Badarpur Sarai

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Badarpur sarai, around which the urban village of Badarpur grew, was a rest-stop on the road between Delhi and Agra. All that visibly remains today of the 18th c. sarai are three gateways, remnants of the enclosing wall and a mosque, which has been much altered since. Till a couple of years ago, Delhiites may have spotted the southern gateway while stranded in the frequent traffic jams on Mathura Road here, but since the large elevated intersection was built at Badarpur, this sighting has been given a bypass. Continue reading →

Lado Serai

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I visited Lado Sarai for the first time to take a look at the few historical structures still standing there. While the structures are small and few, they are interesting to visit for various reasons. There are a couple of nameless tombs, one mosque and a dargah just outside the village. All three structures within Lado Sarai village are from the Lodhi era (15th c.) Continue reading →

Bridge Beside Shah Alam’s Tomb-Mosque Complex

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In my previous post I had mentioned the tomb-mosque complex of Shah Alam in Wazirabad in north Delhi, a saint during Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s time (late 14th c.). While the domes of this complex could always be seen rising above the treeline from the main Ring Road passing behind the structures, the new Wazirabad flyover/bridge (still under construction) has opened up views of the 14th c. bridge associated with the tomb-mosque, so I thought I’d put up a couple of photos of the bridge. Continue reading →

Qadam Sharif And Nearby Qutb Road Structures

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Qadam Sharif was originally built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq (14th c.) as a tomb for his son Fateh Khan, but the structure has been heavily altered since. The tomb, now located in the Pahar Ganj area, was enclosed inside an irregular kot (fortification) with gateways to the north and east. Little remains of these fortifications except the eastern gateway and parts of the northern gateway. Both were double gateways. Continue reading →

A Mosque (Okay Two) And A Dargah in Connaught Place

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Mosque

There are many large and small structures within the area of “Lutyens’ Delhi” that predate the British imperial capital. This is not surprising since many villages existed in the area where the capital was built, and while most of these villages were razed, some of the religious structures – mosques, dargahs, temples and gurdwaras – were allowed to stand (and many, especially the gurdwaras, have grown in size and importance since then). Mosques were probably the most numerous religious structures, and are easily spotted today as their number and need for specific orientation made them difficult to incorporate into the new urban layout. They jut out onto roads (like the mosque on Janpath) and walkways (like the one on Baba Khadak Singh Marg) and occupy traffic circles (like on Kasturba Gandhi Marg and near Udyog Bhawan). Continue reading →

Four Ghurid Mosques

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The four mosques discussed in this post are among the earliest royally-sanctioned mosques in north India, dating from the last decade of the 12th c and first decade of the 13th c (1190-1210 AD). All four were built in the wake of the conquest of north India by the armies of Mohammad Ghouri, and are said to be built at the sites of remains of earlier Hindu temples. Continue reading →

Dilli Darshan: Mehrauli

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Mehrauli is a large urban village that grew around the shrine of the 13th c. Sufi saint Bakhtiyar Kaki, much like Nizamuddin grew around the shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya (also 13th c. though a little later than Bakhtiyar Kaki). Kaki’s shrine was just outside the walls of Lal Kot, the fortified city within which the Qutb Minar is situated, and Mehrauli has grown right up to the edge of the now ruined fortifications. Continue reading →