Dagger with Nilgai (Blue Bull) Hilt, from the Shahjahani era

This beautiful dagger is dated from 1640, during the reign of Mughal emperor Shahjahan. Shahjahan's rule, based out of Agra and Delhi, lasted for 30 years. It was a period of great cultural and artistic flowering. Some of India's most beautiful monuments belong to this period; but Shahjahan also patronised the arts and crafts. This beautiful nephrite and steel dagger reflects not only the Mughal appreciation of craftsmanship, but also of the natural world. See how wonderfully the grey-green nephrite showcases the delicate ears of the Nilgai!

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453253

The dagger is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The description on the museum website says "Daggers such as this one were sometimes awarded to officers who had distinguished themselves in military victory and were worn at court as dress accessories indicating royal favor. Animal-headed hilts were especially favored, and the realism of their rendering conveys the keen appreciation for nature by Mughal artists.

On this dagger, the hilt portrays a nilgai, or blue bull, one of the most beautiful animals found in India, and terminates at the base with a leafy scroll and lotus flower. Carved from a bluish-green nephrite that approximates the color of the animal, this hilt not only demonstrates the artist's thorough mastery of hard-stone carving, but also displays a level of accuracy and sensitivity that suggest close observation of a model, perhaps one of the captive animals kept in the imperial zoo."

The dagger found its way into the personal collection of Nasli Heeramaneck, a Parsi dealer of antiquities and art objects, who died in 1985. His personal collections were bequeathed to various museums. Around 200 objects from Heeramaneck's Pre-Columbian and Western Art collection was gifted to the National Museum in Delhi, where you can see it displayed even today. 

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

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.

Maidens Hotel, Civil Lines

Before The Imperial hotel came up in 1936, the most luxurious hotel in Delhi was Maidens in the Civil Lines. Built in 1903, it was called Maiden's Metropolitan at that time. Along with the Cecil and the Swiss Hotel, it was among the few Western-style hotels available for Europeans visiting Delhi.

Maidens Hotel, photo clicked last year

Maiden's Metropolitan was owned and run by a certain Mr. J. Maiden, who was fully involved in the day-to-day management of the establishment (and made a point of highlighting it as a major advantage). Shades of racism of course, assuming anything with a Sahib at the helm was somehow better. But perhaps I am being too sensitive. Maybe Mr. Maiden was only reassuring his customers they would be with someone culturally familiar, while negotiating a strange country. In any case, those were the days of the Raj, and I am more willing to forgive racism in an earlier era than today.

Entrance porch of hotel

The hotel was open only during the winter. In summer, the hotel shut down operations, while the firangis of Civil Lines made their escape to the cool environs of Shimla (the summer capital of the British).

The primary advantage that Maiden's Metropolitan had was its location. It was right opposite Ludlow Castle (the British Residency). The rail station was also nearby. For visiting dignitaries and their entourages, it made perfect sense to be based at Maidens. In 1879, for example, the American president Ulysses Grant visited Delhi. They arrived by train from Agra, and were received ceremoniously. Grant and his wife stayed at Ludlow Castle, but their retinue found accommodation "in the hotels around the rail station".

Ludlow Castle, now demolished. There is a school located here now.

I found an old advertisement for Maidens in John Murray's Handbook to India, Burma and Ceylon (published 1911). Long before Lonely Planet and Frommers, Murray's Handbook was a major source of information and travel tips for visitors to India. The first book came out in 1859, and several additional books came later. Every big hotel worth its name placed advertisements in Murray's handbook, and Maiden's was no exception. Note the room rates at the time: Rs 8 per night!

Advertisement in the 5th Edition of John Murray's book, 1911

The advertisement says "This Hotel is owned and managed by an Englishman of long Indian experience, who devotes his time solely to one establishment and has no connection with any other Hotel in India." This is of course, a dig at the Cecil, whose owners (the Hotz family) ran several other hotels (Cecil Agra, Wildflower Hall and Cecil Shimla). Mr. Maiden wanted to point out that their attention was obviously divided :) 

Here is Mrs. Hotz's advertisement for Cecil in the same book:

Both Mrs. Hotz and Mr. Maiden were obviously keen to highlight how modern their hotels were. Maiden says, "Electric Lights and Fans have been added, which convenience will be much appreciated, and show the up-to-date character of the house". The Cecil advertisement has "ELECTRIC LIGHT" written in allcaps :) Electricity had come to India only in the late 1800's, and that too first in Calcutta and Bombay. So these hotels were probably among the earliest buildings in Delhi to have electricity. 

Electric light in brass holder at the entrance

Maiden also made a big deal out of his "Fireproof Garage, with pit, free for use of Visitors' motor cars". There were very few cars in India at the time. Automobile manufacturing began in India only in the 1940s, so at the time this advertisement appeared, there were probably just a handful of cars that some maharajas or Englishmen had imported into India. Maybe these autos were not all that safe, and hence the fireproof garage!

