"Study Abroad" Tours in Delhi

Delhi has a lot of interesting things to experience if you are coming on an educational tour. It's a great place for understanding Indian political history; and even more interesting if you want to understand the multiple cultures and faiths that co-exist in India. And of course, there are many museums, workshops, art and music shows, and interesting cuisine experiences as well.

Here's our lovely group of 25 students from Johannesskolen Denmark. They have been touring Delhi with us for the past 4 years. We enjoy their openness to new cultures and willingness to explore. In the foreground you can see the local college students from Delhi, who took them around. The interaction with local students provides very rich opportunities for mutual understanding.

On this visit we arranged multiple experiences for them in Delhi:

- A survey of living conditions in the Ram Nagar area. Ram Nagar in Shahdara is one of the oldest residential areas of Delhi. Students did a survey of residents, with a questionnaire. We taught them basic Hindi to prepare for this : - ) The people were very welcoming of the students, inviting them for tea and being so hospitable!

- An exploration of Old Delhi using the Metro, rickshaw and walking. Students visited and volunteered at the Sikh Gurudwara, learnt about different faiths and cultures of India, saw the Metro in operation, and explored the famous traditional bazaars.

- A look at recycling industry in Delhi, and understanding the education system and daily life in a low-income neighbourhood.

Through interactions with local college students of Delhi, the Johanneskolen students gained a deeper understanding of the realities of modern Delhi. Similarly, our college students learnt about the Danish people.

We look forward to Johanneskolen's visit again next year. 

Flame of the Forest

"Flame of the Forest" might be a romantic sounding name, but don't forget, it's also called Bastard Teak, lol.

The beauty of the dry deciduous forests of India reaches the peak when most trees have dropped their leaves, and the Flame of the Forest is in its full bloom.

Some of you might be interested to know that spoons made of this tree are used for ghee-oblations, and in the days before matchboxes, the bark of this tree was lit and used to start the daily agnihotram at sunrise and sunset.

Because the tree is indigenous to India, it finds mention in many literary sources, from vedas to love poetry.

If you've heard about the Battle of Plassey - where the English defeated the Nawab of Bengal - that comes from Palash, the Bengali word for this tree.

Tagore chose the Palash to celebrate the basanta ustsav at Santiniketan. See that little curved hook on the flower? Like Santhali women, you too can use the hook to tuck the flower behind your ear as you walk the lanes of Santiniketan.

Photo clicked by yours truly, in Ranthambhore. You can also spot these trees in Delhi, in the Central Ridge, or at Qutb Complex, or near the Kalkaji temple.

Jain manuscript at the National Museum, Delhi

This Jain manuscript was commissioned in the 1400's at Mandu in Madhya Pradesh, under the reign of Sultan Mahmud. This folio is from the collection at the National Museum. It shows a Tirthankara figure turning beads in meditation. Devotees flank the main figure.

It is an illustration from the Kalpa Sūtra, a Jain text containing the biographies of the Jain Tirthankaras, notably Parshvanatha and Mahavira, including the latter's Nirvāna (liberation from cycle of rebirth). Bhadrabahu, a Jain Acharya (guru), is considered the author of the Kalpa Sutra. It is traditionally said to have been composed somewhere in the 3rd century BCE.

http://www.nationalmuseumindia.gov.in/prodCollections.asp?pid=92&id=10&lk=dp10

Jaina manuscript painting is likely a very old tradition, but currently there is physical surviving evidence only from the 1100's onwards. Originally it was done on palm-leaf, because paper had not yet arrived in India. After the arrival of paper somewhere in the 12th century (paper came to India from Iran), the Jain monks starting using it.

By the end of the 1300's, deluxe manuscripts were produced on paper, brilliantly adorned with gold, silver, crimson and a rich ultramarine derived from imported lapis lazuli. The photo I posted above is one of those.

The Jains are even today, a book-loving community, placing emphasis on documentation in their bhandars (monastery libraries). We have to thank the Jain Chalukya kings who ruled Gujarat, Rajasthan and Malwa for their patronage of Jain libraries. One of them, Kumarapala, who ruled in the 1300's from his capital city Patan in Gujarat, commissioned and distributed hundreds of copies of the Kalpa Sutra. Can you imagine hundreds of such handmade painted books? What a sight it must be! Kumarapala founded 21 bhandars in Patan.

