Jahaz Mahal
Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, 15th Century
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Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, 15th Century
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The splendid Jahaz Mahal, a marvelous piece of Afghan engineering is a long, narrow building oriented North-South to make the most of the breeze. The two water bodies on either side of the palace besides acting as cooling aids through evaporation, also irrigate 8 hectares of land when filled with rain water. There are also wells within the structure, the two main ones being the Andheri Baoli or Dark well and the Ujala Baoli or Lit well. They apparently had silver baskets which also carried water via pulleys from the ground floor to the roof tanks. They had an intricate water system within the palace. There were also pools for relaxing on the roof and the ground floor, which are beautifully decorative, with seating around. These would have kept the king and his court beautifully cool in the 45 degree heat. The sinuous water channels in the roof carried rain water down to the lower tank slowly straining out the suspended particles. A clever piece of engineering! Passive solar architecture was part of the fabric of this building. There were apparently steam baths and hot water pools warmed by the Sun. Heating and cooling occurred naturally as the building worked with nature. One can’t help but compare the pleasure pools to a modern spa where we might go for a weekend getaway. Images of Rani Roopmati and Sultan Baz Bahadur with their courtiers come to mind. Their love story is steeped in poetry, romance war and death.
The love story is considered a legend by some and true by others!!!
– Preeti Knowles
When I read that Ghiyas ud din Khilji wanted a palace devoted to his women, I immediately thought of the rich textile heritage in the region and especially the ancient art of Block printing, which is now known as Bagh (even as early records don’t make mention of such a place). Fabrics don’t last as long as monuments do, but we are lucky in this country, to have a sustained textile heritage, which lets us peed peep into the annals of fashion of various regions. And I am sure that the ladies of Mandu must have patronised the local craftsmen and their printing skills.
Block prints, originating from Gujarat were excavated at Fustat, near Cairo, in the nineteenth century.The oldest of these have been dated around fourteenth and fifteenth century.
– Gopika Nath
Land of Rani Roopmati, away from the contemporariness, untouched surroundings, where material of the 15th century and nature talk, a relationship between the dilapidating yet breathtaking structures of Jharonkhas, Jaalis, Chajjas and Chhatris. These were authentically designed by the Mughal Karigars, with the knowledge systems with which the material was employed and mastered evolving from the Afghani architecture.
– Simran Chowdhary
An ode to my favourite Mahal
If my love was a ship, I’d cruise to you along the waves of time,
As I stand lonely with waters around me, my heart longs for the shores of our destiny,
I am your anchor – steady and still, as we weave through the tempests of life,
And yet cradling you to distant destinations, creating memoirs of our voyages together.
– Vaishali Rasesh Shah
People have been charmed by the rains of Mandu throughout its history. And the Mughals were no exception. Owing to their Timurid peripatetic heritage, they were often on move. As their camps, resembling a miniature city, moved through western India, they often desired to sojourn in Mandu. Jahangir was especially fond of the city and admired its splendid buildings. Overwhelmed by Mandu’s beauty in monsoon, Jahangir wrote in his memoir, “it is not known if in the inhabited world there exists another place as Mandu for sweetness of air and for the pleasantness of the locality….especially in the rainy season.”
– Shikha Dwivedi
During the rains, when the waters of both the tanks are full to the brim, the view from the Taveli Mahal of the Jahaz Mahal is indeed that of a ship anchored in water. It seems like poetry is poured into architecture and it is a sight to behold. During evening and special functions the building and the tanks were decorated with lamps, the sight of which can only be imagined today. Shah Jahan and his wife, Nur Jahan stayed at the Jahaz Mahal during their brief travel to Mandu. Jehangir wrote in his memoirs, “It was a wonderful assembly. In the beginning of the evening they lighted lanterns and lamps all around the tanks and buildings and a lighting up was carried out like of which has perhaps never been arranged in any place. The lanterns and lamps cast their reflection on water and it appeared that the whole surface of the tank was a plain of fire. A grand entertainment took place and the drunkards indulged themselves to excess.”
The ground floor is divided into three huge halls with narrow rooms on the ends. Curtains would be hung to divide the living spaces and especially in the areas which would be occupied by the ladies. In a room in the northern side of the building is a cistern which is surrounded by a colonnade on three sides. The terrace is approached by a flight of steps which has many pavilions for viewing. These pavilions are topped with domes and turrets.
– Surabhi Sharman
Personally Mandu always reminds me of the poem Xanadu:
The shadow of the dome of pleasure, floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure, from the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device…
– Talish Ray
Mandu or Mandavgarh as it was once known has several times in its existence become a lost city….it was always a landscape of pleasure palaces and pavilions with a history dating back to the Parmara rulers of the 6th century. It was under Hoshang Shah, son of Dilawar Khan a former Afghan Governor of the Delhi Sultanate; that Mandu was achieved architectural distinction. Dilawar Khan fortified Mandu with over 20 miles of walls and parapets; but it was Hoshang Shah who built what are amongst India’s finest monuments.
– Amita Baig
What was the food of Hindustan when the Jahaz Mahal was built in the 15th century? A modern day gourmet may not recognize it in the absence of potatoes, chilies, tomatoes and many other common ingredients in our food today. All these were to arrive at least a decade or two later into the Subcontinent once Colonial trade began with the Mughals.
However, some other dishes that we think of as quintessentially Hindustani were being shaped by forces of syncretism even in the Khilji and Tughlaq times. Amir Khusro (1253-1325), the father of modern day qawwali and khayal, a Sufi mystic and a court poet, refers to the samosa prepared with meat, ghee and onions for the Turko-Afghan royals and Persian noble men who made up the court during the Sultanate. The sambosa, sambusak was a snack popular in the Persian world and known to the Arabs. Its earliest mention goes back to the 10th century and recipes began appearing in various 12th-13th century texts. It arrived in India with the Sultanate as armies and traders started thronging Dehli. As Alauddin Khilji conquered Malwa, it is fair to assume that the snack began its pan-India spread as well. However, it may not have been a commoner’s snack just as yet. Potatoes would take a few more centuries to be farmed by the British, which is when the aloo-filled vegetarian snack would go mass.
Meanwhile, another dish was taking shape in the Subcontinent. The Pulao that some historians claim was a dish from ancient India but which was fairly common all over Greece and Central Asia also arrived in India with the Turkish-Afghan rule. At this time, spicing may have been minimal and the dish may just have connoted rice cooked in stock. The refinement that this dish would see in the Persian-influenced Mughal kitchens leading eventually to the concoction of the courtly biryani in post-Mughal kitchens was yet to set in.
– Anoothi Vishal