Chirag delhi

intro• Chirag Dilli is named for the much-revered Sufi mystic, Nasiruddin Mahmud, • Roshan Chiragh-e-Dehli (‘The Illuminated Lamp of Delhi’), who came to Delhi • in the early fourteenth century and was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, and later • became his successor. Along with Khirki village, south-west of Chirag Dilli, this forms • one of Delhi’s oldest neighbourhoods, dominated by some interesting structures—

both • religious as well as secular—from as far back as the fourteenth century. There is • Satpula here, the dam that Muhammad Tughlaq built when he established his city of • Jahanpanah. Near it is the huge mosque built by the wazir of Muhammad Tughlaq’s • successor, Firoz Shah Tughlaq. There is the still-venerated Dargah of Chiragh-e-

Dehli • himself, and, in its vicinity, the tomb of Bahlol Lodi, the fi rst of the Lodi sultans. The • village of Chirag Dilli, in itself, makes for a rewarding walk: it is one of Delhi’s more • untouched urban villages, retaining many signs of a long and interesting past—in its • gateways, its village square, and in its occasionally—visible signs of old architecture. • The village wall, with its gates and turrets, was built under the aegis of the Mughal • emperor Muhammed Shah ‘Rangeela’ (r. AD 1719–48). Although much of the village • now consists of modern buildings, Chirag Dilli still has a number of old houses: • Mughal havelis, colonial structures, and more.

LEGEND• During the rule of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya had a baoli, a

water tank, constructed adjacent to his khanqah. The hostile Sultan issued orders banning state workers from helping in its construction.

• Many of the labourers were devotees and worked in the night. On hearing this, the ruler banned the sale of oil to ensure that lamps could not be lit.When construction halted, Hazrat Nizamuddin asked devotees to collect water from the tank. He ordered his disciple Naseeruddin Mahmud to light the lamps with water. The lamps glowed with light and work resumed. The master awarded his disciple the title Roshan Chirag-e-Dilli, the Bright Lamp of Delhi.

• Shaykh Naseeruddin survived three years after the assault on his life, dying on 18 Ramadan 1356. He was buried at his own house, in a place he selected for his grave many years earlier. Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq built Shaykh Naseeruddin Mahmud’s mausoleum in the colony Chirag Dilli, named after him.

•  It is said that when his fort was being made, the labour used to work at night for Hazrat Nizamuddin to Ghiassuddin’s Makbara Tughlakabad Fort make a baoli under the light of oil lamps l. Tughlak took away the oil but lamps were lit by water and baoli was completed .Chirag Dilli derives its name from this story.

EVOLUTION• Each urban village, of course, has a unique history. Chirag Dilli grew around

the dwelling and then shrine of the Sufi saint known as Chirag Dilli (literally meaning “Light of Delhi”), who lived at this site in the 14th century. The settlement grew within the 18th century walls built around the shrine. This wall, though now nearly completely destroyed, still gives the urban village it’s present shape.

• It’s interesting to imagine what the site would have felt like at different times through the past centuries. The shrine is close to the western edge of the village, next to which would have been the reservoir created by the Satpula I had photographed earlier. So at one point, the shrine could have been close to the edge of the reservoir with a lot of open space around it. Then the village and walls would have grown around it, and that growth has ultimately resulted in the Chirag Dilli we see today!

• The pulls and pressures of growth, development and conservation that have created these spaces in urban villages and other places are really fascinating, and I’m going to report on them more and more as I continue this project, methinks.

Encroachment, Development and Conservation

• A prime example of the above mentioned pulls and pressures is the fortified town of Siri. Siri predates Jahanpanah (which contains the Begampur and Khirki as well as Chirag Dilli sites), and I had visited it before but lost the photos to a hard drive crash. I went back there again recently and believe it or not lost the photos again, but was able to recover the “thumbnail” versions, which is why the Siri photos are so small.

• Siri contains yet another urban village, called Shahpur Jat, with it’s inevitable encroachments, but is interesting because it was also the site of a major development project for the 1982 Asian Games, and will again be a venue for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Bordering Siri to the south is one of south Delhi’s planned “colonies”, and the intersection of the fortification and the planned neighborhood creates an interesting edge-space.

Plan of Chirag Dilli : A square site with organic road pattern, Lack of Focus , Lack of alignment , Lack of Centralized Movement, Internal Geometry very random, Pattern for understanding : Not really

Street fabric with planning of units : How Dwelling units came up in the gaps left by other units

Plan of Chirag Dilli :

Looking for Simmilar patterns in the world but is there a pattern followed

www.depositphotos.com

Plan of Chirag Dilli : Like a maze there is a solution : The central spine