Mubarak Shah Saiyyid's Tomb, Delhi

“Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hun, na kisi ke dil ka qaraar hun,

Jo kisi ke kaam na aa sake, main who ek musht-e-ghubar hun

Paie fateeha koi aaye kyun, koi chaar phool charhaae kyun,

Aa ke shamaa koi jalaye kyun, main wo be-kasi ka mazaar hun”

(“I’m the light of no one’s eye, the joy of no one’s heart am I.

That which can be of use to none – just a handful of dust am I.

Why should someone sing my dirge, or come lay a wreath?

I’m the mausoleum of helplessness, better left in dark.”)

– Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah “Zafar” II

(Reign AD 1837-57)

One of the city’s oldest monuments, and then too not just a mere medieval edifice but the mausoleum of Sultan Muizuddin Mubarak Shah Saiyyid, the resourceful sovereign emperor (ruled AD 1421-34) who reigned over vast territories extending throughout northern India and contiguous sections of Pakistan, is a picture of gross mistreatment and semi-urban squalor in the heart of Kotla Mubarakpur, the fortified citadel he adoringly commissioned which is presently classified as an overpopulated, densely inhabited urban village (an oxymoron of course!) where an unfeasibly enormous number of multistory box-like, uninhabitably ramshackle residential buildings have so thickly mushroomed all around the mausoleum with such an unrestrained unconcern for civic facilities like roads, electricity and drainage that there are numerous stretches in the administratively unregulated colony where the buildings inch so dearly close to each other and tilt in such an alarmingly precarious fashion that they unbelievably render the clear sky a minute sliver of light peeping through – in fact, so dense is this semi-urban agglomeration, renowned as a commercial hub for sourcing construction material and interior furnishings, that Google Maps very nearly becomes worthless here considering that primarily there are no roads snaking through a majority of the urban village’s expanse, and where there are, the buildings have cropped up so close that no satellite can possibly visualize the road’s existence! Although the word “Kotla” translates to fortifications, which have long since disappeared under opposition from the relentlessly vicious forces of burgeoning urbanization and cataclysmic commercialization of land space, I shall nonetheless continue to refer to the urban village as the same for lack of a better term capable of indicating the delineation of the region’s boundaries.

Outrageous!

Mubarak Shah is said to have inherited a perilously fragmented empire from his shrewd father Sultan Khizr Khan Saiyyid (reign AD 1414-21) and the country was still healing from the tremendously brutal wounds inflicted by the remorseless Mongol invader Timur who aggressively plundered Delhi and all the magnificent cities that led to it in AD 1398. Nonetheless, Mubarak Shah proved to be a formidable emperor and an able administrator who incontestably commanded the unquestionable loyalty of a powerful army and continuously undertook fierce punitive expeditions throughout his short reign against rebellious governors and local Hindu chieftains who had transformed the country into a perennially explosive keg. Unlike his forever-cautious father, he also possessed the resolved pugnacity to forfeit any allegiance to Timur and his equally ruthless descendants. Sadly though, he did not show the same cunning in appointing government officials – unchallenged by any administrative or financial checks and balances, powerful local chieftains and conniving court nobles ran the entire country like their own personal fiefs and soon enough, his prime minister ("Wazir”) Sarwar ul-Mulk, blinded alike by his own considerable influence and his contempt for the government of the day, physically assaulted and assassinated the Sultan soon after he dismissed him from service. The magnificent octagonal mausoleum is said to have been planned by Mubarak Shah himself during his lifetime but was commissioned after his demise by his nephew and successor Sultan Muhammad Shah Saiyyid (reign AD 1434-44) – wretchedly however, the massive edifice is so thoroughly surrounded by cramped multistory residential buildings and shop clusters that it is presently impossible to observe any aspect of it appreciably well and one has to eventually rely upon Muhammad Shah’s own strikingly beautiful mausoleum to properly visualize the former’s erstwhile impressiveness (refer Pixelated Memories - Muhammad Shah Saiyyid's Tomb, Lodi Gardens).

A sliver of magnificence

The satellite view of Kotla Mubarakpur on Google Maps facilitates an interesting observation – the tomb, or its enormous dome rather, stands out prominently in the center and the entire unregulated colony separated from it only by a circumambulating street has developed around it in such a cheek by jowl manner that the contours of the beyond belief narrow streets and the numerous rows of houses turn correspondingly along its octagonal peripheries as if reluctant to let waste even a single square inch of encroachable land! On the ground, owing to the presence of several shops dealing with construction material such as cement and the like, an impenetrable cloud of bleached dust and cement which imparts an unpleasantly hazy appearance to everything perpetually hangs over the road and is stirred up furthermore by the continuous passage of pedestrians, cyclists and children wantonly sprinting around. Good-naturedly hoping to prevent defacement and suspected demolition of the medieval monument but also perhaps in no small measure attempting to escape their own fundamental obligation towards its protection and conservation, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has erected a high iron-grille all around its peripheries, although that laughably doesn’t in any way prevent the locals who stack gunny bags of sand and cement all around it – I suspect that ASI assumes that like an impermeable shield, the thick cladding of invasive plants and weeds emerging from the monument’s roof and immense dome would unarguably protect it from the relentless pressures of urbanization and vandalism!

Overlooking history - Mubarak Shah's immediate neighbor is a lavatory!

The mausoleum is nonetheless opened to visitors every Thursday since the locals refuse to accept that this grand edifice entombs a short-lived emperor and continue to regard it as the hallowed shrine of a medieval Sufi saint. A small, gated opening in the iron grille can be used for entry and egress on other days as well, but the day I visited the gate was locked and there was no caretaker to be seen around – neighborhood shopkeepers assured me he had merely gone for tea and should be back soon – I’m till date not sure how much tea did he drink since he did not return in the hour and a half I spent snooping around on the monument from people’s rooftops.

A fine monument built in the architectural style ubiquitously favored by the Saiyyid dynasty royalty, it consists of a large octagonal chamber surrounded by a spacious pillared veranda running parallel to each side and surmounted by a high, slightly protuberant but nonetheless graceful dome. Among the features displayed by the tomb are a continuous, badly damaged eave (“chajja”) along the roof supported by equally spaced brackets, “chattris” (umbrella domes mounted on slender pillars) raised on the parapet above each of the sides, strong buttressed tapering pillars dressed with grey Delhi quartzite stone along each corner of the octagon (to afford enhanced structural stability) and three arched entrances on each side along the edge of verandah.

