MHI-10 Urbanisation in Indira Gandhi National Open University School of Social Sciences

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4 (Part 2) URBANISATION IN MEDIEVAL INDIA-1 UNIT 17 Sultanate and Its Cities 5 UNIT 18 Regional Cities 29 UNIT 19 Temple Towns in Peninsular India 63 UNIT 20 Southern Dimension : The Glory of Vijayanagara 80 UNIT 21 Sultanate Capital Cities in the Riverine Plain 105 Expert Committee

Prof. B.D. Chattopadhyaya Prof. Sunil Kumar Prof. P.K. Basant Formerly Professor of History Department of History Department of History Centre for Historical Studies , Delhi Jamia Milia Islamia, JNU, New Delhi Prof. Swaraj Basu Prof. Amar Farooqui Prof. Janaki Nair Faculty of History Department of History Centre for Historical Studies IGNOU, New Delhi Delhi University, Delhi JNU, New Delhi Prof. Harbans Mukhia Dr. Vishwamohan Jha Prof. Rajat Datta Formerly Professor of History Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm Centre for Historical Studies Centre for Historical Studies College JNU, New Delhi JNU, New Delhi Delhi University, Delhi Prof. Lakshmi Subramanian Prof. Yogesh Sharma Prof. Abha Singh (Convenor) Centre for Studies in Social Centre for Historical Studies Faculty of History Sciences, Calcutta JNU, New Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi Prof. Pius Malekandathil Dr. Daud Ali Centre for Historical Studies Centre JNU, New Delhi University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Course Coordinator : Prof. Abha Singh Programme Coordinator : Prof. Swaraj Basu Block Preparation Team Unit No. Resource Person Unit No. Resource Person 17 Prof. Abha Singh 19 Prof. Abha Singh Faculty of History Faculty of History School of Social Sciences School of Social Sciences Indira Gandhi National Indira Gandhi National Open University Open University New Delhi New Delhi 20 Dr. Ranjeeta Dutta Centre for Historical Studies 18 Dr. Pushkar Sohoni Jawaharlal Nehru University University of Pennsylvania New Delhi Philadelphia 21 Prof. Sunil Kumar Department of History University of Delhi, Delhi Material Production Illustrations Cover Design Mr. Manjit Singh Mr. Vimal Gaurav Sharma Mr. Anil Kumar Saxena Section Officer (Pub.) EMPC, IGNOU Mr. Vimal Gaurav Sharma SOSS, IGNOU New Delhi EMPC, IGNOU New Delhi November, 2017 © Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2017 ISBN : All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission in writing from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. “The University does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the academic content of this course provided by the authors as far as the copyright issues are concerned” Further information on Indira Gandhi National Open University courses may be obtained from the Univer- sity's office at Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110 068 or visit University's Website http://www.ignou.ac.in. Printed and published on behalf of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi by Director, School of Social Sciences. Lasertypesetted at Graphic Printers, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091. Printed at : BLOCK 4 URBANISATION IN MEDIEVAL INDIA - 1 The Arab conquest of and (712-13 CE) followed by the Ghazni and the Ghorid invasions, resulting in the establishment of the Turkish Sultanate, drastically modified the traditional institutions. The introduction of new politico-cultural institutions notably shaped and influenced the existing traditional fabric of the subcontinent. At the international scenario by 11th century there began shifts in Arab assaults towards Persia and the Persian Gulf. Thus during 8-12th centuries while Persian Gulf was the dominant route, with Venice being at the centre stage, the Red Sea lagged behind. With the Turkish and the Mongol attacks and unsettling of the Caliphate the Red Sea route through Egypt emerged prominent. Al-Fustat (Cairo) and Alexandria assumed importance, while Egypt and Syria became the core distribution centres. Cairo war now catching up with the eastern ports of Calicut and Aden, a trading link that thus far was primarily confined to the western coast via Persian Gulf. Red Sea added east- coast link via Malacca, which was soon to occupy the centre stage in China-India eastern trade. These encounters and developments greatly facilitated and accelerated the international trade, inturn enriching the hinterlands resulting in high degree of monetisation and urbanisation in the subcontinent. The resurgence of a variety of urban centres visible in the 9-10th centuries continued during the Sultanate period albeit at a much greater pace. Delhi brought a large part of the subcontinent under their sway. The peace following the establishment of the Turkish power helped traders and craftsmen. The introduction of new techniques and tools led to the emergence of new crafts which got further accelerated by the ‘liberation of craftsmen’ who were shackled by the jati restrictions. This ‘liberation’ contributed to craft mobility what Mohammad Habib has termed an ‘urban revolution’. New towns emerged and the existing ones were modified. Further, since the new ruling elite was largely city based; the large share of revenue resources from the rural areas were mobilised to the cities to meet the requirements of their armed retainers and large establishments. The luxurious lifestyle of the elites/nobility and their other needs accompanied with an increased demand for various commodities which in turn steered the emergence of new crafts as well as expansion of the existing ones. Moreover, state’s insistence on revenue returns in cash further speeded the monetisation process that facilitated the spurt in markets across the subcontinent in the fourteenth century. The Turkish conquest also radically altered the physical cityscape.The sovereigns, the royalty and the nobility belonged to a different faith – . Their requirements for worship were different resulting in and tombs to the cityscape. The new architectural forms, and and the introduction of good cementing material changed the skylines of the city, thus drastically transforming the cityscape. The Mongol invasions further unsettled the political scenario in Central Asia and resulting in the emigration of the Muslim literati to the Indian subcontinent. Soon north Indian cities acquired a cosmopolitan character (Unit 17). This process continued even after the decline of the Sultanate. The cities flourished across various regions. The new urban centres like Jaunpur, Gaur/Pandua, Mandu, , Gulbarga, Ahmadabad emerged in the fifteenth century (Unit 18). In the peninsular India medieval urbanism took a different trajectory. Here temples and ceremonial complexes were ‘institutionalised’ and townships emerged around them (Unit19). The awesome fascinating city of Vijayanagara, situated in a dramatic rocky terrain with its splendid ruins and the quintessential Sultanate city Delhi which represented the signet cities of the peninsular India and the Sultanate formed part of the discussions in Units 20 and 21. 4th Page Blank UNIT 17 SULTANATE AND ITS CITIES*

Structure 17.1 Introduction 17.2 Textual Representations of the Sultanate Cities 17.3 Debates 17.4 Process of Urbanisation 17.4.1 Iqtas 17.4.2 Monetisation 17.4.3 Capital Towns and Provincial Headquarters 17.4.4 17.4.5 Sarai, Thana (Military Outposts) and Forts 17.4.6 Mosques and Madrasas 17.4.7 Bazaars, Mandis 17.4.8 Karkhanas 17.5 Wave of New Towns 17.6 New Trends 17.6.1 Metropolitan Towns 17.6.2 Planned Cities: Changing Landscape and Skylines 17.6.3 Cosmopolitan Cities 17.6.4 Changing Demography 17.7 New Urban Ethos 17.7.1 New Urban Groups 17.7.2 Institution of Slavery and a New Urban Culture 17.8 Artisans and Labour 17.9 Trade and Urban Centres 17.10 Summary 17.11 Exercises 17.12 References

17.1 INTRODUCTION Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), Arab historian, believed that ‘royal authority’ and ‘’ were essential for building and planning of a city. Large cities and monuments could only be the effort of strong and influential authority/. Thus Ibn Khaldun sees cause (dynasty) and effect (cities) relationship between the towns. Its rise and fall too was closely intertwined with the fate of the dynasty: ‘If the dynasty is of short duration, life in the town will stop at the end of the dynasty…On the other hand, if the dynasty is of long duration and lasts a long time, new constructions will always go up in the town, the number of large mansions will increase, and the walls of the town will extend further and further’ (Ibn Khaldun, cited from Omer, 2011). The city was where knowledge flowed. Thus the primordial ‘Islamic city’ Medinah was addressed as ‘city of knowledge’ (madinat al-ilm).

* Prof. Abha Singh, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. 5 Urbanisation in Turks established their sway over in 1206 when Muizzi slave Qutbuddin Medieval India - 1 Aibak assumed power in Delhi. However, even much before the Turkish conquest, Muhammad Qasim’s onslaught in Sind made a deep impact on the layout of the Indian cities. With Turks, markers of the ‘Islamic cities’ started showing signs in the layout of north Indian cities in a big way. Here, my purpose is not to enter into a dialogue whether idea of ‘an Islamic city existed at all?’ what K. Brown calls it a ‘western notion’. Nonetheless there are some ‘typical’ features common to all the so-called ‘Islamic’ cities: a) the main (where weekly congregational prayers were to be performed) surrounded by the suq (the market); attached to which was the madrasa (school/ college). While mosque was central to religious life; bazaar (suq) was where centred the economic activities. b) the citadel (qasaba) with covered walls where resided the ‘goveror’/‘’ along with his administrative machinery and retinues. c) Residential quarters (later mohallas) often based on personal ties (ethnic, social, economic) generally had their own gates. d) There existed main street/s leading to network of sub-streets connecting the main street/s/mosque/fortress. e) The city was surrounded by a wall with a number of gates. f) The exterior of the city wall often possessed ‘weekly market’ along the main gate (vegetable, grain or animal markets) as well as the city was often surrounded by gardens, etc. Extreme weather conditions (excessive heat) resulted in narrow covered lanes and gardens. In socio-cultural life religious beliefs dominated giving the ‘mosque’ the central place in spatial settings. Again, the religious beliefs propagated the separation of public and private life as evident in spatial settings. Even the belief in gender separation resulted in segregation of male and female quarters. In the spatial structures the social organisation based on ethnic identities was instrumental in encouraging them to live in central places close to the mosque. However, shift in political power from shura [lit. consultation; technically the consultative decision making body] resulted in distancing of political quarters towards the ‘periphery’, away from the centre, in the form of ‘fortress’ ensuring security (Saoud, 2002: 4-7). Thus, though the concept of an ‘Islamic city’ is a contested terrain, my contention of using the term is solely in the context of added Islamic features in the landscape of Indian cities which were so far alien to India, and which prominently altered the landscape of the pre and post-Sultanate Indian towns. Makran in Sind, a region contiguous to Iran was the first to face the Arab onslaught in the 7th century CE. These early Arab attacks (643 and 712) brought major changes in the urban landscape of the Sind. Muhammad Qasim in his letter to Hallaj narrates, ‘It is hoped that all the forts of the infidels will be conquered and taken possession of, and in lieu of the kafirs’ place of worship, mosques and (Mussalman) prayer-houses will be built…’ At many places Muhammad Qasim built new mosques (Alor, ) (Chachnama, 1900).

17.2 TEXTUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE SULTANATE CITIES Ali Kufi has represented cities as centres of royal seats marked by the royal presence – palaces, gardens, fountains, etc. Kufi applauds Alor as a ‘beautiful and splendid city’ and informs that, ‘The town of Alor was the capital city of Hind and Sind. It was a town adorned with various kinds of royal buildings, villas, gardens, fountains, streams, meadows and trees [and was] situated on the bank of a river called Mehran.’ Kufi also represented cities as administrative headquarters and seats of governance (Brahminabad, Siwistan, Iskandah, Multan, Mattah). But what were profusely represented by Kufi were fortified towns (Babiah, Sikkah, Sikkah Multan, Multan, Debal, Sisam, Bhallor, Aghror, Bet, Bahror, Dahlelah, Ramal, Kurij, Siwistan) (Chachnama, 1900).

6 The city is represented often by Hasan Nizami (Taj-ul Maasir) where ‘feeling of plenty’ Sultanate and is there. He calls Delhi as ‘one of the principal cities of Hindustan’, ‘the land of bounty Its Cities and the (source) of delight’ and ‘the centre of prestige and prosperity’. applauds the grandeur of Delhi as chief centre of learning: ‘…the royal capital of Delhi had emerged as a great city and had become a source of envy for Baghadad and a cause of jealousy for Egypt, equal to Constantinople and comparable to Bait al-Maqdis (Jerusalem)…in every branch of learning’ (Barani, 2015: 209, 217). Sultanate sources also make clear distinctions between the rural and urban residents. They looked down upon their rural counterparts and frowned on them as rustics. Isami calls villagers as ‘impure, demons and unworthy’. He labelled city dwellers as ‘parrots and nightingales’ and villagers as ‘crows and ravens’. Tarikh-i Mubarakshahi mentions how people make fun of the villagers of their ‘simplicity and lack of urbanity’: when Shaikh-ul Islam Shaikh Nizamuddin once gave to the newly converts two dentrifices, having shown their ignorance to use them they were mocked by poet Ubaid. Similarly, Shaikh Rizqullah Mushtaqi also attests to that villagers could easily be identified ‘on account of their rusticity’ (Siddiqui, 2011: 198-199). Thus cities were often conceived as ‘culturally refined and symbols of civilisation’. This is in tune with Ibn Khaldun’s idea who also perceived the city as axis of civilisation. He believed: ‘see all the lands which the rural and Nomads [Bedouins] have conquered in the last few centuries civilisation and population have departed from them’ (Saoud, 2002: 2). Mohammad Habib also agreed that the cities became (following Turkish conquest) ‘the sole repositories of the country’s civic sense’ (Habib, 1952: 55).

17.3 DEBATES While K.M. Ashraf speaks about the changing skyline of the cities following Turkish conquest where the mosques, tombs and overshadowed the temples (Ashraf, 1970); Mohammad Habib puts forth theory of ‘urban revolution’ in northern India in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries following the Turkish conquest. He has interpreted Turkish conquest against the backdrop of the overarching weakness of the contemporary Indian society. He argues that ‘The India of the eleventh century was a country of fortified cities and towns and of fortified villages (mawas) and over them the control of the higher classes was supreme and exclusive. The condition of the workers or the producing classes, on the other hand, was tragic…the higher classes appropriated the cities and towns exclusively to themselves while the workers lived in unprotected villages and in settlements outside the city-walls’ (Habib,1952: 41-43). He argues that ‘The government of the rais had kept the Indian workers outside the city-walls. When the Turks entered the cities, low caste workers entered along with them. And they came to stay.’ ‘Indian city labour, both Hindu and Muslim, helped to establish the new regime’. Thus the new regime emancipated the labouring classes. ‘The cities, under the new regime, were developing into thriving centres of industry and commerce, and expansion and overcrowding were both inevitable’ (Habib, 1952: 55-70). However, Irfan Habib has questioned that workers and peasants hardly ‘enjoyed larger degree of emancipation’ following Turkish conquest as argued by Mohammad Habib (Habib, 1978: 287-303). Irfan Habib believes this expansion of urban economy and craft production was more of a result of technological innovations. Introduction of Persian wheel facilitated continuous water supply thus irrigating vast tracts became possible that in turn created surplus, so essential for the growth of towns. Similarly, introduction of charkha with crank-handle increased the production of the cotton yarn six fold. Introduction of the treadle (pit)-loom further facilitated the increase in the textile production (Habib, 1969). 7 Urbanisation in Naqvi attributes that during the 12-15th centuries European towns primarily developed Medieval India - 1 as merchant towns supported by huge inflow of working force which turned the character of medieval European towns from ‘ephemeral’ to ‘permanent’. In contrast, Sultanate towns were ‘sponsored for political reasons by the highly centralised state established at Delhi in 1206’. For her, list is almost unending – , Sialkot, Multan, Delhi, Hissar, Jaunpur, Ahmadabad, , . ‘…Though founded or developed primarily and initially as administrative centres…the Sultans of Delhi makes it abundantly clear that they were following a carefully worked out plan of urban growth. The material base of the rising towns was provided by commercial traffic and industrial prosperity.’ She even viewed the ‘growth’ of the towns as a result of state action, ‘by establishing internal peace and security, maintenance of law and order providing for a smooth administrative organism, urbanisation of industries, and improvement in communication system’. Sultans provided the essential ‘outlay’ ‘by way of repairs, extensions, or introduction of new constructions’. Clearly for Naqvi while European towns were sui generis, growth of Sultanate towns was state supported. She remarks since the growth of towns in the Sultanate period is ‘politically inspired’ its future too got twined with the ‘political vicissitudes’. The Portuguese blockade on the seas adversely effected growth of towns in the early 16th century. In the early 15th century while Ahmadabad had 360 puras as reported in Haft Iqlim which got reduced to 175 and later further the number came down to 80 as reported in the Ain-i Akbari. She contends ‘the inhabitants as a body were excluded from urban administration, the imperial deputies were entrusted with the task of running and regulating the urban structure.’ She argues while the principal economic activity of European towns was trade whereby 14th century industries started flourishing; while ‘in Hindustani towns the focus was on the commercialization of craft’; production centres were small in size ‘quite often belonged to the category of qasbah’ (Samana, Jaunpur, Sehwan, Sirohi) and only a few ‘urban centres emerge as carrying on the industrial production side by side with brisk commercial traffic’ (Lahore Multan, Ahmadabad Cambay); while some emerged as purely trading towns (Hugli, Bhakkar). Naqvi points out that Europeans’ oceanic superiority, accumulation of merchant capital, plenty supply of raw material, both from home and colonies, autonomy of towns all this ‘rather than numerical strength (which was quite moderate by 1500) that contained catalytic dimensions within their infrastructure’ (Naqvi, 1977: 362-369). Another view which has attracted the attention of the scholars during recent years is the issue of garrison towns: whether Sultanate towns were merely garrison towns? Andre Wink articulates Sultanate cities primarily as ‘garrison towns’ some of which evolved into ‘cities’. He has attributed this to the rise of ‘cash nexus’ and the ‘iqta’ system. He remarks that ‘iqtas’ could not be defined as ‘local territorial units but as garrisoned urban centres (khitta)’. He argues that these towns and cities ‘became the fulcrum of both the sedentary world and of nomadic, mobile wealth and expansion’ as well as ‘the nodal points of the money economy and the system of surplus mobilisation’. He argues that these ‘assignees, amirs of the slave household, commanded troops which were stationed in a garrison in the iqta’ (Wink, 1999: 212-213). He underlines that ‘…in the entire conquest area – from Lahore to Lakhnauti – similar pattern emerged…in the thirteenth century. The new horse-troop garrison towns established by the Turkish conquerors became centres of iqta management, aiming at the safeguarding of trade routes, markets, the subjugation of the marches, as well as at agrarian expansion, monetisation and regulation and rationalisation of land revenue collection’ (Wink, 1999: 264). He listed as many as eighteen such towns including Delhi, Gwalior, Multan, Uchh, Lahore, Kara Manikpur, and Lakhnauti. Sunil Kumar also argues that from its very inception, ‘Delhi was a collection of garrison towns commanded by senior military 8 commanders and former slaves (bandagan) of Muizz al-Din Ghauri’ (Kumar, 2013: Sultanate and 127). However, when the Turks emerged on the scene many of these towns were Its Cities already established and flourishing urban centres; most of them owed their position to their strategic location or being capital towns. Though no doubt thanas so established by Balban along with Badaun were used as ‘garrisoned’ posts which later developed into towns and qasabs, Lahore, Kara Manikpur and Lakhnauti were in no way could be labelled as ‘garrison towns’. Similarly, Delhi was not only recorded as the capital at the same time as the ‘principal’ town by Hasan Nizami. At the time of Muhammad Qasim’s invasion both Uchh and Multan were flourishing towns. Multan was a provincial ‘royal capital’ seat of the governor as early as Muhammad bin Qasim’s invasion. Even Wink admits, ‘Multan is described as a large and populated town’ with a strong fortress (Wink, 1990, I: 186).

17.4 PROCESS OF URBANISATION saw the emergence of certain new institutions – khanqah (jammat khanas), sarai, thana, madrasas (educational institutions), royal courts, dar-ul shifa (hospitals) and bazaars – that facilitated and accelerated the process of urbanisation and growth of urban centres. However, these factors were not exclusive. Often many factors together facilitated the emergence/prosperity of a particular town. 17.4.1 Iqtas Various provinces (vilayats and khittas/iqtas) in due course emerged as prominent urban centres under certain agile nobles/governors. Iqtas were territorial assignments largely given to the nobles in their area of jurisdiction. Since these iqtas were held by the nobles as long as they held their respective assignments and it was expected from the iqta holders to work for the expansion of agriculture and facilitate trade. In the long run these iqtas developed into prominent cities and towns. Andre Wink argues that, ‘The Delhi Sultanate in effect, was the sum of its iqtas – defined not as local territorial Units, but as garrisoned urban centres (khitta)…’ (Wink, 1999: 212). Andre Wink’s analysis is contested by historians, nonetheless what is important here is the role iqtas played in the expansion of urban centres during the Sultanate period. When Malik Bahauddin Tughril was granted khitta of Bayana in 1196 by Muhammad Ghori, he expanded the area and built a new city, Sultankot (modern Bayana) and made it his headquarter, instead of old fortified Tahangarh. He invited merchants, scholars and got houses constructed for them. Bahauddin built Jami Masjid at Sultankot (1204) and an Idgah in Bayana which resemble very much with the Qutb mosque of Delhi. Likewise, Kara and Manikpur, on account of being important administrative seats soon emerged as hub of trading activities where merchants and men of repute (tujjar-o ma‘arif) from Khorasan and all parts of Hindustan flock together, records Minhaj. records these cities being chief centres of supply of wheat, rice, sugar and cloth to Delhi. Kol (modern Aligarh) emerged an important wilayat and from Iltutmish’s reign onwards, ever since Nizam-ul mulk Junaidi received it in his iqta it was often assigned to Prime Ministers (wazirs) of the realm. Baran (Bulandshahr), also grew into an important town. Aibak granted it to Iltutmish. The famous historian Ziauddin Barani also belonged to this place. Badaun was another important area that received importance. Hasan Nizami (1998: 245) mentions Badaun as ‘one of the principal cities of Hindustan’. Throughout the Sultanate period it was one of the important iqta and chief administrative centre with a fort and a vibrant slave market. On account of its strategic location flanking the disturbed Katehr region, till the Khaljis it remained an important garrison town (see Section on thanas). The city is full of early Sultanate monuments. Iltutmish himself built an Idgah during his governorship here. A number of monuments of Iltutmish’s reign built 9 Urbanisation in under the aegis of Ruknuddin (Jama Masjid; 1223) and Nasiruddin Mahmud (Sultani Medieval India - 1 Dargah; 1229) still survives. Multan, Kalpi, Jaunpur Gaur/Pandua, Mandu, Ahmadabad and Bidar also assumed importance once they acquired the status of provincial capital towns (These provincial cities are discussed at length in Unit 18). 17.4.2 Monetisation Indian trade with the outside world got further accelerated in the Sultanate period resulting in large flows of precious metals. Cambay and Multan emerged chief centres of trading activities so were the Multani, Sahas and Gujarati merchants. The cities were also brimming with merchants from Persia and Central Asia. Ziauddin Barani (2015: 73) comments on the richness of the Multanis and Sahas that, ‘Maliks, khans and dignitaries of those ages were always under burden of debt due to extreme generosity, bounty and giving of alms…The Multanis and Sahas of Delhi became extremely wealthy because of the wealth of the amirs and maliks of the realm of Delhi. They took maximum possible loans from the Multanis and Sahas and made payments to their creditors along with rewards from their iqtas. Whenever a khan or a malik organised a party and invited dignitaries as guests, his officials ran to the houses of the Multanis and Sahas, gave them receipts in their own names and took loans on interest…’ All this accelerated monetisation that in turn was fundamental in speeding up urbanisation in the Sultanate period. This process is evident first in the region of Makran – a region first to be conquered by the Arabs. The region soon attracted Arab traders and Makran’s pastoral economy rapidly got transformed into highly monetised economy with the rise of overland trade and the region being swarmed by the growth of urban centres. Two factors also added to the monetisation process: a) since the ruling class was largely town based substantial amount of surplus drained to the cities; b) State’s insistence on payment of land revenue in cash again made available considerable liquid cash in the hands of the ruling class (Alauddin is reported to have extracted one half of the produce as land tax) which also accelerated the process of urbanisation in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries.

17.4.3 Capital Towns1 and Provincial Headquarters Some cities achieved greater vibrancy on becoming capital. Lahore flourished under the patronage of rulers of Ghazna and Ghor. Muhammad bin Sam made Lahore his winter capital, later the capital of the Sultanate of Delhi. When Qutbuddin Aibak made Lahore his capital it assumed cosmopolitan character. Hasan Nizami is full of praise for its beautiful mansions and palaces. Hasan Nizami (1998: 279) records that ‘it was the qibla of virtuous men, K’aba of nobility and liberal minded gentry, the centre of men of piety and abstinence…it was the refuge of ascetics and devotees…abode of great sufi saints’. When Sultan Nasiruddin Qubacha made Uchh his capital (Hazrat-i Uchh) in 1210 it attracted merchants, craftsmen, nobles and the learned from all directions. Ibn Battuta, visiting in the 14th century, records it as a large city with ‘fine bazaars and buildings’ (Gibb, 1929: 188).

17.4.4 Khanqah Today we relate khanqah with a sufi hospice. However, in the early stages of the establishment of the Sultanate it was more associated with a lodge – a resting place. Till the eleventh century in the and Persian world ribat was in common usage for resting lodge. Later, it was substituted by khanqah in Khurasan and

1. A discussion on Delhi is omitted for Unit 21 exclusively deals with it. Similarly, for a detailed discussion on provincial headquarters see Unit 18. 1 0 Central Asia. In the Arab countries ribat is still used for ‘the lodge erected for Sultanate and providing comfort to the travellers’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 29). While distinguishing Its Cities between the two, Shaikh Jalaluddin Bukhari (1199-1291), famous Suhrawardi saint, refers that ‘ribats were generally built by traders and other philanthropists out of their lawful money…Unlike them, the in India were built and maintained by the state with money collected in the form of taxes not permitted by the sharia (canon law)’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 29). Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani also records that ‘khanqahs were built with the money of philanthropists outside India, for providing lodging to travellers’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 28). Sadiduddin Muhammad Awfi (1171- 1242) tells us that a Ghazanavide noble posted at Lahore constructed a khanqah for travellers (Siddiqui, 2012: 28). Gardezi describes that ribat of Margala (near Islamabad) was so huge that when Sultan Masud’s army mutinied at Margala (1041) Sultan took refuge inside the ribat of Margala along with his body guards and war elephants (Siddiqui, 2012: 5-6). Thus, initially, khanqahs/ribats were not ‘sufi hospice but an institution of public utility’. These khanqahs were managed by shaikh-ul Islam and villages were endowed by the state for its maintenance. From the very onset of the Delhi Sultanate Multan remained the chief centre of Suhrawardi sufis. Their patron saint Shaikh Bahauddin Zakaria (1182-1262) established his khanqah in the city and amassed support of the Delhi Sultans. Iltutmish entrusted upon him position of shaikh-ul Islam. In 1247 when Mongol Khan Suli Nuyin besieged Multan it was the Shaikh who negotiated peace with the Mongol army. Hansi emerged as a chief Chishti sufi centre where resided Shaikh Qutbuddin Munawwar. Afif informs us that when Firuz founded Hissar Firuza he requested his successor Shaikh Nuruddin to grace the city and promised to build a khanqah and meet its expenses to which the Shaikh politely declined. Apart from being an important trading town, Ibn Battuta informs that Hansi was ‘an exceedingly fine, well built and populous city, surrounded by a wall’ (Gibb, 1929: 193). Ibn Battuta also mentions about khanqahs of Amroha and constructed by . In the region of Sind and Punjab, records Ibn Battuta, Muhammad Tughluq entrusted the charge of around forty khanqahs to shaikh-ul Islam (Siddiqui, 2012: 30). Nagaur, on account of the popularity of Chishti sufi Hamiduddin Nagauri, emerged from a small town into an important centre of learning and commerce. Similarly Ajodhan emerged as an important qasba as a result of Shaikh-ul Islam Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar’s abode. Afif (Jauhari, 2001: 187) informs that, ‘for the benefit and comfort of travellers the Sultan constructed one hundred and twenty hospices in Delhi itself.’ Sufi Jamaat Khanas (hospices) also emerged as centres of learning, attracting scholars for discourses on religion and metaphysical philosophy. It also facilitated development of syncretic tradition. Sufis, particularly the Chishtis, were greatly influenced by the yoga and yogic exercises of breath control (pas-i-anfas). Amrit Kund, work, dealing with yogic exercises and philosophy got translated into Persian entitled Hauz-al Hayat. Famous sufi saints Shaikh Abdul Haque Radauli and Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangohi used to teach Hauz-al Hayat and train disciples in the exercise of breath control. Writing during Shahjahan’s reign Mulla Shaida in his Sair-i Kashmir calls Gorakhpanthi yogis as chief guides to Muslim sufis in practicing yogic exercises. Clearly, in the early phase of the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate activities of the sufi saints and ulema facilitated emergence of urban centre in an area and its surroundings where they established their khanqahs.

1 1 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Shrine of Bahauddin Zakaria, Multan Photo by Imtiaz, June, 2012 Source: http://sufiwiki.com/images/7/7d/DarbarHazratBahauddin.jpg 17.4.5 Sarais, Thanas (Military Outposts) and Forts The term sarai in the sense of a resting place for merchants and wayfarers emerged during the sixteenth century. But in the Islamic world the term sarai was used in the sense of ‘citadel/palace’. Ottoman Sultans used to hold their courts in sarai ; similarly palace built by at Kish was termed as Ak Sarai (white palace) (Bosworth, 1997: 46). Under the Delhi Sultans also it had similar connotation and was largely used in the sense of a ‘royal palace or the building owned by wealthy person’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 30). Shaikh Nizamuddin Aulia addressed Sultan Illtutmish’s palace as sarai Sultani. Ziauddin Barani also called ’s palace as sarai (Siddiqui, 2012: 30-31). I.H. Siddiqui argues that the first reference to a caravan sarai comes from ’s reign when he is said to have constructed one for the travellers outside (Siddiqui, 2012: 31). However, Shams Siraj Afif does mention building of ‘Sarais (resting places) and Khanqahs (hospices) for the stay and rest of the pilgrims’. These sarais so built in the remote and amidst insecure forest areas were often accompanied by thanas with military officers (shiqdars) posted there. In no time such settlements fast developed into townships/qasbas (Siddiqui, 2012: 31). When Sultan Firuz constructed hospices, records Afif, he desired ‘that pilgrims must come from all directions (parts of the world) and stay in the Sarais’ (Afif, 2001: 187). Thanas emerged as chief markers of new emerging towns. Barani’s account of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban’s reign (1266-87) suggests that thanas were largely established as police posts in the recalcitrant regions to maintain law and order. Balban established Deopalgir thana in the vicinity of Delhi to keep the Mewati recalcitrants at bay. He got the jungles in the neighbourhood cleared and established Afghan posts there. A number of such similar thanas were established with Afghan garrisons by Balban. Afghanpur was another such thana near Amroha, the headquarter of the Kateharia region. Other such thanas established with Afghan garrisons by Balban were Jalali, Kampil, Patiali, Bhojpur, Shamsabad and Bogaon in the Ganga- (Siddiqui, 2012: 31). 1 2 Barani records, ‘he [Balban] also built the fort of Jalali and assigned it to the Afghans. The havens of robbers were turned into thanas. Jalali, known as a sanctuary of Sultanate and robbers…became a home of and a safe road…’ (Barani, 2015: 37). Similarly, Its Cities to handle the dacoit prone region of the Chambal valley Sultan Sikandar Lodi (r.1489- 1517) built a thana near village Hatkant which later under Sher Shah’s reign emerged as prominent urban centre. Sher Shah himself got established huge Afghan settlement of twelve thousand Tarin Afghans from Sirhind and got them settled down at Hatkant. All these thanas soon emerged as prominent urban centres. Thana of Kampil emerged so prominent a centre that Alauddin Khalji (r.1296-1316) constructed a strong fort there which Ibn Battuta rated among the most impregnable fort in the Doab region. Largely these thanas were established after clearing the jungles, accompanied with the constructions of mosques, madrasas, and at times followed by sufi establishments. The important example of this is Jalali. Some of these thanas were established at distant places particularly on the highways (Siddiqui, 2012: 32). Balban almost combed the and the Doab (Katehr) regions by establishing forts and thanas and inhabiting the Afghan thus freeing the region from highway robbers (Barani, 2015: 37). When Kalpi emerged important centre in the 15th century, muqtis established a number of thanas by clearing jungles which were to develop into flourishing towns in the 16th century. Badaun, though was not exactly a thana, throughout the Khalji period it remained the military outpost; which later on Muhammad bin Tughluq discontinued as army base. Thanas were often accompanied by forts. However, nobles and Sultans also built a number of forts independent of the thanas and laid foundations of new cities. Firuz Tughluq is specially known for such building enterprises. He not only laid the foundation of Hissar Firuza but also built a number of fort towns – Fatehabad, Harnikhera, Tughluqpur Kasna, Tughluqpur Muluk Makut and Jaunpur.

