A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.122

c21.122

Only two monuments can be ascribed with confidence to the period from 1294 to 1347—the Jami Masjid at Daulatabad (c. 1315) and the Deval Mosque at Bodhan of the reign of Muhammad Tughlak. But both are only adaptations of Hindu shrines and have no real bearing on the history of Islamic art. There was much sound work during this period on the fortification of strongholds, as at Daulatabad; but the history of military architecture has not yet been properly studied, and it is difficult to discriminate clearly between the work of successive periods or even between Hindu and Muslim. In Daulatabad (Pl. XVIII), for instance, Yādava, Tughlak and Bāhmani work met and combined. The inner citadel stands on an isolated rock 600 feet high. The outer wall is 2¼ miles in perimeter and in between the two there are three inner walls, all loop-holed and battlemented and furnished with fortified gateways, outworks and bastions, and so arranged that the maximum of fire could be concentrated on an assailant. In addition, a moat below the glacis surrounded the outer wall. The Bāhmanis did much for military architecture as they had powerful enemies on all sides. Among the more important fortresses are Ellichpur, Gawilgarh and Narnala in the north of Berar; Mahur, in Adilabad district, which served to keep in check the highland chieftains of Satpura and the wild tribes beyond the Wardha river; Parenda, Nāldurg, Panhala and Gulbarga itself in the west; Bidar in the centre; Wārangal and Golconda towards the east; and Mudgal and Raichur in the south-west corner. Some of these were taken over from conquered Hindu states but so transformed as to retain little of their original character. Raichur, for instance, was built in 1294 by a Hindu chieftain and Mudgal was once the seat of local Yādava governors. Bidar has walls 50 feet high and three miles in circumference, provided with battlements, bastions and outworks, all solidly constructed, and protected further by a triple ditch hewn out of solid rock. Parenda, a smaller fort traditionally ascribed to Mahmud Gawan, is remarkable for the singular efficiency of its defences. It is a clear case of imitation from European models in military engineering probably due to foreigners, Turks and others, in Bāhmani service. But the architectural style is essentially local and ‘combines sincerity of purpose with an innate sense for the decorative’ (Marshall).