DAULATABAD, hill-fortress, Hyderabad State, India, about Io m. N.W. of the city of Aurangabad. The former city of Dau latabad (Deogiri) has shrunk to a village though its magnificent fortress and remains of public buildings survive. The fortress, on a conical rock, crowns a hill rising steeply from the plain to a height of some 600 ft. The outer wall, 21 m. in circumference, once enclosed the ancient city of Deogiri (Devagiri), and between this and the base of the upper fort are three lines of defences. The only access to the summit is by a narrow bridge, with passage for two men abreast, and a long gallery, excavated in the rock, with a steep stair midway, the top of which is covered by a grating destined in time of war to form the hearth of a huge fire kept burning by the garrison above. The remarkable Chand Minar in Daulatabad, a tower 210 ft. high and originally covered with Persian glazed tiles, was erected in 1445 by Ala-ud-din Bahmani to commemorate his capture of the fort. The Chini Mahal, or China Palace, is the ruin of a building in which Abul Hasan,the last of the Kutb Shahi kings of Golconda, was imprisoned by Aurangzeb in 1687.
Deogiri is said to have been founded C. A.D. 1187 by Bhillama I. who renounced his allegiance to the Chalukyas and established the power of the Yadava dynasty in the west. In 1294 the fort was captured by Ala-ud-din Khilji, and the rajas were reduced to pay tribute. The tribute falling into arrear, Deogiri was again occupied by the Mohammedans, and in 1318 the last raja, Harpal, was flayed alive. Deogiri now became an important base for Muslim expeditions southwards, and in 1339 Mohammed ben Tughlak Shah made it his capital as Daulatabad ("Abode of Prosperity"), and made arrangements for transferring to it the population of Delhi, but troubles summoned him north ; during his absence the Muslim governors of the Deccan revolted, and Daulatabad it self was taken by Zafar Khan, governor of Gulbarga. Later it fell into the hands successively of the Nizam Shahis, the emperor Akbar, the Shah of Ahmednagar, the Nizam Shahi usurper, Malik Amber, Shah Jehan, the Mogul emperor and the Nizam of Hydera bad, who took it after the death of Aurangzeb. Its glory, how ever, had already decayed owing to the removal of the seat of government by the emperors to Aurangabad.