Pixelated Memories: Qutb Minar

Showing posts with label Qutb Minar. Show all posts

January 24, 2014

Photo Publication

Two of my photographs have been featured in a book published by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Govt. of India. Titled "Razia Sultan" & authored by Mrs Rashmi Swarup Johri, the book details the life & struggles of Razia Sultan, the only female Empress of India till date who reigned from AD 1236-40.

Front cover

Of the two photos, the first is of the enigmatic Qutb Minar that was commissioned by Qutbuddin Aibak (ruled AD 1192-1210). Qutbuddin
established Muslim rule in India on the orders of his master Sultan Muizuddin ibn Sam Muhammad Ghuri & founded the Slave ("Mamluk") Dynasty to which belonged Empress Razia.

Qutb Minar

The second photo is that of Razia's controversial grave in the Bulbuli Khana area of Shahjanabad (Old Delhi). The photo also appears on the back cover of the book. I had visited the crumbling graves back in 2012. You can access the original posts here -

Back cover (The third photograph is mine)

As of now, the book is available at CGO Complex (Soochna Bhavan), Lodi Road. It would also be available at all the upcoming book fairs throughout the country.

December 16, 2012

Qutb Complex, New Delhi

When the turbulent forces of Islam swept into the Indo-Gangetic plains at the end of the 12th century, its encounter with the flourishing Hinduism was that of non-alikes. The clash over-awed those who witnessed it, & left behind its markings – in stone – to surprise the coming generations with its might & scale. The man leading this clash, Muizzudin bin Sam, more popularly known as Muhammad, the Sultan of the kingdom of Ghur in modern Afghanistan, led an army into India with the mission of plundering the incredible wealth of the Indian kingdoms & to convert them into his fiefs. Having accomplished it in AD 1192 after defeating the army of Prithviraj Chauhan, he retired back to his kingdom, leaving his favorite slave, who was also the commander of his powerful army, Qutbuddin Aibak, in-charge of this newly conquered land. Holding sway over this land of a foreign religion, Qutbuddin decided to leave an imprint of his religion here. Being a fanatic Muslim, he ordered destruction of Hindu & Jain temples that already existed in the country & selected a site in the then capital “Dhillipura” (Delhi’s medieval name!!) where he would build his dream project - a massive mosque & an equally massive victory tower to display the might of his faith. The site of Qutbuddin’s choice coincided with the fortress of Lal Kot, the stronghold of the Tomar-Chauhan dynasty, the last Hindu rulers of Delhi & the clan to which Prithviraj belonged. Over time, successive rulers of Delhi took it upon themselves to complete, or expand, as might be the case, this project of Qutbuddin. & almost a millennia later, the ruins that remain of these structures fall into what is now known as the Qutb Complex, one of the World Heritage Sites located in the barren lands of Mehrauli, Delhi.

The Qutb Complex is perhaps one of those places that I have longed to visit for an incredible span of time – I am perhaps one of those rare Delhi inhabitants who had not seen the Qutb Complex till late in their lives (I am only 20 though, but its late considering that the complex is one of the first places parents/relatives take kids to in Delhi!! Sadly, my parents did not take me for a visit to Qutb, or any other monument/heritage structure for that matter, despite it being only one & a half hour drive away from my home). But not anymore, I visited the complex sometime back & to my utter surprise, it turned out to be a sheer delight!! More incredible than what the photographs show, & much larger & pristine than what the articles/blogs tell. I have always been fascinated with history & heritage, read a lot about the monuments & cities of India. Delhi, my home state, has been built several times, it always rises like a phoenix every time a new marauding army or some other catastrophe puts an end to one of its ruling dynasties/kingships. The forts & ruins of Mehrauli were one of the earliest cities of Delhi & have been inhabited ever since, thus making the region the longest continuously inhabited settlement in Delhi. I had read so much about the Qutb Complex & its neighboring monuments/ruins that I knew almost everything about these structures even before going there. But being there & standing under these majestic structures is an incredible experience in itself – the construction here is at such a gigantic scale that it takes one’s breathe away!! However, since there is so much to see in the complex, so many ruins, new & old, scattered across that I decided to break this one long post into several smaller ones (links at the bottom!!) since this way I can easily share a lot of details & the plethora of photos I took (seriously I took almost 400 photos in the complex itself!!).

