Daulatabad, Maharashtra

Daulatabad, also known as Devagiri, is a 14th-century fort city in Maharashtra state of India, about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) northwest of Aurangabad. The place was originally named Devagiri when it was an important uplands city along caravan routes (ca. sixth century AD), but the intervening centuries have reduced it to a village. However it is also considered to be one of the seven wonders of Maharashtra and a developing tourist spot.

Quotes

• Malik Naib [Kafur] reached there expeditiously and occupied the fort... He built mosques in places occupied by temples.
  • Devagiri (Maharashtra). Futuhus-Salatin by Isami, Translated from the Hindi version by S.A.A. Rizvi included in Khalji Kalina Bharata, Aligarh, 1955, p. 206. In: Sita Ram Goel: Hindu - Temples - What Happened to them

• “But see the mercy with which he regarded the brokenhearted, for, after seizing the rai, he set him free again. He destroyed the temples of the idolaters, and erected pulpits and arches for mosques.”67
  • About Sultan Jalalu’d -Din Khalji (AD 1290-1296) in Devagiri (Maharashtra) Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own historians, Vol. III, p. 542.ff

• 'He routed Ramdev everywhere except the fort. The fort contained temples of gold and silver and images of the same metals. Besides, there were jewels of different varieties. He ordered them to be destroyed and collected its gold. Ruler of the fort was surprised at this action and his mind got confused. He sent an envoy for conclusion of peace on condition of sparing the temples from destruction which was agreed to
  • Zafarul Walih Bi Muzaffar Wa Ãlihi. Devagiri (Maharashtra). Zafarul Walih Bi Muzaffar Wa Ãlihi, translated into English by M.F. Lokhand­wala, Baroda, 1970 and 1974, Vol. I, p. 138

• “The tongue of the sword of the Khalifa of the time, which is the tongue of the flame of Islam, has imparted light to the entire darkness of Hindustan by the illumination of its guidance… and on the right hand and on the left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals of the gods of the Hindus in which Satanism had prevailed since the time of the Jinns, have been demolished. All these impurities of infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan’s destruction of idol temples, beginning with his first expedition against Deogir, so that the flames of the light of the law illumine all these unholy countries, and places for the criers to prayers are exalted on high, and prayers are read in mosques. Allah be praised!”
  • Amir Khusrow. Ma’bar: (Parts of South India), About Sultan ‘Alau’d-Din Khalji (AD 1296-1316) and his generals conquests in Deccan and South India Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol. III, p. 81-85

• “The Mosque of Qutb al-Din Mubarak Khalji at Daulatabad, dated AH 718/AD 1318, is probably the earliest surviving Muslim structure in the Deccan. It is a square, 260 feet each way, assembled into the usual orthodox plan out of destroyed Hindu pillars, brackets, and beams…”
  • Daulatabad (Maharashtra) Syed Mahmudul Hasan, Mosque Architecture of Pre-Mughal Bengal, Dacca (Bangladesh), 1979, p. 50

• Devagiri was attacked twice by the forces of the Delhi Sultans, first in the reign of Alauddin Khalji, and second, in the time of his successor, Mubarak Khalji. As a result of the two invasions, its physical landscape underwent a radical change. Sometime between 1313 and 1318, a grand congregational mosque, Deccan’s earliest surviving Islamic monument, was constructed at the centre of the city. It ranked next only to Delhi’s Qutab mosque in size. M.S. Mate and T. V. Pathy, who studied the mosque, showed that it was built from parts of Hindu and Jain temples. One hundred and seventy-seven columns carved in the Yadava style were used in the construction of the mosque, of which one hundred and six were placed in the central prayer hall.... Richard Eaton and Philip Wagoner argued that in constructing the mosque, the Khaljis “simultaneously liquidated and absorbed most if not all the religious monuments that had theretofore defined the city.”
  • Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history. 200ff

• The medieval historian, Ziauddin Barni described the invasion of Devagiri,
  Malik Naib Kafur reached Deogir and laid the country waste. He made Ramdeo and his sons prisoners, and took his treasures, as well as elephants. Great spoil fell into his hands .. and he returned with it triumphant to Dehli, carrying with him Ramdeo. The Sultan showed great favour to the Rai and sent him back in great honour ... to Deogir, which place he confirmed in his possession. The Rai was ever afterwards obedient, and sent his tribute regularly as long as he lived .
  • (Elliot and Dowson Vol. III: 200-201) in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Episodes from Indian history.244

• • Ibn Batutah, who visited the area early in the 14th century, described Daulatabad as a great and magnificent city equal to Delhi. Three centuries later, the official chronicler of Shahjehan, Abu-ul-Hamid Lahori, waxed eloquent about the fort: This lofty fortress, the ancient names of which were Deogir and Dharagir is a mass of rock which raises its head towards heaven. The rock has been scarped throughout its circumference, which measures 5, 000 legal yards, to a depth which ensures the retention of water in the ditch at the foot of the escarpment .... Through the centre of the hill a dark spiral passage like the ascent of a minar, which it is impossible to traverse, even in daylight, without a lamp, had been cut, and the steps in this passage are cut out of the rock ... The ordinary means of reducing fortresses, such as mines, covered ways, batteries, etc., are useless against this strong fortress. This passage still exists and is the only work the attribution of which to Muhammad is doubtful, for Ibn Batutah, who visited Daulatabad late in 1342 or early in 1343, records that access to the citadel was then gained by means of a leathern ladder.
  • quoted from Goradia, P. (2002). Hindu masjids.