Fort of Hissar Firuza Photograph by Vishal 14k, April 2011 Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Fort_of_Firoz_Shah_Tughlaq_ at_Hisar.jpg 17.4.6 Mosques and Madrasas Madrasas also emerged as part of crucial structure of every newly established towns and thanas. Balban contributed extensively in the growth of madrasas in the towns and thanas. Thanas were established along highways and around Delhi in the Katehr () region. In each thana, madrasas were constructed for the education of 1 3 Urbanisation in the children of the army personnels. I.H. Siddiqui comments that as a result children of Medieval India - 1 ‘rustic and uncouth Afghans’ benefited so much from the ‘process of acculturation’ that ‘the next generation of Afghans began to attain high positions under the Khaljis and Tughlaq Sultans’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 140). Gates of madrasas were opened to all classes, even Hindu children got educated in Persian and popular sciences. Thus madrasas were instrumental in ‘enhancing upward social mobility’. Suhrawardi sufi saint Shaikh Jalaluddin Bukhari’s disciple Ratan, the barber, who was skilled in calculation and profession of a scribe, rose to prominent position in the nobility during Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign (1325-51). Similarly, Badaun emerged into prominence and fame on account of Maulana Alauddin Usuli’s teachings. The famous sufi saint and great scholar of the time Shaikh was his disciple. Their scholarships brought fame to the small town of Badaun. The newly established thanas in the Doab and Mewat regions accompanied by establishment of madrasas and mosques facilitated the expansion and development of these military outposts into full-fledged townships. Kalpi and surrounding areas mainly developed as a result of this process. Ibn Battuta informs us that the number of madrasas in Delhi alone numbered 1000. As early as Muhammad Ghori’s reign, Qutbuddin Aibak, his Amir established madrasa-i muizi in Delhi after his patron Sultan. When he became Sultan in 1210 he established another madrasa-i Firuzi in his capital Firuzkuh. Iltutmish established madrasa-i Nasiria in Delhi and granted financial aids to them. Firuz Tughluq (r.1351-88) established two huge madrasas – madrasa-i Shahzada-i Buzurg near Siri and madrasa-i Firuz Shahi with a separate hostel for students near Hauz Khass. So had emerged the prestige of Delhi that Amir Khusrau compared Delhi in learning with Bukhara. In other regions also Qutbuddin Aibak took keen interest in establishing madrasas, particularly in the towns under his control in 1192 (Kuhram, Sunam) as Muizi Amir. Another Muizi noble Bakhtiyar Khalji who was entrusted with the charge of eastern campaigns, built khanqahs, and madrasas in his newly founded headquarter at Lakhnauti in and at Maner and Sharif in Bihar. In Multan, madrasas maintained by Shaikh Bahauddin Zakaria and Qazi Qutbuddin Kashani were liberally supported by Iltutmish. In Sehwan also, informs Ibn Battuta, there existed a large madrasa. Towns of Hansi, Sunam also emerged as important centres of learning. Maulana Ziauddin Sunami, who was a distinguished scholar of fiqh and tafsir, held the post of muhtasib (public censor) in Alauddin Khalji’s reign. During Firuz Shah Tughluq’s reign in Bengal developed into an important centre of Islamic learning, and emerged in due course second capital next to Lakhnauti, where Sultan invited eminent Ulema from different parts into the region. Maulana Sharafuddin Abu Tawama, a great scholar of hadis, fiqh, and ilm-i (scholistic theology) was invited from Delhi. Many Balkhi scholars also got settled down in Sonargaon. Similarly, Bahmani wazir Mahmud Gawan built a madrasa in Bidar which enjoyed great fame in India and Iran and where distinguished teachers were invited to teach. Mahmud Gawan himself donated 3000 books to the library of the madrasa. Sultans of , (d. 1434) also constructed a grand madrasa in his capital Mandu. These madrasas did not simply remain centres of religious discourse, rather it created a great liberal atmosphere, particularly from Alauddin Khalji’s reign (1296-1316) onwards when Sultan patronised rationalist thinkers. Sad Mantaqi, a rationalist thinker was his counsellor. Further, madrasas not only became centres of diffusion of knowledge but also provided vibrancy of intellectual culture and facilitated social mobility in the towns across Sultanate. I.H. Siddiqui believes that the impact of these newly established madrasas was immense. He emphasises that, ‘education through the madrasas was responsible for a certain amount of social tension in Delhi and other cities’ (Siddiqui, 1 4 2012: 104). He finds in the support extended to Haji Maula’s rebellion in 1301 by kotwal’s establishment (kotwaliyan), lashkar (soldiery) and the khalq (commoners) Sultanate and as suggestive of the emergence of new educated class who ‘wanted a different kind of Its Cities state’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 105). 17.4.7 Bazaars, Mandis The khanqahs, sarais and thanas in due course emerged important urban centres, they thus played key role in the process of urbanisation during the Sultanate period. Gradually, places therein attracted the nearby peasants and artisans to market their goods. The urban lifestyle of new settlers was also a chief factor motivating the common masses (at least the nearby ruling elites who could afford) to emulate the lifestyle of urban elites particularly wearing of fine clothes, their keeping and riding on fine girdled horses and so on, comments Barani so scornfully on the lifestyles of the rural elites, khots, muqaddams and chaudharis (Siddiqui, 2012: 32). In Islamic city, Bazaars had an important place. When Ghiyasuddin Tughluq (r.1320- 1325) built his new capital Tughluqabad (1320-1), khass bazaar formed a central role in the scheme. Its design and architectural layout was based on Khurasani style: The Khass Bazar itself seem[s] to have been the main market street of the town with shops on either side…The shops probably ran alongside the entire length of the street…The street is about 20m. wide, and [on] each side of the street runs a platform about 0.65 m. high, over which the shops were constructed in a row of equal sized units…The form of the shops and their platforms is traditional for both Middle Eastern and Indian bazaars, many of which still function. The platform acts as an extension of the shop, and when the shops open in the morning a sample of goods is displayed on the platform in front…Although at Khass Bazar only the lower parts of the shops have survived they provide the earliest examples of their kind in India. It seems that, together with the other architectural and urban design features, the form of the shops set on platforms was imported by the sultans from the region of Khurasan (now comprising Afghanistan, the present Khurasan province of Iran and the Central Asian state of Turkistan). In many cities in India…shops with similar layout have survived…Early examples of such shops can be found in the fort of Gulbarga, dating from the early Bahmani period [1347-1538]. [Shokoohy, Mehrdad and Natalie Shokoohy, ‘The Dark Gate, the Dungeons, the royal escape route and more: survey of Tughluqabad, second interim report’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 62, No. 3, 1999: 428-430.] Bazaar has Persian (wazar) and Armenian (vačar) roots. However, there are other related words khan, badistan, qaysariya and sarai used as well but they have diverse regional connotation. In large cities separate bazaars for specialised trading were constructed. Minhaj mentions an exclusive market bazaar-i bazaazan (cloth market) in Delhi. Barani describes in great details bazaar-i buzurg in Lakhnauti which was almost 2 miles in length, which, later on, after its occupation by the Turks – when new areas were added – now possessed a 24 miles long bazaar in the capital Gaur (old Lakhnauti). He also provides graphic details of the cattle market of Lakhnauti where daily 1500 tanghan horses were sold, records Minhaj. They were brought through mountain passes, and used to be traded in huge numbers there. During the Sultanate period Uchh, Multan and Lahore emerged as big marts. Janani, situated north of Sehwan, on the banks of river Indus, possessed vibrant bazaars (Siddiqui, 2012: 40-42). Bazaar-i Chaharsu became a common feature in almost all the newly built towns during the Sultanate period. Architecturally, Bazaar-i Chaharsu had ‘shopping streets around a square in four directions’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 49). Amir Khusrau is full of praise of Bazaar-i Chaharsu of Delhi that was so ‘overcrowded that people rub their shoulders (with one another) as rubs the dangling end of a turban…’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 49). Sikandar Lodi also built Bazaar-i Chaharsu in his new capital Agra (1506). Jaunpur even to this day shares the name of one square as ‘chaharsu chauraha’. 1 5 Urbanisation in 17.4.8 Karkhanas Medieval India - 1 A new element, karkhana got added to the cityscape of the Sultanate. Sultans and nobles established karkhanas in the capitals and nobles in the provinces which in turn largely catered to the needs of the ‘elites’. At the same time it not only became chief centres of employment for a large number of artisans but also grew into centres of training where old artisans and slaves were being trained in new techniques and crafts which the Turks brought with them. Afif informs that Firuz had thirty six karkhanas where he trained and employed his slaves: ‘Some were placed under tradesmen and were taught mechanical arts, so that about 12,000 slaves became artisans (kasibs) of various kinds’ (Afif, Elliot, III: 341).

17.5 WAVE OF NEW TOWNS Delhi Sultanate saw upsurge of new towns like Hansi, Hissar, Thanesar, Sunam, Bhatinda, Kara, Bayana, , Meerut, Baran (modern Bulandshahr), Kol (modern Aligarh), Qanauj, Badaun, Amroha, Pakpattan and Abohar. Towards northwest the traditional towns Uchh, Multan, and Lahore not only continued to enjoy status of vibrant production centres but also as dynamic centres of cultural activities. Ibn Battuta mentions Uchh ‘a large town’ with ‘fine bazaars and buildings’. Kol (modern Aligarh) and Meerut emerged as important centres of wine distilling. About Kol, Ibn Battuta informs that ‘it’s a handsome city possessing gardens’. Dhar in Malwa, remarks Ibn Battuta, was a chief city of Malwa and became known for its exports of betel leaves; Kara and Manikpur for its cloth. Ibn Battuta records that they were very prosperous centres of production of wheat, rice and sugar along with production of fine cloth which was exported to Delhi. Ayodhya was another important town where coarse cloth pat was produced; Gola (mod. Rohilkhand) developed as an important centre of silk production (khaz); Nagaur for lining cloth (aslan-i lal) and Deogiri for bhairow (a kind of muslin). Among important centres of production towns Lahore was known for its sugar; while Sirsuti (Sirsa) and Lakhi Jungle along emerged prominent centres of ghi production. About Sirsuti (Sirsa), Ibn Battuta mentions that it was not only a big town but also a major supplier of excellent quality of rice to Delhi (Siddiqui, 2012: 40-55). Ibn Battuta praised Bayana as ‘a large and well built town with a magnificent mosque’. He also praises Qanauj as ‘a large, well built and strongly fortified city’ where sugar is ‘plentiful’ and ‘cheap’. He also applauds Gwalior as ‘a large town with an impregnable fortress’ and ‘a fine and populous town’. Muhammad bin Tughluq’s transfer of capital to Daulatabad resulted in the emergence of a number of towns on Delhi- Daulatabad route. Chanderi assumed a place of importance with flourishing markets thronged by merchants. It is informed that it had a strong fort and 14000 stone mansions, a number of bazaars, sarais and mosques (Siddiqui, 2012: 45). By the fifteenth century there emerged certain new towns as a result of the centrifugal tendencies following the decline of the Delhi Sultanate. Muqtas and Zamindars took advantage of the political chaos and consolidated their position in their areas of influence. It led to considerable growth of new cities and towns. Here, our focus is not to discuss the towns that emerged under the aegis of regional kingdoms following the decline of the Sultanate. That would be discussed separately in Unit 18. The Section largely covers those urban centres which very much formed part of the Sultanate. The consolidation of the position of the muqtis, walis, or zamindars in their principalities also lead to the rise of new towns within the Sultanate. In this regard mention may be made of Kalpi, Bayana, Nagaur, Jaunpur, Mandu, Ahmadabad, and Gaur2. These emerging towns

1 6 2. For details on the emergence of cities at provincial centres of power see Unit 18 of this block. facilitated the growth of Muslim population, urbanisation and the spread of syncretic Sultanate and tradition in the hinterlands as a result of the fusion of Indo-Islamic culture. Timur’s Its Cities invasion of 1398 specially contributed to the migration of Muslim elite and sufis from Delhi to various principalities, provided impetus to these principalities which in due course emerged as prominent urban centres – centres of learning, sufi activities and in turn centres of Indo-Muslim culture (Siddiqui, Chapter 11). Qasba During the Sultanate period a new category of towns, qasbas (townships), which were smaller than the shahr (town), emerged. Qasba was initially a walled fortress-cum- administrative township which later developed into a full-fledged township and the term began to be used as synonym of a ‘town’ lower than ‘shahr’ in hierarchy. Abohar is mentioned as qasba by Afif and a prominent centre of sufi activities. Ibn Battuta also mentions it as a small town but thickly populated.3 Port Towns/Maritime Cities Port towns occupied particular distinction among the Sultanate cities. Hasan Nizami calls Neharwala (Anhilwara) as ‘one of the most famous maritime cities (dariyabar). Ibn Battuta records Lahari ‘a fine’ coastal town in Sindh ‘which possessed large harbour, visited by men from Yemen, Fars and elsewhere.’ The major port towns in Gujarat were (Prabhas) Pattan, Sorath, Diu and Gandhar exporting cotton, and cloth and in return horses were received. Rice, sugarcane, spices, timber and canes were exported from Malabar. Mangalore, Cannanore, Calicut, Cochin, Quilon were important port towns in the Malabar. Chaul and Dabul on the coast served as mid-port towns between Malabar and Gujarat for the transit goods to and fro. Ibn battuta praises Kinbaya (Cambay) as the ‘finest’ port town with excellent constructions. He points out that the ‘majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who are always building fine mansions and magnificent mosques’. He even praised Quga (Gogo in Kathiawar) as a ‘large [port] town with important bazaars’. Interestingly, it appears that by his time had not yet picked up as an important port. He simply records it as an island of 36 villages. In the Malabar region he praises Mangalore as the ‘largest inlet’ thronged by the ‘merchants from Fars and Yemen’, and that ‘pepper and ginger are exceedingly abundant’.

17.6 NEW TRENDS In the Sultanate period there was a spurt of metropolitan towns, with planned layout which soon acquired cosmopolitan character. 17.6.1 Metropolitan Towns Medieval texts clearly distinguished between a small town and a metropolis. Ali Kufi in his Chachnama prefixes Uchh, capital of Sultan Nasiruddin Qubacha as Hazrat (metropolitan city), a word commonly used to address royal capitals in Central Asia. Abu Bakr bin Ali bin Usman al-Kasani who translated Al-Biruni’s Arabic work on tib (medicine) Kitab-ul Saidna in Persian addresses Delhi as Hazrat. Muhammad Jajarani also addresses Delhi as Hazrat. Minhaj-us Siraj has also used the word hazrat for Delhi. However, at times he used the word hazrat jalal Delhi (illustrious/glorious capital Delhi). Shams Siraj Afif has addressed the capital city Delhi as Hazrat Dar-ul Mulk and mamlakat while for other cities terms like shahr (city) and qasba (township) are

3. For a detailed discussion on qasbas see Block 5, Unit 22 of this Course and Block 4, Unit 20.2 of our course History of Indian Economy. 1 7 Urbanisation in used by him. Yahya Sirhindi also records Delhi as dar-ul khilafat, dar-ul mulk and Medieval India - 1 hazrat Delhi. Ain-ul Mulk Mahru called Cambay as Shahr-i Muazzam (great city) possessing beautiful buildings and gardens. For big cities words like madina-i azima, madina-i kabira were used. Ibn Battuta calls Satgaon, a port town in Hugli basin ‘madina azima’ (large city). Among the large cities (madina-i kabira) he named Uchh, Sarsati (Sirsa), Qanauj, Gwalior, Gandhar (on the gulf of Cambay). 17.6.2 Planned Cities: Changing Landscape and Skylines The idea behind laying down of new cities was mainly the establishment and display of power and authority. The new ruling elite carried with them a distinct connotation of a city. Islamic cities were well planned. During the Sultanate period we get references of architects of Iran and Central Asia supervising construction of palaces, water works and pleasure gardens. To add to this the emperor, forced by political compulsions, established a series of new towns (for these compulsions see Unit 21 on why so many cities in Delhi riverine plain?). Introduction of arches and added new skyline to the cities. Fortification was key to all Islamic cities. Multan had such a strong fortification that it could withstand repeated Mongol onslaught. To the existing city landscapes new features like mosques, madrasas (educational institutions) were added. The arcuate style transformed the skyline in fusion with existing trabeate style along with pleasure gardens and water works. Soon with the fusion of indigenous trabeate and corbelled with acuate style a new form of Indo- emerged. Arch and dome became the distinguishing features of newly established cities. The new motifs, particularly calligraphy (arabesque) inscribed on the buildings added distinct decorative elements. Further, the cities were generally accompanied by fortification walls with lofty entrance gates spread into various directions. Barani mentions construction of huge fortification walls at Bhatner and Bhatinda under the aegis of Sher Khan Sunqar who also built a huge dome (gumbad) during the reign of Nasiruddin Mahmud (1246-66). Planned City: Hissar Firuza Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq was a great builder. One of the planned royal cities built by Firuz Shah was Hissar Firuza. Firuz created the city in the desert zone probably for his hunting operations out of the two villages Laras [Kadas] Buzurg and Laras [Kadas] Khurd which perhaps did not have habitation instead where animals were largely housed. Afif mentions the presence of fifty and forty such sheds respectively in those villages. Since the place also fell on trade route to Iran and Khorasan Afif mentions that one of the objective of Firuz was to facilitate the travellers, particularly in the summer season, for lack of water resources in the region. Firuz himself had supervised the construction and it took almost two and half years to complete. It, however, does not appear to be a ‘garrison town’ instead it appears to be a planned city where sufficient spaces were also allotted by the Sultan to his nobles to build their quarters. Afif records that, ‘Like the Sultan, the Maliks and Khans and courtiers also built their residences like beautiful and majestic houses’ (Afif, 2015: 92). To maintain the perennial water supply of the palace and the region Firuz brought two canals Rajabwah and Ulughkhani. The city was provided with beautiful pleasure gardens and orchards. Quickly the city overtook the next door Hansi and the shiq headquarter. Under Firuz now it was Hissar that replaced Hansi as shiq headquarter and under its jurisdiction were placed the towns of Agroha, Hansi, Fatehabad, Sarsuti, Salora and Khizrabad. In the words of Afif, soon it became a ‘majestic city’ (shahr-i muazzam) (Afif, 2015: 90-93).

1 8 Sultanate and Its Cities

Tughlaqabad

Fortification Plan of the Tughluqabad Fort, the City Complex and the Adilabad Fort Courtesy: Shokoohy Mehrdad and Natale H. Shokoohy, (1994) ‘Tughluqabad, The Earliest Surviving Town of the Delhi Sultanate’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol.57, No. 3, P. 520, Fig. 1. Planned City: Deogir/Daulatabad Ibn Battuta (Gibb, 1929: 227) records that ‘Dawlat Abad [is] the enormous city which rivals Delhi, the capital, in importance and in spaciousness of its planning.’ He informs that the city was divided into three sections: first Daulatabad proper – where resided the Sultan and his retinues; second was Kataka; and the third is the citadel. Ibn Battuta also praises its ‘spacious bazaar for singers and singing-girls, [and] containing numerous shops’. The bazaars were provided with ‘numerous mosques’. The town was full of rich merchants dealing primarily in jewels. The significant impact of Muhammad bin Tughluq’s transfer of capital was that, apart from having achieved the status of the second metropolitan city as mentioned by Ibn Battuta, it emerged as ‘cultural nucleus’ in south India.

1 9 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Daulatabad Fort Photographs by Jonathanawhite, September, 2006 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Aurangabad_- _Daulatabad_Fort_%2895%29.JPG

Daulatabad Fort Photographs by Jonathanawhite, September, 2006 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Aurangabad_- _Daulatabad_Fort_%2875%29.JPG

2 0 Sultanate and Its Cities

Plan of Daulatabad Fort [After http://shridharattrekking.blogspot.in/2009/09/daulatabad-fort-defence-at-its-best.html] 17.6.3 Cosmopolitan Cities The major transition in morphology of towns occurred with the expansion of coastal and overland trade, Arab invasion of Sind in 712 and finally with the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate. It facilitated relaxation in caste stringency. The cities gradually got transformed from a ‘caste based’ into a ‘cosmopolitan urban centres’. Mohammad Habib argues that the invaders, who hardly believed in caste hierarchies opened the city gates for all irrespective of caste and creed, which he termed as ‘urban revolution’. This completely transformed the cityscape. Earlier, as mentioned by Al-Biruni, people of lower castes including artisanal classes were not permitted to live within the city walls. However, as early as mid-fourteenth century, records Isami (1350), tanners were living in their huts in the vicinity of the Royal Palace in Lahore, clearly suggestive of the fact that social segregation of earlier type within the cities was gradually fading away. 2 1 Urbanisation in In medieval Europe merchant towns ‘transcended religious and sectoral considerations’ Medieval India - 1 thus moved fast towards ‘secularism’ (Naqvi, 369). However, at least in Gujarat and other port and trading towns these trends were quite visible during the early Sultanate period. Gujarat was hub of artisans, workers, Muslim traders, Zoroastrians, Hindu business community and the aristocracy. Awfi, who hailed from Bukhara, visited Cambay in 1220 was astonished to see the religious freedom enjoyed by Muslims and Zoarastians in the kingdom of Rai of Gujarat (Siddiqui, 2012: 42). Ibn Battuta mentions Cambay among the finest cities of Sultanate. Cambay was thronged by Irani merchants who established their permanent settlements in the city and carried on trade across India and China. The merchants of Kirman and Qazvin had permanent settlements at Cambay as is evident from the presence of their tombs in the city: 1. Epitaph AH 699/CE1300

Line3: This is the grave of the weak creature, the stranger (or emigrant), the one who is called unto Allah’s mercy nd pardoned, Line4: the sinful, the dependent on the mercy of Allah the Exalted, Kamalu’d-Din Line5: Suliman son of Ahmad son of Husain son of bi Sharf al-Bammi (lit. of Bamm [a famous fortress-town between Kirman and Zahidan in the Kirman province of Iran]), may Allah cover him Line6: with (His) mercy and pleasure and settle him in the abode of Paradise. He died on Mon- Line7: day, last day of (the month of) Jumada the First (of the) year (A.H.) nine and ninety and six hundred (last day i.e. 30 Jumada I, 699=22 February 1300). 2. Epitaph AH700/CE1301

Line3: This is the grave of the weak creature, hopeful of the mercy of Allah. Line4: the Exalted, Taju’d-Din Muhammad son of Muhammad a’z-Zakariyya al-Qazwin (lit. of Qazwin [famous city and a province in Iran]), Line5: may Allah cover him with (His) mercy and pleasure and settle him in the abode of Paradise. Line6: And he died on Monday, the ninth of the month of Jumada the Second (of the) year (A.H.) 700 (9 Jumada II 700=19 February1301). Z.A. Desai, (1971) ‘Some Fourteenth Century Epitaphs from Cambay in Gujarat’, Epigraphia Indica: Arabic and Persian Supplement (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India), pp.7-8. India also became hub of migrant Muslim population on account of destabilised conditions in Central Asia and Persia on account of Mongol and onslaught. This changed the character of Indian cities which now thronged with learned and sufi migrants from Persia, Khurasan and Central Asia. Metropolis cities like Delhi, Multan, and Lahore developed into centres of ‘international culture’. Hasan Nizami applauds the cosmopolitan character of Delhi that it ‘is considered the Qibla of good fortune by people all over the world’. A poet from Bukhara, when he took refuge in Iltutmish’s court recounts, ‘People sought refuge at your court against the tyranny perpetrated by the infidels of China (Mongols)’ (Qasida quoted in Muhammad Bihamad Khani’s Tarikh-i Muhammadi cited from Siddiqui, 2012: 116). Abu Bakr al-Kasani who translated from Arabic to Persian Al-Biruni’s work on tib (medicine) at the encouragement of Iltutmish’s wazir Nizam-ul Mulk, who was a migrant from Kasan (in Central Asia) was full of praise of the patronage provided by Iltutmish to the migrants:

I decided to study the conditions and found the metropolis rich in wealth and full of people of learning and talent; in fact it had turned into a centre of culture. Everyone of them who had been attracted by the Sultan’s generosity was constrained to come here. The ashraf (social elite) from Khurasan and Mavraulnahr () who were driven away by the vicissitudes of circumstances in their own lands got refuge under the patronage of the Sultan. Everyone of them is full of praise for the Sultan for his generosity and love 2 2 for justice (Siddiqui, 2012: 167). Under the patronage of royal courts and elites various sciences flourished in the cities. Sultanate and Mian Bhua, wazir of Sultan Sikandar Lodi (r. 1489-1517) compiled Tib-i Sikandarshahi Its Cities based on translation of Sanskrit works on medicine. Sultan Sikandar Lodi himself was a great music expert and enthusiast. At the encouragement of Mian Bhua, Umar bin Yahya al Kabuli compiled Lahjat-i Sikandar Shahi, work based on classical Sanskrit texts on Indian music. Ibn Battuta travelled from Sind, Multan to Gujarat, Konkan and Malabar coasts thence to China via Maldives mentions the cities that he visited were full of not only Muslim population, mosques, etc. but also foreigners were also appointed at high posts in these cities. He records that the governor of Lahari, Fasihuddin was earlier qazi of Herat. He informs that people from Yemen and Fars and other countries throng there. When Ibn Battuta entered Calicut he found people from across the world, China, Sumatra (Java), Ceylon (Saylan), Maldive Islands, Yemen and Fars throng there. Ibn Battuta calls Calicut harbour as ‘one of the largest in the world’. The head of the Calicut, mentioned by Ibn Battuta, was Ibrahim from Bahren. Manjarur (Mangalore) is mentioned by Ibn Battuta as the largest city in Malabar where ‘merchants from Fars and Yemen disembark’. Similarly, Panderani (on Malabar Coast) is described by Ibn Battuta, ‘a large and beautiful city with garden and bazaars. There are three Muslim quarters each of which has a mosque, while the congregational mosque lies on the coast. It is wonderful, and has observation galleries and halls overlooking the sea. The judge (qazi) and the orator (khatib) of the city is a man from Oman’ (Husain, 1976: 188). 17.6.4 Changing Demography Demographic mobility was closely linked with the process of urbanisation. Newly built towns and metropolis attracted in large numbers artisans, learned men, traders and merchants for better prospects. When Jalaluddin Khalji established his capital at Kilokhari (shahr-i nau) it was rapidly surrounded by nobles’ mansions, traders and shopkeepers. When foundation of Ahmadabad was laid in 1410, artisans, masons, merchants made it as their permanent abode. When Sikandar Lodi made Agra his capital in 1506, the royal karkhanas attracted artisans – ironsmiths from Rapri, stone cutters from Nagaur – who permanently got settled there (Siddiqui, 2012:114). While the new towns settled with dominant Muslim population, old towns also saw sizable shift in its demography. There was a huge wave of migration from Central Asia and Iran to India following the massacre by the Mongols. Sadiduddin Awfi, a refugee from Bukhara is full of praise of Sultan Iltutmish who extended liberal support to the migrants:

The power, grandeur and magnanimity of the religion sustaining monarch turned his into a safe haven for the Muslim refugees. The Sultan went out of his way to help those who fled tyranny and oppression of the infidel Tatars [i.e.Mongols]…The Sultan [Illtutmish] granted them shelter and made arrangements for their comfortable living. Every Muslim is safe and free from worry and fear (Siddiqui, 2012: 122-123). Isami also speaks aloud of Delhi becoming refuge of migrant population across Asia:

In that city one splendour becomes evident, yes, there is delight in the new city. Many genuine descendants of Prophet (PBH) arrived from Arabia, many traders from Khurasan, many painters from China, many learned men natives of Bukhara, many ascetic and devotees from every clime, from every kingdom and of every sort, artisans from every town and every race,…Many assayers, knowledgeable in precious gems, numberless sellers of jewels, scholars versed in greek sciences [hakiman-i-yunan] and physicians from Rum [Anatolia or Asia Minor], many learned men from every part. In that city they came like moths gathering around a candle (Siddiqui, 2012: 123). 2 3 Urbanisation in Muslim literati and other migrants coming from diverse backgrounds and traditions and Medieval India - 1 groups turned Delhi into a vibrant cultural centre, surpassing Baghadad and Cairo, and competing with Constantinople, comments Barani. In the late twelfth century when Ghuzz Turks occupied Ghazna, forced elites and the Sultan Nasiruddin Qubacha to migrate to Lahore, this led to Lahore emerging as prominent centre of Muslim learning and culture. During Iltutmish’s reign emigrant scholar Majduddin Abul Maali Muhammad Jajarmi not only engaged in translation of Al-Ghazali’s Ihya-ul Ulum-id Din into Persian but also taught people religious sciences in Lahore. His lectures were attended by scholars, traders and elites alike in Lahore. However, the political disturbances, particularly, two waves of onslaught, Mongols and Turkish, did prove detrimental to the flourishing towns like Lahore (three consecutive attacks of Mongols completely shook the city and it could not recover its past glory till as late as the Lodis). 17.7 NEW URBAN ETHOS When the immigrants mingled with the local populace, argues I.H. Siddiqui, it ‘enriched the urban culture’ and led to the ‘establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the followers of anthropocentric and cosmocentric traditions’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 27). Boost to this syncretic tradition was further provided by sufi centres which were largely located in the suburbs of the cities. Slaves were also brought up as Muslims who contributed a great deal to the strength of Muslim population. When Al-Kasani translated Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul Saidna from Arabic to Persian he not only translated technical words into Persian but also provided its Indian equivalents for certain medicines, suggestive of the fact that fusion of Indo-Muslim culture began much early since the very inception of Sultanate. 17.7.1 New Urban Groups With the establishment of the Sultanate, political re-adjustments brought emergence of new ‘elite’ groups in the urban centres. Initially Turks dominated the city life. Later, in the process of eradication of Turkan-i Chihilgani (the select group of Forty) Balban brought to the fore a new group, the Afghans, who were a Turkish tribe settled long before in the region of Afghanistan. Amir Khusrau in his Tuhfat-ul Sighar calls them ‘uncultured people not fit to reside in the midst of civilized people’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 106). Later with their rise in the aristocracy Amir Khusrau mentions them as ‘boastful persons bereft of excellence’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 107). Their settlements began on a large scale during Balban’s reign, when after Kateharia rebellion Balban tried to clear the jungle around Delhi and got the Afghans settled down in the area as incharge of various thanas. By the time of Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign they emerged as a ‘prominent’ social group and by the turn of the century emerged strong enough to establish their own sovereign state at Delhi (the Lodis). The Mongols who accepted Islam, also known as neo-Muslims (Nav-Musalmans) settled down in different parts of the Sultanate during Alauddin Khalji’s reign (Siddiqui, 2012b:141). A number of villages were granted to them around Delhi and their settlement came to be known as Mughalpura (modern Mongolpuri), though they suffered greatly following large scale massacre of them at the hands of Alauddin Khalji during the closing years of his reign. Similarly, Hindu peasant caste of Kambos, embraced Islam under the influence of Suhrawardi saint of Multan. They soon enjoyed prominence in learning. By 15th century many of the Kambos distinguished themselves as ulema (scholar) and mashaikhs (sufi saints) and emerged prominent enough that their voices were well heard by the Sultan. Shaikh Jamali, son-in-law of Shaikh Samarddin Kambo 2 4 was a poet at the court of Sultan Sikander Lodi. 17.7.2 Institution of Slavery and a New Urban Culture Sultanate and Its Cities The institution of slavery was also instrumental in bringing changes in the urban life. The slave population in Sultanate towns was considerable. By 13-14th centuries urban population of Delhi was around four lakhs. Afif reports Alauddin had 50,000 slaves and Firuz Shah maintained 1,80,000 of them, which is clearly suggestive of a considerable slave population in Delhi. This number would swell if we take into consideration slaves maintained by the nobles. Innumerable slaves played important role in the urban socio- political life of the Sultanate cities. Malik Kafur, hero of Alauddin’s southern campaigns, was his slave. Similarly, founder of the Sharqi kingdom of Jaunpur, Malik-us Sharq Khwaja-i Jahan was Firuz’s slave. Each prominent city had specialised slave (and cattle) market known as nakhas. About the nakhas of Delhi Amir Khusrau in his Ijaz-i Khusravi mentions ‘the nakhas are like a flowing river’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 52). It was filled with both Indian and foreign slaves. Slaves were so numerous and cheap in the city that Ibn Battuta comments that no one was ready to buy female captives. Urban elites, nobles, foreign merchants and even laymen took active part in the slave trade. Minhaj-us Siraj mentions when his sister faced financial crisis in Khurasan he sent fifty slaves over to be sold by her. Slave labour emerged as a significant component of urban labour during the Sultanate period. Nur Turk’s slave worked as cotton carder to subsist his master. However, groups of elite slaves were employed as muqtis and soldiers. Afif mentions Firuz Shah’s slaves largely employed to take care of elephants and also as royal night guards and bodyguards; forty thousand slaves alone were employed ‘in the royal palace and for attendance during the royal processions’. Firuz Shah employed 12,000 slaves in the karkhanas. They held posts like abdar (incharge of water), jamadar (incharge of dresses), chitrdar (incharge of royal canopy) pardahdar (incharge of curtains), sharabdar (incharge of drinks), shamadar (incharge of light), itrdar (incharge of perfumery), etc. Some of the slaves bought from the foreign markets were experts in various arts. Firuz Shah trained four thousand of his slaves for construction. They were from , China, East European countries and Africa. From the very establishment of the Sultanate, Delhi Sultans employed foreign slaves, both Turks and non-Turks in huge numbers and trained them in the art of warfare. Amir Khusrau mentions Russian soldiers in the army of Ghazi Malik (future Muhammad bin Tughluq) in Dipalpur. Chinese emperor sent 100 slaves to Muhammad bin Tughluq. In return Muhammad bin Tughluq also sent 100 dancing girls to the Chinese emperor through Ibn Battuta. Naqshagaran-i chin (painters from China), mentioned by Isami were probably slaves bought by Iltutmish to beautify his palace. The slant eyes of the Turkish and Chinese girls were greatly fancied in the elite circles. Amir Khusrau writes, ‘beautiful Turkish girls between the age of 17 and 18 were presented, who were so beautiful that they could provide the old sun with a new covering of light by the shade of their faces’ (Siddiqui, 2012: 33). Ibn Battuta also frequently mentions royal slave singers and dancers. Khan-i Jahan Maqbul had in his harem slave girls from across the world, including Europe. Thus slaves formed active partners of the City’s socio-economic and political life.

17.8 ARTISANS AND LABOUR Muhammad Habib has argued that Islam broke caste restriction/barriers facilitating the inter-craft mobility of population. Habib (1952: 55-70) argues, ‘The new regime wanted the workers, along with their families and the workshops, inside the city-walls; their presence was indispensable to the work of the new regime…Their services were needed for government as well as for industrial purposes…’ The spurt in urban activities attracted artisans and labourers to the cities. The vibrancy in urban centres provided spaces for 2 5 Urbanisation in artisanal classes. Ibn Battuta mentions multitude of labourers available in every lane of Medieval India - 1 Delhi. Introduction of new crafts and modification of indigenous crafts as a result of introduction of new technologies and of infusion of new scientific ideas and crafts, facilitated the emergence and expansion of urban based new artisanal crafts. Large slave population taught and trained in the new crafts led to the emergence of new artisanal classes/castes in the due course. With the spread of wine distillation during the Sultanate period Kalal’s (liquor brewer) prosperity increased. Many of them accepted Islam (Khummar) and got educated and rose to prominence during Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign. Aziz Khummar enjoyed the position of revenue collector of Amroha and governorship of Malwa during Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign. Similarly founder of the , Zafar Khan was a Kalal. Whenever, new capital town was built it attracted artisans, traders and shopkeepers to do business in the bazaars. When Sultan Lodi made Agra his capital (1506) it attracted skilled workers and artisans from different parts of India to settle down there – ironsmiths from Rapri, stonecutters from Nagaur along with sarrafs and merchants (Siddiqui, 2012a: 114).

17.9 TRADE AND URBAN CENTRES Trade routes played an important role in the growth of medieval towns. Many villages along the routes in due course emerged into towns and cities of caravan traffic. Makran region, bordering Iran in the west, was largely a barren desert inhabited by pastoral tribes. However, later in the 7th century it attracted Arab traders, and on account of its geographical location (being on the trade route along India, Iran and Khurasan), served as an important link for both overseas and overland trade route; Soon pastoral economy of the Makran region transformed into a highly vibrant monetised economy which urbanised the entire region. New towns emerged in the region. Sehwan in Sind, situated on the land route to India emerged out to be an important entrepot. Similarly, Lahari Bandar in Sind and Cambay in Gujarat, on account of being important ports emerged into prominence, thronged by the merchants coming from al-Yaman and Fars, etc. Many villages along the routes in due course emerged into towns and cities of caravan traffic. Merchants also involved themselves in construction activities, thus facilitating the growth of towns. Khwaja Ishaque established a khanqah in Cambay where free food was served to travellers and poor. Hansi and Sirsuti (modern Sirsa) on account of theirs being on important trade route from Delhi to Pakpattan to Multan soon emerged as important towns. Even Sirsuti (Sirsa) emerged as centre of rice exports to Delhi and Multan. Ibn Battuta mentions it as a provincial headquarter, fortified and famous for its buildings, madrasas, etc. Similarly, many towns emerged on route between Delhi to Deogir during Muhammad Tughluq’s reign, particularly Chanderi, initially a shiq, soon thronged by merchants that led to the emergence of big bazaars. Such became the splendour of the city that it had 14,000 stone mansions, many bazaars, caravan sarais and hundreds of mosques (Siddiqui, 1962: 58). Nagaur, apart from being an important sufi centre, also owed its prominence to being an important centre on route linking Gujarat with Delhi. It was frequented by merchant caravans. Rizqullah Mushtaqi informs us that it was a prominent centre of trade for war horses, weapons and fine cloth in the 15th century.

17.10 SUMMARY Sultanate cities while on the one hand showed continuum and further accelleration of the process of urbanisation that began in the tenth century; on the other hand there appeared marked changes in the morphology of the town. The earlier dominant landscape with temples and corbelled buildings gave way to mosques, tombs and arcuate structures. 2 6 The cities started becoming more cosmopolitan in character. New features, new Sultanate and terminologies also appeared – khanqahs, thanas, qasbas, which further facilitated the Its Cities urbanisation process. Soon Indian cities were thronged not only by the merchants from central Asia and Persia, instead, Mongol invasion forced the literati to migrate that resulted in the emergence of Indian cities as centres of learning and cultural activities surpassing cities like Bukhara and Khurasan.

17.11 EXERCISES 1) What are the markers of a so-called ‘Islamic city’? How were the cities represented in the Sultanate Persian texts? 2) Critically examine various debates pertaining to the rise of towns in the Sultanate period. 3) Discuss the process of urbanisation under the Delhi Sultans. 4) What were the features of medieval towns? Discuss. 5) Analyse the emergence of new social groups. To what extent institution of slavery and various new groups altered the medieval town landscape? 6) ‘Sultanate cities were primarily garrison towns.’ Comment.

