This Sunday, our heritage walk took us around the well known Lodi Garden. Centrally located in Delhi, it is one of the most beautiful parks in Delhi and the medieval monuments in its compound have been beautifully landscaped to stand out as objects of beauty here.

The Lodi Garden itself is a creation of the British, when they were coming up with a new Imperial capital in Delhi, in the 1930s. It was then named, Lady Willingdon Park. ‘Lodi Garden’ was the name given post independence. Our heritage walk starts at gate no. 1 on Lodi Road. As one walks straight on the path leading into the park, there is fork and we took the path to the left. The first stop on our heritage trail was the tomb of Mohammad Shah Sayyid. It is a typical octagonal tomb, typical of architecture in this period. The tomb is a good example of Indo-Islamic architecture, with prominently visible chhatris, and dome topped by the lotus flower motif. Tomb has undergone conservation work, before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Continue Reading This Post

Photographs of heritage walk on 1857 Uprising, by Nirmal Dayani, a regular at our walks.

This heritage walk covers the modern neighbourhood of Kashmiri Gate near ISBT. Most of the sites here relate to first half of 19^th century and some specific events associated with the revolt of 1857. In the 17^th century this area was part of the Mughal capital of Shahjahanabad, what is today old Delhi. Kashmiri gate has mansions of some important personalities associated with the Mughal court like, Ali Mardan Khan, the noble who was instrumental in building canals which brought water to the city and Dara Shukoh, Shahjahan’s son. Later, the British started living in this neighbourhood. It is their buildings which mostly survive now.

We started the heritage walk from Nicholson’s cemetery. John Nicholson was a British general, instrumental in breaching the defenses of rebels who were controlling Delhi, and in the process lost his life. Continue Reading This Post

Lodi garden in the heart of the capital is one of the best parks in Delhi. A nice place to walk around, exercise, peep inside tombs and observe birds. The Sunday evening heritage walk covered the monuments in this park. ‘Lodi Garden’ itself is a British creation. In the beginning of the 20^th century, Delhi’s landscape would have looked like a vast necropolis…miles and miles of space dotted with massive ruins. Creation of this park was part of colonial initiative to beautify their new capital, so that the monuments stand out as singular objects of beauty. Starting out as Lady Willingdon Park, it got its present name post-independence because most monuments in the park belong to the period when Lodi’s were ruling. We started our heritage walk at Mohd. Sayyid’s tomb. It is a typical octagonal tomb, which has recently undergone conservation. One can see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics of the tomb pasted below). As one walks towards the Bada Gumbad and Shish Gumbad, there are grave platforms on both sides of the path, which have almost been overtaken by trees growing over them. Continue Reading This Post

Photographs of the heritage walk at Mehrauli Archaeological Park on 27 March ’11, by Vinay Kumar, a regular at our walks