There are three customer testimonials in the Maidens advertisement. The last one is from a guest who has returned after 12 years, and he says "I have been most comfortable in your new Hotel, as in the old one, and hope to see you again soon". There were actually two Maidens hotels. The first hotel was run by J Maiden and his brother. The second, the one that survives today, was run only by J Maiden. What became of the first hotel (or of the brother), I don't know. It is likely that the older hotel was modernised and relaunched in 1903, in anticipation of Lord Curzon's grand Coronation Durbar celebrations.

Maidens still survives today, it is run by the Oberoi Group now, and is classified as a 4-star hotel.  If you are looking for a heritage hotel experience in Delhi, but don't have the budget for the (much) fancier Imperial Hotel, then Maidens is a very good choice.

The Delhi Durbar, 1911

In the winter of 1911, the grand Delhi Durbar was held to commemorate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary as Emperor and Empress of India. A massive tent city was created north of the areas of Paharganj and Sadar Bazaar, and royalty from all over India came to stay in these tents. Every princely state was in attendance.

The decor of each tent reflected the culture and crafts of each kingdom - if you've been to Culture Gully at Kingdom of Dreams you'll know what I mean. The Jaipur tent had an Italian garden outside it. There was even a tent where the poles were covered in beaten silver :)

A massive coronation event was organised, and the King and Queen were seated on a dias in a temporary shamiana. Parades, music, salaams by 'loyal' local princes, presentations of awards - the whole event went on for a week.

I thought the shamiana's dome looked familiar - and when I looked closely it seemed almost a replica of the Jama Masjid dome. I can only assume that some political point was being proven. Or that the organisers were looking for something exotic and un-British-like and chanced upon the nearest inspiration.

On returning from the Delhi Durbar, King George gave a speech to the English Parliament in 1912. "All of India", he declared grandly, had commemorated his coronation. The event and indeed the entire visit, he said, had provided him with "overwhelming proof of the devotion of the Princes, Nobles, and Peoples of My Indian Empire to Ourselves and of their loyalty to My rule".

Remind me not to take kings and leaders too seriously :) Because, of course, the statement was quite far from the truth. The Partition of Bengal by Curzon in 1905 had already led to massive unrest. At the Congress session at Calcutta in 1906, presided by Dadabhai Naoroji, Indians were already asking for  'Swaraj' (self-government). The Swadeshi movement had been launched by Lokmanya Tilak; and Tilak had been sent to jail in 1908 for sedition. The British were trying to drive further wedges into Hindus and Muslims through the unpopular Morley-Minto "reforms" of 1909.

No wonder they felt that an appearance by a member of the royal family in 'flesh and blood' might help their cause and rally the 'native princes' to their side. The King and Queen even gave 'darshan' to the public from Red Fort, a la Shahjahan and other Mughal kings.

In concrete terms, I don't think the durbar achieved much to improve British standing in India. But King George V made two important announcements in Delhi: firstly, the partition of Bengal was annulled and, secondly, it was announced that the capital of India was to be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. These two events make the 1911 Delhi Durbar an imporant event in the history of India.

A sleepy afternoon in Khirkee Village

Khirkee has been in the news recently, and it reminded me that I have not written about my visit there.

It was much before all this brouhaha happened.

I went to check out Khirkee some 4-5 years ago, while I was designing our Delhi - A Tale of 8 Cities tour. I was trying to showcase the many different settlements in Delhi, each from a different era, built by a different ruler, and with a different set of characteristics.

Khirkee is part of the very poetically named Jahanpanah (Shelter of the World), the 4th City of Delhi that Mohammed bin Tughlaq built in the 1300's. I wanted to add Khirkee to the Tale of 8 Cities tour because it shows how the city of Delhi is growing and literally sucking into itself, the villages that used to exist here. By the way, I am calling it the 4th city of Delhi, but depending on where you start the city numbering, it could be literally anything! :) 

The major monument in the village is the Khirkee Masjid (Window Mosque). We wandered into the village, hunting for it, and were helped by local residents to find it. When I first saw the mosque, I was immediately struck by how robust it looked. There was no femininity or grace; instead I saw a strong building that looked more or less like a fort.

Khirkee Masjid - with a forbidding looking entrance

Khirki Masjid was built after the death of Mohammed bin Tughlaq, under the reign of his cousin Firoz Shah Tughlaq. Firoz Shah was the sort of ruler who trusted his wazirs and gave them a lot of wealth and independent authority. There were two important wazirs, a father-son jodi, who were responsible for many of Delhi's buildings in that era. Khirki Masjid was commissioned by the son, Khan-i-Jahan Junan Shah.

Although the mosque looked like a fort, when we wandered inside, we found these beautifully balanced pillars and arches, with a graceful strength that delighted me.

Khirki Masjid doesn't have a single large open courtyard for congregation. It is a square mosque, subdivided into quarters; and each quarter has its own inner courtyard. As you can see from the photo above, there are internal arcades which divide the mosque into aisles. These arcades are formed by 180 columns.

