Speaking Archaeologically™

Exploring Delhi's history is like peeling an onion. Peeling off each layer is accompanied by a growing anticipation of recovering the lost heritage. It involves a little bit of crying (read: encountering closed historical sites after painstakingly finding them!), followed by an immense sense of happiness on finding what is beneath.  It was a fine day in October, a month that is blessed with just the right amount of sun and cold. My father and I, taking advantage of the weather, decided to embark on a tomb-hopping adventure in the bustling neighbourhood of East Kidwai Nagar in South Delhi. Our mission, akin to catching Pokémons, was to spot as many tombs as we could in the Kotla Mubarakpur complex. Armed with appropriate footwear (good luck to anyone attempting to navigate the narrow lanes of Kotla Mubarakpur with a car) and a trusty phone camera, we set out on a day full of site covers! Our journey began with Darya Khan's tomb. Newly built residential complexes and a manicured ...

Disclaimer: The following account includes screaming kids, a tik tok video shoot, attempts to enter a locked baoli, dogs lazing around, and yes! A site cover. You are still in that holiday stupor even though your holidays have ended. Imagine then getting a text one day on your class group saying that all your classes are cancelled. Wouldn’t you just have a big goofy smile on your face and snuggle right back into your covers? Or just spend the whole day lazing around and catching up on Netflix (Kdramas for me please)? No, no. That wasn’t the case with me though. Rather the first waking thought that came to my mind was, “Ah great I finally have some time to do a site cover”. Yes you read that right. A site cover, something that I would later find to be challenging yet extremely fun by the end of it. And before you think of me as someone crazy, hear me out!   I had embarked on the quest of exploring the ‘Baolis of Delhi’ initially as a part of my research project, something ...

"Imagine standing in a room in a large museum. As you look around the dimly lit gallery, you begin to recognize shapes: a basket, an arrow, a beautifully decorated carving, a shield. Some of the objects are unrecognizable to you. What if these objects could speak? What would they tell you about themselves? How have they been used? Where did they come from? How did they get to this museum? Who do they belong to?"                                                                                                                    - Ari Berk and Carolyn Dunn It was a typical cozy, warm Sunday morning, with the air resplendent with festive vibes, perfect for catching up on all that lost sleep. Yet I ...

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...

THE BHULI BHATYARI KA MAHAL An oddly disproportional and red Hanuman stands sternly, ripping his chest open as Delhi wizzes by his feet. Many seem almost oblivious to this grand and grotesque gesture. There is a meeting to get to, a date, an assignment to submit a week after it was due, or in most cases just an air conditioner to find and set up base   in front of. Behind the statue, a thin, unassuming road slithers past all the chaos, ending at a place strikingly different from where it began. It ends in the 14 th century, at a now decrepit Tughlaq era hunting lodge. The bhuli bhatyari ka mahal is conveniently tucked away behind the hanuman statue in busy Karol Bagh. It is a spot like so many others in the capital, where the ancient and the modern live cheek and jowl, and hopefully will continue to do so for a long time to come. It faces a large DMNC water tank, where on most occasions, the water turns a rancid green. Every few minutes, the silence around gets in...

Anubhav Preet Kaur Nirankari is a student of Archaeology at Deccan College, Pune Tee Off on a trail of history: The entire city of Delhi is engulfed with the relics of mighty empires and ruins which bear testimony to an age of glory. It houses nearly 84 known monuments and 24 localities of historical importance, out of which the medieval era heritage sites have always been of great interest to me. It is not rare to come across some lesser known monuments in Delhi while on a shopping spree or a casual visit to any locality. But who knew a casual breakfast session would become such a mesmerising experience!  One of the most exquisite places in Delhi, The Delhi Golf Club, is frequented by a number of visitors daily. But little do they know that amidst the famous “Lodhi Golf Course” lie a large number of Mughal archaeological remains, one of which is the famous Lal Bangla. While sipping coffee in the cafeteria of the golf course, this domed structure caught my eye. The usual cur...

                                                     Quite admittedly , my meeting with Adham Khan was long overdue and any self respecting lover of Delhi’s ruins would look at me with great distaste at this point. But even then, the sheer excess of history just oozing out of this particular section of the city is almost nauseating. Even those that knowingly choose to ignore it can do so for only so long. I, as luck would have it, lived just 10 minutes away.  So after a short detour to the Mughal general  Azim Khan’s much neglected tomb , I headed for the  ancient suburbs of Mehrauli. Qutub Minar all this while, was towering over everything around it and watchfully guiding lost tourists and curious travelers like me.  Behind the Qutub complex, on a road towards the Mehruali bus Depot , it's quite easy to beli...