With the establishment of the Bahmani Kingdom in the Deccan from 1347, the
architectural styles of Persia made impressive and lasting impacts, which are seen in the fort. The mosques, arches, gardens, and the palaces were built within and also outside the fort in the Kalaburagi town. Within the fort, the buildings built are impressive with Indo-Persian architecture that evolved in the Deccan. Professor Desai has observed:
A distinct Indo-Persian architectural style of Deccan came into existence after the establishment of the Bahmani dynasty in 1347. Some of the important structures built are elaborated.
Fort The fort was originally built by and was subsequently substantially fortified in
West Asian and European military architectural style by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, the founder and first Sultan of the Bahmani Empire; particular mention is made of the citadel that was added in the centre of the fort. The fort has an area of approximately and periphery length of . It is well fortified with double fortification. A wide moat surrounds the fort. The fort is a monumental structure highly fortified with 15 towers mounted with 26 guns; each gun located inside the fort is long and is still well preserved. It is said that the Bahmani Sultanate claimed lineage of the
Sasanians and the
motifs on their buildings, particularly the crowns of the arches that they built depicted an emblem of the
crescent and occasionally a disk that was closely reminiscent of the crowns of the Sassanian emperors. Many religious or secular buildings in the fort area depict this emblem.
Jamia Masjid The
Jamia Mosque, one of the first in
South India, was built to commemorate Gulbarga as the capital of the Bahmani Sultanate. The mosque has no open courtyard. The outer passageways surround the prayer hall on three sides and have low open arcades with arches. They form a rectangular layout with ten bays each on the north and the south, and seven bays on the east. The square bays on the corners are topped by domes. The roofed interior bays are covered with low domes, faceted by
pendentives. The front yard in front of the
mihrab has nine bays with a single large dome.
Trefoil interiors and elongated lobes are seen on sloping arches of the drum. The main roof drum is mounted on a cubic
clerestory. The wooden screens that existed on the outer arcade openings have been removed over the years. They have been replaced, in recent times, by an arched entrance portal on the north face. On the whole, the mosque displays distinct Persian architectural style with five large domes (One large and four small at the corners) and 75 small domes with 250 arches.
Tomb of Bande Nawaz Apart from the other monuments, the other building of interest is the tomb of the
Sufi saint
Bande Nawaz, built in the
Indo-Saracenic style. It is a large complex where the tomb of the Sufi saint exists. The tomb walls have paintings; the arches of the
dargah are in the Bahmani architectural style while the paintings on the walls and ceiling have a fusion of
Turkish and
Persian influence. The Mughals also built a mosque close to the tomb. An annual fair or
Urs is held here in November, which attracts a large number of devotees of all religious communities. ==Access==