James M. Campbell

Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
Description. MÁndu, about twenty-three miles south of DhÁr in Central India, is a wide waving hill-top, part of the great wall of the Vindhyan range. The hill-top is three to four miles from north to south and four to five miles from east to west. On the north, the east, and the west, MÁndu is islanded from the main plateau of MÁlwa by valleys and ravines that circle round to its southern face, which stands 1200 feet out of the NÍmÁr plain. The area of the hill-top is over 12,000 English acres, and, so broken is its outline, that the encircling wall is said to have a length of between thirty-seven and thirty-eight miles. Its height, 1950 feet above the sea, secures for the hill-top at all seasons the boon of fresh and cool air.

About twenty miles south of DhÁr the level cultivated plateau breaks into woody glades and uplands. Two miles further the plain is cleft by two great ravines, which from their deeper and broader southern mouths 700 to 800 feet below the DhÁr plateau, as they wind northwards, narrow and rise, till, to the north of MÁndu hill, they shallow into a woody dip or valley about 300 yards broad and 200 feet below the south crest of MÁlwa. From the south crest of the MÁlwa plateau, across the tree tops of this wild valley, stand the cliffs of the island MÁndu, their crests crowned by the great Dehli gateway and its long lofty line of flanking walls. At the foot of the sudden dip into the valley the ÂlamgÍr or World-Guarding Gate stands sentinel.1 Beyond the gateway, among wild reaches of rock and forest, a noble causeway with high domed tombs on either hand fills the lowest dip of the valley. From the south end of the causeway the road winds up to a second gateway, and beyond the second gateway between side walls climbs till at the crest of the slope it passes through the ruined but still lofty and beautiful Dehli or northern gateway, one of the earliest works of DilÁwar KhÁn (a.d.1400), the founder of MusalmÁn MÁndu.

Close inside of the Dehli gate, on the right or west, stands the handsome Hindola Palace. The name Hindola, which is probably the title of the builder, is explained by the people as the Swingcot palace, because, like the sides of the cage of a swinging cot, the walls of the hall bulge
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
Description. below and narrow towards the top. Its great baronial hall and hanging windows give the Hindola palace a special merit and interest, and an air of lordly wealth and luxury still clings to the tree-covered ruins which stretch west to large underground cisterns and hot weather retreats. About a quarter of a mile south stand the notable group of the JahÁz Mehel or Ship palace on the west, and the Tapela Mehel or Caldron palace on the south, with their rows of lofty pointed arches below deep stone caves, their heavy windowless upper stories, and their massive arched and domed roof chambers. These palaces are not more handsomely built than finely set. The massive ship-like length of the JahÁz Mehel lies between two large tree-girt ponds, and the Tapela, across a beautiful foreground of water and ruin, looks east into the mass of tangled bush and tree which once formed part of the 130 acres of the LÁl BÁgh or Royal Gardens.

The flat palace roofs command the whole 12,000 acres of MÁndu hill, north to the knolls and broken uplands beyond the great ravine-moat and south across the waving hill-top with its miles of glades and ridges, its scattered villages hamlets and tombs, and its gleaming groves of mangoes, khirnis, banyans, mhowras, and pipals. In the middle distance, out from the tree-tops, stand the lofty domes of Hoshang’s tomb and of the great JÁmÁ mosque. Further south lies the tree-girt hollow of the SÁgar TalÁv or Sea Lake, and beyond the SÁgar lake a woody plateau rises about 200 feet to the southern crest, where, clear against the sky, stand the airy cupolas of the pavilion of RÚp Mati, the beautiful wife of BÁz BahÁdur (a.d.1551–1561), the last SultÁn of MÁlwa. Finally to the west, from the end of the RÚp Mati heights, rises even higher the bare nearly isolated shoulder of Songad, the citadel or inner fort of MÁndu, the scene of the GujarÁt BahÁdur’s (a.d.1531) daring and successful surprise. This fair hill-top, beautiful from its tangled wildness and scattered ruins, is a strange contrast to MÁndu, the capital of a warlike independent dynasty. During the palmy days of the fifteenth century, of the 12,000 acres of the MÁndu hill-top, 560 were fields, 370 were gardens, 200 were wells, 780 were lakes and ponds, 100 were bazÁr roads, 1500 were dwellings, 200 were rest-houses, 260 were baths, 470 were mosques, and 334 were palaces. These allotments crowded out the wild to a narrow pittance of 1560 acres of knolls and ridges.

From the JahÁz Mehel the road winds through fields and woods, gemmed with peafowl and droll with monkeys, among scattered palaces mosques and tombs, some shapely some in heaps, about a mile south to the walled enclosure of the lofty domed tomb of the establisher of MÁndu’s greatness, Hoshang ShÁh Ghori (a.d.1405–1432). Though the badly-fitted joinings of the marble slabs of the tomb walls are a notable contrast to the finish of the later Mughal buildings, Hoshang’s tomb, in its massive simplicity and dim-lighted roughness, is a solemn and suitable resting-place for a great PathÁn warrior. Along the west of the tomb enclosure runs a handsome flat-roofed colonnade. The pillars, which near the base are four-sided, pass through an eight-sided and a sixteen-sided belt into a round upper shaft. The round shaft ends in a square under-capital, each face of which is filled by a group of leafage in outline the same as the favourite Hindu Singh-mÚkh or horned face. Over the entwined leafy horns of this moulding, stone brackets support heavy stone beams, all Hindu in pattern.2 Close to the east of Hoshang’s tomb is Hoshang’s
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
Description. JÁmÁ Masjid or Great Mosque, built of blocks of red limestone. Hoshang’s mosque is approached from the east through a massive domed gateway and across a quadrangle enclosed on the east north and south by wrecked colonnades of pointed arches. The west is filled by the great pointed arches of the mosque in fair repair. On the roof of the mosque from a thick undergrowth of domelets rise three lofty domes.3

In front of the gateway of the Great Mosque, in the centre of a masonry plinth about three feet high, stands an iron pillar about a foot in diameter at the base and twenty feet high. Close to the east of the gateway is the site of MehmÚd’s (a.d.1442) Tower of Victory, traces of which remained as late as a.d.1840. About fifty yards further east are the ruins of a great building called the Ashrafi Mehel, said to have been a MusalmÁn college. To the north-east a banner marks a temple and the local state offices. South the road passes between the two lines of small houses and huts that make modern MÁndu. Beyond the village, among ruins and huge swollen baobab stems, the road winds south along a downward slope to the richly-wooded lowland, where stretches to the west the wide coolness of the SÁgar TalÁv or Sea lake. Its broad surface covering 600 acres is green with fanlike lotus leaves, reeds, and water-grasses. Its banks are rough with brakes of tangled bush from which, in uncramped stateliness, rise lofty mhauras, mangoes, kirnis, and pÍpals. To the east round a smaller tank, whose banks are crowned by splendid mangoes and tamarinds, stand the domes of several handsome tombs. Of some
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
Description. of these domes the black masses are brightened by belts of brilliant pale and deep-blue enamel. To the north of this overflow-pool a long black wall is the back of the smaller JÁmÁ or congregation mosque, badly ruined, but of special interest, as each of its numerous pillars shows the uninjured Hindu Singh-mÚkh or horned face. By a rough piece of constructive skill the original cross corners of the end cupolas have been worked into vaulted MusalmÁn domes.4

From the Sea Lake, about a mile across the waving richly-wooded plain, bounded by the southern height of the plateau, the path leads to the sacred Rewa Kund or Narbada Pool, a small shady pond lined with rich masonry, and its west side enriched by the ruins of a handsome Bath or HammÁm KhÁnah. From the north-east corner of the Rewa Pool a broad flight of easy stairs leads thirty or forty feet up the slope on whose top stands the palace of BÁz BahÁdur (a.d.1551–1561) the last independent chief of MÁndu.5 The broad easy flight of steps ends in a lofty arched gateway through which a roomy hall or passage gives entrance into a courtyard with a central masonry cistern and an enclosing double colonnade, which on the right opens into an arched balcony overlooking the Rewa Kund and garden. Within this courtyard is a second court enclosed on three sides by an arched gallery. The roof of the colonnades, which are reached by flights of easy steps, are shaded by arched pavilions topped by cupolas brightened by belts of blue enamel.

Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
Description. To the south of BÁz BahÁdur’s Palace a winding path climbs the steep slope of the southern rim of MÁndu to the massive pillared cupolas of RÚp Mati’s palace, which, clear against the sky, are the most notable ornament of the hill-top. From a ground floor of heavy masonry walls and arched gateways stairs lead to a flat masonry terrace. At the north and south ends of the terrace stand massive heavy-eaved pavilions, whose square pillars and pointed arches support lofty deep-grooved domes. The south pavilion on the crest of the Vindhyan cliff commands a long stretch of the south face of MÁndu with its guardian wall crowning the heights and hollows of the hill-top. Twelve hundred feet below spreads the dim hazy NÍmÁr plain brightened eastwards by the gleaming coil of the Narbada. The north pavilion, through the clear fresh air of the hill-top, looks over the entire stretch of MÁndu from the high shoulder of Songad in the extreme south-west across rolling tree-brightened fields, past the domes, the tangled bush, and the broad gray of the Sea Lake, to the five-domed cluster of Hoshang’s mosque and tomb, on, across a sea of green tree tops, to the domed roof-chambers of the JahÁz and Tapela palaces, through the Dehli gateway, and, beyond the deep cleft of the northern ravine, to the bare level and the low ranges of the MÁlwa plain.

From the Rewa Pool a path, along the foot of the southern height among noble solitary mhauras and khirnis, across fields and past small clusters of huts, guides to a flight of steps which lead down to a deep shady rock-cut dell where a Muhammadan chamber with great open arched front looks out across a fountained courtyard and sloping scalloped water table to the wild western slopes of MÁndu. This is Nilkanth, where the emperor Akbar lodged in a.d.1574, and which JehÁngÍr visited in a.d.1617.6

From the top of the steps that lead to the dell the hill stretches west bare and stony to the Songad or TÁrÁpÚr gateway on the narrow neck beyond which rises the broad shoulder of Songad, the lofty south-west limit of the MÁndu hill-top.7

HISTORYThe history of MÁndu belongs to two main sections, before and after the overthrow by the emperor Akbar in a.d.1563 of the independent power of the SultÁns of MÁlwa.

The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570.Of early Hindu MÁndu, which is said to date from a.d.313, nothing is known.9 Hind spire stones are built into the Hindola palace walls; and the pillars of the lesser JÁmÁ mosque, about a hundred yards from the east end of the sea or SÁgar Lake, are Hindu apparently Jain. Of these local Hind chiefs almost nothing is known except that their fort was
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. taken and their power brought to an end by SultÁn Shams-ud-dÍn Altamsh about a.d.1234.10 DhÁr, not MÁndu, was at that time the capital. It seems doubtful whether MÁndu ever enjoyed the position of a capital till the end of the fourteenth century. In a.d.1401, in the ruin that followed TimÚr’s (a.d.1398–1400) conquest of Northern India, a PathÁn from the country of Ghor, DilÁwar KhÁn Ghori (a.d.1387–1405), at the suggestion of his son Alp KhÁn, assumed the white canopy and scarlet pavilion of royalty.11 Though DhÁr was DilÁwar’s head-quarters he sometimes stayed for months at a time at MÁndu,12 strengthening the defences and adorning the hill with buildings, as he always entertained the desire of making MÁndu his capital.13 Three available inscriptions of DilÁwar
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. KhÁn (a.d.1387–1405) seem to show that he built an assembly mosque near the Ship Palace, a mosque near the Dehli Gate, and a gate at the entrance to Songa?h, the south-west corner and citadel of MÁndu, afterwards known as the TÁrÁpÚr Gate.

In a.d.1398 Alp KhÁn, son of DilÁwar KhÁn, annoyed with his father for entertaining as his overlord at DhÁr MehmÚd Tughlak, the refugee monarch of Dehli, withdrew to MÁndu. He stayed in MÁndu for three years, laying, according to Farishtah, the foundation of the famous fortress of solid masonry which was the strongest fortification in that part of the world.14 On his father’s death in a.d.1405 Alp KhÁn took the title of SultÁn Hoshang, and moved the capital to MÁndu. The rumour that Hoshang had poisoned his father gave DilÁwar’s brother in arms, Muzaffar ShÁh of GujarÁt (a.d.1399–1411), an excuse for an expedition against Hoshang.15 Hoshang was defeated at DhÁr, made prisoner, and carried to GujarÁt, and Muzaffar’s brother Nasrat was appointed in his place. Nasrat failed to gain the goodwill either of the people or of the army of MÁlwa; and was forced to retire from DhÁr and take refuge in MÁndu. In consequence of this failure in a.d.1408, at Hoshang’s request Muzaffar set Hoshang free after a year’s confinement, and deputed his grandson Ahmed to take Hoshang to MÁlwa and establish Hoshang’s power.16 With Ahmed’s help Hoshang took DhÁr and shortly after secured the fort of MÁndu. Hoshang (a.d.1405–1431) made MÁndu his capital and spread his power on all sides except towards GujarÁt.17 Shortly after the death of Muzaffar I. and the accession of Ahmed, when (a.d.1414) Ahmed was quelling the disturbances raised by his cousins, Hoshang, instead of helping Ahmed as requested, marched towards GujarÁt and created a diversion in favour of the rebels by sending two of his nobles to attack Broach. They were soon expelled by Ahmed ShÁh. Shortly after Hoshang marched to the help of the chief of JhÁlÁvÁ?a in KÁthiÁvÁ?a,
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. and ravaged eastern and central GujarÁt.18 To punish Hoshang for these acts of ingratitude, between a.d.1418 and 1422, Ahmed twice besieged MÁndu, and though he failed to take the fort his retirement had to be purchased, and both as regards success and fair-dealing the honours of the campaign remained with Ahmed.19 In a.d.1421 Hoshang went disguised as a horse-dealer to JÁjnagar (now JÁjpur) in Cuttack in Orissa. He took with him a number of cream-coloured horses, of which he had heard the RÁja was very fond. His object was to barter these horses and other goods for the famous war elephants of JÁjnagar. An accident in the camp of the disguised merchants led to a fight, in which the RÁja was taken prisoner and Hoshang was able to secure 150 elephants to fight the GujarÁt SultÁn.20 During Hoshang’s absence at JÁjnagar Ahmed pressed the siege of MÁndu so hard that the garrison would have surrendered had Hoshang not succeeded in finding his way into the fort through the south or TÁrÁpur Gate.21 For ten years after the GujarÁt campaign, by the help of his minister Malik MughÍs of the Khilji family and of his minister’s son MehmÚd KhÁn, MÁlwa prospered and Hoshang’s power was extended. Hoshang enriched his capital with buildings, among them the Great Mosque and his own tomb, both of which he left unfinished. Hoshang’s minister Malik MughÍs (who received the title of Ulugh AÂzam HumÁyÚn KhÁn) appears to have built the assembly mosque near the SÁgar Lake in Hoshang’s life-time, a.d.1431. Another of his buildings must have been a mint, as copper coins remain bearing Hoshang’s name, and MÁndu ShÁdiÁbÁd as the place of mintage.22 In a.d.1432, at HoshangÁbÁd, on the left bank of the Narbada, about 120 miles east of MÁndu, Hoshang, who was suffering from diabetes, took greatly to heart the fall of a ruby out of his crown. He said: A few days before the death of FÍrÚz Tughlak a jewel dropped from his crown. Hoshang ordered that he should be taken to MÁndu. Before he had gone many miles the king died. His nobles carried the body to the Madrasah or college in ShÁdiÁbÁd or MÁndu, and buried him in the college on the ninth day of Zil Hajjah, the twelfth month of a.h.838 = a.d.1434. The year of Hoshang’s death is to be found in the letters

