68 quotes found
"My home was the Dome of Islam. It was the qibla for kings of the seven climes. Delhi is the twin of pure paradise, a prototype of the heavenly throne on an earthly scroll."
"With evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the 6th Century BC, Delhi is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. The legendary city of Indraprastha from the epic Mahabharata is said to have been situated where Delhi now lies. Thought to have been built and destroyed 11 times, evidence of at least eight distinct settlements can still be seen in Delhi."
"Thus, I once heard a Hindu nationalist pleading for renaming Delhi as Indraprastha, the city founded right here by Mahabharata hero Yudhishthira. This ancient-new name would constitute a statement heard loud and clear around the world. (Ch. 9)"
"Indraprastha was the town founded by the Pandava brothers of Mahabharata fame as their capital. Here, the eldest among them, Yudhishthira, became the “ruler of righteousness” (dharma-râja). ... The new town was dedicated to Indra. ... Indraprastha was founded as the capital of the Pandavas’ small-time kingdom but the area was destined by fate to become the capital of the Delhi Sultanate, the Moghul Empire, Samrat Hemachandra’s short-lived Empire, British India spanning the whole Subcontinent, and now the Indian Republic. It is a source of pride, and worth celebrating, that here, the “righteous ruler” once chose to highlight the great universal ideas personified in Indra. Therefore, the open-minded Delhiites all agree: Indraprastha amar rahe!"
"Delhi, also known as Dilli or Dehli, and in earlier incarnation as Indraprastha and Yoginipura, has an ancient past."
"Much of Delhi’s regional importance came from the location in the watershed between the Ganga and the Indus river systems...In the sixth century BC, Delhi formed part of the Kuru kingdom, one of the Mahajanapadas or ‘great states.’ In the Buddhist documents of that period, Indapatta (identified with Indraprastha) is mentioned as the capital of the Kuru state."
"One evidence of the continuing importance of Delhi, as a location in the third century BC, is the inscription (edict) engraved here on the instruction of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka... the edict is to be found on a rock in the area in modern Kalkaji."
"Although constructed of destroyed Hindu temples, the Mosques at Old Delhi and Ajmer once and for all set the fashion to be followed by later mosques in Muslim India…"
"I asked my soul: What is Delhi? She replied:The world is the body and Delhi is life."
"A Paradise, that's Delhi Humpty Dumpty, hocus pocus, hurly burly If there is a paradise on earth, it is Delhi Full of people, overflowing Markets onto the road going Full of fumes, full of gases Full of ultra modern asses Full of shining, made-up faces Full of heart and cancer cases Car and truck and motorcycle Full of vehicle on the vehicle Full of jolting, full of stoking Full of lanes and bylanes choking Full of housing haywire going Full of sewage into Jamuna flowing Full of callous indifference breeding Full of pastures fast receding Full of power, and still power crisis Full of smoothly rising prices Full of girth and grime and mirth Our Delhi is a paradise on earth."
"The Delhi area has an incredibly long and eventful ancient past, beginning thousands of years ago in the stone age and merging at the other end into the medieval period when the Rajputs made way for Delhi Sultans in the twelfth century."
"Delhi--created at the end of the 12th Century from the ruins of seven ancient cities--is a microcosm of all India. The city of 13 million people is the nation's capital and cultural heart. New Delhi is home to grand hotels, fashionable homes, spacious parks and broad promenades. Old Delhi is compact, crowded and chaotic."
"In its long history Delhi has been on several occasions the victim of military occupation accompanied by pillage and rapine, and these occasions have sometimes altered the course of the city’s fortunes, both materially and culturally. One such occasion was its capture by Qutubuddin Aibak on behalf of Sultan Muizud-Din Muhammad-ibn-Sam of Ghur in 1192 or 1193. Others, much later, were Nader Shah’s capture of the city in 1739, followed by its occupation by Ahamd Shah Durrani, the British in 1803, and the destruction which accompanied the uprising of 1857 and its suppression."