17.12 REFERENCES Afif, Tarikh-i Firuzshahi, Elliot, H.M. and John Dowson, (2014 [First Published 1867- 1877]) The as Told by its Own Historians, Vol. III (Delhi: Low Price Publications). Ashraf, K.M., (1970 [2nd edition]) Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal). Barani, Ziauddin, (2015), Tarikh- Firoz Shahi, eng. tr. Ishtiyaq Ahmad Zilli (New Delhi: Primus Books). Bosworth, C. E., E van Donzel, W.P. Heinrich and G. Lecomte, (ed.) (1997) The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Vol. IX (Leiden: Brill). Chachnama, (1900) translated into Persian by Ali Kufi, c.1216-17, English translation from Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg (Karachi: Commissionari’s Press). Habib, Irfan, (1969) ‘Presidential Address’, Medieval India Section, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, . Habib, Irfan, (1978) ‘Economic History of the Delhi Sultanate – An Essay in Interpretation’, The Indian Historical Review, Vol. IV, No. 2. Habib, Mohammad, (1952) ‘Introduction’, Elliot and Dowson’s History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. II (Aligarh: Cosmopolitan). Husain, Mahdi, (1976) The Rehla of Ibn Battuta (Baroda: Oriental Institute), No. 122. Kumar, Sunil, ‘Delhi Sultanate’, in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Thought, ed. Gerhard Bowering (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

2 7 Urbanisation in Naqvi, Hamida Khatoon, (1977) ‘Indian and European Towns C. 1500: A Comparative Medieval India - 1 Study’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (Bhubaneshwar: 38th Session). Naqvi, Hamida Khatoon, (1986) Agricultural, Industrial and Urban Dynamics under the Delhi Sultans – 1206-1555 (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers). Omer, Spahic, (2011)‘City Planning in Ibn Khaldun’s Thought’, https://medinanet.org/ 2011/03/city-planning-in-ibn-khalduns-thought/ Saoud, Rabah, (2002) ‘Introduction to the Islamic City’, Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, No. 4012. Siddiqui, I.H., (2011, reprint) Delhi Sultanate: Urbanization and Social Change (New Delhi: Viva Books). Siddiqui, I.H., (1962) ‘Chanderi Inscription’, Medieval India Quarterly, Vol. 5 p. 58. Verma, H.C., (1986) Dynamics of Urban Life in Pre-Mughal India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal). Wink, Andre, (1990) Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. I, Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Wink, Andre, (1999) Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. II, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquests, 11th-13th Centuries (Delhi: Oxford University Press).

2 8 UNIT 18 REGIONAL CITIES*

Structure 18.1 Introduction 18.2 Jaunpur 18.3 Gaur and Pandua 18.4 Kalpi 18.5 Mandu 18.6 Ahmadabad 18.7 Gulbarga and Bidar 18.8 Nature of Regional Capital Cities 18.9 Summary 18.10 Exercises 18.11 References

18.1 INTRODUCTION The ambitious and rapid expansions of the Delhi Sultanate under Alauddin Khalji (reg. 1296-1316) and then Muhammad bin Tughlaq (reg. 1325-1351) ensured the spread of a Turkic-Persianate court culture across the entire sub-continent. Despite regional variation in local design histories, we can perceive certain uniformity in the architecture and planning of sultanate cities across the Indian sub-continent. In this Unit, eight Sultanate cities that emerged at regional centres of power and were conceptualised in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are considered, from across different parts of India. After Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s reign, most of his territories rebelled and declared independence from the empire that he had tried to consolidate. The sultanates of Bengal (1342-1576), Deccan (Bahmani: 1347-1518), (1382-1601), Malwa (1392- 1562), Gujarat (1391-1583), Jaunpur (1394-1479), along with the kingdom of Vijayanagara (1336-1565) were all the successor kingdoms to the Khalji-Tughlaq empire. Various other local chieftains and subdued kings also declared their independence in this period. As all these successor states sought to consolidate their own kingdoms, they established new capitals, sometimes on the sites of earlier settlements, but with completely new paradigms of architecture and planning, in part rooted in local custom, but also derived from new ideas ushered in by the Delhi sultanate. The fourteenth century fashioning of court culture and kingship by Timur (1336-1405) in his Central Asian heartland was being emulated in the greater Persianate world, and these new kingdoms in India were no exception. The aesthetic and visual ideals promulgated by Timurid practices shaped the Persianate world, from present-day to India. In addition, several new forms of irrigation, water technology, agriculture, and land settlement were introduced across India in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, allowing the establishment of urban centers in India at locations hitherto thought of as unsustainable for cities. Here, we will look at some cities in some detail, viz. Jaunpur, Gaud, Pandua, Bidar,

* Dr. Pushkar Sohoni, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. 2 9 Urbanisation in Gulbarga, Mandu, Ahmadabad, and Kalpi. In tracing the emergence, continuity and Medieval India - 1 changes in the urban settlements in this period, it is possible to highlight differences and similarities in the new capitals of the regional sultanates.

Map 18.1: Regional Kingdoms c. 15 Century [After Joppen, Charles, (1907) Historical Atlas of India, London: Longmans Green & Co. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/ 57/India_in_1525_Joppen.jpg]

18.2 JAUNPUR The city of Jaunpur was founded in 1359 by Firuz Shah Tughlaq (reg. 1351-88) on the bank of the Gomti river. It was used as a base for the Delhi sultanate for further operations against the rebellious and Orissa. When the rule of the Delhi sultanate weakened, Khwaja Jahan (reg. 1394–99), Malik Sarwar, upon whom conferred title of Sultan-us Sharq, who had been then the governor of the province, 3 0 declared independence and founded the Sharqi sultanate in 1394. It was under the Regional Cities Sharqi sultans that the city prospered, and they carried out ambitious building activities to embellish their capital with a distinct architectural programme. Eventually, Sikandar Lodi (reg. 1489-1517), second ruler of the in Delhi, ransacked and pillaged the town, destroying all buildings except the mosques. Under the Mughals, Jaunpur was rebuilt as were most of its fortifications. The city of Jaunpur comprised of 67 mohallas; a few still survive today – Isapur, Begum Ganj, Madar Mohala, Karar Kot and Atala Mosque mohalla.

Jaunpur Sultanate [After Saeed, Mian Muhammad, (1972) The Sharqi Sultanate of Jaunpur, Map 2: The Provincial Sultanates of India and Pakistan During the 14th and 15th Centruries, Karachi: University of Karachi] Architecture and Planning Sharqis were great patrons of art and architecture. Within a short span Jaunpur emerged centre of Islamic culture. What makes Jaunpur architecture occupy distinct place was local roots of the artisans, both Hindu and Jain. – it assimilated and blended the Islamic tradition with local. Timur’s invasion forced the artisans and men of letters to move to provincial centres. Jaunpur rulers provided them liberal patronage. The city of Jaunpur, like most other sultanate cities, does not have any extant remains from earlier settlements at the site. Founded as a new provincial capital, it soon became the capital city of a new kingdom in the late fourteenth century. The walled city with a network of streets around a centrally located congregational mosque, and a citadel on the edge of the city facing the river, is a pattern seen in other sultanate towns. Malik Sarwar expanded and repaired Firuz’s fort and renamed it Badi Manzal; later the capital was named by him Dar-us Surur (the abode of the bliss). Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi built a separate palace in Jaunpur, Chihal Situn Mahal (the palace of forty pillars) for himself. Best known for the Atala mosque built in the late fourteenth century, Jaunpur has a number of other important buildings dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Yet, the Atala mosque is stylistically unique as an exemplar of the visual identity that the Sharqi sultans were trying to create. The square tapered towers that flank the high central arch are perhaps the identifying markers of Jaunpur mosque architecture. It is the most ornate and beautifully carved, is the best among the mosques of Jaunpur. It was partially destroyed by Sikandar Lodi but restored to its glory in 1860 by Munshi Haider Husain. Other mosques such as the Khalis Mukhlis mosque (c. 1430) and the 3 1 Urbanisation in (c. 1450) and Jami mosque (c. 1470) are other examples of this Medieval India - 1 style. The Mughal legacy includes a magnificent bridge (Shah bridge) built by the then governor Munim Khan, Khan-i Khanan around 1569 over Gomti river during the reign of . The most striking feature of Sharqi architecture was its propylon and recessed arches.

Atala Masjid, Sketch by William Hodges, 1783 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Atala_Mosque_William_ Hodges_1783.jpg

Lal Darwaza, Jaunpur Source: Archaeological Survey of India Collections, Photograph by Joseph Beglar c.1870, British Library Online Collections. http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/m/largeimage58808.html

3 2 Regional Cities

Jama Masjid, Jaunpur Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaunpur,_Uttar_Pradesh#/media/File:BadiMasjid.jpg The Sharqis were also torch bearers in the field of cultural development in the region. Jaunpur occupied prominent place as one of the prominent centres of learning on account of which Shahjahan called it Shiraz-i Hind and named it Dar-ul Ilm (abode of learning) even it outshone Delhi. Jaunpur became abode of men of learning and sufis who were forced to leave Delhi on account of Timur invasion coupled with the decline of patronage of Delhi Sultans. Qazi Shihabuddin Daulatabadi, who is praised by Abul Fazl for his wisdom and learning, Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi honoured him with the title of Malik-ul (chief of the learned) and appointed him the chief qazi of Jaunpur. Again the Timurid onslaught was severe and the sufis left Delhi in large numbers. Jaunpur once again provided the safe abode. Khwaja Abul Fath (d. 1454) of settled down at Jaunpur. Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi was his great murid. Jaunpur is equally blessed by the brisk activities of the madariya order. Its founder Shah Badiuddin Madar made Jaunpur-Makanpur as centre of his activities. Among the Shattaris, Shah Abdullah Shattari also for long time stayed at Jaunpur before moving towards Kalpi, Mandu and Chittor. But the major mystic movement that received its roots in Jaunpur was Mahdawi movement spearheaded by Saiyyid who aimed at restoring the ‘purity of Islam’. At Jaunpur other than Persian Awadhi also flourished. Shaikh Qutban who composed Mrigawati (1503) dedicated his work to Husain Sharqi. Music also find liberal patronage of the Sharqis at Jaunpur. Husain Sharqi himself invented many ragas. He invented 12 syams and four todis (famous being Husaini or Jaunpuri Asawari and Jaunpuri Basant). Above all Sultan Husain Sharqi left a lasting impact on posterity in the form of his invention of khayal mode of singing. Husain Sharqi, himself was a painter, provided liberal patronage to painting as well. The famous Jain Kalpasutra, (1465) was illustrated at Jaunpur under Husain Sharqi’s patronage. Thus the city of Jaunpur emerged as the prominent centre of Indo-Islamic tradition even surpassing Delhi during the 15th and early 16th centuries.

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A Leaf from Jain Kalpasutra, Jaunpur School Source: The MET; Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History:Jain Manuscript painting Courtesy:http:/ /www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1992.359/

18.3 GAUD AND PANDUA With the advent of Islam in Bengal, particularly from 14th century onwards a visible change is evident in the process of urbanisation which is evident in the presence of a number of mint towns in the region – Gaur, Pandua, Sonargaon, Satgaon, Chitagong, Tanda. Further, activities of the immigrant Sufis who got settled down there and established their khanqahas, dargahs and madarsas particularly provided the fillip to the growth of towns in the region.

Bengal Sultanate [After Syed Ejaz Hussain, (2003) The Bengal Sultanate (AD 1205-1576) 3 4 New Delhi: Manohar, Map facing page 1.] Gaur, the city of the Bengal sultanate was established at Lakhnavati (today known as Regional Cities Gaud, Gaur, Goud), which was the erstwhile capital of the Pala kings. It is located at 24° 52’ N and 88° 08’ E, near an older channel of the river. In 1205, the older Pala city was sacked by Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji who was a minor vassal of the Ghurid sultans at Delhi. His issued in 1205 carries the phrase Gaur Vijaya. Called Lakshmanavati or Lakhnavati under the Palas, it became a capital of the regional governors and rulers and was still also known by this name when Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah (reg. 1342-58) declared himself to be the king of Lakhnavati in 1342. In another ten years, by 1352, he had consolidated his kingdom and styled himself the Sultan of Bengal. At this point, though Gaud continued to be an important city, the capital was shifted to Pandua by Alauddin Ali Shah (1339-1342), approximately 30 km to the north-north-east.

Gaud

Gaur/Gaud [Khan, Khan Sahib M. Abid Ali, edited and revised by H.E. Stapleton. (1931) Memoirs of Gaur and Pandua, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot] 3 5 Urbanisation in It is said that older buildings in Gaud were deliberately plundered to enable the Medieval India - 1 construction of the new capital. Unfortunately, Pandua was looted by Firuz Shah Tughlaq of Delhi as he marched into Bengal in 1353. It would be almost another eighty years before the city of Gaud was again made the capital of the Bengal Sultanate. Sometime around 1437 when Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah IV (1434-1459) controlled the Sultanate of Bengal, the capital was moved back to Gaud. Gaud remained the capital of the Bengal Sultanate throughout the Sultanate. The city was completely sacked by (1486-1545). Sulaiman Khan Karrani (reg. 1565-1572), who ruled as a vassal of the Mughal emperor Akbar, shifted the capital of the province from Gaud to Tanda. In the seventeenth century, an English factory was set up at the nearby English Bazaar (Englezabad as it was then called), and Gaud was slowly abandoned as an important urban center and focus shifted more towards Rajmahal, Dhaka and later Murshidabad. Under the Bengal Sultanate city continued to be an important mint town throughout, as early as Bakhtiyar Khalji’s time.

Pandua [Khan, Khan Sahib M. Abid Ali, edited and revised by H.E. Stapleton. (1931) Memoirs of 3 6 Gaur and Pandua, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot] Planning and Architecture Regional Cities The geographical and geological circumstances of Bengal make it unlike most other parts of India for the settlement of large cities. Estuarine and swampy lands, with a network of rivers and tributaries that shift course meant that there was always a danger of flooding, and drainage more than irrigation would have been the primary concern. Rich alluvial soil provided most of the building material when made into bricks, as good building stone was not easily available.

Adina Mosque, Pandua Photo By Ajit Kumar Majhi, September, 2016 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Adina_Mosque._Pandua._Malda.jpg The city of Gaur was enclosed by a high earthen rampart, and it was reported that this embankment had buildings on top, a likely response to the geography, to protect against floods. The buildings do not survive anymore. On the western side of the city, the Ganges afforded protection against any intrusions, and on the eastern side, there was a double embankment and a moat. The major axis for movement in the city was an avenue that ran from north to south, and openings in the embankments in those two directions were provided with gates. Large boats used to ply trade on the Ganges and the city had a thriving port. It is surmised that the ease of water-based communication systems made the site highly desirable, but the shifting river eventually made the city undesirable and unhealthy for human habitation.

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Dakhil Darwaza, Gaur Photo By Ujjwal, India https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dakhil_Darwaza_at_Gaur,_Malda,_West_ Bengal.jpg With its mosques, madrsas, etc. the layout of the city of Gaur completely resembles an ‘Islamic city’. The citadel palace was close to the river embankment close to the southern end of the city. The main gate of the fort was called Dakhil Darvaza or Salami Darvaza, and it was on the northern side; the extant gateway dates most likely from the fifteenth century. This inner fortified area was approximately two and half square kilometers. Among the surviving remains outside this fort is Tantipara mosque (Umar Qazi mosque) built in 1580 by Khan-i Azam Mirsad Khan which is the finest example of terracotta art in Bengal. However, the biggest surviving mosque in Gaur is the Bara Sona Mosque built during Nasiruddin Nusrat Shah’s reign around 1525-1566. Its counterpart was built during Sultan Alauddin Ahmad Shah’s reign (1493-1519). Another surviving fifteenth century structure at Gaud is Firuzah Minar built by Saifuddin Firuz Shah (1488-90).

Choto Sona Mosque Photo By Nahid Rajbd 3 8 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Choto_Sona_Mosque_04.jpg Regional Cities

Baro Sona Mosque Photo By Pratyush Datta https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baro_sona_masjid_or_baro_duary_masjid_ or_the_great_golden_mosque_,_gour,_malda_ district_of_west_bengal_state.JPG All the architecture of the city, including the fortifications and gates, makes extensive use of local bricks, because both stone itself and the tradition of using stone for construction are not local to most of Bengal. Terracotta ornament is often used to embellish the buildings. Remnants of the palace are extant, but inadequate to construct the layout. Because of the material and the resultant architectural forms, the style of architecture is distinct, and even later temples in Bengal use the same architectural vocabulary as sultanate architecture.

Qadam Rasul Mosque Photo By Abhishek Kumar Jha https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qadam_Rasul_Mosque.JPG 3 9 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Fateh Khan’s Tomb in Qadam Rasul Photo By Abhishek Kumar Jha https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_Fateh_Khan.JPG There appears a strong element of local feature on the architecture during the regional Sultanate of Bengal. However in the 17-18th centuries with Mughal influence Bengal got integrated closely with north India and Pan-Indian Mughal impact is clearly evident on architecture. Under the Bengal Sultanate Lakhanauti/Gaur emerged as an important urban centre. From the very beginning it was an important centre of trade and commercial activities. Such was the common site of migrant traders that when Bakhtiyar Khalji entered the town with his troopers they were mistaken as traders. Ziauddin Barani describes the length of the Lakhnauti’s main market street stretching over a mile on studded with shops. Merchants and communities of various descents from all directions thronged there – Isfahani, Sijistani, Abyssinians, Afghans, Kararanis, Makkis, etc. Gaur, rather entire Malda was important centre of silk production and export and silk was exported as far as Russia. Commenting on the grandeur and hustle-bustle of the markets of Lakhnauti the Portuguese embassy who visited Gaur in 1521 writes:

The streets and lanes are paved with bricks like Lisbon New Street. The market is everywhere and everything – food and other goods alike – is in plentiful supply and very cheap. The streets and cross-lanes are so full of people that [it] is impossible to move…The streets are well mapped out and arranged. All the arms…are sold in streets which specialize in these goods. There is also a saddlery which sells horse harnessing and in another street all colours of fabric such as silk and other cloth can be found. (cited from Hussain, 2003: 244)

The streets are broad and straight and the main streets have trees planted in rows along the walls to give shade to the passengers. The population is so great that and the streets so thronged with the concourse and traffic of people, specially of such as come to present themselves at the King’s court, that they can not force their way past one another. A great part of this city consists of stately and well wrought buildings. (De Barros [pre-1540], cited from Khan, 1931: 43)

4 0 Pandua/Firuzabad also enjoyed the capital status for almost a century (1339-1437). Regional Cities Qutb Shahi mosque, and the famous and unique Adina mosque are some of the prominent monuments at Pandua. The city was well populated and centre of trading activities. It was well connected through river and land routes alike. Merchants from Heart, China, etc. flock together in the town. When Firuzabad was capital a number of Chinese embassies were exchanged between the Bengal Sultans and Chinese emperors. Chinese sources (CE 1412) informs that, ‘The city walls are very imposing, the bazaars well arranged, the shops side by side, the pillars in orderly rows, they are full of every kind of goods.’ (cited from Hussain, 2003: 254). Gaur and Pandua became centres of cultural activities. Under the Husain Shahis Bengali and literature flourished. At Gaur during Alauddin Husain Shah and Nasiruddin’s reigns several Bengali works were written – Vipradas’s Manasa Vijaya, Vijaya Gupta’s Manasa Mangalam, Yasoraja Khan’s Mangala, Maladhar Basu’s Shri Krishna Vijaya. The literature produced during this period had a strongVaishnava impact which reached its peak under Chaitanya (1486-1533). The Vaishnavite devotionalism paved way for the emergence of a local genre – mangalakavyas. Literature so developed exploited the local folk deities such as snake goddess – Manasa; forest goddess – Chandi. This fusion of Hindu-Muslim cultural tradition is best illustrated in Nabi Bangsa of Saiyyid Sultan (last quarter of the 16th century) who attempted the Islamic concept of Prophet (Nabi) with avatara doctrine of the . Pandua/ Firuzabad also enjoyed special place as centre of pilgrimage where stationed are the shrines of Shaikh Jalaluddin Tabrizi and Hazrat Nur Qutb Alam, popularly known as Bari Dargah and Chhoti Dargah. Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad patronized the famous Chishti saint at Pandua Shaikh Nur Qutb-i Alam (d. 1459). Shaikh’s tomb at Pandua achieved such a high esteem as pilgrimage centre that Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah (1493-1519) paid annual visit to his shrine. 18.4 KALPI In the 14th century Kalpi was a small village on the banks of Yamuna in the present Jalaun district of . The change began little before the Timur invasion when Malikzadah Mahmud, son of Masnad-i Ali Azam Humayun (wazir of Sultan Tughluq Shah [1388-98]) made it his headquarter in 1390. Bihamad Khani Muhammad in his Tarikh-i Muhammadi informs that following disturbances of chiefs in the region iqtadars of Tughluqpur, Phapoond, Chandwar, Shamsabad, Patiali, etc. also joined him. They built beautiful houses, constructed mosques and madrasas in the region. Kalpi soon developed into a planned city when in 1393 Azam Humayun demarcated specific area of the village Kalpi, encircled it with lofty walls and built a massive fortress there. He made his newly built hisar (fortification) Muhammadabad. Following Timur’s invasion huge migration of the elites, sufis and the commoners occurred towards Kalpi when his son welcomed scholars, sufis, and artisans who escaped from Timur’s onslaught. Soon Kalpi acquired the status of shahr-i Muazzam (great city). Kalpi soon became centre of Islamic learning and culture. The muqta of Kalpi quickly acquired strength and overran neighbouring iqtas and zamindaris. Mahmud assumed the title of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah and declared Kalpi as independent principality and addressed Kalpi as capital city (hazarat-i Muhammadabad). Soon the boundaries of the Sultanate of Kalpi extended touching the borders of the Sharqi kingdom of Jaunpur in the east; the southern frontier converged the Malwa territory of Chanderi; while the western frontier bordered iqta of Erachh (in modern Jhansi district), Gwalior and Bayana. It served as buffer between the Sultanate of Delhi, Jaunpur and Malwa till 1442. However, in 1443 the Sultanate 4 1 Urbanisation in was occupied by the Sharqi Sultan Mahmud Sharqi and Nasir Khan of Kalpi accepted Medieval India - 1 the tutelage of the Sharqi Sultanate. In 1479 finally Kalpi once again got subsumed into the Sultanate by Sultan who entrusted its charge to his grand son Azam Humayun Lodi.

Chaurasi Gumbad, Kalpi Photo by Rajarshi, September, 2010 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Chaurasi_Gumbad_2.JPG By the time of Sultan Mahmud Turk’s death (1412) Kalpi already represented a replica of metropolitan Delhi. Here flourished karkhanas established by the sultan and the nobles which gave impetus to weaving industry, and Kalpi in no time emerged as prominent centre of textile production. Even Kalpi acquired good reputation for sugar production. Being on the banks of Yamuna and ample availability of timber from the dense forests confronting its eastern and western borders, here also flourished boat and ship industry. Building activities and growth of industries made the city soon hub of artisans of varied nature. According to a rough estimate of I.H. Siddiqui strength of imperial retinues alone numbered approximately one hundred thousand in Kalpi by the turn of the 15th century. Ulama and Sufis equally contributed to its growth. Famous sufi saints Humam Ahmad Thanesari and Maulana Shamsuddin Nahwi left Delhi after Timur’s invasion and settled down in Kalpi under Mahmud Shah Turk’s patronage. Besides, a few disciples and khalifas of famous sufi saint Gesudaraz also made Kalpi as their abode. Besides the Chishtis, number of sufi silsilahs – Suhrawardi, Zahidi, Shattari and Madari – got settled here. Their presence and later their tombs made Kalpi an important centre of sufi activities. It was at Kalpi that Shah Madar of Madari silsilah interacted with the Hindu yogis before finally moving to Jaunpur. Emergence of Kalpi as an important town coupled the growth of other surrounding centres into towns. Mention may be made of Khandaut which Sultan Mahmud Turk fortified and built a palace fortress there and named it Mahmudabad. Other towns, Ratha and Chakni, near Kalpi also emerged in the region. Both were fortified and were vibrant economic centres. Jathra, which was an unfortified small town, by 15th century emerged into a prominent city under Majlis-i Ali Nizam Khan. He and his successors planted orchards and gardens around the city. It attained fame for wine manufacture (khammars, wine sellers and manufactures flourished in the region) and musicians (kalavants). The wine industry led to extension of grape cultivation in the region. Erachh 4 2 emerged as one of the strongest fort in north India. It became centres of activities of the ashrafs (elites). It flourished under Khan-i Azam Junayd Khan. It almost expanded to Regional Cities the size of Kalpi. Number of military outposts (thanas) by clearing forests emerged in the region during this period which in the coming century developed into flourishing towns. Mahoba and Shahpur also emerged centres of trade and Islamic learning. During Akbar’s period Kalpi and Erachh formed two separate sarkars in suba Agra (Siddiqui, 2012: Chapter 11). 18.5 MANDU Mandu formed a prominent capital city of the Malwa kingdom. Ala’ al-Din Khalji (reg. 1296-1316) captured this erstwhile settlement of the Paramaras, it was renamed Shadiabad by Hushang Shah Ghuri (reg 1405–35). There are virtually no traces of the city under previous dynasties. Founded by Dilawar Khan Ghuri (reg. 1401-1406), the sultanate of Malwa formally assumed trappings of a royal house only in 1401, though they were virtually independent since 1392. It was sometime around that time that the capital was shifted to Mandu from nearby Dhar. The was quickly replaced by the Khaljis, who controlled the Malwa sultanate from 1436 to 1531.1 There was a small period when the Sultans of Gujarat and the Mughals had control, but from 1537 to 1561, Mandu struggled to remain as an independent state. The last of its independent rulers was the famous Baz Bahadur (reg. 1555-1561). Through all these dynastic changes, it remained the capital of the sultans of Malwa from 1401 to till it was completely subdued by the Mughals in 1562. Nonetheless, Mandu continued to remain an important administrative and military center not only to control the region, but also as a key location to control a major route from north India to the Deccan.

Fort of Mandu [Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal] 1) Alamgiri Gate 2) Road from Nalcha 3) Bhangi Gate 4) Delhi Gate 5) Lal Kot 6) Chishti Khan’s Palace 7) Suraja Talao 8) Hathya Por Gate 9) Hindola Mahal 10) Champa Baoli 11) 12) Munja Talao 13) Ujala Baoli 14) Andheri Baoli 15) Gada Sha’s Shop 16) Gada Shah’s Palace 17) Kapur Ta;ao 19) Taweli Mahal 19) Tahasil 20) Ram Mandir 21) Asharafi Mahal 22) Hoshang Shah’s Tomb 23) Jami Masjid 24) Lohani Gate 25) Chhappan Mahal 26) Ek Thamba 27) Chor Kot 28) Nil Kantheshwar 29) Sonpur Darwaza 30) Songarh 31) Mosque 32) Jali Mahal 33) Tarapur Gate 34) Rewa Kund 35) Baz Bahadur’s Palace 36) Rupmati’s Palace 37) Bhagwaniya Gate 38) Darya Khan’s Tomb 39) Lal Bunglow 40) Lal Sarai 42) Malik Mughith’s Mosque 43) Sarai 44) Dai Ki Chhoti Bahan Ka Mahal 45) Dai Ka Mahal 46) Sagar Talao 47) Sat Sau Sirhi 48) Jahangirpur Gate 4 3 Urbanisation in Planning and Architecture Medieval India - 1 Mandu is located on a large mesa along the southern outcrops of the Vindhya mountain range, overlooking the plains of Malwa to the north and the large basin of the Narmada river to the south. The fortified mesa has defensive walls that extend more than 40 kilometers and are punctuated by a dozen gates. The important gate to the north, Dilli Darwaza, was the most easily accessible of the routes to the fort. The fort entrance on the north has three gateways, with the spearhead fringes that are commonly associated with the Delhi sultanate. Several water bodies are included within the fortifications at Mandu, and because the plateau is at an altitude of over 600 meters, there is no other source of water collection other than these lakes. Several wells and cisterns also provide water to the settlement. The enclosed area includes large swathes of landscape, several lakes, gardens, agricultural lands, making it self-sufficient in case of a siege. The major axis of the hilltop is north-south, passing a very large lake, and most of the monumental architecture at Mandu is situated on this locus. At the northern edge of the city are the monuments of the Ghuri and the Khalji dynasties of Mandu, most famously the Hindola Mahal, the Jahaz Mahal (Hoshang Shah), the Ashrafi Mahal (Mahmud Khalji I), the tomb of Hoshang Shah and the Jami mosque (Hoshang Shah). Marble and stucco inlay, techniques similar to the ones used under the Tughlaqs, are commonly used across most of the architecture. The tomb of Hoshang Shah is one of the first in India completely built of marble. At the southern edge of the fort, overlooking the Narmada, are the palaces and buildings associated with Baz Bahadur. The Mughals made their own contributions to the site, and Akbar and built a few palaces.

Hindola Mahal Photo by Muk.Khan, September, 2009 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Hindola_Mahal%2C_Mandu%2C_ India.JPG

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Jahaz Mahal Photo by Bernard Gagnon, December, 2013 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Jahaz_Mahal_10.jpg

Baz Bahadur Palace Photo by Bernard Gagnon, December, 2013 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Baz_Bahadur%27s_Palace_09.jpg

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Jami Mosque Photo by Pavel Suprun (Superka), January, 2009 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Mandu%2C_Jami_Masjid.jpg

Rewa Kund Photo by Bernard Gagnon, December, 2013 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Rewa_Kund%2C_Mandu.jpg

Rupamati Pavilion Photo by Bernard Gagnon, December, 2013 4 6 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Rupmati_Pavilion_01.jpg Hushang extended patronage to scholars and ulama and mystics and established a Regional Cities madarsa (1441-42) at Mandu which provided a great fillip to the city as chief centre of learning. He extended his patronage to famous sufi saint Shaikh Makhdum Qazi Burhanuddin. Besides, Saiyyid Najmuddin Ghausud Dahr, Shaikh Yusuf Budhan, and Hazrat Shaikh-ul Islam also migrated to Malwa and settled down at Mandu. It greatly enhanced the prestige of the region and Mandu soon achieved great reputation as an important sufi centre as well as an important centre of learning. At Mandu under the patronage of the Malwa rulers also flourished Sanskrit and . Punjaraja wrote commentary on Saraswata, a Sanskrit grammar during Ghiyas Shah’s reign. Prameshti Prakash Sara (1493) in Prakrit and Harivansha Purana (1495) were composed by Jain Scholar Shrutikirti of Mandavagarh (Mandu). Baz Bahadur and Rani Rupmati both provided a fillip to the growth of Hindi by composing poetry in Hindi. Paintings also found new lease of life under Malwa rulers’ patronage. Jain Kalpasutra (Mandu rendition) was inscribed at Mandu under the patronage of Mahmud Khalji (1439), Nimatnama illustrated during Nasir Shah’s reign marked the beginning of Malwa School of paintings at Mandu with the fusion of Turkaman School of painting at Shiraz and the indigenous Jain style of paintings. Under Baz Bahadur’s patronage city became live with musicians and singers flocking to the city from all around. Abul Fazl rates him amongst ‘a singer without rival’.

18.6 AHMADABAD The Sultanate of Gujarat came into existence when in1407 Zafar Khan (Muzaffar Shah I), who was the governor of the province of Gujarat under the Tughlaqs of Delhi, declared independence in sometime in the last decade of the fourteenth century. The city of Ahmadabad was founded by Sultan Nasiruddin Ahmad Shah (reg. 1411-1443) in 1411 on the banks of the river, near an older smaller settlement called Karnavati/Asawal. This became the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate replacing Patan and the next few centuries saw several accretions and improvements. Ahmad Shah had to combat the powers of his uncles who were based in south and central Gujarat; equally turbulent region Rajputana situated next to the present capital city Patan. Thus Patan was comparatively more vulnerable. Instead, compared to Patan its advantage lied in the fact that it was more strategically and closely situated to its port towns Cambay and Bharauch; from Ahmadabad it was easier to control regions of south and central Gujarat; equally approachable were the regions of Malwa, and Idar with whom Gujarat rulers were in constant clashes. The construction of the city of Ahmadabad was sanctified and legitimised by the eminent saints of three sufi orders – Maghribi (Shaikh Ahmad Khattu), Suhrawardi (Qazi Ahmad Jud of Patan) and Chishti (Malik Ahmad). It remained capital for about seventy five years when Mahmud Begarha shifted his capital to and named it Muhammadabad. However, it continued to thrive as an important industrial and commercial town even during Mahmud Begarha’s time. In 1487, Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (Begada) (reg. 1458-1511) commissioned extensive city walls, with a perimeter of almost 10 km., twelve major gates and hundreds of towers and defensive features. The Sultan had commissioned major construction projects at Champaner since he had captured it in 1484, and the next twenty odd years would be spent in making it ready to be the capital city of the Gujarat Sultanate. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the kingdom was in decline, and Ahmadabad remained the de facto capital city. In 1572, as part of the annexation of Gujarat, the Mughal Emperor Akbar captured Ahmadabad. It became the capital of the Mughal (province) of Gujarat, and prospered under the Mughals, and remains one of the most important commercial cities in western India. 4 7 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Medieval Gujarat [After Yagnik, Achyut and Suchitra Sheth, (2011) : From Royal City to Megacity, New Delhi: Penguin Books, p. 6.]

Plan of Ahmadabad Fort [After Yagnik, Achyut and Suchitra Sheth, (2011) Ahmedabad: From Royal City to Megacity, New Delhi: Penguin Books, p. 18.] 4 8 Planning and Architecture Regional Cities The city was roughly rectangular with the western wall along the banks of the . Abutting the western wall, inside the walls, was the citadel, the , the seat of royal and political power, but nothing survives of this complex now. This arrangement was quite similar to the placement of the citadel at Gaud. Almost in the center of the city was the great congregational mosque, the Jami’ (1424) and Ahmad Shah’s mosque (1414). It was close to the two major axes that led to the major gates in the cardinal directions. Several other smaller mosques, and also tombs of important nobility and holy men were scattered throughout the city.

Jami Mosque, Ahmadabad Photo by Bernard Gagnon https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jama_Masjid,_Ahmedabad_01.jpg The eastern doorway of the Jami’ mosque led to the tombs of members of the dynasty. The Bhadra towers and Ahmad Shah’s mosque still stands out among the surviving monuments of the city. The Jami mosque consists of as many as 15 domes and 260 pillars. Its richly carved two , which were shaking minarets (jhulti minar) got destroyed in 1819 earthquake.

The Shaking Minarets at Ahmedabad Drawn By Grindley, Robert Melville in 1809 (1786-1877); The British Library Board; Publisher: Ackermann, R; London; 1826 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakingminarets.jpg 4 9 Urbanisation in In between the jami mosque and the Bhadra towers is Tripolia gate or Medieval India - 1 known as Maidan Shah or King’s Bazar. This imposing Teen Darvaza, a large ceremonial portal in the middle of the city, is quite unique from this period. Mandelslo records:

The Maidan Shah or the King’s market is at least 1600 feet long and half as many broad and beset all around with rows of pal trees and date trees, intermixed with citron trees and orange trees, whereof there are very many in the several streets: which is not only very pleasant to the sight…

1. 2. 1. Manik Chowk (Teen Darwaza) Photo by Charles Lickfold, 1880s Source: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1400_1499/ahmedabad/ photos/photos.html https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teen_Darwaza_1880s.jpg 2. Present State of Teen Darwaza Photo by Aviral Mediratta https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teen_Darwaza.JPG Towards the eastern entrance of the Jami mosque (1414) Ahmad Shah erected his own rauza (mausoleum) known as Badshah ka Hazira where lied Ahmad Shah (1411- 1442), his son Muhammad Shah (1442-1451), and his grandson Qutbuddin Ahmad Shah II (1451-1458). In 1445, Rani ka Hazira was constructed in the vicinity. It appears that at the earliest stages of the foundation of the city there were built two mosques one, Saiyid Alam mosque, in the Khanpur area near the river and the other Haibat Khan’s mosque in the Jamalpur area. However, both lacked the elegance of Ahmad Shah’s mosque. The city wall got built by Sultan Mahmud Begara (1459-1511) in 1487. Writing in the seventeenth century, Mandelslo informs that it had 12 gates and was surrounded by a moat of 96 feet broad. Mirat-i Ahmadi further adds that it had apart from 12 gates, 139 towers, 9 corners and over 6000 battlements. Later British added Premabhai (1864) and Panchakuva Gates (1871). However, Ahmadabad Municipality dismantled entire wall structures leaving the gates in 1927 (Yagnik, 2011: 19). As with Malwa, Gujarat had its own set of architectural conventions that marked the building as being from Gujarat. Perhaps it was the rich tradition of construction in carved and dressed sandstone, or the availability of craftsmen who would take stone carving to the highest levels. The buildings at the new capital at Champaner exemplify this artisanship, but Ahmadabad also has a few fine of architecture, as the jaali style used for the first time was in the Jami mosque of Ahmad Shah and the climax can be seen in the Siddi Sayyid mosque built in 1572. Thus the distinct feature of the Gujarat Sultanate architecture was elaborate intricate jaalis/lattice/perforated screen with intricate geometric patterns and fine vine, leaf flower and petel designs which later became the hallmark of the jaali style in the mosques and rauzas. Even these jaalis were exported to southeast Asia. The tomb stone of 15th century saint Maulana Malik Ibrahim in Gresik in east Java is reported to have sent from Gujarat.

