The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.52

v3.c30.s1.52

As stated above, the capital of the Bahmanīs was established first at Gulbarga and afterwards at Bīdar, and it is in these two cities that the most valuable materials are to be found for the study of their civil architecture. At Gulbarga, the two groups of royal tombs are particularly instructive. In the first group, which is situated near the south gate of the fort, are the tombs of 'Alā-ud-dīn Hasan, Bahman Shāh (d. 1358), Muhammad Shāh (d. 1375) and Muhammad Shāh II (d. 1397), besides two anonymous tombs of a later date; the second, which is known as the *Haft Gumbad* or 'Seven Domes' and is situate to the east of the town, contains the tombs of Mujāhid Shāh (d. 1378), Dā'ūd Shāh (d. 1378), Prince Sanjar, Ghiyās-ud-dīn (d. 1397) and his family, and Fīrūz Shāh (1422) and his family. In their general form all these tombs present a striking family likeness; the single ones, that is to say, are simple square chambers, crowned with battlements and corner turrets and roofed by a single dome, the whole standing on a low square plinth; while the double ones are merely a duplication of the single ones, resulting in a building twice as long as it is broad and covered by two domes instead of one. In their detail features, however, they clearly reveal the phases through which the architecture of the Deccan passed during this period. Thus, the tomb of the first king, Hasan, with its battering walls and low dome, its fluted turrets, tall narrow doorways and band of blue enamel tiles below the springers of the dome, is typical of the Tughluq style of Delhi; and the tombs of Muhammad Shāh, Mujāhid Shāh, Dā’ūd Shāh and Prince Sanjar are direct products of the same style. In the tomb of Ghiyās-ud-dīn, on the other hand, which was built in the closing years of the fourteenth century, Hindu craftsmanship begins to show in the carvings of the prayer-niche; and a generation later the splendid mausoleum of Fīrūz Shāh and his family (153'× 78' externally) bears witness to the steadily growing strength of this Hindu influence as well as to the new fashion for Persian ornament, the former obtruding itself on the outside of the building in the carved and polished black stone pilasters of the entrance and in the dripstones and elegant brackets that support them; the latter, in the resplendent plaster and painted decorations of the interior which are closely akin to those found in the contemporary tombs of the Sayyid and Lodī kings at Delhi and call to mind the rich designs of Persian bookbinding and embroidery.