The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.33.1

v3.c30.s1.33.1

To describe only those monuments of the Muslims that are situated at the main centres of their political power—at Delhi, for example, or Gaur or Ahmadābād or Māndū—is to give but an incomplete picture of their architectural achievements; for besides the capital groups whose history we have been sketching and others to be dealt with anon, there are scores of edifices in less important places that are well worthy of attention both from the historian and from the architect. Thus, at Bayāna, in the Bharatpur State, there is the *Ukha Mandir*—one of the earliest mosques erected (largely out of the spoils of Hindu shrines) by the Muslim conquerors, and afterwards converted into a temple; while hard by it is the *Ukha Masjid* built in the reign of Qutb-ud-dīn Mubārak Shāh (1316-20) and a worthy example of Khaljī architecture. In Mewār, again, there is the fine arched bridge over the Gamberi River at Chitor built by ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī, when he besieged and took that city in A.D. 1303; and further west, in the Jodhpur State, are several buildings of no little merit. One of these is the *Atarkin-ka-Darwāza* in the old town of Nāgaur—a lofty gateway embellished, in the manner of the Arhāī-din-ka-Jhomprā screen at Ajmer, with a medley of geometric and flowing arabesques. The original structure appears to date from the first half of the thirteenth century, but to have been restored during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325-51) and again added to in the sixteenth century¹.