Seringapatam, Mandya, Karnataka

“The reasons why Tipu was reviled are not far to seek. Englishmen were prejudiced against him because they regarded him as their most formidable rival and an inveterate enemy, and because, unlike other Indian rulers, he refused to become a tributary of the English Company. Many of the atrocities of which he has been accused were allegedly fabricated either by persons embittered and angry on account of the defeats which they had sustained at his hands, or by the prisoners of war who had suffered punishments which they thought they did not deserve. He was also misrepresented by those who were anxious to justify the wars of aggression which the Company's Government had waged against him. Moreover, his achievements were deliberately belittled and his character blackened in order that the people of Mysore might forget him and rally round the (Wadiyar) Raja, thus helping in the consolidation of the new regime”

– Mohibbul Hasan, “The History of Tipu Sultan” (1971)

"Welcome to the Historical City of Srirangapatna" - The Delhi Gate

On the 4th of May 1799, in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War fought at Seringapatam (aka Srirangapatnam), fell Badshah Nasib-ud-Daula Fath Ali Khan Tipu Sultan, the legendary “Tiger of Mysore” and the foremost of Indian Sultans who perennially and ferociously opposed the rapacious acquisitive and revenue policies of British East India “trading” Company, and so fierce was the terror he instilled in the hearts of his enemies and the respect he commanded even from them that the British officers who took part in the siege of his fortress were grudgingly compelled to commission a small square, grass-enshrouded garden and within it install a sober, evocative stone memorial indicating the hallowed spot where the formidable Sultan was killed in battle. Symbolically portraying the vanquishing of Tipu’s forces by depicting a British lion trampling upon a tiger, a commemorative medal was also issued by the Company’s Army to be awarded to all officers and soldiers who participated in the battle against the Sultan. His legacy survives in a series of disjointed monuments and relics from his majestic fortress-citadel scattered throughout the capital city Seringapatam which has since become thoroughly overpopulated and come to occupy almost every portion of the grand fortress thereby turning it into a mere indifferent suburb of the beautiful city of Mysore, the erstwhile exclusive capital of the Wadiyar Dynasty (ruled AD 1399-1947) whom the fearless Tipu unceremoniously deposed from power  for a short interregnum – thus while modern-day Seringapatam, consisting of brilliantly multihued block-like houses and apartment buildings with very little to offer in the name of historicity or architectural/artistic heritage, seems lost to the vagaries of human forgetfulness and urbanization, the few edifices that Tipu had designed and constructed, with their identical vibrant orange hues, rise like they were intended to as majestic beacons in a city now shorn of all its grandeur, ferocity and regal presence.

Commemorative - Here breathed his last the legendary "Tiger of Mysore"

Once more for the sake of recounting in a few words the courageous Sultan’s extraordinary history, I replicate the text from one of my earlier articles –

"An innovative genius and unparalleled military tactician who also possessed intimate knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence, shooting, horse-riding, Hindi-Urdu writing, poetry and economic systems, Badshah Fath Ali Khan Bahadur Tipu Sultan was instructed in military tactics by French officers in service of his father Nawab Hyder Ali Khan and is credited with creating the first prototype rockets which he used in wars against the annexing armies of British East India “trading” Company whom he continued to oppose and fiercely resist all his short life. Technologically advanced and financially capable, he employed several skilled European weapon makers and mercenaries, was aware of the potent warfare technologies of his time, possessed an extremely strong naval force consisting of numerous war ships and frigates and even went to the extent of suggesting an alliance based on mutual admiration with Napoleon Bonaparte who came as far as Egypt on a conquering spree to unite their forces.. Despite his superb administrative, organizational and warfare capabilities, Tipu is considered (based on unreliable, highly biased early British sources who participated in wars against him) a fanatic bigoted Muslim and an extremely harsh, iconoclast ruler who heinously ordered destruction of numerous temples and shrines and oversaw the forceful conversion or merciless execution of hundreds of non-Muslims, especially Christians, besides following a “scorched earth” policy and pitilessly ravaging and impoverishing captured territories and destroying their economies and agrarian capabilities. His admirers continue to debate that he looked after his subjects irrespective of their religion and personal beliefs, employed Hindus at almost each of the influential court post and provided religious grants and protection against brigands to several Hindu temples, some of which existed in the immediate vicinity of his palace. Yet he remains a much abhorred and very controversial personality in Indian history – a patriot who relentlessly strived against foreign colonial rule, yet himself a foreigner who ruthlessly oppressed his subjects and executed those he considered unbelievers or heretics."

(Read the full post here – Pixelated Memories - Tipu Sultan Shahi Mosque)

Dark clouds, dark tidings? - One of Tipu's numerous powder magazines

Though the fortified city is located upon the flood plains of an ethereally beautiful, densely forested island within the Kaveri river in the district of Mandya, its association, both historic, legendary and geographic with the district of Mysore, has obliged many to seek its administrative unification with the latter from which it is located a mere 15 kilometers apart – presently however, it is accessible via the Mysore-Bangalore highway through a narrow, unimpressive branching road passing through the imposing, triple-storied “Delhi Gate” (also often referred to as “Bangalore Gate”), which though now miserably ruined and hideously layered with movie posters and election sloganeering (so much for the political correctness associated with the city and its inspiring history!), once formed the royal thoroughfare over which would have passed the authoritative Sultan regally seated on his elephant and escorted by his handsome cavalry and powerful royal guards. The idyllic, laidback life of the city spontaneously engulfs one as soon as one steps through the gateway and the vast beautiful green fields, glistening with crops and punctuating the line of low-lying residential quarters and remains of ruined palaces and cities crying for attention and conservation, seem like a disappointment against the enormous expectations of observing the splendor of the Sultan’s citadel. For someone from Delhi, used to seeing massive fortresses with towering walls, massive palatial complexes and serrated battlements equipped for defense, Seringapatam, with its fragmented structures, insignificant gateways, ruined palaces and decrepit incoherent defenses, along with the modern-day boxed-in settlements that have become rooted within its peripheries, all ensconced cheek-by-jowl within the fortress’ diminutive (just barely out of reach of an energetic lithe goat!) and thick enclosing walls seems out of place with the flamboyant tales of its erstwhile inhabitants’ martial prowess and battle capabilities.

Celestial - The sluggish waters of river Kaveri

But then of course, the root cause of this desolation is not far from the surface – the repetitive unrelenting attacks by the combined forces of British East India Company, the Marathas of Maharashtra and the Nizam of Hyderabad had very nearly reduced the defenses to rubble; what remained was razed and destroyed by the victorious British, unrepentant and avaricious in their retribution against the fallen Tiger’s territories and possessions; post-independence governments were not very different and unquestionably, one might even say eagerly, gave way to the combined ravenous forces of urbanization and commercialization and failed miserably to safeguard the historic nature of the sites involved against encroachments and vandalism – point in case, Tipu’s residential Lal Mahal (“Red Palace”) that was said to be a simplistic affair externally but possessed several magnificent buildings and colonnades within, the remains of which subdued to mere stubs and boundary walls between 1807-09 on orders of Colonel Arthur Wellesley (later H.H. Lord The Duke of Wellington) to supply building material for the Wadiyar Maharaja’s palace in Mysore (refer Pixelated Memories - Mysore Palace), exist in close vicinity to the Delhi Gate and were unlawfully dug up by the local population once again a few decades ago when excavations revealed the presence of expensive gold and pearl articles – the government’s sole response, not unexpected, was to seal off the entire premises with strong iron railings and cease visitor entry in its entirety, notwithstanding the visitor’s credentials and/or intentions with regards observing the ruins. About the palace contemporary accounts note –

“a kind of colonnade painted green with red ornamental work, forming what is called the tiger stripe…Round the arched compartments of the roof, or ceiling, are disposed a variety of Arabic and Persian verses, applicable to the signs of the Zodiac, and importing the godlike superiority of the Sultan in his princely character.”

History dictates that it was this palace where British officials accepted the surrender of two of Tipu’s sons following the imposition of punitive terms of treaty upon his defeat in the Third Anglo-Mysore War (First Battle of Seringapatam, 1792) and it was here eventually that his body was brought for preparation for burial upon his demise. But then, when have monuments and heritage structures ever been accorded their due dignity in this country?

Soaring - The painstakingly ornamented Masjid-i-Ala

Couple of meters from the Delhi Gate is located Tipu’s still functional Jama Masjid, the royal Friday congregational mosque, one of the most prominent edifices in Seringapatam – built in 1782-84 upon the Sultan’s ascension to the throne and christened “Masjid-i-Ala” (“Mosque of the Ruler”), the mosque is a grand double-storied structure flanked on its two front corners by enormous, exquisitely ornamented octagonal minarets sculpted throughout with tiny decorative alcoves, realistic pine cone-like outbursts, slender embellished turrets, rectangular pigeon holes, highly-stylized leaf motifs and floral and geometric patterns. The unsurpassably beautiful yet humble prayer chamber situated on the first floor, painted a subdued pink-white that drastically contrasts against the brilliant saffron-orange of the rest of the structure, is adorned with a rococo of plasterwork designs, ornamental cusped arches, concave domed roofs transforming into massive stucco explosions of floral arrangements and calligraphy inscriptions pertaining to the 99 names of Allah. It possesses a colonnade against its front facade that is supported on unusually simplistically chiseled pillars and bear once more the ubiquitous lavishness of embellishments – decorative floral motifs, fascinating pilasters (fake, thin pillars) ornamented with densely detailed floral medallions supported on thin, equally well-described stalks and unbelievably beautiful cusped arches – that seem to have been a landmark of all buildings that Tipu conceived and commissioned. The ground floor boasts of shaded passageways accessible by arched entrances flanked by an overabundance of miniaturized alcoves which might have once been used to house earthen oil lamps to endow the entire building with an unearthly trance glow; a moderately-sized courtyard inset with a deep rectangular water tank along one corner and punctuated along its sides by finely plastered over graves (undeniably well-kept and also painted in the all-encompassing bright orange) exists around the mosque building – sadly however, the limited expanse of space envisioned within the mosque’s enclosing walls render photographing its enormity in its entirety inconceivable and one is denied the possibility of photographing both the floors, the expansiveness of the handsome minaret towers and the geographic spatial expanse of the structure in a single click – stepping back and clicking from afar is equally fruitless since now even though the minarets can be well-framed, the lower floors very nearly disappear behind the residential settlements that have mushroomed around the structure and the low buttresses of wilderness-covered rock that project from the ground in its near vicinity.

