Exploring Tuglakabad Fort

Khilji rule was usurped by Khusro Shah in a bloody coup. Owing to the resistance of the military governor of Multan same year Ghyasuddin Tughlukshah I became the Sultan of Delhi. Tughlaks established their own township, popularly known Tughlakabad. Tughlakabad is one of the formidable reminders of Delhi’s embattled past and the terror and valour of that era. Ghyasuddin came to power by beheading Khurso Khan, who had also snatched power in a bloody coup. Ghyasuddin Tughluk in order to counter attach the invading Mongols raised pyramids of enemies’ heads and used the elephants to crush the captives to death. Mohammad Bin Tughlak after ruling for seven years shifted the capital to Daulatbad, Devgiri, in Aurgangabad District of Deccan. Daulatabad had water scarcity and the people suffered severely. After he realized his mistake, he shifted the capital again to Delhi in 1334. To reduce the suffering of his subjects, he built a new township and named it Jahanpanah which was located between Mehrauli and Siri. Jahanpanah which means “World’s Asylum”, was altogether a new city, different from Tughlakabad. He did not return to the abandoned Tughlakabad most likely because he was convinced that it was a cursed city. Legend asserts that the Fort was deserted because of the curse of Saint Sheikh Nizamuddin Auliya, whom Ghyasuddin did not allow to make a Baoli. He prophessed that the city would be inhabited either by the Gujars or would be abandoned. Ghyasuddin died in an accident. Several buildings were constructed during Tughlak’s period. Tughlaks developed their own style of architecture. The representative examples of which are Tughlakabad Fort, Bari Manzil, or Bijai Mandal between Kalu Sarai and Begampur village Khirkee Mosque, Chirag-i-Dilli’s Dargah situated on Malviya Nagar-Kalkaji Road at village Chirag.