The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.27

v3.c30.s1.27

Whether Hūshang's tomb which stands at the rear of the *Jāmi‘ Masjid* was begun by himself and finished by Mahmūd Khaljī or whether, as Firishta states, it was entirely the work of the latter is doubtful, but considerations of style are in favour of Hūshang himself having been the author. Whoever it may have been, the conception marked a new departure; for it was the first great tomb in India made wholly of white marble and in other respects also it differed from its predecessors, one specially pleasing feature of its design being the broad expanse of dome in relation to the interior of the tomb chamber, and another the happy transition, effected by means of an intervening terrace, helped out by corner engaged cupolas, between the extrados of the dome and the square sub-structure below¹. The murder of Muhammad Ghaznī Khān in 1436 by his *Wazīr* and the transfer of the sovereignty from the Ghūrī to the Khaljī line did not affect the continuity of the local school of architecture. Mahmūd was as energetic a builder as Hūshang had been. Already in 1432 his father, Mughīs-ud-Dunyā (Malik Mughīs) had erected the elegant mosque still known by his name, constructing it with skill and taste largely out of Hindu materials. Mahmūd himself, as we have seen, completed the *Jāmi‘ Masjid* and the tomb of Hūshang, but besides these he also commemorated his conquest of Chitor in 1443¹ by erecting a vast group of buildings opposite the front of the *Jāmi‘ Masjid*, comprising a College, a Tower of Victory and a mausoleum for the Khaljī family. The tomb², like that of Hūshang, was of white marble within and without and probably of much the same form, but freely adorned with carving and coloured tilework and with inlays of black and yellow marble, jasper and agate and cornelian. It stood in the middle of a lofty plinth, some ninety yards square by nine in height with a smaller projection on its western side. At each of the four corners of the plinth was a tower, the one at the north-west corner larger than the other three; and ranged along the sides of the plinth were long series of apartments screened in front by arched colonnades. These apartments constituted the College of Mahmūd, and the great tower of seven storeys (*haft manzil*) at the north-west corner was his ‘Tower of Victory.’ Tower and tomb crumbled to ruin long ago and the remains that have lately been exhumed (Pl. XXXIV) are too fragmentary to be reconstructed in all their original detail. They suffice, however, to show that Mahmūd’s work, though closely akin in style, tended to be more elaborate than that of his predecessor and they suggest that it was he rather than Hūshang who was the author of the *Jahāz Mahall*³ (figured in Pl. XXXIV) which, with its fine arched halls, its roof pavilions and boldly designed reservoirs still forms one of the most conspicuous landmarks in Māndū.