While websites like Qutub Minar, Red Fort, and Humayun’s Tomb take pleasure in highlight and footfall, Tughlaqabad fort seems to be like a ghost city; under-visited, under-appreciated, and overwhelmingly misunderstood by a era extra aware of Instagrammable tombs than silent ramparts.
A ravishing pathway contained in the Tughlaqabad Fort | Photo Credit: Mohammad Asaad Hasan Khan
The legend of the fort’s so-called “curse” has run by centuries. Ghiyasuddin, who got here to energy in 1320 CE was keen to construct a stronghold able to withstanding Mongol invasions. But his ambition collided with the religious authority.
The revered Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya was establishing a stepwell (baoli) for his group. When Tughlaq diverted labourers from the saint’s undertaking to hurry up development of his fortress, tensions escalated. The saint is believed to have uttered a curse: “May it stay desolate, or inhabited solely by shepherds.”
Whether meant as divine warning or a second of frustration, the phrases caught over time. So did the parable turning Tughlaqabad into extra of a cautionary story than a bit of architectural historical past. Historian Prof. S. M. Azizuddin Husain challenges the model. “Tughlaqabad was constructed for defence; There is not any historic file of any curse affecting the fort. These tales emerged later, when the location was abandoned and overgrown, and folks started filling within the blanks with fantasy,” he says.
With towering stone partitions over 15 metres excessive enclosing a city-within-a-city full with water reservoirs, granaries, elevated watchtowers, and escape tunnels, Tughlaqabad was a strategically designed forts of its time.
Ruins of Watchtower at Tughlaqabad Fort | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“Even later forts like Agra or Red Fort can’t match the army logic of Tughlaqabad,” says Husain. “Ghiyasuddin used the panorama intelligently constructing into the Aravallis, surrounding the complicated with water our bodies, and creating a number of traces of defence,” he provides.
With its formidable design, Tughlaqabad was by no means breached in battle however politically sidelined. When Ghiyasuddin’s son, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, shifted the capital to Daulatabad within the Deccan inside a decade, the fort misplaced its significance. Later years, it was deserted not destroyed.
Ghiyasuddin’s demise, nevertheless, added gas to the fireplace of fable. Returning triumphantly from a Bengal marketing campaign, the Sultan was acquired with a grand wood pavilion in-built his honour which collapsed and killed him. The timing led many to recall one other assertion allegedly made by Nizamuddin: “Hunooz Dilli door ast” — “Delhi continues to be distant.”
Was it a coincidence? A prophecy? Political theatre? No one can say with certainty. Heritage activist Sohail Hashmi sees the parable as a distraction from the actual story.
A view of the Tughlaqabad Fort | Photo Credit: Mohammad Asaad Hasan Khan
“We love ghost tales as a result of they’re simpler to recollect than historic details,” he says and provides, the feud between the Sultan and the saint was actual however extra political than mystical.
“Nizamuddin commanded an unlimited public following. For a ruler used to absolute energy, this was threatening. Their battle was about affect and authority.” Husain cites a mehfil held inside its partitions the place greater than 400 students debated the permissibility of Sama (religious music). Hazrat Nizamuddin’s arguments prevailed, and Qawwali was formally accepted within the Indian Sufi custom.
“This one occasion alone makes the fort traditionally and culturally important,” he says. “It was not only a website of army brilliance, however of religious transformation.”
Tughlaqabad at this time stays eerily empty when in comparison with the crowds at different monuments within the metropolis. Whereas, the place is a chance to discover the expansive landscapes, uninterrupted skyline views, rugged structure and birdsong echoing off stone partitions. “This needs to be a classroom below the sky, not a ghost city,” says Sohail.
Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, close to Govindpuri Metro station; 9am to 5pm; Entry Fee: ₹25 (Indian residents), ₹300 (overseas nationals)
