Qutb Minar was originally four-storied. Who among the following Delhi Sultans raised the height to the structure by adding the fifth storey?

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2021 Paper I Q66?

D. Correct — D, Firoz Shah Tughlaq. Qutbuddin Aibak began the minar in about 1199 and Iltutmish carried it up to four storeys. In 1369 lightning struck the top and damaged the uppermost storey, and Firoz Shah Tughlaq rebuilt it — replacing the damaged fourth storey and adding a fifth above it in white marble and red sandstone, which is why the two upper storeys look different from the three fluted red-sandstone ones below. His own inscription on the tower records the repair. The result is the 72.5-metre, five-storey minaret standing today, and Firoz Shah's habit of restoring older monuments, recorded in his Futuhat-i-Firoz Shahi, makes the attribution consistent with everything else known about him. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)Balban
(b)Alauddin Khalji
(c)Muhammad Tughlaq
(d)Firoz Shah Tughlaq

Answer

Why

Correct — D, Firoz Shah Tughlaq. Qutbuddin Aibak began the minar in about 1199 and Iltutmish carried it up to four storeys. In 1369 lightning struck the top and damaged the uppermost storey, and Firoz Shah Tughlaq rebuilt it — replacing the damaged fourth storey and adding a fifth above it in white marble and red sandstone, which is why the two upper storeys look different from the three fluted red-sandstone ones below. His own inscription on the tower records the repair. The result is the 72.5-metre, five-storey minaret standing today, and Firoz Shah's habit of restoring older monuments, recorded in his Futuhat-i-Firoz Shahi, makes the attribution consistent with everything else known about him.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Balban — A Slave-dynasty sultan of the later thirteenth century, remembered for the theory of kingship built on zill-i-ilahi and sijda-paibos and for his tomb at Mehrauli, which is the earliest true arch in India. He did no work on the minar.
(b)Alauddin Khalji — He did build at the Qutb complex — the Alai Darwaza of 1311 and the Alai Minar, a rival tower meant to be twice as tall that was abandoned at its first storey when he died. Neither is a storey of the Qutb Minar.
(c)Muhammad Tughlaq — Firoz Shah's predecessor and cousin, remembered for the transfer of the capital to Daulatabad and for token currency. The lightning strike and the repair both belong to Firoz Shah's reign.

Concept

The Qutb complex at Mehrauli is a layered site. Aibak began the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the minar around 1199, Iltutmish extended both, Alauddin Khalji added the Alai Darwaza and started the Alai Minar, and Firoz Shah Tughlaq repaired what earlier storms and lightning had damaged. The iron pillar in the courtyard is older than all of it, a Gupta-period object moved to the site.

Firoz Shah is the Delhi sultan of restoration. He repaired the Hauz Khas reservoir and Jama Masjid built by earlier rulers, moved two Ashokan pillars to Delhi — one to his new city of Firozabad and one to the Delhi ridge — and set up a department to look after old buildings. Reading a repair or an addition to an existing monument as his work is usually a safe instinct, and it is exactly what this question tests.

Key facts

Qutbuddin Aibak began the Qutb Minar about 1199; Iltutmish completed four storeys.
Lightning damaged the top in 1369, during the reign of Firoz Shah Tughlaq.
Firoz Shah rebuilt the damaged storey and added a fifth, in white marble and red sandstone.
The tower now stands about 72.5 metres tall with five storeys.
Alauddin Khalji built the Alai Darwaza in 1311 and left the Alai Minar unfinished at its first storey.

The Qutb Minar seen in full from the lawn of the complex, its five tapering storeys of fluted red sandstone separated by balconies, the upper stages faced in pale marble — The Qutb Minar stands about 72.5 metres tall in five storeys, the upper ones faced in white marble and red sandstone.Image: IM3847 · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Study next

The Qutb complex — the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, the Alai Darwaza and the iron pillarFiroz Shah Tughlaq's building and repair programme, and the Futuhat-i-Firoz ShahiThe transfer of the Ashokan pillars to DelhiThe architectural sequence from the Slave dynasty through the Khaljis to the TughlaqsMuhammad bin Tughlaq's capital transfer and token currency

Common traps

Giving the fifth storey to Alauddin Khalji because he built at the same complex.
Confusing Muhammad bin Tughlaq with Firoz Shah Tughlaq; the repair belongs to the successor.
Assuming a monument begun by one ruler must have been finished by him.

A ruler-to-monument attribution that rewards knowing a building's construction sequence rather than a single founder's name.

Related PYQs

UPSC_1998_GS1_Q441998Open & attempt →

Consider the following: I. Tughluqabad Fort. II. Lodi Garden. III. Qutub Minar. IV. Fatehpur Sikri. The correct chronological order in which they were built is:

(a) III, I, IV, II
(b) III, I, II, IV
(c) I, III, II, IV
(d) I, III, IV, II

Answer(b) III, I, II, IV

The same monument placed in a sequence rather than attributed to a builder. The minar is the earliest of the four, which is the fact that anchors the whole chronology of Delhi's medieval building.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Alai Darwaza at the Qutb complex was built by
- (a)Iltutmish
- (b)Balban
- (c)Alauddin Khalji
- (d)Firoz Shah Tughlaq
Answer(c) Alauddin Khalji — completed in 1311.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which Delhi Sultan had two Ashokan pillars brought to Delhi?
- (a)Iltutmish
- (b)Alauddin Khalji
- (c)Muhammad bin Tughlaq
- (d)Firoz Shah Tughlaq
Answer(d) Firoz Shah Tughlaq — one was set up at Firozabad and the other on the ridge.