Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/70

58 626, in the eightieth year of his age, and the emperor Jahangir, who during the African's life could not mention his name without vituperation, recorded after his death, that he had no equal in his time, either in the art of war or in administrative ability.

To the east of these tombs and nearer to the town of Rauza are a few smaller and less pretentious domes. These are the tombs of the later kings of the Ahmadnagar dynasty, but the several tombs cannot be identified, as they bear no inscriptions Nearly all are ruinous Only one building in this neighbourhood bears an inscription. This is the tomb of Khundamir Ankas Khan Sakhi, son of Ankas Khan. This amir was the brother of Tahir Khan and foster brother of Miran Husain Shah, the fifth king of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, notorious on account of his having suffocated his father, Murtaza Shah, in a hot bath. The date of the death of Ankas Khan is not given, but he was much concern- ed in Ahmadnagar politics in 1588. He was probably the son of that Ankas Khan of Bijapur who quarrelled with the Portuguese commandant of Goa in 15 16,

Asaf Jah, Nizam-ul-Mulk, the founder of the line of the present ruler of Haidarabad, lies buried near the tomb of Burhan-ud-din Auliya, and near him lies his son Nasir Jung. Here also is buried the poet Azad of Bilgram, that nursery of learned men, the secretary of Asaf Jah and the tutor of his son. The fame of the poet's learning is such that parents lake their children to his shrine in order that they may, by picking up with their lips a piece of sugar from the tomb, obtain both a taste for knowledge and the ability to acquire it.

The most pathetic of all the monuments at Khuldabad is a simple stone taviz or tumulus in the enclosure of Sayyid Raju Qaltal's tomb. Here lie the remains of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah, commonly known as Tana Shah — *' the dainty king," — the last independent king of Golconda, and a victim to Aurangzib's lust of conquest. His fortress capital was wrested from him by treachery in 1687 after a gallant defence of eight months' duration, and he was sent by his conqueror to end his days in captivity at Daulatabad, where he lingered for twelve years, and was buried, in accordance with his last wishes, at Rauza. The environs of the small town contain the tombs of greater men, but of npne more unfortunate.