Daulatabad
| Daulatabad | |||
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| State : |
 India
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| State : | Maharashtra | ||
| District : | Aurangabad | ||
| Location : | 19 ° 57 ′ N , 75 ° 13 ′ E | ||
| Height : | 600 m | ||
| Area : | 5.48 km² | ||
| Residents : | 6,096 (2011) | ||
| Population density : | 1112 inhabitants / km² | ||
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Daulatabad - also called Devagiri or Deogiri ( Marathi : देवगिरी = "Mountain of Gods") - is a larger village with around 6,500 inhabitants in the heart of the Indian state of Maharashtra .
Location and climate
Daulatabad is located on the Dekkan Plateau at an altitude of about 600 m, about 17 km (driving distance) northwest of Aurangabad and about 13 km southeast of Ellora . The port city of Mumbai is about 350 km to the southwest; the Indian capital Delhi is about 1100 km (as the crow flies) north. The climate is warm; Rain (approx. 815 mm / year) falls almost exclusively during the summer monsoon months .
population
Most of the residents of the place are Hindus and Muslims ; the other religions hardly play a role among the rural population of India. The proportion of the male population exceeds the female population by around 10%.
economy
Most of the residents traditionally make their living from agriculture, but tourism has gained increasing importance in the last decades of the 20th century.
history
Sparse remains of a Buddhist cave monastery - located on an old trade route - indicate that the place (then called Devagiri ) dates back to 100 BC. Was settled. Since the Rashtrakutas penetrated from southern India to Ellora in the middle of the 8th century and carved the Kailasa temple out of the rock there, some researchers also attribute the enormous stonemasonry on the side hewn fortress mountain of Devagiri to them. According to tradition, the history of Devagiri goes back to the Seuna dynasty , whose ruler Bhillama V was able to break his allegiance to the Chalukyas in 1190 and founded the new capital here. A hundred years later (1294) the then Sultan of Delhi Ala ud-Din Khalji (r. 1296-1316 ) conquered the place, but left the then Seuna ruler Ramachandra (r. 1271-1311) in power as a tributary vassal. Whose son Singhana III. did not recognize the obligations of his deceased father and was killed in a new campaign (1311) under the general Malik Kafur , who subsequently briefly took power over the Sultanate of Delhi. His successor Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah personally headed another campaign against the Yadavas in 1317 and annexed their empire.
A decisive event was the conquest of the city and its fortress mountain by Muhammad Shah II (r. 1325-1351) from the Tughluq dynasty ruling over the Sultanate of Delhi in 1327 - he named the city and the fortress in Daulatabad (“Place of prosperity ”) and chose it as his new capital. As a result, the entire court - even the entire population - was supposed to move here from Delhi, which was associated with enormous costs and resistance in the civil service and the population, so that the whole project was reversed 17 years later. In the middle of the 15th century Daulatabad came under the control of the Bahmani Sultanate for some time ; thereafter the city changed hands several times until it was captured in 1633 after a siege of several months by the troops of the Mughal Empire under Shah Jahan (r. 1627-1658). The last important Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb (ruled 1658-1707), carried out several campaigns on the Deccan of Daulatabad until he moved his capital to the neighboring Fatehnagar , which was renamed Aurangabad a short time later. In 1724 the region came under the control of the Nizams of Hyderabad , who held it under the rule of the British until India became independent in 1947.
Attractions
place
- Away
- The almost impregnable fortress of Daulatabad has a long history, which may extend from the Rashtrakutas to the Yadava dynasty to the Mughal rulers. The most striking part is the about 185 meters high and laterally to a height of about 50 m beveled fortress mountain ( Devagiri = " mountain of gods"), which was also surrounded by a moat and a nearly 4.5 km long fortress wall, inside which the city, the mosque and several palace buildings were located. Through gates and stairs, some of which are carved into the rock like a tunnel, you can climb to the top, where there is a viewing or guard pavilion from the Mughal era.
- Chand Minar
- The minaret , which shines in light red to ocher tones and is divided by three surrounding balconies, is around 64 meters high and has a base circumference of 21 m. It dates from around 1445 and was built by Ala-ud-din Bahmani as a victory tower on the occasion of the capture of the city. Its architecture is based on the Qutub Minar in Delhi .
- Jama Masjid
- The architecture of the Friday mosque ( jama masjid ), which has been partially preserved, largely follows the early courtyard mosques of Delhi ( Quwwat-ul-Islam-Mosque ) and Ajmer ( Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra-Mosque ), which were also partly destroyed with spoilage Hindu temples were erected.
Surroundings
- Aurangabad
- The megacity of Aurangabad offers a number of sights, especially the Bibi-Ka-Maqbara mausoleum. But the Buddhist Aurangabad caves in a rock face east of the city are also worth seeing.
- Khuldabad
- In Khuldabad , about 12 km northwest on the road to Ellora, there are numerous graves of important Muslim personalities, including those of Malik Ambar and Aurangzeb .
- Ellora
- A little away from the village of Ellora there are a total of 34 Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave sanctuaries from the 5th – 10th centuries. Century, including the Kailasa Temple .
literature
- Dulari Qureshi: Fort of Daulatabad. Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, New Delhi 2004, ISBN 978-81-8090-072-3 .
Web links
- Daulatabad - Photos and information (Engl.)
- Daulatabad - Photos and information (Engl.)
- Daulatabad - Photo + Infos (Engl.)
- Daulatabad - Photos and information (Engl.)