The Qutb Minar

The most stupid thing about the complex is perhaps its ticket counter – it is situated across the road, opposite the complex - & I could see many tourists going behind the ticket counter to look for the entrance to the complex, but only to find a parking lot filled with buses & taxis. A.S.I. could at least have put signboards here outside indicating directions. The best thing perhaps would be the availability of “audio guides” – you can rent these from the ticket counter itself. All the monuments within the complex are numbered, & you can simply skip to the numbered audio clip in order to know more about its history & construction. The tickets themselves are electronically numbered & at the gatepost outside the complex, guards with electronic readers swipe your tickets to mark your entry into the complex. So far I haven’t seen a similar system in any other complex/world heritage site in India – at all other protected monuments you are simply handed a paper ticket that a guard tears into two at the entrance. Even though this electronic ticket system works without any glitches, I still don’t understand why it was implemented in the first place - the paper ticket seemed to be working just fine. I, like several others who observed this new system, sincerely hope that this system helps curb malpractices in manual ticket sale & revenue collection. Every year, the Qutb Complex receives more number of visitors than even the Taj Mahal, & generates approximately Rs. 100 million in ticket sales. (Reference - "Times of India" article)

Once inside the complex gates, the first structure one notices are the arches under which one has to pass through. These two arches were added to the complex much later by Mughal emperors & formed part of what was once a Serai (inn for travelers & state guests). The Serai exists only in parts now – remnants of walls here & there, some semi-collapsed rooms & several chattris (small dome-like structures supported on thin pillars). However the mosque adjoining this Serai, called the Mughal mosque still exists & is located next to the Complex’s in-house publication shop. The Mughal mosque, though appearing to be dilapidated, has been maintained in a rather unusual manner – its insides have been painted with bright colors – orange, pink & white – giving it a rather funky touch.

The Mughal Mosque

The Qutb Minar stands in the background, a sentinel made of red sandstone, looking over all the proceedings that take place under its (high) watch. Qutbuddin, whose own name means the “Staff of God”, wanted this tall minaret to symbolise his eternal faith & act as an axis for Islam, hence he named this minaret Qutb Minar or “Axis of God”. However Qutbuddin himself was able to complete only the first floor of the minaret, the latter floors were added by other rulers of Delhi, including Qutbuddin’s son-in-law Shamsuddin Iltutmish (1211-36 AD). Feroz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88 AD), the guy who constructed the fortress of Kotla Feroz Shah, also added two floors made of white marble to the minaret after one of the floors built by Iltutmish was destroyed by a lightning strike. Qutbuddin had perhaps wanted his minaret to stand next to his mosque as a victory tower commemorating the establishment of Islamic rule over India. However several contradicting & at times absurd (although interesting) theories also exist about the construction of the Minar, do refer the long post about the minaret for the same. The Qutb Minar is the tallest brick minaret in the world, surpassing by several meters the Minaret at Jam, Afghanistan, that inspired Qutbuddin to embark upon his minaret-building project.

One enters the huge rectangular mosque built by Qutbuddin inside which Qutb Minar stands – his real intentions behind building this mosque were to overawe his new subjects & provide a symbol of faith to his war-fatigued soldiers. 27 temples – some of Hindu religion, other belonging to Jain faith – were fell & local artisans were employed to use the building material from these temples to construct this mosque in order to show the “Quwwat” or might of Islam. Hence the mosque came to be called Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque. In Qutbuddin’s time, Qutb Minar used to stand outside the mosque, but when Iltutmish ascended the throne of Delhi after murdering Qutbuddin’s son Aram Shah, he decided to enlarge the existing mosque & even included the mighty Qutb Minar within its four walls.

The symmetrical cloisters of Quwwat Mosque

One can notice large arches that once formed part of the mihrab (the wall indicating the direction of Mecca, to be faced by Muslims when offering prayers). These arches form part of the screen constructed by Qutbuddin in AD 1199 & were extended by both Iltutmish & Alauddin Khilji (1296-1316 AD). However, only the original arches & the additions by Iltutmish exist today. The Hindu craftsmen employed to build this arch screen had never seen calligraphy on any structure & when ordered to weave Quranic inscriptions in the screen of the mosque, the artisans found themselves at a loss. They left their individualistic marks in the screen in the form of floral carvings & tendrils at the end of these calligraphic strokes. The mosque & its screen arches display a fusion of Hindu & Islamic art forms unlike any other in the world.