Claustrophobic! - Enroute to Mubarak Shah's mausoleum

The parapet, the sixteen-sided drum (base) of the dome and the eight-sided drums of the smaller domes of the chattris – each is distinguished by a very prominent row of “kanguras” (battlement-like ornamentation); elegantly tall slender ornamental turrets emerge from each corner of the drum of the central dome and stylishly punctuate the row of kanguras at this level, thereby further accentuating the overall image of a fascinatingly detailed, architecturally opulent funerary structure otherwise subdued in terms of grandeur and colorfulness. The only exception to the overall lack of flamboyance is an intriguingly unusual, bright red sandstone kiosk peppered with white marble highlights crowning the massive dome. Each side of the mausoleum except the western is pierced by an entrance whose heavy stone lintels culminate into painstakingly sculpted exquisite floral patterns; the western wall is filled in with a stone latticework screen so that it functions in the capacity of a mihrab (western wall of a religious/funerary structure indicating the direction of Mecca and faced by the faithful while offering prayers).

The funerary mosque associated with the mausoleum has been so irrevocably and horribly swallowed by the aforementioned surge of modern constructions that it has become irreversibly separated physically and contextually from the mausoleum and to reach it one does have to do significant legwork through successively narrower streets that invariably end in cul-de-sacs or lead to directions other than the ones one wishes to proceed to. Soon enough, climbing atop rooftops of the substantially taller buildings (of course after asking permission!) in order to navigate is the only option one can consider.

The funerary mosque - A monument swallowed by urbanization

The mosque has been relegated to the wretched existence of a local dumping ground carpeted with mounds of polythene bags stuffed with foul-smelling rotten organic wastes, shards of broken beer bottles and even excreta that the locals projectile as obnoxious missiles from their terraces to the huge cobblestone-paved courtyard adjoining it or leave lining the outer sides of the walls that enclose it (where they do not adjoin other houses – several neighborhood buildings in fact share walls with the mosque’s peripheries! So much for the government’s Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act!). But make no mistake – the monument has not been entirely abandoned by mankind – children use occasional clearings in the garbage-stuffed courtyard as a playground and perhaps considering that not many others would venture close to a place that insufferably stenches of rotten wastes, accumulated runoff water and putrid excreta, the covered portion of the mosque is thoughtfully utilized as their very own hangout zone by local alcohol and marijuana addicts who can be seen, bottles and joints in hand, even in broad daylight whiling away their time playing cards and gossiping along the corners. One cannot help feeling heartbroken at the gruesome sight of the delightfully simplistic mosque’s present shameful existence and miniscule probability of improved future prospects.

Surmounted by three domes, the rectangular structure is accessible via five arched entrances supported on crudely crafted double-pillars that were a characteristic feature of the militaristic Tughlaq Dynasty (reign AD 1320-98) who preceded the Saiyyid supremacy. The mosque features exquisite plasterwork medallions, a wide eave (“chajja”) supported on heavy stone brackets, kangura patterns and (on the inside) sorry remains of miniature alcoves styled into numerous intricate geometric and floral patterns. The subdued grandeur, formality of architectural plan and the overall artistic starkness are heartbreaking and confer on the monument a distinctive dignity that refuses to be intimidated to submission even by its unforeseen fall from graceful sophistication to the station of a foul-smelling, visually unappealing garbage heap.

Dignified!

Along one side, a staircase layered with shards of beer bottles and cigarette packs leads upstairs to the mosque’s roof from where one can rummage upon the elusiveness of even the minutest trace of optimism for the pitiable mosque while at the same time feel dwarfed by the towering buildings that flank it on either side and grievously observe and photograph the sheer scale of unwarranted devastation inflicted by inconsiderate locals.

The mausoleum is generally regarded to be the second (of only six!) octagonal tomb to be built in Delhi (three others have been previously documented on this blog here – Pixelated Memories - Adham Khan's Tomb, Pixelated Memories - Isa Khan's Tomb Complex and Pixelated Memories - Muhammad Shah Saiyyid's Tomb). It is also the first instance of a mausoleum to be conceived surrounded by an enclosed fortified garden (which has vanished long since). Also, the funerary mosque associated with the mausoleum is accepted to be the only one built during the Saiyyid Dynasty reign (AD 1414-51) to have survived. Given the excellent statistics associated with them, it is profoundly unacceptable that the mosque-mausoleum languish in such decrepitude and conservational poverty. I do not oppose the local population’s right to venerate the mausoleum as a shrine and frequent it on a daily basis if they so wish but I do feel offended by the sickeningly disgusting treatment they have meted out to the somber mosque. Also, agreed that ASI works with a very mediocre budget and does not have the resources or skilled manpower to feasibly undertake conservation and restoration works, but it can at the very least provide a semblance of security and cleanliness to the monuments under its aegis – and if it cannot, I can mirthlessly only suggest that they lock and board up the monuments and prevent any and every form of entry to them until they can accumulate sufficient resources to safeguard and manage them satisfactorily – at least, we wouldn’t lose another monument to encroachments and general lackadaisical attitude of the populace and civic authorities. So shameful is the present scenario that post observing the deplorable circumstances of the two remarkable edifices and the all-encompassing neglect heaped by the civic authorities on them specifically and Kotla Mubarakpur in general, one instantaneously forgets any significant hopes of restoration and preservation and barely wishes that they at least miraculously survive for the next generation to witness.

Oh, the irony!

Location: Kotla Mubarakpur, near South Ex.I
Nearest Bus stop: South Ex. I
Nearest Metro station: AIIMS
How to reach: Walk/avail an auto rickshaw from South Ex. Ask for "Gumbad" after reaching Kotla Mubarakpur village. The mosque is more difficult to find and one has to climb the rooftops of neighborhood buildings to check the orientation and directions.
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 30 min
Relevant Links - 
Other monuments located in the vicinity - Pixelated Memories - South Ex. Trail
Another Saiyyid-era monument in the city - Pixelated Memories - Muhammad Shah Saiyyid's Tomb
Suggested reading -

1. Footlooseindilli.blogspot.in - Tomb of Mubarak Shah - Kotla Mubarakpur
2. India-seminar.com - Article "A millennium of building, 50 years of destruction" by Ratish Nanda
3. Indianexpress.com - Article "The lost cities of Delhi" (dated Sep 27, 2009) by The lost cities of Delhi Alokparna Das 
4. Sarsonkekhet.in - Dilli Darshan: Sayyid and Lodhi Delhi

Adham Khan's Tomb and Mehrauli PHC, Delhi

“Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to the eternal dole;

Through me the way among the people lost;

Justice incited my sublime Creator; Created me divine Omnipotence,

the highest Wisdom and the primal Love;

Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last.
All hope abandon, ye who enter!”