The physiognomy of a Sultan's mosque

Outside the mosque, we hired a local guide who promised to show us around the colossal fortress complex’s remains within three hours in his auto-rickshaw for a negotiable sum of Rs 300 depending on whether or not we liked his services and command over his beloved city’s history – admiringly, we ended up paying him Rs 350 following the passage of the whirlwind tour via which we explored almost every monument that the historic township has to offer and grudgingly conceded that dust covered, sweat drenched and tired, we would have been roaming the indiscernible streets were it not for the polite and talkative guide and his swift auto-rickshaw. The wide street immediately opposite the mosque, flanked on both sides by wilderness and small rock faces abutting from earth, leads first to the aforementioned memorialized spot where Tipu, who styled himself “Asad Allah ul-Ghalib” (“The Conquering Lion of God”), was killed fighting and his body was found at the conclusion of the day’s battle (he was supposedly killed by a British soldier who failed to recognize him but thrusted his sword through him nonetheless after being spellbound by his expensive robe and jewel-studded ornaments!), and eventually to the wretchedly ruined, tree and foliage reclaimed, “Water Gate”, one of the fortress’ secret gateways that were accessible to only a select few for swiftly reaching the Kaveri riverfront – upon the commencement of battle, it was through a significant breach adjacent this gateway which the Sultan, betrayed by his own minister Mir Sadiq, was trying to have mended that the British soldiers poured in the fortress to mercilessly annihilate over 10,000 of the brave soldiers of Mysore and cause the ensuing proceedings that in hindsight cannot but be regarded as a singularly landmark event in the subcontinent’s colonial history. Noted the Urdu poet-politician Allamah Muhammad Iqbal –

“Jafar az Bengal va Sadiq az Deccan,

Nang-e-Adam, Nang-e-Deen, Nang-e-Watan”

(“Mir Jafar of Bengal and Mir Sadiq of Deccan are a disgrace to all mankind, their religion and their country.”)

Ruined!

A massive, gnarled Banyan tree grows next to the gate and vermillion-drenched stone sculptures placed within the hollows of its thick roots provide testimony to the worship of serpent deities (“Naga”) considered capable of bestowing fertility and child birth. Notwithstanding the gateway’s crumbling and abandoned condition with its walls tumbling down along its sides and its plasterwork peeling away to reveal the brick and stone layers underneath, an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) green board appears next to it, ironically and perhaps with a touch of sarcasm, declaring it a “Protected Ancient Monument”.

The city was christened after Sri Ranganatha, a manifestation of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu God of life and nourishment, who is still worshipped in a gigantic Dravidian temple complex in the heart of the fortress which Tipu, despite his oft-quoted barbaric iconoclastic character, not only allowed to uninterruptedly survive but also patronized. The bewilderingly majestic temple complex, an eye-opening epitome of medieval Hindu temple architecture that grandly endures throughout south India, is dated to have been commissioned in AD 984 by Tirumalaiah, a local vassal of the Ganga Dynasty (reign AD 350-1000), and was expanded and ornamented with additional features and sculptures by Emperors belonging to the Hoysala Dynasty (reign AD 1026-1343), Vijaynagara Kingdom (reign AD 1336-1646) and the Wadiyars/Wodeyars. Presently classified as a monument of immense national importance and a well-renowned Hindu pilgrimage site, the temple complex, surmounted by a lofty layered pyramidal tower sculpted with representations of deities and religious iconography, is accessible through a soaring “Gopuram” (pyramidal entrance gateway), the only feature that we witnessed (and photographed) given that the exceedingly long slithering queues of devotees lining up for offering devotions (and worries) to the deity would have claimed over an hour and a half to negotiate! Such is the belief that people, not just from the surrounding localities but from all over southern India, have in the deity whom they know as “Adi Rangaswamy” (literally, “the First Lord Ranga”) since the temple is the first of the five dedicated to Sri Ranganathaswamy located upon the meandering banks of the sacred river Kaveri.

Immensity visualized - The ancient shrine of Sri Ranganathswamy

The river can be spotted in all its illustriousness by following a narrow dusty path towards the right side of the temple gateway that couple of hundred meters later leads straightaway to a sharp cliff face veiled by numerous jackfruit trees weighed down further by extremely large (and unsettling!) beehives. The river bargains its way across rocky banks teeming with lush foliage and a superficial absence of all wildlife (although it is swarming with crocodiles) and overlooking it are some of Tipu’s orange-sopping armories, arsenals, powder magazines (one of which is said to have blown itself during one of the Battles of Seringapatam thereby rendering offense unviable along this face of the fortress) and a featureless white dungeon redolent of death and torture which the ferocious Sultan employed on numerous occasions with mind-numbing impunity to chastise his prisoners, especially captured British commanders and generals. For some indiscernible reason of its own understanding, ASI has christened the dreadful dungeon as “Bailey’s Prison” after Colonel Bailey who perished here as a consequence of his wounds and the ill-treatment forced upon him as a captive in the penitentiary. Bailey had commanded the British forces against the might of Mysore under Hyder Ali (reign AD 1772-82) in the Second Anglo-Mysore War (Battle of Pollilur, 1780) in which the former were crushingly defeated following the explosion of their gunpowder tumbrils upon being set afire by a bombardment of Tipu’s highly effective incendiary rockets. That the British took lessons from the defeat and soon thereafter adopted highly-sophisticated and lethal rocket technology in their military arsenal reminds one of the following lines from the book “Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?” by Anita Rau Badami –

“(Bibi-ji) had a sneaking admiration for these fair-skinned people who had infiltrated every part of the world with their manners and customs and languages, who had managed to make even a refrigerator of a country like Canada a place of comfort and plenty. Unlike the Panjauri villagers who assigned everything to Fate, the goras, Bibi-ji noticed with admiration, wanted to know why and what and when. It was not boats or horses that had transported them to all corners of the world, but their long noses, which quivered with a desire to poke into everything. Their sky-colored eyes watered with the need to peer under every stone, their white fingers itched to take everything apart until they understood it, learnt how it worked, found what they needed to make their own lives better.”

Haunted? Terrifying at least! - Tipu's dungeons

The punitive structure, comprising of a series of long, low-roofed vaulted cells supported upon thick pillars and bearing resilient stone rings through which were bound the chains shackling the inmates, possesses minimalistic openings in the center of the roof to allow sunlight and air to filter through and is located on a considerably lower terrain, a sort of dugout that vindictively exposes it to the elements, than its immediate surroundings. Conjecture is that the prisoners were chained facing the wall so as to torturously remain standing upright throughout their captivity and were forced to eat disgracefully like horses off the stone ledges protruding from the further walls.

The penultimate landmark we visited in the fortified city was the graceful summer residence “Daria Daulat Bagh” (“The Sea of Wealth Garden”) of Tipu Sultan, conceived and constructed in AD 1784 – set within a large Persian-style “Charbagh” garden (whereby a larger compound is divided into smaller squares by means of tree-lined walkways, ornamental water channels and fountains), the teakwood-built square residence seated upon a high stone platform is surrounded by wide colonnades and supported on numerous arches open to wind from all four directions with every conceivable surface of its exterior walls, prominent protruding windows (“jharokhas”) and roof extravagantly gilded and mesmerizingly painted into numerous vibrant, multihued panels depicting stylized motifs, vases possessing evocative and realistic flowers and foliage, and huge frescoes portraying elaborate battle scenes and regal processions including the aforementioned ignonimous defeat of the British Army at the Battle of Pollilur.

Deterioration - Daria Daulat Palace

Photography is sadly prohibited within the building and it is really, really tiresome and time consuming to convince the guards posted around to allow one to click a few photographs of at least the excellently painted exterior surfaces. The limited dimly-lit interiors have been converted into a small museum depicting fierce battle scenes, outstanding maps, antique weapons, old paintings, mediocre furniture, a huge, rather too flappy dress said to have been Tipu’s own garment and the aforementioned commemorative medallions issued by the British East India Co. following the 1799 Battle of Seringapatam. Following the battle of course, the graceful little residence was overtaken by the British forces and served as the official residence of Lord Wellesley. One cannot fail to notice the brilliantly (and quite recently) painted orange dove coats, strongly conflicting against the subdued brown-greens of the residence and surrounding expansive gardens, that are located immediately along the garden’s periphery walls on either side of the entrance gateway and appear like smaller, more rotund versions of the Jama Masjid’s twin minarets. This is the only monument on the trail that is thankfully properly maintained, efficiently restored and ticketed by the ASI (Entrance fees: Indians and citizens of SAARC countries: Rs 5; others: Rs 100).