The major centres of Jain manuscript production were Ahmedabad and Patan in Gujarat. Other centres included Jaisalmer, Gwalior and Delhi. There were also manuscripts written in Kanarese and Tamil in south India. Illustrations were traditionally painted both on the wooden cover (patli) and on the folios. The patrons were Jain merchant communities, who considered the commissioning of illustrated books and their donation to libraries to be an important merit-making activity.

Would you like to help our students?

If you are a foreigner coming to Delhi, or a local with overseas visitors coming to Delhi, we would like your help.

We have a new batch of guides being trained for our offbeat and fun Delhi by Metro tour. This is a tour we are doing in partnership with the non-profit Manzil. The guides are from low-income families and this is an upskilling program for them to earn money while they are in college.

They are currently being formally trained to do the tour, and we want to give them some trial tours for practice. Our guides need to practice understanding foreign accents and helping foreigners getting comfortable with Delhi. They need to practice how to explain apparently simple and obvious things about our culture to a foreigner. They can only do this by actually taking foreign tourists on the tour.

If you have overseas visitors coming to Delhi in the next few months (Jul-Aug-Sep) we would love to offer them a free tour. There will be one or two trainee guides doing the tour. If you have a large group, we will also assign a fully trained guide.

As I said, there is no charge for the tour. We just want our kids to have some practice.

We will pay for the local travel expenses on the tour (Metro, autorickshaw, cyclerickshaw). The only thing guests need to pay for is their own meal (we will stop at a restaurant for snacks).

Tour description is here: http://delhimagic.com/metro.html It's a great tour, lots of fun.

Please email deepa@delhimagic.com if you want to help. I will only be keeping this free offer open for a short while, in the off season, for a limited number of free tours. So please write soon.

Building the Delhi Magic team

Yesterday, we went to visit the non-profit Manzil in Delhi. We were trying to recruit the next batch of students. We want some students to join our office operations team, and some to be trained as guides for our Delhi by Metro tour.

Four girls came for the meeting, each with their own constraints and dreams. One of them got married early, and has a baby; she has returned to studies and is now in Std 11. One wants to become a teacher. Another wants to grow her craft business. Yet another is graduating and wants a chance for a better life. They all have one thing in common: they need some form of income right now.

We explained how our flexi-time and flexi-location work model can help them earn and finance their dreams. We hope this model will give them the ability to get started on a career even if they have constraints and challenges.

We also explained that we don't want to keep them with us forever; what we want is to give them that initial break, that initial income cushion for 3 or 4 years, which the poor find difficult to get. Then they can fly high, charting their own path.

I have learnt that if you truly want to build a successful social enterprise, it has to start from what the other person needs. We cannot go into these types of meetings saying, oh, here's what we want, and now you girls must adjust your timings and personal commitments to suit us. The insensitive and difficult nature of the 9-to-5 environment, combined with commuting time, makes it impossible for women from disadvantaged backgrounds to find a way to become economically independent. Some sort of middle path has to be created. 

The new exciting Bikaner House

Ever since Bikaner House got a makeover last year, it has become an exciting venue for exhibitions and events. 

source: https://www.facebook.com/BikanerHouse16/

My friend Sumedha launched her book Mewar Ramayana there. The book is beautifully illustrated with paintings commissioned by Jagat Singh, the Maharana of the Mewar kingdom.

https://www.facebook.com/BikanerHouse16/

In the 17th century, Jagat Singh commissioned a manuscript retelling the Ramayana. The text is in Sanskrit and the illustrations are in three different styles of Mewar painting.

This is believed to be the most well preserved manuscript form of the Ramayana. The rulers of Mewar trace their ancestry to Lord Rama, and it is but natural that in Jagat Singh's long and prosperous reign of 24 years, a book like this was commissioned.

There have been lots of other launches here as well. A photo-exhibition by Jawai, several designer names, art shows, and so on. It's really shaping up well as an alternative to the more well-established India Habitat Center.

https://www.facebook.com/BikanerHouse16/

Adding significantly to the charm of Bikaner House is Vayu, a design store that offers handcrafted artifacts for the home. They also have lots of lovely curios, jewellery and designer apparel. You need somewhat deep pockets, but it's really lovely and I particularly like their vintage silver jewellery. Last year they had a fabulous pop-up of Bungalow Eight from Mumbai; and lots of other things as well. They're open all days of the week, between 11 am and 7 pm.

