THE CITY OF DJINNS-FEROZE SHAH KOTLA




At the City of Djinns!




As I set out for my walk to Feroze Shah Kotla,the 5th city of Delhi,with the Delhi Heritage Walks, I realised that this part of the History of Delhi was practically zilch in my knowledge. I therefore went with great expectations. All that I found were ruins. There was not a single building which was intact. They were surely not that old to be in the state that I found them in! To my dismay I found that  later day rulers had removed material from here to build their own cities. Dust unto dust....and all that came back to my mind!

Sprawling lawns!

Coming back to my own Discovery walk, I found that the present complex is sprawled in acres of land and the lawns are well maintained.

Feroze Shah Tughlaq was actually a chance King. He was not the direct descendant of his predecessor Mohd Bin Tughlaq. Mohd. Bin Tughlaq was in fact the King who had shifted his capital with all its inhabitants from Tughlaqabad in present day South Delhi to a new city called Daulatabad, which he founded in present day Andhra Pradesh. His subjects were unhappy with this movement of lock, stock and barrel, and soon enough the capital with its population was shifted back from Daulatabad to Delhi. On returning this time Mohd. Bin Tughlaq founded the City of Jahanpanah, which is located somewhere near present day Saket and Sheikh Sarai. Mohd Bin Tughlaq was disliked by his subjects and therefore after his death his cousin was chosen as the king. It was expected that the new incumbent would rule as per the desire of the nobility or people who had enthroned him.

True to their expectations, Feroze Shah actually became an appeaser King. He tried to keep everyone happy.Feroze Shah was born in 1309 and died in 1388. He ruled from 1351 to 1388. The entire Tughlaq Dynasty ruled a large part of India from Delhi, from 1320 to 1414.

To appease his subjects as well as the nobles and Umrah, Feroze brought about a lot of improvements and established Institutions, which were for the betterment of all the people. He  instituted economic policies to increase material welfare of his people. He built sarais, gardens, tombs and canals.  He was actually a great builder. He got a Madrasa built in present day Hauz Khas and  encouraged literacy. He built mosques in Khirki and Mohammedpur, which still stand. He repaired two top storeys of the Qutab Minar which had got damaged due to lightening in the year 1368. He set up hospitals for the free treatment of the poor called Darul Shifa and encouraged physicians in the development of Unani medicine. He provided money for the marriage of girls belonging to poor families. He built over 300 villages and dug 5 major canals for irrigation bringing more land under cultivation for growing grain and fruit.   He allowed hereditary succession in the army.  He allowed a nobleman's son to succeed to his father's position and jagir after his death. The same was done in the army, where an old soldier could send his son, son-in-law or even his slave in his place. He increased the salary of the nobles. He stopped all kinds of harsh and barbaric punishments such as cutting off hands. Firoz also lowered the land taxes that Muhammad had raised.  He established the Dewan e Khairat(department for poor & needy people) and the Dewan e bundagan( department for slaves).  Yet Firuz's reign has also been described as the greatest age of corruption in medieval India.

The Ashoka Pillar.

Coming back to the present day Kotla,there are ruins of a baoli or water body, or rather a huge well from which water was drawn to maintain the huge gardens. There is a Mosque, beneath which  are a lot of rooms. The layout is rather strange as these rooms have no windows. They look like black holes. There are thick walls on three sides and there is just a door to enter the room. Even daylight does not enter these rooms and therefore it is pitch dark inside. It is said that Djinns inhabit this place, Djinns are friendly ghosts, I am told. A lot of people visit this place on Thursday and leave their petitions in these rooms. Alas! Ignorance, belief, blind faith, makes us believe in such pathetic practices for wish fulfillment!

Rooms for Djinns!

The next structure in this complex is pyramidical, on top of which stands the "Ashok ki laat", or the Ashoka Pillar made of sand stone. This is a 3rd century BC pillar which has edicts of Emperor Ashoka. This pillar was brought from Meerut by Feroze with a lot of care and intelligent planning so that this massive pillar could be transported without damage via way of the  river Jamuna. The pillar has inscriptions in Brahmi lipi(writing), where Ashoka had written down certain rules. The pillar is beautiful, massive and shines like gold!

One has to make extensive use of ones imagination to think of what the place must have looked like at the time it was called Feruzabad and when this benevolent King ruled from here. Nothing much remains except for very thick walls, and extremely dilapidated ruins. I can only say "Khandahar bata rahein hai imaarat buland thi". Literally translated it means that the ruins tell us that once these buildings were magnificent.

Somehow this visit left me with a lot of reflective thoughts. Nothing remains. Time takes its toll. Historians and those who write are really very powerful. It is how written  material is preserved and interpreted  that after a long time people perceive of what once was! Such huge structures also were ravaged and pillaged.

Where once the River Jamuna flowed, now is a well maintained Rose garden. There are a lot of kites which nest in the trees in the sprawling  gardens of Feroze Shah Kotla.There are a lot of cats too around the place. Djinns, nine lives of cats...city of djinns, ruins.. That for you my friends was Feroze Shah Kotla!

The Rose garden & New Delhi beyond.

I have a personal connection with this place as this is the place where my mother at the age of 19 had selected her life partner from amongst 3 suitors, who had  all returned from England after completing their education!