Walk and let heritage talk
Delhi is like a palimpsest of cities layered in time one upon the other. And walking through the pages of history is the best way to know this pristine and magnificent city, writes Rajnish Wattas

Delhi — 14 Historic Walks
By Swapna Liddle
Westland. Pages 288. Rs 495

THE stones of Delhi’s monuments speak silently of bygone eras, empires, kings, saints, marauders; and the once-upon-a-time splendour of their architecture, littered and strewn all over the vast metropolis. There is hardly a road or bend where you are not likely to run into some ruin or a crumbling monument.

In fact, they are so many of them all over that its denizens take them for granted. Or take rather too much for granted, thus remaining ignoramuses of their own historic treasures lying all around mutely. Delhi is like a palimpsest of cities layered in time one upon the other. And walking through the pages of history is the best way to know this pristine and magnificent city.

The field guide book Delhi – 14 Historic Walks is structured in a user-friendly way. Among the main walks covered, there are the familiar backdrops of Purana Qila, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Himayun’s Tomb, Nizamuddin, Tughalakabad Fort and others. And, amazingly, three out of these are UNESCO heritage sites!

Before each walk description, is given the historical backdrop of the site followed by its highlights and monuments including the architecture, art work and landscape settings. This is supported by a layout plan of the site, with each monument marked in graphic symbols and colour rendering. Behind each ruin lies a chapter in the making of the megalopolis — and a grand tale of kings, holy men, faqirs, wars, conquests and defeats.

And Swapna Liddle, a historian who runs INTACH’s Walks Programme, is ideally suited for this personalised and delightfully impassioned narrative of Delhi’s history and its hoary edifices. She holds the hand of the curious walker and gently takes him round the historic ruins, all the while narrating historical highlights, anecdotes and unfolding the human drama — and even warning of uneven paths that lie ahead, if any. It’s the most delightful way of knowing your city, like a lazy walk on a nice Sunday afternoon!

Modelled somewhat on the legendary field guide to Delhi’s monuments brought earlier by Percival Spear, a professor of history at St. Stephen’s College, originally in 1943, it has the same light, easy-read style, invoking enough interest in the curious citizen or visitor — giving sufficient facts and details, without turning to boring academic jargon!

Through this little nugget of a book, you learn so much more about, say Humayun’s Tomb in Nizammudin that was lovingly built by Akbar in memory of his father, laid out in the magnificent charbagh tradition of landscaping, brought to India by the Mughals from Persia. This was later to become famous through the formalistic gardens of Taj Mahal.

As you enter the Nizammudin locality, two of Delhi’s most famous historic personalities Nizammudin Auliya, the Sufi saint famous for his miraculous healing powers and his disciple Amir Khusro, the poet of Persian and proponent of Hindustani classical music, lie here together in their last resting places. In fact, even the last Mughal emperor Bahadurshah Zafar — no mean poet himself — also took shelter in the dargah of Nizammudin as he hid himself from the wrath of the British soldiers after the failed 1857 rising.

The tomb of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib who lived 1797 to 1869 also lies close by. The legendary poet lived in a time when the reign of power had shifted to the British and his patron emperor Bahadurshah Zafar was himself a pauper. Therefore, his simple and austere grave had no adornments till recently, when the Ghalib Society built a more befitting memorial.

The guide book provides many similar such nuggets of information about the personalities, events and the architectural monuments that adorn Delhi. The Red Fort, the city of Shahjahanabad, the Juma Masjid — all built by the great Mughal builder Shahjahan who reigned from 1630s till Auranghzeb overthrew his rule in 1685 are documented. The Red Fort or ‘Quila-e-Mubarak’ was inaugurated on May 17, 1648, with all fanfare and regalia, and cost Rs 10,000,000 then. And, of course, the history of Ghalib comes back again. His residence in Mohallah Balimaran in the walled city is nicely delineated.

The friendly guide book has every helpful tip that the would-be walker could require, including information on parking facility, ticketing, public amenities etc. At the end of the book quite helpfully you have the glossary, chain of events and an index.

Though the book has been provided with two-page map of Delhi, indicating the 14 heritage sites, it is rather graphically weak and not so easy on the eye. Similarly, the black & white photographs of the various monuments are of poor quality and also rather amateurishly taken by the author herself, thereby marring the otherwise excellent text of the book.

Delhi —14 Heritage Walks is a welcome addition coming in 2012, the Centenary year of the historic capital city. Though, one would have wished that something as comprehensive and matching to the worldwide famous D K Travel guide books or the Lonely Planet series, had been brought out on such an occasion. However, this one is very affordable!

Hopefully, this handy field guide would inspire every city-proud Delhiite or rather every Indian to get up and walk through one of the most monument rich capitals of the world — his very own, apni Dilli!

HOME