If you're heading to Vayu, you can round off the shopping with lunch at the popular Chor Bizarre, which has now opened an outlet in Bikaner House.

I'm really glad to see an old heritage building being re-purposed and brought to life. Bikaner House - along with other royal houses - came up in the 1920s, when the British were building a new capital for the Empire. A portion of this grand new capital was set aside for the princely states of India, that were not officially under the Empire, but operated as independent kingdoms acknowledging British power. A large chunk of India was under these princely states (see all the yellow bits in this map below).

Edinburgh Geographical Institute; J. G. Bartholomew and Sons. - Oxford University Press, 1909

To manage the relationship with the princely states, the British came up with the idea of a Chamber of Princes. The Indian name for this chamber was Narendra Mandal; and it provided a forum in which the rulers of the princely states of India could voice their needs to the colonial government of British India. Once a year, the princely rulers descended upon Delhi for a meeting of the Chamber of Princes. So it made sense to build palaces for them.

source: Getty Images https://goo.gl/XlQIBO

Some of the buildings were very grand indeed. The most impressive was Hyderabad House, reflecting the incredible wealth of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Indeed, the Nizam wanted to build something that would rival the Viceroy's building (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), but of course he was not allowed to do so!

The smallest and coziest of the palaces was Bikaner House, because it was more like a bungalow than a palace. The small size now makes it a perfect venue for events.

source: India Today https://goo.gl/AUfLVr

source: India Today https://goo.gl/AUfLVr

Go on. Head over and take a look. And let me know how it went!

The legal rights of Hindu women

Village elders under a tree, Rajasthan, 2016

We all know that Hindu society is patriarchal for the most part. Is gender inequality among Hindus only a cultural/social phenomenon? Or does it have a legal basis? What legal rights do Hindu women have? Are they considered equal to men in the eyes of the law? What are the roots of the women's rights movement in India?

As a Hindu woman, I thought I should try and figure out who my friends and foes are. Who or what has helped the cause of Hindu women, and who has hindered it?

First, let us look at religion. If we examine Hindu scriptural law, there is no single uniform code. Influenced by many shastras and commentaries, the law has traditionally been applied by village councils as per local customs. Thus, there is significant variation in women's rights across the country, based on specifics of caste and class. Most of the time, these customs are not pro-women, although they often offer quick justice and practical solutions based on easily understood cultural norms. When women operate within these norms, but face injustice or denial of rights, the village council or panchayat offers a quick and very useful method of redressal. But the norms themselves are quite misogynistic.

William Bentinck, who abolished sati

It was the British who began the process of codification of Hindu law in the 19th century, starting with Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. As part of this process, some local customs, which the British found reprehensible, were declared illegal. For example, sati was banned, and widow remarriage was allowed. This was the first step in giving all Hindu women, irrespective of caste or class, some rights under British law.

The late 19th century saw the beginnings of the Hindu women's rights movement in India. The early campaigners were men, armed with English education, who fought orthodox Hindu society to obtain more rights for women. They were eventually joined by some trail blazing women, who heralded a brave departure from social norms. Women's rights organisations began asking for a comprehensive code of Hindu laws rather than piecemeal legislation. They had mixed results; because the British were slow to make major changes after the Mutiny of 1857.

The independence movement in the late 1800's and early 1900's slowed down the progress of women's rights. The freedom fighters resisted any British interventions to 'modernize' the Indian family. In 1891, when the British introduced an act to increase the age of consent for marriage, there were big protests.

Sarojini Naidu, leading Salt Satyagraha, 1930, after the arrest of Gandhi.
First woman president of the Congress

Things changed under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in greater rights for Indian women. Although he propounded a rather idealized view of Hindu women, glorifying self-sacrifice, it propelled many Hindu women to come out of their homes and join the Indian freedom struggle in the first half of the 1900's.

The British, meanwhile, continued the process of legal reform. In 1937, the Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act was passed, giving widows rights of inheritance in a joint family. A Hindu Law committee was appointed in 1941, to look further into the rights of daughters. The committee, led by the constitutional scholar B. N. Rau, toured a number of cities throughout India in 1945, and interviewed many people and caste associations. In 1947, India got independence from the British. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948. With support from Nehru and Ambedkar, a Hindu Code Bill was introduced to the new Constituent Assembly on April 9, 1948.

