Barapullah Nala in Spate

I went down to the Barapullah Nala (drain) to photograph the progress of the elevated road, and found the nala in spate because of today's heavy rains. Here are a few photos.

The first photo is of the nala at the railway line near Nizamuddin Railway Station. There is no gap between the water and the railway bridge's girders, and all kinds of flotsam is accumulating at the girder. The water level has reached the settlement at the right of the image. Construction work on the elevated road to the left is continuing despite the spate.

Barapullah Nala at the railway line near Nizamuddin Railway Station. Click on image to enlarge



These next images are from the elevated road construction site at Mathura Road. Construction-related vehicles that were in the nala have at least half their wheels submerged!

A truck, earth-mover and large crane inside the swollen nala. Next to the truck is a large pre-cast segment of the road. I don't think there is any danger of any of these washing away, though!







Here are images of the elevated road construction, which I'd gone to photograph.

At the railway line and old Barapullah bridge near Nizamuddin railway station (Click on these images to enlarge)


And at Mathura Road

Barapullah Elevated Road and Khan Khana's Tomb

A short note to follow up on my post about construction work for the elevated road around the Barapullah bridge, in which my concluding remarks were that the separate governmental authorities need to really work together cohesively in Delhi to accommodate both conservation and development, and use Delhi's historic architecture as a unique facet of the city. Unfortunately, it looks like another section of the elevated road construction may indicate that examples of such collaboration are pretty hard to come by.

I'm talking about the stretch of the elevated road that passes in front of Khan Khana's Tomb, also in the Nizamuddin area. Khan Khana was one of the Navratans in Akbar's court, and is the same person as the poet Rahim of 2-line dohas fame.

Khan Khana's tomb hidden behind the under-construction pillars of the Barapullah Nullah elevated road


News articles from previous months state that part of the ASI's objection to the elevated road was that it will obstruct the view of Khan Khana's tomb from the adjacent Mathura Road. Due to this objection, the height of the elevated road was to be raised at this point, so that it passed over the view-line of the tomb from Mathura Road. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the under-construction pillars for the elevated road that lie to the east of Mathura Road, the side that the tomb is on, are right adjacent to Mathura Road, and block the view to the monument anyway. So despite the raised road height, the pillars themselves will obstruct the view of the tomb.

A closer view of the tomb and pillars. The billboard also blocks the view to the tomb, but that's a minor issue compared to the obstruction the pillars will cause


It could be argued that the proximity of the pillars to the road was required to span the road, but much larger spans are being bridged on this road itself, so the special situation of this location should definitely have warranted the extra expense of a larger span. On top of this, the pillar to the west of Mathura Road is pretty far from the road, for no apparent reason (see the panoramic photo below).

Panoramic view of the elevated road construction over Mathura Road. The pillars to the left (west) of the road are set back from Mathura Road when they needn't be, and the pillars to the right (east), which should have been set back from Mathura Road to maintain a clear view of Khan Khana's tomb (which is in the center background) from the road, aren't. Sad irony that is all too common here in Delhi (click image to enlarge)


Of course factors such as foundational needs could have dictated the placement of these pillars, but it seems really odd that the pillars east of Mathura Road couldn't have been shifted a few meters further east, thus not negating the effect that raising the elevated road is to accomplish.

To me, this seems to be just another example of bad, non-creative planning and lack of coordination.

Nila Gumbad in the News (too)

Since I wrote about Nila Gumbad and the dispute between the Railways and ASI in my previous blog post, I thought I'd go visit Nila Gumbad once again to see just what the situation was there, how close the railways line was to the monument etc. I've visited Nila Gumbad a few times before, but had always just seen it from the west - from the side of Humayun's Tomb.

The image below shows Nila Gumbad and the area around it, taken from close to the eastern pavilion that lies along the outer wall of Humayun's Tomb. The road that the ASI wants to reroute around Nila Gumbad currently passes between the monument and Humayun's Tomb. It's also very probable that in constructing the road, the arched wall connecting Nila Gumbad with Humayun's Tomb was broken, which the ASI probably wants to restore as well.

