Description: This bilingual Persian and Hindwani cloth map thought to be from the 1730s, preserved in the City Palace Museum in Jaipur provides a very interesting understanding of the layout of the city. The fort that Khudawand Khan built in Surat in 1540 is unusual, primality because it’s a square-shaped artillery fortress, also known as a chaukandi, that’s ringed by a moat connected to the Tapti river. The city fans out around this fort along the banks of the Tapti River, enclosed by an inner wall and an outer wall. Khudawand Khan built this fortress with the goal of defending the city and its port from attacks from the Portuguese, which meant it was built primarily as a defensive structure with iron and lead reinforcements between bricks and lofty battlements and towers. Surat Castle, or Surat Fort, is a 16th-century structure in the city of Surat.

The Ahmedabad king Sultan Mahmud-III (1538-1554) ordered its construction to defend the city from the frequent attacks that had devastated it. He entrusted the work to Safi Agha, a Turkish soldier who had been ennobled with the title of Khudawand Khan.