– Dante Alighieri, 13th-century Italian poet, “Inferno”

Regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited area in the entire city, Mehrauli can be unquestionably considered as an unbelievable visual confluence of unimaginably desolate medieval monuments and a rapid groundswell of burgeoning urbanization and shimmering modernization engaged in a mighty clash so extraordinarily slow progressed that compared to the rest of the cityscape this entire area literally appears to have been transformed into a photographic frame struck in time eons ago allowing viewers a brief, uninterrupted glimpse into the idyllic life that was without any pretensions of relentless concrete and cement development, obnoxious pollution and miserable deforestation.

Behold enormity! - The mausoleum of Maham Anga and Adham Khan

Scattered around the area are hundreds of monuments – some exceedingly beautifully ornamented, some painstakingly perched upon high near-unpassable eyries, some quite humiliatingly submerged underneath an onslaught of years of accumulated stinking sludge and everyday excreta, some unassuming edifices relatively well-maintained either by the government or a religious organization as a ruin of heritage importance or a sacred shrine or a commemorative edifice, and lastly, a few depressingly decrepit monuments taken over by the local community which, like the dedicated memory of ancient days, continue to function as community centers where locals would everyday converge and share gossip of daily business and happenings occurring in the neighborhood. In this part of the country, opposite Mehrauli bus terminal, different facets of everyday life, the different modes, the different professions can be discerned in the very streets – anticipating business and cursing the sweltering summer heat or the biting winter cold, there are the fruit and vegetable sellers, the flowers and garland sellers, the plumbers, laborers, electricians, masons, the cigarette and betel leave sellers, the beggars, the eunuchs, the rickshaw drivers, the street cleaners, the garbage collectors, the prostitutes, the pimps, the policemen and the pickpockets, the unemployed, the old and the disabled, the ear cleaners, the car washers, the laundrymen and the newspaper men – one can see each of them, attired and arrayed in the bustling, perennially crowded marketplace.

Painted perfection!

Magnificently protruding from the ground like a massive towering overlord, overlooking this continuous flow of people and professions for the past half a millennium, is the visually prominent enormous cream-white mausoleum of Mirza Adham Khan, a foster brother of the Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Akbar (reign AD 1556-1605), whose life seems so incorrigibly entwined with that of numerous other protagonists interred in different parts of the graceful city that his tale, despite its emotionally disturbing and barbaric overtones, is unarguably one of the most frequently heard. Adham Khan and Quli Khan (also buried nearby, refer Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb) were the adored sons of Maham Anga, the favored foster mother of the Emperor. Much to Maham Anga's undisguised chagrin, the Emperor immensely respected Shamshuddin Atgah Khan, the husband of his other foster mother Jiji Anga, sought his opinion in all important decisions and in AD 1562 raised him to the coveted position of “Wakil” (“Chief Minister”) thereby allowing him to investigate and document the military excesses and financial embezzlement perpetrated by Adham as an army General – infuriated, the latter brutally murdered Atgah Khan in cold blood and then, blinded alike with fury and fear of the consequences of his unsavory actions, burst upon the bewildered Emperor with his sword unsheathed, prompting the infuriated Emperor to immediately have him arrested and thrown down the ramparts of his fortress in Agra, twice for good measure – several historians argue that the incensed Emperor, thus provoked and yet grievously confused since Adham was his own esteemed milk-brother, himself threw him down to ensure his immediate demise.

Sigh! When will this city ever learn?

This however wasn’t the first time that the uncontrollable Adham had got into administrative and disciplinary troubles with the Emperor – legend has it that it that when the Emperor’s armies led by his valiant generals were furthering his expansionist policies and annexing small kingdoms in different parts of the country, Adham would capture a territory for him and enslave all the women in the captured land to add them to his own harem – such was his terror that women in the conquered kingdoms preferred to commit suicide rather than face him. Predictably, he invaded the kingdom of Malwa in central India under the Emperor’s banner, massacred its armies and killed the king Baz Bahadur (literally “Brave Hawk”) – however, before he could touch their Queen Roopmati with whom he had fallen in love, she committed suicide (“Jauhar”) by jumping into the pyre lit for her husband’s cremation – furious and desirous of vengeance, Adham unleashed a vicious pogrom and killed hundreds of innocent inhabitants of Malwa until the Emperor was forced to himself march to Malwa with a large army led by Azim Khan, another of his numerous mighty Generals (also buried nearby, refer Pixelated Memories - Azim Khan's Tomb), to subdue Adham who was then defeated, ordered not to lead any military campaigns in the near future and his territorial and executive powers curtailed for a period of time. Killing Atgah Khan however was to be the last indiscretion on the part of Adham – neither filial love nor the unmatched influence of his ambitious mother could save him from the Emperor’s wrath.

Dominating Delhi's skyline - Qutb Minar

Bereaved beyond measure and consolation despite putting up a brave front (she notably exclaimed to the Emperor “You have done well” when he recounted to her the events leading to Adham’s gruesome execution), Maham Anga, whose health was already failing for the past several months, too died mere forty days later pining for her treasured son and the guilt-ridden Emperor was therefore prompted to order the construction of the enormous mausoleum that was to entomb both mother and son. Atgah Khan, of course, was posthumously bestowed with the title of “martyr” and interred in a delicately beautiful mausoleum close to the Dargah of the 14th-century Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and the breathtaking magnificent mausoleum of Emperor Humayun (refer Pixelated Memories - Atgah Khan's Tomb, Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah and Pixelated Memories - Humayun's Tomb complex). Adham however was labelled an unfaithful traitor and buried in far-flung Mehrauli in an octagonal mausoleum reminiscent of the architectural style of the numerous dynasties of Delhi Sultanate who preceded the nearly uninterrupted 330-year Mughal reign – the close proximity to the Dargah of the 13th-century Sufi saint Hazrat Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki was to be his lone concession (refer Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Bakhtiyar Kaki's Dargah).

