The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.32

v3.c30.s1.32

Of the building enterprises of Ghiyās-ud-dīn Khaljī (1475–1500) nothing certain is known, but as he is reputed to have been the most pleasure-loving of all the kings of Mālwa, it is not unlikely that he was responsible for the Turkish baths, arcaded well, and other structures designed to increase the luxury of the royal seraglio at Māndū. Of Nāsir-ud-dīn, his son, our information is more exact. As it now turns out, he was the builder of the palace so long associated with the romantic name of Bāz Bahādur. This fact has been established by the finding of an inscription dated in the year 1508–09 on the entrance of the palace itself, which thus provides another fixed and interesting landmark in the history of the Māndū school. The palace is a well-designed structure, pleasing and unpretentious in appearance, free from shams or meretricious ornament and adequately adapted to its needs, but it has little of the bold epic quality of Hūshang’s or Mahmūd’s work. It illustrates, indeed, the decline of the Māndū style at the moment when it had lost most of its original dynamic energy, but still remained unaffectedly sincere in purpose.