14TH CENTURY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION-HAUZ KHAS



HAUZ- E- ALAI now HAUZ- KHAS

Hauz Khas is better known today as a posh colony in South Delhi. It falls on the road leading towards Qutab Minar from AIIMS. As one goes from Aurobindo Market towards the deer park, one sees a whole lot of little structures like tombs. Almost all of them have names, have been properly restored, and have beautiful red boards with their names written neatly. These boards let us know something about the building, and are not just  blue boards of the Archeological Survey of India declaring that it is a "Protected Monument" without any description whatsoever.

WELL MAINTAINED WALKWAYS

So one fine evening I went for this walk to Hauz Khas. The village complex itself is a designer shopper’s paradise. The shops have exotic names, exotic stuff and exotic prices! We walked through this actual urbanized village and walked into the ancient Hauz Khas complex.

THE HAUZ ANOTHER VIEW

The complex is well maintained, there are nice pathways, and it was a pleasure to see a lot of people enjoying the cool breeze on a summer's evening here.

This Hauz or tank was made by Allaudin Khilji (1296 - 1316). The Khiljis came after the Mamluk or Slave dynasty.  Allaudin Khilji had established the city of Siri. That’s right, the Siri Fort complex and its neighbourhood is the location of Allaudin’s Siri.  “Siri” means head and it is said that this fort was built on the heads of  about 8000 Mongol soldiers killed by the Khiljis when the Mongols invaded. The Tank was called "Hauz- e- Alai" to begin with. After Feroze Shah Tughlak (1351-1388) re- excavated the tank and beautified the surrounding area by laying out a huge garden with lots of trees, he renamed the tank as “Hauz -  Khas”.

 

 



FEROZE SHAH'S TOMB

Feroze Shah Tughlak did not expand his territory much during his reign but  invested a lot in building madrasas, as well as  hunting palaces, a tomb for himself, repaired and got a storey added to the Qutab minar, and built the city of Ferozabad, which is presently called Feroze Shah Kotla. He also brought Ashoka's pillars to Delhi from Meerut and Topara in Ambala District

  The Madrasa at Hauz Khas was established in 1352 and was in a double storeyed building where the class rooms were on the top floor and the tutors had their living quarters on the ground floor. The madrasa was constructed in an L shape and at the vertex was the tomb of Feroze Shah Tughlak. The class rooms were open on the side of the lake and therefore the students could get a refreshing view of the lake . This madrasa was a  leading institution of Islamic learning in the Delhi Sultanate.The madrasa also had beautiful jharokhas in the style of those found in Rajasthan.

JHAROKHAS

I saw a number of people sitting in these jharokhas. Reminded me of my own days of yore, when I too had sat in these jharokhas and whiled away many a pleasant evening. The jharokhas are at a height, there are a lot of trees around, the area around the lake is almost like a forest and the hauz infront with plenty of water makes the place very beautiful, cool, refreshing and peaceful.

Sadly, most of the buildings are in ruins now. Later day rulers usually removed material from older structures to build their new buildings and forts.The material used at Hauz Khas Madarasa is grey quartzite stone which was very hard and therefore one does not find much design on the walls.

ROOF AND WALL OF FEROZE SHAH TUGHLAK'S TOMB

Feroze Shah's tomb too is quite austere. The dome on top does have certain stucco work with painted geometric patterns. The colours used are red and blue. Blue denotes the sky and red denotes wealth. The carvings are in plaster, carved and then painted. The doors of Tughlak's tomb have Hindu architecture. It is also surrounded by a boundary wall which looks like the walls normally found around  Buddhist stupas



THE BUDDHIST STUPA BOUNDARY



There are 6 smaller buildings in the gardens near the tomb and madrasa, which were perhaps tombs of the tutors of the Madrasa. There is a Masjid at the eastern side of the Madrasa. Strangely the western side in the Mosque does not have a closed wall with a mehrab(a niche facing Qibla or direction of Kaaba) as is common in most mosques.

DOMES ARE ELONGATED

The domes of the Tughlak era Hauz Khas monuments have domes which are slightly elongated at the top, they are not very round. Further around the dome midway there are  patterns like battlements

 



BATTLEMENT ON THE DOME LIKE KANGURA



The place is lovely, peaceful, calm and quiet. A lot of people sitting, chatting, gazing at the water added to the beauty of the place. A lot of groups of people simply having fun, and sending out sounds of laughter made the place feel vibrant and joyful. It was altogether a feel good place. A place to surely visit and feel the youthfulness of all the students of the 14th century and later, who spent their time here studying and surely having fun as people with the future ahead of them normally have.





TRANQUIL AND HAPPY PLACE FACING HAUZ

We left this area and went to the Deer park area. Here we saw a couple more tombs. One was quite a large one called "Bagh- e- alam- ka- gumbad". This is of the Lodi era.When we reached this tomb it had already become quite dark. We quickly looked around and noticed that inside it was pitch dark. My husband took a photo and strangely a flash of light appeared in the photograph. Hmmmm, definitely haunted, we said and ran as fast as we could.



GHOSTLY LIGHT!


This place is supposed to be a deer park, so surely deer must inhabit the place. Sadly we couldn’t spot even one. There was a place where drummers were playing their drums. It was quite jarring as this did not feel the right place for drummers. Surely no wild life would feel comfortable and safe in the loud sounds of the drums. They need peace and quiet. 

Energy, tranquility, happiness is what I was filled with after my walk at the Hauz Khas and I was also filled with concern at our interfering with the peace and tranquility needed by wild life which we are trying to preserve in the middle of a huge metropolis.