Mar 28, 2025 05:20 AM IST
Lodhi Garden offers solitude seekers a hidden gem: Sikander Lodhi’s tomb, a serene, exclusive spot amidst the bustling city, yet with strict visiting rules.
In such a crowded and noisy megapolis, a citizen naturally aspires for solitude and quietude. Lodhi Garden is just such a place to satisfy the yearning. But there’s a problem. Lodhi Garden teems with too many loners looking for aloneness. Not to speak of the mainstream populace— romantic couples, picnicking families, tourists, and heritage hunters—who raid the same flowery fields with other yearnings to satiate.
Fret not, you loner. There is a place in Lodhi Garden that remains relatively empty, although it harbours a monument of considerable significance. It is the tomb of Sikander Lodhi, the second ruler of Delhi Sultanate’s Lodhi dynasty (1451–1526).
The octagonal tomb is as stately as the tombs elsewhere in the Garden (such as Bada Gumbad, Sheesh Mahal, and Muhammed Shah Sayyid’s tomb). Even so, it feels far more exclusive. Maybe because it is ringed on all sides by a formidable wall, which renders the monument invisible to strollers outside. (The wall is rugged, the stones and turrets evoke the ramparts of some battle-hardy fort.) Additionally, the elevated gateway to the monument is positioned very discreetly, not easily discernible from Lodhi Garden’s popular paths.
The gateway itself is grand, and has the regal aloofness of a standalone monument. It opens into a green sprawl of clipped grass, currently strewn with fallen leaves. The lawn surround the tomb like a medieval-era moat. Grand trees abound in the secretive enclosure. One gracious neem leans over the remnants of a wall mosque. This afternoon, the place is deserted. A guard in blue is sitting in a far-flung corner. He says that unlike the rest of the Lodhi Garden, visitors here aren’t permitted to sit on the grass. Moreover, he points out, while Lodhi Garden opens early in the morning and closes late in the evening, this enclosure admits visitors only from 10 in the morning to six in the evening. The visitors are also discouraged from making photo shoots or videos. But those who wish to silently study the tomb and understand its history aren’t disturbed, he remarks.
Inside the sandstone edifice, the grilled door to the grave chamber is locked. The monarch’s grave looks austere and desolate. No other grave exists. Immediately outside the grilled door, a dog is plopped along the stone floor, drenched in aloneness. See photo.
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