THE CURSED CITY OF TUGLAQ: THE TUGLAQABAD FORT

Tuqlaqabad Fort became the Fourth City of Delhi after the end of the Khilji Dynasty and the beginning of the Tuglaq Dynasty.

Tuqlaqabad Fort. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Power struggle dominated the Delhi Sultanate. Regardless of the man sitting on the throne, conspiracies to remove him were normal. And this process continued after the death of Allaudin Khilji as well.

Malik Kafur, the favourite and the right hand of Khilji, dreamed of sitting on the throne one day as well. Yet, his hope to fulfil this wish was rejected even after Khilji’s death. He died fighting in this power struggle since he couldn’t get the support of Afghans and Persian nobles.

The last ruler of the Khilji dynasty became Alauddin's 18-year-old son, Qutubuddin Mubarak Shah. However, his rule was short-lived and was killed after four years of his reign by Khusro Shah. Like Aibak, Khusrau Shah was also a slave. A successful military soldier, he couldn’t rule for more than mere months when Ghazi Malik assassinated him.

With the death of Shah, the Khilji Dynasty came to an end and with the succession of Ghazi Malik as the new ruler, the Tuglaq Dynasty began. He became the first Sultan of the Tughlaq dynasty and was known as Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq in the history of the Delhi dynasty.

Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq started the construction of a new city as soon as he became the Sultan. The purpose of the construction of this elaborate fort was to preserve and protect his power in the era of Mongols, terrible wars, invasions, looting. The city was named Tughlaqabad, but the fort was deserted before it was settled, due to the curse of a Sufi saint.

According to legends, Nizamuddin Auliya was getting a baoli (well) built and at the same time, the ambitious Sultan of the Tughlaq dynasty wanted his fort constructed. To get his fort ready on time, he ordered all the labourers in the vicinity to work for the new capital. This angered the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya as the work on his baoli (well) had been stopped and, he cursed the fort and the new capital that 'the city would either be settled by the Gujars or abandoned'. The conflict between a Sufi saint and a Sultan has become a famous story in the history of India.

Since it is a legend, the truth behind this story is unknown yet historical events after the curse does make sense. After Tughlaqabad was fully constructed, the Sultan died in an accident and Mohammed bin Tughlaq shifted the capital to Daulatabad in Deogiri of Aurangabad district after seven years of his rule. He faced issues in Daulatabad and decided to return to his old capital. Yet, rather than returning to the abandoned fort of Tuglaqabad, he built a new capital for himself and named it Jahanpanah which is between Mehrauli and Siri. He did not return to the deserted Tughlaqabad as he considered it a cursed city.