Vive la Mehrauli.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Adam Khan’s tomb rose above Mehrauli’s bus adda, its façade visible against the sky. Then, a few weeks ago, a large sign appeared before it. “WELCOME,” it said, followed by “JAI MEHRAULI.” The dome rose above the greeting, while the arches appeared behind the red, green and saffron letters—see photo. The monument had been given a new role of formally welcoming everyone to the neighbourhood.

Mehrauli has a new store by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. It also has so many monuments that a citizen might pass one while looking for another. The area is vast, and one sprawling part of it is called Mehrauli Archaeological Park. But outside the park, too, monuments are scattered through the neighbourhood’s streets and bazars. Winter is the best time to explore them. Many were already old when Shahjahan began building what is now called Old Delhi. The tall and lanky Qutub Minar, of course, is the most visible of them all.

Within the Qutub Minar complex stands the exquisitely beautiful Mughal Masjid. Small and spare, it has three domes, two slender minarets and a teeny-weeny walled garden. Built in late Mughal times, when Mehrauli was a summer getaway for the Red Fort royalty, it is sadly closed to visitors.

Elsewhere in Mehrauli is the Sufi shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, the neighbourhood’s patron saint. Close by stands Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Gurudwara. Its terrace overlooks Shahidi Gate, marking the spot where the Sikh leader was martyred, along with other Sikhs, including his young son.

Nearby, Zafar Mahal’s passages lead through chambers, stairs and dark, dingy stone structures. Sunlight shifts across niches in the roofless portions. Above, carved pillars frame the neighbourhood’s water tankis. Planes can be heard and seen overhead. Delhi experts are often sighted leading walks through Mehrauli. Once, a historian concluded a tour at Zafar Mahal, reading poetry by Bahadur Shah Zafar beside the empty burial space intended for him. The last Mughal emperor, also a poet, wanted to be buried here, but lies in distant Rangoon.

The Mehrauli bazar happens to hold one of Delhi’s most beautiful graveyards, although burials no longer take place here. Sacred to Delhi’s transgender citizens, the courtyard at Hijron ka Khanqah receives visiting groups who pray, sing and share food.

Back at the Mehrauli bus adda, the tomb behind the Jai Mehrauli sign dates to around 1562. The monument looks serene. The man it commemorates met a far less serene end. On Emperor Akbar’s orders, Adam Khan was hurled from a parapet, then carried back up by his black-robed executioners and thrown down again, when finally he died. The bit about the black robes, it must be confessed, comes from the Hrithik Roshan-starrer musical Jodhaa Akbar. A clip of the morbid scene is available on YouTube.

Whatever, the tomb’s thick walls enclose passageways, giving it the popular identity of a bhool bhullaiya, a labyrinth where one might easily lose one’s way. Between us, dear reader, the claim is exaggerated.