Strong protests erupted from many quarters. Religious organisations such as the Hindu Mahasabha said it was 'suicidal folly' (because the new code bill banned polygamy). They believed that the whole race of Hindus would be destroyed, since there were no equivalent restrictions on polygamous Muslims. The pontiffs of leading religious sects said that giving rights to women would break the effective functioning of the Hindu joint-family, and was against the principles of Hindu dharma.

Here are some photos of protests which took place in Delhi in 1949. The protestors were against giving Hindu women inheritance rights, rights to divorce, etc. Since those were simpler days, without huge security issues; here we can see how the public have easy access to the Parliament House! People can be seen climbing the walls, or just hanging around. No doubt, some brought their own packed meals and made a picnic out of it.

After these major protests, the Bill lapsed and went into hibernation. In 1952, the Congress party swept the polls with a huge majority. This gave Jawaharlal Nehru the political strength to implement his vision. As a result of the untiring efforts of Nehru and Ambedkar, four separate acts came into being:

1. Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 - this allowed inter-caste marriages, introduced monogamy and created provisions for the dissolution of marriage 
2. Hindu Succession Act of 1956 - this act gave women absolute ownership of inherited property (previously they could only enjoy the property without ownership during their lifetime).
3. Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act of 1956 - gave the mother guardianship rights if the father neglected the child; and also allowed mothers the rights to be guardians of illegitimate chilren
4. Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance act of 1956 - allowed women to claim one-third of the joint income of her husband and herself in case of divorce

Despite many limitations, these Acts together were a great victory for gender rights of Hindu women.

The Constitution of India, which came into effect in 1950, guarantees to all Indian women the following:
- equality (Article 14)
- no discrimination by the State (Article 15(1)
- equality of opportunity (Article 16)
- equal pay for equal work (Article 39(d)

In addition, via Article 15 (3), the Constitution allows special provisions to be made by the State in favour of women and children. It renounces practices derogatory to the dignity of women via Article 51(A) (e), and also allows for provisions to be made by the State for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief. (Article 42).

Since 1956, several landmark judgments have been passed by the Congress government, each one bringing a little more improvement in the legal rights of Hindu women. Several laws have come into effect:

• Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 - prohibits demanding, giving and taking of dowry.
• Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 - allows termination of pregnancy by a licensed practitioner under specific circumstances (rape, danger to mother's life or health, contraceptive failure, etc) 
• National Commission for Women Act 1990 - a body to review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women, recommend remedial legislative measures, facilitate redressal of grievances and advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women.
• Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act 1999 - to stop female foeticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India
• Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 - defines domestic violence and provides protection against physical, emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse
• Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act 2013 - defines sexual harassment at the work place and creates a mechanism for redressal of complaint

Compared to just a few decades ago, there is huge progress. But there's is still a long way to go in this journey. The current government has been talking about implementing a uniform civil code. This is more an attempt to bring Muslims under the ambit of a civil code, rather than any attempt to further strengthen the rights of Hindu women. The attitudes of right-wing Hindu organisations (which form the major support base for the current government) continue to be parochial and misogynistic.

Black and White Photographs taken during the anti-Hindu Code Bill demonstrations outside the Council House, New Delhi on Dec. 12, 1949. Source: http://photodivision.gov.in/IntroPhotodetails.asp?thisPage=1392

Taj Mahal: Scaffolding Update (and also tickets by credit card now)

As of Dec 15, the old currency notes are no longer accepted as tickets at the Taj Mahal. They've started accepting payments by credit card now, so you can swipe a card at the counter. Huzzah. No more cash woes.

You can also buy tickets online at the ASI website: https://asi.payumoney.com/ 

Here's what the Scaffolding at the Taj Mahal looks like now:

This photo is clicked in the afternoon around 1:30 p.m. yesterday. Morning temperatures are at 8 C (47F), rising to 22 C (72F) in the afternoon. Nights are cool again.

Gramin Seva - a good idea that needs stricter monitoring

If you live in a slum or village on the outskirts of Delhi, you will probably find yourself using one of these decrepit Gramin Seva vehicles for transport. 