Ah ShÁh Hoshang na mund: Alas, ShÁh Hoshang stayed not.23

On Hoshang’s death his son Ghazni KhÁn, with the title of SultÁn Muhammad Ghori, succeeded. Malik MughÍs, his father’s minister, and the minister’s son MehmÚd were maintained in power. In three years
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. (a.d.1433–1436), as SultÁn Muhammad proved dissipated, cruel and suspicious, MehmÚd, the minister’s son, procured his death by poison. MehmÚd Khilji then asked his father to accept the succession, but his father declined, saying that MehmÚd was fitter to be king. In a.d.1436 MehmÚd was accordingly crowned with the royal tiara of Hoshang.24 He conferred on his father the honour of being attended by mace-bearers carrying gold and silver sticks, who, when the KhÁn mounted or went out, had, like the mace-bearers of independent monarchs, the privilege of repeating the Bismillah ‘In the name of the compassionate and merciful AllÁh.’25 He gave his father royal honours, the white canopy and the silver quiver, and to his title of Malik Ashraf KhÁn JehÁn he added among others AmÍr-ul-Umara and AÂzam HumÁyÚn.26 MehmÚd quelled a revolt among his nobles. An outbreak of plague in the GujarÁt camp relieved him from a contest with Ahmed ShÁh.27 In a.d.1439 MehmÚd repaired the palace of SultÁn Hoshang and opened the mosque built in commemoration of that monarch which Farishtah describes as a splendid edifice with 208 columns.28 About the same time MehmÚd completed Hoshang’s tomb which Hoshang had left unfinished. On the completion of this building Hoshang’s remains seem to have been moved into it from their first resting-place in the college. In a.d.1441 MehmÚd built a
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. garden with a dome and palaces29 and a mosque at NaÂlchah about three miles north of the Dehli Gate of MÁndu, a pleasing well-watered spot where the plateau of MÁlwa breaks into glades and knolls.30 In a.d.1443 in honour of his victory over RÁna KÚmbha of Chitor, MehmÚd built a beautiful column of victory,31 seven storeys high, and a college in front of the mosque of Hoshang Ghori. Facing the east entrance to the Great Mosque stands a paved ramp crowned by a confused ruin. As late as a.d.1843 this ruin is described as a square marble chamber. Each face of the chamber had three arches, the centre arch in two of the faces being a door. Above the arches the wall was of yellow stone faced with marble. Inside the chamber the square corners were cut off by arches. No roof or other trace of superstructure remained.32 This chamber seems to be the basement of the column of victory which was raised in a.d.1443 by MehmÚd I. (a.d.1432–1469) in honour of his victory over RÁna KÚmbha of Chitor.33 MehmÚd’s column has the special interest of being, if not the original, at least the cause of the building of KÚmbha RÁna’s still uninjured Victory Pillar, which was completed in a.d.1454 at a cost of £900,000 in honour of his defeat of MehmÚd.34 That the MÁndu Column of Victory was a famous work is shown by Abul Fazl’s reference to it in a.d.1590 as an eight-storeyed minaret.35 Farishtah, about twenty years later (a.d.1610), calls it a beautiful Victory Pillar seven storeys high.36 The emperor JehÁngÍr (a.d.1605–1627) gives the following account of MehmÚd’s Tower of Victory37: “This day, the 29th of the month Tir, corresponding to July-August of a.d.1617, about the close of the day, with the ladies of the palace, I went out to see the Haft Manzar or Seven Storeys, literally Seven Prospects. This building is one of the structures of the old rulers of MÁlwa, that is of SultÁn MehmÚd Khilji. It has seven storeys, and on each storey there are four porticos, and in each portico are four windows. The height of this tower is about 163 feet and its circumference 150 feet. From the surface of the ground to the top of the seventh storey there are one hundred and seventy-one steps.” Sir Thomas Herbert, the traveller, in a.d.1626 describes it from hearsay, or at least at second-hand, as a tower 170 steps high, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built, he adds, by KhÁn JehÁn, who there lies buried.38

Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. Two years later (a.d.1445) MehmÚd built at MÁndu, and endowed with the revenues of several villages a large Shifa KhÁnah or Hospital, with wards and attendants for all classes and separate apartments for maniacs. He placed in charge of it his own physician MaulÁna FazlullÁh.39 He also built a college to the east of the JÁmÁ mosque, of which traces remain.40

In a.d.1453, though defeated, MehmÚd brought back from GujarÁt the jewelled waistbelt of GujarÁt, which in a daring charge he had taken from the tent of the GujarÁt king Kutb-ud-dÍn ShÁh.41 In a.d.1441 MehmÚd’s father died at Mandisor. MehmÚd felt the loss so keenly that he tore his hair like one bereft of reason.42 After his father’s death MehmÚd made his son GhiÁs-ud-dÍn minister, and conferred the command of the army and the title of AÂzam HumÁyÚn on his kinsman TÁj KhÁn. In a.d.1469, after a reign of thirty-four years (a.d.1436–1469) of untiring energy and activity MehmÚd died. Farishtah says of him: “His tent was his home: the field of battle his resting-place. He was polite, brave, just, and learned. His Hindu and MusalmÁn subjects were happy and friendly. He guarded his lands from invaders. He made good his loss to any one who suffered from robbery in his dominions, recovering the amount from the village in whose lands the robbery had taken place, a system which worked so well that theft and robbery became almost unknown. Finally, by a systematic effort he freed the country from the dread of wild beasts.”43

In a.d.1469 MehmÚd was succeeded by his son and minister GhiÁs-ud-dÍn, to whose skill as a soldier much of MehmÚd’s success had been due. On his accession GhiÁs-ud-dÍn made his son Abdul KÁdir Prime Minister and heir-apparent, and gave him the title of NÁsir-ud-dÍn. He called his nobles, and in their presence handed his sword to NÁsir-ud-dÍn, saying: “I have passed thirty-four years in ceaseless fighting. I now devote my life to rest and enjoyment.”44 GhiÁs-ud-dÍn, who never left MÁndu during the whole thirty years of his reign (a.d.1469–1499), is said to have completed the JahÁz Mehel or Ship Palace,45 and the widespread buildings
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. which surround it. It seems probable that the Tapela Palace close to the south-east of the Ship palace and the lake and royal gardens immediately to the north and north-east of the Tapela palace were part of GhiÁs-ud-dÍn’s pleasure-houses and grounds. The scale of the ruins behind the Hindola or Swingcot palace to the north, and their connection with the out-buildings to the west of the JahÁz Mehel, suggest that they also belonged to the palaces and women’s quarters of the pleasure-loving GhiÁs-ud-dÍn.

Of the surprising size and fantastic arrangements of GhiÁs-ud-dÍn’s pleasure city, the true MÁndu ShÁdiÁbÁd or Abode of Joy, curious details have been preserved. This Abode of Pleasure was a city not a palace. It contained 15,000 inhabitants, all of them women, none either old or plain-featured, and each trained to some profession or craft. Among them were the whole officers of a court, besides courtiers, teachers, musicians, dancers, prayer-readers, embroiderers, and followers of all crafts and callings. Whenever the king heard of a beautiful girl he never rested till he obtained her. This city of women had its two regiments of guards, the Archers and the Carabineers, each 500 strong, its soldiers dressed like men in a distinguishing uniform. The archers were beautiful young TurkÍ damsels, all armed with bows and arrows: the carabineers were Abyssinian maidens, each carrying a carbine. Attached to the palace and city was a deer park, where the Lord of Leisure used to hunt with his favourites. Each dweller in the city of women received her daily dole of grain and coppers, and besides the women were many pensioners, mice, parrots and pigeons, who also received the same dole as their owners. So evenly just was GhiÁs-ud-dÍn in the matter of his allowances, that the prettiest of his favourites received the same allowance as the roughest carabineer.46

The Lord of the City of Pleasure was deeply religious. Whenever he was amusing himself two of his companions held in front of him a cloth to remind him of his shroud. A thousand HÁfizahs, that is women who knew the KurÂÁn by heart, constantly repeated its holy verses, and, under the orders of the king, whenever he changed his raiment the HÁfizahs blew on his body from head to foot with their prayer-hallowed breath.47 None of the five daily prayers passed unprayed. If at any of the hours of prayer the king was asleep he was sprinkled with water, and when water failed to arouse him, he was dragged out of bed. Even when dragged out of bed by his servants the king never uttered an improper or querulous word.

So keen was his sense of justice that when one of his courtiers pretending he had purchased her, brought to him a maiden of ideal beauty, and her relations, not knowing she had been given to the king, came to complain, though they gladly resigned her, the king grieved over his unconscious wrong. Besides paying compensation he mourned long and truly, and ordered that no more inmates should be brought to his palace.48 So great was the king’s charity that every night below his pillow he placed a bag containing some thousand gold-mohurs, and before evening all were distributed to the deserving. So religious was the king that he paid 50,000 tankas for each of the four feet of the ass of Christ. A man came bringing a fifth hoof, and one of the courtiers said: “My Lord, an ass has four feet. I never heard that it had five, unless perhaps the ass of Christ had five.” “Who knows,” the king replied, “it may be that this
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. last man has told the truth, and one of the others was wrong. See that he is paid.” So sober was the king that he would neither look upon nor hear of intoxicants or stimulants. A potion that had cost 100,000 tankas was brought to him. Among the 300 ingredients one was nutmeg. The king directed the potion to be thrown into a drain. His favourite horse fell sick. The king ordered it to have medicine, and the horse recovered. “What medicine was given the horse?” asked the king. “The medicine ordered by the physicians” replied his servants. Fearing that in this medicine there might be an intoxicant, the king commanded that the horse should be taken out of the stables and turned loose into the forest.49

The king’s spirit of peace steeped the land, which, like its ruler, after thirty years of fighting yearned for rest. For fourteen years neither inward malcontent nor foreign foe broke the quiet. In a.d.1482 Bahlol Lodi advanced from Dehli to subdue MÁlwa. The talk of MÁndu was Bahlol’s approach, but no whisper of it passed into the charmed City of Women. At last the son-minister forced his way into the king’s presence. At the news of pressing danger his soldier-spirit awoke in GhiÁs-ud-dÍn. His orders for meeting the invaders were so prompt and well-planned that the king of Dehli paid a ransom and withdrew. A second rest of fifteen years ended in the son-minister once more forcing his way into the Presence. In a.d.1500 the son presented his father, now an aged man of eighty, with a cup of sherbet and told him to drink. The king, whose armlet of bezoar stone had already twice made poison harmless, drew the stone from his arm. He thanked the Almighty for granting him, unworthy, the happiest life that had ever fallen to the lot of man. He prayed that the sin of his death might not be laid to his son’s charge, drank the poison, and died.50

GhiÁs-ud-dÍn can hardly have shut himself off so completely from state affairs as the story-tellers make out. He seems to have been the first of the MÁlwa kings who minted gold. He also introduced new titles and ornaments, which implies an interest in his coinage.51 Farishtah says that
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. GhiÁs-ud-dÍn used to come out every day for an hour from his harÍm, sit on the throne and receive the salutations of his nobles and subjects, and give orders in all weighty matters of state. He used to entrust all minor affairs to his ministers; but in all grave matters he was so anxious not to shirk his responsibility as a ruler, that he had given strict orders that all such communications should be made to him at whatever time they came through a particular female officer appointed to receive his orders.52

According to most accounts NÁsir-ud-dÍn was led to poison his father by an attempt of his younger brother ShujÁÂt KhÁn, supported if not organised by some of GhiÁs-ud-dÍn’s favourite wives to oust NÁsir-ud-dÍn from the succession.53 In the struggle NÁsir-ud-dÍn triumphed and was crowned at MÁndu in a.d.1500.54 The new king left MÁndu to put down a revolt. On his return to MÁndu he devoted himself to debauchery and to hunting down and murdering his brother’s adherents. He subjected his mother KhurshÍd RÁni to great indignities and torture to force from her information regarding his father’s concealed treasures.55 In a fit of drunkenness he fell into a reservoir. He was pulled out by four of his female slaves. He awoke with a headache, and discovering what his slaves had done put them to death with his own hand.56 Some time after in a.d.1512, he again fell into the reservoir, and there he was left till he was dead.57 NÁsir-ud-dÍn was fond of building. His palace at Akbarpur in the NÍmar plain about twenty miles south of MÁndu was splendid and greatly admired.58 And at MÁndu besides his sepulchre59 which the emperor JehÁngÍr (a.d.1617) mentions,60 an
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. inscription shows that the palace now known by the name of BÁz BahÁdur was built by NÁsir-ud-dÍn.

