206 Notes on the Topography &c. of Delhi. [No. 4, 



Lalkote. 



General Cunningham has endeavoured to identify the grey granite 

 •walls of the large citadel that lies around the Kutb mosque and minar 

 with the Lalkote, or " Red fort," constructed by Anang Pal in A. D. 

 1060. Now, as he himself admits, no Mahommedan writer alludes to 

 any citadel* of that name, either when describing the capture of the 

 city, or on any other subsequent occasion. On the contrary, Zia 

 Barni speaks of the final assault as being made through the Grhazni 

 gate of Rai Pithora's fort, which we know to have been a distinct 

 place from Lalkote ; and the possession of which evidently implied 

 the capture of the whole city. Had Lalkote been a strong citadel, as 

 Cunningham supposes, a subsequent attack upon it would doubtless 

 have been necessary, in order to secure quiet possession of the place, 

 and this second assault would have been recorded in history. 



We know that the palace in which Rai Pithora resided, when the 

 city w r as captured, stood upon the site of the Kutb-ul Islam mosque, 

 to make room for which it was removed. I am decidedly of opinion 

 that this was the building known among the Hindus as Lalkote, and 

 that only on this supposition can the total disappearance of the name 

 from history be explained. The work of Anang Pal would thus be 

 but a small one, containing probably the one temple built by that 

 monarch and the famous Iron Lath ; and it would derive its name, 

 like the Lall Mahal and Ruby Palaces of a later date, from the red 

 sandstone of which it was built, and which was afterwards worked up 

 into the great arches, the Kutb Minar, and the tomb of Altamsh. 



SlEI AND THE SITE OF AlA-U-DIn's ENTRENCHMENT. 



I now pass to the consideration of General Cunningham's arguments 

 in favour of identifying Siri and the site of Ala-u-din's entrenchment 

 with the ruined city of Shahpoor, and his rejection of the theory, 

 upheld by Lewis, Cope and Burgess, that the first of these was merely 

 the name of the citadel around the Kutb. 



Neither Ferishta nor any other writer makes mention of Shahpoor. 

 As regards the origin of the other three places, we learn : first, that 



* The prohibition against beating kettle drums in Lalkote mentioned by 

 General Cunningham is merely a regulation of the palace in which Kutb-ud-din 

 took up his first abode. 



