Speaking Archaeologically™

The words of a rather contemporary namesake poet Shayar Jamali, somehow perfectly describes the gloomy conditions of the 16 th century structure: Samiksha Purohit is a Citizen Archaeology Member at Speaking Archaeologically since May 2019. ‘’ Shayad ab kuch kam ho jae mere ghar ki virani,   Makdi jaale taan rahi hai ghar ke roshandaano mein’ ’ The Jamali Kamali mosque stands in the middle of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, New Delhi. Once a monument with greater glory than its adjacent standing Qutub Minar, is now a supposed haunted place and a safe keeper of the ‘love story’ between its name givers- Jamali and Kamali. Sheikh Fazulla Jalali, or Jamali, a court poet during the reign of Babur, is said to have commissioned the mosque. While the identity of Jamali has a strong historicity attached to it, Kamali on the other hand remains a mystery. A contemporary poet, Jamali’s wife, his servant, his brother, a fictional name to rhyme with Jamali- the anecdotes ar...