Bade Batashe wala Mahal & Chhota Batashe wala Mahal near Humayun Tomb Delhi 16012011039.mp4

This city, Delhi, it continues to amaze me, as I heaved a sigh of relief yesterday after visiting the 'Agrasen Ki Baoli', thinking I had seen all of Delhi, Delhi threw another surprise at me today. This time, behind the 'Humayun Tomb', a place with an overgrowth of vegetation, the kind of place no one would associate with a relic, yet, I found some really interesting remains of another tomb here. Humayun Tomb has been one of the favourite reclines for me all these years, but not once in my life have I seen so many people visiting the place, unable to find parking space, I drove towards the Damdama Sahib Gurudwara, on the way, I found what the ASI tells me is called, 'Bade Batashon wala Mahal' and 'Chhote Batashon wala Mahal'. Now, what are these two and why do they have these funny names? Difficult to say, the only info that is available there is on the quintessential red plaque of the ASI which says that it is the tomb of Mirza Muzaffar Hussain, built in 1603 AD, he seems to have been a big shot of his time and is related to Akbar too. It is difficult to say why his tomb fell into such disuse. I really cannot understand why someone would want to build a tomb so labyrinthine, it seems more like a summer rest house than a tomb and what more, in the local lingo it is even called a Mahal. In the video, you can also see the Chhote Batashon wala Mahal, which is in a dilapidated condition, the identity of the tomb owner is not known, however two things keep intriguing me, first the 'lotus figurine' on the Chhote Batasha, now what is a lotus doing on an Islamic architecture, certainly it is of no significance, but the same has a lot of importance for the Hindus, also why are these tombs called mahals which means a palace, why is the Taj also called a palace, were these two Hindu places before they were usurped by the muslim rulers and pressed into their service just like the Babri and the Taj were, some food for thought. Why would anyone call a place of burial, a mahal? Certainly, they were something else, the name, for some reason, has continued in the local lingo, sometimes names remain in the collective memory of the masses, this is one very good example of the same. The plaque that has the information on it seems to have been there for many years, which means that this place was open for the public and was then closed down, however, restoration work is on and I think it will soon be open for the public, but then how did I manage to sneak in, well, years of practice at stealing mangoes and guavas from neighbours' orchards does not go in vain. I managed to enter through a small opening of an adjacent kabristaan, I was eventually caught by the ASI contractor, who seemed to be flustered as to how I had managed to sneak into his property when all gates were locked, well, after minor enquiries, he led me out from an opening smaller than the earlier one. I missed the afternoon siesta at the Humayun Tomb today, but found better things, the miss was a good one.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Delhi
• Bada
• Batashe
• wala
• Mahal
• Chhota
• Humayun
• Tomb
• Islamic
• Muslim
• Architecture
• tourism