Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/66

54 the Deccan the Bijapuris overran the whole of the Nizam Shahi country and even Berar, as far as Burhanpur, but Daulatabad stood fast and Muhammad Adil Shah of Bijapur was ultimately compelled to make peace with the Khan-i-Dauran.

When Aurangzib resided in the Deccan as viceroy he made Khirki, which had been renamed Fathabad, his capital, and again renamed it Aurangabad; but Daulatabad still remained the principal fortress in his viceroyalty, and when he marched northward, in 1658, to seize the
 * throne of Delhi, he left his second son, Muhammad Mu'azzam, to defend

Aurangabad, but placed his wives and his youngest son Akbar in Dau- latabad for safety.

After the fall of Bijapur and Golconda Aurangzib used Daulatabad as a state prison for Sikandar Adil Shah and Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. The remains of the prison house of the latter, known as the Chini Mahal, are still to be seen. After the cruel execution of Shivaji's son Sambhaji in 1689, his mother and daughter were imprisoned in Daulatabad. . Since that time the history of Daulatabad has been uneventful. Since 1724, the year in which the battle of Shakarkhelda or Fathkhelda was fought, it has been included in the dominions of the Nizams of Hyderabad, though it passed for a time into the hands of the Marathas, and the old fort is now garrisoned by a small guard, while the once populous capital of India has dwindled down to one or two hamlets within the walls. At the village of Kaghazipura in the hills above the fort the paper for which Daulatabad was once famous is still made.

The principal mosque in the fort, that constructed by Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah from the remains of Hindu temples has already been described. Apart from the citadel itself, the most striking building at Daulatabad is a high column known as the Chand Minar, at the base of which is a small mosque containing a long and bombastic inscription on the most contemptible Persian doggerel. This inscription records the fact that the column and the mosque were built by one Malik Parviz, the son of Qaranfal, who apparently held a jagir in Daulatabad, in the year 1445, in the reign of Ala-ud-din Ahmad II, of the Bahmani dynasty. The builder is not mentioned in history, but from his title and his father's name it may be presumed that he was an Abyssinian slave, a supposition which coincides with his evident ignorance of Persian.