Khirki Masjid and the Satpula

Feroz Shah Tughlaq was a busy builder. Having succeeded Mohammed bin Tughlaq to the throne of Delhi in 1351, he got into the business of building his own capital, Ferozabad, at what we today call Feroz Shah Kotla, not far from Connaught Place. However, his predecessor's capital, Jahanpanah, continued to be in use even after the development of Ferozabad. At his right hand was his trusted general Khan-e-Jahan Maqbul Tilangani, who seemed to be on a mission to build mosques when not at war. Formerly named Gannama Nayaka and the Kakatiya commander of Warangal fort, he was captured in battle in 1323 and brought to Delhi, where he converted to Islam and assumed his better known name. The 'Tilangani' in his name refers to the Telengana region in Andhra Pradesh.

In my trip to the Jahanpanah area, I had visited the Begumpur mosque, whose construction is sometimes attributed to Maqbul Tilangani (and sometimes to Mohammed bin Tughlaq, which is my preferred theory owing to the proximity to the Bijay Mandal, though probably not the most popular...anyway, it's not a big deal). What we do know, however, is that six other mosques were built by Maqbul Tilangani in Delhi, one of which is called the Khirki Masjid, the focal point for my short excursion today.

Getting here is almost a revelation. Most Delhiites will have gone right past it for years without realizing. It's bang opposite the eastern end of MGF Metropolitan Mall in Saket, a leisurely 1.5 km walk from the Malviya Nagar metro station down Press Enclave road. All you have to do is cross the road, and walk in through the clearing near a clump of trees. You should be able to see it from the road - look straight past the makeshift Hindu shrine and follow the unpaved path in. The surroundings are hardly picturesque. The mosque is today hemmed in by houses on all sides, and is surrounded by a rather ungainly iron fence. As with most unticketed ASI-protected monuments, this place is open from sunrise to sunset, and is generally populated with little other than a security guard and a caretaker.

Entrance to Khirki Masjid - notice the lattice windows (khirkis)

Today, however, the place was buzzing with activity courtesy an event organized by INTACH (we should be grateful to them for a lot of our existing architectural heritage). Kids were busy painting pictures of the mosque, and attending workshops on pottery making and storytelling.

Khirki mosque is unique in that it is north India's only significant mosque that is covered. Most other mosques have a small covered portion and a large courtyard where the congregation can pray. It is a classic Tughlaq structure, with rough and ready rubble and lime mortar masonry. There are four small courtyards on the inside formed by a cross-shaped roof made up of miniature domes. On the main floor, there are pillar and arches across the expanse of the hall, holding up the roof. A lower level appears accessible from under the main entry staircase, if you bring a torch - it's pitch dark inside, and I have no idea what it contains. There are towers at the corners of the mosque, which are accessible through very narrow spiral stairs - it's not worth the trouble, since there's a better way up (described further down). The mosque is almost perfectly symmetrical, barring the lack of an entrance on the western end (where instead there is a mihrab pointing the way to Makkah).

Corner Tower, almost like a fortification

The lower level is accessible from under the main entrance staircase

Arches in every direction

For an abandoned mosque, it's in fairly good shape, with most of the structure still intact. A small section of roof has collapsed, but it does serve to provide an almost unreal glow to that section of the mosque. There are staircases on either side the east and north entrances that provide a relatively easy way up to the roof. If at all possible, do climb these. It's the best way to appreciate the design of the mosque.

On the roof, the domes are visible in 3x3 clusters, forming nodes in a square grid, with small open courtyards between them. The clusters of domes did seem very unusual, and it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine oneself suddenly transported to a giant dinosaur egg farm. The view from here must have been fabulous at one point, with water tanks around it for added effect. Nowadays, however, all you can see is the set of residential buildings that have enveloped the mosque.

Domes, Arches and a Courtyard - visible from the roof

The clusters of domes really do resemble a dinosaur egg hatchery - Jurassic Park, anyone?

Storytelling workshop for kids

There aren't many more features to see here - the central mihrab is plain vanilla, and there are sections where you need to watch out for bat droppings, and bats. It's stark and there isn't a hint of ornateness anywhere. It is, however, in the predictability of the design that the mosque triumphs. The symmetry of the building is what makes it beautiful, and I can see how it would work as a public space.

Moving on down the road from there, I decided to head to the Satpula, another unticketed and desolate site. This turned out to be a slightly tricky task. I knew it was 300 metres further east down Press Enclave road, and fully expected to find an entrance gate on the main road. However, it turns out that there is none - the only gate is from the west end of the structure, access to which is through what appears to be a park in the process of being landscaped. Retracing my steps, I walked back to a side road next to a parking lot, which provides access to the in-construction park. Walking along the outline of a path, I arrived at Satpula. This was part of the boundary of Jahanpanah, though it primarily functioned as a dam. 

Satpula gets its name from the 7 pillars that support the water-sluice arches on the lowest level, though there are more arches at a higher level. On either end of the structure are pavillions which housed a madrasa. You can climb up stairs to get to the top of the pavillions, from where you can take in the view of the city. This also allows you to walk along the length of the dam, from where you can observe channels through which ropes would have passed to regulate the wooden sluice gates.

Madrasa at the end of Satpula

Entrance to one of the Madrasa pavillions

Ruins of dam structure

Main water channel and buttresses supporting the dam

Channels through which sluice gates could be controlled

If you're still hungry for more, you can walk into the reservoir behind the dam from the park and take in the entire breadth of the dam. The only problem with this is the harsh sunlight and lack of any sort of tree cover, ruining any potential photographs unless it's either sunrise or sunset. Oh well, you can't have everything.

So there we have it - more of Tughlaq Delhi over the course of a couple of hours. A mosque that is really one of it's kind, and a fortification that helped keep the Mongols at bay for the longest time. To bring some closure to the Tughlaq theme, I will have to visit Feroz Shah Kotla and the Nizamuddin dargah (bringing me back to Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq and the people of his time). Watch this space for these places and more.


Here is a map of the sites I visited today, along with paths to these (slightly hard to locate/access) places.

View Khirki Mosque and Satpula in a larger map