Itihas Ke Karigar

This Baqreid season, remembering how Babur was bad at carving meat.

From the Baburnama, folios 190b–191a (account of the year 912/1506–7), this miniature painting depicts a sumptuous feast under the shade of a chenar tree.

Babur is seen awkwardly attempting to carve a roast goose. He candidly admits in his memoirs: “At this party they set a roast goose before me, but as I was no carver or disjointer of birds, I left it alone.” The host, Badiʿuʾz-Zaman Mirza, ruler of Herat, then intervened, disjointed the bird, and returned it to Babur.

In the painting cooks are also seen preparing lavish dishes while attendants bustle around with trays of food, capturing the festivity and the rich culinary culture of the Timurid courts.

A riverine market sarai complex near Bagh-i-Nur Afshan at Agra. The garden is closely associated with Nur Jahan (wife of Mughal EmperorJahangir). The structure stands as a manifestation of the extent of Nur Jahan’s agency and authority.

Pelseart and Tavernier who visited the Mughal Empire in the 17th century give insights about the functioning of this structure. Nur Jahan’s officers collected taxes and regulated trade at this juncture, this underlined her direct involvement in economic and logistical governance.

The structure was location on a vital trade route. Pelseart writes, "through it must pass all the merchandise brought from Porob (east) and Bengalen purup and the Bhutan mountains . . . . . .. Without these supplies this country could not be provided with food, and would almost die of hunger, so that this is a place of great traffic. . . "

The site functioned primarily as a transit market and temporary lodging site for merchants transporting goods from eastern regions. Nur Jahan’s public utility constructions were integral to the economic and civic infrastructure of the Mughals.

Images: 2017

Abandoned and ruined homes are metaphors for absolute grief. Home is built with an idea of family; family which holds ties formed in love, blood and hopes; hopes for generations to come.

According to the oral traditions surviving in the area of Upper Fort, Aligarh, this particular home was built by the people who were amongst the earliest lock makers in the region. Just in front of this ruined house there was a lock maker who still practices the traditional craft. The lock maker informed that the house was built somewhere around 1917 but was later abandoned, many portions of it sold out.

The history of lockmaking at Aligarh goes back several centuries, it started during the late 19th century but the region of Aligarh along with nearby regions like Meerut and Agra, had a tradition of arms and metalcraft production during the Mughal period.

Local artisans were skilled in crafting swords, daggers, and guns which catered to regional courts and military clients. These skills, epecially precision metalwork and forging technique, laid the groundwork for industrial crafts like lock making.

This ruined house of a locksmith, lost in time, is a poetic reminder of the fact that home is transient like everything else in this world.

Sometimes home is a person, sometimes it is a place and sometimes it is a moment in time which can never be returned to.

This gateway at Bulandshahr, popularly known as the Garden Gate, is an interesting example of the use of Indian architectural styles and motifs used in the construction of buildings during the colonial period. The gateway has arches, cupolas and eaves reminiscent of Mughal and Rajput architecture. Inscription on one of the wings of the gate informs that the gate was constructed at the cost of 4500 rupees by Rao Umrao Singh Sahab, Rais Kuchesar in 1828.
Frederic Growse, an administrative officer and enthusiast of Indian antiquity, informs, "Its (Garden Gate) archway . . is flanked by two rooms of block-kankar masonry, with red-brick turrets at the corners, surmounted by domed and pinnacled stone kiosques 46 feet high. The rooms are intended as lodges for the gardener and
watchman."

Women in public spaces.

Painting: A prince receiving water at a well, Mughal miniature c. 1700.

Source: Paintings from Mughal India: Catalogue by Toby Falk and Simon Digby

The mighty Golconda fort was the seat of power of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty in 16th century. The site located in present day Telangana has been associated with Yadava Dynasty of Deogir and Kakatiya Dynasty of Warangal. In 1512 A.D, Malik Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk started ruling independently of The Bahmani kingdom as Sultan Quli Qutb Shah. The fort houses structures of varying nature including mosques, temple, royal palaces, waterworks etc.

Nur Jahan with a rifle. (Probably 1617 CE) (Rampur State Library, Rampur)

Note the fine henna details on the feet despite the masculine demeanour.

Urn Burial Jars from Megalithic period, dated 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE, excavated from Vadakara, Kozhikode, Kerala. (Preserved at Hill Palace Museum, Kochi)

Historical Environs of Aligarh.

Just sharing an image of kebabs being made on the margin of a Mughal painting from the 17th century.

Painting details: Khan Alam, Ambassador of Jahangir with Shah Abbas I in a Landscape. Page from the Late Shah Jahan Album ( Museum of Fine Arts Boston)

Shankaracharya Temple at Srinagar is considered to be one of the oldest temples constructed in the region. Sir Alexander Cunningham informs that this temple upon the Takht-i-Sulaiman hill is the oldest in both appearance and according to tradition. Local tradition ascribe the construction of this structure to Jaloka, the son of Asoka who reigned around 220 BC. The earliest literary evidence regarding the temple is found in Kalhana's Rajatarangini. In the literary work, the name of Raja Gopaditya is mentioned who erected a Jyeshteswara (dedicated to Lord Shiva) upon mount Gopa. Mount Gopa is understood to be the same as Takht-i-Sulaiman hill. It can be believed that Gopaditya ruling from AD 238-253, might have repaired or rebuilt an already existing Buddhist structure from the time of Jaloka, at the given location.

The Temple rests on solid rock, and consists of an octagonal stone basement twenty feet high, on which is supported a square building. The terrace surrounding the temple is reached by a stone staircase. The temple and its structure commands a panoramic view of the city of Srinagar and Dal Lake. The local traditions establish that the structure was visited by the famous sage Adi Shankara, and because of this the site has been associated with his name.

The last photograph was taken by John Burke in the 1860s.(courtesy British Library)