In front of this arched screen stands the famous “Iron Pillar”. It is said that the pillar predates the complex by several centuries & formed part of a Vishnu temple. Known globally for its non-rusting properties, this pillar too has its fair share of stories & myths. Many claim that if you are able to grasp the pillar in your arms with your back towards it, your dreams would come true. Being superstitious, the people of the country (& some foreigners too) had started trying the task, their sweat causing corrosive damage to the pillar. Hence in order to protect the pillar, the A.S.I. decided to encircle it with an iron grille – of course this one does get rusted with time.

The mosque has several small arched entrances & windows (many covered by jaalis (stone fretwork), others open), one amongst these is called Alai Darwaza (“Alauddin’s Doorway”). As the name suggests it was built by Alauddin Khilji, & standing on a very high pedestal, this doorway is actually more of a small room, itself pierced on four sides by large arched doors. The Darwaza is very beautifully decorated with designs & geometrical patterns on both inside & outside surfaces. The symmetry in these patterns is simply mind-numbing, the artists went so far as to even cut the designs so as to form locking patterns with the stairs leading down the pedestal.

Down the Darwaza’s pedestal & up another pedestal in front of it, one reaches the tomb of Imam Zamin. A saint from Turkestan who decided to settle in India during the reign of Sultan Sikandar Lodi in 16th century, Zamin was perhaps some important official in Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, which explains the location of his tomb bang next to the mosque. However historians date its construction to the time of Mughal emperor Humayun. The small tomb houses a marble sarcophagus, a well-chiselled mihrab & some very symmetric fretwork in the carved stone walls.

A small doorway breaks the continuity of the low courtyard walls of the pedestal on which stands Zamin’s Tomb. In the surrounding grounds, one can spot the ruins of several room-like structures, an extremely small wall mosque standing atop another high pedestal & a sundial affixed atop a circular piece of stone. Standing neaby is the cupola constructed by Major Smith of British Royal Engineers, now referred to as Smith’s Folly. At one time this cupola surmounted the Qutb Minar, but it was subsequently brought down, & now lies ignored in a desolate corner of the complex, with some brooms & squirrels for company.

The ruined Wall Mosque

Moving along the periphery of the Quwwat mosque, towards the back of the arched screens are ruins of massive rooms & chambers – these formed part of Alauddin’s Madrasa – a religious school he added to the mosque. Within a part of the Madrasa, Alauddin himself lies buried, but the dome of his tomb fell away a long time back. The Madrasa & Tomb sub-complex runs almost parallel to the shorter sides of the rectangular Quwwat mosque.

Situated some metres ahead of the madrasa is the tomb of Iltutmish. It is interesting to note that after having made so many additions & contributions to the complex, both Iltutmish & Alauddin decided to be interred here, Built of red sandstone, Iltutmish’s tomb appears a simple structure from the outside – striking calligraphy & patterns embellish one of its sides, the other three are plain. But on the inside, the tomb is lavishly carved with so many intricate designs, it is simply a treat to look at, & one simply gets confounded thinking about all those designs & wondering what to photograph & what not to. One excellent thing about the complex is that it is very disabled-friendly, & ramps exist along almost every structure, including Iltutmish’s & Alauddin’s tombs, for ease of wheelchair access.

Having run around & photographed to my satisfaction almost all the built monuments within the complex, I next headed to the Alai Minar, a large rubble-dressed tower built by Alauddin which was intended to be twice the size of Qutb Minar, but could not be completed due to the untimely death of Alauddin.

Smith's Folly (Background - Qutb Minar, Alai Darwaza & Zamin's Tomb)

The Qutb Complex, despite once being the capital of the Muslim Sultans, fell out gradually from map after Alauddin Khilji built his nearby fortress of Siri & abandoned the existing capital of Lal Kot with most of his population. The Complex was soon reclaimed by wilderness & turned into the ruins that we see today. Magnanimously, these ruins still betray their once stunning grandeur.

