The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.39

v3.c30.39

Of the many monuments of Fīrūz Shāh which have survived at Delhi, the most considerable is the Kotla Fīrūz Shāh: the palace-fort or citadel which the Emperor built within his new city of Fīrūzābād¹. If credence can be given to the description of Shamsi-Sirāj, the city was more than double the size of Shāhjahānābād, extending from the ridge on the north almost as far as the Hauz-i-Khās on the south and embracing a large part of modern Delhi. Among other edifices it is said to have boasted eight public mosques and one private mosque, besides three palaces and several royal hunting boxes. It is not unlikely, however, that the size and magnificence of the city were much overstated by contemporary historians; for their accounts find little confirmation in the few monuments that chance has preserved, while, on the other hand, they are discounted by the fact that Old Delhi and its extensions were still the centre of civic life in the time of Tīmūr. Of the Kotla and its various buildings, as they once appeared, a graphic picture is afforded by Mr Page's bird's-eye view (Pl. IX). Noteworthy features of its fortifications are the machicoulis which now for the first time make their appearance in India, and the absence of any raised berm or gallery to give access to the double lines of loopholes—a phenomenon that can only be accounted for on the assumption that the berms were constructed, or intended to be constructed, of wood. Within the walls the best preserved monuments are the *Jāmi‘ Masjid* and a pyramidal structure crowned by a pillar of Asoka. The former was an imposing building of two storeys, with arcades and chambers on three sides of the ground floor and with deep triple aisles (now fallen) around the open court of the mosque above. Its other features—rubble and plaster masonry, high bare walls, multiplicity of small domes, squinch arches, battlemented neckings and crestings—all these are typical of the prevailing style and call for no particular remark. The pillar of Asoka which stood in front of the mosque came from the village of Tobrā in the Ambāla district and was one of two such pillars which Fīrūz Shāh erected at Delhi; the other, which was brought from the neighbourhood of Meerut, being set up in the *Kūshk-i-Shikār* palace on the ridge. The methods adopted for lowering, transporting and re-erecting this famous monolith are described at length by Shams-i-Sirāj, who relates how it was lowered on to beds of silk cotton, encased in reeds and raw skins, and hauled to the banks of the Jumna on a carriage with 42 wheels; how the Sultan came to meet it in person and how it was then transferred to boats and so taken to Fīrūzābād. He tells, too, of how it was lifted, stage by stage, on to the top of the pyramid, and there with the help of windlasses and stout ropes raised to the perpendicular. Evidently the shifting and setting up of this pillar was regarded as a remarkable feat of engineering, and considering the indifferent mechanical appliances then available, the engineers had every reason to be proud of their achievement. It may be remarked, however, that the weight of the pillar was less than 40 tons—a very insignificant bulk compared with the 700 or 800 ton blocks handled with no better contrivances by the Romans at Baalbek, or the still heavier blocks used by the ancient Egyptians.