The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.377

v3.c20.377

Tughluq, following the example of other founders of dynasties at Delhi, had left an interesting monument of his short reign in the fortress capital of Tughluqābād, which he built for himself on a rocky eminence nearly ten miles to the south of the site afterwards selected by Shāh Jahān for his city. He founded this town immediately after his ascent to the throne and completed it before he received the news of the conquest of Telingāna. ‘Here,’ said Ibn Batūtah, ‘were Tughluq’s treasures and palaces, and the great palace which he had built of gilded bricks, which, when the sun rose, shone so dazzlingly that none could gaze steadily upon it. There he laid up great treasures, and it was related that he constructed there a cistern and had molten gold poured into it so that it became one solid mass, and his son Muhammad Shāh became possessed of all of it when he succeeded him.’ Tughluq’s mausoleum in red sandstone and white marble, connected with his town by a bridge carried on arches, and the massive walls of his fort still remain, but no palace now dazzles the eye, and the once brilliant town is entirely deserted.