NÁsir-ud-dÍn was succeeded by his younger son (MehmÚd a.d.1512–1530), who, with the title of MehmÚd the Second, was crowned with great pomp at MÁndu. Seven hundred elephants in gold-embroidered velvet housings adorned the procession.61 Shortly after his accession MehmÚd II. was driven out of MÁndu by the revolt of the commandant MuhÂfiz KhÁn, but was restored by the skill and courage of MedÁni RÁi his RÁjput commander-in-chief.62 A still more dangerous combination by Muzaffar II. (a.d.1511–1526) of GujarÁt and Sikandar ShÁh Lodi (a.d.1488–1516) of Dehli, was baffled by the foresight and energy of the same RÁjput general. MehmÚd, feeling that his power had passed to the Hindus, tried to disband the RÁjputs and assassinate MedÁni RÁi. Failing in both attempts MehmÚd fled from MÁndu to GujarÁt, where he was well received by SultÁn Muzaffar (a.d.1511–1526).63 They advanced together against MÁndu, and in a.d.1519, after a close siege of several months, took the fort by assault. The RÁjput garrison, who are said to have lost 19,000 men, fought to the last, consecrating the close of their defence by a general javar or fire-sacrifice. SultÁn MehmÚd entered MÁndu close after the storming party, and while MehmÚd established his authority in MÁndu, Muzaffar withdrew to DhÁr. When order was restored MehmÚd sent this message to Muzaffar at DhÁr: “MÁndu is a splendid fort. You should come and see it.” “May MÁndu,” Muzaffar replied, “bring good fortune to SultÁn MehmÚd. He is the master of the fort. For the sake of the Lord I came to his help. On Friday I will go to the fortress, and having had the sermon read in MehmÚd’s name will return.” On Muzaffar’s arrival in MÁndu MehmÚd gave a great entertainment;64 and Muzaffar
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. retired to GujarÁt leaving a force of 3000 GujarÁtis to help to guard the hill.65 Immediately after Muzaffar’s departure, as SultÁn MehmÚd was anxious to recover Chanderi and GÁgraun, which still remained in the possession of MedÁni RÁi and his supporters, he marched against them. RÁna SÁnga of Chitor came to MedÁni’s aid and a great battle was fought.66 MehmÚd’s hastiness led him to attack when his men were weary and the RÁjputs were fresh. In spite of the greatest bravery on the part of himself and of his officers the MusalmÁn army was defeated, and MehmÚd, weakened by loss of blood, was made prisoner. RÁna SÁnga had MehmÚd’s wounds dressed, sent him to Chitor, and on his recovery released him.67

SultÁn BahÁdur of GujarÁt, a.d.1526–1534.In a.d.1526, by giving protection to his outlawed brother ChÁnd KhÁn and to RazÍ-ul-Mulk, a refugee GujarÁt noble, MehmÚd brought on himself the wrath of BahÁdur ShÁh of GujarÁt (a.d.1526–1536). The offended BahÁdur did not act hastily. He wrote to MehmÚd asking him to come to his camp and settle their quarrels. He waited on the GujarÁt frontier at Karji GhÁt, east of BÁnswara, until at last satisfied that MehmÚd did not wish for a peaceful settlement he advanced on MÁndu. Meanwhile MehmÚd had repaired the walls of MÁndu, which soon after was invested by BahÁdur. The siege was proceeding in regular course by mines and batteries, and the garrison, though overtaxed, were still loyal and in heart, when in the dim light of morning MehmÚd suddenly found the GujarÁt flag waving on the battlements. According to the Mirat-i-Sikandari68 BahÁdur annoyed by the slow progress of the siege asked his spies where was the highest ground near MÁndu. The spies said: Towards Songad-Chitor the hill is extremely high. With a few followers the SultÁn scaled Songad, and rushing down the slope burst through the wall and took the fort (May 20th, 1526).69 MehmÚd surrendered. Near Dohad, on his way to his prison at ChÁmpÁnÍr, an attempt was made to rescue MehmÚd, and to prevent their escape he and some of his sons were slain and buried on the bank of the Dohad tank.70 BahÁdur spent the rainy season (June-October 1526) in MÁndu, and MÁlwa was incorporated with GujarÁt.

The Emperor HumÁyÚn, a.d.1534–1535.MÁndu remained under GujarÁt, till in a.d.1534, after BahÁdur’s defeat by HumÁyÚn at Mandasor, BahÁdur retired to MÁndu. HumÁyÚn followed. At night 200 of HumÁyÚn’s soldiers went to the back of the fortress, according to Farishtah the south-west height of Songad71 by which BahÁdur had surprised MehmÚd’s garrison, scaled the walls by ladders and ropes, opened the gate, and let others in. Mallu KhÁn, the commandant of the batteries, a native of MÁlwa, who afterwards gained the title of KÁdir ShÁh, went to BahÁdur and wakened him. BahÁdur rushed out with four or five attendants. He was joined by about twenty more, and reaching the gate at the top of the maidÁn, apparently the TÁrÁpÚr gate by which HumÁyÚn’s men had entered, cut through 200 of HumÁyÚn’s troops and went off with Mallu KhÁn to the fort of Songad,
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. the citadel of MÁndu. While two of BahÁdur’s chiefs, Sadr KhÁn and SultÁn Álam Lodi, threw themselves into Songad, BahÁdur himself let his horses down the cliff by ropes and after a thousand difficulties made his way to ChÁmpÁnÍr.72 On the day after BahÁdur’s escape Sadr KhÁn and SultÁn Álam Lodi came out of Songad and surrendered to HumÁyÚn.73

In the following year (a.d.1535) the combined news of Sher ShÁh’s revolt in Bengal, and of the defeat of his officers at Broach and Cambay, forced HumÁyÚn to retire from GujarÁt. As he preferred its climate he withdrew, not to Agra but to MÁndu.74 From MÁndu, as fortune was against him in Bengal, HumÁyÚn went (a.d.1535–36) to Agra.

Local MusalmÁn Chiefs, a.d.1536–1542.On HumÁyÚn’s departure three chiefs attempted to establish themselves at MÁndu: BhÚpat RÁi, the ruler of BÍjÁgar, sixty miles south of MÁndu; Mallu KhÁn or KÁdir ShÁh, a former commandant of MÁndu; and MÍrÁn Muhammad FÁrÚki from BurhÁnpur.75 Of these three Mallu KhÁn was successful. In a.d.1536, when HumÁyÚn fled from Sher ShÁh to Persia, Mallu spread his power from MÁndu to Ujjain SÁrangpÚr and Rantambhor, assumed the title of KÁdir ShÁh MÁlwi, and made MÁndu his capital. Some time after Sher ShÁh, who was now supreme, wrote to Mallu KÁdir ShÁh ordering him to co-operate in expelling the Mughals. KÁdir ShÁh resenting this assumption of overlordship, addressed Sher ShÁh as an inferior. Sher ShÁh SÚr, a.d.1542–1545.When Sher ShÁh received Mallu’s order he folded it and placed it in the scabbard of his poniard to keep the indignity fresh in his mind. AllÁh willing, he said, we shall ask an explanation for this in person.76 In a.d.1542 (H. 949) as KÁdir ShÁh failed to act with Kutb KhÁn, who had been sent to establish Sher ShÁh’s overlordship in MÁlwa, Sher ShÁh advanced from GwÁlior towards MÁndu with the object of punishing KÁdir ShÁh.77 As he knew he could not stand against Sher ShÁh KÁdir ShÁh went to SÁrangpÚr to do homage. Though on arrival KÁdir ShÁh was well received, his kingdom was given to ShujÁÂt KhÁn, one of Sher ShÁh’s chief followers, and himself placed in ShujÁÂt KhÁn’s keeping.78 Suspicious of what might be in store for
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The MÁlwa SultÁns, a.d.1400–1570. him KÁdir ShÁh fled to GujarÁt. Sher ShÁh was so much annoyed at ShujÁÂt KhÁn’s remissness in not preventing KÁdir ShÁh’s escape that he transferred the command at DhÁr and MÁndu from ShujÁÂt KhÁn to HÁji KhÁn and Junaid KhÁn. Shortly after KÁdir ShÁh brought a force from GujarÁt and attacked MÁndu. ShujÁÂt came to HÁji KhÁn’s help and routed KÁdir ShÁh under the walls of MÁndu. In reward Sher ShÁh made him ruler of the whole country of MÁndu.79 ShujÁÂt KhÁn established his head-quarters at MÁndu with 10,000 horse and 7000 matchlockmen.

SalÍm ShÁh SÚr, a.d.1545–1553.During the reign of Sher ShÁh’s successor SalÍm ShÁh (a.d.1545–1553), ShujÁÂt was forced to leave MÁlwa and seek shelter in DÚngarpÚr. SelÍm pardoned ShujÁÂt, but divided MÁlwa among other nobles. ShujÁÂt remained in HindustÁn till in a.d.1553, on the accession of SalÍm’s successor, Ádili, he recovered MÁlwa, and in a.d.1554, on the decay of Ádili’s power, assumed independence.80 He died almost immediately after, and was succeeded by his eldest son Malik BÁyazÍd.81 ShujÁÂt KhÁn was a great builder. Besides his chief works at ShujÁwalpÚr near Ujjain, he left many memorials in different parts of MÁlwa.82 So far none of the remains at MÁndu are known to have been erected during the rule of ShujÁÂt KhÁn.

BÁz BahÁdur, a.d.1555–1570.On the death of his father Malik BÁyazÍd killed his brother Daulat KhÁn, and was crowned in a.d.1555 with the title of BÁz BahÁdur. He attacked the Gonds, but met with so crushing a defeat that he foreswore fighting.83 He gave himself to enjoyment and become famous as a musician,84 and for his poetic love of RÚp Mani or RÚp Mati, who according to one account was a wise and beautiful courtezan of SahÁranpur in Northern India, and according to another was the daughter of a NÍmar RÁjput, the master of the town of Dharampuri.85 In a.d.1560 PÍr Muhammad, a general of Akbar’s, afterwards ennobled as KhÁn JehÁn, defeated BÁz BahÁdur, drove him out of MÁndu, and made the hill his own head-quarters.86 In the following year (a.d.1561), by the help of the BerÁr chief, PÍr Muhammad was slain and BÁz BahÁdur reinstated. On news of this defeat (a.d.1562) Akbar sent AbdullÁh KhÁn Uzbak with almost unlimited power to reconquer the province. AbdullÁh was successful, but, as he showed signs of assuming independence, Akbar moved against him and he fled to GujarÁt.87 Akbar remained in MÁndu during the greater part of the following rains (a.d.1563), examining with interest the buildings erected by the Khilji kings.88 At MÁndu Akbar married the daughter of MÍrÁn MubÁrak KhÁn of KhÁndesh.89 When Akbar left (August 1564) he appointed Karra BahÁdur KhÁn governor of MÁndu and returned to Ágra.90 In a.d.1568 the MÍrzÁs, Akbar’s cousins, flying from GujarÁt attacked
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. Ujjain. From Ujjain they retreated to MÁndu and failing to make any impression on the fort withdrew to GujarÁt.91 The MirzÁs’ failure was due to the ability of Akbar’s general, HÁji Muhammad KhÁn, to whom Akbar granted the province of MÁndu.92 At the same time (a.d.1568) the command of MÁndu hill was entrusted to ShÁh BudÁgh KhÁn, who continued commandant of the fort till his death many years later. During his command, in a picturesque spot overlooking a well-watered ravine in the south of MÁndu, between the SÁgar Lake and the TÁrÁpur Gateway, BudÁgh KhÁn built a pleasure-house, which he named, or rather perhaps which he continued to call NÍlkanth or Blue Throat. This lodge is interesting from the following inscriptions, which show that the emperor Akbar more than once rested within its walls.93

The inscription on the small north arch of NÍlkanth, dated a.d.1574, runs:

The inscription on the great southern arch of NÍlkanth, dated a.d.1574, runs:

This pleasant building was completed in the reign of the great SultÁn, the most munificent and just KhÁkÁn, the Lord of the countries of Arabia and Persia,95 the shadow of God on the two earths, the ruler of the sea and of the land, the exalter of the standards of those who war on the side of God, Abul Fatah JalÁl-ud-dÍn Muhammad Akbar, the warrior king, may his dominion and his kingdom be everlasting.

Written by FarÍdÚn Husein, son of HÁtim-al-Wardi, in the year a.h.982.96

The inscription on the right wall of NÍlkanth, dated a.d.1591–92, runs:

In the year a.h.1000, when on his way to the conquest of the Dakhan, the slaves of the Exalted Lord of the Earth, the holder of the sky-like Throne, the shadow of AllÁh (the Emperor Akbar), passed by this place.

That time wastes your home cease, Soul, to complain, Who will not scorn a complainer so vain.

From the story of others this wisdom derive, Ere naught of thyself but stories survive.

The inscription on the left wall of NÍlkanth, dated a.d.1600, runs:

The (Lord of the mighty Presence) shadow of AllÁh, the Emperor Akbar, after the conquest of the Dakhan and
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. DÁndes (KhÁndesh) in the year a.h.1009 set out for Hind (Northern India).

May the name of the writer last for ever!

At dawn and at eve I have watched an owl sitting

On the lofty wall-top of ShirwÁn ShÁh’s Tomb.97

The owl’s plaintive hooting convey’d me this warning

“Here pomp, wealth, and greatness lie dumb.”

