The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.41

v3.c30.41

A smaller, but architecturally more striking, group of monuments is that forming the College¹ and Tomb which Fīrūz Shāh built for himself at the Hauz-i-Khās on the remains of an older structure of ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī. Much of the College is now in ruins and its interior planning is too intricate to admit of detailed description here; it must suffice, therefore, to observe that the tomb is at the south-east corner of the lake and that the College buildings extend some 250 feet on its western and over 400 feet on its northern side; that the latter are double storeyed on the lake front, single storeyed behind; and that for the most part they consist of arcades or colonnades, two or three bays deep, interrupted at intervals by square domed halls. The happy grouping of these buildings as seen from the lake (Fig. 19), the effective combination in their façades of Hindu column and Muslim arch, and their exceptionally decorative appearance, all combine to place them on a higher plane than the other monuments of Fīrūz Shāh’s reign and to make of them, indeed, one of the most attractive groups at Delhi. The tomb of the Emperor, which is the central and dominating feature of the whole, is a square structure (44 ft. 6 in. externally) with slightly battering walls and is surmounted by a single dome raised on an octagonal drum. Its marble and sandstone cornice, battlements adorned with floral reliefs, and coloured plaster decorations of the interior, are part of the repairs executed by Sultān Sikandar Lodī at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but even without these later embellishments its simple dignity and unpretentiousness must always have commanded admiration.