________________
30 ]
INTRODUCTION
of Mahmud Khalji I of Malwa, he says "He (Mahmud) earned a reputation as a builder, and one of his works was a column of victory at Mandu erected to commemorate his success against Rānā Kumbhā of Chitor. The more famous column of victory at Chitor is said to commemorate victories over Mahmud of Gujarat and Mahmud of Malwa. If this is so 'it, like some tall bully lifts its head and lies'. Mahmud I failed to capture Chitor but the Rana never gained any important victory over him."1
The Bombay gazeteer, Vol. I, gives a connected view of these two towers of victory. As far as architectural evidence is concerned 'there stands a paved ramp crowned by a confused ruin facing the east entrance to the great Mosque of Hoshang Ghori. As late as A. D. 1843, this ruin is described as a square marble chamber. Each face of the chamber had three arches, the centre arch in two of the faces being a door. Above the arches the wall was of stone faced with marble. Inside the chamber the square corners were cut off by arches. No roof or other trace of superstructure remained. This chamber seems to be the basement of the column of victory which was raised in A. D. 1443 by Mahmud I (A.D. 1432-1469) in honour of his victory over Rana Kumbha of Chitor.'
According to the writer of the above account the special interest of Mahmud's column lies in being 'if not the original, at least the cause of the building of Kumbhā Rana's still uninjured Victory Tower which was completed in A. D. 1454 at a cost of £ 900,000 in honour of his defeat of Mahmud' (p. 361).
The authorities for Mahmud's Tower of victory are Ferishta's History, Abul Fazal's Ain-i-Akari and Memoirs of Jahangir. But none of these authorities says that it was built to commemorate Mahmud's victory over Rāṇā Kumbhā in A. D. 1444. Ferishta says, "Sooltan Mahmud, having ordered public prayers to be read on this occasion, determined to defer the siege of Chitor till the next year, and returned without molestation to Mandoo, where he built a beautiful pillar seven stories high, in front of a college, which he founded opposite the musjid of Sooltan Hooshang” (p. 210).
It is quite clear that this is not a description of a victory which requires to be commemorated by a column of victory. The originai Persian text of Ferishta no where calls it a 'Fateh Minara' as it would have been, if it were a tower of victory. Nor do Abul Fazal
give it any such name. All of them call it 'Minara-eHaft Manzari'-'a minaret with seven aspects or sides', an octagonal structure. It is not even called a building with seven stories as it is
and Tabangir
and dualSIL SIVCL an
1 According to Sir W. Haig-The successes of the Gahlots against Malwa were gained
by Sangram Singh, not by Kumbha, against Mahmud II, not Mabmud I (p. 361 C. HI, Vol IIl Ch. IVX).
