Person · Delhi Sultan · India
Sikandar Lodi
Also known as Sikandar Lodi, Sikandar II, Nizam Khan
Lodi Sultan of Delhi 1489 to 1517, the second ruler of the Afghan Lodi dynasty, who founded the city of Agra in 1504 as his new capital — a deliberate move south from Delhi closer to his Doab revenue base and the Gwalior frontier where his campaigns were concentrated. He was a Persian-language poet himself under the pen name Gulrukhi, patronised the first substantial Hindi-Persian literary exchange at a Delhi Sultanate court, and systematised the Afghan iqta administration into a more centralised land revenue. His foundation of Agra set up what became the Mughal capital a generation later; Babur used Sikandar's revenue records at Agra to administer the empire he founded in 1526.
- Date
- 1458–1517
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Lodi
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Sikandar's own tomb at Khairpur in Delhi is a transition between Lodi and Mughal mausoleum form — octagonal with a surrounding verandah and a double dome, which became the Mughal pattern. The 1504 foundation of Agra put the capital where Sikandar's Afghan commanders could campaign against Rajput Gwalior and the Doab Rajput Rathor and Gaur confederacies. Rana Sanga's rising power in Mewar was a Lodi strategic concern that passed to Babur.
About the place
Placed at Delhi (his capital) and Agra (which he founded in 1504).
Connections (1)
- FoundedAgra
Sikandar Lodi founded Agra in 1504 as his new Lodi capital, moving the seat south from Delhi to be closer to his Doab revenue base and the Gwalior campaigns. His choice of site — on the Yamuna's right bank where the river was fordable — became the Mughal capital a generation later: Babur, Humayun, Akbar and Shah Jahan all ruled from Sikandar's Agra, which became the Mughal centre until Shah Jahan's 1648 move to Shahjahanabad.