"The period from 1724, to Nadir Shah’s invasion in 1739 was one of rapid internal decay of the empire, but one of outer brilliance for Delhi as far as its cultural life was concerned. The phase of 1740 to 1760 was period of growing anarchy."
"Modern Delhi began with the slow revival of the city under British domination. During the ‘Delhi Renaissance’, approximately 1830 to the outbreak of uprising of 1857, Delhi exhibited the beginnings of a cultural ferment; Western technology and idea entered the city and supported each other."
"Lord Lytton (1876-80) organised the Delhi Durbar in 1877 to entitle Queen Victoria Kaiser-i-Hind ...Delhi was made capital in place of Calcutta in 1912; Coronation Durbar of King George (V) and Queen Marry was held at Delhi in 1911."
"Chandni Chowk is the street--an imperial avenue under Shah Jahan's reign--extends from the Red Fort. The name often is applied to connecting alleys and streets. It's jammed with makeshift shops, markets, rickshaws, carts drawn by horses and oxen, cows, goats and pedestrians."
"Partition was a total catastrophe for Delhi. Those who were left behind are in misery. Those who were uprooted are in misery. The Peace of Delhi is gone. Now it is all gone."
"Once through this ruined city did I pass I espied a lonely bird on a bough and asked What knowest thou of this wilderness? It replied: 'I can sum it up in two words: ‘Alas, Alas!”"
"Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has betrayed the people of Delhi."
"It was a big challenge for me when I decided to start with the Sufi night. It took a while for the crowd to understand the music that was being played at the club since Delhi's crowd is more used to listening to hip-hop and Bollywood music, but the introduction of Sufi music definitely brought in a change."
"The soil and climate in Delhi are also not favourable for anthrax."
"Delhi does not have legislations and policies which recognise the city’s values. The state government has not been able to identify the unique elements and outstanding universal values yet."
"As you go from New Delhi to Old Delhi suddenly, the streets are narrower. Suddenly, there are bicycle-rickshaws instead of cars. Suddenly, there are more people. Suddenly, everything is different."
"In Delhi one could manage a drink and dine off other people all 365 days...Delhi had over a hundred embassies, High Commissions and legations. Diplomats in Delhi did not have much work to do. Most of their energies were directed to wining and dining officials of the External Affairs and other ministries of the Government of India, cultivating non-official locals, and celebrating their independence days."
"That's Delhi. When life gets too much for you all you need to do is to spend an hour at Nigambodh Ghat, watch the dead being put to flames and hear their kin wail for them. Then come home and down a couple of pegs of whisky. In Delhi, death and drink make life worth living."
"They grouped into nativities - Bengalis, Biharis, Bandladeshis, South Indians, Northeasterners, Kashmiri Pandits and Punjabis - or sought refuge in professional identities. They were Delhiites because geography and the pursuit of common goals made them so and not because the city offered a unifying identity. Delhi now belonged to everyone who lived in it, but no one belonged to Delhi. The original Delhiites too were missing from public life - they preferred the city of memory."
"It is now almost a cliché that the Partition transformed Delhi from a Mughal to a Punjabi city. The bitter experiences of the refugees at the hands of Islamists in Pakistan encouraged them to support right-wing Hindu parties ... Trouble began in September (1947) after the arrival of refugees from Pakistan who were determined on revenge and driving Muslims out of properties which they could then occupy. Gandhi in his prayer meetings in Birla House denounced the 'crooked and ungentlemanly' squeezing out of Muslims who left for Pakistan. Despite these exhortations, two-thirds of the city's Muslims were to abandon India's capital eventually."
