Delhi –The focal point in Golden triangle tour packages offers a variety of sightseeing and experiences .The city of Delhi has evolved over centuries and as a tourist one just is amazed by the contrasting lifestyles that co exist in Delhi.
Modern Delhi has turned its back on the River Yamuna. But the waters played a crucial role in the sitting of some earlier cities. Landlocked forts stand amid offices, stadia and modern memorials. The main thoroughfare, Mahatma Gandhi Road, is a major dual-carriageway, so it is worth setting off early to explore the north end first.
Start outside the back walls of Lal Qila—this was where the public congregated to check on Shah Jahan’s well-being each morning; the emperor’s balcony juts out from the marble palace facades. North of it, the ramparts and bastions of Salimgarh Fort (1545-54) were built by Sher Shah’s son Islam Shah Sur, who failed to consolidate his able father’s achievements.
The first stop in Delhi Sightseeing Tour by Car organized by Swan Tours is the Red fort or lal Qila.
Information about Lal Qila
Lal Qila has lost its riverside views to a large tract of new land where some of India’s recent heroes are remembered. It is an oasis of peace. First of the memorials is Vijay Ghat dedicated to Lal Bahadur Shastri, India’s second prime minister (died 11 January 1966); then Shanti Vana (forest of peace) where Jawaharlal Nehru (died 27 May 1964) and his daughter Indira Gandhi (assassinated 31 October 1984) were cremated, and where her sons Sanjay and Rajiv are remembered. Finally, Raj Ghat is at the south end, a serenely peaceful place. This is where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated (died 30 January 1948) on the memorial platform which is now set in a sunken psquare garden surrounded by caves and high ramps, the design of Vanu G Bhuta. The Gandhi Memorial Museum is nearby, where the Mahatma’s life and achievements are movingly remembered with photographs, descriptions and quotes such as ‘I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose making they have an effective voice’.
Built by: Shah Jahan
Built: 12 May 1639 – 6 April 1648; (8 years 10 months & 25 days) (Source: wikipedia)
The next city is Feroz Shah Kotla, really just the riverside (now landlocked) citadel of Feroz Shah Tughluq’s vast and wealthy city that stretched from the North Ridge of Old Delhi down to Haus Khas in south Delhi. In its heyday the palaces, mosques, hunting-lodges, reservoirs, hospitals and colleges buzzed with princely and intellectual life. Then, in 1398, Timur (Tamburlaine), ancestor of the Mughal conqueror Babur, sacked and laid waste this fifth great Delhi city, leaving with elephants, stone masons and such booty that, according, to one account, ‘they could scarcely march four miles a day’. Today, hoopoes hop about the blossoming gardens which link the ruins of a mosque, palace, living quarters and baoli (step-well); the entrance is on the west side, on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
Information about Feroz shah, Delhi
Feroz Shah (ruled 1351-88) was the third sultan of the Tughluqs (1320-1413). Son of a Rajput princess and cousin of the previous, madcap ruler Muhammad, he was politically weak but a great builder, intellectual and antique collector. He had translations made of Sanskrit texts into Persian and Arabic. And here, on top of his Kushk-i-Firuz (Feroz’s place) he put one of the two remarkable Ashoka pillars (273-236 BC) he found, transporting them from Meerut and Topla to Delhi down the Yamuna (the other is up on the North Ridge). When the Mauryan emperor Ashoka’s ancient Brahmi script, a forerunner of modern Devnagari, could not be unravelled (that was James Princep’s feat in 1837), Feroz Shah was told it was a magic charm used in religious ritual. In fact, it bears Ashoka’s messages and promotes dhanna (the Buddhist teachings) and the welfare and happiness of the people.
The National Rose Garden, glorious in February-March, is in the south-east corner of Feroz Shah Kotla, while by the entrance stands Khuni-Darwaza (bloody gate), possibly a gate to Sher Shah’s city, the next to see downriver. Mathura Road, the royal route to Mughal Agra, leads down to it and has several good buildings either side. Not far along, the Abdu’n Nabi’s Mosque (1575-6) on the right was built by Akbar’s ecclesiastical registrar who went to Mecca to distribute money to the poor but failed to account for it on his return, for which he was finally murdered. On the left, a parade of concrete newspaper offices ends with the charming International Dolls Museum. Under Tilak Railway Bridge, modern Pragati Maidan opens on the left. Here is the Crafts Museum, an essential stop if you are interested in India’s cultural, village and craft life (see page 98). Charles Correa designed the museum buildings; Raj Rewal’s pyramidal engineering feat, the Hall of Nations (1970-2), rises behind. Closed Monday.
To the south there are splendid views of Purana Qila. Closer to it, the great walls belie a chequered history. This is not one city site but several. The earliest may well have been the sacred site of Indraprastha (city of Indra, Hindu god of rain and thunder), founded by Arjun, one of the Pandav brother heroes in the epic Mahabharata. Excavations on the southern slopes are now revealing the reality behind the myth. Next, the second Mughal emperor, Humayun (ruled 1530-40, 1555-6), returned from Agra to the traditional capital and in 1533 founded Dinpanah (shelter of the faith), Delhi’s sixth city. Its surviving two kilometers (1.2 miles) of walls pierced by three giant, double-storey gateways were surrounded by a wide moat opening into the Yamuna. Although he dreamt of ruling a liberal empire with Dinpanah as a cultural capital to rival Samarkand, the aesthete Humayun was too self-indulgent and politically indecisive to consolidate
Mughal power. After crushing defeats at Chaunsa (1539) and Kanauj (1540), he was ousted by Sher Shah.
