Speaking Archaeologically™

Down Chawri Bazar roads, into the Bulbulikhana one goes, if they want to find this place. There are scant bulbuls here now, but a regular bustle of people, on by-lanes which grow ever thin as you proceed down them.    A gate next to a tea shop announces, Razia Sultana ki majar , (The Grave of Razia Sultana), but there is none to be found! Good old uncles direct you to even darker alleys, with workshops, sewage, and cramped buildings rising five floors high. A bustle existed there, the sights and smells of fruits, tea, tyres, meat, rickshaws, which are slowly replaced by sewage, machinery, and stagnant water.  This continues till you break away from all that, and arrive at a small mosque, with an ASI stone to give it its name - Sultan Razia’s Tomb. One of the rulers of the newly established Delhi Sultanate, reigning from 1236-40 CE, Razia has been termed the first female monarch of the subcontinent. Constant infighting among her nobles, some of which refused to accept her...

Member Anubhav Preet Kuaur Nirankari sums up the forgotten history of the Nirankari Movement In the late 15 th century, Guru Nanak embarked on a road to propagate an  ideology of fruitful living, not another religion of blind faith. He linked the spiritual salvation of man with that of social salvation. It was an ideology, which if followed in its entirety, would not only lead to personal well being but also well being of the society as a whole. Nanak had established a third Panth. Panth does not mean a religious system, but a ‘way’ for the society to prosper. This ideology created a sense of a social responsibility in man which involved that he has to create a society with which he could solve the problems of socio political oppression, aggression, discrimination and conflict. Guru Nanak died in 1539; however his ideology survived him. The three centuries that followed marked an era of prosperity for Sikh ideology. The number of followers increased manifold. Compilation a...