Nila Gumbad from Humayun's Tomb. The railway line is visible behind the gumbad, and the road that the ASI wants to reroute lies in front of the gumbad



On this visit I went around to the east of the monument, on the side of the railway line, and was quite shocked to see that the Nizamuddin railway station starts right next to the monument! So it's not just that the railway line passes very close to Nila Gumbad, but the railway station also begins right there. An approximately 5 meter wide area has been left around the monument, and then the railway property beings. The station and railway lines lie to the east of the monument, and there is some kind of railway storage area to the south of it. The panoramic shot below is taken from north of the monument, and shows the proximity of the station, railway line and monument.

Panoramic view showing the railway station and gumbad . Click to enlarge



As can be seen from the panoramic shot, a dirt path leads from in front (north) of the monument, which leads to a spot that is used as an informal crossing across the railway lines to the other side, i.e. towards Serai Kale Khan. I saw quite a few people using this path to cross the railway lines (there is no designated crossing on this side of the railways station). There is of course the issue of security vis-a-vis the railway station, since anyone can easily walk from here onto the platform.

But the closeness of the station really makes me see the railways point of view. There is hardly any space to construct a road around the monument on this side, and any changes to the railways station and storage area will require at least a bit of a re-think and re-design, though if they put their heads to it I'm sure they can get to a workaround (pun intended).

The board indicating the beginning of Nizamuddin railway station is clearly visible from the gumbad platform


A couple of shots of Nila Gumbad - showing the blue tile-work that give the monument it's name and make it unique

Barapullah In The News

An image of Barapullah I took sometime in 2009, showing its basic design and construction (and the ganda nala - dirty drain - flowing under it)


Barapullah is an early 17th century bridge close to Humayun's Tomb and Khan Khana's Tomb in the Nizamuddin area. The monument has been in the news recently as part of the ongoing tussle between the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) in Delhi on one side, and various other governmental bodies (such as the railways, Delhi metro, MCD, Commonwealth Games people etc) on the other, playing out an intra-government-department preservation-versus-development urban slug-fest. This fight has been brought to a head by the ongoing rush of infrastructural projects in Delhi in general, and Commonwealth Games related projects in particular.

As Delhi scrambles to complete these infrastructure projects before the October 2010 Commonwealth Games, the ASI is attempting to block those projects that come too close to the monuments under its protection (apparently no construction within 100 meters of a protected monument is allowed - a rule that obviously hasn't been followed too strictly for the past five decades since it's been in place).

The Barapullah Nala (drain/rivulet), which the Barapullah bridge spans at Nizamuddin and which snakes through part of south Delhi, is being used as a path for an elevated road that will connect the Ring Road near Serai Kale Khan with Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, and is intended to ease traffic flow between the stadium and the Commonwealth Games Village on the east bank of the Yamuna. Some of the pillars being erected for this elevated road are just about 10 meters away from Barapullah.

So the Barapullah example is being publicized in the media as the most egregious case of flouting the "no construction around monuments" rule. While this is definitely the case, I just wanted to bring to light the existing state of the Barapullah monument, current elevated road construction notwithstanding. Newspaper reports give the impression that Barapullah was a well-preserved monument, or at least a somewhat-preserved one, whose protected space is only now being violated by the elevated bridge construction. In reality Barapullah has been anything but well protected over the past decades. In fact, Barapullah is a unique example that indicates all that is wrong with the preservation process.

The first problem of course is that the nala which flows under the bridge has been an open sewer for a long time. However, what makes the current concern over the new elevated road construction so ironic is that a concrete bridge, parallel to Barapullah, has existed about 3 meters away from Barapullah for at least a couple of decades. I have a vague memory of using Barapullah itself as a thoroughfare road to cross over from Jangpura to Nizamuddin as a kid, but the parallel concrete bridge has existed for all my adult life. This parallel bridge is now used for heavy throughfare (it leads to the close-by Nizamuddin railway station and in fact a blue-line bus route terminates here), and Barapullah itself is the site for a makeshift daily market. The parallel bridge was probably constructed to divert vehicular traffic from Barapullah, but surely it needn't have been built just 3 meters away from it.

