Cultural life in Guwahati

When I had come to Guwahati, I had not expected to find so many opportunities for an active cultural life. However, the past 2 months have been wonderful, full of stimulating discoveries. It helps that Guwahati city is relatively small and reaching most places is easy through the public transport.

Here are some notes from my diary about the cultural events in the city in the past weeks. The picture above is from a Purulia Chau dance performance from West Bengal in the "Bharat Lok Parva", a festival of folk dances, music and theatre held in Guwahati that was organized by the East Zone Cultural Centre of Kolkata.

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The National Youth Festival (NYF) in the beginning of January 2015 was the first big cultural event in Guwahati for me. Youth groups had come to the city from different parts of India to present folk-dances, classical dances, music, poetry and theatre. All the events were simultaneous, held in parallel sessions in different venues around Dighalipukhuri in Uzan Bazar.

Finding information about the programme, venues and times was not so easy but in the end, I had managed to attend the folk-dance performances held in the library auditorium. It was an opportunity to see a huge variety of traditional folk dances from different states of India. I was especially thrilled by the folk-dances of the north-east, since I did not know them very well.

Since I had decided to focus on folk-dances, I had to miss all the other events of classical dances, theatre, debates, etc.

However, one evening during the festival, I had gone to the concert by Assamese singer Papon in the Guwahati stadium. I love his singing and it was a nice coincidence that he had started his concert by my favourite, “Din-dinae” song.

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One day while visiting the Assam state museum, by chance I had found myself in the middle of the national conference of Indian museologists. There I had met Prof. R. D. Choudhury, the president of India’s Art History Congress as well as, the former director of Assam State Museum and the former director general of National Museum in Delhi.

After the conference, I had gone to meet him one afternoon. Talking to him about his life, his work in different museums and about the art history of India, was a fascinating experience. I love art history and I hardly know anything about the art history in India, so hope to learn more about it. The image below shows Prof. Choudhary in his office.

Prof. Choudhary has told me that he is working on his autobiography and it should be ready for printing in another six months. I am looking forward to reading it.

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By chance I had heard about a creative festival called “Rain Dance” that brought together environmental protection and art, to be held in Bashistha. I had written to Alak Pathak, the organiser of the festival, who had given me instructions about reaching the festival venue near Bashistha.

However, reaching that place had turned out to be much more difficult than I had imagined. I had walked on a small inner road for a very long time without finding any sign of the festival and instead, found myself in the middle of a Saraswati Puja celebration in a girls’ school.

Then talking to some young boys, I had discovered that I had missed the turning for the Dancing Rain festival venue. Fortunately one of the boys offered to accompany me to that place on his vespa scooter, which was another small adventure!

The images below is from the "Dancing Rain" festival, it shows a beautiful rhino “green” sculpture that Alak Pathak had created with Sal (teak) tree leaves. As you can guess from the sculpture, this festival was held in a field, close to a forest.

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Coming back from a visit to Bashistha temple, I had also visited the Art College of Guwahati. Arts college is in a run down unassuming low building. However, there are many beautiful sculptures in its courtyard made by its students, many of them covered by dust and cobwebs. These give it a kind of look of an abandoned open air art exhibition.

I found the ambiance of this place magical. If you are ever in Bashistha, don’t forget to take a look at the surroundings of the art college and discover the hidden sculptures.

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The news about the first North-Eastern GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer) Pride Parade was a pleasant surprise - it was a surprise because I had thought that outside the big metro cities in India, people will not have the courage to raise their voices about alternate sexualities.

It was very colourful and joyful. An unexpected pleasure of the GLBTQ parade was the readings of poems and some wonderful music and dance performances. And it was good to see so many young persons.

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I had walked to Shilpagram. From the way it was described, I was expecting to see a cross between Dilli Haat and the crafts village at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi.

It was almost 11 AM. However, the ticket window was closed. The guards and some persons were sitting near the ticket window.

“It is closed”, one of them had said.

“But I had read that it opens at 10.30?” I had asked.

“When the ticket-babu will come, then it will open”, he had explained.

“What time does he come?” I had insisted.

“He lives far away, so it takes some time. Sometimes he reaches at 12 noon”.

So no luck Shilpagram. May be the next time, I will go there, I will have better luck. It was one cultural visit that did not happen!

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I had seen the billboard of the “Bharat Lok Parva” (BLP) at Ravindra Bhawan. It was supposed to be organised at Kalakshetra from 16 to 21 February 2015, but the time was not specified. Since Kalakshetra is not far from where I live, so it was easy to go there to find out more about this folk-dance and theatre festival. Though it will be helpful if such information is shared in a more systematic way.