Colors of Mysore

Said to have been built in AD 1719, the principal gateway of the fortress – “Elephant Gate” – located somewhere midway between the Daria Daulat Bagh and Tipu’s multi-tiered, utterly despoiled Flagstaff Tower (“Bateri”) from which one can have a bird’s eye view of the entire city, has recently been spruced up as part of an ASI-driven conservation effort (among other consequences of which is indeed the impeccably glaring coats of bright orange paint that were dowsed upon most of the monuments and bastions within the fortress complex) – opposite the gateway has been created an artificial mound over which are mounted miniscule replicas of the grand Sri Ranganathswamy temple, the magnificent Masjid-i-Ala and the simplistic summer residence flanked by childish-looking bastions and cannons.

Stunningly beautiful and delicately designed, Sultan Tipu’s family mausoleum, located near the Daria Daulat Bagh, is referred to as “Gumbaz” ("Domed structure") and was commissioned by him upon the uneventful demise of his father. The painstakingly sculpted structure, composed of a massive rectangular chamber surrounded by wide pillared colonnades and surmounted in its entirety by a high-necked, spellbinding onion dome crafted into such a kaleidoscope of geometric and floral motifs that one cannot but help gape at it awestruck and afterwards, when the initial bewilderment at its magnificence has tided over, continue photographing it from indescribably numerous angles and perspectives. Also noteworthy is the adaptation of highly polished, dark coffee brown Amphibolite rock to carve the stately pillars that delineate the colonnades. The moderately-proportioned and yet impressively exquisite mausoleum can be considered as the family funerary zone of Tipu’s family the same way that Humayun’s superlative mausoleum in Delhi is the resting place of several generations of Mughal Emperors, princes and princesses (refer Pixelated Memories - Humayun's Tomb complex).

Exquisite!

The spectacularly flamboyant interiors, painted opulently in lively, unbelievably strong shades of reds, orange and green, bear Tipu’s favorite “Bubri” or stylized tiger-stripe motif with which he passionately adorned every entity, living or not, associated with his being, including his soldier’s uniforms, his residences, weapons and cannons and even his father’s mausoleum! Within a wooden enclosure lie three massive graves within which respectively lie in eternal slumber the impressive Nawab Hyder Ali, his wife Fakhr un-nisa Fatima Saydani Begum Sahiba (daughter of Mir Muinuddin Sahib, Governor of Kurumgunda and Cudappa) and their son Sultan Fath Ali Khan Tipu Sahib – all three draped with enormous cloth sheets, the last obviously immense and glittering tiger-striped. Visitors treat the mausoleum like a dargah (sacred tomb of a holy man), referring to the enigmatic Sultan as “Hazrat Shaheed” (“Martyred Saint”) and celebrating his “urs” (death celebrations) the way one would do at a Sufi mausoleum with great festivities and decorations – the caretakers too, referring to themselves as poor men employed by the surviving descendants of Sultan Tipu, provide everyone with fragrant flower petals to drape the sarcophagus with – this of course entails an immense crowd around the enclosure at nearly, well, every single moment that the mausoleum is open for visitor entry and consequentially clicking an uncrowded, isolated photograph (the way I prefer it) is very nearly impossible – I did click three but had to spend slightly over half an hour standing in a corner of the chamber attempting to not touch the walls in any manner lest I spoil their ethereally beautiful painted surface. It is said that when the mortal remains of the martyred Tipu were found amidst the bloodied corpses and other ghastly residues of the fearsome battle, he was discovered to be smiling in death with his sabre clasped tightly in his hands, numerous sword, bayonet and bullet wounds on his head and body and not a single defensive weapon upon him. Fifteen years later, Scottish novelist-poet-playwright Sir Walter Scott (lived 1771-1832) could not help admonishing Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor of France and Italy (reign AD 1804-14), by comparing him to the noteworthy Tipu and his lesser-known father thus –

“Although I never supposed that he (Napoleon) possessed, allowing for some difference of education, the liberality of conduct and political views which were sometimes exhibited by old Hyder Ali, yet I did think he might have shown the same resolved and dogged spirit of resolution which induced Tipu Sahib to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand."

Such vibrance! Such patterns!

The colonnades and the large plinth surrounding the tomb chamber too are lined with numerous graves, some ordinarily plastered over, others faced with marble slabs, belonging to numerous of Tipu’s family, relatives and associates including his foster mother Madeena Begum – to one’s utter surprise, there must literally be at least two or three score graves here, with several even lining the grassy lawns that surround the structure! Originally, the gardens surrounding the mausoleum were planted with rose apples, pomegranates, custard apples, citrus, peaches, mangoes, mulberries and oranges besides ornamental flowering trees and cypresses! A gorgeous mosque, possessing slender ornamental minarets along its sides, and a complimentary building that functioned as a hospital financed by the Tiger from his personal wealth exist on either side of the mausoleum. Realizing that it shall comprehensibly prove to be a daunting challenge to describe the mausoleum and the mosque’s numerous excellent ornamental features, I have to concede that for a change it is advisable to let the photographs speak for themselves.

Leaving the city behind, one cannot help admire the courageous Sultan for his architectural and artistic contributions to Mysore/Mandya’s heritage scene as much as for his military ingeniousness and command. One’s grief at the wanton destruction of the legendary city finds release in the words of the writer-musician Grant Gordon in his book “Cobras in the Rough” –

“Tipu Sultan’s city is long destroyed. After the British and their allies finally seized it after a siege of several months, they razed it almost to the ground. As a symbol of the military ruthlessness of the East India Company, it did the job. As an act of British imperial cultural barbarism, it was not atypical.”

Details!

The lingering feeling is that of disappointment, of witnessing visual and religious compositions that failed to live up to the anticipations, of knowing that while the entire city has been unambiguously declared a “historical township”, it offers little by way of documentation or architectural heritage, properly conserved and presented, to hold a visitor spellbound and rapt with attention. If only!


Location: District Mandya, approximately 15 kilometers from Mysore
How to reach: Buses/autos are available from Mysore. Any bus plying on Bangalore-Mysore highway will also stop at Seringapatam if asked to.
Entrance fees: Nil for most of the monuments. For Daria Daulat Bagh: Indians and citizens of SAARC countries: Rs 5; others: Rs 100
Photography/video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 3 hrs. It is advisable to hire a guide with an auto-rickshaw from near the mosque who'll show one around the entire city for Rs 300 (of course, one will have to bargain down from the quoted price which can be as much as Rs 700-800).
Other palaces constructed by Tipu Sultan in Karnataka -

1. Pixelated Memories - Nandi Hills (Nandidurga fortress and Tipu Sultan's palace), Chikkaballapur
2. Pixelated Memories - Tipu Sultan's Palace and Kote Venkataramana Temple, Bangalore

Relevant Links -
The mosque in Calcutta associated with Tipu Sultan's family - Pixelated Memories - Tipu Sultan Shahi Mosque
Another palace located in nearby Mysore - Pixelated Memories - Mysore Palace
Suggested reading - 

1. Blogs.ucl.ac.uk - Casket Case Study: Material Culture from Seringapatam
2. Grandpoohbah.blogspot.in - Srirangapatnam
3. Llewelynmorgan.wordpress.com - Big Cat Hunting at Seringapatam 
4. Mq.edu.au - Francis Buchanan: Description of Tipu's Palaces and Apartments at Seringapatam
5. Royalark.net - The Family of Tipu Sultan 
6. Thehindu.com - Article "There is life at the cemetery" (dated March 09, 2013) by M.T. Shiva Kumar 
7. Thehindu.com - Article "This day that year in ‘Seringapatam’" (dated May 04, 2014) 
8. Tigerandthistle.net (Fascinating insight into the life and times of Tipu Sultan and Scottish soldiers of British East India Co.)
9. Toshkhana.wordpress.com (Fascinating insight into the life and times of Tipu Sultan)
10. Voiceofdharma.org - Tipu Sultan: As known in Kerala
11. Wikipedia.org - Tipu Sultan

Bangalore Fort, Bangalore

"Bangalore, like Madras, had a fort, with a pettah, or fortified town, outside it. This lay-out was a feature of almost all the cities or settlements in India, the fort providing a place of refuge for most of the inhabitants if the pettah was in danger of capture. The fort at Bangalore had a perimeter of about one mile; it was of solid masonry, surrounded by a wide ditch which was commanded from 26 towers placed at intervals along the ramparts. To its north lay the pettah, several miles in circumference and protected by an indifferent rampart, a deep belt of thorn and cactus, and a small ditch. Altogether Bangalore was not a place which invited attack."

— Lt. Col. E.W.C. Sandes, "The Military Engineer In India, Vol 1", AD 1791

Glory forgotten - Bangalore Fort - Delhi Gate

The unheralded advent of the year 2015 witnessed me relocating to Bangalore as an Associate System Engineer at IBM Global Business Services (IBM GBS) and almost a month later, am still glued to the city’s effortlessly diverse but surprisingly overlooked cultural scene – even the most commonplace roadside temples are fascinatingly detailed with unparalleled and vibrantly colored sculptures of Hindu deities and mythological creatures while the “rangoli” (imaginative, intricate patterns inscribed on the ground with colored flour/powders) drawn every morning outside the houses' threshold can bewitch anyone who isn’t aware of the local religio-cultural practices; the final touch is added by the hundreds of mosques, big and small, that dot the landscape and endeavor to begin the day with heartwarming “azaan” (call to the faithful for prayers, issued via loudspeakers by the preachers) and continue to send out impossibly uplifting baritones throughout the day. I met some really warm people at office and made some genuinely kind friends too and some of us have taken to exploring the city little by little as and when we can steal some time from the unimaginably hectic office hours that leave little time for getaways and travel, but it is fun to be in the office too – the 300-acre Manyata Embassy Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Tech Park sited at Rachenhalli/Nagawara leaves one breathless with its enormity as well as the headquarters/offices of numerous technological and consulting firms it boasts of – probably the only wish we have is that it wasn’t located in Nagawara, which is literally at the outskirts of the city, but somewhere near the center so we could have easily hopped off over the weekends to other locations too. Of course I do desperately miss Delhi but it is now time to visit and explore other parts of the country. And the first place we visited in this part of the country the very next day after starting office happened to be Bangalore Fort, or at least whatever little remains of it.

