with a crescent on top.

JAMI MASJID

• Built inside Feroz Shah’s Kotla, Jami Masjid used to be one of the largest mosques of the Tughlaq period. However, most of the structures such as the prayer hall and walkways have vanished.

• It was built on a series of underground cells and made of quartzite stone covered with lime plaster and surrounded by a huge courtyard with cloisters and a Prayer Hall.

• The entrance of Jama Masjid lies on the northern side and was connected by a causeway to the pyramidal structure of the Ashokan Pillar.

BAOLI

• The circular Baoli, which means 'step well', lies towards the north western side of the Ashokan Pillar and in the heart of a large garden constructed in the form of subterranean apartments and a large underground canal built on its eastern side through which the water runs into the well.

BAOLI

• This Baoli served as a summer retreat for the Royalties where they spent time cooling off and bathing in the water of this well.

KHIRKI MASJID

• Enterance of khirki masjid in south.• The word 'Khirki' prefixed to masjid is an

Urdu word that means "window" and hence is also called "The Masjid of Windows"

• The Masjid, which is in a quadrangular shape, was built as a fortress with an unusual fusion of Islamic and traditional Hindu architecture.

THE LAYOUT

• Instead of a one big open courtyard, the mosque has four smaller square courtyards measuring 30 Ft x 30 Ft. Due to the modern day construction found all around, little sunlight filters in through the lattices on the upper floors.

• Another interesting aspect of this mosque is its design of the terrace. Partitioned into 25 squares of equal size, each square has 9 domes on each side, measuring 81 in all & these square blocks are alternated by 12 flat roofs, giving a very distinct shadow upon the interiors. One can take the eastern flank stairs to reach the roof & a visit is imperative to comprehend the mathematical beauty of its design.

HAUZ KHAS

• The name Hauz Khas in Urdu language is derived from the words -‘Hauz’: “water tank” (or lake) and‘Khas’:“royal”- the “Royal tank”

HAUZ KHAS

• The notable structures built by Firuz Shah on the eastern and northern side of the reservoir consisted of the Madrasa (Islamic School of Learning – a theological college), the small Mosque, the Main tomb for himself and six domed pavilions in its precincts, which were all built between 1352 and 1354 A.D.

• The madrasa complex measures 76 metres N-S by 138 metres along the E-W.The six individual domed pavilionsare all scattered in the gardens of the eastern part of the complex.

FIROZ SHAH’S TOMB

• Entry to the tomb is through a passage in the south leading to the doorway.

• The passage wall is raised on a plinth which depicts the shape of a fourteen-faced polyhedron built in stones.

• Three horizontal units laid over eight vertical posts that are chamfered constitute the plinth.

• Squinches and muqarnas are seen in the solid interior walls of the tomb and these provide the basic support to the octagonal spherical dome of the tomb.

• The dome with a square plan – 14.8 m (48.6 ft) in length and height – has a diameter of 8.8 m (28.9 ft).

• The tomb, a square chamber, is made of local quartzite rubble with a surface plaster finish that sparkled in white colour when completed. The door, pillars and lintels were made of grey quartzites while red sandstone was used for carvings of the battlements. The door way depicts a blend of Indian and Islamic architecture.

• Another new feature not seen at any other monument in Delhi, built at the entrance to the tomb from the south, is the stone railings.

• There are four graves inside the tomb, one is of Feruz Shah and two others are of his son and grand son.

PAVILIONS

Three Pavilions (Front View) Adjoining Complex

TOMB OF TELENGANI

• This was the tomb of firoz’s shah Prime Minister, Khan-E-Jahan Telangani, built in the Nizam-ud-din Auliya area.

• The tughlaq builders decided that since the inner space of a tomb served only the function of accommodating a gravemitneed not necessarily be square in plan but could very well be an octagon.

• The spread-out base provided by the surrounding veranda certainly lent visual credence to the structure.

• The entire composition is further appropriately graded by the installation of small kiosks along the base of the dome and over the veranda.

• Use of the typical Hindu chajja added a new dimension.