Mandu

The site

Mandu occupies a plateau in the Vindhya hills, cut off from the surrounding country by deep ravines on most sides and looking south over the Narmada valley. A circuit of walls and gateways follows the plateau's edge. The Paramara kings of Malwa held a fort here before the sultans, but it was under the Muslim rulers of Malwa that Mandu became a capital.

The Ghurid sultans

Dilawar Khan Ghuri, governor of Malwa under the Delhi sultans, made himself independent around 1401, when Delhi's authority collapsed after Timur's sack. His son Hoshang Shah moved the capital from Dhar to Mandu and began its great buildings. His tomb, of white marble with a central dome, is among the earliest marble buildings of Indo-Islamic India. An inscription inside records a visit by architects of Shah Jahan in 1659, which has led to a popular claim that it served as a model for the Taj Mahal; the inscription shows they came to see it, not what they took from it. The Jami Masjid, a great courtyard mosque raised on a high plinth, was begun under Hoshang Shah and finished under Mahmud Khalji in 1454.

The Khaljis

Mahmud Khalji (r. 1436–1469) took the throne from Hoshang Shah's line and made Malwa a major power, fighting Gujarat, the Bahmanis and Mewar. His war with Rana Kumbha of Mewar was claimed as a victory by both sides, and both built victory towers: Kumbha's stands at Chittor, while Mahmud's tower at Mandu has fallen. His son Ghiyath Shah (r. 1469–1500) is remembered for a court given over to pleasure. The Jahaz Mahal, the "ship palace" set between two tanks, is traditionally linked to his household. The illustrated cookbook known as the Ni'matnama, produced at Mandu around the turn of the sixteenth century, is a rare painted manuscript of the sultanate period.

Conquest and Baz Bahadur

Bahadur Shah of Gujarat took Mandu in 1531, Humayun briefly held it in 1535, and it passed through the hands of Sher Shah's governors. The last independent ruler, Baz Bahadur (r. c. 1555–1561), is remembered more as a musician than a king. The story of his love for Rupmati, a singer, became one of the best-known romances of Malwa. Akbar's general Adham Khan took Mandu in 1561; by the legend, Rupmati poisoned herself rather than fall into his hands. The pavilion on the plateau's southern edge that bears her name looks out over the Narmada.

Later history

Under the Mughals, Mandu was a provincial seat that emperors visited: Jahangir stayed here in 1617, and the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, who accompanied the court, described the place. In the eighteenth century Malwa passed to the Marathas, the capital moved away, and the plateau emptied, leaving its buildings standing among fields and woods.