Studded with sophisticated calligraphy, ornate designs & patterns, & replete with exemplar craftsmanship, Qutb is one of the most fascinating monuments in Delhi. Hopefully I shall be returning to Mehrauli sometime soon to visit other nearby heritage structures. The place has certainly found a way to my heart. Returning back, I even spotted one of Metcalfe’s Ziggurats peeping out of a grilled complex besides Qutb Complex. Anxious to return & explore more of the area!!

Open: Sunrise to Sunset
Entrance fee: Indians - Rs 10, Foreigners - Rs 250 (Free for children upto the age of 15).
Photography charges: Nil
Video charges: Rs 25
Nearest Metro Station: Saket Metro Station & Qutb Minar Station are equidistant.
How to reach: Taxis, buses & autos can be availed from different parts of the city. The structures are quite a walk from the metro stations & one will have to take bus/auto from there on.
Time required for sightseeing: 3 hrs
Facilities available: Wheelchair access, Audio guides.
Relevant Links -

Also See - Pixelated Memories - Kotla Feroz Shah

December 06, 2012

Qutb Minar, New Delhi

Two questions have perhaps always confused historians & scholars when it comes to the famous Qutb Minaret in Delhi – One, who constructed this mighty minaret, & what was the purpose of its construction?? & two, why was the minaret named as it is??
If the first question was answered, the second could be easily explained. But that’s wherein the problem lies – nobody knows who constructed the Qutb Minar in the first place. Perhaps one of the most widely known spots in Delhi, the Qutb Minar is full of enigmas & among the several theories in circulation, here are a few more commonly heard ones –

The minaret was constructed by ancient Indian kings for the famous astrologer-mathematician Aryabhatta to climb up away from the city life & lights & study the night sky.
Hindu Rajput ruler Prithviraj Chauhan built the minaret for his wife/daughter to climb upon to view the slowly slithering river Yamuna from as part of her daily morning prayers.
The minaret’s construction was started either by Prithviraj or his uncle Vigrahraj to serve as a watch tower for the Hindu kingdom ruled by Chauhan dynasty, but was completed by Qutbuddin Aibak, the slave & army commander of Muizuddin bin Sam aka Muhammad Ghuri, when he led his master’s Islamic forces to victory against Prithviraj in AD 1192.
The minaret was entirely constructed by Qutbuddin Aibak as a victory tower commemorating his master’s ascension to the throne of India after defeating the forces led by Prithviraj.
The minaret was constructed by Qutbuddin Aibak when he became the Sultan of India after his master’s death, but as a tower for the muezzin to climb on & call the faithful Muslims for prayers in the adjoining Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque that was commissioned by him to display to his Hindu subjects & the world at large the might of Islam.
Iltutmish, who became Sultan after killing Aram Shah, Qutbuddin’s son, built the minaret & named it after Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, popularly called Qutb Sahib, a leading Sufi saint of that period who used to live & is buried nearby.

Bewildering!! The first three points can of course be disregarded, given that neither the pillar is so old, nor does it show any signs of Hindu art or design, rather it boasts skilled Islamic calligraphy & patterns (more on that later). But then none of the records of that period attribute the minaret to Qutbuddin or Iltutmish either. It is much later, when the minaret was damaged by lightning & repaired by later kings that Iltutmish’s name popped up. But modern history books credit Qutbuddin for the minaret’s construction. My friend Vikramjit Singh, who is perhaps one of the most learned authorities when it comes to the built heritage of Delhi, suggests that the tower was built by Iltutmish & wrongly attributed to Qutbuddin by the writ of some clerical/historian error. I would highly recommend his take on this issue here – Vikramjit Singh Rooprai - Untold Story of the Qutub Minar

An enigma after more than 800 years of its construction

The most accepted theory is actually a mix of all these claims, & propounds that Qutbuddin started the construction of the Qutb Minar at the site of Prithviraj’s fortress-capital Lal Kot as a victory tower but died much before he could complete it. He left behind only the ground floor of the minaret which comprises of alternate circular & triangular fluting. Inscriptions carved in the minaret give us its complete history, including the commencement of construction & subsequent repairs, though the shoddy work by some of the later restorers have rendered most of these inscriptions unintelligible. After ascending the throne of Delhi, Iltutmish decided to fulfill Qutbuddin’s unfinished legacy & added three more floors to the tower. The first floor therefore features only circular fluting, while the second floor boasts of triangular fluting only. These fluting are very precisely aligned so as to create a highly symmetrical structure. The minaret till this part is built of red sandstone & is calligraphed with bands of Quranic inscriptions.

