Delhi Heritage Visit: Visit to Qutub Complex

I, along with few of my friends from college days and from my office, visited Qutub Minar Complex on 20^th July 2019. Though the Complex is open whole day but we decided to visit there in early morning, so as to avoid the huge rush of visitors. We decided to meet at 6.45 a.m. at the Complex and entered inside at 7.00 a.m. sharp. We were amongst few tourists there.

Though we all were familiar with history little bit but we were led by our guide and my office colleague, Mr Sanjeev Singh, who has a passion for knowing history as well as narrating it. He is a well read, well traveled and erudite person. He has read Babur Nama, Akbar Nama, Taarikh-e-Firozshahi etc.

Sarai (Above) & Mosque (below)

He informed us at the very beginning that three kings of Sultanate era contributed a lot in the development of the whole complex as being seen today. These are Qutbuddin Aibak, Iltutmish and Alauddin Khilji. After entering, on our right are a number of houses built along with a small Masjid. It has been explained that these are old structures & is a sarai ( سرائےtavern) and this was a resting place en-route for traders/ travelers who are going to Ajmer from Delhi. The whole complex is on a hillock i.e. a raised place compared to its surroundings.

We then moved further and saw the original boundaries of mosque built by Aibak. This is the first Masjid built in Northern India. The platform of the structure looks like to be consisting of two different platforms – one is little old original structure and the front one was made later on with the stones available from adjoining structures.

Red - Original structure by Qutbuddin Aibak

RED-By Aibak, GREY -by Iltutmish, BROWN-by Khilji

Ibn Battuta, a Moroccon traveler, visited India in the early fourteenth century and narrated in his travelogue about this Masjid that he saw a white mosque with a red minar (Qutub Minar). Therefore, it is learnt that this mosque may be plastered white but there are no traces of the same in the complex nowadays.

Northern Gate

We entered the Masjid complex from Northern gate, as it has two more gate, one on the east and other on south. Usually all the Islamic buildings like mosques and mausoleums have three gates on North, South and East, while the West side is covered by a wall. It is due to the fact that In India, the direction of Ka’ba falls on west and that forms the Qibla ( قبلہdirection) and prayers are offered facing that side.

The path leading to Northern gate is dotted with graves of both male and female, which can be distinguished by a plate ( تختیtakhti) on female grave and a pen (قلم qalam) on male graves. The graves are in North-South direction with head on North side.

Pillars on Courtyard

Inside the open courtyard ( سحنsahan) of Masjid, there are covered structures on all the three sides supported on number of pillars. These pillars seemed to be erected hurriedly as there are no matching of pillars with each other. The two corners have small double story space and it is assumed that it is meant for use of woman folks of the time.

Ruined walls & Iron Pillar

While moving from courtyard, you come towards main Masjid building. Only dilapidated ruins of front wall remain now with beautiful carvings of Quranic verses. The roof of the structure is no more now. It was also informed by our guide that the arches and roofs erected during that time were not of true arch pattern and therefore, weak. This could be major reason why these arches and roofs are destroyed over time may be due excessive load or earth quakes. The true arches do have a key stone/ brick, which distributes the load equally and hence more stable. These arches were not developed at that time and were seen in the buildings of around 1300 AD, as in door of Alai Darwaza (Alai Gate).

Inscription on Iron Pillar

In the courtyard of the Masjid, there is an Iron Pillar, the inscription on it shows that it was built by Chandra Gupta II of Gupta Dynasty, somewhere in the Anga Pradesh (one of the 16 principalities) i.e. present day Bihar. It looks like that the same was brought here and then erected as the un-polished portion at the bottom shows that it was not inserted to the height as was inserted at its original place.

Iltutmish Tomb

After finishing there, we moved towards right and exited from a small gate leading towards Tomb of Iltutmish. Iltutmish was a slave, son-in law of Aibak, father of Razia Sultan and one of the great rulers of Slave Dynasty. He was credited with enhancing the area of Masjid as shown in the drawing. The tomb of Iltutmish is made of white marble and walls are of marble and red sandstone, with intricate carvings of Quranic verses. The roof of the structure is no more, apparently because of the same weak arch erection as was prevalent at that time. The actual tomb is well below the ground. This is notable for two main reasons, one it is one of the first structures, which uses the marble and intricate marble carvings. Secondly, it is probably the highest pedestal (taveez) from ground in any tomb in India.