In a.d.1573, with the rest of MÁlwa, Akbar handed MÁndu to Muzaffar III. the dethroned ruler of GujarÁt. It seems doubtful if Muzaffar ever visited his new territory.98 On his second defeat in a.d.1562 BÁz BahÁdur retired to GondwÁna, where he remained, his power gradually waning, till in a.d.1570 he paid homage to the emperor and received the command of 2000 horse.99 His decoration of the Rewa Pool, of the palace close by, which though built by NÁsir-ud-dÍn Khilji (a.d.1500–1512) was probably repaired by BÁz BahÁdur, and of RÚp Mati’s pavilion on the crest of the southern ridge make BÁz BahÁdur one of the chief beautifiers of MÁndu. According to Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 538–39) in 1562, when BÁz BahÁdur went out to meet Akbar’s general, Adham KhÁn Atkah, he placed RÚp Mati and his other singers in SÁrangpÚr under a party of his men with orders to kill the women in case of a reverse. On hearing of BÁz BahÁdur’s defeat the soldiers hastily sabred as many of the women as they could and fled. Among the women left for dead was RÚp Mati, who, though dangerously wounded, was not killed. When Adham Atkah entered SÁrangpÚr his first care was to enquire what had become of RÚp Mati. On hearing of her condition he had her wound attended to by the best surgeons, promising her, as a help to her cure, a speedy union with her beloved. On her recovery RÚp Mati claimed the general’s promise. He prevaricated and pressed his own suit. RÚp Mati temporised. One night the impatient Turk sent her a message asking her to come to him. RÚp Mati to gain time invited him to her own pavilion which she said was specially adorned to be the abode of love. Next night the Atkah went to her house in disguise. Her women directed him to RÚp Mati’s couch. Adham found her robed and garlanded, but cold in death. RÚp Mati was buried on an island in a lake at Ujjain, and there, according to the Áin-i-Akbari, BÁz BahÁdur when he died was laid beside her.100

About a.d.1590 Akbar’s historian, the great Abul Fazl, described MÁndu as a large city whose fortress is twenty-four miles (twelve kos) in circuit. He notices that besides in the centre of the hill where stands an eight-storeyed minaret, the city had many monuments of ancient magnificence, among them the tombs of the Khilji SultÁns. And that from the dome which is over the sepulchre of SultÁn MehmÚd, the son of Hoshang (this should be the sepulchre of Hoshang built by his successor SultÁn MehmÚd) water drops in the height of summer to the astonishment of the ignorant. But, he adds, men of understanding know how to account for the water-drops.101 Abul Fazl further notices that on MÁndu Hill is found a species of tamarind whose fruit is as big as the cocoanut, the pulp of
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. which is very white. This is the African baobab or Adansonia digitata, known in HindustÁni as goramli or white tamarind, whose great fruit is about the size of a cocoanut. Its monster baobabs are still a feature of MÁndu. Some among them look old enough to have been yielding fruit 300 years ago. Finally Abul Fazl refers to MÁndu as one of twenty-eight towns where Akbar’s copper coins were struck.102 About twenty years later (a.d.1610) the historian Farishtah103 thus describes the hill. The fort of MÁndu is a work of solid masonry deemed to be one of the strongest fortifications in that part of the world. It is built on an insulated mountain thirty-eight miles in circumference.104 The place of a ditch round the fortification is supplied by a natural ravine so deep that it seems impossible to take the fort by regular approaches. Within the fort is abundance of water and forage, but the area is not large enough to grow a sufficient store of grain. The hill cannot be invested. The easiest access is from the north by the Dehli Gate. The south road with an entrance by the TÁrÁpÚr Gate is so steep that cavalry can with difficulty be led up. Like Abul Fazl Farishtah notices that, except during the rains, water constantly oozes from between the chinks in the masonry of the dome of SultÁn Hoshang’s tomb. He says the natives of India attribute this dropping to universal veneration for SultÁn Hoshang, for whose death, they say, the very stones shed tears.

Except that copper coins continued to be minted and that it was nominally one of the four capitals of the empire, during the emperor Akbar’s reign MÁndu was practically deserted. The only traces of Akbar’s presence on the hill are in two of the five inscriptions already quoted from the NÍlkanth pleasure-house, dated a.d.1591 and a.d.1600.

After about fifty years of almost complete neglect the emperor JehÁngÍr, during a few months in a.d.1617, enabled MÁndu once more to justify its title of ShÁdiÁbÁd, the Abode of Joy. Early in March a.d.1617, in the eleventh year of his reign, the emperor JehÁngÍr after spending four months in travelling the 189 miles from AjmÍr by way of Ujjain, arrived at NaÂlchah on the main land close to the north of MÁndu. The emperor notices that most of the forty-six marches into which the 189 miles were divided ended on the bank of some lake stream or great river in green grass and woody landscape, brightened by poppy fields. We came, he writes, enjoying the beauty of the country and shooting, never weary, as if we were moving from one garden to another.

Of the country round NaÂlchah JehÁngÍr says:105 What can be written worthy of the beauty and the pleasantness of NaÂlchah. The neighbourhood is full of mango trees. The whole country is one unbroken and restful evergreen. Owing to its beauty I remained there three days. I granted the place to KamÁl KhÁn, taking it from Keshava MÁrÚ, and I changed its name to KamÁlpÚr. I had frequent meetings with some of the wise men of the jogis, many of whom had assembled here. NaÂlchah is one of the best places in MÁlwa. It has an extensive growth of vines, and among its mango groves and vineyards wander streamlets of water. I arrived at a time when, contrary to the northern climes, the vines were in blossom and fruit, and so great was the vintage that the meanest boor could eat grapes to his fill. The poppy was also in flower, and its fields delighted the eye with their many-coloured beauty.

Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. Of the emperor’s entrance into MÁndu the Memoirs have the following note: On Monday the 23rd of IspandÁd, the last month of the Persian year, that is according to Sir Thomas Roe’s account on the 6th of March 1617, when one quarter of the day had passed, I mounted my elephant, and, in good fortune and under kindly influences, made my happy entry into the fort of MÁndu. About an hour (three ghadis) later I entered the quarters which had been prepared to receive me. During my passage across the hill-top I scattered Rs. 1500. Before my arrival Abdul KarÍm the engineer had been sent by me to repair the buildings of the former kings of MÁndu. While my fortunate standards were at AjmÍr Abdul KarÍm repaired such of the old MÁndu buildings as were fit to be repaired and built others anew. On the whole he had provided quarters for me, the like of which have probably never been built in any other place. Three lÁkhs of rupees were spent on these repairs and buildings. I wish it had been possible to construct buildings like these in all cities likely to be visited by royalty. This fortress, he continues, stands on the top of a hill about thirty-six miles (18 kos) in circumference. They say that before the days of RÁja BikramÁjit a king was reigning over these parts whose name was Jaisingh Deva. In his time a man went to the forest to cut grass. When he brought the grass back he found that the blade of his sickle had turned yellow. The grasscutter in his surprise went to MÁndan, an ironsmith. MÁndan knew that the sickle was gold. He had heard that in those parts was to be found the philosopher’s stone, whose touch turns iron and copper into gold. He told the grasscutter to lead him to the place where the sickle had turned yellow, and there he found the philosopher’s stone. The smith presented this treasure to his king. The king amassed untold wealth, part of which he spent in building MÁndu fortress which he completed in twelve years. At the request of the smith on most of the stones in the walls a mark was cut in the form of an anvil. Towards the close of his life, when king Jaisingh Deva withdrew his heart from the world, he called many BrÁhmans together on the bank of the Narbada close to MÁndu. He gave each BrÁhman a share of his wealth. And to the BrÁhman in whom he had the greatest faith he gave the philosopher’s stone. Enraged at the gift of a paltry stone the BrÁhman threw it into the Narbada, and there the philosopher’s stone still lies. The emperor continues: On the 20th of FarwardÍn, five weeks after my arrival (11th April 1617) in reward for his services in repairing the buildings of MÁndu, I conferred on my engineer Abdul KarÍm the command of 1200 horse, with the title of MaÁmÚr KhÁn.

MÁndu had for the emperor the strong attraction of abundance of game. Among numerous entries of nÍlgÁi or blue-bull shooting the following occur: On the 4th of the first month of FarwardÍn (16th) March the watchmen of the chase brought word that they had marked down a lion near the SÁgar Lake, which is a construction of the ancient rulers of MÁndu. I mounted and proceeded towards the lake. When the lion broke cover he attacked and wounded ten or twelve of the AhÁdÍs106 and other men of my retinue. In the end I brought him down with three gun shots and saved God’s creatures from his evil. On the 22nd of the same month (April 3rd, 1617) the watchmen brought news of a tiger. I mounted forthwith and despatched him with three bullets. On the 7th of ArdÍ Bihisht (April 18th, 1617) the watchmen brought word that they had marked down four tigers. At one in the afternoon I started for the
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. place with NÚr JehÁn Begam. NÚr JehÁn asked my leave to shoot the tigers with her gun. I said “Be it so.” In a trice she killed these four tigers with six bullets. I had never seen such shooting. To shoot from the back of an elephant from within a closed howdah and bring down with six bullets four wild beasts without giving them an opportunity of moving or springing is wonderful. In acknowledgment of this capital marksmanship I ordered a thousand ashrafis (Rs. 4500) to be scattered107 over NÚr JehÁn and granted her a pair of ruby wristlets worth a lÁkh of rupees.108

Of the mangoes of MÁndu JehÁngÍr says: In these days many mangoes have come into my fruit stores from the Dakhan, BurhÁnpur, GujarÁt, and the districts of MÁlwa. This country is famous for its mangoes. There are few places the mangoes of which can rival those of this country in richness of flavour, in sweetness, in freedom from fibre, and in size.109

The rains set in with unusual severity. Rain fell for forty days continuously. With the rain were severe thunderstorms accompanied by lightning which injured some of the old buildings.110 His account of the beauty of the hill in July, when clear sunshine followed the forty days of rain, is one of the pleasantest passages in JehÁngÍr’s Memoirs: What words of mine can describe the beauty of the grass and of the wild flowers! They clothe each hill and dale, each slope and plain. I know of no place so pleasant in climate and so pretty in scenery as MÁndu in the rainy season. This month of July which is one of the months of the hot season, the sun being in Leo, one cannot sleep within the house without a coverlet, and during the day there is no need for a fan. What I have noticed is but a small part of the many beauties of MÁndu. Two things I have seen here which I had seen nowhere in India. One of them is the tree of the wild plantain which grows all over the hill top, the other is the nest of the mamolah or wagtail. Till now no bird-catcher could tell its nest. It so happened that in the building where I lodged we found a wagtail’s nest with two young ones.

The following additional entries in the Memoirs belong to JehÁngÍr’s stay at MÁndu. Among the presents submitted by MahÁbat KhÁn, who received the honour of kissing the ground at MÁndu, JehÁngÍr describes a ruby weighing eleven miskÁls.111 He says: This ruby was brought to AjmÍr last year by a Frankish jeweller who wanted two lÁkhs of rupees for it. MahÁbat KhÁn bought it at BurhÁnpur for one lÁkh of rupees.112

On the 1st of TÍr, the fourth month of the Persian year (15th May 1617), the Hindu chiefs of the neighbourhood came to pay their
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. respects and present their tribute. The Hindu chief of JÍtpÚr in the neighbourhood of MÁndu, through his evil fortune, did not come to kiss the threshold.113 For this reason I ordered FidÁÍkhÁn to pillage the JÍtpÚr country at the head of thirteen officers and four or five hundred matchlockmen. On the approach of FidÁÍkhÁn the chief fled. He is now reported to regret his past conduct and to intend to come to Court and make his submission. On the 9th of YÚr, the sixth month of the Persian calendar (late July, a.d.1617), I heard that while raiding the lands of the chief of JÍtpÚr, RÚh-ul-lÁh, the brother of FidÁÍkhÁn, was slain with a lance in the village where the chief’s wives and children were in hiding. The village was burned, and the women and daughters of the rebel chief were taken captives.114

The beautiful surroundings of the SÁgar lake offered to the elegant taste of NÚr JehÁn a fitting opportunity for honouring the Shab-i-BarÁt or Night of Jubilee with special illuminations. The emperor describes the result in these words: On the evening of Thursday the 19th of AmardÁd, the fifth month of the Persian year (early July, a.d.1617), I went with the ladies of the palace to see the buildings and palaces on the SÁgar lake which were built by the old kings of MÁndu. The 26th of AmardÁd (about mid-July) was the Shab-i-BarÁt holiday. I ordered a jubilee or assembly of joy to be held on the occasion in one of the palaces occupied by NÚr JehÁn Begam in the midst of the big lake. The nobles and others were invited to attend this party which was organized by the Begam, and I ordered the cup and other intoxicants with various fruits and minced meats to be given to all who wished them. It was a wonderful gathering. As evening set in the lanterns and lamps gleaming along the banks of the lake made an illumination such as never had been seen. The countless lights with which the palaces and buildings were ablaze shining on the lake made the whole surface of the water appear to be on fire.115

The Memoirs continue: On Sunday the 9th of YÚr, the sixth Persian month (late July), I went with the ladies of the palace to the quarters of Ásaf KhÁn, NÚr JehÁn’s brother, the second son of Mirza GhiÁs Beg. I found Ásaf KhÁn lodged in a glen of great beauty surrounded by other little vales and dells with waterfalls and running streamlets and green and shady mango groves. In one of these dells were from two to three hundred sweet pandanus or kewda trees. I passed a very happy day in this spot and got up a wine party with some of my lords-in-waiting, giving them bumpers of wine.116 Two months later (early September) JehÁngÍr has the following entry117 regarding a visit from his eldest son and heir prince Khurram, afterwards the emperor Shah JehÁn, who had lately brought the war in the Dakhan to a successful close. On the 8th of the month of MÁh (H. 1026: according to Roe September 2nd, 1617), my son of exalted name obtained the good fortune of waiting upon me in the fort of MÁndu after three-quarters and one ghadi of the day had passed, that is about half an hour after sunrise. He had been absent fifteen months and eleven days. After he had performed the ceremonies of kissing the ground and the kurnish or prostration, I called him up to my bay window or jharokah. In a transport of affection I could not restrain myself from getting up and taking him into my arms. The more
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. I increased the measure of affection and honours the more humility and respect did he show. I called him near me and made him sit by me. He submitted a thousand ashrafis (= Rs. 4500) and a thousand rupees as a gift or nazar and the same amount as sacrifice or nisÁr. As there was not time for me to inspect all his presents he produced the elephant SarnÁk, the best of the elephants of Ádil KhÁn of BijÁpur. He also gave me a case full of the rarest precious stones. I ordered the military paymasters to make presents to his nobles according to their rank. The first to come was KhÁn JehÁn, whom I allowed the honour of kissing my feet. For his victory over the RÁna of Chitor I had before granted to my fortunate child Kurram the rank of a commander of 20,000 with 10,000 horse. Now for his service in the Dakhan I made him a commander of 30,000 and 20,000 horse with the title of ShÁh JehÁn. I also ordered that henceforward he should enjoy the privilege of sitting on a stool near my throne, an honour which did not exist and is the first of its kind granted to anyone in my family. I further granted him a special dress. To do him honour I came down from the window and with my own hand scattered over his head as sacrifice a trayfull of precious stones as well as a large trayfull of gold.