"(Verse 1) He, on whose arm fame was inscribed by the sword, when, in battle in the Vanga countries (Bengal), he kneaded (and turned) back with (his) breast the enemies who, uniting together, came against (him);-he, by whom, having crossed in warfare the seven mouths of the (river) Sindhu, the Vahlikas were conquered;-he, by the breezes of whose prowess the southern ocean is even still perfumed;- (Verse 2) He, the remnant of the great zeal of whose energy, which utterly destroyed (his) enemies, like (the remnant of the great glowing heat) of a burned-out fire in a great forest, even now leaves not the earth; though he, the king, as if wearied, has quit this earth, and has gone to the other world, moving in (bodily) from to the land (of paradise) won by (the merit of his) actions, (but) remaining on (this) earth by (the memory of his) fame;- (Verse 3) By him, the king, attained sole supreme sovereignty in the world, acquired by his own arm and (enjoyed) for a very long time; (and) who, having the name of Chandra, carried a beauty of countenance like (the beauty of) the full-moon,-having in faith fixed his mind upon (the god) Vishnu, this lofty standard of the divine Vishnu was set up on the hill (called) Vishnupada."
"The art of tempering and casting iron developed in India long before its known appearance in Europe; Vikramaditya, for example, erected at Delhi (ca. 380 A.D.) an iron pillar that stands untarnished today after fifteen centuries; and the quality of metal, or manner of treatment, which has preserved it from rust or decay is still a mystery to modern metallurgical science. Before the European invasion the smelting of iron in small charcoal furnaces was one of the major industries of India. The Industrial Revolution taught Europe how to carry out these processes more cheaply on a larger scale, and the Indian industry died under the competition. Only in our own time are the rich mineral resources of India being again exploited and explored."
"Iron Pillar: “…In our opinion this pillar was made in the ninth century before (the birth of) Lord Jesus… When Rai Pithora built a fort and an idol-house near this pillar, it stood in the courtyard of the idol-house. And when Qutbu’d-Din Aibak constructed a mosque after demolishing the idol-house, this pillar stood in the courtyard of the mosque… ”Idol-house of Rai Pithora: “There was an idol-house near the fort of Rai Pithora. It was very famous… It was built along with the fort in 1200 Bikarmi [Vikrama Samvat] corresponding to AD 1143 and AH 538. The building of this temple was very unusual, and the work done on it by stone-cutters is such that nothing better can be conceived. The beautiful carvings on every stone in it defy description… The eastern and northern portions of this idol-house have survived intact. The fact that the Iron Pillar, which belongs to the Vaishnava faith, was kept inside it, as also the fact that sculptures of Kirshan avatar and Mahadev and Ganesh and Hanuman were carved on its walls, leads us to believe that this temple belonged to the Vaishnava faith. Although all sculptures were mutilated in the times of Muslims, even so a close scrutiny can identify as to which sculpture was what. In our opinion there was a red-stone building in this idol-house, and it was demolished. For, this sort of old stones with sculptures carved on them are still found."
"Shams-i Siraj Afif (d. 1388), in the mid-fourteenth century, explained Iltutmish’s motives regarding the pillar, Every great king took care during his reign to set up some lasting memorial of his power. So sultan Shams al-Din Altamash raised the large pillar in the Masjid-i Jami at old Dehli."
"As regards the dhanus of 1.9 m, which I calculated at Dholavira, R. Balasubramaniam showed in a recent study that in combination with an angula of 1.76 cm, it expressed all the dimensions of the Delhi Iron Pillar with unexpected harmony: the pillar’s total length of 7.67 m, for instance, is precisely four dhanus; the pillar’s diameter, thirty-six angulas at the bottom, shrinks to twenty-four angulas at ground level, finally to taper off at twelve angulas at the very top. If this were not enough, the ratio between the pillar’s entire length (7.67 m) and the portion above the ground (6.12 m) is 5:4, verified to 0.2 per cent—again, Dholavira’s master ratio! This bears out what we have already concluded from the texts : Harappan ratios and linear units survived the collapse of the Indus cities and passed on to those of the Ganges Valley."
"Another knowledge-transfer from India was iron technology, in use since the 2nd millennium BC in India. Hittites brought it west and when they collapsed, the secrets were widely diffused, not in a 300-year Dark Age, but relatively quickly. The corrosion resistant six-ton, seven-metre high Delhi iron pillar from around 400 and the less well-known pillars in Kollur and Dhar were due to a deliberately high level of phosphorous, demonstrating ancient skills of Indian iron smiths. The technique was by then well-known. Persian King Artaxerxes II (404–358 BC) had a pair of ‘supernatural’ Indian swords that resisted the effects of drenching monsoon weather. Indians had been working with iron when the Delhi pillar was made for about the same time as the west has been using iron until now!"
