Excerpt: Shahjahanabad: Mapping a Mughal City by Swapna Liddle

Shahjahanabad was a planned city, the only living, planned, Mughal city extant in largely its original form. Encircled by a city wall, it was situated on the bank of the river Yamuna. The citadel housing the emperor and the royal family (officially named Qila-e-Moalla, ‘the exalted fort’, but today known as the Red Fort) was an important focal point of the city, and the congregational mosque, the Jama Masjid, was the next most prominent landmark. The two main streets led from the Qila – one westwards and the other southwards. These ceremonial avenues were lined with trees and provided with a channel of water that flowed down the middle. Some older road alignments were also preserved, particularly a diagonal axis that ran from the middle of the western stretch to the middle of the southern stretch of the wall of the city. The city included large gardens and channels of water, fed by a canal that brought water into the city from the Yamuna further upstream.

Shahjahanabad remained the seat of the Mughal royal family for more than two centuries after its foundation, and important changes took place in the city during this period. Political upheavals associated with the decline of the Mughal Empire, such as civil war between various factions within the Mughal nobility, and invasions, were crises that caused considerable human suffering and loss of property. They also led to some long-term changes in the structure of the city. There were sharp fluctuations in the fortunes of various amirs, and as a result some of the large estates declined. In general, the density of built-up area increased, both in the fort, as the royal family increased in numbers, and in the city, where many of the larger estates were subdivided into numerous smaller plots. Construction was not the only way in which each era of the city’s history left its mark. For instance, in the late eighteenth century, the Marathas became the rulers of the city for a number of years. The legacy of that era was reflected in the numerous place names ending with ‘wara’ – Maliwara, Jogiwara, etc.

In 1803, Shahjahanabad and the territory around it came under the control of the British East India Company. The Company became the de facto ruler of the city, while the emperor and the royal family continued to live in the palace complex, the Qila. The late eighteenth century had been a period of disorders and war in North India. With the British vanquishing most of the other powers by the beginning of the nineteenth century, peace descended. This led to a spurt of construction in the city, as well as greater attention to civic infrastructure, which had deteriorated in the previous years. The channel of water that ran down the two main streets and the gardens, was restored. The trees by the sides of the streets that had died, were replaced. The British also brought new styles of architecture and contributed a new layer of landmarks to the city.

This phase in the history of Shahjahanabad came to an abrupt end with the Revolt of 1857. Soldiers who had mutinied in Meerut the previous evening, arrived in Delhi on the morning of 11 May, and soon the British administration was overthrown, to be replaced by the rule of a court of soldiers, under the leadership of Bahadur Shah, the Mughal emperor. The revolt in Delhi lasted for about four months, after which the city was re-conquered by the British. Its violent aftermath, which convulsed the city, changed the morphology of the city significantly. Property owned by the royal family and others held to be responsible for the rebellion, was confiscated, and some important buildings that made up this property, were demolished. These included the sarai complex at the square known as Chandni Chowk, a major landmark of Shahjahanabad. There were large-scale demolitions inside the fort, since that palace complex came to house the army, and new barracks were built in it. A swathe of land, some 450 yards in width, was cleared around the fort for security reasons. The introduction of the railway in the mid-1860s led to a further round of clearances in the northern part of the city.

In view of the major changes that took place after 1857, to understand the shape and structures of Mughal Shahjahanabad, one must turn to pre-1857 cartographic and textual sources. The map that is the subject of this book, is a large map of Shahjahanabad in the British Library. Dated 1846–47, it is the most detailed available cartographic record of the city before the major changes that were affected immediately following the Revolt of 1857. The map is large and detailed, and in good condition overall, despite a missing corner which corresponds to the southeastern corner of the city. The inscriptions are in Urdu, and can be read with a moderate level of difficulty…

The wall of the city itself is shown in meticulous detail. Not only are all the bastions and the walls between them depicted, but the length of each stretch of wall and the dimensions of each bastion are also marked, measured in yards. Each of the city’s gates and smaller wicket gates are shown and named. Within the walls, one feature of the map that immediately strikes the eye is the distinctly coloured areas. Different colours have been used to denote the area under each thana, or police station jurisdiction. The boundaries separating the thanas are also demarcated clearly with a red line. Evidently, administrative details were important to the mapmaker, suggesting that the primary motive of this cartographic exercise was administrative. Looking at the map, one is tempted to think that demarcated by those colours and bounded by the lines separating them, we are looking at clearly bounded localities. Yet, the vast majority of the labels on the map are for streets – designated gali, kucha or bazaar. Maybe the brief of the cartographer was to clearly mark out jurisdictional limits for purposes of administrative clarity. Nevertheless, he understood the city primarily through its streets. The rest of the markings on the map mostly indicate important structures, complexes and spaces – gates in the city wall, havelis and kothis (mansions), katras (enclosed commercial spaces distinct from streets), ahatas (enclosures), gardens, mosques, madrasas (educational institutions), shops, workshops and the like.