JehÁngÍr’s last MÁndu entry is this: On the night of Friday in the month of AbÁn (October 24th, 1617) in all happiness and good fortune I marched from MÁndu and halted on the bank of the lake at NaÂlchah.

JehÁngÍr’s stay at MÁndu is referred to by more than one English traveller. In March 1617, the Rev. Edward Terry, chaplain to the Right Honourable Sir T. Roe Lord Ambassador to the Great Mughal, came to MÁndu from BurhÁnpur in east KhÁndesh.118 Terry crossed a broad river, the Narbada, at a great town called Anchabarpur (Akbarpur)119 in the NÍmÁr plain not far south of MÁndu hill. The way up, probably by the Bhairav pass a few miles east of MÁndu, seemed to Terry exceeding long. The ascent was very difficult, taking the carriages, apparently meaning coaches and wagons, two whole days.120 Terry found the hill of MÁndu stuck round with fair trees that kept their distance so, one from and below the other, that there was much delight in beholding them from either the bottom or the top of the hill. From one side only was the ascent not very high and steep. The top was flat plain and spacious with vast and
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. far-stretching woods in which were lions tigers and other beasts of prey and many wild elephants. Terry passed through MÁndu a few days’ march across a plain and level country, apparently towards DhÁr, where he met the Lord Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, who had summoned Terry from Surat to be his chaplain. Sir Thomas Roe was then marching from AjmÍr to MÁndu with the Court of the emperor JehÁngÍr, whom Terry calls the Great King.

On the 3rd of March, says Roe, the Mughal was to have entered MÁndu. But all had to wait for the good hour fixed by the astrologers. From the 6th of March, when he entered MÁndu, till the 24th of October, the emperor JehÁngÍr, with Sir Thomas Roe in attendance, remained at MÁndu.121 According to Roe before the Mughal visited MÁndu the hill was not much inhabited, having more ruins by far than standing houses.122 But the moving city that accompanied the emperor soon overflowed the hill-top. According to Roe JehÁngÍr’s own encampment was walled round half a mile in circuit in the form of a fortress, with high screens or curtains of coarse stuff, somewhat like Aras hangings, red on the outside, the inside divided into compartments with a variety of figures. This enclosure had a handsome gateway and the circuit was formed into various coins and bulwarks. The posts that supported the curtains were all surmounted with brass tops.123 Besides the emperor’s encampment were the noblemen’s quarters, each at an appointed distance from the king’s tents, very handsome, some having their tents green, others white, others of mixed colours. The whole composed the most curious and magnificent sight Roe had ever beheld.124 The hour taken by JehÁngÍr in passing from the Dehli Gate to his own quarters, the two English miles from Roe’s lodge which was not far from the Dehli Gate to JehÁngÍr’s palace, and other reasons noted below make it almost certain that the Mughal’s encampment and the camps of the leading nobles were on the open slopes to the south of the Sea Lake between BÁz BahÁdur’s palace on the east and Songad on the west. And that the palace at MÁndu from which JehÁngÍr wrote was the building now known as BÁz BahÁdur’s palace.125 A few months before it reached MÁndu the imperial camp had turned the whole valley of AjmÍr into a magnificent city,126 and a few weeks before reaching MÁndu at Thoda, about fifty miles south-east of AjmÍr, the camp formed a settlement not less in circuit than twenty English miles, equalling in size almost any town in Europe.127 In the middle of the encampment were all sorts of shops so regularly disposed that all persons knew where to go for everything.

The demands of so great a city overtaxed the powers of the deserted MÁndu. The scarcity of water soon became so pressing that the poor were commanded to leave and all horses and cattle were ordered off the hill.128 Of the scarcity of water the English traveller Corryat, who was then a guest of Sir Thomas Roe, writes: On the first day one of my Lord’s people, Master Herbert, brother to Sir Edward Herbert, found a fountain which, if he had not done, he would have had to send ten course
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. (kos) every day for water to a river called Narbada that falleth into the Bay of Cambye near Broach. The custom being such that whatsoever fountain or tank is found by any great man in time of drought he shall keep it proper to his without interruption. The day after one of the king’s Hadis (AhÁdis) finding the same and striving for it was taken by my Lord’s people and bound.129 Corryat adds: During the time of the great drought two Moor nobles daily sent ten camels to the Narbada and distributed the water to the poor, which was so dear they sold a little skin for 8 pies (one penny).130

Terry notices that among the piles of buildings that held their heads above ruin were not a few unfrequented mosques or Muhammadan churches. Though the people who attended the king were marvellously straitened for room to put their most excellent horses, none would use the churches as stables, even though they were forsaken and out of use. This abstinence seems to have been voluntary, as Roe’s servants, who were sent in advance, took possession of a fair court with walled enclosure in which was a goodly temple and a tomb. It was the best in the whole circuit of MÁndu, the only drawback being that it was two miles from the king’s house.131 The air was wholesome and the prospect was pleasant, as it was on the edge of the hill.132 The emperor, perhaps referring rather to the south of the hill, which from the elaborate building and repairs carried out in advance by Abdul KarÍm seems to have been called the New City, gives a less deserted impression of MÁndu. He writes (24th March 1617): Many buildings and relics of the old kings are still standing, for as yet decay has not fallen upon the city. On the 24th I rode to see the royal edifices. First I visited the JÁmÁ Masjid built by SultÁn Hoshang Ghori. It is a very lofty building and erected entirely of hewn stone. Although it has been standing 180 years it looks as if built to-day. Then I visited the sepulchres of the kings and rulers of the Khilji dynasty, among which is the sepulchre of the eternally cursed NÁsir-ud-dÍn.133 Sher ShÁh to show his horror of NÁsir-ud-dÍn, the father-slayer, ordered his people to beat NÁsir-ud-dÍn’s tomb with sticks. JehÁngir also kicked the grave. Then he ordered the tomb to be opened and the remains to be taken out and burnt. Finally, fearing the remains might pollute the eternal light, he ordered the ashes to be thrown into the Narbada.134

The pleasant outlying position of Roe’s lodge proved to be open to the objection that out of the vast wilderness wild beasts often came, seldom returning without a sheep, a goat, or a kid. One evening a great lion leapt over the stone wall that encompassed the yard and snapped up the Lord Ambassador’s little white neat shock, that is as Roe explains a small Irish mastiff, which ran out barking at the lion. Out of the ruins of the mosque and tomb Roe built a lodge,135 and here he passed the rains with his “family,” including besides his secretary, chaplain, and cook twenty-three Englishmen and about sixty native servants, and during part of the time the sturdy half-crazed traveller Tom Coryate or Corryat.136 They had
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. their flock of sheep and goats, all necessaries belonging to the kitchen and everything else required for bodily use including bedding and all things pertaining thereto.137 Among the necessaries were tables138 and chairs, since the Ambassador refused to adopt the Mughal practice of sitting cross-legged on mats “like taylors on their shopboards.” Roe’s diet was dressed by an English and an Indian cook and was served on plate by waiters in red taffata cloaks guarded with green taffata. The chaplain wore a long black cassock, and the Lord Ambassador wore English habits made as light and cool as possible.139

On the 12th of March, a few days after they were settled at MÁndu, came the festival of the Persian New Year. JehÁngÍr held a great reception seated on a throne of gold bespangled with rubies emeralds and turquoises. The hall was adorned with pictures of the King and Queen of England, the Princess Elizabeth, Sir Thomas Smith and others, with beautiful Persian hangings. On one side, on a little stage, was a couple of women singers. The king commanded that Sir T. Roe should come up and stand beside him on the steps of the throne where stood on one side the Persian Ambassador and on the other the old king of KandahÁr with whom Sir T. Roe ranked. The king called the Persian Ambassador and gave him some stones and a young elephant. The Ambassador knelt and knocked his head against the steps of the throne to thank him.140 From time to time during Terry’s stay at MÁndu, the Mughal, with his stout daring Persian and Tartarian horsemen and some grandees, went out to take young wild elephants in the great woods that environed MÁndu. The elephants were caught in strong toils prepared for the purpose and were manned and made fit for service. In these hunts the king and his men also pursued lions and other wild beasts on horseback, killing some of them with their bows carbines and lances.141

The first of September was JehÁngÍr’s birthday. The king, says Corryat,142 was forty-five years old, of middle height, corpulent, of a seemly composition of body, and of an olive coloured skin. Roe went to pay his respects and was conducted apparently to BÁz BahÁdur’s Gardens to the east of the Rewa Pool. This tangled orchard was then a beautiful garden with a great square pond or tank set all round with trees and flowers and in the middle of the garden a pavilion or pleasure-house under which hung the scales in which the king was to be weighed.143 The scales were of beaten gold set with many small stones as rubies and turquoises. They were hung by chains of gold, large and massive, but strengthened by silken ropes. The beam and tressels from which the scales hung were covered with thin plates of gold. All round were the nobles of the court seated on rich carpets waiting for the king. He came laden with diamonds rubies pearls and other precious vanities, making a great and glorious show. His swords targets and throne were corresponding in riches and splendour. His head neck breast and arms above the elbows and at the wrist were decked with chains of precious stones, and every finger had two or three rich rings. His legs were as it were fettered with chains of diamonds and rubies as large as walnuts and amazing pearls. He got into the scales crouching or sitting on his legs like a woman. To counterpoise his weight bags said to contain Rs. 9000 in
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. silver were changed six times. After this he was weighed against bags containing gold jewels and precious stones. Then against cloth of gold, silk stuffs, cotton goods, spices, and all commodities. Last of all against meal, butter, and corn. Except the silver, which was reserved for the poor, all was said to be distributed to Baniahs (that is BrÁhmans).144 After he was weighed JehÁngÍr ascended the throne and had basons of nuts almonds and spices of all sorts given him. These the king threw about, and his great men scrambled prostrate on their bellies. Roe thought it not decent that he should scramble. And the king seeing that he stood aloof reached him a bason almost full and poured the contents into his cloak.145 Terry adds: The physicians noted the king’s weight and spoke flatteringly of it. Then the Mughal drank to his nobles in his royal wine and the nobles pledged his health, The king drank also to the Lord Ambassador, whom he always treated with special consideration, and presented him with the cup of gold curiously enamelled and crusted with rubies turkesses and emeralds.146

Of prince Khurram’s visit Roe writes: A month later (October 2nd) the proud prince Khurram, afterwards the emperor ShÁh JehÁn (a.d.1626–1657), returned from his glorious success in the Dakhan, accompanied by all the great men, in wondrous triumph.147 A week later (October 9th), hearing that the emperor was to pass near his lodging on his way to take the air at the Narbada, in accordance with the rule that the masters of all houses near which the king passes must make him a present, Roe took horse to meet the king. He offered the king an Atlas neatly bound, saying he presented the king with the whole world. The king was pleased. In return he praised Roe’s lodge, which he had built out of the ruins of the temple and the ancient tomb, and which was one of the best lodges in the camp.148 JehÁngÍr left MÁndu on the 24th October. On the 30th when Roe started the hill was entirely deserted.149

Terry mentions only two buildings at MÁndu. One was the house of the Mughal, apparently BÁz BahÁdur’s palace, which he describes as large and stately, built of excellent stone, well squared and put together, taking up a large compass of ground. He adds: We could never see how it was contrived within, as the king’s wives and women were there.150 The only other building to which Terry refers, he calls “The Grot.” Of the grot, which is almost certainly the pleasure-house NÍlkanth, whose Persian inscriptions have been quoted above, Terry gives the following details: To the Mughal’s house, at a small distance from it, belonged a very curious grot. In the building of the grot a way was made into a
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. firm rock which showed itself on the side of the hill canopied over with part of that rock. It was a place that had much beauty in it by reason of the curious workmanship bestowed on it and much pleasure by reason of its coolness.151 Besides the fountain this grot has still one of the charmingly cool and murmuring scallopped rillstones where, as Terry says, water runs down a broad stone table with many hollows like to scallop shells, in its passage over the hollows making so pretty a murmur as helps to tie the senses with the bonds of sleep.

ShÁh JehÁn seems to have been pleased with MÁndu. He returned in a.d.1621 and stayed at MÁndu till he marched north against his father in a.d.1622.152 In March a.d.1623, ShÁh JehÁn came out of MÁndu with 20,000 horse, many elephants, and powerful artillery, intending to fight his brother ShÁh ParwÍz.153 After the failure of this expedition ShÁh JehÁn retired to MÁndu.154 At this time (a.d.1623) the Italian traveller Dela Valle ranks MÁndu with Agra LÁhor and AhmedÁbÁd, as the four capitals, each endowed with an imperial palace and court.155 Five years later the great general KhÁn JehÁn Lodi besieged MÁndu, but apparently without success.156 KhÁn JehÁn Lodi’s siege of MÁndu is interesting in connection with a description of MÁndu in Herbert’s Travels. Herbert, who was in GujarÁt in a.d.1626, says MÁndu is seated at the side of a declining hill (apparently Herbert refers to the slope from the southern crest northwards to SÁgar Lake and the Grot or NÍlkanth) in which both for ornament and defence is a castle which is strong in being encompassed with a defensive wall of nearly five miles (probably kos that is ten miles): the whole, he adds, heretofore had fifteen miles circuit. But the city later built is of less time yet fresher beauty, whether you behold the temples (in one of which are entombed four kings), palaces or fortresses, especially that tower which is elevated 170 steps, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built by KhÁn JehÁn, who there lies buried. The confusedness of these details shows that Herbert obtained them second-hand, probably from Corryat’s Master Herbert on Sir T. Roe’s staff.157 The new city of fresher
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
The Mughals, a.d.1570–1720. beauty is probably a reference to the buildings raised and repaired by Abdul KarÍm against JehÁngÍr’s coming, among which the chief seems to have been the palace now known by the name of BÁz BahÁdur. The tower of 170 steps is MehmÚd Khilji’s Tower of Victory, erected in a.d.1443, the KhÁn JehÁn being MehmÚd’s father, the great minister KhÁn JehÁn AÂzam HumÁyÚn.