BLP has been a really beautiful festival. The quality of the folk dances and plays has been very high. It was organised by the East Zone Cultural Centre in Kolkata. They have promised to hold this festival every year.

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It is not so easy to find the time and venue of most cultural events in Guwahati. Local English newspapers like Assam Tribune do not have a regular space to inform about the different cultural events planned in the city. Often I know about them when they decide to publish a report or pictures, sometimes a week or more after the event.

Perhaps such events are advertised only in Assamese language newspapers? (Unfortunately, I am still learning Assamese alphabet so to read the Assamese newspaper, I will need some more time!)

I think that journalists, media persons, artists and persons interested in culture in Guwahati, need to find a solution so that precise information about cultural programmes (what, where, at what time, how much do the tickets cost ..) need to be available to general public through the press and through some websites.

The above notes from my diary are about the principal cultural events that I could attend. There were many other events like the Kite festival at the river front in Uzan Bazar where I was unable to go.

Ravindra Bhawan and Kalakshetra are the two main cultural venues that I have discovered in Guwahati but probably there are many more.

I had not expected so many cultural activities when I had come to Guwahati. It has been a wonderful surprise. I am slowly trying to learn Assamese, so hopefully in future, the cultural opportunities will be even more!

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Discovering Guwahati

I arrived in Guwahati almost 6 weeks ago. I am slowly getting to know this city and its kind and gentle people. This post is about my first impressions about the city and finding my way around it.

In this short time, I have fallen in love with this city? If you ask me why, I can try to give all kind of rational reasons why this city clicked for me, but they may not be true. Perhaps sometimes, we like a city instinctively, there is some mysterious magic that works? I only know that I liked it almost from the first day I landed here.

My first days in a new city

The Indian mega cities are sprawling spaces full of millions of persons. Sometimes you can live in a city for months, without really knowing it. Or you can travel across the city in a metro train and know all the names of the metro stations and yet, continue to get lost on its roads all the time. That happens to me often in Delhi, a city where I had grown up.

However, my first days in Guwahati were so different from my experiences in the other Indian mega cities. I was staying in a hotel in a quiet part of Uzan Bazar, close to the High Court. The views of the river Brahmaputra, and numerous pukhris (ponds) that are scattered in this part of the city, were magnificent. The vegetable market along both the sides of the street seemed exactly like the vegetable markets of my childhood from the summer holidays in West Bengal. The small hills were covered with lush green foliage. Later, I could discover many other such markets in different parts of the city.

And on my first morning in Guwahati, I saw a gaggle of about 20 geese waddling out of a pond and walking leisurely in the middle of road, uncaring about the autos, motorcycles and bicycles that went around them, occasionally stopping to look curiously inside the houses and at people. At that moment, I knew that I loved this city.

Guwahati has less than 1 million persons. That may be enough to compare it with the second level of large European cities. However, compared to the Indian mega cities like Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore, it is tiny, almost a provincial backyard. If you consider that Guwahati is the biggest city in all the 8 North-Eastern states of India, you can understand that we are talking of human-size cities here and not those never-ending crazy mega cities which dwarf you and make you feel like an anonymous nobody.

The city layout

To understand the basic layout of the city, you need to remember just two main roads that meet at the Guwahati railway station in Paltan Bazar, and make an “L” – A.T. road and G.S. Road.

On the north, across Brahmaputra, A.T. road comes to Guwahati from the west (Bongaigaon and West Bengal). It enters the city along the south bank of river Brahmaputra, passes in front of the railway colony and the Kamakhya temple on the top of a hill. At Muchokhowa it leaves the river and goes inside, passing through 4 important city markets - Fancy Bazar, Pan Bazar, Uzan Bazar and Paltan Bazar. At Paltan Bazar, it changes name and becomes G. S. Road.

The G. S. road (Guwahati-Shillong road) starts in front of Guwahati railway station when A.T. road takes a sharp 90 degrees turn to the south. It connects the railway station to Khanapara, where hills start and Guwahati ends. After the exit for Shillong, G.S. road again becomes A.T. road and continues towards eastern (or as locals call it "upper Assam") cities of Nagaon, Jorhat and Tejpur.

Inside Guwahati, G.S. road is the most important road of the city. It has 4 flyovers – Ulubari flyover, Bhangagarh flyover, Ganeshguri flyover and Six Miles flyover. To understand Guwahati you just need to remember these flyovers and the roads leading from there. To identify most areas of Guwahati, you can get instructions in terms of some market or flyover on the A.T. road or on the G.S. road.