Bangalore Diary: Chapter I

The Lord of Yelahanka principality, Hiriya Kempe Gowda I (ruled AD 1513-69), a vassal of the renowned Vijayanagar Empire and a legendary warlord-chieftain endowed with abundant leadership and administrative qualities, established in AD 1537 Bengaluru Pete, a well-planned and executed capital boasting of wide streets laid in grids, majestic gateways established in cardinal directions and several well-maintained marketplaces, possessing as its nucleus a mud fortress presently referred to as Bangalore Fort. Legend goes that while ruminating upon the fortress’ construction and strategic positioning, he chose this particular location after witnessing the unique event of a hare chasing a hunter dog. Another legend states that while the fortress was under construction, no sooner would its massive gateways and towers be raised during the day that they would collapse at night and the same was attributed to evil spirits demanding human sacrifice as appeasement – noticing her father-in-law’s utter predicament, one night, Lakshmamma, Kempe Gowda’s daughter-in-law beheaded herself with a sword outside one of the gateways. Kempe Gowda also had another fortress, oval in shape, built adjacent and connected to the first, to house his palace, arsenal, treasury and important state buildings. He embarked on a policy of unabated territorial expansion but continued to administer his kingdom very judiciously and humanely and consequentially the Vijayanagar Emperors conferred upon him several more principalities and townships. But shortly before his death, on charges of issuing his own coins and thereby defying territorial and sovereign authority of the Vijaynagar Emperor Sadasiva Raya (ruled AD 1542-69), his liege lord, Kempe Gowda was imprisoned and all his domains confiscated. He was freed from captivity five years later, regained the Emperor's confidence and his own titles and lands and continued to display unparalleled benevolence, jurisprudence and policies of social and moral upliftment towards his subjects.

A fortress adorned

In AD 1638, Bangalore was invaded and assimilated into his own kingdom by Mohammed Adil Shah (ruled AD 1627-56), the Adilshahi Sultan of Bijapur, whose forces were commanded by General Shahaji Bhonsle, father of the mighty Maratha warlord Shivaji. The mud fortress withstood numerous battles and sieges and was further enlarged by the Wodeyar king Chikka Devaraja (ruled AD 1673-1704), who purchased it from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (ruled India AD 1656-1707) who had captured the entire territory as a punitive measure against the Hindu Maratha confederacy, before being converted from a mud fort into a stone stronghold and established as a formidable military outpost respectively by Nawab Haider Ali (ruled AD 1761-82) and his son Tipu Sultan (ruled AD 1782-99). Some historians argue that it was Chikka Devaraya who constructed the oval fort garrison adjacent the gigantic fortress housing the entire city settlement. Tipu even deposed the Wodeyar lineage of their titular reign through which they had so far continued to nominally govern their territories even though the de-facto ruler was the Chief Minister and Commander-in-Chief Haider Ali. Details about some of Tipu's exploits against the rapacious British East India “trading” Company have been documented on this blog here – Pixelated Memories - Tipu Sultan Shahi Mosque, Calcutta. He is also said to have built unimaginably abominable dungeons within the fort and meted out most horrifying tortures on captured British soldiers here. His massive armies and superior technological and martial prowess brought him in territorial conflict with the British who besieged and captured the Bangalore Fort, a prominently tactical military installation for the former, during the Third Anglo-Mysore War of March 1791, besides also massacring at least 3,000 of his soldiers and subsequently, over a period of more than 120 years, demolishing and dismantling most of the fort’s protective installations, colossal bastions and frighteningly massive curtain walls.

Formidable - The second gateway and the bastion adjacent

What remains today, preserved for posterity, is only the fortress’ Delhi/Dehli Gate, which is actually a complex of three successive gateways, and some associated bastions. The first view of the structure is hardly awe-inspiring – hemmed in on all sides by iron grilles and surrounded by numerous haberdasher shops and small roadside temples, the gateway (“bagilu” – originally there were six – Ulsur bagilu in the east, Yelahanka and Delhi bagilu in the north, Kanakanahalli and Mysore bagilu in the south and Kengeri bagilu in the west) exists as a sole remnant of the erstwhile grandeur in a corner of Old Bangalore’s K.R. Market. The base of its roof and the edges of its semi-circular arched entrance are flanked by intricate bands of stucco artwork – flowers, curving and writhing flourishes terminating in blossoming buds, rosettes, bird figures, and huge pendants exquisitely carved in several floral and geometrical patterns; on either side of the entrance are two wider indentations complementing it and adorned with exactly similar ornamentation and one very thickly but dwarfishly constructed bastion exists on either side of the gateway structure. A staircase leading upstairs to the top of the bastion can be observed besides the gateway but remains grilled and locked firmly and perennially.

Unimaginably simplistic - The Ganesha temple

Stepping through the colossal gateway that in retrospection proves to be a fairly intimidating barbican through which even elephants might have passed once, one steps into a small open square in the center of which, flanked towards its back by another of the fort's bastions, sits a small rectangular temple dedicated to Lord Ganesha (the elephant-headed, pot-bellied Hindu God of auspiciousness and learning) and surmounted by a triangular roof further topped by a square pediment very exquisitely embossed with numerous flourishes and patterns etched in plasterwork, the most bewitching of which was the Gandaberunda, a mythological two-headed fearsome bird incarnation of Lord Vishnu (the Hindu God of life and nourishment) possessing immense physical strength and the ability to overcome destructive forces, that originally featured in the insignia of the erstwhile Wodeyar Dynasty of Mysore/Bangalore (ruled AD 1399-1947) and has since been adopted as the emblem of Karnataka state. On a granite platform in front of the temple and facing it sits a small sculpted idol of the rat "Mushika", the steed of Lord Ganesha. The temple, however, remained closed the entire time we were there and appears to exist in an ignored and very sorry state, but it is interesting to note how it reflects on the policies and image of Tipu, who allowed a temple to stand within his fortress and yet is often, especially in religious debates and discourses, considered to be a vitriolically religiously intolerant and cruel sovereign.

The mythological Gandaberunda - One of the most recurring symbols in Karnataka's landscape

Towards the left of the first enormous gateway and at a ninety degree angle to it is the second gateway, comparatively smaller but considerably large nonetheless, and the rough granite stone wall between the two is dedicated to floral sculptures, mythological figurines and small ornamental doors adorned with extremely beautiful decorative pillars (“pilasters”) surmounted by mythical bird figures. On its exterior face, the second gateway bears very minimal ornamentation in the form of especially intricate floral medallions tinged with slight indentations and pilasters fringed by slender stalks culminating into life-like buds; one can even notice the thick stone pivoting columns in which the massive wooden doors of the gateway would have fitted once, but the real eye opener is the other face of the gateway which, besides ornamental flourishes and embedded medallions, also displays remains of embossed etchings of a mortal battle scene between a human and a big feline – considered symbolic of uninhibited courage and masculinity in South India, especially by the medieval Hoysala Dynasty (ruled Karnataka AD 1026-1343) that featured the symbolism as its insignia and had it installed in their temples and fortresses. Here one steps into another courtyard hemmed in by the bastions of the gate on one side and the periphery walls of the fortress on the other side culminating into one final gateway again perpendicular to the one you just entered from and on the right of it.

Rock ornamentation - Sala battling the lion, from the mythological lore regarding the establishment of Hoysala Dynasty

The hard granite walls surrounding this small grassy patch of lawn and the bastions projecting to it again feature very interesting patterns roughly etched on stone – there are embossed elephants blissfully showering water and milk on a four-armed Hindu Goddess, lion faces and seated lions that appear so simplistic that one would expect them to be sketched by a child on his notebook, auspicious “Kirtimukha” (“Face of Glory”) which is the severed head of a monstrous self-consuming mythological feline demon created by Lord Shiva, the Hindu God of death and destruction, to destroy other demons but was eventually ordered by the Lord to consume himself till only his face remained and thus achieved an exalted position in the God’s companions and features especially, though not exclusively, on the pinnacle of the spires of south Indian temples as a protective deity. There is also a very exquisite "Shiva linga" (Shiva’s phallic symbol) embedded within a small rectangular frame surmounted by a rounded arch in the center of which exists another smaller Kirtimukha – again conforming to the same legend where Shiva accorded the demon his dignified station atop the temple’s spire and proclaimed that one has to honor the demon to honor the Lord.

Demon honored - Shivalinga framed by an arch surmounted by a Kirtimukha

Surprisingly, the clamor of vehicles and the noise of pedestrians, hawkers and shopkeepers suddenly dies as soon as one crosses within to the lawn – the unbelievably thick walls seem to cut off all noise and commotion amazingly well! The final gateway, not unlike the rest, exclusively features fascinatingly detailed and elaborate floral patterns and peacock figures bordering the arches and sides. It fills one with wonder about the rest of the fortress and also the oval fortress adjacent which have both sadly ceased to exist thanks to the rapacious and revenge-fueled destruction wreaked by the British till as late as 1930s when parts of it were dismantled to make way for roads and railway lines – old photos do exist but then they don’t throw much light on the defensive fortifications and glorious existence of the majestic citadel. The first monument in Bangalore and again the same lesson observed also in Delhi and Calcutta – the need to preserve past heritage for future generations to explore and learn from. Hope we do understand someday!