The Gramin Seva (Village Service) vans were introduced in 2010. Licenses were granted to 6000 vehicles, mostly 3-wheelers, to ferry people from the villages and slums in the peripheral areas of Delhi. It was a great idea, to meet the needs of an expanding city. The vans offered poor people cheap connectivity to the major city junctions, from where they could further connect via metro, bus and train.

Ticket prices for Gramin Seva have always been low; they range from 5 to 10 rupees in most cases, and for longer distances it is 15 rupees. However, passengers routinely have to deal with overloading of vehicles beyond the permitted capacity of 6 adults. Owners of the vehicles say they cannot run a sustainable service, if they only take 6 people. Sometimes the vans are crammed with double the allowed capacity! The van owners do not invest in vehicle repair, and although there are norms for the quality of the vehicles, most of them are now old and falling apart.

In addition, some vehicles do not ply on their designated rural/outer routes. Instead, they choose more commercially viable routes where they are not authorised to ply (by law, they can ply only up to the Inner Ring Road; and they cannot cross the Inner Ring Road into the city). Several errant vehicles have been issued challans (traffic violation notices) by the Delhi traffic police. 

 

But if you live in a slum or farflung peripheral village, Gramin Seva is still one of the cheapest options, given the shortage of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses in such areas. The big DTC buses cannot ply these unviable far-flung routes. In many areas, private enterprise has also stepped in to fill the gap. Many private vehicles operate as vans. In some places, there are even private bus services. 

Recently the AAP government has checked and renewed licenses for 4200 of the original 6000 Gramin Seva vehicles. Hopefully some of the really decrepit ones have been thrown out. They have made it mandatory for the vehicles to be fitted with a working GPS, so that it is easy to track whether a vehicle goes out of its assigned route. Will things improve? We can only hope!

Evening gup-shup at Hauz Khas

The ruins at Hauz Khas are a happy place to spend the evening catching up with friends. Amidst the medieval architecture of an old university complex, you can find a quiet spot to relax.

After the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, Delhi became the most important place in the world for Islamic education. Many leading philosophers and teachers migrated to Delhi. The university at Hauz Khas was established in 1352, and became one of the largest and best equipped Islamic seminaries in the world.

They university came up around a beautiful Royal Tank (Hauz Khas). The tank was originally dug by the Khiljis in the 1200's, but it was deepened and improved by Firoz Shah Tughlaq (1309 - 1338). Can you imagine how beautiful this university must have been? It is a green oasis even now. Firoz Shah Tughlaq's tomb is also there, in the building on the left.

On weekends, Hauz Khas is very popular. Here's a group that was playing the guitar when I went:

Another bunch of people were practising parkour:

There are usually lots of people around, but you can still find quiet places to sit and chat. Or have a romantic moment. See these photos below, for glimpses of a Sunday evening at Hauz Khas.

 

So many people, each lost in their own world :) Perhaps just a handful of them knew the history of Hauz Khas; or that algebra was once taught here, and astronomy, and poetry, and calligraphy and geography.

“Nobody now listens to what I say.” - Mahatma Gandhi

On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. 

A couple of months before that, he said in Delhi: "Nobody now listens to what I say". 

He was referring, of course, to the momentous and bloody events following the Partition of India on religious lines. He had been talking to the leaders of Muslim and Hindu communities, trying to make them see sense. In Delhi, he had been visiting camps of wounded and displaced persons, and trying to bring and end to the violence.  

Eventually on Jan 12, he undertook a fast for 'an indefinite period' to bring about cessation of violence. After 6 days of fasting, when his condition deteriorated significantly, he received assurances from leaders of both communities that the violence would end. He finally broke his fast on Jan 18.

On Jan 20, a bomb exploded at the prayer meeting that he was conducting. In spite of threats to his life, he continued the prayer meetings.  Ten days later, he was assasinated by Nathuram Godse, a member and supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu organisation.

I went to Gandhi Smriti recently. That is the house where Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life, and the spot where he was assassinated.

Walkway to his death

Diorama showing the laying down of arms after Partition

Painting by Upendra Maharathi: The Fate of Three Great Men (Gandhi, Buddha, Christ)

After my visit to Gandhi Smriti, I understood more clearly the sacrifices that our freedom fighters made in order to get independence for India. It was not a happy visit for me. I stood near Gandhi's spartan room, where he had his last meeting before he walked to his death. I wept. I couldn't stop the tears. To think that we are now building temples to his assassin! It was unbearable.