5 0 Regional Cities

Sidi Syed Mosque Photo By Vrajesh Jani https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosque_of_Sidi_Sayed_Jaali.JPG Jharokha (over hanging roofed balcony) was another feature of Gujarat architecture which can be seen in Ahmadabad buildings, particularly in Teen Darwaza (see illustration of Teen Darwaza above). Tanks and wells also formed crucial part of landscape of the Gujarat Sultanate. Sultan Qutbuddin built Hauz-i Qalb known as Kankariya Lake near the royal palace. Malik Shaban constructed a big lake and a step well. In 1499 Dhai Harir, the chief of the royal Haram of Mahmud Begara constructed a step well in the suburb of Harirpura and Rudra Devi (Ruda Bai) constructed another step well on the outskirts of Ahmadabad. Sultan Mahmud Begara even encouraged his nobles to establish ‘puras’/suburbs. The present day , Sarangpur, and are such suburbs established by nobles. Malik Shaban who served first three Sultans established a suburb, Bagh-i Shaban with a tank and his rauza. Malik Isan established on the southern side of the city another suburb known as Isanpura and erected a mosque, which still survives today (Yagnik, 2011:23-24). Even the sufi centres soon developed into suburbs. At Vatva, where situated the dargah of Saiyyid Qutb-i Alam, along that soon evolved a suburb called Rasulabad. Similarly, along the mausoleum of Saiyyid Usman, built by Mahmud Begarha, on the western side of the Sabarmati, a new suburb known as emerged. Today here stands the famous Gujarat Vidyapeeth.

5 1 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

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(2) (3) 1. Adalaj (Rudabai ) Step Well (1) Photo by Notnarayan, November, 2012 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Adalaj_step_well.jpg 2. Photo December, 2012 By Ronakshah1990 (2) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Adalaj_Stepwell_-_Upper_Level_-_2.jpg 3. Photo by Raveesh Vyas, January, 2009 [See the intricate jaalis](3) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Adalaj_Stepwell_-_Upper_Level_-_2.jpg

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1. Dhai Harir Step Well Photo by Orissa8, October 2012 (1) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Dada_Harir_Stepwell_-_top_view.JPG 2. Photo January 2012, by Bornav27may (2) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Stepwell_staircase.JPG Ahmadabad emerged as prominent commercial and cultural capital of Gujarat thronged by the immigrants from all directions. Gujarat Sultanate patronised scholars and saints from the Islamic world. Apart from Shia and Sunnis, Ismaili tradition of the Bohras 5 2 (Khojas) also flourished. Ismaili Naziri tradition that developed around Imad Shah Regional Cities during Mahmud Begara’s reign was an amazing fusion of Hindu-Muslim tradition. Imad Shah declared himself incarnation of Indra resulting in attracting large followers from agricultural and pastoral Hindu communities. They even celebrated Holi and Dipawali. After Imad Shah’s at Girmatha in the 16th century the village came to be known as Pirana and the sect as Pirana Panth. Momana, community of the Panth, was involved in textile production and generally concentrated in the towns. In the walled city of Ahmadabad there were as much as four Monana-vad (bad), suggesting of the strong presence of the community. Saiyid Muhammad Jaunpuri laid the foundation of the Mahdawi movement here. It was at Ahmadabad, during Mahmud Begara’s reign, he declared himself a ‘mahdi’ (saviour). Another famous sufi flourished at Ahmadabad in the 15-16th century was Wajihuddin Alwi who was originally a Qadiri sufi, later converted to Shattari order under Muhammad Ghau’s influence. In his khanqah students from all over the country flock together to learn higher literary, religious and spiritual studies. His student Saiyyid Sibghatullah who migrated to Medina was the spirit behind spreading the Shattari order in Arabia. Ahmadabad also emerged a great centre of literary activities. The court poet Udayaraj wrote Mahmudsuratranacharit in Sanskrit in praise of his patron Mahmud Begara.

18.7 GULBARGA AND BIDAR Gulbarga Gulbarga was the first capital of the Bahmanids and enjoyed the status till 1424 when finally Ahmad I shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. The shift in the capital pushed Gulbarga to a secondary spot.

City-Plan of Gulbarga [Michell, George and Mark Zebrowsky. (1999) Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. The New Cambridge History of India, I.7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), Map 7, p.27.] (1429-1432; rebuilt by Nizam Shah Bahmani in 1461-1463) and its Jama Mosque inside the fort dominate the building architecture of the city which is fusion of Sultanate and Persian architectural forms. Even the famous Jami Mosque was designed by Persian architect from Qazvin, Rafi. Built in highly unconventional style, the courtyard was covered with small cupolas supported by arches. However, this style never been repeated in any of the later building, possible discarded by the traditionalists. The fort that stands today was greatly modified during Adil Shahi period. 5 3 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Photo by Deen Dayal, 1880 Courtesy: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/g/019pho0000430 s6u00046000.html https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Great_Mosque_in_Gulbarga_Fort..jpg Gulbarga soon emerged a prominent sufi centre. Tajuddin Firuz invited Chishti saint Hazrat Gesu Daraz to settle down at Gulbarga in 1397. However, his death in 1422 led to the decline in the importance of Gesu Daraz’s followers, instead Nimatullahi Sufis of Kirman under Ahmad Shah I’s patronage emerged prominent at Bidar. .

Hazrat Gesu Daraz Tomb, Gulbarga Photo by Ken Boulter (Sandonik), 1869 http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/India/South/Karnataka/Gulbarga/photo1387335.htm 5 4 Regional Cities

Hazrat Gesu Daraz Tomb http://www.khwajagharibnawaz.net/BandaNawaz.htm

Bidar After more than half a century of Bahmani sovereignty, Ahmad I (reg. 1422-1436) decided to found a new capital around c. 1424 to replace Gulbarga, which had been the Bahmani capital from around 1350 to 1424. Located at the geological intersection of Deccan basalt and laterite, the location used a number of strategies for a plentiful supply of water to the city. It is located at the edge of the northern plateau, and therefore easily defensible. The location was also close to Kalyani, the capital of the late Chalukyas, and that meant a convergence of trade routes. In 1512 though the Bahmani capital once again shifted to Golconda, even after the decline of the Bahmani dynasty, Bidar remained the capital of the Barid Shahs, till that latter kingdom was annexed by the sultans of Bijapur in 1619. It remained an important provincial capital even under the Mughals. New gunpowder seige technologies had been introduced in the Deccan by the time and Bidar displays many of the then new defenses against such attacks. The climate of Bidar was a lot more salubrious than that of other areas in the region, on account of its altitude. Planning and Architecture The city has a fairly orthographic grid of streets, and two of the major ones intersect at an important central crossing. Several gates puncture the walls, and the city was connected in all directions by major routes. The outer walls of both the city and the citadel are shaped by topographic considerations, as the ground is not level. Many of the non-royal buildings of note are in the walled city, such as Mahmud Gawan’s madrasah and the Chaubara, an unusual cylindrical structure most likely built as an observation tower or a gnomon in the center of a city crossing. The city, like many others, had a distribution of Sufi tombs and small mosques that served different neighbourhoods. 5 5 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

City-Plan of Bidar [Michell, George and Mark Zebrowsky. (1999) Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. The New Cambridge History of India, I.7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Map 10, p. 31.]

Bidar Fort Photo by Santosh3397; October, 2014 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Fort_Garden_bidar.jpg 5 6 Regional Cities

Mahmud Gawan’s Madarsa Photo by Prasannasindol, September, 2012 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Complete_view_of_Mahumad_ Gawan.JPG

Chaubara, Bidar http://www.gounesco.com/bidar-k-chaubara-ki-katha/ 5 7 Urbanisation in The citadel was at the northern edge of the walled and fortified city, and almost equal in Medieval India - 1 area to the city. The citadel is curious because of triple moats that separate it from the city. On the northern side of the citadel, the elevated situation makes it easily defensible. The citadel also contains low-lying areas that were included inside to facilitate the collection, storage and distribution of water. Several qanats also feed this low lying area, thus ensuring a steady water supply that is not limited to local precipitation. All the important royal buildings are clustered on the southern side of the citadel, closest to the city, yet visually and physically removed because of their elevation, and the placement of walls and moats. Within the citadel, various halls of audience, and the residential palace buildings, along with the Solakhamba mosque, are noteworthy. The significant structure of the fort is Gumbad Darwaza so named after its domed roof. Rangin Mahal is marked by wooden columns and mother of pearl inlay decoration. Bidar was a planned city, with two zones the royal enclave towards north and the city towards south, complete with its own royal necropolis at Ashtur, only a few kilometers on a lower plain to the east of the citadel.

Gumbad Darwaza Photo by Vamsi Rimmalaoudi, August, 2009 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Gateway_to_Bidar_fort.jpg The architecture at Bidar extensively used both the local basalt and laterite stones, conscientiously chosen for different functions and effects. Lime mortars and plasters, along with rubble masonry are extensively used where dressed stone is not required. Bidar is one of the few locations in the Deccan, where the use of polychromatic glazed tiles for decoration on the exteriors of buildings can still be seen. Stylistically, Bahmani architecture set the tone for all the later regional manifestations of architecture in the Deccan. The court and royal buildings at Vijayanagara, the architecture of Bijapur, Golconda and Ahmadnagar, all carried further this new style inaugurated under the Bahmanis. The architecture of Bidar completely dominated by Persian art forms. Even Chand Minar (four storied structure with projected balconies) at Daulatabad, built in 1435 has deep Iranian influence. Another aspect of Bahmani architecture was Idgahs of Gulbarga, Bidar and Daulatabad.

5 8 Bahmani capital Bidar soon became centre of immigrants from Iran and Central Asia. Regional Cities Under Nimatullahi sufis Irani element dominated the Deccani politics, particularly during Mahmud Gawan’s period of prime ministership (1463-1481). During Ahmad I’s reign famous sufi saint Shah Khalilullah, son of revered Shah Niamatullah of Kirman arrived in Bidar in 1431. It greatly reduced the influence of Gesu Daraz.

Shah Khalilullah’s Tomb, Chaukhandi, Bidar Photo by Santosh3397, April, 2010 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Chaukhandi_bidar.jpg

18.8 NATURE OF REGIONAL CAPITAL CITIES Sultanate capital cities were founded, either on the sites of earlier provincial capitals, as in the case of Gaud, or completely from scratch, as seen at Bidar, several considerations shaped their physical form. In most cases, antecedent pre-Islamic cities are claimed on the location of these sultanate capitals, but the veracity of these claims has been elusive, both archaeologically and in terms of extant evidence. Since some of the cities have been find-spots for antiquities, earlier claims have been made. But it is important to realise that all the cities were located along military or trade routes, and therefore there are always settlements found in the area around them. The two features for which these 5 9 Urbanisation in settlements are attributed to the regional sultanates are the scale and the urbanity of Medieval India - 1 these cities. None of the earlier towns were of the size of the sultanate capitals. No doubt they benefited from being part of not just local, but much wider networks of trade, facilitated by merchants from across a larger Islamicate world. The climate and terrain (which determined the methods and systems of water management), and the strategic location (both military and mercantile), were the two major sets of constraints that shaped the sultanate city. Favoring one could often mean giving in to the other. For example, the location of Gaud, so important to trade and easily defensible, was very difficult because of the shifting physical character of the Ganges. In the case of Mandu, the city eventually lost importance because it was not at the frontier of the past the sixteenth century. There were several settlements in the area, such as Chanderi, Dhar and Indore, which became major commercial centers, and did not require the fortification of the early sultanate cities. Bidar stayed important as an important administrative center for the region, and Ahmadabad transitioned into a major mercantile city. Ahmad Shah’s decision to shift the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate from Patan to Ahmadabad was completely guided by geopolitical considerations – Patan, then capital, was vulnerable being surrounded by Rajput kingdoms in the north; while towards east and south were the kingdoms of Khandesh, Malwa and Bahmani; while his uncles controlled and Bharuch areas in the south so for better control of these regions there was a need for a capital more central and towards south. All the cities of the post-Khilji pre-Mughal sultanates were eventually captured by the Mughals. With the exception of Gaud, which was abandoned, all of them became important Mughal provincial centers. Therefore, all the cities in their present state have large scale Mughal improvements, obliterating large parts of their earlier history. The relative uniformity of Mughal architectural and planning logic, irrespective of local climate, material and custom, tend to create similar visual impressions. The introduction of gunpowder technologies from the fourteenth century for sieges, and the rapid developments in guns through the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, required the inhabited sultanate cities to either upgrade their defenses, or be abandoned. In other cases, political and physical changes meant the decline of the city. As a result, the character of many of the defensive features, the settlement patterns, and the relative importance of sultanate cities completely changed over time. It is only through part archaeological, part literary, and marginally extant architecture, that the reconstruction of these cities is possible. Though some of the sites were inhabited earlier, the growth in the scale of the city was possible only because of new imported modes of water conveyance, such as qanats and the construction of large-scale waterworks. The Persian wheel was the first of such technological innovations that changed the schema of water supply. Till then, wells and cisterns were the only source of water to supplement flowing water. In terms of planning, all the settlements that became capitals of the sultanate kingdoms can be called urban on account of their scale and specialised occupations that they supported. Almost none of the residents of these cities were directly dependent on agriculture, but were instead men of letters, merchants, courtiers or soldiers. All these cities had a grid of large streets, most probably processional in nature, that led across the city, and converged or crossed at a central square. The citadel was always set against the edge of the walled city, a pattern that can be seen in most cities of this period, as a precaution against internal strife and revolt. Bidar, Ahmadabad, Gaur, Jaunpur, all follow this layout. In the case of Mandu, because of its remote defensible 6 0 location on a high plateau, the walled enclosure might be considered a royal enclosure with multiple palaces around the whole walled area. An enceinte with a large centrally Regional Cities located mosque, a set of public buildings including bazars and hammams, and a garrison, became the minimum set of physical requirements to be recognised as a capital city for a kingdom. People of skill, learning and merit were the human requirements to create an important city. Great innovations were made in architecture, literature, and other expressions of culture under the regional sultanates. The modern linguistic landscape of South Asia was also shaped in this period, with the consolidation of several regional which were used at court in addition to Persian. It is also in this period that a new language of new architectural styles is born, with regional variations. For example, under the centralised rule of the Delhi sultanate, the architecture of all the provincial cities was comparable, but the disintegration of the large empires based in Delhi ensured a local expression. It is possible to discern distinct differences in the architectural style and material of the regional sultanates, differences that would again be flattened with the rise of the Mughals. These regional centers and urban settlements became the basis for the expansion of the Mughal state that followed in the sixteenth century.

18.9 SUMMARY The decline of the Delhi Sultanate led to the emergence of the regional polities in the 14-15th centuries. The seats of these regional kingdoms emerged into prominent urban centres – Jaunpur (Sharqi), Gaur and Pandua (Bengal), Mandu (Malwa), Gulbarga and Bidar (Bahmani), Ahmadabad and Champanir (Gujarat) and Kalpi. Since these Sultanates grew out of the Delhi Sultanate, in practice it imbibed the cultural tradition of the Delhi Sultanate at large. At the same time, it did assimilate the regional features/ characteristics. Architecturre and layouts of various cities apparently had deep impact of the Delhi Sultanate – fortified and planned cities; skyline was marred by mosques and tombs. However, Sultanates of Bahmani and Malwa on account of their close connections with Iran did showed certain distinct overarching Iranian influence. Bengal’s geography led the regional sultanate not only to opt for various regional styles in architecture but also it assimilated a vibrant secular cultural tradition. These Sultanates emerged as prominent centres of sufi learning, particularly the Timur onslaught forced them to migrate and settled down in these regional sultanates where sufi tradition flourished and grew further. These centres also patronised regional languages and facilitated its growth

18.10 EXERCISES 1) ‘The new capital cities that developed in the 14-15th centuries were benefited by the decline of the Delhi Sultanate.’ Comment. 2) Discuss the characteristics of capital cities developed during the 14-15th centuries. 3) In what respect Gaur and Pandua represent distinct styles of growth pattern in the 14-15th centuries? 4) Discuss the emergence of Ahmadabad as chief centre of activities. How did it succeed replacing Patan even survived when Mahmud Begada shifted the centre of power towards Champanir? 5) Critically examine the emergence of Kalpi as major city as well as seat of regional power in the 15th century.

6) What were the characteristics of Bahmanid cities, Gulbarga and Bidar? 6 1 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1 18.11 REFERENCES Ahmadabad Rajyagor, S.B. et. al., Gujarat State Gazetteers: Ahmadabad District Gazetteer (Ahmadabad: Director, Government Printing, Government of Gujarat, 1984). Yagnik, Achyut and Suchitra Sheth, (2011) Ahmedabad: From Royal City to Tegacity, ( New Delhi: Penguin Books). Gaur and Pandua Alamgir, Khoundkar, (2011) Sultanate : An Analysis of Architecturaland Decorative Elements (New Delhi: Kaveri Books). Eaton, Richard M.,’Islam in Bengal’, in Michell, George. (ed.) (1984) The Islamic Heritage of Bengal (Paris: UNESCO), pp. 23-36. Hussain, Syed Ejaz, (2003) The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins (AD 1205-1576), New Delhi: Manohar. Khan, Khan Sahib M. Abid Ali, edited and revised by H.E. Stapleton. (1931) Memoirs of Gaur and Pandua (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot). Michell, George. (1984) The Islamic Heritage of Bengal (Paris: UNESCO). Sengupta, Jagdish Chandra. (ed.) (1969) State Gazetteers: Malda (vol. 3) (Calcutta: West Bengal District Gazetteers, Government of Bengal). Gulbarga and Bidar Michell, George and Mark Zebrowsky. (1999) Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. The New Cambridge History of India, I.7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Yazdani, Ghulam. (1947) Bidar: Its History and Monuments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, published under the Special authority of HEH the Nizam). Jaunpur Fuhrer, Alois Anton. (1889) The Sharqi architecture of Jaunpur; with notes on Zafarabad, Sahet-Mahet and other places in the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh (Calcutta: Printed and published by the Superintendent of Government Printing, India). Saeed, Mian Muhammad. (1972) The Sharqi Sultanate of Jaunpur: a political and cultural history (Karachi: University of Karachi). Kalpi Siddiqui, Iqtidar Husain, (2012) Delhi Sultnate: Urbanization and Social Change (New Delhi: Viva Books). Mandu Day, Medieval Malwa, Patil, D.R. (1971) Mandu (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India). Yazdani, G. (1929) Mandu: the City of Joy (Oxford: Printed for the Dhar state at the University press, by J. Johnson).

6 2 UNIT 19 TEMPLE TOWNS IN PENINSULAR INDIA* Structure 19.1 Introduction 19.2 Emergence of Temple Towns in Peninsular India 19.3 Characteristics of Temple Towns 19.4 Case Study: Kanchipuram 19.5 Case Study: Tanjavur 19.6 Case Study: Srirangam 19.7 Summary 19.8 Exercises 19.9 References 19.1 INTRODUCTION In this Unit our focus is to look into the emergence of sacred spaces as urban centres and how did they serve as ‘symbols of economic vitality’. What were the facors that played role in the emergence of sacred place as a centre of economic activities? Whether a particular religious ideology or its geo-political location or its political legitimation was instrumental in the emergence of a space as a prominent urban centre? Largely this phenomenon was confined to the Tamilakam (land between the Tirupati Hills [Vengadam] and the southernmost tip of the Peninsula) region in the Peninsular India that is why focus of our discussion is going to be on the processes of the emergence of temple towns in the Tamilakam region in the medieval period. You would find that there were several factors that contributed to the rise of temple towns in the Tamilakam region. The Unit attempts to provide you a broad structure of the temple towns and the processes involved. However, three Sections are devoted on case studies to provide you the indepth study on how it were not just the one factor that held prominence for the emergence of a temple town across the region instead of multiple factors that worked depending upon the socio-religious and geo-political conditions. Tamilakam provides a unique geography in terms of tinai concept. This tinai is demarcated on the basis of eco-zones - Mullai (pastoral zone - inhabited by warriors and pastoralists), Kurinci (hilly zone), Marutam (wet lands along the rivers) Neital (littoral), and Palai (dry tracts). The earliest urban centres visibly appeared in marutam and neital zones which were dominated by the Cheras (Periyar valley), Cholas (Kaveri valley), and the Pandyas (Vaigai and Tamraparni valley). Champakalakshami has identified two periods of urbanisation in the Tamilakam region: First occurring during the Sangam (Early Historic) period (300 BCE-300 CE); and the Second during 7th to 13th centuries (largely falling into the period of the Cholas). It is with the second phase with which we would largely be concerned here. 19.2 EMERGENCE OF TEMPLE TOWNS IN PENINSULAR INDIA The dominant feature of urbanism in the early historical phase was the coastal/external trade; once the trade declined it resulted in the decline of the urban centres as well; * Prof. Abha Singh, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. 6 3 Urbanisation in followed by a socalled period of ‘crisis’ in the Post-Sangam period which is attributed Medieval India - 1 in the Brahmanic records as ‘onslaught of the evil kings’ (kali arasar or Kalabhras) and the ‘dominance of heterodoxy’ (Jainism, Buddhism and bhakti). It was the period marked by the decline of the three traditional vendar (crowned kings – Cheras, Cholas, and the Pandyas (for further details on brahmadeya expansions are given along with case studies). The process of the emergence of urban centres in the early medieval period begins with the spread of Puranic religion in the region coupled with the rise of the Pallavas and the Pandayas (sixth to ninth centuries). Under them began the process of brahmadeya (to brahmanas) and the devadana (to the temples) grants in the region that facilitated the agrarian expansion in the region. The period (sixth to ninth centuries) between Sangam and the rise of the later Cholas (ninth to thirteenth centuries) followed by large scale agrarian expansion under the Pallavas and the Pandayas coupled with the emergence of urban centres. This agrarian expansion (seventh to ninth centuries) facilitated increased commercial activities during the post-ninth century. The hinterland of Kudumukku was the fertile region of Kaveri (see Map 3). The merchant guilds and nagarams (market towns) further facilitated movements of goods through itinerary guilds/merchants and became points of intersection for the exchange of local and exotic goods which in turn connected with higher marketing centres – erivirappatinam (a merchant town protected with fortified walls and armed troops) and managaram (a merchant town comprised of a number of nagarams); though not all nagarams emerged as urban centres. Under the Cholas, particularly the deltaic region (Kaveri) emerged as nuclei with temples at the centre. There emerged a number of managarams which were often creation of state sponsorship. Kachchi (Kanchipuram) of the pre-Chola period was such managaram. The managaram of the Pallavas was Mamallapuram. Kenneth Hall argues that in the network villages were connected to the market (nagaram) and nagaram in turn with managaram. However, Champakalakshmi emphasises that such link is not visible in the Pallava period. Instead in the tenth century in the Chola period one gets datable evidence of such connectivity of nagaram being ‘served as nuclear marketing centre of the agrarian unit called nadu [peasant assembly/organisation] (which is local marketing territory)’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 213). It escalated further in the late Chola period in the thirteenth century.1 Brahmadeyas and nagarams not only expanded in the Chola heartland but also in the newly acquired Ganga [Western Gangas; third to tenth centuries] and Pandya kingdoms such as Mudikondacholapuram, Nigarilicholamandalam. Champakalakshmi argues that they were used ‘as independent agents of political synthesis under the Cholas’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 216). From the middle Chola period nagarams with specialised markets/merchant guilds emerged – Saliya Nagarattar (dealing with textiles), Sankarappadi Nagarattar and Vaniya Nagaram (supplying ghee and oil), etc. ‘Erivirappattanas, or chartered mercantile towns, also began to appear from the eleventh century’ (Champakalakshmi,1996: 216). These were ‘inland ports’ and generally established in remote and difficult areas. Ramanathapuram, a tribal region marred by militant Maravars that’s why in this region itinerant merchants built their warehouses ‘protected’ and with royal sanction and defended by their own troops (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 219). Erivirappattanas such developed were – Basinikonda (Chittoor district), Aiyapolil Kattur (Chingleput district), Tirumalagandarlottai (Ramanathapuram). Erivirappattana in Tirunelveli district were protected by army Munrukai Mahasenai particularly to protect temple and its treasury. These specialised merchant organisations specially became instrumental in the expansion of temple

1 Champakalakshmi has divided the Chola developments into three periods: Early Cholas 850- 6 4 985; Middle Cholas 985-1150; Later Cholas 1150-1279. urbanisation which were the biggest consumers of goods in the eleventh-thirteenth Temple Towns in centuries (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 217-219). The Mahalingeshwara temple of Peninsular India Tiruvidaimarudur was managed and administered by sabha (Brahman assembly) and the nagarattar of Tiraimur together. Merchants from far off places like Kumaramarttandapuram, Nandipuram, Tiruvisalur (in Kumbhakonam) and Mayilappur frequently visited the Shaiva temple of Tiruvidaimarudur and offered gifts. Itinerary merchant guilds were another crucial link in the growth of urban centres in the region. Champakalakshmi argues that its proliferation occurs from eleventh century onwards; under the Pallavas the Manigramam was the only such guild recorded in the ninth century (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 214). In the Puddukkottai region Ayyavole guild was involved in trade. The Valanjiyar, a militant itinerant guild was active in the Chola region in the tenth century. In the eleventh century guild activities extended to Andhra region. The merchant organisation of the Five Hundred and Valanjiyar of Sri Lanka are reported to have made endowments to the temples of Sivapuri, Tirunelveli and Aruppukkottai in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries. Even craft organisations had their dependence on merchant organisations. In Erode a ‘refugee’ centre got established by Nanandeshi in the eleventh century. At the same time in the eleventh century Chitrameli Periyanadu (an organisation of the Tamil agriculturists) became active in the Andhra and regions. All these organisations actively participated in gift making and temple activities. Champakalakshmi argues that ‘agricultural surplus was mobilized and brought from rural areas to urban settlements through nagaram …[which] from the twelfth century would indicate that mobilization of agricultural surplus made possible the expansion of urban activities’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 221). The Tigai Ayirattainnurruvur, an organisation of itinerant merchants erected a mandapa in the Shiva temple (modern Mahalingeshwar temple) of Tiruvidaimarudur. The kavanam section of the Tiruvidaimarudur temple was the meeting place of the nagaratttar (assembly of merchants). Apart from agriculture (land) the multifaceted activities performed around the temples were – maintain cows, goats, feeding brahmanas and ascetics, burning of lamps, construction and renovations, ornaments for the deity, religious discourses, education, etc. To maintain temple properties special communities were involved in their upkeep. Manoradis (a class of shepherds) maintained temple cows and goats; while Kaikkolas (weavers) were involved in ‘gift making’ as well as served as members of the army as terinja kaikkolas (chosen Kaikkolas); while mulaparishada (mainly consisted of brahmans) controlled the entire temple activities. For construction special colonies of architects and sculptors were developed. These non-agricultural groups were accommodated in the Tirumadaivilagam of the temple. From the eleventh century onwards at Sirkali, Arantagi, Kumbhakonam and Nannilam talukas in Tanjavur district several weaving centres in the Tirumadaivilagam of the temples through special privileges emerged under the Cholas. Weavers-cum-traders even formed their separate Nagarattar (Saliya Nagarattar) and enjoyed similar privileges and rights as those of other nagarams. In the Vijayanagara period several loci of power altered, particularly kaikkolas replaced the saliyas and organised themselves into Mahanadu with their headquarter at Kanchipuram. At Palaiyarai, weavers Pattunulkaras settled around Pattishvaram temple, one of the most sacred shrine of the Shaivas, during the Nayak period and entered into an agreement with the cheti merchants to receive ‘ritual precedence in the matter of receiving betel and nut on marriage occasions and offering the cloth, betel leaves and nuts to the goddess of the temple’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 349). Under the Cholas developed metalwork and textiles. Chola artists surpassed casting bronze images. These processes provided the opportunity to the brahmanas to emerge as ‘economic administrators’ through their sabha which inturn legitimised the kshatriya power. 6 5 Urbanisation in Bhakti facilitated the ‘acculturation’ of local and folk traditions, thus tinai deities got Medieval India - 1 absorbed into brahmanic religions. It even countered the ‘heterodox’ (Jainism and Buddhism) traditions. There were two other major aspects related to bhakti – social differentiation and sectarianism leading to sectarian rivalries (between the Shaiva and the Vaishnavas). Gradually political and economic power of the brahmadeyas came into the hands of the temples. The process of temple building began with the Pallavas and the Pandayas which achieved permanence under the Cholas. ‘Under the Colas some of the bhakti centres became leading political, sacred or pilgrimage centres and evolved into huge urban complexes…Such temples were built by the major ruling dynasties and their subordinates, either to legitimize their sovereignty or to bring various socio-economic groups within the orbit of bhakti centres. Temples became landed magnates, with tenants and temple servants remunerated through land’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 207). Temples served as ‘institutions of higher learning (maligai melaikkalluri)’. One such was established by Rajaraja I in Tukkalivallam. Towering gates and encompassing shrines emerged as centres of educational and cultural activities. To Tiruvidaimarudur Shaiva temple was attached salai (educational institution) of brahmanas. There developed three types of temple towns. First, the ‘ceremonial centres’: the Cholas sponsored two such ceremonial cities – Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram as sacred centres. and Kanchipuram, the oldest cities, whose antecedents could be traced in the early historical period, also served as major ceremonial centres. Another type of urban centres was ‘multi-temple centres’ developed after centuries of agrarian expansion. The chief characteristic of such centres was their dispersed foci. Instead of having single ceremonial centre they possessed a number of temple complexes and depending upon the patronage of a particular ruler for legitimation accordingly their foci also kept on changing. Kudamukku-Palaiyarai and Kanchipuram can be classified as multi-centre temple towns. Kumbhakonam had both the Shaiva (Kudandai Kilkkottam (famous Nageshvara temple) and the Kayavarohana (the Kashi-Vishvanatha temple) and the Vishnu temple (Sarangpani). During this period three more temple complexes emerged – Tirunageshvara, Tiruvalmuchuli and Tirukkarugavur. Around these temples emerged the five temple centred settlements. Since the Cholas patronised Shaiva cult most of these settlements were surrounded by majority Shaiva population. While Nageshvara temple continued to remain dominant throughout the Chola period; it was the Vaishnava Kumbheshvara temple that assumed importance in the post-Chola period thus suffered the Shaivite temples due to lack of patronage. Someshwar temple (Somanathamangalam) grew up in the region from mid-Chola period. However, it declined and earned the nickname ‘elai Somanatha’ (poor Somanatha) due to lack of patronage in the post-Chola period. While Nageshvara temple continued to remain dominant throughout the Chola period; it was the Vaishnava Kumbheshvara temple that assumed importance in the post-Chola period and thus suffered the Shaivite temples due to lack of patronage. Someshwar temple (Somanathamangalam) grew up in the region from mid-Chola period. Similarly at Tirukkarugavur, southwest of modern Kumbhakonam existed temples dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Pidari (local deity). At Palaiyarai also earliest settlements were those of the Jainas (Jain palli at Dipankudi) and the Shaivas when finally in Jaina-Shaiva conflict Jains were relegated into the background; while Vishnu temple was located at Nandipuram in the region. The third type of temple towns were those sacred centres evolved around a ‘single cult’; developed into a tirtha (pilgrimage). Chidambaram for the Shaivas and Srirangam for the Vaishnavites were such sacred towns. Chidambaram even held importance as Chola centre of royal coronation ceremonies. These centres developed through a long successive stages of growth (Champakalaxmi, 1996: 65-67). In the Tamraparni valley 6 6 Cholas developed new brahmadeya complexes – Rajarajachaturvedimangalam Temple Towns in (Mannarkoyil) and Cheravanmahadevichaturvedimangalam. At Cheravanmahadevi Peninsular India Rajaraja I (985-1016) constructed a palace complex for a Chola-Pandaya prince where ‘hundreds’ of families were provided with spaces to settle around; while Tirukkalukkurnam developed more in the form of an ‘agglomeration of a series of settlements around them’ (Champakalaxmi, 1996: 67). The revival of Asian trade in the ninth century led to the emergence of new coastal towns with shift in the locations. Nagappattinam at the mouth of the Kaveri replaced Mamallapuram; though Sangam ports Marakkanam, Tondi and Korkai were still in use. Tiruppalaivanam and Mayilarppil emerged in the eleventh-twelfth centuries. Other ports developed during this period were Kovalam, Tiruvadandai, Cuddalore, and Tiruvenipuram.

Map 1: Urban Configurations in Tamilnadu c. 985 CE [After Champakalakshmi, R., (1996) Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, Map 3, p. 242.] 1) Uttirameru/Kudamukku 2) Kaverippakkam 3) Uraiyur 4) Palaiyarai 5) Konerirajapuram 6) Tondamanad Koyil 7) Cholapuram 8) Takkolam 9) Pillur 10) Jambai 11) Tirunamanllur 12) Kottur 13) Tillaisthanam 14) Tiruppalanam 15) Tiruvaiyaru 16) Tiruvedikudi 17) Tiruvidaimarudur 18) Melappaluvur 19) Valikandapuram 20) Ukkirankottai. 6 7 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Map 2: Urban Configurations in Tamilnadu c. 1300 CE [After Champakalakshmi, R., (1996) Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, Map 7, p. 245.]