Standing outside the fortress and sipping wonderfully concocted filter coffee at the Tamil restaurant across the road, we spotted the small plaque embedded within the road-facing bastion and mentioning the frightful but strategically unsurpassable battle of March 1791 in just a single line –

“Through this breach the British assault was delivered. March 21, 1791.”

Location: K.R. Market
Nearest Bus stop: K.R. Market
How to reach: Buses are available from different parts of the city for K.R. Market. Alternately, one can reach Majestic bus stop and take a connecting bus from there.
Open: All days, sunrise to sunset
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 30 min
Relevant Link - Pixelated Memories - Tipu Sultan Shahi Mosque, Calcutta
Suggested reading - 

1. Deccanherald.com - Article "A battle saga, one March night" (dated Jan 03, 2015) by Meera Iyer
2. Guruprasad.net - How Kempe Gowda built Bangalore
3. Guruprasad.net - The Story of Bangalore Fort 
4. Thehindu.com - Article "A grand dream " (dated July 18, 2002) by K. Chandramouli
5. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Article "Second Tipu-era cannon unearthed at Metro site shows deep secrets lie buried in old Bangalore" (dated Nov 24, 2012) by Aparajita Ray
6. Wikipedia.org - Bangalore Fort
7. Wikipedia.org - Bengaluru Pete 
8. Wikipedia.org - Gandaberunda
9. Wikipedia.org - Kempe Gowda I

Hazrat Bakhtiyar Kaki's Dargah, Mehrauli, New Delhi

"To write about Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, is an almost impossible task. At the first step, a wide mountain range appears before the eye—and the longer the seeker pursues the path, the
more difficult it seems to reach any goal at all. He may dwell in the rose gardens of Persian mystical poetry or try to reach the icy peaks of theosophic speculations; he may dwell in the lowlands of popular saint worship or drive his camel through the endless deserts of theoretical discourses about the nature of Sufism, of God, and of the world; or he may be content to have an all-around glimpse of the landscape, enjoying the beauty of some of the highest peaks
bathed in the sunlight of early morning, or colored by the violet haze of a cool evening. In any case, only the elect few will reach the farthest mountain on which the mythical bird, Simurgh, lives – to understand that they have reached only what was already in themselves."

– Annemarie Schimmel, "Mystical Dimensions of Islam"

Unlike ordinary tombs – by ordinary I am referring to the tombs of emperors, military commanders, slaves, courtiers and so on – the tombs of holy men (“dargahs”) are almost always painted in brilliant, vibrant colors – glittering gold, blood red, shining silver and blinding blue – perhaps it has something to do with dargahs being living spaces, providing solace and a touch of belonging to weary souls in time of pain and suffering, often spawning a network of settlements and medieval-looking bazaars (markets) in the surrounding web of labyrinthine alleys and thereby providing support and livelihood to numerous dependants, and possessing a regular presence of hundreds, if not thousands, of faithful seeking advice or miracle from the saint who is considered only to be separated from the physical world by an invisible veil but otherwise present in the soul of the universe to answer the faithful and help them in times of despair by acting as a gentle medium between them and the almighty but beneficent divine. A common belief in Islam is that the tomb of a holy man sanctifies the area around itself for several miles and residence or burial in the said area is an easy-access direct shortcut to heaven – therefore prompting several others – from those at the lowest economic and social status in the society to the powerful and the affluent – to seek a tract of land for their burial in the vicinity of the venerated saint – many of these devotees too often renovate the saint’s tomb and/or add further features to the dargah complex thereby making it even more colorful and architecturally-artistically diverse, much like the saint’s following. I happened to observe these simple rationales following a recent visit to the dargah of Hazrat Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki located in the dry and over-congested narrow lanes of Mehrauli, the oldest continuous settlement in Delhi. Hazrat Kaki’s dargah is undoubtedly one of the most revered shrines in the city despite its relatively less fame and inconsequential influence in 21st-centuy life and religion – perhaps it has to do something with the location of Mehrauli in a far-off corner of the city or the fact that Hazrat Kaki hasn’t received equal adoration and attention from the mainstream – unlike Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, one of his successors, his dargah has neither featured in popular movies nor is a part of history/photography walks that are led by several clubs in the city – and yet it won’t be wrong to point out that Hazrat Kaki was one of the earliest and foremost saints responsible for the acceptance and adoption of Islam as a religion by the people in the Indian subcontinent – he did not spread faith and brotherhood through the blades of swords but rather through his uninhibited kindness and unending piety.

Hazrat Bakhtiyar Kaki's serene, pearlesque tomb. Notice the massive floral finial emerging from the dome.

Hazrat Khwaja Muhammad Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki Aushi, a Saiyyid by genealogy (implying belonging to the hereditary lineage of the prophet), is considered to have been born a saint and was reverentially entitled to the honorifics Hazrat Malik-ul-Mashaikh Qutb-al-Aqtaab (“Lord Chief of the learned saints and the arbiters of Islamic jurisprudence”). The esteemed saint, born in AD 1173 in a small township known as Aush (in modern-day Krygyztan), influenced Islam and its acceptance in the Indian subcontinent in an immense, unprecedented manner by laying down the laws of Sufism and the spiritual and physical obligations of the saints of the order – he was the first religious student of the venerable saint Khwaja Garib Nawaz Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer and as such holds the enviable position of one of the most respected holymen in the subcontinent, the spiritual preceptor of the popular line of Sufi saints known as the Chishtiyya Order in India and the master of Hazrat Fariduddin Ganjshakar who in turn trained the magnanimous saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the patron saint of Delhi whose Dargah is amongst the defining landmarks of the city and its culture (refer Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah). Having lost his pious father at the age of a year and a half, the boy showed a deep interest in learning and achieved distinction in spiritual and theological studies besides other subjects; he was educated by several conscious teachers besides his learned mother before coming in contact with Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who was then visiting Aush and accepted the former as a student of religion after noticing the yearning for divine knowledge in him. The young boy received highly-treasured tutelage from Khwaja Chishti and became well-versed in several subjects and divine matters through the education imparted by several learned scholars from the Indian subcontinent and central Asia under the guidance of Khwaja Chishti while they stayed at Baghdad – travelling far and wide with his master and on occasion with other highly-esteemed scholars in his bid to receive as much comprehension as he could, he soon came to be accepted amongst the leading scholars and one of the most educated and practical of monastic saints the region had ever produced. On the completion of his education, Khwaja Chishti moved to India and Hazrat Qutbuddin, unable to bear the anguish of separation from his master, followed soon; recognizing his skilled comprehension and unyielding piety, Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti sent his favorite student to Delhi to spread Islamic faith and bring followers close to religion and the divine by acting as solace for his poor and suffering devotees. 

Looking within - The beneficent saint's mortal remains rest here eternally, while he looks onto his followers from beyond a veil that renders him invisible

Legend goes that so devoted and regular was he towards his prayers that when he got married and ignored his prayers for several consecutive days, the Prophet himself was forced to send a divine vision to another pious man to inquire why Hazrat Bakhtiyar had abandoned his spiritual duties – deeply repentant and embarrassed over his loss of control under influence of worldly matters, the saint immediately divorced his wife and resumed his faithful prayers with renewed fervor – he did marry again several years later but never again neglected his prayers and religious obligations. Hazrat Qutbuddin gained a wide following, coming in touch with Sultans, merchants, travelers, spiritual seekers as well as the poor and the needy – streams of wealth flowed through his monastery everyday though the beneficence of his affluent devotees and passed on to relieve the despair and starvation of the poverty-stricken faithful – despite the abundance of riches and his ever-standing bidding to intimate him of the arrival of any faithful in need of monetary/spiritual aid at any time of the day, the saint spent his life in extreme poverty and hunger, stressing on the basic tenet of Sufism of staying close to suffering and starvation to understand the needs and condition of the poor in the bid to achieve union with the divine by alleviating poverty and suffering – subsisting on baked bread dipped in water, he did not even take a nickel from the donations to fulfill his and his family’s needs, the result being that his humiliated and tired wife was forced to beseech the local baker’s arrogant wife for mere morsels of leftover bread – once the baker’s wife reduced Hazrat Qutbuddin’s wife to miserable tears by incessant taunts over her husband’s inability to provide for her and the family; Hazrat Qutbuddin, on hearing about the entire episode, forbid his wife to ever ask anyone again for food and instead ordered her to take as many loaves of bread (“Kaak”) as she required from his prayer alcove – to the utter surprise and admiration of the people of the household, the alcove was always supplied with these loaves notwithstanding how many were already withdrawn from it – though the appearance did cease following the announcement of this miracle (belief is that miracles must be kept to one’s self else they never repeat and/or cease to yield the desired result), the neighbourhood people, attributing this ethereal presence of bread loaves to divine intervention, began adoringly referring to the saint as “Hazrat Kaki” and the name stuck! 

Forgotten - An enclosed, medieval cemetery in a corner of the dargah complex near Zafar Mahal 

The saint travelled a lot and came in contact with several learned mendicants and scholars during his sojourns which further helped mature his experiences and realization and fermented in him a pressing urge to seek further command over sacred matters – he never failed to mention these mendicants and dervishes in his sermons and included their teachings too in the lessons he imparted to his disciples – despite his knowledge and ecclesiastical status, he never discriminated between the pious and the evil and often inquired if Allah would reserve his blessings and grace only for the holy and the irreproachable, then who would look after the wicked and sinful.

