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Sunday, August 17, 2008 1:42:32 PM |
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The 13 meter high sandstone obelisk with Ashoka’s edict stands testimony to the history of this old city.
Ferozabad, the 5th city of Delhi, was erected by Feroz Shah Tughlaq in 1354 and can be found at Feroz Shah Kotla, just off Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg between Old and New Delhi.
Also seen, are the remains of a mosque and a well, but most of the ruins were used for the construction of later cities.
Feroz Shah was a great builder and so, this fifth city of Delhi was full of splendid palaces, mosques and gardens. The Tughlaqabad area was woefully short of water and this made the Tomars move westward to Mehrauli. Firoz Shah, Muhammad Tughlaq’s successor solved this problem by building his new city on the banks of Yamuna. Kotla was the inner citadel of Firozabad, built like Windsor, with great palaces and a magnificent mosque inspiring Timur’s envy.
Destroyed by the Mughals, Kotla palaces were reduced to mere ruins, exposing to view the subterranean passages and covered cloisters.
One can still see the pyramidal structure topped by the Ashokan Pillar brought from Topra, and a three tiered baoli. The structure is made out of polished sand stone and it tapers towards the top. This 14 ft high magnificent structure, was developed by the Mauryan emperor, Ashoka in the 3rd century. The imposing Ashokan Pillar in Delhi was a gift to Delhi by the third Sultan of the Tughlak dynasty, Firoz Shah Tughlak. The four lions surmounting the capital symbolize the kingship of the Buddha and his roar over the four directions.
Timur’s invasion of Delhi reduced the city to a city of ruins as he took away with him elephants loaded with treasures and costly building material, artists, masons and skilled workmen as prisoners. The Saiyyads and Lodis used Kotla as their citadel.
Designed by Malik Ghazi and Abdul Hakk, Feroz Shah Kotla was then popularly known as Kushk-I-Feroz, which meant Feroz’s palace. Consisting of three rubble-built walled rectangular enclosures, it forms an irregular polygonal plan with its eastern wall in one alignment. The eastern wall of the citadel was built on a bank of the River Yamuna and it is said that Feroz Shah erected this citadel here in spite of having three palaces in Delhi because of the shortage of water in those areas. Among the three enclosures of the citadel, the central one is the largest and is presently called as ‘Kotla Feroz Shah’ as one can only find the ruins of the northern and southern enclosures amidst the modern constructions. The central enclosure had an imposing main gateway from the western direction and bastions on either side flanked it, the ruins of which can be seen even today. Often compared to the ‘Windsor Palace of London’, several subsequent rulers were spellbound with its beauty.
The palace was finally abandoned in the year 1490 AD.
Presently it has now been developed as a beautiful garden, as the successive rulers used most of its ruins for the construction of later cities in Delhi.
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