Daulatabad Fort

Daulatabad Fort, originally Devagiri Fort, is a historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It was the capital of the Yadavas (9th century – 14th century CE), for a brief time the capital of the Delhi Sultanate (1327–1334), and later a secondary capital of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1499–1636).

Around the 6th century CE, Devagiri emerged as an important uplands town near present-day Aurangabad, along caravan routes going towards western and southern India. The historical triangular fortress in the city was initially built around 1187 by the first Yadava monarch, Bhillama V. In 1308, the city was annexed by Alauddin Khalji of the Delhi Sultanate, which ruled over some parts of northern India. In 1327, Muhammad bin Tughluq of the Delhi Sultanate renamed Devagiri as Daulatabad and shifted his imperial capital to the city from Delhi, ordering a mass migration of Delhi's population to the now Daulatabad. However, Muhammad bin Tughluq reversed his decision in 1334 and the capital of the Delhi Sultanate was shifted back to Delhi.

In 1499, Devagiri, already renamed Daulatabad, became part of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, who used it as their secondary capital. In 1610, near Daulatabad Fort, the new city of Aurangabad, then named Khadki, was established to serve as the capital of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate by the Ethiopian military leader Malik Ambar, who was brought to India as a slave but rose to become a popular Prime Minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. Most of the present-day fortifications at Daulatabad Fort were constructed under the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.

Text adapted from “Daulatabad Fort” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Daulatabad Fort ranks #1,137 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #43 of the 172 mapped in India. Founded c. 1187, it is older than 80% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 544 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 13,280 times in the last 60 days, more than 95% of the atlas. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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