Travelling in Guwahati is easy, buses cover the whole G.S. road-A.T. road stretch. For almost everywhere else, you can find connecting buses along these 2 roads. Along the main roads, the fares vary between 5 to 15 rupees. Most bus operators are private who try to get as many passengers as they can, so they often stop for long time at each important bus stop, calling to people to come and sit in their buses.

This means that it is easy to get into the buses, though they may take long time to reach anywhere. A journey that could have been completed in 30 minutes, sometimes takes 60-80 minutes. Often passengers, irritated by long waits, thump with their hands on the sides of the buses, but most drivers are really cool about it, they stay relaxed.

In addition to the driver, all buses have 2 guys – one for collecting fares and the other for calling passengers at the bus stops. They also thump continuously on the side of the buses with their hands – one thump means “don’t move, a potential passenger is coming”; two thumps mean “go”.

Inside the buses, the left side seats are reserved for women. If there are no women standing and seats are available, men can sit there but they must get up immediately as soon as a woman enters the bus. The ticket checkers take only cash and do not give any tickets, but they seem to remember who has paid and who has not paid.

As a white-haired person, often persons get up and give their seat to me. People are generally very helpful and gentle - I have yet to meet a really rude person in a bus.

Compared to the buses, the autos (3 wheeler auto-rickshaws) are completely unpredictable. In areas that do not have buses, you can find “shared auto” where 6-7 persons travel in an auto, like a bus, each pays 10-15 Rs and people can get and get out along the way. Longer journeys by “reserved autos” (an auto reserved only for you and your companions), cost quite a lot according to the whim of the auto-drivers. For the same journey, at different times of the weekday or weekend, I have paid amounts varying from 150 to 250 Rs.

Taxis are not so common – in the last 6 weeks, I took them only twice.

Dispur, the capital of Assam

Some persons believe that Guwahati city is not the capital of Assam but only the Dispur area where the Government has its offices, is the capital. Dispur is a small area of Guwahati between Ganeshguri and Six Miles flyovers on the G. S. road.

Initially I was a little confused when I was told that Dispur was the capital of Assam. I had thought that perhaps Dispur was another new city that has been built as the new capital. Then I found that it is only a small part of the Guwahati city.

Guwahati as the capital of Assam has woefully inadequate infrastructures. It is the gateway to whole of the North-East but decent roads or bridges are inadequate. Outside Guwahati, travelling a few hundred kilometres can often take 3-4 hours, most of them stuck in some place or moving at snail pace. For example, the city has only one bridge to cross the river Brahmaputra – a parallel track is being built for the past few years, so that in future traffic will have 2 lanes in both directions. But a city like Guwahati needs at least 3-4 bridges on Brahmaputra.

Railway infrastructure is also limited. There is only one rail track for crossing the river, so trains can move only in one direction at a time, and on the other side, the trains must wait to cross the river. It seems unbelievable if you think that this is a strategic area for India and that the whole region is full of Military outposts and camps.

City of books, art lovers and intellectuals

Guwahati seems to give a lot of importance to Sahitya Sabhas (literary gatherings). There are many schools of art and music. In public spaces, there are many statues remembering authors, artists and others such as freedom fighters, a rare sight in any other part of India that I have seen. On the other hand, I have not seen many statues of the politicians that are so common in other parts of India. I love this aspect of Guwahati!

Malls, Macdonalds, KFCs and Reeboks

A few malls with multiplexes and all kind of important brand names are there in the city with their gleaming showrooms and restaurants. However, they are still few and these new arrivals have not yet edged out the traditional places where you can eat the staple Assamese food starting with rice.

The side roads of Guwahati are calm places full of lovely houses, while the main roads are blocked by markets and traffic. However as multi-story buildings are built at the site of traditional houses and as cars increase in the city, those side-roads are becoming increasingly congested. As the city will be more “developed” in the coming years, I think that more traditional heritage houses will be lost and city will struggle even more with the traffic. This thought makes me feel really sad, as some of the traditional houses are so beautiful with open courtyards and some even have tiny ponds.

Garbage disposal is (especially disposing plastic bags) another growing problem in the city, likely to get worse in the future. Some of the local rivers are full of dark sewage. Even beautiful sites of the city, like the Umananda temple on the peacock island in Brahmaputra river, are full of garbage in some parts. At the back of the Nepali Mandir in Paltan Bazar in the city centre is a big sewage lake.

As has happened in other bigger cities, slowly the traditional crafts and persons – such as those selling baskets and those hand-painting sign boards, will slowly disappear. The life along the river will also change – the poor persons who live in slums near the river, will be shifted to make way for the riverfront luxury homes. However, you can still see these traditional crafts and crafts-persons in many parts of the city.

