TRAVEL ARTICLE
It was an afternoon, when me and my wife thought of visiting the majestic and magical Qutub Minar at New Delhi, India. From our childhood, we knew about this ancient structure, which had a history of its own. This was my third visit to Qutub Minar, the only difference is that last time in the year 2011, my father Pradip Mazumder was alive and as we visited recently, he is no more in this world. He expired on 5th April, 2020. Qutub Minar is a tourist attraction from ages and as we started moving towards the ticket counter, we were welcomed with a huge queue of tourists, who were equally enthusiastic to see the grand and majestic Qutub Minar.
This ancient beautiful structure Qutub Minar is situated at Mehrauli, which as per some historians had the original Sanskrit name of Mihira-awali. In ancient days in the court of Vikramaditya, there was an astronomer named Mihira, and they use to have observation post for astronomical study. The Qutub Minar is undoubtedly, one of the great examples of Indo-Islamic architectures. It stands from centuries and had witnessed the arrival and destruction of several Sultanate dynasties in their power struggle for Delhi, the capital of India. As per some archaeologists, this Minar has a height of around 72.5 meters and it stands tall magnificently. As we travelled through the gates, we were welcomed by the magnificent, brilliant, elegant and gorgeous relics of the eld.
Infact after entering the Qutub Minar complex, it was difficult for us to understand as to what to see first. On our right was the Alai Minar and on our left was the Qutub Minar. Both stood to tell us tales of their past. We first thought of moving to the gigantic tower, which is now a World Heritage Site. There are various stories related to Qutub Minar and the most popular version is that Qutub Minar was made by Qutb-ud-din-Aibak. This Minar was built in the year 1368 during the Mamluk reign. This Qutub Minar is amongst the World heritage Sites and it includes a base of 14.3 meters in diameter, which narrows to only 2.7 meters at the Top.
Delhi was always the seat of power and this Qutub Minar which is known as the ‘Victory Tower’ was constructed under the reign of Qutb-ud-din-Aibak. As per historians, in the year 1192, during the Battle of Tarain, he defeated the Rajput King Prithviraj Chauhan and to celebrate this victory, he ordered to construct a ‘victory tower’, which was known as the Qutub Minar.
Some archaeologist’s states that Qutub Minar has its inspiration from ‘The Minaret of Jam’, which is probably located at the site of the Ghurid Dynasty’s capital, Firozkoh. It is said that the Minaret of Jam belongs to a group of around 60 minarets and towers built between the 11th and the 13th centuries in Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan, including the Kutlug Timur Minaret in Old Urgench.
This Qutub Minar is said to have 379 steps which are needed to reach the top floor. However, Qutub Minar was not completed during the reign of Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Later IItutmush, added three more stores to the minar. Later in the year 1368, Firoz Shah Tughlak completed the construction by adding the fifth and the last story. It was Feroz Shsh Tughlaq who constructed the top two stories of the Qutub Minar after it was destroyed by lighting in 1368 AD.
As we stood in awe looking at this structure, we could understand that it required enormous hard-work of hundreds of people to construct this tall minaret. We need to appreciate the skills of the yester-year’s engineers, who could work day and night to make this construction possible, which attracts millions of tourists each year.
Inside the Qutub Minar Complex there are other very important structures and they are the Alai Minar. This minar was built during the 1311 AD and is named after Ala-Ud-Din Khaliji (1296 – 1316 A.D). He actually tried to built a Minar which will be double the size of Qutub Minar, but the same remained uncompleted because of his death. He could not complete even the first story and none of his successors was interested in taking up the same.
It is within this complex the famous Iron Pillar is situated, which bears a Sanskrit inscription in Gupta period Brahmi script, paleo geographically assignable to the fourth century. It is said that the inscription records that the pillar was set up as a standard (Dhwaja) of God Vishnu on the hill known as Vishnupada, in memory of mighty king, named Chandra, who is now regarded as identical with Chandragupta II (375-413) of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. Strangely, after facing centuries of heat, rain and cold, this iron pillar refuses to corrode even after 1600 years of its construction. Many people still are surprised by the skills of those blacksmiths who made this Iron wall.
The Quwwat-ul-islam mosque was built to perform adhan and call for prayers. This mosque is a little distance from the minaret and is made up of red sandstone, grey quartz and white marbles, which adds to its contemporary looks. Later, Ala-ud-din Khilji extended the mosque and built two gateways on the eastern side, one gate on the north, and another on the southern side.
The southern gateway of the Quwwal-ul-Islam mosque is known as Alai darwaza, when Khilji extended the mosque. This Alai Darwaza is the magnificent square dome building with intricate carvings in red sandstone and marble.
The most interesting attraction is the tomb of Iltutmish. Its just beautiful to see the inner beauty of the architecture built in red sandstone. Its beautifully engraved. and have the arabesques, epigraphy and geometrical designs and has the blend of Muslim as well as Hindu art. One can see also lotus flowers and bells, which are found carved in the sandstone. This is one of the best examples of the Hindu art blended with Muslim architecture. This sandstone structure measures 9.1 meters along each side and is 8.41 meters in height. It is different in its construction because, it is not constructed using the ruins of Hindu and Jain temples.
While moving across, we were also fascinated by seeing sculptures of Hindu deities, which are work of art of those ancient skilled humans. We do not have any idea as to when these deities were curved. Is it before the construction of the Qutub Minar or after the structure was built? We leave those to the historians to answer and as we moved around the complex, we can feel the sounds of those chisels & hammers of those hundreds of unheard unknown workers, whose tiresome efforts had made these structures possible. These are the forgotten heroes of the bygone era, whose constant art made such beautiful structures to defy the challenges of the ages and still stands in front of us to tell their lost tales.
As we moved out of the ancient structure, we remembered the sayings of Alan Bennett, “The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”
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Writer:
Mainak Majumdar
Email: mainakmajumdar@travelreview.reviews and mainakmajumdar1@gmail.com
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Please note that the above views and experience are based on my personal feelings. Your experience may be different after visiting this place and we do not guarantee any authenticity of the information shared in this travel article.
References:
- VISHNU STAMBH Alias DHRUVA STAMBH (Let’s Uncover Qutub Minar) by Manish Pandey · 2015
- This is India – Qutub Minar by Dr. Johnson C. Philip and Dr. Saneesh Cherian
- Internet & Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qutbuddin_Bakhtiar_Kaki & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaret_of_Jam
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