Hazrat Kaki’s settlement in the suburb of Kilokheri evoked wide interest in the population and gained him an array of impressive followers, including the then Sultan Shamshuddin Iltutmish (reigned AD 1296-1316), who, after initially failing to convince the honored saint to settle in his magnificent city, used to wait upon his spiritual highness twice a week to receive spiritual guidance and understanding – impressed by the Sultan’s dutiful seeking and noting the wastage of regal time which could be better utilized in judiciating over public and legal matters, the saint eventually did move to the outskirts of the city and began staying in Mehrauli. It is said that upon his arrival one fine day, the righteous sultan found the benevolent saint in a disheveled state and upon learning that the same was caused by the lack of potable water for the purposes of drinking and ablutions immediately ordered for the construction of a striking stepwell – the same still exists near Hazrat Kaki’s Dargah and is referred to as “Gandhak ki Baoli” on account of its water possessing miraculous healing powers due to the concentrated presence of sulphur (“Gandhak”) in it (refer Pixelated Memories - Gandhak ki Baoli). Myth is that Sultan Iltutmish also ordered construction of the mighty Qutb Minar as a tribute to the inspiring personality of Hazrat Qutb Kaki – however, this is contested by scholars who point out that the minaret was in all probability built by Iltutmish’s predecessor Sultan Qutbuddin Aibak (for other myths associated with this victory tower which has been hailed as a landmark striking piece of architecture in the country, refer – Pixelated Memories - Qutb Minar). 

An abundance of graves and simple wedges indicating burial of a person at the spot is the defining feature of the dargah complex

His stay at Delhi brought Hazrat Kaki in a bitter conflict with the Sheikh-ul-Islam (an authority on Islamic legislature and jurisprudence) Nazmuddin Sughra (a brother disciple of Hazrat Chishti) – the latter, annoyed and jealous of the former’s growing fame amongst the masses and proximity to the emperor as well as the who’s who of the city, began bitter-mouthing and back-bitching about him. Hazrat Chishti arrived in the city soon thereafter to stay with his favorite disciple but pledged to take him back with him to Ajmer on learning about the growing enmity with Hazrat Sughra who was a renowned scholar and legal authority par excellence in his own right – on the day of departure, the teary-eyed and heartbroken population of Delhi gathered at Hazrat Kaki’s monastery and beseeched Hazrat Chishti to spare them the bitter pain of estrangement from their adored patron saint – moved by the overwhelming demonstrations of the poor and the pleadings of the rich and mighty, Hazrat Chishti ultimately relented to allow Hazrat Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki to reside in Delhi and spread the love of faith and philosophy, but being aware via a divine intervention of his approaching death, he bid Hazrat Kaki visit him at his Ajmer monastery in a few days. While at Ajmer, Hazrat Chishti bestowed his “Khilafat” (caliphate/spiritual emissary) and blessings on Hazrat Bakhtiyar Kaki and asked him to return to his peaceful abode at Delhi as the chief of the Sufi order of Chishtiyya – Hazrat Chishti passed away a few days after Hazrat Kaki’s return to Delhi, leaving him heartbroken and much anguished. His parting advice to Hazrat Kaki was a set of basic tenets to be followed as chief of the Order – 

1. A Sufi must appear content outwardly even when he might be poor and hungry. 
2. A Sufi must feed the poor to their heart's satisfaction. 
3. A Sufi must always remain sorrowful inwardly and pray for the poor and those afflicted by greed and grief, but outwardly he must appear cheerful and contented before the world. 
4. A Sufi must always forgive and treat his enemy with all due affection and kindness. 

Hazrat Qutbuddin continued to look after his devotees and became even more magnanimous towards the poverty-stricken and offered much needed solace and kindness to the grief-stricken; despite his own self-imposed poverty, he never partook of whatever wealth came his way but with much affection and liberality distributed it amongst the faithful; such was his grace that none retired from his monastery empty-handed, every visitor received what s/he seeked – financial assistance, spiritual or worldly advise or scholastic guidance – he would ask his disciples to distribute water to visitors in case there was nothing else to offer. 

Hallowed - One of the three mosques within the complex

Hazrat Kaki never wrote down his teachings in the form of a book or sermon but the principles that he and Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti developed – renunciation of material needs and worldly desires, strict self-discipline and regular prayer regime, participation in musical congregations (“sama”) and the utilization of the same to bring people to the folds of the faith, reliance on unsolicited offerings for basic livable subsistence, independence from rulers and rich patrons, steering away from administrative and policy decisions of the state, rejection of monetary and land grants and lastly, generosity and beneficence towards others irrespective of economic, social or religious position or gender – were adopted as the central tenets of Sufism in the subcontinent. Khwaja Sahib’s teachings and sayings were compiled in a short publication “Fawaid-us-Salikin” by his spiritual descendant Fariduddin Ganjshakar in which a summary of his interactions with other distinguished mendicants and saints, mystical instructions and divine experiences has been furnished. About the saint, it has been written that he was habituated to sleep little, talk little and eat little, devoting most of his waking hours to fervent prayers and administering to the faithful through sermons, guidance and assistance. He had memorized the entire Quran and would recite it faithfully at least twice a day in the last few days of his pious life. Hazrat Kaki was very close to his friend Qazi Hamiduddin Nagauri who too was a disciple of Hazrat Chishti – it was Qazi Hamiduddin who taught Hazrat Kaki the recital of Quran at the beginning of the latter’s spiritual education; the two became dear friends immediately and would undertake long voyages to far-away centers of Islamic faith and learning together. Qazi Hamiduddin was the erstwhile king of Bukhara (in modern-day Uzbekistan) but became disillusioned with the material world when, through divine intervention, a deer spoke to him while he was on a hunting trip, beseeching him to spare him and inquiring what answer would he offer to God on the day of judgment when pronounced guilty of the murder of an innocent being – he immediately gave up the throne and began to strive for religious instruction and holy wisdom, travelling as far as Baghdad (Iraq) to acquire learning. On a visit to the Medina shrine, he heard himself being referred to as Qazi Hamiduddin of Nagaur by an invisible mystical existence – he couldn’t fathom the portent of this prophesy but considering it divine will, immediately headed towards India where he was accepted under the proficient holy tutelage of Hazrat Chishti who later entitled him as “Sultan Tariqin” (“Master of the Sufi way”). Regarding the arrival of Qazi Nagauri’s arrival at Hazrat Chishti’s monastery, storytellers say that when the latter was about to initiate the holy education of Hazrat Kaki, a divine realization dawned upon him proclaiming that the young boy’s education would only be commenced by Qazi Nagauri – soon thereafter the Qazi arrived at the monastery and was entrusted with the boy’s care and training. Interestingly, such impressive was Hazrat Kaki’s prowess in matters of faith and spirituality that he asked Qazi Nagauri to begin his education from the second half of Quran since he had already learnt the first half while he was in his mother’s womb! Qazi Nagauri later came to Delhi with Hazrat Kaki and they both started living together with their respective families and initiated the initial Sufi scene in this ancient city – the orthodox Muslim scholars and priests were opposed to the idea of music, dance and universal harmony irrespective of religious and social differences and challenged them to do the same in Baghdad first and then return to Delhi – Qazi Hamiduddin returned to Baghdad, a great center of religion, commerce and learning in those days, and established Sufi faith there. He returned to Delhi amidst much admiration and veneration and went on to become one of the leading saints of the subcontinent, sharing the mantle of Sufism with his dear friend and trustworthy confidante Hazrat Kaki; impressed by his admirable countenance and unyielding faith in the divine, Sultan Iltutmish designated him the chief judicial authority (“Qazi”) of Nagaur (Rajasthan), therefore fulfilling the divine prophesy. 

Sparkling magnificent - The last of the three entrance gateways to the dargah complex 

“Kushtagaan-e-khanjar-e-tasleem raa, Har zamaan azz gheb jaan-e-deegar ast” 

“For the victims of the sword of divine love, there is a new life every moment from the unseen”

The year was 1237 AD - just a year since Hazrat Chishti’s demise – Hazrat Kaki too passed away after having become ecstatically spellbound while listening to the above mentioned couplet while attending a devotional music and dance congregation (“sama mehfil”) and immersing himself in an unprecedented state of joyous worship for several days from which he relieved himself only to offer the customary prayers five times a day. Throughout his life, Hazrat Kaki, like his predecessors and successors, had emphasized on musical traditions – conjecture is that he associated these devotional couplets to the role of music in Hindu worship and considered in effective in facilitating development of a spirit of syncretism and ridding the inhibition over visiting and praying at shrines of a faith different than the one one professes to – it is only fitting that he died while listing to the music he so cherished. Qazi Hamiduddin Nagauri and Sheikh Badruddin Ghaznavi (dearest people for Hazrat Kaki, but I couldn’t retrieve much trustworthy info on their lives – various sources seem to contradict each other) were next to him when he passed away in this extraordinary manner, conferring upon him posthumously the entitlement “Shaheed-e-Mohabbat” (“Martyred to love”). His will specified that the funeral prayers could only be led by a person who had never skipped the (non-obligatory) afternoon prayer nor performed any sinful act in the eye of Allah – the funeral congregation fell silent upon hearing these requirements and in the end it was none other than Sultan Iltutmish who led the prayers since amongst the thousands present he was the lone soul who adhered to these preconditions. The simple tomb that was built then has been repaired several times by well-meaning devotees – emperors, military commanders, court officials, medieval officialdom, spiritual seekers and enlightened faithful – the structure that exists today appears as if it has been erected very recently. The tomb complex is the earliest funerary shrine in Delhi with several additions made to it throughout medieval and modern history and yet most structures within appear pretty new given the paint jobs and the ornamentation with which the caretakers (who are all Khwaja Sahib’s direct descendants and suffix their names with the title “Qutbi”) and devotees have adorned them.  