Conclusions

Guwahati still has some old world charm, even if it is striving to become a modern "developed" city. Unfortunately the move to become a modern city, along with the comforts, also brings with it some chaos and difficulties. I wish that the city will try to safeguard its heritage and not destroy all its traditional charm. I also hope that Government will do much more to strengthen the city infrastructures.

This is only a brief introduction to Guwahati, the capital of Assam. The city has many places to visit starting with the famous Kamakhya temple. I am still discovering them. I hope to write about them soon.

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Myths of Shiva, Kali, Krishna & Radha

Before coming to Assam in the north-east of India, I had never thought of Shiva and Kali as a couple and I had also never thought of the two couples, Shiva & Kali and Krishen & Radha, as having any common stories. This post is about understanding an aspect of Hinduism - the Shiva and Kali relationship, and the myths connecting them to Krishna and Radha.

THE TRADITIONS OF GODDESS KALI

Kali belongs to the Hindu traditions of the north-eastern parts of India, especially Bengal and Assam. As a child, I had been to the Kali temples in Delhi but I had never taken a good look at the statues of this goddess, probably because I found her a little frightening and intimidating - her red tongue coated with blood, the garland of skulls around her neck and the bleeding cut head she holds in her hand, seemed to me the stuff of nightmares!

I had often wondered how Bengal and Assam can have traditions of two such contrasting goddesses - Saraswati, the peaceful goddess of learning, and Kali, the goddess of vengeance and death. I had always preferred Saraswati.

I found an article of Devdutt Pattanaik explaining the Kali tradition in Hinduism, according to which Kali was initially seen as a demonic force but who was later included in the Hindu mainstream as a "slayer of demons":

“Kali-like goddesses were worshipped by agricultural communities, who were probably matriarchal, who came to be feared by patriarchal nomadic communities… Between the 2nd century BC and 3rd century AD, Kali appears unequivocally for the first time as a goddess in the Kathaka Grihyasutra, a ritualistic text that names her in a list of Vedic deities to be invoked with offerings of perfume during the marriage ceremony. Unfortunately, the text reveals nothing more about her.

In the Mahabharata and Ramayana which were being composed around this time, goddesses, including Kali, are given more character: they are usually independent and (hence?) wild, appearing as manifestations of divine rage and embodiments of the forces of destructions. In the Mahabharata, for example, the nocturnal bloodbath by Ashwattama at the end of the 18-day war, when the innocent children of the Pandavas are slaughtered rather dastardly while they are asleep, is seen as the work of “Kali of bloody mouth and eyes, smeared with blood and adorned with garlands, her garment reddened, — holding noose in hand — binding men and horses and elephants with her terrible snares of death.”

In the Devi Mahatmya, dated roughly to 8th century AD, Kali became a defender against demonic and malevolent forces and by the 19th century, Kali was a goddess of mainstream pantheon, a symbol of divine rage, of raw power and the wild potency of nature. The one who was once feared as an outsider had made her way right to the heart of the mainstream.” 

SHIVA AND KALI STATUES IN ASSAM

During my travels in Assam over the past few weeks, I saw many statues of Kali, where the goddess is shown standing with one foot on a lying down Shiva. When I saw those statues, I was confused. I had never noticed before that Kali stands with her foot on Shiva!

During my stay in Bologna (Italy), I had seen the Durga statues during the annual Durga Puja organised by the local Bengali community, where she is shown standing on the demon king Mahishasur. So when I saw the Kali-Shiva statues, I asked myself, if  Shiva was seen like a demon, to be killed by Kali?

Searching for information about Kali and Shiva, I discovered another story on the internet. Another article of Devdutt Pattanaik, “Krishna as Kali”, explained that the foot of Kali on Shiva is part of a love game between the two, “When you dance atop me as Kali, naked with hair unbound, unafraid to be yourself, unafraid to be powerful and vulnerable and unafraid of being judged and mocked, I feel love.”

Thus, Shiva and Kali relationship was part of Shiva and Shakti relationships that explored different forms of love. As Kali, Shakti expresses herself without inhibitions or need of male approval, and Shiva loves this expression of the female power. 

After reading this article, I looked at the Kali and Shiva statues once again and this time I could see that Kali is not trying to kill Shiva. Rather, Shiva is shown awake and a little thoughtful, with his eyes open, while Kali seems to be tickling his chest with her toes.