The approach to Barapullah, on which a makeshift market is now set up daily. This and all following images were taken on Jan 25, 2010


The decades old concrete bridge running parallel to Barapullah is visible behind the small turrets of Barapullah, and is just a few feet away from it



The images below clearly shows the proximity between the original Barapullah and the parallel concrete bridge. We can also see the sewage and garbage accumulated at the foot of Barapullah, as well as the high-tension electricity pylon built very close to Barapullah. The columns under construction in the central middle-distance are for the proposed elevated road. The main north-south line of the Indian railways passes close to Barapullah as well. All in all, not a very picturesque locale, to say the least, and with all kinds of preservation-law violations all around.

Parallel concrete bridge and Barapullah




Barapullah from the parallel bridge


Vendors on Barapullah with the under-construction elevated road's columns behind


I would estimate the closest column of the elevated road to be about 10 meters from Barapullah, while the existing parallel bridge is about 3 meters distant from Barapullah


Elevated road construction with Barapullah behind


A panoramic view of Barapullah, its parallel bridge and the elevated road construction. In the background on the right we can see the base of the roadway itself being set up over the completed columns. On the left, through the steel-mesh fencing, is visible the other side of the elevated road construction. Click to enlarge


The elevated road construction approaching Barapullah. The main north-south line of the Indian railways lies in front of it. This view is looking eastwards towards the Yamuna from Barapullah


Here are a couple of images of construction on the other side ... looking westwards, taken from the parallel bridge. The dome of Khan Khana's Tomb is visible in the background.





What does all this tell us?

As we can see, the setting of Barapullah is a real mess. It has a heavily trafficked parallel bridge mere feet away from it, a large electricity pylon close by, an open sewer passing under it, a major national railway line passing close by, and is used as a makeshift market space. It has no protected area around it, and is surrounded by garbage and dirt. The elevated road being constructed over it, with its columns a few meters away from Barapullah, will not so much ruin the setting of Barapullah as add to the misfortunes of the monument.

Barapullah is a unique example, because it has various factors acting against it. Usually with monuments in Delhi it is a simple case of real estate pressures that threaten them. If the government/ASI can acquire the land around the monument to preserve it, as in the case of Humayun's Tomb and Khan Khana's Tomb nearby, the monuments can begin to be protected, and if they can't get to the monuments in time, like in so many urban villages in Delhi, the monuments are encroached upon or right up to.

Being a bridge that spans a nala running through a major portion of south Delhi, Barapullah was never going to be encroached in that same way, but rather was going to be targeted by infrastructural entities that require a clear path through the city, like the high tension electricity pylons and now the elevated road. Being close to the Nizamuddin railway station, there was heavy traffic on Barapullah in the past, which is now diverted to the parallel bridge built next to it. Being on an open drain (once a tributary of the Yamuna on which temple ghats existed - and still do), there is always going to be untreated sewage lapping the base of the monument.

To me, the Barapullah situation encapsulates the dysfunction of our government (and of us). The slums and squatter settlements around the monument, which exist in the liminal space along the open drain and railway line, are a function of the lack of public housing, and are the reason why the makeshift market exists on the monument (though the market also serves the residential neighborhoods away from the immediate vicinity of the monument).

Apathy towards historic monuments and good planning practices in general, and apathy towards generating creative solutions to urban problems has led to the parallel road next to Barapullah, and the traffic mess in the area overall, created by the busy Nizamuddin railway station nearby. The railway station, which continues to grow in importance, has for long needed an efficient traffic scheme that also caters to the protection of Barapullah, but the various government bodies that are required to be involved for such a scheme to succeed seem unable to collaborate to design and implement it.

In the face of all this apathy, finding alternative and natural solutions to wastewater management, which these open drains in Delhi would seem ideally suited for, remains a pipe dream, which is the reason why the black water flowing under Barapullah continues to ooze by freely, adding to the vast sewer that is the Yamuna.


