Deer Park, Delhi

Teeming with a much admired variety of flora and fauna , one of Delhi’s largest green lungs and a delight for nature enthusiasts and joggers alike, the aptly named Deer Park in Hauz Khas has endeared itself amongst heritage lovers for another reason – the thickly forested, almost pristine grounds present to visitors a feast of monuments that remains hidden behind multiple layers of foliage and is reached by following a labyrinthine trail convoluting and turning over itself throughout the massive park – in fact, it is the sheer frustration at being repeatedly brought back to the same point by the slithering, sneaking maze-like pathway and the mind-boggling confusion about finding the correct way in the vast, unmanageable park that might prove a hindrance (if you do consider these one) to locating all three medieval tombs within the complex – but then it is the thrill of discovering these forgotten beautiful structures through veils of vegetation and a complexity of trails that drives the enthusiasts and the curious to explore this hidden magical nook in the heart of the city. The park promises to present to visitors the momentary surreal feeling of awestruck surprise at the sight of a marvelous centuries-old structure that just might peep out all of a sudden through thick layers of vegetation and a tangle of branches and vines or behind vibrantly colorful swings or even amidst unbelievably large mounds of dead and dry gnarled wood! For couples, the park is a heaven, one of the last remaining bastions where young lovers can meet without being judged, disturbed or subjected to moral policing by the older generations and right-wing brigades, though of course, there might be a few lonely, frustrated guys lurking behind a tomb or a tree and sneaking up on couples and clicking them while they get physical.

At Deer Park

It was a particularly sunny summer afternoon when I visited the park and the adjacent Hauz Khas complex (check Pixelated Memories - Hauz Khas Complex) – the trees seemed parched, the concrete felt as if it would melt under the fiery onslaught and the air itself struggled to escape the scorching clutch of the sun – the park’s huge trees, with their wide spread of branches and dense foliage, conspired to keep the sun from showing its dreaded face to those who were seeking asylum under their wild expanse, thereby providing much appreciated relief to humanity and wildlife. But as evidenced by the presence of scores of couples who throng to the park at all times of the day irrespective of blistering sun or drenching rain, love knows no bounds! It has been often observed that all medieval structures – be they tombs, mosques, pavilions or palaces – tend to be considerably cooler than the surrounding environments as a result of location-specific architectural practices, honed over centuries of construction, employed in their building – it is therefore no surprise that the tombs within the park become a refuge during the daytime for dreary visitors, tired couples, heat-struck rodents and hassled birds. Though at all times the park remains threatened by vandals and deranged lovers who take to monuments to vent their emotions, be it love or anger or frustration, and often leave behind irritatingly disgusting love letters or abuses, such elements are more active during the day when the crowd is relatively less and thoroughly dispersed and there is little suspicion that anyone can go about such anti-social, anti-heritage activities diurnally – the few guards on duty have it real rough, having to patrol such vast space and managing undisciplined, and in all probability uneducated, louts and vandals who are adept at badmouthing and harassing at the slightest pretext – despite my rants against the poor state that the government has subjected the monuments to, I do feel bad for the guards. 

Nothing stimulates an adrenaline rush like a friendly fight!

True to its name, the park has enclosures that house rabbits and deer and there are ponds where duck and geese waddle about in enjoyment. The deer are a real delight (probably apparent from the large number of photos I clicked), there are so many of them, and a few look suberbly majestic with their striking horns and chiseled bodies. Incidentally, it was much later that I found out about the monuments in the park, it was the deer I first read about it in a newspaper article, that’s what piqued my interest – who would have thought there are deer roaming about in a public park in Delhi! One can also spot rare avian visitors if one is observant enough – there are lapwings, peacocks, parrots, pigeons, mynas and occasional terns.

Of the three tombs within the park premises, the largest is Bagh-i-Alam ka Gumbad (“Tomb within the garden of the world”), a beautifully adorned, medium-sized tomb that seems to be a favorite with visitors, enchanting them with its modest blue tile work and exquisite multicolored medallion art on the interiors, and also attracting couples to its deep recessed alcoves where one can hope to shut out the world while embracing one’s beloved. Along the tomb is a beautiful rubble masonry wall mosque with thick turrets and a leaf-covered and bird dropping-drenched cemetery – look out for more couples in the hollow turrets, I found it amazing how people can clamber into such narrow spaces! Nearby stand the Tohfewala Gumbad (“Gifted tomb”), an unidentified tomb whose interiors are exceptionally well maintained even though the exteriors appear all run-down and crumbling, and Kali Gumti (“Little black domed structure”), another unidentified structure whose purpose for construction is unclear but whose nomenclature is arrived at after considering the organic mortar finish applied to its round dome that has taken a blackish hue over time. You can look up these structures here – Pixelated Memories - Bagh-i-Alam ka Gumbad, Pixelated Memories - Kali Gumti and Pixelated Memories - Tohfewala Gumbad.