However, this article of Pattanaik also touched on another aspect – the story of how Shiva and Kali decided to come down to earth and be born as Radha and Krishen respectively. This meant that Shiva was born in female form as Radha and Kali was born in the male form as Krishna.

Pattanaik concludes this article with the following words:

“Just as Kali had made Shiva give up his autonomy and understand the value of the not-so-autonomous other, the pining beloved, Radha helped Krishna understand the limitations of society, the struggle between faith in divinity and fidelity for the husband. Radha was demanding, as Kali once had been. Radha sat on Krishna as Kali stood on Shiva. The two thus mingled and merged in roles and thoughts and feelings. But there was one crucial difference.

Kali had made the wandering hermit, Shiva, into a rooted hermit, Shankara. Radha did the opposite. She remained a flower stuck to the branch of a tree while Krishna became the bee that moves on after getting enriched with nectar. And so fulfilled by Radha’s love, Krishna left Madhuban for Mathura. Kali had revealed love through shringara, romance, as only Krishna can. Radha revealed love through vairagya, renunciation, as only Shiva can.”

CONCLUSIONS

I am glad that my curiosity about the Shiva and Kali statues led me to these articles of Pattanaik and learning about explorations of gender relationships and human sexuality in the Indian myths. Probably most persons when they learn about these myths, even without knowing about the psychological explanations given by Pattanaik, still internalize an intuitive understanding of the complex and infinite variety of human diversity.

I think that this Shiva-Radha and Kali-Krishna myth is a good example of the traditional Indian way of thinking. These myths are complex and they seem to be telling a truth about gods and human relationships in ways that require an intuitive understanding rather than a rational understanding.

I like the way Pattanaik illustrates these myths in the Indian way of thinking and understanding the world and ourselves. This Indian way of understanding is the way of subjective truths, non linear thinking, where things can have many simultaneous meanings, often contradictory!

P.S. My friend Harjinder (Laltu) was surprised when he read that I had never seen the Shiva-Kali statues before. He had grown up in Kolkata.

He has shared another story about these statues that he had heard as a child - When whole earth was terrified of the anger of Kali who wanted to destroy everything, the gods asked Shiva for help. Shiva lied down in front of Kali and when she put her foot on him, she put out her tongue in a gesture of repentance, "Oh, look what have I done now!" These statues tell that story.

I love Harjinder's story - it makes her look less intimidating!

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Delhi Metro Walks: Pragati Maidan

“Delhi Metro Walks” are my way of discovering the city places around the metro stations. This post is about the places to visit around the “Pragati Maidan” station on the Yellow line of Delhi Metro.

Delhi Metro network must be one of the fastest growing metro networks in the world. It came to Delhi only about 10 years ago and is already a complex web of lines covering large parts of the huge and growing city of 16 million persons, to which new lines and stations get added every year. It is a convenient way to discover hidden corners of the city.

1 PRAGATI MAIDAN METRO STATION

The Blue line is one of the longest lines in the Delhi metro network – it connects Dwarka in the south-west part of Delhi near the international airport to NOIDA and other satellite towns in the north-east. NOIDA in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh is part of the New Capital Region (NCR), the metropolitan area of Delhi .

So let us start our walking tour from the Pragati Maidan metro station. Make sure to wear comfortable shoes and keep a wide-brimmed cap or an umbrella to cover your head from the strong sun light. This is a long walking-tour and if you wish, you can spend many hours for this visit. As you come of the station, turn left and follow the boundary walls of the Trade Fair grounds on the Mathura Road.

The map below shows the different places to visit during this walking tour. The path on Mathura Road is shown in blue dots, while the sites are marked in red numbers.

2 PRAGATI MAIDAN (DELHI TRADE FAIR GROUNDS)

The trade fair grounds of Delhi called “Pragati Maidan” (literally the words mean “Progress Grounds”) give the name to the metro station. If there is an on-going trade fair, be prepared to tackle huge crowds at this station.

As you walk along the walls of the Trade Fair grounds, on your left you will encounter different entry gates. Pragati Maidan has different eating places, theatres and open-air cultural places that function only during the different trade fairs that take place throughout the year, especially between October to February.

I personally prefer the trade fairs concerning books and traditional crafts of India, though the fairs dealing with electronics, furniture, etc. and especially the international trade fair, attract a lot of visitors. There are numerous opportunities to see plays, films and dances during the trade fairs, especially in the evening. The quirky modernist architecture of the buildings is also an attraction.