"It is my privilege and a very pleasant duty to write the foreword for Delhi Riots 2020: An Untold Story, which is not a normal kind of book but a serious document of intense research."
"I dedicate this book to all the victims of the Delhi riots in North East Delhi... Nothing that we write or say can convey the depth of the tragedy of these riots. This book is an attempt to bring out the true story of the Delhi Riots. It is a call for remembering that communal fault lines were created between neighbours by ideologically vested interests comprising Urban Naxals and Jihadi elements who had an agenda to implement—to systematically conflagrate areas with mixed populations of Hindus and Muslims and take these areas from dharna to danga."
"In 1990, the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from what is now the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir saw them moving to areas like Vasant Kunj. Delhi welcomed Tibetan refugees as they fled from Chinese occupation. The Tibetan refugees made a life in the city, settling in North Delhi in the Majnu Ka Tilla neighbourhood. A walk through these lanes will transport one to Lhasa."
"Anti-CAA, anti-NRC, anti- NPR protests eventually became a protest against all other religions of the country, anti-police, anti-government and anti-India."
"Further slogans like ‘Hinduon se azadi’ (Freedom from Hindus), ‘Hindutva se azadi’ (Freedom from Hindutva), etc., had nothing to do with the Constitution or the CAA."
"He was a Shiva bhakt (devotee) and even travelled as a Kanwariya during the annual Kanwar Yatra... he was lovingly called Bhola Baba or Shiv Baba by his family and friends... On the night of 24 February, around 10.30pm, Vinod and his son Monu stepped out of the house to buy medicines for Vinod’s grandson... A stone hit Monu Kashyap, and the bike on which the father and son were riding slipped. As though out of nowhere, a crowd of 200 people carrying stones and shouting ‘Allah-hu- Akbar’ surrounded the two of them. They were attacked repeatedly till Monu pretended to be dead and lost consciousness. Social media videos show a dead Vinod being dragged on the streets. Bhole Baba had been lynched to death. ...We went around the area and saw the road where the incident happened. We were told that Vinod made the mistake of crossing the ‘border’ that exists between Hindu and Muslim areas on Wazirabad Road. As soon as someone from the other side came within grabbing distance he was caught, surrounded and lynched to death."
"Bloomsbury India had planned to release Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story in September, a book purportedly giving a factual report on the riots in Delhi in February 2020, based on investigations and interviews conducted by the authors. However, in view of very recent events including a virtual pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the authors, with participation by parties of whom the Publishers would not have approved, we have decided to withdraw publication of the book. Bloomsbury India strongly supports freedom of speech but also has a deep sense of responsibility towards society."
"I alerted Bloomsbury to the growing online controversy over Delhi Riots 2020, as did several other Bloomsbury authors, I did not call for its banning or pulping and have never supported the banning of any book. It is now being published by another press."
"Democracy gives space to opinion and contrary opinion... and the way to fight it is dissent and education and it always is and will be a struggle for the truth… but banning and withdrawing is not a solution in a healthy democracy…."
"This censorship by @BloomsburyIndia is unacceptable. I do hereby announce that I am ending my relationship with them, and will send Bloomsbury a notice to withdraw my book ‘Nullifying Article 370 and Enacting CAA’ due to be released on Sep 20, 2020. Let them paint themselves."
"I am writing this chapter after I decided decided to pull this book from Bloomsbury, after they had listed it for sale on Amazon and other e-commerce market places, in the wake of their suppression of the Freedom of Speech of the authors of a book lined up for release, the now famous ‘Delhi Riots 2020—The Untold Story’."
"I have not read the book in question & have no idea if it is good or bad. However, this is obviously not a quality control problem but about censorship. I commit to never publish a book with @BloomsburyIndia."
