Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s1.15

c16.s1.15

The octagonal method of tomb-construction seems to have been confined to the royal family. The square-plan type of tomb was, perhaps, reserved for nobles and others of high rank, although some of them are even larger and more imposing than the royal tombs. The square type curiously enough found favour during the Saiyyad and Lodī time only, and all its examples fall within the fifteenth century. In Delhi and its neighbourhood there are at least seven such mausoleums. They are now known by their local names only, and it is difficult to say whose memory they commemorate. They are Barē Khan Ka Gumbad (or Dome), Chhotē Khan Ka Gumbad, Bara Gumbad, Shīsh Gumbad, Tomb of Shihābuddīn Tāj Khan, Dādī Ka Gumbad and Polī Ka Gumbad:⁹ They are square solid buildings with domes carried on squinch arches and an octagonal pillared kiosk (light open *chhatrī*) on each corner of the roof.