A touch of ornamentation

The whole structure rises from an immense plinth delineated at the corners by octagonal bastions with enough space within them for several people to stand in shoulder-to-shoulder. The fortified walls of the thick-set plinth and the bastions bear traces of exquisite ornamentation, primarily strips of red sandstone sculpted into scrolls of floral patterns and flourishes which have somehow survived the ravages of time and nature. The octagonal mausoleum, vertically exceedingly prominent relative to its architecturally similar predecessors, is externally very minimally ornamented with just the bare minimum of traces of adornment – plasterwork medallions composed of inscribed calligraphy and floral decorations, unaesthetically thick tapering turrets protruding from the corners of each of the sides of the octagonal structure as well as the sixteen-sided drum (base) of the colossal dome, decorative “kangura” patterns (battlement-like leaf motif ornamentation) and an unusually pointed, highly polished glittering red sandstone finial crowning the apex. The cream-white thick walls, plastered over in tatters wretchedly revealing the layers of red-grey bricks underneath (despite being very recently conserved and restored (re-plastered) on the occasion of the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG XIX 2010)), are buttressed for structural stability and surrounded on every side by an exceptionally wide colonnaded passageway that visually lends the entire structure a discernibly squat appearance despite its perpendicular towering existence. The interiors are unbelievably straightforward – a single, unprepossessing narrow gravestone, positioned thus sometime in the last century itself (on the orders of the Viceroy Lord Curzon who initiated restoration and conservation of numerous monuments throughout the country during his viceregal reign (1899-1905)), marks the location of Adham’s mortal remains, nothing however indicates that Maham Anga too was buried here – overhead, an ethereally beautiful painted medallion in blues, reds and blacks scatters an otherworldly artistic luminescence.

Symmetrically ungainly! So unlike the other Mughal edifices!

In every other direction, the local vandals have resorted to beautifying the mausoleum by inscribing it with nonsensical chalk pattern designs and heartfelt love letters. From past the limitless sea composed of the crowns and tresses of hundreds of thousands of vibrant green trees comprising the ridge forest extending immediately beyond the mausoleum’s peripheries, the richly illustrated towering Qutb Minar (refer Pixelated Memories - Qutb Minar) sternly overlooks the cruel desecration of the punitive sepulcher of the equally ferocious General. Legend goes that before her demise, Queen Roopmati had thus cursed Adham Khan that never a woman shall visit his grave or risk being harshly rendered devoid of conjugal happiness throughout her life – the mausoleum is however conspicuously distinguished today as a fascinating exemplar of a local community center regularly frequented by hordes of schoolchildren lolling their time after school, near-continuously chattering girls gossiping in rapid-fire Hindi amongst themselves, old men and women dressed in flawless white mumbling to themselves and the occasional camera-toting tourists – the curse and the numerous assertions of the monument being terrifyingly haunted seem to have been irreversibly forgotten, remembered only in folktales and contemporaneous historical accounts – perhaps a consequence of the burial of the doting Maham Anga with her cherished, although often wayward, son? Locals nonetheless do warn visitors to not stay overnight inside the mausoleum.

Serving the dead and the living - Mehrauli Primary Health Center

In vernacular parlance, the mausoleum is referred to as a “Bhool Bhulaiyya” (“Impenetrable Maze”) – some say it’s because its thick walls possess unfathomably convoluted passages amongst themselves, especially along the first floor, others say it’s because members of a marriage retinue explicably lost their way in the forest beyond its extremities never to be found again – though somehow I seem to have missed witnessing these passages, I’m nonetheless more inclined to side with the second opinion since the first seems too unbelievably far-fetched and also one has to take into consideration that at one point in its history, early 19th-century to be exact, the mausoleum was desecrated and converted into a country residence by Major Blake of the Bengal (British) Civil Services who had, enchanted by the subdued magnificence and unperturbed by the macabre stories pertaining to the personalities interred within, demolished the graves and installed comfortable beds and dining tables in their place. Incredibly afterwards, the structure bewilderingly served in the unusual capacities of an army guesthouse, a police station and a post office! Of course, Major Blake wouldn’t have chosen to reside in a labyrinthine maze, nor could have been a guesthouse/police station/post office run from such perplexing a premises.

Interestingly enough, this was not the only monumental edifice thus violated and recycled for worldly purposes inherently different from those that it was originally conceived to serve – couple of meters from the mausoleum exist two small monuments – a miserably crumbling pink-red mosque possessing a very finely-proportioned onion dome and a curious yellow mausoleum that from its distinctive appearance is discernible to belong to the short-lived Lodi Dynasty reign (AD 1451-1526) – while the former, wretchedly decrepit and thoroughly ruined, has been converted to a residence, the latter officially functions since the early 1930s in the governmental capacity of Mehrauli Primary Health Center (PHC) managed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)!

Commemorating forgotten history?

Additional chambers have been constructed around the original structure of the PHC and drenched in coats of blindingly brilliant yellow paint; verandahs shielded from the elements by wide corrugated iron sheet eaves (“chajja”) and lined with stone benches for patients and their relatives to sit on run around it and its exterior walls have been faced with grotesque white bathroom tiles – in its entirety, the picture of a shameful transformation and more significantly an unabashed contempt for architectural heritage and landmarks. Like the medieval monument, the desolate walls encompassing it were also once painted sunshine yellow like the structures they enclose, but presently reveal almost a rainbow spectrum of multicolored flourishes – yellowish-orange where the paint is still retained albeit discolored and darkened over time, green-grey where it has been entirely obliterated and compelled to reveal the layers of cement underneath, brown-red where the bricks peep through and bluish black-green where strands of moss have colonized the surface. A marble memorial tablet embedded in the wall notes –

“From the Zails of Mehrauli and Badarpur, 1261 men went to The Great War (1914-1919). Of these, 92 gave up their lives.”

(Zail – A revenue unit employed to demarcate areas during the British reign (AD 1857-1947))

So unsettlingly ironic is the British concept of historicity and commemorative remembrance that they had the temerity to inscribe an epigraph to themselves and their wars on the walls of a monument they unflinchingly overtook and mutated thus. This then is perhaps the “Kali Yuga” (“Age of Decay and Obliteration”) the Hindus refer to!

Squalor and decay!