Here is one of the khirkis, the famous latticed windows that give the mosque and the area its name.

The 'khirki' of Khirkee :)

In the photo below, you can see the arched khirkis from the outside. The ASI has built a fence to prevent encroachment, and had dumped some rubble there; I think as part of their conservation effort (I saw scaffolding inside the monument, although it was deserted when we got there). Like many such settlements in Delhi, in Khirkee also, modern buildings as well as ramshackle structures are in evidence in the vicinity of the mosque. We debated climbing to one of these terraces to photograph the multiple domes of the mosque, but it was simply too much effort :)

The area around the mosque still had lots of village-like features. This photo of a grandmother with her granddaughters could be from any of UP's villages.

It was afternoon so people had finished their lunch and were in a relaxed mood.

Shivji temple in a clearing, with a lingam nearby: Shivji was also relaxing, with no devotees hounding him for anything :)

I saw a tabela (cowshed) with buffaloes, some inside, some outside:

Back of the tabela, with cowdung patties drying in a heap.

I want to go back and see if the Khirkee of my memory is the same or whether it has changed in the last 5 years. I have to wait for this current political mess to settle down, and for it to fade from people's memories. Then once again I can go in search of a sleepy afternoon in Khirkee...

The Marathas in Delhi

Not many people know that Delhi was under the control of the Marathas in the late 1700s.

But the Diwan-e-Khas of the Red Fort in Delhi is a standing reminder of the Maratha presence in the city. A major portion of the silver enamelling from the roof and walls of the Diwan-e-Khas was knocked down and melted by the Marathas, to finance their foray into North-West India.

Diwan-E-Khas, Hall of Private Audience, Red Fort, Delhi

After the death of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, the Marathas emerged victorious in the 27 year long Mughal-Maratha conflict. Under the two Maratha Peshwas, Baji Rao I and Balaji Baji Rao, the Marathas began an ambitious expansion program, dreaming of a large pan-Indian empire. They began conquering territories in all directions, including northwards, paving the way for them to become the most dominant empire in India.

Other than the green portions, everything else on this map below shows areas under the Maratha Confederacy (either direct rule, or right to taxes, or areas raided) 

Under Peshwa administration and with the support of several key
generals and diplomats, the Maratha Empire reached its zenith,
ruling most of the Indian subcontinent landmass. 

Ahmad Shah Abdali, also called
Ahmad Shah Durrani is the
founder of what we know today
as Afghanistan.

In Delhi, the weakness of the Mughals had allowed Ahmad Shah Durrani (an Afghan who wanted to expand his territory) to take over the city in 1757. He returned to Afghanistan, leaving behind his son Timur at Delhi. At the invitation of the Mughals, the Marathas captured Delhi by 1758, defeating the Durranis. Timur fled to Afghanistan.

The capture of Delhi was only a political gain for the Marathas, because the city was bankrupt - the treasures of the Mughal Empire had been squandered by Aurangzeb in his futile quarter century war against the Marathas. What remained had been looted by Nadir Shah in 1739 and by Ahmad Shah Durrani. 

Hard-pressed for money, the Marathas stripped the Red Fort’s Diwan-i-khas of its silver (amounting to Rs 9 lakhs, two months upkeep for the Maratha army). 

After capturing Delhi, the Marathas moved further north-west, conquering territories as far as Lahore, Attock and Peshawar, chasing the Afghans beyond the Khyber pass. 

However, as soon as the Marathas diverted their northern troops south, the Durranis returned to soundly defeat the Marathas and re-capture Delhi. There was a decisive battle at Panipat in 1761, where the Maratha forces were routed. Over 100,000 Marathas (both combatants and non-combatants) perished; while some managed to return to their homes. The Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao lost his son in the battle and died a broken man the same year.

Mahadajee Scindia of Gwalior

The Panipat battle dealt a severe blow to Maratha supremacy. However, ten years later, in 1767, under Peshwa Madhavrao, the Marathas rose again to came northwards. 

The Maratha general Mahadajee Scindia captured Delhi again, appointed the Mughal Shah Alam II as a puppet king, and reinforced Maratha foothold in Central and North India. 

However, the grand confident ambitions which fueled earlier Maratha thrusts northwards, and their dreams of creating the next big pan-Indian empire, did not resurface. The death of Peshwa Madhavrao in 1772, the breaking up of the Maratha confederacy into strong individual fiefdoms (the Holkars, Scindias, Bhonsles etc), and the loss of group identity and confidence after Panipat led to the gradual weakening of the Martha empire until they finally lost to the British.

Thus ended a major chapter in Indian history; starting with the founding of the Maratha empire in 1684 by Shivaji, and ending with the third Anglo-Maratha war in 1818. If you would like to see an interesting series of photos of Maratha weaponry, head over to our facebook page album.

- By Aishwarya Pramod, with inputs from Deepa Krishnan

Photo source: All photos from Wikipedia