Delhi’s Mahabharata connection

Hidnu reports Delhi's Mahabharata connection

Delhi's Mahabharata connection


R. V. Smith day, Jan 18, 2010 (The report in The Hindu)
As intriguing as this temple is the Talaqi Darwaza or Forbidden Gate, which has a mural of a man fighting a lion. Why this gate was considered forbidden is not known but there were probably some secrets lying locked beyond it as it happened to be the northern gate of the fort and perhaps full of telltale ruins of the Mahabharata days and women in bondage, of which orthodox Sultans did not want their subjects to know about.
The Bhairon Mandir, outside the northern wall of the Purana Quila, is also said to date back to the Pandava times and is closely associated with the strongest of them, Bhimsen. Incidentally, the Purana Qila had 1,900 people living in it in village-type huts.
They were evicted in 1913 when proper maintenance of the fort began. During the partition days of 1947 refugees from the Walled City of Delhi were camped there by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (Union Minister for Health) and after their departure the ones from Punjab and Sindh found refuge in it. Sounds amazing that a medieval fort became a sanctuary for 20th century refugees.
Surekha Narain, who has led walks to Ghalib’s haveli, the First War of Independence monuments on the Ridge and other places, made the students accompanying her visit the fort museum and attempt a quiz on the objects it contained. The Kunti temple and Talaqi Darwaza, with which Lutyens aligned the Central Vista of New Delhi, were also part of the questionnaire. Heritage walks are proving to be a novel way of rediscovering the history of the Capital.

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