The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.389

v3.c20.389

It was probably the rebellion of Gurshāsp that impressed upon Muhammad the desirability of a more central situation than that of Delhi for the capital of a kingdom which included the Deccan and the Peninsula, and it was now, in 1327, that he decreed that Deogīr, which he renamed Daulatābād, or the abode of wealth, should replace Delhi as the capital. Not only the great officers of state and the courtiers but apparently also provincial governors were commanded to build for themselves houses at Daulatābād, to send their families thither, and to make it their home. The king spared neither pains nor expense to beautify his new capital and to make it a worthy substitute for Delhi. Spacious bazars were laid out and handsome buildings erected, and Ibn Batūtah, who visited Daulatābād several years later, described it as a great and magnificent city, equal to Delhi. But the king's greatest work was the marvellous citadel, an ancient stronghold of the rajas of Deogīr, which was strengthened and improved by him. The fort, probably as Muhammad left it, was described as follows, more than three centuries later, by 'Abu-ul-Hamīd Lāhori, the official chronicler of Shāh Jahān's reign. 'This lofty fortress, the ancient names of which were Deogīr and Dhārāgīr, and which is now known as Daulatābād, is a mass of rock which raises its head towards heaven. The rock has been scarped throughout its circumference, which measures 5000 legal yards, to a depth which ensures the retention of water in the ditch at the foot of the escarpment. The escarpment is so smooth and even that neither an ant nor a snake could scale it. Its height is 140 cubits, and around its base a ditch forty cubits in width and thirty in depth has been dug in the solid rock. Through the centre of the hill a dark spiral passage like the ascent of a *minār*, which it is impossible to traverse, even in daylight, without a lamp, had been cut, and the steps in this passage are cut out of the rock. It is closed at the foot of the hill by an iron gate, and after passing through this and ascending the passage one enters the citadel. At the head of the passage is a large grating of iron which is shut down in case of necessity, and when a fire is lighted upon it the ascent of the spiral passage becomes impossible owing to the intense heat. The ordinary means of reducing fortresses, such as mines, covered ways, batteries, etc., are useless against this strong fortress.'