MATKA PEER KI DARGAH

If you continue along the outer walls of the trade fair, near the crossing with Bhairon Singh Road, on your left you will find the dargah of Matka pir. “Dargah” denotes the prayer place of a Sufi pir (saint). Sufi pir are Muslim holy persons in the syncretic religious traditions of India and usually have followers from different religions. Usually the saint is buried in the same dargah and people visit it to ask a mannat (favour).

In this dargah, persons asking for a favour offer a matka (a round terracotta vase, traditionally used for storing cool water) to the saint. Thus on the different trees around this place, you will find hundreds of these vases hanging from the branches. Because of them, the saint is known as Matka Pir.

The earthen round matkas are used to offer roasted grams and jaggery at the dargah, because there is a story that the saint had once transformed iron balls and mud into these edibles. At the dargah you can also listen to qawali prayer songs.

You need to remove your shoes/sandals and cover your head with a scarf or a handkerchief to enter the dargah. Persons wearing shorts or skirts should not enter the dargah.

PURANA QILA OR THE OLD FORT

Just across the sanctuary of Matka Pir, on the other side of Bhairon road, you can see the walls of the Purana Qila or the old fort of Delhi, built in the 16th century.

Many kings of Delhi had preferred to built their own forts, shifting each time the imperial city that settled around the king’s fort. Since 1000 AD and over the next 500 years, the imperial city of Delhi had been in Mehrauli, then in Hauz Khas, then in Tughlakabad and finally to the areas around Lodhi gardens. In the 16th century came the Mughals from Western Asia – in 1524 arrived Babar who defeated the Lodhi king and became the new king of Delhi. However, Babar’s reign lasted only a few years and he died in 1530. Hamayun his son became the king but in 1540 he was defeated by Sher Shah Suri and forced to go back to West Asia.

After becoming the king, Suri decided to build a new fort, that is now known as the Purana Qila, some kilometres to the east, in an area known as Indraprastha, where the legend said that the ancient city of Pandavas from the Hindu epic Mahabharata was situated. Hamayun came back and attacked Delhi in 1555 and defeated Suri. Hamayun decided to live in Suri’s fort and constructed some new buildings inside the fort, including a round library.  A year later, Hamayun died, falling down from the stairs of that round building, and his 14 year old son Jalaluddin Mohammed (Akbar) became the king. As Akbar grew up, he decided to shift to Agra and along with him the imperial city also shifted. Suri’s fort was abandoned and was covered with plants and trees, and a village came up inside it.

For the next 100 years, the Mughal kings - Akbar, followed by Jahangir and Shahjahan continued to live in Agra. In 1658, Shahjahan’s son Aurangzeb became the king and he brought back the imperial city to Delhi, where his father had built a new fort to the north-east of the Delhi (Red Fort).

With this glimpse of the history of Delhi, you can visit the old fort. Its outer walls are surrounded by a small lake, a popular place for paddle-boating during summers. Inside the fort, some buildings including a mosque and the round shaped library of Hamayun are in good condition.

The old fort is the venue of some important cultural activities. For example, each year in November, the Ananya dance festival is held here.

KHAIR-UL-MANAZIL

Just across the road from the old fort is Khair-ul-Manazil (literally “The most beautiful building”), the house of Maham Angah, the wet nurse of prince Jalaluddin Akbar. This building was built in 1561-62.

Maham Angah was supposed to be a very powerful figure for many years in the court of the young king Akbar. However, for conspiring against the king, her son Adham Khan was killed and she was exiled, while Akbar shifted to Agra. If you have seen Ashutosh Gawarikar’s film “Jodha Akbar”, you will certainly remember Maham Angah, played wonderfully by Ila Arun.

The mosque of this building is quite well preserved, while the ruins of other buildings of this complex (probably a madrassa or an Islamic school) are worse off.

DELHI ZOO

The Delhi zoo is next to the old fort and is one of my favourite places in Delhi. It has wide open spaces where most animals are housed. It includes a small lake where a stable colony of painted storks, grey necked storks and cormorants lives. In February when the baby storks are there, it can be a really noisy place. The zoo also has lot of peacocks flying around.

The gardens of the zoo have a wide variety of trees and each tree is labelled with a short description. Thus, the zoo is an excellent place to learn about Indian trees.

Unfortunately, the persons visiting the zoo, especially adolescent boys, can be very noisy and thus, probably the animals are very stressed. Weekends are usually very crowded here. The zoo also has some antiquated laws regarding cameras so you are supposed to pay extra if you are carrying a camera, even if it is an old simple camera. However, you can take pictures or even shoot videos with your smart phone without paying anything extra.

CONCLUSIONS

After you finish the zoo visit, you can take an auto-rickshaw to take you back to Pragati Maidan metro station, because it can be a long walk (around 2.5 km)!