But the visit taught me something. It taught me that if I am to honor this man, then I need to relook at his message. He lives on through his thoughts and ideas. It is those things which I must read again, and evaluate and implement.

Gandhi was not perfect. He had his own idiosyncracies and theories. I am sure many things that he said are not relevant perhaps, for the India of today. But there's a lot which still resonates clearly with me. It's those bits that I need to work for.

Gandhi on "India of my dreams"

Gandhi's view on India of his dreams:

"I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country, in whose making they have an effective voice, an India in which there shall be no high class and low class people, an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony"

Gandhi is not a man, Gandhi is an idea. He is only dead if we let the idea die.

A hand-painted signboard in Old Delhi

I enjoy seeing hand-painted boards, even when they are not particularly artistic. The higgedly-piggedly defects seem delightful, compared to the stencilled perfection of computerised graphics. This one is from near the Jama Masjid, describing the municipal corporation's school for girls.

Photo credit: Thomas Hart, who travelled with us last year

Like all official signboards, it is in four languages, English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. And, it is also in four different scripts: Hindi is written in the Devnagri script, English using the Roman alphabet, Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script and Urdu in a modified form of the Persian nastaliq script. No painter of signs can be expected to know all of these :) So obviously the man who painted this was only blindly copying squiggly signs. 

My daughter wrote an article about the multi-lingual signboards of Delhi, and the history behind them. It's a very interesting story. Here is the link: http://delhimagic.blogspot.in/2013/04/signboards-in-delhi-language-debates-in.html

Hast-Mudra (Hand-Symbols) at Delhi airport

If you fly into Delhi's Terminal 3, you'll see this: a big installation of hasta-mudras (hand-symbols) as you come down the escalator in the arrivals area.

Like all human gestures, these hastra-mudras are primarily meant for communication. Each one has a meaning and a way of usage. 

The language of mudras was once understood by all Indians; but unfortunately, it has now become an esoteric piece of knowledge, understood only by specialists. The typical visitor to the airport walks past these hands thinking, ah, ok, ummm, mudras, yes, very good, very good, great Indian traditions, yes, yes, very good indeed :) :)

But what do these mudras mean?

An explanation for these symbols can be found in the Natyashastra, a classical manual on the theory and practice of Indian aesthetics (theatre, music, dance, poetics, etc). Based on linguistic analysis and references, scholars date the Natyashastra anywhere from 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE.

Chapter 9 of the Natyashastra explains 67 types of mudras, dividing them into those using a single hand, and those requiring two hands. It also explains general rules regarding their usage, how the arms are to be moved, the "quantity" or extent of gesturing to be done, etc.

For example, the symbol in the photo here is called "tripataka". Pataka = flag, and tripataka = flag with 3 fingers.

The tripataka mudra can be used for crowning a king; for example, with both hands in tripataka, you can depict the placement of a crown on someone's head.

This mudra is used for anointing someone's forehead with a tilaka. This mudra, with the finger pointing downwards and hand moving up and down is used to represent the flight of a small bird, or the movement of a stream or of a snake.

It is used for raising up something; for example, if you are giving blessings to someone who has fallen at your feet, you can raise the person using two hands in tripataka.

With two tripataka hands facing each other, you can represent a door. You can use it to wipe off tears.

It has more exotic uses as well - for example, if you want to depict an underwater fight between two monsters, you can use tripataka! The jumping of monkeys is also represented using tripataka.

As you can see, a single mudra is used in different ways and combinations, to create different meanings. Traditional classical dance performances in India usually use these gestures as part of their vocabulary.

One of the major reasons why classical dances lose out to 'modern'  dance is the loss of this vocabulary. Over the years, the audiences no longer understand the gestures, and a vital link between performer and audience has been lost. A painstaking re-education is the only way to revive it. It's either that, or resign ourselves to losing these traditions.

The Lodi Friday Mosque

There is some exquisite architecture in the Lodi Gardens. In fact, there is so much beauty that I don't know what to write about, and what to leave out. For example, this gorgeous doorway is just one of the unimportant side entrances of the Friday mosque at the Bara Gumbad complex. 

The lime plaster stucco work that the Lodi tombs are known for.