Location: Immediately opposite Mehrauli bus terminal
Nearest metro station: Both Qutb Minar station and Saket station are equidistant.
Nearest Bus stop: Mehrauli
How to reach: Take a bus from the either of the metro stations to Mehrauli. Adham Khan's tomb is opposite the bus terminal and the PHC monument is barely couple of meters away.
Open: All days, sunrise to sunset
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Relevant Links - 
Edifices in Delhi associated with Adham Khan and his family -

1. Pixelated Memories - Khair-ul-Manazil Mosque (built by Maham Anga)
2. Pixelated Memories - Tomb of Azim Khan (who defeated Adham Khan at Malwa)
3. Pixelated Memories - Tomb of Quli Khan (Adham Khan's brother)

Edifices in Delhi associated with Atgah Khan and his family - 

1. Pixelated Memories - Tomb of Atgah Khan
2. Pixelated Memories - Tomb of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan (Atgah Khan's son-in-law)
3. Pixelated Memories - Tomb of Mirza Aziz Kokaltash (Atgah Khan's son)

Other monuments located in the immediate vicinity of Adham Khan's Tomb -

1. Pixelated Memories - Ahinsa Sthal
2. Pixelated Memories - Azim Khan's Tomb
3. Pixelated Memories - Gandhak ki Baoli (only couple of meters further away)
4. Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Kaki's Dargah
5. Pixelated Memories - Mehrauli Archaeological Park
6. Pixelated Memories - Moti Masjid
7. Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb
8. Pixelated Memories - Qutb Complex

Suggested reading -

1. Columbia.edu - "The punishment of Adham Khan by the justice of the Shahinshah"
2. Hindustantimes.com - Article "Healthcare in the lap of Lodi-era history" (dated June 23, 2013) by Nivedita Khandekar

Mehrauli Archaeological Park, Delhi

“When you’ve lived with someone for so long, the first few weeks after the break-up are strange times indeed. You have two options: you can either sit huddled up in a corner, a bottle of gin in one hand, a fag in the other, howling the lyrics of all those love songs or you can get up, get dressed and get out. I chose Option Two. I went out. Every night. Every single night, so incapable was I of staying home and facing my solitude. I went to the cinema, the theater, pubs, clubs, wine bars, restaurants, galleries, cultural talks, city walks – the opening of a tin of tuna if I thought there’d be people there. Even the gym held a certain appeal, for verily it is written: misery loves company. When I did find myself home alone, I had the TV and the radio blaring and was on the phone non-stop. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered was I.”

– Wendy Salisbury, “The Toyboy Diaries”

My recent break-up, heartrendingly painful as it was, pushed me to seek solemn solace in the streets of my beloved Delhi – my feet traversing paths that they had tread on numerous occasions previously; my mind, numbed as it was with recollections and idealizations, longing for company and asylum in delicate restaurants, magnificent monuments and forgotten corners that the city graciously offers to those who pry through its hordes of unmentionable secrets. I found myself once more in the beautifully pristine, wilderness reclaimed, forgotten and secluded Mehrauli Archaeological Complex where lie scattered, amidst the considerable remnants of large settlements and massive trees with gnarled, all-encompassing branches, magnificent ruins of enormous mausoleums, mosques and step-wells pertaining to almost a millennium of construction that cannot but be nonetheless regarded as only a fraction of architectural and cultural heritage in the immensity that is the grand city’s historical existence – and yet, despite its unmistakable reputation as being one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements within the city, the area possesses the unenviable notoriety as being a potentially unsafe, spine-chillingly haunted dark forest, redolent of death and destruction, where the trees bend closer to whisper dark secrets and even the birds too maintain a hushed unmentionable silence.

Haunted territory - Mehrauli Archaeological Park

I realized I hadn’t yet penned an article reflecting upon the complex’s renewed lease of life at the hands of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) who are exhuming the remains of structures, colossal and small, from underneath layers of earth and vegetation where they were buried for centuries since soon after the area was abandoned by the general population following the revolt of 1857 (First War of Independence/Sepoy Mutiny) and the implications that followed – in fact within the park complex, it isn’t surprising at all to come across huge chambers, buried underground in their entirety, their arches and collapsed roofs peeping through the grass and shrubbery, nor is it inconsequential to realize that here, of all places, in this distant corner of the city, ornamental British monuments (“follies”) exist next to splendid, miniaturized Mughal-era (AD 1526-1857) mausoleums, tell-tale distinctive Lodi-era (AD 1451-1526) mosques and even earlier still settlement ruins and mausoleums inspiringly dated to the Slave Dynasty reign (AD 1192-1290). I have indeed penned individualized posts about most of the major structures within the complex and here of course, they shall be interconnected along with a map depicting the presence of each of these structures, nonetheless it is the smaller, regrettably insignificant structures that I shall dwell upon here since it is these that I somehow find the most surprising and bewitching, not because of their commendable architectural and artistic features, but simply because there is such an overabundance of them that I feel astonished at the existence and requirement for so many of them – wall mosques (“qibla”) of varied dimensions and artistic ornamentation, yet retaining the overall similar structural features; rows upon rows of enclosed chambers, stables and residences; smaller mosques, many of them now encroached upon, refurbished, rebuilt and repainted to function as madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and residences for local Muslim priests and scholars; and such diminutive domed structures that I’m apprehensive of regarding as funerary structures and would have, if I was qualified enough, classified as guardhouses or some such similar functional building.

Fragments of an eventful history

It is said that the region was crisscrossed by trade routes that connected Delhi to central Asia and beyond and thus was frequented by caravans consisting of camels, horses and pack mules laden with aromatic spices, luxurious silks, precious jewels and royal gifts; mendicants and learned dervishes, their thirst for knowledge and religious mysticism unquenched and their pursuance of the same drawing them to the erudite sages and masters of Indian peninsula; regal messengers and couriers with their secretive messages and exclusive gifts and mementoes. It was here that Sultan Ghiyasuddin Bahauddin Balban (ruled AD 1266-86) decided to commission a beautiful, sober mausoleum for his deceased son Muhammad “Khan Shahid” and where he himself was laid to eternal rest in a grand and architecturally prominent tomb after he mournfully expired bereaving the latter’s demise (refer Pixelated Memories - Khan Shahid's Tomb and Pixelated Memories - Balban's Tomb). The establishment of a small rural settlement adjacent the trade route prompted the renowned Sufi mystic Sheikh Fazlullah Jalaluddin Khan “Jamali” Kamboh Dehlavi to establish his monastery here and construct the massive mosque complex (and later his artistically remarkable mausoleum), still thoroughly famed as Jamali-Kamali and presently the epitome of architectural heritage within the park where, seated upon an expansive incline, it prominently occupies the position of honor as the single outstanding monument which architecturally and artistically inspired nearly all the lavish mosque complexes that chronologically followed it (refer Pixelated Memories - Jamali Kamali Complex). I generally make it a point to enter the park complex through a small obscure opening in the periphery wall slightly offset from the intersection of the arterial, perennially crowded Mehrauli-Badarpur and Mahipalpur-Gurgaon roads at Lado Serai since the path quickly takes one past these two major set of ruins (two motorable entrances also exist – the first adjacent the renowned Qutb complex (refer Pixelated Memories - Qutb Complex) and the other on the other side of Balban’s tomb projecting from the Mahipalpur-Gurgaon highway).