There are two more places to visit on this tour - both are on Bhairon Road, close to the Dargah of Matka peer - the crafts museum and the Bhairon temple. However, I did not visit them this time because I was too tired!

I like this walk because it provides very different kinds of experiences – historical, cultural, culinary, sacred and nature.

You can check the Travel page of this blog to see the other walks around metro stations of Delhi. I hope that you have enjoyed taking this walk with me.

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Delhi Metro Walks - Qutab Minar

Delhi Metro provides a lot of opportunities for discovering the historical heritage of Delhi through walks around the metro stations. This post is about some heritage sites in Mehrauli area of Delhi around the metro station "Qutab Minar" on the Yellow line.

The image above shows  the tomb of Ghiyasuddin Balban who ruled Delhi for about 20 years in the thirteenth century. It is one of the riches awaiting you on this walk.

DELHI AROUND MEHRAULI

According to the legends, the city of Delhi was first settled in the areas around Old Fort and it was called Indraprastha.

Mehrauli is one of the oldest parts of the city, inhabited at least from 10th century onwards, when Lal Kot fort was built by Tomara kings Surajpal and Anangpal. The name of the city "Dhilli" was given in that period.

The Tomara dynasty ended in 1149 AD when Prithvi Raj Chauhan became the ruler and converted Lal Kot into a new fort called Qila Rai Pithora. Chauhan ruled the city for more than 40 years. Chauhans were defeated by Qutubuddin Aibak around the end of 12th century, who built the well known Qutab Minar in Mehrauli.

Aibaks were replaced by Khilji dynasty and then the Slave dynasty of Mamluks in the 13th century, who continued to live in Mehrauli, though Khilji did initiate the construction of a water reservoir called Hauz-e-Alai to the north, in the area now known as Hauz Khas. Later, as Mughals arrived in Delhi in the 16th century, Delhi moved even further towards north-east, but Mehrauli continued to be inhabited. For example, the last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar had built a palace in Mehrauli and one of his sons was buried here.

1. QUTAB MINAR METRO STATION

Qutab Minar metro station is on the Yellow line of the metro that connects Jahangir Puri in the north-west to Huda city centre in Gurgaon in the south of Delhi. Coming from the city centre Connaught Place, where the metro runs under-ground, "Qutab Minar" is the first over-ground station. The station is situated 2 km from Qutab Minar.

The map below shows the path for this walking tour. Qutab Minar metro station is shown on the bottom of this map (1). The blue dots indicate the path on Anuvrat Road going to Qutab Minar (2), a historical landmark of Delhi.

I preferred to take an auto-rickshaw from the metro station to Qutab Minar, and then walk back towards Mehrauli flower market and the Mehrauli Archeological park. However, if you wish, you can walk the whole way!

2. QUTAB MINAR

When I was a child, it was possible to climb to its top. Going up the narrow stairs going round and round was not an easy trip but I still remember standing on the small  terrace at the top and looking out from there. At that time, someone had explained that king Qutubuddin was married to a Hindu queen, who refused to eat without first praying to the river Yamuna. Thus, the king had ordered the building of the tall tower so that his queen could see the river and do her daily prayers.

The history books do not repeat this story any more, so probably it was just a local legend. Another local legend at that time was that the tower was even taller with 2 additional floors and that a plane had crashed into it, destroying the upper 2 stories. Even this story is no longer repeated so I guess it was also an urban legend.

The walls of the tower and other buildings nearby are adorned with words from Koran in Arabic.

The other buildings around the Minar include a couple of mosques, including one with an imposing gate called Alai Darwaza (The gate of god).

One of the courtyards near the Minar has a 4th century iron pillar, made from an alloy in such a way that it does not get rusted. Different legends are linked to this pillar. One legend says that if you stand with your back towards the pillar and then try to reach out and circle it with your arms - if your hands can meet, you will become a king. However, some years ago, the pillar was surrounded by an iron railing so it is not possible to test this legend any more.

Another legend says that this pillar called Killi in the local language, gave the name of Dhilli and then Dilli (Delhi in English) to the city.

Qutab Minar is a World Heritage site of UNESCO.

3. MEHRAULI FLOWER MARKET

As you come out of Qutab Minar and start walking towards the metro station, take the small lane on the right, and it will bring you to the flower market of Mehrauli. The market works mainly early in the morning when retailers from different parts of the city and families preparing for a marriage, come here to buy flowers.

It is a very unassuming street, dusty and full of pot holes, but it has a lot of ambiance.