Majestic - Bagh-i-Alam ka Gumbad

The park has been modeled by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) into creating a space to keep the local residents physically fit through the utilization of several simple exercise regimes along a fitness trail and the employment of info boards to guide and explain exercises to the visitors – the exercises are numerous and jocularly interesting, thanks in part to their naming and also to the strange set of accompanying instructions, take for instance “Jumping Jack”, “Balancing Beam”, “Straddle Walk”, “Spinal Exercise”, “Knee Bend” – it is another matter that rarely do people follow these instructions, nor are there many visitors, except couples, to the park except during early morning and evening.

Over the past few years, the park has been in the news for all the wrong reasons – official apathy, poor conservation-restoration of monuments, poor horticultural maintenance, lack of control over vandals and unruly elements, unclean animal enclosures straddled with garbage and polybags, maintenance-related issues and garbage dumping – at least the park was actually clean the day I was there – there weren’t any heaps of garbage, nor any disturbing elements, though yes, the issue of defacement and spoiling of public property, monuments especially, is glaringly rampant in the park premises; the park trails were being relaid with brick red soil and the guards were actually going about and looking after the property. Public facilities are another issue – though there are water coolers near the entrance gate, they seemed to be in a disgusting state of maintenance (the basin hasn’t been cleaned in ages, the taps do not close properly and are forever dripping thereby leading to moss deposits along the basin walls and overspill along the tiled walkways, the perennially filled basins have been taken over by hornets and one has to hope for their mercy while edging closer for a sip). It would take some time for Delhi to get its act together, the city is after all aiming for a UNESCO World Heritage City status, but at least it’s a start – in a city where parks, wetlands and forest covers are rapidly diminishing and children have to come out to play on streets for lack of proper parks and sporting facilities, such a vast green space is truly an unexpected delight! 

Look at those horns!

Location: Hauz Khas
Nearest Metro station: Green Park

How to reach: Walk/take an auto from the metro station to the park.

Entrance fees: Nil

Photography/Video charges: Nil

Time required for sightseeing: 45 min

Relevant Links - 

1. Pixelated Memories - Bagh-i-Alam ka Gumbad
2. Pixelated Memories - Hauz Khas Complex
3. Pixelated Memories - Kali Gumti
4. Pixelated Memories - Tohfewala Gumbad

Suggested Reading - 

1. Deccanherald.com - Article "City-bred make a plea for their deer" (dated July 25, 2012) by Baishali Adak
2. Hindustantimes.com - Article "Garbage and apathy choke Hauz Khas deer park" (dated July 07, 2014) by Ritam Halder
3. Livemint.com - Article "Delhi’s Belly | Gangnam, DDA style" (dated Jan 11, 2013) by Mayank Austen Soofi
4. Thehindu.com - Article "Deer Park to get another chance" (dated Dec 26, 2008) by Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Bagh-i-Alam ka Gumbad, Deer Park, New Delhi

Though Bagh-i-Alam ka Gumbad literally translates to “the tomb within the garden of the world”, there is nothing grand or striking about Deer Park in which this imposing tomb stands to consider it a garden of worldly beauty – in fact, it isn’t even a garden, the unruly tracts of vegetation, the massive trees with their twisted branches and gnarled trunks, the all-invading thorny shrubbery and the dense foliage give it the appearance of a forest. The only exception to this pervading sense of being in a small forest is brought about by the presence of jogging tracks and physical training equipments thrown in at intervals with boards and signages explaining to the visitors the purpose and guide to the equipment – in that sense, it is indeed the garden of the world, striving to keep people healthy so they remain in this mortal world a bit longer!

Masculine and towering

The number of visitors that this magnificent tomb attracts would put many of the more famous monuments in the city to shame, but the latter can keep heart as most of these visitors are either couples who are looking for a quiet spot for a quick make out or vandals on a lookout for space where they can carve their names and love letters – the massive entrances set within three of the four walls of the tomb (the fourth acts as mihrab – the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca and is faced by Muslims while offering prayers) are barred with grilles to keep both categories of people out. Of course it escapes the attention of civic authorities that the grilles would also prohibit the entry of monument lovers and heritage enthusiasts.

The largest of the three tombs in Deer Park (the other two are Tohfewala Gumbad and Kali Gumti), the structure is built with locally quarried stone – the red and grey stone blocks are fitted together to create a striking patchwork that further plays with sunlight to present a picture filled with brilliance and glimmer bouncing off each of the fragments. Externally, the single chamber gives a semblance of being divided into floors through the use of arched niches set on three levels – only the niches on the ground level and adjacent to the entrance act as windows, the rest are filled in with the same dressed stone that faces the rest of the structure – the niches are deep-set and couples were engaged in various physical activities in many of them (of course I do not mind, nor should you, reader!).