Flamboyance personified - Within the mausoleum of Sheikh Jamali Kamboh Dehlavi

The large settlement that existed here must also have possessed several inns and resthouses for weary travelers which might explain the presence of such large stables and it is quite possible that many of them did construct smaller, individualized wall mosques in the vicinity to cater to the religious needs of their influential patrons. In one of the furthest corners of the complex where the comprehensive folds of thick, impenetrable vegetation gives way to an open ground used by the local kids for games of crickets, exists the thoughtfully landscaped, beautifully adorned mausoleum of Mirza Quli Khan, a foster brother of Mughal Emperor Akbar (reign AD 1556-1605) (refer Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb). Sir Charles Metcalfe, the Agent (negotiator) of British East India “trading” Company at the royal court of Emperor Bahadur Shah “Zafar” (reign AD 1837-57) purchased this monument and had it luxuriously converted into his summer retreat and guesthouse retrofitted with additional “follies” (ornamental architectural entities eponymously designed to appear ruined/monumental) such as “chattris” (umbrella domes surmounted upon slender ornamental pillars), gingerbread hut-like guardhouses, adornment bridges and stepped pyramids (“ziggurats”) – one such chattri was also conceived and commissioned upon a slightly rolling hillscape immediately opposite the attractive Jamali-Kamali complex (refer Pixelated Memories - Metcalfe's Chattri).

Unbelievably contrasting with the magnificently multi-hued and symmetrically ordered rose garden that has been established within the park periphery abutting its extremities along the Lado Serai-Qutb Complex connecting road, past the portion of the park where there still is some semblance of civilizational presence, past the region where the winding serpentine pathways have been shrouded with layers of red soil and cobbled stone and there do exist varieties of flora and fauna apart from lithe goats, ubiquitous Kikar trees (Prosopis juliflora) and ever-garrulous Jungle Babbler birds (Turdoides striata), the thoroughly-vegetated 200-acre complex transforms into a threatening, dark and forgotten patch of forest crisscrossed by deep sewage channels, untrodden pathways and desolate remains of decrepit mausoleums (most of which have been documented on this blog in the past, follow the links mentioned at the end of this article). Nearby appear like mirages two majestic step-wells (“baolis”), since christened “Rajon ki Baoli” and “Gandhak ki Baoli” as a consequence of their association with masons (“Rajon”) and Sulphur (“Gandhak”) (refer Pixelated Memories - Rajon ki Baoli and Pixelated Memories - Gandhak ki Baoli).

Detritus from an age of sophistication - One of the disintegrated Qibla walls within the complex

Several of the predominantly small, single-floored structures, vibrantly painted white bearing highlights in green, continue to function as mosques in this part of the complex and bear names such as “Choti Bagh wali Masjid” (“The Mosque within the Small Garden”) and “Neem wali Masjid” (“The Mosque with the Tamarind Tree”) – the entire area within the park complex and beyond was originally referred to as “Nazir ka Bagh” (“Nazir’s Garden”), though sadly it is no longer remembered who Nazir was or what age did he live in, however the Muslim Waqf Board (the custodian of Islamic funerary zones) inherently claims most of the park as its property on account of it largely being an enormous funerary land, leading to tussles with the ASI and Indian National Trust for Cultural and Architectural Heritage (INTACH) and counter-accusations of encroachment and monumental damage (point in case – Pixelated Memories - Choti Masjid Bagh wali). One does reverentially hope that the issues are quickly resolved and the complex can be conserved and the monuments restored to present a larger, better preserved archaeological and heritage zone in continuation with the majestic Qutb Complex adjacent. Nonetheless, observing the immensely satisfactory restoration drive affected upon several historically important monuments, especially the hallowed Jamali-Kamali complex, one is subconsciously reminded of the below mentioned phrase from Bible (John 11:25) –

“I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

Situated like an eagle’s nest upon an eyrie and overlooking the massive expanse of the archaeological complex from across the Gurgaon-Mahipalpur highway exists the formidable mausoleum of Azim Khan, another foster brother and army general in the court of Emperor Akbar (refer Pixelated Memories - Azim Khan's Tomb). The entire area, in fact, is literally dotted with monuments, shrines and mausoleums, considerable and minor, and can be unarguably regarded as one of the foremost sites of civilizational heritage in the beautiful cityscape – a postcard image of Delhi that was, frozen to portray the amalgam of political and financial power, majestic architecture and exquisite artworks nestled amidst lush foliage and vast landscaped plains – this truly is a representative of Delhi, The City of Cities, the City of Djinns!

White with green highlights - Neem wali Masjid

Location: Lado Serai intersection
Nearest Metro station: Qutb Minar
Nearest Bus stop: Lado Serai
How to reach: The park's entrance is immediately opposite Lado Serai bus stop at the intersection of Mehrauli-Badarpur and Badarpur-Gurgaon roads. Walk/avail an auto from Qutb Minar metro station or avail a bus from Saket metro station. Visually appropriate sandstone markers indicate the routes to different monuments inside the park.
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: Approx. 6 hrs
Note – There are no facilities (toilets, food or drinking water) available within the complex. While one can avail food and refreshments at one of the restaurants at Lado Serai, toilet facilities can only be availed at the shopping malls close to Saket Metro Station, almost a kilometer away. The park remains deserted in the evenings and is best avoided then by female enthusiasts.
Monuments within the park complex -

1. Pixelated Memories - Balban's Tomb 
2. Pixelated Memories - Chaumukh Darwaza
3. Pixelated Memories - Gandhak ki Baoli
4. Pixelated Memories - Jamali Kamali Complex
5. Pixelated Memories - Khan Shahid's Tomb
6. Pixelated Memories - Lodi-era Canopy Tomb
7. Pixelated Memories - Lodi-era Tomb
8. Pixelated Memories - Metcalfe's Chattri
9. Pixelated Memories - Metcalfe's Ziggurats and Guardhouses
10. Pixelated Memories - Mughal Tombs and Choti Masjid Bagh wali
11. Pixelated Memories - Rajon ki Baoli
12. Pixelated Memories - Rectangular Canopy
13. Pixelated Memories - Ruins, Mehrauli Archaeological Park 
14. Pixelated Memories - Settlement ruins
15. Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb

