Dilli Travel-log Luv-shuv-te-Qila-Purana....Part I

I have been forever a history junkie, it started with my mom-grandmon-and the extended family telling me juicy  versions of a mundane history and eventually they became the bedtime stories, some true and some interesting. So when I came back to Dilli this time, i decided to go and visit half of those not-so-popular-never-on-the-casual-tourist-list places to see what history looks like after so many hundred years.

According to the ASI website there are 174 marked monuments that stands the testimony to a bygone era. And except the top 10-15, most of them are maintained but not frequented. 

A bite on the history of building and re-building..

• There are remains of 8 major cities in Delhi. It is believed to be the Indraprastha of the epic Mahabharata.
• The first recorded ones  – 300BC- Maurya Dynasty (proof being the inscription of the Mauryan Emperor  Ashoka )
• Tomara Dynasty founded LalKot- 736 AD.
• Chauhans (Prithviraj Chauhan famed) conquered and named it Qila Rai Pithora.(this one is somewhere close to the present day Saket)
• Muhammad Ghori (Afghan invader ) came in around 1200AD.
• Turkic slave-general, Qutb-ud-din Aibak (1206) became the first Sultan of Delhi and his Successor, Iltutmish (1211–36), consolidated the Muslim conquest of northern India, which was to last for nest 6 centuries.
• The Khilji dynasty ruled between 1290-1320 and the most revered ruler was Ala-ud-din Khilji,
• Next was the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325-1351). He is ‘teased’ as someone whose brief went to tatters when he was holding his lowers ;)
• Delhi was captured and sacked by Timur Lenk in 1398. (The Moughals were a linage of Timur and when Babur’ was thrown away from Samarkand and everything he owned came to India to lay a claim coz Timur had come here :O)
• Next were Sayyid dynasty (1414-1451), and Afghan Lodhi dynasty (1451-1526).
•  But in in 1526 after the 1^st  Battle of Panipat, Babur founded the Mughal dynasty. They ruled us for 300 years with a hiatus of 16 years during the reign of Sher Shah Suri, from 1540 to 1556. 
• Mughals came back with the 2^nd  Battle of Panipat and ruled roughly till 1720; Between then and 1857’s failed Mutiny it finally fell into the hands of East India Company, there were alternate Turk and Maratha rules, where in the Marathas signed a treaty to protect the Mughal lineage…rest as they is history :D

My first pick was the 'Rajon Ki Baoli' supposed to be a water collection tank built  around the 1200. But like everything in Delhi - "jo dikhta nahin, woh bikta nahin' there isn't too much direction to this place and in the course we discovered, 2 more monuments and a park full of ruins!!!

1. Hauz-i-Shamsi & The Jal Mahal:- While the first one was built in 1230 when the Prophet himself came in the dreams and ordered, the Jal Mahal was built in 1600's as a Sarai (Rest house for travellers). Both of these monuments are protected but not really protected and are amidst thickly populated area

2. Madhi Masjid:- There is no confirmed information on who built it but its a beautiful piece of architecture and no one really visits it. But if you really want to find this one, so take the cut to the Jain Badi on the MG Rood, somewhere in between, you will see this one!

3. Mehrauli Archiological Park :- This is where our search ended and we found a park full of ruins, the two most popular ones being the Jamali Kamali Mousque and the Rajon -ki-Baoli. And ASI has done a splendid job, there are pathways for a trek and everything is very aesthetically marked, a rare thing for ASI. This place also boasts of some unusual sights of the Qutab Minar!! I recommend this as a must visit; The entrance is a non-descript green gate bang on the MG Road after the Jain Badi turn if you are travelling from Gurgaon towards Delhi.

It took us a lot of hassel to negotiate the thin gallis and bad traffic and almost 4 hours of ruin hunting, but every minute was woth it….special thanks to Priyanka …her enthusiasm kills!!!!!