The MarÁthÁs, a.d.1720–1820.In a.d.1658 a RÁja ShÍvrÁj was commandant of MÁndu.158 No reference has been traced to any imperial visit to MÁndu during AurangzÍb’s reign. But that great monarch has left an example of his watchful care in the rebuilding of the ÂlamgÍr or AurangzÍb Gate, which guards the approach to the stone-crossing of the great northern ravine and bears an inscription of a.d.1668, the eleventh year of ÂlamgÍr’s reign. In spite of this additional safeguard thirty years later (a.d.1696) MÁndu was taken and the standard of UdÁji PavÁr was planted on the battlement.159 The MarÁthÁs soon withdrew and MÁlwa again passed under an imperial governor. In a.d.1708 the ShÍa-loving emperor BahÁdur ShÁh I. (a.d.1707–1712) visited MÁndu, and there received from AhmedÁbÁd a copy of the KurÂÁn written by ImÁm Âli Taki, son of ImÁm MÚsa Raza (a.d.810–829), seventh in descent from Âli, the famous son-in-law of the Prophet, the first of MusalmÁn mystics. In a.d.1717 Ásaph JÁh NizÁm-ul-Mulk was appointed governor of MÁlwa and continued to manage the province by deputy till a.d.1721. In a.d.1722 RÁja Girdhar BahÁdur, a NÁgar BrÁhman, was made governor and remained in charge till in a.d.1724 he was attacked and defeated by ChimnÁji Pandit and UdÁji PavÁr.160 RÁja Girdhar was succeeded by his relation Dia BahÁdur, whose successful government ended in a.d.1732, when through the secret help of the local chiefs MalhÁrrÁo Holkar led an army up the Bhairav pass, a few miles east of MÁndu, and at Tirellah, between Amjera and DhÁr, defeated and slew Dia BahÁdur. As neither the next governor Muhammad KhÁn Bangash nor his successor RÁja Jai Singh of JaipÚr were able to oust the MarÁthÁs, their success was admitted in a.d.1734 by the appointment of Peshwa BÁjirÁo (a.d.1720–1740) to be governor of MÁlwa. On his appointment (a.d.1734) the Peshwa chose Anand RÁo PavÁr as his deputy. Anand RÁo shortly after settled at DhÁr, and since a.d.1734 MÁndu has continued part of the territory of the PavÁrs of Dhar.161 In a.d.1805 MÁndu sheltered the heroic MÍna BÁi during the birth-time of her son RÁmchundra RÁo PavÁr, whose state was saved from the clutches of
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
Notices, a.d.1820–1895. Holkar and Sindhia by the establishment of British overlordship in a.d.1817.162

Notices, a.d.1820–1895.In a.d.1820 Sir John Malcolm163 describes the hill-top as a place of religious resort occupied by some mendicants. The holy places on the hill are the shrine of Hoshang Ghori, whose guardian spirit still scares barrenness and other disease fiends164 and the Rewa or Narbada Pool, whose holy water, according to common belief, prevents the dreaded return of the spirit of the Hindu whose ashes are strewn on its surface, or, in the refined phrase of the BrÁhman, enables the dead to lose self in the ocean of being.165 In a.d.1820 the JÁmÁ Mosque, Hoshang’s tomb, and the palaces of BÁz BahÁdur were still fine remains, though surrounded with jungle and fast crumbling to pieces.166 In a.d.1827 Colonel Briggs says167: Perhaps no part of India so abounds with tigers as the neighbourhood of the once famous city of MÁndu. The capital now deserted by man is overgrown by forest and from being the seat of luxury, elegance, and wealth, it has become the abode of wild beasts and is resorted to by the few Europeans in that quarter for the pleasure of destroying them. Instances have been known of tigers being so bold as to carry off troopers riding in the ranks of their regiments. Twelve years later (a.d.1839) Mr. Fergusson168 found the hill a vast uninhabited jungle, the rank vegetation tearing the buildings of the city to pieces and obscuring them so that they could hardly be seen.169 Between a.d.1842 and 1852 tigers are described as prowling among the regal rooms, the half-savage marauding BhÍl as eating his meal and feeding his cattle in the cloisters of its sanctuaries and the insidious pÍpal as levelling to the earth the magnificent remains.170 So favourite a tiger retreat was the JahÁz Palace that it was dangerous to venture into it unarmed. Close to the very huts of the poor central village, near the JÁmÁ Mosque, cattle were frequently seized by tigers. In the south tigers came nightly to drink at the SÁgar lake. Huge bonfires had to be burnt to prevent them attacking the houses.171 In a.d.1883 Captain Eastwick wrote: At MÁndu the traveller will require some armed men, as tigers are very numerous and dangerous. He will do well not to have any dogs with him, as the panthers will take them even from under his bed.172 If this was true of MÁndu in a.d.1883—and is not as seems likely the repetition of an old-world tale—the last ten years have wrought notable changes. Through the interest His Highness Sir Anand RÁo PavÁr, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., the present MahÁrÁja of DhÁr takes in the old capital of his state, travelling in MÁndu is now as safe and easier than in many, perhaps than in most, outlying districts. A phÆton can drive across the northern ravine-moat through the three gateways and along the hill-top, at least as far south as the Sea Lake. Large stretches of the level are cleared and tilled, and herds of cattle graze free from the dread of wild beasts. The leading buildings have been saved from their ruinous tree-growth, the underwood has been cleared, the marauding BhÍl has settled to tillage, the tiger, even the panther, is nearly
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of MÁndu.
History
Notices, a.d.1820–1895. as rare as the wild elephant, and finally its old wholesomeness has returned to the air of the hill-top.

This sketch notices only the main events and the main buildings. Even about the main buildings much is still doubtful. Many inscriptions, some in the puzzling interlaced Tughra character, have still to be read. They may bring to light traces of the MÁndu kings and of the Mughal emperors, whose connection with MÁndu, so far as the buildings are concerned, is still a blank. The ruins are so many and so widespread that weeks are wanted to ensure their complete examination. It may be hoped that at no distant date Major Delasseau, the Political Agent of DhÁr, whose opportunities are not more special than his knowledge, may be able to prepare a complete description of the hill and of its many ruins and writings.

1 The following Persian verses are carved on the ÂlamgÍr gateway:

?

2 Mr. Fergusson (Indian Architecture, page 543) says: “The pillars appear to have been taken from a Jain building.” But the refinement on the square capital of each pillar of the Hindu Singh-mÚkh or horned face into a group of leaves of the same outline shows that the pillars were specially carved for use in a Muslim building. The porch on the north side of the tomb enclosure is described (Ditto, page 543) as composed of pillars avowedly re-erected from a Jain building. This note of Mr. Fergusson’s must have gone astray, as the north porch of Hoshang’s tomb enclosure is in the plain massive pointed arch and square-shafted style of the tomb and of the great mosque. Mr. Fergusson’s note apparently belongs to the second and smaller JÁmÁ Masjid, about a hundred yards east of the Sea or SagÁr lake, the pillars of whose colonnade and porch are still enlivened by rows of the lucky face of the Hindu old horny.?

3 Hoshang’s great mosque has the following much damaged Persian inscription:

?

4 This JÁmÁ Mosque has the following Persian inscription dated H. 835 (a.d.1431):

?

5 The following Persian inscription carved on the entrance arch shows that though it may have been repaired by BÁz BahÁdur, the building of the palace was fifty years earlier (H. 914, a.d.1508):

“In the time of the SultÁn of Nations, the most just and great, and the most knowing and munificent KhÁkÁn NÁsir ShÁh Khilji (a.d.1500–1512). Written by YÚsuf, the year (H. 914) (a.d.1508).”?

6 Translations of its two much-admired Persian inscriptions are given below pages 370–371.?

7 On the TÁrÁpÚr gateway a Persian inscription of the reign of the emperor Akbar (a.d.1556–1605) states that the royal road that passed through this gateway was repaired by TÁhir Muhammad Hasan ImÁd-ud-dÍn.?

8 The Persian references and extracts in this section are contributed by KhÁn SÁheb Fazl-ul-lÁh LutfullÁh FarÍdi of Surat.?

9 Sir John Malcolm in Eastwick’s Handbook of the PanjÁb, 119. This reference has not been traced. Farishtah (Elliot, VI. 563) says MÁndu was built by Anand Dev of the Bais tribe, who was a contemporary of Khusrao ParwÍz the Sassanian (a.d.591–621).?

10 The date is uncertain. Compare Elphinstone’s History, 323; Briggs’ Farishtah, I. 210–211; TabakÁt-i-NÁsiri in Elliot, II. 328. The conquest of MÁndu in a.d.1227 is not MÁndu in MÁlwa as Elphinstone and Briggs supposed, but MandÚr in the SiwÁlik Hills. See Elliot, Vol. II. page 325 Note 1. The Persian text of Farishtah (I. 115), though by mistake calling it MÁndu (not MÁndu), notes that it was the Mandu in the SiwÁlik hills. The poetical date-script also terms it BilÁdi-SiwÁlik or the SiwÁlik countries. The date of the conquest of the SiwÁlik MÁndu by Altamsh is given by Farishtah (Ditto) as a.h.624 (a.d.1226). The conquest of MÁlwa by Altamsh, the taking by him of Bhilsah and Ujjain, and the destruction of the temple of Maha KÁli and of the statue or image of BikramÁjit are given as occurring in a.h.631 (a.d.1233). The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 13) notices an expedition made in a.d.1395 by Zafar KhÁn (Muzaffar I. of GujarÁt) against a Hindu chief of MÁndu, who, it was reported, was oppressing the MusalmÁns. A siege of more than twelve months failed to capture the fort.?

11 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 170.?

12 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 168. According to the WÁkiat-i-MushtÁki (Elliot, IV. 553) DilÁwar KhÁn, or as the writer calls him AmÍn ShÁh, through the good offices of a merchant whom he had refrained from plundering obtained the grant of MÁndu, which was entirely desolate. The king sent a robe and a horse, and AmÍn gave up walking and took to riding. He made his friends ride, enlisted horsemen, and promoted the cultivation of the country (Elliot, IV. 552). Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 460–61) states that when SultÁn Muhammad, the son of FÍrÚz Tughlak, made KhwÁjah Sarwar his chief minister with the title of KhwÁjah JehÁn, and gave Zafar KhÁn the viceroyalty of GujarÁt and Khizr KhÁn that of MultÁn, he sent DilÁwar KhÁn to be governor of MÁlwa. In another passage Farishtah (II. 461) states that one of DilÁwar’s grandfathers, SultÁn ShahÁb-ud-dÍn, came from Ghor and took service in the court of the Dehli SultÁns. His son rose to be an AmÍr, and his grandson DilÁwar KhÁn, in the time of SultÁn FÍrÚz, became a leading nobleman, and in the reign of Muhammad, son of FÍrÚz, obtained MÁlwa in fief. When the power of the Tughlaks went to ruin DilÁwar assumed the royal emblems of the umbrella and the red-tent.?

13 DilÁwar KhÁn Ghori, whose original name was Husein, was one of the grandsons of SultÁn ShahÁb-ud-dÍn Muhammad bin SÁm. He was one of the nobles of Muhammad, the son of FÍrÚz Tughlak, who after the death of that monarch, settled in and asserted his power over MÁlwa. (Pers. Text Faristah, II. 460). The emperor JehÁngÍr (who calls him ÂmÍd ShÁh Ghori) attributes to him the construction of the fort of DhÁr. He says (Memoirs Pers. Text, 201–202): DhÁr is one of the oldest cities of India. RÁja Bhoj, one of the famous ancient Hindu kings, lived in this city. From his time up to this a thousand years have passed. DhÁr was also the capital of the Muhammadan rulers of MÁlwa. When SultÁn Muhammad Tughlak (a.d.1325) was on his way to the conquest of the Dakhan he built a cut-stone fort on a raised site. Its outline is very elegant and beautiful, but the space inside is empty of buildings. ÂmÍd ShÁh Ghori, known as DilÁwar KhÁn, who in the days of SultÁn Muhammad the son of SultÁn FÍrÚz, king of Dehli, gained the independent rule of MÁlwa, built outside this fort an assembly mosque, which has in front of it fixed in the ground a four-cornered iron column about four feet round. When SultÁn BahÁdur of GujarÁt took MÁlwa (a.d.1530–31) he wished to carry this column to GujarÁt. In digging it up the pillar fell and broke in two, one piece measuring twenty-two feet the other thirteen feet. As it was lying here uncared-for, I (JehÁngÍr) ordered the big piece to be carried to Ágra to be put up in the courtyard of the shrine of him whose abode is the heavenly throne (Akbar), to be utilised as a lamp post. The mosque has two gates. In front of the arch of one gate they have fixed a stone tablet engraved with a prose passage to the effect that ÂhmÍd ShÁh Ghori in the year H. 808 (a.d.1405) laid the foundation of this mosque. On the other arch they have written a poetic inscription of which the following verses are a part:

?

14 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 169.?

15 When fellow-nobles in the court of the Tughlak SultÁn, Zafar KhÁn (SultÁn Muzaffar of GujarÁt) and DilÁwar KhÁn bound themselves under an oath to be brothers in arms. Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 462.?

16 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 173; Elphinstone’s History, 678.?

17 Though their temples were turned into mosques the Jains continued to prosper under the Ghoris. At Deogarh in Lalitpura in JhÁnsi in the North-West Provinces an inscription of Samvat 1481, that is of a.d.1424, records the dedication of two Jaina images by a Jain priest named Holi during the reign of ShÁh Alambhaka of Mandapapura, that is of ShÁh Alp KhÁn of MÁndu that is SultÁn Hoshang Ghori. ArchÆological Survey of India, New Series, II. 120.?