Other monuments/landmarks located in the vicinity -

1. Pixelated Memories - Ahinsa Sthal
2. Pixelated Memories - Azim Khan's Tomb
3. Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Kaki's Dargah
4. Pixelated Memories - Moti Masjid
5. Pixelated Memories - Qutb Complex
6. Pixelated Memories - Unmarked Ruins, Mehrauli

Suggested reading -

1. Indianexpress.com - Article " Years of neglect and many talks later, Mehrauli park will get a touch-up" (dated Dec 30, 2010) by Sweta Dutta 
2. Milligazette.com - Article "Heritage Park in Mehrauli area is Waqf land" (dated Aug 02, 2014) by NA Ansari
3.  Thefirstmail.in - Article "Demarcate area of Mehrauli Archaeological Park & Waqf land: HC" (dated May 20, 2015)
4. Thehindu.com - Article "Unkempt and uncared for" (dated Jan 12, 2013) by Sohail Hashmi 

Sheikh Yusuf Qattal's Tomb, Saket, Delhi

"Tha woh to rashke hoor-e-behesti hameen mein Mir!
Samjhe na hum to fahm ka apne qasoor tha"

("That hoor from paradise was part of my being, Mir.
I did not understand and blame my utter lack of comprehension of the ultimate truth.")

– Mir Taqi Mir, Urdu poet (lived AD 1723-1810)

Past the narrow streets of Khirki Village – sewage and sludge-drenched, garbage-shrouded, perennially crowded and recently touched up with vibrant, brilliantly multi-hued graffiti artwork – exists a small expanse of land, minimally layered with dry, withering grass and near continuously peopled with marijuana and smack addicts and teenagers playing extremely boisterous games, that seems to have got estranged in time eons far-off in history, where even the loud noises of the teenagers and the perpetual flow of traffic, physically so close, feel immensely distant and passer-bys appear like shadows traversing the same geographical reality and yet mere fragments of imagination and visual illusion. In a corner of this open space exists a diminutive, extremely handsome structure, built in AD 1527, whose very existence, albeit meager and nearly unknown to outsiders, is radiant with the beautiful secret it holds in its miniscule bosom – this is the mausoleum of Sufi saint Sheikh Yusuf Qattal, a prominent mendicant who amicably resided in the area during the reigns of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi (ruled AD 1517-26) and Badshah Zahiruddin Muhammad “Babur” (ruled AD 1526-30).

A touch of flamboyance

I had returned to my beloved Delhi for a mere fortnight after almost six months in Bangalore and Delhi Instagramers Guild, my photography club, had organized a walk at Khirki Masjid nearby (refer Pixelated Memories - Khirki Masjid) when we spotted the structure – for me, it was symbolic of what I really adore about the city – an epitome of the unequaled architectural, cultural and spiritual heritage that it possesses, a repository of knowledge and visual composition dating back centuries and yet dominating the monotonous landscape, a promise that while the entire cityscape and its surroundings were rapidly mutating (I’m still surprised by how much the city has changed in just 6 months!), it essentially remained the same.

Externally, the vermillion red, square structure is exquisitely detailed with patterns in red sandstone and plasterwork, including “chajja” (eaves) and unbelievably intricate “kangura” patterns (battlement-like ornamentation, here highly stylized). The roof still displays remnants of magnificent blue tile work and is surmounted by a large dome. The twelve pillars that support the structure are spanned by delicate stone lattice screens (“jalis”) sculpted in multiple fine geometric patterns that throw up a kaleidoscope of light and shadows in the interiors where local devotees, of all faiths and religions, leave behind reverential votive offerings of sweets, incense sticks, marigold flowers and bowls of “halwa” (extremely sweetened semi-solid confectionary conceived from clarified butter, sugar and flour) to appease the saint, whom they locally refer to as “Peer Baba” (“Old Dervish”), so he might implore God to grant their wishes (though stories of the mausoleum being eerily haunted also abound!).

Light and shadows

The western wall of the mausoleum, again elaborately sculpted from stone but recently outrageously painted ghastly green-white against the vivaciously flamboyant red of the building, functions in the capacity of a “mihrab” (western wall of a religious/funerary structure that indicates the direction of Mecca and is faced by the faithful while offering Namaz prayers) and bears the Islamic Kalima legend –

“La Allah illah Allah, Muhammad rasool Allah”

(“There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”)

The mausoleum is recorded to have been commissioned by Sheikh Alauddin, the grandson of the unparalleled Sufi saint Sheikh Fariduddin Ganjshakar (“Baba Farid”, the spiritual mentor of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the patron saint of Delhi), and is architecturally regarded as a relatively unpretentious cousin of the magnificent tomb of Imam Zamin located within Qutb Complex in nearby Mehrauli (refer Pixelated Memories - Imam Zamin's Tomb). Besides the mausoleum exist equally modest remains of a congregational chamber and a low rectangular mosque, the latter bestowed with three arched openings and remains of intricate plasterwork adorning the interior surfaces, the unwelcoming exteriors however presently thoroughly drenched with miserable whitewash – the state of monumental conservation-restoration efforts in the country can at best be described as paradoxical, occasionally as regressive – red sandstone plaques affixed near the ground entrance affirm that the structures have been recently restored by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and National Culture Fund (NCF) with financial collaboration from PEC Ltd (a public sector undertaking of the Delhi Government’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry), and yet the mosque has been immediately, retrospectively overtaken by the local population and tragically repainted as a mark of their unbenevolent acquisition of it. Recent restoration work however also involved the removal of centuries of accumulated soil and debris from around the structures and it has been revealed that they originally stood upon a really high plinth which was submerged underground over time and now has been intermittently exposed.

Spot the blues

Throughout its expanse, the open ground surrounding the mausoleum is pockmarked with a smattering of smaller wall mosques and graves of long forgotten personalities who saw their burial in the vicinity of the saint’s sacred sarcophagus as a means of reaching paradise. The only other ruin that can verily be described as comparatively significant is a set of six pillars arranged in a hexagonal pattern and flanking a single tombstone – quite possibly the remains of a “chattri” mausoleum (umbrella-dome surmounted upon simplistic pillars), the dome of which has long since ceased to exist, but the pillars remain to present an uniquely unusual appearance. But the population possesses only as much consideration for these such ruins as the people interred within have need – in the immediate vicinity has come up a majestic, ethereally beautiful five-floor high graffiti mural portraying a physically and sartorially pre-Columbian feminine figure whose weightless heart is prevented from flying off by being bound to a staff! – I couldn’t really understand the symbolism, but the scene is nonetheless gratifying, especially considering that it does momentarily distract one from the heaps of cow dung, garbage and broken automobile parts surrounding it. Oh Delhi!