"If I disapproved of the ban on The Satanic Verses, if I disapproved of Dinanath Batra (whom I called “Ban Man” in my article in The Washington Post), if I disapproved of how Taslima Nasreen was hounded and attacked in Hyderabad by Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, then I can’t suddenly do a volte face and chest-thump today. When you ban a book, it acquires a kind of cult status because the market fuels curiosity. That is what happened with other banned books. In fact, there are books chronicling banned books by different regimes in history...All I am saying is that forcing Bloomsbury India to withdraw the book is counter-productive – both politically and in the pure sense of how market forces work... Where do you draw the line? Today, many are relieved that this book will not find a publisher in Bloomsbury. But what will you do if Swarajya or OpIndia launches a publishing house of its own in the future?"
"[Sanyal described the withdrawal of the book as an act of] “ideological censorship”, [which demonstrated] “how a tiny cabal controls Indian publishing and constantly imposes ideological censorship. We have just witnessed one example of how this insidious control is wielded.”"
"This decision by Bloomsbury should be condemned by ALL writers and readers. If Bloomsbury does not retract its decision, my co-author and I have decided that we will return the substantial advance paid to us by Bloomsbury for our forthcoming book."
"Bloomsbury should apologize to the people of India. And Bloomsbury should not be allowed to publish or distribute their books in India. because if we are the largest democracy then why did pull back the Delhi Riots 2020 book? Why? ... If there is an expose on the Delhi Riots ...then it is something that should be known. ... I see absolutely no reason to withdraw the book. It is an excuse... We must speak truth on it, and if we have Freedom of Expression in this country,... This is a complete attack on the Freedom of Expression. So we must bring this book on the shelves and if Bloomsbury does not bring this book back on the shelves then Bloomsbury should leave India. .. The next cabal we have to break is the cabal of these publishers."
"The literary world must take a stand [to stop Bloomsbury publishing the book]. This is not about cancel culture. This is about defending literature from fascism. This is about standing up against religious divide, hate speech, islamophobia and false history."
"…the principal Mosquee…is conspicuous at a great distance, being situated on the top of a rock in the centre of the town. The surface of the rock was previously levelled, and around it a space is cleared sufficiently large to form a handsome square, where four fine long streets terminate, opposite to the four sides of the Mosquee; one, opposite to the principal entrance, in front of the building; a second, at the back of the building; and the two others, to the gates that are in the middle of the two sides. The ascent to the three gates is by means of five-and-twenty or thirty steps of beautiful and large stones, which are continued the whole length of the front and sides. The back part is cased over, to the height of the rock, with large and handsome hewn stone, which hides its inequalities, and tends to give a noble appearance to the building. The three entrances, composed of marble, are magnificent, and their large doors are overlaid with finely wrought plates of copper. Above the principal gate, which greatly exceeds the others in grandeur of appearance, there are several small turrets of white marble that produce a fine effect; and at the back part of the Mosquee are seen three large domes, built also of white marble, within and without. The middle dome is much larger and loftier than the other two. The end of the Mosquee alone is covered: the space between the three domes and the principal entrance is without any roof; the extreme heat of the climate rendering such an opening absolutely necessary. The whole is paved with large slabs of marble. I grant that this building is not constructed according to those rules of architecture which we seem to think ought to be implicitly followed; yet I can perceive no fault that offends the taste; every part appears well contrived, properly executed, and correctly proportioned. I am satisfied that even in Paris a church erected after the model of this temple would be admired, were it only for its singular style of architecture, and its extra-ordinary appearance. With the exception of the three great domes, and the numerous turrets, which are all of white marble, the Mosquee is of a red colour, as if built with large slabs of red marble: although it consists of a species of stone, cut with great facility, but apt to peel off in flakes after a certain time."
