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Sunday, May 22, 2016

A Walk through the Walled City - Part 1

It has been over six months since my last post. In this time, many things have happened, many new places visited, many new ideas generated.... but no post :-( . So time to pull up my socks, hunker down and get the creative juices flowing.

The Walled City, Old City,  Old Delhi, Purani Dilli, Dilli 6 - These are some of the names by which people know the City built by the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shahjahan. The city was founded in 1639 and named Shahjahanabad. It served as the capital of the Mughal Empire till its end in 1857. Once, the British constructed New Delhi, it started being called Old Delhi. This post describes a heritage walk through Old Delhi, starting with Chandni Chowk.

Chandni Chowk was the main street of Shahjahanabad and was designed by Shah Jehan's daughter, Jahanara. The street started at the Lahori Gate of the Red Fort and ran upto the Fatehpuri Masjid. The street had a narrow stream of water running along the centre, fed from the Yamuna river, which in those days ran just behind the Red Fort. The street got its name from the reflection of moonlight (Chandni) in the water.


Let us start our walk from the Red Fort end of the street and discover the various interesting monuments and structures along the way.


Lal Mandir.    The first building on the street, facing the Red Fort, is the Digambar Jain Temple. This red sandstone structure, also known as Lal Mandir, is the oldest Jain temple in Delhi. When Shah Jahan built the city, he invited several Agrawal Jain merchants to settle in his new city. They brought the idol of Tirthankars with them and was initially established in a tent at its present location. The first temple was built around 1548, probably during the reign of Aurangazeb. It would have been a small structure as building Shikharas (Spires) was not permitted. The temple has undergone extensive changes and renovations. The present shikharas were built after independence. The temple is also famous for a bird hospital, established in 1956. The hospital treats over 30,000 birds every year. They have separate wards for pigeons, fowls, parrots and sparrows. They also treat birds of prey, but on a strictly out-patient basis, as they are non-vegetarians.


Gauri Shankar Mandir.    The building next to the Lal Mandir is the Gauri Shankar temple. The history of this temple is a little more sketchy. The lingam inside is claimed to be over 800 years old. According to a more recent legend/story, the temple was built by a maratha soldier, Apa Ganga Dhar. He was severely injured in the battle for Delhi and prayed to Lord Shiva for sparing his life. He miraculously survived and thus built the temple to thank the lord. If true, when did this occur? Not very clear. The marathas attacked Delhi in 1737 and 1757. The 1737 attack was more of a plundering raid, with them withdrawing quickly. So it is more likely to have happened in 1757, when they attacked Delhi on request of the Mughal Emperor, Alamgir II, who was a puppet ruler under the control of the Afghans. The marathas became the virtual rulers of Delhi for the next 50 years and would have had the time to indulge in building. Fact with reasonable authenticity - The present building was built/renovated by Seth Jaipura in 1959.


Imperial Bank of India.    The next building we stop at is the stately British Raj building, now housing the State Bank of India. This was once the Imperial Bank of India, and became the State Bank of India after 1955. So how old is the building? Incredibly, I am not sure for a building which is comparatively so recent.
So what do we know....
  • The first bank to be set up by the British in India was the Bank of Calcutta, by Wellesley in 1806 to fund his war against Tipu Sultan and the Marathas. So ironical, in hindsight - take money from the locals to fund the subjugation the very same locals. It was renamed the Bank of Bengal in 1809. The other two presidencies also had their own banks, the Bank of Bombay (1840) and the Bank of Madras (1843). All three were joined to form the Imperial Bank of India in 1921.
  • The Delhi and London Bank was setup in London in 1844. The plaque on the building suggests that this structure was built in 1846. However, the maps and photographs from that period do not indicate it's presence. Finally, a map from 1914 shows the bank a little way off the Chandni Chowk, set among gardens.
  • The building is very similar to the Mercantile Bank of India building in North Beach Rd, Chennai, which was built in 1923.
The building was restored in 2004 by SBI, in collabaration with INTACH, to preserve the external structure, while improving the internal layout to meet modern day requirements. INTACH claims it is a 19th century building and an SBI spokesperson said that it was built in 1806. This seems unlikely and they are probably confusing it with the setting up of Bank of Calcutta or The Delhi and London Bank. It seems most likely that the building was actually built in the early 1900s, just prior to becoming the Imperial Bank of India.



********************* Aside *********************
The fact that we are not even sure of the provenance and history of a building less than 200 years old shows our sad state of record keeping and preservation of history.
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Begum Samru's Palace.    Next to the bank is a chaotic mishmash of a building called the Bhagirath Palace. It is now an electronics bazaar. But once upon a time, it was the palace of Begum Samru, a courtesan who married a British mercenary soldier, and seems to have done very well for herself. She eventually became the Ruler of Sardhana, heading a professional mercenary army, including Europeans, in various battles and was probably the only catholic ruler in India in the 18th and 19th centuries. Again a very interesting story, probably for another day.

Source : The excellent Date with Delhi Blog

And this is how it looks today... not even a hint of its former glory.


PS. Another point of confusion - Wikipedia identifies the Palace as the State Bank of India building. Though, I am not a historian, this seems clearly wrong and highlights the perils of relying on wiki knowledge.

Central Baptist Church.    The Central Baptist Church is our next stop. This is among the oldest churches in Delhi, having been established in 1814. It is a simple building, now sandwiched between unstructured and probably illegal structures. The building on its right is literally inches from the facade. The church, like any other, displays verses from the Bible, but in Urdu. The church is also called the 'Mother Church' as many of leaders of the Churches in North India started from here.




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As we continue walking along the street, you can see buildings with elements which indicate their former glory, and unfortunately the total lack maintenance, historical conservation or any pride in our own heritage.


***************** Just a Random Thought ************************
Restoration. What do we mean by restoring Chandni Chowk to its former glory. Over the years, the street has undergone various changes - the canal has disappeared, old buildings have been broken down and new ones built - it is like a living being, evolving over time. Any restoration work would showcase the best of these buildings, thus becoming a new collection of structures which never existed together at any single point in time. So finally, restoration does not take the street back to any former glorious point in time. It gives us our imagined vision based on what we consider the best of the buildings which existed in different points in time, which again is subjective and a matter of individual taste.
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Sisganj Gurudwara.    We now stop at the Sisganj Gurudwara. This is the result of another attack on the weakening Mughal Empire. According to legend, the 9th Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was beheaded on the orders of the Mughal Emperor, Aurangazeb in 1675. The beheading took place at the local Kotwali (Police Station) in Chandni Chowk. Delhi was attacked by the Sikhs in 1783 and the king, Shah Alam II, was taken hostage. The Sikh army agreed to withdraw under the condition that they be permitted to build a Gurudwara at the spot of Guru Tegh Bahadur's martyrdom. The building of Sisganj, which literally means the place of beheading, was completed within 8 months in the same year. The structure subsequently shifted between being a Mosque and a Gurudwara, leading to a dispute between the communities and litigation. Eventually, the British ruled in favour of the Sikhs and the present structure was built in 1930.



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Sunehri Masjid.    Sisganj dwarves another historic, and much older, structure next door - the Sunehri Masjid. This masjid was built in 1721 by the Mughal noble, Roshan-ud-Daula Zafar Khan. The balcony of this mosque was where the infamous Nadir Shah stood in 1739, as he ordered the Katl-e-Aam (the killing of everyone in sight) and oversaw the massacre and loot of Delhi. Over 30,000 inhabitants died in just 6 hours of blood letting, leaving the streets of Old Delhi strewn with corpses. Today, construction around it and encroachment has engulfed the mosque. Entry to it is now through a small inconspicuous side door, and one can hardly see the domes.




As you can see, within a short distance of just a few hundred metres, we have the religious houses of Jains, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims. And of course a Bank, the symbol of modern capitalism, a Palace and a Fort. Where else in the world can you find such diversity?

We will now stop and continue with the walk next week.... hopefully..... baby steps, baby steps..... ;-)