Hastsal Minar: Shrouded in mystery, a Mughal-era symbol of glory now a picture of neglect

Y D Sharma, in his book Delhi and its Neighbourhood, describes the minar as 17 metres (five storeys) tall, standing on a square platform and with an octagonal body.

These mentions aside, the minar is mostly shrouded in mystery. Some of the locals even believe that the minar was constructed by Prithviraj Chauhan (1166-1192) as part of a larger structure that housed the king’s elephants. “That’s how this village got its name: hast for elephants and sthal for place,” says Babbu, a tailor, who claims his family has lived in the village for over seven generations.

Another local legend goes that the Pandavas, too, kept their elephants here. However, according to Zafar Hasan’s List of Muhammadan and Hindu Monuments: “The minar was constructed by Emperor Shah Jahan who had his Shikargah (hunting palace) here.” Indeed, the structure’s domed arches and use of red Lakhori bricks is a clear marker of Mughal architecture.

In 2018, the minar was accorded a Grade A status that is given to buildings of regional or local importance possessing special architectural or aesthetic merit, or cultural or historical significance.

On the height of the minar, Hasan surmises that it may have had a chhatri or canopy-like roof in its earlier days. Koch, in her paper The Copies of the Qutb Minar says the chhatri was probably used as a resting place, and for shooting or watching the hunting in forests below.

Local oral history suggests that there was once a tunnel that connected the minar to the hunting palace, located around a 100 metres away. Koch also notes that such hunting towers were often studded with elephant tusks or similar hunting “trophies”, continuing a tradition hailing back to the Sassanids of Iran. She further states that minars similar to the Hastsal — such as the Hiran Minar in Fatehpur Sikri — also served as the starting point of a system of mileposts.

Péter T Nagy’s paper on Budapest’s own elephant-themed minar notes how the Mughals were particularly inclined towards using minars for odd reasons. Nagy cites the example of how Jahangir erected an artificial lake with a pavilion and a minar at Sheikhupura (Lahore) to commemorate the demise of his pet antelope, with the tower bearing inscriptions singing poetic praises about the animal.

Today, the Hastsal Minar is more or less unknown even to people living in Hastsal, let alone Delhi, while its origins remain a subject of mystery and debate.