Agra to Amritsar: Early Medieval India

The next major accounts of a state-led revitalization of the road occur during this Delhi Sultanate period(1206-1526 C.E.). Turkish Muslim rulers from Central Asia established sultanates across the Gangetic valley after crossing into the subcontinent on the Uttarapatha and began to prioritize the road once again. The reign of Mohommad bin Tulaq (1324-1351 C.E.) would again see Caravansarais constructed along the Sultanate’s royal road from Delhi to Daultabad, his new capital in modern-day Maharashtra. Under the leadership of his son, Firoze Shah Tulaq (1351-1387 C.E.), Delhi was revitalized with more than 120 hospitals and sarais which provided free shelter and food for travelers for up to three days. Under the 1488-1511 A.D. reign of Sikander Lodi, holy bathing sites for Hindus were provided with sarais, mosques, schools, and Bazaars. 

The Delhi sultanate period also witnessed the first interactions of Central Asian Islamic architecture with local traditional styles as the Sultanate’s dynasties built their tombs planned around the octagonalized square floorplans of the Baghdadi Muthamman architectural style. Sultanate period tombs still survive at many sites along the modern G.T. road, notably in the Mughal tomb-dominated area of Sikandra in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, where the skeletal remains of a  Lodi-era tomb dating to 1517-1526 C.E. can be found to the right of the visitors entrance and ticket stand of the Tomb of Akbar. Better preserved examples of these first forays into Indo-Islamic architecture can be experienced in Delhi’s verdant Lodi gardens, which contains Sikander Lodi’s own tomb. This tomb was the first in India to be enclosed by gardens rather than walls, crowned with turrets and a double-walled onion dome that would become emblematic of the later Mughal architecture style. One of the few remains of a Lodhi-era Mehmam Kama, or sarai, sits at the eastern end of the courtyard containing arched apartments built in a square around the tomb and its gardens.