Djinns rule Firoz Shah’s capital
FIROZ SHAH KOTLA Firoz Shah was the third ruler from the Tughlaq dynasty. He was considered a people’s king and a committed conservationist. He built 30 palaces, 30 towns, 100 bridges and 200 sarais
NEW DELHI: is not a prerequisite. “Theologically, people believe a dargah is a place where saints are present, or ‘hazir’, and this can be in the form of visions or dreams, or in this case, djinns,” says Taneja.
The practice of writing formal petitions to the powerful Sultans or Sufi saints, was prevalent under the Delhi Sultanate. When the devotees at Firoz Shah Kotla address their petitions to the djinns, they draw upon this tradition, but also their experiences with modern bureaucracy. “The use of modern technology, photocopying petitions as if they are addressed to multiple bureaucratic departments, using Voters’ Id…this is a new revival of an old form in a new manner,” says Taneja.
If the petition-writing has a historical precedent, the site’s association with the sacred has an interesting history as well. A popular oral legend connects the djinns to a man named Ladoo Shah in the 1970s. “People say that Ladoo Shah was a fakir from Old Delhi who shifted to the ruins of Kotla after he was rendered homeless due the demolitions at Turkman Gate in 1976,” says Rana Safvi, who writes a popular blog on Delhi’s heritage and wrote a book on Mehrauli’s history. According to devotees, says Safvi, “Ladoo Shah had djinns under his control and his mureeds started visiting the Kotla.”
In the version of the story that Taneja tells, the djinns fell in love with Ladoo Shah, becoming his aashiq (lover/s) and bestowing on him the gifts of healing. “Ladoo Shah popularises the site in the seventies, asking people to pray in the mosque,” he says.
But while the djinns became inextricably linked to the site in the 1970s, Taneja’s research into Archaeological Survey of India records shows that even as early as the 1920s, people venerated the ruins and stuck coins to the walls, a practise that continues till date.
Like other sacred places, it is word-ofmouth testimonies and sheer belief that makes people of all stripes come to Kotla with hopes of prayers being answered. Safvi says a shopkeeper from Old Delhi told her that every Friday, he distributes biryani to the folk who gather at Kotla, because the djinns have answered so many of his prayers.
Today, the Kotla ruins make it to lists of the most haunted places in India. “What the upper classes call ‘haunting’ is a very matter-of-fact occurrence for the local people. They believe in the presence of an invisible world, and that in some places it is more apparent than the others,” says Taneja.