18 Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 464–65.?

19 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 176, 178, 180, 181, 183.?

20 Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 466–67.?

21 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 180. In connection with the TÁrÁpÚr Gate Farishtah says (Pers. Text, II. 468): The fort of MÁndu is built on the top of a mountain, and the line of its fortification is about twenty-eight miles in length. In place of a moat it is surrounded by a deep chasm, so that it is impossible to use missiles against it. Within the fort water and provisions are abundant and it includes land enough to grow grain for the garrison. The extent of its walls makes it impossible for an army to invest it. Most of the villages near it are too small to furnish supplies to a besieging force. The south or TÁrÁpÚr gate is exceedingly difficult of access. A horseman can hardly approach it. From whichever side the fort may be attempted, most difficult heights have to be scaled. The long distances and intervening hills prevent the watchers of the besieging force communicating with each other. The gate on the side of Delhi is of easier access than the other gates.?

22 It follows that Farishtah (Briggs, IV. 196) is mistaken in stating that Hoshang’s son Muhammad gave MÁndu the name of ShÁdiÁbÁd, the Abode of Joy.?

23 Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 472–475. It seems to follow that from the first the monument to Hoshang in HoshangÁbÁd was an empty tomb. Compare Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 180–190.?

24 The following more detailed, but also more confused, story is told in the WÁkiat-i-MushtÁki (Elliot, IV. 552–54): A man named MehmÚd, son of MughÍs Khilji, came to Hoshang and entered his service. He was a treacherous man, who secretly aspired to the throne. He became minister, and gave his daughter in marriage to the king. [Farishtah, Pers. Text, II. 474, says: “Malik MughÍs gave his daughter (MehmÚd’s sister) in marriage, not to Hoshang, but to Hoshang’s son Muhammad Shah.”] His father Malik MughÍs, coming to know of his son’s ambitious designs, informed the king of them. Hereupon MehmÚd feigned illness, and to deceive the king’s physicians shut himself in a dark room and drank the blood of a newly killed goat. When the physicians came MehmÚd rose hastily, threw up the blood into a basin, and tossing back his head rolled on the floor as if in pain. The physicians called for a light. When they saw that what MehmÚd had spat up was blood they were satisfied of his sickness, and told the king that MehmÚd had not long to live. The king refrained from killing a dying man. This strange story seems to be an embellishment of a passage in Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 477). When KhÁn JehÁn, that is Malik MughÍs the father of MehmÚd, was ordered by SultÁn Muhammad to take the field against the RÁjput rebels of NÁdoti (HÁroti?) many of the old nobles of MÁlwa went with him. In their absence the party hostile to the Khiljis represented to SultÁn Muhammad that MehmÚd Khilji was plotting his death. On hearing that the SultÁn was enraged against him MehmÚd secluded himself from the Court on pretence of illness. At the same time he worked secretly and bribed SultÁn Muhammad’s cup-bearer to poison his master. On the death of SultÁn Muhammad the party of nobles opposed to MehmÚd, concealing the fact of Muhammad’s death, sent word that Muhammad had ordered him immediately to the palace, as he wanted to send him on an embassy to GujarÁt. MehmÚd, who knew that the SultÁn was dead, returned word to the nobles that he had vowed a life-long seclusion as the sweeper of the shrine of his patron SultÁn Hoshang, but that if the nobles came to him and convinced him that the good of his country depended on his going to GujarÁt he was ready to go and see SultÁn Muhammad. The nobles were caught in their own trap. They went to MehmÚd and were secured and imprisoned by him.?

25 Farishtah, Pers. Text, II. 480.?

26 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 196. These titles mean: The Chief of Nobles, the Great, the August.?

27 It is related that one of the pious men in the camp of SultÁn Ahmed of GujarÁt had a warning dream, in which the Prophet (on whom be peace) appeared to him and said: “The calamity of (spirit of) pestilence is coming down from the skies. Tell SultÁn Ahmed to leave this country.” This warning was told to SultÁn Ahmed, but he disregarded it, and within three days pestilence raged in his camp. Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 484.?

28 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 205, gives 230 minarets and 360 arches. This must have been an addition in the Text used by Briggs. These details do not apply to the building. The Persian text of Farishtah, II. 485, mentions 208 columns or pillars (duyast o hasht ustuwÁnah). No reference is made either to minarets or to arches.?

29 Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 487.?

30 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 207. Malcolm’s Central India, I. 32. In a.d.1817 Sir John Malcolm (Central India, I. 32 Note) fitted up one of MehmÚd’s palaces as a hot-weather residence.?

31 Of the siege of Kumbhalmer a curious incident is recorded by Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 485). He says that a temple outside the town destroyed by MehmÚd had a marble idol in the form of a goat. The SultÁn ordered the idol to be ground into lime and sold to the RÁjputs as betel-leaf lime, so that the Hindus might eat their god. The idol was perhaps a ram, not a goat. The temple would then have been a Sun-temple and the ram, the carrier or vÁhana of the Sun, would have occupied in the porch a position similar to that held by the bull in a MahÁdeva temple.?

32 Ruins of MÁndu, 13.?

33 In the end of a.h.846 (a.d.1442) MehmÚd built a seven-storeyed tower and a college opposite the JÁmÁ Mosque of Hoshang ShÁh. Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 210; Persian Text, II. 488.?

34 Compare Briggs’ Farishtah, IV 323.?

35 Gladwin’s Áin-i-Akbari, II. 41.?

36 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 210; Farishtah, Persian Text II. 488.?

37 Memoirs of the emperor JehÁngÍr (Pers. Text) Sir Sayad Áhmed’s Edition, page 188, eleventh year of JehÁngÍr, a.d.1617.?

38 Herbert’s KhÁn Jehan is doubtless MehmÚd’s father the minister Malik MughÍs, KhÁn JehÁn AÂzam HumÁyÚn. It cannot be KhÁn JehÁn Pir Muhammad, Akbar’s general, who after only a few months’ residence was slain in MÁndu in a.d.1561; nor can it be JehÁngÍr’s great AfghÁn general, KhÁn JehÁn Lodi (a.d.1600–1630), as he was not in MÁndu until a.d.1628, that is more than a year after Herbert left India. Compare Herbert’s Travels, 107–118; Elliot, VI. 249–323, VII. 7, 8, and 21; and Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 503–506.?

39 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 214.?

40 Ruins of MÁndu, 13. Farishtah has three mentions of colleges. One (Pers. Text, II. 475) as the place where the body of Hoshang was carried, probably that prayers might be said over it. In another passage in the reign of MehmÚd I. (Pers. Text, II. 480) he states that MehmÚd built colleges in his territories which became the envy of ShÍrÁz and Samarkand. In a third passage he mentions a college (page 488) near the Victory Tower.?

41 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 217. A different but almost incredible account of the capture of the royal belt is given in the Mirat-i-Sikandari, Pers. Text, 159: When SultÁn Kutb-ud-dÍn, son of SultÁn Muhammad, defeated SultÁn MehmÚd Khilji at the battle of Kapadvanj, there was such a slaughter as could not be exceeded. By chance, in the heat of the fray, which resembled the Day of Judgment, the wardrobe-keeper of SultÁn Kutb-ud-dÍn, in whose charge was the jewelled belt, was by the restiveness of his horse carried into the ranks of the enemy. The animal there became so violent that the wardrobe-keeper fell off and was captured by the enemy, and the jewelled belt was taken from him and given to SultÁn MehmÚd of MÁlwa. The author adds: This jewelled waistband was in the MÁlwa treasury at the time the fortress of MÁndu was taken by the strength of the arm of SultÁn Muzaffar (a.d.1531). SultÁn MehmÚd sent this belt together with a fitting sword and horse to SultÁn Muzaffar by the hands of his son.?

42 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 209.?

43 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 234–235: Pers. Text, II. 503.?

44 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 236.?

45 Ruins of MÁndu, 6.?

46 Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 504–505.?

47 Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 505.?

48 Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 507.?

49 WÁkiat-i-MushtÁki in Elliot, IV. 554–556. Probably these are stock tales. The GujarÁt historians give Muzaffar and Muhammad the Gold-giver (a.d.1441–1451) credit for the horse scrupulosity. See Mirat-i-Sikandari Pers. Text, 178.?

50 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 236–239; WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 349–350; WÁkiat-i-MushtÁki in Elliot, IV. 554–55; Malcolm’s Central India, I. 35–36. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 160) has the following notice of GhiÁs-ud-dÍn: The SultÁns of MÁndu had reached such a pitch of luxury and ease that it is impossible to imagine aught exceeding it. Among them SultÁn GhiÁs-ud-dÍn was so famous for his luxurious habits, that at present (a.d.1611) if any one exceeds in luxury and pleasure, they say he is a second GhiÁs-ud-dÍn. The orders of the SultÁn were that no event of a painful nature or one in which there was any touch of sadness should be related to him. They say that during his entire reign news of a sad nature was only twice conveyed to him: once when his son-in-law died and once when his daughter was brought before him clothed in white. On this occasion the SultÁn is related to have simply said: “Perhaps her husband is dead.” This he said because the custom of the people of India is that when the husband of a woman dies she gives up wearing coloured clothes. The second occasion was when the army of SultÁn Bahlol Lodi plundered several of the districts of Chanderi. Though it was necessary to report this to the SultÁn, his ministers were unable to communicate it to him. They therefore asked a band of actors (bhÁnds) to assume the dress of AfghÁns, and mentioning the districts to represent them as being pillaged and laid waste. SultÁn GhiÁs-ud-dÍn exclaimed in surprise: “But is the governor of Chanderi dead that he does not avenge upon the AfghÁns the ruin of his country!”?

51 Compare Catalogue of Indian Coins, The Mahomedan States, pages LIV. LV. and 118–121.?

52 Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 507.?

53 Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 508) detailing how NÁsir-ud-dÍn came to power, says: There was a difference between NÁsir-ud-dÍn and his brother AlÁ-ud-dÍn. The mother of these princes, KhurshÍd RÁni, who was the daughter of the Hindu chief of BÁglÁna, had taken AlÁ-ud-dÍn the younger brother’s side. After killing his father NÁsir-ud-dÍn ordered his mother to be dragged out of the harÍm and AlÁ-ud-dÍn and his children to be slaughtered like lambs.?

54 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 238–239. Farishtah holds that NÁsir-ud-dÍn’s murder of his father is not proved. He adds (Pers. Text, II. 515) that NÁsir-ud-dÍn was at DhÁr where he had gone to quell the rebellion of the nobles when the news of GhiÁs-ud-dÍn’s death reached him. He argues that as a parricide cannot flourish more than a year after his father’s murder, and as NÁsir-ud-dÍn ruled for years after that event, he could not have killed his father.?

55 Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 516.?

56 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 243. The emperor JehÁngÍr (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) says that NÁsir-ud-dÍn had a disease which made him feel so hot that he used to sit for hours in water.?

57 WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 350. Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 517–18) says that NÁsir-ud-dÍn died of a burning-fever he had contracted by hard drinking and other evil habits, that he showed keen penitence before his death, and bequeathed his kingdom to his third son MehmÚd. The emperor JehÁngÍr (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) confirms the account of the WÁkiat as to the manner of NÁsir-ud-dÍn’s death.?

58 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 243.?

59 The emperor JehÁngÍr thus describes (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) his visit to NÁsir-ud-dÍn’s grave. It is related that when during his reign Sher KhÁn AfghÁn SÚr (a.d.1540–1555) visited NÁsir-ud-dÍn’s grave he ordered his attendants to flagellate the parricide’s tomb: When I visited the sepulchre I kicked his grave and ordered those with me to do the same. Not satisfied with this I ordered his bones to be dug out and burned and the ashes to be thrown into the Narbada.?

60 WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 350. The emperor JehÁngÍr (Memoirs Pers. Text, 202) refers to the well-known bridge and water-palace about three miles north of Ujjain as the work of NÁsir-ud-dÍn. He says: On Sunday I reached SaÁdulpur near Ujjain. In this village is a river house with a bridge on which are alcoves both built by NÁsir-ud-dÍn Khilji (a.d.1500–1512). Though the bridge is not specially praiseworthy the water-courses and cisterns connected with it have a certain merit.?

61 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 246.?

62 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 247–249. Malcolm’s (Central India, I. 38) writes the RÁjput’s name Maderay. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 149–155), gives the form MedÁni Rai, the Lord of the Battlefield, a title which the author says (page 149) MehmÚd conferred on the RÁjput in acknowledgment of his prowess.?

63 The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 154) gives the following details of MehmÚd’s flight: SultÁn MehmÚd, on pretence of hunting left MÁndu and remained hunting for several days. The Hindus, whom MedÁni RÁi had placed on guard over him, slept after the fatigue of the chase. Only some of the more trusted guards remained. Among them was a RÁjput named K?ish?a, a MÁlwa zamÍndÁr who was attached to the SultÁn. MehmÚd said to K?ish?a: “Can you find me two horses and show me the way to GujarÁt that I may get aid from SultÁn Muzaffar to punish these rascals? If you can, do so at once, and, AllÁh willing, you shall be handsomely rewarded.” K?ish?a brought two horses from the SultÁn’s stables. MehmÚd rode on one and seated his dearest of wives, RÁni Kannya Kuar, on the other. K?ish?a marched in front. In half the night and one day they reached the GujarÁt frontier.?

64 TÁrikh-i-Sher ShÁhi in Elliot, IV. 386. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 160) gives the following details of the banquet: SultÁn MehmÚd showed great hospitality and humility. After the banquet as he led the SultÁn over the palaces, they came to a mansion in the centre of which was a four-cornered building like the KaÂbah, carved and gilded, and round it were many apartments. When SultÁn Muzaffar placed his foot within the threshold of that building the thousand beauties of SultÁn MehmÚd’s harÍm, magnificently apparelled and jewelled, all at once opened the doors of their chambers and burst into view like hÚris and fairies. When Muzaffar’s eyes fell on their charms he bowed his head and said: “To see other than one’s own harÍm is sinful.” SultÁn MehmÚd replied: “These are mine, and therefore yours, seeing that I am the slave purchased by your Majesty’s kindness.” Muzaffar said: “They are more suitable for you. May you have joy in them. Let them retire.” At a signal from SultÁn MehmÚd the ladies vanished.?