Where does the recent news-coverage fit into all this?

Apart from the fact that the newspapers should send someone down to check on the situation of Barapullah before indicating that the new elevated road is violating the space around it, the reporting on the feud between the ASI and other government bodies points to just why so much dysfunction occurs. The fact that the ASI has not been able to coordinate in the construction of the elevated road indicates the lack of collaboration and creative solution finding that has led to the construction of the parallel bridge next to Barapullah, and the traffic mess around the Nizamuddin railway station.

Another nearby example - the Nila Gumbad monument - also in the news recently, points to the same lack of collaboration and indeed blatant antagonism between government departments. This monument lies on the strip of land between the Humayun's Tomb compound and the same railway line that passes close to Barapullah. Humayun's Tomb is a World Heritage site, and the ASI wants to incorporate the Nila Gumbad monument, which is also a Mughal-era structure and an important example of Persian influence on Mughal architecture, into the overall Humayun's Tomb complex. To do this, they requested the railways to allow a narrow road that cuts through the space between Nila Gumbad and Humayun's Tomb to be re-routed around Nila Gumbad, and onto railway land. The railways of course have refused this request.

The recent news coverage has exposed not just current feuds between such government departments, but also shows us how such apathy and dysfunction have existed for so long. No one wants to help the other, and no one wants the trouble of getting to creative, collaborative and long-lasting solutions to problems. If I'm permitted to extend this argument, this is the case not just with the government, but with the attitude of the public as well.


Are there any signs of hope in all this?

I actually think that there might be hope in all this. The fact that long-dormant ASI rules are being brought up might indicate that there is enough (developmental, infrastructural) activity at an urban scale, and adequate media and public scrutiny being placed on that activity, to force governmental departments to make their disputes public and legal.

Hopefully, as large-scale infrastructure projects mushroom in Delhi, adequate public scrutiny will emerge, not just at the implementation stage but also at the planning stage.

In a place as rich in history and historical monuments as Delhi, the preservation and protection of such monuments will always be of prime importance, but a balance will have to be maintained between development and preservation. For example, it shouldn't be too hard for urban design and planning professionals to come up with a solution to the Barapullah situation that addresses the needs of connectivity and traffic around Nizamuddin railway station, the elevated road project, the nearby railway line, wastewater management and electricity distribution, while at the same time helping to protect and promote the Barapullah monument. All that is needed is for the actors (both governmental as well as private citizens) involved in preservation as well as development to work together in finding innovative solutions.

Easier said than done, but up to this stage of Delhi's recent history, neither preservation nor development have taken place to anything approaching a satisfactory degree. The few preservation successes that do exist in Delhi point to the fact that when there is a will to do it right, it's possible even here.

Dilli Darshan: Nizamuddin and Humayun's Tomb

This is basically Dilli Darshaning around my own neighborhood, so I was really excited to explore this area. I live about a kilometer away from the two sites that this post is centered around: Humayun's Tomb and the Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, but there were a lot of places around these that I hadn't been to before!

Nizamuddin was a Sufi saint who lived and preached at this site during the early part of the 14th century, and Humayun was the second Mughal emporer, who ruled (intermittently) during the first half of the 16th century. Nizamuddin's tomb or dargah is one of the most holy sites in the Delhi area, and many prominent people (including Humayun) had their tombs built nearby.

It's really interesting to compare the differences in the way Humayun's and Nizamuddin's tombs have been preserved and the way people interact with them today.


Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's tomb is today one of the two "world heritage sites" as decreed by UNESCO (the other one being the Qutb Minar complex), and has recently been restored with funding and support by the Aga Khan foundation. It is a huge tomb set in a huge garden, with lots of other tombs and compounds near or next to it. Again, this is not because people wanted to be buried near Humayun, but because they (including Humayun) wanted to be buried near Nizamuddin. However the scale and beauty of Humayun's tomb makes it an architectural and touristic focal point in the neighborhood. Stylistically, Humayun's tomb is a precursor to the Taj Mahal at Agra.

