Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s1.51

c16.s1.51

The architecture of Gwalior, annexed to the Sultanate in 1518, can be best described in one word—grandiose. Perched on a high hill, the fort and palace of Raja Mān Singh (1486-1518) and the palace added by his successor Vikramāditya, are the most remarkable examples of the Hindu architecture of northern India during the period under review. Bābur was struck by their beauty and wrote: "They are singularly beautiful palaces (of Mān Singh and his successor Vikramāditya), wholly of hewn stone. The palace of Mān Singh is more lofty and splendid than that of any other Rajas.... The five large domes are covered with plates of copper gilt. The outside of the walls they have inlaid with green painted tiles.”³³ The copper is gone, but the tiles still look exquisite. A visitor to Gwalior is even today struck by its grandeur, and Fergusson rightly remarks that these palaces furnished points of imitation to Mughal emperors as well as Hindu princes.³⁴