“Pata hai, 10-15 din pehle wahan ek chamatkar hua tha,” the
white bandana-wearing auto-rickshaw guy told me on the way to Hauz-i-Shamsi, a Sultanate-era reservoir I was visiting on the
second day of my solo exploration of Mehrauli village and nearby areas.
As I was researching on internet to know more about the
heritage spots of Mehrauli, I realised that there are too many of them and it
is not possible to cover all if I am not going with a walk
group. There are quite a few old mosques, tombs and monuments. Notable among them are the Qila Rai Pithora of Prithviraj Chauhan; the
octagonal tomb of Adham Khan (that foster brother of Akbar who was thrown off a fort for murdering another noble); a place called Hijron
ka Khanqah (meaning, a spiritual retreat of the transgender) with a graveyard for them, and a “Mughal period Jharna”, a pleasure garden
which had a waterfall and a pavilion. However, quite a few of the monuments
in Mehrauli are hidden in by-lanes or facing encroachment.
I zeroed in on two of the spots associated with
Phoolwalon-Ki-Sair - Jahaz Mahal, from where, it is said, the Mughal emperor’s
family watched the procession or joined it, and the adjoining
Hauz-i-Shamsi or Shamsi talav. I had to go somewhere else afterwards, and
that’s why I took an auto from Chhattarpur metro station to save
time, but the two places are well within walking distance from the metro station. The reservoir was built by Slave dynasty king
Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish who apparently had a dream of the Prophet in his winged horse Buraq. The Sultan is believed to have found a print on
the soil where Buraq struck a hoof in his dream, built a pavilion around a stone slab with the imprint of the hoof and dug a pond
around the pavilion. Now a domed structure stands on one corner of the talav
but I didn’t see any slab.
The stories of miracle still do the rounds, though. As the
autowalla told me, “10-15 din pehle wahan ek chamatkar hua tha, pani mein Allah ka Naam likha hua dikhai de raha tha, sabne dekha.” I
asked, “aapne khud dekha?” He said, “haan maine bhi dekha”. I said, “aap toh lucky ho phir”. This made him really happy and he
started telling me about the many monuments of Mehrauli and actually took great care to circle the auto around the pond, stopping it at 2-3
vantage spots so that I can take pictures. (I told him I am doing a history project; aise hi dekhne ayee hoon bolti to pata nahi kya
sochta).
The gorgeous Jahaz Mahal is situated just beside the pond
and named thus because apparently its reflection looked like that of a ship in the water. The Mahal can be approached from the main road
instead of the side of the resorvoir. The structure has beautiful chhatris with some of the glazed blue tiles still visible. It was said to
have been built as a pleasure resort though some historians opine that it was a sarai (inn) for pilgrims arriving from central Asia to visit
Islamic shrines in Delhi. During Phoolwalon-Ki-Sair, cultural programmes are held in Jahaz Mahal. There is one Jahaz Mahal in Mandu,
Madhya Pradesh, as well.
While returning to the metro station, I saw a part of the
Mughal-era Jama Masjid-Sohn Burj. There are quite a few old mosques in Mehrauli; Madhi Masjid and Mughal Masjid are well-known, but
in Google map, there is also one named “Pankhay Wali Masjid”. No idea about the origin of the name.
Although it is not a heritage site as yet, but I thought of
going to the Chhattarpur temple (which is on the opposite direction from the metro station) to end the trip because I have seen it from
outside quite a few times but was never there. The temple complex is huge and the architecture, design and marble carvings are really
magnificent. And thankfully, phones are allowed. It was the day of Shivaratri
and
there was a serpentine queue of at least 300 people, but the
line was moving quickly. A lot of youngsters were taking selfies. Two boys even tried to click the photo of the idol of the presiding
deity (Devi Katyayani) before being ticked off by the priests. The lady in the queue in front of me started talking to me just like that,
telling me that by standing in the queue of a temple or by making a long
journey to a pilgrimage spot, we can actually earn more blessings.
“Uske upar yeh pracheen mandir hai”, she said. I was about to tell her that it was founded only in 1974 but stopped myself. After all, if
this gives her some feeling of positivity, there’s no harm as such.
Trivia: About the tomb of Adham Khan, also known as Bhool
bhulaiya, it is said that Queen Roopmati cursed him for attacking Mandu and said no woman would ever visit his tomb.
I didn’t, either.
(For gathering information, I took help from several
websites, including the blogs of Mayank Austen Soofi, Anuradha Goyal, Rangan Dutta, Kanika Singh and Vikarmjit Singh Rooprai.)
(March 2018)