Colorful, eye-catching prayer material for sale just outside the dargah

Unlike the narrow alleys (draped with cubbyhole-shops offering everything from chaddars (vibrantly-colored, intricately-embroidered cloth sheets that are wrapped on a saint’s tomb as a mark of respect), sugarballs, skullcaps, prayer materials and memorabilia) that pave the way to Hazrat Nizamuddin’s Dargah, Hazrat Kaki’s tomb complex is led to through a proper street lined with large commercial establishments offering eatables, hardware items and construction material – in fact, the medieval-era brilliantly-colored and dimly-lighted, narrow alleys are nowhere to be seen and the small bazaar that actually stocks traditional prayer material and offerings to the saint consists only of only about half a dozen or so shops! There aren’t many visitors here either – so much for the esteemed Hazrat Sahib who enjoyed such an exalted position in the mystical-spiritual scene that Hazrat Chishti himself had decreed that no visit to his tomb would bear fruit unless the devotee first pay obeisance at Hazrat Kaki’s tomb (a tradition late followed by Hazrat Nizamuddin with respect to his favorite disciple Amir Khusro, refer – Pixelated Memories - Amir Khusro's Tomb). Immediately on stepping into the tomb complex, one notices, besides the unmatched brilliance and an unparalleled but subdued riot of colors, an abundance of graves – only a few are surrounded by tomb proper, the rest are in such large numbers, cropping up in straight, defined lines along the shiny white marble floors or covered with dashing chaddars in almost every corner and peeping out from behind locked gates and run down walls, that they seem to appear to be a part of the dargah’s decoration! Walking along the short path that leads to the first gateway that marks the outer periphery of the dargah complex, if one hasn’t yet climbed up the stairs and started admiring the huge collection of assorted prayer materials and not very flamboyant chaddars that a guy sells right at the gateway's periphery, one can step into a small rectangular "muhajjar" (tomb open to the sky) on the right side just a couple of meters before reaching the staircase – the lone, large grave is drenched in light blue color and so are the walls and the arched alcoves near the head of the grave, though the latter are largely blackened now due to the lighting of oil lamps (“diyas”) in them frequently; the repeated chores of paint and whitewash have largely filled in the star and foliage shaped peepholes that convert the outer wall of the muhajjar into a jaali (stone lattice work), though atleast these are better maintained on the outside. The gateway is a simple white structure painted over the central protruding rectangle in blue with green patterns for ornamentation and a line of calligraphy running along the high arch and loudspeakers propped up atop the its rectangular minarets.

The simplistic blue and green entrance to the complex. The funerary zone begins right from this gateway with the first tomb being a small enclosed structure in the right foreground.

Stepping through the first gateway, one reaches an open square and even though the second gateway (“Baab-e-Khwaja” or “The Saint’s Gateway”), even more exquisite than the first with its multicolored floral patterns and calligraphy inscriptions as well as painted over arches and kanguras (battlement-like ornamentation), is clearly in view, one is tempted to run along either towards the side where several graves compete for space with dirt-poor beggars, frail old men, women and devotees of all hues and types, or though a narrow passageway that leads to the dargah complex’s secondary tombs. We first headed towards the open space – there were a few tombs scattered around – one of them, painted white and green and possessing an intricate stone latticework for its four walls, rests on a white marble plinth with a heavy curtain draping the entrance (entry is forbidden to male visitors so the female devotees sitting clustered just outside the entranceway  informed me); near the tomb are beautiful slender male graves inscribed with striking calligraphy on their entire surface except the tops where magnificent floral artwork manages to peep through layers of fragrant red, white and orange flowers that some faithful left there. Opposite the tomb are several more graves and chambers where the descendants of Hazrat Qutb reside in all probability. 

The well-kept, quiet interiors of the dargah are a surprise, especially considering the presence of hordes of devotees in other religious places throughout the city. The tomb photographed here belongs to a female follower of the Khwaja Sahib and male entry within is prohibited. 

Walking into the narrow passageway that emanates from the eye-catching gateway and turns its way half-stride to reveal a large courtyard sprouting scores of graves – the centerpiece is a majestic-looking pavilion tomb with very splendid artwork on all sides, a heavy but skillfully cut marble panel set atop its front face between two slender marble minarets and domed kiosks (“chattris”) topping all four corners. We later headed into this courtyard – most of the graves here are antique though it is very difficult to judge given the frequent paint jobs that they have been subjected to; a canopy of foliage delicately hangs between the graves and the open sky, neither engulfing them completely nor exposing them to the elements; the majestic tomb is divided into two halves internally by means of a stone partition, each half has a calligraphy-embossed cenotaph and the interiors are as ornately covered as the exteriors with colorful lamps for company in each half; just within the iron grille that separates this funerary zone from the rest of the courtyard is a narrow, dust-laden and cobweb-covered staircase that leads underground, perhaps to the real graves placed in the crypt below.  

The intricately adorned pavilion tomb standing aside from one of the several funerary clusters within the complex

The portion of courtyard free from graves is flanked on two opposite sides by two mosques – the first is a simple rectangular structure, warmly painted cream inside and layered with deep red carpets; the other mosque seems older, it has tall minarets, a grass green dome influenced by Central Asian architectural traditions and a wide, protruding chajja (eave); between the two mosques hangs a spiderweb of hollow iron poles surmounted upon several more poles used to spread a cloth canopy cover when the summer becomes scorching enough to make walking barefoot on the marble unbearable (one is required to leave their footwear either at the numerous shops leading to the dargah or the official designated shoe-counter at the first periphery of the tomb complex); a massive minaret emerges from the ground along a corner of the first mosque – with its three floors with circular and angular flutings, the minaret is an exact replica of the magnificent Qutb Minar except for the three passageways that bud out from it on all three levels – since the bottom most layer has alternate circular and angular flutings, the passageway at its head too consists of both, while the second and third floor have only angular and circular flutings respectively and hence the passageways too take a similar shape. The best view of the minaret can be had from Zafar Mahal, the pleasure palace of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah “Zafar” II (ruled AD 1837-57), nearby (a post on it too will follow in future). 

The minaret adjacent to the mosques, view from Zafar Mahal. Built to imitate nearby Qutb Minar, the minaret's rough exteriors give it an appearance as if it is still being built. I doubt if any muezzin climbs it today to call the faithful for prayers.

There is another mosque too in the dargah complex – this one, painted deep vibrant red, sits on a high plinth and is led to by a massive, thick gateway with a perfectly semi-circular entrance arch and white marble plaques embedded around the arch describing the mosque’s construction and commission in Persian calligraphy. The monotony of the brick-red paintwork is broken by thick blue kanguras and even thicker, pillar-like minarets at the entrance and deep-green doorways inside. The mosque retains signs of beautiful artwork done in incised plaster breaking into a pattern here and a bloom there, most of these designs have largely lost their exquisiteness given the thick layers of paint that embellish them and yet it radiates a subdued charm that promises to engulf an onlooker into a world of silent thoughtfulness and appreciation. The open mosque has a portion of it covered by a protruding roof supported on pillars with graceful engrailed arches stretched between consecutive pillars, reminiscent of the renowned pavilions and palaces within the Red Fort complex (refer Pixelated Memories - Red Fort). The simple and yet thought-provokingly graceful mosque becomes the bedchamber of numerous wandering mendicants and resident dervishes who sneak into its cool, shady corners to escape the furious summer sun and catch some winks in the scorching afternoon.  

Pretty! - Patterns embossed on the mosque's courtyard walls  

Heading back into the narrow passageway that led to the Khwaja’s sacred tomb, one comes to the final gateway – a bewilderingly magnificent golden gateway with exquisitely embossed silver gates, immensely skilled floral artwork along the corner panels and beautiful calligraphy in gold inscribed within black and red margins. Thick white marble lattice screens separate the visitors from the central courtyard, women devotees are not allowed in the courtyard where the tomb stands and most of them can be seen sitting and praying next to these screens, many would also tie red-yellow threads to these screens beseeching the saint to grant their wishes (the threads have to be removed once one’s desires come true) – it is difficult to click the tomb from here because of the inhibition offered by the thick screens but the view, with the tomb veiled by this ornately symmetrical patchwork, is simply astonishing. The marble screens as well as the beautiful mosques were later additions made by the Emperor Farrukhsiyar (reign AD 1713-19). This marks the beginning of the holiest of areas in the entire hallowed complex – past the screens, one comes face to face with the courtyard in one corner of which stands the saint’s simple tomb – supported on twelve golden pillars and topped by a massive circular dome, the spellbinding tomb has an end-to-end cloth sheet thrown over it – even the glittering pillars cannot match the dazzle of the saint’s grave where the brilliance of the decorative sequins and the vibrance of the large colorful cloth beads that tie the sheet to the pillars of the marble railing that surrounds the grave appears otherworldly despite their simplicity and subdued glimmer. The dome’s interiors are done with beautiful mirror work with symmetrical but colorful calligraphy and geometrical patterns adding further charm; but the most impressive feature of the tomb is its endearing finial which appears like a full-blown blooming golden floral outburst. The thick marble minarets and pearlesque onion domes of Moti Masjid (“Pearl Mosque”) that the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah I (ruled AD 1707-12) built in a clear imitation of his father Aurangzeb Alamgir’s personal mosque in the sprawling Red Fort complex (refer Pixelated Memories - Red Fort Complex) peep from behind the boundary wall of the courtyard. 