"About 2 c. without Dely is the remainder of an auncient mole [mahal?] or hunting house, built by Sultan Berusa [Sultan Firoz Shah, the pillar referred to is the Asoka lat brought by him from Meerut], a great Indian monarch, with much curiositie of stoneworke. With and above the rest is to be seen a stone pillar, which, passing through three stories, is higher then all twenty foure foot, having at the top a globe and a halfe moone over it. This stone, they say, stands as much under the earth, and is placed in the water, being all one entire stone; some say Naserdengady, a Potan king [probably Nasiruddin Tughlak, son of Firoz Shah], would have taken it up and was prohibited by multitude of scorpions, and that it hath inscriptions. In divers parts of India the like are to be seene, and of late was found buried in the ground about Fettipore a stone piller of an hundred cubits length, which the King commanded to bring to Agra, but was broken in the way, to his great griefe."
"One of the greatest curiosities of Delhi is the Coottub-Minar, which is fifteen miles from the city, and is a conspicuous object at a great distance. This celebrated pillar was erected in 1193 by Coottubud-Deen, the founder of the Ghoorides, who overthrew the throne of the Brahmins in Delhi, in commemoration of the triumph of Mahometanism over Brahminism… About eight O’clock I stood before the lofty Coottub Minar: it is built of very fine, hard red sandstone, is 62 feet in diameter at the base, and rises to the height of 265 feet; it is divided into three stories, and the upper gallery is elevated 242 feet 6 inches above the ground. This column, which is the highest in the world, was intended by Coottub-ud-Deen to mark the entrance to a mosque which he purposed building. The lower story is about 90 feet high, and is built in alternate angular and concave channelings, on which sentences from the Koran are inscribed in raised Arabic characters; the other two stories consist of concave flutings only, and diminish gradually to the summit. The whole is crowned by a small dome, which is supported by eight square pillars: this dome was shattered by an earthquake in the year 1803, but has been restored by the English in its original form."
"We had admired the presidential palace and parliament houses, paused beside the striking India Gate, inspected the 16th Century Humayun's Tomb--a forerunner to the Taj Mahal--and cruised past scores of international embassies. Now, without crossing a border--or pausing at a stoplight--we were in a different world."
"Delhi’s history is etched over its landscape in stone. Magnificent forts, mosques and tombs of the Sultanate and Mughal periods evoke the aura of the medieval world while the stately layout and architecture of Lutyen’s Delhi bear the imposing imprint of British imperial rule."
"Lal Qila, the massive 17th Century Red Fort, once was home to 5,000 residents. Built between 1639 and 1648 with red sandstone brought from Rajasthan by Mogul King Shah Jahan, the Red Fort is surrounded by a 1.5 mile wall. It initially served as the capital of Shah Jahan's empire. The same king commissioned construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra as a monument to his wife... A shopping bazaar is within."
"Old Delhi is bereft of splendor: Jama Masjid is the largest Muslim mosque in all of Asia. Dating to the 17th Century and commissioned by Shah Jahan, Asia's largest mosque was built of sandstone and black marble over six years by 5,000 laborers. Five gates remind Muslims that they are to pray five times daily, and up to 20,000 gather here--with women and men typically praying at different times. Climb the steps of a 130-foot-tall minaret for panoramic views of Old Delhi."
"The Emperor’s palace is a good half league in circuit. The walls are of fine cut stone, with battlements, and at every tenth battlement there is a tower. The fosses are full of water and are lined with cut stone. The principal gate has nothing magnificent about it, nor has the first court, where the nobles are permitted to enter on their elephants... A little farther on, over the same gate is the place where the drums, trumpets, and hautboys are kept [the Naggar-Khana], which are heard some moments before the Emperor ascends his throne of justice, to give notice to the Omrahs, and again when the Emperor is about to rise. When entering this third court you face the Divan where the Emperor gives audience. It is a grand hall elevated some four feet above the ground floor, and open on three sides. Thirty-two marble columns sustain as many arches, and these columns are about four feet square, with their pedestals and some mouldings [the Chihal Situn, hall of forty pillars]. When Shahjahan commenced the building of this hall he intended that it should be enriched throughout by wonderful works in mosaic, like those in the chapel of the Grand Duke In Italy; but having made a trial upon two or three pillars to the height of two or three feet, he considered that it would be impossible to find enough stones for so considerable a design, and that moreover it would cost an enormous sum of money; this compelled him to stop the work, and content himself with a representation of different flowers."