The map is not only a valuable resource for the study of the city in the first half of the nineteenth century, it tells us about Mughal city planning in general. The information supplied by the map itself can be further fleshed out when it is supplemented by other sources…

In addition to… cartographic sources, there are texts that give us additional information that is useful in understanding the map… The first is the Persian language work, Sair-ul-Manazil, literally ‘Tour of Mansions’, written by Sangin Beg in the late 1810s. One Urdu and two recent English translations of the work make it quite accessible. The second, written in Urdu in 1847, is Asar-us-Sanandid, by Syed Ahmad Khan, recently translated into English. A later work, published in 1916, is a listing by the Archaeological Survey of India, of historically and architecturally important structures in Shahjahanabad, by Maulvi Zafar Hasan.

Studying the map in the light of these other maps and texts, supplemented by other official records of the British administration in Delhi in the first half of the nineteenth century, can help us to better understand pre-1857 Delhi…

Having done this, it remains for us to ask – what does the map, when read in the context of these sources, tell us about the structure of nineteenth-century Shahjahanabad and of the planning principles behind the seventeenth-century Mughal city? There have been attempts to analyse the underlying principles that inform the city plan, but scholars differ widely in their conclusions.

The conclusion that may be drawn from this analysis is that the mohalla, in the context of mid-nineteenth century Shahjahanabad, must be seen as denoting a neighbourhood in a very loose sense of the term… it seems that most “neighbourhoods’ were loosely defined and the boundaries between them were fluid…

As far as trying to identify settlement patterns is concerned, it increasingly becomes clear that only the broadest generalizations can be made. The most classic case, Dariba, which was in fact established by Shahjahan as a mohalla of Jain bankers, also very quickly began to show signs of a very mixed population. Of course, it was not uncommon for those of particular ethnic communities, particularly new immigrants, or occupational groups, to choose to live in communities, but this was not a formal arrangement, and there was considerable fluidity, particularly over time. Fluidity is also evident in the matter of social hierarchy. The mansions of the nobles sit cheek by jowl with those of the most humble folk. Finally, one feature of the map that has been commented upon, is that mosques have been detailed, but institutions of the Hindus, Sikhs or Jains are largely missing. This has been interpreted as being testament to the character of Shahjahanabad as an essentially “Islamic” city, despite the fact that by the early nineteenth century, less than 50 per cent of its population was Muslim. The evidence from Zafar Hasan suggests that there were in fact a large number of temples in existence by the nineteenth century. What is the reason for this invisibility of non-Muslim places of worship, even several years after the inauguration of British rule in the city?

…The reason for this can perhaps be related to some fundamental differences between the nature of Muslim as opposed to Hindu and Jain places of worship. Catherine Asher… has remarked on the fact that the former tend to be located on streets, with their facades often prominently visible, whereas the latter are located less prominently in relation to the street. This is no doubt in large part a result of the private nature of the family shrine. What are today, and were even listed by Zafar Hasan as historic temples, were originally family shrines, usually located inside private courtyards. The main outcome of this difference in location and orientation is that it leads to mosques being more prominent landmarks on the street. Though temples are not immediately apparent on the map, the mansions they were part of, are. The Gauri Shankar temple is neither depicted nor labelled as such, but we know that it was inside the haveli of its builder Appa Gangadhar, which is both labelled and drawn in some detail. The Jain Naya Mandir, built by the banker Har Sukh Rai in the early nineteenth century in Dharampura, is similarly not shown, but we know that it existed within the space that is marked in the map as Dera Sagun Chand, (“place of Sagun Chand”, the son of Har Sukh Rai). These shrines existed but were not depicted on the map, probably because they were not public landmarks in the way that mosques were.

Though initially puzzling, these aspects of the map are understandable if we contemplate the unique situation of Delhi in the 1840s. This was a city which was the seat of the Mughal emperor, yet administered by the British. The Delhi College, which had been established in 1825, by the late 1840s had become a vibrant nurturing ground for enquiring minds. Here English was taught, but so were Indian classical languages. The latest developments in Western sciences and arts were imparted through the medium of the Urdu language, the lingua franca of much of North India during the period. The cultural cross-fertilization that an institution of this kind made possible, led to intellectual endeavours that drew upon the knowledge systems of both traditions. A map such as this, would fit right into that model. If not made at the college, it is not unlikely that it was made by an alumnus, many of whom ended up in jobs in the East India Company’s administration. Having said this, our mapmaker, though perhaps an alumnus of the Delhi College, was most likely not a native of Delhi. A strong clue is that the word he consistently uses for a step-well, is baodi, not baoli, as a Dehliwala would have said it!

