Note 152 — PART I.—DESCRIPTION.

Sháh Jehán seems to have been pleased with Mándu. He returned in a.d. 1621 and stayed at Mándu till he marched north against his father in a.d. 1622.152 In March a.d. 1623, Sháh Jehán came out of Mándu with 20,000 horse, many elephants, and powerful artillery, intending to fight his brother Sháh Parwíz.153 After the failure of this expedition Sháh Jehán retired to Mándu.154 At this time (a.d. 1623) the Italian traveller Dela Valle ranks Mándu with Agra Láhor and Ahmedábád, as the four capitals, each endowed with an imperial palace and court.155 Five years later the great general Khán Jehán Lodi besieged Mándu, but apparently without success.156 Khán Jehán Lodi’s siege of Mándu is interesting in connection with a description of Mándu in Herbert’s Travels. Herbert, who was in Gujarát in a.d. 1626, says Mándu is seated at the side of a declining hill (apparently Herbert refers to the slope from the southern crest northwards to Ságar Lake and the Grot or Nílkanth) in which both for ornament and defence is a castle which is strong in being encompassed with a defensive wall of nearly five miles (probably kos that is ten miles): the whole, he adds, heretofore had fifteen miles circuit. But the city later built is of less time yet fresher beauty, whether you behold the temples (in one of which are entombed four kings), palaces or fortresses, especially that tower which is elevated 170 steps, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built by Khán Jehán, who there lies buried. The confusedness of these details shows that Herbert obtained them second-hand, probably from Corryat’s Master Herbert on Sir T. Roe’s staff.157 The new city of fresher Appendix II. The Hill Fort of Mándu. History The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. beauty is probably a reference to the buildings raised and repaired by Abdul Karím against Jehángír’s coming, among which the chief seems to have been the palace now known by the name of Báz Bahádur. The tower of 170 steps is Mehmúd Khilji’s Tower of Victory, erected in a.d. 1443, the Khán Jehán being Mehmúd’s father, the great minister Khán Jehán Aâzam Humáyún.