Khair-ul-Manazil - Remains of Grandeur

Literally meaning "The most auspicious of Edifices" , Khair ul Manazil - one of the finest mosques of Delhi, stands right opposite the Delhi zoo on Mathura Road. The name of the person behind this building and the date of its construction is inscribed in Persian on a rectangular slab right on top of the main entrance of the mosque. It says that this mosque was built by Maham Anga, Akbar's wet nurse and it was built during the reign of Akbar around 1651. It reads: 

"In the time of Jalal-ud -din Mohammad, who is the greatest of just kings, when Maham Beg, the protector of chastity erected this building for the virtuous, Sahabuddin Ahmad Kahn, the generous assisted in the erection of this good house. How blessed is this building that its chorogram is "best of houses". Its construction was accomplished by Niyaz Balsh, under the supervision of Darvesh Hussain."

The name "Khair -ul-Manazil" if written in Persian script supposedly yields 969 Hijri (AD 1561 - 62) which is the year of its construction. 

Difficult to believe that almost 450 years back, a woman, who was a wet nurse could wield such financial strength to be able to patronise the construction of such a mosque which also served as a madrasa. But Maham Anga was no ordinary woman. She was resourceful, powerful, ambitious and rich. 

Akbar came to throne as a teenager. During the early years of his reign, Maham Anga acted as his guardian as his mother was away most of the time with his father Babar who was in exile. She was considered to be not just a powerful influence not just on Akbar, but also functioned as the de facto regent of the Mughal empire. She is believed to have reduced Akbar to a puppet ruler after the death of Bairam Khan and thus this phase of Mughal rule came to be often referred to as "The Petticoat Government" . 

From the mosque, facing the main gate we can see the remains of double story structures that used to function as the madrasa (a school for Islamic education). All of these are in complete ruins, the walls have given way and clearly in need of massive restoration work.

An unverified incident recounts that Emperor Akbar on his way back from a hunting expedition decided to rest and to offer prayers in this mosque after visiting Nizamuddin Aulia's Dargah. A slave shot an arrow intending to kill the Emperor but it injured one of his soldiers instead. Later the slave was captured who admitted to conspiring the killing of Emperor Akbar. It is anybody's guess what would have happened to the slave after this shocking disclosure !!

Remnants of broken tiles still clinging to  its western wall (Mihrab) are silent testimonies to its better days which saw this mosque in all its glory, when faithfuls would gather to offer prayers in its well lit halls and the madrasa would reverbarate with the voices of students reciting verses from the Quran !! It still stands as a witness to its erstwhile grace, beauty and even some amount of flamboyance. Today this space is in the clutches of silence and though it is an active mosque, where regular namaz is offered every Friday, you only find the self appointed honorary caretaker in pure white kurta pajama as its only solitary devotee who woefully recounts the insensitivity of the government in not taking care of this heritage building - not even providing electricity.  

Outside, on the busy Mathura Road, traffic passes by endlessly from morning till night - unconcerned and in complete contrast with the tranquility just on the other side of its massive red sandstone gate. Two different worlds - separated by just a gate !