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¤ Humayun- The Mughal Emperor
Costructed The Fort
When the second Mughal emperor
Humayun decided to make a city of
his own he decided on the site of
the ancient city of Indraprastha.
Humayun was quite a scholar with a
fine grasp on such matters and so it
is certain that the site was chosen
deliberately. When his Sher Shah
Suri overthrew him, he destroyed
most of Dinpanah (refuge of the
faithful) as the city of Humayun was
called to make way for his own Dilli
Sher Shahi or Shergarh.
Incidentally, Humayun was probably
the only emperor in history who
built a city in Delhi and did not
give it his own name – this was
typical of Humayun's rather
sophisticated and dreamy character.
The Layout of The Massive Colossal
In plan the Old fort, now simply
called Purana Qila by Delhites, is
irregularly orbital. The walls of
the immense Qila tower down on the
road that takes one to Pragati
Maidan from the height of 18m, and
run on for about 2km. It has three
main gates – the Humayun darwaza,
Talaqi darwaza and Bara darwaza
(which one uses to enter the fort
today). The double-storeyed gates
are quite huge and are built with
red sandstone. of all the gates
entry was forbidden from Talaqi
(forbidden) darwaza, the northern
gate. It is not clear why this was
so. Other Attractions of The Fort
Sher Shah Suri and his successor
could not complete the city, and
when Humayun defeated Sher Shah's
son to take back his city, he did
not deal with Dilli Sher shahi as
the latter had done with Dinpanah.
In fact the Mughal emperor very
handsomely completed the city and
even used several of the buildings
like the Sher Mandal, a rather
pretty two-storeyed octagonal
building. Humayun used this as his
library and, then tripped to his
death from its steps.
¤ Excavation of Grey Ware Pottery
Several excavations have taken place
in the Purana Qila in an attempt to
prove, or disprove as the case may
be, whether it is indeed the site of
Indraprastha or not. Diggings have
yielded Painted Grey Ware pottery
which has been dated to 1000BC.
Similar stuff has been noticed in
other sites associated with the epic
Mahabharata as well, which seem to
conclusively prove that this indeed
was the place where Indraprastha
once flourished. These excavation
have also thrown up material, like
coins, associated with the Gupta
(about 4-5th century AD) and
post-Gupta ages (700-800AD) of
Indian history as well.
¤ Qila-i-kuhna Masjid
One of the most fascinating
buildings, and also one of the few
that still survive, in the Purana
Qila is the Qila-i-kuhna masjid.
Sher Shah Suri built it in 1541
(also see History) and he was
obviously out to make a definite
style statement. The mosque is quite
a place; its prayer hall measures
51.20m by 14.90m and has five
doorways with the 'true'
horseshoe-shaped arches. Apparently
the idea was the build the whole
mosque in marble, but the supply ran
out and red sandstone had to be used
instead. But the builder used the
material at hand very skillfully and
the result is quite spectacular –
the red sandstone and the marble
contrast beautifully with each other
to give the mosque a very
distinctive air. The mihrabs (prayer
niches) inside the mosque are richly
decorated with concentric arches.
From the prayer hall, staircases
lead you to the second storey where
a narrow passage runs along the
rectangular hall. The central alcove
is topped by a beautifully worked
dome. In the courtyard at one time
there was a shallow tank, which had
a fountain. The mosque has an
inscription which says 'As long as
there are people on this earth, may
this edifice be frequented, and
people be happy in it.' A noble
thought – amen to it. |
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