The mosque was built by Nizam Khan Sikandar II (Sikander Lodi). He ruled between 1489-1517, and was a Pashtun Afghan. The Friday mosque is part of a complex of three buildings, two of which you can see in the photo below. The mosque is the building you see on the right, with the arched bays. The bigger building on the left is the Bara Gumbad.

The arched entrances of the mosque are interesting, because of their proportion. The central ones are very wide, compared to their height. See the photo below; how wide the three arches are! By the time of the Lodis, the practice of putting three domes together in mosques was in place, and the sizes of the domes may have influenced the width of the arches. Or it could be, that the Lodis were modeling their work on the grand Great Arch of Bust, built by the Ghoris in Afghanistan in 1149.

The mound of rubble which is in the foreground is believed to be a burial area. I don't understand what else such a large base could be, which is placed out in the open, and that too in the central path. Did someone want to be buried in the open, without a tomb over his head? Or was it some structural construction that they began and then abandoned? An architectural minar experiment gone wrong? Who knows?!

There are some unusual features in this Friday mosque of the Lodis. The most unusual one being the jharokha-window which you can see on the side of the mosque. The window was obviously needed for the flow of breeze in Delhi's hot summers. But this one has been given a local treatment, similar to those found in temples and homes of Northern and Western India.

In the photo above you can also see a very stocky minaret. I suppose ever since the Qutb Minar (and the even older minaret at Jam in Afghanistan), every nobleman in Delhi wanted to build minarets. The Tughlaqs who preceded the Lodis also built several of these bulky minarets. To me it looks as if the one in Lodi mosque was planned to be taller, but then the idea abandoned later (see how the top segment narrows all of a sudden). 

It's all these experiements - some successful and some not-so-successful - that endear Lodi architecture to me. As I said earlier, the Lodis are Pashtun Afghans. When we think about the Pashtuns, we have this image of a warring tribal people with no refinement. But Afghanistan has architectural remnants of all ages, including Greek and Buddhist stupas, grand minarets, grand arches, and they have superb stucco work with baked bricks and calligraphy; not to mention the amazing blue stonework. The Lodis brought these dreams to India. In this new land, where the Lodis ruled for 75 years - yes, that is a long time - they rendered the beauty of their homeland in whatever fashion they could.  Those of us who have walked in Delhi's Lodi Gardens can see the dreams of these men even today.

My Kotpad saree from Dastkar Nature Bazaar

There are only 8 families in the world practicing the traditional tribal craft of Kotpad weaving. I was delighted to meet Jema and Gobardhan Panika from Kotpad village, Koraput, Odisha at Dastkar Nature Bazaar. They are both National Award winners for their weaves.

The red colour comes from the roots of the aal tree (Indian Madder). Shades of red, maroon and dark brown can be obtained depending on the ageing of the madder and the way the dye is processed (under the sun, in clay pots). Black is developed by adding powdered kumhar-pathar (sulphate of iron; they buy it from blacksmiths).

This white-red-black saree will be one of my most treasured buys. 

Kotpad weave is done using pit looms, which are at floor level, with a sunken pit where there is a foot-operated pedal. Weaving motifs are geometrical, but also drawn from nature - tortoises, crabs, birds and what not. See the photo below; these are dupattas. You can see the popular axe motif at the bottom, making a proud statement of the tribe's roots in the forest. 

Here is another set of stoles:

They can be reached at +91 9938294630 or +91 09938575524.
Sri Gobardhan Panika, National Awardee
Smt. Jema Panika, National Awardee
Mirgan Street, Kotpad - 764058, District Koraput, Odisha, India.

Chaunsath Khamba - gorgeous after restoration!

Just a quick post to say how stunning Chaunsath Khamba is looking these days after restoration.

This is what it looked like a couple of hundred years ago:

Painting by William Daniels

Chausath Khambha is the tomb of Mirza Aziz Kokaltash, Mughal emperor Akbar’s foster brother. It was built in 1623-24 AD. This is the largest open space in Nizamuddin Basti. There are three parts of the complex:

• Chaunsath Khamba (tomb of Mirza Aziz Koka)
• Urs Mahal (hall, gathering area, courtyard)
• Ghalib’s tomb (famous Urdu poet Ghalib)

The restoration of Chaunsath Khamba was done by the Aga Khan Trust, with funding from the German government. If you go there, you'll see the posters showing "before and after" comparisons.