19.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF TEMPLE TOWNS Champakalakshmi identifies four major factors behind the rise of Kudamukku-Palaiyarai (the twin capital cities of the Cholas) as prominent urban centre in the Chola heartland in the Tamilakam region in the early medieval period. The foremost importance is given by her to the emergence of brahmadeya and devadana grants – brahmadeyas being instrumental in creating rural hinterland; the resource base and temple emerged as ‘consumption points’ facilitating trade and crafts. The conscious efforts of the state to create political and administrative centres at strategic locations, particularly the urban development of Palaiyarai could be attributed largely on account of its being the Chola residential capital; emergence of sacred associations facilitating the emergence of sacred 6 8 centres contributed in a big way to the urbanisation in the region. She believes, though undoubtedly trade was the facilitator but ‘trade and commercial activities…were not Temple Towns in the dominant factor in the development of Kudamukku-Palaiyarai’ (Champakalakshmi, Peninsular India 1996: 356). However, Kudamukku had added advantange for being situated on the larger communication network connected with Tanjavur, Uraiyur, Nagapattanam, Gangaicondacholapuram, Chidambaram and Kaverippumpattiman thus emerged as an important convergence point in the entire Cholamandalam. The urban development and the enhanced importance of Tiruvidaimarudur was also, apart from being an important Shaiva centre, attributed to its proximity to the Chola residential capital – Palaiyarai. Champakalakshmi (1996:68) argues that the ‘ceremonial centres’ were ‘pre- eminent instruments of orthogenetic2 transformation’. Though in the early medieval south India, it is difficult to pinpoint one single factor instrumental in the growth of urbanisaton, the ‘ideological’ base it received was from bhakti which got expressed through the institution of ‘temple’. Champaklakshmi records that, ‘even where trade and commercial activities were major factors, the presence of religious institutions was a necessary concomitant of the urban process’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996:58-59). Kenneth Hall and George Spencer branded Kanchipuram as primarily a ‘sacred centre’, ‘…the city’s eminence as a religious and political centre enhanced its commercial prestige…’ (cited in Champakalaxmi, 1996: 59). Thus religious ideology was instrumental in providing ‘effective urban spaces’ in south India, a factor which was absent in the early historical period. During the early phase it was the king who was equated with the ‘divine’ and the brahmanas as ‘legitimising’ agents who fabricated genealogies in favour of the kings/ chiefs. Champakalakshmi emphatically puts forth the importance and role of religion in the growth of urban centres: It would seem superfluous to speak of the religious factors in the development and sustenance of urban centres, for quite certainly religion provides the most constant denominator of all, i.e. the legitimisation of all ventures, political, economic and social. However, sacred associations have been the most active determinant of the urban character and survival of centres like Srirangam, Tirupati, Chidambaram, Tiruvannamalai and many more such temple towns, whose umland extended not merely to the immediate neighbourhood or cultural region, but sometimes over long distances which pilgrims traversed at periodic intervals. It was maritime trade that played ‘crucial’ role in the growth of urbanisation of the Sangam period in south India where Sangam Cheras, Cholas and Pandaya chiefdoms actively participated. Once the external trade declined so were the urban centres as well as there was sudden disintegration of the early chiefdoms. However, the prominent characteristic of the early medieval urban centres was that they largely embedded into rural surroundings and their chief feature was rural-urban continuum. They were not the creation of the agrarian surroundings rather they created their own agrarian hinterlands. This continuum is more marked in the Marutam (wet lands along the rivers) zone where these urban centres worked more as ‘consumption points’. ‘The demand generated by the local elite and the temple for locally unavailable goods brought itinerant trade to these markets and encouraged the large scale settlement of craftsmen and artisans, who were eventually accommodated in the temple centre’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 207). The earliest centres growing along the brahmadeya and devadana were Kudamukku-Palaiyarai – the twin capital cities of the Cholas. The densest brahmadeya were to be seen aound Kumbhakonam (ancient Kudamukku). Out of the total ninety- three brahmadeyas in the region Kumbhakonam taluk alone possessed twenty five. These early brahmadeyas were created by the Pallava rulers. The earliest being – Simhavisnu-Chaturvedimangalam (by Simhavishnu [550-590]); Mahendramangalam

2 A unilinear natural process of evolution as a result of internal mechanism or ‘driving force’. 6 9 Urbanisation in (Mahendravarman I [590-630]); Dayamukhamangalam (Nandivarman II Pallavamalla Medieval India - 1 [731-796]). From the ninth century onwards Cholas established huge irrigation network in the region. Rajendra I constructed the Cholaganga tank and canal-network. The inscriptional reference on the irrigation pattern suggests that in the early medieval Tamilnadu in Kumbhakonam taluk 85 per cent irrigation was through canals while 7 per cent constituted tank irrigation; in Tiruchirappalli taluk 84 per cent was canal irrigation while 7 per cent area was irrigated by tanks; in Tirutturaippundi 79 per cent was canal irrigation while 15 per cent were tanks; similarly in Pudukkottai 49 per cent were canals while 38 per cent were tanks and in Tirukkoyilur taluk 60 per cent were canal irrigation while 23 per cent were tank references. However sluices constituted just 4.7 per cent and wells 5.4 per cent of the total references according to Heitzman’s survey in Tirutturaippundi taluk (Heitzman, 1997: 38-54). Even temple administration often involved in irrigation activities. The mulaparudai (executive committee) of the Tirunageshvaram supervised on behalf of the Nageshvara temple the repair works of the irrigation channels caused by heavy floods. Champakalakshmi argues that in fact the laying out of the new capitals – Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram were primarily prompted by the anxiety to ‘protect this resource base’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 208). Another brahmadeya which developed into huge urban complex was Rajarajachaturvedimangalam (modern Mannarkoyil) located between the Tamraparni and Gatna rivers provided a huge agricultural hinterland. Here was first built a Vishnu temple in the early 11th century by a Chera subordinate of the Cholas which developed into an urban centre in the 12th century. The original brahmadeya was Brahmadesam; while Rajendracholapuram was the first nagaram (market centre) of this complex. The merchants from as far as Kumbhakonam and itinerary merchant guild Nanandesi Tisai Ayirattu Ainnurruvar actively participated in trading activities from 11th century onwards. Another brahmadeya such developed was Tiruvalisvaram which developed around Siva temple which soon acquired the status of Erivirappattana (a merchant town protected by armed troops). Equally significant role was played by Golaki matha in the thirteenth century which encouraged trade through itinerary merchants who were in turn inducted into their organisational network. Another important feature of these temple towns was unlike the general argument about the medieval urban centres that they were largely parasitic, does not hold good in their context. There appears to have existed a rather symbiotic relationship between the two. There existed continuous socio-economic and religious exchanges benefitting and enriching them both. None of these temple towns were ‘fortified’ except that their temples were provided with ‘defensive walls’, demarcating the sacred spaces (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 67). The nagarams (market cetres) and their itinerant merchant organisations were also accommodated. It was at tirumandaivilagam where spaces were provided to merchants and craftsmen. Architecturally, one could see two phases of developments. First, between seventh to eleventh centuries, when the structures were largely royal creations. Their chief feature was vimana (shrine), enclosures and gopura (gateway); during the twelfth-thirteenth centuries further expansions were done through ‘complex of shrines’ and pillared halls (mandapas and the gopuras) were largely the contribution of the ruling elites/chiefs; the inner spaces (prakara) were constructed by the ‘powerful agricultural and commercial communities seeking validation’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 68). The five tall gopurams of the Sarangpani temple of Kumbhakonam were further built by the Vijayanagara rulers.

7 0 Temple Towns in Peninsular India

Map 3: The Hinterland and the Urban Core of Kudamukku-Palaiyarai in the Kaveri Delta [After Champakalakshmi, R., (1996) Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, Maps 9-10, pp. 367-368.] 1) Kudamukku 2) Tirungeshwaram 3) Tiruvalamculi 4) Tirkkarugavur 5) Tribhuvanam 6) Tiruvidaimarudur 7) Tiruppurambiyam 8) Tandantottam 9) Tirunaraiyur 10) Kudavayil 11) Muniyur 12) Vellaivinayakacaturvedimangalam 13) Palaiyarai 14) Pattisvaram 15) Nandanmedu 16) Solamaligai 17) Mulaiyur 18) Nandipuram 19) Rajarajesvaram 20) Ariyappadaivedu 21) Puduppadaiyur 22) Pampappadaiyur 23) Manappadaiyur Another factor added was the rise of Shaiva and Vaishnava monastic traditions. They controlled the administration and the landed property of the temple. The power of the Virashaivas further expanded as a result of liberal ideology of Ramanuja which later resulted in schism among the Srivaishnavas (Vadakalai and Tenkalai); while among the Shaivas non-brahmanical lineages were supported from velalas, merchants and the weavers (kaikkolas). Under the Cholas Pallippadai (present Ramanatha Koyil) built by Rajendra Chola I emerged as centre of Pasupata sect of Shaivism. During the Vijayanagara-Nayaka period the Sri Vaishnava monastic establishments also emerged prominent – the Sankaracharya matha (thirteenth century) and the Vira Shaiva matha (Hiriya matha [sixteenth century]). Similarly Pattishvaram in Palaiyarai emerged as important centre of three Shaiva mathas – Tirumular, Navukkarashar, and Sambandar named after their propounder. In the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries new features emerged in the urban landscape as a result of changing power relations under the Vijayanagar kingship. The major trend that 7 1 Urbanisation in emerged was militarisation resulting in the fortification of towns. Earlier settlements Medieval India - 1 were not fortified. Earliest of such settlement could be traced in the Tamil region was Karavandapuram, district Tirunelveli which was dominated by Vaidya family of merchants. Pandayan king constructed a fort here in the eighth century; its ramparts were also reported to have been guarded in the tenth century; a big market (perangadi) was constructed by Pandayan king Rajasimha III (c. 900-920 CE) which was put under the protection of Ayyavole guild. Even the temples were put under guards. In the eleventh century in the late Chola period armies were stationed in the temples on the newly occupied zones and trade routes. Charigaikkottai (toll-fort) became a regular feature under the Later Cholas. Even the merchants fortified their settlements to safeguard their goods. Merchants also started assuming the title chakravartis suggestive of their superior status and the rise of new urban groups. Other fortified urban centres viradalam and suradalam were the traditional power centres of the agrarian elites and chiefs. This trend towards fortification was the Pandayan resistance against the Hoyasala intrusion in the Tamil country and later by the Vijayanagara rulers, against the ‘new technology of defence and warfare’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 69-70). However, the type of militarisation developed under Vijayanagar suggests a new form where new fortified urban centres emerged under the nayakas as ‘militarily viable fortified towns. Even in old sacred centres a new alliance was forged with the monastic heads where ‘dominance remained strictly at the political level of the state, exemplified by its kingship’. This brought a major shift in the existing bhakti ideological base towards ‘secularisation’. The new urban forms dominated the royal residential or administrative complex’ as exemplified in (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 72). This put the power of the tutelary deity in the background, even in the ceremonies like Mahanavami festival it was not the deity instead it ‘centred around the royal person’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 71- 72). At certain centres on account of the dwindling fortunes of the Cholas under the Vijayanagara-Nayaka, temples suffered owing to the lack of royal patronage. At Kumbhakonam royal patronage of the Shaiva temples were withdrawn and precedence was given to the Vishnu temples - Sarangapani and Adi Kumbheshwar along with two new Vishnu temples Ramasvami and Chakrapani emerged in the region. Kumbheshvara temple achieved so much importance that a ritual bath in its tank (mahamakam) is considered to be counterpart of north Indian Kumbhamela at Allahabad. Another Vishnu temple that assumed importance in Vijayanagara-Nayaka period was Ramasvami temple in Kumbhakonam. There also appear hierarchies among urban centres – puram, pattinam, nagaram. Puram suffix was generally given to ‘expanding centre or to new quarter’; while pattinam refers to coastal towns, though some such suffixes could be seen being used for interior towns as well (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 232).

19.4 CASE STUDY: KANCHIPURAM Kanchipuram was situated in the Tondainadu (later Tondaimandalam) region. It was variously known as Kanchi, Kanchipuram, Kanchimanagaram. In the Sangam period its port Nirppeyarru connected the region with maritime trade which facilitated trade in luxurious goods. Kanchipuram being the consumption point. On account of its place in the maritime trade its rulers were known as Tiraiyar (people of the waves). Manimekhalai, a Buddhist work, mentions it a managaram. Under the Pallavas, in the sixth century, it became a royal centre. It was also an important craft centre and possessed heterogeneous population – Buddhist, Jains, Vaishnavas and Shaivas. It even survived the decline of Roman trade by shifting its activities towards southeast Asia. By sixth century Mamallapuram emerged as an outlet for trade, while Mayilai 7 2 was another trading outlet. The Tondainadu (Tondaimandalam) in the pre-Chola period was dominated by the Temple Towns in Pallavas. The region largely comprised of the Arni and Kortallaiyar and Palar-Cheyyar- Peninsular India Veghavati rivers. In the Sangam period the region is recorded as constituted of twenty- four kottams (a region where dispersed agriculture and pastoralism was dominant). These kottams got integrated through brahmadeya grants under the Pallavas marked the beginning of early medieval urbanisation in the region. Temples turned agricultural settlements into ‘surplus-oriented’ (ur) ‘grouped into nadus within the kottams’ (Champakalakshami, 1996: 375). The process continued till the Chola period. Champakalakshmi has identified that these developments occurred into three phases: In the first phase (seventh-eighth centuries) brahmadeyas served as ‘chief integrative force’ resulting in agrarian expansion in the Palar-Cheyyar valleys accompanied by massive irrigation works (tataka [reservoir] and eri [lake]). In the second phase temples (ninth-tenth centuries) assumed supreme position. In this period brahmadeyas extended in six kottams resulting in the emergence of urban activities in the region in the second half of the ninth century. This phase is also marked by massive irrigation projects under the Pallavas and later under the Cholas. By mid-tenth century almost every kottam had new irrigation works managed extensively (repairs, sluices, waste weirs and channels, etc.) by variyams (committees). The reported seventy-two nadus had at least one important irrigation source each. In the third phase i.e. the eleventh century when the process reached its zenith. Rajaraja I (985-1016) and Rajendra I (1016-1044) created wide agricultural hinterland for Kanchipuram in the river valleys. By twelfth century the entire Palar-Cheyyar valleys formed hinterland for Kanchipuram. Champakalakshami (1996: 376) argues that ‘the brahmadeya and the temple may be seen as harbingers of advance farming methods such as irrigation technology and seasonal regulation of the cultivation process through proper management of resources.’ With brahmadeyas emerged brahmana, velala (non-brahmana) and occupational service groups. The agrarian expansion further expanded the exchange network in the nadus and the revival of trade in the ninth century led to rise of nagarattar (trading community) controlling the local and intra-regional trade. ‘Puranic religion and the bhakti cult provided the ideological premises and the institutional means, i.e. the temple, to create effective space – rural and urban…’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 378). In the Tondainadu these brahmadeyas and temples by tenth-eleventh centuries emerged as urban nuclei. However, this was largely the ‘royal creation’. Brahmadeyas were organised in tan-kuru (separate revenue units; later as tani-ur [independent units]) which were equivalent to valanadu of the Cholanadu and were ‘supreme example of rural-urban continuum’. During the tenth-twelfth centuries tan-kuru expanded in size. Under the Cholas ‘nadu affiliation ceased to operate and their kottam location alone is mentioned ‘…as an act of deliberate royal policy’. The markets (nagaram) developed within these taniyurs and ‘direct links established with the king’s government’. Interestingly, ‘temples in the taniyur were invariably royal foundations’ (Champakalakshami, 1996: 378-379). Such was the royal control that even the markets (perangadi and angadi) and quarters (cheri) demarcated for the elites were named after the royal members (Madurantakam) or patron deity (Uttaramerur). The perangadi and angadi located at central points were connected with nagaram, managaram, and royal centres. Even major craft production centres were attached to it as devadanas. With the agrarian integration of the Tondainadu in the Pallava and the Chola periods through brahmadeya and devadana its population which was initially confined to Eyil Kottam, by mid-thirteenth century expanded to what is presently Kanchipuram town. In its confines it had sixty devadana villages and several brahmadeyas with fourteen kottams and eighteen nadus serving as agricultural hinterlands. The largest share was 7 3 Urbanisation in with Varadarajaswami Vishnu temple in Attiyur. Kanchipuram was connected through Medieval India - 1 nagaram networks where through brahmadeyas and devadanas ritual requirements (paddy, etc.) were supplied to Kanchipuram. Temple funds were used for rural and urban crafts. Soon Kanchipuram emerged as leading weaving centre. By thirteenth century hinterland further expanded to south Karnataka in the Hoysala territories where one finds several gavundas and pradhana mudalis (rich landlords) of the Idai nadu gifted cardamom to Vardaraja temple. By 9th century Kanchipuram enjoyed prestige of mahanagarattar ‘as executor of royal orders and managers of temples’ (Champakalakshami, 1996:391).

Varadarajaswami Vishnu temple, Attiyur, Kanchipuram. Photo by Ssriram mt, August, 2016 Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Varadaraja_Perumal_ Temple_Kanchipuram_%2829%29.jpg Under the Cholas, though Kanchipuram relegated to second position but it continued to remain commercially strong and as a prominent textile production centre. The weavers and merchants thronged the city. The city had four weavers’ quarters associated with Urgam temple. The managarattar of Kanchipuram was strong and powerful and involved in large scale transactions and gifts made to the temples in the early and mid Chola periods. The city was thronged by itinerant trading organisations like Nanadesi or Tisai Ayirattu Ainnurruvar (eleventh-twelfth centuries). It soon emerged as headquarter of the Vaniya nagaram. The weaving industry got further boost in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries under the later Cholas and Telugu Cholas with the movement of Nellur (Andhra) and Kerala traders and merchants in the region. Kanchipuram thus emerged prominent centre in South India where merchants brought horses, spices and other commodities in exchange for textiles (Champakalakshami, 1996: 394). Though, Kanchipuram also derived its strength as chief seat of power in the Tondaimandalam under the Pallavas; under the Cholas it relegated to secondary capital, it also served as military base under the Cholas during Chola-Rashtrakuta (tenth century) and Chola-Chalukya conflicts (eleventh-twelfth centuries). Even the entire temple 7 4 accounts of the Tondaimandalam were audited from Kanchipuram (Champakalakshami, Temple Towns in 1996: 395). Peninsular India Kanchipuram emerged as multi-temple centre with affiliation with more than one religious tradition. It was the major centre for both the Vaishnavites and the Shaivites. Among the Vaishnavas it was Poygai Alvar and among the Shaivas it was Appar bhakti cults which were prominent in the region. The Pallavas outlined the Puranic (brahmanical) viewpoint and accordingly constructed dravida style temples at Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram. The Cholas revitalised the bhakti ideology. Under their patronage Periya Purana was composed in the eleventh-twelfth centuries. They not only consolidated temples by granting devadana and creating brahmadeyas but also renovated the old shrines as well as constructed the new ones. The great Vaishnava Ramanuja formulated his philosophy of vishishta advaitavada and founded Sri Vaishnava religion here. However, later on the centre shifted to Srirangam. Cholas, however, patronised Shaivas and during the early medieval period a number of Shaiva mathas emerge in Kanchipuram. Shankara, the propounder of advaita philosophy established the Sakta-Pith (Kamakshi temple). Thus during the early medieval period Kanchipuram emerged as prominent multi-cult urban centre. Commenting on the importance of Kanchipuram Champakalakshmi (1996: 398) remarks:

…the growth of Kanchipuram into a multi-temple complex…its role as a centre of cultural creativity, especially art, religion, and literature, Kanchipuram surpassed all other medieval cities of South India. Its continuous importance as a prime mover in the ideological shifts, cultural changes and the reorganization or restructuring of the Tamil society and patterns of patronage, was not shared even by Madurai, which was the Tamil city par excellence in the early historical period.

19.5 CASE STUDY: TANJAVUR Cholas pursued bhakti ideology through temple building, consolidating hymns of the saints in the form of Periya Purana (under Kulotunga II) which heightened in the form of inclusion of Chola royal members among the sixty-three nayanars. The temple city of Tanjavur (so also Gangaikondacholapuram) emerged as the ‘ceremonial centre’ ‘entirely by the political will of the C[h]olas’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 424-425). Tanjavur (Tanjai of the Chola inscriptions) was initially a kurram (collection of rural settlements) controlled by Muttaraiyars. It came under Chola sway under Vijayalaya (mid-ninth century) who built Nisumbasudhani temple. However, it was under Rajaraja I’s (985-1016) patronage with the building of Rajarajeshwar (Brihadeshwara) temple that the town really grew and expanded. The strategic location of the place, for being situated at the mouth of the Kaveri delta was used to protect the resource base as well as to provide ideological base for the Cholas along with Gangaikondacholapuram in the delta region. Champakalakshmi argues that the temple thus created symbolised the cosmic order:

The cosmic symbolism of the Tanjavur temple, as revealed by its designation ‘Daksinameru’ (the southern Meru as the axis of the universe) and that of its lord as ‘Daksinameruvitankar’, also extended to the city as the centre of the territorial authority of the Colas [Cholas]. This is further supported by the ritual consecration, along with that of the main shrine, also of the shrines of the regents of the eight quarters (astadikpalas), viz. Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirrti, Varuna, Vayu, Soma, and Isanan, situated at the cardinal points…the Rajesvara temple was the central ceremonial complex dominating the city and was carefully engineered to align the city with cosmic structures and forces. One may see here the impact of the bhakti ideology, which assisted in the process of enhancing the power of both the divine and human sovereigns through the symbolism of the cosmos/temple/territory. The 7 5 Urbanisation in performance of a play called Rajarajesvara Nataka in the Tanjavur temple, festivals and Medieval India - 1 offerings on the birth asterisms of the royal family etc… would also substantiate the inseparable nature of the sacred and secular spheres of interests (Champakalakshami, 1996: 426). It was a planned city and was the result of the ‘deliberate act’ of the royalty. The whole temple complex was ‘laid out and designed simultaneously’ as ‘single dominant ceremonial complex’. The Tripurantaka form (portrait of the king/deity as warrior) of Shiva symbolise ‘the king’s conscious assimilation of the divine and the royal roles’. Thus ‘ritual elements in C[h]ola polity, political and ritual sovereignty coincided, and the divine and the temporal realms were conterminous’ (Champakalakshami, 1996: 430, 432). Even the Chola rulers set up the images of their ancestors as sacred body (tirumeni). Kundavai set up image of her father Ponmalinaittunjinadevar (Sundara Chola) and his queen. Thus Chola kings almost identified themselves with divinity. Similarly, the temple imitated the royal court. Champakalakshami remarks, ‘The Srikaryam (the chief manager) of the temple had comparable functions to discharge…like the king, the temple images also had army groups separately assigned to them. The role of C[h]andes[h]vara as the mulabhrtya looking after the accounts of the temple, assigning revenues, investing through deposits, receiving paddy and other forms of interest and ritual requirements, would also indicate an imitation of the royal court. It would even appear that here the king himself acts through C[h]andes[h]vara’ (Champakalakshmi, 1996: 435-436).

Brihadeshwara Temple, Tanjavur Photo by Nirinsanity, May, 2015 Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Brihadeeswarar_Kovil.jpg The economic outreach of the temple was almost the whole Chola kingdom. It received revenue grants of villages not only from Cholamandalam but also from Jayankondacholamandalam, Gangapadi, Nulambapadi, Malainadu, Pandinadu, and Ilamandalam. Even the temple received paddy, money and oil for burning lamps from as far as Sri Lanka. The town of Tanjavur, with temple at the centre, was divided into two parts – ullalai 7 6 (inner core around the temple) and the purambadi – the outer circuit consisted of the residences of the priestly class and elites, living quarters of the professional groups and Temple Towns in palace servants (velams), and the royal retinues. Each quarter was named after the Peninsular India king and other members of the royal family. Chola kings brought musicians, dance masters, drummers, tailors, braziers, goldsmiths, astrologers, etc. from different parts of the empire. Even brahmans as temple servants and accountants were brought to Tanjavur from distant places. The rural hinterland supplied the temples general ritual services including milk. Tanjavur developed into a huge market centre that operated through four angadis and nagarattar and itinerant merchants (Kongavalar).

19.6 CASE STUDY: SRIRANGAM The city of Srirangam developed as ‘sacred centre’ around ‘a single cult (tirtha)’. It is seven kilometers from Tiruchirapalli, falls into marutam (wet lands along the rivers) zone and situated along the Kaveri and Kollidam rivers. It owed its emergence largely to its presiding deity Ranganathasvami temple of Vishnu of the Srivaishnavas. In the late Sangam literature Srirangam is referred to as Turutti, a centre of Mayon worship with no association of a shrine. However, with bhakti the idea of shrine and pilgrimage got associated with the sacred space. Thus occurred fusion of local (Tamil) and epic- Puranic tradition and Mayon got identified with Vishnu.

Ranganathaswami Temple Complex, Srirangam Photo by Patrick MICHAUD, March, 2012 Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Panorama_Temple_ Ranganatha-Swami.jpg The region situated on the confluence of rivers/wet lands had all the potential to emerge as prominent urban centre. However, till Sangam age Kanchipuram and Tirupati claimed all the antiquity as pilgrimage shrines and one does not find any reference to structural shrine in the region. It is the bhakti that actually brought the region into the fore. In the sixth century two-pronged urban growth was visible: first urbanisation got stimulus as a result of expanding hinterland which integrated new peasant settlements and resulted into the peasantisation of the tribal population; second,emergence of new state systems – Pallavas of Kanchi in the north, Pandayas of Madurai in south, Cheras in the southwest and the Cholas in the Kaveri valley. These states consolidated themselves through nadus and sought legitimisation through newly created network of brahmadeyas and by patronising temples as a result of royal initiatives. The body of the temple, the sabha, regulated the temple negotiated gifts and donations and was involved in frequent economic transactions like exchange of paddy and gold. Both the temple and brahmadeyas integrated varied peasant and tribal groups into the broad varna-jati structure and temple as centre of sacred activites. The bhakti made Vishnu accessible to everyone irrespective of caste hierarchy. This not only broadened the base of the sacred shrine at Srirangam, but also ‘strengthened the redistributive economy and led to the growth of the town’ (Datta, 2015: 466). In the hymns of later alvars (9-10th century) Srirangam with focus on Ranganathasvami temple emerged as centre of religious activities in the Cholamandalam. Bhakti at the same time challenged the brahmanical dominance as well as brought the dominance of Tamil over Sanskrit. Srivaishnava bhakti rejected 7 7 Urbanisation in caste dominance and popularised for the first time Tamil hymns of the alvars, including Medieval India - 1 those of the non-brahmanas who gave the idea of Dravida Veda leading to the idea of dual Veda or Ubhaya Vedanta resulting in the ‘focus on the collective consciousness’ of the ‘marginalized caste communities’ (Datta, 2016: 472). By 11th century ‘economy based on circulation and redistribution’ gained currency (Datta, 2015: 467). One finds donors as far as Tanjavur, Malainadu and Nanmalinadu, also from the region of Pandyanadu especially from Tamrapani river valley zone, making donation to the shrine. The pastoral groups made donations of cows for milk and ghi. One also finds proliferation of brahmadeyas in the Sasanamangalam, Uttamasilacaturvedimangalam, and Nandivarmangalam, purchase of lands by the temple, particularly from Palllavarayan and the sale of temple lands all facilitated broadening the base of the agrarian hinterland. One even finds restructuring of the existing brahmadeyas and creating them anew. These newly created brahmadeyas interestingly have political overtones and suggest to have been created to establish Pandayan political control, their being named after Pandayan rulers – Kaliyugaramancaturvedimangalam, Kondandramachaturvedimangalam, Ravivarmacaturvedimangalam by Jatavarman Sundar Pandya (c. 1251). Temple also received royal patronages. The queen of Chola King Kulottunga I (1070-1122) made liberal land grants to the temple. Even similar grants were made by Kakatiyas, Gajapatis and the Vijayanagara rulers to Srirangam temple clearly suggestive of the exploitation of the temple space by the rulers to legitimise their political power. The ritual structure of the Srivaishnava temple also got further consolidated. One finds for the first time the presence of Srikaryam (temple executives) involved into temple administration like construction of platforms for flags; negotiating gifts; settlements of arrears. Even temple rituals became more elaborate – recitation of Vedas, celebration of Panguni-Uttiram and Tirumanjanam (sacred bath of the deity). Under the Pandayas a change occurred in the official machinery. Apart from the brahmanas even non- brahmanas were included. Land grants were made largely for the purpose of flower gardens, performing rituals and celebrating festivals. Often temple grants were leased out to peasants (kanmis) for paddy cultivation. Their resource base was largely agro- pastoralist. Even the social base of the Srivaishnava temple got widened. Kons (shepherd community) are reported to have provided ghi to the temple. ‘Besides peasants, various categories of chiefs, artisans and craftsmen were incorporated through ritual ranking within the temple…[generating] economic activities of diverse nature that eventually became the basis of urbanization’ (Datta, 2016: 471). To add to this, from twelfth century onwards there was frequent migration from dry upland areas of the Deccan and deltaic region further exhausted the resources that resulted in population pressure in the region. It was in this context that Srirangam got the attraction for being well suited for agrarian expansion. These linkages of religio-economic activities and the expansion of agrarian hinterlands through brahmadeyas resulted in urbanisation in the region to a large extent. By fourteenth century Srirangam emerged as a prominent centre of the Srivaishnavas, used for political legitimation. One finds frequent grants, gifts and donations of the merchants made to the temple from far off places – horse dealers (kudiricettis) of Malaimandalam were the chief donors along with kaikkolas (weavers) and the Paradesi-savasi (itinerant traders).

7 8 Temple Towns in 19.7 SUMMARY Peninsular India The emergence of temple towns in the Tamilakam region was the unique phenomenon. Temples not only served as instruments of political legitimation but also created a huge hinterland and resource base to emerge as prominent urban centres. Temple towns, so named for in a region ‘temple’ became the source of economic activities; emerged as biggest generator of demands and facilitated trade and commerce. This phase is marked by the emergence of bhakti in the region which facilitated the construction and spread of Vishnu and Shaiva shrines (vimana) and mathas/tirthas. These temple towns so developed were either a single cult centres (Srirangam) or at times were also multi-cult centres (Kanchipuram); some of them developed as a result of a deliberate act, by the political will as ‘ceremonial’ cities (Tanjavur). Nadu, periyanadu, nagaram, managaram, erivirappattinam, nagarattar and merchant organisations (guilds – Ayyavole, Manigramam, etc.) contributed and facilitated significantly to the emergence of these towns in the Tamilakam.

19.8 EXERCISES 1) Discuss the emergence of temple towns in the Tamilakam region. 2) Critically examine the characteristics of the temple towns in the Peninsular India. 3) Discuss various types of temple towns that emerged in the Tamilakam region with examples and characteristics. 4) How did brahmadeya and devadana grants facilitate the emergence of temple towns in the Tamilakam rgion? 5) In what ways bhakti was instrumental in the emergence of temple towns in the early medieval period in South India? 6) ‘Tanjavur emerged as the chief ‘ceremonial’ centre by the political will of the Cholas.’ Comment. 7) What are the characteristics of multi-deity temple towns? Illustrate with examples. 8) Trace the development of Kanchipuram as prime multi-temple town. 9) ‘Srirangam developed as ‘sacred’ town around a ‘single’ cult.’ Illustrate its characteristic development pattern on the basis of a ‘single cult’ temple town.

19.9 REFERENCES Champakalakshmi, R., (2005 [1991]) ‘Urban Processes in Early Medieval ’, in Banga, Indu (ed.) The City in Indian History (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributers), pp. 47-68. Champakalakshmi, R., (1996) Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300 (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Datta, Ranjeeta, (2015) ‘Sacred Space, Pilgrimage and Urbanism: The Growth of Srirangam in the Tamil Region’, in Yogesh Sharma and Pius Malekandathil, Urbanization in Medieval India, Chapter 18 (New Delhi: Primus Books). Heitzman, James, (1997) Gifts of Power: Lordship in an Early Indian State (Delhi: Oxford University Press). 7 9 UNIT 20 SOUTHERN DIMENSION: THE GLORY OF VIJAYANAGARA*

Structure 20.1 Introduction 20.2 Urban Processes during the Vijayanagara Period 20.3 Vijayanagara: Modern Discovery and Sources 20.3.1 The Beginning 20.3.2 Archaeological Works 20.3.3 Sources 20.4 Early History of Vijayanagara 20.5 The City: Layout, Buildings and Architecture 20.5.1 Layout of the City 20.5.2 The Vijayanagara Metropolitan Region 20.5.3 Other Features of the City 20.6 Trade and Manufacture 20.7 Strategies of Imperial Control, Court Culture and Nature of the City 20.8 Accounts of Foreign Travellers 20.9 Decline of the City 20.10 Summary 20.11 Exercises 20.12 References

20.1 INTRODUCTION This Unit discusses the urban processes and characteristics of the capital city of the , Vijayanagara. The Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1672 CE) was established in the fourteenth century against the backdrop of the invasions of the Delhi Sultanate under Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1324-51 CE) and the decline of the Hoysala power (1022-1342 CE) in Karnataka and Kakatiyas (1000-1326 CE) in the Andhra region. The first dynasty of the empire, the Sangamas (1336-1485 CE) established and built the capital of the empire near a village called Hampi along the Tungabhadra river in the Deccan. However, the economic and political potential of this area were limited. It was with the subsequent political conquests southwards that the Empire emerged as a consolidated ruling power. Thus this political process of expansion integrated the peninsular region south of river Tungabhadra, by bringing together the three zones of Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Karnataka. Finally, the defeat of the Madurai or Ma’bar Sultan Alauddin Sikander Shah and the capture of Madurai in 1378 CE, in the hands of the Vijaynagar general, Kumara Kampana, also the son of the Vijayanagara ruler, Bukka (1344-77 CE), pushed the frontiers to the southernmost point. The empire comprised four ruling dynasties. The three dynasties, viz., the Sangamas (1336-1486 CE), Saluvas (1486-91 CE) and Tuluvas (1505-76) ruled successively from the capital. The Tuluva

* 8 0 Dr. Ranjeeta Dutta, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. period under Krishnadevaraya (1509-29 CE) and his brother Achyutadevaraya (1529- Southern Dimension: The 42) reached the height of imperial extent and authority with a strengthened centralised Glory of Vijayanagara control over the realms. In 1565, during the reign of Rama Raja (1542-65), the first ruler of the fourth dynasty, the Aravidus (1542-1672 CE), the Vijayanagara army suffered defeat in the hands of a confederacy of five Deccani sultanates of Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and Berar, all located in the between river Krishna and the Vindhya Range. Thereafter, the capital was abandoned and the empire persisted in a weakened state until 1684 under the Aravidus, who ruled from different capitals (Sinopoli and Morrison, 1995: 85). This Unit outlines briefly the processes of urbanisation during the Vijayanagara period. Against this backdrop, a discussion on the capital city at Hampi will follow with a focus on the modern discovery of the capital Vijayanagara primarily due to various archaeological and historical projects that have constructed a picture of urban life and highlighted the material remains and textual sources. It will be emphasised that there was a pre-existing history of this region before it became the site of imperial capital. Since many scholars have termed the nature of the imperial capital and the Empire as ‘Hindu’, the Unit will discuss the city architecture and the court culture to show that the city was cosmopolitan in nature and various religious traditions like that of Islam and Jainism influenced the urban layout, the courtly life and the creativity of the elites. In fact, various strategies of control were institutionalised through religious festivals, like the Mahanavami celebrations, militarism and trade and commerce. A discussion on the mythical and religious landscapes as a part of the city area will also figure, as these were important to understand the city-metropolitan network. The city’s economic life that is trade and commerce, agriculture, arts and crafts and its social classes will also be discussed in the context of the urban life and urbanism of Vijayanagara. The accounts of various foreign travellers who visited the imperial city, especially in the sixteenth century are important sources of information about the glory and city life of Vijayanagara. Therefore, this Unit will discuss these accounts along with short biographies of the travellers. Finally, the decline of the city in 1565 after the battle of Talikota, as discussed by the scholars, will be outlined.

