Bahmani Tombs

At Ashtur, a few kilometres from Bidar fort, the Bahmani sultans built their dynastic burial ground: a line of massive square tomb chambers capped with bulbous domes, several still bearing traces of the coloured tilework and painted plasterwork that once covered their interiors. The tombs of Ahmad Shah Wali — who moved the Bahmani capital to Bidar — and his successors are the most elaborate, their interiors decorated with Quranic calligraphy and floral motifs in a style that drew heavily on Persian and Central Asian models.

Seen together, the Ashtur tombs form a chronological record of Bahmani architecture, from the relatively restrained early structures to the increasingly ambitious and then visibly declining craftsmanship of the dynasty’s final, fragmented decades before it splintered into the five Deccan sultanates. As a necropolis rather than a single monument, the site gives an unusually complete picture of how a regional Islamic dynasty expressed continuity and legitimacy through funerary architecture.

Getting there: Ashtur village is a short drive east of Bidar city; the Ashtur Post Office serves the settlement adjoining the tombs.