Shahjahanabad was a planned city, the only living, planned, Mughal city extant in largely its original form. Encircled by a city wall, it was situated on the bank of the river Yamuna. The citadel housing the emperor and the royal family (officially named Qila-e-Moalla, ‘the exalted fort’, but today known as the Red Fort) was an important focal point of the city, and the congregational mosque, the Jama Masjid, was the next most prominent landmark. The two main streets led from the Qila – one westwards and the other southwards. These ceremonial avenues were lined with trees and provided with a channel of water that flowed down the middle. Some older road alignments were also preserved, particularly a diagonal axis that ran from the middle of the western stretch to the middle of the southern stretch of the wall of the city. The city included large gardens and channels of water, fed by a canal that brought water into the city from the Yamuna further upstream.

Shahjahanabad remained the seat of the Mughal royal family for more than two centuries after its foundation, and important changes took place in the city during this period. Political upheavals associated with the decline of the Mughal Empire, such as civil war between various factions within the Mughal nobility, and invasions, were crises that caused considerable human suffering and loss of property. They also led to some long-term changes in the structure of the city. There were sharp fluctuations in the fortunes of various amirs, and as a result some of the large estates declined. In general, the density of built-up area increased, both in the fort, as the royal family increased in numbers, and in the city, where many of the larger estates were subdivided into numerous smaller plots. Construction was not the only way in which each era of the city’s history left its mark. For instance, in the late eighteenth century, the Marathas became the rulers of the city for a number of years. The legacy of that era was reflected in the numerous place names ending with ‘wara’ – Maliwara, Jogiwara, etc.

In 1803, Shahjahanabad and the territory around it came under the control of the British East India Company. The Company became the de facto ruler of the city, while the emperor and the royal family continued to live in the palace complex, the Qila. The late eighteenth century had been a period of disorders and war in North India. With the British vanquishing most of the other powers by the beginning of the nineteenth century, peace descended. This led to a spurt of construction in the city, as well as greater attention to civic infrastructure, which had deteriorated in the previous years. The channel of water that ran down the two main streets and the gardens, was restored. The trees by the sides of the streets that had died, were replaced. The British also brought new styles of architecture and contributed a new layer of landmarks to the city.

This phase in the history of Shahjahanabad came to an abrupt end with the Revolt of 1857. Soldiers who had mutinied in Meerut the previous evening, arrived in Delhi on the morning of 11 May, and soon the British administration was overthrown, to be replaced by the rule of a court of soldiers, under the leadership of Bahadur Shah, the Mughal emperor. The revolt in Delhi lasted for about four months, after which the city was re-conquered by the British. Its violent aftermath, which convulsed the city, changed the morphology of the city significantly. Property owned by the royal family and others held to be responsible for the rebellion, was confiscated, and some important buildings that made up this property, were demolished. These included the sarai complex at the square known as Chandni Chowk, a major landmark of Shahjahanabad. There were large-scale demolitions inside the fort, since that palace complex came to house the army, and new barracks were built in it. A swathe of land, some 450 yards in width, was cleared around the fort for security reasons. The introduction of the railway in the mid-1860s led to a further round of clearances in the northern part of the city.

In view of the major changes that took place after 1857, to understand the shape and structures of Mughal Shahjahanabad, one must turn to pre-1857 cartographic and textual sources. The map that is the subject of this book, is a large map of Shahjahanabad in the British Library. Dated 1846–47, it is the most detailed available cartographic record of the city before the major changes that were affected immediately following the Revolt of 1857. The map is large and detailed, and in good condition overall, despite a missing corner which corresponds to the southeastern corner of the city. The inscriptions are in Urdu, and can be read with a moderate level of difficulty…

The wall of the city itself is shown in meticulous detail. Not only are all the bastions and the walls between them depicted, but the length of each stretch of wall and the dimensions of each bastion are also marked, measured in yards. Each of the city’s gates and smaller wicket gates are shown and named. Within the walls, one feature of the map that immediately strikes the eye is the distinctly coloured areas. Different colours have been used to denote the area under each thana, or police station jurisdiction. The boundaries separating the thanas are also demarcated clearly with a red line. Evidently, administrative details were important to the mapmaker, suggesting that the primary motive of this cartographic exercise was administrative. Looking at the map, one is tempted to think that demarcated by those colours and bounded by the lines separating them, we are looking at clearly bounded localities. Yet, the vast majority of the labels on the map are for streets – designated gali, kucha or bazaar. Maybe the brief of the cartographer was to clearly mark out jurisdictional limits for purposes of administrative clarity. Nevertheless, he understood the city primarily through its streets. The rest of the markings on the map mostly indicate important structures, complexes and spaces – gates in the city wall, havelis and kothis (mansions), katras (enclosed commercial spaces distinct from streets), ahatas (enclosures), gardens, mosques, madrasas (educational institutions), shops, workshops and the like.