20.2 URBAN PROCESSES DURING THE VIJAYANAGARA PERIOD The urban developments in Vijayanagara were linked to several factors like militarisation, migration and trade and commerce. Due to increasing militarisation of the polity, numerous fortified settlements emerged. Fortifications of mercantile towns established by powerful merchant organisations and armed presence within the temple precincts increased. The towns emerged as trading centres and often eroded the power of the older agrarian elites, leading to the rise of urban power groups that entered into alliances with new political forces. Since the consolidation of the Vijayanagara empire integrated the entire Peninsula, migration of traders and artisans across the regions created a supra-local urban network that bolstered trade. For instance, with the establishment of the centre of power in the Tungabhadra basin in north Karnataka, a large number of merchant and crafts organisations moved out of the Tamil region and entered into contractual relations with new power groups, thus establishing supra local organisations. Due to large-scale migration of weavers from the Deccan and Andhra region, new weaving centres emerged in Coimbatore and Madurai in the Vijayanagara period. Migration also brought into prominence a new class of itinerant merchants and traders, several of whom gradually settled down as powerful landowners. The inscriptional references to the Kaikkola, 8 1 Urbanisation in Vaniya, Sikku Vaniya Vyapari, Mayilatti, Kanmala, and Komatti traders, Devangana Medieval India - 1 weavers from Karnataka and Pattanulkar (silk weavers) from Saurashtra point to the development of a brisk trade and increased craft production which found a thriving market in the Vijayanagar and post-Vijayanagar kingdoms. Migrants settled in many stages. For instance, the Pattanulkars migrated from Saurashtra in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, briefly settled in the city of Vijayanagara, from where they again moved out, and finally settled in the pilgrimage centers of Kancipuram, Madurai and Ramesvaram. Older weaving centres like Kanchipuram, Tanjavur and Kumbhakonam also flourished (For details see Unit 19 of this Block). Due to greater monetisation, this period also saw an emergence of individual traders and master craftsmen. One of the most important changes in the urban processes in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was the participation of the Vaishnava and Shaiva monastic institutions or the mathas in urbanisation and trade, leading to the development of sacred centres as prosperous pilgrimage towns. Another associated phenomenon that played an important role in urbanisation and urban process during the Vijayanagara period was the emergence of temple centres as trading towns. Large temple complexes at Tirupati, Srirangam (For details see Unit 19 of this Block) and Hampi housed different social groups, whose increasing consumption of various commodities stimulated trade. Donations in the form of land, gold coins, precious metals and livestock from the pilgrims generated an economy of exchange and also enhanced temple activities leading to the expansion of temple organisation (Champakalakshmi, 1999). Consequently temple towns emerged as centres of diverse economic activities, employing sculptors, craftsman and artisans. In the Vijayanagara period, not only the status of the merchants, but that of the weavers and artisans grew and they were an important part of the temple rituals and temple hierarchies. Religious traditions like the Shrivaishnavas provided ideological support and validation to these groups. Both external and internal trade flourished and the revenues accruing from them were crucial to the Vijayanagara state. Taxation on trade and manufacture were an important source of income. Maritime trade flourished and the Vijayanagara rulers encouraged it as one of the most crucial items of import from Iran were war horses, others being copper, gold, spices, sandalwood, musk and camphor. Pepper, sugar and textile were items of export. The importance of maritime trade is well attested as the Vijayanagara rulers called themselves “Lords of the Eastern and Western Oceans” signifying their domination over Bay of Bengal in the east and Arabian Sea in the west. Domination over the coastal territories was one of their primary geo-political objectives and a frequent cause of conflict with other kingdoms. Bhatkal, Calicut and Pulicat were some of the important ports. Warhorses imported from Iran were shipped to Bhatkal and from there they were supplied to the capital at Hampi. Arab traders came in large numbers from West Asia and settled mainly in Calicut, which also was visited by the Chinese ships. Muslim and Armenian traders controlled the trade at Pulicat on the Coromandel Coast. Pulicat also had active trading relations with Bengal that supplied foodstuff and textiles. Further impetus to urbanisation occurred with the advent of the Portuguese and establishment of the European companies with their joint stock systems in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively. Domestic trade also developed in the Vijayanagar period. Commodities from inland centres of production were brought to the coastal emporia by boats and pack bullock. One of the main reasons for the growth in the networks of maritime trade was the domestic production of commodities that had an international demand. The prosperity of agrarian economy encouraged the production of food crops as well as commercial

8 2 crops like indigo, cotton and sugarcane. An excellent network of roads facilitated the Southern Dimension: The transportation of these crops (Asher and Talbot, 2008: 77-83). Glory of Vijayanagara It is difficult to estimate the size of urban population. Sources tell us that there were at least 80 trading centres and the capital, Vijayanagara was the largest city. Inscriptions throw some light on the social composition of the towns. For instance, in 1429 in a revolt in the Tamil region against the Vijayanagara state, a list of jatis or caste groups apart from peasants were listed as follows: merchants, weavers, herders, oil merchants, blacksmiths, carpenters, goldsmiths, potters, barbers, washermen, watchmen, craftsmen, soldiers and toddy tappers. The indigenous merchants belonged to the caste group of Chetties. In various localities mercantile groups vied for privileges and monopolies, An inscription of 1430 from the Udipi district in Karnataka tells of two merchants from two adjacent places disputed over trade in various commodities and one of the groups succeeded in maintaining its monopoly over trade in cotton cloth (Habib, 2016: 104-5). It was in the backdrop of these developments that we discuss the city of Vijayanagara, which apart from being a political centre, was an economic and religious centre, too. 20.3 VIJAYANAGARA: MODERN DISCOVERY AND SOURCES Vijayanagara means the “City of Victory”. It is now in ruins and is located in a village called Hampi in central Karnataka. UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage Site in 1987. It figures in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List as the “Hampi Group of Monuments.” 20.3.1 The Beginning In 1799 the British antiquarian, Colin Mackenzie, the future Surveyor General of India, visited the ruins, collected some manuscripts, had some watercolours painted of monuments and made the first map of the site. Around the same time, Mark Wilks, a resident of the at the court of the Wodeyar rulers of Mysore on the basis of some works presented an account of the Vijayanagara dynasty. Thereafter the site became known to the visitors, especially the photographers, most well known being Alexander Greenlaw who photographed this site in 1856. A British civil servant, Robert Sewell, the Collector of Bellary district in which the site was situated interacted with several locals. One of them showed him a Sanskrit book, Vidyaranya Sikka that explained the foundation of the Vijayanagara empire. Thereafter, Sewell wrote a book A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar. A Contribution to the History of India which was published in 1900. Urging the importance of the Vijayanagara Empire and its capital at Hampi, he wrote: And yet in the present day the very existence of this kingdom is hardly remembered in India; while its once magnificent capital, planted on the extreme northern border of its dominions and bearing the proud title of the “City of Victory,” has entirely disappeared save for a few scattered ruins of buildings that were once temples or palaces, and for the long lines of massive walls that constituted its defences. Even the name has died out of men’s minds and memories, and the remains that mark its site are known only as the ruins lying near the little village of Hampe. Sewell, 1962[1900]): 11

20.3.2 Archaeological Works The work at the capital, clearing of the site and excavating the palace area began only in 1970s under the aegis of the state and central archaeologists. These activities were fully under way when the Vijayanagara Research Project first began work at the site 8 3 Urbanisation in in 1980, under the direction of the Archaeological Survey of India and the Karnataka Medieval India - 1 Government Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, comprising an international group of archaeologists namely George Michell and John Fritz. The Project carried extensive excavations and surveys of the site at Hampi, where the capital was located and the findings and interpretations, especially related to the urban layout and civic and religious monuments have been published. Another major archaeological project called the Vijayanagara Metroplitan Survey (VMS) led by two American archaeologist, Carla Sinopolis and Kathleen Morrison was launched in 1987. The project has tried to understand the city of Vijayanagara in its regional context, focussing on the agricultural sites or ‘landscapes of productions’ located in the Tungabhadra basin and the outlying areas where the crafts goods circulated. These areas, according to them, were the ‘metroploitan region’ or the hinterland that supported the growth of the city. Thus, the Project aimed to move beyond the site where architecture and archaeology of the mounments were the focus and studied the interaction of the city with this urban hinterland in which ‘more prosaic bulk commodities such as metal, ceramics, building stone, mortar and of course food and drink used by city residents were the most part generated within the urban hinterland itself.’ (http:// www.kathleenmorrisonlab.com/). Since an overwhelming attention has been given to external trade in luxury items, such a view that focusses on internal exchange and commerce is important to understand the growth and decline of the imperial capital. 20.3.3 Sources Apart from the archaeological reports and monographs, there are several primary sources for the study of the city of Vijayanagara. Contemporary literature in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu Sanskrit and Persian give insights into courtly life and traditions, activities in war and peace, palace architecture and temples. Inscriptions have formed an important source of study.There are about some 500 odd inscriptions scattered throughout the area on buildings and boulders, which have been documented by various scholars throughout the 20th century. Foreign travellers, accounts form a very important source of study and have been used widely in the research on the city of Vijayanagara. Robert Sewell in his work, A Forgotten Empire for the first time translated the works of two Portuguese travellers, Fernao Nunez and Domingo Paes who visited the capital city in the sixteenth century. In addition, Sewell also used the accounts of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller and Abdur Razzaq from Samarqand for the first time.

20.4 EARLY HISTORY OF VIJAYANAGARA The city of Vijayanagara, as stated already, was located in the basin of the Tungabhadra River in the southern Deccan region in central Karnataka. The city nestles in the midst of volcanic rocky outcrops of varying tones of grey, ochre and pink. In fact, Hampi’s granite terrain is one of the most ancient and stable surfaces in the world. Therefore, this area already had a history of settlements right from the Iron Age before it became the chosen site for the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Near the medieval imperial centre of Vijayanagra, in central Karnataka, during Iron Age, 1200-300 BCE, there has been archaeological evidence of social inequalities. The elaborate megalithic monuments show that there was an unequal access to seemingly mundane features such as water-retaining rock pools, and soil retention features for the purposes of maintaining grazing areas. These resources had implications for the production of material and symbolic resources associated with herd management, communal feasts, and mobilisation of social labour (Bauer, 2015).

8 4 The Vijayanagara Research Project provides details of the physical and mythical Southern Dimension: The landscape. According to the information in this Project, the granite hills, caves and Glory of Vijayanagara boulders of the Tungabhadra valley have ancient cults that became important pilgrimage sites especially from the eight-ninth centuries and continued to flourish and expand even in the Vijaynagara period. Myths and legends around these cults dominated the landscape. One such cult that flourished in the pre-Vijayanagara period was that of the river goddess Pampa and her consort Virupaksha, a form of Shiva. There are inscriptions between the eleventh and thirteenth century that register gifts made to the temple of Hampadevi or Pampadevi. An inscription of the Hoysala period refers to this place as Virupakshpattana or Vijaya Virupakshapura. Under the Sangama kings of Vijayanagara, Virupaksha was adopted as the guardian deity of the newly expanding state and the rulers constructed a temple complex at Hampi in his name. The legend relates the story of the marriage of Virupaksha to Pampa, a beautiful local maiden (after whom the village of Hampi takes its name). Hemakuta hill above Hampi marks the spot where Pampa worshiped Shiva with great devotion, thereby attracting the attention of the god, who agreed to marry her. The betrothal and marriage of Pampa to Shiva under the name of Virupaksha are still celebrated in and around Hampi. (For details, see http:// www.vijayanagara.org/)

Map 1: Layout of the Ancient City of Vijayanagara Courtesy: George Michell and John Fritz; Vijayanagara Research Project (VRP) http:// www.vijayanagara.org/html/Maps.html 8 5 Urbanisation in Myths and legends related to the tradition were also popular at Hampi. Medieval India - 1 There is a detailed description in the Vijaynagara Research Project that has been summarised in the following lines. The Vijayanagara site is believed to be Kishkindha, the monkey kingdom where the episodes of one of the chapters of the Ramayana took place. This site with its surrounding hills was believed to be the place where the epic hero Rama, his brother Lakshmana and their loyal supporter, Hanuman came and found the ornaments of Rama’s wife Sita. Sita had dropped her ornaments and a garment in the hope that they would show Rama in which direction Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, was carrying her away forcibly. These hills and caves here were also mythical sites where Rama met other characters from the Ramayana. They were Sugriva, a claimant to the Kishkindha throne, deposed by his brother Vaali and the female ascetic, Shabari, a disciple of the sage Matanga. Immediately beneath the hill, on the south bank of the Tungabhadra, is a boulder carved with the figures of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman. This marks the spot where Lakshmana crowned Sugriva. The boulder is incorporated into the Kodandarama temple at Hampi. At the northwards turning of the Tungabhadra river is a holy spot called, Chakra tirtha, where Shiva gave Vishnu one of his most powerful weapons, the Chakra. Despite the associations of the site with the Kishkindha chapter of the Ramayana, Vaishnavite cults had little following at the sites in the pre or early Vijayanagara periods. Only in the 15th century did the Vijayanagaraa kings come to sponsor the cults of Rama and Vitthala. Hampi and the area in and around Hampi became the arena of political activities only during the fourteenth century, when hill forts like Anegondi and Kampili emerged as centres of opposition to Muhammad bin Tughlaq. The five brothers of the Sangama family including Harihara and Bukka were said to be in employment of the king of Kampili. The Sangama brothers established themselves in the Hampi area, donating to the Virupaksha temple there and adding temples on Hemakuta hill immediately to the south. In the second half of the fourteenth century, under Bukka and Harihara, the Hampi tirtha had been incorporated into a walled city, which they named Vijayanagara. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, under the Sangama kings the city was further expanded with the construction of additional protective walls and gateways. By this time, Vijayanagara had become a true capital city with a varied population of people from all parts of southern India, including Jains and Muslims. Building activity at Vijayanagara was halted temporarily towards the end of the fifteenth century, as a result of two successive military coupes. Stability was restored only at the turn of the sixteenth century by the rulers of the Tuluva dynasty. Under Krishnadevaraya and Achyutadevaraya the city expanded. New suburbs with temple complexes were laid out. The Virupaksha cult at Hampi was renovated and expanded, and a new royal residence was established some 12 kilometres away, at a site coinciding with the modern town of Hospet. (For details, see, Vijayanagara Research Project and Vasundhara Filliozat, 1977: 1-56)

20.5 THE CITY: LAYOUT, BUILDINGS AND ARCHITECTURE The imperial capital city of Vijayanagara was spread over a large area, divided into a number of zones; marked by wide network of roads; and provided with massive irrigation system. 20.5.1 Layout of the City The ruins of the imperial capital of Vijayanagara are spread over 25 kilometres in the rocky outcrops of Hampi. The archaeologists have mapped out a spatial layout of the 8 6 city calling it as the ‘zonal concept of the city’. Thus the city was divided into three Southern Dimension: The zones, each of which had different urban configurations and functions: a) Royal Centre Glory of Vijayanagara b) Sacred Centre and c) Urban Core. The Vijayanagara Research Project has detailed descriptions of these zones (www.vijayanagara.org). A summary of the details of the Royal Centre, Sacred Centre and the Urban Core from the Project website is presented below. Royal Centre The Royal Centre occupies the western end of the Urban Core. The Royal Centre consists of what the archaeologists have imagined as palace structures and residences of the Vijayanagara kings and their private households. Daily business of ceremony and government was probably conducted from here. There are gateways leading to the Royal Centre. It is divided into high slender walls built of tightly fitted granite blocks that face a rubble core. The archaeologists have excavated several structures here namely the small shrines, Hazara Rama temple, Audience Hall, Great Paltform, Queen’s Palace, Lotus Mahal, elephant stables and Underground Temple. The architecture of the Royal Centre is integrated with the mythical landscape that existed from before as has been stated above. The cult of Virupaksha and Pampa and some of the sites already associated with the Ramayana like the Matanga hill, the Kodandarama Temple and Anjenadri Hill and some of the pre-existing Vaishnava and Shaiva shrines were symbolically incorporated into the kingly authority at the Royal Centre. From the fifteenth century onwards, Rama as a divinity was at the generative core of the king’s capital and embodied the different activities of the Vijayanagara king.

Map 2: Layout of the Royal Centre Courtesy: George Michell and John Fritz; Vijayanagara Research Project (VRP) http:// www.vijayanagara.org/html/Maps.html The Vijayanagara ruler, Devaraya I (1406-1422) constructed the famous Hazara Rama Temple as a shrine of Ramachandra in the fifteenth century. Situated in the middle of the Royal Centre, it functioned as a state temple and was used by the Vijayanagara rulers and their private family members. Since the Hazara Rama temple was a royal temple, the frescoes and sculptures on the walls of the temple depicted royal authority and power. For instance, royal processions and courtly festivals carved in relief on the outside of its enclosing walls depict the processions of elephants, horses with attendants, 8 7 Urbanisation in military contingents, and dancing women, exactly as in the Mahanavami festival described Medieval India - 1 by the foreign visitors. The reliefs inside the temple on various portions illustrate scenes from the Ramayana and are a representation of the artistic excellence of the artisans and sculptors present in the imperial city. An empty pedestal stands within the sanctuary; its three holes may have secured images of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita but these are lost. The temple is surrounded by smaller shrines of Narasimha, an incarnation of Vishnu, Hanumana and Garuda, the last two being characters in the Ramayana. However, by the sixteenth century, the king took the centre stage and sat at the core of a constellation of powerful divinities, whose temples complexes in the Sacred Centre and the metropolitan region surrounded the Royal Centre.

Hazara Rama Temple Photograph by Dineshkannanbadi, June, 2012 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Rear_view_of_shrines_in_ Hazara_Rama_temple_in_Hampi.JPG Immediately south of the main entrance to the Hazara Rama temple is a sequence of two gateways leading to the two important structures of the Royal Centre. These structures are the Audience Hall and Great Platform. The audience hall comprises 100 stone footings, probably props for the wooden pillars which disappeared long ago. Nearby is the multi-storied Great Platform, popularly associated with the Mahanavami festival. Constructed in the fourteenth century, the Platform or the Mahanavami dibba has three ascending diminishing stages, each a solid square, added at a different time. Steps lead up the platform from the south and west sides, but there is no structure on top, only the recently exposed stone footings of a vanished wooden pavilion. The platform is often identified with the House of Victory. On the basis of the accounts of the foreign travellers who visited the city, the king is supposed to have witnessed the celebrations of the Mahanavami festival from the top of the platform, which had a temporary shrine dedicated to Durga. Relief carvings at the bottom stage of the platform depict diverse images of royal life: the king sitting on a throne receiving visitors or watching wrestling matches, going out on hunting expeditions; lines of prancing horses, elephants and even camels; dancing girls and foreigners, probably Turkish Muslims, serving as armed guardians, horse- trainers, and dancers and musicians. These images portray the life of the king rather than the processions of the Mahanavami. Even so, the platform has always been associated with this great occasion. There is a stepped tank immediately to the south, and other 8 8 nearby bathing places, were probably used on particular festival occasions. Southern Dimension: The Glory of Vijayanagara

Audience Hall Photograph by Dr Murali Mohan Gurram, July, 2007 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/BASEMENT_OF_KING%27S_ AUDIENCE_HALL-Dr._Murali_Mohan_Gurram_%282%29.jpg

Great Platform Photograph by G41m8, 2002 Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Hampi_si1350.jpg Short distances from the Mahanavami dibba are two structures whose architectural layouts are influenced by Islamic styles. One is the Queen’s Bath and the other is the Lotus Mahal. The queens’ bath was probably intended for the amusement of the Vijayanagara king and his courtiers. It has an ornate interior arcade with balconies running around a sunken square pool. The two-storied Lotus Mahal was probably a 8 9 Urbanisation in royal pavilion. Like the queens’ bath, it is built in the fanciful Vijayanagara courtly style Medieval India - 1 influenced by Islamic designs and motifs. It is located in the middle of a high walled compound. A vaulted hall nearby may have served as a treasury or gymnasium. Octagonal and square watchtowers with balconies are located outside.

Lotus Mahal Photograph by Rajesh, April, 2009 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Lotus_temple_hampi.jpg A small doorway to the east leads to the elephant stables, suggesting that the Lotus Mahal enclosure was an abode of men rather than a zenana, or women’s quarter, as is sometimes believed. The elephant stables comprise a long line of eleven chambers roofed by alternating vaults and domes in a distinct Islamic style. These face west onto an open ground where troops and animals would have paraded. This parade ground comprises a building with a high arcaded porch and an interior court, possibly used to view military displays in front and martial entertainments such as wrestling and boxing matches inside.

Elephant Stables Photograph by Kevin Sallée, January, 2007 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Elephant_stables%2C_ Hampi%2C_Karnataka%2C_India.jpg Excavations in the compounds west of the Hazara Rama Temple have revealed the remains of numerous palaces, presumably for the royal household. One complex of fifteen palaces has even been labelled the Noblemen’s Quarter. An important early shrine located in this palace zone is known as the Underground Temple, because it 9 0 was built in a small valley and was later partly buried by eroded soil. The shrine at its core is dedicated to Virupaksha, the same god worshiped at Hampi. It probably served Southern Dimension: The as the principal shrine worshiped by the royal family. Glory of Vijayanagara Sacred Centre Laid out along the southern bank of the Tungabhadra river, the Sacred Centre of Vijayanagara is made up of distinct temple complexes, partly surrounded by fortifications. On the east are the Vaishnava shrines and on the west are the Shaivite shrines. Dominating the Shaivite area is a temple district known as Hampi, the village that today gives its name to the whole site. Here is situated the Virupaksha Temple, the seat of a god celebrated in pre-Vijayanagara times and still in worship today. The Virupaksha temple is dedicated to Virupaksha, form of Shiva and the consort of local goddess, Pampa. As stated before, the pre-Vijaynagara mythical landscape is full of stories about this local goddess and Hampi is named in her honour. The Virupaksha-Pampa sanctuary existed well before the foundation of the Vijayanagara capital; inscriptions referring to the god date back to the 9th-10th centuries. The Sangamas transformed the shrine into a major religious monument. The Tuluvas greatly extended Virupaksha temple. A slab set up in front of the main shrine records Krishnadevaraya’s benefactions on the occasion of his coronation in 1510. Krishnadevaraya also erected the gopura or the temple gateway that stands immediately opposite. The eastern side of the temple leads to the broad colonnaded street that serves today, as it did in the past, as the main bazaar of Hampi. The cult of Virupaksha-Pampa did not die out after the destruction of the city in 1565. Worship there continued through the years, and at the turn of the 19th century there were major renovations. The temple, an important pilgrimage centre, is the largest Hindu monument in central Karnataka, continues to prosper and attracts huge crowds during the betrothal and marriage festivities of Virupaksha and Pampa.

Map 3: Layout of the Sacred Centre Courtesy: George Michell and John Fritz; Vijayanagara Research Project (VRP) http:// www.vijayanagara.org/html/Maps.html 9 1 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Virupaksha Temple Complex Photo by Dineshkannambadi, June, 2012 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/View_of_the_ Virupaksha_temple_complex_from_Hemakuta_hill.JPG

Vitthaladeva Temple Photo by Dineshkannambadi, June, 2004 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/View_of_dilapidated_ main_mantapa_at_the_Vitthala_templein_Hampi.jpg The Vitthaladeva temple dedicated to Vitthala, a form of Krishna and constructed in the fifteenth century is located at the centre of the temple district known as Vitthalapura, near the south bank of the Tungabhadra in the Sacred Centre. Possibly Vira Narasimha, the first ruler of the Tuluva dynasty, founded it in the first decade of the 16th century. All of his successors made additions. Krishnadevaraya was responsible for the hundred- columned hall built up to the southern enclosure wall, while two of his queens each added a gopura (ornate entrance gate). A third gopura was the work of Achyutaraya. 9 2 In 1554, during the reign of Sadashiva, a magnificent “swing-pavilion” was added, but Southern Dimension: The its sponsor was a military commander rather than the emperor himself. A Garuda shrine, Glory of Vijayanagara fashioned as a chariot with stone wheels, stands in front of the temple. There are colonnaded bazaar streets running east and north from the temple that also lead to other shrines. The district abounds in minor shrines, service structures, feeding houses, wells and a large tank. The twelfth century saint, Ramanuja was probably worshiped in a large temple that faced south onto a branch of the Vitthala bazaar. Urban Core The Urban Core was the elite residential zone of the Vijayanagara capital. It was surrounded in the east by the Raghunatha temple on the Malyavanta hill and ridges, valleys and rocky outcrops. Massive fortifications with bastions and gateways at strategic locations surround the Urban Core. In one area, a moat is preserved. The Urban Core consists of residential quarters of various social groups from different occupations and religious traditions, including Islam. According to the archaeologists, gateways, aligned buildings and pavements indicate major roads, while worn paths and stairways suggest numerous pedestrian routes that linked the different residential areas. The Urban Core also consists of shrines, palace complexes, rock-cut features and tombs (see Map 1).

20.5.2 The Vijayanagara Metropolitan Region As mentioned above, the Vijayanagara Metropolitan Survey (VMS) that began in 1987 emphasised that the regional setting of Vijayanagara should be analysed to understand the city. Carla M. Sinopolis and Kathleen D. Morrison, founders of VMS, mapped and documented a vast area of 600 sq kms in and around the city. Thus, the Vijayanagara Metroplitan Region was the Urban Core and number of settlements outside it. This expanded the scope of understanding an urban centre, in this case the imperial capital of Vijayanagara. According to the project, the rural settlements of the metropolitan region and the city not only interacted with each other economically through a circulation and exchange of agricultural, craft and trading commodities, they also interacted in political and cultural terms, each affecting the other. The cultural landscape transformed with this interaction led to the construction of small shrines and large temples, the cutting of inscriptions, and the carving of sculptures, many of which continue to be venerated to this day. Outside the Urban Core, in the outlying areas, thousands of troops and animals displayed during the annual Mahanavami festival and organised for warfares were camped. Fortifications and gateways that protect the Urban Core and dams and reservoirs supplying water dot the outskirts of the city. Roads, canals, walls, and bridges built in and around the imperial city defined the movement across the region. This project further highlighted the roles of peasants, herdsmen, artisans and other occupational groups in the development of the imperial city. Morrison emphasised that that the ‘...actors typically invisible in conventional historical research – farmers, herders, hunters, pastoralists, and others – played a role in the successes, failures, and ambitions of the Vijayanagara state. Their labor constituted the backbone of the polity...’ (http:/ /www.kathleenmorrisonlab.com/vijayanagara-metropolitan-surv/). Anegondi, Kamalapura, Kadirampura, Malpannagudi and Anantashayanagudi are some of the important villages of the Vijayanagara Metropolitan Region. Except Anegondi, the rest three of them have some buildings of Islamic architecture. For instance, in Kadirampura, there are two Islamic tombs and archaeologists conclude that in this village Muslim military officers must have resided. Malpannagudi has an early fifteenth century octagonal well surrounded by Islamic styled arches

9 3 Urbanisation in 20.5.3 Other Features of the City Medieval India - 1 The city had beautifully laid out roads and well provided with irrigation. Roads There was a well developed network of roads that connected different zones within the city of Vijayanagara and the city and metropolitan region. Trade, military and ceremonial movements were facilitated by these roads. The archaeologists reconstructed the network of roads on the basis of gateways and smaller openings in the fortification walls, fragments of stone pavements, alignments of temples, colonnades, monolithic columns and other structures, literary evidence and inscriptions. They conclude that there were three types of roads in the city: radial, ring, and linear. The radial road system was focussed on the Royal Centre and connected to the Urban Core and the Sacred City. This system of roads converged in front of the Ramachandra temple. One of the most important roads running through the Urban Core was the Northeast road (NE) that connected to the Ramachandra Temple. Shrines, colonnades and gateways were located along this road. When the road reached the northeast part of the Tungabhadra Valley, it branched into, one connecting to Anegondi and the other to an unknown location. A second, or ring series of roads encircled the Royal Centre one of them leading to the village of Hampi. The third type, linear roads, included a major route linking Hampi to the town now known as Hospet (also see, John Fritz, 1983, pp.51-9). Irrigation Systems The Tungabhadra Valley was dry with rocky outcrops of granite rock and water for agriculture was a challenge. According to Kathleen Morrison, since the peasants in Vijayanagara practised ‘agricultural intensification’, that is, used a variety of agricultural techniques and strategies, therefore, irrigation was crucial. In fact, the metropolitan region shows numerous irrigation facilities ranging from river canals and reservoirs to embankments, terraces, erosion control walls and drainage basins. These irrigation facilities helped in the production of a range of wet and dry crops like rice, sugarcane and vegtables and millet, pulses, oilseeds and cotton respectively. Since water was scarce in the rocky terrain in the Tungabhadra Valley, it had to be harnessed to its optimum use. Therefore, the state tried to control the irrigation techniques in the Vijayanagara metropolitan region and this was also important for the assertion of power and authority. The kings exploited the hydrological environment to its maximum advantage, irrigating agricultural land inside the city, directing water into urban areas for domestic use, and building an impressive system of baths and channels to service the Royal Centre. At a larger scale several instances of interlinked reservoirs and canals were also created. The most elaborate of these involved channels directing water into the Daroji tank, 30 kilometres east of Hospet. In this and similar projects of the era, the Vijayanagara kings showed their mastery of water control to provide for the many and varied needs of the population, both urban and agricultural. Even the urban political elites, temple personnel and merchant groups invested in irrigation technology. Tax concessions were granted to individuals for construction and maintenance of irrigation facilities. These constructions required a large number of work force and coercion must have been used in their recruitment.

9 4 Southern Dimension: The Glory of Vijayanagara

Daroji Tank Photograph by Harish Aluru, September, 2011 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Octogonal_tank%2C_ Hampi.JPG Fortifications and Warfare Technology The capital city of Vijaynagara was surrounded by impressive fortifications, gateways and height towers in several circles. Walls on low ground were protected by moats and by fields of large stones while bodies of water and irrigated fields were located nearby. The foreign travellers who visited the city were impressed with the defense walls and described them in great detail. These fortifications and defense walls extending over several kilometres dominating the geopolitical landscape of the city and its metropolitan region were made of quarried granite rocks and earthen fill. These structures were excellent examples of masonry and must have required heavy investment of resources. Defense masonry also consisted of moats, ditches and fields of “horse stones” – multiple lines of large, irregularly placed natural boulders – placed so as to preclude the movement of mounted troops. Vijayanagara’s system of security arrangements developed over time because of its location and constant threat from the Bahamani Sultanate on its northern boundaries. However, the militarisation of the Vijayanagara empire and the city was also due to the expansion of armed forces in Europe and Asia during this period. New weapons were being introduced and the gunpowder technology was spreading. And by second half of the fifteenth century was used in canons. The ramparts of the city exploited the defensive advantages of the rocky landscape, while the river protected the city’s northern flank and provided essential water for agriculture and domestic use. At the core of this walled zone was the royal centre, where the Sangama kings had their palaces, private places for worship and platforms and halls for their royal ceremonies. The aforesaid description of the fortifications is a synopsis of the detailed report on the website of the Vijayanagara Research Project.

20.6 TRADE AND MANUFACTURE The Vijayanagara period saw intense monetisation. Minting of currency took place. Taxes, tariffs and salaries to officials and soldiers were paid in cash. Both internal and external trade made progress and the city was a trading centre where all merchants came and 9 5 Urbanisation in settled there, especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There were thriving markets. Medieval India - 1 Extensive maritime trade with Persia, Arabia, Malayan Archipelago, Burma, China, Portugal and numerous islands in the Indian Ocean, Africa, Bukhara and the Mediterranean flourished. External trade was very important for the Vijayanagara rulers and influenced the politics. In fact, Abdur Razzaq whose account of the city of Vijayanagara is used by the historians was the ambassador of the ruler of Samarqand and had come to promote trading relations. Abdur Razzaq who had travelled widely in and outside India, and was an ambassador at the court of Deva Raya II (1423-46), says: “This latter prince has in his dominions three hundred ports, each of which is equal to Calicut, and on terra firma his territories comprise a space of three months journey.” All travellers agree that the country was thickly populated with numerous towns and villages. Abdur Razzaq says: “The country is for the most part well cultivated, very fertile. The troops amount in number to eleven lakhs.” Barbosa writes: “It is very rich, and well supplied with provisions, and is very full of cities and large townships.” He describes the large trade of the seaport of Bhatkal on its western coast, the exports from which consisted of iron, spices, drugs, myrabolans, and the imports of horses and pearls. Thus, the city of Vijayanagara was a commercial centre and the focal point of several trans-peninsular routes. The market places in the royal centre, shops on the bazaar streets of the temple complexes and in the suburbs all sold goods whose trade was conducted by the merchant guilds of the respective commodities. According to Burton Stein, “Vijayanagara was the place where its kings conducted their political business for substantial parts of each year, where tribute from powerful provincial lords of the realm was received during the mahanavami festival, and where the rayas’ army was garrisoned and resupplied when it was not in the field.” (Stein, 2008: 39). The city was a centre of consumption as it was an administrative centre and there were various social classes residing in it. There would have been a scope of internal demands. Since the city was inhabited by foot soldiers, court and camp servants, dancing women and kings’ households, a large market of daily necessaries would have been present. Luxury items would have reached the capital also as tributes from coastal rulers, gifts from foreign visitors or through merchants. Similarly textile products imported from China or produced at workshops in south India were distributed through internal trade and exchange.