This remarkable Afghan was a talented organizer and skilful general who, before his death in 1545, was encouraged by Persian renaissance thought to set up an administration which was in effect the blueprint for Akbar’s Mughal government. He enlarged Purana Qila and extended his prosperous city northwards, calling it Shergarh; one gate is thought to be near Feroz Shah Kotla. Two buildings inside /* Purana Qila survive: Qal’a-i-Kuhna-Masjid (old fort mosque, 1541) whose five great arches, decorated mihrabs and marble-inlaid sandstone facade mark the change from Lodi to Mughal architecture; and the octagonal Sher Mandal, possibly built as a pleasure house but soon to witness tragedy.
Qal’a-i-Kuhna Masjid, Purana Qua Humayun had wandered India and then taken refuge at Shah Tahmasp’s court in Persia for ten years, paying for his keep, it is said, with the Koh-i-Nur diamond and other jewels. In 1555, when Sher Shah’s followers were split into warring factions, he won Delhi back. The next year, having made the Sher Mandal his library, he was standing at the top of its steps directing his astrologers to watch for the transit of Venus, an especially auspicious moment, when he heard the muezzin’s call. He tripped on his robe, fell and died three days later. Looking past the south gate of Purana Qila, you can see his tomb in the distance.
Between Humayun’s city and tomb there are several good things to see. Delhi Zoo fills most of the space, its entrance right beside the Purana Qila gateway. This is India’s biggest and most important zoo. Beautifully landscaped grounds house a few of the world’s rare white tigers as well as one-horned rhinoceroses from Assam, Asiatic lions from Gujarat, crocodiles, a ravishing assortment of exotic birds, storks, elephants and a rogue Mughal pavilion perfect for picnicking in and enjoying the swum squeaks and soaring views up to Purana Qila. Its ravishing setting and bird-watching opportunities do not make up for the zoo’s unsatisfactory management. (Closed Friday and government holidays). As you go back onto Mathura Road, you will espy a Shergarh gate opposite. Next to it is Khairu’l-Manazi-
Masjid (the most auspicious of houses, 1561), built for Maham Anga who, as wet-nurse to Akbar, became head of the harem and achieved almost royal stature and influence—her son became an army general (see page 105). Steps lead up to good rooftop views. On the way down to Humayun’s tomb the Sundar Nagar antique shops are on the left.
information about Humayun’s Tomb
Humayun’s tomb (1562-75) is the first great Mughal garden tomb. This is the blueprint which reached maturity in the Taj Mahal at Agra. His senior widow Bega Begum, known as Haji Begum, probably built it, although new arguments suggest Humayun’s son Akbar was involved. Its architect was a Persian, Mirak Mirza Ghiyas, who had worked in the Timurid tradition at Herat and Bukhara. Here in Delhi, he used local materials and carving skills, together with the mixture of red sandstone and marble found in some Sultanate buildings. These he used to realize a design inspired by the monumental but simple Timurid tombs and by the ancient Persian idea of the spacious, formal royal garden and the Qur’an’s description of paradise. He also added a new element: a double dome whose two skins made possible a lofty exterior and a well-proportioned interior. The huge size and formality of Humayun’s tomb proclaim the newish dynasty’s might.
Together, widow and architect achieved ‘one of the most arresting examples of the building art in India’ and ‘an outstanding landmark in the development of the Mughal style … the synthesis of two of the great building styles of Asia—the Persian and the Indian’ (Percy Brown).
Successive gateways finally open into a charbagh (four garden, see page 134) where the domed memorial sits on a high plinth. Clamber up onto it for more good views back to Purana Qila and to more monuments scattered nearby.
Inside the mausoleum, the emperor is not alone. Other Mughals here include Bega Begum, Shah Jahan’s son Dara Shukoh and Mughal emperors Farrukh-siyar (ruled 1713-19) and Alamgir II (ruled 1754-9). The last emperor, Bahadur Shah II (ruled 1837-58), was found hiding here during the mutiny. outside the gateway, the aptly named Sabz-Burj (green dome) on the roundabout gives an idea of how luxurious the Mughal buildings looked when first built, as does the tiled Nila-Gumbad (blue dome, 1625), at the south-east corner of the tomb walls. On the way there, you will pass Bega Begum’s so-called Arab-Serai, which probably housed the Persian craftsmen working on the tomb. Near here is another Mathura Road monument, the massive square tomb of Khan-i-Khanan (died 1627). It has lost its exterior decoration to Safdar Jang’s tomb (see below), but held onto its delicate incised and painted plasterwork inside.
Nizamuddin is opposite, a medieval Sufi village replete with Muslim atmosphere, living on quietly in the Imistle of India’s capital. Stalls lining the lanes sell kebabs, Qur’ans, rose petals, lace caps and the latest cassette tapes of qawwalis to the visiting faithful. The village heart is the dargah (shrine) of the Sufi saint Shaikh Nizam-ud-din Chishti (1236-1325), whose royal followers included two Tughlucts, Muhammad and Feroz Shah, and several Mughals. (The Akba-rnama recounts how, after Akbar’s visit, an assassin’s arrow failed to kill the king ‘as the Divine protection and the prayers of the saints were guarding him.’ This shrine was one of the reasons Shah Jahan chose Delhi for his new city). The sacred land surrounding the shrine attracted other important tombs including those of court poet Amir Khusrau (died 1325), who contributed much to the qawwali form of singing; Shah Jahan’s daughter Jahanara, who laid out Chandni Chowk; and emperor Muhammad Shah (ruled 1719-48). Humayun’s tomb is significantly close, too. The daily qawwalis at the dargah continue all night during the Urs festival.
For tourists to explore Delhi in the right manner it is important to involve an expert , Swan Tours – one of the leading travel agents in India offers different travel packages to chose from which offer an insight to the experiences in Delhi.
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