The map is not only a valuable resource for the study of the city in the first half of the nineteenth century, it tells us about Mughal city planning in general. The information supplied by the map itself can be further fleshed out when it is supplemented by other sources…

In addition to… cartographic sources, there are texts that give us additional information that is useful in understanding the map… The first is the Persian language work, Sair-ul-Manazil, literally ‘Tour of Mansions’, written by Sangin Beg in the late 1810s. One Urdu and two recent English translations of the work make it quite accessible. The second, written in Urdu in 1847, is Asar-us-Sanandid, by Syed Ahmad Khan, recently translated into English. A later work, published in 1916, is a listing by the Archaeological Survey of India, of historically and architecturally important structures in Shahjahanabad, by Maulvi Zafar Hasan.

Studying the map in the light of these other maps and texts, supplemented by other official records of the British administration in Delhi in the first half of the nineteenth century, can help us to better understand pre-1857 Delhi…

Having done this, it remains for us to ask – what does the map, when read in the context of these sources, tell us about the structure of nineteenth-century Shahjahanabad and of the planning principles behind the seventeenth-century Mughal city? There have been attempts to analyse the underlying principles that inform the city plan, but scholars differ widely in their conclusions.

The conclusion that may be drawn from this analysis is that the mohalla, in the context of mid-nineteenth century Shahjahanabad, must be seen as denoting a neighbourhood in a very loose sense of the term… it seems that most “neighbourhoods’ were loosely defined and the boundaries between them were fluid…

As far as trying to identify settlement patterns is concerned, it increasingly becomes clear that only the broadest generalizations can be made. The most classic case, Dariba, which was in fact established by Shahjahan as a mohalla of Jain bankers, also very quickly began to show signs of a very mixed population. Of course, it was not uncommon for those of particular ethnic communities, particularly new immigrants, or occupational groups, to choose to live in communities, but this was not a formal arrangement, and there was considerable fluidity, particularly over time. Fluidity is also evident in the matter of social hierarchy. The mansions of the nobles sit cheek by jowl with those of the most humble folk. Finally, one feature of the map that has been commented upon, is that mosques have been detailed, but institutions of the Hindus, Sikhs or Jains are largely missing. This has been interpreted as being testament to the character of Shahjahanabad as an essentially “Islamic” city, despite the fact that by the early nineteenth century, less than 50 per cent of its population was Muslim. The evidence from Zafar Hasan suggests that there were in fact a large number of temples in existence by the nineteenth century. What is the reason for this invisibility of non-Muslim places of worship, even several years after the inauguration of British rule in the city?

…The reason for this can perhaps be related to some fundamental differences between the nature of Muslim as opposed to Hindu and Jain places of worship. Catherine Asher… has remarked on the fact that the former tend to be located on streets, with their facades often prominently visible, whereas the latter are located less prominently in relation to the street. This is no doubt in large part a result of the private nature of the family shrine. What are today, and were even listed by Zafar Hasan as historic temples, were originally family shrines, usually located inside private courtyards. The main outcome of this difference in location and orientation is that it leads to mosques being more prominent landmarks on the street. Though temples are not immediately apparent on the map, the mansions they were part of, are. The Gauri Shankar temple is neither depicted nor labelled as such, but we know that it was inside the haveli of its builder Appa Gangadhar, which is both labelled and drawn in some detail. The Jain Naya Mandir, built by the banker Har Sukh Rai in the early nineteenth century in Dharampura, is similarly not shown, but we know that it existed within the space that is marked in the map as Dera Sagun Chand, (“place of Sagun Chand”, the son of Har Sukh Rai). These shrines existed but were not depicted on the map, probably because they were not public landmarks in the way that mosques were.

Though initially puzzling, these aspects of the map are understandable if we contemplate the unique situation of Delhi in the 1840s. This was a city which was the seat of the Mughal emperor, yet administered by the British. The Delhi College, which had been established in 1825, by the late 1840s had become a vibrant nurturing ground for enquiring minds. Here English was taught, but so were Indian classical languages. The latest developments in Western sciences and arts were imparted through the medium of the Urdu language, the lingua franca of much of North India during the period. The cultural cross-fertilization that an institution of this kind made possible, led to intellectual endeavours that drew upon the knowledge systems of both traditions. A map such as this, would fit right into that model. If not made at the college, it is not unlikely that it was made by an alumnus, many of whom ended up in jobs in the East India Company’s administration. Having said this, our mapmaker, though perhaps an alumnus of the Delhi College, was most likely not a native of Delhi. A strong clue is that the word he consistently uses for a step-well, is baodi, not baoli, as a Dehliwala would have said it!