CHAP. IX. GOLKONDA. 279 Muhammadan style, every part and every detail covered with ornament, but always equally appropriate and elegant. It is about 24 ft. square in plan and three storeys high, surmounted in front by two slender turrets. On the first floor are remark- ably fine balcony windows on each of the four sides. The floors of the first and second storeys are constructed in the same way as that in the Ibrahim Rauza. It formed the entrance to a mosque, and of its class it is perhaps the best example in the country, though this class may not be the highest. The gigantic walls of the city itself, 6 miles in circumference, are a work of no mean magnitude, and, combined with the tombs of those who built them, and with the ruins of the suburbs of this once great city, they make up a scene of grandeur in desolation, equal to anything else now to be found even in India. 1 If the materials were available for the purpose, it would be extremely interesting, from a historical point of view, to trace the various styles that grew out of each other as the later dynasties of the Dekhan succeeded one another and strove to surpass their predecessors in architectural magnificence in their successive capitals. With the exception, however, of Bijapur, none of the Dekhani cities produced edifices that, taken by themselves irrespective of their surroundings and historical im- portance, seem to be, so far as we yet know, of great value in an artistic sense. Burhanpur, which was the capital of the Faruqi dynasty of Kandesh, from A.D. 1370 to 1596, does possess some buildings remarkable for their extent and picturesque in their decay, but of very little artistic value, and many of them especially the later ones in very questionable taste. Ahmadnagar, the capital of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, A.D. 1490 to 1607, is singularly deficient in architectural grandeur, considering how long it was the capital of an important dynasty. Golkonda, the chosen seat of the Qutb Shaht dynasty, A.D. 1512 to 1687, lies 6 miles north-west from Haidar^bad. The first of the dynasty was Quit Qutbu-1-Mulk, a Turkman or Persian in the service of Mahmud Shah II. Bahmant, who rose to be governor of the Telingana districts, and who assumed independence in 1512. Ibrahim, the third king, Ferishta tells 1 Besides the two larger works mentioned above, p. 269, note, Mr Fergusson contributed to the ' Trans- actions of the Royal Institute of British Architects,' ist ser. vol. v. (1854-55), two papers: (i) ' Architectural Splendour of the City of Beejapore,' Nov. 1854 ; and (2) 'The Great Dome of Sultan Muhammed,' Dec. 1854. Mr Cousens made a survey of the Bijapur buildings several years ago, but the results have not yet been published. His ' Guide to Bijapur ' (1907) is a useful handbook,
