Sultan Ghari

Tomb of Sultan Ghari

Sultan Ghari was the first Islamic Mausoleum (tomb) built in 1231 AD for Prince Nasiruddin Mahmud, eldest son of Iltutmish, in the "funerary landscape of Delhi" in the Nangal Dewat Forest, (Near Nangal Dewat Vasant Kunj).

Quotes

• The ceiling rests on columns raised with two pillars each robbed from an earlier Hindu shrine; carved lintels from another were found embedded in the thick lime-concrete roof. Other pieces were used in the ceilings of the prayer-chamber and bastions and the pillars re-utilised in the verandahs, originally used as a madrasa, after chipping the decoration off them. The tomb was repaired later by Firuz Shah Tughluq.
  •  Archaeological Survey of India, Sultan Ghari, [1]

• Tomb of Sultãn Ghãrî: Sayyid Ahmad Khãn notices this tomb and describes it as exquisite. He says that it was built in AH 626 corresponding to AD 1228 when the corpse of Sultãn Nãsiru’d-Dîn Mahmûd, the eldest son of Sultãn Shamsu’d-Dîn Iltutmish, who was Governor of Laknauti and who died while his father was still alive, was brought to Delhi and buried.391 But the editor, Khaleeq Anjum, comments in his introduction that “the dome of the mosque which is of marble has been re-used and has probably been obtained from some temple”, and that the domes on the four pavilions outside “are in Hindu style in their interior.”392 He provides greater details in his notes at the end of Sayyid Ahmad’s work. He writes: “…This is the first Muslim tomb in North India, if we overlook some others. And it is the third historical Muslim monument in India after Quwwat al-Islãm Masjid and ADhãî Din Kã JhoñpRã… Stones from Hindu temples have been used in this tomb also, as in the Quwwat al-Islãm Masjid.” “…In the middle of the corridor on the west there is a marble dome. A look at the dome leads to the conclusion that it has been brought from some temple. The pillars that have been raised in the western corridor are of marble and have been made in Greek style. It is clear that they belong to some other building…”
  • Ãsãru’s-Sanãdîd by Sayyid Ahmad Khãn, quoted from Shourie, A., & Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them.

• The tomb of Shamsu'd-Din Iltumish... was built in about 1235 by Iltumish himself, only five years after the construction of Sultan Ghari's tomb. Yet it is quite different from the latter and illustrates that phase in the develpment of Indo-Islamic architecture when the builder had ceased to depend for material on the demolition of temples, although the arches and semi-domes below the squinches were still laid in the indigenous corbelled fashion. ... The tomb is plain on the outside, but is profusely carved on the entrances and in the interior with inscriptions in Kufi and Naskh characters and geometrical and arabesque patterns in Saracenic tradition, although several motifs among its carvings are reminiscent of Hindu decoration. ... In view of its lavish ornamentation, Fergusson described it as 'one of the richest examples of Hindu art applied to Muhammadan purposes.' [...] The monument [Sultan Ghari] exemplifies the same phase in tomb-architecture, as we find in the Quwwatu'lIslam mosque: it is built with architrectural members removed from temples and employs the trabeated construction with which the indigenous architects were familiar.
  • Y.D. Sharma, Delhi and its Neighhbourhood. ASI, 2001. p. 56-57, 68

• Naqvi has taken pains to describe at length the edifice which began as a temple, got converted into a tomb and to which was added a masjid with a marble mehrab and then a gate with pretty Arabic calligraphy of verses from the Holy Quran. As he puts it, the gateway projects 13 ~feet from the enclosure wall and is approached and entered by a flight of steps flanked by two square rooms which are roofed with stone slabs in the Hindu fashion. The external archway of the gate is formed by overlapping courses of marble and around it is the important Arabic inscription in Kufic characters.
  He goes on, after crossing the threshold, one stands under the eastern colonnaded verandah, the flat roof of which rests on red sandstone pillars. The latter are not uniformly carved, indicating that they have been re-used here from an older building. Opposite this colonnade and along the whole length of the west em wall runs another colonnaded verandah with a prayer chamber in the centre erected in white marble and covered with a corbelled pyramidal dome. The dome is almost certainly re-used and is lavishly carved internally with Hindu motifs, notably bands of lozenge or triangular patterns. The marble mehrab is embellished with verses from the Quran and a floral design. The floor is paved with marble slabs. The rest of the verandah on either side of the prayer chamber comprises red sandstone pillars and pilasters supporting a flat roof of Hindu design, with a brick work parapet...
  He winds up his description with the words: The Hindu elements in the architecture of the monument are apparent in the dome of the mosque and the partly defaced Hindu motifs on some of the pillar brackets of the western colonnade. The presence of a Gauripatta or receptacle of a linga in the pavement of the western colonnade is a further significant point. Furthermore, the marble stones in the external facade of the mosque are serially numbered, indicating their removal from elsewhere.
  • Naqvi, S.A.A., Archaeological Survey of India, January 1947. quoted from Goradia, P. (2002). Hindu masjids.

• Yet another officer of the ASI, Sharma published his findings in 1964. He had the advantage of research already done by Cunningham, as well as Naqvi who has been quoted earlier. A particularly refreshing point that Sharma makes is with regard to a couple of sculptured lintels and, an upright stone railing that were found embedded in the roof of the edifice. The frieze or a band of decoration carved on one of the lentils has, what appears to be a bull and a horse facing each other. This was further proof of the Hinduness of Sultan Ghari's tomb. Sharma went on to add that in the eighth century, or a little earlier, a large temple existed at the site of the Sultan Chari's tomb, 8 km west of the Qutb-Minar. The temple was erected probably by some feudatory of the Pratiharas.
  • Sharma, Y.D., Archaeological Remains, Monuments and Museums, 1964 quoted from Goradia, P. (2002). Hindu masjids.

• Cunningham's observations made in 1871/72 should be taken even more seriously because his impartiality would be beyond doubt. There would be no bias as between the Hindu and Muslim viewpoints . In the ASI report of those years he has written that the tomb of Sultan Chari, with its domes of overlapping courses, appears to be pre-Muhammadan, but when to this feature we add the other Hindu features, both of construction and ornamentation, the stones set without cement in the walls, the appearance of wear or weathering of the stones, greater even than in the Kutb, though similar in material, and the fact that the inner cell was originally finished in granite, but afterwards cased with marble, it becomes extremely probable that this is, like the Kutb, a Hindu building appropriated by the Muhammandans, and the probability is rendered almost a certainty by the existence of the central cell, which is a construction adapted to some Hindu forms of worship, the Saivic, but which is an anomaly in Muhammadan architecture.
  • Cunningham quoted from Goradia, P. (2002). Hindu masjids.