Humayun's tomb is abutted by the tony East Nizamuddin neighborhood on one side, the Delhi zoo on the other, and a raliway line on the third. It is characterized by wide open spaces both within the tomb compound and around it. The wide space inside the tomb compound is mostly bare of liveliness and activity, and neither the constant trickle of tourists that come into it, nor the occasional sound of trains whistling by can remove the air of solitude inside the compound.

As will be apparent from the photographs, I visited the tomb on a heavily overcast day.

Humayun's tomb from gateway








The tomb from Mihr Banu's market. You can see the decorated drum of the dome.


Gravestones in one of the side rooms of the tomb




"Mihrab" on screen in the tomb's central room



Nizamuddin's Dargah

Nizamuddin's dargah (i.e. tomb of a holy man) is just across the road from Humayun's tomb in the West Nizamuddin neighborhood, and is the polar opposite of Humayun's tomb. It is at a much more intimate scale, and located within a dense and crowded urban village. Unlike Humayun's tomb, it is not visited by many tourists, but instead by crowds of pilgrims from all across India, as Nizamuddin's dargah is one of the most important Sufi shrines in the country.

We thus have next to each other, one of the most important buildings in India from an architectural history perspective, and one of the most important Sufi pilgrimage sites in India. The first is a well restored and preserved World Heritage site, visited by thousands of tourists daily, but lying inertly though grandly within it's hugh garden compound, having been evacuated decades ago of any population for it's secular historical importance, and studied and restored to it's perceived original state.

The second site has been occupied and active for centuries. It is teeming and dynamic, crowded and dirty. It is apparent that the dargah has been constantly altered and "improved" upon by successive generations wanting to display their devotion to the saint (and the site). The paint is new and gleaming, the gold is shiny, and the decorations are vibrant.

Both sites have been maintained remarkably well, but with completely different philosophies and techniques behind that maintainance. The area around the dargah is teeming with houses, restaurants, shops, pilgrims, beggars and the graves of those associated with the saint and those who wanted to be buried next to him.

In a sense, the first is a dead site, the second is alive.

Here's a satellite image of the Nizamuddin area to show how different the two spaces are, and the diversity in the area in general. I think I'm going to have to write a blog post down the line about the transitional spaces between "residential colonies" and "urban villages", which is where one turns into the other, and the interactions between these colonies and "villages".

Satellite image with labels. East and West Nizamuddin are the two residential colonies that are way more upscale than the basti. We can see the garden spaces around Humayun's tomb and Isa Khan's tomb, and the density of the basti.


And without labels for clarity ...


Nizamuddin's dargah (the building with the onion dome and canopy) and mosque (the taller red-walled structure)




Crowds at the dargah, and this was a "slow" day ...










Dargah from the mosque


Mosque facade and entrance


Mosque central hall


Shops around the dargah compound




Nizamuddin's baoli (stepped well) next to the dargah, and it's adjoining buildings







Corollary: A tale of two octagonal tombs

The thriving, live site has its consequences, and the clinical, dead historical site has it's advantages. This is where I get back to my critique of the urban villages of Delhi! :)

The basti (settlement) of Nizamuddin is no exception to this critique, which can be illustrated by looking at the differing conditions of the two octagonal tombs located within this neighborhood. These two are the first and last of the five octagonal tombs built in Delhi from the 14th to 16th centuries. The first, the tomb of Khan Jahan Tilangani, was built around the 1360s and is located just south of the dargah, and now lies within the urban village that grew around the dargah, known as Nizamuddin basti. The last octagonal tomb, that of Isa Khan, was built in 1547, is adjacent to Humayun's tomb, and is part of it's heritage complex.

Tilangani and Isa Khan's tombs, like many others in Delhi, both had a surrounding wall and fortification around it, called kotla. The basti that grew around Nizamuddin's dargah expanded into Tilangani's kotla and completely enveloped the tomb. The tomb is now virtually inaccessable, and is one of Delhi's many "occupied" tombs, which means that there is a family or families living inside it. Just one wall of the tomb is accessible and visible. What's funny is that the dome of the tomb is still visible from some pathways near it!

Isa Khan's tomb in stark contrast is wonderfully maintained (if one ignores the rather bland landscaping and questionable restoration work that is a trademark of historical structures in Delhi!), and is a pleasant site that is much more relatable and human-scaled than Humayun's tomb. I actually use Isa Khan's tomb as an example to understand the structural elements of these octagonal tombs.

Satellite image of Isa Khan's tomb and the surrounding garden. The octagonal wall around the tomb has also been preserved


And this is the area around Khan Jahan Tilangani's tomb, at the same scale. Tilangani's tomb is the brownish dot at the center of the image, completely surrounded by small houses. The octagonal shape can still be made out - which is still the shape that the built up area around the tomb has taken. If one uses a little imagination, one can also identify the square shape of the erstwhile kotla around the tomb, which the basti has roughly adopted. The big square building to the right of the tomb is Kali Masjid.



I'm quite fond of Isa Khan's tomb, and so there are extra photos of it! I'm also going to write a blog post in the future comparing the situation and condition of all five of Delhi's octagonal tombs, where I'll elaborate on these issues further.


Khan Jahan Tilanganis' tomb

A lane in Nizamuddin basti


Jalebis, samosas and chai in front of the existing Kotla Nizmauddin gateway


Gateway from inside the kotla


This is the only wall of Tilangani's tomb that's still visible, though much altered. The original chajjas (sun shade) and brackets can be seen


The lane around the tomb still follows an octagonal path. The tomb is to the left in this photo, and should be where the house on the left is


The dome of Tilangani's tomb visible a little distance away on the same lane as the images above


A view of Nizamuddin basti/kotla. The dome of Tilangani's tomb is visible behind the trees


Isa Khan's tomb

And here is Isa Khan's tomb, just across the street, part of the Humayun's tomb world heritage site! Tilangani's tomb would basically have looked like this. Since this is the last of Delhi's octagonal tombs, it's design would have been little more sophisticated, and Tilangani's would have been a bit more "unrefined", but the basic shape and elements would have been very similar!






Passageway around tomb




Double column detail


Tomb from mosque


Mosque from tomb


Mosque accompanying Isa Khan's tomb, within the same walled enclosure. This enclosure as a design element is the same as the erstwhile wall around Tilangani's tomb, except that in Isa Khan's case the wall was octagonal in shape, and in Tilangani's case it was square, as was more common








Mosque interior





Buildings around Nizamuddin's dargah and Humayun's tomb

Some of the other buildings around Nizamuddin's dargah ...

Chausath Khamba


The basti around Chausath Khamba


Atgah Khan's tomb


The basti around Atgah Khan's tomb


Photo taken between metal sheets barricading the site of the erstwhile Lal Mahal, at the edge of Nizamuddin basti. The 13th century structure was recently illegally torn down, and all that remains is this nearby tomb


Kali Masjid in Nizamudding basti


Main entrance to Kali Masjid


Inside Kali Masjid. This mosque is very similar in layout to Khirki Masjid and with good reason - it was built during the same time and by the same guy, Khan Jahan Tilangani's son Khan Jahan Junan Shah









And some of the structures across the road, around Humayun's tomb ...

Chilla Nizamuddin. A "chilla" is a place where someone prays or meditates, and this is said to be the site that Nizamuddin used for that purpose. It shares a wall with Humayun's tomb's enclosure wall, and there is an access to it from the enclosure, as well as rooms built adjacent to it on the enclosure side




Gateway to Arab Sarai


Afsarwala tomb and mosque within Arab Sarai


Minbar detail

Baoli at Mihr Banu's market, with East Nizamuddin house right next to it!




Sabz Gumbad. The Persian and Central Asian influence on Mughal architecture is really apparent on structures such as this


Nila Gumbad


Sundarawala Burj


And I end (finally!) with Khan-i--Khana's tomb, which is right next to my house!