Market Place at Hampi Photograph by Dineshkannambadi, September, 2006 Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Hampi_marketplace.jpg 9 6 According to the Vijayanagara Research Project report, considerable number of Southern Dimension: The Chinese blue-and-white porcelain shards, as well as celadon and polychrome wares Glory of Vijayanagara has been found on the surface and in excavations of the Vijayanagara site, especially in and around the Royal Centre. Datable to the Ming period (late 15th century onwards), these porcelain shards indicate that in the first half of the 16th century Vijayanagara was linked to a trade network that imported luxury goods from southern China, presumably by sea. Whether this network was achieved through coastal traders in direct contact with the Vijayanagara court or through the intermediary kingdoms of the Deccan sultans has not yet been determined. Carla Sinopoli has studied no less than 4,000 earthenware ceramic fragments recovered in the excavations of the palaces in Noblemen’s Quarter of the Royal Centre. Based on a comprehensive statistical approach to the classification of these finds, and a comparison of these data with ceramics collected from other areas of the site, Sinopoli concluded that they reflected particular cultural and behavioural differences. For example, she speculates that the considerable variation in ceramic form indicates that production was not under centralised control, in contrast, perhaps, to luxury goods, that no longer survive. These porcelain remains are found in large numbers in administrative and palace areas, pointing out to the fact that the sites had greater access to them. Although in the metropolitan region, the amount of porcelain sherds is less, it indicates that access to it was not exclusive (www.vijayanagara.org/ html/Ceramics.html; Carla Sinapoli, 1983: 1-9). Stone tools were manufactured and used in the city. Though available and used since the Palaeolithic period, the people in Vijayanagara used variety of stone tools, especially for quarrying purposes cutting stones for various constructions. Archaeologists have excavated quarry sites with partly finished architectural elements, as well as associated ramps and cart tracks: all evidence for the different techniques of stone cutting and methods of transport and construction. There are not many archeological evidence of craft production in the city except some small iron processing area. Most of the iron, stone and earthenware workshops suggest a shifting pattern with masons and artisans moving from one site of construction to the other. According to Sinopoli and Morrison, caste councils regulated production and distribution of craft goods. These councils also arbitrated in inter and intra-caste disputes which revolved mainly around ritual privileges rather than exclusive economic matters. 20.7 STRATEGIES OF IMPERIAL CONTROL, COURT CULTURE AND NATURE OF THE CITY Ideology was an important mechanism to assert control and dominance in political and religious spheres. According to Sinopoli and Morrison, the creation of the capital was in alignment with the construction of the scared landscape comprising the Hindu values and beliefs. The grand architectural styles of the temples show that rulers also sponsored the construction of the temples and made lavish donations to them for political legitimacy. Further they also adopted the local deities into the royal pantheon of divinities. This was a strategy to universalise and incorporate symbolically diverse areas of the Empire. The large number of shrines and temples in the metropolitan region also were linked to the imperial sacred landscape. Individual merchants and craftsmen also patronised some of these temples. The Empire also included numerous Muslim and Jaina architecture at the capital. State documents and proclamations attest the support of non-Hindu religious groups (Sinopoli and Morrison, 1995: 87). Religious rituals like Mahanavami were publicly performed to display the power of the king at the end of the rainy season in September-October, after which the Vijayanagara 9 7 Urbanisation in rulers planned military expeditions. The Mahanavami probably focussed on the worship Medieval India - 1 of Durga, the goddess who empowered the king’s weapons, troops and animals. The ceremonies took place over nine nights, after which there was a great parade and feast. All of the governors and commanders of the empire were encouraged to attend this event, during which they paid tribute and expressed their homage to the Vijayanagara ruler. In addition, the architecural plan in the capital as seen in the presence of the Mahanavami dibba, the marking and alignment of the processional routes and sculptures on the platform all depict and celebrate the institution of kingship and empire. Foreigners were also invited to the capital on this occasion. Foreign travellers like Abdur Razzaq, Domingo Paes and Fernao Nunez witnessed the festival and have written extensively about it. However, according to R. Champakalakshmi, the physical demarcation of the royal centre by special ramparts from the sacred centre at Vijaynagara depicted a certain secularisation and separation of the sacred and secular sphere. According to her, the royal centre represented the ceremonial and administrative aspects and the sacred centre represented the sacred aspects of the ideological tradition. Further, she says that the Mahanavami ritual laid emphasis on the royal persona of the king rather than the tutelary deity. Despite adopting Sanskritic titles like upholder of the varnashrama dharma (moral and religious order), constructing temples and conducting public rituals like the Mahanavami festival, the city and the empire were not Hindu in their approach. The city clearly reflected an Islamicate influence. Scholars use the term Islamicate, instead of Islamic as the term Islamicate means a series of cultural complex like architecture, dress, paper, literature and military technology associated with people who were followers of Islam and not the religion of Islam as such. The architectural styles clearly reflected an Islamicate influence. However, the Vijayanagara architects did not simply imitate these Islamicate models. They creatively used them within the aesthetic context of the South Indian tradition, especially in the buildings of the royal centre. After the sack of the city in 1565, this hybrid style of architecture was further developed in the palaces of the later Vijayanagara rulers at Penukonda and Chandragiri. Besides the court culture of the Vijaynagara rulers also reflected Islamicate influence. This cosmopolitan approach was visible in the courtly ceremonies and royal court dresses. According to Philip Wagoner, the Vijayanagara rulers were adept at switching from Indic to Islamicate forms of dress. They wore tunics and caps, kullai and kabayi tailored in accordance with Arabic fashions. This according to Wagoner was done when the Vijayanagara rulers received and interacted with Muslim guests at the court. In this way, they were presenting themselves not only to the kingdoms in the north, like the Bahamani but also to the larger Islamic civilisational world. Interestingly, the Vijayanagara rulers adopted a title called, Hinduraya Suratrana, which in Sanskrit meant Sultan among the Hindu kings. Similar cosmopolitan nature is reflected in the urban life of Vijayanagara when the elites irrespective of their religious affiliation switched willingly from Islamicate to Indic styles and vice-versa. For example, in 1439, a Muslim noble built a mosque in the city using traditional Indic temple style of post and lintel construction. The inscription on the mosque refers to the structure not as a mosque but as dharmasale, hall of dharma and it is further stated that it was built for the merit of the ruler (Asher and Talbot, 2008: 71-2). Fortifications of the city, canal irrigated zones and areas of reservoir irrigation also reflected the control of imperial power over agricultural areas. Epigraphic and historical records provide information about the coercive control. The well-defined routes of 9 8 movements with clearly marked out portions of access and denial of it shows the control Southern Dimension: The the rulers had over the city. The gateways marked out the elite areas and temples, Glory of Vijayanagara which were walled. The bastions and watchtowers in and around the royal centre show that the movements of the population residing in the city were monitored. Control of movement and transport appears to have been connected to revenue collection including taxes on produce, animals and people who collected at the gateways. Vijayanagara political elites invested heavily in military technology, horses, war elephants and soldiers and maintained a large standing army. Evidence shows the presence of a large army stationed in the capital and the salary was given in cash. Horses, elephants and artillery were the bulk of the trading items and the rulers monopolised the trade in these commodities. Sinopoli and Morrison point out that there is hardly any evidence to show that the Vijayanagara rulers exerted direct control over any sphere of economic production. However, they also point out that the inscriptional evidence and fortifications around the reservoirs, tanks and irrigated fields show that the rulers were concerned with enhancing agricultural production and safe transport for subsistence and other goods. Already the state interest in controlling water and irrigation facilities has been discussed above. There also appears to have been considerable control over the share in the produce, and rulers, landlords and other political elites were entitled to their respective share. These were collected in kind and cash and the peasants had to visit the market for selling the crops.

20.8 ACCOUNTS OF FOREIGN TRAVELLERS Several foreign travellers from Persia and Europe visited the city of Vijayanagara in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They were impressed with the city and their accounts on administration, layout, bazaars, temples and palaces, local historical traditions have been useful for the historians and archaeologists to construct the picture of Vijayanagara. Their accounts of the spectacular ceremonies of the nine day festival of Mahanavami to which the rulers invited them are particularly vivid. Their reports on the precious stones, including diamonds, textiles and other luxury goods on sale in the markets testify to the role of the capital as one of the greatest emporia in South India. (http:// www.vijayanagara.org/html/Vijay_Hist.html) Abdur Razzaq who visited the city in 1443 CE considers Vijayanagara to be one of the most splendid city in the world. Razzaq was a Timurid chronicler and Islamic scholar and was for a while the ambassador of Shah Rukh, the Timurid dynasty ruler of Persia. In his role as ambassador he visited Calicut and Vijayanagara. Describing the city, Razzaq wrote: “The city of Bijanagar is such that eye has not seen nor ear heard of any place resembling it upon the whole earth. It is so built that it has seven fortified walls, one within the other.” (Filliozat, 1996: 257) Further, while describing his meeting with the king, Razzaq wrote about the wealth of the palace and the king’s throne, “On the third day, when the king was about to leave the scene of the festival, I was carried before the throne of His Majesty. It was of a prodigious size, made of gold, inlaid with beautiful jewels, and ornamented with exceeding delicacy and art; seeing that this kind of manufacture is nowhere excelled in the other kingdoms of the earth. Before the throne there was placed a cushion of zaituni satin, round which three rows of most exquisite pearls were sewn.” (Filliozat, 1996: 276) The wealth of the Vijayanagar city and its kings are attested by another Persian historian, Ferishta, the author of Tarikh-i Ferishta, “The princes of the Bahmani maintained their superiority by valour only; for in power, wealth and extent of the country, the Rayas of Bijarnagar (Vijayanagar) greatly exceeded them.” Ferishta had joined the service of King Ibrahim Adil II of Bijapur in 1589. 9 9 Urbanisation in Any writing on the history of the Vijayanagar Empire invariably cites the accounts of Medieval India - 1 two Portuguese chronicles written by Domingo Paes and Fernao Nunez. Both the writings date to sixteenth century, Domingo Paes’s account is dated around 1520-22 and Fernao Nunez’s is dated around 1535-37. The former writing coincided with Krishnadevaraya’s period (1509-29) and the latter’s accounts corresponded to Achyutadevaraya’s period (1529-42), two iconic monarchs belonging to the Tuluva dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire. It is to be noted that sixteenth century is also considered a period when Vijayanagara was well consolidated. For Paes, the scene of action is the capital Vijayanagar. He was definitely fascinated by its magnificence and grandeur, describing Vijayanagara’s fortified urban landscape, its markets, temples and the royal centre. For him, the kingship was a spectacle, closely identified with court rituals and ceremonies. The famous Mahanavami festival that has become a theme of analysis for understanding the connections between rituals, religion and politics find an elaborate mention in his accounts. The details about the king, his character, his physique, his household, clothing, daily routine and the description of the palace that he managed to see dominate his accounts. According to Paes, Vijaynagara was as large as Rome and “the best provided city of the world.” In one of his descriptions of the city, Paes states:

The king has made within it a very strong city, fortified with walls and towers, and the gates at the entrance are very strong . . . these walls are not made like those of other cities, but are made of very strong masonry . . . and inside very beautiful rows of buildings . . . with flat roofs. There live . . . many merchants, and it is filled with a large population because the king induces many honourable merchants to go there from his cities . . .You have a broad and beautiful street full of fine houses... and it is understood that the houses belong to . . . merchants, and there you find all sorts of rubies, and diamonds, and emeralds, and pearls ...and cloths and every sort of thing there is on the earth that you may wish to buy. Then you have there every evening a fair where they sell many common horses, and also many citrons, and limes, and oranges, and grapes, and every kind of garden stuff, and wood; you have all this in the street [which] . . . leads to the palace.

(Sewell, 1962: 236-39) Fernao Nunez came to the city of Vijayanagara as a merchant and spent a considerable time there and had access to the court of the ruler. Apart from recording what he saw, his business took him to markets and people with whom he interacted and gathered information. Like Paes, the focus was the capital in Nuniz’s accounts. He explains the rise of the Vijayangar and its foundation, the war with the king of Delhi, reference to Muhammad bin Tughlaq, and the establishment of the city of Vijayanagara. According to Nunez, this place was a deserted area, a hunting ground. Harihara, the founder of the dynasty, while still a prince, went hunting with his hound. At one spot the hare that he was chasing turned against the hound and bit it. The prince was astonished by this unusual happening and related the incident to the hermit Vidyaranya who was present there. The sage said this was the right spot from where he should rule the country. This legend finds several mentions starting from the origin myth of the Vijayanagar Empire to various accounts till the modern day. The various exploits of the king, politics, and the siege of Raichur all find mention in the account. Nunez, too, gives details of the Mahanavami festival, noting admiringly the extravagant jewels worn by the courtly women, as well as the thousands of women in the king’s service. Duarte Barbosa was a Portuguese factor at Cannanore and Cochin in between 1503 and (about) 1517 and had left behind an interesting account on trade and political events of the southeast including Bengal. We have an account of what Vijayanagara was like in 1504-14 in the narrative of Duarte Barbosa. Niccolò de’ Conti, who also visited Vijaynagara was a Venetian merchant and explorer, born in Chioggia, who 100 travelled to India and Southeast Asia, and possibly to Southern China, during the early 15th century. Cesare Frederici, an Italian traveller who spent seven months at Southern Dimension: The Vijayanagara in 1567, two years after the city was sacked, suggests that the capital Glory of Vijayanagara was only partly destroyed and that Tirumala of the Aravidu dynasty intended to re- establish the Vijayanagara capital there. This attempt turned out to be unsuccessful and the city was eventually abandoned for good. After Frederici, no foreign accounts of the city have come down to us until that of Colonel Colin Mackenzie, the Scottish antiquarian who visited Vijayanagara in 1799. Mackenzie’s description of the site, accompanied by a watercolour map and views, represent the first modern step to study the ruins (For details, see, http://www.vijayanagara.org/html/Vijay_Hist.html, Filliozat, 1996, Robert Sewell, 1900).

20.9 DECLINE OF THE CITY Conflict with the Deccan sultans intensified during Tuluva times, leading eventually to the famous battle fought near Talikota, a site some 100 km away from the capital, in January 1565. After the catastrophic defeat of their army, the Vijayanagara king and court fled the capital. The capital is said to have been completely ransacked. Both sultanate and Vijayanagara officers briefly attempted to reoccupy the remains of the city after its destruction. Soon thereafter, the ruins were left to agriculturalists and pastoral groups. Despite the defeat and abandonment of the capital, the empire continued to exist. Under the rule of the last line of Vijayanagara kings, that of the Aravidus (1570- 1646), the empire continued for almost another hundred years. The Aravidus established themselves at the fortified sites of Penukonda and then at Chandragiri, near the shrines at Tirumala-Tirupati, in southern Andhra. However, the northern parts of the empire were lost to the Deccan sultans. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Nayakas asserted their independence as rulers over much of Tamilnadu and local chiefs, known as Poligars divided northern Karnataka and Andhra. A civil war in 1614 left the Aravidus with a much-reduced kingdom. The last of the Vijayanagara kings Sriranga III died in 1672.

20.10 SUMMARY This Unit discussed the development and growth of Vijayanagara that was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the middle of granite rocky outcrops, the city of Vijayanagara represented a medieval imperial city in peninsular India. With the establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire in the fourteenth century, the urban processes, which were already active, accelerated and acquired new dimensions that are discussed in the Unit. It is against this backdrop of medieval urbanisation that the development and growth of Vijayanagara should be examined. One should remember that this area of Tungabhadra valley already had settlements and a religious landscape from the Iron Age. These settlements and the religious culture contributed to the growth of the city. The layout of the city into three zones, the royal centre, sacred centre and the urban core with well-developed irrigation networks and structures shows the sophisticated urban planning and a distinct architectural style. Trade and commerce, militarisation, migration and the development of an agrarian hinterland often referred to as the metropolitan region contributed to the vibrant urban nature. Since many scholars have termed the nature of the imperial capital and the Empire as ‘Hindu’, the Unit discussed the city architecture and the court culture to show that the city was cosmopolitan in nature and various religious traditions like that of Islam and Jainism influenced the urban layout. Various foreign travellers who visited the imperial city, especially in the sixteenth century have left useful information about the glory and city life of Vijayanagara. In 1565, after the defeat of the Vijayanagara army in the hands 101 Urbanisation in of a confederacy of five Deccani sultanates, the capital was abandoned and the empire Medieval India - 1 persisted in a weakened state until 1684 under the Aravidus, who ruled from different capitals. However, the city continued to be inhabited by agriculturists and pastoralists of that region.

20.11 EXERCISES 1) Examine the growth of urbanism and urban processes during the Vijayanagara period. 2) Narrate the saga of the emergence of the city of Vijayanagara in the early phase in the 15th century. 3) To what extent does the spatial layout of the city of Vijayanagara reflect high level of urbanisation? 4) ‘In the 16th century Vijayanagara was a vibrant city.’ Comment. 5) How did the city layout and courtly culture of Vijayanagara reflect the dominance of Imperial control? 6) Highlight the importance of the city of Vijayanagara on the basis of foreign accounts.

20.12 REFERENCES Asher, Catherine and Cynthia Talbot, (2008) India Before Europe (Delhi: Cambridge University Press) (South Asian Edition). Bauer, Andrew M., (2014) Before Vijayanagara: Prehistoric Landscapes and Politics in the Tungabhadra Basin (New Delhi: Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies). Brubaker, R., (2014) Vijayanagara: Warfare and the Archaeology of Defence (New Delhi: Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies). Chamapakalakshmi, R., (1996) Trade, Ideology and Urbanization. South India. 300 BC to AD 1300 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Dallapiccola, A.L., J.M. Fritz, G. Michell and S. Rajasekhara, (1992) The Ramachandra Temple at Vijayanagara (New Delhi: Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies). Dallapiccola, A. and S.Z. Lallemant, (ed.) (1985) Vijayanagara- City and Empire: New Currents of Research (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden). Davison-Jenkins, D.J., (1997) The Irrigation System and Water Supply System of Vijayanagara, Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi Eaton, Richard M., (2008) “From Kalyana to Talikota: Culture, Politics, War in the Deccan, 1542-1565”, in Rajat Datta, (ed.), Rethinking A Millenium. Perspectives on Indian History. From Eight to Eighteenth Century. Essays For Harbans Mukhia (Delhi: Aakar), pp.95-105. Eaton, Richard M., (2013) “‘Kiss My Foot’, Said the King: Firearms, Diplomacy and the Battle of Raichur, 1520", in Richard M.Eaton, Munis D.Faruqui, Daivd Gilmartin and Sunil Kumar (eds.), Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History. Essays in Honour of John F.Richards (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 102 pp.275-98. Filliozat, Vasundhara, (ed.) (1996) Vijayanagar as Seen by Domingos Paes and Southern Dimension: The Fernao Nuniz (Sixteenth Portuguese Chroniclers) and Others (New Delhi: National Glory of Vijayanagara Book Trust). Fritz, J.M. and G. Michell, (ed.) (2001) New Light on Hampi: Recent Research at Vijayanagara (Marg Publications, ). Fritz, John M, George Michell, and M.S. Nagaraja Rao,(1985) Where Kings and Gods Meet: The Royal Centre at Vijayanagara India. (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press) Fritz, John M, (1983) “The Roads of Vijayanagara: A Preliminary Study”, in Nagaraja Rao, MS (ed.), Vijayanagara Progress of Research, 1979-1983 (Mysore: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums), pp. 51-9 Fritz, John M, and George Michelle, (1987) “Interpreting the Plan of a Medieval Hindu Capital, Vijayanagara”, World Archaeology, Vol.19(1), Urbanisation, pp.105-29. Fritz, John M, (1991) “Urban Context”, in Dallapiccola A L, JM Fritz, G Michell & S Rajashekara (eds.), The Ramachandra Temple at Vijayanagara, (VRP Monograph 2) (New Delhi: Manohar) pp.4-13. Fritz, John M, (1991), “The Plan of Vijayanagara and the Silpasastras”, in DV Devaraj & CS Patil (eds.), Vijayanagara Progress of Research, 1984-1987,. (Mysore: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums), pp.122-35. Fritz, John M, (2006) “A Study of Bridge at Vitthalapura (NBs and NBx)”, in Fritz, JM, RP Brubaker, T Raczec (eds.), Vijayanagara: Archaeological Exploration, 1990-2000. (VRP Monograph 10), (New Delhi: Manohar) Guha, Sumit, (2013) “Frontiers of Memory: What the Marathas Remembered of Vijayanagara,” in Richard M. Eaton, Munis D.Faruqui, Daivd Gilmartin and Sunil Kumar (eds.), Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History. Essays in Honour of John F.Richards (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 255-74. Habib, Irfan, (2016) Economic History of India. AD 1206-1526. The Period of the Delhi Sultanate and Vijayanagara Empire (New Delhi: Tulika). Jackson, William J., (2005) Vijayanagara Voices. Exploring South Indian History and Hindu Literature (England and USA: Ashgate). Karashima, Noboru, (1994) Towards a New Formation: South Indian Society under Vijayanagar Rule (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Karashima, Noboru, (2002) A Concordance of Nayakas. The Vijayanagar Inscriptions in South India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Kulke, Hermann, (1993) “Maharajas, Mahants and Historians. Reflections on the Historiography of Early Vijayanagara and Sringeri”, in Kulke, Hermann, Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers), pp.208-39. Michell, G., (1992) The Vijayanagara Courtly Style: Incorporation and Synthesis in the Royal Architecture of Southern India, 15th-17th Centuries (New Delhi: Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies). Michell, George and Vasundhara Filliozat, (ed.) (1981) Splendours of the Vijayanagara Empire: Hampi (Bombay: Marg Publications). 103 Urbanisation in Michell, George, (1995) The New Cambridge History of India. I.6 Architecture Medieval India - 1 and Art of Southern India, Vijayanagara and the Successor States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Sastri, Nilakantha, K.A., (1958) A : From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (Madras: Oxford University Press). Nilakantha Sastri, K.A.. and N. Venkataramanayya, (1946) Further Sources of Vijayanagar History, 3Vols. (Madras: University of Madras). Sewell, Robert, (1962[1900]) A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar. A Contribution to the History of India (Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting). Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, (1997) “Agreeing to Disgaree: Burton Stein on Vijayanagara”, South Asia Research, Vol. 17, pp.127-39. Sinopoli, C.M., (1993) Pots and Palaces: The Earthenware Ceramics of the Noblemen’s Quarter of Vijayanagara (New Delhi Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies). Sinopoli, C.M., and Kathleen Morrison, (1995) “Dimensions of Imperial Control. The Vijayanagara Capital”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 97(1), pp.83-96. Sinopoli, C.M., (2003) Political Economy of Craft Production. Crafting Empire in South India. C. 1350-1650 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Stein, Burton, 1979. Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Stein, Burton, (1989) The New Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, Vijayanagara. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Verghese, A., (1995), Religious Traditions at Vijayanagara: As Revealed Through its Monuments (New Delhi, Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies). Verghese, A., (2002) Archaeology, Art and Religion: New Perspectives on Vijayanagara, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Wagoner, Philip B., (1993) Tidings of the King. A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press). Wagoner, Philip B., (1996) ‘“Sultan Among the Hindu Kings”: Dress, Titles and Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagar’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 55 (4), pp. 851-80. Wagoner, Philip B., (2000) “Harihara, Bukka and the Sultan: The Delhi Sultanate in the Political Imagination of Vijayanagar”, in Gilmartin, David and Bruce B Lawrence (eds.), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia, (Florida: Gainesville), pp. 300-26. www.vijayanagara.org http://www.kathleenmorrisonlab.com/vijayanagara-metropolitan-surv/

104 UNIT 21 SULTANATE CAPITAL CITIES IN THE DELHI RIVERINE PLAIN*

Structure 21.1 Introduction 21.2 Why So Many Cities and Capitals? 21.3 The Emergence of Dihlī-i kuhna as Sultanate Capital 21.4 The Politics of Constructing Dispensations, Military Redoubts and Cities 21.5 Constructing Cities: Conflicts Amongst and Within Dispensations 21.6 Summary 21.7 Exercises 21.8 References

21.1 INTRODUCTION The present Unit questions whether there were some special social and political characteristics present in the 13th and 14th century Sultanate which made the Sultans of Delhi go through cycles of building, leaving, returning, and/or rebuilding? As newly enthroned monarchs sought to consolidate their authority through the recruitment and deployment of military personnel, there was an urgent need to “house” the new political dispensation as well. In other words, in the competitive politics of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, any effort at consolidating authority implied both, the deployment of a military cadre loyal to the new monarch and an ambitious building programme where the newly constituted court could assemble. By correlating construction activity with the turbulent politics of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it is argued that it is possible to notice how the reproduction of new capitals and courts in the Delhi region was not just a part of the period’s cultural expectations; it was a necessity dictated by the ways in which society and politics were structured at this time.

21.2 WHY SO MANY CITIES AND CAPITALS? Any historical study of Delhi inevitably mentions the presence of ‘several’ cities of Delhi, seven, being a relatively consensual, but incorrect figure. The seven cities usually mentioned include from north to south: Shāhjahānābād, Fīrūzābād, Dīnpanah, Sīrī, Jahānpanah, Dihlī-i kuhna and Tughluqābād (see Table 1). Irrespective of the final count, Delhi’s ‘many’ cities are generally seen as one of its characteristic features. Why there were so many cities and capitals in the riverine plain of Delhi, on the other hand, has not received careful historical attention. Scholars usually provide a mix of commonsensical assumptions regarding shortage of water due to a burgeoning population, strategic considerations of security, and the ostentatious display of power by newly

* Professor Sunil Kumar, University of Delhi, Delhi. This is a revised version of two papers. 1) “Courts, Capitals and Kingship. Delhi and Its Sultans in the 13th and 14th Centuries” in Jan-Peter Hartung and Albrecht Fuess, eds, Court Cultures in the Muslim World (London: SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East), pp. 123-148; and 2) a lecture “The many Sultanate Capital Cities in the Delhi Riverine Plain” delivered at the Seminar, “Architecture and Artisans in India: the History of Design, Technology and Labour”, organised by the Aligarh Historians Society, at the Indian History Congress, Patiala, December 11-12, 2011. 105 Urbanisation in arrived [insecure] Sultans as explanations for the need to move the city (Ali, 1986). Medieval India - 1 Some others extrapolate explanations from Mughal contexts – thus, Shāh Jahān’s decision to construct a new capital in Delhi because Agra was too congested and disorderly, or the commonly held assumption that shortage of water led Akbar to abandon Fatehpur Sīkrī – to suggest that these problems afflicted, more generally, all medieval cities (Fanshawe, 1991: 288). Certainly, in the argument of Athar Ali, some of these problems – such as access to a greater volume of water – also had a larger economic dimension: ‘enormous settlements set on the Aravalli rocks, away from the river, must have meant an extra drain of revenue, to meet the extra cost of water supply and expense of transporting grain and goods. ...There was therefore good reason for a shift [during Fīrūz Tughluq’s reign (1351-88)] to an economically more suitable position, i.e. along the river, from the one set on the upper rocky grounds’ (Ali, 1986: 41). It is important to keep in mind that, expenses notwithstanding, post-Tughluq Sultans, continued to invest in construction activity in the interior of the Delhi plain. Soon after Fīrūz Tughluq constructed Fīrūzābād, Mubārak Shāh Sayyid (1421-35) built his new capital at Mubārakpur, not on the banks of the Yamuna, but inland, to the north of Sīrī. Equally significant is the continued patronage of construction activity by the Tughluqs, the later Lōdīs and the Sūrs on sites very distant from the riverfront. The siting of the Tughluq Kalan and Khirki mosques in Jahānpanah, the Lōdī south of Mubārakpur, the baolis, mosques and constructions in the region and around Bakhtiyār Kākī’s grave shrine, and the grand Sayyid and Lōdī mausoleum complex at Khairpur, all occurred after the construction of Fīrūzābād. These were built in areas distant from the Yamuna riverfront. The histories of Yahyā Sirhindī and Bihāmad Khānī also confirm that areas inland from the river were extremely important population settlements into the fifteenth century. They narrate, for example, how Delhi’s four cities – Fīrūzābād, Sīrī, Jahānpanah and Dihlī-i kuhna [‘’] – were competing centres of power during and after Timur’s invasion (1398-99) at the end of the fourteenth and into the early fifteenth century. Delhi’s urban settlements may warrant a further look at the old question: why did the Delhi Sultans construct so many cities and armed encampments in the Delhi riverine plain? As I turn to this subject here, I realise that it is an ambitious project where it is easy to get lost in the episodes of coups, internecine conflicts and shifting of Sultanate settlements, even if it is only in the plain of Delhi. In that context, if I do get into the history of events, coups and conflicts, I do so to draw attention to the structures of Sultanate politics that had a significant impact in the longer duration and have received little historiographical attention. These structural patterns remained relatively stable through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This might help us place the more évènementielle episodes of city construction within larger contexts.

21.3 THE EMERGENCE OF DIHLI-I KUHNA AS SULTANATE CAPITAL In the present section, I examine the emergence and impact of Dihlī-i kuhna [area around Qutb Delhi] on Sultanate politics and the ways in which the political and social structuring of the regime in Iltutmish’s lifetime cast a long shadow on a significant part of the thirteenth century. To begin with, let me turn to a brief overview of Iltutmish’s reign and the years shortly after to understand the ways in which we can schematise the structuring of Sultanate political culture through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

106 Sultanate Capital Cities in The Delhi Riverine Plain

Seven Cities of Delhi [ After Murray’s Map, Fanshawe, H.C., (1902) Delhi Past and Present (London: John Murray), facing page 202.] 107 Urbanisation in There has been considerable debate regarding the choice of Dihlī-i kuhna as the capital Medieval India - 1 of the fledgling Sultanate. To Athar Ali’s surprise, its natural resources notwithstanding, Delhi’s “importance in the historical period should date only from the twelfth century” (Ali, 1986: 34). Perhaps it is important to keep in mind that Lahore and not Dihlī-i kuhna was the first choice of capital for Sultan Qumb al-Dīn (1206-10) and Ârām Shāh (1210). The area around Dihlī-i kuhna had been an important garrison town of Qumb al-Dīn when he was a Ghūrid military commander; but at that time (1192-1210), he was only one amongst some others. Iltutmish chose Dihlī-i kuhna as his capital initially because the notables of the city supported his bid to the throne and he had lost Lahore anyway to his political competitors, first Ildūz/Yalduz and then Qubacha. He retained Dihlī-i kuhna as capital in the long duration because it was, to begin with, conveniently distant from the turbulent politics of Ghazni and the Punjab. The city’s geo-political advantages were even more apparent once the north-west tracts suffered Khwārazmī invasions, followed very quickly by the fearful Chinggisid onslaught (1221) (Jackson, 1990). The Punjab and belt then became an extremely useful buffer against marauders from the north-west. It had subcontinental advantages as well since it was located at an important commercial centre with an eponymous coinage, the dehlivāl, and access routes to the Gangetic plain, northern and central India. Clearly, Iltutmish did not spend too much time considering Dihlī-i kuhna as a second choice. Through the course of his reign, his interest in the old Ghūrid dominions were replaced with greater investment in the Sindh, Punjab, Haryana, northern Rajasthan, central India and the Yamuna-Ganga riverine belt. He moved energetically to consolidate his position, besting the residual Ghūrid commanders and his Qut+bī peers in Delhi, Lahore, Multan, Uchch, Bayana and Avadh (Kumar, 1990). It is important to consider Iltutmish’s interventions in the politics of the Sultanate for their impact on the future of Delhi and north India. The most immediate and apparent intervention came from the construction of a formidable military force around a nucleus of old and tested slave military commanders, the bandagān-i khāss (elite slaves of the Sultan) whose deracination was underlined in their individual and collective identities: the Shamsīs. Iltutmish had started purchasing military slaves, many of whom were of Turkish ethnicity, before his accession, and he continued accumulating them throughout his reign (Kumar, 1994). Minhaj-i Siraj Jūzjānī speaks at length about their mode of training and fostering which made his khās+s+ slaves the bulwark of his dispensation. Together with his sons, the slaves commanded the strategic towns of the Sultanate – Lahore, Multan, Uchch, Lakhnauti, Budaun, Avadh and Gwalior (Kumar, 2007: 154- 157 [Table 1]). The Shamsī bandagān were the dominating element in the central core of the army, the qalb, and the capital was their main redoubt. It was here that the bandagān-i khās+s+ drilled their juniors to fight as a military unit and acculturate them in courtly conduct. At the beginning of their career, they served as domestics and playmates to the Sultan’s children; a socialising that created deep bonds of affection and loyalty between master and servant. A Persian chronicler felicitously described how these sentiments made the Shamsī slaves especially close to the monarch. Interpersonal ties of this nature served to weld distant garrison outposts in Bengal and Sindh to Dihlī-i kuhna. It populated the city with a military elite who would cast a long shadow on the politics of Delhi and north India. Iltutmish also moved energetically to refurbish Dihlī-i kuhna in a way that might reflect its arrival as a significant player in the politics of north India. The devastation of the Persianate world of Transoxiana, Khurasan, and Afghanistan by the Chinggisid marauders and the rush of immigrants that flooded north India from the 1220s helped in this transformation. Dihlī-i kuhna became a sanctuary for traders, literati and artisans. Perhaps 108 even more significantly, the city came to possess historians and litterateurs that were Sultanate Capital Cities in fashioning its pedigree in their narratives – even though Jūzjānī’s historical masterpiece The Delhi Riverine Plain was still in the future, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Adab al-Harbwa’l-Shujā‘a) and Hasan Nizāmī’s (Taj al-Maasir) texts had already won acclaim; future scholars would cite and emulate their literary craft for centuries (Alam, 2003: 131-98; Kumar, 2007: 362- 77). As a sign of its axial role in the politics of north India, Iltutmish reconstructed and expanded Dihlī-i kuhna’s masjid-i jāmi‘ and to dimensions that would remain unmatched. The Delhi monarch also won considerable probity for his piety by excavating a huge reservoir on the plateau of the hill adjacent to the city, the waters of which sustained the city’s increasing population (Kumar, 2001: 140-82; Flood, 2009). Tales of the monarch’s dream and the miraculous events surrounding its founding would be the subject of folk tales in the future. Within an incredibly short space of time, Iltutmish and the conjuncture of events surrounding his reign, gained for Dihlī-i kuhna a significance missing in other Sultanate cities. From its early history as one of the frontier outposts in the Ghūrid north Indian domains, Iltutmish’s city was extolled as the Qubba-i Islām in the eastern hemisphere, ceremoniously hosting the emissary of the ‘Abbāsid Caliph in 1229 (Kumar, 2007: 362-77).

Qutb Complex Source: Photo by Bikashrd https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/ Qutub_Minar_in_the_monsoons.jpg

Hauz Shamsi Source: Photo by Nvvchar https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/ Tower_at_the_location_of_prophet%27s_horse%27s_hoop.jpg; https://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Jahaz_Mahal_on_the_bank_of_Hauz-i-Shamsi_tank.jpg

109 Urbanisation in Iltutmish’s interventions created an aura around the city, especially bewitching when it Medieval India - 1 seemed that much of the world was facing the holocaust of Mongol depredations of unmatched dimensions. It is for this reason that political competitors with ambitions of controlling north India, at least through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, conceived of Dihlī-i kuhna and its environs as a significant prize. It was a paradoxical legacy: it seemed that many monarchs preferred not to stay in Dihlī-i kuhna, but if they did move, it was always within the riverine plain of Delhi. While Iltutmish’s career might help to contextualise the events that led to the great significance attached to Dihlī-i kuhna, we need to keep in mind that it was also a part of the deep structures that shaped the nature of settlement patterns in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The Delhi Sultans established six other settlements in the riverine plain (Table 1): Kilōkhrī, Sīrī, Tughluqābād, ‘Adilābād, Jahānpanah and Fīrūzābād. Some cities like Dihlī-i kuhna, Kilōkhrī, Sīrī, and Fīrūzābād were the capitals of successive Sultans, sometimes serially, at other times after a gap of several years, others like Tughluqābād or Jahānpanah remained settled but were the capitals of only one Sultan. And there was also ‘Adilābād, inhabited very briefly, really more of a citadel, than a city. What elements link these together? 21.4 THE POLITICS OF CONSTRUCTING DISPENSATIONS, MILITARY REDOUBTS AND CITIES One of the striking features of Barani’s insightful and controversial history of the Delhi Sultans, the Tā’rikh-i Fīrūz Shāhī (1357), is the way in which the narrative of each monarch carries in its introduction a brief enumeration of the great notables of the realm. Although such an enumeration, literally a recalling (tazkirāt) of the great elites of the realm, was not unique amongst medieval Persian chronicles, Baranī’s text was interesting for the rare repetition of names from one regnal list to another. Interestingly, military service in the Delhi Sultanate was normatively a one-generation affair: each ruler dispensed power to a select body of supporters during his (and in the one solitary instance, her) reign and this dispensation of power replaced the preceding ruler’s cohort. (Kumar, 2006: 83-114) This was largely because the core cadre in a Sultan’s dispensation consisted of military slaves. In relying upon bandagān to consolidate his realm, Sultan Iltutmish was therefore hardly unusual in Sultanate politics. Although slaves of Turkish ethnicity declined in numbers in the fourteenth century, monarchs like ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Khalajī, Muh+ammad and Fīrūz Tughluq, still had formidable slave retinues in their dispensations (Jackson, 1990: 340-58; Jackson, 1999: 174-6, 183, 187). Rather than merely relying upon military slaves, however, the Delhi Sultans also recruited a variety of other personnel, many of whom were of humble origins, people that the urbane litterateurs of the Delhi Sultans regarded as ‘social menials’. Persian chronicler Barani describes these new recruits patronised by Muh+ammad Tughluq in exaggerated, supercilious terms — ‘lowest and basest of the low and base born’. Clearly, the urban literati were not impressed with the direction of the Sultan’s patronage and wanted to underline the assorted humble backgrounds of the new recruits who included individuals and groups like mahouts (Rukn al-Dīn), Afghans (Balban), ‘new-Muslim’ Mongols (Kayqubād), a trader (‘Alā’ al-Dīn Khalajī), a wine-distiller, a barber, a cook, and gardeners (Muh+ammad Tughluq) (Kumar, 2006: 97, 102). Although the recruitment of such personnel appeared as an inversion of social hierarchy to the cultured elite, the logic in the deployment of slaves and ‘social menials’ actually lay in the incongruity between their high political appointment and their low social status. As Delhi Sultans 110 sought to consolidate their authority, they were extremely judicious of recruiting people Sultanate Capital Cities in of high lineage and entrenched social status. Instead, they sought a body of people The Delhi Riverine Plain whose social subordination was conducive to the production of a dependent, reliable cohort. Cohesion within these groups varied and since stakes were high, aspirants seeking to control the Sultanate made assiduous attempts to cultivate strong, dyadic, personal bonds between themselves and their servants. Since an aspiring Delhi Sultan’s survival was largely dependent upon the coherence of his dispensation and its capacity to withstand challenge from competitors, it was also important for the monarch to create a physical space to house his/her cohort. In other words, the construction of a site that housed the Sultan and his dispensation helped in maintaining the integrity of the group, providing it protection and distance from its many competitors in the Delhi plain. In the context of this political world, establishing a distinct settlement carried deep public, political resonances. This was certainly a cross cutting feature amongst the political dispensations of the thirteenth and fourteenth century Delhi Sultans. To my mind, a term such as ‘bandagānī’ encapsulates some of the characteristics of this period, not as a marker of a ‘slave society’ but as an adjective that captures the sensibilities of a political culture where denatalisation and deracination were extremely important in the self-identity of political groups and their interrelationships. (Kumar, forthcoming) It might be worth asking then, how these ‘deep [social and political] structures’ that characterised the thirteenth and fourteenth century Sultanate realm were manifest in the frequent episodes of construction and movement of capitals and encampments in the Delhi plain?