On the east of this structure lies the ruins of ambitious Alai Minar, commanded by Alauddin Khilji to be built more than twice the height of Qutub Minar. But the basic structure of even first story could not be completed when Khilji died. The plinth area itself shows that this would have been a huge structure.

Alai Madarsah

While moving backwards towards south from Iltutmish’ tomb you may reach to quarter complex, built by Alauddin Khilji, on Southern and South-Western side of the mosque. This is Alai Madarsa (

Alauddin's Tomb

مدرسہschool). The architectural style was improved and true arches became in use during this period. This complex also houses the tomb of Alauddin Khilji, which is in ruins. The structure shows that the tomb complex was supposed to be made grand but after the death of Alauddin Khilji, no one further built the same and even his tomb too is nothing more than a very small platform.

Iltutmish Gate (ruined Alai Minar in the background)

Alai Gate

When we moved again towards North, we entered Masjid’s courtyard, which is known as Iltutmish Gate and moved towards the Qutub Minar. Just adjacent to Qutub Minar is the entrance of Masjid built by Alauddin Khilji and is known Alai Darwaza (Alai Gate). This small building is made of marble and red sandstone with very intricate carvings and it is the finest building from architectural point of view in the complex. It is one of the early examples of Indo-Islamic Architectural style which later evolved to new heights. As discussed earlier, this building has true arch structure and hence more stable.

We moved out of this whole complex through a small door on the eastern side and came across another small structure, known as Tomb of Imam Zamin, which was built during Humanyun’s period. The internal portion of the tomb is small, yet very beautifully & intricately carved.

Qutub Minar from West side

We then moved towards a small structure cupola (chhatri) on the East side in the lawn, which is known as Smith’s Folly, which we will discuss in the next para. Explaining Qutub Minar from here, our guide explained that the base (plinth) of the Qutub Minar is on two platforms which are capable of taking weight of two stories of the minar. Aibak started its construction in around 1190 and completed first story. His successor, Iltutmish, completed all the four stories in 1220. The top story got destroyed during the lightening and Firoz Shah Tughlaq renovated it and made it of five stories with slightly more height.

Major Robert Smith renovated the tower in early 19^th century and placed a cupola (chhatri) at the top, which was later removed on the instructions of Lord Hardinge, the then Governor General in 1848 and placed on the lawn outside and as discussed above, it is known as Smith’s Folly (Smith ki Ghalati). Qutub Minar has a entrance from the North side and has alternate circular and triangular pattern on the first story, followed by circular and triangular patterns on the second and third stories respectively. Marble is used in the fourth and fifth stories.

With friends, Alai Gate and Imam Zamin's tomb in background

On coming out from the complex, we saw two structures on either side of the exit – pyramidal shaped on the left and spiral shaped on the right. These are erected by Mr Metcalfe, a British Resident to keep a watch on the activities there.

With this, our Qutub visit concluded and we would take up visit to another heritage site in Delhi next week. I hope that this narration would probably instigate in you a desire to visit this momentous monument, which encompasses so much history in its small precinct.

Places not to be missed
(with link to Wikipedia page)

Some timelines

	Started	Finished	Contribution
Qutub Minar	1192	1220	Qutbuddin Aibak Iltutmish Firoz Tughlaq British
Quwwat ul Islam Masjid	1193		Qutbuddin Aibak
Tomb of Iltutmish		1235
Alai Minar	1311		Alauddin Khilji
Tomb of Alauddin Khilji		1316
Alai Madrasah		1316
Alai Gate		1316
Tomb of Imam Zamin	1537	1538	Imam Zamin
Iron Pillar		402

Nearest Metro Station - Qutub Minar (on Yellow line)

Other tourist information - Delhi Tourism
(online ticket booking) Archaeological Survey of India

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