As you come out of the market on the Anuvrat road, if you are interested, you can climb up the hill across the road to visit the giant Mahavir statue, a contemporary of Buddha, who gave a message of non violence and love towards all living beings. The followers of Mahavir are called Jains, who usually observe strict dietary norms and do not eat any kinds of meat, fish, eggs and even some vegetables such as onions and garlic.

I wanted to spend more time in Mehrauli Archeological park, so I gave a miss to the Mahavir statue, promising myself that soon I will go back there to visit it.

MEHRAULI ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK

The ruins of Mehrauli archeological park surrounded by a forest are one of the most enchanting places of this city. To reach the park, continue on Anavrat road towards the metro station and you will see the park board and gates on your right.

As you enter the park, if you turn towards the right, you will reach the tomb of king Balban (4) from 13th century, presented in the first image of this post. All around the tomb, there are ruins of old houses and buildings.

A short walk will bring you to the Jamali Kamali mosque and tombs (5). Sheikh Fazulullah or Jamali was a sufi saint and poet in the 16th century. The tomb was built in 1528 and has two graves - that of Jamali and his close friend Kamali. Some persons believe that Jamali and Kamali were not just friends but also lovers. The tomb has lovely glazed blue coloured tiles.

Across the entrance to the mosque, on a hillock there is a small chhattri (umbrella), built by an Englishman called "Metcalf's folly". Baron Thomas Theophillus Metcalf was the British Resident in the court of the last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar II and is credited with different buildings in Mehrauli area.

As one proceeds inside the park, some distance down the road is the tomb of Quli Khan, from the time of Mughal emperor Akbar. The tomb building was restored and converted into holiday place called Dilkhusha by Baron Metcalf, who also built a boat house (6) near by. The small lake near the boat house is now dry and covered by the forest.

About half a kilometre later, walking on a narrow forest path, you will reach (7) Rajon ki Baoli (King's stepwell), a famous stepwell built by noble Daulat Khan during the reign of Sikander Lodhi in the 15th century.

Across the entrance to the Baoli, if you climb on the hillock, you will find numerous important looking tombs, indicating that once this was an important place.

Further along the road, you will see other ruins of buildings and tombs, till you reach a small street of Mehrauli residential area. Along a mosque on the right, you will see another old stepwell, (8) Gandhak ki Baoli (Sulphur well), which is supposed to be a place for miracle cures of illnesses and disabilities. While there, I saw a poor family with their disabled child, going down towards the dirty looking water of this well.

Near by is the (9) dargah of a Sufi saint Bakhtiar Kaki. People come from far away places to ask favours from this saint.

CHANGES IN RELIGIONS IN MEHRAULI

Before the arrival of the Turks, this part of the city was an important pilgrimage centre for Hindus with different temples. Some of those temples were destroyed and their buildings were used for making the new monuments of the Muslim rulers, as you can see from the following picture of a column in the Qutab Minar courtyard.

Today, Mehrauli is also a symbol of syncretic traditions of Hindus and Muslims. In October every year it celebrates a flower festival called "Phoolwaalon ki Sair" (The walk of persons carrying flowers) that passes from the ancient Yogmaya temple to the Sufi dargah of Bakhtiar Kaki. This occasion is marked by a lovely cultural programme that runs for 3 days.

Legend has that the ancient Yogmaya temple, dedicated to the sister of Krishna, is one of the old temples from Mahabharata times. This temple had given the old name of Yoginipura to this part of Delhi. I did not visit this temple this time, but I hope to go back to it soon.

CONCLUSIONS

I was getting late and after the visit to the dargah I decided to walk back through the Mehrauli Archeological park and towards the metro station. The whole walk had taken more than 3 hours. Unfortunately, this meant that I missed out on many other important places in Mehrauli including the Lal Kot walls, Jahaz Mahal, Zafar Mahal, tomb of Adham Khan and Bhul Bhulaiya (maze). To visit all those other places, I needed at least 2 additional hours. So I plan to go back one day and complete this walking tour of Mehrauli.

Thus, if you are planning this walking tour, keep plenty of time, wear comfortable and simple shoes and carry water and other ncessities with you. The whole area is almost wild, that gives it a lovely air, but it means that you will not find any services or shops on the way. In my opinion, it would not be advisable to women travelling alone to attempt this walk - there are just too many lonely stretches.

This walk will take you through a dead city. There is no way to find out the names of the persons who lived and died here or the historical events linked to them. Often you will reach rough paths dividing and going into different directions - it does not matter which path you will take, you will end up with some interesting ruins. Thus, if you like adventure, you will love this walk!

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