Not Old Delhi, but older Delhi.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

There is Old Delhi. There is also older Delhi. A lot many monuments of Mehrauli were already centuries-old by the time Shahjahan laid the foundation of Old Delhi some 400 years ago. In an attempt to exhaustively dig into the innards of historic Mehrauli, we start with a handful of monuments. They are not as world-famous as Mehrauli’s most touristy monument (guess which!), but are perhaps more deeply entrenched into the region’s social and cultural landscape.

Jahaz Mahal is said to look like a jahaz, a ship. Legend has it that its reflection on the rippling wavelets of an adjacent lake were said to resemble a ship on sail. The name, ship palace, emerged from that perception. The stone monument’s beauty is felt intensely during the twilight, when it is crisscrossed by intervening bands of light and darkness. The edifice then loses its solidity, and resembles a giant paper-mâché craft. During winter afternoons, the facing park is filled with chattering locals.

Situated deep inside the shrine of Mehrauli’s Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, this corner courtyard is exquisitely beautiful. It is filled with a dozen marble graves, and has walls lovingly sculpted with niched taaks and fluted columns. It was the family graveyard of Begum Abida Ahmad, wife of late President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Sadly, the graveyard’s green gate remains locked. No living soul is seen inside, but for cats. The earthen floor is often covered with leaves fallen from the picturesque tree that stands at the center of this mini-cemetery.

Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Gurudwara stands close to the aforementioned Sufi shrine. It is the “Shaheedi Asthan” of Sikh leader Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, who was martyred by Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar, along with other Sikhs, including his young son, Baba Ajay Singh, who was just about 4 years old—says an attendant in the Gurudwara. This afternoon, the prayer hall, which is on the first floor, is immersed in quietude. A giant chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The terrace outside overlooks a stone edifice, called Shahidi Gate—it is the the exact spot of Baba’s martyrdom. A pigeon is perched atop the edifice.

Believed to be a Lodhi-era relic, the Hijron ka Khanqah lies in Mehrauli’s congested village-like bazar. The courtyard within has 50 identical graves, except for a much larger grave, which lies under a neem tree. It is believed to be of a saint. As the monument’s name suggests, the old graveyard is especially sacred to trans citizens. They arrive in “tolis” on Thursday afternoons, offering flowers at the saint’s grave.

The Yogmaya Mandir’s sanctum sanctorum has the shrine of Yogmaya. Temple priest Vinod Pandey (see photo) describes the goddess as Bhagwan Krishna’s sister, explaining that she is also an incarnation of Durga Maa. He says that Yogmaya is simultaneously worshipped by the name of Vindhyachal Devi in a temple in UP’s Mirzapur. This afternoon, in the temple hall, a devotee is singing a bhajan in low voice.