65 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 250–262.?

66 Farishtah Pers. Text. II. 527. According to the Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 161) MehmÚd marched against GÁgraun first, and slew Hemkaran, a partisan of MedÁni RÁi, in a hand-to-hand fight. On this the RÁna and MedÁni RÁi joined their forces against MehmÚd.?

67 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 262–263.?

68 Persian Edition, 239.?

69 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 267–68. SultÁn BahÁdur apparently surprised the party in charge of the TÁrÁpÚr or Southern Gate.?

70 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 269; Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Persian Text, I. 76.?

71 Briggs’ Farishtah, II. 77.?

72 Abul Fazl’s Akbar NÁmah in Elliot, VI. 14; Briggs’ Farishtah, II. 77.?

73 Abul Fazl’s Akbar NÁmah in Elliot, V. 192.?

74 Abul Fazl’s Akbar NÁmah in Elliot, VI. 15; Briggs’ Farishtah, II. 80–81.?

75 Abul Fazl’s Akbar NÁmah in Elliot, VI. 18. According to Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 532) Mallu, the son of Mallu, was a native of MÁlwa and a Khilji slave noble. Mallu received his title of KÁdir ShÁh from SultÁn MehmÚd III. of GujarÁt (a.d.1536–1544) at the recommendation of his minister ImÁd-ul-Mulk who was a great friend of Mallu. Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 298.?

76 Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 532.?

77 TÁrikh-i-Sher ShÁh in Elliot, IV. 391; Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 271–72.?

78 Farishtah (Pers. Text, 533–34) refers to the following circumstance as the cause of KÁdir ShÁh’s suspicion. On his way to Sher ShÁh’s darbÁr at Ujjain KÁdir saw some Mughal prisoners in chains making a road. One of the prisoners seeing him began to sing:

MarÁ mÍ bÍn darÍn ahwÁl o fikrÍ khÍshtan mÍ kun!

When KÁdir ShÁh escaped, Sher ShÁh on hearing of his flight exclaimed:

To this one of Sher ShÁh’s men replied:

?

79 TÁrikh-i-Sher ShÁhi in Elliot, IV. 397.?

80 TÁrikh-i-Alfi in Elliott, V. 168; Elphinstone’s India, 402–403.?

81 TÁrikh-i-Alfi in Elliot, V. 168.?

82 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 276.?

83 When BÁz BahÁdur attacked the Gonds their chief was dead, and his widow, RÁni DurgÁvati, was ruling in his place. The RÁni led the Gonds against the invaders, and hemming them in one of the passes, inflicted on them such a defeat that BÁz BahÁdur fled from the field leaving his baggage and camp in her hands. Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 538.?

84 According to Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 538) BÁz BahÁdur was already an adept in music.?

85 Malcolm’s Central India, I. 39; Ruins of MÁndu, 30.?

86 Briggs’ Farishtah, II. 210.?

87 Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 321.?

88 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 211.?

89 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 216.?

90 TabakÁt-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 291.?

91 TabakÁt-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 330–31.?

92 Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 375.?

93 The emperor JehÁngÍr thus describes (Memoirs Pers. Text, 372) a visit to this building: On the third day of AmardÁd (July 1617) with the palace ladies I set out to see NÍlkanth, which is one of the pleasantest places in MÁndu fort. ShÁh BudÁgh KhÁn, who was one of the trusted nobles of my august father, built this very pleasing and joy-giving lodge during the time he held this province in fief (a.d.1572–1577). I remained at NÍlkanth till about an hour after nightfall and then returned to my state quarters.?

94 An officer who distinguished himself under HumÁyÚn, one of Akbar’s commanders of Three Thousand, long governor of MÁndu, where he died. Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 372.?

95 When opposed to Ârab the word Âjam signifies all countries except Arabia, and in a narrow sense, Persia. The meaning of the word Âjam is dumbness, the Arabs so glorying in the richness of their own tongue as to hold all other countries and nations dumb.?

96 The stones on which this inscription is carved have been wrongly arranged by some restorer. Those with the latter portion of the inscription come first and those with the beginning come last. MÚnshi Abdur RahÍm of DhÁr.?

97 The maternal uncle of NaushÍrwÁn (a.d.586–635) the Sassanian, ShirwÁn ShÁh was ruler of a district on Mount Caucasus. Al MasÚdi, Arabic Text Prairies d’Or, II. 4, and Rauzat-us-Safa, Persian Text, I. 259.?

98 Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 353.?

99 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 279.?

100 Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 429.?

101 Gladwin’s Áin-i-Akbari, II. 41.?

102 Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 31.?

103 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 169, 181, 190.?

104 Nineteen kos, taking the kos to be two miles.?

105 The emperor JehÁngÍr’s Memoirs, Pers. Text, Sir Sayad Áhmed’s Edition, 178–203.?

106 Literally single-men. The AhadÍs were a corps of men who stood immediately under the emperor’s orders. Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 20 note 1.?

107 This scattering of gold silver or copper coin, called in Arabic and Persian nisÁr, is a common form of offering. The influence of the evil eye or other baneful influence is believed to be transferred from the person over whom the coin is scattered to the coin and through the coin to him who takes it.?

108 This feat of NÚr JehÁn’s drew from one of the Court poets the couplet:

Sherafkan, that is tiger-slayer, was the title of NÚr JehÁn’s first husband Ali-Kuli Istajlu.?

109 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 187.?

110 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 189.?

111 The miskÁl which was used in weighing gold was equal in weight to ninety-six barleycorns. Blochman’s Áin-i-Akbari, 36.?

112 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 195.?

113 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 195.?

114 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 192–194.?

115 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 190.?

116 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 192.?

117 Tuzuk-i-JehÁngÍri Pers. Text, 194–5.?

118 A Voyage to East India, 181. Terry gives April 1616, but Roe seems correct in saying March 1617. Compare WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 351.?

119 Akbarpur lies between Dharampuri and Waisar. Malcolm’s Central India, I. 84 note.?

120 Carriages may have the old meaning of things carried, that is baggage. The time taken favours the view that wagons or carts were forced up the hill. For the early seventeenth century use of carriages in its modern sense compare Terry (Voyage, 161). Of our wagons drawn with oxen … and other carriages we made a ring every night; also Dodsworth (1614), who describes a band of RÁjputs near Baroda cutting off two of his carriages (Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 203); and Roe (1616), who journeyed from AjmÍr to MÁndu with twenty camels four carts and two coaches (Kerr, IX. 308). Terry’s carriages seem to be Roe’s coaches, to which Dela Valle (a.d.1623) Hakluyt’s Edition, (I. 21) refers as much like the Indian chariots described by Strabo (b.c.50) covered with crimson silk fringed with yellow about the roof and the curtains. Compare IdrÍsi (a.d.1100–1150), but probably from Al Istakhiri, a.d.960: Elliot, I. 87). In all Nahrwala or north GujarÁt the only mode of carrying either passengers or goods is in chariots drawn by oxen with harness and traces under the control of a driver. When in 1616 JehÁngÍr left AjmÍr for MÁndu the English carriage presented to him by the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe was allotted to the SultÁnah NÚr JehÁn Begam. It was driven by an English coachman. JehÁngÍr followed in the coach his own men had made in imitation of the English coach. Corryat (1615, Crudities III., Letters from India, unpaged) calls the English chariot a gallant coach of 150 pounds price.?

121 Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 335; WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 377.?

122 Roe writing from AjmÍr in the previous year (29th August 1616) describes MÁndu as a castle on a hill, where there is no town and no buildings. Kerr, IX. 267.?

123 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 313.?

124 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 314.?

125 Compare WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 377.?

126 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 314.?

127 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 321.?

128 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 335.?

129 Corryat’s Crudities, III. Extracts (unpaged). This Master Herbert was Thomas, brother of Sir Edward Herbert, the first Lord Herbert. It seems probable that this Thomas supplied his cousin Sir Thomas Herbert who was travelling in India and Persia in a.d.1627 with his account of MÁndu. See below pages 381–382.?

130 Corryat’s Crudities, III. Extracts (unpaged).?

131 Terry’s Voyage, 183; Roe in Kerr, IX. 335.?

132 Roe in Kerr, IX. 335.?

133 WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 349.?

134 WÁkiat-i-JehÁngiri in Elliot, VI. 350.?

135 Terry’s Voyage, 228.?

136 Terry’s Voyage, 69.?

137 Terry’s Voyage, 183.?

138 Terry’s Voyage, 186, 198.?

139 Terry’s Voyage, 198, 205.?

140 Roe in Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 337; Pinkerton’s Voyages, VIII. 35.?

141 Terry’s Voyage, 403.?

142 Corryat’s Crudities, III. Letter 2. Extracts unpaged.?

143 Roe in Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 343.?

144 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 340–343.?

145 Roe in Kerr’s Travels, IX. 344.?

146 Terry’s Voyage, 377. Terry’s details seem not to agree with Roe’s who states (Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 344 and Pinkerton’s Voyages, VIII. 37): I was invited to the drinking, but desired to be excused because there was no avoiding drinking, and their liquors are so hot that they burn out a man’s very bowels. Perhaps the invitation Roe declined was to a private drinking party after the public weighing was over.?

147 Roe in Kerr’s Voyage, IX. 347; Elphinstone’s History, 494. Kerr (IX. 347) gives September 2 but October 2 is right. Compare Pinkerton’s Voyages, VIII. 39.?

148 Ruins of MÁndu, 57. As the emperor must have passed out by the Dehli Gate, and as Roe’s lodge was two miles from BÁz BahÁdur’s palace, the lodge cannot have been far from the Dehli Gate. It is disappointing that, of his many genial gossipy entries JehÁngÍr does not devote one to Roe. The only reference to Roe’s visit is the indirect entry (Wa’kiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 347) that JehÁngÍr gave one of his nobles a coach, apparently a copy of the English coach, with which, to JehÁngÍr’s delight, Roe had presented him.?

149 Roe in Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 353.?

150 Terry’s Voyage, 180.?

151 Terry’s Voyage, 181.?

152 WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 383.?

153 WÁkiat-i-JehÁngÍri in Elliot, VI. 387.?

154 Elphinstone’s History, 496–97. Compare Dela Valle (Hakluyt Edition, I. 177) writing in a.d.1622, SultÁn Khurram after his defeat by JehÁngÍr retired to MÁndu.?

155 Dela Valle’s Travels, Hakluyt Edition, I. 97.?

156 Elphinstone’s History, 507.?

157 Herbert’s Travels, 84. Corryat’s Master Herbert was as already noticed named like the traveller Thomas. The two Thomases were distant relations, both being fourth in descent from Sir Richard Herbert of Colebroke, who lived about the middle of the fifteenth century. A further connection between the two families is the copy of complimentary verses “To my cousin Sir Thomas Herbert,” signed Ch. Herbert, in the 1634 and 1665 editions of Herbert’s Travels, which are naturally, though somewhat doubtfully, ascribed to Charles Herbert, a brother of our Master Thomas. It is therefore probable that after his return to England Sir Thomas Herbert obtained the MÁndu details from Master Thomas who was himself a writer, the author of several poems and pamphlets. Corryat’s tale how, during the water-famine at MÁndu, Master Herbert annexed a spring or cistern, and then bound a servant of the Great King who attempted to share in its use, shows admirable courage and resolution on the part of Master Thomas, then a youth of twenty years. The details of Thomas in his brother Lord Herbert’s autobiography give additional interest to the hero of Corryat’s tale of a Tank. Master Thomas was born in. a.d.1597. In 1610, when a page to Sir Edward Cecil and a boy of thirteen, in the German War especially in the siege of Juliers fifteen miles north-east of Aix-la-Chapelle, Master Thomas showed such forwardness as no man in that great army surpassed. On his voyage to India in 1617, in a fight with a great Portuguese carrack, Captain Joseph, in command of Herbert’s ship Globe, was killed. Thomas took Joseph’s place, forced the carrack aground, and so riddled her with shot that she never floated again. To his brother’s visit to India Lord Herbert refers as a year spent with the merchants who went from Surat to the Great Mughal. After his return to England Master Thomas distinguished himself at Algiers, capturing a vessel worth £1800. In 1622, when Master Thomas was in command of one of the ships sent to fetch Prince Charles (afterwards King Charles I.) from Spain, during the return voyage certain Low Countrymen and Dunkirkers, that is Dutch and Spanish vessels, offended the Prince’s dignity by fighting in his presence without his leave. The Prince ordered the fighting ships to be separated; whereupon Master Thomas, with some other ships got betwixt the fighters on either side, and shot so long that both Low Countrymen and Dunkirkers were glad to desist. Afterwards at divers times Thomas fought with great courage and success with divers men in single fight, sometimes hurting and disarming his adversary, sometimes driving him away. The end of Master Thomas was sad. Finding his proofs of himself undervalued he retired into a private and melancholy life, and after living in this sullen humour for many years, he died about 1642 and was buried in London in St. Martin’s near Charing Cross.?

158 Khafi KhÁn in Elliot, VII. 218.?

159 Malcolm’s Central India, I. 64.?

160 Malcolm’s Central India, I. 78.?

161 Malcolm’s Central India, I. 100.?

162 Malcolm’s Central India, I. 106.?

163 Central India, II. 503.?

164 Ruins of MÁndu, 43: March 1852 page 34.?

165 Ruins of MÁndu, 43: March 1852 page 34.?

166 Malcolm’s Central India, II. 503.?

167 Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 235 note *.?

168 Indian Architecture, 541.?

169 Ruins of MÁndu, 9.?

170 Ruins of MÁndu, 9.?

171 Ruins of MÁndu, 13, 25, 35. Some of these extracts seem to belong to a Bombay Subaltern, who was at MÁndu about a.d.1842, and some to Captain Claudius Harris, who visited the hill in April 1852. Compare Ruins of MÁndu, 34.?

172 Murray’s Handbook of the PanjÁb, 118.?