Messenger’s mausoleum

Till a couple of years ago,it was just another of Delhi’s thousand-plus dilapidated heritage structures. In 2001,when the government decided to conserve certain lesser-known monuments,Maqbara Paik happened to be one of them. Today,as a restored monument,complete with a small park surrounding it,the tomb is surely a pleasant sight from the Makbara Chowk flyover.

The Lodhi period monument was built around the 15th Century in a style that’s known as the Baghdad Octagonal Plan. It has an arched recess on each of its eight sides and is surmounted by a flat dome which rises from a high octagonal drum. Clearing of debris during the restoration process has exposed an underground crypt chamber,some fine lakhauri brick-work that has lime plaster finish.

The messenger buried here may be unknown but was surely important enough to have a tomb constructed for him and that too,at a strategic location. The tomb is not far away from the historic Wazirabad Bridge that Feroz Shah Tughlaq built on the Yamuna in the 14th Century. The Badli-Ki-Sarai near Azadpur subzi mandi is a very short drive from the monument. So,be the caravans crossing the Tughlaq-era bridge or the sepoys who fought the battle of Badli-Ki-Sarai,none could have missed this structure.

This locational advantage seems all set to benefit Maqbara Paik now as it figures in the list of a dozen monuments near the Commonwealth Games venues that the Department of Archaeology of the Delhi Government plans to conserve and illuminate. The move may lead to more footfalls. Till that happens,the solitary messenger lies undisturbed.