88 Notes on Old Delhi. [No. 2, 



gateway of 'Alaud-dm Khilji at the Qutb may be instanced as 

 shewing the style of this half century. 



The dome of the early Tughluq period is marked by the intro- 

 duction of a low cylinder of a slightly larger diameter than that of 

 the dome, from which the latter springs : the domes too are of a 

 somewhat peculiar shape, as seen in the well known tomb at 

 Tughlaqabad, and in that of Shaikh £alahud-din between Shahpur 

 and Khirkhi. In Firuz Shah's time, the cylinder has considerably 

 increased in height, and becomes a conspicuous object in the 

 dome-construction ; the curved portion of the dome is still continued, 

 however, down to the place where it springs from the cylinder. 



Under the Sayyid and Lodhi lines (the fifteenth century), the 

 changes consist in increasing still more the length of the cylinder, 

 which is now adorned with dimunitive pinnacles, and in bringing 

 the dome down to the cylinder by a curve which for a greater and 

 greater distance from the base tended, as time went on, towards a 

 straight line as its limit. 



I may add that this lengthening of the cylinder and strength- 

 ening of the lower lines of the dome, was the direct cause which 

 led to the introduction of the "false dome," (witness Humayiin's 

 tomb, and those standing near it) ; the graceful forms of Shah- 

 jahan's day being a later improvement. 



Among the other criteria may be mentioned the doorways, and 

 these are often useful in distinguishing between buidings from 

 Firuz Tughluq' s time and downwards ; the aperture was always 

 oblong, though usually set in an arch (I do not now speak of the 

 arches in mosque walls), and ornamented at the top by side-posts 

 being made to project. These doorways, which are wide and 

 ample in Firuz Shah's days, became subsequently more and more 

 narrow, while the ornamentation at the top became more finished 

 and elaborated, until specimens are found to rival even the 

 beautiful workmanship of Fathpur Sikri and the Agrah Fort. 



Besides the foregoing tests, buildings belonging to the Tughluq 

 dynasty, may be recognized usually by the slope of the walls, 

 described by General Cunningham ; those of Jahan Khan by the 

 sloping walls and multitudinous small hemispherical domes, while 

 during the fifteenth century, there was a gradually increasing use 

 of encaustic tiles. 