21.5 CONSTRUCTING CITIES: CONFLICTS AMONGST AND WITHIN DISPENSATIONS In the present section, I study the cities of Delhi in the century and a half after Balban’s death, when the Sultans of Delhi constructed their many settlements and capitals in the Delhi riverine plain. I will conclude this section with a broader survey of what such a structural analysis of Sultanate habitations might suggest for the writing of a history of the thirteenth and fourteenth century history. It is important to notice that every succession in the two centuries of authority commanded by the rulers of the Shamsī and Ghiyāsī slave lineages, the Khalajī lineages of the Jalālīs and ‘Alā’ī’s, the Barwārid interregnum, and the Tughluq lineages of the Ghiyāsīs and Fīrūzīs was either contested or quickly devolved into violence. Most frequent in this political world were conflicts amongst the political dispensations – between the old dispensation of power-holders who resisted their political marginalisation by the supporters of the new Sultan. I refer to these as ‘inter-dispensational’ conflicts. These inter-dispensational conflicts also had spatial dimensions. The first time that the capital shifted from Dihlī-i kuhna was immediately after the death of Iltutmish and the succession of his oldest son, Rukn al-Dīn, in 1236. Rukn al- Dīn was an ambitious young sovereign and before his accession had served several years as a governor in his father’s dispensation, first at Budaun and then Lahore. His household included a large military retinue and secretarial help and these personnel stayed with him when he became Sultan.(Kumar, 2007: 181-5, 256-9) Managing such a large household also provides us with a sense of the fiscal resources available to him as governor and the confidence that it might have allowed him when facing the challenges of governing Delhi. Writing in the middle of the fourteenth century ‘Is+āmī had very astutely understood Rukn al-Dīn’s intentions: ‘within three or four months, rather than following his father’s customs, he followed his own conclusions… I have heard that towards his father’s slaves, each of 111 Urbanisation in whom was a world conqueror, he adopted an angry and arrogant demeanour’. To Medieval India - 1 establish his independence, Rukn al-Dīn established a new settlement at Kilōkhrī, situated on a low hillock by the banks of the River Yamuna, a day’s march to the northeast of the old city. Sultan Rukn al-Dīn augmented his troops here and started a long-distance interference in the politics of the ‘old city’: he had siblings executed and attempted to attract junior Shamsī commanders to join the Ruknī dispensation. The Shamsī bandagān responded quickly to the challenge: in the ensuing inter-dispensational conflict, they seized and executed Rukn al-Dīn, placed a new Sultan on the throne in Dihlī-i kuhna, terminating the brief attempts of a rival dispensation to construct a new settlement. Inter-dispensational conflicts, in other words, frequently lead to the founding of a new settlement and the making of a new dispensation. But it need not. For example, after the death of Rukn al-Dīn, the succeeding two Sultans, Raz+iyya (1236-40) and Mu‘izz al-Dīn (1240-42) were appointed by the Shamsīs. Both monarchs tried to raise independent retinues, provoking fresh inter-dispensational conflicts with the Shamsīs. Neither of the monarchs won their battles nor did they construct a new settlement. They remained in Dihlī-i kuhna, for all practical purposes prisoners of the old city and its entrenched elites (Jackson, 1998: 81-97; Kumar, 2007: 261-66). In 1287, the capital did move from Dihlī-i kuhna, once again to Kilōkhrī, after the death of Ghiyās al-Dīn Balban. At that time, the Ghiyāsī retinue controlled Dihlī-i kuhna, but the young Sultan Mu‘izz al-Dīn Kayqubād was able to cobble together a sufficiently coherent following to warrant a move out of the old city. That he chose to go to Kilōkhrī, a settlement that had not declined in the years after Rukn al-Dīn’s unceremonious dethronement is interesting. In the context of celebrations held in Dihlī-i kuhna in 1258, some years before Balban’s accession, Jūzjānī described Kilōkhrī as shahr-i nau (the new town). When Sultan Kayqubād also established his capital at Kilokhri, Barani used identical terms – shahr-i nau – to describe the young monarch’s capital. The persistence of the name, however, does suggest continued habitation in the area, contradicting the sufi saint Niz+ām al-Din Auliyā’s more polemical remarks about its desolated nature. In the preparations to receive Mongol ambassadors in the ‘old city’, the ‘new city’ had functioned as one of its outlying suburbs. Investments required for its refurbishment as a capital would not be on the same scale than actually constructing a new site for the monarch. In the course of Kayqubād’s reign Kilōkhrī transformed into a bustling town. The ‘new city’ was attached but independent from the old. Kayqubād nevertheless continued to face hostility from members of the Ghiyāsī dispensation from Dihlī-i kuhna, but his youthful excesses notwithstanding, he continued to recruit military personnel of sufficient standing to protect him in his new capital for the duration of his short reign. One of these was Jalāl al-Dīn Khalajī, recruited because he was a military commander from Samana and ‘foreign’ to the court politics of Delhi. He was therefore dependent upon Kayqubād for his rise to prominence. This dependence did not last for long. Jalāl al-Dīn Khalajī established his camp near Kilōkhrī on Bhōgal Pahārī, consolidating his position and intervening in the politics of Kilōkhrī only when challenged by the other commanders of Kayqubād. When he seized power it was not so much from Kayqubād, but the monarch’s generals. By that time he was master of Kilōkhrī and established that as his base. The Sultanate capital remained in Kilōkhrī for some years and moved only in 1296 with the accession of ‘Alā’ al-Dīn the governor of Kara. He murdered Jalāl al-Dīn Khalajī, his uncle, and marched towards Delhi, which at that time had two rival settlements, Dihlī-i kuhna and Kilōkhrī. The former was still under the influence of the Ghiyāsīs and the latter housed the retinue of the murdered Jalāl al-Dīn. Of the two available choices to him, the new monarch chose Dihlī-i kuhna as his capital. This choice was not surprising. 112 Baranī had explained that the deposed monarch, Jalāl al-Dīn Khalajī had visited Dihlī- i kuhna but never felt welcome there. As the commander responsible for ending that Sultanate Capital Cities in monarch’s reign ‘Alā’ al-Dīn had reason to hope for a different response from the old The Delhi Riverine Plain city. In any case, the new monarch left little to chance. Although ‘Alā’ al-Dīn marched to Delhi with his retinue from Kara, Baranī describes the new monarch’s generous gifts to the residents of Dihlī-i kuhna, his accommodation of the remnant Ghiyāsī and Jalālī notables at the outset of his reign when his dispensation was extremely inclusive. But very quickly, first the Jalālīs and then the Ghiyāsīs were purged, and as Baranī noted with horror, monarchical favour eventually turned towards the ‘base-born’ (Jackson, 1999:171-3). This was the high noon of the ‘Alā’ī dispensation when large-scale construction activity in the city altered the face of Dihlī-i kuhna. ‘Alā’ al-Dīn had Delhi’s first congregational mosque expanded until it was double in size to the old Shamsī masjid-i jāmī‘(Kumar, 2000: 37-65). He ordered for the repair and extension of the fortifications of the old city; the dredging of the old ‘Sultan’s [Shamsī] reservoir’ (h+auz+-i Sult+ānī), the excavation of a new and larger one (h+auz+-i khās+s+). New markets and price regulations were instituted and an army cantonment – Sīrī – constructed just outside the ‘old city’ (Jackson, 1986:18-33). ‘Alā’ al-Dīn was not constructing a new capital; he was reconstructing the old.

Firuz Sha’s Tomb, Madarsa and Hauz-i Khass Source: Photo by Nvvchar https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Ferozesha_tomb_at_the_left_end_with_ Northern_limb_of_the_Madrasa.JPG And yet, despite his energetic interventions ‘Alā’ al-Dīn was unable to marginalise the elite households in the ‘old city’ or silence opposition to his authoritarian rule. It is important to note that despite his investments in Dihlī-i kuhna, Barani mentioned that ‘Alā’ al-Dīn did not like living in the ‘old city’. Tired with the resistance that he faced from its old households, he chose to live outside the city at a palace that Baranī describes as Hazār Sutūn. This was very near Sīrī, a new military cantonment (lashkargāh) and served as an alternate residence (Jackson, 1986: 18-33). Hazār Sutūn and Sīrī were critical in preserving ‘Ala’ al-Din’s authority: Hazār Sutūn gave him the distance that he desired from Dihlī-i kuhna. Sīrī became the cantonment where he garrisoned his huge standing army, a defensive outpost to counter the threat of Mongol invasions and a redoubt for monitoring politics in the ‘old city’. 113 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Remains of the Wall Source: Photos by Varun Shiv Kapur https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Siri_Fort_wall_and_Tohfe_Wala_ Gumbad_dome.jpg; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Siri_Fort_ wall_at_Panchsheel_Park.jpg It would take ‘Alā’ al-Dīn’s death in 1316, an intervening bloody civil war for Mubārak Shāh Khalajī to eventually bring the Sultanate capital to Sīrī. The decimation of many ‘Alā’ī commanders during the civil war made the establishment of power easier for Mubārak Shāh and he moved quickly to establish a reliable cohort of military slaves described as Barwārī/Parwārī. With the support of his new dispensation led by his khās+s+ slave, Khusrau Khān, the Sultan left Dihlī-i kuhna, built a new masjid-i jāmī‘, took the grandiose title of Khalīf and underlined the transformation that he had ushered by referring to his new capital as Dār al-Khilāfat, ‘the residence of the Khalīf’. The Sultanate capital would eventually shift from Sīrī after another inter-dispensational conflict, in 1320, this time between the Barwārī/Parwārīs led by Khusrau Khān and the old ‘Alā’ī commander on the northwest frontier, Ghiyās al-Dīn Tughluq. Ghiyās al- Dīn’s chroniclers note how the frontier commander’s retinue were ‘from the upper lands [iqlīm-i bālā – Khurasan and Transoxiana] not the region around Delhi [Hindūstān]’ and included pastoral elements like the Ghuzz, Turks and Mongols from Rūm and Rūs, Khokars, Afghans and some Tajiks, a motley group also known for their past animosity to the forces of Delhi. (Kumar, 2009: 45-77) Ostensibly, Ghiyās al-Dīn marched to Delhi to avenge his Khalajī masters and rescue Delhi from the Barwārī/Parwārīs. He stayed on as Sultan, residing in Sīrī out of affection for his master’s memory and honouring his ‘Alā’ī comrades with high posts. This inclusive phase ended quickly enough. By 1323, construction in his new capital of Tughluqābād had progressed sufficiently for Ghiyās al-Dīn to shift his court there. The significance of imperial construction projects was not lost on the great ‘Ala’i commanders of Sīrī who sensed their gradual marginalisation in the Ghiyāsī dispensation. While campaigning in South India they were ready to believe a rumour that the Sultan had ordered their execution. The ‘Ala’i commanders rebelled, were captured and executed. Tughluqābād was the capital of the Ghiyāsīs for just over a year. (Shokoohy, 2007) Ghiyās al-Dīn’s sudden death brought his son Muh+ammad Tughluq to the throne. Ibn Batt+ ū+ ta+ mentioned rumours that Muhammad+ Tughluq might have orchestrated his father’s death. There is little corroborative evidence, but Ibn Batt+ ū+ ta+ also mentioned that Muh+ammad Tughluq’s secret acquisition of slaves had gravely displeased Ghiyās al- Dīn. Muh+ammad Tughluq’s actions after succession certainly suggest that he was not comfortable residing in his father’s capital. He had a substantial retinue of his own in Delhi and he constructed the citadel of ‘Adilābād to house them. (Waddington, 1946: 60-76)

114 Sultanate Capital Cities in The Delhi Riverine Plain

Tughluqabad Fort Source: http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_tktd_delhi_tughlaqfort.asp ‘Adilābād was in the shadow of Tughluqābād, close enough to oversee his father’s household in Tughluqābād and sufficiently secure to withstand their challenge. Muhammad+ Tughluq’s campaigns in South India had also refurbished his treasury and Delhi witnessed some of the most ambitious constructions during his reign. Much of the construction in Tughluqābād that we see today might have been envisaged by Ghiyās al-Dīn, but had remained incomplete because of his sudden death. The massive walls that girdle the city of Tughluqābād date instead from Muh+ammad Tughluq’s reign and were probably constructed at the same time as ‘Adilābād. He also constructed defensive walls connecting Dihlī-i kuhna and Sīrī, refurbished the old residence and court of hazār sutūn built by ‘Alā’ al-Dīn which fell within it and eventually made this area his capital. He named the newly enclosed city, somewhat grandly but given his ambitions, perhaps appropriately, Jahānpanah, the sanctuary of the world. (Welch, 1983: 123-66)

Bijay Mandal, Remains of Source: Photo by Varun Shiv Kapur https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Octagonal_pavilion_and_ hypostyle_hall.jpg

115 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Begumpur Mosque, Remains of Jahanpanah Source: Photo by Varun Shiv Kapur https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Begumpuri_Masjid_East_gate.jpg

Begumpur Mosque, Remains of Jahanpanah Source: Photo by Varun Shiv Kapur https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Begumpuri_Masjid_Central_ pishtaq.jpg

Muhammad+ Tughluq was powerful and ambitious, and many of his political measures were in synchrony with the authoritarian interventions of other monarchs of his age. (Jackson, 1975:118-156) More than most Delhi monarchs, however, Muhammad+ 116 Tughluq took on the entrenched elite of Delhi’s capitals and that was at least one reason why he had a terrible press. Not only was he scorned for patronising ‘social menials’ Sultanate Capital Cities in but many of his projects were described in exaggerated bewilderment. Ibn Bammūma The Delhi Riverine Plain who visited his capital in the first decade of his reign, probably sometime after the construction of the city walls of Tughluqābād and before the completion of the Jahānpanah walls, commented in astonishment that the monarch wanted to girdle all the cities in the Delhi riverine plain. Amongst his other measures was the reputed shift of Delhi’s population to Daulatabad in the Deccan. As Jackson has meticulously explained, this was yet another exaggeration and Ibn Bammūma’s description of Sīrī and Jahānpanah during his visit contradicts these narratives. (Jackson, 1986) Muhammad+ Tughluq did evict the residents of Dihlī-i kuhna and used the city as a garrison for the huge standing army mustered for his campaigns into Qarachil and Transoxiana (Jackson, 1975:118- 157). To comprehend Muh+ammad Tughluq’s measures against the residents of the ‘old city’ we have to recall the continuing animosity of its elites against the new political groups that appeared in the Delhi plain. The old city’s elites were the descendents of the great families – the ‘debris of dispensations’ if you wish – who had suffered increasing marginalisation as the city and its politics had shifted out of its precincts. (Kumar, 2006) Their disgruntlement was evident in their continuing hostility to Rukn al-Dīn, Kayqubād, Jalāl al-Dīn, ‘Alā’ al-Dīn, and Mubārak Shāh Khalajī in the past. The disgruntlement of the old city’s residents was a huge problem for successive generations of monarchs. There were skills possessed by members of these old elite families, particularly if they were secretaries and civil administrators (more generally, the people of the pen – ahl- i qalam) and these led to their occasional appointments to high offices in the chanceries of the state and in the court. While in service, many of them, like the great historian Z+iyā’ al-Dīn Baranī, protested their loyalty to the incumbent monarch and, as in the case of the poet Amīr Khusrau, had no qualms in exchanging masters (Habib, 1974; Habib, 1981, 1999; Hardy, 1957, 1966; Mirza, 1974; Sharma, 2005). As the Sultanate matured from the middle of the thirteenth century, the remnants of these old multi-generational families of Sultanate personnel also increased. It is extremely difficult to resurrect the genealogies of old elite families from records that reported on a political system which was paradigmatically ‘one-generational’, geared to patronising deracines and which remained to the end, extremely wary of those with claims of a birthright to social influence. Their hostility provoked Muhammad+ Tughluq to evict them from the ‘old city’ and to treat it like a cantonment to house his newly mustered forces. This was similar to ‘Alā’ al-Dīn’s establishment of Sīrī to house his huge standing army. The difference lay in the great bitterness with which many of the litterateurs recorded this event (Jackson, 1986, 1999: 255-77). It was recorded most bitterly by people like ‘Isāmī, a descendent of a family of Shaikhs who had settled in Dihlī-i kuhna in the 1220s, and whose grandfather was forced to travel to Daulatabad in the Deccan. Although described in these records as an authoritarian measure of an unstable despot, Muh+ammad Tughluq was operating completely within the political traditions present in thirteenth and fourteenth century Delhi. So too was the movement of the capital from Jahānpanah to Fīrūzābād at the death of Muh+ammad Tughluq. In the disputed succession, Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq triumphed with the help of his followers. Chroniclers like Baranī and ‘Afīf underline the gentle, peaceable persona of the new monarch, a characterisation that was in harmony with his personal testimony inscribed in a long epigraph in his palace. These discursive formulations, however, appear out of character to the record of many of his actions. Fīrūz Shāh may not have had full control of the army at the time of his accession, but he refused to suffer residence in Jahānpanah for long. 117 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1

Firuzabad 1860 Source: Photo by Samuel Bourne; Courtesy British Library Open Source http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/t/019pho000000394u00045000.html https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Ashoka_Pillar_at_ Firoze_Shah_Kotla%2C_Delhi.jpg

Firuzabad, 2012 Source Photo by Vu2sga https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Ashokan_Pillar_at_Feroz_ Shah_Kotla%2C_New_Delhi.jpg

118 The chronology of his reign is uncertain but two of his actions were part of prior precedent: Sultanate Capital Cities in he constructed a new capital eponymously named Fīrūzābād and he also raised a huge The Delhi Riverine Plain retinue of military slaves who were deployed in the city and as provincial governors (Jackson, 1999: 296-311). Like Balban, he also rewarded loyalty by appointing sons to their father’s positions, most famously the two Khān Jahāns, father and son, who succeeded each other as viziers. His control over the old Sultanate provinces atrophied through his reign, but not so his sway over the riverine Delhi plain. Here he stamped his presence with an ambitious construction activity that rivalled Muhammad+ Tughluq, but won him far greater renown (Welch, 1983; 1993:311-322). He and his vizier sponsored the construction of new mosques in Jahānpanah, the restoration of Dihlī-i kuhna’s old congregational mosque and minaret, the dredging of the old reservoirs in Delhi, and the refurbishment of old mausoleums. Equally important was his marking of the suburbs with his signature hunting lodges and the construction of a huge festival ground outside Fīrūzābād together with the holy shrine of the Prophet’s footmark. By all accounts, the monarch and his dispensation had the capacity to leave a firm imprint on Delhi’s cities and its neighbourhoods. In an effort to better comprehend the impact of Fīrūz Shāh’s interventions we can usefully compare the conflicts that raged in Delhi after his death with those that had occurred at the demise of Mu‘izz al-Dīn Bahram Shāh (1242) and Mu‘izz al-Dīn Kayqubād (1290). At the death of all three of these monarchs, there was no inter- dispensational conflict; in the absence of any effective challenge from a rival dispensation, competition was instead ‘intra-dispensational’, between the members of the same cohort. Here, as we have already noticed, the followers of Mu‘izz al-Dīn Kayqubād were somewhat exceptional. Despite the bitter conflict within Kayqubād’s dispensation, there was an unequal balance of power amongst its members allowing one of them, Jalāl al- Dīn Khalajī, to very quickly gain the upper hand. Jalāl al-Din’s own Khalajī followers swept away their competitors and seized Kilōkhrī very rapidly. With the control of Kayqubād’s capital, the master’s redoubt became the home of the new Jalālī dispensation. Similarly, somewhat earlier, with the dethronement of Mu‘izz al-Dīn Bahram Shāh in 1242, there was no external threat to the Shamsī dispensation from the followers of the [puppet] descendents of Iltutmish. Instead there was a balance of power amidst the Shamsī bandagān. This meant that only a protracted ‘intra-dispensational’ conflict would eventually throw up a final victor. The intra-dispensational conflict raged in Dihlī- i kuhna between 1242 and 1266, during the reigns of ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Mas‘ūd Shāh (1242- 46) and Nās+ir al-Dīn Mahm+ ūd (1246-66) (Kumar, 2007: Chapter 5). It took a long while for Balban to dominate the Shamsī dispensation. His influence was finally evident by 1254, but even then, it was not until 1266 that he was sure that its members had exchanged their old Shamsī identity for a new Ghiyāsī one. In 1266 when he finally seized the throne, his dispensation controlled Dihlī-i kuhna. He, therefore, did not need to move his capital to assert his authority. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, in the 1380s, as Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq aged, members of the Fīrūzī dispensation looked for opportunities to extend their influence in Delhi and the Sultanate provinces. Within the Delhi region, the leading competitors asserted their authority through a control of the monarch’s sons and grandsons. Although very similar to the ‘intra-dispensational’ conflicts amongst the Shamsīs, its late-fourteenth century context meant the conflict was no longer over the control of one capital. Delhi had many settlements now, and many of them had been refurbished by Fīrūz Shāh. As a result, the intra-dispensational conflict spilt over into the other Sultanate settlements as well. Not only were the Fīrūzīs at war with each other, but Fīrūzābād, Sīrī-Jahānpanah 119 Urbanisation in and Dihlī-i kuhna constituted rival encampments for the members of the Fīrūzī Medieval India - 1 dispensation (Hambly, 1986: 45-62; 1971: 74-82). Just as the Sultanate’s provinces were parcelled amidst the Fīrūzīs, so too the city. Quite unlike the case of Balban who took over the Shamsī mantle, no Fīrūzī commander could dominate the Fīrūzī dispensation or the Delhi plain for any length of time. Timur’s invasion did not immediately alter this status quo. When the protracted intra-dispensational conflict and the Fīrūzī dispensation finally ended, it was at the hands of someone from outside the Delhi plain, Khiz+r Khān Sayyid (1414-21), a Timurid confederate. And yet, what we need to appreciate is the resilience of the Fīrūzī dispensation which was far more temporally and spatially extensive than many of its predecessors. The rise and fall of political dispensations and Sultanate settlements notwithstanding, through it all, the undercutting logic in the political patterning, its deep structures remained unchanged through the two centuries.

21.6 SUMMARY As promised, narrating the ’s Sultanate settlements almost inevitably becomes a litany of coups and internecine conflict involving a myriad of competitors. Cutting through this narrative, I tried to bring out how these wars would remain insensible to our comprehension unless we paid attention to the social and political ties that gave coherence and a sense of identity to the various participants. The presence of these identities was evident in the names of many participants – they carried eponymous identifiers such as Shamsī, Ruknī, Ghiyāsī, ‘Alā’ī, Fīrūzī. These suggested that their titles and public positions were dispensed to them by their masters. Lest it be misunderstood as a practice somewhat akin to a public declaration of feudal allegiance, it needs to be stressed that the offices and positions dispensed to these personnel were for the duration of their lives; these were not the birthright of the high elites of the realm. The children of high officers could succeed to the position of their father only through the very carefully considered patronage of their master. The sense then of Sultanate military elites constituting a ‘nobility’, a social group whose status was inherited and inviolate, and protected by law as it was in medieval Europe is certainly inapplicable for Sultanate society. As an alternative, I use the term ‘dispensations of authority’ or its contracted form ‘dispensations’ to refer to the body of personnel empowered by different Delhi Sultans, enumerated, for example, in the tazkirāt provided by Baranī in his Tā’rikh at the onset of each monarch’s reign. As an extension of the idea of dispensations of authority that each monarch tried to create at the onset of his/her reign was the resistance that this effort faced from entrenched elite(s). I referred to these episodes as ‘inter-dispensational’ and ‘intra-dispensational’ conflicts. While there is a mechanistic, structural tone to the characterisation of the wide ranging conflicts of the thirteenth and fourteenth century Sultanate, and hence an element of synchronicity, let me hasten to add that there was an increasing complexity to these military engagements over the passage of years, a complexity which should never be elided. It is here, that a spatial plotting of these inter-generation dispensational conflicts in the riverine plain of Delhi can be very useful. If we recognise that by the middle of the thirteenth century, the Ghiyāsī dispensation dominated Dihlī-i kuhna and this body of elites continued to offer resistance to the Jalālīs in Kilōkhrī and the ‘Alā’īs into the turn of the century, we can appreciate the great tenacity with which military households might have resisted marginalisation. In other words, defeat in battle, or the denial of high offices and patronage did not in itself imply the complete expulsion of these personnel from the politics of the Sultanate. Their 120 successors lingered and in recalling the khailkhānas of the maulāzādgān, the households of the ‘sons of slaves’ Baranī was recognising the influence that the ‘debris of Sultanate Capital Cities in dispensations’ could still play in the politics of the Sultanate. The Delhi Riverine Plain As we move our gaze into the mid and late fourteenth century, it is to discover that Delhi Sultans found it no longer sufficient to merely win ‘inter-dispensational’ and ‘intra- dispensational’ conflicts and establish their own capitals. The riverine plain of Delhi was suffused with these settlements and the detritus of past rivals. The new Sultan had to script his authority not just by the construction of a new capital, but through the possession of the old. We can understand then the energetic intervention of Muh+ammad Tughluq in Dihlī-i kuhna by enforcing the evacuation of its residents, and the construction activity of Fīrūz Tughluq in the old Sultanate capitals and the suburbs, the deployment of his service men as governors of these areas. ‘Inter’ and ‘intra-dispensational conflicts’ were far more complicated by the end of the fourteenth century and were already getting to be unwieldy to characterise the new modes of political organisation that were also appearing in the Delhi plain. These developments were to become increasingly manifest under the Lōdīs, the ‘regional’ Sultanates in the fifteenth century, and the Mughals. But by that time Delhi was not the sole Sultanate capital. In the seventeenth century, when the capital of a paramount political system of subcontinental proportions, did return to the riverine plain of Delhi, the structural features of the polity and its society had transformed. As a result, the seventeenth century capital was also quite different from the Qubba-i Islām of the thirteenth.

21.7 EXERCISES 1) Critically examine politics of the establishment of many Sultnate capital cities? 2) What were the factors that led to the establishment of many capital cities during the Sultanate period? 3) What was the politics of conflicts and dispensations in the establishment of the capital cities in Delhi riverine plains? 4) What were the preferences of the Delhi Sultans for the riverine plains? State which capital cities were outside the riverine belt and why?

121 Urbanisation in Medieval India - 1 Table – 1

THE CAPITALS OF THE DELHI SULTANS, circa 1206-1388 CE

(*) denotes capitals outside the riverine plain of Delhi; (>) denotes multiple capitals or transition from one capital to another; (?) denotes insufficient information to confirm capital or date of transition

REGNAL YEARS NAME OF MONARCH NAME OF CAPITAL

1206-10 Quṭb al-Dīn Ay-Beg Lahore* 1210 Ārām Shāh Lahore* Establishment of Sultanate capital in Delhi. Shamsī dominance over city. Reign ends with an Inter-dispensational conflict. 1210-36 Iltutmish Dihlī-i kuhna (“old *city of+ Delhi”) Attempt by Rukn al-Dīn to break free of the Shamsīs. Ruknī dispensation and establishment of Kīlōkhrī as base. Inter-dispensational conflict. 1236 Rukn al-Dīn Fīrūz Kīlōkhrī Capital reverts to Dihlī-i kuhnah; Continued inter-dispensational conflict; dominance of Shamsī dispensation

1236-40 Raẓiyya al-Dīn Dihlī-i kuhna 1240-42 Bahrām Shāh Dihlī-i kuhna Shamsī dominance over Iltumish’s successors. Intra-dispensational conflict and dominance of *Ulagh Khān+ Ghiyās al-Dīn Balban over rivals, especially after 1254. 1242-46 ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Mas‘ūd Shāh Dihlī-i kuhna 1246-66 Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd Dihlī-i kuhna Control of the Ghiyāsī dispensation. Reign ends with an inter-dispensational conflict. 1266-87 Ghiyās al-Dīn Balban Dihlī-i kuhna Mu‘izzī dispensation with capital at Kīlōkhrī. Persisting Ghiyāsī opposition from Dihlī-i kuhna. Gradual rise to power of Jalāl al-Dīn Khalajī and intra-dispensational conflict. 1287-90 Mu‘izz al-Dīn Kayqubād > ? Kīlōkhrī Jalālī dispensation controls Kilōkhrī. Hostility from remnant Ghiyāsīs in Dihlī-i kuhnah. Murdered during inter- dispensational conflict. 1290-96 Jalāl al-Dīn Khalajī Kīlōkhrī Gradual formation of ‘Alā’ī dispensation. Initial accommodation of Ghiyāsīs and Jalālīs and shift of capital to Dihlī-i kuhnah. Eventual deployment of ‘Alā’ī retinue with massive renovations in the old city. Establishment of Sīrī as garrison town. Inter-dispensational conflict 1296-1316 ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Khalajī Dihlī-i kuhna > Sīrī Barwarid slaves form core of new Quṭbī dispensation. Capital shifts to garrison town of Sīrī, now refurbished as Dār al-khilāfat. inter-dispensational conflict 1316-20 Quṭb al-Dīn Mubārak Sīrī Barwarid dispensation and inter-dispensational conflict amongst Barawārids and Ghiyāsīs 1320 Khusrau Khān Barwārī Sīrī Ghiyāsī dispensation. Accommodative towards ‘Alā’īs in beginning, eventually purged. Shift of capital to Tughluqabad. Inter-dispensational conflict 1320-24 Ghiyās al-Dīn Tughluq Sīrī > Tughluqābād Muḥammadī dispensation, gradual purge of Ghiyāsīs -- refurbishment of Tughluqabad, construction of ‘Ādilābād as new citadel. Gradual establishment of dispensation and shift of capital to Jahānpanāh. Inter-dispensational conflict.

1324-51 Muḥammad Tughluq ? > ‘Ādilābād ? > Jahānpanāh ? Fīrūzī dispensation. Establishment of capital at Fīrūzābād. Intra-dispensational conflict. 1351-88 Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq Jahānpanāh ? > Fīrūzābād

122 Sultanate Capital Cities in 21.8 REFERENCES The Delhi Riverine Plain Alam, Muzaffar, (2003) ‘The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan’, in Sheldon Pollock (ed.), Literary Cultures in History (Delhi: Oxford University Press), pp. 131-98. Ali, M. Athar, (1986) ‘Capital of the Sultans: Delhi during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’ in R.E. Frykenburg, (ed.) Delhi Through the Ages: Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Cunningham, Alexander, (1871) Four Reports Made During the year 1862-63-64- 65 (Simla: Archaeological Survey of India), p. 134. Digby, Simon, (1971) War Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate: A Study of Military Supplies (Karachi: Orient Monographs), pp. 74-82. Fanshawe, H.C., (1991 reprint) Delhi Past and Present (Delhi: Vintage Books). Flood, Finbarr B., (2009) Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-Muslim” Encounter (Delhi: Permanent Black). Habib, Irfan, (1999) ‘Ziyā Baranī’s Vision of the State’, Medieval History Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 19-36. Habib, Irfan, (1984) ‘Price Regulations of ‘Alā’uddīn Khaljī: A Defence of Ziā’ Baranī’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 21, pp. 393-414. Habib, Irfan, (1981) ‘Barani’s Theory of the History of the Delhi Sultanate’, Indian Historical Review, Vol. 7, pp. 99-115. Habib, Mohammad, (1974) ‘Introduction to Elliot and Dowson’s History of India, vol. II’, in K.A. Nizami, (ed.), Politics and Society in Early Medieval India, Collected Works of Professor Mohammad Habib (New Delhi: People Publishing House), Vol. 1, pp. 33-110. Haig, Wolseley, (1922) ‘Five Questions on the History of the Tughluq Dynasty of Dihli’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 3, pp. 319-72. Hambly, Gavin R.G., (1986) ‘The Twilight of Tughluqid Delhi: Conflicting Strategies in a Disintegrating Imperium’, in R.E. Frykenberg, (ed.) Delhi Through the Ages: Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press), pp. 45-62. Hardy, Peter, (1966) Historians of Medieval India: Studies in Indo-Muslim Historical Writing (London: Luzac and Company Ltd., reprint). Hardy, Peter, (1957) ‘The Oratio Recta of Barani’s Ta’rīkh-i Fīrūz Shāhī – Fact or Fiction?’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 20, pp. 315- 21. Jackson, Peter, (1999) The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 171-6, 183, 187, 296-311. Jackson, Peter, (1998) ‘Sultān Radiyya Bint Iltutmish’, in Gavin R. G. Hambly,(ed.), Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, Piety (New York: Palgrave), pp. 81-97. Jackson, Peter, (1990) ‘Jalāl al-Dīn, the Mongols and the Khwarazmian Conquest of the Panjāb and Sind’, Iran, Vol. 28, pp. 45-54. Jackson, Peter, (1990) ‘The Institution in Early Muslim India’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 2, pp. 340-58.

123 Urbanisation in Jackson, Peter, (1986) ‘The problems of a vast military encampment’, in R.E. Medieval India - 1 Frykenberg, Delhi through the Ages, (ed.) (Delhi: Oxford University Press), pp. 18- 33 and fn 73, 255-77. Jackson, Peter, (1975) ‘The Mongols and the Delhi Sultanate in the reign of Muh+ammad Tughluq’, Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 19, pp.118-157. Kumar, Sunil, (forthcoming) ‘Bandagani and Naukari: Studying transitions in Political Culture and Service under the North Indian Sultanates, 13th-16th centuries’, in Francesca Orsini, After Timur Came: Culture and Circulation in Fifteenth Century North India. Kumar, Sunil, (2009) ‘The Ignored Elites: Turks, Mongols and a Persian Secretarial Class in the early Delhi Sultanate’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, pp. 45-77. Kumar, Sunil, (2007) The Emergence of the Delhi Sultanate, 1192-1286 (Delhi: Permanent Black). Kumar, Sunil, (2006) ‘Service, Status and Military Slavery in the Delhi Sultanate of the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries’, in Richard Eaton and Indrani Chatterjee, (eds.), Slavery and South Asia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), pp. 83-114. Kumar, Sunil, (2001) ‘Qutb and Modern Memory’, in Suvir Kaul (ed.), The Partitions of Memory: The Afterlife of the Division of India (Delhi: Permanent Black), pp. 140-82, reprinted in Sunil Kumar, (2011) The Present in Delhi’s Pasts (Delhi: Three Essays Press, second edition), pp. 1-46. Kumar, Sunil, (2000) ‘Assertions of Authority: a Study of the Discursive Statements of Two Sultans of Delhi’, in Muzaffar Alam, et al., (eds.), The Making of Indo-Persian Culture: Indian and French Studies (Delhi: Manohar), pp. 37-65. Kumar, Sunil, (1994) ‘When Slaves were Nobles: The Shamsī bandagān in the Early Delhi Sultanate’, Studies in History, Vol. 10, pp. 23-52. Mirza, Wahid, (1974) Life and Works of Amir Khusrau (Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, IAD Religio-Philosophy series no. 3). Sharma, Sunil, (2005) Amir Khusrau: The Poet of Sultans and Sufis (Oxford: One World Publications). Shokoohy, Mehrdad and Natalie H. Shokoohy, (2007) A Paradigm for Indo-Islamic Urban Planning and Its Architectural Components (London: Araxus Press). Waddington, H., (1946) ‘Adilābād: a part of the “fourth” Delhi’ Ancient India, Vol. 1, pp. 60-76. Welch, Anthony, (1997) ‘The Shrine of the Holy Footprint in Delhi’, , Vol. 14, pp. 166-178. Welch, Anthony, (1996) ‘A Medieval Center of Learning in India: The Madrasa in Delhi’, Muqarnas, Vol. 13, pp. 165-190. Welch, Anthony, (1993) ‘Architectural Patronage and the Past: The Tughluq Sultans of India’, Muqarnas, Vol. 10, pp. 311-322. Welch, Anthony (1983) ‘The Tughluqs: Master-Builders of the Delhi Sultanate’, Muqarnas, Vol. 1, pp. 123-66.

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