"The entrance of the fortress presents nothing remarkable except two large elephants of stone, placed at either side of one of the principal gates. On one of the elephants is seated the statue of Jemel, the renowned Raja of Chitor; on the other is the statue of Polta, his brother. These are the brave heroes who, with their still braver mother, immortalised their names by the extraordinary resistance which they opposed to the celebrated Ekbar… After passing into the citadel through this gate, there is seen a long and spacious street, divided in the midst by a canal of running water. . The street has a long divan, or raised way, on both sides, in the manner of the Pontneuf, five or six feet high and four broad. Bordering the divan are closed arcades, which run up the whole way in the form of gates. It is upon this long divan that all the collectors of market-dues and other petty officers exercise their functions without being incommoded by the horses and people that pass in the street below. The Mansebdars or inferior Omrahs mount guard on this raised way during the night. The water of the canal runs into the Seraglio; divides and intersects every part, and then falls into the ditches of the fortification. This water is brought from the river Gemna by means of a canal opened at a distance of five or six leagues above Dehly, and cut with great labour through fields and rocky ground."
"I have resided in Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad (Deccan) for many years. In all these places I could hardly locate any temples left of the medieval period. Hindu learning was dependent on schools and Brahman teachers, and both were attached to temples mostly in urban areas. And all the three - schools, teachers and temples - were systematically destroyed."
"“Just as later Mughal painting is a harmonious blend of Persian and Indian artistic tradition, so the Indo-Muslim architecture of Delhi and Ajmer is a blend. In the Quwwat al-Islam at Delhi and the Arhai din-ka-Jhopra at Ajmer, existing remains bear unmistakable evidence that they were not merely compilations, but the distinctive, planned works of professional architects…"
"“Although constructed of destroyed Hindu temples, the Mosques at Old Delhi and Ajmer once and for all set the fashion to be followed by later mosques in Muslim India…"
"“The early formative phase of Indo-Muslim architecture, marked by the adaptation of Hindu, Buddhist or Jaina temples, is illustrated by the oldest Mosques at Delhi, Bengal, Jaunpur, Daulatabad, Patan, etc. In Malwa, also, spoils of Hindu temples were used…"
"“…Delhi was the source of artistic inspiration for all the later provincial schools of Indo-Muslim architecture. Codrington remarks, ‘At Delhi, the Kutb-ul-Islam marks the beginning of Islamic architecture in India.’ This formative phase of Mosque architecture in India began with the random utilization of temple spoils, Hindu architraves, corbelled ceilings, kumbha pillars with hanging bell-and-chain motifs, which were organised to fulfil the needs of congregational prayer. It is said that the columns of twenty-seven Hindu and Jaina temples were utilized in the great Mosque, at Delhi, rightly called the ‘Might of Islam’. It was built by Qutb-al-Din Aybak in AH 587/AD 1191-92 on an ancient pre-Muslim plinth. …Originally there were five domes in the liwan all compiled of Hindu fragments, as is evident from their corbelled interiors…"
"…Incidentally, it may be recalled that Beglar carried out excavations at the Quwat-al-Islam Mosque at Old Delhi under the supervision of Cunningham and noticed the foundation of pre-Muslim temples there…"
"The good news is that in recent years, there has been renewed interest in the history of the armed resistance. Long-forgotten revolutionaries have started popping up in social media and popular culture. In 2019, four of the last remaining INA veterans were driven down Raj Path as part of the Republic Day Parade. The Indian Navy celebrated the RIN revolt as a float at the annual event in 2022. It had taken the institution three-quarters of a century to get itself to do this. In January 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a statue of Subhas Bose would be erected under the canopy on Raj Path (now renamed Kartavya Path). Anyone familiar with the place will realize the symbolic importance of this. Netaji, ‘the Leader’, will permanently stand, taking the salute to not just the National War Memorial but to all future Republic Day parades. He had said ‘Dilli Chalo’ in 1943, and has finally arrived at the heart of the Republic."