The three original floors - Notice how the lowest floor has alternate circular & angular fluting, the next has only circular fluting & the third has only angular fluting.

Sadly, the third floor was destroyed when lightning struck the tower in AD 1368, & we have no idea of what it looked like. Feroz Shah Tughlaq (AD 1351-88), the architect-emperor of Delhi, who took an uncanny interest in building new cities (read Feroz Shah Kotla, Pixelated Memories - Feroz Shah Kotla) & repairing existing structures, replaced the remnants of the third floor with two comparatively smaller floors of his own. Fatuhat-i-Ferozshahi, a chronicle of Feroz’s rule notes that he “repaired the minar of Sultan Muizuddin, which had been struck by lightning, & raised it higher than before”. This is congruent with the fact that Feroz added two small floors which together were slightly taller than the fallen floor of Iltutmish. It must be noted that Iltutmish’s floor was more proportional to the bottom floors as compared to these replacements. By the time Feroz became the emperor of India, Indian art & architecture were Islamized to a large extent & the Muslim rulers had become habitual to the use of stone & marble that was easily available in India. Hence his additions feature the use of smooth panels made of white marble & contrast with the overall red of the tower. Feroz went ahead to even add a cupola atop the tower, thus crowning the minaret with his own extensions.

One of the marble floors added by Feroz

Sikandar Lodi too repaired the minar after lightning again struck it in 1503 AD. Sikandar refers to the Qutb Minar as “the minar of his majesty Shamshuddin (Iltutmish)” in his memoirs. But nature had its way again, & lightning again destroyed Feroz’s cupola & damaged the other floors. The British were gaining a foothold in India then & Major Robert Smith of British Army Engineers was asked to repair the damaged minaret. Smith too couldn’t bear the lure to add more floors atop this already huge minaret & crowned it with his own Bengali-style cupola. Before nature could intervene again, Lord Hardinge, then Governor-General of India, ordered Smith’s cupola be brought down & cast it away to a corner of the Qutb Complex where it still lies, christened with the horrific title of a folly, viz. Smith’s Folly (refer Pixelated Memories - Smith's Folly). Nonetheless, Smith has been largely appreciated for his restoration & conservation work within the Qutb Complex. Since then several glass tubes have been embedded within the structure of the minaret to monitor seismic activities. If the tubes break, it would act as a signal to the archaeologists & engineers to begin pre-emptive restoration work. The minaret is already slightly leaning some two feet off the perpendicular as a result of the various lightning storms & earthquakes it has withstood in the past 800 years. Given its tall height, the tower is literally asking for lightning attacks. “Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice” is complete bullshit!! Lightning always hits the tallest point in a neighbourhood, & the Qutb Minar is a glaring example of the same.

An artsy shot!!

The fact that the minaret has largely withstood the ravages of time & nature has been attributed to the use of lime mortar & rubble masonry in its construction, which are both tremor-absorbing agents. Also the minaret stands on rocky landscape, which further mitigates the impact of earthquakes. However the minaret is being more damaged by rainwater seepage through its structure, increasing its tilt by several more degrees. The A.S.I. has started implementing several measures to arrest the condition & prevent a further deterioration.

The tapering tower is 73 meters tall & its diameter decreases from 14.32 meter at the base to 2.75 metre at the top. Unlike the adjacent Quwwat mosque (see Pixelated Memories - Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque), the minaret is Islamic in its construction, & features Islamic patterns such as Quranic inscriptions & calligraphy, & Hindu patterns appear only in the small floral bands that flank these inscriptions.

Inscriptions galore..

What I found the most interesting were the projecting balconies of the minaret that separate the different floors. These balconies are so skilfully constructed out of stone that they appear like very delicate bee combs. The details are carved out so meticulously, adhering to all the basic principles of geometry & Islamic architectural practices, & even today the intricate patterns tend to attract & bind one’s gaze. This type of design – a series of mini-arches supporting a series of brackets that together hold the entire balcony - is referred to as stalactite vaulting & features throughout Islamic construction & architecture. The arches of the minaret are corbelled in nature – the straight pieces of stone are placed in order & then their inner corners are rounded off to give the complete structure an arch-like appearance. The Indian artists set to work on these structures by their new masters were unaware of what arches were as Hindu architecture is largely trabeate (makes use of stone panels & beams to fill space, as in above entrances & in ornamentation work), & hence they came up with this new technique of building corbelled arches. Creative, right??

