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Delhi History Walk: Jorbagh

WRITTEN BY ABDAAL AKHTAR

i
1 Votes

Long before Edwin Lutyens received his commission to design New Delhi, Delhi was a
rather small city restricted to Shahjahanabad and a few outlying suburbs. The vast bulk of
what now passes for the City was open plain, dotted with ruins and villages. Even as late
as 1931, Robert Byron could describe the area beyond Lodi Road as “flat country-brown,
scrubby and broken…quite [like the] Roman Campagna: at every hand tombs and
mosques from the Mughal times and earlier, weathered to the colour of the earth-bearing
witness to former empires”.

These ruins still dot much of South Delhi. They are today enclosed by colonies, parks,
markets and roundabouts. Some are well known-like the Qutb, some are shadowy figures
that are seldom visited-like Masjid Moth. Still others are known by sight, like the solitary
tomb that stands under the flyover near Nizamuddin. There are countless others that have
barely survived the ravages of time. Their crumbling walls flit by as one drives through
post 1947 Delhi, their names too insignificant to feature on maps and guidebooks. This
post is the product of late afternoon’s rambling walk through one such South Delhi colony.

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Getting off at Jorbagh Metro Station, one can wander right into the Nursery next door. This
is the last surviving remnant, though in a modern avatar, of the Bagh-e-Jud, whose trees
gave its name to the locality. Throughout the later Mughal era, this area was a part of the
estate of the Awadh Nawabs, the second of whom-Safdarjung, is buried in a magnificent
tomb on the opposite side of the Qutb Road. The village here was then known as Aliganj
and the site now occupied by the Nursery was a graveyard where Delhi’s substantial Shia
community ended their Muharram taziyah processions. The practice was stopped for a few
years after Partition but resumed soon after, though on a smaller scale. Today the much
reduced graveyard occupies a portion of the plot. In its centre is the distinctive tomb of
Mah e Khanum (around 1725 CE). The tomb structure is nothing but a gateway and the
burial chamber lies deep underneath. The Farsi inscription on her grave describes her in
rather flowery language as ‘the brightest star in the zodiac of chastity who hid her face in
the cloud of God’s compassion’. On most afternoons, there is nobody around save an old
caretaker who moved here from Western UP in the 80s.

(https://abdaal.wordpress.com/wp- (https://abdaal.wordpress.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/karbala- content/uploads/2015/08/mah-e-khanam-
maidan.jpg) a.jpg)
The graveyard in the Nursery compound The descent into the real burial chamber

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(https://abdaal.wordpress.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/mah-e-khanam-
b.jpg)
The external gateway to the Mah e
Khanum Tomb
Taking the exit to the east of the graveyard, one passes a Mughal era wall mosque. Much
like an Eidgah, these have only a western wall indicating the direction of Mecca. Mehrauli
is dotted by plenty of such structures. The one here now has a brand new shamiana
covering it along with signs of recent construction. This flurry of activity has to do with the
simmering dispute between the management of the graveyard and the people who run the
Nursery. Tempers have been frayed in the last couple of years and stone pelting was
reported barely a few months ago. A couple of rifle toting policemen are always around to
maintain the peace. The very idea of communal violence seems incongruous in this
homely, lower middle class colony named after BK Dutt, the revolutionary who was
Bhagat Singh’s accomplice in bombing the Central Assembly.

In the centre of the locality is the Shah e Mardan, Delhi’s best known Shia shrine. Like such
shrines all over the world, this is not an actual dargah. Instead it symbolically
commemorates the Caliph Ali and his wife Fatima, the son in law and daughter of Prophet
Muhammed, respectively. The building is all gleaming white marble and contrasts sharply
with the filth around it. Grimly smiling Shia Ayatollahs with flowing beards look down
from posters. A gateway is all that remains of the original structure that the new shrine has
replaced. For such an important shrine, it is remarkably deserted. The Shias who originally
inhabited the area moved out after Partition. The Punjabi refugees who inhabit the colony
now have little to do with it. Right next to it is the tomb of a child saint called Sayyed Arif,
again late Mughal. In a case of questionable judgement, it has been covered all over with
bathroom tiles.

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(https://abdaal.wordpress.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/arif-ali-
dargah.jpg)

The bathroom tile covered facade of the

Sayyed Arif Ali Shah Dargah-the
miraculous child saint

(https://abdaal.wordpress.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/qanati-
masjid.jpg)

The much altered wall mosque outside the

graveyard

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(https://abdaal.wordpress.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/shah-e-mardan-
dargah.jpg)

Dargah Shah e Mardan-Delhi’s holiest Shia

shrine
AUGUST 29, 2015JULY 27, 2017 · POSTED IN BLOGROLL · TAGGED ATHPULA,
DELHI, HISTORY, JORBAGH, KARBALA, LODI GARDENS, LODI ROAD, SHAH E
MARDAN ·

4 thoughts on “Delhi History Walk: Jorbagh”

kritisharma1 says:
SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 AT 8:20 PM

1. wow, this is amazing! Where did you get so much details from?

REPLY
Abdaal Akhtar says:
SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 AT 6:52 PM

1. Thanks Kriti I would blame a lot of walking for this

REPLY

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 Flora Biswal says:
OCTOBER 7, 2015 AT 11:03 PM

2. Beautiful!!…. what a vivid description!!… for a moment i thought i was walking down
those lanes…

a question-
Why is the facade of the dargah covered with ‘bathroom tiles’??.. any specific
purpose??.. Didn’t they get any other material??

REPLY
Bahadur Abbas Naqvi says:
DECEMBER 26, 2016 AT 12:18 AM

3. Hi
Abdaal Akhtar
pls give me your contact no

REPLY

CREATE A FREE WEBSITE OR BLOG AT WORDPRESS.COM.

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