Blossoming amidst ruins

Location: Khirki Main Road, Khirki Village. Close to Select Citywalk, Saket (Coordinates: 28°32'02.2"N 77°13'08.7"E)
Open: All days, sunrise to sunset
Entrance fees: Nil
Nearest Metro station: Malviya Nagar
Nearest Bus stop: Khirki Village
How to reach: Enter Khirki Village from the narrow uneven lanes projecting immediately opposite Select Citywalk Mall on the Press Enclave Road side. The massive Khirki Masjid (locally referred to as "Qila", refer Pixelated Memories - Khirki Masjid) is visible immediately upon entering the village. The mausoleum is located towards its rear side and can be accessed by following the road running beside it for a few hundred meters.
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 20 minutes

Chausath Khamba, Delhi

The unusual history of the unequivocally fascinating reign of the Mughal Empire (AD 1526-1857) in the Indian subcontinent can best be described by borrowing from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” –

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Count the pillars - Chausath Khamba

In AD 1562, Khan-i-Azam (“Lion of the Kingdom”) Mirza Aziz Kokaltash, the Governor (“Subedar”) of Gujarat, bereaved and bewildered following the ruthlessly gruesome murder of his father Shamshuddin Atgah Khan, commissioned a soberly grand, exquisitely ornamented and spellbindingly detailed mausoleum for the latter near the sacred shrine (Dargah) of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the patron saint of Delhi (refer Pixelated Memories - Atgah Khan's Tomb and Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah), and in the immediate vicinity also had constructed a single-floor glittering white marble square edifice, christened “Chausath Khamba” after the sixty-four simplistic rectangular pillars that supported its structure, where the family could stay, surrounded by flowering trees, grassy lawns and centuries-old, vividly multicolored historical monuments and shrines, on the occasions when they visited the Dargah and the beloved father’s mausoleum.

Besides being an exceptionally formidable military commander during the reign of Emperor Jalaluddin Akbar (reign AD 1556-1605), Mirza Aziz, being the son of the former’s wet nurse Jiji Angah, was also regarded as the Emperor’s foster brother (“Koka”) and therefore deputed to Gujarat as the Governor, a position he steadfastly retained during the successive reign of Emperor Jahangir (ruled AD 1605-27). However, he supported his son-in-law, Jahangir’s son Khusrau Mirza, in AD 1606 in a rebellion against his father and was consequentially punitively stripped of his distinguished titles and powers and expelled from the royal court. His life history nearly mirrors that of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, one of the foremost poets that the subcontinent ever produced and also an exceedingly mighty General in the Mughal armed forces, who too was posted in Gujarat by Emperor Akbar and was later socially and militarily chastised by Jahangir when he opposed his rebellion and subsequent ascension to the throne. Interestingly, Rahim too is buried in the neighborhood, though his majestic mausoleum has borne the brunt of the brutal ravages of time and humanity (refer Pixelated Memories - Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan's Tomb).

Camouflaged - A gem in the poor settlement

The ethereally beautiful, minimally adorned and highly symmetrical "Chausath Khamba" pavilion possesses along its sides pink-white marble panels sculpted into filigree screens composed of multiple recurrent motifs while the roof, though externally flat and demarcated by wide eaves (“chajja”), culminates into twenty-five small marble concave domes surmounting each smaller square formed by the pillars. Upon his own demise in AD 1623, Mirza Aziz was laid for eternal sleep in this handsome edifice in an ornately sculpted marble sarcophagus and was soon followed in the tradition by his sons and wife, the last being buried in a corner distinguished by a low division built between the pillars surrounding it and identified by the sarcophagus’ plain surface (as opposed to the male graves which portray a narrow wedge-shaped projection (“takhti”) along their top surface). Other relatives were buried in large, relatively simpler and minimally ornamented sandstone graves around the structure. The renowned poet Mirza Ghalib too chose to be buried in a plot adjacent the structure and his small mausoleum, also conceived of white marble, would have continued to strikingly complement the former (which is presently regularly utilized for musical evenings and cultural exhibits) had the two not been later separated by a monstrously ungainly rubble wall (refer Pixelated Memories - Ghalib's Tomb).

A different perspective

Over time, as the historic settlement developed and shaped into a semi-urban Muslim ghetto, the entire area around the structure was overtaken by the unrelenting forces of urbanization and commercialization till what remained were narrow patches of grass lawns that did little justice to the magnificent beauty of the pearlesque heritage structure. Recently, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), financially supported by the German Embassy in India, extensively documented and restored the monument to its original enchanting glory in a conservation-beautification project that lasted nearly four years and frustratingly prevented me from visiting the epitome of artistic ingenuity every time I was in the area. Irresistibly drawn to its thrall, I eventually did visit it a few days back and was unexpectedly rewarded by nature for my patience in the form of a peafowl couple of which the vivid-blue peacock hopped upon the gravestones and ran around the pillars and passages while bright unrelenting sunlight filtered down in kaleidoscopic patterns through the sculpted stone screens. I couldn’t have asked for more!

Need I say more?

Location: Nizamuddin Basti, adjacent Urs Mahal/Ghalib's Tomb, a few meters walk prior to the Dargah complex
Nearest Metro station: JLN Stadium
Nearest Bus stop: Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
Nearest Railway station: Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
How to reach: Quite simply walk in the Basti towards the Dargah complex from the Mathura Road side (Bus stop/Humayun's Tomb complex) and ask for Chausath Khamba/Ghalib's Tomb. It's not even five minutes walk away.
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 30 min
Other monuments located in the immediate vicinity - 

1. Pixelated Memories - Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan's Tomb
2. Pixelated Memories - Atgah Khan's Tomb
3. Pixelated Memories - Ghalib's Tomb 
4. Pixelated Memories - Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
5. Pixelated Memories - Humayun's Tomb Complex 
6. Pixelated Memories - Nila Gumbad 
7. Pixelated Memories - Sabz Burj

Suggested reading - 

1. Civilsocietyonline.com - Article "Going wow in Nizamuddin" (dated Dec 2012) 
2. Deccanherald.com - Article "Heritage monument gets a makeover" (dated Nov 19, 2014) by Azaan Javaid 
3. Indianexpress.com - Article "Chausath Khamba tomb reopens after four years of painstaking work" (dated Nov 17, 2014)