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 →

Qila Rai Pithora Walls (And A Little Bit Of Jahanpanah)

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Many Dilliwalas are familiar with the portion of the fortifications of Qila Rai Pithora (which date back to the 12th c. AD) that are visible along Press Enclave Road along the Qutb Golf Course boundary. There was also a portion of the wall that stuck out onto Aurobindo Marg just north of Lado Sarai that was under litigation for many years and which was finally (sometime in the 1990s I think) torn down to widen Aurobindo Marg. And then there are the Lal Kot fortification ruins north of Mahrauli in the Sanjay Van area that I had covered in my Mehrauli post. 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 →

Shahjahanabad III: Kashmiri Gate & Northern Old Delhi

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The Kashmiri Gate area of Shahjahanabad is the small bit that lies to the north of Old Delhi railway station, while the bulk of Shahjahanabad lies to its south. A railway station in 19th c. Delhi had become a necessity due to the growing rail network of British India and the increasing British interest in Delhi (they had essentially controlled Delhi since 1803), however the location of Old Delhi station was probably dictated by retributionary passions after the uprising of 1857, since the introduction of the rail lines and station in their current alignment meant the clearing of a large swath of the city. The railway lines and station also conveniently divided Old Delhi into two, and the British began concentrating in the northern part of the city. This is also partly the reason why the original Civil Lines and cantonment lie to the north of Shahjahanabad. Continue reading →