Spell-binding

One can see a door on each floor opening up to the balcony, & a total of 379 steps make up the staircase leading to the top of the world (or Delhi at least!!). Major Smith has often been criticized for adding Gothic features to the doorways when he was restoring them. But a close inspection shows that these additions are not Gothic in nature, but resemble the kanguras (battlement-like decorative work) that actually do make an appearance in the later Indo-Islamic architecture, especially in the doorways above the first floor of the Qutb Minar itself. I still vividly remember the thrilling climb up the narrow & winding staircases of the gigantic minarets of the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi (though they too are small when compared to Qutb Minar, refer Pixelated Memories - Jama Masjid) & would have loved to climb to the top of the Qutb Minar!! But the Government has closed the minaret for public entry since the year 1981 when a power outage & subsequent lights-out led to a stampede within the minaret & death of several visiting school children.

Door to nowhere

The Qutb Complex has been included in the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites & attracts more tourists than the famous mausoleum called Taj Mahal!! A picture of the minaret also features on the cards & tokens issued by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, & the HOHO Bus Tour of Delhi also makes a stop at the Qutb Complex. I gave the complex a miss when I went for a HOHO tour almost a year back.

Alauddin Khilji (AD 129-1316), a later emperor of Delhi, initiated the construction of the Alai Minar within the Qutb Complex. It was supposed to be another victory tower commemorating his successful military campaigns in central India & was to be twice the height of Qutb Minar. Sadly, Alauddin died before he could give a concrete shape to his minaret & left behind only the undressed ground floor. One is again forced to return to the question of who built the Qutb Minar, because if Qutbuddin is credited for commencing its construction, he too died leaving behind only the ground floor of his minaret. If his successors took up his unfinished business, why did not, or why could not, Alauddin’s successors do the same?? Read about the Alai Minar here – Pixelated Memories - Alai Minar

One last click

The victory tower of Qutbuddin was inspired by the Minaret of Jam (Afghanistan) from what I have read. But what if the other group is right & this wasn't a victory tower, but a religious tower. In fact, Qutb Minar literally translates to “Axis Minaret”, & given that Qutbuddin himself was a fanatic Muslim who destroyed several Hindu & Jain temples to construct his Quwwat mosque, he might just have wished for a religious super-tower to act as a new axis for his faith. In that case he would not have intended the minaret to be so high, right?? Maybe he just wanted it to be a single floor high, else how would his muezzins be heard from the tall tower. Maybe that’s why lightning struck the tower again & again!! Now ain’t I also speculating like several of the historians who delved into these mysteries & left behind more questions than answers!!

The minaret of Jam (Photo courtesy - Lonelyplanet.com/Afghanistan)

Location : Qutb Complex, Mehrauli, New Delhi
Open : Sunrise to Sunset
Entrance fee : Indians - Rs 10, Foreigners - Rs 250 (Free for children upto 15 years of age).
Photography charges : Nil
Video charges : Rs 25
Nearest Metro Station : Saket Metro Station & Qutb Minar Station are equidistant.
How to reach : Taxis, buses & autos can be availed from different parts of the city. The structures are quite a walk from the metro stations & one will have to take bus/auto from there on.
Time required for sightseeing : 30 min
Facilities available : Wheelchair access, Audio guides.
Relevant Links -

