Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/307

 CHAP. VIII. KULBARGA. 263 power at Delhi, the Dekhan might have been lost to the Moslims, and the Hindus held their own for a long time, perhaps for ever, to the south of the Vindhya range. The first of those dynasties that successfully established its independence was that called the Bahmani, from its founder. Hasan Gangu, being the servant of a Brahman in Mahmud Tughlaq's court, and owing his rise to his master, he adopted his name as a title in gratitude. He established himself at Kulbarga or Gulbarga, 1 an ancient Hindu city of the Dekhan in 1347, and with his immediate successors the kingdom extended from Berar to the Krishna river, and from the Worangal kingdom on the east to the Arabian sea on the west, and not only held in check the Hindu sovereigns of Worangal and Vijayanagar, but actually forced them to pay him tribute. This prosperous state of affairs lasted for nearly a century, when Ahmad Shah I. (A.D. 1422 - 1435), for some reason not explained, in 1428 transferred the seat of power to Bidar. Under 'Alau-d-Din Ahmad II. fresh conquests extended the kingdom over all the western Dekhan from Mysore to Gujarat. After Muhammad II., they lingered on for about another century, latterly known as the Barid Shahis, till they were absorbed in the great Mughal empire in A.D. 1 609. 2 Long before that, however, their place in the Dekhan had been taken by the Bijapur 'Adil Shahis, who established themselves there A.D. 1490. During the short supremacy of Kulbarga as capital of the Dekhan (A.D. 1347-1428), it was adorned with several important buildings, among which was a mosque, one of the most remark- able of its class in India (Woodcuts Nos. 409, 410). Its dimensions are considerable, though not excessive : it measures 216 ft. east and west, and 170 ft. north and south, and conse- quently covers 36,720 sq. ft. Its great peculiarity, however, is that, alone of all the great mosques in India, the whole of the area is covered over as in the great mosque at Cordova. Comparing it, for instance, with the mosque at Mandu, which is the one in other respects most like it, it will be observed that the greater part of its area is occupied by a courtyard surrounded by arcades. At Kulbarga there is no court, the whole area of about 126 ft. by 100 ft. is roofed over by sixty-three small domes, and the light is admitted through the side walls, which are pierced with great arches for this purpose on all sides except the west, where is the masjid proper, 45 ft. in depth (Woodcut No. 408). The central area of the mosque is covered by a dome 40 ft. in diameter, raised on a clerestory, and the side areas by 1 Kulbarga is the form generally and properly used, but in Haidarabad, the spelling Gulbarga is favoured. 2 A very succinct account of the dynasty is given in the ' Numismatic Chronicle,' 3rd Series, vol. i. pp. 91 et seqq.