A beauty, overshadowed

The entrances are trabeated (stone blocks of gradually increasing sizes kept on top of smaller blocks so as to span a distance and give the appearance of a rudimentary arch). Arched windows exist above the entrances and these display remnants of vivid blue tiles which were used to break the monotony of the grey and red stonework but in my opinion fail to do the job, especially on a scorching summer afternoon. Both the entrance and the window are set within a larger arched niche which is further housed in a rectangular frame projecting outwards through the wall face. The roof and the drum (base) of the hemispherical dome are decorated with a line of kanguras (battlement-like ornamentation).

I had the pleasure of encountering two guys sitting on the staircase leading to one of the entrances and trying to light up a marijuana joint but failing repeatedly – they definitely were not engineers; engineers know how to light joints (as I demonstrated to them a few minutes later). The reason for recounting this is to point out that engineers don’t frequent the park (owing, perhaps, to the lack of girl friends that most of them face!?) but the park has become the haunt of marijuana/alcohol consumers. Peering in through the grilles, one can make out the design of the simplistic mihrab within as well as the intricate patterns in blue, red and white incised plasterwork that adorn the dome interiors – a huge central medallion depicts beautifully-executed floral patterns set within concentric circles of calligraphy and geometrical motifs. The medallion is further enclosed within two concentric stars done with bands of red paint – each vertex of the star is bound on both sides by vertices of the other star and a small teardrop shape medallion graces each of the vertices.

Dome interiors: Plasterwork details

The teardrop medallions also follow the scheme of the larger medallion – floral designs set within a band of calligraphy and geometrical motifs. The designs invoke a sense of awe at the brilliance of the artists who worked on these patterns and crafted them with unmatched grace and precision. The mihrab bears an inscription referring to the construction of the tomb – it was commissioned by one Abu Saiyyid in AD 1501 to house the mortal remains of a mendicant Sheikh Shihab-ud-din Taj Khan. Sultan Sikandar Lodi reigned over Delhi at that time and his rule saw many mendicants and saints arriving from Afghanistan, Persia and beyond settling in Delhi. Imam Zamin, who is buried in the World Heritage Site of Qutb Complex, also arrived in Sikandar Lodi’s reign (refer Pixelated Memories - Imam Zamin's Tomb).

A colorful teardrop

Adjacent to the tomb is an exquisite Qibla (wall mosque) with a large courtyard meant to seat the devotees bound to it. The Qibla has five arched niches set within larger rectangular indentations – the central of these niches is the largest both in terms of height and width. The wall extends and folds along the edges so that an additional niche also flanks the two sides of the courtyard adjacent to the Qibla. The entire length of the wall is topped by pretty neat leaf-motifs; smaller niches line the wall and would have perhaps once also provided holds for keeping small lamps; two neat rows of graves line the prayer space; light and shadows playfully create patterns along the courtyard. The wall shows signs of cracks and in many places the plaster has flake off to reveal the underlying layers of rubble – still it’s in pretty good condition if compared to the other two tombs in the park.

Prayers, graves and desolation

The central niche is flanked towards its back by turrets that convey masculinity despite their slenderness; towers exist at both ends of the Qibla wall. The towers are octagonal and thick but not solid – there are arched entrances built right through them. It is from behind the wall that one notices that these structures have largely been consigned to vegetation – foliage reaches right upto the Qibla, trees overshadow the tombs and in many instances the branches simply droop over the structures.

It is actually a pity that such splendid structures are hidden from general public and allowed to become the haunts of vandals and anti-social elements; had these been located elsewhere in the kind of garden settings that these were envisaged with, they would have been the treat of the place and a joy to behold.

Tower view

Even today the structures would prove to be magnetic towards visitors, but if only the park is well maintained and the portions of it that have become overly vegetated cropped and landscaped along with the provision of visitor facilities like clean drinking water and toilets – though there are water taps located right next to the park entrance, either they weren’t working or looking at their condition one began to suspect if they are hygienic and the water served clean. There are no toilets even in the famous Hauz Khas complex adjacent to the park, so fat chance of the introduction of such facilities here. As I said, it’s a pity, except that the pity doesn’t come from the authorities who have convinced themselves that only a handful of monuments in the city deserve their attention and conservation efforts and have turned a blind eye to the rest. Makes you think that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is actually a farce – all they are concerned with is the tourist flow and would actually restore only those monuments, organize such concerts and events where tourist footfall is expected and conveniently forget the rest.

Forgotten - Mihrab within the tomb

Location: Deer Park
Nearest Metro Station: Hauz Khas
How to reach: One can walk from the metro station; availing a autorickshaw is advisable since the distance between the two is roughly 2 kilometers.
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 20 min
Relevant Links -

1. Pixelated Memories - Imam Zamin's Tomb
2. Pixelated Memories - Kali Gumti, Deer Park