November 06, 2012

Alauddin's Tomb & Madrasa Complex, New Delhi

The ancient lords of Delhi did almost everything at a grand scale – the magnificence surpassed everything else that any mortal might have seen, with the sole objective of overawing their subjects & intimidating their enemies. The grandeur with which the daily proceedings were conducted & the magnitude at which buildings were constructed was perhaps unmatched in the rest of the world. & why shouldn’t it be so – they had all the wealth in the world to spend, all the resources required to leave their imprint on this ethereal world. It is no wonder then that when Alauddin Khilji (1296-1316 AD), of the Khilji Dynasty which ruled over India from AD 1290-1320, returned to Delhi after a successful campaign in the Deccan (Central India – parts of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh) bringing with him great loot & plunder, he started comparing himself to God himself & wanted to begin a new religion under his name & propagate it through the blade of his sword. However he was placated by Ala-ul-Mulk, Kotwal (police chief) of Delhi. Alauddin then decided to focus on more worldly issues & before furthering his expansionist plans he embarked on several religious projects to propitiate Allah. He expanded the mosque Quwwat-ul-Islam (literally the “might of Islam”) in Delhi, added a new gateway to it (called Alai Darwaza), & even began the construction of a new minaret which was supposed to signify the increase in power of Islam & also of his own. Besides this he decided to build a madrasa (religious school, meant for imparting Islamic learning) next to the Quwwat mosque. The madrasa survives, but lies in a dilapidated condition now. Looking at the ruins one can imagine the grandeur of the place – standing out as an L-shaped building, the madrasa was one imposing edifice. Even today the madrasa stands out from the rest of the buildings in terms of its scale, despite its simplicity. Who could have imagined that once students studied in such huge buildings..must have been pretty intimidating being here!! The madrasa also houses Alauddin’s tomb, though the dome that covered it had fallen long time back. Perhaps as retribution from the God whom Alauddin antagonised. Alauddin was the first Indian ruler to follow the tradition of building the tomb within a madrasa. He also incorporated several Islamic architectural practices & motifs within the Indian style of construction.

Vestiges of what was once Alauddin's Tomb & Madrasa Complex

Shorn of all ornamentation that must have once covered its mighty walls (after all Alauddin would not have left this structure built under his watch unadorned, look how he bedecked Alai Darwaza), the madrasa-tomb complex stands only in the form of massive stone walls around a quadrangular court, fragmented at places, completely ruined at others. At least the colossal gateways still stand & the blackened domes of the madrasa did not fall off!! But then what God stopped short of doing, tourists did to the madrasa – even now one can spot several names & etchings left atop the domes by love-struck tourists. Alauddin certainly must be heaving in his eternal sleep!!

More remains!!

Location : Qutb Complex, Mehrauli, New Delhi
Open : Sunrise to Sunset
Entrance fee : Indians - Rs 10, Foreigners - Rs 250
Photography charges : Nil
Video charges : Rs 25
Nearest Metro Station : Saket Metro Station & Qutb Minar Station are equidistant.
How to reach : Taxis, buses & autos can be availed from different parts of the city. The structures are quite a walk from the metro stations & one will have to take bus/auto from there on.
Time required for sightseeing : 30 min
Facilities available : Wheelchair access, Audio guides.
Relevant Links -

October 30, 2012

Alai Minar, New Delhi

After having made substantial additions to the Qutb Minar & the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque within the Qutb Complex, Alauddin Khilji (AD 1296-1316), one of the foremost sultans of the Khilji Dynasty perhaps felt the need for his own magnum opus within the complex. He embarked on an ambitious project that would dwarf all other structures in the entire country, even the mighty Qutb Minar that Qutbuddin established a almost a century earlier as an axis of Islam. Sadly, Alauddin met his creator before he could create another mammoth structure to awe & behold his subjects & the coming generations. His project – the incomplete Alai Minar – still stands in one corner of the Qutb complex, its unfinished exteriors dressed with rubble & stone showing off its unabashed ugliness to all who care to spare a glimpse. Perhaps if this minaret would have been finished, it might have been a new paradigm of architectural magnificence & superiority of skill & taste. But who knows?? Alauddin left behind only the first floor of his minaret (single floor 24.5 m high, compared to the Qutb Minar’s five-storied 72.5 m), & that too tilting to some extent & sans any ornamental work or calligraphic decoration. His descendants did not care to complete his work, even though he raised Qutbuddin’s minaret to new heights. He would certainly have tossed in his grave which lies nearby the Quwwat mosque, but then the incomplete minaret is perhaps the least of his worries now. The roof of his tomb, his final resting place, fell down a long time ago leaving his grave to the mercy of nature. Fate has certainly played hard on this ruler after his death – now he might be dead & under earth, but when he was alive the whole earth was under him!!

The Alai Minar