Place · ruined hill-fort city · India
Mandu
The ruined medieval hill city on the Vindhyan plateau in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, capital of the Malwa Sultanate from 1401 to 1562 under the Khalji and Dilawar Khan dynasties. Mandu's monuments — the Jahaz Mahal built by Ghiyas-ud-din Khalji in the 1480s to float between Munja and Kapur tanks, the Jama Masjid (1454) modelled on Damascus, the Hoshang Shah tomb (1440) — are among the finest pre-Mughal Islamic architecture in India. The Jahaz Mahal was built as a women's palace. The tragic Baz Bahadur-Rupmati romance of the 1560s produced the music that Baz Bahadur composed and sang from Mandu's cliff. Akbar annexed Malwa in 1562.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Delhi Sultanate
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 22.333, 75.400
Connections (3)
- Contemporary capital withChampaner-Pavagadh
Mandu and Champaner were the capitals of the Malwa and Gujarat sultanates, built within a few decades of each other and in constant rivalry — the two states fought repeatedly and each sheltered the other's rebels. Their architecture developed in dialogue: Mandu's pavilions and reservoirs and Champaner's mosques share a vocabulary that borrows heavily from local Hindu and Jain building, and neither looks much like Delhi.
- FolkloreNarmadapuram / Hoshangabad
The folklore of the region intertwines the two locations through the romance of Mandu's last independent ruler, Baz Bahadur, and his queen, Rani Roopmati. Roopmati was deeply devoted to the sacred Narmada River and refused to marry the Sultan unless she could live within sight of it. To honor her wish, Baz Bahadur constructed the famous Roopmati Pavilion at the highest crest of the Mandu fortress. From this vantage point, she would gaze down past the Nimar plains toward the glinting waters of the Narmada River, which flows continuously eastward through Narmadapuram.
- FolkloreNarmadā
The folklore of the region intertwines the two locations through the romance of Mandu's last independent ruler, Baz Bahadur, and his queen, Rani Roopmati. Roopmati was deeply devoted to the sacred Narmada River and refused to marry the Sultan unless she could live within sight of it. To honor her wish, Baz Bahadur constructed the famous Roopmati Pavilion at the highest crest of the Mandu fortress. From this vantage point, she would gaze down past the Nimar plains toward the glinting waters of the Narmada River, which flows continuously eastward through Narmadapuram.
On these journeys
Sources
Group of Monuments at Mandu — UNESCO Tentative List
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