Tughlaqabad, the Curse of a Saint

Ya base gujjar, ya rahe ujjar.' (May [this city] be the abode of nomads or remain in wilderness.)

These words, with which the great Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya cursed Ghiyas-ud-din's city, seem to still echo all over the ghostly ruins of Tughlaqabad. The citadel frowns down ominously like some Gothic palace all over the Qutub-Badarpur road and seems to prefer its splendid isolation, which is of course not exactly what Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq had in mind when he started out building it. It would have broken the old sultan's heart if he had seen just how swiftly the saint's curse went into action; soon after his death in fact.

Tughlaqabad fort, situated as it was on high rocky ground, was ideally located

to withstand sieges. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq helped matters along by putting up formidable walls which, though short on aesthetic value, are excellent examples of solid unimaginative masonry and not the type that any invading army could hope to scale in a hurry. Tughlaq put ramparts towering at heights of anywhere between 9m (30ft) to 15.2m (50ft), and rising up to 29.8m (98ft) around the citadel, between himself and the Mongols.

  

It seems that even when he was far from being a king, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq had dreamed of raising his city, Tughlaqabad. Earlier, Ghiyas-ud-din had been a general (he rose to being the governor of an important province like Punjab, but that's another story) in Ala-ud-din Khalji's army. Once while on the road with Ala-ud-din, Ghiyas-ud-din, on spotting this area, mentioned to the sultan what an ideal setting it seemed to provide for a new city. Upon this the king indulgently (and, knowing Ala-ud-din, also perhaps patronizingly) replied, 'When you become king, build it.' Knowing fully well, as every boss, that while he was around there was not a shadow of a chance of anyone else taking his place. After the death of Ala-ud-din, various events conspired to put the general on the throne at last. Then he fulfilled his long-cherished dream.

The crumbling ruins of the Tughlaqabad Fort convey a sense of lost grandeur and remains as the only witness of the embattled past and the terror and valor associated with that period in Delhi. Many unforeseen incidents took place during the construction of this structure. The king had a spat with the great saint Nizam-ud-din regarding the laborers who were to work on this project. The king took away all the workers who were working on the saint's shrine at the time, for completing his own fort, thus incurring the wrath of the saint. The saint cursed the king and indeed the king was mysteriously murdered while on his way to Delhi in 1325. Almost immediately after the death of the king, this fort lost all its former glory as his son Jauna (Ulugh Khan) succeeded him under the title Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq and wanted to build his own new city instead of following in his father's footsteps. The fort was abandoned unceremoniously in the year 1327 and strangely, true to the curse of the saint, it soon became a haunt for the Gujjars tending their cattle within the abandoned fort of Ghiyas-ud-din.

The Hauz of Alauddin

There's a lot more to Hauz Khas than the posh market, the fashion street and the village. The complex is centered around a hauz or tank of area 28 hectares built by Alauddin Khilji, named Hauz-e-Alai, which took care of the water needs of village around it. After his death, the Hauz was abandoned and it became stagnant as the water channels got silted. Firoz Shah Tughlaq took over the responsibility of reviving this 

tank in the 14th century so that it can be used again. Not only he cleared up the tank, he planned a layout of an L-shaped structure starting with a mosque, the Madrasa-e- Firoz Shahi, a college for Islamic theology, calligraphy, mathematics, religious law etc by best teachers and scholars invited by Firoz Shah from Islamic countries all over the world.

Firoz Shah's  tomb is in the junction of the L shaped structure of the 'madrasa' he commissioned, overlooking the Hauz and also the tallest in height. 

The tomb contains four unmarked graves; three are made of marble and the fourth, near the east door, is of rubble and plaster. The central grave is that of Firoz Khan. The other two marble graves, which are similar to the central one, are ascribed to the son and grandson of Firoz Shah. 

Though Firoz Shah inherited a disintegrating empire with nearly empty coffers, thanks to the capricious reign of his predecessor Muhammad Bin Tughlak with his disastrous ruling policies, it didn't stop him from beautifying Delhi. History says he, during his reign, constructed 1200 gardens around Delhi...200 towns, 40 mosques, 30 villages, 30 reservoirs, 50 dams, 100 hospitals, 100 public baths and 150 bridges. 

Established in 1352, the Madrasa was one of the leading institutions of Islamic learning in the Delhi Sultanate. It was also considered the largest and best equipped center of Islamic studies in the world.  The village surrounding the Madarsa was also called Tarababad (city of joy).  It takes a little stretch in our imagination to feel the heart of the area, that was once thronged by artists and scholars from all across the sub continent.

Here’s what contemporary poet, Mutahhar has to say of the madrasa:

‘The moment I entered this blessed building through the gate, I saw a level space as wide as the plain of the world. The courtyard was soul-animating, and its expanse was life-giving. Its dust was musk-scented, and its fragrance possessed the odour of amber. There was verdure everywhere and hyacinths, basils, roses, and tulips were blooming and were beautifully arranged so far as the human eye could reach. It seemed as if the last year’s produce had in advance the current year’s fruits, such as pomegranates, oranges, guavas, quinces, apples, and grapes. Nightingales, so to say, were singing their melodious songs everywhere. It appeared as if they had guitars in their talons and flutes in their beaks.’

Now the tank is a few yards away from the building but initially its water would have lapped at the madrasa walls. One can see steps leading to the water. On the other side of the tank is a ruined structure called the ‘munda gumbad’ or the bald/roofless dome. It is believed that this pavilion once stood within the tank. So we can assume that the tank would have been at least twice its present size.

The architecture of Firoz Shah is stern, austre, utilitarian, hauntingly lovely in the night, and warningly forbidding during daytime. The glazed tiles came off a long time ago; now only the naked walls stand tall, like the spirit of this prolific builder and architect king, in spite of validating the lack of skilled masons and sufficient capital of his times. 

The pavilions in the garden are significant srtuctures as well, as they are believed to be the graves of teachers who taught the students of the madarsa. Pavilions also acted like classrooms where the students could sit and study in the presence of their departed teachers.