Dara Shukoh's library

To be honest, I was not intending to go here. I was doing a series of college visits around Delhi, and was at the Ambedkar university in Old Delhi. This is just South of the Kashmir gate, walking distance from the metro station with the same name, off Lothian road.
Having gone there, we first went to the management building, which struck me to be very much like a British social building. It was a stone, white building, with a very low ceiling. The college was supposed to have moved there very recently.
We then began to look around. And right behind the management building was a massive structure, older than the previous building, with pillars, large doorways and steps leading to an inside veranda with madras terrace roofing. To the left, the room expanded out, and there were shelves at the back, with a glass display to a side - housing a skeleton. There were curved archways(now sealed) leading into a large room at the back. However, repair work was going on then.
This was the library of Dara Shukoh. Currently housing the state archaeology department, I presumed that the front room and entrance-way were a British addition. The ASI stone plaque provides the various uses of the building. But first, a little bit on Dara and his library.

Dara Shukoh was the eldest, and the chosen son of Sha Jahan. Being heir designate, he lived in Delhi with his father, while his brothers were governors of various parts of the kingdom. Dara was given to philosophy. He would interact regularly with Sufi saints, and Hindus.He is supposed to have commissioned a Persian translation of Upanishads(Sirr E Akbar)as well as commissioning Persian works to Sanskrit. However, Dara had little skill on the battlefield, and that was his downfall. When Aurangazebs armies marched up to Agra in 1658, he, in the middle of battle, dismounted and got onto a horse, from an elephant. Seeing the empty Howdah, his soldiers panicked and ran.

Dara himself fled, but a few months later, lost in an encounter with Aurangazebs men. Fleeing, he was betrayed by a nobleman who offered him protection, and jailed by Aurangazeb. While in jail, a group of assailants killed him and his son.

The library was constructed in 1637, and is said to have housed over 2 lakh books. However, popular legend has it that after Daras defeat in 1658,Aurangazeb had the books in the library burnt. Another version goes that subsequent inhabitors destroyed sections of the library. But at this point of time, there are no books in the library.

Aurangazeb gave the library as a residence to Ali Mardan Khan, the governor of the Punjab.
It was purchased from the family of Juliana, a Portuguese tutor to the royal children, by Safdarjang, when he was in Delhi (aroud 1751 )

Then, when a Residency was established in Delhi, David Ochterlony, the first British Resident of Delhi used it as his quarters in 1803.  Later, in 1844, the Delhi college was established here.  It was ransacked in 1857.

Later, the State Archeology Department  used it as an office, and it still belongs to them, with a defunct museum and shelves, apart from a few artefacts still lying around there.

“Most of the artifacts confiscated by the Customs Depart-ment are kept here. They belong to different eras, and have nothing to do with Dara Shikoh or Delhi,” said an official overlooking civic work at the library.(Indian Express, May 12, 2017)

Location: Dara Shukohs library

Looking around, in the middle of this calm, electric campus, I hoped this fascinating building will become a museum of Delhi artefacts soon, and not be left to crumble. 

Some articles from recent years:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/Battling-time-Dara-Shikoh%E2%80%99s-Library-cries-out-for-help/article17205937.ece

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/dara-shukohs-library-to-get-fresh-lease-of-life/articleshow/57980576.cms

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/dara-shikoh-library-embodying-the-citys-history-a-library-and-a-church-pulled-out-of-ruins-4651895/

https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/the-hidden-gem-dara-shikoh-s-library/story-iGW58Dg19VUSXvgwabhS0J.html


Audrey Truschke's book Aurangazeb is another good source for material on Dara's end, as well as City of Djinn's by William Dalrymple

Travelling to Thillai 9: Cuddalore

The final stop. After over 10 stops in over 8 different cities, we were back on the highway. A few hours took us up the coast, to Cuddalore.
1746. Cuddalore and Madras were the only cities that the British could claim ownership of. And suddenly, though it was expected, the governor of Mauritius, La Bourdanais, brought his navy to Madras roads(the area of water in front of the city) and began bombarding the fort, as his men ran around to the Western side, and seiged the city. Low supplies. Bad water. That night, one man died. The next day, Madras surrendered. Nicholas morse, the Governor, handed over the keys to Madras, and he and his men prepared to talk terms. But then, word came from Pondicherry, form Dupleix, the  Governor-General of French dominions in India, instructed La Bourdanais, that despite what they had earlier agreed to, of simply defeating the British, he must now take the city and keep it as a French possession. La Bourdanais could not disobey, and sent off the top British officers to Cuddalore, keeping the more junior level writers and officers prisoner.
The British, at this point, convinced the Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwaruddin Khan, to attack the fort and take it back for the British. He sent his eldest son, Yusuf Khan, with 10000 men, cannon, guns and elephant to attack the fort.
Dupleix sent 300 men as reinforcement from Pondicherry, under a swiss general Paradis, and they encountered the Nawab's men at Santhome, on the Adayar river, just after Yusuf khan had been repelled from the Fort by the French.
The French troops stationed themselves on Quibble island. Yusuf Khan remained at Santhome. Then the battle began. The French troops lined up and forded the river in such a way that there was never a man without anything to do. The Nawabs men were shooting ineffectively into the river.
Finally, the French crossed the river and Yusuf Kahn fled far away.
A few days later a young writer in the Company's pay escaped Fort St George, and reached Cuddalore, where he informed them on the Battle of the Adayar. Learning from it, Stringer Lawrence recruited Indian men into the Company's small fighting force, organising them into proper battalions.
Soon, this became the nucleus of the Company's army, later the British army and finally the Indian, Bangladesh and Pakistan armies.
Source: John Key, The Honourable company,

               http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/chen-arts/chen-history-and-culture/Madras-Miscellany-The-Battle-of-the-Adyar/article15616870.ece

From 1746-1762, when the Carnatic Wars finally ended, Cuddalore remained the capital of the East India Company's territories.
Some times the French tried seiging the fort. Some times the British tried attacking Pondicherry from Cuddalore. But every time the French entered Cuddalore, they could only displace and destroy the undefende native settlement, or 'black' town that existed outside the fort.
There was a fort, which in subsequent and consequent battles,was destroyed. Now only the governors house, used by the people around there as a meeting place, and a few abandoned administrative buildings, as well as some which have become private residences, remain in the fort area where the river joins the sea. After looking around for a while, we went back to the highway, and home.

An abandoned administrative building or high official residence

The front verandah of the building

Governors bungalow

At the entrance to the bungalow

Some underground chambers behind the governors bungalow

A pano of the rear section of the governors bungalow

The stairs to the governors bungalow

Location: Cuddalore(the governors bungalow)