Exquisite mirror work along the dome's concave surface

Apart from dozens of wedges symbolizing the presence of graves underneath throughout the open courtyard, the courtyard boasts of another twelve-pillared pavilion tomb (“baradari”) in one corner of it along the side adjoining the saint’s tomb – this particular tomb, also adorned internally with alluring mirror work with a small chandelier sprouting from a floral motif in the center of the roof adding further grace, belongs to Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bistami, a Sufi saint belonging to the Suhrawardy Order, from whom Hazrat Bakhtiyar Kaki purchased the land for building this final resting place – legend is that once Hazrat Kaki was returning from Id prayers with his followers when passing through this very spot he became spellbound and immersed in the gripping world of thoughts; he was reminded that more devotees were waiting for him at his monastery and escorted back but he immediately sent for Abdul Aziz and proclaimed that he smelt the fragrance of love from this particular patch of ground; the entire land was duly purchased and the pious Sheikh Aziz too was accorded a place of honor with his grave located so close to the Khwaja’s. A very bewitching qibla (wall mosque) displaying a red and black medallion adorned with several inscriptions enclosed within a layer of mirror work that is further framed by a protruding arch and enclosed within silver and blue floral patterns is built in the portion of the periphery wall overlooking Sheikh Abdul’s tomb. Opposite Sheikh Aziz’s tomb is a small dark chamber embedded deep in the periphery wall and slightly lower than the tomb courtyard, a large steel lamp holder stands solo in this chamber but there was not a soul lighting earthen lamps here; at least the dark recess afforded a majestic view of the entire shrine as well as the onion domes of the Moti Masjid peeping from behind the high walls (refer Pixelated Memories - Moti Masjid, Mehrauli). It is a wonder that this entire place, offering silence and solace amidst such humble serenity with these mystical giants for spiritual guidance and these splendid structures for a visual adrenaline rush are so isolated, so forgotten by devotees and tourist circles alike. 

The small, flamboyantly-decorated wall mosque next to Sheikh Aziz's tomb

The dargah is also the site for the annual “Phoolwalon ki Sair” festival (“Walk of the flower-sellers”), usually held in the months of October/November as a mark of interfaith harmony and syncretism – the history behind this unique event is that once Mumtaz Mahal, the bereaved queen of Emperor Akbar Shah II (ruled AD 1806-37), prayed that if her arrogant son Mirza Jahangir, guilty of insulting British high officials as well as shooting his pistol (and missing) at the British Resident (negotiator) of Delhi Sir Archibald Seton, could return from his exile at Allahabad, she would offer a chaddar at Hazrat Kaki’s dargah and a flower “pankha” (ornamental fan for hanging over a shrine) at the nearby Yogmaya temple (Hazrat Kaki’s dargah and Mehrauli as a whole saw a resurgence in popular culture and architectural sphere during the reign of the later Mughals). The wish having been fulfilled, the queen started this legendary tradition that has since been held continuously for almost two centuries, except for a brief lull during British rule, and has brought members of different communities residing in the area closer to each other facilitating peaceful cohabitation and dialogue. High-profile dignitaries like the Chief Minister and Governor of Delhi attend the festival with their entourage and it is the Hindus who offer the chaddar first at the shrine of Hazrat Kaki and Muslims who adorn the Yogmaya temple with the beautiful pankha. Incidentally, Akbar Shah II decided to be buried adjacent to the open marble enclosure (“muhajjar”) that houses the mortal remains of Bahadur Shah I close to the dargah and adjacent to the Moti Masjid; also buried alongside Akbar Shah II are Shah Alam II and Mirza Fakruddin (son of Bahadur Shah “Zafar” II) – the graves and the mosque can be accessed from the “Ajmeri Darwaza” (“Doorway opening towards Ajmer”), a soothing blue entrance way with shards of tiles patched together to generate a handsome yet serene effect. Zafar too desired to be buried here and had even earmarked a patch of grassy land in Akbar Shah II’s muhajjar for his cenotaph but he was exiled to Myanmar by the British where he spent his last few years in exile and was buried in a nondescript unmarked grave. The Emperors Shamshuddin Iltutmish and Alauddin Khilji are also buried nearby in the shadow of the soaring Qutb Minar, the individual posts about their eminent tombs can be accessed from here – Pixelated Memories - Iltutmish's Tomb and Pixelated Memories - Alauddin's Tomb & Madrasa Complex. 

The beautiful but unkempt Ajmeri Darwaza. Children could be seen playing cricket around it and vegetable sellers set up stock just outside the courtyard abutting the gateway and Moti Masjid mosque.

The Urs of Khwaja Sahib (death day celebrations) is also held with much pomp and grandeur every year at the dargah – death is considered to be an auspicious occasion in Sufism, referred to as a wedding where the saint leaves behind his physical form to become one with the divine and hence a cause for celebration – the entire dargah complex is beautifully decorated with flowers, sparklers and fairy-lights and Qawwali mehfils (Sufi devotional music congregations) are held all night long. The dargah also boasts of a still continuing association with the dargah of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer – every year, devotees of Hazrat Chishti begin assembling at Hazrat Kaki’s dargah almost a month before Hazrat Chishti’s Urs celebrations; as mentioned earlier, Hazrat Chishti had it proclaimed that visit to his tomb complex would be incomplete without first visiting Hazrat Kaki’s tomb complex, hence these devotees begin assembling here and wait for the full moon night when the date of Hazrat Chishti’s Urs date is decided upon according to the traditional lunar calendar following which they proceed on foot to Hazrat Chishti’s Dargah (over 400 kilometers away!) – every mendicant, saint and devotee in this colorful congregation is armed with a wooden stick topped with a fluttering green flag and hence it is known as the “Festival of Sticks” (“Chadeeyon/Chhadiyon ka Mela”). For those who cannot make it to these special events, there is always the regular Qawwali night held every Thursday evening in the Dargah complex when the Dargah’s resident singers dish out the harmoniums and tablas and render devotional songs and heartbreaking couplets. 

Colorful and artsy - The second of the three entrance gateways to the dargah

Heading back, we were directed to the small alcove built into the terrace overlooking Hazrat Kaki’s tomb and led to by a beautifully ornamented gateway with floral motifs painted on the white walls – probably the most beautiful structure in the entire dargah complex and literally the humblest despite its glittering adornments, shimmering paintwork and the shine of several locks on its pillars (similar to the red-yellow threads, these too are tied by devotees pleading with the saint to act as an interlocutor between them and God and have their wishes granted) – this is the tomb of one of the Khalifas (“spiritual emissary”) of Hazrat Bakhtiyar Kaki. Most websites dedicated to Sufism, Islam and Delhi refer to it as the tomb of Hamiduddin Nagauri, Hazrat Kaki’s close companion and spiritual guide, but Qazi Nagauri is buried in the far away city of Nagaur in Rajasthan where he preached throughout his lifetime – his dargah there is an important part of the Sufi pilgrimage circuit; the tomb’s old caretaker couldn’t offer me any answers when I pointed this anomaly to him; perhaps the identity of this revered saint has been forgotten through the tides of time. One sighs with relief with the firm belief that Hazrat Kaki’s identity would never be forgotten in this ancient city of cities, come what may and even in the face of dwindling follower count and the relinquishing of matters of faith, history and humanity by the general public in the bid for economic and social welfare – after all, don’t the Khwaja Sahib’s followers contend that no harm would ever come to Delhi as long as his dargah stands erect since he loves this city even after death and showers blessings on it everyday from his seat in heavens. 

The highly ornate and glittery tomb of Hazrat Kaki's caliph

Location: Near Mehrauli Terminal bus stand

Nearest Metro Station: Qutb Minar

Nearest Bus stop: Mehrauli Terminal

How to reach: One can walk from the bus terminal (approx. 10 min away) or take an auto from Qutb Minar/Saket metro stations (charges approx Rs 40)

Entrance fees: Nil

Photography/Video charges: Nil

Time required for sightseeing: 45 min

Advisory: Since the dargah complex is a religious shrine, it is advisable to be properly dressed, especially for women. Both men and women visitors are required to take off their footwear at the gateway (can be kept in bag or deposited at one of the numerous shops/shoe counter) and cover their heads with handkerchiefs/skullcaps/dupattas.

Relevant Links - 

1. Pixelated Memories - Alauddin's Tomb & Madrasa Complex
2. Pixelated Memories - Amir Khusro and his Tomb
3. Pixelated Memories - Gandhak ki Baoli
4. Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
5. Pixelated Memories - Iltutmish's Tomb
6. Pixelated Memories - Moti Masjid, Mehrauli
7. Pixelated Memories - Qutb Minar
8. Pixelated Memories - Red Fort

Suggested Reading - 

1. Dargahsharif.com - Hazrat Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaaki R.A.
2. Delhibyfoot.in - Chhadeeyon ka Mela
3. Ghumakkar.com - In the mystic alleys of Delhi (II) – Phool Wallon Ki Sair
4. Google books - "Sufism: Heart of Islam" by Sadia Dehlvi
5. Hazratbakhtiyarkaki.com - Other mazaars in the Dargah premises
6. Sufiwiki.com - Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
7. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Article "Attack took place close to emblem of Indian secularism" (dated Sep 28, 2008) by Sameer Arshad
8. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Article "Say it with Flowers: Phoolwalon-ki-sair" (dated Nov 2, 2006) by Pranav Khullar
9. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Article "Where religion does not define identity" (dated Oct 23, 2008) by Radhika Oberoi
10. Travel.cnn.com - Article "The Sufi music tour: Where to hear qawwali in India" (dated Feb 14, 2012) by Divya Dugar
11. Tribuneindia.com - Article "Singing in praise of the Lord" (dated March 7, 1999) by Devi Singh Naruka
12. Wikipedia.org - Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti