Layers of the past informing the present

It is the early 14th century in the Northern Plains of what centuries later will be known as India. We are near the river bank (Yamuna) on the fringes of the city of Delhi Kuhna (the precincts of modern-day Qutab, Qila Rai Pithora and Lal Kot, ruled by the Sultans), located on the southern stretches of what would later develop to be the metropolis of New Delhi. In the vicinity, is the residence of a Sufi who would later attain renown as Shaikh Nizam-al din Auliya. The sheikh’s decision to move to the outskirts is an attempt to get away from the hustle-bustle of his previous residence at Badaun Gate, near the city. It is time for the afternoon prayer, we see the sheikh crossing a stream to reach the mosque at the nearby settlement of Kilokhari.

Moving ahead a few centuries, we find ourselves in the same spot, but the neighbourhood appears to have evolved through the ages. The erstwhile outskirts of a sultanate capital have evolved into a populous neighbourhood of a Mughal city. The neighbourhood now hosts pilgrims who throng to visit the khanqah/hospice of the renowned Sufi, Sheikh Nizam-al din Auliya. It is also party to the frequent visits by the Mughal royal family and the court elite who undertake the ziyarat/visit to the tomb of late Mughal emperor Humayun, as a mark of reverence to him and the ruling Mughal lineage. These religious visits and royal excursions keep the neighbourhood active on the tourist and pilgrim maps. The neighbourhood now is also host to an important section of the royal highway which connects the erstwhile Mughal capital of Delhi to Agra and further. The small stream that we find mentioned in the earlier frame has now been bridged at the point where the road crosses it, by a beautiful twelve arched bridge. This specimen of Mughal bridge architecture has been commissioned by one of the nobles associated with the court of the present ruler Jahangir. The bridge caters to the pilgrims travelling from the southern marches of the empire, traders and their caravans from trading centres of Agra and further afield. Often it also had to bear the huge royal camps which are frequently on the move between the Mughal capitals of Agra, Delhi and Lahore. The construction of a permanent bridge over the stream reflects the growing importance of this section of the imperial highway and its adjoining neighbourhood; a change that would be further accentuated with the building of the new Mughal capital at Shahjahanabad by Shah Jahan.

As we move into the colonial times and towards the modern day, however, the neighbourhood is slated to undergo drastic changes. As the expanding network of the Indian Railways crawls into the neighbourhood, it brings in its wake several permanent alterations to the ecology of the area. The political upheavals of Independence and the subsequent demographic re-configurations to the city and its settlements will herald further long-term changes for the neighbourhood. However, the most far-reaching of the changes to our frame of concern would be brought about by the recent spurt of progress and development-oriented activities. The concrete makeovers, mushrooming slums and shanties alongside futuristic projects like the “Barapulla” flyway would distort the neighbourhood beyond recognition and expunge any remains of the glorious Mughal era bridge from popular memory.

As for the little stream that finds mention earlier in our story, it no longer exists in the glory of its earlier days. In fact, it does not exist as a stream anymore, it is more commonly referred to as a nullah today. Nowadays, it caters exclusively as an artery carrying sewage and garbage from the various South Delhi neighbourhoods and discharging it into the “mighty” Yamuna. As for the bridge that spanned the stream, its modern-day avatar has changed much like the stream that flowed through its arches. The dilapidated and neglected bridge no longer functions as the grand artery of empire, nowadays it is a parking for rikshaws and carts of the neighbourhood. In the evening you can walk down the temporary vegetable mandi it hosts, while breathing in the noxious fumes from the stream below.

This pitiful portrait of the Mughal era “Barah pala” bridge, however, is in sharp contrast to the relics of the past that dot the neighbourhood. Remember we are talking about a neighbourhood which in its good old days, hosted the pious as well as the royal. A visit to the nearby tomb of Humayun, Khan-i-khanan or the subz-burj brings us face to face with the extensive restoration projects that are being undertaken to beautify and preserve our past, but a note of concern seeps in when we look at the selective nature of these projects. So, while the tombs and mausoleums nearby prepare for a new look and the Sufi shrine decks up for this year’s urs, our pretty little bridge with its twelve arches and minarets, rots away in the dirt and filth.

The author is an academic specialising in Medieval Indian History