CHAPTER 19 - Delhi Woes

Summary

The ruins of Tughluqabad Fort are a formidable reminder of a particularly painful period for the inhabitants of Delhi. The massive ruins built of enormous blocks of stone with walls as thick as ten metres in some areas were constructed between 1321 and 1325 by Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq. On the southern side of the fort, a causeway runs across the dry bed of an artificial lake to reach a mausoleum surrounded by fortified walls. Within the mausoleum, a square sandstone structure topped by a white marble dome, lie buried Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq and his son Mohammad Tughluq. The Tughluq dynasty, which lasted for about a hundred years from 1320 to 1414, was a period of profound misery for the Indian populace during which the atrocities perpetuated by the Tughluqs was capped by the massacre or enslavement of the non-Muslim population of Delhi in 1398 by the central Asian invader, Timur. Perhaps there were worse periods of misery in India but the misery of the fourteenth century was recorded in gloating terms by its perpetuators. The contemporary accounts include the history written by Barani whose family worked for several of the Sultans, Timur's own account of his invasion of India, and the descriptions of India by the Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battutah.

A fortress city associated with so much suffering spawns its own legends. It is said that the walls of Tughluqabad contain the skulls of thousands of captured Mongols. Ghiyas-ud-din, who was the general responsible for the defence of the kingdom against the Mongols during the rule of the last Khalji ruler, suggested to his master that a fortress be built at the site. The Khalji ruler replied with sarcasm that when his general became ruler he could do so. The last Khalji ruler reigned for less than five years and his general became the ruler and built the colossal fortress.

In popular folklore, the demise of the fortress is attributed to a quarrel between a Sufi religious leader and Ghiyas-ud-din. When Ghiyas-ud-din ordered the workers building a stepwell for the Sufi leader to work on his fortress, the Sufi leader cursed the fort saying it will be deserted. When the Sufi leader was told that the Sultan would be returning to Delhi and could presumably punish him for the curse, his prophesy was “Delhi is yet far away.”