History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c65.s3: § 4. City of Bijapur described.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c65.s3
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§ 4. City of Bijapur described.
v4.c65.s3.1
As the traveller enters the Bijapur district from its northern boundary near Sholapur, he passes through a vast desolate plain, absolutely treeless, uncultivated and untenanted by man as far as the eye can see. For forty miles this stretch of country is a monotonous succession of low wavy uplands which grow a crop of millet during the three months of rain but are covered with dry dust-coloured grass or expose large patches of black trap-rock for the rest of the year. Hidden deep among the uplands are the beds of some streams, with a few trees and hamlets and patches of cultivation, forming a pleasing oasis in the surrounding desert. The landscape is extremely depressing by reason of its barrenness and dreary by reason of its monotony; even the villages look deserted on account of their ruined battlements and houses with flat mud roofs and blind walls all around.
v4.c65.s3.2
Half way across this plain the southern horizon is first seen to be pierced by a gigantic faint white bubble,—the largest dome in the world, standing 300 feet above the ground, which dominates the entire landscape. It is the Gol Gumbaz or tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah. Coming nearer, as the railway climbs up from a dip in the ground, Bijapur suddenly bursts into view like a dream city, with its strange mingling of beauty and melancholy, its sadly impressive grandeur derived from palace and tomb. "Far on every side the country is covered with buildings of varied shapes in different stages of decay. A number of tombs, mosques, palaces and towers lie scattered in every direction. To the right (i.e., north-west of the city), the white domes of Pir Amin's tomb gleam in the sunlight, a brilliant contrast to the dark grey ruins in the foreground. In front lie the city's massive walls and bastions, with here and there a stately building towering over the fortifications, while on the left the colossal proportions of the Gol Gumbaz dwarf its surroundings. Still further to the left (i.e., north-east of the city), the plain outside is dotted with tombs, among which is conspicuous the massive dark grey mausoleum of Ain-ul-mulk." (Bomb. Gaz. xxiii.)
v4.c65.s3.3
∗ A contemporary official return (Zawabit, 138) tells us that Aurangzib assembled at the siege of Bijapur, 2900 barqandazes, 23 027 ahsham, 110 pieces of artillery, 40 gajnal, 154 shutarnal, 404 (?) banduq, and 7561 maunds of powder The Chahar Gulshan (89a) says that 77,105 horse and foot was the armed strength of the besiegers
v4.c65.s3.4
The city walls enclose two and a half square miles of land, forming an ellipse. After crossing the deep moat, 40 to 50 feet broad, we meet the massive and strong walls, varying in height from 30 to 50 feet, with an average thickness of 20 feet and strengthened with 96 bastions besides ten at the gates. The broad masonry platform, which constitutes the top of the walls all around the fort, was protected inside by a battlemented curtain wall ten feet high running from bastion to bastion and loopholed for artillery and small arms. The strongest bastions are three, namely the Lion Tower (Sharzi Burj) on the west, built in 1658, and containing the famous cannon Malik-i-maidan; the Landa Kasab Burj in the south wall, completed in 1662, and armed with the largest gun at Bijapur; and the Firangi Burj, built by a Portuguese general in 1576 with extreme durability and massiveness. Aurangzib seems to have let the Sharzi Burj alone and directed the whole fire of his artillery against the Landa Kasab tower, pitted it with shot-marks, and breached the curtain wall close by. Between this tower and the Firangi Burj is the Mangali gate, which was renamed Fath Darwaza after Aurangzib's victorious entrance into the city through it. In the plain outside, some distance south of this gate, stands the tomb of Ikhlas Khan, a convenient advanced post for the besiegers, which changed hands repeatedly during the siege, as its battered condition graphically tells the visitor to this day. As for the five large gateways in the city wall, they were impregnable with the siege appliances known in the 17th century and Aurangzib wisely made no attempt to force them.
v4.c65.s3.5
In the heart of the city there is an inner fortification, called the *qila ark* or citadel, forming a circle about a mile in circumference and "a perfect treasury of artistic buildings. Its defences are a strong curtain, with, on the south and east, several bastions of considerable strength, a *fausse braye* or rampart mound and ditch, the whole well-built and massive. The *fausse braye* is very wide, especially on the north and north-west, where a second wet ditch was cut at the foot of the rampart, which on these sides was very low." But "the site of the citadel is unfavourable. It is almost the lowest part of the city and is commanded by the rising ground on the north-west, on which is built the *Upri Burj*. It seems unlikely that such a citadel could have ever stood for any time against an enemy armed with artillery who had forced the city fortifications." But all the royal palaces and public offices of the Adil Shahs were situated within this inner enclosure. (Bomb. Gaz. xxiii.)