Aurangabad and the Incredible, Impregnable Daulatabad Fort

March 2007

We again had the pleasure of riding with India Rail – one of the most efficient services in India, if not the most comfortable – to Aurangabad.  

Aurangabad was our centre of operations for four days as we visited the remarkable old Daulatabad fort, and the beautiful Ellora and Ajantha caves.  

The main tourist attraction  in Aurangabad is the Bibi ka Maqbara shrine.  Built in 1668, the shrine was styled after the Taj Mahal, and from a distance... .  Predictably, it’s often referred to as the 'Taj of the Deccan'.  But whereas the Taj Mahal is a shrine to King Shah Jahan’s ‘favourite’ wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the Bibi is a shrine to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s mother, Rabia Daurani.  The base and dome of the shrine are made of white marble, much of it beautifully sculpted with floral designs.  

Inside there’s a hexagonal room containing a cenotaph, marking Rabia’s resting place.  The screens surrounding it are all 'pierced marble' - finely and intricately carved.  Her grave was covered with what looked like a silk blanket - to keep her warm?  It was liberally littered with coins thrown from the gallery above, which is as close to the dear departed Rabia as we could get.  

As with the other places we’ve been to in this area of India, there were almost no other foreign tourists in Aurangabad or at the Bibi ka Maqbara.  So we were a curiosity and an attraction for Indian tourists who wanted to practice their English or have their photo taken.  We were more than happy to oblige, and again took down addresses so we could mail the photos to them.  In one case we had to find a translator for an address written in Gujurati.  We hope they got the photos!   

Five Gujarati women who wanted their picture taken in front of the Bibi ka Maqbara

Daulatabad's Fantastic Fort

The fort is at the top of the hill, in the distance....

It was just a short bus ride from Aurangabad to Daulatabad - and to the old ruined city and to the site of the fantastic, and fabled Daulatabad Fort.  The fort was built, in 1187, on the top of a massive rock outcrop that thrusts up from an otherwise flat plain.  The rocky hill itself is about 200 meters high, but the lower slopes of the hill were cut away to create a wall of sheer black rock, about 50 meters high, with not so much as a crevice or hand-hold to allow access to the top.  

Around much of this wall is an impressive moat, apparently once filled with crocodiles (more on that later...).  

The fort, perched on the top, was therefore almost impregnable. 

But there were many more defences inside... 

 

Starting from the ruins of the city below, we climbed the ubiquitous endless flights of stairs, past and through many beautiful old ruins of temples, courtyards and bazaars. 

Finally we are about to enter the fort... and many more stairs to climb...

As we neared the fort proper, we saw that the only accessible side was protected not only by the moat, but by several massive elephant-proof gates, fitted with nasty iron spikes. Incredibly, the elephants that were used to breach these gates were intoxicated (with what, I wonder? fermented coconut milk?).  If the drunken elephants and the presumably sober attackers made it through the gates, there was a further obstacle to navigate – an ingenious 60 meter long, completely black tunnel, just big enough for a man or two to pass through.  

 

Using a flashlight, we managed to grope our way through the tunnel with its blind corners, flights of stairs, twists and turns, batty ceilings and bat-shit floors, until we reached the battlements.  (As an aside, apparently the unlucky attackers who took wrong turns or went through wrong doors as they navigated these tunnels were trapped and fed to crocodiles.)

 

From the battlements we made an exhausting climb up several hundred more stairs, passing through a lovely palace on the way, until we finally reached the top.  There we sat atop an old canon and gazed at the panoramic view that stretched out in all directions around us.  No one would have been able to pass through this valley or approach this fort without being seen.  

We removed ourselves from the cannon barrel for this more traditional photo

The whole thing was truly an awesome feat of military strategy, engineering, design, architecture, art and sheer brute strength.  It’s hard to imagine the effort and energy that was put into building both the fort and the city below.  

The fort was said to be impregnable, and would never have fallen except for the guard at the gate who accepted a bribe and let the enemy in.  Ah India – how little things have changed!

 

But the most amazing thing of all about Daulatabad is how short-lived the city was.  It was only inhabited for a period of six years!  What happened was that in 1327 one of the Sultans of India decided to move the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, presumably for strategic reasons.  He force-marched the tens of thousands of people in Delhi all the way to Daulatabad.  Thousands died on the way.  Once there, he decided that Delhi was in fact the better capital, and in 1334 he force-marched his people all the way back again, with similar loss of life.  Then again my sympathies are still with the poor intoxicated elephants....

 

For more information on the Bibi ka Maqbara shrine in Aurangabad go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibi_Ka_Maqbara

 

For more information on the Daulatabad Fort go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daulatabad_Fort

 

For more information on Aurangabad go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangabad