The Mehrauli Memoirs Part 7: Zafar's Absent Grave

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 Read Part 6: Where is Zafar? by clicking here

There was only a gate. Supposedly Bahadur Shah Zafar wanted to be buried here, beside his ancestors and family. Now only an ornate-looking gate remains, or can be seen. It is locked. The gate comprises a wooden door, beautiful chhatris, and a broad Bengali-styled chajja. The palace was credited to Akbar Shah II. Zafar renovated the gate, the Hathi darwaza, so named because he could be seated on an elephant while going through it. Today only bats haunt this house. Beside it is the busy mosque of Qutb al-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki.

Peeping through a hole in the door, the sunlight highlights dust, spider webs, and wooden ruins. If a mahal or graves did exist, they have long made room for the surrounding living bodies and buildings. The gate shut the day Bahadur Shah Zafar closed his eyes in far-away Rangoon. My eyes could only admire Zafar Mahal on Wikipedia.

कितना है बद-नसीब 'ज़फ़र' दफ़्न के लिए
दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार में
- बहादुर शाह ज़फ़र

Read Part 8: The Labyrinth by clicking here

 

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