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Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiDESCRIPTIONthe access roads would not provide through routes, ensuring not only privacy and security but also controlling thevolume and movement of traffic. The network also created social areas, known as thanas, mohallas and katras,and these were homogenous units for many cultural as well as socio‐economic activities.Thanas/mohallas / katras and kuchas( dead‐ends or cul‐de‐sacs)Neighbouring, galis, katras and kuchas with the built fabric would form a mohalla (neighbourhood). Together, anumber of mohallas would form a thana(ward). The city was divided into 12 thanas( wards or police stations) andeach thana comprised of a network of mahallas (neighbourhoods). A thana was by and large an administrativeunit.A mahalla was sealed off from the others and had a single entry point. Gates were located at points along the gali,katra and kucha. They functioned as entrances and exits to the thanas and mohallas and were physical barriersthat provided security especially in an emergency. While gates would be located at all intersections of galis andkuchas in residential areas, fewer gates would be located along the bazaar streets and katras. Eachmohalla/kucha was named after either a celebrated resident or the trade of the occupants.A katra is essentially the narrow lane enclosed by a built form where the built form was normally for commercialuse. There were separate wings called ‘katras’ for each class of tradesmen and guilds of craftsmen. According to asurvey there are 999 katras in the walled city. Each katra is a space enclosure created by buildings used largely fora commercial use. Entry is usually through a gate from a street, which was built wide enough for the pedestrianmovement.Next in hierarchy is a lane of narrower width lateral to a street leading to a kucha which formed an enclosure ofbuildings used only for residential use. Thus these enclosures created a graded transition from public, semi‐publicto private uses organizing the relation of space and building. Neither in katra nor in kucha, was the vehiculartraffic allowed.A description of the bazaar streets, public chowks and buildings, as they existed before the arrival of the British isgiven below.City wall For the first time there was a wall to delimit the city boundary from the rest of the geographicalregion of Delhi. It was for defence, that the city was encompassed by a wall, strengthened with bastions andpierced by gates. There were no walls on the river side where the Yamuna served as the natural defence. Thewall was first built within four months, in 1650, using stone and mud mortar. However, it collapsed in themonsoons and was rebuilt using stone and lime mortar and completed in 1658. It was 6664 yards, incircumference( not including the riverside) 4 yards wide, 9 yards high. The wall had 27 burjs (bastions), 10yards in diameter were built at regular intervals along the wall. It did not have a moat but had a platform ofearth, four‐five feet wide on the external side of the wall. The wall was rebuilt and extended by the British,between 1803 and 1811. The defences beyond Salimgarh fort (as shown in the map in the British Library‐ Findthis map) were later additions.Gates The city wall was pierced a number of gates and entryways, both large and small. However it hadthree principal gates, which were also the larger gates that handled the bulk of the mounted vehicular andpedestrian traffic. The one leading to Lahore was called Lahori Gate, the one leading to Kashmir calledKashmiri Gate, and the one leading to Agra( Akbarabad) and consequently called Akbarabadi gate, alsoknown as Delhi gate because it lead to the old city of Delhi. There were also five smaller gates, named Mori,Kabuli, Farash Khana, Ajmeri and Turkmani gate. In addition to these gates and interspersed between themwere smaller gates that allowed pedestrians quick and easy passage, to and from the city. These were theZinat al‐Masajid gate on the Yamuna, the Farrashkhanah(wardrobe) gate and the gates of Ghazi al Din Khanand Ahmad Baksh Khan. The gate and the attached sections of the wall formed a polygonal public squaretowards the city, while outside it, there once used to be a deep moat which has disappeared in due course.The wall fronting the river had three gates‐ the Raja Ghat, Qila Ghat and Nigambhod Gates. These three gatesprovided the Hindus of the city access to the riverside ghats(platforms) on which they interred their dead.31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 28
Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiDESCRIPTIONQILA‐I‐MUBARAK(RED FORT)The fort dominated the cityscape on the eastern side of the River Yamuna. This auspicious fortified palace ofthe Emperor, with its distinct walled enclosure was a landmark between the river and the walledcity.Designed by the master‐builders Ustad Hamid and Ustad Ahmed, construction of this citadel began in1639 and it took nine years to build, though additions (like the Moti Masjid and the Zafar Tank) continued aslate as the 19th century. Qila‐i‐Mubarak(Red Fort), completed and inaugurated in 1648, was planned to houseboth the administrative offices of the imperial court and the residential quarters of the king and his harem.oooooooBazaar‐e‐Musakkaf (known as Chhatta Chowk today) In the 17 th century, when the MughalEmperor was in residence in this citadel, the shops along this covered, vaulted arcade sold exoticwares: midgets, eunuchs, jewellery, brocades, etc. Painted and incised plaster covered the wallsof Chhatta Chowk and at the centre of the arcade, was an octagonal open court that let insunlight.Past the Chhatta Chowk, the Naubat Khana, or Naqqar Khana, the drum house of the Red Fort,built in 1639‐48, originally housed the music gallery and was the main entrance to the Diwan‐e‐Aam (the Hall of Public Audience) beyond. There was originally a spacious walled square in frontof the Naubat Khana, with a tank in the middle and openings to a north‐south bazaar streetleading to the Delhi Gate on one side and to the north of the complex on the other. A channel ofwater ran down the entire length of this street. Visitors to the fort would alight in this square,leaving their carriages, palanquins, horses and elephants here. For this reason this was alsoknown as Hathia Pol or ‘Elephant Gate’.Beyond the Naubat Khana, a stone pathway leads to the Diwan‐e‐Aam, the Hall of PublicAudience, where the Mughal emperors would receive the general public and hear their petitionsand complaints. The Diwan‐e‐Aam too originally had a large square before it, surrounded byarcaded cloisters. The structure was originally covered with polished white shell lime plaster,with gilded ceiling and columns, and railings of gold and silver separating the rank and file fromthe nobility.Mumtaz Mahal was originally a part of the imperial seraglio, but has since been throughnumerous avatars; it was used after the revolt of 1857 as a prison, and later still as a sergeant’smess. The gilded chhatris that once topped each corner of the roof have long gone, and much ofthe present building is mostly the result of extensive renovations in 1911. Inside, some traces ofpaint and mirrorwork on the arches are still visible.Originally named for the paint work that decorated its walls (`rang’ means `colour’), as well asperhaps the colourful social life of its interior, the Rang Mahal is today a mere shadow of itsformer importance as the chief building of the imperial seraglio. In Shahjahan’s time it was ablazewith paint and mirrorwork, its length partitioned by heavy drapes. A wide, shallow water channelran through it, with a central marble basin carved into the floor. After 1857, the Rang Mahal wastaken over by the military, and served as the mess room for the regiment stationed at the fort.Earlier Rang Mahal had elaborate decorations throughout, today only a small section withexquisite mirror work forming geometric patterns and arabesques exist.Musamman Burj, though today with a white dome, was originally topped with a dome of gildedcopper—what you see today was put in by the British after 1857. The jharokha of the MusammanBurj was known as the jharokha‐e‐darshan, where the emperor would appear at sunrise daily toshow himself to his subjects.The Diwan‐e‐Khaas, or the ‘Hall of Private Audience’, is where the emperor met with his mostselect courtiers. In its heyday the Diwan‐e‐Khaas was carpeted, replete with mirrors and goldembroideredcurtains, and with a vast canopy of red cloth stretching across the front. Towardsthe back of the hall, on a marble platform, sat the legendary Takht‐e‐Taawus, the Peacock Throne,described by the French jeweller and traveller Jean‐Baptiste Tavernier as being surmounted by a`peacock with elevated tail made of Next to the Moti masjid lies a garden which was originallyknown as the Hayat Baksh Bagh and later destroyed by the British. The palace complex today hasseveral barracks built in the 19 th cen. AD after demolishing one section beside the chatta chowk.31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 29
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